«It's mine!» Plenna said stoutly. She started forward to reclaim her property, but Chaumel held a warning hand toward Carialle's pillar. With a glance at Keff's anxious face, Plenna stopped where she stood.
«Yours?» The silver magiman looked her over with new respect. «I didn't think you had it in you to keep a deep secret, least of magesses. Your father, Rardain, certainly never could have.»
Plenna reacted with shame to any mention of her late father. «He didn't know about it. I found it in an old place after he . . . died.»
«Does that matter?» Keff said, stepping forward and putting a protective arm around Plenna's waist. The tall girl was quaking. «We're trying to head off what could become a worldwide disaster, and you're preventing us from finding out more about the problem.»
«And this 'datafile' will tell you what to do?» Chaumel was delicately skeptical.
Carialle manifested her Lady Fair image on the wall.
After a momentary double take, Chaumel accepted it and occasionally made eye contact with it.
«Given time, I can try to read the tapes,» Carialle said. «In the meantime, Keff can translate the hard copy.»
Chaumel settled back. «Good. We have all the time you wish. The curtain you set about this place will prevent the others from finding us. In a little while they will be tired of chasing shadows and go home. That will leave us without disturbance.»
«Can I use my display screens?»
The silver magiman was gracious. «Use anything you wish. You can't go anywhere.»
Grumbling at Chaumel's make-yourself-at-home attitude, Carialle spent a few minutes re-establishing the chemical balances in her system. Two full extra cycles of the waste-disposal processor, and her bloodstream was clear of everything but what belonged there. She increased the flow of nutrients and gratefully felt the adrenaline high fade away.
She assessed the size of the tape cassette Keff held up and noted that there was one place for a spindle on the small, airtight capsule. Two other input bays were made to take tapes as well as datahedrons. Carialle rolled the capstan and spindle forward from the rear wall of the player, narrowed the niche so the tape wouldn't wobble, then opened the door.
«Ready,» she said.
«Here goes nothing at all,» Keff said, and slid the tape in.
Carialle closed the door. As she engaged the spindle, the cassette popped open, revealing the tape, and letting go a puff of air. Carialle, who had been expecting just that, captured the trace of the thousand-year-old atmosphere in a lab flask and carried it away through the walls to analyze its contents.
Slowly, she rolled the tape against the heads, comparing the scan pattern produced on her wave-form monitor with thousands of similar patterns.
«Can you read it?» Keff asked.
«We'll see,» Carialle said. «There are irregularities in the scan, which I attribute to poor maintenance of the recording device that produced it. Of all the lazy skivers, why did one have to be recording this most important piece of history? It would have been no trouble at all to keep their machinery in good repair, damn their eyes.»
«Did you want it to be easy, lady fair? Do you know, I just realized I'm hungry,» Keff announced, turning to the others. «Plenna, we've had nothing since last night, and damned little then. May I buy you lunch?»
The magiwoman turned her eyes toward him with relief. Her face was beginning to look almost hollow from strain.
«Oh, that would be very nice,» she said thinly. A timid croak from the side of the weight bench reminded him Brannel was still with them. He was hungry, too.
«Right. Three coming up. Chaumel?»
«No, very kindly, no,» the silver magiman said, waving a hand, although keeping an eye on him that was anything but casual. Keff gave instructions to the synthesizer, and in moments removed a tray with three steaming dishes.
«Very simple: meat, potatoes, vegetables, bread,» Keff said, pointing the food out to his guests.
«Hold it, Keff,» Carialle said. «I don't trust our captor.» Keff aimed his optical implants at each plate in turn. «Uh-huh. Just checking.»
«Thank you, lady dear. I count on your assistance,» Keff said subvocally. Placing the first plate on its tray in Plenna's lap, he handed the second filled dish and fork to Brannel before he settled on me weight bench to enjoy his own meal.
Brannel was still staring at the divided plate when Keff turned back.
«What's the matter?» Keff asked. «It's good. A little heavy on the carbohydrates, perhaps, but that won't spoil the taste.»
Wordlessly, Brannel turned fearful eyes up to him.
«Ah, I see,» Keff said, intuiting the problem. «Should I try some first to show you it's all right? We're all eating the same thing. Would you like my dinner instead?»
«No, Mage Keff,» Brannel said after a moment, glancing wild-eyed at Chaumel, «I trust you.»
If he had any misgivings, one taste later the worker was hunched over his lunch, shoveling in mouthfuls inexpertly with his fork. He probably would have growled at Keff if he had tried to take it away. In no time the dish was empty.
«You packed that away in a hurry. Would you like another plate? It's no trouble.»
Eyes wide with hope, Brannel nodded. He looked guilty at being so greedy, but more fascinated that «another plate» was no trouble. As soon as the second helping was in his hands, he began wolfing it down.
«Huh! Crude,» Chaumel said, fastidiously disregarding the male. «Well, if you want to keep pets . . .»
Brannel didn't seem to hear the senior mage. He sucked a stray splash of gravy off his hairy fingers and scraped up the last of the potatoes.
«How's my supply of synth, Cari?» Keff asked, teasingly. The worker stopped in the middle of a mouthful. «I'm teasing you, Brannel,» he said. «We're carrying enough food to supply one man for two years—or one of you for six months. Don't worry. We're friends.»
Plenna ate more sedately. She smiled brightly once at Keff to show she enjoyed the food. Keff patted her hand.
«Bingo!» Carialle said, triumphantly. «Got you. Gentlemen and madam, our feature presentation.»
A wow, followed by the hiss of low-level audio, issued from her main cabin speakers. Carialle diverted her main screen to the video portion of the tape. On it, a distant, spinning globe appeared.
«The scan is almost vertical across the width of the tape,» Carialle explained. «Very densely packed. You could measure the speed in millimeters per second, so where glitches appear there's no backup scan. Because this was done on a magnetic medium, some is irrevocably lost, though not much. I have filled in where I could. This is not the full, official log. I think it was a personal record kept by a biologist or an engineer. You'll see what I mean in the content.»
The tape showed several views of Ozran from space, including technical scans of the continents and seas. Loud static accompanied the glitches between portions. Carialle found the technology was as primitive as stone knives and bearskins compared to her state-of-the-art equipment, but she was able to read between the lines of scan. She put up her findings on a side screen for the others to read.
«Looks like a damned fine prospect for a colony,» Keff said, critically assessing the data as if it were a new planet he was approaching. «Atmosphere very much like that of Old Earth.»
«Ureth,» Plennafrey breathed, her eyes bright with awe.
Keff smiled. «Uh-huh, I see why they made planetfall. Their telemetry was too basic. We wouldn't miss aboveground buildings and the signs of agriculture from space, no matter how slight, but they did. Hence, first contact was made.»
The Bigelow's complement had been four hundred and fifty-two, all human. Keff fancied he could see a family resemblance to the flamboyant Mage Omri in the darkskinned captain's face.
Chaumel lost his veneer of sophistication when the first Old One appeared on screen. He stared at it openmouthed. Keff, too, was amazed by the alien being, but he could appreciate that, to Chaumel, it was analogous to the gods of Mount Olympus visiting Athens.
«I have never seen anything like them. Have you, Carialle?»
