"Once, about eight years ago." Vee did not miss the dirty look Edmund shot Ms. Yan, but she suppressed her smile of amusement. "As part of my Planets project." Vee's initial fame and the basis of her fortune was made by her creation of the first experiential holoscenic. It was a tour of the solar system, set to the music of Hoist's The Planets. She had taken people inside the clouds of Venus, the oceans of liquid ice on Europa, the storms of Jupiter, and the revolt in Bradbury, Mars, for the movement "Mars, Bringer of War."

It suddenly hit Vee what they must be leading up to.

"I have always particularly liked the Veneran segment of The Planets,"

said Ms. Yan. "Most people see Venus as hellish. You made it beautiful."

"Thank you." Tension tightened Vee's back. When are they going to say it? When are they going to say it?

"Your section on the Bradbury Rebellion was rather less beautiful," said Edmund.

Vee caught Rosa's "be careful" glance and ignored it. "I strove for accuracy," she said, aware her voice had gone tart. "And comprehension."

The "Bringer of War" segment showed the people being marched into the patched-up ships which were launched without regard to their safety, but it also showed the crowds rallying around Theodore Fuller and his cause, the shining faces, the great hopes of the dream of free-dom before that dream had tarnished and twisted.Edmund's expression fell into a kind of hard neutrality. "Yes, some of your images were quite... sympathetic." He glanced at a secondary display on the table in front of him. Vee wished she were close enough to read the items listed there. "What are your feelings about the separatist movements here on Earth?"

This is it? Vee looked incredulously from one face to the other. Both Edmund and Ms. Yan were perfectly serious. Even Mr. Hourani, who had not uttered one word since the begin-ning of the meeting, had lost his little amused smile. They want to judge my fitness based on how I feel about separatists?

Rosa's warning prod against her ankle grew urgent. Vee dis-missed it and heaved herself to her feet.

"You want to know how I feel about Bradbury? I was seven years old when that mess happened. I didn't have an opinion, just a few vague feelings. The Planets show was for money and to show off what you could do with my new holography tricks." She planted both hands on the table and leaned toward the yewners. "You want a political yes-sir, pick one of your own. You want an Earth liber Alles, find a Bradbury survivor. You want somebody who can take a look at your Discovery and just maybe come up with something useful to say about it, then you want me. But I will not"-she slammed her hand against the table-"sit here and be interrogated because I may have had a thought or two."

She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

The corridors passed by in a blur. She slapped her audio badge down on the counter at the security station without breaking stride. She saw nothing clearly until she found herself up on the deck in the blazing sunlight, staring out across the blue-gray waters and clenching her hands around the warm metal railing.

Well, Vee, you crashed that one pretty good, didn't you? She bowed her head until it rested on the backs of her hands. What the hell were you doing? Did you really think they were looking for the dilettante?

Vee was not going to whine about her fate. She had made her choices for money, yes, but also for love. She was good at her art. She understood light and the machines that manipu-lated it. She could shape light like a potter shaping clay. She knew how to blend it and soften it to create anycolor and nu-ance the human eye could detect. She knew how it controlled shadows and reflections. She knew how it scattered and bounced and played mischievous tricks on the senses. She knew nine-and-ninety ways it could be used to transmit mes-sages. The lab had become mind-bogglingly boring right about the time the money from her patents and the resulting holo-scenics had really started to come in. She'd taken off for the artistic life, along with the ability to buy her college debts away from her parents'

bank and keep her brothers and sisters from ever having to go into debt for themselves.

But sometimes she felt she'd missed the chance to do some-thing real, the chance to explore as well as create, to question the nature of the universe in ways art couldn't reach by itself, to say something that would last, even if it was so obscure only ten other people understood it.

An accomplishment her family back in its naturalist, statist town wouldn't have to feel ambivalent about.

"You know," said Rosa's voice beside her, "there's this old saying that goes 'Be careful what you pretend to be; you may become it.'"

Vee lifted her head, blinking back tears of pain as the light assaulted her eyes. "How fast did they throw you out of there?"

"They didn't, actually." Rosa leaned her elbows against the railing. The salt breeze caught her silver scarf and sent it flut-tering across her face.

She pushed it away. "I spread some fer-tilizer about sensitive geniuses, which they seemed willing to sit still for. They, or at least Ms. Yan and Mr.

Hourani, seemed impressed by your strong political neutrality." The wind plas-tered her scarf against her cheek again, and she brushed it back impatiently. "I'm less sure about Mr. Waicek, but I do be-lieve he's leaning in our direction."

Hope, slow and warm, filled Vee's mind. "You're kidding."

"I have one question." Rosa rubbed her hands together and studied them. "Do you really want to do this?" She lifted her gaze to Vee's face.

