The applause sounded like considerably more than five people. Wilkie turned pink; Scheer worked his jaw muscles: They crowded around it. “Is it ‘hot’?” inquired Brooks.
“No,” answered Mitsui, “I touched it.”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“No, it’s not ‘hot’,” Wilkie reassured him, “not with the Ledbetter process. Stable isotopes, all of them.”
Ardmore straightened up from a close inspection. “I take it you intend to do the whole thing outdoors?”
“Is that all right, Major? Of course we could work down below and assemble it up above, from small panels — but I’m sure that would take just as long as to work from scratch with big panels. And I’m not sure about assembling the roof from small units. Sandwich panels like these are the lightest, strongest, stiffest structure we can use. It was the problem of that big roof span you want that caused us to work out this system.”
“Do it your way. I’m sure you know what you’re doing. ”
“Of course,” admitted Wilkie, “we can’t finish it in this short a time.
This is just the shell. I don’t know how long it will take to dress it up.”
“Dress it up?” inquired Graham. “When you’ve got a fine, great simple shape why belittle it with decoration? The cube is one of the purest and most beautiful shapes possible. ”
“I agree with Graham,” Ardmore commented. “That’s your temple, right there. Nothing makes a more effective display than great, unbroken masses. When you’ve got something simple and effective, don’t louse it up.”
Wilkie shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I thought you wanted something fancy.”
“This is fancy. But see here, Bob, one thing puzzles me. Mind you, I’m not criticizing — I’d as soon think of criticizing the Days of Creation
— but tell me this: why did you take a chance on going outside? Why didn’t you just go into one of the unoccupied rooms, peel off the wall coating and use that magic knife to carve a chunk of granite right out of the heart of the mountain?”
Wilkie looked thunderstruck. “I never thought of that. ”
CHAPTER FIVE
A patrol helicopter cruised slowly south from Denver. The PanAsian lieutenant commanding it consulted a recently constructed aerial mosaic map and indicated to the pilot that he was to hover. Yes, there it was, a great cubical building rising from the shoulder of a mountain. It had been picked up by the cartographical survey of the Heavenly Emperor’s new Western Realm and he had been sent to investigate.
The lieutenant regarded the job as a simple routine matter. Although the building did not appear in the records of the administrative district in which it was located there was nothing surprising in that. The newly conquered territory was enormous in extent, the aborigines, with their loose undisciplined ways — so characteristic of all the inferior races
— kept no proper records of anything. It might be years before everything in this wild new country was properly indexed and cross-filed, particularly as this pale anemic people was almost childishly resistant to the benefits of civilization.
Yes, it would be a long job, perhaps longer than the Amalgamation of India. He sighed to himself. He had received a letter that morning from his principal wife informing him that his second wife had presented him with a man-child. Should he request that he be reclassified as a permanent colonist in order that his family might join him here, or should he pray for leave, long overdue?
Those were no thoughts for a man on the Heavenly Emperor’s duty! He recited over to himself the Seven Principles of the Warrior Race and indicated to the pilot an alp in which to land.
The building was more impressive from the ground, a great square featureless mass, fully two hundred yards across in every dimension. The face toward him shone with a clear monochromatic emerald green, although it faced away from the afternoon sun. He could see a little of the wall to the right; it was golden.
His task group of one squad filed out of the helicopter after him and were followed by the mountain guide who had been impressed for this service. He spoke to the white man in English. “Have you seen this building before?”