The Devil's Eye

around it. As the asteroids approached, it expanded across the room, stopping just short of the main door on one side and the windows on the other. We kept going, angling toward one end. The band continued to grow, and the lights became moderately brighter. It became a wall. We angled toward one end, near the windows. The lights were like so many insects. And we saw finally that they were navigation lamps. Hundreds of them. Mounted on ships. The ships were dwarfed, made minuscule, against that vast fortification. We were looking at Circe's shield. Narrow beams, again in the hundreds, flashed everywhere along the shield's flanks. Lasers. An armada of vehicles intercepted incoming asteroids, sliced them into pieces, and delivered the pieces to other ships, which set them into the wall like pieces in a jigsaw. 'Of course,' Circe told us, 'none of this will happen without your assistance. And maybe not even then.' 'Why?' 'Unfortunately, we don't have hordes of asteroids readily available in any one place, let alone in a strategically correct place. But we've been able to find an optimum site to begin construction of the barrier. And to begin moving that barrier toward its rendezvous, three years from now, with Salud Afar. And the gamma-ray burst.'

'How big would it have to be?' 'The planetary diameter is twenty-eight thousand kilometers. So the shield will be roughly thirty thousand kilometers top to bottom. The gamma-ray burst will require seventy-six hours to pass through the area. Unfortunately, we can't arrange for the shield to stop in front of Salud Afar. It will keep moving.' 'How fast?' I asked. 'We believe we can slow it down to about two thousand klicks per hour. That means it will have to be one hundred eighty thousand kilometers long. At a minimum.' 'Is that really possible?' asked Alex. 'Oh, yes. Certainly it's possible. Anything's possible. If we can get enough ships. There are a sufficient number of asteroids, but some of them are remote. So we'll see. Fortunately, the shield need not be thick. A hand's width will be more than sufficient.' She looked back at Kilgore, who was watching her with flickering hope. 'We can do it. Given the resources.' Kilgore took over. 'We're in the process now of manufacturing specialized lasers and clamps, which we'll be able to affix to whatever ships we have to work with.' 'The problem,' DeVrio said, 'is the ships.' 'How many do you need?' The lights came back on. The Administrator got out of his chair, walked across the room, stared at the fireplace. 'Lasing the shield together will be a monumental task. But collecting and herding the asteroids is even more daunting.' 'How many, Mr. Administrator? Do you need the entire Confederate fleet?' He laughed. 'The fleet plus pretty much every private and commercial vessel in the Confederacy. Plus everything we can manufacture in the next three years. That's what we need. Anything less than that, and this world dies.' Again the room fell silent. Kilgore came back to us and sat down on the edge of his desk. 'The problem, of course, is that if we're using these ships to construct a barrier, we can't use them to evacuate anyone.' 'So what are you going to do?' 'We're going to assume success with the Mutes. That they'll hold off. Make some sort of deal. So we'll start the planning. And start fitting the ships that have been moving people out to Sanctum. If we do not get a break with the Mutes, then we'll cancel the shield immediately and go back to hauling citizens.' He sucked his lower lip. 'Now, do you understand why we need you?' Alex got up. 'I'll do what I can.' 'Thank you, Alex. And Chase.' Kilgore sounded vastly relieved. I felt sorry for him. Weight of the world, as the old saying went. It took on new meaning that day.

THIRTY-FOUR

It was not, finally, the appearance of the thing striding out of the surf toward us, but the bloodred moon that seared my soul.

- Love You to Death

'Make it happen.' It was Kilgore's final instruction as we left his office. When we got back to Samuels, the Belle-Marie was waiting. I literally collapsed into the pilot's seat, thinking how I'd not expected to see her again. 'How you doing, Belle?'

'Good. I missed you.'

'You've been having a big time.'

'I carried a group of infants and mothers to Sanctum. Got back yesterday.'

'How'd it go?'

