Deep Navigation by Alastair Reynolds

Author:Alastair Reynolds [Reynolds, Alastair]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3

“Sure Villiers was dead?” he asked, back in her office.

“History,” Everard said. “Which means, I think, that we have a fairly major problem. He knew a way out of this mess.”

“I did ask him.”

“I know.” Her head was throbbing, and she suddenly realised that she hadn’t slept—or even thought of sleep—for far too many hours. “Maybe you shouldn’t have flunked that assertiveness course.”

Weber started fixing coffee. “Everard, did it strike you as odd what happened down there?”

She peered through fingers. “Weber, right now I think I need a new definition of oddness. But go ahead.”

“Why’d it attack?” He was poised with a spoonful of coffee in one hand. “Why the hostility? I mean, assume there’s a group of people up on one of the Helium 3 stations in much the same predicament as us—cut off, confused, panicky. Surely they need our help in understanding the situation, much as we need theirs.” He filled the coffee maker with water and set it running. “Unless they know something we don’t.”

“Such as?”

He sat down. “Well, only a guess, but maybe it was self-defence.”

“Don’t follow.”

“Think. Villiers told us there was a way out, but he said it was drastic. Well, suppose his solution helped us but not them? More to the point, what if it was positively fatal for them?”

“Maybe,” Everard said, trying not to sound too convinced. “In which case, where does that leave us? Even if we figure out what Villiers had in mind, could we do it?”

“I hate to say it,” Weber said. “But I think we probably could.”

The coffee hissed and gurgled. Everard fell asleep before it was ready, dreaming of imprisonment within the paperweight, knocking unheard on its plastic.

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