by M. D. Cooper
She must be working on something.
Rather than alert her to his arrival via the Link, Martin decided to give her a surprise. He swam right over to the window and rapped on it hard with his knuckles. Lindsey looked up and after a moment’s recognition, she smiled and waved.
Martin followed her directions and saw the entrance to the building, which was an open portal. Held back by a grav field, the water ended in a clear line that spanned the opening. Martin swam over to it, grabbed the handbars on each side, brought down his legs, and stepped inside. As soon as his feet touched the floor, a blast of warm, dry air blew at him from vents, and the water that dripped from his body disappeared into the matting beneath his feet.
Martin slid back his eye membranes, shunted the remaining water from his lungs, and switched to air breathing. Lindsey approached him along the corridor, grinning. When she reached him, they hugged.
“I’m so glad you agreed to come to Troy and help me out, Martin. I promise you, you’re going to love it here.”
“From what I’ve seen so far,” he replied, “I think I will.”
“Let’s get you a lab coat. I wasn’t expecting you to swim in. Most of us arrive the regular way, through the tunnel from the surface.” She opened a door and handed him a white coat. “Are you OK with working in bare feet?”
“That’s how I usually work.” He shrugged.
“Oh yeah,” said Lindsey. “I remember your beach house on the Med. OK, let me introduce you to the gang, then we’ll go straight out to the sinkhole.”
She led him through a tunnel toward a different building. Tropical fish swam overhead, and ripples on the water’s surface made the light dance.
As Lindsey entered the central building, she remarked, “So you finally went full-mod. What do you think?”
“Now that I’m used to it,” Martin replied, “I regret not doing it sooner.”
“So what you’re saying is, you wish you’d listened to me?” Lindsey shot him a sideways glance and a grin.
“Is that your way of saying ‘I told you so’?”
“Hmm…. Maybe.”
“OK, Lindsey,” Martin said. “If it makes you happy, you were right. I should have gotten modded the minute I graduated, just like you did.”
She chuckled. “Actually, I wish I’d waited a while. The mods I got then with my recent college grad’s salary weren’t that good; some of our upgrades here are really impressive, though. I’ll have to make the time to go and see what improvements the modders can offer.”
A door opened, and Lindsey ushered Martin ahead of her into a lab where a man and a woman were working. The two assistants walked over to Martin to shake hands. Lindsey introduced them as Pietr and Margot. Pietr was tall and rangy, and Margot was rounded and rosy-cheeked.
“I heard you seeded the Med on Carthage,” Margot said. “Nice job. I went whale watching on my last vacation and saw a blue whale. That was one of yours, right?”
“The blues are mine, yes, but my assistant, Malcolm, helped to raise them. I can’t take all the credit.”
“Still, that’s quite an achievement,” Pietr said. “I’m happy to have you working with us. Lindsey’s been running us off our feet for the last two months. Isn’t that right, Margot?”
“What Pietr means to say,” Margot explained with a wink, “is that we have been busy doing a job we love. And we’re very glad to have you on board.”
“Great,” Lindsey said, clearly eager to get underway. “Now that the introductions are over, let’s go out to that damned sinkhole.”
“I’ll stay here, if that’s OK,” said Pietr. “We won’t all fit in the Torpedo.”
“Are you sure?” Lindsey asked. “You could come along in a single seater.”
“No, I don’t mind. I have plenty to do.”
Lindsey opened a thick metal door. On the other side of it, a squat, dome-roofed, three-seater submersible sat in a waterlock. Two slim, single-person underwater vehicles were clamped to the lock’s walls.
“That’s the Torpedo?” Martin asked, eyeing the dumpy craft.
“Pietr has an ironic sense of humor,” said Margot.
They climbed inside, and Lindsey closed the seals. Water poured into the chamber from several spouts. When the Torpedo became buoyant, Lindsey started the engine. The water level eventually reached the ceiling, and then wide doors opened at the end of the lock, and Lindsey guided the craft out to sea.
She piloted the submersible parallel to the seabed, following a gradual slope downward. The water grew darker, but Martin’s modded eyes compensated, so he hardly noticed.
“We hadn’t done a lot in this area, thank the stars,” Lindsey said, “or the damage would have been much worse. As it is, I hate to think how many organisms were dragged in and killed when the sinkhole opened.”
“What happened?” Martin asked.
“A minor earthquake,” Margot answered. “Tiny little thing. They hardly felt it on the mainland. But it was enough to trigger a collapse of the seabed. It was lucky none of us was working near the site at the time.”
The dark hole in the sandy floor was becoming plain to see. The sinkhole was roughly circular, and larger than Martin had imagined—over three hundred meters at its widest point. Sand was running steadily into it from the edges.
Lindsey cut the thrust of the submersible’s engine, and they coasted closer to the pit.
