Lifeline полностью

Curtis Brahms smiled and steepled his fingers across the desktop. It was an annoying gesture he seemed to make often. He appeared warm and welcoming to his visitors, but he made Ramis’s skin crawl. Ramis had watched him eject two people from the airlock the day before. He could sense the anger, the violence of this man hiding behind his cool, efficient facade.

The acting director was cordial now, though, as if all those terrible things had been done by someone else. By bringing the wall-kelp, by distracting all the people on Orbitech 1 with his heroic mission, Ramis had earned Brahms’s gratitude—at least enough for him to see the two of them when Ramis had asked, and to listen attentively to the Kibalchich proposal.

Brahms pondered the idea in silence. Karen said nothing, but Ramis was glad she was there.

Brahms took a deep breath. “Ramis, that is a fascinating proposal. I don’t know why none of us thought of it.” Brahms flashed the briefest of sharp glances at Karen, as if she were a scapegoat for all the researchers on Orbitech 1.

“But listen to this last transmission from the Kibalchich, broadcast on the open band about three weeks ago.” His fingers spent a few moments working at the keypad, linking to the communications center log. Ramis and Karen remained silent, waiting for him. Brahms found what he wanted and played it over the set of desk speakers. “It’s voice only. We can’t even see for sure who was talking.”

He sat back and listened.

“This is Commander Stepan Rurik of the Soviet research station Kibalchich. We hereby sever all ties with other survivors on Earth’s space colonies. Do not attempt to contact us. We wish to remain isolated.”

Brahms drew his mouth tight. “We haven’t heard a word from them since. I’ve had my communications people try to contact them daily, but no one ever answers. I can’t tell if they’re just being stubborn, or if something’s happened to them.”

He frowned again. “And you want to go over there and investigate. My automatic inclination is to say no, it’s too dangerous. But then secondary thoughts kick in, and I come up with many different reasons why I should let you go.”

He held up his fingers, ticking them off. “First, I think it’s important for us to find out what happened to them, why they’ve broken off contact. Even if we were adversaries in the War, we could find some way to work things out, now that we’ve got so much to lose.

“Ah!” He smiled as if another thought had just occurred to him. “And you’d be going as a Filipino citizen, not as a representative of Orbitech 1. They won’t be able to hold anything against us.

“The second reason—if they all did die, it happened much too quickly for them to have used up all their supplies. Even though we now have the wall-kelp, the Kibalchich could have lots of other provisions just sitting there for the taking. Hmmm, although getting them back over here will be another problem.”

Karen spoke up. “I have an idea about that, Mr. Brahms.”

He looked at her and nodded. “Let me finish my reasons first, then I’ll ask.”

Karen nodded, then sat back. The words sounded like a reprimand to Ramis, but he could detect no negative tone in Brahms’s voice. The director held up his hand and ticked off a third reason, as if he didn’t want to lose his train of thought.

“Also, the Soviets were working on many different research items. They were very close-mouthed about everything, but we were able to watch them constructing the Kibalchich through our telescopes. All we know is that it was a research station. Now, if they are indeed gone, perhaps they left something behind that we can use. We can take their technology for our own benefit.

“Fourth—and this may be more important than you realize—by undertaking such an adventure, you will give a tremendous boost to our morale here. I’m not too stupid to admit that we’re in bad shape. Our researchers are too frightened or too depressed to do their best work. This mission of yours would give them something to hope for, something to watch. We could even hold a competition for designing the best apparatus to assist you in getting over there.

“After we broadcast it over ConComm, you’ll also be a hero, twice over—to Clavius Base and to your home, Aguinaldo.”

He smiled, looking boyish all of a sudden without his eyeglasses. “And, finally, what have we got to lose?”

Ramis grinned back at him, but in a corner of his mind he thought of another reason, one that Brahms no doubt had been reluctant to say out loud. If I don’t come back, that’s one less mouth you have to feed from your precious supplies.

Brahms cleared his throat and turned to address Karen. She jumped at the sudden attention and averted her eyes.

“Now then, Dr. Langelier, I’m interested in hearing your ideas about bringing supplies back.”