“How do you do that?” Jackie asked her.
“Do what, ma’m?”
“Appear and disappear like magic. Know when to refill the coffee.”
The waitress grinned. “All part of the service,” she said, not answering the question, and turned to remove the dirty dishes to wherever they got removed to.
Weird. Jackie shook her head, then looked across the table to Carson. It was time to find out what he really had in mind. “Okay, Carson, what’s up?”
Carson set his cup down and leaned forward, clasping his hands together on the table in front of him. “Well, first of all we need to go to Epsilon Indi, to meet with Marten—”
“Who?” The name sounded familiar, but Jackie couldn’t place it. Perhaps she’d heard it from Carson before.
“You remember, the timoan archeologist who worked with me on the Rift. Oh, wait, that was a different expedition.”
“Nice, Carson. It’s all just one big dig to you. Timoan, girlfriend,” she cringed inwardly at the word, but it had been true enough then, “whoever, they’re just someone in the background when you’re on a site. Did tomb raiders kidnap him for ransom, too?” Carson had made some unique finds that trip. A band of black marketers had hoped to trade her for the artifacts, and that bastard Carson had refused. Jackie picked up her fork and stabbed it down into her roll.
Carson blinked. “Uh, actually . . .” Jackie glared at him. “Um, no.” He picked up his coffee cup, then put it down again without drinking. “Anyway, Marten is an archeologist I’ve partnered with before, on several different trips. I want to go to Taprobane and meet with him. I’m hoping to persuade him to come along, but in any case he has a talisman we picked up on a recent dig that I’d like to take another look at.”
“Oh?” Jackie took a bite of he sweet roll and another sip of coffee. She didn’t sugar her coffee, enjoying the interplay of flavors between the sticky sweetness of the roll and the slightly bitter taste of the coffee. She focused on that for the moment, shifting her attention back to the job at hand. “What’s the significance of the talisman?”
“Well, let me give you some background. What do you know about this corner of the galaxy?” Carson began.
Roberts just gave him a look. “I’m a pilot and a damn good astrogator.” She stabbed her fork into the roll again. “I probably know more about it than you do.”
“Sorry, I meant the history, or rather, prehistory.”
“Same as everyone else. Most of the Earthlike planets we’ve found seem to have been deliberately terraformed and seeded with Earth life, about sixty-five million years ago. Nobody knows by who. Since we haven’t found any dinosaurs, it probably wasn’t them. What’s your point?”
“Okay, that’s further back than I meant. Actually some people would argue about the dinosaurs, but that’s a side issue. I was referring to the ruins found on various planets.”
Jackie started to feel like she was in school again and was thankful for the temporary reprieve when the waitress came by with a pot.
“More coffee, gentles?” she asked and, at their nods, refilled their cups. “Can I get you anything else?”
“Not just now, thanks.” Carson said. He sipped the hot liquid and turned his attention back to Jackie. “So, what else?”
“Well, to date we haven’t found any signs of prehistoric spacefarers on Earth or anywhere in the Solar system, or any indication of who or what did the terraforming.” Jackie paused. “Does this have something to do with the Terraformers?”
Hannibal put his cup down slowly, a thoughtful expression on his face. “That’s one theory, and it’s one that has Homeworld Security nervous.”
“I can understand that.” Indeed, the Terraformers must have had fantastic technology. If any caches of that were still around, there would be serious implications if it fell into the wrong hands. But, Carson hadn’t finished. “You don’t think that’s it, though,” said Jackie.
“No, it doesn’t make sense. The time scale is all wrong—sixty five million years is geological ages, time enough for continents to drift and mountain ranges to rise or fall—at least on the more geologically active planets.”
“Like Earth.”
“Yes. And most of those terraformed planets are like Earth. There may well have been more of them, but some didn’t stay terraformed.”
“Okay, and?”
