Part 28 (1/2)
”Makes sense,” Alice said. ”Roy and Brennan wanted the Paks' attention drawn away from Sol system. That's why they headed for Wunderland. Anyone spotting Kobold-intact, I mean-would have known it was an advanced artifact. It had to be destroyed.”
”Something else was going on,” Sigmund said. Hundreds of stars.h.i.+p pilots a year entered Sol system-wherever that was. A deep-radar ping cost nothing, and finding an overlooked stasis box would bring a fortune. Someone would have found a neutronium ma.s.s like Kobold's long ago. ”There isn't an object like that around Sol, at least not in my lifetime.”
The simplest explanation was that Twenty-three had taken the neutronium. The problem was, the Outsiders paid, usually handsomely, for resources. Sigmund remembered that they leased a moon of an outer planet in Sol system, and none of the details, of course. Had they stolen neutronium? It would be the first theft ever suspected of the Outsiders. So probably not.
What if Julian had found the remains of Kobold and tossed it down his black hole? That wouldn't explain why no one had found the neutronium in the centuries before him. And if Kobold-in a black hole or any other way-remained in Sol system, then how in Finagle's name did the singles.h.i.+p end up orbiting yet another neutronium ma.s.s?
48.
Haven's bridge had a round view port. A year ago, Baedeker would have taken no notice of the shape. A year ago, he had not spent months aboard a New Terran stars.h.i.+p. Humans favored rectangular views, oddly indifferent to the sharp corners.
He thought often about humans these days.
This display held a spiral of overlapped round images, reminiscent of an insect's compound eye. The much-repeated lump of rock and ice was unexceptional. Nor did any star nearby s.h.i.+ne especially brightly. Without lengthy observations, he could not judge with any certainty which of three nearby suns could properly claim this proto-comet. But one thing about the utterly ordinary object was was unusual: the cl.u.s.ter of black monoliths now clinging to it. unusual: the cl.u.s.ter of black monoliths now clinging to it.
The most recent in his series of scale-model prototype planetary drives.
From the center of the holo out, each sphere showed the image of the proto-comet from a progressively more distant instrument cl.u.s.ter. His probes were powered, each maneuvering to maintain a stationary view despite the proto-comet's tumbling. Telemetry far too small to read scrolled across the bottom of each inset holo, captured for later a.n.a.lysis.
”An impressive setup,” Nessus sang. He had arrived, unannounced, to witness the upcoming experiment. His s.h.i.+p, Aegis Aegis, was toylike beside Haven Haven's #4 hull.
”Thank you,” Baedeker answered. The courtesy was human, because it was mostly New Terrans with whom he dealt. His experiments could only be done safely far from the Fleet, where few Citizens dared to roam. Even with Nessus' intervention, Baedeker had obtained only eight senior scientists-volunteers, they were not-from General Products Laboratories. The balance of Haven Haven's crew, another forty-two, was human. To obtain that that a.s.sistance Nessus had had to involve the New Terran government. ”Without your influence and a.s.sistance, Nessus, I could never have pulled this together.” a.s.sistance Nessus had had to involve the New Terran government. ”Without your influence and a.s.sistance, Nessus, I could never have pulled this together.”
For the Hindmost's consort had considerable influence. There was a time that fact would have evoked bitterness, even fury-conflict with Nessus had once gotten Baedeker banished. But without Nessus' trust in humans, the Concordance would still be ignorant of the Pak threat. The scruffy scout had been proven correct-no matter the consequences for Baedeker.
My misjudgment was not Nessus' fault. The admission eased a burden that Baedeker had not acknowledged-not even to himself. The admission eased a burden that Baedeker had not acknowledged-not even to himself.
Nessus bobbed heads in acknowledgment. ”How distant are we?”
”Twenty million miles.” Baedeker now even thought in English units: another artifact of his time among the humans.
Nessus whistled approval. ”That seems safe enough.”
”We try.” Baedeker extended a neck to the display controls; with a wriggle of lip nodes he fine-tuned the image contrast. He straightened up again. ”Because the Outsider drives move worlds through normal s.p.a.ce, it seemed logical that all manifestations of operation are localized to normal s.p.a.ce. That suggests the propagation of any side effects of our experiment will be light-speed limited.
”So, the string of probes between our homemade drive and this s.h.i.+p uses hyperwave comm. Whatever happens, we'll know it long before any normal-s.p.a.ce phenomenon can get to us.” And we'll jump into hypers.p.a.ce if anything looks amiss.
