* * *
The Aerobot from Leppo arrived a couple of hours later, coming in as Kieran had instructed on a low approach along the valley from the direction opposite to the Zorken camp, landing a few hundred feet back below the ridgeline undetected by the Mule’s radar. Kieran checked the items that it had brought and was satisfied. Then he got Hamil to put a call across to Justin Banks in the Mule, saying that there was a person here with the expedition that Banks really needed to meet and talk with face-to-face. By then, the time was approaching midnight. As Kieran had anticipated, Banks preserved his symbolic authority by decreeing that it would have to wait until the following morning.
And that suited Kieran’s plan fine.
After the two camps had settled down for the night, Rudi sent out his little tracked robot, Gottfried, to a hollow between two rocks that had been noted by daylight, where it was able to pass under the lowest beam of the Zorken camp’s security perimeter. The robot was equipped with a telescopic arm terminating in a jointed three-claw hand, which it used to unscrew the cap of the external fill pipe to the Mule’s amply sized drinking-water tank. It then inserted a tube, through which it pumped a measured amount of the liquid solution that had been supplied by Pierre.
13
Clad in a surface suit, Kieran crossed the few hundred feet of ground separating the two camps. Neither he nor Hamil wanted direct confrontation at this point, and he passed Chas Ryan, Lou and Zeke, laying out and inventorying equipment in anticipation of the expedition’s having to pull out. A camera mounted inside the opened outer door of the Mule scrutinized him as he approached. He mounted the steps to the access lock, waited for it to close and pressurize, and when the inner door opened, entered the main cabin.
The Mule was designed for inhospitable environments, and as such provided extended-term living accommodations besides being simply a vehicle. In some ways a flying version of the Juggernaut with freight space instead of lab facilities, it possessed a full galley and surface-endurance life support system, with the main cabin functioning both as dayroom and sleeping quarters. Observation from the other camp had shown Banks and his group to be generally keeping to the Mule, availing themselves of its superior comforts compared to the shacks. Kieran guessed that the shacks were being left for the military contingent that he was expecting, who would be using more basically equipped, less commodious vehicles.
The same trio who had met Hamil were waiting in the cabin: Banks, Gertrude Heissen, and Tran Xedeidang. Clarence Porter had left on foot about half an hour previously with one of the three crewmen identified so far. The two others were probably in the nose section, Kieran guessed. That could be a problem, because he wanted to get in there. Banks watched with a sour expression while Kieran removed his helmet and gloves and placed them on a side ledge before sitting down uninvited and settling back with as much comfort as a light-duty suit, even with its flat, compact back unit, would permit. Kieran had dusted his hair a little grayer and added some line work that added a few years to his face.
“Mr. Keziah Turle,” Banks acknowledged.
“Doctor, if you don’t mind.”
Banks shrugged. “As you wish. Now, would you get to the point? Your professor said there were matters you need to discuss directly. I can’t imagine what they might be, but you have our attention.”
“I’m not actually a member of Professor Hashikar’s expedition,” Kieran began. “Archeology, geology, and so forth are not my kind of specialty. I’m more, what you might call an external consultant, brought in because of my expertise in the more . . .” he paused, as if weighing how to phrase a delicate but significant matter, “esoteric aspects of the discoveries here.” He looked at Banks expectantly.
“Go on,” Banks said in a neutral voice. His two companions remained stone-faced. Kieran treated them to the smile of one accustomed to gently leading others into new conceptual territory.
“I’m sure you’ve all heard of the ancient Technolithic culture of Earth,” Kieran said. His voice took on a mildly quavering, reverberating tone, as if revering hidden secrets of the universe. “Long before any civilization of ours existed, they built the pyramids of Egypt, the lost cities of the Hindu Kush, the engineering miracles of Mexico and Peru. They wrought feats that defy gravity itself, wonders that Zorken Consolidated with all the resources and knowledge at its command would be unable to match, even today.” He rose to his feet, as if unable to contain the excitement surging through him, turned a full circle, extending both hands, and pointed downward with a trembling finger. “And now, beneath this very spot where we are—”