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Chapter Ten

I'M as much to blame as anybody," Lilah said. "Billy's an orphan, his parents were lost when a rakehell went too near Dodman's Reef. He was only four when it happened. Since then he's been a sort of mascot for Confluence Center. He goes where he likes, does what he likes. We're all used to him popping up anywhere."

"Doesn't he have school?" Jeff was listening, but half his attention was elsewhere.

"Of course he does. That's only for part of the day, as long as the Logans can keep him there. He has plenty of time left for mischief—and he uses it. I bet he knows the interior of Confluence Center better than anyone. He has ways through the tunnels that even the Logans can't tell you. I'm glad I'm not in charge of him."

"Mm. "Jeff was counting his footsteps as he walked. He estimated that they had traveled close to a kilometer. "How big is Confluence Center?"

"Do you mean across, or along the axis?"

"Either one. Is there an axis? I mean a spin axis."

"There used to be. The Center grows all the time, it's been building for a century. From one side to the other—not counting the external tunnels—it's a couple of kilometers. And the thickness, along the spin axis, is about half a kilometer."

Jeff had been trying to judge his effective weight as they walked, and from that the field in which they moved. It had changed from near Earth gravity at the beginning to a point where they were close to floating along. Now it was slowly increasing again. If Confluence Center were rotating, that would make sense. They had started at the outside, where the centrifugal force caused by the rotation was a maximum. Then they had approached the spin axis for a while as they walked, so the centrifugal force that created the effect of gravity became less; and now they were heading out again toward the perimeter. But Lilah's words seemed to destroy that idea.

"You say there used to be a spin axis," he said. "What happened to it, and what's there now?"

She paused and her blond eyebrows lifted. "You're interested in weird stuff, aren't you? Are you a jinner, like the other two?"

"Hooglich and Russo? They say I am, but I don't think so."

"Well, you sure sound like one. Nobody sensible cares about weight and spin and that sort of rubbish. The way I've heard it, Confluence Center was spinning until about ten years ago. Then they stopped it. I remember the way it was before, and it's better like this."

"But if it stopped spinning, everything ought to be close to free fall. Confluence Center is in open space; there's no gravity around here."

"There certainly is." Lilah slid a comb from her pocket, released it, and caught it again as it fell slowly toward the floor. "What do you think that is, if it's not gravity?"

"I mean, there ought to be no gravity. There's not enough mass for gravity."

"Complain about it to Administrator Cheever, then."

"It's not an administrative issue."

"Then talk to Simon Macafee—if you can find him. I never met him, but they say he likes that sort of stuff."

"Macafee." Jeff halted in his tracks. "I saw that name when I looked up the Anadem field in the query system. Is Simon Macafee the one who invented it?"

"They say that, but I don't really know. I don't care, either. He's supposed to be a real loony, and that's all I can tell you about him. Why are you worried about nonsense like that?"

Jeff gave up. Lilah was pointedly not interested in anything to do with science—even science that affected her and the whole of Confluence Center. He wondered if she was interested in anything.

She was walking along the long spiral of the corridor, and as he caught up with her, she asked, "What did you mean, when you said that you didn't know what the Sol navy was trying to do?"

"I don't know their strategy. I'm an ensign. The navy doesn't tell its plans to junior officers."

"Not even to you? You're a Kopal. Everyone says that Kopals run Sol's navy, even if they don't travel much beyond the Sol system. How did you come to be here?"

How, indeed? Jeff said, "I don't know. I guess I fell off a horse."

If he had intended a conversation stopper, it was a failure. Lilah stopped, grabbed him by the arm, and swung him to face her. Her blue eyes blazed. "You've ridden a horse?"

"Ridden one, groomed one, fell off one—lots of times. I was taught to ride before I could read."

"Oh, my God. That's so wonderful."

Jeff's opinion of Lilah Desmon went down two notches. He was thinking, What sort of idiot doesn't care why there is a gravitational field at Confluence Center, but is fascinated because I can ride a horse? He said, "I even own a horse. It's a mare called Domino."

"You're so lucky. I've dreamed about owning a horse since I was three years old."

"Are there horses out here?" Maybe his idea that they were found only on Earth was wrong.

Lilah shook her head. "Not a single one. I only wish there were." She grabbed his arm and started to tow him back along the corridor. "I have to show you my rooms. I've got pictures of horses all over my walls, and a million questions about them."

"I thought Administrator Cheever was waiting for us." It was better to say that than to tell Lilah Desmon that horse pictures were one of the world's most boring items, up there with horseflies and horse sweat and horse manure, and Aunt Delia Lazenby's unspeakable horsey tea parties.

Lilah stopped pulling at him. "Ooh. She is. I forgot. You have to go to your meeting. Will you come and see my rooms? And talk with me about horses?"