'Sanctum is not much more than a few modular buildings on a barren plain.'

'That'll change.'

'I hope so.'

'Has the luggage come on board?'

'Ten minutes ago.'

'All right. Let's go through the checkoff.'

'Before you start, we have a transmission from Number 17 Parkway. Written text. For Mr. DeVrio.'

I passed it back to the cabin. Minutes later, Giambrey sent it forward:

Giambrey, There's been another shoot-out. Ships destroyed and fatalities on both sides. The situation between the Confederacy and the Assemblage has deteriorated to the point that I wanted to caution you to use extreme care when you approach them.

Circe asked if she could sit on the bridge during launch. 'Sure,' I said. 'You enjoy spaceflight?' She laughed. It was a pleasant sound, the laughter of a much younger woman. She seemed a different person from the one I'd met in Kilgore's office. 'This is the first time I've tried it,' she said. 'Really? You haven't been out before?' 'No,' she said. 'I've always wanted to, but somehow I never got around to it.' She laughed again. 'You're looking at me as if I said something funny.' 'Just surprised, I guess.' 'Why?' 'Because you're helping put together the most ambitious space project I've ever heard of.' The launch doors opened and a black-and-white Benson-class yacht came in, moved slowly through the docking area, and tied up at the pier opposite. It carried Dellacondan markings. I wanted to cheer. 'Thank God for them,' she said. We watched while the pilot debarked. He was apparently alone. 'So why didn't you go out on one of the tours?' 'I've always wanted to. Just never found the time.' 'I understand.' 'Chase,' said Belle. 'Operations on the circuit.' 'Okay, Belle. Put them through.' 'Belle-Marie.' A woman's voice. 'You are cleared for departure.' They gave us a heading. It hadn't happened when I'd left with Ivan. 'More incoming traffic,' the operator told me. 'Wouldn't want you to bump into anybody.'

'On my way, Samuels. Thank you.' I released the clamps and eased away from the dock. We moved through the launch area and out into the void. Below us, Salud Afar was a golden globe, vast oceans of clouds illuminated by sunlight. 'It's a beautiful world,' Circe said. 'You know, you make your living out here, Chase. So you assume everybody else gets to go for a ride, too. But the reality is that hardly anyone on the surface has even been up to Samuels. Places like this'-and she indicated either the interior of the ship or the greater universe outside-'you've made into your home. And it seems natural to you that everybody lives the same sort of life. But most people down there probably couldn't even tell you how many planets there are in the system.' 'But that's not you.' 'No, it isn't. Chase, I've had a good life. Gone a lot further than I'd ever thought possible. But if I had it to do again, I think I'd follow the path you took. You're a very lucky young woman, but I don't think

you know it yet.' Through a break in the clouds, I caught a glimpse of blue ocean.

We sent a message to Selotta and Kassel to let them know we were coming. Then, approximately an hour after we'd left the station, I lined up on Borkarat, their home world, told Alex and Giambrey to buckle in, and slipped between the dimensions. One drawback about this kind of travel is that you can't send or receive traffic en route. Should the Mutes respond by telling Kilgore to stick his diplomatic initiative in his ear, he'd have no way of contacting us to let us know. Circe stared out at the long gray twilight of the transdimensional world and told me how she'd always wanted to do this. 'Not under these circumstances, of course. But it's so strange out here.' 'How was life under the Bandahriate?' I asked. 'I was a teenager when he died. A lot of people hated it, of course. Hated him . I'm sorry to admit this, but I didn't pay much attention to public affairs. People were out there risking themselves, trying to get rid of Cleev. And I was drifting through school. Boys and physics. It was all I cared about. And not necessarily in that order.' She gave me a shy smile. 'It must have been a relief when he was gone.' 'To be honest, I think things ran better under Cleev than they do now. For one thing, Kilgore's government is more corrupt. 'Don't get the wrong impression. I'm not saying I'd want Cleev back. But it isn't as