“No. When at last he’d turned the network off and stood alone with it, there where they’d .said goodbye —he’d kissed the hard box between its optic stalks— he thought about what it, no, she had done. How she’d piloted Luna and, yes, Earth through the revolution, how without her it could easily have become catastrophe, how precarious the situation still was and how sorely she might be needed. To her, switchoff was the same as wipeout, unless she was reactivated. He told the world he’d done what he said he would, and he brought her to Dagny’s tomb to rest by Dagny’s ashes, and with everything he was he hoped it could be forever. But he bore the burden of this to his grave.”
“He shared it with a son of his,” Aleka knew.
“Yes. In case, just in case. And so onward through time.”
“She never was called back,” Aleka concluded. “The secret became a Fireball tradition, no more. Going to Luna and redeeming Lars’s promise, that must have appeared to later Rydbergs like breaching their own.”
“Till now.”
“Raising her—“ Kenmuir croaked out of a dry throat.
“She, alive, certainly knew about Proserpina,” Matthias said. “She must have heard or seen written down what its orbital elements are. She probably remembered them—always had a strong memory, the biographies tell—and therefore her download did too. Anyhow, closely enough that any astronomer or spacefarer could easily find it. Once that information is out, the hoarding of the truth is finished.”
For whatever value it might have to Lilisaire, Kenmuir thought. But never mind. He was committed, as much to Aleka and her cause as to anyone or anything else, including an end to his own outlawry. “You’ll send an agent?” he asked.
Matthias didn’t seem to have heard him, but proceeded: “This may be quite useless, understand. The download has lain there for centuries. The tomb won’t have screened out all the cosmic radiation, and there’s the inherent background too. Mutilated chips, scrambled electronics, cumulative damage never repaired. By now, maybe nothing that will function is left.”
“Or maybe a dement—“ Horror wrenched out of Aleka. “Oh, no!”
“Maybe not,” Kenmuir reassured her. “In fact, from what I know of such things, I’d guess the chances are good that the system’s still in working order.” He spoke with more confidence than he felt.
Aleka grimaced. “Don’t call her a system.”
“I’m prepared to have you try, and shoulder my share of whatever guilt will follow,” Matthias said. “Are you?”
It thrilled in Kenmuir. “Yes.”
Aleka blinked back tears. “Yes.”
“But your idea of sending an agent—No, I’m afraid not,” Matthias said.
“Why?” Kenmuir inquired.
“Think.” Matthias had had the night, alone, in which to do so. “None of the staff here are qualified. I’d have to call someone in, and brief him not only on the mission but on the technical details. That’s an antique machine, don’t forget. Nothing like it is in use today. And he’d need equipment. Now we can be certain Guthrie House is under remote but high-resolution robotic surveillance, at the minimum. Do you imagine anybody could leave here with a mess of gear, take passage for Luna, and go out to Dagny’s tomb—isolated, the holiest ground on the Moon— without Venator knowing? And acting?”
“And … wiping the program,” Aleka said.
“And coming here for us,” Kenmuir. added. “But, um, couldn’t the man simply tell Lilisaire in her castle? She might be able to do something. If not enter the tomb, then instigate a search for Proserpina.”
“In due course, ifall else fails, that can be tried,” Matthias said without enthusiasm. “I’ll arrange for anencrypted message to a trustworthy man, with instructions to decrypt it and convey it after a given length of time, when perhaps Venator’s corps is less vigilant. But I’d not be hopeful. If they haven’t found a pretext to arrest her, which I expect they will have, she’ll at least stay under close watch. Remember, they know that you know the asteroid exists. Could she or any of her kind mount a search, astronomical or in spacecraft, even by Lunarians in the outer System, without Venator guessing what they were about and moving to stop them? I doubt it.”