Earthlight st-2

by Arthur Clarke

  “You realize, of course, that you are something of a nuisance. This is the last place we ever expected visitors, otherwise we’d have put up notices telling them to keep off. Needless to say, we have means of detecting any who may turn up, even if they’re not sensible enough to drive up openly, as you did.

  “However, here you are and I suppose there’s no harm done. You have probably guessed that this is a government project, and one we don’t want talked about. I’ll have to send you back, but I want you to do two things.”

  “What are they?” asked Jamieson suspiciously.

  “I want you to promise not to talk about this visit more than you have to. Your friends will know where you’ve gone, so you can’t keep it a complete secret. Just don’t discuss it with them, that’s all.”

  “Very well,” agreed Jamieson. “And the second point?”

  “If anyone persists in questioning you, and shows particular interest in this little adventure of yours—report it at once. That’s all. I hope you have a good ride home.”

  Back in the tractor, five minutes later, Wheeler was still fuming.

  “Of all the high-handed so-and-sos! He never even offered us a smoke.”

  “I rather think,” said Jamieson mildly, “that we were lucky to get off so. easily. They meant business.”

  “I’d like to know what sort of business. Does that look like a mine to you? And why should anything be going on in a slag-heap like the Mare?”

  “I think it must be a mine. When we drove up, I noticed something that looked very much like drilling machinery on the other side of the dome. But it’s hard to account for all the cloak-and-dagger nonsense.”

  “Unless they’ve discovered something that they don’t want the Federation to know about.”

  “In that case we’re not likely to find out, either, and might as well stop racking our brains. But to get on to more practical matters—where do we go from here?”

  “Let’s stick to our original plan. It may be some time before we have a chance of using Ferdy again, and we might as well make the most of it. Besides, it’s always been one of my ambitions to see the Sinus Iridum from ground level, as it were.”

  “It’s a good three hundred kilometers east of here.”

  “Yes, but you said yourself it was pretty flat, if we keep away from the mountains. We should be able to manage it in five hours. I’m a good-enough driver now to relieve you when you want a rest.”

  “Not over fresh ground—that would be far too risky. But we’ll make a compromise. I’ll take you as far as the Laplace Promontory, so that you’ll have a look into the Bay. And then you can drive home, following the track I’ve made. Mind you stick to it, too,”

  Wheeler accepted gladly. He had been half afraid that Jamie-son would abandon the trip and sneak back to the Observatory, but decided that he had done his friend an injustice.

  For the next three hours they crawled along the flanks of the Teneriffe Mountains, then struck out across the plain to the Straight Range, that lonely, isolated band of mountains like a faint echo of the mighty Alps. Jamieson drove now with a steady concentration; he was going into new territory and could take no chances. From time to time he pointed out famous landmarks and Wheeler checked them against the photographic chart.

  They stopped for a meal about ten kilometers east of the Straight Range, and investigated more of the boxes which the Observatory kitchen had given them. One corner of the tractor was fitted out as a tiny galley, but they didn’t intend to do any real cooking except in an emergency. Neither Wheeler nor Jamieson was a sufficiently good cook to enjoy the preparation of meals and this, after all, was a holiday…

  “Sid,” began Wheeler abruptly, between mouthfuls of sandwich, “what do you think about the Federation? You’ve met more of their people than I have.”

  “Yes, and liked them. Pity you weren’t here before the last crowd left; we had about a dozen of them at the Observatory studying the telescope mounting. They’re thinking of building a fifteen-hundred-centimeter instrument on one of the moons of Saturn, you know.”

  “That would be quite a project—I always said we’re too close to the sun here. It would certainly get clear of the Zodiacal Light and the other rubbish around the inner planets. But to get back to the argument—did they strike you as likely to start a quarrel with Earth?”

  “It’s difficult to say. They were very open and friendly with us, but then we were all scientists together and that helps a lot. It might have been different if we’d been politicians or civil servants.”

