The estate of Lord Vashar was a place of manicured fields and hedge rows with groves of tall, spire-like trees whose bark, tinged with a golden hue, resembled fish scales. Norah noticed that the leaves on the vegetation here had a purplish color on the edges, reminding her further that she was nowhere on Earth. His Lordship's house was a domed structure with turrets that looked like the rooks of a chess set, all done in terra cotta and gold. It indeed looked like the dwelling of someone important. Norah noticed shapes skimming about in the air over and around the house and across the grounds, and recognized them as floaters piloted by Sarmian warrior guards. No doubt the property, with a Sarmian Lord in residence, was routinely patrolled, but Norah guessed that the security presence had been increased for what awaited her inside the house.
The pilot of the floater helped Norah out of the craft and escorted her up to the front entrance, opened the portal for her, and ushered her inside. The pilot then returned to the floater to fetch Norah's travel bags and take them to the guest quarters, while at the bottom of the broad and elegant staircase in the main hall, the very figure that Norah had watched in the hologram, dressed just as he was for the recording, awaited her with a smile.
"Welcome to Sarma, Dr. Slattery, and to my home," Vashar greeted her. He approached her with his right hand extended, palm up, in the customary Sarmian greeting. Norah, smiling back, placed her hand in his palm and rested it there for a moment.
"Thank you, Your Lordship," said Norah. "Your home and your planet are lovely."
"And may you know much loveliness during your stay," Vashar replied, gently withdrawing his hand. "Our hospitality is yours. The functionaries of other planets are being quartered elsewhere in the city. It is my honor to host you, who come from Earth, as a visiting relation from far away. In fact it was my insistence that you stay here with me."
"So I heard," said Norah. "And I'm sure the honor is mine."
"I've had the pantry stocked with Earth delicacies, on which my staff has done much research for just such occasions as this," said Vashar. "An Earth repast awaits us in the dining hall even now, and I shall admit that I've had much curiosity about your planet's cuisine. Shall we adjourn?"
"I'd love to!" Norah replied. "Spaceship food is good, but there's nothing like a meal out of a kitchen in a real home."
Vashar beckoned her through a portal to the left and said cordially, "I hope you'll find the skills of my staff equal to the chefs of your planet. Let us see..."
And with that, His Lordship and the engineer from Earth made their way to one of the finest luncheons that Norah ever had.
_______________
At the end of a meal of prime rib of beef that the finest restaurants of Earth could not have surpassed, with wine transported to Sarma from Earth's most prestigious vintners, Vashar, seated at the head of the table with Norah immediately to his left, said with a satisfied exhale, "Now, if you will, tell me more of your work on Earth and how it is that you were chosen to honor us with your presence for the activation of the device."
"Well," Norah began, "I hold a doctorate in Engineering and I have a seat on Earth's president's Council on Comparative Technologies. Our work is about the study of the technologies of other planets in relation to our own. While other planets may be on the same level as Earth, technologically speaking, not all mechanical and operating systems are necessarily compatible with every system. Considering that not all systems made on Earth work in exactly the same way everywhere on the planet, we have to assume there would be differences in operation and function between technologies made to do the same things but manufactured on different planets. Where biology and body structures are different, technologies can differ too. What we do is try to ensure that all technologies that users from Earth and users from other planets share are as friendly as possible to all users. Since I'm familiar with the design and engineering specifications of a variety of planets, I was selected to come and help oversee the assembly of the Shaper device."
"Your familiarity with technological forms and functions across different species," ventured Vashar, "was thought to be of help in ascertaining the functions of the device, then."
"Yes, exactly," said Norah. "Though, if I'm really honest, this may be a pretty big challenge. I'm used to the technological differences between Earth and the sentient species that we actually know. The Shapers, if that's who actually made this thing, have been gone for thousands of years. No one even knows what these beings looked like. We're only assuming that they were semi- or even quasi-humanoid. This is a mysterious thing, and no one can say how much more mysterious it's going to get."
Vashar was deeply fascinated now. "What do you think," he asked, "of those who say that the thing—if a Shaper device it truly is—should have been left alone and never assembled at all?"
"Honestly," answered Norah in a measured and considered tone, "in a way I can see their point, and in another way I don't agree."
"You are ambivalent," he said. "How so?"
"You must know there's been a certain amount of anxiety—I'd even say a certain amount of fear—around this whole thing. This is supposedly the work of the Shapers. Whoever or whatever they were, we have to assume the Shapers were extremely powerful, probably capable of doing things we can't imagine. The parts of this device have been signaling each other—calling out to each other, if you want to think of it that way—across interstellar distances, something that no technology of any planet we know can do. There's a suspicion out there that what we've found is a weapon; a suspicion reinforced by... well, frankly, by what the Shapers did with the humans they supposedly took from prehistoric Earth..."
