Communion of Dreams, page 16
As he waited for Duc, Bradsen came over to Jon, sat beside him. Jon looked at him, asked “How’s it going?”
Bradsen nodded, satisfaction evident on his face. “Good. We’ve made real progress. All the primary equipment seems to have come through transit fine, and it seems that all we need is a little time to get everything adjusted and running properly. We should start collecting solid data from some of the equipment by later this evening.”
“How are your people holding up?”
“Pretty well. Some of them have already informed me that they will be staying tonight.”
“Well, tell them to pace themselves. Realistically, we don’t know how long this could take.”
Bradsen shrugged. “They’re researchers, used to being in the lab or with their equipment in the field for days at a stretch.”
Jon frowned. “But still . . . ”
“No, trust me on this. They’ll take breaks when they need it, not before.” Bradsen looked at Jon. “Even with the equipment and supplies we have here, we’ve got a fairly small window of opportunity. At some point, we’ll have to either bring in another crew and significantly more equipment, or transport that thing to a research facility. Nobody here wants to lose the chance to be the one to crack it, figure out what it is.”
“Yeah.” Jon chewed his lip. “But I still don’t want people taking unnecessary risks. So, let’s find out what we can, while we can. But do so safely.”
“Tall order, Jon. But we’ll see what we can do.”
“Thanks, Don.”
“Yeah.” Bradsen left Jon sitting beside the edge of the pit.
The smaller airlock on the far side of the dome opened, and Darnell emerged. He took his time coming over to Jon, stopping to see what everyone was doing, but saying nothing to anyone.
“Damned crowded ‘n here,” said the old prospector.
“Yup,” said Jon.
Just then Duc came up, lugging his altered camera. It was an odd contraption, with the face of a standard camera poking out the front of a plastic casing the size of a loaf of bread. In his other hand he had a shallow sealed box.
“Ready?” asked Jon.
“All set. I tried it out up on the station, and it more or less worked.”
“Well, then go ahead, give it a try.”
Duc nodded, a slight grin on his face. Setting up the camera on a handy crate to stabilize it, he took an exposure from the lip of the pit. Throwing a blanket over himself and the camera, he fussed around for a few moments. When he reappeared, he said “It’s pretty crude, I have to change the sheets of film by feel, so they aren’t ruined by light.”
“How long until the film is ready?”
Duc picked up the camera and made for the stairs down into the pit. “I’ll have to take it up to Titan Prime to develop it. I set up a makeshift darkroom in the bath of my quarters. With luck, we’ll have images later tonight, or maybe tomorrow.”
Jon nodded, then watched the artist lug his equipment down into the pit, get it set up and start taking pictures. He was packing up everything when Jon saw Commander Navarr come in through the airlock. Navarr came in, glanced around, and walked straight over to Jon, taking time only to pop off the helmet of his suit.
“Can I have a word with you?”
Jon stood, glanced at Sidwell. “Sure. Uh, let’s go over there next to the wall.”
Navarr shook his head. “Not necessary. He’ll hear of it soon enough.”
“What? What’s happened?”
“It’s on the nets back home. About the artifact. Someone posted it to the news services.”
Chapter 11
Jon sat on the large couch in Sidwell’s home, the ghostly image of Palmira beside him. The old man was sitting in a large chair across from him, reading.
Seth materialized, standing, at the other end of the couch. “Message in, Jon. Magurshak.”
“Give it to me.”
Darnell looked up from his book, said nothing. Jon turned his attention to the message.
Theodore Magurshak had never looked quite so haggard in all the time Jon had known him. The tall, robust man seemed smaller somehow. “At least it’s calm here. No panic in the streets yet. Everyone just seems sort of stunned. Jen Grant and her experts at the NSA say there’s a high probability of limited outbreaks of violence in the near term, with potential for significant unrest over the next week or so.”
Magurshak sighed. “I’d hoped that we would have had some time to figure out what the artifact was, and then slowly break the news. But . . .
“I’ve put all outside communications with Titan Prime and your team under the control of Susan Jakobs. We’re going to manage the news releases on this end. I’m not sure what good this will really do, given that the big news has already been dumped on the nets, but we want to try to keep things under control as much as possible.
“I wish we knew just what the hell happened to our security. NSA experts have gone over every transmission since we’ve learned of the thing,” said Magurshak. “They’ve combed through every possible message looking for some sort of code or encryption. There’s nothing. The only conclusion that anyone can come to is that there is a mole somewhere on the station.” Magurshak’s eyes hardened. “If there’s someone there who was willing to leak the information to the Edenists to begin with . . .
“Well, watch your butt, Jon, and try not to take anyone or anything for granted. Magurshak out.”
Sidwell looked up from his reading. “How bad is it?”
“Well, it isn’t good. But it isn’t awful, either. No violence. Not yet anyway.”
“They figger out wha’ happened?”
“No. But they’re fairly sure it was the Edenists.”
Darnell shook his head and said, “I ‘magine there’s a lot o’ turmoil back Earthside.”
