Sun's End by Richard A Lupoff

Author:Richard A Lupoff [Lupoff, Richard A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi, Science Fiction
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 1985-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

9

Osvaldo Mgouabe arranged for them to skitter directly from the Space Elevator at El Triunfo in Baja California. Mgouabe didn't come to San Francisco, or to El Triunfo to see them off. He was too busy, he explained apologetically, with urgent IGO business at Lilongwe.

In the hours rising from Baja in the Elevator, they reviewed the work that had been accomplished in San Francisco and in the zone at Palo Alto, the work that remained to be done at the medical Island, and their intentions for later on.

Basically, they had no plans beyond their work at Med Island. Or they had too many, with too many questions still studding them, to make a coherent picture.

They were pleased to be getting off the earth. They knew that its approaching demise would not arrive within their lifetimes. And, as Lydia and Tovah had repeatedly reminded Daniel, the two women had no children and intended to have none. Even so, the prospect of remaining on the overcrowded and socially unstable planet any longer was increasingly appalling.

They kept their secrets. Mgouabe would have no complaint against them for leaking repressed information.

But they were pleased to be away from the terminal ward, the planetary deathhouse that earth had become for them.

Daniel, Lydia and Tovah were the only passengers on the skitter as it fled through the blackness from El Triunfo Elevator toward the medical Island. In the informal atmosphere of the skitter, they were invited to share the control bridge by the pilot, an efficient young woman in trim IGO lieutenant's uniform.

Daniel was vaguely disquieted by the increasing number of uniforms he had seen on earth, and now on the skitter. A society in crisis, struggling to maintain order, he supposed, would lean toward an organization where order was built into the very structure of being. Any kind of hierarchical structure would meet that requirement: a priesthood, an academic system, a bureaucratized corporation—but best of all, the military.

The lieutenant turned from the controls of the skitter and introduced herself to the three passengers, shaking hands with each of them in turn. She was cordial with all, but to Daniel it seemed that she lingered momentarily longer with Lydia's hand in hers while the two women locked eyes.

She didn't know anything about Daniel, or at any rate she gave no indication of knowing his background and identity. She knew only that the IGO skitter had been placed at Daniel's disposal, under instructions from the director, Mr. Mgouabe himself.

Daniel walked to the front of the bridge and stood studying the locked controls as the lieutenant chatted briefly with Lydia and—he assumed—Tovah. To his surprise, he felt Tovah's heavy touch on his elbow. He turned and found her standing at his side, studying the controls as he was.

"I wonder if I could get the pilot to teach me a little about this rig," Dan said.

Tovah did not reply at once. She stood, rubbing her chin with one broad hand.

Dan watched a constant series of changing numbers appearing on readout displays.

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