"...to create my people," Vashar finished for her. "If they used proto-humans from Earth to create a warrior race, who is to say what other dangerous things they might have done? We have such talk here on Sarma as well. To which I ask, what if the reverse is true? The prevailing thought is that the Shapers used proto-humans to create the Sarmians. What if instead the Shapers were to have used proto-Sarmians to create humans? The device could be an instrument of a completely different sort than what is feared."
"People have been around and around on Earth about this ever since the theories came up," said Norah. "Were you made from us or were we made from you? There's this nagging old wish on Earth to believe that the universe is about us, somehow. Our politics and our old religions used to be full of it, and it still hangs on a bit. Some of my people don't like the idea that you might have come first."
"I have heard these things," Vashar said, taking a sip of wine. "They are not unlike some things that are said in the temples and governing halls of Sarma. When the universe changes, it does not care in whose favor. This causes unrest."
Norah almost laughed at that. "On Earth it used to cause a lot more than unrest!"
"But please, continue," Vashar said. "Tell me more of what you think."
"Basically," said Norah, "the argument has been that since it could be a weapon, the pieces should be kept separate for the simple reason that we don't know what it will do when the whole thing is together. And I understand why people argue that, but... I find it cowardly."
"Cowardly?" he echoed, raising an eyebrow at her bluntness.
"Yes, cowardly," Norah said, confident in her choice of words. "This is an unknown; there's no question about that. We don't know what it is or what it will do; there's no question about that either. But it's the fact that we don't know that's the reason we should go ahead and assemble it. We could study the separate parts and maybe even figure out how they're able to signal each other across thousands of light years, and there are all kinds of things we might learn from that. But that could be only a fraction of what we might learn from having the whole thing together in one piece, one unit. Not going through with it because we're afraid of what it might be—to me, that shows a lack of courage. It's against everything that science is meant to be about. It's the kind of thing that used to make my people the prisoners of fear and superstition, and—"
All at once, as if startled at herself, Norah fell silent and looked off, abruptly seeming self-conscious.
With a gentle concern, Vashar reached across the table and touched her hand. His touch seemed to startle her as much as whatever was suddenly on her mind. She looked back at him through widened eyes. She looked at his hand on hers, then back up at him, still oddly speechless. "What is it?" Vashar asked.
Summoning back her voice, Norah replied, "I'm sorry, it's just... I'm speechifying now and I must sound very pompous. When I do that, I get myself into trouble sometimes. I went into a speech like that on the Council Board, right in front of the president, chewing out the dissenters on the Council, practically calling them cowards to their faces. I was so mortified, but I couldn't help myself. I think it's wrong for people of science to fear what's strange and unknown. I was afraid the president wouldn't agree with me, that she'd have me removed."
Subtly grinning, Vashar asked, "And what did the president do?"
"She ordered me to pack my bags—and come here."
Vashar gave a small warm chuckle at that and gave Norah's hand a squeeze. She almost gasped, but stifled her reaction. "Ah, you see," he said. "Courage in the face of the unknown brings rewards."
Norah's self-consciousness melted at his lingering touch, at the warmth of his smile and his little laugh. "I hope a reward is really what we get."
"For me," said Vashar, "the reward has already come. I have known the company of a most charming and intelligent woman from a distant world."
Vashar pulled his hand away, but Norah would not have minded at all if he had kept it right where it was. "You wouldn't be so charmed," she said, "if you knew everything they've been saying on Earth."
Swirling the wine in his goblet before taking another sip, Vashar asked, "What have they been saying?"
Norah returned to her carefully measured tone and replied, "Some of us—the ones I think are cowards—have been saying that if the device is a weapon, it's all to the good that it's being activated on Sarma, where you're all warriors. Let the Sarmians deal with it, they say; it's what they were bred for. If it starts killing and destroying—" And she stopped herself again, wanting to look away once more, this time in embarrassment and dismay. But something about the sparkle in Vashar's eyes held her gaze on him.
"If it starts destroying, let us be the ones to bear the brunt and learn to control it, for we as warriors are more expendable than Earth," he finished.
His voice carried no hint of rancor, offense, or resentment, but Norah could not help feeling ashamed. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't even have brought it up."
"Do not be sorry," Vashar replied. "Do you know what some of us say about activating the device here? They also say it is all to the good, and they also say it is because we are a world of warriors. If it is a weapon, they argue, it truly belongs here, the better to strengthen us, the better to arm us in any battle against the other planets with which we have clashed in the past. Old aggressions, I fear, are as stubborn as old fears and superstitions. We are not always so far removed from our history as we think."
"I'm not proud of some of my people for that," Norah admitted.
"And if you wish to speak of pomposity and arrogance, I should not wish you to hear some of the things that are said in our governing halls," Vashar admitted in return. "It appears we have more in common than our distant ancestry, Dr. Slattery."
"That's certainly how it looks, Your Lordship."
A softness came over Vashar's handsome face; a softness and a kindness born of what Norah sensed was a genuine fondness. "Perhaps," he suggested, "when we are outside of our official capacities, you would care to address me as something other than 'Your Lordship.' Would it please you to address me as just Vashar?"
