A Visitor to the Future - 22 - Reflection and Revelation
We all took a break afterwards to give us some time to think. Tungsten paced outside, Sarkona was sampling (and making disgusted faces at) military ration bars in the canteen, and I looked at all the various photographs of rockets on the walls. If this place was historically accurate, I could very well be looking at a slice of the past. The 2200s designs didn't differ too much from those I was used to - it was a fundamental principle of space-going rocketry that good rockets are aerodynamic and have engines at the base. The launch towers did seem to change though - what had been large structures in my time seemed to be slowly replaced by thinner constructions and lifting drones. I stared at the flag that I had seen on the personnel across the base - it was prominent on most of the pictures, though some also had corporate branding painted across the hulls of vessels which was bizarre to see. I was used to NASA or ESA logos, but not pharmaceutical or petroleum companies. They seemed so out of place.
Eventually we started to reconvene - but Antonia was nowhere to be found. Thankfully Travers pointed us in her direction, though of course we all should have known where she'd be.
In the back corner of the base was the botany lab, filled with plants both marvellous and mundane. There were towering potato plants and curved golden wheat stalks, tall bell-shaped purple flowers and even what looked like short green daisies. But it was a sharp contrast to Antonia's lab on the Promise of Sol - whereas her dome had been a veritable paradise of wild greenery, everything here was contained and methodical. Each plant was within a sealed container and monitored by instruments - more like test subjects than living things. It didn't stop Antonia from enjoying it, however, as she held a misshapen potato in one hand, gesturing to it like she was holding some kind of remarkable discovery.
"Look at this!" she said as we walked inside, "This is a recreation of one of the early GM-potato plants! I feel like I'm holding history in my hand."
Sarkona smiled and leaned against a metallic table next to her. "I heard there are genuine examples of early GM crops in some of the Mars museums - didn't you check them out on Mars?"
"Oh, yes! But they're kept safely tucked away for preservation purposes. I can get hands on with these without any issues. Here, smell it!"
She held the potato before each of us. Not surprisingly, it smelled like a potato.
"I was reading the lab files - this is the ancestor of one of the most successful low-gravity potato strains. Ah! This alone makes the challenge all worth it." She continued happily around the lab, looking up each of the plants in reference files. Sarkona looked over her shoulder and pointed at details, and the two of them quickly got wrapped up in conversation about historical Bio-development.
Tungsten moved over to where I was standing. "May I ask something?"
"Of course," I said without hesitation.
He sighed a little, "For all that Sherlock Holmes has been a great inspiration to me, he is fictional. I myself have been raised in the Consortium - an environment where every fact has been verifiable from the moment I was constructed. To be frank, I think I've been spoiled by the availability of that information. I may be capable of the odd deduction here and there, but I feel like I'm missing something fundamental. Can you tell me - how would an investigator from your time approach a case like this?"
I thought of all the random crime dramas that were frequently displayed on the televisions in the hospitals, and what I'd seen on the news. "I actually thought you'd been doing a really good job at that," I said, "I don't think I could have done anything better."
Sarkona and Antonia had now stopped their conversation and were listening in intently. Sarkona gave a reassuring nod at my comment.
He tapped his chin, "Perhaps a more specific question then. The camera footage has been a constant thorn in my side for this investigation. Without the Consortium to verify things, how can you rely upon the evidence in front of you? I've proven that it's possible to climb the exterior wall, but I lack the ability to say definitively who did."
"You never did fully rely on evidence," I said, "Alleged facts were never completely certain - you just had to make do with what you had. That's why the prosecution and defence in trials were so important. They tried to argue whether a version of events was likely or not. Then the judge or jury would decide who was right."
"It's odd," said Antonia, "I find it easy to think like that when I'm working on theories about plant growth - evidence proves or disproves theories. But in a situation like this I find it hard to think of people as being more or less likely to have killed someone. And then we're being trusted to make that decision? It's just so surreal. I keep thinking I'm going to choose wrongly."
"I think," said Sarkona, "If you'd placed a Consortium auditor in this situation they've have done a lot better than us. They're not as reliant on the Consortium verifying things."
Tungsten shook his head. "I don't think that's the issue - I've already identified that we shouldn't rely on the recordings because they can't be verif-"
He stopped in mid-sentence and suddenly snapped his fingers triumphantly.
"Oh, Sarkona! What a fool I have been. I suddenly grasp where I've been going wrong - thank the Templates for the three of you." He began to gently clap his hands together excitedly. "I have a little more work to do - but if you'd be so kind as to fetch Aida and join me in the meeting room in an hour, that should be all the time I need to crack this case wide open."