Chapter 3: The Asteroids

Thursday dawned bright and, being August, quite warm. Tanya was quite grateful for the air-conditioned comforts of the limo, even if it was taking her back to durance vile. Her morning shower felt like it was weeks ago.

Surprisingly, a crowd of reporters were clustered around the entrance to the Studios. Security had to clear a path for the limo through the paparazzi. Sam met Tanya and Mitch at the parking lot.

"What's up with the vultures," Mitch demanded. "They're circling like we're tasty carrion."

"Hot rumour going around Tinseltown this morning," Sam advised. "Unless you were listening to the radio on your ride in, you may not have heard of it."

"What's that?" Tanya was curious, and not a bit apprehensive. She and her father had been reading the scripts they now clutched in their hands, not the morning paper.

"Uncle Charlie wanted to discuss this with you himself, so if you don't know I really shouldn't be saying anything. But as a result of the rumour, the schedule's been thrown into complete disarray this morning, he wants to see the three of us in the boardroom first before we go into rehearsal." Sam led the way.

"What's this all about, anyway?" demanded Mitch, thoroughly confused and upset.

"I'd say don't worry about it, but I have a daughter too, about Kim's age." Sam stopped and considered his words carefully.

"Our society is on the cusp of a sea change, and Sunshine Studios has been 'volunteered' as the crest of that wave." He rubbed his chin nervously. "Just keep an open mind until Uncle Charlie finishes what he has to say. Then you can calmly turn him down, civilized-like."

This did absolutely nothing to reassure Mitch, or Tanya for that matter.

When the trio entered the suite of offices on the third floor of the Administration Building, Uncle Charlie was reassuring two gentlemen in business suits who were leaving his office, "Rest assured we are going ahead with the directive. We're not exactly sure HOW at this point, but we have committed to have a new show on the air by the first week of January."

"We've committed ourselves to a one-hour Friday night time slot at eight." The elder unknown suit noticed Tanya and unaccountably became nervous. They both shook Uncle Charlie's hand and fled from the executive suite.

Uncle Charlie looked at the trio standing in his waiting room and waved them into the inner sanctum. "Come on in," he greeted them cheerfully, and then added in a sad sotto voce, "said the spider to the fly."

The burl wood boardroom table hosted Dr. Wallace, sitting in the same chair as from the day before, the older woman resplendent in a tweed skirt and matching jacket. A set of files sat in front of her and a second set marked Uncle Charlie's place at the head of the table. His executive secretary Millie handed Sam, Tanya and Mitch additional copies of the files currently sitting innocuously in front of the seats of the famous and much-beloved head of Sunshine Studios and the good doctor.

Unlike Sam and Tanya, Mitch faced Uncle Charlie directly. "So?" he demanded. "What's up?"

Beside him Tanya opened the file and gasped. At the same time, Sam, seated across from Tanya and beside Dr. Wallace, opened his file and stared at the same clipping. He winced and uttered, "Oh, boy." He began rubbing his eyes to relieve the sudden headache. It was the same news article, from the same paper, as Tanya and her father had read in the back of the limousine Tuesday night.

"The FCC, on the behest of the Administration, is instructing all production houses of both TV and movies for North American distribution, that they want to see more of people in future productions." Uncle Charlie grinned sheepishly. "That's kind of wishy-washy, ain't it? Actually, they want us to have at first, fleeting glimpses of naked people in the background, in crowd scenes and the like, over the next four months. Gradually they want us to ramp this up."

Tanya's mind had just gone 2+2=tilt. Mitch was too stunned to say anything. It looked like it was up to Sam. "Define 'gradually'," he ventured cautiously.

"They want a show on the schedule for the first week of January with characters who are nude most if not all of the time." Uncle Charlie looked resigned to the situation. "At least one for the broadcast network, and one on a major family-oriented satellite channel. Clean, mind you, nothing prurient, they want social not sexual nudity."

Mitch challenged him. "There's a difference?"

"Oh, yes, and they were more than willing to describe that difference to us. Basically, it boils down to people acting as if their nude state didn't matter, they were carrying on as if it were normal. The Powers that Be want people to start seeing nudity as normal, as an acceptable state of dress."

"Why would you even want to go along with that?" Tanya demanded.

Her father added in an accusatory tone, "And why would we?" He turned to Sam, who was gesticulating frantically. "Yes, I'm going to hear him out."