DENIAL
Professor Uhlrich sat behind his desk, staring in Grant Simpson’s direction.
“A pinhole leak in his suit’s collar ring?” Uhlrich asked, unbelieving.
“That’s what Aichi and Zacharias found,” said Grant, his voice heavy, morose.
Uhlrich saw an image of Simpson’s darkly bearded face, an image triggered by the sound of his voice. Simpson was the stubborn kind: very capable, but dependent on medications. I can’t run this facility without him, Uhlrich knew, but he can’t function without his drugs. I should find a replacement for him; I shouldn’t be forced into such a dependent position.
McClintock was sitting across the table from Simpson. Uhlrich heard a tinge of sarcasm as the man asked, “And how did a pinhole leak happen?”
For a long moment Simpson did not reply. Uhlrich could visualize the sullenness etched into his brooding face. At last the engineer said, “It might have been produced by nanomachines.”
“Nanomachines?” Uhlrich snapped, instantly alarmed.
“That’s impossible,” said McClintock.
“Is it?” Simpson retorted. “The Mendeleev mirror was built by nanos. The accident happened at Mendeleev.”
A bit more subdued, McClintock said, “Then we’ll have to get Dr. Cardenas here to examine the situation.”
“Damned right,” said Simpson.
“Wait,” Uhlrich said. “We mustn’t jump to wild conclusions. Just because an accident occurred—”
“A man died,” Simpson snapped. “We’ve got to find out why before anybody else is put at risk. We’ve got to halt the mirror construction jobs at Korolev and Gagarin. We’ve got to—”
Uhlrich’s temper flared. “Stop the construction at Korolev and Gagarin! We haven’t even started building the mirrors there!”
“And we shouldn’t start,” Simpson insisted. “Not until we know what’s going on.”
McClintock’s voice took on a more conciliatory tone. “I agree that we ought to investigate the possibility. But we shouldn’t screw up the construction schedules unless we absolutely have to.”
“How many deaths will it take?” Simpson growled.
Uhlrich could picture McClintock’s frosty smile. The man doesn’t confront you, he told himself. He simply sits on top of his money and smiles condescendingly until he gets his way.
McClintock was saying, “You’re getting all worked up over what might be just a maintenance failure.”
“Winston’s death wasn’t the first failure,” Simpson said.
“What do you mean?”
“The tractor problem we had several weeks ago,” said Simpson. “Superconducting motor went dead because the main coil lost its coolant. Through a pinhole leak.”
“Coincidence,” McClintock scoffed.
“Are you willing to bet your life on that?” Simpson replied heatedly. “The lives of everybody in this facility?”
McClintock didn’t reply.
“We’re a closed little community here,” Simpson went on. “If we have some rogue nanos eating into metals we could all be killed in a few days.”
“I can’t believe that,” said Uhlrich. But he knew that he wasn’t speaking the truth. His insides were trembling.
“Famous last words,” Simpson muttered.
“All right, let’s get Dr. Cardenas here,” said McClintock, trying to sound reasonable. “Let her make a determination.”
Simpson said nothing for several moments. At last he agreed, “That’s a start.”
“Very well, then,” said Uhlrich. “I will call her myself.”
“In the meantime, we should stop delivery of the nanos for Korolev and Gagarin.”
“No!” Uhlrich snapped. “That would throw off our schedule.”
His voice hard and unrelenting, Simpson replied, “Professor, we’re months ahead of our original schedule. We’ve got the Mendeleev ’scope up and running already. For god’s sake, don’t put the damned schedule ahead of safety, ahead of people’s lives! We can make up whatever time we lose.”
Uhlrich heard the earnestness in the engineer’s voice, visualized the intensity of his sad-eyed expression. What does he care? the professor asked himself. He’s young, he has a life, a career ahead of him. I’ve only got this one chance, this one last chance.
“I will not upset our schedule,” he said flatly. “If we suspend construction of the mirrors Selene will wonder what’s gone wrong. The university will send people here to pry into our situation. There will be an investigation. The news media will learn of it! It will be a disaster!”
McClintock said, “Perhaps we could distract the news media.”
“Distract?”
“Trudy Yost is going to use the Mendeleev telescope to get imagery of New Earth, isn’t she?”
“Spectra,” Uhlrich corrected. “Not imagery.”
“Besides, Sirius C has already been photographed,” Simpson pointed out.
“I’ve seen those pictures. New Earth is just a little dot, a blob,” McClintock countered. “We can produce much better stuff, can’t we?”
Uhlrich saw a glimmer of opportunity. “If Dr. Yost can detect oxygen in Sirius C’s atmosphere. Or water vapor … perhaps chlorophyll…”
“Whatever,” said McClintock. “We can feed her results to the media. The first close-up imagery from New Earth! They’ll lap it up and ignore whatever else is going on here.”
“Including a death,” Simpson said.
“Accidents happen,” McClintock said. Uhlrich could picture him shrugging. “It’s not the end of the world.”
“Isn’t it?”
McClintock didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed his chair back from the table and started to get to his feet.
Before either of the men could leave his office, Uhlrich said firmly, “There will be no word of a possible nanotechnology problem. Absolutely none. Not to anyone outside this room. Do you understand that? Neither of you is to say a word about this.”
“How will you explain Dr. Cardenas coming here?” Simpson asked.
McClintock replied, “Simple. We’re using her nanomachines to build the mirrors. She’s dropped in to see how they’re working.”
“Excellent,” said Uhlrich. “No mention of a possible problem. Not a word!”
He could feel resentment radiating from Simpson. But the engineer said grudgingly, “Probably a good idea. Don’t want to start a panic.”
“Exactly,” Uhlrich said.
They left the office. Uhlrich sat behind his desk, thinking that McClintock had hit on the perfect strategy. Distract the media with the first spectra from Sirius C. It would even gain credit for Farside in the public’s eyes. And from the committee in Stockholm. This could all end up as a positive step for me.
Now to get results from Dr. Yost, he said to himself. And quickly.