A Matter of Proximity

I WAS IN THE offices of the World Space Agency in Washington, with all the red flags of déjà vu waving up a storm. It was a Wednesday mid-afternoon in the month of July. The air was filtering out something citrusy. Two familiar faces—both friends and colleagues—were present. They were Yoshi Onisawa, Head of Tokyo’s Aoki Institute for Particle Research, and Fan Akinyele, Chief International Liaison from the Dogon Space Institute in Mali. Out of habit, we’d already synced our internal communications.

 

Mikhail Dugani, Head of Strategic Planning at WSA, was leading the meeting, although Head of Strategic Planning was a euphemism. Mike Dugani was the main fixer behind every clandestine problem that WSA ever dealt with. The last time we’d been here was to deal with an issue that involved a space elevator, several environmental groups, and a stranded alien called Thax. The whole thing was kept under super-classified secrecy, and to my knowledge if anyone else ever discussed it, it was only by telepathy.

 

He’d summoned us in person, fearing perhaps we might have absconded if given the option to holo. Dressed in polo-neck jumper, unbuttoned waistcoat, and tailored trousers in complementing shades of grey, he gave off a casual Mafia consigliere look. Even his head of dark grey curls were co-ordinating. A brief nod constituted our welcome. “Irena, Fan, Yoshi.”

 

We nodded cautiously. “Mike.”

 

No one said it was good to be back.

 

Yoshi, Mike’s counterpart in indigo, looked down at his own waistcoat and picked at some invisible speck. “How’s work on the Nest?”

 

The Nest was part of the New Earths’ Space Terraforming programme. Based on Mars, it was a settlement of humans with unusual characteristics who could survive living in non-Earth environments. They were studying mineral composites, ice formation, lichen, and each other. Although, right now, some were busy staving off madness, hallucination, and neurosis.

 

Mike batted away Yoshi’s question with, “It’s great.”

 

No one in their right mind would ever call the Nest great. So, this was worse. Pulling up a sensor screen, he got straight into it. As a white outline appeared, he said, “Subject One.”