Contact across the Solar System

A Walk on the Beach

As the SSC increased its contacts with the Middle East, Europe, and much of the rest of the globe, the United States and China stood out as being the major exceptions. These contacts included a lot of technical assistance, and both mainland China and Taiwan agreed to a compromise: two governments in one nation. The SSC then gave Taiwan a lot of assistance, and Mainland China only a little bit, because of Mainland China's government's security obsessions.

This left the United States, and Senator Ferguson continued to obstruct any acceptance of SSC espionage, indeed, anything short of a complete transfer of technology with no conditions. Representative Cristina Martinez-Ortega was a big ally of his in Congress, though she only wanted an end to SSC espionage and full details of SSC residents.

That CTIE article about Japan was only part of Cristina's reconsidering her attitude to the SSC. She first discussed that issue with her closest friends, and she then decided to reach out to the SSC about it. She contacted the Message Committee, and the MC contacted the Earth Contact Committee. Kalna ended up Cristina's main contact, and the two sent each other lots of messages about what Cristina ought to be doing, how she should be spinning her change, and so forth. The two eventually decided that they needed to do a face-to-face meeting, and they arranged for one. Cristina did not want to go alone, and that was completely fine with Kalna. She also would not be going alone. Cristina was queasy at the thought of Kalna reading her mind, but it was either that or more awkward communication.

On the day that they arranged, Cristina was in Los Angeles, and she was joined by her husband Mike, two DC staffers who had flown in from DC, and two LA district-office staffers. Cristina wore a big medium-brown wig, sunglasses, a T-shirt with a portrait of a female disco-pop singer on it, some blue jeans, and hiking boots, and the others were dressed similarly. They went to Long Beach's port, took a fast ferryboat to Santa Catalina Island, got off at the island's biggest town, Avalon, and then took another boat to Parsons Landing, near the northwest end of this rocky island. In all that time, they were in contact with the SSC, and the SSC advised them on the progress of Orthon, Kalna, and Ilmuth toward their meeting place.

"We're now on the first boat." "We've departed the Aurora."

"We're now in Avalon." "We're halfway there."

"We're now at Parsons Landing." "We're about 15 minutes away. Be advised that we have set our camouflage to clear-sky color and that our scoutcraft will be hard to see until it is very close."

Near the place, the scoutcraft's pilot switched off the vehicle's camouflage, making it much more obvious. At the beach, it turned to make its door face landward, and it then landed on the beach. Cristina removed her wig and her sunglasses and stuffed them into a bag, letting her hair flow out. Orthon, Kalna, and Ilmuth came out, all in olive-colored jumpsuits with light green trimmings, and they all greeted each other and introduced themselves to each other.

An Aurora crewman was left aboard the scoutcraft, and he flew it back to the sea to avoid attracting attention to the beach.

Cristina asked "Which one of you was I talking to before?"
Kalna said "Me".
"We've come here so we could have a one-on-one meeting. Are you ready?"
"Sure thing."

The two then started a walk on the Parsons Landing beach together, with the others surrounding them at a distance to act as bodyguards. The SSC people mixed with Cristina's entourage.

Kalna asked "What may I call you?"
Cristina responded "Cristina. I'm nicknamed Chris and Tina. My last name is Martinez-Ortega, but you can use Martinez for short."
"Cristina it is. I'm Kalna."
"Kalna."
Kalna smiled.
After some small talk about their families and careers, the two then got down to business.
Cristina described how she became an anti-espionager and how she later moved away from that stance. "I saw other nations getting a lot of technical assistance from you, and the US was falling behind. Yes, we've been trying to copy what you give to other nations, but it would be better to get assistance from the source."
"As part of those assistance deals, you have given us a lot of details about your residents. Most of them turn out to be very well-behaved citizens."
Kalna said "Yes, we screen our residents for moral character."
"Seems like we should do that here."