Not a year after the Moon meeting, Zeb found himself being a witness in front of a congressional committee!
The committee was investigating Miracle, the hot new designer recreational drug that was taking the world by storm -- and with a storm of controversy. Zeb was there because his new company, Miracoxin Inc., was making Miracoxin, the precursor to Miracle. Miracoxin Inc., by the way, was now a hot-item company. Zeb had scored big time on his third try.
Zeb explains the Miracoxin/Miracle relation.
"Our company acquired the rights to make Miracoxin from the Mirondians. Miracoxin suppresses the cold symptoms that a person suffers when they are having "flu-like symptoms" from any source -- flu, cold, drug reaction, whatever. It's a cold tablet on steroids, and as safe as aspirin. Our company has been making it and selling it, and it has become popular the world over.
"However, six months ago some of those bad apples in the druggie community discovered that if you acidify Miracoxin before you take it, it develops euphoric properties as well -- it makes you feel good as well as relieving cold symptoms. This modified form is called Miracle.
"I would like to point out that this is not a use that Miracoxin Inc. discovered, or recommends. It is also not something that affects the efficacy of Miracoxin. This is not something that should affect our ability to help the world alleviate itself from cold symptoms.
"Thank you."
The next witness took an entirely different position. And, much to Zeb's surprise, the next witness was Jason.
"Miracle has opened a new front in the War on Drugs. It's not like we didn't have enough problems in this arena already.
"We should not blame Miracoxin Inc. for this problem. No... the ones to blame are the Mirondians! If the Mirondians hadn't shown up, we wouldn't have this... Miracle... to worry about.
"Thank you."
The congressional hearing droned on while Zeb and Jason left after giving their testimonies. They got together for some lunch at a small place in the transport terminal where they would be catching their transport out of Washington.
"It looks like it's been a busy year for you, Zeb." says Jason, "That startup seems to have hit big-time for you."
"It has. Keep it under your hat, but we're planning on going public, and if it goes as planned I'll be a billionaire."
"For real? This Mirondian business has treated you right, that's for sure."
"It has. And apparently this year has been a busy one for you, too, Jason. From man on the street to congressional testifier. That's quite a move up... in an odd path... I'd say anyway. How'd you wangle that?"
"Keep it under your hat, but Miracle has done well for me. I hooked up early on with some of those 'bad apples' as you called them. I've got me a distribution network!" He slides his hands up and down under his suspenders, "And I've bought me some legislators. I'm no billionaire, but I'm making a living.
"But... I wish things were going differently. I really do wish those damn Mirondians hadn't showed up. And I really do wish they'd take a hike right now. I'd much rather be doing real work, not this street corner whoring stuff."
"I hear you, but I don't agree. Man, we are making such progress these days."
Their transport arrives and they part ways.
Jane is attending a class. Her professor is explaining why the human community is getting so restive since the Mirondians have arrived.
"Tension in the human community is high and growing because the things that Mirondians trade to the Solar System community are not as trivial as chests of gold or bags of diamonds. They are much more earthshaking. Think of it this way:
"If a man comes to a town with a chest of gold and starts spending it like a young sailor on shore-leave, he is happy and the town's merchants are happy, but there is little change to the daily life of the town. The gold is nice for the town's well-being -- it makes the town better -- but it doesn't change the day-to-day life of the town. The town lives on, and simply waits for the next man with gold to come along.
"But if a man comes to town, and it only has people and horses for transport, and builds a big bicycle factory that sells cheap bicycles, then he deeply alters the town's day-to-day living patterns. He provides new kinds of jobs, a new style of transportation, city growth, city pollution... lots of changes... some good, some bad, many that are both. In short, he changes how the town lives. Some townspeople are going to be happy about the change, and some will be upset.
"It is the bicycle factory kind of change that Mirondians are bringing to the Solar System. The changes we are experiencing are huge."
Jane raises her hand, the professor recognizes her.
"Speaking of transportation revolutions, that's what I'm involved in. My company is making some of those new constant acceleration propulsion systems."
"The ones that are cutting Earth-Mars travel times from years to weeks?"
"Um humm, plus making the trip healthier because the gravity stays higher will the trip is in progress."
The professor asks the class, "What other changes will this bring?"
A student answers, "That, plus the space elevator, mean a whole lot more people are going to be leaving Earth."
"Leaving in what sense? Vacations?" asks the professor.
"No, as in emigrating -- going to other places to live and work."
"What's another change that is needed for that to happen?"
"We need to be able to build infrastructure fast... blip fast. That's what I'm involved in. We are projecting growth from the ten thousand off-Earthers when the Mirondians arrived to more than a million by the end of the year."
"That many?" exclaims Jane. The student nods.
"So, yes indeed, our world is changing quickly. And I predict even more surprises coming." concluded the professor.
<<<*>>>
The Solar System community was not alone in feeling the tension. The Mirondians were here trading because they were getting wealthy, too.
We don't know much about their community, but it's hard to imagine that their community did not undergo some wealth stress as well. What is known is that the Mirondian community seemed to fall in love with Earth. The Mirondians came as tourists to visit Earth, and then kept coming back. They loved seeing lush life. They loved coral reefs, temperate and tropical rainforests, cities and zoos. Mountain ranges left them cold. Interesting rock formations caused by erosion held their interest briefly, but life... thick life... was a magnet to them -- they couldn't stay away. The tropical resort communities boomed, and started adding lots of buildings with Mirondian-compatible environments.
The rest of the Solar System communities got somewhat envious of this, but there wasn't much they could do about it. What made this even more ironic was that the Mirondians had to experience Earth from inside environment suits -- their native conditions were not Earth-like. So when they visited somewhere such as Waikiki Beach, they stood out. They were the ones in the "space suits", surrounded by the flows of casually-clothed humanity.
<<<*>>>
One surprise in the Mirondian bag of tricks that surprised all humans was an announcement that came in the fifth year after they arrived. After appropriate lead-up they announced the surprise on their news channel.
"We are very pleased with how our trading and relations with this Solar System are progressing. We are delighted at how generous and responsive you people of the Solar System have been. Thanks to your wholehearted cooperation, we have both prospered mightily.
"We are so encouraged that we have decided to start what for us is a most precious project: the building of a new star ship. This is not a project we take on lightly. And we do it only because we think Earth and the Solar System can add so much value to this endeavor.
"Congratulations to you people of the Solar System. You have proved to be wonderful trading partners."
In Mirondian eyes, this announcement was supposed to have been one of great joy for both Mirondians and Solar System people. For them it was like when a young bride gets dewy-eyed, cuddles up to her new husband, and whispers in his ear, "Darling, I have something special to tell you." and he smiles back, hugs her, kisses her, and knows that their baby-making exercises have been successful.
In Solar System eyes, this was like when a dad's sixteen year-old daughter cuddles up to him and tells him she has had the same success with her high school boyfriend. The dad says, "Whoa! Lets talk about this!"
<<<*>>>
Zeb, Jason and Jane get together at a restaurant on Earth. Jane has come down for her father's funeral -- little else would bring her down to Earth these days. Jane wears an exoskeleton to help her deal with Earth gravity -- she has become well acclimated to the low G of the space colonies and moving around on Earth is now a big effort.
Jason is surprised when he sees her, and stares, "Ouch! You look like Iron Man."
Jane says, "Yeah, I admit, I've gotten real used to being above the clouds. Being down here is a lot of work for me now. I do most of my Earth meeting through a video connection."
Zeb, "Are you going to be OK? ...Oh, and sorry about your dad."
Jane, "I'll manage... and be real happy when The Elevator is taking me up again."
They sit down and order.
Jane starts off the small talk, "Well, boys, what do you think of this big news the Mirondians dropped on us?"
Zeb says, "Are they planning on crewing it with Earth people? If I was ten years younger, I'd be out in a heartbeat."
Jason says, "You'd go off to who-knows-where, and pay the Mirondians a pretty penny to take you? I guess it's a good thing you're an old, rich man now."
Zeb says, "You wouldn't go? What an opportunity."
Jane says, "That part we don't know about. But this project will be big, and mostly done in space. I'm looking forward to loading up on contracts."
Jason says, "If they start sending stuff away from here, stuff will come back, too. Real strange stuff. Maybe not such good strange stuff, either. Mark my words!
"And in the meantime, we've still got lots of poor people here. We should be doing more to help the poor, not build some fancy-ass, interstellar space ship."
Zeb says, "Think of the opportunity. Humanity can expand across the galaxy."
Jason says, "Pfft! I've heard that before... all the time in science fiction movies."
Jane says, "Across the galaxy is a stretch, but at least a lot of places nearby. Even the Mirondians don't go across the whole galaxy. It's too big. And as best they know, there's no 'Galactic Empire', either."
Jason says, "Fix home first." then changes the topic, "Say, you been following the Ram Jets lately? They just won number five-in-a-row."
<<<*>>>
To those humans who wanted to voice discontent, the new starship announcement became a lightning rod. The Mirondians were tightlipped on the starship issue, which made controversy easier. For six months after the announcement, the Mirondians had little further to say on it, other than, "We are doing the planning now. Please have patience." People were not patient, they bellyached a lot and there were protests building. In fact, there was a lot of serious violence throughout the solar system over issues such as growing crime and shrinking income equality, but that didn't seem to make much difference to the Mirondians.
When the plan came out, there was shock throughout the human community. The starship was huge! Physically, it was the size of a comet, and it would hold a medium-size city's worth of people! This was going to take a lot of resource, even for a solar system which had an Earth-style planet in it. And... according to the Mirondians, it would be finished in five years!
"Yes, it will be a grand ship." said Miro-Robert in an announcement video, "Five times bigger than our current ship."
Solar System jaws dropped, then several things fell out of this plan revealing. Commentators were abuzz.
Jane got called on as an off-world expert. She said, "There are far too few MSE's to get this project completed as scheduled. This means that Mirondians were going to have to teach even more Blip construction and management techniques to a lot of Solar System people. I don't know about how other people feel, but I want to be first in line."
The interviewer asked, "Who is going to crew this new ship... and who is going to pay for it?"
Miro-Robert answered that question, "We will issue contracts, as we always have.
You, people of the Solar System, will help us man the ship. It will be an honor for many of you. Your chance to see the wonders of other star systems, and spread your seed to other worlds."