Spindown by George Wright Padgett

Author:George Wright Padgett [Padgett, George Wright]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781938821288
Publisher: Grey Gecko Press
Published: 2013-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Search

Fowler returned to the housing compartments. “Sholve? Sholve, where are you?”

“I’m still up here.” She cautiously peeked over the edge of the unit.

“Jump down,” he said.

“I can’t. I need help.”

“I can’t get close to the opening, because of the reader. Come over to the side of the first one.”

She hung over the side until Fowler received and lowered her to the floor. “Where’s the setter?” she asked.

“He’s waiting for us. There’s a mini-depot up here.”

“He’s going to Superintendent?”

“Yes, but I told him you’ll explain it.”

“I can’t explain Superintendent.”

“I know, but you can tell the worker what’s happening. You can explain about dormant dead and the spinners better than I can.”

“You should have left him alone. You should have let him go to his Cardan cycle assignment.”

“You’re wrong. Prinox was sending him to the Reduction Center to be Castor Pollux dormant dead.” He did not know what the term meant, and she probably didn’t, either, and he suspected that an opportunity to tell something new to a worker coupled with her learning something new would be an irresistible incentive for the sholve.

Fowler’s gamble paid off. Sholve rushed past him to meet her latest “pupil.” Briskly moving down the corridor, she asked, “The setter was deployed to Reduction Center? How do you know this?”

“He told me,” answered Fowler. “I stopped him from going… you can ask him for yourself.”

As the two reached the depot, Sholve asked, “Where is he?”

Fowler scanned the area, but the worker was nowhere in sight. “I don’t think a pod-car would have come that quickly.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I sent the pod for him away,” Fowler said in frustration. “I can’t explain right now. Let’s just find him. Look down that side of the track, and I’ll go down this direction. He’s Setter 4206.”

The two called out the worker’s name as they headed down opposite sides of the mag-rail path. After a couple of minutes, Fowler started hiking back to the well-lit area of the mini-depot.

Then he noticed that a small section of wall paneling was askew in one of the support niches along the main wall.

“Setter?” he asked softly, not certain what he was looking at.

As he approached the spot, he saw that the panel had been removed entirely and then propped back into its opening. It was large—as tall as he was.

He bent, gathering two loose bolts from the ground. He found a third just behind the panel where it was out of place. Placing the bolts in his pocket, he looked toward the mini-depot. “How would the setter—”

“Fowler?” yelled Sholve, returning to the light of the mini-depot.

He started running toward her, motioning for her to be quiet.

“What is it?” she asked. “Did you find him?”

Fowler reached her, grabbed her hand, and said in her ear, “Be quiet. I think I found where he went.”

Sholve whispered, “He’s hiding? Why? Did he see spinners or the round bot or something?”

“I don’t know, but come look.” Fowler showed her his discovery of the removed wall plate. “Somebody took that off.

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