Swallow the Sky: A Space Opera (16 page)

“That’s plain crazy – it’s
all been tried before – those kinds of uprisings get shut down before they get
off the ground. Remember what happened to the Huan Su rebellion.”

“I pray you are right Carson.”

“And for this you’re
willing to risk an innocent woman’s life?”

“If there is imminent
danger I will get the authorities to raid the mansion. But for now you have to
keep at it. Eventually we’ll nail Juro and his conspirators, and hopefully the
galaxy will get some amazing treasures – that’s important to you, isn’t it?”

Carson nodded. Asima had
read him correctly – apart from saving Aiyana it was the only reason he was
still in the game.

“I’ll be in touch” she
said and promptly signed off. Carson stared at the blank screen for a long
time, thinking hard. Eventually he got up and headed to Formicidae Systems.

He was exhausted from the
non-stop work but he still had one last task before leaving. Five days earlier
Tallis had announced that she would require a gigantic clean room. Gigantic by
Ant standards, that is. In reality it was three meters square – far bigger than
she could build herself. Formicidae’s response illustrated the synergy
that came from two species working on radically different scales. The company fabricated
Tallis’s clean room in six hours flat. It was like a human being ordering a kilometer-long
building to be constructed in an afternoon.

The real challenge was
delivering the completed structure to an empty lot in Vegrandis. That task was
accomplished using a customized low-level delivery vehicle which flew the room at a comfortable three meters above the settlement – crushing one’s customers
underfoot was bad for business. Now, five days later, Formicidae had
retrieved the structure and disassembled it to reveal an inner sealed module,
one meter square and half a meter high. Inside, precise rows of tape fragments
were laid out on transparent membranes.

Carson watched from the
parking lot as the limousine dropped out the sky. On the ground beside him were
two travel bags and the sealed module.

“You get the bags” he
told Ubay, “I’ll handle this.” He gently picked up the module and placed it in
the vehicle.

By the time they got to
the mansion everyone had gathered to greet him. Even Kalidas was there
squirming with excitement.

“The Ant really managed
to reassemble the tape?” he asked as two technicians removed the container from
the limousine.

“About eighty percent –
the remainder was too far gone. With luck we’ll find the rest of Sakyamuni’s
interview, but don’t expect the audio quality to be good. Even the top layer is
in poor shape.”

“Nevertheless I have high
hopes. Shin has assembled a powerful technical team and a clean room has been
constructed in the mansion.”

“Well, good luck. My
guess is that it will be at least a day before you extract any meaningful audio
from the second layer. Meantime I’m going to sleep – it’s been a very long
week.”

Carson picked up his
travel cases.

“Hold it” said Tabarak
who had joined the welcoming party. “What’s in the bags?”

Carson sighed. “Just some
clean clothes for me and Aiyana”

He waited while Tabarak
rummaged through the contents. Finally the big man nodded. Carson picked up his
luggage and headed inside the house. As he entered Aiyana rushed forward to hug
him.

“I am so glad to see
you!”

“They’ve been treating
you okay?”

“Oh fine – my God the
food’s good! Really, it’s just been boring. They leave me to entertain myself. At
least I’ve finally caught up with Exodus – there’s a whole new season, who
knew?”

“Hey, I got our clothes”
he said, gesturing with the two bags as she closed the door on their suite.

“Thanks goodness, one of
the staff lent me some stuff but it doesn’t really fit”

She started unpacking.

“Hey, what’s this?”

She was holding up a
vivid pink jumpsuit.

“You didn’t have many clothes
at the apartment so I thought I’d buy you something new. There’s a matching hat
and gloves.”

“Hhmm…” she said,
fingering the gaudy material.

“Don’t you like it?”

“Darling, it was a very
sweet thought. But you know what I’ve really been missing?”

In case he had any doubt,
she took his face in her hands and kissed him.

“Aiyana, I’m exhausted!”

“You’re never that tired,
my horny mailman.”

“You’re right.”

Carson insisted that they
first get under the bedcovers

“They might have visual
monitoring. Let the creeps pay for their own entertainment.”

An hour later they lay
facing each other, contented and drowsy.

“So what will happen
now?” Aiyana asked.

“I think everything is
going to be fine. Juro has what he wants, so I’m sure they’ll let us both go in
a few days.”

Underneath the covers his
forefinger spelled out a different message on the skin of her stomach.

P-i-n-k i-s s-t-e-a-l-t-h
he wrote.

The following morning they joined to Juro and Shin
to hear Kalidas’s report on the second tape. The renegade academic had taken
stimulants and worked through the night; nothing was going to stop him now.

“You prediction was right
Carson” he began “the audio quality of the second layer is very poor. Eventually
we will clean it up, but that is not our priority. In the meantime, I have
spent most of the night listening and re-listening to the crucial section.

