“That’s about it,” Towers said. “We’re not gonna get anyplace this way. Looks like we’ll have to open it up further.”
“Ten bucks,” Carizan declared. “See, Vic-no tunes.”
“Nothing else, either,” Hunt retorted. “The bet’s void.”
At the instrumentation console Mullen completed the storage routine for the ifie of meager data that had been collected, shut down the computers and joined the others.
“I don’t understand where all that power was going,” he said, frowning. “There wasn’t nearly enough heat to account for it, and no signs of anything else. It’s crazy.”
“There must be a black hole in there,” Carizan offered. “That’s what the thing is-a garbage can. It’s the ultimate garbage can.”
“I’ll take ten on that,” Hunt informed him readily.
Three hundred and fifty million miles from Ganymede, in the Asteroid Belt, a UNSA robot probe detected a rapid succession of transient gravitational anomalies, causing its master computer to suspend all system programs and initiate a full run of diagnostic and fault-test routines.
“No kidding-straight out of Walt Disney,” Hunt told the others across the table in one corner of the communal canteen at Pit-head. “I’ve never seen anything like the animal murals decorating the walls of that room in the Ganymean spacecraft.”
“Sounds crazy,” Sam Mullen declared from opposite Hunt.
“What d’you think they are-MinervanS or something else?”
“They’re not terrestrial, that’s for sure,” Hunt replied. “But maybe they’re not anything. . . anything real that is. Chris Danchekker’s convinced they can’t be real.”
“How d’you mean, real?” Carizan asked.
“Well, they don’t look real,” Hunt answered. He frowned and waved his hands in small circles in the air. “They’re all kinds of bright colors . . . and clumsy . . . ungainly. You can’t imagine them evolving from any real-life evolutionary system-”
“Not selected for survival, you mean?” Carizan suggested. Hunt nodded rapidly.
“Yes, that’s it. No adaptation for survival . . . no camouflage or ability to escape or anything like that.”
“Mmm. . .” Carizan looked intrigued, but nonplussed. “Any ideas?”
“Well, actually yes,” Hunt said. “We’re pretty sure the room was a Ganymean children’s nursery or something similar. That probably explains it. They weren’t supposed to be real, just Ganymean cartoon characters.” Hunt paused for a second, then laughed to himself. “Danchekker wondered if they’d named any of them Neptune.” The other two looked at him quizzically. “He reasoned that they couldn’t have had a Pluto because there wasn’t a Pluto then,” Hunt explained. “So maybe they had a Neptune instead.”
“Neptune!” Carizan guffawed and brought his hand down sharply on the table. “I like it. . . . Wouldn’t have thought Danchekker could crack a joke like that.”
“You’d be surprised,” Hunt told him. “He can be quite a character once you get to know him. He’s just a bit stuffy at first, that’s
all. . . . But you should see them. I’ll bring some prints over. One was bright blue with pink stripes down the sides-body like an overgrown pig. And it had a trunk!”
Mullen grimaced and covered his eyes.
“Man . . . The thought’s enough to put me off drink for keeps.” He turned his head and looked toward the serving counter. “Where the hell’s Frank?” As if in answer to the question, Towers appeared behind him carrying a tray with four cups of coffee. He set the tray down, squeezed into a seat and proceeded to pass the drinks round.
“Two white with, a white without, and a black with. Okay?” He settled himself back and accepted a cigarette from Hunt. “Cheers. The man over by the counter there says you’re leaving for a spell. That right?”
Hunt nodded. “Only five days. I’m due for a bit of leave on J5. Flying up from Main the day after tomorrow.”
“On your own?” Mullen asked.
“No-there’ll be five or six of us. Danchekker’s coming too. Can’t say I’ll be sorry for a break, either.”
“I hope the weather holds out,” Towers said with playful sarcasm. “It’d be too bad if you missed the holiday season. This place makes me wonder what the big attraction ever was at Miami Beach.”
“The ice comes with scotch there,” Carizan suggested.