Echoes of an Alien Sky (33 page)

"So you see, it did bring you some good luck . . . " Kyal began. "Oh, you're not wearing it. Where's your katek?"

Lorili looked down, putting a hand instinctively to her neck. "Oh, I take it off when I'm working in the lab. See, I was in such a tizzy to see you again that there, I forgot it. It seems to work remotely though, doesn't it?"

"Did I tell you that the Terrans' sign for their Providence program looks like it?"

"Yes, in one of your mails. Isn't it strange?"

"It's even stranger now, when you think about it," Kyal said.

Lorili looked at him curiously. "In what way?"

"Well, the katek is also a symbol for homecoming, yes? Remember the legend I told you when we first met, about the Wanderers?"

"Okay."

"Well . . ." Kyal tossed out a hand, "if Providence was a survival cache that the Terrans left back on Earth, then it would have meant homecoming for them too, wouldn't it? So how about that? A double coincidence."

Kovark worked as a general help in the kitchen of the Patagonia staff restaurant on
Explorer 6
. Fidira was a machine tender and stitcher in the fabric cleaning and repair shop. They both liked the sound of the Progressive agenda as the way of rising to better things. If you helped the movement, then when the time came and the right people had the power, the movement would help you. That seemed like a fair enough deal. Kovark, in particular, admired the image he had formed in his mind of the proud, unbending, militant Terran rebel, and had no qualms about the use of force as a political expedient. Jenyn had long ago recognized that such people would make good shock troops and had been working hard to organize and educate potential loayal lieutenants for the times that lay ahead. Right now, however, what he needed was cooperative witnesses. And what made these two deal was that in their surface leaves down at Rhombus, they had found their way to some of the "interesting" parties that Tyarla talked about. They had even seen her at one or two of them on occasion.

Jenyn talked to them on some seats set around an alcove in front of the public network booths on one side of the Central Concourse, where he had been using the directories to check names and contact details of other Progressive supporters located on
Explorer 6
. The background noise from the concourse area gave them privacy, and the alcove was screened by a planter filled with Terran flora, and reasonably secluded.

"It isn't public knowledge yet, but what's going on is that she's saying I was behind it," Jenyn told them. "I've had to come up here from Rhombus to defend myself. You don't need to know all the details, so I'll just say it's a grudge she's been carrying since the time before I went to the Americas. She thinks she's doing Lornod a favor that he'll be grateful for when his name is cleared and I'm out of the picture. That's where she's really aiming."

"Sounds like a pretty crazy way of taking out a grudge," Fidira said. She had mirror-streaked hair and face doodles—the latest from Venus.

"Yeah, well, she's a pretty crazy kind of person," Jenyn agreed. Kovark snorted knowingly. "But the problem is, we have big things about to happen all over—down at Rhombus; across in the American settlements and bases; back on Venus." Jenyn gestured expansively. "I can't afford to have this kind of thing hanging over me, even if it is fabricated. But it could take me down all the same, and the news ghouls are slavering. I need to be able to kill this dead once and for all—for the movement's sake. Especially now, when it's all about to happen." He looked at them meaningfully. "That could make things pretty good, one day, for anyone who helps the movement out at a time like this."

Korvark nodded knowingly. He looked willing but puzzled. "What can we do?" he asked.

Jenyn's voice dropped. "The only way you can fight this kind of thing is with the same weapons," he murmured. "This Tyarla wants to start spreading smears? Okay, I'm not happy with it, but she not giving us any choice. We have to defend ourselves accordingly."

"I'm not sure what you're saying," Fidira said.

"I told you a minute ago that she's doing it to work off a grudge against me," Jenyn said. "But all I've got against her is my word. What it needs is someone else, better still, more than just one . . ." he gestured at each of them in turn, "to back me up. Look, you saw her at a couple of these parties, right? All we need is a couple of words to the effect that you heard her say she was going to make Jenyn Thorgan sorry. Something like that. You don't have to be specific about when she said it. In fact it might come across better if it were a little vague. More natural. And if
two
of you say you heard it. . . ." Uncertainty registered on their faces. "It would only be stretching things a bit," Jenyn told them. "It was there in her head for sure. And with some of the states I've seen her in, she wouldn't know what she'd said anyway." He looked from one to the other.

