L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

"I told the Ministry that a complete study would take three years."

"At least, that will give us another year and a half."

"A year and five months," he said with a light laugh, "unless we wish to remain and devote ourselves completely to maintaining the light house."

"They really don?t need a lighthouse-keeper, either. There?s not that much shipping anymore."

"There are enough long-haul freighters running between Saenblaed and Xantippe that they won?t close the light house in my time."

"They could mechanize it completely."

"When you consider the overall costs, people are cheaper, and that even includes deputy assistant ministers who are impoverished lords. Mechanization and microthinking devices are saved for places where putting people is infeasible or impossible."

"Like deep current monitoring?"

Maertyn nodded. "Besides, the Ministry finds my observations about the building and the canal wall useful…or perhaps amusing."

"They find your absence from the capital even more valuable."

"Speaking of which, I will need to return next month to make another periodic report to the Ministry."

"When?"

"Around the twentieth. I?ll take the canal-runner to Daelmar and the tube-train from there to Caelaarn."

"Isn?t that when they rotate the Reserve guards?"

"It is, but that?s not why I?m picking that time. It was stipulated by Minister Hlaansk some time back. There?s also the possibility that I may need the Ministry to approve a request for the additional equipment."

"How long will you be gone? Two weeks?"

"Ten days to three weeks, depending on whatever difficulties arise, and they will…and other matters."

"Are the advocates still sparring over the bones of your grandmother?s estate? Trying to revalue the Martian antiquities to demand more taxes? Or is it some other endless legality?"

"They may be, but I haven?t heard any more about that, not recently." Unlike a few othercomplications I can't exactly share with you, dearest.

"What is it, Maertyn? You looked so sad for a moment, there."

"Call it melancholy. There are times when it would have been nice to retreat to Norlaak. I can?t help thinking about it, sometimes."

Maarlyna raised her eyebrows.

"I know. I know. It was gone beneath the glaciers before I was born, but I?ve seen the representations and the paintings. They?re real enough, and I can still think about it."

"Representations aren?t the same," she pointed out reasonably.

He smiled gently. "It would depend on the representation, I would think. In some ways, aren?t we all representations of a mere biologic plan?" And with all the ages of humanity stretching behind them, who knew how much of that plan was evolutionary and how much genetically planned far in the distant past?

"That makes us sound more like pieces in a game of life, created and played according to this or that formula. We?re more than that…aren?t we?"

He stepped toward the armchair, stopping before it, reaching down, and taking her hands. He guided her to her feet and embraced her, murmuring in her ear, "So much more, especially you, dearest." Closing his eyes, holding her tight to him, he was more alive than ever.

Her arms went around his waist.

5 Quad 2471 R.E.

Tick, tick, patter, patter…

The grains of sand swept westward over the midcontinent canal and its walls like microlocusts, their silicon edges nipping futilely against the stone of the meteorological station. Sharpnesses blunted by the surface that had been designed to outlive eternity itself, each grain sighed and sleighed downward, creating miniature dunes against the land-side walls of the canal and the ancient structure.

Inside the first-level instrumentality and environmentality center that occupied the ancient station, Eltyn pulse-linked to the geosats. Before his eyes-virtie eyes rather than bio-orbs-appeared an amorphous not-quite-wedge-shape of orangish brown, a fantasy color whose wavelengths averaged somewhere around 630 nanometers, an approximation of a triangle that stretched back southward to the foothills of the Second South Range.

2SSR, confirmed the link.

MetStation sole unit structure inhabitable south side MCC west of desert researchstation. Interrogative estimated habitation/equipment viability duration? The query came from the geosat continent monitor chief, Laembah.

Drama excessive, Eltyn return-pulsed. Greater probability of solar flare instant-now thansilicon inundation in 10 3 cycles.

Humor/sarcasm unappreciated.

A flash of superheated air washed over Eltyn, then diffused as the door closed as quickly as it had opened to let Faelyna enter. The sand granules picked up by her softboots clicked on the stone floor before they were absorbed into the soles, but others cascaded off her coverall as she peeled back the face shield and detached the hood to reveal short and curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and a slightly pointed chin too strong to be considered elf-like. Then she stripped off the coverall to reveal a dark gray formfitting singlesuit.

Stet, he returned to the geosat.

Dubious humor, Faelyna pulsed through private-link, the unmonitored local freq.

Dubious probabilities for serious and officious 5 chief.

Both Eltyn and Faelyna laughed.

He lives for weather ops, added Eltyn.

He's a Ruchocrat, scheduler, and grid-locker. Faelyna projected a head-shake. Bureaucracy ill serves the Ruche.

Ill serves any efficient society.

They both knew that TechOversight?s covert placement of their project under Meteorology had been the only way to hide its implications from RucheControl. That cover would not last the triad, Eltyn had calcjected-unless no one from The Fifty or the upper Ruche bureaucracy had looked beyond the project title: "Meteorological Endothermic Implications of the MCC."

Routine summer met status-reps ready for Ruche-Centre? she asked.

Sixday. 1000. Eltyn opened the link and let her riffle through the past week?s observations. Analysis incomplete.

Too many hotspots exceeding baseline projections. Met correlation will compare toreconstructed Searing data.

Probability of comparison exceeds point seven-three, he agreed. Reconstructed data moreconjecture than solid 2.

Irrelevant. Fear factors associated with Searing and post-Caelaarnan periodover-rebound have excessive impact. Her words held the over-hued crimson-green of cynicism.

Illogical 5… but likely. Even The Fifty-the Administrative Council of the Ruche-veered toward emotion if the councilors perceived any possibility of Seared Earth or Iceberg Earth, remote as the second possibility might be in the near future.

Query. Structure survey probe status? Cool urgency underlined her question.

Red 3. Electron probe negative. Fermion beam feedback fused focal assembly. Negativeon all laser applications. He follow-frequed his comments with a hint of frustration.

Equipment requisitions?

Submitted. Approval pending, likely.

Account subcategory deficiency?

Negative this triad. Next triad…???

Novel approach possible?

Approach(7) already attempted. Working on approach(8). Eltyn snorted, knowing Faelyna was nanoneedling him. The equipment scheduled for arrival in six days had a special configuration. If it didn?t work…

Approach(9)…my shadow retrogression? she pulsed.

More like retro-nonexistent imaginary future tech. He shrugged. She could certainly try if his next discernment attempt failed. He?d have to re-tech radically and take another tack.

You have a better alternative?

He didn?t. Not yet. Not if his next effort failed. Yours?

Shadow polariton retrogression [deep image] one ready to commence setup by fivedaynext.

He projected a nod as she made her way to the antique ramp leading to the upper level and her laboratory and equipment. He watched her, admiring her walk, and her assurance. To have said more, or pulsed more…that would have been improper…most unRuchelike.