“Officially you’re here to study Ganymean science,” Del Cullen said. “You might as well be comfortable and make it look good at the same time. And, who knows, there might be more coming later.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining,” Hunt assured him.
Another room, off the side of the main area across from the second lab, contained several Thurien neurocoupler reeiners. “So you’ll have full access to VISAR,” Shilohin explained. “We have an i-space link direct into PAC.”
“But the regular facilities around PAC are managed by ZORAC?” Duncan asked.
“Yes. There’s a direct line back to the Shapieron. The ship has an onboard i-space connection, too. So ZORAC and VISAR can communicate directly.”
They came back out of the coupler room. Sandy went on through into the smaller lab, where she activated a terminal and began talking to ZORAC about something. In the main area with its central worktable, Danehekker wandered around, checking closet space, looking in drawers, and activating a couple of screens. “Most satisfactory,” he pronounced. “I must say, you seem to have gone to an inordinate amount of trouble for us.”
“Not at all,” Garuth assured him.
Danchekker rubbed the palms of his hands together and looked about. “It’s all very splendid and lavish for just the four of us.”
“Plenty of room if you find you need extra help,” Cullen said. Hunt saw that Duncan was about to make another wisecrack, no doubt about the company that Hunt had reappeared with from the city, and silenced him with a warning look.
And then Sandy’s voice came through the open interconnecting door from the adjoining lab. “Hello, out there?”
“What is it, Sandy?” Hunt called back.
“ZORAC has a call for Professor Danchekker. Shall I leave it on here?”
Danchekker looked at Hunt bemusedly. “What? Already? But we’ve barely arrived, for God’s sake. Who could it possibly be?”
“One way to find out,” Hunt said.
Frowning, Danchekker went through into the next lab. Hunt sent Duncan a puzzled look. Duncan shook his head and shrugged. “Don’t ask—”
“Arghh!”
The scream that came back through the open doorway was one of pure, animal terror. Danchekker bolted back into the room, white-faced. He looked imploringly at Hunt. “It can’t be, not here.. . Vie, you’ve got to do something.”
Hunt strode through the door and found Sandy, looking at a loss, standing to one side of a live display screen. On it, the face of Ms. Mulling from Goddard confronted him frostily.
“Ah, Dr, Hunt,” she observed. “I distinctly saw Professor Danchekker there a moment ago. Could you call him back, please? There are some questions concerning certain records that he left, and it is most imperative that I speak with him.”
Hunt fought back the urge to burst out laughing. “Er, I think he’s been called away,” he said. “His assistant is here, though. Couldn’t she help?”
Ms. Mulling sniffed disdainfully. “Very well. I suppose so.” Hunt moved out of the viewing angle and gave Sandy an encouraging wink. Then he went back into the main lab. “Don’t worry, Chris,” he said cheerfully to Danchekker, who had sunk onto a stool.
“We’ll take care of it if this keeps up. It’ll probably be some time before we go back.”
“What makes you imagine that I intend to?” Danchekker replied miserably.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The team spent the rest of the day relaxing, adjusting to local Jevlen time, and catching up on their rest. The next morning, Hunt and Danchekker met with Garuth and Shilohin in Garuth’s suite in the Ganymean offices. The items of equipment and other effects that they had brought from Earth had arrived, and Sandy and Duncan were busy getting things organized in the UNSA labs. The two Ganymeans summarized what they had learned after six month~ with the Jevlenese.
“We thought we might draw a lesson from the dismantling of socialism on Earth,” Garuth said, speaking from behind his huge Ganymean desk, which was also an elaborate console. “It seemed that the JEVEX dependency here could be thought of as analogous to the over dependency that developed there on the too-protective state.”
“A lot of people on Earth have been saying the same thing,” Hunt commented.