Oath of Fealty by Jerry Pournelle Larry Niven

Author:Jerry Pournelle Larry Niven [Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction - Adventure, Science Fiction - Space Opera, Fiction - Science Fiction, Niven, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Space Opera, Fiction, Science fiction, Science Fiction - General, General, Imaginary wars and battles, Adventure, Larry - Prose & Criticism, Dystopias
ISBN: 9781416555162
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

XI - CONSPIRACIES

It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members.

-B. B. White

Tony Rand's Video beam television screen covered most of a wall. It was big enough to watch reruns of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was true of damned few TV sets. He never used it to watch war movies or rock shows. They seemed just too intimidating on that huge screen.

Tony was on his bed, with the headboard panel pulled out to support his back. The huge face looming above him had a lean and hungry look, like Cassius.

"What I found," it said, "is a feudal society. Now, when I speak of feudalism, I don't mean plate armor and crossbows. Todos Santos isn't just modern, it's at the forefront of technology. The carbon fibers in those compote walls were precipitated in an orbital laboratory, and couldn't have been made except in free fall. The very concept of an arcology is only a few decades old. When Paolo Soleri first began to write about arcologies it seemed like science fiction, even though Soled was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright."

Tony Rand nodded agreement. When Paolo Soleri began construction of Arcosanti, his new model city in the Arizona desert the news writers had been intrigued-but they hadn't taken him seriously. Even after it was obvious that Soled was building his city, that it was growing year by year, most writers thought Soled a pleasant eccentric, brilliant but dotty. Certainly Genevieve thought so! Tony's decision to spend an unpaid summer working with Soleri ("He can't last much longer, he's been working out there twenty years, Djinn, this is my last chance . . .") had finished their marriage.

"Certainly Todos Santos is modem," Lunan continued. "The Romulus Corporation which built the Box has for years been towing icebergs from Antarctica to supply Los Angeles with water." The scene flicked from Lunan to the Los Angeles harbor, panning across to the iceberg, zooming in for a close-up of skiers, then zooming right past and on to Catalina Island, close up of the Isthmus Harbor with sandy beaches and palm trees.

"Perhaps beyond modern," Lunan said. "Hundreds of Todos Santos residents work in Los Angeles-two work as far away as Houston, Texas, and one works machinery on the Moon!- without ever leaving their homes."

The scene shifted again, to a smiling, burly, black-haired man. Rand recognized him, but couldn't remember the name. Lunan's voice continued, "Mr. Armand Drinkwater is a master milling machine operator-"

"Experimental mechanic," Drinkwater corrected. His voice boomed.

"-for the Konigsberg Medical Instrument Company. The instruments he works on didn't exist five years ago. Armand, I'm told you generally work stark naked."

"Right. Maybe I'm overreacting. But I used to have to wear white coats and a cap to work in the clean rooms, and I got damned sick of it. Got sick of freeways, too."

"And now?"

"I smile a lot. Oh, you mean working days? My contract says I have to be at work at nine.

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