“But…” he swung to face
Juro “we have it, honored patron, we have it!”

Shin cut in “Kalidas –
please – before you continue” he bent over Juro and whispered in his ear. Evidently
everyone’s private channels were being suppressed.

Juro listened for a
minute then snorted and waved Shin away. He turned to address Carson.

“Shin feels that we
should throw you out before you hear any further information. However, there
are just two possibilities: one, that you intend to have the treasure for
yourself, in which case you will have bribed the Ant to make a copy of the tape
and will eventually learn everything regardless of whether or not you remain in
the room today; or two, you are willing, as I believe, to accept a fair
commission and therefore what you hear will be of no consequence. In either
case telling you to leave will serve no purpose; you may stay. Carry on,
honored scholar.”

“Thank you Juro” said Carson. He even managed a small bow in the old man’s direction.
Perfectly logical and
completely wrong
he added to himself, maintaining his deferential expression.

As Kalidas placed his
hand on the console Sakyamuni’s voice filled the room, the Ancient English barely
audible through the static haze.

“The original plan was
for as many as six colonies, depending on what we found on our voyages of
exploration. Of course, in the end only four were chosen.”

“This explains so much”
Kalidas said pausing the recording “and it makes complete sense. Why halt at
one colony? The resources of prehistoric Earth were enormous. The Yongding
could supply several colonies and still have time for exploration.”

“Where –” began Juro, but
the ancient voice had already restarted.

“We decided to leave
supplies in two ways. The simplest approach was to create dumps at the locations for settlements, but you can never be too sure. These were unknown worlds. Goodness
knows what may happen on the surface before the colonists arrived. So we also chose
to place many of the – what is the word? – delicate items in cometary orbit
where we were certain they would be safe. In total we left about two to three
hundred tonnes in each system, half on the ground and half in orbit.”

Kalidas paused the recording
again. The conference room remained silent.

“Hundreds of tonnes…”
Shin whispered

Juro recovered first.

“And the systems,
Kalidas?”

“Yes, of course honored
patron. I must caution you that the quality of this part of the tape is
particularly poor.”

Sakyamuni’s voice
returned, though it was almost overwhelmed by background noise.

“Eventually we settled
on Eridani b – that is to say, of course, New Earth – plus Sharez a, Lum e, and
Dante b. The Hypertelescope had revealed that all had terrestrial-like planets with
oxygen signatures. Other reasons…”

But the group was
no-longer listening. The moment the ancient voice specified the target worlds
Shin leapt to a console. Everyone peered over his shoulder. Kalidas stopped the
recording and joined them.

“All three are now
inhabited systems. Good grief they really traveled! Dante b is ninety-six light
years away. I’m surprised the hypertelescope could image it.”

“They did not say it imaged
the planet” Kalidas chimed in “merely that a spectroscopic analysis suggested
the presence of life.”

“It could offer our best
chance of finding material on the ground” Shin said as he consulted the console
“the system has a small population – less than half a million – which means
that most of the planet’s surface will be unexplored.”

“I agree” said Juro “but
we will explore all three systems. Shin, activate your team immediately. I want
you ready to leave within five days. And Kalidas, I want a full transcript by
tonight.”

“How will you search for
the material in cometary orbit?” Carson asked “Any beacon will have died
thousands of years ago.”

“I imagine it will have to
be deep radar” said Shin “I’ll put together a research group.”

“Sooner the better” said Carson. “The deep orbit stuff will be the greatest prize. There’s an excellent chance that
it will be in perfectly condition, assuming it was packed correctly.”

“You have much to do”
said Juro, addressing Shin, “we should not delay you. Kalidas can carry on
listening to the tape. There may be more information that will be of use.”

“So what happens now?” Carson asked him.

“Shin will lead the
expedition – preparation is already at an advanced stage – in the meantime I will
return to Kaimana. It will be months before he returns.”

“And what about me and
Aiyana?”

“You will stay here in
the Clan mansion. Your expertise will be of great assistance when the
expedition finally returns. Cataloging such an unprecedented amount of material
will in itself be a major task.”

“So we’re to be held here
for months?”

“The accommodation is comfortable,
is it not?”

“Look Juro, I have a
life. I have a job. I can’t pursue either if I’m stuck here. Next week I am
supposed to be meeting with the Commonwealth Post Office to debrief on my
latest run. I am scheduled to give a lecture to the Antiquities Society. I even
have
friends
who are wondering where the hell I am including” he added trying
to sound ominous “Lieutenant Ming of New Earth Security.”

“Make excuses” Juro
replied waving a mottled hand.

“You still think I will
try to beat Shin to the treasure.”

“It had occurred to me.”

“I give you my word that
I have no intention of voyaging to the systems.”

“Just one would be quite
sufficient!”

