Jacob made a mental note to learn more about the Pilan Jihads. The Pila were aggressive conservatives in galactic politics. The Jihads, or “Holy Wars” were supposedly the last resort used to enforce tradition among the races of the galaxy. The Institutes served the traditions, but left enforcement to the opinion of the majority, or to the strongest.
Jacob felt sure that the Library references would be full of justified Holy Wars, with few “regrettable” cases of species using tradition as an excuse to wage war for power or for hate.
History is usually written by the winners.
He wondered on which grievance the Pila had won free of their indenture to the Kisa. He wondered what a Kisa looked like.
Jacob started as a loud bell rang, sending reverberations throughout the Cavern. Three more times it pealed, echoing off stone walls and bringing him to his feet. „
All the workmen in sight downed tools and turned to look at the mammoth doors which led, by airlock and tunnel, to the surface of the planet. With a low rumbling, the doors slowly parted. At first only blackness could be seen in the widening crack. Then something big and bright came up and nudged the separation from the other side, like a puppy bumping impatiently with its nose to hurry the opening and get inside.
It was another shiny mirrored bubble, like the one he had just toured, only larger. It floated above the tunnel floor as though insubstantial. The ship bobbed slightly in the air and, when the way was open, entered the lofty hangar as if blown in by a breeze from the outside. Reflections of rockwall, machinery, and people swam along its sides brightly.
As the ship approached, it emitted a faint humming and crackling sound. Workmen gathered at a nearby cradle.
Culla and Jeffrey rushed past Jacob as he watched, the chimpanzee flashing him a grin and waving for him to come along. Jacob smiled back and started to follow, folding his papers and slipping them into his pocket. He looked for Kepler. The Sundiver chief must have stayed aboard Jeffrey’s ship to finish the inspection, for he was nowhere in sight. The ship crackled and hissed as it maneuvered over its nest, and then began to descend slowly. It was hard to believe that it didn’t shine with light of its own, its mirrored surface gleamed so. Jacob stood near Fagin, at the edge of the crowd. They watched together as the ship came to rest.
“You appear to be deep within your thoughts,” Fagin fluted. “Please forgive the intrusion, but I judge that it is acceptable to inquire informally concerning their nature.”
Jacob was close enough to Fagin to pick up a faint odor, somewhat like oregano. The alien’s foliage rippled gently nearby.
“I suppose I was thinking about where this ship has just been,” he answered. “I was trying to imagine what it must be like, down there. I — I just can’t.”
“Do not feel frustrated, Jacob. I am similarly in awe, and incapable of comprehending what you of Earth have accomplished here. I await my first descent with humble anticipation.”
And so put me to shame again, you green bastard, Jacob thought. I’m still trying to find a way not to have to go on one of these crazy dives. And you blather about being anxious to go!
“I don’t want to call you a liar, Fagin, but I think you’re stretching diplomacy a bit by saying you’re impressed by this project. The technology is early stone age by galactic standards. And you can’t tell me no one has ever dived into a star before! There have been sophonts loose in the galaxy for almost a billion years. Everything worth doing has been done at least a trillion times!”
There was a vague bitterness in his voice as he spoke. The strength of his own feelings surprised Jacob.
“That is no doubt quite true, Friend-Jacob. I do not pretend that Sundiver is unique. Only that it is unique in my experience. The sentient races with whom I have contact have been satisfied to study their suns from a distance and to compare the results with Library standards. For me this is adventure in its truest form.”
A rectangular slice of the Sunship started to slide downward, to form a ramp to the cradle’s rim. Jacob frowned.
“But manned dives has to have been performed before! It’s such an obvious thing to try at some time or another if it’s proven possible! I can’t believe that we’re the first!”
“There is very little doubt, of course,” Fagin said slowly. “If no one else, then surely the Progenitors did this. For they did all things, it is said, before they departed. But so many things have been done, by so many peoples, it is very hard to ever know for certain.”
Jacob mulled over this in silence.
As the section of the Sunship neared the ramp, Kepler approached, smiling at Jacob and Fagin.
“Ah! There you are. Exciting, isn’t it? Everyone’s here! It’s this way every time someone gets back from the Sun, even for a short scout dive like this one was!”
“Yes,” Jacob said. “It’s very exciting. Um, there’s something I want to ask you. Doctor Kepler, If you have a moment. I was wondering if you’ve asked the Branch Library at La Paz for a reference on your Sun Ghosts. Surely someone else has encountered a similar phenomenon, and I’m sure it would be a big help to have…”
His voice fell away as he saw Kepler’s smile fade.
“That was the reason Culla was assigned to us in the first place, Mr. Demwa. This was going to be a prototype project to see how well we could mix independent research with limited help from the Library. The plan worked well when we were building the ships, I have to confess that the Galactic technology is something astounding. But since then the Library hasn’t been much help at all.
“It’s really very complicated. I was hoping to get into it tomorrow, after you’ve had a complete briefing, but you see…”
A loud cheer came from all around as the crowd surged forward. Kepler smiled resignedly.
“Later!” he shouted.
At the top of the cradle three men and two women waved at the cheering crowd. One of the women, tall and slender with a close cut of straight blonde hair, caught sight of Kepler and grinned. She started down and the rest of the crew followed.
This was apparently the Hermes Base commander Jacob had heard about from time to time during the last two days. One of the physicians at the party last night had called her the best Commandant the Confederacy outpost on Mercury ever had. A younger man had then interrupted the -old-timer with a comment that she was also “… a fox.” Jacob had assumed that the med-tech was referring to the commander’s mental skill. As he watched the woman she seemed hardly older than a girl] lithely stride down the steep ramp, he realized that the remark could easily have another complimentary meaning.
The crowd parted and the woman approached the Sundiver chief, hand outstretched.
“They’re there all right!” she said. “We went down to tau point two, in the first active region, and there they were! We got within eight hundred meters of one!
Jeff won’t have any trouble. It was the biggest herd of magrietovores I’ve ever seen!”
Jacob found her voice low and melodious. Confident. Her accent, though, was hard to place. Her pronunciation seemed quaint, old fashioned.
“Wonderful! Wonderful!” Kepler nodded. “Where there are sheep, there must be shepherds, eh?”
He took her arm and turned to introduce her to Fagin and Jacob.
“Sophonts, this is Helene deSilva, Confederacy Commandant here on Mercury, and my right-hand man. Couldn’t get along without her. Helene, this is Mr. Jacob Alvarez Demwa, the gentleman I told you about by maser. The Kanten Fagin, of course, you met some months back, on Earth. I understand you’ve exchanged a few masergrams since.”