Probability Moon by Nancy Kress

Author:Nancy Kress [Nancy Kress]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2011-04-07T21:00:00+00:00

"artifact"...

Crush not the ant who stores the golden grain: / He lives with pleasure and will die with pain...

Sadi. Century forgotten, at least for the moment.

Gradually he grew calmer. At some point, his hand holding back the loose window curtain and his senses flooded with night, he realized that he could mix a neuropharm to calm himself. No, better this way. The Persian poets were more reliable.

Flowers bloom every night / Blossom in the sky, / Peace in the infinities; / At peace am I...

Ruml. Deep breath.

Thirteenth century. Deep breath.

He went to wake the others.

-=*=-

"Tell me again, Dieter," Ann said. In the glow from a single oil lamp in the middle of the lab floor, her skin looked pale, almost translucent. Bazargan had brought David Allen from the crelm house, guessing that Dieter and Ann would be together. One less movement through the dark gardens to attract attention before they were ready for it. Only one moon shone in the sky, low enough to be obscured by buildings and trees.

Dieter, hastily dressed in a tunic that looked as if it had lain three weeks in his field pack, shifted on his pillow. Stress deepened his German accent. "I can go only by what Ahmed says that Johnson said. If a wave disrupting nuclear stability really does hit with any force, and if it really does affect anything over atomic number seventy-five, then all sorts of things will go radioactive. If it is temporary -- she did say 'temporary,' Ahmed? Ja?"

"Yes. Can that be?"

"Not with anything we know how to do. But we didn't know how to make space tunnels, either. So if it is so, all sorts of things will emit alpha radiation. Iridium, platinum, gold...

everything above seventy-five? Ahmed, did she mention lead? It is so stable!"

"No. I don't think so. I'm not sure."

"Call the bitch back and ask!" David blurted. They had already had to calm him down once.

"We've tried calling. The Zeus doesn't answer. Now be quiet, David," Bazargan said.

"I won't be quiet! They've fucked us over completely, don't you get that? Now everyone on World might die!"

"No, no," Ann soothed. "That won't happen. In the first place, only half the landmass will be facing any wave that comes at a given time -- maybe rock stops it. It could be. Also, living bodies would not be majorly affected by what Dieter is describing. I hope. Even if the wave comes at all, which it may not."

"So we just sit here with our heads up our asses and hope it doesn't come? And let half of World fry, but that's okay because it's only half?"

Bazargan stood. The bright curving pillows of World were low; on his feet he towered a meter over David. "I said to be quiet, and you chose not to listen. If you are not quiet now, you will be ejected from this meeting. By force, if necessary."

David stood, too. "You wouldn't do it."

"Yes," Bazargan said. "I would."

The two men faced each other. Shadows danced on the walls.

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