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And, beyond that, all it is is dropping in, run-ning about, picking
up something inert, trying to make it back to a window area somehow,
and then getting picked up. It doesn't hurt the Titans, doesn't tell us
anything more about them except that, like us, they will conserve their power
and manage their installations efficiently where they can."
"That's true, it wouldn't do The Confederacy any good to know it, which is
probably why it's never brought up," Chicanis agreed. "But it appears from
what they sent us as a sample, as it were, that one of the scavengers actually
went down to Helena and somehow made it to Eden, one of the two main
continents. He appears to have found something there, somewhere, deep
underground, that hadn't been fully drained. If we went there, perhaps
we could find out. If even one battery
remains, then there is some way to shield things from them. That could be the
break we've been praying for. So far we've found nothing. He did. He found
it, but apparently when he turned it on, they instantly found him.
In spite of that, he managed to actually send the first broadcast, from just
beneath the surface, of an actual defense intelligence dispatch since the
Titans took over. It was short and sweet, and the odds are he's dead or
whatever they do to humans down there. But in that brief period, an enormous
amount of information got sent. Something so important he was willing to give
himself away to send it. And that, my friends, is what we are going to get
from the Dutchman."
"But this is wonderful!" van der Voort exclaimed. "I mean, think of what you
have just said!
Energy shielded until used. We've never accomplished that! And a broadcast!
An activation of an ancient defense unit! That's as-tonishing! The leads that
this suggests, the mere fact that it happened, open up countless new areas for
research! This is not something we can morally or ethically keep to ourselves!
Given sufficient resources and data like this, we might yet find a
way to act against them!"
There was a short period of silence again, and then Fa-ther Chicanis put a bit
of a damper on all the joy and enthusiasm. "Urn, Doctor, just what would you
tell anybody? What evidence would you use to back it up? Where is your data to
get the personnel, funding, and labs? You see the point?"
"Why, I uh . . ."
"Stories like this have been around for years," Krill added. "I never believed
any of them. Wish fulfillment."
"Believe this one. The data sent checks out," the old diva told her.
"But if this is true, then it's the possible salvation of the human
race!" the mathematician pressed. "Nobody could or should keep this to
themselves, or market it!"
Colonel N'Gana snorted. "Um, yeah, Professor. You don't get out much, do
you?"'
"Huh?"
"This Dutchman's a pirate and a killer. I doubt if he cares if humanity is
mostly stamped out, and the allied races with them, if he can be the
survivor, maybe with a few like-minded freebooters.
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Besides, even if he did sud-denly turn into this great altruist and savior of
all The Con-federacy, just how do you propose he go about it? Mail a copy of
this report to the nearest Naval Intelligence dis-trict? Pop up in full
view like several of you seemed to think he'd do back at that joint? No, I do
think maybe he's not so far gone that he doesn't want it to get out, but he's
doing it his way, the safe, sure, and possibly profitable way as well. At
least now I can see the sense of this expe-dition. The only thing I want to
know is, if we're just buying information, why do you need all of us? I can
see the physicist and the mathematician. You want people who can test
the data, and know how to interface with computers that can really test
it. Even Krill, both for secu-rity, such as it was, here aboard ship, and to
check out the inevitable codes if this is an old security device. But why two
old fighting men like Sergeant Mogutu and myself? And, for that matter, why a
cultural anthropologist?
Un-less you want to figure out what kind of culture these free-booters have
built out there? And for
God's sake why the Pooka, who's still asleep somewhere down below?"
"We were asked to bring people with combat knowl-edge and experience, if you
must know,"
Father Chicanis answered. "You know the simulations we've been run-ning, which
were also at least partly suggested by our yet absent ally. He also suggested [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]