"Sure."

"Promise? Later today?"

"Sure." Much later, if Jeff had anything to do with it. He followed Lilah, and in another couple of minutes they were entering a huge hemispherical room with a smooth, hard floor. The curved wall had been made into one giant display that showed the misty glories of the Messina Cloud. Sitting in the middle of the room at a round table, dwarfed to insignificance by the scale of the chamber, were three people: Russo, Hooglich, and a second woman.

Jeff was no close observer of features and appearances, but even he could see the resemblance between Lilah Desmon and the stranger. The woman was an older version of Lilah, with darker, shorter hair and with lines in her forehead and at the corners of her eyes and mouth.

Lilah led him forward, and he halted and came to full attention.

"Took your time, didn't you?" the woman said. She was talking to Lilah.

"Billy Jexter was with us. We had to get rid of him."

"Ah," the woman said, as though a reference to Billy explained everything. She glanced up at Jeff, studying his rigid stance. "Hello. I'm Connie Cheever. How are you feeling?"

"Very well, thank you." Jeff doubted that she wanted to hear how nervous he was.

"Good. If you feel tired or hungry, don't try to fight it. Eat, or drink, or lie down, as soon as the feeling comes over you. Otherwise, the nannies will make you do it. They are good, but they're not too smart. They don't tell you when they're finished. Are you hungry or sleepy now?"

"Not at all."

"Then sit down. You don't have to stand like a statue if you don't want to."

She was amazingly casual, not at all like the highest authority in Confluence Center.

Jeff held his rigid position. "Am I a prisoner of war?"

"What war?" Connie Cheever waved a hand. "Come on, sit down before you burst. There is no war so far as I know, although a few hours ago I received a message from a Sol-side ship. The Dreadnought has passed through the node into the Cloud, and it wants to meet with us here."

"I know that ship," Hooglich said. "Destroyer class, not much firepower in spite of its name. Strange. The Dreadnought is a Central Command vessel, not Border Command. I wonder what that means."

Jeff's leg muscles were tightening. He decided he might as well give up standing to attention. As he sat down he asked, "Did the message from the ship mention me?"

"I'm afraid it did." Connie Cheever glanced around the table. "All of you, you and Hooglich and Russo. You are all officially described as deserters from the Space Navy."

"That's absolute nonsense." Russo's beak of a nose glowed pink with fury. "If I could get my hands on Captain Eliot Bloody Dufferin, old Squeaky would—"

"Be patient, and maybe you will. He might be on board the Dreadnought. I gave them directions for Confluence Center, and they'll be here in about a week." Connie Cheever turned to Lilah, who had shown no signs of leaving. "You're not part of this meeting, but if you want to stay, you can. On one condition. When you speak the first word, you leave."

From what Jeff had seen of Lilah, that wouldn't take very long. But she said, "I promise, Mother. Not a word."

That disposed of one question. He had wondered why someone her age would be sent to bring him to a meeting with the administrator. She sat down at the table by his side, while her mother went on, "The three of us have already talked about the Aurora and what the Sol navy thought it could possibly achieve here. I'd like to hear your impressions, Jeff Kopal. Before you were told by Captain Dufferin, had you ever heard anything about the Cloud seceding from Sol?"

Jeff had to think. He felt as though he had known about that for a long time—but how long? Finally, he had the answer.

"It was before I left Earth—before I even joined the Space Navy. A month and more ago. I asked the query link at Kopal Manor about the places where Border Command operated, and it came back to say that Node 23—the node that serves the Messina Dust Cloud—was one of the trouble spots. It said the node threatened to secede from Sol control."

"Interesting." Connie Cheever glanced at Hooglich and Russo. "But untrue, of course."

"I told you," Russo said. "There's something else going on here—something that has nothing to do with any secession. Only I don't know what."

"That's why we're talking. And now we've disposed of one possibility." Connie Cheever turned to Jeff. "I'm not trying to be mysterious. The Cloud has never threatened to secede from Sol, even though we have our own government and no need for support from them. We've been economically self-sufficient for fifty years, and there's nothing new on that front. We did tell the Sol-side authorities that we won't pay node use charges anymore, because we maintain this node and we make less use of it than they do. But we told them that recently, in just the past couple of weeks. Your query link gave you information earlier. So unless somebody on Earth can see the future, this doesn't explain the talk about us seceding."

Lilah had been following everything closely. "It's as though someone wants to start a war and is looking for a reason," she said.

Jeff glanced over at Connie Cheever and waited for a reaction. The administrator merely nodded. "That's a very intriguing and useful suggestion. We'll have to consider it, because Sol is certainly acting that way. Thank you, dear." And, as Lilah began to smile in satisfaction, "But now, of course, you have to leave."

