“Don’t you think that will keep me busy? And then there are all those documents on subjects I know nothing about.”
Her bored resignation rang false, and suddenly Titus wondered just why she was on the project. A medic who isn’t a doctor and a linguist who isn’t working on the message-Mihelich had cut himself off from others, and Mirelle had been dissembling so persistently it was hard to say who she really was. Titus glanced about and spotted other loners. Could there be something else going on besides Project Hail?
If the humans were up to something different from what had been announced, it was imperative that the Residents find out about it, and quickly. Mirelle had to be the key.
Just then a man’s voice announced, “Attention members of Project Hail. I am honored to present to you, the on-site director of the Project, Dr. Carol Colby.”
People turned toward a woman who stood on a chair, a microphone in one hand and an electronic clipboard in the other. She was wearing the same Project Hail uniform as the rest of them, an unprepossessing blue coverall with indigo piping, one had her flight jacket tied around her waist by the arms. Her sandy hair was cut short and flipped back, secured by a headband that held an earphone near one ear.
“There isn’t much time, so I’ll make this short.” Her Pleasant contralto voice suggested a trained broadcaster or singer.
She appeared no more than fifty, and was trim-figured, with pale skin. Titus saw a scattering of people move to a counter by the boarding ramp where translator headphones were plugged in.
“Everything is ready at Project Station, your quarters and labs-even the computers are up and running. We’ve worked hard to reach this point so quickly, and I must now ask something even more special of you.”
“As you know, having come directly from Earth today, sabotage has not been rare despite Project security. The controversy is so heated, the project could be canceled.”
“You’re all volunteers, here because you believe in the Project, so I’m confident you’ll respond well when I ask you to work longer hours than you expected. Our supporters on Earth can give us another eight months at the outside. So we launch in eight months, not fourteen. Can you do it?”
A roar of voices chanted “Yes!” in a dozen languages.
Titus noticed a small knot of men and women moving toward Colby, leading the chanting.
“Abbot?” asked Titus, nervously cloaking his words in Influence. “What are they up to?”
“I see no threat, only suppressed amusement.”
Titus wondered if he’d ever develop such powers. He forced his attention back to the director, who was saying, “Since this decision was taken only hours ago, we haven’t yet consulted heads of vital departments, so let me put you on the spot here and now. Dr. Nancy Dorenski?”
One of the group of chant leaders presented herself. She was a diminutive brunette.
“Dr. Dorenski, can you complete programming of the message in such a short time?”
“If nothing goes wrong,” came a tiny soprano voice, “we can make it.”
“Good.” Colby made a note on her clipboard with a light pen. “Dr. Shiddehara, Dr. Titus Shiddehara?”
“Here!” answered Titus. “Back by the bar.”
“Ah, you speak English!” Her own English had a slight French Canadian tang to it. “Can you locate the point of origin of the aliens in only eight months?”
“There’s no way to know, Dr. Colby. But if, as you say, the computers are ready and the crews working on the alien craft complete the analyses I specified, you can count on my department.” In truth, he expected that within a month or so he’d have verification of the luren tradition that identified their origin.
On the other hand, as with most legends devoutly believed in, this one might contain only a kernel of truth, embroidered for effect by storytellers impressing children.
Colby continued calling on department heads and all answered as Titus had. He caught Abbot eyeing him narrowly. How long would it take Abbot to make another targeting device? Had he counted on fourteen months? Suddenly the future didn’t look quite so bleak. If only Connie managed to get a decent quantity of blood through to the Station.
Titus’s brooding was interrupted when a member of the small group of chanters, a young woman who couldn’t be more than twenty-five, dragged a chair up to Colby’s and climbed up. “May I borrow your microphone for a moment, Doctor?”
Puzzled, the Director handed the instrument over, while the woman held out a packet wrapped in white tissue. “This is from the six technicians of the Air Scrubbing Plant-to help you maintain discipline.”
The Director unwrapped the package, unrolling a green cloth and holding it up. It was a T-shirt with the words BIG CHEESE on the front and a moon-shaped slice of cheese balanced on a photograph of the moon. In silence the Director stared at it blankly, then she burst out laughing. She took off the jacket tied around her waist and pulled the huge T-shirt over her head. It went almost to her knees.
Colby took the microphone back, and said, “I’ll be the Big Cheese on the Moon if you folks remember that this Colby doesn’t crumble!” With that, she stepped down, leaving everyone cheering. The boarding announcement cut across the noise, and people lined up to board for the trip to the moon.
Abbot, Titus, and Mirelle rated private cabins far forward of the drive and so were funneled into the same line. Titus wanted nothing so much as to get away from Abbot, but he turned when Mirelle called, “Titus, wait!”
She caught up with him and this time shyly waited for him to take her arm. He hesitated. He had made a pact with himself not to touch human sources of blood. He was used to synthetics, supplemented with ectoplasm only from volunteers. But his blood supplies had been stolen.
And Mirelle had chosen him over Abbot. If he rejected her, she’d turn to his father. Titus could not abide the way Abbot treated his stringers.
He slid his arm around her waist, feeling the layer of hard muscle under feminine contours, and guided her to the line moving up the boarding ramp. She cuddled closer. “Maybe I can get my cabin changed to one next to you?”
“Mirelle, I don’t know what to make of you. You’re never the same woman twice. What game are you playing?”
She looked up with wounded dignity turning to innocence. Just then Abbot inserted himself into the line beside them, exerting Influence to keep others from objecting to the cut.
“Mirelle,” he said, displaying his boarding card. “I’ve switched to the cabin next to yours.” Enhancing his words with Influence, he put his arm around her and murmured in her ear, “This’ll be an interesting voyage. We’re far enough away from that stuffy physicist”-he indicated Titus-“to have some real fun.” Over her head, Abbot met Titus’s gaze and hardened his Influence around Mirelle.
Abbot was only exercising the elder’s right of choice in taking Mirelle. But the way he did it rankled.
Yet it was the Law of Blood. Titus relinquished his hold on the human. He could barely breathe against the outrage flooding through him. His lips curled in a snarl. Tourist! But he dared not spit an obscenity in his father’s face. Cloaking his words, he said, “Humans aren’t orl. They have the right of choice.” Orl were just animals evolved for luren to feed on, but Tourists often used the word for humans.
Abbot whispered to Mirelle, poisoning her subconscious against Titus. “I won’t let that physicist pry anything out of you. You can always depend on me to protect you.”
Offended, Titus choked, “What do you think I am?”
Abbot raised an eyebrow. “Luren, of course.” He turned Mirelle toward him and moved his left forefinger toward the point between her brows. His Influence focused to a barely discernible blue-white light emanating from the tip of his finger. If that finger should once touch her, Mirelle would be Marked with the complex pattern of Abbot’s personal sigil.