Certainly the strongest structure would be a geodesic sphere. But how rigid should the individual links be? How rigid should the joints at the vertices be? Could she tailor carbon compounds to give her the right resiliency, the target rigidity, the required strength?
Now, though – finally, after fifty years of work – Quant had both in hand. The semiconductor and hardware fabrication facility and the chemical factory were both operational to her own rigorous standards. They were huge facilities, and completely remote-controlled by Quant.
With the Arcadia problem solved, Janice Quant bent to her research.
2345
A Precocious Problem
As the centennial of the founding of Arcadia approached, Chen FangYan had a problem. Thirty-five years old, she was a great-great-granddaughter of Chen GangHai and his first wife Chen YanJing. She was married to Chen YongJun, who was a great-great-grandson of Bob Jasic and Susan Dempsey through their daughter Stacy.
While they were both Chen, the family lines were kept straight in a clan registry so they did not marry too close. Between all the different people in the original Jasic party, and the addition of the Rachel Conroy-Jessica Murphy and Gary Rockham-Dwayne Hennessey same-sex couples, it was not hard to find sufficiently unrelated clan members to marry.
The ongoing custom of ‘bank babies’ – having one’s second child with a donation from the colony’s sperm bank to increase genetic diversity – also increased the possibilities for in-clan marriage. Chen FangYan’s mother had been a bank baby, as had Chen YongJun’s grandfather.
Some people in every generation married out-of-clan, but not many.
Chen FangYan’s problem, though, concerned not her ancestors but her descendants. In particular her third child and oldest son, Chen JieMin.
FangYan and YongJun lived in Chagu – in English, ‘tea valley’ – a Chen enclave in a valley high in the Blue Mountains north of Arcadia City. While the clan bred tea plants and grew certain expensive varieties in their town garden in Arcadia City, the large production required to meet the demand in the colony of nine million people was here. Several hundred of the six-thousand-strong Chen clan lived here, planting, tending, and harvesting tea.
That was all well and good for most of the clan who lived there. But Chen JieMin was special. He was extraordinarily bright, and the resources to develop his skills were in Arcadia City, not in Chagu.
FangYan sometimes drove the truck from Chagu to Arcadia City to deliver tea to the uptown market and the warehouse behind it. In truth, the truck drove itself, but unmanned trucks might be stopped by a roadblock and robbed of their cargo. If the truck had a Chen aboard, however, it was never molested.
Not since several examples had been made, which had dissuaded people of the wisdom of that path.
On this occasion, FangYan left the truck at the warehouse as it was unloaded, and went across Market Street to visit Chen JuPing, who was Chen Zumu.
Chen JuPing was the granddaughter of Chen YanXia, Chen Zumu and second wife of Matt Chen-Jasic. JuPing was therefore the adopted granddaughter of Matt Chen-Jasic, who was Chen Zufu.
Chen JuPing had married Paul Chen-Jasic, the son of Ken Bolton, MingWei’s lieutenant in charge of the action teams, and Chen XiaLi, one of MingWei’s daughters. Paul Chen-Jasic was therefore the grandson of Amy Jasic and Joseph Bolton on one side, and Chen MingWei on the other.
The ultimate power couple within the family, Paul Chen-Jasic was now Chen Zufu, and Chen JuPing was Chen Zumu.
FangYan had requested and been granted a meeting with Chen Zumu. She walked through Uptown Market and across Market Street to the apartment building beyond. A young woman showed her to the tea room of Chen Zumu.
JuPing had looked up her visitor in the family archives, and knew she was thirty-five years old and was part of the branch of the family that had moved to Chagu to farm the family’s property there. JuPing had been to Chagu, but it had been perhaps ten or twelve years.
Nevertheless, JuPing remembered FangYan. Her mother had been a bank baby, half-Norwegian and half-Chinese. The Norwegian had come out in FangYan as blond hair – straight like Chinese, but blond. It must have picked up a similar blond gene from her father’s side, which included a descendant of the Jack Peterson/Terri Campbell family. Blond hair was rare enough in the Chen-Jasic family after this many generations that JuPing remembered FangYan.
The young woman approached and bowed to JuPing. JuPing was almost seventy years old at this point, and her hair had gone white. She wore a silk robe, product of a silkworm colony they had brought from Earth and managed, after decades of work, to get established and producing.
“Thank you for meeting with me, Chen Zumu.”
“Sit, grandchild. Have tea with me.”
JuPing waved to the pillow beside hers, equally spaced in the beamed doorway, and FangYan blushed at the honor. She sat next to JuPing, both facing out into the gardens. A young woman – like FangYan, wearing only a lavalava and flip-flops – brought a pot of tea. She served them both, then left the pot on the low table between the pillows. She withdrew without a word.
“I remember you, from my last visit to Chagu,” JuPing said. “Your hair stood out, of course.”
FangYan nodded.
“But why do you request a meeting with me, grandchild? Is something wrong in Chagu?”
“In a way, Chen Zumu. I have a son, JieMin, who needs to study in Arcadia City. He has gifts too great for study in Chagu.”
“How old is JieMin?”
“Fourteen, Chen Zumu. And he has already finished his schooling.”
“I remember him. He was perhaps two years old when I was last in Chagu. You were holding him.”
“Yes, Chen Zumu.
