Heng bowed elaborately, smiling at the seven-year-old. "I am honoured to meet you, Knut Tolonen's granddaughter. Was your journey pleasant?"
"All but the final bit..." Mileja began before Jelka tapped her shoulder. Glancing up at her mother, she fell silent.
"For that," Heng said, "you have my most abject apology. The blockade was meant to keep out our enemies, not to inconvenience our friends."
"Blockade?" It was the first she had heard of it and the idea clearly concerned her.
"I shall explain all," Heng said quickly, "but not here. My palace is close by. If you and your daughter would be my guests while you are here on Chung Kuo, I would be most honoured. I have had my servants prepare the west wing."
Jelka laughed. "To be frank with you, Master Heng, I am surprised by your offer. Pleased, naturally, but surprised. The situation is a difficult one, neh?"
Heng's smile was unforced. "Not so difficult that one forgets one's friends."
"Friends, Master Heng?"
"You and your husband have been good friends to my Master over the years. I, at least, remember that, even if he chooses not to."
There was a flicker of partial understanding in Jelka's eyes, but also puzzlement.
"Later," he said, pre-empting any further questions. "I am sure you would both welcome the chance to freshen up and rest, neh?"
Jelka smiled and nodded. "That would be most welcome, Master Heng." . "Then come. My sedan awaits us."
In the darkness of the room the hologram shone brightly.
"That's the old design," Kim said, moving the faintly glowing pointer to trace the perfectly spherical outline of the main ship. "Two disposable engines here and here," he indicated them with the tip of the pointer, "accelerate the ship. Then, when it gets near to its destination - and by that we still mean quite a considerable way out - what we call a light-parachute will open," on the hologram model, a fine umbrella of silk seemed to blossom from the sphere, "to gradually slow the ship down."
"And that's what you have built?" the stranger, Shen Li by name, asked from where he stood on the other side of the table, staring wide-eyed into the hologram.
"No," Kim answered. "That was only my starting point. Not that the New Hope wasn't designed well, it's just that I've made a few improvements."
There was a pause and then a new model appeared beside the first. It was slightly larger and the rockets on its underbelly were of a completely different design.
"The rockets on this one are, as you can see, much larger - to cope with the increased payload of the ship. They're also non-disposable, so that they can be turned through one hundred and eighty degrees and used to slow the ship down when we get to our destination. It's a simple little change, but it ought to cut t\3 journey time dramatically."
Shen Li narrowed his eyes, trying to make out details. "What are those?" he asked, putting a hand into the light-show, indicating a hemispherical lump beneath one of the rocket casings. "That," Kim said, smiling, "is one of my innovations. It's a web-layer."
"A web-layer?"
"Yes. At certain intervals along the way, that unit produces a kind of light-seed. You might say that it lays eggs."
Shen Li laughed uncomfortably. "Wouldn't the blast from the rockets burn them up?"
Kim answered patiently. "The rockets are there only to accelerate us out of our solar system and then decelerate us , at the other end. Between times they'll be switched off, long before the web-layer comes into play."
"That part I don't understand. Webs and eggs and seeds. You think something can grow out there in the vacuum?"
"Why, of course. Light can grow. Webs of light. The seeds, or eggs if you want to call them that, are channels for it. They're self-perpetuating boosters. By my calculations they'll survive out there for thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of years, sending their signals between the stars. It's like laying a cable, but this cable will be several light-years long."
At that Shen Li laughed. "Ingenious. It is true what they say about you, Shih Ward."
"And what do they say?" Kim asked, switching on the lights as the holograms faded.
The stranger - his face less obviously Han now that the lights had come up - gave a bow. "Why, that you are the man of the age."
Kim laughed, embarrassed by the other's words, yet there was an element of truth in what he said. "You place a great burden on me, Shen Li."
"Why so?" the other asked, clearly surprised. "That fate must fall on some man, so why not you? Besides, from what I have heard you carry that burden well."
"You hear much, Shen Li, considering where you hail from."
Shen Li's smile was open, almost childlike. "Oh, I know we seem cut off out in the asteroid belt, but we try to keep up with the news, even so. We know, for instance, that you plan to take more than simply ships."
It was Kim's turn to narrow his eyes. "What do you know, Shih Shen?"
Shen Li leaned toward him. "First, let me introduce myself properly. Circumstances force my brothers and I to adopt Han names, Han clothes, but we are not Han. We are Ishida."
"Ishida . . ." Kim laughed. "You mean, you're Japanese?"
"Ha!" the stranger bowed almost to the waist.
Kim slowly shook his head. "Why, I'll be ..." Again, he laughed. "Then some of you survived, after all. Out there."
"Out there," the stranger echoed.
"And you are?"
"Ikuro Ishida." Again he bowed.
"So, Ikuro Ishida. When you sought audience with me, you said there were ways in which you could help my venture. And just now you spoke of us taking more than just ships on the journey. What did you mean?"
Ikuro smiled broadly. "I hear you need to make some holes."
"Holes?" Kim blinked.
In answer, Ikuro took a scrolled piece of translucent paper from his pocket and unfurled it on the desk top. On it was a detailed plan for a series of bore-tunnels. Kim recognised what it was at once.
"You can do this?" he asked, turning the plan round so he could see it better, liking what he saw.
"With the help of my brothers and cousins, yes." "I see." Kim nodded approvingly. "And how long would it take to ... to make these tunnels?"
"Eight weeks. Six if we don't hit any problems." Kim looked up at him, astonished. "Impossible." Ikuro shook his head. "You forget, Shik Ward, making tunnels is our life. It is what we have been doing now for six generations. It is what we are. There is, though I say it with humility as well as pride, no one better prepared or equipped to undertake this task in the whole solar system." Kim laughed. "I'll take your word for that, but what’s your price?"
Ikuro's smile faded slowly. "Our price?"
"Yes."
He looked down, steeling himself, then raised his eyes to meet Kim's again. "That you take us with you."
"You said you would explain . . ."
Heng Yu set the silver tray down on the low table between them then looked up, meeting Jelka's eyes.
"And so I shall."
With an almost ritualistic care, he lifted the massive chung and poured some of the steaming ch'a into one of the empty -. porcelain bowls, then offered it to her.
She smiled, looking about her at the spacious garden room. "Thank you, Master Heng."
He poured a second bowl, then sat facing her, making himself comfortable in the high-backed chair, drawing his robes about him. Clearing his throat, he spoke. "You were no doubt wondering what all that was about earlier."
"A blockade, you said."
Heng smiled and nodded. "So I did. But not just any blockade. This is more in the nature of a ... quarantine."