"They were giving you purity in there. This is going to be a political situation. You've seen the news. Everybody's got a position. Everybody wants referendums. You're going to be quizzed and dissected and watched, and you're going to have to put up with it. Quietly. No more scenes like that one." She jerked her chin back toward the glide-walkmouth. "So, I'm asking you, Vee, as your friend and your man-ager, do you really, honestly, want to be a part of this mission?"

Vee stared out across the blue water under the brilliant sky. Nothing on Venus was blue. It was all orange and gold and blazing red. Yet someone had been there, had set up their base there, and then left. Where had they gone? Who were they? Why had they come in the first place? They might have left the answer behind them. It might be in that laserlike device.

Do I really want to be a part of finding that answer?

"Yes," she said, to sea and sky, and Rosa. "Oh yes. I want this."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rosa nod. "Okay, then. I think you'll get it."

Vee's smile spread across her face. "If I do nothing else real in my life, at least I'll get to do this," she said softly.

For a moment, she thought she heard Rosa mutter, "What-ever this is,"

but then she decided that she didn't.

The image of a spring meadow high in the Colorado Rockies surrounded Yan Su as she sat behind her desk. She paid no attention to it.

Instead, she focused on the wall screen, which she had set to record her message to Helen Failia on Venera Base. "Hello, Helen. I just saw the latest commentary from out your way. Now, you know I don't interfere." Pause for Helen to insert whatever comment she had on that score. "But you've got to sit on Ben Godwin for the duration. I've done my best with the investigative team makeup. They are as close to what you asked for as I could manage. But this will not, I repeat, will not, hold up to certain types of scrutiny. Assure Dr. Godwin that if he lets the spinners do their job and is patient, this will all blow over and your people can get back to work."

"I'm doing my part down here, and we're making progress. You will all get what you want, but you've got to keep quiet." She paused again, tapping her fingernails against the glass of iced tea sitting on her desk. "I know this isn't easy, Helen, but believe me, it's the only way. You also need to keep your se-curity chief on the alert. Every single cracker on three planets is going to be trying to get into Venera's systems, trying to get 'the real story.' " She made quotation marks with her fingertips. "The rumors in-stream are bad enough without that." She sighed softly. "Take care ofyourself Helen. You've inherited quite a situation."

A quick keystroke faded the recording out and shunted the message into the queue for the next com burst out to Venus. Helen would receive the message in an hour or two.

Su finished her iced tea and rattled the ice cubes a couple of times as she stared at the sunlight on the distant snowy peaks. God, how long until she'd see the real thing again? She felt cer-tain there would be nothing in her life but Venera and its Dis-covery at least until the "investigative team" came home, and maybe not even then. A lot would depend on how well Helen was able to handle her people and her sudden fame.

Su remembered the first time Helen Failia sailed into her office. Forty years ago, no, forty-five years ago, and she still remembered.

It had been a long day of in-stream meetings and screen-work. A headache was just beginning to press against her tem-ples. None of this had left Su in the best of moods.

"Thank you for agreeing to see me, Ms. Yan." Helen Failia was not yet forty then. She wore her chestnut hair bundled up under a scarf of dusky-rose silk. Her handshake was firm, her smile genuine, and her movements calm and confident. De-spite that, Su got the strong impression of restless energy brim-ming just below the surface of this woman.

"Now, what can I do for you, Dr. Failia?" Su asked as she handed Helen the cup of black coffee she'd requested. The woman was a very traditional American on that score.

"I'm building a research colony on Venus," said Helen, tak-ing the seat Su waved her toward. "I want to know what gov-ernmental permissions I need."

Just like that. Not "I'm exploring the possibilities of..." or "I'm part of a consortium considering building..."

"You're building on Venus?" Su raised both eyebrows. "With what?"

She hadn't been able to get another word out for thirty min-utes. Helen had brought scroll after scroll of blueprints, ency-clopedic budgetprojections, and lists of potential donors. Everything was planned out, down to which construction facil-ities could supply which frame sections for the huge, floating city she had designed.

When Dr. Failia finally subsided, Su was ready to admit, pri-vately, she was impressed. In an ideal world, Dr. Failia's proposal would be quite feasible. Unfortunately, Su had already been on the C.A.C. long enough to know this was not an ideal world.

Perhaps a gentle hint in that direction. "Wouldn't it be more practical, Dr. Failia, to start with a temporary facility funded by perhaps one or two universities?"

"No," said Helen at once. Su raised her eyebrows again, and Helen actually looked abashed. "I'm sorry, but no. Venus is a vast, complex world. It's active in many of the basic ways that Earth is active. It has an atmosphere, weather, and volcanic ac-tivity." Dr. Failia's eyes shone. At that, Su remembered where she'd heard Dr. Failia's name before. Helen Failia had been a member of the Icarus Expedition that had gone out, what was it? Two? No, three years ago. She was now one of the four peo-ple who had actually walked on the Venusian surface.