“My point is,” said Carson, jabbing at the table with his index finger for emphasis, “that these artifacts are probably no more than a few tens of thousands of years old. I found the remains of a high-tech artifact on Delta Pavonis. It was fifteen thousand years old.”
“Really? What was it?”
“I don’t know yet. The point is, there was another spacefaring species that visited—or arose in—this area of space. They might even have visited Earth, we’d probably have been in the depths of an ice age, just as we were for most of the Pleistocene.”
That was out of Jackie’s field. Carson was the archeologist; she’d take his word for it. Still, there was a point he had glossed over. “But that’s still a spacefaring race, wouldn’t they have advanced and possibly dangerous technology too?”
“Of course. I’m not implying that Homeworld Security shouldn’t be nervous, just that they should be nervous for the right reasons.” Carson sat back and finished his coffee with a gulp.
Jackie pondered this. She was still missing some key information. “Okay, but you still haven’t explained how this talisman ties in.”
“Oh yes, that. What’s left of the one I recently found is similar to one that we recovered at Zeta Tucanae. That one was in wonderful condition. The one from Verdigris is damaged and worn. This raises the intriguing question of how an apparently primitive artifact—except that it wasn’t—has a twin on a planet light-years distant. Also, the faces of the objects have patterns or diagrams on them, dots marked by small colored stones connected with lines.” Carson pulled out his omni, unfolded the screen and sketched a quick diagram on it. “Could be anything. An abstract design, a sort of Polynesian shell and stick map, a circuit diagram, or it might also represent a constellation or star chart.”
“So you think it’s a clue to the location of something more significant?”
“Exactly.” Carson’s eyes were bright.
“And you know how to interpret it?”
Carson’s shoulders slumped. “Ah, no. I was hoping you could help with that. As you said, you’re a damn good astrogator, you probably know T-space as well as anyone.”
“So you want me to decipher it?” That could be challenging. Over thousands of years, stars would have drifted. A two-dimensional projection of objects scattered in three-dimensional space would also be a difficult match without knowing the point of view it was drawn from. “That may take some time.”
“If it is a star map, then you’re the one to do it.”
“That will cost extra,” Roberts said with a straight face.
Carson shook his head and chuckled. “I assume that means you’ll take the charter?”
Jackie sighed, wondering what she was getting herself into. But the opportunity sounded too good to pass up. Damn it, she never could say no to Hannibal. “Yes it does. When do we leave?”
Chapter 14: Departure Preparations
Kreschet Spaceport, Kakuloa
They scheduled departure for two days hence. Jackie still wanted some down time. She also needed to reorganize the ship, to lay in supplies and make sure there’d be enough room for Carson, his gear, and any other passengers they might pick up on the way. She might as well see if she could pick up any business on the side, too. She keyed her omni.
“Flight Information Office, Chang speaking, how can I help you?”
“This is Jackie Roberts of the Sophie, headed out to the Epsilon Indi system tomorrow. I’m putting the flight plan in now. I wanted to see if you had anything for me.”
“Hey Jackie. Let me check.” Jackie heard the tapping of fingers on a keyboard. “Th
e Celestial Princess departed for there two days ago, so probably not much. Oh, wait, I’m seeing several exabytes of new data on the netcache. That’s right, we got new Sol data traffic on the ship that came in to Sawyers World.”
The netcache was a snapshot of a system’s internet data, at least that which the owners wanted to make public or to transmit to out-system recipients. An intelligent versioning system tracked when the local copies of off-planet data were last updated, when local data was last sent off-planet, and where it was sent. Ships licensed to do so—it required the necessary secure computer gear and background checks for the crew—could earn fees by downloading the appropriate changes between what the netcache held now and what the versioning system thought was in the destination’s netcache, then uploading it when it reached the destination. Once there, that system’s versioning AI would sort out what was actually new to it and make the appropriate updates.
“If you have the space I’ll start the transfer now and you can do a final delta when you depart,” Chang continued.
