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"Not likely. It has a speed order of magnitude greater than the relative velocities of star systems in the
cluster of which Lekki-Jagen is a part."
"Well, all right. Then it's a fragment from halfway across the galaxy. So what?"
"If that's so then there's nothing to concern us. But suppose it's something else? A Colossus?"
That stopped me. In the twenty-second century some factions had abandoned their planets for political
reasons and cast off into deepspace. They didn't have Jump ships. Instead they built crude reaction
engines into asteroids, put most of their party into coldsleep, and set out. Most had never been found.
"I see." I frowned. "No Colossus has been seen for centuries."
"That is one of the possibilities. Another is that it might be a large mass on a freefall orbit into Lekki.
But& "
"Improbable, I agree."
"I also correlated the data logged in from the sensor satellites around Lekki-Jagen. We were monitoring
them continuously on the flight into the Flinger."
"That sort of thing isn't very accurate for readings above the plane of the ecliptic, is it?"
"No, but their results agree, within built-in error limitations, with the mass detector."
I had to admit it interested me. Sending a probe back would take some of Majumbdahr's time, but I felt I
owed him something for the good job he had done on the coldsleep vaults. I couldn't demand too much
of the man after all, he wasn't an underling on a Fleet ship.
As well, I couldn't see any further use for the battle probes. The Fariiken would make one long Jump
from near Earth, out beyond the Empire. We would not need to check ahead to be sure anyone lay in
wait.
"You can have the probe," I said. "Will you need anyone to help with activating it?"
"I think not," he said. "I'll probably alert Gharma to keep a running register on the bridge, in case it
transmits back when I'm not on duty. The technicians were told we wouldn't be using any more probes
and I don't want the signal thrown out as an irrelevant transmission."
"Fine," I said. "Let me know what you find. Go for a good velocity fix and see if you can sharpen the
mass estimate. Are you going to send it off soon?"
"I thought I'd wait until you're down on the surface making the pickup. Things should be quiet then and I'll
have the time."
"You're sure Fleet won't pick up the probe's backwave when it Jumps?"
"I'll drop it into an orbit slightly lower than the ship's. Half the signal will be scrambled by the upper
atmosphere and then absorbed by the Earth. The ship will shield the rest. There's a small angle in
between that will let some out, but I don't think the intensity will be high enough to register on Fleet's
network."
"Double-check that. It's vital."
"I will. My audience with the Master is coming up in a minute; I'll run the check again after that."
"It might be well to skip it today," I said slowly. "The Master is not quite himself. I think the journey has
disturbed him in some way."
Majumbdahr frowned but said nothing. "Remember, he is in a strange environment. And his race is old.
His kind may not be well adapted to change."
"Ah, yes. Perhaps& " Majumbdahr's voice trailed off into thought. After a moment he nodded
absentmindedly and went back to the bridge.
I made my way down into C deck. Just who was the Master, when he was himself? I wondered.
C deck is large and I had not bothered to memorize the corridor plan. Consequently this time I blundered
into one of the dark areas before I noticed where I was going.
Not all of the ship was converted to Lekki's light spectrum. We hadn't brought enough Lekki phosphors
up in the skimmer and anyway most of the ship wasn't needed, so it was a waste of time to repaint the
Sol phosphors everywhere. C deck had quite a few such spots because the rest of the Lengen chose to
live in officers' quarters, B deck.
I walked into the dark section several yards before I realized what it was. To ordinary human eyes, of
course, the hallway ahead of me wasn't unlit at all. The Sol phosphors still glowed. But with my Veden
contact filters on I saw only a dim, hazy ship's corridor, a curious green instead of white.
I was glad we weren't going to spend too many more days in the Fariiken. The green tone was a little
eerie. It and other touches of Earth reminded me of my past. At the moment I didn't want to remember.
Rhandra bounced up when she heard my coded key in the lock.
"I've been waiting," she said. "Let's go to the view pod. I want to see Luna."
"Well " I looked longingly at our sleeping pad. "I thought I might rest "
"You'll get more sleep when you deserve it," she said. "First take me to the pod. I want the first-class
tour and a snappy lecture."
"Hey, what's that?" I pointed.
"A figure of Shiva. Remember? You stole it from the Temple."
"Oh. Yes." I looked at the many-headed brass god with hands as sharp as knife blades.
"Did I run around with that under my robes? Lucky I didn't disembowel myself."
"I brought it. A keepsake. It will make us remember "
"What I can be?"
I gave her an exaggerated leer. "Some things are better left "
"Let's go! Luna doesn't wait."
Indeed, she didn't. We were sweeping around her quite quickly. Her ancient craters were seeded with
yellow jewels of light that stood out clearly. I took off my contact filters to see better and Rhandra had to
get along with a dim image since, as a native, her eyes had been adapted surgically to Veden.
Luna's raw crust had a curious green tinge to it I had never noticed before. I could not tell whether my
memory was bad or if the contact filters had subtly altered my habits of perception; possibly both.
Earth gleamed in the distance. I had just begun to point out continents when Gharma shouldered into the
small pod. "Here you are," he said, ignoring Rhandra. "Why aren't you on the bridge?"
"We needn't take any action for nearly an hour," I said, nettled.
"This is an important step. If anything goes " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]