  “Dammit, we are civil servants! That fellow Sadler was reminding me of it only the other day.”

  “Yes, but at least we’re scientific civil servants, which makes quite a difference. I could tell that they didn’t care a lot for Earth, though they were too polite to say so. There’s no doubt that they’re annoyed about the metals allocations; I often heard them complain about it. Their main point is that they have much greater difficulties than we have, in opening up the outer planets, and that Earth wastes half the stuff she uses.”

  “Which side do you think is right?”

  “I don’t know; it’s so hard to get at all the facts. But there are a lot of people on Earth who are afraid of the Federation and don’t want to give it any more power. The Federals know that; one day they may grab first and argue afterward.”

  Jamieson screwed up the wrappings and tossed them into the waste bin. He glanced at the chronometer, then swung himself up into the driving seat. “Time to get moving again,” he said. “We’re falling behind schedule.”

  From the Straight Range they swung southeast, and presently the great headland of Promontory Laplace appeared on the skyline. As they rounded it, they came across a disconcerting sight—the battered wreck of a tractor, and beside it a rough cairn surmounted by a metal cross. The tractor seemed to have been destroyed by an explosion in its fuel tanks, and was an obsolete model of a type that Wheeler had never seen before. He was not surprised when Jamieson told him it had been there for almost a century; it would still look exactly the same a million years from now.

  As they rolled past the headland, the mighty northern wall of the Sinus Iridum—the Bay of Rainbows—swept into view. Eons ago the Sinus Iridum had been a complete ring mountain— one of the largest walled-plains on the Moon. But the cataclysm which had formed the Sea of Rains had destroyed the whole of the southern wall, so that only a semicircular bay is now left. Across that bay Promontory Laplace and Promontory Heraclides stare at each other, dreaming of the day when they were linked by mountains four kilometers high. Of those lost mountains, all that now remain are a few ridges and low hillocks.

  Wheeler was very quiet as the tractor rolled past the great cliffs, which stood like a line of titans full-face toward the Earth. The green light splashing down their flanks revealed every detail of the terraced walls. No one had ever climbed those heights, but one day, Wheeler knew, men would stand upon their summits and stare out in victory across the Bay. It was strange to think that after two hundred years, there was so much of the Moon untrodden by human feet, and so many places that a man must reach with nothing to aid him but his own exertions and skill.

  He remembered his first glimpse of the Sinus Iridum, through the little homemade telescope he had built when he was a boy. It had been nothing more than two small lenses fixed in a cardboard tube, but it had given him more pleasure than the giant instruments of which he was now the master.

  Jamieson swung the tractor round in a great curve, and brought it to a halt facing back toward the west. The line they had trampled through the dust was clearly visible, a road which would remain here forever unless later traffic obliterated it.

  “The end of the line,” he said. “You can take over from here. She’s all yours until we get to Plato. Then wake me up and I’ll take her through the mountains. Good night.”

  How he managed it, Wheeler couldn’t imagine, but within ten minutes Jamieson was asleep. Perhaps the gentle rocki
ng of the tractor acted as a lullaby, and he wondered how successful he would be in avoiding jolts and jars on the way home. Well, there was only one way to find out… He aimed carefully at the dusty track, and began to retrace the road to Plato.

  Chapter VIII

  It was bound to happen sooner or later, Sadler told himself philosophically, as he knocked at the director’s door. He had done his best, but in work like this it was impossible to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. It would be interesting, very interesting, to know who had complained…

  Professor Maclaurin was one of the smallest men Sadler had ever seen. He was so tiny that some people had made the fatal mistake of not taking him seriously. Sadler knew better than this. Very small men usually took care to compensate for their physical deficiencies (how many dictators had been of even average height?) and from all accounts Maclaurin was one of the toughest characters on the Moon.