"Well, I don't know. . . ." Korvark said hesitantly. "I mean, it's kind of a personal thing you're asking here. Those kinds of parties aren't exactly the kind of thing you go around telling everybody about."

Jenyn nodded. "I understand. Think of it as being for the movement. A small thing to put up with. A month from now it will all be forgotten anyhow." He waited. Korvark vacillated. "We'll make it worth your while," Jenyn said. I know the right people. Trust me."

"How much might we be talking about?" Korvark asked.

"Aw, say a couple of hundred, maybe? . . . Two-fifty?"

Fidira met Jenyn's eyes searchingly. He gave a almost imperceptible nod of affirmation. She nudged Korvak's arm with an elbow.

"He needs help here," she urged. "Where's the Terran warrior? Do you think they would have thought twice about it?"

Korvark flushed, and Jenyn saw she had touched a nerve. "Okay," Korvark told him. "You can count on us."

"Terrific. You won't regret this, either of you."

"What exactly do you want us to do?"

"I'll call you about that shortly, okay?"

Korvak nodded, firmly now. "Okay."

Jenyn braced his hands on his knees. "You probably need to get back. And I know I have things to do. I'll be in touch."

He stood watching while they disappeared back out onto the main concourse, then turned and went back to the row of network booths and sat down in an empty one. He still had his list of Progressive follow-ups to be completed. Before returning to that, however, he checked the Earth-local news channel for anything new regarding Lornod. The topic seemed to be quiet just at the moment. A line in the new announcements box said something about Providence, which was the last thing Jenyn had been working on down in Rhombus. He selected it out of curiosity. A clip began playing of a commentator talking about a statement released after a scientific meeting that had taken place that morning, to the effect that Providence was now believed to have been somewhere on Earth. It was evidently a matter of some excitement. Still absorbed in his own thoughts, Jenyn watched absently as heads talked about a secret survival supplies dump, interspersed with shots of the Terran installation on lunar Farside and a map showing the southern half of the Americas. Then Sherven, the scientific Director, was summing up with a routine pep spiel about significant new findings ahead, and appointing somebody to a new position on
Explorer 6
to coordinate the work. As Sherven was speaking, the camera backed off to bring into view another figure who had been waiting alongside him—a man, maybe in his late thirties or early forties, with lean, ruggedly formed features, but drawn around a sensitive mouth, mirthful eyes that seemed to be finding the business fun, and dark curly hair.

Jenyn sat up sharply. He had seen that face before. The immediate associations that he felt were negative and disturbing. Sherven was saying, " . . .Master of Engineering Kyal Reen, son of the distinguished Ulangean electromagneticist and philosopher Jarnor Reen, who was a leader in initiating the Earth-exploration program. Also joining us here along with Master Reen will be a colleague of his from Venus, who has been working with him on the investigation of Terran electro-propulsion constructions on the lunar Farside: Fellow of Applied Sciences, Yorim Zeestran." The camera angel widened again to take in a younger, yellow-haired figure with a short beard, standing the other side of Reen. "One of the questions . . ."

It was the same Yorim that Jenyn had met in Rhombus, who had joined the group on the trip westward to the Mediterranean coast. Reen was the person who had arrived to join him in the launch area back at Rhombus, when Jenyn had followed him. Lorili had been with Reen.

The scientists were evidently in a jovial mood. "Oh, I think Kyal has other, very good reasons for wanting to move to
Explorer
too," one of them quipped—short and squarely built, with a dark beard. A caption popped up saying BORGAN CASSELO.

"She's purely a coincidence," Reen said, smiling. The banter moved on to other things.

Jenyn muted the sound and sat back heavily in the chair. The picture replayed in his mind of Lorili and Reen embracing before Reen departed with his partner to catch the shuttle. He could no longer hide from himself that his obsession to reassert himself with Lorili had stemmed from the jealousy he had felt since that moment. When Derlen tried to call her, the friend of Elundi's who worked with Lorili had told her that Loril was moving to a new laboratory, but he wouldn't say where. And Sherven was talking about reassigning Reen to a job in
Explorer 6
.

