There was only one more thing. As the cab appeared in the gateway to the parking lot, Keene remembered Robin’s theory of dinosaurs arriving with impacting bodies and asked Salio what he thought. At the time Robin mentioned it, Keene had thought it outlandish; now it seemed rather tame.
“Well, it’s different,” Salio said—with an effort to be tactful, Keene thought. “Is it your idea?”
“No. The son of a friend of mine. He’s fourteen.”
Salio looked surprised and at the same time impressed. “Well, as I say, it’s different—but I can see a few problems. Let me think about it. Can you give me his e-mail code? It would probably make him feel good if he got a response from the Institute directly, don’t you think?”
* * *
The TV had been left on in the passenger compartment of the cab. Keene was about to turn it off, but paused when he realized that the item that had just come on featured a senator from New York giving his views on the Kronians.
“They’re overextended with no credit in the bank. If you ask me, this whole line they’re pushing is a ploy to sucker us here on Earth into bailing them out of a foolhardy venture that should never have been attempted in the first place. Well, I’m sorry but my answer is, we have problems of our own to take care of. No, sir, I will not be voting my support.”
13
Judith was spending a year at Protonix to gain commercial experience before going back to university to continue her postdoctoral work. She confounded all the jokes and stereotypes by being blond, pretty, busty, and leggy, and modeled for girly magazines when she wasn’t computing reactor thermal dynamics or charge distributions in ionized gas flows. Her fiancé was from a family that owned a chain of Texas automobile dealerships, but he had passed on his share of the fortune to study and compose music. Keene had never found life to be short on incongruities.
“We need to modify some orbital mechanics programs that Jerry’s people downloaded,” she told Keene when he stuck his head in her office to ask about progress on his return to Corpus Christi. “I talked to Neuzender at Princeton and he said he’ll help out, but can’t until something he’s working on is done. He asked me to say hi, by the way.”
“Okay.”
“I’d say, maybe a week or two.”
“Um.” Keene pulled a face. “I was hoping we’d have it before the Kronians get down to serious business. Is that the best we can do?”
“I’ll keep pushing. Maybe we can shave it down a bit.”
“Whatever you can do. How was the computer thing in Dallas on Saturday?”
“Not bad. I found the perfect replacement for this machine. It’s just what we need: image-tank driver, voice directable, and with math-pro conditioning.”
“Sounds great, but I’m up to my ears saving the world right now.”
“Vicki has the brochures, specs, and prices.”
“Okay, I’ll take a look. How’s everything else?”
“Celia’s moving along with the Karisaki thing. We should get the draft done by tomorrow.”
“Great stuff. Catch you later.”
Back in his own office, he reviewed his messages. A note from Karen confirmed a meeting the next morning with Curtiss and other senior Amspace management to update them after his talk with Salio. Wally had called to say that Harry Halloran’s proposal was now officially accepted, and the tentative date set for the hybrid shuttle trial out of San Saucillo, followed by a landing at Montemorelos, was in two weeks. Pretty quick. Keene nodded in silent approval. Then a header lower down caught his eye, saying that a recording from Gallian had been filed around midday. Keene activated it, and a moment later the familiar white-haired features were addressing him from the screen.
“Hello, Landen Keene. You’re probably busy, so I’ll just leave this for when you get back and not chase you around on your personal number. We’re leaving Washington for the tour, finally, and looking forward to it—surely the whole planet can’t be as hectic as this city. But I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t forgotten my promise on Monday to arrange for you to see the Osiris. In fact, I have talked to Captain Idorf and asked him to get in touch with you. It is his ship, after all, and he should be the one issuing invitations.” Gallian looked away for a moment. “Well, they’re hounding me again. Got to go. Be our guest, as we are yours. Sariena sends regards. More when we’ve a moment. Bye.”