Cantata-104 by Philip K. Dick
- she had once been a dancer - Pat lithely seated herself and lit a cigar. 'The more naive Jim
appears, the better.' She blew gray smoke from between her luminous, pale lifts. 'He still has a
lingering reputation for being cynical. Whereas he should be another Wendell Wilkie.'
'Wilkie lost,' Heim pointed out.
'And Jim may lose,' Pat said; she tossed her head, brushing back her long hair from her eyes. 'But
if he does, he can run again and win next time. The important thing is for him to appear sensitive
and innocent, a sweet person who takes the world's suffering on his own shoulders because he's
made that way. He can't help it; he has to suffer. You see ?'
'Amateurs,' Heim said, and groaned.
The TV cameras stood inert, as the seconds passed, but they were ready to begin; the time for the
speech lay just ahead as Jim Briskin sat at the small desk which he employed when addressing
the people. Before him, near at hand, rested Phil Danville's speech. And he sat meditating as the
TV technicians prepared for the recording.
The speech would be beamed to the Republican-Liberal Party's satellite relay station and from it
telecast repeatedly until saturation point had been achieved. States Rights Conservative
Democrat attempts to jam it would probably fail, because of the enormous signal-strength of the
R-L satellite. The message would get through despite Tompkins Act, which permitted jamming
of political material. And, simultaneously, Schwarz' speech would be jammed in return; it was
scheduled for release at the same time.
Across from him sat Patricia Heim, lost in a cloud of nervous introspection. And, in the control
room, he caught a glimpse of Sal, busy with the TV engineers, making certain that the image
recorded would be flattering.
And, off in a corner by himself, sat Phil Danville. No one talked to Danville; the party bigwigs,
passing in and out of the studio, astutely ignored his existence.
A technician nodded to Jim. Time to begin his speech.
'It's very popular these days,' Jim Briskin said to the TV camera, 'to make fun of the old dreams
and schemes for planetary colonization. How could people have been so nutty ? Trying to live in
completely inhuman environments ... on worlds never designed for Homo sapiens. And it's
amusing that they tried for decades to alter these hostile environments to meet human needs - and
naturally failed.' He spoke slowly, almost drawlingly; he took his time. He had the attention of
the nation, and he meant to make thorough use of it. 'So now we're looking for a planet ready-
made, another "Venus", or more accurately what Venus specifically never was. What we had
hoped it would be: lush, moist and verdant and productive, a Garden of Eden just waiting for us
to show up.'
Reflectively, Patricia Heim smoked her El Producto alta cigar, never taking her eyes from him.
'Well,' Jim Briskin said, 'we'll never find it. And if we do, it'll be too late. Too small, too late, too
far away. If we want another Venus, a planet we can colonize, we'll have to manufacture it
ourselves. We can laugh ourselves sick at Bruno Mini, but the fact is, he was right.'
In the control room Sal Heim stared at him in gross anguish. He had done it. Sanctioned Mini's
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