Leo Frankowski - Copernicks Rebellion

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Copernic

k's R

ebellio

LEO

A.FRANKOWSKI

A Del Rey Book

BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

dedication

This is for Elaine Bowen, my ever perfect

lieutenant.

Prologue

AN OLD sergeant downed his third pot of wine, belched, and

explained to the young private, "Kid, it's like this. You see

something needs doing, go ahead and do it. Don't ask nobody's

permission, because they'll tell you no. Officers got their positions

to protect and they can't get into no trouble if nothing happens.

"Just go ahead and do it. Then if it turns out right, you're a

hero. And if it goes wrong, you won't get into much trouble

because everybody knows you're just a dumb trooper anyway."

-Quoted from a dubious Cuniform Text, Ca. 3900 B.C.

Chapter One

APRIL 21,1999

IT SHOULD be intuitively obvious to the most casual of observers

that our present civilization is faced with a number of serious,

possibly insurmountable problems.

Our basic resources are almost exhausted.

Over forty nations possess atomic arsenals, many of which are

large enough to eradicate all life on this planet.

The world's literacy level has dropped to less than fifty percent.

Pollutants are rendering major tracts of farmland sterile at a

time when more than eighty percent of our population is

undernourished.

Poor standards of sanitation, increased population pressure,

and ever-increasing geographical mobility have caused three

serious plagues in the last decade. Diseases have annihilated other

species; they could wipe out ours.

It seems likely that the Four Horsemen are about to ride in

earnest, and I can see no politically acceptable method of stopping

them. A technical, biological solution might be possible in ten or

twenty years, if civilization holds together that long.

But even this solution could not be acceptable to the Earth's two

hundred warring nations.

Heinri

Coper

nick

rom

his

lab

noteb

ook

arch

1989

The aging U.S. senator walked carefully into a plush Washington

restaurant and looked slowly around for his dinner date.

"Senator Beinheimer. It's good to meet you, sir."

The senator was momentarily startled by the appearance of the

athletic young man before him. "Well, it's very good to meet you, son.

But just now I have an appointment with an old friend."

"I'm afraid I'm him, sir."

"And I'm afraid you're wrong, sir. I'm looking for Lou von Bork."

"I'm Lou von Bork."

"What! Oh, wait a minute. That's right. I'd heard that you'd taken

over your grandfather's firm. It's just that over the phone you sounded

so much like him that I thought he was visiting his old stomping grounds

again. How is old Lou?"

"Well, according to the postcards, he's still taking his retirement

pretty seriously, sir."

"Raising hell and drinking sour mash on that boat of his, huh?"

"That's about the size of it, sir."

"And still chasing women, I guess."

"Two of them, if you want to believe the photos."

"Oh, you can believe them, son. Your granddad never was the sort

to let his wick go dry for long." The senator laughed. Then quietly he

said, "It's good to see that some people can retire."

"Well, the country would be in worse shape without you, sir."

"Hmm. Well." The sparkle in the senator's eyes went out. "About

that lunch you promised me..."

Later, in one of the darkened, soundproof booths that made the

Twin Bridges popular, the senator said, "Son, I just can't get over how

much you look like your granddad. Why, you're the spitting image of

him when he was your age. Come over to the house sometime and I'll

show you pictures of the two of us when we were in college."

"I'd like that, sir."

"Why, you even smoke Pall Malls and drink Jim Beam like he does.

Now tell me, isn't that part of it a little bit of an act? You just figure that

if he was the best lobbyist in Washington, everything he did must have

been right, huh?"

Von Bork just smiled. "Well, I'll allow that nothing succeeds like

success. Just don't go laying it on too thick, and you'll come along just

fine."

"I'll try to, sir. It's an odd business."

"Well, you hear a lot of grumbling about paid lobbyists, but I think

that they do a lot of good around here."

"Indeed, sir?"

"Yes indeed. You see, son, my colleagues and I have to know what

folks are thinking. We need information channels from all sorts of

people, and your gang provides us with a lot of those."

"Even if they're biased?"

"Son, every channel is biased. Everybody has an ax to grind. At least

with a lobbyist, you know what he's pulling for, and you can make

allowances."

"I'll bear that in mind, sir."

"Will you quit 'sirring' me? My friends call me Moe."

"Thanks, Moe."

"You're welcome, Lou. Now, what are you doing with your

granddad's company?"