A diver was swimming up out from the sinkhole, the beam from his headlight cutting through the dim water. Martin noticed the diver’s line as the man gave them a wave.
“Is it safe to go near it?” asked Martin, eyeing the diver’s progress warily.
“Yes, it’s fine now,” Lindsey replied. “Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell Tony you’re here.” She added another person to the team’s channel.
Martin recognized the man’s name and ident, though he’d never met him face to face. He was the planetary engineer Isa had interviewed for her infomentary on Tyre.
Tony made an OK symbol with his hand and then gave a thumbs-up before he began swimming upward. A boat’s narrow hull bobbed on the surface above.
“As you can see,” Lindsey said to Martin, “this part of the park has been pretty much devastated.”
She was right. He couldn’t see any creatures around them or on the seabed, which was a smooth blanket of sand.
Lindsey continued, “We need to begin reseeding right away if we stand a chance of being ready in time for the opening,”
“Sure,” Martin replied. “But I haven’t seen any signs of construction. Aren’t the hotels and the rest of the facilities going to take the longest to put in place?”
“Oh, you don’t know yet,” asked Lindsey. “I had to skim over that part in the plans. The hotels and all the rest of the physical infrastructure are going to be the last and fastest stage of the project. Building all those things the regular way would be so boring, right? I didn’t want to be bothered with all that, so I asked for permission to use pico, and it was granted. We’ll grow the hotels right out of silica.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
STELLAR DATE: 04.12.8941 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Heliopolis, Ithaca
REGION: Troy, New Canaan System
“Cheer up,” Erin said as she and Isa walked through the entrance to the shooting range. “It’s only going to take until lunchtime, then it’ll all be over, and you’ll be free to do what you like.”
Isa had been looking doleful ever since they had settled Jude in at the daycare center. Their little boy’s sunny personality had ensured it hadn’t taken long before he was happily p
laying with new friends, so Erin guessed that the reason for Isa’s bad mood wasn’t due to worry about him.
“It’s OK for you,” Isa replied. “I’d much prefer to be checking out the building I want to use for my gallery. It’s empty and ready to view. I could be there now instead of practicing shooting people. I don’t enjoy this kind of thing like you do.”
“Me?” Erin asked. “What makes you think I enjoy this kind of thing?”
Isa threw her a look.
“OK,” said Erin. “I guess I do enjoy it. It’s fun.”
“And you’re good at it,” said Isa. “But I couldn’t hit a destroyer at twenty paces.”
“Now that’s an exaggeration.” But not much of one, Erin added to herself.
She’d seen Isa’s invasion drill reports. They were so bad, Erin had wondered if Isa had been missing the enemy soldiers on purpose.
They walked up to the front desk to check in for the session. At the same time, the entrance doors opened, and four women burst through the doorway, laughing and chatting loudly. They pushed past Erin and Isa to get to the desk first.
“Errr,” Erin said.
Isa shook her head, and Erin agreed their rudeness wasn’t worth arguing about. After a brief transaction, the four women disappeared down the passage that led to the range.
After checking in, Erin and Isa followed them. All the booths were taken except the one next to the group of women, who shot them glances as they took up their spot. Erin turned her back on their nosy neighbors.
The shooting range had been set up to mimic a variety of potential scenarios and enemies. The session playing at that moment featured an urban combat scenario.
“Do you want to go first?” Erin asked Isa.
“I don’t care,” she replied. “I’m going to be terrible at all of them.”
“Don’t be silly. That’s why we’re here, right? To get better.”
“That’s why I’m here. If I don’t score the minimum, I’ll have to do a repeat practice every week until I do.”
“Ugh,” said Erin. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”
“Yeah,” Isa replied, picking up one of the weapons on the stand. “It’s that bad.”
Erin heard a titter behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the women had been eavesdropping on her and Isa’s conversation.
When they saw Erin looking at them, one of the women said, “Hi. Can I ask where you’re from?”
“We arrived from Carthage yesterday,” Isa replied, giving Erin an ‘It’s fine’ look.
“Right,” said the woman. “I thought you probably weren’t Trojan. You Carthaginians are a bit soft, aren’t you? Victorians, not Taranians. Here on Troy, we know how to shoot straight.”
Erin turned her back to the women again, surprised that colonists in New Canaan had brought along that old rivalry from the Kapteyn’s Star System.
Isa began to chuckle, which she hastily tried to control as the rude woman looked on angrily, obviously aware that Erin was making fun of her.
The woman’s features turned hard, and she aimed her weapon at the holo, which displayed enemy troops running toward them down city streets. The scene was one of the more difficult ones because there was plenty of cover for the troops, and local civilians would frequently pop into view.
The Trojan woman picked off three soldiers with ease. Erin glanced at her in time to see the smirk she threw at Isa.
