Inodded, thinking of his original phrase. “Yes. I understand it now.”
Hesmiled. “So?”
“Sowhat?”
“Sowhat were you thinking?”
“Ah,”I had to laugh, “I don’t really remember anymore. I got distracted.”
Hetilted his head sideways and gave me a mischievous smile. “I don’t reallybelieve that, you know. Not a Senthien.”
“Howabout a Human?”
“Mmm,”he said, his lips twitching. “Okay. Fair point. C’mon, let’s go. I think your expertisewill be needed soon.”
Hetook my hand in his, and we followed the rest.
Thearea we entered didn’t have a wall around it, but some thin poles still stoodaround the complex, indicating that a fence was once there. There were several fairlywell-preserved low buildings, only two floors high. Othershad only a ground floor. They were all covered in green.
“Overhere!” Patrick called. “This is the entrance.”
Jsqueezed my hand just a little bit and then let it go to walk over to Patrick.They were standing in front of a one-story building, which appeared to be almostentirely intact. It must have been built to far more rigorous structuralstandards. The entrance to the building was blocked by asolid metal door hiding behind a dense mat of creepers. On the side, justvisible was a once-white access control panel with a number pad.
“Allthe doors opened automatically after entering the correct access codes, or atleast they did in my time,” Patrick said, following the rim of the entrancewith his gaze.
“Thatrequires power,” said J.
“Whichwe don’t have,” Patrick responded.
“InUni, these kind of systems work on multiple power sources,” I said. “On thenewly terraformed planets and moons, all critical computer hosting centers hadto have standard disaster recovery infrastructure. This included independentand self-contained power sources, with multiple redundancies, also includingrenewable energy. I would assume this is the case here too.”
Patricknodded. “All right, what are we looking for?”
Iraised my forearm to look at my E-band. It could override the access controlcircuitry, but it didn’t have enough of an energy charge to open the gates themselves.So I needed to find a local power source from which my E-band could draw energy.
Iswiped the screen of the E-band. “I’m initiating a scan of the proximal area… Ican override the access codes but I need power to open the gate... So I’mlooking for a power sou—there, solar.”
“Solarpower?” asked Rick.
“It’snot gonna work. All the electronics were fried, including solar panels,” saidFrank.
“Aye,but remember, this part of the planet was protected,” said Peter, nodding.“Like us, saved in the crèches, this was on the other side of the planet whenthe solar storm hit the surface.”
Peterlooked at me and said, “I think it might work.”
“Assoon as there’s some electricity available, I can get the doors to open,” Isaid, nodding at my E-band.
“Allright,” Patrick said and then looked up. “Let’s check the roof, shall we?”
Jleaned on the wall with one shoulder and laced the fingers from his hands intoa small stepping platform, which Patrick used to climb onto the flat roof. Wewatched him as he scrutinized the area around him, trying to decipher on hisface what it was that he was seeing. Then he walked to the center of the roof,and we lost sight of him.
“Anything?”Peter called up to him.
“It’sall green here, guys. I don’t… I don’t see anything that looks like solar panels.”
Jturned to me. “What do you think he should be seeing?”
“Theymight not look as you expect them. There were large technological advances indesign and functionality in the years before the Evacuation, so the new cellslooked nothing like the large dark panels you would have known. But theyprobably won’t look like ours either, the small solar chambers engraved intoleaflets. That wasn’t pre-Ev technology, so I wouldn’t expect to see it here.”
“Sowhat am I looking for?” said Patrick,standing at the edge of the roof, lifting his arms in a question.
Iturned my face up to look at him and said, “I think you are looking forsomething in between the two. Smaller surface area. Might not even cover thewhole roof, only an area of it.”
Hescanned the roof surface again and then shook his head. “No… I just don’t seeit.”
“J,can you help me up?”
Asan answer, he leaned against the wall again and made a stepping platform withhis hands.
Itook off my leather shoes and stepped onto his palms with my bare foot, holdingonto his shoulders. He gently closed his hands around my foot. It felt warm andintimate, and it inevitably raised my heartbeat. We looked at each other for along moment, oblivious to the others surrounding us.
“Todaystill?” asked Peter behind me.
“Sorry,”I said and lowered my gaze. Then I leaned on J’s shoulders and pushed myselfup.
Patrickreached out with his hand and helped me onto the roof. It was like stepping ontoa soft green carpet. The roof was layered with moss.
Itwas beautiful.
Iknelt down and brushed my palm slowly over the layer. The surface was soft andflat, except that there was a repetition of a small ridge every centimeter orso. I dug my fingers in and scraped off the moss.
“Here!”I said, looking at Patrick and pointing to the thin lines that now becamevisible.
Patrickraised his eyebrows. “This? Really? Even if I’d seen it, I wouldn’t haverecognized it. It just looks like a roof design.” He bent down as well to clearother surfaces.
“Anything?”we heard Peter shout from below.
“Yup,”Patrick called back. “We have it.”
Thenhe looked up at the cloudy sky and said in a low voice, “Though we might needto wait a bit to get any electricity with this kind of weather.”
Iautomatically looked up as well, but then I shook my head. “No.”
Helooked at me. “No, what?”
“Thecloud cover does not influence cell’s ability to absorb radiation.”
“Really?Don’t we need sun for sun cells to charge?”
“Aslong as it’s not night, they will get charged.”
Henodded. “Okay. How long, do you reckon?”
“Idon’t understand.”
“Howlong do you think it will take?”
“Thetypes we use on Senthia get charged within a few passes.”
“Isour sun stronger than what you guys have?” Patrick asked.
“Yes,much stronger,” I said. “In fact, it got so strong that people ran away.”
“Ha…”he said, looking uncertain whether I’d actually attempted a joke. “That’s funny.”
“Allright, let’s assume these cells are a lot weaker and probably partiallyworn-out,” I said as I wiped the last bits of soil and moss from the