“Yeah, sounds like it.”
“People don’ like bein’ woke up,” said the old man. “Never have.”
“Sorry?”
There was a long pause while the prospector chewed an unlit pipe in thought. Slowly he started nodding to himself. He looked over at Jon, and once again there was a glint to his eyes. This time, however, it didn’t just flash and disappear, but lingered. “Ever been t’ Wales?”
“Whales?”
“Wales. Western part of England. I spen’ some time there when I was younger.”
“Um, no. Never been there.”
“I knew a man, a Welshman. Lived ‘n a small inn at th’ base o’ a great waterfall. He used t’ say that people ‘out there’ ‘n th’ real world was asleep. That they was cut off from th’ natural energy o’ th’ world ‘round them, wit’ all their jobs ‘n gadgets ‘n entertainment. He said that livin’ alone at th’ foot of th’ falls, way up a valley ‘n th’ middle of nowhere, was a good apprenticeship ‘n being awake.” Darnell shook his head. “People have gotten lulled inta sleep again. It’s been a long time since th’ flu. They ain’t gonna like bein’ woke up.”
“I’m not quite sure I follow you.”
“Anythin’ what comes along ‘n kicks people out o’ their complacency gets ‘em riled up, like smackin’ a hornet’s nest wit’ a stick.”
“Yeah,” nodded Jon. “That’s what the NSA expects.”
“Since I foun’ that artifact, even I remember how ‘t feels t’ be awake. An’ that’s a big change, since I spent so many years tryin’ t’ get t’ sleep.”
“Why?”
“Why’d I spend so long tryin’ t’ get t’ sleep?”
“Not exactly. I mean, from what I know, you’ve led a very . . . ah . . . interesting life. First with the Israelis, then out to Mars, then here. Why do you consider that trying to get to sleep?”
Sidwell smiled, and the glint in his eyes did not waiver. “Well, when ya want t’ forget somethin’, ya try ‘n distract yerself wit’ th’ best things ya can come up wit’. Keepin’ alive all these years has helped take my mind off’n other things.”
“Like what?”
“I ain’t quite ready t’ say. But soon. I think I’ll be able t’ tell ya soon.” Sidwell set his book to the side. “Well, now wha’?”
“I guess we get back to work, try and learn all we can about the artifact. They’ll have to deal with the news back home best they can. But that’s not our problem.” Jon stood up, stretched. His muscles ached, and he was tired. “I’m going back over to the dome to see how they’re coming along, then probably back up to Titan Prime.”
“I’ll come wit’ ya.”
* * *
Most of his team were gone, presumably back on the station. Bradsen’s team was busy with their equipment. In the relative silence Jon could hear the whisper of the artifact. He tried to ignore it, letting it slip past him without listening to it.
They got out of their suits, went over to the edge of the pit. Down there, Bradsen was working with Feldman and Faris, as they set up what looked like an oversize mattress covered in dull gold foil. Across from it, with the artifact between, was another such mattress. Bradsen looked up, nodded briefly.
“Resonance field detectors,” said Faris. “If there’s anything like a projected energy matrix going on inside that thing, we should be able to pick it up.”
Without looking up, Bradsen added, “Don’t worry, it’s completely passive. We won’t start any sort of active scanning until we eliminate all the passive options.”
“Good. Everything else going well?”
Bradsen stopped what he was doing for a moment, examined his work, and seemed to be satisfied with it. He looked up at Jon. “Seems to be, in spite of that scare we had earlier with the news from home.”
“Well, you know how I feel about that,” said Jon. “I just wanted to come over and let you know, I’ve heard from Magurshak, updating me on the situation. Communications back home will be very limited for the next few days, until they sort everything out. Official business only, though they hope to allow personal messages again soon.”
“Good. That’ll provide fewer distractions for us.”
“Ha!” Sidwell scoffed. He looked at Jon, turned in disgust and walked away.
“Keep him outta here.”
“Nope.” Jon shook his head. “Can’t do it. We’re on his claim, and have agreed to let him have free passage.”
“Change the agreement. He’s going to be in the way.”
Jon looked down into the pit, studying the man. “I wouldn’t, even if I thought you were right.”
“He doesn’t know a thing about this level of scientific research. He’s just an old prospector who stumbled onto something. Now’s he’s using it to get what he can.”
“Perhaps. But it seems to me that maybe knows a hell of a lot more about living than just about anyone else I’ve ever met.”
“I’m not concerned with that. I just want to make sure we get all the information about this artifact that we can, in the shortest possible time.”
“Come up later and let’s have a drink. I can brief you on developments from Earth.”
Bradsen didn’t turn around, or say anything, just nodded. Jon followed Sidwell, and left the dome.
* * *
“Notice anything other than normal fatigue?”
Jon shifted a shoulder, felt his muscles ache. “No.”
Tops looked over a bank of equipment at him. “Nothing?”
