L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

Maertyn picked up the portfolio he had never opened and then walked back toward the front of the Ministry building. He strongly doubted that the half-proffered luncheon invitation would actually be forthcoming.

Hlaansk had accomplished three objectives with his last decision: punishing Josef for avoiding Maertyn?s research briefing, suggesting potential irregularities within Environment Research and forcing Maertyn to look into those possibilities, and reminding Maertyn that his entire project and Maarlyna were at Hlaansk?s suffrage.

Maertyn didn?t see matters getting any easier…or better. Nor did he see any alternatives…unless he could discover something truly unusual about the canal, and he was enough of a realist to suspect that was most unlikely. Still…with the additional equipment, it was theoretically possible.

29 Quad 2471 R.E.

Fourday began without any communications from Apialor, or anywhere else. Fearing the worst, based on Rhyana?s reports and both his and Faelyna?s reading of the delivery woman, Eltyn decided the only way to deal with anyone from The Twenty, presuming that they didn?t arrive in great force, was simply to capture or remove them. Neither Rhyana nor Faelyna disagreed. The three of them effectively faced losing their intelligence, if not their minds…or their lives.

Before more than a moderate number of inspectors showed up, Eltyn and Faelyna-mostly Faelyna-needed to master the command structure in order to keep outsiders from opening doors or windows. The stone would stand against anything in the Ruche arsenal. If large forces camped around the station, that was another question. In the meantime, he moved their weapons, power packs, and ammunition to the upper level, next to the "window" overlooking the south entrance. Then he went back to work.

During a moment when Faelyna stopped to take a brief break, in early afternoon, he pulsed, Possible duplication of shadow-tracking?

Possible. Need to restructure detector and build equivalent of transmitter.

Interrogative schematics?

Blue-orange folder [here].

Eltyn studied the details for close to half an hour. If he substituted here…but changed the power flows there…He nodded, then pulsed Faelyna. Possible alternative transmitter. ??????

[here] He expanded the rough virtie diagram.

For several minutes Faelyna studied his proposal. Approach should work…Total one-timepower draw? System capacity?

Eltyn considered. She was right. Spare storage discharge capacitors? Bankedthere…surge draw??

[cautious approval]

I'll begin work. Eltyn headed for the storeroom.

After a good two hours of digging and organizing, he proved that the inventory was accurate. His memory was not, and that meant developing a work-around for the control circuits handling the surge power required. Still, he was well on the way to solving that problem when he finally had to give up from fatigue that evening and collapse into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Fiveday did not begin in nearly so accommodating a fashion as fourday had.

Before eight in the morning, another priority comm blast shivered in. All localinstallations on both sides of the midcontinent canal will be inspected in the next several days.The inspectors are fully authorized agents of the Ruche, acting with the full authority of TheTwenty. These inspections are merely to assure compliance with power requirements andcontinued loyalty to the Ruche so that the proprieties of social order and structure aremaintained. Once these formalities are concluded, the process of returning to normal activitieswill resume. No changes in operations are planned at this time.

Eltyn?s lips quirked. No changes in operations, but what about changes in operators…ortheir minds? They're not mentioning other apparently permanent changes. MetCom and thesatellites are still down.

Permanently down. Probability = unity 3.

How did RF manage it?

The Ruche is based on unity and security. The Fifty wasn't successful enough in fosteringa sense of security, not with the sand covering most of the south half of Primia, and temperaturesrising every year. TechOversight viewed as too liberal.

Too liberal?

Too open to nontraditional approaches.

Force-conditioning the most intelligent will provide solutions and security?

Punishment for failing to provide. [ironic laughter]

"What is it?" interrupted Rhyana, standing at the top of the ramp. "Begging your pardons, but I don?t know what that buzzing meant."

"It means that, fairly soon, The Twenty will be sending inspectors out here."

"They?ll get in over my corpse."

"Over all of our corpses," Eltyn agreed. "We?re not exactly in the best of graces with The Twenty."

"All that fancy gear going to help?"

"It won?t be finished before the first inspectors arrive," Eltyn said. "It might be ready in time for the second group…if we can handle the first."

Optimist 5!

Agreed…Why not?

Faelyna smiled.

"I?ll be doing my part," stated the delivery woman.

Eltyn managed to finish his control-circuit work-around in the next hour and was assembling the power banks when the local alert system buzzed.

Transport wheeler approaching. Distance four kays. Arrival time in six minutes andfifteen seconds.

Eltyn immediately virtie-linked to the local system, taking in the composite view of the dark gray vehicle from the system?s scanners.

Speed and wheeler depression suggest five individuals, plus or minus one, given cargo, added the system. ????? inquired Faelyna.

As planned. "Rhyana!" Eltyn yelled, having the internal system sound-cast his words inside the station. "Up to the upper-level south side!"

Faelyna remained on the main level, with one of the stunners, to cover the doors, since the upper window wouldn?t open wide enough to allow three people space to fire accurately. Also, that position provided her with a quick exit from the station on the canal side, either for escape or for a rear attack on the RF enforcers.

Behind the upper window, still closed, Eltyn continued to virtie-monitor the approach of the heavy-duty wheeler, as did Faelyna from the main level.

Eltyn glanced to Rhyana. "When the window opens they?ll be below us, some five yards out."

"I?ll be ready."

The vehicle stopped short of the east end of the station. For a time, nothing happened. Then six individuals, all in gray-blue uniform singlesuits, stepped out of the wheeler. Each wore a crimson shoulder patch with the intertwined letters "RF." All carried long stunners, discharge barrels slightly down.

RF uniforms, pulsed Faelyna.

Thought they just wore those for ceremony. Humble servants of The Fifty, they calledthemselves. [snort]

Eltyn waited until the six were closer, then murmured, "Ready," and touched the window, willing it to open wide.

Before he could even squeeze the firing stud on the projectile rifle, Rhyana had fired twice, and one of the "inspectors" had dropped. Eltyn fired, and one of the men staggered. He fired again, and the man dropped.

Eltyn could sense Faelyna hurrying out of the canal-side door. He didn?t like her exposing herself, but he was in no position to do anything about it.

Rhyana fired twice more, and another inspector-a woman-toppled.

"Back to the wheeler!"

The man who had given the order turned and ran almost ten yards back toward the dark gray vehicle before falling-dropped by Faelyna?s stunner.

The other two inspectors darted back, then turned and sprinted almost due south, heading toward a low dune. Beyond them, he could see the black shimmering pools that were but heat mirages.

Eltyn didn?t fire again. He doubted he could hit anyone at that distance, and they didn?t have that much ammunition. Besides, the two RF inspectors were angling back toward the canal, but in a way that suggested they weren?t about to return to the station. Not soon, and not without reinforcements.