”Excellent, Baedeker. What is the prognosis?”
”We learn a little more each time.” A nonanswer worthy of Sigmund, Baedeker thought. The best he could hope for was an anticlimactic result.
”What will we see?” Nessus persisted.
”Probably nothing.” Baedeker twisted a neck, scanning the controlled chaos around the bridge. Minerva seemed to have everything under control. His research a.s.sistant still wore General Products violet-and-blue mane ribbons, as though the fortunes of a business mattered anymore. ”Nessus, expect this test to be brief.”
”How brief?”
”Ready for final countdown,” Minerva announced over the intercom, speaking English for the benefit of the humans. ”Thirty seconds, on my mark.” He released the intercom b.u.t.ton. ”Baedeker?”
”Proceed.”
”Mark. Twenty-nine ... twenty-eight ...”
Everyone here carried comps, synched to the s.h.i.+pboard network. The verbal countdown was unnecessary, a peculiarly human custom to which Baedeker still struggled to adapt. Despite everything, he could not resist looking himself in the eyes.
”Nineteen... eighteen...”
”How brief,” Nessus repeated.
”You'll see soon enough.” Or we'll unleash energies so vast that they swallow us even here, and the discussion becomes moot.
Nessus bobbed agreement.
”Three ... two... one... done. Commencing a.n.a.lysis.”
On the main display, the lump of icy rock appeared unchanged. ”How long?” Baedeker sang out.
Minerva looked up from his station. ”Twelve point two seven nanoseconds.”
”Nanoseconds?” Nessus' undertunes trilled with dismay.
”It's our best yet,” Baedeker reb.u.t.ted, staccato and impatient. He might have come to terms with Nessus' unherdlike methods, but that tolerance hardly extended to uninformed criticism. ”Have you read read my progress reports?” my progress reports?”
”I err on the side of other priorities. Like keeping your project funded and staffed.”
And if any of the herd were to survive the Pak onslaught that was was the higher priority. Baedeker fluted apologetically. ”Walk with me, and I'll explain.” the higher priority. Baedeker fluted apologetically. ”Walk with me, and I'll explain.”
They cantered off the bridge together, Baedeker leading the way. They began a long, slow trip around the s.h.i.+p's rotund waist. (Humans had waists, although Citizens did not. A bigger difference between the species: where they chose to locate a s.h.i.+p's bridge. Only a human would think to expose a hindmost's duty station at the bow of the s.h.i.+p. The rational choice, surely, was at the center, as far as possible from any hull impacts.) The circuit was more than a half mile.
”You're familiar with the zero-point energy of vacuum,” Baedeker began. ”The Outsider drive taps the zero-point energy. Doing so asymmetrically is inherently propulsive.”
”For nanoseconds,” Nessus chided.
Without missing a step, Baedeker plucked at his mane. If Nessus truly understood the risks, he he would be tearing apart his mane. ”The process evokes matter-antimatter particle pairs from the quantum foam, myriads of pairs, scattered across a volume larger than the body to be moved. Every infinitesimal region requires a subtly different treatment to achieve net thrust. Every particle requires tracking. It all takes ma.s.sive amounts of computing power-more than any technology customarily used on Hearth. You'll wonder what kind of computing power the Outsiders employed, and that is the scary part. We do not exactly know.” would be tearing apart his mane. ”The process evokes matter-antimatter particle pairs from the quantum foam, myriads of pairs, scattered across a volume larger than the body to be moved. Every infinitesimal region requires a subtly different treatment to achieve net thrust. Every particle requires tracking. It all takes ma.s.sive amounts of computing power-more than any technology customarily used on Hearth. You'll wonder what kind of computing power the Outsiders employed, and that is the scary part. We do not exactly know.”
Scary was the ultimate expletive. Nessus twitched but made no comment. was the ultimate expletive. Nessus twitched but made no comment.
”We do not dare to unseal an Outsider drive, or even to scan one invasively, yet somehow we had to determine how these tremendous forces are manipulated.” Baedeker fell silent as a human scurried past in the opposite direction, her errand unknown. He had accepted human help, but the nuances of the project must remain Concordance secrets. ”An endless stream of neutrinos is constantly pa.s.sing through everything, and deep-radar technology uses neutrino pulses. So, we modified a deep-radar unit to emit very weak pulses, at neutrino intensities Hearth last saw before our sun began to swell. Our ancestors' activation then of their planetary drive did not cause a disaster. It stood to reason another neutrino source emitting at the same level would not induce problems in a drive.”