Contact across the Solar System

Switzerland

Switzerland.

Land of mountains and lakes and skiing and alpenhorns and yodeling and fancy cheeses and fine chocolate and precision watches and secretive banking and international neutrality and international cooperation.

And now a land that was having rumors of contacts with the SSC. Rumors like visits and amnesty and revealing the identities of SSC residents. But it was hard for the rumor mongers to learn much more, and similar rumors floated around several other governments.

But behind the scenes, something was indeed going on. Negotiations on further improvements of relations had hit various snags, like about violations of airspace and national territory and about the SSC's reluctance to release operational details. But it sometimes seemed as if some Earth nations' governments were holding out for more technology transfers. Then the ice broke. Some Swiss officials had agreed with SSC negotiators on a tentative deal. Improved relations in exchange for details about SSC residents in Switzerland and some advanced-technology deliveries.

Around that time, Sheila McKenna resigned from the United Nations Message Committee. She said little about it, saying only that she wanted to have some rest. She had hoped to avoid provoking more controversy by not giving her reasons, but that itself provoked some controversy. What were her real reasons? Does she have something to hide? The anti-espionagers got very busy with that.

Some time later, she issued a long statement about her career with the Message Committee, staying that she did not appreciate the unrealistic demands that some people placed on her. Demands like getting the SSC to reveal all the details of all its Earth residents. Getting the SSC to transfer all its technology to the people of the Earth. Getting the SSC to side with this nation or that. Even attacking nations that this or that people dislike. She also described how she was vilified as a quisling for the "mall rats", a supporter of anti-Americanism, anti-freedom, and anti-just-about-everything. Also how the likes of Senator Ferguson seemed unhappy with any answer other than she was to become the SSC's provincial governor of the Earth, as if that was the only reason that anyone could possibly want to contact the SSC. She requested that any further inquiries be addressed to the Friends of the Solar System Community, a foundation recently set up by the SSC Watchers.

A few days later, she got herself to compose a statement for her SSC contacts. She apologized to them for letting them down and for the anti-espionagers and others having behaved so badly. When the Contact Committee got her message, Ilmuth got some awkward memories of when she met her way back when, but Orthon responded "Sheila, you have done very well. You have done a very good job in helping the people of your world get acquainted with us, despite the great difficulties that you have faced. I'm sorry that some people have directed such hatred at you. It is clearly not your fault that we have not done what they have wanted. If you wish to move on to other things, we will accept that."

Sheila responded, thanking Orthon and saying "You are almost too kind." Orthon responded, saying that the Contact Committee was considering arranging another visit, and he invited Sheila to come. She accepted. Sheila also discussed with Ilmuth the possibility of revealing Ilmuth's help of her long ago. She explained that she decided that it can't make her much more hated than she is now, and that she wants to be the one doing the revealing, not someone hostile to her.

As Sheila was hiding away, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service was checking out the details of residencies that the SSC had provided. They all checked out, as far as the FIS's investigators could determine. Most of the residents were not very notable people, and there were few records of many of them. For the most part, they acted like very ordinary citizens, they stayed on the right side of the law, and they were otherwise well-behaved.

Negotiations advanced further, and the SSC decided to make some gifts of its more advanced technologies. Not just recipes for advanced manufacturing and chemical synthesis, what the SSC had already given, but things that the Earthers were having trouble building.

They decided on energy-related technologies, because one needs energy for doing anything. So they commissioned the manufacture of a lot of electrodes and synfuels catalyst packs and solar panels and the like. They had already described how to make all the stuff that they were giving, but the Earthers were having trouble making them with their technology. So they'd give the Earthers some working examples.