There are a lot of artifacts. It seems to me there are plenty for public display, and more than enough left over for private collectors. So why not? Why do museums have to control them all?
Why do I feel I have to justify what we do?
When I went to bed, nothing had changed regarding Kolchevsky. He was by then missing almost three days.
In the morning, though, there was news: His skimmer had been found. On the parking lot at a restaurant at the foot of Mt. Barrow. Barrow was about fifteen miles northwest of Andiquar. The police were concentrating their search in that area.
“Why are you so caught up in this thing?” I asked Alex. “That guy never had a kind word for either of us.”
“Just curiosity, Chase. I’ll admit I didn’t care much for him.”
“I think he was jealous of you. Take it as a compliment.”
His face took on a tolerant expression. “I’d have a hard time believing that.”
“Were you able to give Fenn any information?”
“Not really. A couple of names of people Kolchevsky was associated with. He probably already had them. But otherwise I had nothing. I didn’t know anything about his personal life.”
We sat down in the kitchen at the country house, and he poured coffee for us. “Did you get anything at the auction yesterday?”
“There were a couple of minor items I thought about picking up. A dress that belonged to Sonia Calleda. She wore it in”—he checked his notes—“Virgin Spring. It was in good shape, and I thought they were underestimating the value.”
“But you didn’t opt for it?”
“It’s not exactly our style.” He tried the coffee. “There was also a locket that Pyra Cacienda wore on her Victory tour back at the turn of the century. Again, probably seriously undervalued.”
“But—?”
“I don’t know. I backed off. Pure instinct, I guess.”
He left to go confer with one of our clients. It had something to do with artifacts from the Mute War. Rainbow didn’t actually own any, of course, but we specialized in putting clients together. And, on occasion, when we’d gotten some information, we’d converted ourselves into archeologists and gone out to see what we could find. We were actually pretty good at that. Gabe, of course, had been a dedicated archeologist, and Alex had learned from him. We both had.
Larry Earl called. “I don’t really have anything more on my father-in-law, Chase,” he said, “except that I remember his telling me that he’d gone to the site of the Florida Space Museum.”
“Okay, Larry, thanks.”
“He also mentioned that it’s underwater. He had to use diving gear.”
“I’ll tell Alex.”
His face creased. “Chase, I wish it hadn’t taken all these years to find that thing.”
“You mean the transmitter?”
“Yes. We were wondering if we shouldn’t just sell it? Take what we can get and forget the whole thing?”
“I’d recommend you give it some time.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Alex. “He was the kind of guy who couldn’t have resisted going down to the museum. I don’t think he could have found much, though. People have been looking through it for thousands of years.”
“Does he mention it anywhere?”
“Not that I’ve come across. I’ve watched a good many of his addresses and gone through most of his papers.”
“You find anything significant?”
“He had a passion for the Golden Age. But you already knew that. He spent most of his life at archeological sites that were connected with the early years of space exploration. He did some work at the NASA launch area in what used to be Florida. It’s almost all underwater now, not just the museum. But that didn’t stop him.”
“Did he find anything?”
“Nothing of any value. Whatever was left had been ruined by the ocean. He was seriously angry that the NASA people didn’t make a more serious effort to salvage things. Of course, to them, most of the stuff they left was junk. They’d have seen no value in, say, the computers that were used during the first Moon flight.”
Something like that, today, would have been worth a small fortune. Even if it weren’t one of the actual computers. Just one that was the same type. “Pity,” I said. “But that’s why artifacts command a price. If everybody held on to everything, they wouldn’t be worth much.”
“That’s a point, Chase.”
“So what else did Baylee do?”
“He was central to some of the recovery work in Washington.”
“That was the United States capital, right?”
“Yes. During the second and third millennia. He did some of the excavations at the Smithsonian. And was part of a team that rebuilt the White House along the banks of Lake Washington. And before you ask, that was where the executive offices were.”
“I’m impressed.”
“He was still young then. Pretty much just along for the ride. He also spent a year on Mars at Broomar. The first colony. And he did some work at the NASA site in Texas.”
“Texas was part of the United States originally, too, if I recall?”
“Yes.”
“He did pretty well.”
“He also helped find the submarine they used on Europa.”
“That was the big one. First discovery of extraterrestrial life.”
“Very good. You did pay some attention back in high school.”
“Only when it was raining.”
“He’s got one other major credit. He led the mission that found the Ayaka.”
“Which was?”
“A twenty-first-century automated ship that got lost while surveying Saturn. It stayed lost for nine thousand years. Until Baylee found it.”
“Where was it?”
“Still orbiting Saturn. It became part of the rings. Baylee thought that no serious effort was ever made to recover it. In fact, it had been completely forgotten until he came across an old record.”
“Makes you wonder what else is out there.”
Alex nodded. “Incidentally, on another subject, some of the Capella families are banding together. They want to stop any effort to shut down the drive unit. They don’t want the government to take any action that would put the passengers and crew at risk.”
“I can understand that,” I said. “JoAnn’s afraid that what she wants to do could sink them permanently.”
“What do you think about it? If it were your call, Chase, would you take the chance? Try to shut it down?”
“What are the odds again?”
“Right now they’re saying that the chances for success are around ninety percent.”
“That it will succeed? Or that it won’t kill everybody?”
“That it won’t kill everybody.”
Lord. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think I’d try it.”
Six