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11

Next morning, the over-breakfast continuation of the interview with the science journalist went well, and Keene was happy that the treatment would be accurate. Afterward, he went back up to his room and called Marvin Curtiss as promised. Although Texas was an hour behind Eastern Time, he found Curtiss already in his office. Apparently, Halloran, Lomack, and most of the other engineering and project managers were at work already over in the Kingsville plant too, working out figures for a proposal that Harry Halloran had come up with for getting the Montemorelos site operational sooner, as Curtiss had wanted.

Instead of the conventional above-ground pads as used at San Saucillo, where final testing and any last-minute servicing had to be conducted out in the elements, the Montemorelos facility used an experimental design of silo in which all preparations and launch would be effected in one blastproofed location. Equipment installation was virtually complete, and the next phase called for a live test of the launch systems. A live test meant actually launching something. For something to be launched, it would first have to be there. The existing plan called for a regular (chemical powered) vehicle to be moved in sections by road from Kingsville and assembled in one of the silos. However, a separate surface-to-orbit trial was also due to be conducted in the near future from Saucillo, involving a minishuttle fitted with a modified hybrid engine using solid propellant and a liquid oxidizer. Halloran had proposed combining the two programs by landing the minishuttle at Montemorelos after its orbital trials, where it would then be available for the launch test without anything needing to be shipped by road. The planning committee would be meeting that morning to consider it.

Keene agreed the suggestion made sense, but it was an internal Amspace affair and not something that concerned him directly. He went on to summarize his impressions after meeting the Kronians. The most important thing to come out of it was Sariena's disclosure of the changes the Kronian scientists had detected in the solar environment and the need to verify their calculations of what it implied. "I was hoping Jerry could set it up somewhere on one of the big computers you've got access to," Keene concluded. Jerry Allender was the head of research at Amspace. "If he needs some help from a specialist in celestial mechanics, I could probably put him in touch with a couple of people I know."

"How soon do we need this?" Curtiss asked, not looking enthralled. "We're going to be swamped here with this Montemorelos business as things are."

"I think it's absolutely crucial to have the results confirmed or otherwise by the time the Kronians get back from their tour," Keene pressed. "That means we ought to get moving now. I could get Vicki to take care of liaising with the Kronians and getting the files and material together. Judith could even help with running it and tackling a specialist—she's pretty hot. All Jerry would need to do would be to set things up."

"What results did the Kronians get?" Curtiss asked. "Do we know?"

"No, they've just offered to let us have their raw data. That's the way it should be done. Sariena just said she thought we'd find them interesting."

Curtiss drew a long breath, then nodded. "Okay, we'll see what we can do," he promised. "Talk to Harry. I'll tell him to expect to hear from you. Now I have to rush. We've obviously got one of those days ahead of us, and I've a commitment in the city tonight."

"What's on?" Keene asked. "Business dinner? Press Club? Some kind of civic function?"

"My stepdaughter Anna is playing the cello. It's her first appearance in public, and it would be more than my life's worth not to be there." Curtiss looked pleased that Keene had asked. He seemed quite proud. Keene liked it when tycoons showed a human touch. It meant there was hope for the race yet.

He called Vicki immediately afterward and caught her at the house just as she was about to leave for the office. "Something came up at the Kronian party last night that could be important," he told her. "Can you pull Judith off that Japanese project and ask her to take a look at it—maybe give her a hand. I want you to access the Kronian research files and find some data they've been collecting on changes in the electromagnetic properties of the space environment during the past ten months. You can get it from the databank in the Osiris—no need for all the delays in dealing with Saturn. I'll send details and access codes to you at the office."

"Changes?" Vicki repeated, looking surprised.

"Yes. It seems that all that stuff that Athena's spewing out has been altering the inner-system free-space permeability and permittivity—for a while, anyway, until the solar wind blows it away. But in the meantime we're in a more electrically active neighborhood. I want to compute the forces that would act on a hot, massively charged body and how they would affect its orbital characteristics."

"You want us to do this . . . ?"

"No, no—not all on your own, there, anyway. I've just talked to Marvin. He's going to have Jerry Allender set it up in his department over there. But they're all in a panic this morning over something else that's going on. I just want us to do the go-betweening with the Kronians for them. You might need to involve a specialist too. I can think of a couple of names you could try. I'll send them with the other stuff."

Vicki stared at him for a few seconds, thinking rapidly. "Are we talking about Venus?" she asked at last.

"Could be," Keene answered noncommittally.

"Are you saying that our scientists here don't know about this already?"

Keene shrugged. "All too busy writing begging letters to Congress or getting themselves into the Washington black-tie cocktail-party circuit."

The significance was slowly sinking in. Vicki shook her head, looking disbelieving. "Lan . . . do you realize that what you're talking about could upset half of astronomy all the way back to Newton? I mean, you just call on the phone when I'm leaving for work and mention it as casually as if it were a bookshelf you want ordered. . . ."

"Yes, I know, but I haven't got time to go into raptures over the philosophy of it right now. There's probably a cab waiting for me downstairs already."

Just then, a blurred voice called something in the background behind Vicki. She looked away. "I said on the table in the kitchen," she directed to somewhere off-screen.

"Robin getting ready for school?" Keene said.

Vicki turned back again. "You guessed. How do you do it, Lan?"

"And how is he? Anything new with the dinosaurs?"

"It's led into mammoths. But don't ask me right now; I'll mail you a note if you're interested."

"Sure, I'm interested."

"You want to say hi to him?"

"Sure."

"Robin, it's Landen on the line. Like to say hello for a second?"

A few seconds went by, and then Robin moved into the view alongside the image of Vicki. "Hi, Lan. How's Washington? Did you get to meet the Kronians?"

"Sure did. I'll tell you all about them next time I stop by."

"Is that it?" Vicki asked Robin, gesturing at a blue folder that he was holding.

"Yes. I was sure it was upstairs."

"What's in it?" Keene inquired.

"Oh, a project we're doing at school, in the science class. We have to write an essay on the Joktanians and the kinds of things that have been turning up in the places they're digging at."

"That's the old civilization from around Arabia and Ethiopia that was only discovered in the last few years," Vicki supplied for Keene's benefit. "So give the school system some credit—they're keeping up to date."

"Ah yes," Keene was able to reply airily. "Named after Noah's grandson. Legend says the earliest peoples of southern Arabia were descended from him. The Arab word is Qahtan."

Vicki stared hard and blinked. "I didn't think you'd know that."

Keene managed to keep a straight face and replied nonchalantly, while inside enjoying every moment of it. "Why not? I thought everyone did."

She shook her head. "Lan, you never cease to amaze me."

"Just call it talented. Got to go. Check your mail when you get in. I'll probably stay in town tomorrow too. See you Thursday."

The final thing Keene did before leaving the hotel to begin his schedule for that day was call David Salio. Salio was surprised to hear back from him so soon, but pleased. Yes, it turned out that he was flexible that week and could be available. Keene arranged to see him on Thursday and changed his flight arrangements to stop off in Houston on his way back to Corpus Christi. Things seemed to be moving along.

 

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Framed


Title: Cradle of Saturn
Author: James P. Hogan
ISBN: 0-671-57813-8 0-671-57866-9
Copyright: © 1999 by James P. Hogan
Publisher: Baen Books