Farside (34 page)

“
You’re
not permitting me! Since when are you in charge? Professor Uhlrich, I demand that you allow me to leave!”

Uhlrich sat behind his desk, speechless.

“Anita,” said McClintock, “I’m afraid that Simpson is correct. It’s in your own best interest to remain here, temp—”

“
My
best interest?” Halleck snapped. “Since when have you ever had my best interest at heart, Carter?”

“Now, Anita…”

“Professor Uhlrich, I insist that you call Selene. Get to their governing council, to Douglas Stavenger,
somebody
! Make them understand that I’m not to be kept a prisoner here at Farside. I have important work to do!”

Her image suddenly winked out. The wall screen went blank.

“She hung up,” McClintock said.

“Or the bugs have hit the comm system,” Grant muttered.

FEARS

Doug Stavenger was in the sitting room of his quarters at Selene, talking to his wife at Farside.

“You’re okay?” he asked, for the twelfth time in as many minutes.

“I’m fine, honey,” said Edith, smiling brightly. “The nanobugs haven’t attacked any people.”

“Not directly.”

“Nope.” Edith’s normally cheerful expression sobered into a puzzled frown. “It’s kinda funny, really. The bugs have hit here and there, sort of at random.”

“And killed several people,” Stavenger said.

“Yeah, but it’s not like the gray goo thing, y’know, where they eat everything in sight.”

“But you’re all right?” he asked again.

“So far.”

“I can’t get you out of there,” Stavenger said, hating himself for letting her go in the first place. “Farside’s quarantined.”

“I know. Don’t worry about it. It’s kinda exciting, y’know. I’m getting to be a news reporter again, digging into the story.”

Suddenly alarmed, Stavenger blurted, “No news reports, Edith! This whole thing is under a news blackout.”

“Yessir, Mr. Dictator,” she said, with a grin and a mock military salute. “But once the blackout is lifted I’ll have a firsthand account. I’m interviewing Professor Uhlrich and Kris Cardenas, scientists and ordinary workers—”

The phone screen blinked and the data bar showed an incoming call from Professor Uhlrich.

Stavenger sat up straighter in his chair, a recliner that had been salvaged from a retired Clipper rocket.

“Speak of the devil: it’s Professor Uhlrich. Duty calls, darling.”

“He’s kinda weird,” said Edith.

“Yes, but I’ve got to take his call.”

“Sure. I’m goin’ to see Kris Cardenas, find out what she can tell me about all this.”

“Take care of yourself.” Stavenger knew it was lame, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“I’ll be back soon, Doug honey. With a terrific story!”

He forced a smile and switched to Uhlrich’s call.

The professor looked tired, stressed. “Mr. Stavenger,” he began, “thank you for taking my call.”

“What can I do for you, Professor?”

With an unhappy pout, Uhlrich said, “It’s Mrs. Halleck. She’s upset about being quarantined here at Farside. She’s demanding that we let her fly to Selene.”

“That’s not possible, Professor. I’m sure you understand why.”

“I understand,” said Uhlrich. “But she doesn’t. She insists that Selene allow her to return there. And from Selene, I suppose, she’ll want to transfer back to Earth.”

Stavenger shook his head. “If we allowed that, she might contaminate Selene with rogue nanos, and even spread them Earthside. We can’t have that.”

Uhlrich pleaded, “Will you talk to her, please? She won’t pay any attention to me. Perhaps you can make her see the necessity.”

Stavenger saw that the professor was close to his wits’ end. “Certainly,” he said. “I’ll call her right away.”

“Oh, thank you!”

“Think nothing of it,” said Stavenger. To himself he said, I’ll call Anita Halleck. But that won’t change anything.

*   *   *

Edith Elgin saw her husband’s image wink off in her phone screen. After a moment’s hesitation she told the phone to connect her with Kris Cardenas.

Almost immediately, Cardenas’s face appeared on the screen.

“Edith,” she said, looking surprised. “You’re here at Farside?”

“I surely am,” said Edith. “I need to talk to you, get your take on what’s goin’ on around here.”

Cardenas looked suddenly wary. “I’m pretty sure there’s a news blackout on what’s happening here.”

“I know that. But once the blackout is lifted, I want to be able to tell the story and for that I need to interview the world’s leading expert on nanotechnology.”

