Quiet Invasion(62)

Finally, D’seun settled on one size. Some of the belligerence vented from his body. “I’ll be most interested to see your plan for a more thorough observation and study.”

Perhaps he just hopes to keep me out of the way, thought T’sha and then she realized that was unworthy. D’seun wanted what she wanted, the birth of New Home. At the moment she was obstructing that.

She swallowed her bitter thought. “I would be willing,” she said. “May I make a call for two or three volunteers?” She looked at Br’sei. He dipped his muzzle minutely in answer. He’d be willing to help.

“Certainly,” said D’seun. “We will grow a chamber for you.”

And perhaps this will give me a way to calm my own fears. Perhaps the New People are doing nothing legitimate. Perhaps we may take this world without taint of greed. I would like that. I would very much like that.

But the memory of the tension surrounding the engineers touched her again. No, the question was not whether something was wrong here, but what that wrong was and how far it had gone.

T’sha deflated and looked longingly at the silent walls. Already, she missed Ca’aed.





Chapter Seven


I AM ACTUALLY DOING this. I am going to touch evidence of other life, of another world.

Raw excitement had stretched Josh Kenyon’s mouth into a smile that felt like it was going to become permanent. He lay in the swaddling cradle that would serve as his crash-couch for Scarab Five’s drop to the Discovery. It would also be his bed for the next two weeks. All around him, he heard soft rustles and mutters as his fellow passengers wriggled in their straps trying to get comfortable. All of them were from the U.N. team—Julia Lott, the archeologist, Terry Wray, the media rep, Troy Peachman, who called himself a “comparative culturalist” and was apparently there to look for any sociological insights and implications, and, of course, Veronica Hatch.

They were all nervous and fussy, very much a bunch of impatient tourists. But that was all right. Seeing the Discovery was worth anything—working his way up as a junior grade maintenance man, begging Vee for a slot on the team, even getting into Grandma Helen’s bad books, which he had, quite thoroughly.

The morning after the reception, Dr. Failia had called him into the Throne Room, a place he’d been to only a couple of times before. While he’d stood awkwardly in front of her desk, she’d reviewed something on its screen that seemed to absorb her whole attention. At last, he realized she wasn’t going to invite him to sit down. So he sat without invitation and got ready to wait.

She kept him there in silence for another good five minutes before she finally looked up to acknowledge his presence.

“Thank you for coming, Josh,” she said, with only the barest hint of politeness in her voice. “I wanted to inform you personally that Dr. Veronica Hatch of the U.N. investigative team has requested your presence to help her examine the Discovery’s laser.” Dr. Failia’s voice was calm but tinged with something unpleasant—suspicion, maybe, or disapproval. Josh sat there with a stiff smile on his face, torn between elation and feeling like a guilty child.

“Since you’ll have far more experience with EVA’s than any other member of that team, I’m counting on you to take the position of team leader, to show the others around the Discovery and make sure they do minimum damage to the site.”

“But, Dr. Failia…” Josh spread his hands. Despite the cold look she gave him, Josh forced himself to continue. “Kevin Cusmanos has a thousand times more experience than I do. Shouldn’t he be going out with the team?”

“That was the initial plan.” Dr. Failia’s eyes grew hard. “But we want as few people down there as possible. Every new bootprint runs the risk of damaging something priceless. Since you’re going, you get to baby-sit and Kevin gets to do what he is specifically trained for—supervising the scarab and the essential mechanical support system for the team.”

Josh swallowed. “Yes, of course.”

“Thank you, Josh,” she said without warmth. “I appreciate your help.”

Did she know I talked Vee into this? Or was she just peeved that one of the yewners monkeyed with her plan? Josh shook his head at the ceiling. He had no way of knowing. The whole interview had left him confused. The times he had talked with Dr. Failia before, she had been businesslike but friendly, quick with a small joke or useful observation. He’d never seen her so forbidding.

It doesn’t matter. You’re here. You can worry about the rest of your life later.

The low ceiling over him held a view screen that was controlled from down in the pilot’s seat. Right now, it showed an image of the hangar seen through the scarab’s main window and surmounted by the back of Adrian Makepeace’s head and shoulders.