"The manager of that department is discussing it now."
Robin pulled a shirt over his shoulders and began buttoning it. "Sharon tells me you've got some kind of Open Day coming up at Goddard."
"Right."
"What's that all about?"
Caldwell raised his eyes. Even ten years previously, with secrecy and security still a hangover from the days of militarization, it would have been unthinkable. "Don't remind me. I was just enjoying my day off. It's on Tuesday. The powers that run our world have decided that since the public pays for most of what goes on at Goddard, the public has a right to see for itself. So we've got lectures, lab exhibits-you know, the usual kind of thing." A phone rang somewhere in the house.
"Sounds interesting. I might try and get along. Tuesday, you said?"
"If you don't mind hordes of tourists and kids taking over the staff dining room. It's a blessing Chris Danchekker isn't around right now."
"Gregg, it's for you." Maeve called from the next room.
"I'm incommunicado." Caldwell refused to carry a compad on his days off.
"It's Calazar. They put him through from ASD. He seems really serious."
"Oh. That's different… Excuse me, Robin." Caldwell went through to take the call.
Robin turned his head to Sharon, who was just coming in carrying a tray. "Calazar? Does he mean the Thurien leader?"
"That's right."
"Everyone knows that," Timmy put in.
Robin shook his head. "My father-in-law gets calls at home from other star systems? I'm never going to get used to this."
In the next room Caldwell moved around to face the screen. "Byrom, hello. What's up?"
"I've just got word from Gate Control. They've lost contact with the beacon. Everything went dead at once."
It was certainly strange for Thurien engineering to malfunction. But did it really warrant a call like this? "So we go to the standby unit," Caldwell said.
"That's dead, too. They both went out at the same time."
The implication was at once clear. Yes, it did warrant a call like this. The only explanation for both beacons going out together was that some agency had deliberately destroyed them-they had been spaced far enough apart to avoid simultaneous stray impact hazards.
But even worse, the beacons were VISAR's locator. They provided the only way to find that particular universe again. Without them, there was no way to bring the mission home.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Back up in the Shapieron, the rest of the mission personnel had been monitoring the progress of the shuttle's landing party as relayed from their headband pickups. Not having been part of the previous Jevlen expedition, Chien was the only one among them who didn't recognize Broghuilio immediately. Duncan and Sandy were speechless. Garuth was still staring bemusedly at the view of the screen down in the Agracon showing the Jevlenese, when ZORAC interrupted. "Commander, I think we may have a serious emergency. I've just lost all contact with both the M-space beacons. Hi-mag scan shows rapidly dispersing debris at both locations."
Garuth was too nonplused by the succession of bolts out of the blue to respond immediately. Shilohin had joined him when Broghuilio started speaking from the screen inside the room beneath the Agracon.
"They were obviously destroyed," she said. "It could only be the Jevlenese."
"Is there any indication of a direction that something might have come from?" Garuth checked with ZORAC.
"Negative."
It still made no sense. How could the Jevlenese be here? The probe that followed them through the tunnel would also have to be here, but careful checking and rechecking had shown no sign of it. Yet every one of the checks carried out in the reconnaissance visits further on in time had confirmed it to be out there and functioning, so how could it not be working now? Unless they had just happened to hit on a universe in which, unlike every other one that they had sampled, the probe had malfunctioned… No. Garuth rejected the probability. But if the Jevlenese were here ahead of the Shapieron after all, why was there no sign of their five ships? Nothing was adding up. He realized with a start that Broghuilio was speaking to him.
"I assume that the proceedings in Melthis are being followed by the rest of you out there in the Shapieron." Garuth noted the words "out there." So the Jevlenese were somewhere that was "in." Broghuilio went on, "It probably hasn't escaped your notice that we possess considerable firepower. You may take what just happened to your scouting devices as a demonstration of its potency. It is now trained upon your ship. In case your vision is still clouded in some way, allow me to summarize the situation as it now exists. You no longer have VISAR and the Thuriens to hide behind. A most interesting change of perspective, I think you must agree."
Garuth was under no illusions as to what that meant. After the Shapieron's eventual departure from Earth, Broghuilio had attempted its destruction in order to prevent a true picture of Earth from reaching the Thuriens-as opposed to the distorted one that the Jevlenese had been drawing. Only the timely establishing of direct communications between the Thuriens and Caldwell's UNSA group had prevented it. As Garuth continued to listen, still in a semi-daze, Chien's voice came through in his ear piece. The tone was subdued, indicating that ZORAC was connecting her privately.
"Garuth and Shilohin. You realize what this means. Freskel-Gar's whole performance was a ruse. Therefore everything he told us was false. No message of acknowledgment was received back from Perasmon and Harzin, for none was ever sent. There have been no orders to divert the Cerian aircraft. They're still in danger… if it isn't too late already."
Garuth froze and then groaned. His concern had been so much for those down on the surface who had just walked into a trap, his ship and the threat posed by the Jevlenese, to think through the further implications. It also helped to be able to think like a Terran.
"Of course!" Shilohin whispered.
"We are the only ones who can stop it," Chien said. "It will have to be through the Cerians. Obviously no one in Lambia can be trusted."
Garuth stared at the image of Broghuilio on screen, but he was not hearing the words. Chien was right. It was up to them now. His mind raced frantically. "ZORAC."
"Commander?"
"Local," indicating that what Garuth said was not to be repeated over the channel to Minerva.
"Acknowledged."
"I don't know what their plans are or if I'll be able to communicate freely. What I want you to do regardless is this. Get access to the Cerian military command system, their space operations agency, or the department of government that handles the president's affairs. Warn them there's a plot in motion to destroy the aircraft flying from Melthis with President Marzin and King Perasmon aboard. We think it will be brought down by a missile. The flight must be turned around or diverted immediately."
"I'm working on it now."
Seeing the helplessness written across Garuth's face was a gratification in itself. The Shapieron and its occupants were the greatest personal anathema in Broghuilio's existence. He recognized Garuth, of course, from the storm of publicity that had followed the appearance of the Shapieron at Ganymede and its later six-month stay on Earth, when Broghuilio had directed the Jevlenese surveillance operation reporting to Calazar. That ship had been responsible for bypassing him and the Jevlenese to open up direct contact between the Thuriens and Terrans, and the unraveling of everything Broghuilio and his predecessors had been planning for generations. It had been the instrument for perpetrating the deception that brought down JEVEX, costing Broghuilio his overlordship of Jevlen and putting an end permanently to his ambition to assert himself over Terrans and Thuriens alike. And here it was now, as defenseless as a puppy brought to heel. It had evaded his attempt to destroy it once before, making him appear a fool in the process. He had no compunction about the thought of settling that score now and finishing the job.