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support from the other representatives in the room,
but was only met with silence.
    “What
do you mean? Never mind. The point is, nothing is going ‘that’ wrong and we
have great minds already working on a long term solution, so why hold back our
production? Manufacturing cannot stop. Besides, the current holes aren’t even
at capacity. Even if they were, we can just do what we did several years back
and add a few more holes.”
    “Just
add more holes?” Magiro asked skeptically.
    “Sure.
We have some of our partner corporations willing to personally support the
funding of pump holes so they can grow their businesses. More holes would
spread out the risk of any single pump hole. How about that? Yeah, how about
that?” The Stache nodded his head and smiled triumphantly.
    Magiro
glanced over at Representative Litana Silver, his strongest ally when it came
to this. She was silent as she listened to The Stache’s argument. They were
trying to do it again. They’d convinced the people and the Representatives that
more pump holes were good for everyone and even the environment.
    A
temporary solution to deal with man-made pollutants had turned into a permanent
one for many of the corporations and elected officials. They’d bought into the
story, the same one The Stache repeated, in some variation, ad nauseam. Everything
was okay and there weren’t very many problems .
    They’d
managed to instill enough fear over changing to a long-term system that no
resources had been committed to make a long-term system happen. Anyone working
in those pump sites, and the town around them were also opposed to any ideas that
might take away their jobs. 
    They
had now convinced them that spreading the emissions and pollutants into more
holes would prevent some areas having heavier use than others, thus making the
risk and benefits of the program fairer for all people in the six producing
regions. They promised that people could get more affordable products and
businesses could make more money and hire more people.
    Unfortunately,
not much of that really happened. Except, of course, the businesses producing
more and people buying more but the prices for what people paid barely budged
more than a fraction of a luble. The corporations made out like bandits and
Magiro had been forced to justify everything to the World Consensus and the
constituents he represented.
    “We
should wait to see what the next quarterly report from the Antarctic Research
Center says. We just got the last one in from our science division here this
week and there were things in it that give me a great deal of concern. We are
having trouble with leaks and seepage. They are small so they wouldn’t
necessarily be seen by someone monitoring at a high level but for the people
who are actually working at these sites, they are seeing them and they are
being reported more now than they were even just a few years ago. It’s
something we need to talk about.” Magiro commanded.
    “Haha
Gregor! You worry about things you don’t need to worry about. They told us
years ago, a few leaks and a little seeping would be a normal thing to see. You
remember, right? And they said as long as it is caught early and contained, it
wouldn’t do damage. You remember that too, now don’t you Gregor? I was there. I
listened.” The Stache said smugly, smoothing his thick dark mustache. 
    Ignorant,
thoughtless jerk , Magiro couldn’t help but think. Mirkal Dempstead was one
of those people that UniCorps paid to promote their interest, and it seemed
there wasn’t any maximum costs. Magiro wondered if he had a conscience hidden
somewhere deep deep deep down inside. With his sheer size it could hide pretty
deep down.
    “Perhaps
we should wait until the report to talk about what our options are for moving
forward,” Representative Silver, who sat opposite Magiro, finally spoke. Like
him, Representative Silver was an elected representative and they would have to
answer to millions of