Schismatrix plus - Bruce Sterling [122]
"I'm glad matters are in good hands."
Pongpianskul smiled sadly. "I suppose. Things never work out the way you plan them. Good thing, though, or the Mechs would have taken over long ago." The cat jumped into Pongpianskul's lap, and he scratched its chin. The animal emitted a rumbling sound that Lindsay found oddly soothing. "This is my cat, Saturn," the old Shaper said. "Say hello to Lindsay, Saturn." The cat ignored him.
"I had no idea you liked animals."
"Couldn't stand him at first. Hair just pours off the little beast. Gets into everything. Dirty as a hog, too. Ever seen a hog, by the way? I had a few imported. Incredible creatures, the tourists just marvel."
"I must have a look before I leave."
"Animals in the air these days. Not literally, I mean, though we did have some trouble with loose hogs running off to the free-fall zone. No, I mean this biomorality from Czarina-Kluster. Another Cataclyst fad."
"You think so?"
"Well," the Warden mused, "maybe not. You start trifling with ecology and it's hard to find a place to stop. I've had a slip of this cat's skin shipped off to the Ring Council. Have to clone off a whole gene-line of them. Because of the mice, you know. Little vermin are overrunning everything."
"A planet might be better," Lindsay said. "More space."
"I don't hold with messing with gravity wells," Pongpianskul said. "It's just more room for error. Don't tell me you've fallen for that, Mavrides."
"The world needs dreams," Lindsay said.
"You're not going to start on about levels of complexity, I hope." Lindsay smiled. "No."
"Good. When you came in here unwashed and with no shoes on, I concluded the worst."
"They say the hogs and I had a lot in common," Lindsay said. Pongpianskul stared, then laughed. "Haw. Haw. Glad to see you're not standing on your dignity. Too much dignity cripples a man. Fanatics never laugh. I hope you can still laugh when you're breaking worlds to the leash."
"Surely someone will get a good chuckle out of it."
"Well, you'll need your humor, friend. Because these things never work out as you plan. Reality's a horde of mice, nibbling away in the basement of your dreams.... You know what I wanted here, don't you? A preserve for humanity and the human way of life, that's what. Instead I've ended up with a huge stage set full of tourist shills and Cataclyst fry-brains."
"It was worth a try," Lindsay said.
"That's it, break an old man's heart," Pongpianskul said. "A consoling lie wouldn't have hurt."
"Sorry," Lindsay said. "I've lost the skill."
"Better get it back in a hurry, then. It's still a wide wicked Schismatrix out there, detente or no detente." Pongpianskul brooded. "Those fools in Czarina-Kluster. Selling out to aliens. What's to become of the world? I hear some idiot wants to sell Jupiter."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Yes, sell it off to some group of intelligent gasbags. A scandal, isn't it? Some people will do anything to suck up to aliens. Oh, sorry, no offense." He Looked at Lindsay and saw that he was not insulted. "It won't come to anything. Alien embassies never do. Luckily, aliens all seem to have a lot more sense than we do, with the possible exception of the Investors. Investors, indeed. Just a bunch of interstellar pests and nosey-parkers. ... If aliens show up in force I swear I'll put the whole Republic under the tightest quarantine this side of a Ring Council session. I'll wait till society disintegrates totally. I'll be faded by then, but the locals can move out to pick up the pieces. They'll see then that there was sense in my little game preserve after all."
"I see. Hedging humanity's bets. You were always a clever gambler, Neville."
The Shaper was pleased. He sneezed loudly, and the startled cat leaped