“Not one of them, I
swear. Good God Juro, put me under formal examination if you’re that worried.”

This idea intrigued the
old man. He addressed Shin.

“Can we do it?”

“On Kaimana sir, but
here…” Then he brightened “we do have a very sophisticated device for the psychophysiological
measurement of deception – we use it for staff security sweeps. We could use
that, although personally…”

Juro cut him off.

“I’m interested. Arrange
a test today.”

That afternoon the group
minus Kalidas met again in the conference room. A technician was examining a
large piece of apparatus that could have been an acceleration couch.

“This is the PMD device”
Shin explained “Carson, please undress and take a seat.”

Carson did as he was
told. As he settled in the machine came to life; the two sides of the couch
grew and swelled towards each other engulfing his body until only his face remained
clear.

“What the –”

“Try to relax” said the
technician “this is all perfectly harmless. We simply need to monitor your body
functions as closely as possible. Please state your name and occupation.”

“Carson, Commonwealth
Mail Carrier.”

For the next ten minutes
he answered a series of routine inquiries as the technician calibrated the
machine. Finally he asked the real question.

“Do you intend to leave
New Earth and travel to the Sharez system?”

“No, absolutely not.”

The technician elicited
the same reply for Lum e and Dante b.

“Well?” said Juro.

“He is telling the truth
Elder Juro”

“Let me ask him a
question” he turned to Carson “Do you intend to betray me to the authorities.”

“Well that depends…”

“Answer yes or no” said
the technician.

“Then no”

“That last response was
ambiguous sir”

“I know it was. Let him
out of that thing.”

The technician glanced
up.

“Pardon me?”

“Good grief, pay
attention man. I said let him out!”

“Tabarak administered him
fifty milligrams of meta gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid” Shin whispered to Juro. “We
thought it prudent; he will vaguely remember administering the test but nothing
else.”

After he had dressed and
the technician departed, Carson turned to Juro.

“What did you expect? Of
course I will go to the authorities if you try to cut me out of the profits.”

Juro snorted with
laughter.

“My dear Carson, most of the people I deal with think that I am going to make them very rich and they
are sorely disappointed. You my boy are the exact opposite.”

He turned Shin

“Carson may leave once
the expedition has departed. Aiyana will stay in the mansion until it returns.”

“No way!”

“Do not take me for a
fool Carson. We know that you will stay on New Earth as long as Aiyana remains
here. One breathtaking flight is quite enough.”

“Honey” said Aiyana taking
his hands “everything will be all right. At least I will know that you’re
safe.”

Her right eye gave the
slightest twitch. Was that a wink? He hoped so.

“Really, it will be fine.
Elder Juro said I am going to be promoted! It will be a great opportunity to do
some serious preparation for my new job.”

This time there was no
mistaking the twitch. At least Aiyana seems to be under no illusions thought Carson. And soon he would be free. Now how the hell was he going to liberate her?

In the days that followed
the mansion was full of activity as Shin’s staff made final preparations for
the expedition, but Carson and Aiyana were allowed to take no part. Instead,
they were confined to their suite and left to amuse themselves. Life settled
down to a routine of eating, sleeping, entertainments, and watching the sun go
down over the ocean.

The sunsets were their
biggest treat. The weather was clear and each evening they stood on the balcony
to watch Eridani melt into the cobalt sea. Twice they saw Vulcan in transit; the
silhouette of the giant planet was so large as it crossed its parent star that
it looked like the pupil of a monstrous orange eye scanning the horizon.

On the second day Carson managed to persuade Tabarak to find him a personal recorder that he used to prepare
his address to the Antiquities Society. It helped pass the time but what really
tormented them was the fact that they could not discuss their situation – it
was a sure bet that every word was being monitored.

Finally, after six days
of confinement, they were invited downstairs to the conference room. Juro was
there along with Shin, still wearing his trademark smile but clearly exhausted.

“The expedition leaves
tomorrow” Juro said “and I will be returning to Kaimana.”

“”How long do you think
you’ll be gone” Carson asked Shin.

“Hopefully no more than a
few months, but we’ll know a lot more once we arrive at the Sharez system. Our
first goal is a shakedown test of the deep radar. If we can actually find the
supply dumps in cometary orbit this could be a short trip. Otherwise…”

“We will succeed” the old
man cut in “we have too much information and the Yongding left too much at each
system for us to fail.”

“Well good luck” said Carson “does this mean I’m free too leave?”

“Tomorrow” said Juro “In
the meantime we have made extraordinary progress and I intend to celebrate. Why,
we have been on New Earth for weeks and have sampled nothing of its pleasures. Tonight
you will join me for dinner at the Aether.”

Later that afternoon Shin
appeared with two sets of evening clothes.

“These are the best we
could find in the time” he explained. “Better than nothing, we can’t have you
dining at the Aether in rags!