“Let me check.” Jackie keyed a sequence on her control panel. “Okay, I’m good to go, it’s ready to download.”
“Connected and transferring. I see your flight plan in the system now too. Have a good one.”
Jackie ended the call, then keyed the number for the Customs office. She was a bonded courier for small cargo, too—anything to help cover costs—and there might be something waiting to go.
“Sorry, Jackie,” the outbound Customs agent told her. “We had a good couple of cubic meters of packages and a crate bound for Taprobane a few days ago, but that all left on the Princess. There’s a small packet that came in yesterday, but that’s all.”
Damn. That story was getting more and more frequent; there was just too much traffic between the settled stars these days. “Okay, thanks, I’ll swing by and pick it up just before departure tomorrow. There aren’t any other couriers departing before then, are there?”
“Not that I’m aware of, not for Epsilon Indi. Epsilon Eridani, yes, and Sol, all kinds of traffic to there.”
“Yeah, slightly different direction. All right, thanks. I’ll check back again tomorrow, just in case.”
∞ ∞ ∞
An athletic figure, Hopkins’ man Rico, connected to the public flight control database and queried flight plans scheduled in the next forty-eight hours. He scanned the resulting list until he found the Sophie’s and began reading the details. “Passengers: Hannibal Carson.” Yes, that was good. Skip over the usual equipment details, ship type, license details, etc. “Destination: Taprobane, Epsilon Indi.” There, that was what he was looking for. He logged off, then keyed in a number.
“Hello?”
“Boss, this is Rico. Roberts filed a flight plan to Taprobane. Carson’s on it. Departure time is tomorrow.”
“Good work. Get back to the ship, we need to be ready for takeoff.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Maynard listened to the tapped conversation and clicked off. In theory tapping the omniphone network was virtually impossible, but something had to route the message packets, even if only through the aether, and Maynard’s group had associates in network operations. He thought about what he had overheard. So, Carson was going to Epsilon Indi. What or who is on Taprobane? he wondered. Aside from too many filthy timoans. And why is that antiquities black marketeer interested? Maynard considered this. It would make sense for a character like Hopkins to keep track of field archeologists. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.
He called his own ship. “Make ready for takeoff, we’re heading for Epsilon Indi.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Carson hurled his omni across his small hotel room, bouncing it off the wall. “Of all the pea-brained, small minded, bureaucratic, officious . . . dolts!” Just then the door buzzer sounded.
“Enter!” Carson shouted.
The door slid open. Jackie Roberts stood in the doorway. “Am I interrupting something? I heard shouting.”
“Just me.” Carson picked up his omni and looked it over, then at the small dent he’d left in the wall. “I swear they don’t make these things like they used to.”
Roberts entered the room and looked at what Carson had been examining. “What, they used to make bigger dents? So what was that all about?”
“Message from the supply department at the university. I requisitioned some gear, and they don’t want to ship it here. Say I need to check it out in person or pre-authorize—again in person—the shipping.”
“So? Sawyer’s only a couple of hours away.” Most of that was getting to and from space; the warp jump took about twenty seconds. “Take a shuttle and I’ll come pick you up tomorrow on the way out-system. Or tell them what you need and we’ll both head there tomorrow.”
“Never mind, I’ll just pull the gear together here. I’ll find a local outfitter.”
“Why here? I can take you back to Sawyers to pick up your gear from the university and you can get the rest of what you need from your usual supplier.”
Carson said nothing for a moment. He looked down at the floor, then back up at Jackie. “Ah, I should probably stay away from Sawyer City for a while.”
Jackie leaned against the wall and folded her arms. “So, does this have to do with the ‘no specific danger’ you didn’t want to talk about? And the glued cut on your lip?”
Carson raised a hand to his face and turned to look in the mirror on the closet door. The cut was mostly healed, but still visible. “What?”
“I noticed it at breakfast. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning then.” She strode over to him and took his right hand, looking at the knuckles. “Spray-on bandage?”
