“I can,” Lauren said. “Is anyone else going to be there that I know?”
“Well, I am. Other than that my father will be there. So it will be three of us.”
“OK.”
“I'll be down there in about half an hour or so.”
“Should… should I dress a certain way?” Lauren asked, wondering where she was going to get a different outfit from. She had been using extra jumpsuits during her time on the Starlight.
“Go with something informal. Doesn't have to be fancy. I'm not going to bother putting on anything special. This is just a way for him to get to know you.”
“I'll see what I can do.”
“Looking forward to it. See you in thirty minutes. Oh, and I took the liberty of order you a few items of clothing to get you started. They should be in the closet.”
“Thank you.”
She opened the closet and sighed as soon as the message ended. What to wear? And what kind of meeting was this? She had heard plenty about Leon Skare, knew he had been a friend of Professor Hallas, but she had never actually met him in person. What kind of man would he be? And how would he react to her, just a student finishing her graduate degree, caught up in a web of subterfuge and danger beyond anything she could have imagined?
Lauren picked an outfit and laid it out on the bed, then headed into the bathroom to take a shower.
“LOOKING GOOD,” Nina commented as Lauren stepped out into the hallway, clad in a black pair of pants and a light green button-up shirt.
“I wasn't sure how formal to be, so I kind of went for in between,” she said.
“Well, look at me. I'm wearing slacks and a t-shirt. And honestly, who cares what we look like? We've been in space for months on end. We deserve a chance to kick back and relax for a while.”
She led her to the elevator and pressed the button for their destination. “Do you know anything about my father?”
“Leon Skare. He's the president and head of Skare Interstellar, and I know he was a school friend of Professor Hallas. Other than that I don't know anything about him outside of the news reports I'd normally hear.”
Nina nodded. “That's alright. And that's what you'd normally know, since he likes to keep his life rather private. He's like that. Very business oriented, fairly ruthless, but he does have a bit of a soft side to him. His friends are one, and he's willing to extend that to those that are connected with them. And since Professor Hallas was your mentor, that would probably extend to you.”
“I see.”
“And don't worry too much about it. This is just an informal thing. I know I keep repeating it, but that's what this is. Just a way to get to know you better, and to make sure his investment is a sound one.”
“His investment?” Lauren asked.
“Of course,” she shrugged. “Once we're out in the Central Expanse the funding for our expedition is coming from the corporation. It'll be under my discretionary budget as one of the directors, but it's still of interest to him. He just wants to make sure that it's not being wasted.”
“OK, I understand now,” Lauren said, though she frowned as well.
“I don't think you'll have much of a problem convincing him.”
“I'm still only a student,” she said.
“Yes, a student who's spent several years getting hands on experience in the field and handled Ulic artifacts and technology on a daily basis. I'll take that over a hundred professors who have been sitting inside their universities reading secondhand knowledge any day. And my father is the same way.”
“I'm not sure if I'm worthy of the position.”
Nina shot her an amused glance. “Why, because you don't have a piece of paper that says you know enough? Like, that would somehow make a difference?”
“Most people want to know that they're hiring a consultant with the right qualifications. And a degree is a good sign of it.”
“True enough in most cases. But not always. I'm one of those other cases. I've been given a lot of different opportunities, even if I technically didn't have the proper education for it. I've been to college, but not to the extent that others in my position have. But you know what, I'm here for a reason. And it's the same reason why you're being considered for this. Know what that is?”
“Because you know what you're doing?”
Nina smiled. “Well that and nepotism. Or cronyism, in your case.”
Lauren smiled and then laughed. “You know that's not helping my case.”
“No, but that's only a part of it. Knowing people may get your foot in the door, but you don't stay around if you don't know what you're doing. Only fools keep incompetent people around, and you certainly aren't incompetent. I've taken the time to request your records and looked them over.”
“How did you manage that?”
“Simple. I told them that I was seriously considering you for a contract job and I wanted to see about whether you'd be recommended or not. No surprise, the professors and colleagues I talked to all speak very highly of you. It's only a matter of time and a formality until you get your doctorate, so why waste time? I'm not going to turn up my nose at you just because you don't have a piece of paper. I want results.”
“SO LAUREN GOT TAKEN to see the boss,” Rappa said as they ate dinner. “No surprise there.”
“Everyone here has met him at least once,” Griz said. “And he's the type that seems to like to know what's going on at every level.”
Kei barely remembered the time he had met Leon Skare, though he did recall shaking hands and having a brief conversation. It was more than he would have expected from the head of a mega-corporation like Skare Interstellar, but Griz might be right. He had seen it before in the military, generals and admirals that would take the time to make sure the lower ranks were in order. They tended to be rare workaholics, but they also increased effectiveness without meddling too much.
“She's a student of a friend of his, if I recall,” Elsner said. “That might be part of the reason.”
“Of course. But then she's also probably going to be attached to our team if we go out into the Central Expanse, so he probably wants to make sure she has a good head on her shoulders,” Rappa said. “Getting civilian contractors killed looks bad for us.”
