'Huh uh,' Shattuck assured him. 'There's a couple of braces holding the base steady and a rope around its bottom under the hay. I don't reckon it would hurt it none if it did tumble out.' Entranced by mere sight of the object, the three scientists failed to note the rancher's evaluation.
'What are you counting, Jean?' Goldberg asked her young colleague, noticing that his mouth was moving silently as he stared at the object.
'The facets. I can't call them sides; the thing's too much like a jewel to me.' He squinted into the soft glare. 'If the rest of the artifact matches what's visible, I would estimate a total of twenty-four sides, not counting projections such as the apparent antennae.
'That suggests they could have a system based on two, three, four, six, eight, twelve, or twenty-four, and that's only if their mathematics conform in any way to our own. Ten sides would have made things a lot simpler.'
'Not necessarily,' countered Perham Tut through pursed lips. 'The twenty-four sides might be merely decorative, having no mathematical significance whatsoever.'
'That's true,' admitted Calumet reluctantly.
'We'll find out as soon as we can get it back to the lab and begin taking it apart,' Goldberg informed them in her half-gentle, half-shrill tones. 'How do we go about getting it down?' She faced the quiet Shattuck. 'How did you get it up there in the first place?'
'Put it in a wire net and used the hay lift,' the rancher explained easily.
'We might,' suggested Tut, rubbing his chin, 'fit it in the back of the wagon. That would save some time.'
'No, no,' objected Goldberg, speaking as though correcting a child. 'Look how bright it is already. Do you want to drive all the way back to Houston with it shining like a spotlight out the car windows? One reporter finds out, and we'll never be able to study this at the proper pace. No, we need a panel truck or a small van.' She eyed Chester. 'You can get this for us, Major?'
Chester found himself nodding. 'But for now,' she continued briskly, 'we can at least get it down for a closer look. Mr. Shamuck-'
'Shattuck,' the rancher corrected her.
'Yes, Mr. Shattuck . . . if you'll be good enough to bring it down the same way-and as gently-as you took it up, it will be a help to our preliminary examination.'
'Why should he?' inquired a new voice. 'Is it yours?'
Everyone turned, saw Mrs. Shattuck walking toward them. She wore exactly the same attire as her husband.
'I guess if you're all goin' to stand out here in the cold and freeze, someone better be around to be ready to thaw you. out.' Startlingly youthful dark eyes focused on the older woman. 'I asked you a question, honey.'
'Uh, no, not exactly, it doesn't,' replied Goldberg, momentarily flustered by the abruptness of the question.
'What do you mean, 'not exactly'?'
'Well, while we didn't build it or . . . See here,' Goldberg said, stiffening and trying to stay civil despite her mounting impatience at these irritating, continuing delays, 'I don't think you realize quite what you have up in your hayloft.'
'It should be clear to anyone,' Tut added condescendingly, 'that whatever it is, it is certainly not a Christmas decoration.'
'No?' exclaimed Mrs. Shattuck, her gaze darting up to the softly humming semisphere. 'How do you know? Don't you think it looks pretty up there, whatever kind of watchamaoallit it really is?'
'Umm, actually, I suppose it does,' confessed Tut, taken aback. He really hadn't pondered much on the artifact's aesthetic properties.
'You admit you don't own it,' she pressed relentlessly, eyes flashing.
'We said we didn't build it,' Tut argued, 'but in the name of the United States government, as its representatives in the search for extraterrestrial life, we, uh, hereby claim it.'
She looked away from him, her mouth twisted in a disdainful grimace. Her attention settled eventually on Chester as the one actually in charge.
'What about it, mister? Is that thing legally the property of the government?'
Chester started to reply, 'I don't think there's any-' and he stopped, thoughtful.
'What is this, Major?' Goldberg wanted to know. 'It does belong to us . . . and the government, doesn't it?'
After a considerable pause, Chester answered,
'Frankly, I don't know. I'm a military man, Miss Goldberg, not a lawyer.'
'That's what I thought,' Mrs. Shattuck said, obviously satisfied. She– glanced up at her husband. 'Well, J.W.?'
The rancher turned and looked wordlessly at Chester.
' 'Watchamacallit,' she calls it!' sniffed Goldberg.
'You actually don't know what it is, do you?'
'Oh, judgin' from who you say you are and what I can tell of it-' She jabbed a thumb toward the blinking artifact. '-I'd guess it's some kind of artificial unmanned craft from off this world, probably from outside our solar system. Just because we got television out here doesn't mean we're ignorant, honey.'
'It doesn't look like it's government property, does it?' observed Shattuck softly. 'Not yet, anyway. Since it come down on our property, I expect we'll hang on to it for a bit.'
'Now, look here,' Tut began heatedly, moving his bulk forward. 'If you think for one minute that we're going to let you hang on to the most important discovery of the last five centuries just to satisfy your personal-take your hand off me, Jean,' he told his much smaller associate.
'You bet your ass we're going to hang on to it, four-eyes,' Mrs. Shattuck informed him in no uncertain terms.
'Excuse me,' Chester said hurriedly to Shattuck. 'We don't mean to seem unfriendly. You must realize you're going to have to give up the artifact eventually. Why not make things simpler for us and yourselves and let us take it away. Tomorrow, say.'
'I might just have let you do that an hour ago,' the rancher told him with a significant glance at the fuming Tut and Goldberg. 'But at this point I'm feeling –sort of ornery. So, no offense, mind, but I think we'll hang on to it for a while.' He gazed up at the barn.
'It looks mighty pretty up there, in the middle of the other lights. Right in keeping with the season.'
'No offense,' agreed Chester amiably, though his mind was churning unhappily at the turn events had taken: 'You understand we'll have to take official action to obtain the artifact.'
'I understand you've got to do what you think is right,' Shattuck concurred. 'Now, if you want to check the legality of it all, I expect you'll want to talk to the sheriff over in Breckenridge. Name's Amos Biggers. You go talk to him and let me know what he says.'
'We'll do that, and thank you,' Chester replied. He turned to face the vivacious, defiant woman standing nearby. Hands on hips, she stared evenly back at him.
'Thanks for the coffee and pie offer, ma'am. I hope I can take you up on it under more pleasant circumstances.' She softened somewhat, even smiled back at him.
'Maybe so. If you're goin' to Breckenridge, watch yourself. Some of the roads that way are still pretty icy. We don't want you happy folks to go pile up in a ditch somewhere the middle of this cold night.' Her smile widened.
'No, we don't want that,' agreed Chester. Turning, he shepherded the scientists back toward the station wagon. They protested every step of the way.
Goldberg was beside herself. 'Who do these . . . these cattle people think they are? Who do you think you are, Major? Are you here as our aide, to help us, or not? I think maybe a few words to your superior officer-'
'We'll do what we can, Miss Goldberg,' Chester announced, fighting to keep his temper in check, 'but we'll do it legally. When you calm down, you'll see this is the best way. You might also recall that if any situation requires the use of force, then I'm wholly in charge. You may complain to General MacGregor if that's what you want. '
'Well, I'll think about it,' she grumbled, climbing into the car.
