Free A World Between by Norman Spinrad Page A

Carlos Miranda, one of the Heisenberg’s Link Officers, had been out of Deep Sleep for a year on his regular tour. The other four men were specialists who had been awakened when the Heisenberg entered the Pacifican solar system specifically to background this mission: Lar Dalton, Psychopolitician; Harry Eisen, head of the Survey Update Team; Winston Comelle, Historical Analysis, and Artur Polichev, Legal Advisor.
    Together, these five men represented the apexes of five Situation Task Forces of up to twenty men apiece specifically formed to deal with all aspects of the Pacifica mission. The men in this room gave Falkenstein access to more depth information on Pacifica than the Pacificans had on themselves.
    And then there was Maria. Falkenstein’s wife was one of the few female graduates of an Institute of Transcendental Science, specialty Projection, which had no immediate relevance to the Pacifica mission. But Psychopolitics had determined that a husband-wife negotiation team was the optimum sync with the Pacifican psychopolitical matrix. One lone ambassador-plenipotentiary would offend their democratic ideology, and a team of experts would tend to arouse their paranoia and point too sharply to their total scientific inferiority. Further, the Pacifican sexual power balance leaned subtly toward the female—though the Pacificans themselves kept this just below the level of full conscious awareness—and a sexually balanced negotiating team was therefore highly desirable.
    Besides, Falkenstein knew that he functioned best with Maria at his side—he was a rare and lucky man to have a wife of her intellectual quality—and he would have brought her along no matter what analysis Psychopolitics had come up with.
    “Very well/’ Falkenstein said, taking his seat next to Maria with a quick private glance of greeting, “this will be our last chance to run through the scenario before Maria and I go planetside. Arkmind, please monitor. Maria, please summarize.”
    A strange look passed briefly across Maria’s even features—annoyance, pride, perhaps both. Annoyance at being treated like a student at an oral exam, pride at being accorded the status of aide-de-camp to the Managing Director, who happened to be her husband. Falkenstein’s motivations were also mixed. He wanted to be sure she had internalized the scenario thoroughly, but he also wanted to assure the others of her competence. Despite the projections of Psychopolitics, there was still a certain reluctance to entrust a woman with this level of responsibility, and the fact that Maria was his wife only added another layer of ambiguity.
    “Roger and I will be negotiating with a delegation consisting of the Chairman, Carlotta Madigan; the Minister of Media, Royce Lindblad; and Lauren Golding, a Good Old Mountain Boy Delegate representing the minority faction most favorable to our position,” Maria said crisply. “Lindblad is Madigan’s lover and political ally; therefore, she is in effective control of the delegation.”
    “Correction,” said Eisen. “It was Lindblad who proposed the motion their Parliament passed, and Lindblad who has done most of the speaking for the administration position. Madigan has carefully avoided taking a public position. Therefore, he may very well be acting independently.” “Almost certainly a political ploy on her part,” Dalton insisted. “Their personal relationship syncs into the dominant Pacifican female-superior mode, and Lindblad has never opposed her on a significant political issue.”
    “But historically, the Pacifican Minister of Media has been a political figure of significant independence, frequently in opposition to the Chairman,” Comelle said.
    “But the current situation is an anomaly and therefore historical analysis does not—”
    Maria smiled thinly at Eisen. “Is this psychopolitical analysis, Harry, or do you just find the concept of a dominant female political figure in an egalitarian society hard to