Wine of the Gods 05: Spy Wars

by Pam Uphoff

  Excerpt from an Upcoming Release

  Comet Fall

  "It's a telescope." Lefty whispered.

  "A huge one." Question cleared her throat. "There's no one in here, probably because it's daytime. So we don't need to whisper."

  "Yeah." His voice was low anyway, and he prowled and poked. "Wish there were more books."

  "They keep a lot of information on these computers of theirs." Question eyed the thing sitting on a desk. "Never and I didn't get far enough into learning their machines for us to use them."

  "Huh. I remember what you said, and they had them at Gate Camp too." Lefty found a pad of paper with scribbled notes. "Wish they had better handwriting." He set it back exactly where he'd found it, and prowled further.

  "There's not much back here. Do you think we could hide and watch?"

  Question nodded. "We could duck out of sight, not have to use light warping. Then they wouldn't be alerted to us by any static."

  "And if they do come back, we light warp and maybe they won't realize what caused the static. We'd better tell Dydit and Never though, or they'll be down here figuring we need rescue." Lefty looked a bit absent minded for a moment.

  "Right." They settled down comfortably, taking the paper pad again, and amiably argued over the various possible meanings of diagrams and scribbles. As the day faded they replaced the pad and moved to their nook to hide.

  Footsteps crunched on gravel. The voices of the approaching Earth people were clear in the thin mountain air. ". . . set up that sweep of . . . "

  "Turn in these preliminary results. . . "

  ". . . whole thing pinned down . . . "

  ". . . time if they want to try . . . "

  The main door opened for a pair of men.

  "It's just a matter of time, they must see that. They have to do something." The speaker was a rotund figure, young and earnest looking.

  "Don't bet on it. Some politicians live to emote all over disasters after they've happened. After all, they've been ignoring us for almost seven years now." The cynic was taller and thinner, with blond hair cut short. Older than the first one, but still in his twenties.

  "I know. But if we don't warn them, try to do something, we're no better, are we? Now, the sky is clear tonight. We'll be able to extend our data six days further. If the circle of uncertainty continues to shrink, most likely it'll exclude a strike, and we can forget the whole problem." The fat boy turned to one of the desks and the computer on it.

  "Or at any rate put it aside until the next chunk of Hygiea, be it comet or asteroid comes along." The cynic punched buttons and the long strip on the roof rose then slid aside. The whole dome rotated, and then the telescope swung to point out the open strip.

  The fat boy was tapping away at the desk in front of the computer. Apparently the pattern of his finger movement meant something specific. Rather like a really finicky spell.

  Rectangles midway up the walls lit slightly, bright specs like a picture of the stars, and then red circles.

  "All right, here are the projected probability circles. Ninety, Ninety-five and Ninety-nine percent probabilities of a strike if the asteroid's orbit has put it in any of them, right now."

  "Scan's complete, overlay them." The cynic said.

  The faint spots of stars blazed suddenly and a faint comet filled and overflowed the inner circle.

  "Well, that's it." The fat boy pushed back from the desk. "A ninety-nine percent chance that the lead comet of that sub-group will hit this planet in six months. Good thing it's a small one. The next two perihelions after will be really interesting."