“But for how long?” Shayle persisted. “How can something like this it last?”
“Look how long it lasted on Earth,” Keene replied. “Even then, it took Athena to end it.”
Shayle shook her head. “But surely this is different. That was a whole world of mutually supporting interests. We are just . . . this. They’re obviously not so stupid as to believe that they can hold on indefinitely as things are. They must be expecting some kind of reinforcement.”
Keene nodded. “Yes, I’d already come to the same conclusion.”
“But who?”
“What else can it be but the Aztec?”
Shayle stared at him in the kind of disbelieving way that said it was too obvious. “Of course,” she said tiredly.
“It’s got the AG lithoforming prototypes to make big, secure constructions here. Profab equipment to create a diversified industrial base. That would give them a start to expand from.”
“Would it be enough? Obviously there won’t be any more follow-up missions from Saturn now.”
Keene could only shrug. “Maybe that’s a gamble they decided to take. With a whole planet full of resources here for the taking, waiting to be developed . . .”
“By whom?—if they have to spend all their time keeping the rest of us in line.”
“By us, working for them. That’s what it’s all about. And in any case, we don’t know how many more of them there might be coming with the Aztec. That could change the balance of numbers a lot.”
Keene gazed around restlessly. One of the guards had come through into the switchroom to keep an eye on them, but he was staying back at the far end. Keene dropped his voice. “Saturn will figure out that something’s wrong here from the communications blackout, but it might take them awhile. So the Pragmatists might not have made their move on the Aztec yet. It still might not be too late to get a warning to the ship somehow. We need a way of getting access to the Varuna’s or the Surya’s communications.”
Shayle stared at the bank of cable ducts and piping running from the power building through the shielding wall around the Agni, and then looked back into the room full of equipment behind them. Something was taking shape in her mind. Keene watched her face silently and waited. When she spoke, her agitation of a moment ago had given way to a deeper, more distant thoughtfulness.
“Suppose we staged some kind of problem with Agni’s power system down here that needed diagnostics and repair directions from the Varuna to fix. At least that would put us in touch with the engineers up there.”
“But Agni’s self-sufficient. It wouldn’t need any help from up there,” Keene pointed out.
“You and I know that. But Zeigler doesn’t.”
Keene stared at her. Of course! The shadow of a grin softened his face. “And then we play it by ear from there,” he completed.
“Something like that.”
Keene checked it through in his mind again. There was no obvious flaw that he could see. And time was crucial. He nodded. “The sooner the better, then. We’ll need to cue Gus and Blinda in on what we’re doing.” They were the two Kronians back inside the power house. He thought for a few seconds longer. “Can you dream up something, Shayle? It would probably look better if I weren’t around when it happens. Let Zeigler’s people come to me when you discover the ’emergency.’ ”
“That’s fine. Leave it to me,” Shayle said.
They made a cursory show of checking displays and equipment in the switchroom, then went back into the main distribution control center. “I’m done here for now,” Keene said to the guards. “I need to go back to the dorms.” It stuck in his throat to have to ask it, but the formality was already established. One of the guards nodded. Keene left via the door connecting through to the workshop domes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Keene found Sariena in one of the partly completed work areas in the Laboratory block, where the planetary scientists had been in the process of moving into from the Surya. The next phase of their program involved adding a hangar at the base to accommodate ground-launched probes for detailed mapping of the Raphta peninsula to supplement the longer-range surveys being directed from orbit. They were carrying on according to the original plan but in a mechanical kind of way, with the enthusiasm gone, as if unsure anymore what the point was of any of it.