For a moment Cardenas hesitated. Then she allowed herself a tired smile and said, “Sure, Edith, why not? I’m on my way to Professor Uhlrich’s office. Why don’t you meet me there?”

“Great!” said Edith. “See you there.”

*   *   *

Anita Halleck was furious. She glared at the image of Douglas Stavenger on the wall screen of her quarters.

“So you see,” Stavenger was repeating, “we simply can’t allow any flights in here from Farside.”

“You mean you
won’t
allow any flights,” Halleck growled.

Stavenger spread his hands. “Can’t, won’t, it comes to the same thing, doesn’t it? Farside is quarantined until the nanomachine problem is solved.”

“But I can’t stay here!”

“I know it’s scary,” Stavenger said, trying to sound reasonable. “My own wife is at Farside, and I’m very nervous about that, believe me.”

“But you’ll let her die here?”

Stavenger’s youthful face went grim. “Mrs. Halleck, let me tell you something. My father chose to let rogue nanomachines kill him rather than infect all of Moonbase, back before this community was called Selene.”

“That’s got nothing to do with it,” she insisted.

“It does to me,” Stavenger countered. “I’m very sorry. I know this is frightening. But no one leaves Farside until the nanobug problem is solved. That’s it.”

Halleck’s wall screen went blank. She stared at it for long seconds, desperately rummaging in her mind for some solution to this idiotic problem, some way out, some way to save herself.

The phone chimed again. The data bar said it was Dr. Trudy Yost calling.

Uhlrich’s assistant, Halleck thought. What on Earth does she want? Then a new idea dawned in her mind. Of course! Halleck said to herself. This young pup might be my ticket out of here.

COUNTERSTEPS

“We’ve got to get Dr. Cardenas in on this,” Grant said.

“I called her more than half an hour ago,” McClintock said from across the table. “She should be here by now. I wonder what’s keeping her?”

Professor Uhlrich seemed frozen in his desk chair, immobilized by the enormity of what was happening to his dream.

Grant said, “Professor, perhaps if you called Dr. Cardenas she—”

The office door slid open and Kris Cardenas stepped in. With another woman. Grant recognized the newswoman, Edie Elgin. The two of them look almost like sisters, Grant realized: bright, youthful, blond—like a pair of former cheerleaders.

Cardenas was not in a cheerleading mood, though. “I’ve been down in the mirror lab,” she said, without preamble. “That’s why I’m late.”

Uhlrich roused himself from his funk enough to introduce, “Gentlemen, this is Edie Elgin, the famous video news star.”

Edith smiled prettily for them as Grant got to his feet and pulled out a chair for her. Cardenas went around the table and settled next to McClintock.

“You inspected the mirror lab’s airlock?” Uhlrich asked, smoothing his silver hair with an automatic gesture.

Cardenas nodded. “What happened to the airlock looks superficially like what happened to your technician’s space suit, but I just don’t have the diagnostic tools here to be certain.”

McClintock looked across the table at Edith. “Ms. Elgin, you understand that is all off the record, for the time being. If you can’t agree to that we’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“It’s okay with me,” Edith answered easily. “I’ll keep my mouth shut until you’ve got things under control.”

“Good.” McClintock turned back to Cardenas.

“If we were in Selene I’d have the equipment for a thorough analysis,” Cardenas went on. “But here…” She left the thought unfinished.

“What about the equipment in the maintenance center?” Grant asked. “Toshio has that laser probe.”

Cardenas almost smiled at him. “Do you want to lug that clunker over to your mirror lab or drag the airlock hatch to the maintenance center?”

Grant understood the problem, but he shook his head as he answered, “We know the spot in the hatch where the leak developed. We take a slice from that region of the hatch and carry it to the maintenance center. That could work.”

“And what would it tell us?” Cardenas argued. “That there’s a pinhole leak that was caused by nanomachines. We already know that.”

“We suspect that,” McClintock corrected.

“With about a ninety percent accuracy,” said Cardenas.

“So what do we do?” Grant demanded. “Just sit around here while the damned bugs nibble us to death?”

Cardenas said, “If I knew what kind of nanos they are, what they’re designed to do, what their limits are—then I could figure out a way to stop them.”

“How long would that take?” McClintock asked.

Cardenas shrugged.

“We are all doomed,” said Uhlrich, in a deathly whisper. “We are infested with nanomachines and they will kill us all. I should never have allowed nanomachines to enter Farside.”