"Mostly trying to pick up the pieces. Trying to get to know the

people and so on."

"It was kind of sudden, the way he just up and quit. The way he

explained it to me, just before he left, was that retiring was like quitting

smoking. You got to go cold turkey. Still, he should have at least

introduced you around."

"Well, maybe. Or maybe the best way to learn how to swim is just to

jump in."

"Well, son, I think that I might be able to give you a swimming lesson

or two. You come over to Daisey's party tomorrow, and I'll introduce

you around."

"I'd really appreciate that, Moe."

"No trouble at all. I owed old Lou a few favors, and I might as well

pay them back to you. Now how about the other half of the business?

Were you able to keep many of his old clients?"

"About half of them. I've got Markoff Industries, the Michigan Milk

Producers, and Copernicus, Inc."

"Well, that's a fine start for a young man in your business. Go soft on

Copernicus, though. Heiny Copernick didn't make any friends with that

stink he raised about his rejuvenation research program."

"He was funding it with his own money, wasn't he? Why shut him

down?"

"Whoa, now! Nobody said that he had to stop his research. Just like

nobody said that the government had to keep on buying equipment from

his company. But screaming 'patricide' when he got a few orders

canceled ... Well, that's just not how the game's played."

"Well, in any event, Heinrich Copernick is retiring. He doesn't even

own any stock in the company anymore."

"Yeah? Well, you mention that around and you won't hit so many

snags. But don't do it until tomorrow, Lou."

"Why not?"

"So I can sell my Copernicus stock before the bottom falls out of it!"

The senator stood. "Well, I got to git. But you take yourself over to

Daisey's tomorrow."

"I'll do that. Better still, how about if I pick you up at your house and

drive you over there? You could show me those college photos."

"Sure. See you at five thirty." The senator hobbled away cautiously.

Von Bork arrived at 5:29:59 in a nine-hundred-dollar casual suit.

"Good afternoon, Moe."

"Lou, boy! Come in." The senator looked down at his own

housecoat and slippers. "Been taking it a bit easy today."

"Yes, sir. I understand."

"Quit 'sirring' me. And what the hell do you mean, you 'understand'?"

"I-I went out with a nurse last night. One of Dr. Cranford's."

"Good man, Cranford. Go to him myself occasionally. You don't

mean that pretty little redhead he's got running around his front office?"

The senator was adept at getting people off unpleasant subjects.

"Yes, Moe. She told me. About you."

"What! She has no business talking about other people's lives!"

"She has been a fan of yours all her life. She was so broken up, she

had to tell somebody."

"Listen, boy. She didn't tell you nothing. And you didn't hear nothing.

And you ain't going to say nothing, either! You hear me, boy?"

"Anything you say, sir. I'm not your enemy."

"I know that, boy. And old Lou is my best friend. It's just that if

word of this got around, my effectiveness in the Senate would be over."

"I understand, Moe."

"I doubt that. I'm afraid of dying... But it isn't really that. Life hasn't

been worth much since my wife died. It's just that I hate leaving when

there's so much to do."

"No chance of an organ transplant?"

"Would be if it was only one organ. But Cranford says that just

about every organ in my body is shot. Replacing any one of them would

be too much of a strain on the rest. I guess that some people just grow

old faster than other people."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Moe."

"Growing old and dying is a natural part of life." The senator was

staring at the floor.

"So is shitting in the woods. But that doesn't mean that we have to

do it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Rejuvenation, Moe."

"That work-was stopped. I helped stop it. I guess my sins are

coming back to me."

"So maybe dying would serve you right. But justice isn't a fact of

nature, either. Anyway, the work wasn't stopped. It just went

underground."

"How could Heiny do that without being caught?"

"Motivation. He didn't want to die, either. Look, Moe. I'll keep your

secrets if you'll keep mine."

"About Heiny? Why not? He didn't break any laws. And knowing

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Copernick'sRebellionLEOA.FRANKOWSKIADelReyBookBALLANTINEBOOKS•NEWYORKdedicationThisisforElaineBowen,myeverperfectlieutenant.PrologueANOLDsergeantdownedhisthirdpotofwine,belched,andexplainedtotheyoungprivate,"Kid,it'slikethis.Youseesomethingneedsdoing,goaheadanddoit.Don'tasknobody'spermission,because...

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Leo Frankowski - Copernicks Rebellion

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