I didn’t either.
Sorens rose. “I have to meet with the techs.”
“Good luck.”
“The same to you.” He turned and headed toward the facilities.
As I stood on sore feet, my recollection of Fernard’s words didn’t improve my sense of well-being. I also worried about the artifact. While I had scores of images of it, such representations weren’t the device. Still, I was certain that Kaitlin Henjsen had it under guard.
I did wash up, dress, eat, and make my way to the small cubicle where I’d met with Kaitlin before. She was sitting behind a square console.
“You took your time.”
“I was tired.”
“So are we all.”
There wasn’t much to say to that. I didn’t.
“I’d like to know how you knew that artifact was there “ Her eyes accused me.
“I told you last night. I didn’t know. I only knew that there had to be something, somewhere in the city. The pattern of the boulevards—”
“There is a difference, but it’s minute. Almost as soon as we established the base, I had Nalakov analyze all the arcs and towers, every one in the entire megaplex. They all differ somewhat.”
“These looked different.” They had, and that was all that I could say. I wasn’t about to suggest to her that what was a minute difference to us might not have been so to the ancient aliens.
“While you were sleeping, I had him reanalyze them. How did you know?”
“Artists deal in patterns, Kaitlin. I wouldn’t know the mathematical terms. I only saw that the pattern looked somewhat different. What did he find?”
“The tower is the center of a locus of some sort. You could have mentioned that.”
“I didn’t know that I only knew it was different.”
“Then there’s another thing. We didn’t catch it until this morning. None of our techs melted that ramp.” She was presenting another not-so-veiled accusation.
“They didn’t? Then… you think the visiting aliens did?”
“I’ve already talked to Nuovyl and Zerobya, Barna. You knew that, and you entered the tower without so much as telling anyone here.”
“Tech Zerobya said that she hadn’t been there, and she didn’t know anyone who had been, but there was nothing about the doors to suggest anyone had tried to break in, the way mere was where the visiting aliens had been.”
“There are a few traces. You might have destroyed any others.”
“We only walked down the ramp. I’m sorry if that caused a problem.”
“You shouldn’t have entered that hall once you saw what was mere.”
I’d had enough. “My dear Dr. Henjsen, I didn’t see what was there until after I entered the hall. I did not touch the artifact. I did not step on the dais or touch it or anything around it. I found it when none of your people could. I know you’re tired and overstrained, but I’m also tired, and I’m particularly tired of your accusations and your blaming. I haven’t damaged anything, and, frankly, I think I’ve contributed a great deal. All you seem interested in is finding fault with what I’ve done. That’s not an admirable trait, and I would have expected better from you.” I paused for the briefest of moments. “If you don’t have anything else…”
Surprisingly, while she had stiffened at my words, she nodded slowly. “I am tired, and you are right, given the circumstances of the expedition. But I don’t have to like what amounts to smash-and-grab archeology.” She paused. “You’ll need to get ready to leave. I don’t know whether it will be this afternoon or tomorrow.”
“Leave?” I was getting even angrier. “Because I found—”
“No.” Her voice was chill, but resigned. “It has nothing to do with that. Commander Morgan has conveyed the captain’s orders that we are all to reembark upon the Magellan. We’ll leave the basic base and power systems in the hope that we can return. There will be no more expeditions by anyone away from the main base. I trust that you understand this is not my doing.”
“I do. Did Commander Morgan give you any idea why we need to abandon Danann?”
“He did not. He just said that it was necessary and to prepare.” Another pause followed. “I believe we’ve said all we have to say, ser Barna.”
We probably had.
I nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
After I left her cubicle, I was still seething. Were all archeologists like that? Thinking that they owned all the artifacts of the past? That intuition or feeling—or vision—had no place in discovering what might have been? Or was it just that she’d been asked to coordinate too much with too few people over too short a time?
With so much unexplored on Danann and with so many unanswered questions, the captain’s orders to abandon the megaplex suggested that attack or danger was imminent My feeling was an attack.
59
Goodman/Bond
Bit by bit, I had rebuilt the torp power converter. Along the way, I’d gathered everything else I needed for the AG signaler—or knew exactly where it was and how to get to it quickly. I had to set everything up so that I could assemble it all during one of the night watches assigned to me. Then, late on oneday, I finally “scrapped” the dummy torp power converter. Standing in the aft bay of the armory, I undamped the false converter. “All right, you miserable hunk of junk! You win!” I picked it up and headed forward.
“Sorry you couldn’t make it work,” Ciorio said. “Friggin’ fine-ass work you’ve been doing, Bond. Shoulda maybe been a mech. Might have gone further in ratings.”
“Didn’t test well enough for that. You’ve got to be a frig-gin’ engineer to be a mech.” I dumped the dummy into the bin that held unusable components. If the fusactors were short of mass, it would become energy. If not, some tech back at base might discover it was faked, but I doubted it. It would just get fed into industrial reformulators.
“I thought you almost had it there.”
“I almost did,” I replied. “I thought I could.”
“Almost doesn’t count much, even with good torps,” Chief Stuval added. “All you can hope is maybe you learned something that’ll be useful later. Repairs like that aren’t so easy.”
“No. But it was more complicated than it had to be.” I’d seen several ways it could have been simplified and made more reliable. “It could have been built simpler, a lot simpler.”
“Simpler is better. That’s if simpler does the job you want It usually doesn’t,” the chief replied. “Now… we need to get to work on redoing the torp array. We need a complete check-off and inspection on each torp. That’ll take every minute you’ve got for the next few days.”
I didn’t need to be reminded about that. Now I had everything I needed for the signaler, if hidden around my bay in the armory—except for the power section. What I didn’t have was the time alone to assemble it, or the knowledge of which torp I could pull the power supply from. The torp check-offs would mean that both the chief and Ciorio would always be around—and probably Major Sewiki as well, or Lieutenant Swallow. I didn’t ever see much of the lieutenant. While I was scheduled for the evening armory duty on threeday, the chief usually dropped in on the evening watches. A midwatch would have been much better, but the way the schedule fell I didn’t have one of those until sevenday.
I was running out of time. That is, I was running out of time if I wanted to complete the mission and walk—or run—away from it with my body and mind intact.
“You all right, Bond?” asked Ciorio.