With some heat, Cardenas replied, “Professor, I assure you that the nanos we’ve used to build your mirrors have nothing to do with this problem.”

“And the nanos in my body?” Grant asked.

“Impossible,” she said firmly. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Then where did these destructive nanomachines come from?” Grant wondered.

McClintock said, “According to Luongo, Anita Halleck was lying to us when she said she hadn’t been exposed to nanomachines.”

“That’s pretty thin,” said Grant.

“Do you have anything thicker?”

“If we confront her she’ll just deny everything,” Grant said. Then he murmured, “Unless…”

“Unless what?”

*   *   *

Feeling terribly uncertain about the entire matter, Trudy Yost tapped softly on the door to Anita Halleck’s quarters.

“Who is it?” came Halleck’s muffled voice.

“Trudy Yost,” she said. “Professor Uhlrich’s assistant.”

Halleck slid the door back and stood framed in the doorway for a moment, eyeing Trudy haughtily. Halleck was several centimeters taller than Trudy; she was wearing a one-piece jumpsuit that accentuated her trim figure. Trudy was in her best coveralls, powder blue, but they were rumpled and faded from long use.

“Professor Uhlrich asked me to see if there’s anything we can do for you.…”

“Yes, you told me that on the phone,” said Halleck as she ushered Trudy into her room. “I presume the professor wants to make my captivity here as comfortable as possible.”

Trudy blinked at the word
captivity,
but recovered enough to ask, “Is there anything you need?”

“I need to get back to Selene,” Halleck snapped. “Actually, I need to get back to Earth, back to my work, instead of being detained in this … this … outpost.”

“I suppose the accommodations here are kind of primitive,” Trudy admitted, “compared to what you’re used to.”

Trudy saw that Halleck’s travelbag was on the bed, fully packed and zipped up. She’s ready to go, Trudy realized.

“Is there anything I can get for you?” she asked. “Do you want a dinner tray, or—”

A frown etching her fashion-model’s face, Halleck said, “Just get me out of here. I want to leave. I want to get back home.”

“I understand how you feel,” Trudy said, as she stepped hesitantly toward the sofa. “But with the facility under lockdown, there’s nothing we can do but wait for them to figure out how to deal with the problem.”

“Wait for how long?” Halleck demanded. “Until we’re all killed? We’ve got to get out of here!”

“But there’s no place to go,” Trudy said, trying to sound reasonable, rational. “Selene won’t take any flights from here.”

As if the idea had just popped into her head, Halleck said, “What about the sites you’ve built for your telescopes? They have shelters for people, don’t they? Food and water, air recyclers? Don’t they?”

Surprised by the idea, Trudy replied, “Yes, they do. But only the Mendeleev site is completed, and there was a nanomachine incident there. One of our technicians was killed.”

“But the other two sites,” Halleck pressed, “what about them? They haven’t been hit by nanos, have they?”

“No,” said Trudy. “But there’s nothing there except the concrete slabs that will be the foundations for the telescopes to be built at them. And the shelters, of course.”

“There’s been no nanomachine activity at either of them?”

Trudy slowly shook her head. “No. Neither at Korolev or Gagarin.”

“And they both have shelters where we could live for a few days?”

“A week or more.”

“Then let’s go to one of them!” Halleck said eagerly. “We can stay there until this mess is taken care of.”

“I don’t think Professor Uhlrich—”

“Damn Uhlrich!” Halleck snapped. “I’ll provide you with all the authority you need. If Uhlrich fires you, I’ll bring you into my project. I promise you.”

Almost dazed by Halleck’s insistence, Trudy said, “We’d need a hopper to get out to Korolev, it’s too far to go by tractor.”

“So? There are hoppers sitting outside, aren’t there?”

“Four of them,” said Trudy. “But you can’t just walk out and take one. You need permission from the flight control director and—”

“I’ll take care of that,” Halleck answered. With a knowing smile, she added, “Money talks.”

“Do you know how to fly a hopper?”

“No, of course not.”

“Neither do I,” said Trudy, thinking that would put an end to Halleck’s wild scheme.

But Halleck said, “That man Oberman can fly a hopper, I’m sure.”

“Nate? I … I suppose so.”

“Get him on the phone,” Halleck commanded. “Tell him to come here. Quickly!”