The prosecution had the final word. “The defense has tried to put the Reverend Pullman, and indeed Christianity, on trial. The Reverend Pullman has done nothing that is not sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, he did nothing other than meet his obligation to the Church and to the greater society he serves. Mr. Beemer, on the other hand, has committed simple assault. There is no question about it. There are witnesses. The defense does not deny it.”
When the prosecutor had concluded, the judge thanked both counsels and adjourned.
“What do you think?” MacAllister asked Glock.
The lawyer gave Beemer an encouraging smile. “It’s okay, Henry. Try to relax. I think we’ll be all right.” He turned back to MacAllister: “We’re asking him to find against the Constitution. That’s not going to happen. It can’t happen. But Henry will very likely get a minimum sentence. And I think we’ve started a national debate.”
MACALLISTER HAD CHECKED out of his hotel before going to the courtroom. He went back to pick up his bags and grabbed a taxi. An hour later he was on a glide train to Alexandria.
In some respects he had never grown up. He’d had a model train when he was a kid and still loved riding through the countryside. He sat back and gazed out at the rolling hills and fields. Mostly farmland. Orange-growing country.
He got up after a while and walked to the dining car. He hadn’t had lunch and was looking at the menu when Wolfie called. “There’s an Elenora Delesandro,” he said, “who did a study of asteroids in the Capella system six years ago. She published her results in The Planetary Field Journal, May, 2230.”
“Good. Is there any mention of a giant asteroid? I’m trying to remember the size of the thing.”
“Six hundred kilometers. But it doesn’t show up in her report.”
“Where is she now? Delesandro?”
“She teaches physics at Broken Brook.”
“Which is where?”
“Fargo.”
He wandered over to the service bar, ordered a tomato-and-cheese salad, and carried it back to his table. Then he opened his notebook and called up Delesandro’s article. It was titled “Capella: Stellar Winds and the Shell-Burning Phase.”
It was too technical for MacAllister’s tastes. He went through it several times before he was able to follow the argument. Capella A is a giant star, and consequently went through a period in which it blew off the outer layers of its atmosphere. Delesandro seemed to be trying to determine the nature of this supersolar wind, whether it had come off uniformly or streamed out in jets.
Had the wind come off uniformly, the asteroid orbits would have tended to become circular. If the gas erupted in jets, eccentricity would have been pronounced.
If a dominant gas giant exists in the system, asteroids will orbit the star in half the time that the gas giant requires. The situation at Capella is complicated by the fact that there are two stars forming a single gravitational center. But it was possible to adjust for the complexities, and it was apparently this challenge that had drawn Delesandro’s interest initially.
There is a Jovian world at Capella. It completes an orbit every fifteen years. The average asteroid then, under normal circumstances, and after applying Delesandro’s formula, would have needed seven and a half years to circle the sun. Wind interaction would have altered that. And smaller asteroids would be more disturbed than larger ones. So looking at the difference between small and large provides a researcher with considerable data.
The arrival of the superstellar wind phase signals the start of shell-burning. At this point, hydrogen fusion has begun in the shell instead of in the core itself, which, of course, is made up of helium. (Of course it is, thought MacAllister.)
This is the stage during which the star begins to evolve away from the main sequence and expand into a red giant.
Delesandro had included a table of asteroids, listing their dimensions and their orbital periods. One fit the dimensions of the Galactic asteroid quite closely.
He finished his salad, looked up the astrophysics section at the American Museum of Natural History, picked an astrophysicist at random, and made a call. An AI informed him the individual was not available, so he asked who was, and got through to an Edward Moore. “How can I help you?” Moore asked, in a gravelly voice. He was a broad-shouldered athletic-looking guy. Obviously worked out a lot. Gray hair, thick mustache, casual demeanor. He was wearing a white lab jacket.
MacAllister introduced himself. “We’re looking at the asteroid that hit the Galactic construction.”
“Yes,” he said. “I saw that. Strange stuff.”
“I have an article in front of me from The Planetary Field Journal, of May 2231. It’s about asteroids near Capella, by Elenora Delesandro. Are you by any chance familiar with it?”
“No,” he said. “I’m sorry to say I’m not.”
“We’re trying to determine what really happened.”
“Good,” he said. “Somebody needs to look into it.” He asked his AI to retrieve the Journal. “What exactly did you want to know?”
“There’s a table of asteroids on page 446.”
“One moment.” His brow furrowed. “Okay. I see it.”
“Down near the bottom there’s one, 4477, that has a diameter of 613 kilometers.”
“Yes. That seems to be correct. Is that the one that hit the hotel?”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you.”
“Hold on a second.” He looked through the pages. “There’s a data file attached. Give me a few minutes to look at the numbers.”
“Okay.”
“Where can I reach you?”
WOLFIE GOT BACK to him as he was returning to his seat. “I’ve got a link between Delesandro and Dryden.”
“Excellent,” MacAllister said. “When and where?”
“At something called the Bannerman Award dinner. Given annually in Fargo on the university campus. In 2229, Dryden was one of the speakers. Delesandro was on the guest list.”
“That’s two years before the construction license was issued.”
“That’s correct. I can also tell you that, at the time, they were planning to put the hotel at Terranova.”
“When did they change their minds?”
“Not sure. The first mention I can find of Capella is in an interview given by an Orion executive six months after the award dinner.”
“Does he say why they were making the switch?”
“He doesn’t mention Terranova at all. And something else: Delesandro changed her address during the next semester.”
“Don’t tell me. From poorer to richer.”
“I couldn’t get the specifics, Boss, but I got a look at the properties. The new one’s definitely upscale.”
Wolfie said he’d let him know if he got anything more. MacAllister rode the train into Alexandria, got off, and was on his way up to the street when Moore called again. “I checked the data file,” he said. “And the pictures.”
“And —?”
“It’s not the same object.”
“You mean the asteroid that hit the hotel is not in the file.”
“That’s correct.”
“But it was one of the larger objects in the system, Dr. Moore. Doesn’t it seem strange that she didn’t include it in the general catalogue?”
“Not necessarily. A planetary system is a big place. She might simply have missed it.”
HE GOT HOME, glad to be away from the noise and general tumult in Derby. He dropped his bags inside the front door, collapsed onto the sofa, and called Hutch. She was in a meeting, but she got back to him a few minutes later. “What’s going on, Mac?”
“How well do you know Charlie Dryden?”
“Not that well. Why?”
“Don’t trust him.”
“I don’t. What brings the subject up?”