Jon thought. Other than the slight whisper he heard occasionally when around the artifact, he’d had no unusual fainting spells, or visions, or whatever the hell they were since she had run him through an extensive series of tests. “Sorry. Nothing. Why? Should I?”
She squinted down at her equipment, frowned. “No. Not as far as I can tell, anyway.”
“You sound almost disappointed.”
“No, but I have to admit, I am puzzled. It’s like there’s nothing out of the ordinary at all. It doesn’t seem to matter in the slightest whether you’re in contact with the artifact or not, whether you hear that whisper you describe, or whether you faint and have one of these visions. The only thing that I can pick up in your data has been just a small increase in adrenal activity, which can easily be accounted for by being in such an extraordinary situation.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it?”
“Maybe. I suppose.” She paused. She pulled a stool around from behind the equipment, and sat facing him. “But I’ve done a more comprehensive analysis of others who have had close contact with the artifact, and who have reported hearing the whisper or feeling a little woozy. And there’s nothing unusual with any of them, either. It’s weird. I would not have been surprised to find something anomalous.”
“Like what?”
“Like a serotonin imbalance, depleted energy stores at the cellular level due to over-excitation, some subtle change in an obscure neurotransmitter, something. The most anyone has shown has been a slight increase in adrenalin, like yours.”
“What’s it mean?”
“It’s like there’s nothing there.”
“In the data?”
“Anywhere. It’s like none of you have come into contact with anything in the least bit unusual, certainly not something that is able to manifest auditory hallucinations, feelings of vertigo, and outright loss of consciousness.”
Jon nodded. “So, is it doing something below the threshold of your equipment to detect?”
Tops seemed to be at a loss. She shrugged. “Presumably. I don’t know what else to make of it.”
He waited, watching her.
She stood up, looked at her equipment in frustration. “If there’s something there, I should be able to detect it. But as far as my equipment is concerned, there’s nothing.”
“Just like the artifact itself,” thought Jon out loud.
She turned from her equipment and looked at him. “What was that?”
“Sorry, I was just echoing your frustration.”
“Yeah, but maybe you’ve hit on something. You came out here because all the available sensing equipment on the station wasn’t able to detect the artifact, right? No images on video, nothing?”
“Yeah. But how can . . . ”
“I don’t know,” she interrupted. “But it might be connected. It’s worth exploring.”
“How?”
“Give me some time to think about that.”
“Sure.” Again he flexed his sore shoulder, and stood.
“So, what’s your take on things back home? All we’ve heard here on the station has been that there was news of the artifact on the nets, and for security reasons communications would be somewhat more restricted. Salim was very nice in how he presented it, saying that it was just a temporary step, but I can read between the lines.”
“Magurshak’s worried. The NSA experts are expecting violence from some of the less stable groups, and depending on how that plays out, it could cascade. News like this is certain to shock people.”
“No surprise.”
“Yeah, really. More importantly for us, there might be a threat here.”
“Why?”
“Well, because someone here probably leaked the information to the Edenists back home, who then decided to put it on the nets.”
“So that means that there’s someone here who sympathizes with them.”
“At least on some level.”
Again, she nodded. “Like I said before, what appears in an official file on someone out here tends to be less complete than the bureaucrats and spooks would like. There’s lots of room for someone to have slipped by.”
“Yeah. I think that maybe the NSA’s over reacting, but it doesn’t hurt to play it safe.”
“Right.”
“Look, I need to go meet with Susan and Salim, go over all this and find out what they think of the situation here on the station. But think about that mystery with the artifact, and let me know if you come up with something. I can probably help smooth communications back Earthside, if you need some research done or anything.”
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * *
Seth appeared. “Jon, Don Bradsen is back on the station, and says that he’ll be ready to meet with you to discuss matters after he gets a shower and change of clothes.”
“Interesting that he just left a message rather than tell me himself, isn’t it?”
Seth’s expression didn’t change. “The evidence would suggest that he finds your supervision irksome.”
“No kidding.” Jon sighed. “Don and I usually get along reasonably well, but that’s at home.”
Seth nodded, said nothing.
Jon thought about it for a moment. “Ask him to meet me for a drink at that large bar near the docking area. Tell him that I’ll be there in about a half hour, and he can join me when it’s convenient.”
“Anything else?”
“Give him the full feed of Magurshak’s message to me earlier. Say that we won’t be able to talk in the bar except in general terms, and I want him to have that information, so that he knows what’s going on.”
Seth nodded.
“Oh, and while I was talking with Sidwell, he told me about some trip he had made to Wales and a man he knew there. Said this fellow was an innkeeper or something at the foot of a waterfall. Evidently this made a significant impression on him, and I think it might be insightful to know more.”
“How so?”
“I’m not sure. But see if there are any extant records about Sidwell’s trips into that part of the world. It’d have to have been a long time ago, maybe even pre-flu.”
“Records that far back are likely to be spotty.”
“Yeah, I know. But find what you can. And see if you can get me some general information on the area, maybe even something on this waterfall. He didn’t give me a name, but said it was one of the best known scenic areas of the country.”
