Pali looked up, startled, as Ramo Romano stalked into her office. "I am not going to work with him, and that's it!" he exploded. "Just forget it." Pali's mouth dropped open as Ramo stalked back out.
She caught up with him in the lounge. "Ramo, what's the trouble? Why don't you sit? Do you want some coffee?"
"I can't work with him. You'll have to get someone else." Ramo stamped his foot and turned away.
The gesture reminded Pali of an unhappy horse. She crossed to the sideboard. "Do you mind if I have a cup?" She poured, stirred in sweetener, and faced him. "Why don't you sit down and tell me what's wrong? Kyd tells me that Sage is an excellent gnostic designer."
Ramo snorted and paced the length of the tiny lounge. "Designer, my ass. I ask him to show me some system specs and all he can say is, 'What for?' What's he think it's for, the twit?"
Pali touched her lower lip. "If it's a problem in communication . . . Ramo, won't you please sit down?"
"It's not a problem in communication! It's a problem in brains!"
Pali groaned inwardly. All this work getting her hotshot team together—she'd gotten authorization for use of the research files, though it had taken longer than she'd hoped—and now the whole thing was self-destructing before it even got started. Sage DeWeiler had been acting sullen all morning, Ramo Romano seemed intent upon alienating everyone in the department—and the two had lasted barely an hour in the same room together. How much more time and patience did she have?
Ramo finally dropped into a chair. "A job like this is hard enough without some birdbrain working alongside you."
"Well, I understand the feeling," Pali said carefully, taking a nearby seat. She crossed her legs and smoothed out her long skirt, trying to think of an answer. "Look, I know it can be a problem working with people if the chemistry isn't right. But there must be something we can do about it—"
"Fire him."
She ignored the interruption. "If you have certain requirements of the gnosys designer—"
Ramo snorted again.
"—maybe we can get those across better," she finished determinedly, thinking, Did I want to become a social worker? She eyed Ramo. "Problems in communication usually can be solved."
Ramo shrugged. "You're not paying me enough to put up with this crap," he muttered, scratching his nose.
"Well, look." Pali sighed with frustration. "Sage does have trouble working with people, but he also has skills that we need. Both of you do. Isn't Kyd helping to smooth things out between you?" The question seemed to make him nervous. "All right—it might be a little rough going at first," she went on. "But this could be a big piece for you—for all of us." She sipped her coffee with forced calm. "What do you say?"
Ramo sighed and rested his head back against the wall with an expression of weariness.
"Like some coffee now?" Pali asked.
He scowled and, to her intense relief, nodded at last.
* * *
Sage was staring anxiously at the floor as Kyd talked. He nodded, just to let her know he was listening.
". . . even if you're not used to working together, I know you have the ability. You just need to tap into it. Think of the way you might tap into a level of the gnosys . . ."
Her voice was so gentle, so persuasive, it was almost bewitching; his frustration was melting away. He raised his head and instantly glanced away in embarrassment. He was trying hard not to develop a terrible crush on her, and failing. Of course he would work for her, even if it was hard—even if it meant working with that obnoxious artist again. Finally he nodded his assent.
"Wonderful," she said with a dazzling smile. "Why don't you go grab something to eat, then set things up. I'll be down in a little while. All right?"
He rose and hurried upstairs to the commissary, where he bought some Riskie Crispies and a moke. Munching crispies out of the box, he returned to the rap room and began the setup. By the time the others trooped in, he had the fields lighted in test patterns. "It's ready," he said nervously, looking up from the boards.
Ramo stood off to one side, drumming his fingers against his leg. He was staring at the rapture-fields—two luminous green force-fields, each about the size of a person, each enveloped by a larger, fainter levitation-field of bluish light. Ramo's anger seemed to have evaporated.
"Sage, are you ready?"
Sage turned. Pali had asked the question; but Kyd's wink and smile dispelled his nervousness. He nodded and touched a control. "You know what you're doing, right, Ramo?"
"Yep."
"You have your questions? Your design specs?"
"I'm ready. Let's go." Ramo stepped into the nearest levitation-field. It sparkled around him, lifted him off the floor, and floated him into the inner, green-glowing rapture-field. He visibly relaxed, the field tilting him backward slightly, his eyes closing. Sage pointed, saying to Pali and Kyd, "You can watch on those monitors." Then he stepped into the other field, into weightlessness. The rapture-field brightened around him in a luxurious cyan haze.
