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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] "We think so, but it's a long story. And it's urgent. It needs to go to the top, to Calazar. Can you get him through VISAR?" "We're talking to him right now," Torres answered. "He's getting together as many of JPC as he can raise. I'll put you through to the Thurien circuit." ZORAC's voice said something in Jevlenese, and Osaya tapped a code into the tablet. One of the mirrors facing the bed turned into a screen showing Torres standing in the Shapieron's command deck against a background of crew positions manned by Ganymeans. "It looks as if you've found quite a home away from home there, Vic," ZORAC commented. "Have they got a hold of Caldwell?" Hunt asked, ignoring it. "He should be arriving soon," ZORAC answered. "He was playing golf. It's Sunday afternoon in Washington." Then another minor turned into a view of Calazar in vivid, informal clothes. "Dr. Hunt," he said without preamble. "I feel that we are responsible for all this. What do these Jevlenese at PAC want? They have deactivated the connection to VISAR there, and we have no access to them." To one side, Murray was shaking his head wonderingly. "That's Calazar, the Thurien head honcho, here in Osaya's bedroom? I don't believe this," he muttered. "We're pretty sure they're only a smokescreen," Hunt replied to Calazar. "They probably don't know themselves what's really going on. We're certain that Eubeleus is at the back of it." Page 181 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html The sudden misgivings on Calazar's face, even with its alien Ganymean features, was unmistakable. "Why? Where does he fit into it?" he asked. Just then, he was joined on the screen by Porthik Eesyan, a Thurien scientific adviser whom Hunt and Danchekker also both knew of old. Murray nudged Hunt and nodded in the direction of the window. Outside, a police flier had appeared and was buzzing around the probe. The probe had deployed more antennae and drifted away to circle on a leisurely tour of the area, presumably in an effort to obscure the whereabouts of the location that it was communicating with. "Look, there might not be much time, so these are the facts," Hunt said, looking back at the screens showing Calazar and Eesyan, and Torres. "The whole JEVEX business has been a fraud for years. JEVEX isn't on Jevlen at all. The sites here are dummies and remote interfaces into it. The real guts of the system is all concentrated on Uttan. That's what Eubeleus is really after -- the business here is just a diversion. And if he gets control of it, this planet is going to be hit by an invasion of aliens that are stronger than anything any of us has ever dreamed of. We can go into the details later, but for now you have to believe it. Whatever else happens, you must stop him from getting to Uttan and turning that system back on. Tell him anything you like. This is one time to worry about ethics and principles later." Hunt's relief at the chance fluke that had given them this connection so soon, just when everything had seemed lost, was such that he had talked on compulsively. But as he finished, the growing agitation that had been registering on the faces of the two Thuriens finally got through to him. A sudden pang of dread seized him as he guessed, a split second before Calazar spoke, what he was going to say. "We can't," Calazar replied. "He's already there. Eubeleus and his followers landed on Uttan -- when was it, VISAR?" "Four hours ago," VISAR's voice replied through the audio. For several seconds Hunt could only stare back, his mind too paralyzed for him to speak. "He's already there?" he repeated numbly. Calazar nodded miserably. "They've made fools of all of us. We Thuriens, I mean. Enough Terrans tried to warn us." Hunt put a hand on his head unthinkingly, still in a daze. "Let's worry about that later. Right now we've got an impending catastrophe. This whole planet's ready to reconnect to JEVEX, which isn't here but at Uttan. And Eubeleus has got Uttan. What do we do?" "We can't simply send ships to reoccupy it," Calazar said. "It will be defended. To muster enough force would take too long." "We have to assume that there are Federation weapons still there," Torres said from the Shapieron. Porthik Eesyan, meanwhile, had been thinking rapidly. "It's true that we can't get near them from the outside," he said. "But there is one possibility that I can see, although at this stage I have no idea how it could be implemented. JEVEX was defeated before when VISAR succeeded in taking control of it. If we're going to do anything now, it will have to be in the same way." "You mean by getting VISAR hooked into JEVEX somehow?" Hunt said, sounding dubious. He agreed with the theory, but was equally at a loss to see how it could be done. Eesyan nodded. "Yes. And quickly, before they get JEVEX back up to full operation. But it's going to have to be done by you and the others there on Jevlen, Vic. After what happened last time, obviously they'll secure JEVEX's i-space links against external penetration. So somehow you are going to have to -- " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |