Contact across the Solar System

Californians go to Venus

After the rest of Congress endorsed her traveling to the SSC worlds, Cristina organized a trip to Saanalokam on Venus. It will be a working trip, she said, a trip to check out Solar-System-Community indoor agriculture and manufacturing and building design and urban infrastructure. So she recruited some California and Los Angeles politicians who are in committees for housing and urban infrastructure and the like. Some of her critics grudgingly conceded that that's who one would select for a working trip.

As they were getting ready to go, Cristina was writing a lot of notes on a notepad.
Mike asked what she was writing, and Cristina responded "What to ask the Solar System people."
"Doing it this early?"
"Because I don't want the Solar System people reading my mind as I think of what to ask them."
Mike smiled and said "They'd be reading your mind anyway."
"But I want them to know about it when it's too late."
"Chris, are you that worried about what they will do to you?"
"Yes. I'll be asking some very tough things. Like about all their spying on us."
Cristina continued to work on them and she discussed them with Mike as she went.
"Is it really that horrible?" Mike asked.
"I don't want to take any chances. I'm concerned that they might think that I'm being a bad guest."
"So that's it?"
"Yeah. But it's something that I have to do."

They got into the question of what the SSC might do to electronic devices that they might bring with them. After Mike rambled at length about smartphones and how to jailbreak them, Cristina noted "I recall something about them running our software on their computers."
"Yeah. I've seen a lot of that. Some SSC people do demos of their computers running our software and our OSes. Rather neat to see our OSes boot on their systems."
"Seems like I ought to stick to pen and paper."
"Yeah. It's unhackable."
But when Cristina was finished, Mike scanned her notes into a laptop to have extra copies available.

The Aurora picked up everybody in the usual way, by sending out scouts.

Cristina, Mike, and one of Cristina's DC-office staffers were picked up from the roof of Cristina's apartment building, along with their luggage. Some friends watched them go, and they posted video of their departure.

The scouts went southward, flying over the Potomac River, and then over Chesapeake Bay to return to the Aurora. When Cristina got on board the Aurora, it was a little bit of a reunion between her and Kalna, Ilmuth, and Orthon.

The Aurora then flew across the contiguous US to reach Sacramento, California, and it picked up two California legislators, two of their staffers, and an expert on agriculture from the nearby town of Davis.

It then flew to Los Angeles, and it picked up two Los Angeles City Councilmembers, two of their staffers, one of Cristina's district-office staffers, and a geologist who does consulting for construction firms.

Then it was off to Earth orbit, and everybody got to see the Earth from space. Then a flyby of the Moon, and then off to Venus.

The travelers watched a lot of movies and TV shows - Earther ones - and Mike asked their hosts how the SSC acquired those movies. He discovered that they were recorded by residents over the decades. They recorded in movie theaters, they recorded from TV broadcasts, they recorded from the physical film and videotape itself, and whatever else they could get their hands on. A LA councilmember recalled some studio executive going into hysterics when he learned from earlier travelers of the SSC's bootlegged movies. "He didn't know how bad it was. Please please please don't invite him on a trip to the SSC. He'd have a heart attack."

Late that evening, they took one last look at the Earth. It was far enough away to look like a pale blue dot. Cristina then told her entourage about her plans for tomorrow, about how she will be asking her hosts a lot of tough questions.

The next day, everybody ate breakfast, and Cristina announced that she would be alone in her cabin, preparing. She invited everybody else to think of things to ask the three SSC contact people that she will be talking to.

Then the Earth received a very odd picture from the Aurora. It showed Cristina sitting on the edge of her cabin bed. Her eyes were closed and her hands were on her lap, with bright-red nail polish. Her hair flowed to her shoulders, straight but ending in permed curls. She was wearing brass hoop earrings, bright red lipstick, a medium-blue pantsuit, a clear crystal pendant, and some tan loafer shoes. She had a Congressional lapel pin on her pantsuit and a smartphone in one of its pockets. On her bed were her handbag, a notepad with lots of handwritten notes on it, and a pen.

A lot of people scratched their heads over that picture. What was Cristina dressed up for? She liked pretty clothes and fancy hairstyles and makeup and jewelry, but this? She also liked to meditate, and she was obviously meditating, but was she preparing for something?