It also looked as though she had fallen in love down there.

"In a temporary facility," Dr. Failia was saying, "a few re-searchers could study a few aspects of the planet for a few months at a time. But in a real facility, such as Venera"-she tapped the screen roll-"people could specialize. Careers could be dedicated to the study of Earth's sister without re-quiring people to remove themselves from their families. The work could be made practical and comfortable for years at a time. We would not be limited to snapshots; we could take in the entire panorama."

Earth's sister. It is love. Su shook her head. "And the indus-trial applications? Are there any commercial possibilities?"

Helen didn't even blink. "In all probability, industrial and commercial applications would be limited. Mining or other exploitive surface operations would remain prohibitively expen-sive due to the harsh conditions."

All right, at least you're willing to admit that much, Dr. Failia. Su folded her hands on the desk and mustered her "serious diplomat" tones."You do realize that the colonies which have paid off their debts and become going concerns all have some kind of export or manufacturing base?"

"Until now, yes."

Su found herself having to suppress a laugh. The question hadn't even ruffled the surface of Dr. Failia's confidence. "So you are hoping the research value will offset the economic liabilities?"

"Research and publicity." Helen thumbed through the screen rolls on the desk, pulled out the one labeled "University Funding" and presented it for Su's inspection. "Research depart-ments in both universities and private industry are fueled by their papers as well as their patents. From a publications stand-point, Venus is more than ready to be exploited."

Su nodded as she skimmed the numbers again. It was all true and reasonable, as far as it went. But the fact was that the pure-research colonies had never worked. The small republics, and even the big universities, were unable to keep them funded. The United Nations was unwilling. Nobody said it out loud, of course, but the established wisdom was that the plan-ets should be saved for industry, and now for the long-life re-treats that the lobbyists were proposing as a way for those who had children but wanted extended life spans to have it all. They could live in specialized colonies with continued gene-level medical treatment without straining the balance and re-sources of Mother Earth.

Su found herself extremely ambivalent about that idea. But this one...

Su liked the vision of this gigantic bubble of a town, sort of a U.N. City in the Venusian sky. She liked Helen's enthusiastic and detailed descriptions of not an outpost but a real community, as self-supporting as any off-world colony could be, given over to exploration and research. True, this vi-sion ignored most of the political realities and historical exam-ples, but that did not lessen its attractiveness. Su did not get much chance to dream anymore, and she found herself enjoy-ing the opportunity.

Still, no politician could afford to dream for too long. It'll be shot down by the rest of the C.A.C. if it gets in their line of sight, she reminded herself with a sigh. They did not like approving doomed projects. It made for snide comments in-stream and low scores on the opinion polls.

But maybe, maybe there was a way around that."I will be honest with you, Dr. Failia," said Su. "Without the money in account, this is not going through."

To her credit, Helen Failia did not say "But..."

Su leaned forward, making sure the other woman met her gaze.

"However, if you can get at least some of the start-up money, I think its chances are very good. Very good."

As Su watched, light sparked behind Dr. Failia's dark eyes.

"Well, thank you for your time, Ms. Yan." She stood up and held her hand out. "I'll see you when I have my money."

Su also rose. "I look forward to it."

They shook hands. Helen gathered up her screen rolls and left without a backward glance. Su sat back down behind her desk and watched the door swish shut. Her headache, she no-ticed, had vanished.

"Desk. Sort recording of completed meeting and extract pro-posal details for the construction of Venera Base," she said thoughtfully.

"Assume acquisition of adequate funding. List ap-plicable regulatory and legislative requirements that must be met for construction of the proposed base." She paused. "Also extract voting records of C.A.C. members and project probable votes should proposal come to committee as offered in this meeting."

Helen, after all, was not the only one who had work to do if Venera was to... well... fly.

It had taken five years, but the money had been found; the base had been built, and for forty years after that, Helen kept it running. She scraped, scrounged, begged, borrowed, and worked the stream with a skill Su had seen only in the very best politicians. She had help of course.

Sometimes, Su felt that while Helen had raised Venera, Su herself had raised Helen. She'd taught the older woman the finer points of publicity and spin doctoring. She'd steered her toward the more sympathetic funds and trusts. After the Bradbury Rebellion, Su had helped Helen make sure that all their money came from Earth so there could be no tangible connection between Venera and any sus-pect persons, who, at that point, included everyone who did not live on Mother Earth.Helen had never married, never had children. Venera and its prosperity had been her entire life.