Carson snatched his hand back. “A slight difference of opinion.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Carson?” Her eyes probed his.
“Noth—”
“The truth, Carson.”
“All right.” Carson looked away for a moment, then back to her. “My apartment and office were ransacked, and a couple of guys mugged me on campus.”
“Ditched girlfriend’s brothers, perhaps? I can sympathize. With them.”
Carson shook his head. “You ditched me, Jackie.” She started at that, but he kept talking. “No. They were probably looking for the artifact we’re going to Taprobane to get.”
Roberts swore. “I wish you’d told me that sooner. I filed a flight plan. Anyone can find out where we’re going.”
“Probably nobody knows I’m even here, let alone that I’m booking your charter. But can’t you change or cancel it?”
“I could, but I also agreed to courier a package there. I could cancel that too with a good enough reason, but even a cancelled flight plan is a clue to where we planned to go.” Jackie paced the room, then turned back to Carson. “Never mind, it’s done. What are you going to do about your gear?”
“I’ll just buy it here. I checked the local web while waiting for a response from Sawyers. There are some good deals available, especially on used gear.”
“Yeah, the outfitters are moving closer to the frontier. Just be careful on the used stuff.”
“I know. By the way, why are you here? Was there something you needed?”
“You promised to buy me dinner, remember?”
Had he? “Uh, of course. Let’s go.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Jackie added an entry to the manifest on the small wallscreen next to the aft compartment. She and Carson were stowing his newly acquired gear—an assortment of all-weather clothing, hiking and climbing gear, tents, excavation tools, recorders, medkits, ration bars, even snowshoes and diving gear—and the challenge was in imposing some kind of logical order to it all.
“I hope there isn’t too much more,” Jackie said.
“No, I—” Carson began, just as the chime of his omni interrupted. He looked at it, read what was apparently an incoming message, and then swore.
“More problems?”
“You could say that. Apparently the suppl
y department heard about the mugging and the break-in at my office and took pity on me. The gear I asked them for just arrived on the shuttle. There are two crates waiting for me to pick them up.”
Jackie rolled her eyes. “Good thing I reorganized the ships stores and lockers yesterday. Let’s see what you’ve got.” She turned to the computer screen. Carson touched his omni then waved it across the screen, which lit up with a list of equipment. Jackie tapped the screen, popping up the list of gear Carson had bought on Kakuloa, then tapped the two lists and merged them. Jackie scanned the result and let out a low whistle. Even if they eliminated the duplicates, that was a lot of gear. “Is there anything you’re not ready for?” she asked, amused.
“I certainly hope not. I’m assuming you have suits for vacuum work?”
“Space suits? Of course, but why would you need space suits? There can’t be any archeological sites on airless worlds.”
“Hah. If we found one, that would prove my hypothesis. No, I don’t expect to need them. Frankly I don’t expect to need half this stuff, but I don’t know which half.”
“Okay.” Jackie looked at the lists again, then at the aft compartment and around the Sophie’s cabin. It would be tighter than she liked, but with only a couple of passengers it would be manageable. “Let’s go get those crates and finish loading.”
∞ ∞ ∞
In the end Carson refilled one crate with duplicate and excess gear and arranged for that to be sent back on the shuttle. With some judicious rearranging, they managed to stow everything else aboard.
“Ah. Well, is that the last of it?”
“Just my personal bags. Where’s my cabin?” said Carson, looking around.
“Cabin? You’re in it. Your berth is that one,” Jackie pointed to the lower of two horizontal, closet-sized cubicles. “This isn’t a big ship, and you’ve taken up half of it with your gear.” Okay, that was an exaggeration. “But you can get your privacy,” she touched a button and a screen slid down, touched it again and it rolled up out of the way, “and there’s room to read, or you can slave your omni into the ship’s network. The galley is aft.”
The Chara Talisman Page 8