Anger welled up in Erin. The Trojan’s rudeness and posturing were bad enough, but the last thing Isa needed was someone trying to make her feel even worse.
Her jaw set, Erin grasped the AC9CR, feeling its weight and adjusting her stance to compensate. Once she was comfortable, she toggled her round to start and fired the weapon’s electron beam, downing four troops while also avoiding hitting a child who ran across the field of fire.
“Not bad,” said the woman, adding, “for a Carthaginian. But let’s see what your friend can do.”
“My wife isn’t here to perform for you,” Erin retorted.
“Oh, I see,” the woman said in a condescending tone. “There’s no need for her to learn how to shoot while she has you around to defend her. Is that how it is? That’s really sweet.” She smiled at her friends.
“I’m sorry, you seem to be confusing me with someone who cares what you think,” Erin replied.
But all the Trojan women had stopped their own practice to watch Isa, and Erin didn’t want their scrutiny to make her aim badly again.
Isa chuckled, glancing at the rude Trojan.
She lifted her weapon and searched the holo for a target. She didn’t look confident, however, and Erin was sure she was going to miss again.
she said.
Isa gaped at her. Then her lips drew into a thin line, and she narrowed her eyes at the holo, firing off five rounds. Each was a perfect hit.
“One hundred percent!” Erin exclaimed. “Awesome…if you were a Trojan.” She threw the Trojans a wry look.
The rude woman’s expression became sour, and she turned away like she was trying to pretend that the conversation hadn’t taken place.
Erin said.
CHAPTER NINE
STELLAR DATE: 04.12.8941 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Heliopolis, Ithaca
REGION: Troy, New Canaan System
Isa applied the security access key that the letting agent had sent her, and the lock snicked open. She pushed on one of the heavy double doors, which swung inward, revealing a dim, dusty interior, lit only by beams of sunlight through rectangular windows high above. She stepped inside the building and saw for the first time the site of her new business endeavor.
As she closed the door, the bustle of the street quietened to a soft hum. Isa’s gaze roved the large, empty space. She’d chosen the building from vid advertisements because the place had seemed to fit her needs perfectly. And now that she was there, she saw she’d been right.
Isa walked to the center of the floor and looked upward. She could see all the way to the roof. On her right, a mezzanine jutted out at second-floor level, and on her left was another mezzanine at the level of the third floor. A stepped walkway linked the two, passing across the open space.
It was easy to see how the building had once functioned as a storage warehouse for Troy’s famous spices. Isa thought she could still detect the scents of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cloves, and pepper.
Excited anticipation coursed through her. She had read all about Troy’s valleys, plains, rainforests, and inland seas. She would hire an aircar to fly to all those places and record the sites as she had on Tyre. Then in her workroom at the new house, she could recreate all those amazing landscapes and add an imaginative spin, turning the recordings into psychological experiences.
Isa’s landlord had arrived, as they had arranged.
She opened the door and saw a slight, dark-haired, pale-skinned man.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Singh,” said Isa. She took a step backward to allow him to enter.
He ducked his head slightly as he walked through the doorway. “Pleased to meet you too.” He stopped just beyond the threshold in order to sweep the place with his gaze. “I have to confess it’s been a while since I was here. Is everything to your sati
sfaction?”
“I only arrived a minute ago myself,” Isa replied. “I underestimated how long it would take to travel here from the shooting range. I had to take part in training practice this morning. I haven’t had a chance to look around properly yet.”
“No problem. I can show you the place myself and answer any questions you might have. I suggest we start at the lower mezzanine. The elevator’s this way.”
Isa followed Singh as he led her toward a corner of the building.
“Do you mind if I ask if you’re a Trojan?” Singh asked as they reached the elevator. It was an open, no-door, step on, step off type that started up as they drew near it.
“No,” Isa replied, wondering why people kept asking her where she was from. “I’m from Carthage. I only arrived yesterday, in fact. This is the first time I’ve been to Troy.”
“I see,” said Singh. “I was Carthaginian too, but I’ve been here a while now and I plan to stay. I wish I’d come here sooner. I prefer life on Troy, and it’s easier to get ahead here. I’ve become quite prominent in the upper social circles, if I say so myself.”
An elevator floor appeared and they stepped onto it. Immediately, the machine’s mechanism sent out a low, grinding hum.
Isa looked questioningly at Singh, whose features creased with embarrassment.
“That noise isn’t anything to worry about,” he said. “This elevator hasn’t been used in a while, is all. But I’ll arrange for someone to take a look at it to be on the safe side.”
“How long has the building been empty?” Isa asked.
“About eighteen months. I bought it from the previous owner not long after I arrived, thinking I would be able to let the place quite easily. But yours was the first inquiry I received. I suppose it’s due to the building’s structure. It’s fairly unusual, right?”
“It is, but I think it suits my needs.”
They had reached the mezzanine, and they simultaneously stepped out.