The rap on the door to my work space was firm, but not percussively excessive. It couldn’t have been Jiendra, since she was on duty as a junior operations officer, another result of the attrition of the officers of the Magellan.
“Yes?”
“It’s Chendor, Liam.”
Rising posthaste from the console, I opened the door. “Please come in.”
The artist carried two plastrene boxes, each a third of a meter long, half that in width, and a good twenty centimeters in depth. Once inside he raised them slightly, conveying an invitation. “These are for you… the tea from Elysen.”
“For me? Chendor… there must be some misapprehension. While I respected her and held her in esteem—” far more esteem than many of the other scientific team experts whom I had come to know, and with whose acquaintance my respect had diminished on close to a logarithmic scale in proportion to the time spent with them, every fleeting contact with Dr. Taube had reinforced my respect—”I scarcely knew her.” Chendor had mentioned the tea, but I had not appreciated the quantity involved, but should have. Chendor did not offer idle remarks.
“She felt that you would appreciate the tea, Liam.” He pressed the containers on me.
As I took them and set them beside the console, I noted that he also carried an imager. Such a device would have been vital on Danann, but on board ship?
“She said the bergamot tea would more than meet your high standards.” Chendor went on.
High standards? When had I ever said a word about tea since embarking upon the Magellan? Regrettably, I had discoursed upon wine, and upon the fact that formulated wine was close to unimbibable, but never had a word about tea escaped my lips. “She must have been most observant, in addition to her other qualities.”
“She was very observant. I wish I’d met her earlier.” He shrugged. “Without Project Deep Find, I wouldn’t have known her at all.”
His observation was more than slightly true, and the same applied to me and Jiendra as well.
“What had she discovered, Chendor? It is indubitably linked to your artifact, is it not?”
He smiled. “Before we get into that, I have a request.”
“A request?”
“I’d like to capture a few images of you, if you would. Part of my charge is to document the entire expedition.”
“I’m certain that you can do better than my image,” I demurred. “But… as you wish.”
“If you would just walk around for a few minutes, and let me take images as you move and talk.”
“What had Dr. Taube discovered, Chendor?”
He took several images before replying. “I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone until it was announced.”
“If I tell you what it is, and promise not to convey the information to others, will you confirm that?”
“I couldn’t say, Liam.”
“From what I can ascertain, Chronos and Danann have been separating for in excess of ten billion years, perhaps as little as six, depending on whose report I read. The two gray spheres of your artifact represent them, while the black is the tie that binds them or the track along which they were propelled by the builders of Danann. Those builders only created or modified Danann as part of their greater project, and the artifact suggests that they used the two as some sort of graviton/atrousan fulcrum by which they moved their entire cluster somewhere else, most probably into another universe…”
“Who have you been talking to?” Behind the imager, Chendor’s face bore traces of both amusement and apprehension.
“No one, except Lieutenant Chang. She provided some details about the radiation intensification.”
“I would ask you, Liam… I’ll even beg you not to mention this. Elysen was so concerned that nothing be said until Cleon Lazar completed the mathematical proofs. She was afraid, I think, that people would dismiss the theory if everything didn’t get presented properly.”
Had it not been Chendor, I would have laughed. Virtually all the scientists at the University of Gregory had displayed traits in that vein. They ridiculed, in fashions both kind and unkind, historical or sociopolitical theses, while being perfectly willing to speculate about all too many matters of which they were effectively ignorant, but became incensed if someone speculated about their own theses prematurely, even while the aspects of what they investigated were, if not obvious, certainly not exactly unknown.
“I will not say anything, except to Jiendra, for the moment. She is not exactly effusive. I take it that you are confirming, at least in a general sense, what the artifact represents?”
“As I understand it.” Chendor paused. “Please…”
I wanted to tell Chendor that it would make little difference what I said. I was not a hard physical scientist, and anything I suggested would be disregarded as beneath consideration by those who were, but he would regard any such statement as an excuse for me to speak. “Please don’t worry about it. I’m not about to try to take credit for what they have found, and I certainly would not wish my words to cause you distress. I will say that Cleon Lazar had best finish his work fairly quickly, though, or someone else may well be able to calculate the supporting evidence and take credit it for the discovery first. Just because he and Dr. Taube were the experts in the field here on the Magellan doesn’t mean that someone else couldn’t try for the credit. If you’re concerned about that, you could tell Lazar that you’ve heard that someone has already mentioned the possibility.”
“He wouldn’t think you were that credible,” Chendor pointed out, proving that I’d underestimated his judgment. “Not in a scientific sense.” He clipped the imager to his belt.
“You don’t say that it’s me. You tell Lazar that I mentioned hearing someone talking about it, and that I couldn’t say who it was.” I laughed. “I can certainly hear myself talk, and I can’t tell anyone, you know, because I promised you I wouldn’t.”
“I could do that.”
“I might try to talk to Lazar myself, but I won’t mention your name. It’s known that he worked with Dr. Taube.”
“Do you think he’ll say anything?”
“I won’t know until I try. If I try.”
Chendor frowned, momentarily. “You won’t say—”
“I wouldn’t even consider that a remote possibility, but if I intimate that I deduced his and Dr. Taube’s theory, as a nonscientist…”
“It might work.” After a moment, he spoke. “I did want to make sure you got the tea. And get a few more images.”
“A few more?”
“I captured several off the ship’s systems. When you disabled the assassins.”
My wince was involuntary. I should have realized that such would have existed. All sections—or all public spaces—of Comity and D.S.S. ships were monitored.
“Don’t worry.” He started to turn.
“I’ll thank you for the tea, since I can’t thank Dr. Taube. I will enjoy it. That I can promise you.”
He smiled before he closed the door.
What was he painting that needed me? I refrained from shaking my head, a useless gesture in private, particularly as I contemplated a strategy to gain access to Cleon Lazar and to obtain more details about his and Dr. Taube’s theory.
80
Fitzhugh
Several hours of cogitation and calculation followed Chendor’s visit, and in the middle of three-day afternoon, I attempted to reach Cleon Lazar through the comm system. He did not deign even to respond, nor to return my message requesting a few moments of his time. From what I had seen and heard of him, that lack of courtesy toward a non-physical scientist was what I had anticipated.