Norah could not help but smile openly at that. It felt as wonderful as the touch of his hand. "I actually would like that... Vashar."
"Then so shall it be... Norah.” He smiled in return. "And I am sure, now that you are properly fed and settled, you are anxious to have a first look at the almost-completed device before the other functionaries arrive and the last piece is delivered."
Norah nodded. "I'd like that, yes."
"Then let us away to the ballroom of the estate, which for this purpose has been made an amphitheatre," he said.
And Vashar rose and helped Norah up from her seat to lead her from the dining hall to the amphitheatre. In his most courtly manner, he escorted her with her arm linked with his, and in the back of her mind Norah felt again like the slender, glass-slippered girl in the fairy tale.
_______________
The ballroom was a large space with windows that reached from floor to ceiling. Norah tried to imagine what kind of ball a race of warriors would give. How would they behave? How would they dress? How would they dance? What would the music be like? She felt at a disadvantage somewhat. In her studies of the technologies of other worlds, she had not familiarized herself to any great extent with other parts of their culture. She would have to ask Vashar about what exactly went on in a Sarmian ballroom when the opportunity arose. In the meantime, other things called for her attention.
On one side of the room, rows of tiered seats and a section of other seats behind a separate dais had been installed for the viewing of what stood on the other side. Mounted in a sturdy metallic base on a raised, stage-like platform was the almost-complete circle of components forged of unknown metal alloys, which Norah guessed were probably mixed in a zero-gravity environment. It had been well-known for centuries that metals that would not ordinarily mix in the gravity well of a planet could be combined in zero-G. There could be all sorts of exotic metal combinations in this apparatus, and all sorts of other interesting and novel compounds as well. All that was missing, if one stood directly in front of the structure between it and the seats, was the upper right-hand section of the circle. One of the three already-assembled parts was the one found here on the sprawling grounds of this very estate. Once the original part still to come from Sigma Cephei was in place, the Shaper device would be finished—for good or ill.
"Do you feel that?" asked Vashar at Norah's side. "Even now, unfinished, its circle not yet closed... it hums."
Norah smiled, lost in fascination. He was right. There was a distinct vibration in the air, and it was coming unmistakably from the alien artifact. She could just barely pick up the hum at the lower register of her hearing, but perhaps even more distinct was the low buzzing at the base of her neck and in the pit of her stomach. It was not unpleasant. It was almost hypnotic. And the glow and shimmer from inside the circuits appeared to have a rhythm of its own, a flow and pulse that Norah could swear reminded her of blood pumping through veins and arteries. She glanced over at Vashar and saw her own smile reflected in his. "I've never felt anything like that," she said.
"There is a levitator on the stage," he said. "You may use it to examine the connection if you like."
"Yes," she said in an almost dreamy voice, and stepped across the space between seating and stage and up onto the platform. Next to the alien arc, a circular dish-like device rested on the stage. From the edge of the dish, a tall stalk extended, with a control panel on its end. Norah stepped into the dish of the levitator and touched her fingertips to the control panel, commanding the device to lift her up. In a couple of seconds it had her hovering at the unfinished part of the device, the empty space where the final arc of the circle would be attached. She tapped some other commands on the levitator's controls and it projected holographic readouts of the ends of the arc and the parts that were already joined. She examined the microscopic and molecular readings and the schematics of the exposed circuitry and connections. She recognized many of the compounds that the sensors had detected and mentally noted the substances that were not recognized. And one other thing captivated her the most.
"The way these parts fit together... it seems almost organic, doesn't it?" she marveled. "These compounds—some of them almost seen to mimic some of th
e functions of proteins. The way the pieces fit together at the molecular level, they're made to blend and combine seamlessly and work like the parts of an organ system in a living body. It's like a machine simulating life, the way it would in the kind of android that's just in the theoretical stages for us." Norah looked again at the way the parts were made to fit together, like the parts of some mysterious organism. The way they combined reminded her of something, and she was loath to say what it was. She only looked down at Vashar, at the look that played upon his handsome face, and wondered if he had enough of a scientific background to have made the same association.
Vashar added to the tingle that the unfinished machine gave off when he called up to her, "Touch it, Norah. Put your hand on it and feel it." Looking down at him, she saw him place his hand on one arc of the device and shut his eyes, as if some invisible massaging hand were working its way down his back. Her curiosity heightened all the more, Norah commanded the levitator to bring her closer to the device. She wondered what would happen if she touched one of the ends. She had not heard of any ill effects from anyone trying it while the pieces were apart, and it had not occurred to her to ask if anyone had tried it now that they were together. She opted against the risk and reached up and out to put her hand on the upper arc. At once, a powerful feeling thrilled its way through her body, making her eyes bulge for a moment until they fell shut—and the sensation throbbed its way up and down her spine as if it were an instrument being played by some unseen musician.
Desired By The Cowboy (Love In Collin's Ranch 2) Page 57
