Controlled by the complex of gravity fields. they eased into the dock, and a familiar voice came over the link. “Hi, Valya. I heard you were coming.” It was Lou Cassell. “We didn’t expect to see you back here so soon. Still chasing moonriders, are we?”
It was nice to hear an unstrained human voice again. Eric had completely lost the ability to talk with her. He sounded by turns sad, apologetic, accusing, deferential. But good old Lou was just the tonic she needed. “Actually, there’s some concern they might be coming here,” she said.
“That’s what we heard. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“I don’t think there’s anything to it, Lou.”
“I’ll tell you, Val, if they were to show up here and start dropping rocks on us, I’m not sure what we’d be able to do about it.”
She laughed. “Relax, Lou. We’ve all gone a little bit crazy.”
Airlocks opened. She climbed out of her harness and walked back to the common room. Eric was back in his cabin, getting his gear.
Lou came through the hatch, and she told him how glad she was to see him. He looked surprised at the intensity of the embrace he got. His smile brightened the place and made her feel human again. “Good to see you both,” he said. At which point she realized Eric was back. “Anybody else on board? No? Well, come on in and make yourselves comfortable. Are you going to stay over?”
“For a day or two,” she said. “If you have room for us.”
They went out the hatch and strolled through the exit tube. “There really is talk about moonriders,” she said.
“I know.” Lou obviously thought the subject laughable. “Apparently, your people got in touch with Allard, and he let us know. We got a message from a reporter, too. Saying the same thing. Telling us to look out.”
“MacAllister?”
“Yeah. That might have been the name.”
That caused a twinge. “I assume everybody had a good laugh.”
He shrugged. “Tell you the truth, it shook us up a little. I mean, it sounds crazy, but if the Academy was taking it seriously, we were, too. I mean, that business at Capella was really strange.” He looked at her, then at Eric. “You want to tell me what all this is about? I understand you saw moonriders at the Surveyor site, but I don’t see how that would translate into an attack against us.”
“We didn’t really see them, Lou,” she said. “The monitor reported some dark objects moving around. That’s all we know.” That had surprised her when it happened. But she suspected there was a natural explanation.
Eric gave her a nod of approval. Yes, keep Amy out of it. “Anyhow,” he said, “they just wanted us to come by and make sure everything’s okay.”
This time they got to meet Mahmoud Stein, the East Terminal director. Stein appeared to be well past retirement age. He had black hair and brown eyes that never seemed to come quite into focus. He was smaller than she was, solemn, with perfect diction, enunciating each word as if it were being recorded for posterity. He shook their hands and said how pleased he was to meet them. But he also laughed about the moonriders. “Do you people really think we’re going to get attacked by little green men?”
“No,” she said. “I think the Academy is just being cautious.”
Stein had better things to do, and he let her see it. “It’s just like Allard, though,” he said. “He warns us of something like this and doesn’t bother to send anyone to help if it were to materialize. We have seventy-two people here, with no way to move any of them off in a hurry if we had to. I guess that tells you how seriously he was taking it.”
Valya shrugged. “You don’t have a ship here anywhere, I guess?”
“We have two shuttles.”
“Well,” she said, “I wouldn’t worry about it. And we have ships on the way. To stand by. Just in case.”
He shook his head, a man in the employ of morons. Something in the gesture reminded her of Mac. “I suspect it is a waste of resources, young lady. But nevertheless I appreciate your concern. It’s nice to know somebody cares.”
“I have a question for you, Professor,” said Eric. “Valya says rockets and maneuvering jets aren’t allowed anywhere near the collider.”
“That’s correct.”
“But you have shuttles.”
“Two of them at each tower, yes.”
“How are they powered?”
“Some of our people would tell you by hot air.”
“I’m serious.”
Stein laughed. “They operate within magnetic and gravitational fields projected from stations along the tube. They orient with clutched gyros. It’s quite effective.”
“Suppose there’s an emergency?”
“If necessary, they can maneuver by ejecting tennis balls.”
“Tennis balls.”
Valya smiled. “The director is pulling your leg, Eric.”
“Well,” said Stein, “actually they’re trackable missiles. But they look like tennis balls.”
THEY WERE REINTRODUCED to a few of the people they’d met on the first flight. To Jerry Bonham, a quiet, nervous guy from Seattle. His specialty, Lou explained, was flow dynamics. “He’s been here six months. I think he hopes to make this his home.” And Lisa Kao Ti, an engineer, part of the team seeing to the expansion of the collider.
“It’s been, what, a month since you were here?” Lisa asked. “We’re about three hundred kilometers longer than we were then.”
“And this is Felix Eastman,” he said, introducing them to a copper-skinned man in a bright yellow shirt. “From North Dakota. Felix is working on Blueprint.”
They were in a lounge. There were probably a half dozen others present, and all conversations stopped when Eric asked whether there was any general danger attached to the project. “There is a slight risk,” Eastman conceded. He was young, not yet out of his twenties. “But the odds are heavily against any kind of major mishap.” He smiled. Nothing to worry about.
“But it is possible there could be a problem?”
“Mr. Samuels, anything not prohibited is possible. Yes, of course there’s a possibility. But so small that we really need not concern ourselves with it.”
“If this mishap were to occur, worst-case scenario, what would it entail? What would happen?”
“Worst-case?” He looked around and they all grinned. “Lights out, I guess.” He actually sounded enthusiastic at the prospect. Valya watched quietly. Talent did not always make people bright.
Another young man stepped forward. Again, not much more than a kid. But she could see he had a high opinion of himself. “Maybe I can help,” he said. “My name is Rolly Clemens. I’m the project director for Blueprint.”
Eric nodded. “Glad to meet you, Professor.” He shook hands, but looked uncomfortable. Calling a kid “professor” must have seemed out of order. “Tell me about the possibility of catastrophe.”
“Eric,” he said, “there isn’t much that is not possible.” He adopted a tolerant expression. “But I don’t think you need worry.”
“You’re sure.”
“Of course.”
“If the ‘lights out’ thing were to happen — ”
“It won’t — ”
“Indulge me. If it were to occur, it would also involve Earth, right?”
Clemens was trying to be patient. They were talking nonsense. “Yes,” he conceded. “It would involve everything.”
“How long would it take before the effects were felt? At home?”
“A little more than twenty years.”
“Why so long?”
“Because,” he said, shifting to lecture mode for slow students, “it would cause a rift, and the rift would travel at light speed.” He looked bored. Been through all this before.