Rusch, Kristine Kathryn - Diving Universe SS3
Page 10
And it would prevent Gabrielle Reese from robbing this place blind. Because she wouldn't be in charge any longer.
The Scholars got most of their funding from government grants from all over the sector. Various governments would want to know how this defense system worked. They'd bid for the rights to study it.
This entire place would become famous. Dr. Reese wouldn't have untrammeled access any longer. They had nearly reached the top of the stairs when Navi put her hand on Meklos's arm.
“Check me out,” she said. “As soon as we get to the surface. If what you say is true, then you can use proper communications equipment right from the city and it won't cause any harm. With a more powerful system, you'll see my bio, even without the disk I gave you. You'll find it all.”
He stopped beside her, moving the packs to one hand. “Why should I do that?”
“Because we're going to hire you. You'll guard this place for us until we can bring in reinforcements and take control from Dr. Reese.”
“She found this place. By your own admission, she hasn't done anything,” he said. “You were right. There is no reason to take her off the dig.”
Navi smiled. “I'm glad you understand. She truly is a gifted expert in her field. She should be allowed to stay. But you need to make sure everything else stays as well.”
He grunted, which she took as an assent. Although she wasn't sure.
She climbed the remaining steps into the building. People combed the walls, scanning everything. The site looked completely different than it had in the morning.
“Are there really caves down there?” one of the graduate students asked her.
The kid was so excited he apparently didn't notice the white all over her clothing or the blanket around her shoulders. Or the way her teeth were chattering.
“I'm not at liberty to say,” Navi said. She let Meklos lead her into the sunshine.
The warm sunshine that seemed to have a life of its own. It undulated like water toward the building that Gabrielle Reese had called the temple.
Clearly it wasn't a temple at all, but some kind of central control station.
“You want to see it?” Meklos asked her.
Navi nodded. She wanted to see it, then she wanted to go back to the building she'd been staying in. She wanted to sit alone in the darkness and shake.
She wanted a few minutes to let the fear ease away before she had to be completely professional again.
* * * *
39
The light was almost to the end of the Spires now. Gabrielle studied the light moving through the two-dimensional drawing as if it were alive and about to attack. A few of her team had gathered around as well, asking questions that she mostly ignored.
Then Meklos came inside. People parted from him as if he were going to harm them. He had a woman with him, and it took Gabrielle a moment to realize it was one of the divers.
“What did you find?” she asked, barely able to control her excitement. The museum? Treasures? She wasn't sure she could hide any of it now, but that mattered less than the fact of the artifacts. She wanted to see the famous Spoils of War Museum that the Denonites had created.
“Nothing,” the woman said. She sounded tired.
“It's a long story,” Meklos said. Obviously, he already knew what the story was.
Gabrielle glared at him. He was still getting in her way.
But he didn't seem to notice her glare. Instead, he was staring at the drawing.
“This is brilliant,” he said to the diver. “This is how the Denonites protected themselves against siege. Those passages below had to have once been easily visible from the ground. The Denonites built this so that they could track anyone entering.”
“And prevent them from coming into the city with those barriers,” the diver said.
“What barriers?” Gabrielle asked.
But they ignored her. She wasn't used to being ignored.
She was about to ask the question again, when the light moved to the last part of a Spire. It flickered for a moment, and then disappeared. There was a grinding above her. The ceiling closed. The lights were gone.
“What was that?” she asked.
But she didn't expect anyone to answer her, so she hurried outside. The light no longer flowed down from the Spires.
The city looked normal—as normal as it had before the sirens had gone off. The defense system had shut down, but she didn't know why. She was beginning to think she didn't know anything.
She was torn between awe at the system she'd seen and a disconcerting sense of unease, as if life as she had known it had suddenly and irrevocably changed.
* * * *
40
“He got out,” Navi said softly. “He got out.”
She felt more relief than she'd expected to.
“I'll give him a few minutes, and then contact the ship.”
She looked at Meklos.
“I can't believe he got out.”
Meklos smiled. He seemed calmer, too. “He got out and the system shut off. This thing is brilliant. The threat is gone, so the entire system is back in wait mode.”
“We're going to be studying this for a long time,” Navi said. “Will you help?”
“When everything checks out,” Meklos said.
She nodded. She understood that. She took her pack from Meklos, dug into the pouch, and grabbed her communicator. Damn, it was nice to use a powerful system again. She held it up to him. His smile widened.
She walked to the door. Gabrielle Reese was sitting on the stairs outside, looking lost. And she had lost. The woman was smart enough to know that the change in the Spires made the dig something completely different.
Oddly, Navi wanted to comfort her, to tell her that what she would lose financially, she would gain in reputation. Gabrielle Reese would forever be the woman who'd discovered the long-lost technology of the Denonites.
But Navi didn't say that. Instead she stepped into the street, bathing in the warmth of Amnthra's bright sun. She held up her communicator, pressing it on. She didn't use any identifying words. The signal from the comm should have been enough.
“I'm checking on Roye,” she said. “Is he all right?”
He looks like he's made of snow, the pilot of her deep exploration ship answered. But he's all right. Glad to be out of there. You coming to join us?
She looked over her shoulder. There were too many changes here, too much going on. Much as she trusted Meklos Verr, she had a hunch he didn't trust her. And there was too much at stake to leave to a man she'd just hired.
“No, I'm staying. I'll send up a full report tonight. We're going to need a lot of experts on the spot very fast. And not the kind that we have. We're dealing with technology now, not ancient art.”
Figured out that much, the pilot said. Roye wants to know if you're all right. Does he need to come over the mountain to find you?
“I'm fine,” she said, then she took a deep breath of the warm air.
More than fine. She was thrilled.
Everything had turned out much better than she'd expected.
“Tell him,” she said, “I'm just fine.”
* * * *
41
It didn't take Meklos long to check out Navi Salvino, now that he had the proper equipment. He spent most of his time digging through information logs from far away, ones she never would have thought to tamper with.
While he did that, Meklos had his team set up a better perimeter. He put robots and motion detectors all around the rim of the crater, like he'd wanted to do from the beginning.
He was going to accept her offer. He wanted to study the Spires system. It fascinated him. He'd been in countless cities that protected themselves from attack, but not like this place. He wanted to know more.
And he had a hunch there would always be more to know.
He lifted his face toward the Spires. He'd thought them beautiful when he'd first seen them. But now he realized they were more than beau
tiful. They were fascinating and, more importantly, useful. He smiled at them—and silently promised he would always keep them safe.