"Muv! You can't do that. I was helping."

"You were indeed. But rules are rules. Not a word, I said at the start; and you agreed. So off you go."

Lilah frowned, but at last she stood up from the table, glowered around, and walked head-down to the door of the chamber. Connie Cheever waited patiently until she was almost outside, then called after her, "Thanks again, dear. See you at dinnertime."

Jeff revised his ideas about the atmosphere in Confluence Center. Easygoing it might be, but rules are rules. He would not speak until he was asked to.

"The question is," Connie said thoughtfully, "What is there here that's worth starting a war over?"

"The stable transuranics?" Hooglich suggested. "Or the Cauthen starfires?"

Connie shook her head. "You need the Logans and the nannies to collect transuranics on a commercial basis. Sol government won't use either, so it's cheaper for them to buy from us. As for starfires, they lead to so much trouble from the space sounders, no one in her right mind tries to collect them anymore. It's a mystery why Sol might want to stir up war. We have a hundred thousand people here in the whole Cloud, they have ten billion on Earth alone. They could ship every one of us there and not even notice a difference. We do have ten million smart machines. But they don't want any part of those."

"I tell you." Russo stood up and stamped his boot on the floor. "It's right underneath here. This is what they want."

"The Anadem field?" Hooglich asked.

Russo nodded vigorously. "Isn't this something the Cloud has refused to sell—refused to admit you have, almost?"

"We have refused to sell," Connie said. "But that wasn't my decision to make. It's Simon Macafee's invention, and he has made his position clear. He'll give it for use free in the Cloud, but he won't let it be sold or given to Sol. I can't see how they'd use it if they had it. Are there free-space colonies in the Sol system?"

"Some. Mining mostly." Hooglich scratched at her head. Her hair, to Jeff's eyes, had not been combed since the last time he saw her. "No, it's the Space Navy that would be most interested in the Anadem field. If you had a neutralizing field for acceleration, you could make fast transits at ten G or more, and your crew would never feel it. Russo's right, that might be a reason to start a war—so you could come here and grab the Anadem field, and no one able to stop you. Once Earth had the secret, what could the Cloud do about it? There's an old saying:"—she switched to her Pool accent—" 'Big sticks, good arguers.' But there's still a problem. The people on Earth don't start wars easily. You'd have to give them a reason—a better reason than a new invention, or the loss of a small ship like the Aurora."

The others were nodding. Obviously, they knew something that Jeff didn't. In the past few days, the Anadem field had apparently gone from navy rumor to hard reality. But he knew something that maybe would be news to them. The Space Navy didn't build its own ships, not one of them. They were constructed under contract. And by far the biggest and most successful contractor, ever since the time of Great-grandfather Rollo Kopal, was Kopal Transportation.

Jeff opened his mouth and found himself reluctant to speak. It had been drilled into him since he was a toddler: He was a Kopal, and he wasn't supposed to tell outsiders anything about the company operations or business.

"Maybe we can talk to Macafee," said Hooglich at last. "See if he'll change his mind."

"Maybe we can," Connie agreed. "And maybe we can't. The first job will be to find him."

"Isn't he here, at Confluence Center?"

"I don't know. I can't even guarantee that he's alive. We never track people who don't want to be tracked, and he's been a solitary for years and years, a kind of wandering hermit. No one knows where he came from, nobody knows where he goes. One time he vanished for a couple of years, and all he said when he came back was that he had been out among the reefs, studying them and everything to do with them. He's shy with people, but every now and then he pops up with some new gadget and gives it to us. We got the Anadem field that way. If he wanted to, he could have made a fortune. But he doesn't care. He wants privacy, and we give him that in return for what he gives us."

"Privacy," Russo said. "Isn't this more important than privacy? Suppose the main CenCom fleet comes through the node. It has enough weapons to turn the whole of Confluence Center to plasma."

"If the main fleet comes through, I'll certainly worry about that. Maybe we'll just surrender and get it over with. Meanwhile, I need to think." Connie Cheever pulled a black oblong toward her from the middle of the table, pressed the side, and spoke into it. "Lilah, I said I'd see you at dinner, but are you free now? If you are, I'd like you to take Ensign Kopal, feed him if he needs it, and show him around the Center while the Logans make accommodations. If you're not here in five minutes, I'll get someone else to do it."

Lilah appeared suspiciously fast, only a few seconds after Connie Cheever's call. Jeff decided that she must have been lurking outside the door. Maybe she was trying to listen, and maybe she had succeeded. Security seemed far less tight than at Kopal Manor, where closed doors were the rule for all important conversations.

In any case, Lilah's arrival was too rapid for Jeff. He wanted time with Hooglich and Russo. While Lilah was still at the door he turned to Hooglich as she was levering her bulk out of her seat. "The Anadem field," he said rapidly. "People keep talking about it, but I don't know how it works."