And she had almost lost it. Su tried to imagine what that felt like and failed. Her own life had been tied to so many differ-ent things-her husband, her son, political ambitions, and the colonies. Not just Venera, but Small Step and Giant Leap, Brad-bury, Burroughs, Dawn, the L5 archipelagoes, all of them. They deserved their chance to flourish. Mother Earth needed her children, but like any flesh-and-blood parent, she needed to treat them as people, not possessions.

However, since Bradbury, with its deaths and exiles and threats, and since the long-life colonies had become a credit-filled reality, it had not been easy to convince anybody else in power of this.

For the moment, Venera at least was going to be all right. Su studied the donations list displayed on her desktop. If even half these promises were fulfilled, Venera was not going to even have to think about money for another five years.

Which is all to the good, Su rubbed her temples. There is nothing bad about this. If we want any colony in the public eye, it's Venera.

She shook herself. This was not anything she had time for. The Secretaries-General had called a meeting for the afternoon, and Su had to get her candidate files in order. Despite what she'd told Helen, there was still the very real possibility that Edmund might withdraw his backing from one or two of her people, and she might have to make her case to the Sec-Gens without any help at all. Secretary Haight was very much committed to the status quo, but Kent and Sun had a little more leeway in their thinking and saw the political opportunities inherent in loosening the grip on the planets a little. She would have to play to them if she wanted to keep the U.N. from just walking in and taking over the Dis-covery, and she wanted that very much.

The door chimed and Su looked at the view port. It cleared to reveal Sadiq Hourani and Su ordered it open. He walked in and Su waved him to a chair. Sadiq was on the very short list of people whom she would always see.

Su sat back and regarded him for a moment. "Tell me you have good news.""I have good news," said Sadiq promptly.

"Really? Or are you just saying that?" Sadiq had been as-signed to the C.A.C. security and intelligence work group ten years ago. In that time, Su had learned to trust him, despite the fact that he kept more hidden than she would ever learn about. It had not been easy, but it had been worth it.

Sadiq returned a small smile. "Really. We've negotiated an end to that potential media standoff in Bombay. They're to have some unmonitored access time to the investigative team and some of the Veneran scientists so they can ask questions without, and I quote, governmental interference, end quote."

Su raised both her eyebrows. "And you capitulated with all humbleness?"

"That I did."

"And you went in there knowing what they really wanted?"

"That I did," repeated Sadiq. "It's my job, you know."

The news of the Discovery had been received with calm just about everywhere. There were a few hardcase places-Bombay, Dublin, Old L.A.-where tempests threatened to start up in the stream. The stream was the systemwide communications network that had evolved out of all the old nets and webs that had spanned the globe since the twentieth century. It was pos-sible for discontent in-stream to spill out into the real world. Part of Sadiq's job was to make sure it never did.

"So." Su leaned back and folded her hands in her lap. "Do you know what the Secretaries-General really want to see us about?"

Sadiq shrugged. "To hear about Bombay, for a start, and the other hot spots. They should have reviewed our Comprehen-sive Coping Strategy by now. They also, of course, need to give their blessing to the investigative team roster so the full com-mittee won't be able to bicker too much."

"Have you ascertained whether Edmund's going to behave?" Su had known from the beginning that Edmund was going to be difficult. Since he had been appointed to the C.A.C., he had been one of the loudest anticolonial voices they had, and that was saying a great deal. His initialidea had been to send out a team that would investigate Venera at least as thoroughly as it would investigate the Discovery.

"I believe he will." Sadiq studied his neat hands for a mo-ment. "You know, Su, you are going to have to speak to him again, sooner or later."

"Yes, I know." After Dr. Hatch and Ms. Cristobal had left, Ed-mund had started in on one of his canned speeches about the "absolute necessity of choosing members who will not be blinded by propaganda or sentimentality and will be willing to examine every aspect of the Discovery." Su, suddenly unable to stand it another minute, had stood up and said, "You don't want an investigation; you want an inquisition," and stalked out.

The memory made her sigh again. "That is no way for a grown bureaucrat to behave. Especially now," she added.

"Especially now," echoed Sadiq. "Especially on one of your pet projects."

Su eyed him carefully to see if there was anything hidden under that statement, but Sadiq's face remained placid. "Yes," she admitted. "This one's mine and I can't hide from it." She was about to add a question about Edmund Waicek, positive that Sadiq had spoken with him before he walked into her of-fice, but Sadiq had stiffened and his eyes darted back and forth. Su closed her mouth. Sadiq wore a phone spot, so he could be reached at any time. This could be anything from a request for authorization on an expense report to notification of an outbreak of public violence.

When Sadiq had focused on her again, Su asked, "Anything wrong?"

"We seem to have a demonstration on the deck." Sadiq stood. "Peaceful but illegal. Care to come?"

"Not really." Su waved him away. "I'll see you at the Sec-Gens this afternoon."

"Until then." Sadiq left her there. The door swished shut be-hind him.