  He glared at Sadler across the virgin, uncluttered surface of his desk. There was not even a scribbling pad to break its bleakness—only the small panel of the communicator switchboard with its built-in speaker. Sadler had heard about Mac-laurin’s unique methods of administration, and his hatred of notes and memoranda. The Observatory was run, in its day-today affairs, almost entirely by word of mouth. Of course, other people had to prepare notices and schedules and reports— Maclaurin just switched on his mike and gave the orders. The system worked flawlessly for the simple reason that the director recorded everything, and could play it back at a moment’s notice to anyone who said, “But, sir, you never told me that!” It was rumored—though Sadler suspected this was a libel—that Maclaurin had occasionally committed verbal forgery by retrospectively altering the record. Such a charge, needless to say, was virtually impossible to prove.

  The director waved to the only other seat, and started talking before Sadler could reach it.

  “I don’t know whose brilliant idea this was,” he began, “but I was never notified that you were coming here. If I had been, I would have asked for a postponement. Although no one appreciates the importance of efficiency more than I do, these are very troubled times. It seems to me that my men could be better employed than by explaining their work to you—particularly while we are coping with the N. Draconis observations.”

  “I’m sorry there was a failure to inform you, Professor Mac-laurin,” Sadler replied. “I can only assume that the arrangements were made while you were en route to Earth.” He wondered what the director would think if he knew how carefully matters had been arranged in this precise manner. “I realize that I must be something of a nuisance to your staff, but they have given me every assistance and I’ve had no complaints. In fact, I thought I was getting on rather well with them.”

  Maclaurin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Sadler stared in fascination at the tiny, perfectly formed hands, no larger than those of a child.

  “How much longer do you expect to be here?” the director asked. He certainly doesn’t worry about your feelings, Sadler told himself wryly.

  “It’s very hard to say—the area of my investigation is so undefined. And it’s only fair to warn you that I’ve scarcely started on the scientific side of your work, which is likely to present the greatest difficulties. So far I have confined myself to Administration and Technical Services.”

  This news did not seem to please Maclaurin. He looked like a small volcano working up to an eruption. There was only one thing to do, and Sadler did it quickly.

  He walked to the door, opened it swiftly, looked out, then closed it again. This piece of calculated melodrama held the director speechless while Sadler walked over to the desk and brusquely flicked down the switch on the communicator.

  “Now we can talk,” he began. “I wanted to avoid this, but I see it’s inevitable. Probably you’ve never met one of these cards before.”

  The still flabbergasted director, who had probably never before in his life been treated like this, stared at the blank sheet of plastic. As he watched, a photograph of Sadler, accompanied by some lettering, flashed into view—then vanished abruptly.

  “And what,” he asked when he had recovered his breath, “is Central Intelligence? I’ve never heard of it.”

  “You’re not supposed to,” Sadler replied. “It’s relatively new, and highly unadvertised. I’m afraid the work I’m doing here is not exactly what it seems. To be brutally frank, I could hardly care less about the efficiency of your establishment, and I completely agree with all the people who tell me that it’s nonsense to put scientific research on a cost-accounting basis. But it’s a plausible story, don’t you think?”

  “Go on,” said Maclaurin, with dangerous calm.

  Sadler was beginning to enjoy himself beyond the call of duty. It wouldn’t do, however, to get drunk with power…

  “I’m looking for a spy,” he said, with a bleak and simple directness.

  “Are you serious? This is the twenty-second century!”

  “I am perfectly serious, and I need not impress upon you that you must reveal nothing of this conversation to anybody, even Wagnall.”

  “I refuse to believe,” snorted Maclaurin, “that any of my staff would be engaged in espionage. The idea’s fantastic.”

  “It always is,” Sadler replied patiently. “That doesn’t alter the position.”

  “Assuming that there’s the slightest basis in this charge, have you any idea who it might be ?”