On a hunch, Jenyn killed the news channel and brought up a directory showing the organizational structure of departments and personnel in
Explorer 6
. He found the section for scientific offices and laboratories, went to the heading BIOLOGICAL, and began searching under Molecular Biology. "Hilivar, Lorili, F.Exp.Sci.(Biochem)" was a new entry listed in Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology Laboratories, Room C-23.

His breathing became labored and shaky as he stared at the screen. He could see the picture clearly now: her scheming with Elundi and his friend; the clandestine visit to Tyarla's; a way out already planned. Even after he had been prepared to forget her earlier treachery back at Venus and give her a second chance, she had stabbed him in the back again and run away to her new-found lover with a famous name—one of Sherven's clique, doubtless with a direct ticket into the Establishment. So much for the worth of loyalty and principle.

The same cold but relentless rage began taking hold of him again as he had felt after listening to Derlen down in Rhombus. Once again, he saw his carefully laid plans and ambitions, the result of years of work, about to come apart because of the same person. He worked a fist savagely into the other hand.
No
! he felt some force that was arising inside him saying. She would learn that he was not someone to sit by and let her get away with it, but a person to be reckoned with. It was a test of himself also. He would prove to himself that he was capable of the boldness and the nerve that his vision for the future demanded.

Jenyn closed the directory and brought up in its place an index of
Explorer 6
layout and construction plans.

As Kyal had predicted, the attendees from the morning's meeting were in no hurry to break up after the news interview, but stayed on, debating different angles and using the conference-area screens in Sherven's office. The sense of significant new findings about to unfold intensified when it was discovered that there had indeed been a town called Santa Cruz in central Bolivia. But the directions that Elundi, down in Rhombus, had supplied in connection with the Terran engineer who had flown from Santa Cruz to Providence couldn't be made to fit. Late in the afternoon, Elundi called back in response to a request that Casselo had sent for confirmation. Kyal went through the problem with Elundi again, while others followed or continued with their own discussions around the room.

"The engineer flew from Santa Cruz to Providence, then back to wherever this Bay Area was."

"That's what it says," Elundi confirmed from a screen adjacent to the one displaying the map of western south America, which included Bolivia.

"And 'Bay Area' would imply the coast."

"Yes."

"Which we're saying appears to be the west coast."

"Yes."

Kyal sent an appealing glance to the others around him. "Which means Providence would have to be somewhere east of Santa Cruz. It's supposed to be in the region of this "High Lake," which we think was Titicaca. But Titicaca is
west
of central Bolivia and Santa Cruz, not east."

Elundi sighed audibly. "Yes, I know. There has to be something wrong here. Look, all I can do is go back to the original sources and double check the translations. You'll have to leave it with me."

"Fair enough," Kyal said.

"Eleven o'clock," Chown reminded him.

"Oh, yes." Kyal looked back at the screen. "And there's another thing we'd like you to look ito, Elundi. Going back to the pilot's notes, is there anything to indicate why it says eleven o'clock? What was so significant about the time of day?"

"I assumed it was to identify the particular flight," Elundi answered. "You know—as one of a series. But I'll see if I can find anything else."

"We'll be waiting to hear from you," Kyal said. Elundi cleared down.

Sherven sauntered back in from attending to some matters with Emitte in the outer office. "So what did our friend down in Rhombus make of it?" he asked Casselo.

"He insists it's as he stated. But he's gone away to double check his sources," Casselo replied. Sherven nodded in a way that said he'd expected as much.

"It's definitely not this Mexican gulf," Chown said. "I'd say we can forget about the east coast."

The language situation was more confused than had been the case when dealing just with the installations on Luna, where English seemed to have been the universal rule. Earth's patchwork of regional and national tongues was bewildering compared to the simple pattern of spreading and divergence that could be traced on Venus. Besides there being no comparable long history of conquests and assimilation, the geography of Venus, especially on account of its inhospitable equatorial belt, was not conducive to large-scale migrations and the mixing of populations.