“Could also have to do with the disturbance on the highway,” Griz said.
“What about it? The car crash you dealt with?” Gilroy asked.
Kei wasn't sure what he was getting at either.
“Miss Skare said something to me about it. We were being tailed, no doubt about it in her eyes. It wasn't confirmed, but I think we can suspect someone was following us, trying to get their hands on the artifact. And that could be trouble.”
Kei took a bite and chewed. He saw the danger as well, but what could Eon Path do at this point? Skare Interstellar's headquarters had tight security, and its research and development campus had even greater measure in place. He wasn't sure a team of specialized infiltrators could break in without being spotted, let alone a few sympathizers with no real training.
“We're going to need to stay alert, even if we're technically on leave,” Soko said. “That artifact is going to be trouble. I can feel it in my bones.”
Ominous words, Kei thought as he took another bite, and ones he couldn't disagree with.
LAUREN HADN'T BEEN sure what to expect, but her welcome was warm enough. Leon Skare met and greeted her with a warm handshake. His demeanor helped put her at ease. He seemed calm, distant, but still friendly.
The atmosphere of the dining room also helped calm her nerves a little. Honey-colored wood paneling lined the walls, and the floors were covered with grey slate tiles.
“I'm glad to finally meet you in person,” he said as they were seated around the table. “Doran spoke highly of you.”
“He did?” Lauren asked.
“Yes. When we talked over the years he'd make a note of the prized students coming down the pipeline. You were one of the few that he paid the highest compliments
to.”
She frowned. “That's gratifying to hear. But I wish I could have heard it from him.”
“So do I. And I wish he was still here with us. And the whole affair with this terrorist organization, it boggles the mind. Especially because of our past...”
His last statement caught her attention, but Lauren didn't know whether she should pursue the matter further. Waiters stepped into the dining room and served up dishes of a yellow-tinted bisque. They also poured them each a glass of wine.
“She seems like she'd like to know some of the gory details,” Nina said.
“Oh, would you?”
“I'm not quite clear about what you mean when you're referring to your past,” Lauren admitted. She sampled a spoonful of the bisque and tasted the roasted, sweet flavor of squash.
“How much do you know about the history between myself and Doran? Or Professor Hallas, as you would know him better.”
“I know that you went to school together.”
“Indeed we did. Both secondary school and then university, although we didn't become good friends until college. But there was a third one of us. Rowen Hammond. Have you heard much about him?”
“Isn't he an author? I'm afraid that I haven't read anything that he's written.”
“I'm sorry to say, but you're not missing much,” Nina said. “A lot of ramblings and fanciful thoughts about the universe, but not much substance behind them.”
“Now, I don't think that's a fair assessment. Not without knowing anything about the man behind it. How he thought, what he believed, why he would do such a thing.”
“What did he believe?” Lauren inquired.
Leon took a drink of wine before replying. “It was an oddity, really. The three of us became very good friends while we were at university, even though we all had different ambitions and wildly disparate personalities. But we found each other and bonded nonetheless.”
“Not unusual for different people to become friends,” Nina said.
“No, but we continued on wildly different paths once we went our separate was after university. I of course went into business and Skare Interstellar. Doran became a researcher, looking for answers in the cosmos base in reality. And Rowen looked for the answers inside the mind, the human imagination.”
“I see,” Lauren said.
“We crossed paths again. On the surface it seemed like our goals aligned. The three of us became enamored with the Ulic civilization and their remnants, but what that meant to us was wildly different. Doran simply looked for knowledge, understanding of the extent of their empire and their knowledge. I looked for the ways we could apply that knowledge in practical ways.”
“And Rowen?”
Leon hesitated for a moment. “He looked for ways to apply that knowledge as well, but his eye was on building off of their accomplishments. Not on just learning what they knew, but superseding them.”
“That's not a terrible motivation to have,” Lauren said. “We all want to know more. That's what our research is about. Gaining more knowledge.”
“Quite. But some types of knowledge might not mean anything to a human. Or they may be far beyond our capability to understand.”
“I'm not sure what you mean by that.”
Leon took a spoonful of the bisque and wiped his mouth with a napkin before replying.
“Are you familiar with the adage known as Clarke's third law?”
Lauren nodded. “The one that states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?”
“Yes, that's the one. I believe that we need to consider that while we're dealing with the remnants of an advanced civilization, one that we've only scratched the surface with our understanding. What were they capable of? We've already derived wondrous technological breakthroughs thanks to the knowledge we've gleaned from their sources. But what happened to them? Why are they gone?”
“It could just be a riddle for the ages,” Nina said. “Some mysteries will never be solved, even if you can venture a good guess as to what happened.”
“Hm, true enough. But beyond that, the remnants of their civilization and their knowledge are real enough, and I believe that we must be pragmatic when dealing with them. Many things might be beyond our understanding.”