  “If I had, I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you at this stage. But I’ll be perfectly frank. We’re not certain that it is anyone here— we’re merely acting on a nebulous hint one of our—ah—agents picked up. But there is a leak somewhere on the Moon, and I’m covering this particular possibility. Now you see why I have been so inquisitive. I’ve tried not to act out of character, and I think that by now I’m taken for granted by everybody. I can only hope that our elusive Mr. X, if he exists at all, has accepted me at my face value. This, by the way, is why I’d like to know who has been complaining to you. I assume that some-body has.”

  Maclaurin hummed and hawed for a moment, then capitulated.

  “Jenkins, down in Stores, rather implied that you’d been taking up a lot of his time,”

  “That’s very interesting,” said Sadler, more than a little puzzled. Jenkins, chief storekeeper, had been nowhere near his list of suspects. “As a matter of fact, I’ve spent relatively little time there—just enough to make my mission look convincing. I’ll have to keep an eye on Mr. Jenkins.”

  “This whole idea is all very new to me,” said Maclaurin thoughtfully. “But even if we have someone here passing out information to the Federation, I don’t quite see how they would do it. Unless it was one of the signals officers, of course.”

  “That’s the key problem,” admitted Sadler. He was willing to discuss the general aspects of the case, for the director might be able to throw some light on them. Sadler was all too aware of his difficulties, and the magnitude of the task he had been set. As a counterspy, his status was strictly amateur. The only consolation he had was that his hypothetical opponent would be in the same position. Professional spies had never been too numerous in any age, and the last one must have died more than a century ago.

  “By the way,” said Maclaurin, with a forced and somewhat unconvincing laugh. “How do you know that I’m not the spy?”

  “I don’t,” Sadler replied cheerfully. “In counter-espionage, certainty is rare. But we do the best we can. I hope you weren’t seriously inconvenienced during your visit to Earth?”

  Maclaurin stared uncomprehendingly at him for a moment. Then his jaw dropped.

  “So you’ve been investigating me!” he spluttered indignantly.

  Sadler shrugged his shoulders.

  “It happens to the best of us. If it’s any consolation, you can just imagine what I had to go through before they gave me this job. And I never asked for it in the first place…”

  “Then what do you want me to do ?” growled Maclaurin. For a man of his size, hi
s voice was surprisingly deep, though Sadler had been told that when he was really annoyed it developed a high-pitched squeak.

  “Naturally, I’d like you to inform me of anything suspicious that comes to your notice. From time to time I may consult you on various points, and I’d be very glad of your advice. Otherwise, please take as little notice of me as possible and continue to regard me as a nuisance.”

  “That,” replied Maclaurin, with a half-hearted smile, “will present no difficulties at all. However, you can count on me to assist you in every way—if only to help prove that your suspicions are unfounded.”

  “I sincerely hope that they are,” Sadler replied. “And thank you for your co-operation—I appreciate it.”

  Just in time, he stopped himself whistling as he closed the door behind him. He felt very pleased that the interview had gone so well, but he remembered that no one whistled after they had had an interview with the director. Adjusting his expression to one of grave composure, he walked out through Wagnall’s office and into the main corridor, where he at once ran into Jamieson and Wheeler.

  “Have you seen the Old Man?” Wheeler asked anxiously. “Is he in a good mood?”

  “As this is the first time I’ve met him, I’ve no standards of reference. We got on well enough. What’s the matter? You look like a couple of naughty schoolboys.”

  “He’s just asked for us,” said Jamieson. “We don’t know why, but he’s probably been catching up on what’s happened while he’s away. He’s already congratulated Con for discovering N. Draconis, so it can’t be that. I’m afraid he’s found out that we’ve borrowed a Cat for a run.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Well, they’re only supposed to be used on official jobs. But everybody does it—as long as we replace the fuel we burn, no one’s any the worse. Heck, I suppose I shouldn’t have told that to you, of all people!”

  Sadler did a quick double-take, then realized with relief that Jamieson was merely referring to his well-advertised activities as a financial watchdog.