"Join the club. Me and Russo talked earlier. We know what it does, but we don't understand how it works, either."

"But what is it?"

"I can tell you that." Hooglich sat down again. Connie Cheever and Russo had left, but Lilah was waiting impatiently at Jeff's side. He ignored her and a strange moment of dizziness, and kept his attention on the big woman.

"Take two solid rings of matter," Hooglich said. "Make them the same size, and place them one above the other with the same center, like this." She drew what she had described.

 

031286407801.jpg 

"Got it?"

"Sure." Jeff struggled to concentrate. "What are they made of?"

"The Anadem field here works with solid carbon rings, because there's plenty of that in the Cloud; but apparently you can use pretty much anything.

"The region between the rings can contain any kind of material, but let's suppose that it's vacuum. In practice it makes no difference what it is, because the Anadem field doesn't care. Here's what a cross section of the rings looks like, if you make the cut through their centers." She drew another simple picture underneath the first.

 

THE%20CYBORG%20FROM%20EARTH01.jpg 

"All right?"

"All right." Jeff was aware of Lilah fidgeting at his side, but he couldn't attend to that. He was having trouble concentrating, and what Hooglich was saying was important. "How big are the rings?"

"Any size you like to make them. For Confluence Center, they are big enough for the main structure to sit in between the rings, like meat in a sandwich. For a Cloudship they normally fit around the middle part, where crew quarters are. Are you going to keep interrupting?"

"Not a word." He realized that he was repeating what Lilah had said to her mother, and she was scowling at him.

"The Anadem field is produced by a resonance between the rings" Hooglich added a set of spiral lines to her drawing. "It's a vector field, and it produces a body force. That means a force like gravity or acceleration, one that acts on every piece of material. But it's not gravity. The force is strong right between the rings, and falls away fast as you get farther from them—much faster than the gravity inverse square law. It looks like this, where the arrows show the direction of the force and their length shows the force strength." She took another sheet, repeated the cross-sectional drawing of the rings, and added to them a lot of arrows. They were long and straight in the cylindrical region directly between the rings, and shorter in the middle. Outside the ring region they rapidly dwindled away to nothing.

 

THE%20CYBORG%20FROM%20EARTH02.jpg 

"With the Anadem field switched on at Confluence Center, in the region between the rings you have a force pulling you to the floor, the way we do now. It feels like gravity, but as I said, it isn't."

"So one ring is down below us, and the other one is up above our heads?"

"That's right."

"Why did Russo stamp his foot on the floor?"

"What do you expect him to do, stamp his foot on the ceiling?" Hooglich waved her arm. "Go on, out of here. You're at the silly stage."

Jeff stood his ground. She was right. He was approaching the limits of patience for Mercy Hooglich, and some other limit for himself. But there was a mystery to be explained. "Just one more question."

Hooglich wrinkled her nose. "I don't know about that."

He took it as agreement and said, "You and Russo seem to think that the Anadem field would be a great thing for the Space Navy, because a ship could make trips at higher accelerations. I don't see how. Wouldn't the field just make you feel heavier?"

"I said you'd reached the silly stage, and that proves it." She took the last sheet she had drawn on and handed it to Jeff. "Go figure for yourself. I'm out of here."

She left him staring at the page with Lilah tugging at his arm and saying, "Thank Heaven, I thought you'd never stop. I've been waiting for you forever"

Jeff saw the answer in five seconds, but by that time Hooglich was gone. He stuffed the page into the pocket of his pants. He wanted to follow her and explain that he wasn't a total fool, even though his last question made him look like one. He couldn't do it, because suddenly he was feeling a great weakness. He wanted to lie down somewhere, anywhere, on the floor, on the table if he had to. It wasn't hunger, it was something else.

Lilah didn't seem to notice. She took his arm, and he had no strength to resist. "This way," she said, as she pulled him along. And then, "Well, what do you want?"

Jeff found that his eyes had somehow closed. He opened them and saw that she was not talking to him. Billy Jexter had popped up from nowhere.

"You said I couldn't come to your meeting," Billy said, "but it's over now."

"How do you know?"

"I was listening. I heard everything."

"You little sneak." Lilah didn't ask how. Jeff wondered if people in the Cloud knew what a private conversation was. His eyes closed again, beyond his control.

"This is another meeting that doesn't need you," Lilah was saying. "We're going to my rooms. So you can just go away again."

"What's wrong with him?" Billy said.

Jeff tried to open his eyes. He couldn't do it. He heard somebody saying in an excited voice, "He's falling over," and "Look out!" and "Catch him!" He wondered who they were talking about.

And then it didn't matter anymore.

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