“But searching for knowledge will help us to expand our understanding.”
“Hm, that's true. But I also believe there's a limit to how quickly we can expand our knowledge. I've heard that you've been practicing with weaponry.”
“Yes.”
“A basic plasma rifle. Mundane, commonplace, and yet that would have been completely unthinkable a millennium ago. So would interstellar travel, and even the colonization of this galaxy. The space elevator from Amadis to the orbital dockyards would be nothing more than a pipe dream. Yet they're all things that we take for granted at this point.”
“But we can understand them.”
“Yes, we can understand them. But would a human from a millennium ago be able to comprehend them? And travel further back. Would someone from the Middle Ages on Earth be able to comprehend the devices people were using during the turn of the last millennium? Even rudimentary computers and spacecraft would seem like sorcery to them.”
Nina made an amused smile. “Wasn't there stories going around that one of the popes was a sorcerer because he could calculate numbers far more quickly than others? Not because he knew magic, but because he added digits to the abacus while everyone else was using numerals. But he was a wizard to them.”
“Yes, that's one example,” Leon said. “And a very illustrative one. We might stumble across something, a wonder that might be nothing more than technology. But if we don't know what we're dealing with, can we say it's anything but magic?”
Lauren didn't have an answer that. She had never really considered that approach. Her focus had simply been on discovery, finding the artifacts and tidbits of knowledge left behind by the long-dead alien civilization. She never really considered the impacts that those discoveries would have over anything but the technological level that humanity possessed.
“That was why I was and remained very wary about what we're looking for. We may run into something that can't be considered anything but magic with the limited knowledge we possess, and what then?”
Lauren thought about that for a moment. “What about the second?
“I'm sorry?”
“Clarke's second law. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. I believe that's what we're doing. Knowledge isn't static. It's constantly expanding, evolving. Who would have thought that we'd be able to cross oceans, let alone sail the stars and travel to new galaxies? But we did, because people pushed the boundaries of what's considered to be impossible.”
“She's got you there,” Nina said with a grin. “And I agree. We push the boundaries of what's possible and redefine them. That's what science is about. Pushing, testing, learning more and more about the universe around us.”
Leon Skare smiled. “That's an optimistic way to look at things. That's the way that Doran would look at things. It's no surprise you picked up that ethos from him, and it's grounded in a very practical line of thinking. But there's another way.”
“Another way?”
“Yes. One that treats technology like mysticism. One that doesn't search for knowledge or explanations behind what's happening. It only seeks to keep the wonder, the air of mystery around it.”
“Like a cult?”
“Yes, like that. And it's said that Rowen Hammond's work is one of the main inspirations for Eon Path. They believe that they can attain the status of the Ulics, or even supersede them, and that will lead them to enlightenment.”
“When you say enlightenment, you mean like a spiritual experience?”
“Yes. And that's where I believe that they're wrong. The Ulics are not gods. We might not understand them, and their knowledge exceeds our own, but they are not gods. They wer
e mortal beings like us, and we can learn from them. But there's no nirvana waiting for us once we unlock all their secrets.”
“We can always hope,” Nina said. “Though I wouldn't hold my breath.”
“You said something about Hammond's works being the inspiration for Eon Path?”
“One of them. He wrote a book called The Shining Path, ostensibly a work of fiction, but it caught the attention of quite a few people. Some seemed to believe that it was based in fact, and he did nothing to dissuade them.”
“I haven't read it, sorry to say.”
“Don't be,” Nina said. “It's all very fanciful and imaginative, but it sounds like fiction. It's about someone stumbling across an Ulic artifact and obtaining enlightenment from it.”
“Not too different from what you're doing,” Leon commented.
“We're looking for knowledge, and the remaining artifacts have that in them. That's an undeniable fact. But they don't contain enlightenment.”
“There's quite a bit of speculation that he was one of the founders of Eon Path, though Rowen has vehemently denied it. I'm inclined to believe him, but the fact remains that a group has taken his work and used it to create a terrorist organization, a cult. It might have been unintentional, but he turned himself into a demagogue nonetheless.”
Lauren frowned. “That's a terrifying thought. Having your work and your writings misinterpreted and causing something you didn't intend.”
“That's always a risk. Which is why I prefer to stick to solid, pragmatic things.”
The rest of the dinner passed by with fairly pleasant conversation, but Lauren remained uneasy. So many things seemed to be at work behind the scenes, and Leon Skare's tidbits of information only seemed to muddy the situation even further. What did Eon Path want, and how far would they be willing to go to get it? They already had blood on their hands in search of the artifact. What were a few more bodies to them anyhow?
She felt it, faint but still present deep inside of her. Fear. Lauren didn't want to admit it, wanted to ignore it and move on, but she couldn't. It nagged her, wouldn't let her go. There were people in the cosmos that wanted to do harm to her, and she couldn't ignore the feeling.
Eon Gate (The Eon Pentalogy Book 1) Page 10