"Mr Dosanski, I have wanted to speak with you frankly for a few days now." Nowal No'man Saiid held a tall flute of fruit punch in one hand and a small pottery dish of lightly roasted cashews in the other. She had finally cornered Isaac Dosanski on the balcony overlooking central Addis Ababa
He turned from the view and lowered his wrist from his mouth after muttering, "Talk later, Senator." He broke into a genuine smile of delight. "Hey, Madame Nowal, I'm glad to see you! This party was starting to fizzle." From the bowl of nuts which she extended, he scooped a handful with a nod of thanks.
"Actually we're convening earlier than the programmed time, so this must be a brief chat," she said, placing the bowl on a leather-topped stool and taking up a position near the opposite end of the balcony, sending a less-than-intimate signal. "So let me be as blunt as my culture will allow me."
"If I may, you're looking pretty tense. This conference is a big deal, right? But… but you're a tough cookie. I know that."
She took a breath and steeled her gaze. The familiar high-strung caffeine buzz was fading fast, and her shoulders were beginning to ache. "Actually what you perceive as tension is actually my effort to contain anger. I am very angry with NewSpace, but we need to communicate as clearly as possible.
"Mr Dosanski, for some months now your corporate media has been – what is the word – strident. Unilateral. They have taken for granted our position and misrepresented our views. They have spoken as if theirs was the only voice to be heard. Now I know how these things work: you can't always speak your own mind. You yourself don't have freedom to express your personal opinions. You're a great team player, Mr Dosanski."
"Why, thank you, Ma'am. But you know, I –"
"Just a moment, please. Take, for example, your interview the day before yesterday with National Geographic, which was syndicated to the major satellite channels. You stated that all settlements on Mars would be able to work harmoniously under your proposed governance structure. You as much as said that Sabir Space Industries has signed up for the NewSpace scheme and had raised no objections to it. Really!"
For a moment Nowal had to recapture her cool demeanour. Dosanski could be so smug, standing there with his glass of whisky half-raised and one eyebrow arced. That perceptive look, saying, We're on the same side, but I can see you need some kind of help. Their eyes were about on the same level.
"Yeah, I know just what you mean," he began, shifting slightly to lean one elbow on the balcony rail. He looked genuinely disturbed. Down on the highway a discord of car horns broke out. The insistent African sun fell across his left cheek. "There are these, like, strong undertows within our executive Board, and some days I'm the boy with his finger in the dyke. Y'know? What I say on camera reflects, well, it reflects a pacification of the, call 'em maybe, bullish commercial currents. The ones you dislike the most, Ma'am. But actually, what the Board decides is more of a compromise, a toning-down of the rhetoric."
"Don't attempt to deflect my concern. It is quite obvious what NewSpace is aiming for concerning the negotiations. The media machine is in high gear now, isn't it? You've seized the moment. Your hounds are loose. They are on the scent of mountainous profit."
He raised both hands helplessly, sloshing his drink but not spilling it. "The U.N. is a huge contraption, and if anyone wants to get heard here they have to shout. With a megaphone, a big one. And yeah, some lobbying and so forth. I know SSI has been doing all that too."
"We have. But we don't stoop to misrepresenting your side. The new Outer Space Treaty will affect all humanity for maybe decades or centuries to come. We all know it's long past time; I mean it was written in 1966! And they had to delay this rewrite until we'd actually landed on another planet!
"Now NewSpace demands unfettered access to exploit the planets and asteroids! With the skimpy employee contract rights you'd find in… well, in the Dubai
Dosanski frowned in a moment's thought and took a sip of his drink. "I imagine it would be somewhat similar to living and working on most of this fine planet," he replied.
"Exactly! Exactly! Similarly bad for the contract labourers and the little people, though, and similarly easy on the investors and the management. Look, this treaty represents a chance towards building a better life for billions of people in the future, both off the Earth and possibly on it as well. But for your kind, it's just another chance to boost the bottom line – correct?"
"I would dispute that. You're not the only people with a big vision. If humanity is going to build a foothold up there, it has to be profitable. We just need to open up the frontier and lay out the law, and people will go and stake their claims. They will decide how they want to live, not us."
