Walking to Babylon

Author:Kate Orman [Orman, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Summerfield; Bernice Surprise (Fictitious Character), Women Archaeologists
ISBN: 0426205219
Google: x4gKAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0426205219
Publisher: Virgin Publishing
Published: 1998-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

„Not particularly,‟ said !Cin-ta!x, „as I don‟t want God

suggesting I have bits of my memory erased for the good of

the People. Anyway, you asked about the bomb.‟

Clarence furled his wings, glowering. „I suppose you‟ve

got that sorted out.‟

„It‟s a lot easier to blow something up than find out how it

works,‟ admitted !Cin-ta!x. „We‟re just refining the

calculations now. It‟s a forced temporal gravitic pulse,

generated

by

the

Path‟s

own

terminus

under

chronosynclastic stress. Once we‟ve got the maths, we‟ll build

the stressors. But we‟re not starting on the hardware until

we‟re sure there won‟t be any backlash of energy to the

Worldsphere.‟

„What about the other points along the Path?‟ said

Clarence. „Is it only that Earth city that gets blown away?‟

„Interesting you should ask that,‟ said the scientist. He

waved a screen closer to himself. It was covered in orange

scrawl. Clarence felt he should understand it, but he got lost

after the first couple of equations.

„Let me explain it,‟ said !Cin-ta!x. „We got some peculiar

data from MD 20879. It suggests some kind of ripple effect.

When the Path was extruded so that Beni could enter it, it‟s

possible it triggered a series of extrusions at certain points

along the structure‟s length. Possibly millions of them.‟

„Then other people might have been able to get on to the

Path. Oh heck! Even you-know-who might find it, and then

we‟d really be up the spout.‟

„It‟s possible,‟ said !Cin-ta!x, „but it‟s unlikely. The majority

of such extrusions would occur in empty space, or for

infinitesimal periods. However, the Path is so long that there

would still be a significant number of usable extrusions.‟

Clarence stared at the Path‟s terminus. „Then anything

could have followed Beni back.‟

!Cin-ta!x raised a finger. „Only if they have equipment

which could sense the Path. Without that technology, it

would remain invisible to them - they‟d have to literally

stumble across it. So I think we‟re all right there.‟

„Why did they do it?‟ sighed Clarence. „What could be

worth it?‟

„Everyone‟s been waiting for TIG to do something like this

for years,‟ said !Cin-ta!x. „But we‟d never be so stupid.‟

„Because everyone‟s waiting for you to do it,‟ said Clarence.

„Yes, that‟s true,‟ sighed !Cin-ta!x. „WiRgo!xu and !Ci!ci-tel

had no connections with us, and from what God could tell

us about them, I doubt they‟d have the nous to build

anything more sophisticated than that ridiculous plane.

Someone told them how to build this. And it wasn‟t someone

in TIG. Which means either there‟s a mathematical genius on

the loose, or the information came from an outside source.‟

Clarence said, „You mean, this could be sabotage? Some-

one trying to cause a war?‟

„It might even be our honoured co-signatories to the

Treaty,‟ said !Cin-ta!x drily. „After all, we know they have

the technology. In fact, it could be a sort of test. How much

do we know? Do we have the maths to stop this thing?‟

„That might mean that war is inevitable,‟ breathed

Clarence.

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