L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

He?d have to take a midday meal up to her. She forgot to eat when she immersed herself in the depths of her work.

Still…an armed stealth submersible sent to attack or infiltrate and take over a research installation on an ancient canal that hadn?t ever done anything to anyone or anything over the millennia?

Once more, Maertyn read over the dispatch that had come with the canal-runner that morning.

From:

Minister of Science

Unity of Caelaarn

To:

Maertyn S?Eidolon

Deputy Assistant Minister

Subject:

Pending Research on Climatic Impact of MCC

I am looking forward to your presentation on the twenty-first of Ninemonth.

You will be addressing the internal Ministry council. Your project has taken on a particular import, as you may have learned from the by-elections in Aracha, especially in Saenblaed. Difficult as it may be for some in the government to accept, there is growing popular pressure to resort to physical geo-engineering to deal with the situation. In this light, any insight you can offer on how the ancients may have employed the canal to avoid such extremes would be especially valuable, particularly in light of your request for additional equipment.

Saenblaed, reflected Maertyn as he lowered the dispatch for a moment, was where the bulk of the refugees from Edelburg had settled. They always voted for the Returnist party and any scheme, no matter how improbable, that offered hope of reclaiming their lands. What the short dispatch had not said, but clearly implied, was that the strictly biologically based projects and research, always the strength of the Unity, were not turning out as planned, because of either star-high costs or technical problems, if not both.

He couldn?t say that he was surprised. Biological means of providing the concentrated energy required by technological societies tended to be inefficient or to require significant additional processing and/or infrastructure to increase that energy concentration, effectively diluting the end-use efficiency. Also, efficiency declined in extremes of heat or cold, and the earth was definitely cooling.

His thesis had been relatively simple. After scanning of the records of temperature observations taken at the east and west end of the canal and at selected points in between and cross-matching them, as best he could, to comparable observations within a kay or more away from the canal, but still within the same climatic area, there seemed to be a definite indication that the canal moderated temperatures more than could be accounted by all the known factors. In the year and a half since he and Maarlyna had been at the station, his own measurements had made that clear. He had yet to figure out why. The impervious blue-gray stone-although he doubted it was stone in any chemical or compositional sense-never changed temperature, regardless of how much sunlight fell or how chill the winters were. Did it somehow regulate its temperature instantly, or did its very composition insulate it from temperature changes?

He?d originally hoped that determining the basis for that definite temperature differential might lead to developing possible means for pushing the ice back from the northern side of the canal. The more he studied that aspect of the problem, the more he doubted that he could develop even a viable theoretical approach. While he was not about to tell the Ministry that, not yet, there were other aspects of the canal that offered better prospects, including his growing awareness of what might almost be called "messages," such as the understanding of when a berg might calve or when a tsunami might reach the station-although that had happened but a handful of times. He couldn?t very well put those into a research paper or presentation. Even Maarlyna, who loved and trusted him, had hardly given him any indication that she believed what he sensed. Yet…he had the feeling she sensed something as well, although he had not pressed her on that, not when she was neurally so vulnerable.

Now he had to give a convincing presentation on a thesis in which he no longer fully believed in order to retain Ministry support to allow him to pursue a research alternative he couldn?t logically justify or quantify. And Minister Hlaansk?s dispatch had made it more than clear that he had best be very convincing.

There was also the question of whether that was even the real purpose of Hlaansk?s politely worded demand. Was it as simple as what he had stated, or was Maertyn?s presentation designed to provide political cover for the minister against the appointees who were loyal to other political figures, or was it to make an example of Maertyn by showing that even lords were accountable…especially if they requested more equipment? Or was it something else entirely?

Finally, he pushed the chair back and stood, turning from the pale green screens that held meaningful but irrelevant data. He stretched, then, after several moments, walked from his workroom into the main study. He did not see Maarlyna, and he turned toward the ramp that began just inside the main entrance on the canal side of the station building and headed down to the kitchen, located in the chamber below his work space.

Maarlyna was not there, but Shaenya was standing before the cook-top.

"Might I ask what?s for dinner?"

"Carplet stew, but with a pinenut glaze, and spiced potatoes in yogurt with some greens I gathered from the sheltered garden."

"The panels have kept it from freezing?"

"Them and the water walls. For now. In another two weeks…who could say?"

"If there?s time next week in Daelmar before I catch the maglev to Caelaarn, I?ll see if I can stop and have a side of lamb sent over from there on Haarlan?s freightrunner."

"You?d not have to do that, Lord Maertyn."

"I want you, Svorak, and Maarlyna well-fed in my absence." He grinned. "If I do, don?t you dare save it for my return."

"Not if you?d be telling me not to, no, sir."

"You haven?t seen Maarlyna, have you?"

"Lady S?Eidolon?" The cook shook her head. "She came down an hour ago, but not since then."

"Thank you." Maertyn turned and walked back up the ramp and then outside onto the narrow space between the station and the canal wall. He glanced around before catching sight of Maarlyna. For a moment, he just looked, taking in the glint of light off her amber hair and the way she appeared so much a part of the canal and the light house.

She stood in the weak late-afternoon sunlight to the left of the light house, looking out at the cold gray waters of the ocean. She did not turn as he joined her.

"It?s peaceful here." Her voice was quiet, so low he could barely make out her words above the hum of the wind turbines, the rush of the wind, and the intermittent muffled crash of the waves below hitting the enduring blue-gray stone.

He understood. "Not that many people around."

"They didn?t used to grate on me so much."

"Times change."

"So do people. I?ve changed, Maertyn."

"We all change as we grow."

"You?re humoring me."

"Perhaps a little. Isn?t that the husbandly thing to do?"

She finally turned to face him. "You never used to do that. You never were so solicitous before…before…"

"No. I should have been, but almost losing you made me realize how much you meant to me." His eyes looked into hers, a shade of amber that matched her hair almost perfectly.

"I know. I don?t pretend to understand, but I know."

He leaned toward her and brushed her cheek with his lips. "I?m glad you do."

"The longer we?re here," she mused, "the stranger the station seems, and yet the more like home. I have the feeling that I won?t want to leave."

Maertyn nodded. He wasn?t certain he felt quite that way, but then, he?d never felt as though any place had ever been home. In those moments as he stood beside her under the high gray clouds, his thoughts returned to the station itself. As Maarlyna had said, there were so many prosaically strange aspects to the station. There were no vermin, no pests, and, according to the records, domesticated animals howled and moaned if they were kept inside. Yet the old records showed that the former light house-keepers had had fewer accidents and lived seemingly healthier and longer lives than their contemporaries. Had some of them sensed what Maertyn did? At least subconsciously?