Several moments passed, and sparkling bits of light swarmed around him like ethereal diamonds, flying into his eyes. He stiffened, then relaxed as he felt the internal touch of the gnostic system. At first it was just a tingle in his skull, a lightness, but it quickly blossomed into his thoughts like a flame. His breathing slowed; his body was nearly forgotten. The light of the flame took on pattern and form: the tracings of the outermost layers of the gnostic system.
[Where do we go from here?]
[. . . from here?]
[. . . from here?]
He winced at the echo and remembered that he was not alone. Ramo was with him, their minds linked by the connection with the system. There was feedback in the field.
[Are you there?]
[. . . you there?]
[. . . you there?]
[Wait.]
[. . . wait.]
[. . . wait.]
He scanned the traceries and located the correct node. With a touch of his thoughts, he adjusted the sensitivity. [How's this? Better?]
[It's okay,] Ramo said. [So where are we?]
[Outside the records stacks. We need to locate the access for research functions.] Sage thought a moment. [I'm going to try a backdoor approach, to bypass some of the bureaucratic controls. The way we're cleared to go in will take forever; I don't think Pali understood the level of clearance we need.]
[Wonderful. Why didn't you mention that before?]
[I won't know until we try,] Sage said irritably. [It'll stop us if it doesn't like what we're doing. But if we can't get what we want one way, we'll try another.] He sensed Ramo's grudging acknowledgment. [You figure out your questions.]
[Lead on.]
Sage began to move. It was almost a kinesthetic movement, up one pathway and down another, crossing various connection points. They were aiming for an area in which he had little direct experience; but he knew the overall layout, and since there was generally more than one entrance to any part of the system, he was confident he could probe his way into the level they needed. System security was a porous kind of affair if one knew the ropes; that's what designers were for.
The paths to the research system were a tangle of intersecting lines. Sage studied them carefully, illuminating them like a living three-dimensional map, choosing his direction partly by knowledge and partly by intuition. One by one, he located openings, and the maze gradually untangled before them. At last he found a connection he'd been looking for: he felt something opening, his awareness expanding.
[What are you doing?] he heard.
For a moment, he was too busy to answer. A new landscape was opening up, as though a filter were sliding back to reveal a twisting, four-dimensional geometry. He scanned, taking in large sections of the map, processing the possibilities in a fraction of the time it would have taken him just moments ago. He found an opening: a cleft in the contours that led inward. [I think that's what we want,] he said, diving.
[Tell me what's going on!]
[I've tied into an enhancement circuit,] he answered nonchalantly, and before there was time for a reply, he had slipped into the opening, and yet another world unfolded in an eye-blink: the research matrix.
[Damn it, why didn't you say so?] Ramo's voice was a distant, angry whisper.
Sage knew that he should reply, but at the moment he was too busy reconnoitering. There was a wealth of information here, a spider's web of access threads. He darted quickly through the matrix, seeking a point for questioning. As he did so, he sensed Ramo tying into the enhancement circuit and moving off in his own search pattern. It irritated Sage to admit it, but obviously Ramo knew his way around gnostic systems, too.
A bit of searching brought them to a query channel. He called Ramo, and they floated together in the center of a tetrahedron of light. [Let's try it from here,] Sage said. [You can ask the basic questions, and it'll refer us to another area if it can't handle it here.] He felt the equivalent of a shrug from Ramo. The artist was still fuming at being left behind a moment ago. [System—are we in contact?]
There was a tremor. The system was listening.
[System,] Ramo called, [we require theoretical analysis of the following problem. Problem: to create a quark-matrix sculpture consisting of a force-field projected in free space from an orbital platform. Proposed solution: to modify components of the McConwell Company's stardrive system, to alter the consequential side effects in a visible and controllable manner. Request: examine the physics and provide a feasibility and design analysis.]
After a moment, the system answered in a flat male voice, [Please elaborate the reason for this study.]
Uh-oh, Sage thought. He wasn't prepared with a justification. Had he outsmarted himself with his cleverness in gaining access?
Ramo started to answer. [It was proposed by—]
There was a sudden, silent earthquake. The landscape of the rapture-field twisted and stretched asymmetrically and rotated; then it steadied.
[What the hell—]
Sage didn't answer. Something odd touched him at the edge of his consciousness, and abruptly he was aware of another presence. Someone or something was watching them. Security? He hadn't actually broken any rules, he thought—though he might have bent a few. [We're being observed,] he said. [System—please advise if there was any violation of security in our last request.]
