“I am simply reporting,” Winnie continued woodenly, “on a situation which I feel you need to know about. I have here a complete list of hardware component failures.”
“I don’t want a damned list. I’m no data technician. I want to know the effects of what you’ve done.”
“I did not do it, sir. But I can tell you the consequences of what has happened. We have lost a great deal of data. I believe that copies of most of it will exist back at Sol-side headquarters, but the equipment loss is more worrying. Our long-distance communication modules are out of action.”
Josh and the others stirred uneasily, but Brewster simply said, “Rubbish!”
“I’m afraid it’s true, sir. We can still send messages to an aircar or an orbiter, but we will not have through-node contact until the next Foodlines vessel arrives at Solferino from Earth. Do you wish to confirm that for yourself?”
The group outside the communications building waited tensely for Brewster’s reply. Instead, he was suddenly looming before them in the doorway.
“Are you all enjoying your vacation?” He surveyed them angrily. “I heard you muttering out here. It was my impression that you had been given assignments. If you think differently, stay here and I’ll give you more than you bargained for. Otherwise, get the hell out of the way and stop listening to what’s none of your business.”
It was the tone, even more than the words. They scattered like nervous rabbits.
“What about us?” Hag said as they hurried away. “Our duties are supposed to be in there with Winnie Carlson.”
“And it is our business, what he’s talking about with Winnie,” added Rick. “It’s all our businesses if off-world communications are out.”
“Fine,” Josh panted. They were moving as fast as anyone could, without actually running. “Go back, then, and tell him that. Be my guest.”
It was no surprise that neither Rick nor Hag accepted his invitation.
Chapter Fourteen
When the flight from Sol Brewster’s anger ended, the members of the trainee group returned to the complex of buildings. They acted nonchalant—but no one went near the computer and communications center.
Rick and Hag headed into their dorm. Josh kept going and entered the next building, where the laundry and a little recreation area and gym were located. He had seen Sig go in there and was hoping for a private word, but to his disappointment Topaz was already inside. Sig had moved to sit on a gym bench next to her.
Josh decided he would speak anyway. He pulled a chair across, sat down facing them, and said to Sig, “You remember you agreed that Dawn and Ruby saw a smart rupert, but that Brewster wouldn’t believe it unless he saw it for himself?”
Topaz’s eyes popped, but Sig nodded casually enough and said, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“Did you think of any way that it could be done—catch a rupert, I mean?”
Sig shook his head. “Not a chance. If ruperts are as shy as everyone says, it would be impossible.”
“Right. For you, and me, and Topaz, that’s true. But I think Dawn could do it. You haven’t seen her with animals. She’s wonderful.”
Topaz said, “I thought you were just telling us ruperts are too smart to be thought of as animals.”
“You know what I mean. I’d like Dawn to have a chance to find one. But she’d need somebody with her.”
“You’ve heard Brewster’s opinion,” Sig said. “He’d tell you it was a waste of time, and he’d never let you go.”
“I wasn’t thinking of me.”
“Who, then?”
“The only one who’s not going to be given heavy duties, apart from Dawn, because she’s too young. I was thinking of Ruby. And I was thinking you might help persuade Sapphire that it would be all right for her to go with Dawn.”
Sig didn’t have a chance to answer, because Topaz was way ahead of him. “Are you out of your mind? Saph spends her life trying to make sure the rest of us don’t get into anything dangerous. Now you want Ruby to go off into the wild woods, on a planet humans know almost nothing about, and try to catch an animal we know even less about.”
Josh felt like an idiot, especially when Sig raised his eyebrows and added, “Couldn’t have put it better myself. It’s the last thing in the world that Saph needs, considering what she’s going through at the moment. She feels like shit. Josh, you get the dumb-idea-of-the-week award.”
It only helped a little when Topaz reached out, patted Josh’s knee, and said, “I’m sorry. I think the ruperts are intelligent, too, and I think it’s really important to prove it. But not this way. Could Dawn go by herself? She’s a lot smarter than people give her credit for. She’s learning her letters, even if it’s slow work. If she keeps it up she’ll soon be able to read and write.”
“She is bright, in her own way.” But it was Josh’s turn to feel uneasy. “Maybe Dawn would be all right in the woods alone. I’m afraid to let her go, though.”
“We’re all protecting somebody,” Topaz said. “With Sig it’s the twins, with Saph and me it’s Ruby. With you, it’s Dawn.”
As Topaz was speaking, Dawn herself came into the room from outside. She smiled at hearing her name, but said nothing. She seated herself on the floor between Sig and Josh, reached up, and handed Josh her sketch pad.
It showed a landscape, a distant view of the Barbican Hills as seen from the departing cargo aircar. He didn’t remember all the details that Dawn had included, but he felt sure they were accurate. He was about to offer the pad to Sig when Dawn gestured for him to turn the page. He did so, and found he was looking at a photo-accurate drawing of the ship that he had seen passing overhead early the same morning. But Dawn could not have seen it then—she had been busy with her lettering, inside the kitchen.
“When did you see this, Dawn?” And then, to Sig. “I told you! That’s what I saw. It’s not a cargo aircar or a lander, it’s more like the ship that carried us up from Earth.”
“It’s a deep-space vessel all right.” Sig was head-down over the drawing, studying the fine details. “But if it’s the way Dawn drew it, the design is different from the ones we’ve used. The exhaust isn’t the same—see those little side plumes, like feathers? And the hull is shorter and fatter.”
Josh should have been as intent on the drawing as Sig. He wasn’t. While Sig was speaking, Topaz’s fingers had moved up from Josh’s knee and were gently scratching the outside of his left thigh.
It tickled rather than hurt, and it was actually rather pleasant. But he could not understand why she was doing it in public, and certainly not at this particular moment. He turned to face Topaz, not sure how he was going to ask her to stop.
She was leaning forward on the bench, examining Dawn’s drawing. Her two hands rested lightly on two knees—her own.
Josh glanced down. Nothing was on the outside of his pants, but something was inside them. There was a bulge near the bottom of his left pocket. As he put his hand down toward it, the bulge slid up his leg a couple of inches.
He jumped to his feet. He started to put his hand into his pocket, then hesitated. He knew what it was—or what it had been. That was the pocket where he had dropped, and then forgotten about, the brown seedlike thing that fell on his head as the giant balloon exploded in the stormy sky above them.
But what was it now?
No matter what, he couldn’t bear to leave it there, crawling invisibly up his leg. He inserted his hand into his pocket. He had to force himself to do it, but he felt his way downward until something soft and warm squirmed against his fingers.