Descending Road - BIG THINGS by Dana W. Paxson

BIG THINGS

2380 CE

They wasted no time getting Gene through entry check, into the tram, and off to Pico‘s, a favorite eating spot of his halfway between the port and Shanghai city. Pico‘s served everything, or so they claimed; Gene and his friends got a table deep in an angled corner, where pipelight from several floors above shone white spots on the silver-spangled tabletop.

They got skewered meats, and hot sauces, and rice and noodles, and an array of the strangest vegetables Gene had ever seen; the mutations were taking over the restaurant market. Eggplant tomatoes, purple outside and red inside; glowing citroids that spun whorls of color in Gene‘s drink, and a bunch of ribbed, celery-like stalks Wen Xi and Li Xiao squeezed over their rice to get a spectrum of herb and spice droplets in dark greens and browns.

Pico herself stopped by. “Hey, ciao, Gino, ni hau?” Tall and wiry, she wore a long sheath, a tousle of short dark hair, Chinese eyes, and a Roman attitude.

“Hau, Lady P,” Gene answered through his mouthful of saltimbocca Shanghai. “Great food, just like always. You get us a big tank of mountain water? With the mango and citro? We’ve got a lot of business to do.”

“Sure. I’ll stop back later.” She swayed off and signaled two servers.

Gene turned from watching her departure to see his friends all watching him. This looked like the time to start giving them the news, in spite of the hidden presence of the usual state microphones around every table. The Senate had assured him that the Sinese knew the story about Thorin 74; now he was going to test that assurance.

“Okay, now tell me what you already know about Thorin 74. The star. That way I can tell you what I know.”

Wen Xi and Yasunari Maeda exchanged looks. Wen Xi spoke. “We wanted to ask you the same thing. Here’s what we heard. That star is going to pass through the Solar System a few years from now. That makes big gravitational problems for the Sun’s planets. Nobody knows what will happen. Maybe Earth‘s orbit will change.” The Sinese all looked expectantly at Gene.

Gene finished savoring a strip of spicy meat. Ah. A quid pro quo — we just feel our way through this. Stick to details. He said, “Yes. Now for my part. My government sent me to talk with you about combining efforts to speed up the Oort Cloud project. We need observatories out there, fast. And we’ll share all results with everyone.”

“What do you need from us?” asked Tatsuo Minamata. “We must take everything up for approval. It is hard to get priority over the big building projects out at–“

“That is not part of this discussion,” Wen Xi interrupted.

A sensitive spot. There’s something big going on here already. Gene waited.

Wen Xi picked up, saying “Don’t worry, we will get good support. Tell us some more.” Minamata concentrated all his attention on the tank of intoxicants beside their table, pouring a fresh drink from a transparent spigot. He looked frustrated.

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	BIG THINGS 2380 CE They wasted no time getting Gene through entry check, into the tram, and off to Pico‘s, a favorite eating spot of his halfway between the port and Shanghai city. Pico‘s served everything, or so they claimed; Gene and his friends got a table deep in an angled corner, where pipelight from several floors above shone white spots on the silver-spangled tabletop. They got skewered meats, and hot sauces, and rice and noodles, and an array of the strangest vegetables Gene had ever seen; the mutations were taking over the restaurant market. Eggplant tomatoes, purple outside and red inside; glowing citroids that spun whorls of color in Gene‘s drink, and a bunch of ribbed, celery-like stalks Wen Xi and Li Xiao squeezed over their rice to get a spectrum of herb and spice droplets in dark greens and browns. Pico herself stopped by. “Hey, ciao, Gino, ni hau?” Tall and wiry, she wore a long sheath, a tousle of short dark hair, Chinese eyes, and a Roman attitude. “Hau, Lady P,” Gene answered through his mouthful of saltimbocca Shanghai. “Great food, just like always. You get us a big tank of mountain water? With the mango and citro? We’ve got a lot of business to do.” “Sure. I’ll stop back later.” She swayed off and signaled two servers. Gene turned from watching her departure to see his friends all watching him. This looked like the time to start giving them the news, in spite of the hidden presence of the usual state microphones around every table. The Senate had assured him that the Sinese knew the story about Thorin 74; now he was going to test that assurance. “Okay, now tell me what you already know about Thorin 74. The star. That way I can tell you what I know.” Wen Xi and Yasunari Maeda exchanged looks. Wen Xi spoke. “We wanted to ask you the same thing. Here’s what we heard. That star is going to pass through the Solar System a few years from now. That makes big gravitational problems for the Sun’s planets. Nobody knows what will happen. Maybe Earth‘s orbit will change.” The Sinese all looked expectantly at Gene. Gene finished savoring a strip of spicy meat. Ah. A quid pro quo — we just feel our way through this. Stick to details. He said, “Yes. Now for my part. My government sent me to talk with you about combining efforts to speed up the Oort Cloud project. We need observatories out there, fast. And we’ll share all results with everyone.” “What do you need from us?” asked Tatsuo Minamata. “We must take everything up for approval. It is hard to get priority over the big building projects out at–“ “That is not part of this discussion,” Wen Xi interrupted. A sensitive spot. There’s something big going on here already. Gene waited. Wen Xi picked up, saying “Don’t worry, we will get good support. Tell us some more.” Minamata concentrated all his attention on the tank of intoxicants beside their table, pouring a fresh drink from a transparent spigot. He looked frustrated.