There was no answer, but instead, a sudden crinkling, expanding feeling in his mind that made the previous enhancement a tickle by comparison. He was startled and a bit frightened; but when nothing else happened, he became curious. The presence, whatever it was, remained hovering like a spirit in his thoughts. It didn't feel like a security probe. Could it be a deeper aspect of the system, one of the inner AI routines? They were, he realized with a flush of nervousness, deeper in the system than he had ever been or intended to be, and he had no idea how that had happened.
[Do you know who we are?] he asked softly.
[Who are you talking to?] Ramo said.
There was silence, and then a sensation like the opening of a vast airshaft. Voices echoed in the depths of the shaft and then rose up out of it, a chaos of voices, none of them intelligible. He began to back away nervously, but the voices surrounded him and swarmed into him, invading his thoughts, deafening him. Before he could utter a cry, he was aware of being scanned and measured and judged. He blanched in humiliation, shivered, fought back an urge to flee. [Stop it!] he whispered angrily. He heard Ramo protesting, as well.
The voices cut off and left his head ringing.
A single presence remained, but slowly receded to a distance. It must be an aspect of security, an inner safeguard; perhaps they had set off a chain of alarms. He must have miscalculated terribly. How was he going to get out of this now?
The presence spoke—in a male voice, quiet and rather ordinary, now with a nasal Midwestern accent. [You are Sergio DeWeiler, gnostic designer,] the voice said, answering his earlier question. [Shall I profile?]
[Um—don't bother—]
[Your companion is Ramo Romano, a sculptor with whom I have worked before.]
There was a moment of palpable confusion; then Ramo said, [I beg your pardon? I don't believe I—]
[You created the lobby sculpture for the Northern Comex Opera Center.]
[Yes, but—]
[The design system of the Northern Comex Corporation is an extension of my capabilities. You worked with me on that sculpture—and on others.]
Ramo blinked in amazement. [Well . . .] He seemed to have some difficulty speaking. [I'll be a rat's ass,] he murmured finally.
The voice answered slowly. [I believe I understand the idiom. Now then—you wished to request assistance?]
Sage hesitated. [You . . . are you . . . really just . . . the system? Is that who we're speaking to?] There was no answer. Finally he took the nonanswer as an affirmative and cleared his throat. [We wish computations and analysis on a project.]
[Yes,] the system said. [Please provide parameters.]
[Yes, uh,] Sage said. [Do you . . . require proof of clearance first?] If it didn't come out now, it would come out later, and more painfully.
[You are here, are you not?] said the system. [Clearances have been passed. Please provide me with the parameters.]
Bewildered but pleased, Sage deferred to Ramo.
[It will be a force-field effect seven to twenty kilometers in extent in each direction, according to . . . this design sketch,] Ramo said quickly. [It will be a kinetic, time-dependent effect, producing a visibly evolving display. . . .]
* * *
Sage waited with growing excitement. Perhaps they had succeeded, and Pali and Kyd would get their design, after all. Given the complexity of the problem, he expected a long wait. Less than half a minute after Ramo finished, however, the voice spoke again. [I have your results.]
The topography surrounding them collapsed, leaving them in darkness. The voice reverberated, as though in an auditorium. [I have abridged the computations you requested and am providing an alternative model for your consideration.]
Ramo's voice rang in the emptiness. [What do you mean?]
[Analysis of the proposed field interaction suggested a process that already exists. Review of the existing solution is recommended.]
Sage and Ramo were both silent, bewildered. Then: [So tell us,] Ramo said.
[I will show you,] answered the system.
The darkness filled slowly with light, from a reddish glowing patch that took physical form like a galactic nebula. The cloud rotated and expanded, and as it grew it brightened and a spiral shape appeared within it: a galaxy in formation. That illusion vanished as the rotation grew faster, and the center of the spiral opened to darkness until it was a hollow vortex of light spinning faster and expanding, brightening . . .
Sage and Ramo fell through the vortex, Sage crying out silently. They had become a part of the image themselves. But what was this—?
The vortex exploded around them and flashed behind and vanished. Abruptly they were in space, surrounded by stars in blackness. Before them was a sun, bright and reddish, a little smaller than Earth's sun. Sage stared silently, trying to absorb the meaning of the image. It was clearly not Pali's sculpture.
What, then? His head began filling with a flood of figures—data regarding the star patterns, the characteristics of the sun, the types and orbits of the planets.
He heard Ramo grumbling in puzzlement. But Sage knew suddenly what they were seeing, though he didn't know why. It was realtime, he thought giddily, not knowing how he knew, just that he did. They were staring directly, as if through a fantastic lens, into the system of another star. And there was no way—he knew there was no way—that such a thing was possible.