head close to Untell’s.
'Perfect,' she said.
'Resistance readings?' he asked, watching her fingers move with a nimbleness which he envied.
She chuckled. 'As predicted.'
He breathed deeply and allowed himself a smile. He had mistrusted his own figures.
His momentary irritation at finding Untell still in the shop faded before his interest, for if he were right— and it was his theory, developed after having his mind opened through contact with the almost heretical courage and intellectual curiosity of the alien woman—he, Bertt, would have a place in the combined history of the Artonuee and Delanian races. If he were right, he, Bertt, the builder, would also bring further curses down on his head from the priests, for his discovery, if it tested, would open new avenues of thinking which would relegate the vengeful God of the Artonuee to a position even more inferior than She now held.
But Bertt was not thinking of God as he busied himself. He was thinking of the fantastic force held there, within the altered mires expander, in two tiny bits of red-brown metal machined to be exactly a 0.1-inch cube.
Untell assisted as he made the last connections, his blunt fingers less nimble, but sure. Then they stood before the assembled expander and the alien smiled and shrugged.
Permission for the test had already been granted by the Lady Miaree, Overlady of Five. The drone driver was fueled and waiting, an obsolete vehicle not deemed worthy of conversion to the new power source. All test units within the driver had been tested and checked repeatedly by assistants.
Bertt summoned a young male, a bright lad fresh from his Chosen Mother, supervised the careful placement of the expander onto a small roller, rode the roller, with Untell by his side, to the launch pad. It took just thirty minutes to install the expander. It took just under four hours to run a last-minute check on all systems, then, protected behind a thick viewer, they watched the drone fire, lift, and disappear.
When the drone, moving at driver speed and thus taking long, long hours (during which Untell napped and Bertt paced nervously) reached empty space beyond the orbit of Five, he ordered an assistant to report readiness to the Lady Miaree, who had expressed a desire to witness the test. When she arrived, robed in purple, comely beyond his belief, accompanied by the alien, Rei, he nodded to Untell, awake, tense, seated at the main console.
A signal lifted from the surface of Five, flashed through empty space, activated a trigger mechanism on the drone. The altered circuits on and in the mires expander reacted instantly, and briefly measured, a force of six hundred trillion tons—blasting from Bertt’s 0.1-inch cube of metal of atomic weight 63.54—was met by equal force coming from the electrons in an exactly similar cube at the other end of the complicated mires circuit.
It happened so tremendously fast that only instruments could measure.
To the viewers, it seemed that the drone merely disappeared, but during a disheartening post-mortem, the instruments showed a tiny increase in the drone velocity which, upon examination, put the fire back into Bertt’s eyes. The force of the electrons had not, as it seemed, merely ripped apart all the atoms in their immediate vicinity. No. For a millisecond, that incredible force had been channeled. For one tiny moment Bertt’s theory had worked.
Seeing the telltale figures, he looked up at Untell. His face, which had been downcast, brightened. She nodded, understanding.
But the Overlady had questions.
'My Lady,' Bertt said, 'you can see. For an instant we had it. For a measurable instant we were in control of a force which staggers the imagination.'
'Dear Bertt,' the Overlady said. He lowered his eyes. He did not like the use of terms of affection. That was a Delanian characteristic, and unbecoming in an Artonuee. 'When you approached me on this subject, telling me of the possibilities, I warned you then that we have no time for pure research. We have present capability to fulfill our plans. We must concentrate on the known. Your services are badly needed. The services of the worthy Untell have been sorely missed. How much longer can we spare you?'
A month, Lady. Give us another month. We are so very near.' He bowed respectfully.
'No longer, Bertt. In one month the engines will be ready for installation in the first of the giant star ships. In two months, another fleet arrives, and your knowledge will be much in demand as we share our progress with the newly arrived scientists.'
'Yes, Lady,' Bertt said, shifting impatiently. Red tape, he was thinking.
Bureaucratic thinking. He longed for the peace and quiet of his world as it had been before the arrival of the aliens, altered that to wish for unlimited time and the help of his new friend, Untell. Give them a month, a year, and they would beat God, the bureaucrats, and space itself.
Chapter Seventeen
Evening. A swollen, yellow sun half-high. Five’s South Cold. Desolate. Beautiful. Humidity in the air tinged golden yellow, bursting, flaring, raying the sun’s light into streaks of red-gold fire and shadows on the ice ranging from black to purple and, far away, his movement. He was one of a restless breed. But, oh, Lady Mother, God of Artonuee, he was beautiful.
Lost from view behind an ice upthrusting. A hint of the cold loss of sadness in her until he reappeared, nearing.
Bundled into cold-wear, he appeared to be a furry beast picking his way across the eternal ice, and try as she might, she could not bring her eyes to lower, to study the urgent reports lying on her knees. She was desolated without him. The basic chemistry of her blood cried out for him.
'Lady,' she mused aloud, 'You are in a position of responsibility.' Thus driven, she picked up the first report.
At New Nirrar, on the western equatorial land mass, a clash between two groups of females. Words. Reliable witnesses reported that the Delanian women had first resorted to violence. However, one witness, a reliable Artonuee male, said that the violence was the result of dire provocation on the part of the Artonuee females, who taunted the Delanians as animals of the ancient past, bringing their young into the world bloody and wet with vile body juices.
The Artonuee male, one Bruun, technician, said in his statement: 'Seeing that an incident was brewing I, as a responsible adult male, tried to avert unpleasantness. Speaking only logic—' How very malelike, Miaree thought, 'I tried to dissuade the emotional women and females from further insults and was rewarded by being called a rather derogatory Delanian name, a name with which we males have become familiar
through the discourtesy of the aliens, a name I choose not to repeat.'
For the record, the investigating official had inserted an explanation. Bruun, the technician, was called a cannibal, referring, of course, to the instinctive behavior of the Artonuee walkling in consuming the iffling-preserved flesh of a homecomer.
'At this juncture,' Bruun continued, 'one of the females rose unnecessarily to my defense, saying words to the effect that I, Bruun, was a respected member of the Artonuee community and not subject to ridicule by creatures who carried their young living in their bellies. Before I could speak, blows were exchanged.'
Angrily, Miaree tossed the report aside.
Rei was near. She rose, waved. She keened the love greeting and received, in answer, a loud shout. Then he became interested in a curious ice formation, and she, with a sigh, picked up the discarded report. The females involved were wing-flaunters, of course. She used the term in her mind without censure, for her own wings were outside her cloak.
She dictated recommendations. Extra work tours for the Artonuee females. Punishment to be deemed just for the Delanians by the Delanian local Board of Control.
Next, a request from Plant Seven for a rush allotment of diamond drills.
For the first time in years she remembered her rock, the rock she’d discovered in the asteroid belt so long, long ago. She chastised herself for forgetfulness, for diamonds were in great demand, made a mental note to check her old flight log for the coordinates of the asteroid and to send a driver, priority class, to mine the jewels.
It was amusing, in a way. Once the diamond asteroid had meant only more flight time to her. Now it could