"But Mr Dosanski, how will your employees decide anything for themselves or have a life of their own if they are bound up in stratospheric debt from the very beginning? And if the Boards and big shareholders make all the decisions and own all the land? Before we know it, Mars will be just like Earth, at least in terms of over-industrialisation and quality of living. All the familiar tropes! Give up your rights and freedoms for assured security! One nation-state against its neighbour! Close your borders to stop the immigrant flood! The tip of the pyramid owns ninety-nine percent of everything! It will come, under your system, trust me!"
Dosanski started walking slowly from the balcony, and Nowal nodded and accompanied him. The next session would be starting soon. "Nobody wants that scenario, believe me. Nobody. You see, Ma'am, it's the economics. In order to chart a path for the first settlers to become financially independent, we have to provide a way for them to buy their own life support gear and so on. That stuff's very expensive, as you know. If we want to donate it, then that's all very magnanimous, but it's not sustainable. It's a tight throttle on settlement growth. How can you keep on giving out free Habitat modules and robots to hundreds and thousands of people? Who's going to pay? SSI's scheme to sell Mars trinkets back on Earth, well, it won't wash. That's an untested market and prices will likely plateau, then plummet. And sooner rather than later."
They reached the head of the wide, semi-circular staircase leading down to the lobby. Nowal paused there. "There's a lot more to our plan that that, and you know it. In the press you have very inaccurately branded our roadmap as a socialist nightmare. Fine; but we prefer it to your capitalist nightmare." Dosanski continued down the stairs a few steps and looked back at her. "I feel that there is a danger of polarisation," she said, "or, more likely, of splintering into many incompatible ideologies. I know that NewSpace is able to compromise, if it chooses. Let us at least draw up a treaty that allows all to live on Mars in their own way."
Dosanski shrugged. "Sounds good to me. But then," and here he turned and carried on down the stairs, throwing his last words back over his shoulder, "you gotta understand, I'm not the one making the decisions. I'm just one of many voices."
- + - + - + -
Much later, close to dawn on the next day, Nowal entered the Asiatic Lounge of the five-star hotel where she was staying during the UN conference. Cameron MacDonald and Yuanna Green-Lisulo rose from their huge, rounded armchairs and greeted her. "You look even more tired than I feel!" she told Yuanna, embracing her. "Thank you for flying all this way to support us." Turning to Cam, she asked politely about his parents and siblings in Scotland and how the mission planning was going in Dubai
"How did it go?" asked Yuanna, sounding to Nowal rather nervous. So many people had a strong interest in the outcome of the conference, and it always seemed to Nowal that the Mars Society people were amongst the most informed, and were solidly supportive of SSI.
Nowal sat on a nearby couch. "The negotiations wore everybody out. There were three hundred and twelve delegates, and three hundred and thirteen opinions."
"You must be exhausted!"
"Not as much as you'd think. We sit down and listen, read from screens, and occasionally talk. It's not so demanding."
"Has there been any announcement of an outcome yet?" asked Cam . Nowal gauged the distance between the two of them as they stood there. Yes. They will make a good pair.
"The preliminary draft is being released about now," she said. "It contains some of what we wanted, and a great deal that we didn't. That's the way these things go. The Planetary Council proposal for Mars and the land registry ideas: they are in there, but it's not binding on any settlers or corporate entities. So unless there are some major revisions in our direction we will end up with a free-for-all, basically."
Yuanna laughed. "That's excellent, Cam , but – sorry – it just reminded me of that history lesson you gave me yesterday, about your Scottish Covenanters, way back. Was it Charles the First or Second?"
"The First," he replied. "Aye, now that you say so, it has the same ring to it. Mind you, I'm hoping we don't go out the same way they did."
"The English hangman, wasn't it?"
"Aye, or shot, or drowned. Usually without trial. In their thousands. They made history."
Nowal shook her head and smiled. "I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but it sounds gruesome. I'm sure that violence is not the thing to worry about at this point. Look, your idea has potential. I am pretty sure that the corporate settlements would not join us, but many others would."
"We – I mean, the Mars Society – has been calling for this sort of thing for years," said Yuanna, "and we've made some headway. We have many, many contacts. The outcome of this conference should spur us on to make it a reality. A kind of embryonic Mars rebel alliance." Cam grinned at that.
Nowal stood up. She had places to go, but she wanted to linger. "We can work together, I hope, in public, without the sense of having to rebel against anyone. If we want Mars to have a chance for freedom, we must."
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