“Which is to be accomplished by-?”
“Reception and transmission on my end will be by phased arrays, with the individual components embedded on native rocks that have been adjusted to maintain absolute position in relation to each other during their orbit of Proxima.”
“And how do you intend to send your signals to Earth without the kzinti detecting you?”
“The components of the array will send separate, intermittent bursts, usually no more than a few per month. These will mimic the local background noise, except that the frequencies and wavelengths are rare, for this region of space. It should be undetectable as a message, since the time intervals between the signals will be hours, or even days. Now, tell me: how much longer until the slow boats at Wunderland are ready to launch?”
“A month, maybe five weeks before the general exodus begins. Lasso will be on its way now, so as to match their vector and velocity. Once we’ve rendezvoused, we’ll transfer our hab module and join everyone else for a long, cold nap as we return to Earth. At which point your plans can be put before the Amalgamated Regional Militia. Although I confess, I’m not exactly sure how to do that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dr. Yang, how do I get the ARM brass to listen to me long enough to ensure that your rather expensive project is delivered to people with enough clearance, and enough clout, to make it happen?”
“You will give them my name. That will be enough.”
“Just your name?”
“Yes.” She filled their teacups again. “Have you ever wondered how it was that the ARM managed to exert so much control over weapons and technology development out here in Centauri?”
Dieter smiled. “I have indeed wondered about that, since ARM supposedly has no official presence out here.”
“Just so, Lieutenant. You see, ARM has no way of working unobtrusively in a frontier environment the way it does on Earth. Back there, the entire solar system is under constant observation, and since all technological innovation is actually technological evolution, ARM’s observers know what precursor innovations to look for. They simply preempt would-be inventors before they achieve their goal.”
Dieter nodded, understanding. “But out here in Centauri that model doesn’t work. The population is too dispersed, too disparate.”
Yang shrugged. “The preferred method here is to wait, to watch, and to intervene selectively and secretly.”
“So you are ARM.”
“As much as one can be, beyond the Sol System, yes.”
“And the research team you indicated you were gathering for this project is already assembled-?”
“-and safely hidden on another rock.”
“A rock that’s big enough to store at least twenty years of consumables for you and your staff.”
Yang shook her head. “No. We, too, shall be in cryogenic sleep during your trip back to Sol.”
“And this place?”
Yang looked casually at the walls around her. “By sidereal midnight, it will be permanently abandoned. It will appear to have been ransacked by raiders.”
“Let me guess. Any records of either facility have already been erased from all files in the three Centauri systems.”
“Correct. Which means, of course, that if anything happened to us now, no one would know. So at this point, I suppose we are entirely in your hands, Lieutenant Armbrust.”
From her tone and unblinking gaze, Dieter wondered if Dr. Yang had meant that phrasing to obliquely prepare the ground for another intimate interlude and fresh pot of tea. He decided to interpret her words more literally: he drew his automatic and laid it beside him on the table. Yang looked at it; for the first time since he had entered her asteroid retreat, he saw an emotion pass across her supremely composed face. Well, technically, it was the second time he had seen the doctor without her façade of absolute composure-
She raised her eyes from the gun to meet his gaze, searching. “That is a most unusual gesture, Lieutenant.”
“As you said, you are in my hands.”
“And so?”
“And so, it seemed to those of us on the Lasso that however much good you would do here in the Centauri system, you would be infinitely more effective contributing to the war effort back on Earth. There you would have complete safety and the very best facilities in which to-”
Yang’s appraising eyes became distant, cold. “A half-genius, after all.” Her comment was not quite a pronouncement, was not quite spat out like bile, but it was close on both counts. She sat up very straight. “Lieutenant, I will guide you through the flaws of your conclusion. And you will not interrupt, because I sincerely doubt you have anything to add that I have not already considered.”
Dieter shrugged, leaned back. And being a creature of habit, he made sure that his change of position did not increase the amount of time it would take for him to reach his sidearm.
“Lieutenant, when you awaken in the Sol system, you will indeed be in the safest, best place in which to conduct a scientific experiment. Except in this one, crucial particular: there will be almost no kzin test subjects on Earth. The kzinti are here. This is where they will work, where they will ‘play.’ Where they will live, die, mate, make war, make mistakes-and will occasionally go missing. A resistance organization is already being laid out quietly on Wunderland. And so the kzin will experience ambushes there. There will be hunting accidents that claim both their young and their old. There will be trips that go awry, there will be lost castaways, renegades, adventurers, wanderers. In short, the kzin will suffer the losses that are inevitable during an extended occupation. And during the years you and I are sleeping, select agents will take advantage of these unlucky kzinti. They shall provide us with our first samples. If you are squeamish, you might not want to hear what is involved; if you are vengefully minded, you might savor the details. No matter: we are fighting for our lives and we do not have the luxury of gentle methods.
“Consequently, when my team and I awaken, we will remotely access the data compiled from these samples and from long years of observing kzin behavior and practices. And from that information and from those samples, and with the aid of the research you will cause to commence on Earth, we will eventually design weapons specially tailored to eliminate the kzin invaders.”
“You mean a selective bioweapon, a tailored virus?”
“Our ambitions go well beyond that, Lieutenant. However, suffice it to say that whatever weapon is to be used against them, it will be far more effective if it is produced, and readied, here. You will have live kzin subjects on Earth eventually, but probably never enough to amass as diverse a sample base as we will have accumulated here. And besides, what good is a secret weapon if you cannot be sure it will survive deployment? If it must cross space to get here, traveling in a ship, how could we be sure that it will not also be destroyed with that ship in battle? On the other hand, if the weapon is already here, and ready to deploy in proximity to the most sensitive enemy targets-”
“Yes. I see. But why do you think we will have any live subjects on Earth at all?”
Yang raised one pencil-thin eyebrow. “Do you really doubt the kzinti will attack our home system? Be assured of this: they will. They must. Indeed, I suspect that the first attacks on Sol will have occurred before your own voyage has ended. Their gravitic polarizers should allow them to make that same journey in five, six years, at the most.”
Dieter had a sudden vision of taking a shuttle down for his first visit to Earth, to the homeworld and womb of the human race, watching the disembarkation ramp lower-only to reveal a smoke-plumed panorama of devastation. He swallowed: “That’s a disturbing concept, Dr. Yang.”
“Perhaps. But remember: the kzinti leap before they look. I suspect Earth’s defense fleets shall take advantage of this repeatedly. And with every defeat, the kzinti will leave behind new technology that we will reverse-engineer. Imperfectly, of course, but we will narrow those gaps that exist. And in the course of such clashes, you will also have the opportunity-if you are very careful-to gather experimental subjects. Not many perhaps. But you will be able to examine the kzinti in ways that even I cannot, because you will control their environment absolutely. Conversely, I will have access to an immense social sample, but must observe it surreptitiously, from hiding. However, working together, we will be able to find the strategic pearl of great price: the answer to what makes a male kzin-a kzintosh-tick.”