Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson Read Free Book Online

space for a few seconds, then shook his head. “I don’t believe I did. They may find the safe, though it’s pretty well screened, but in that case they’ll see it was installed long before my time. I recorded nothing germane to you. The communication lines you used also go back to well before I moved in. You know better than I how safe they are.”
    “Quite safe, as far as detectors and taps are concerned. When they’re not in service, they cut themselves off without trace from the rest of our net. Okay. You’ll need an explanation of why you were absent, one they’ll accept without much inquiry. That wants corroboration. Think. What might you have been doing? Having a fling in a Low World den of iniquity? I’ve got the connections to arrange for witnesses to that on fairly short notice, if you’re willing.”
    Lee’s scowl darkened. “I don’t know, sir. I mean, I don’t care if they snicker. But if they ask around, they’ll learn that sort of thing isn’t in character for me. That could be hard on … your friends too.”
    “Any better ideas, then?”
    “No, I’m afraid not. At first, you said I should simply play ignorant. It doesn’t look so straightforward now. Let me think more.”
    “Do.” The lenses focused on Kyra. “Your turn, Pilot Davis. Any reason for them to suspect you’ve had a hand in this?”
    “No,” she said. “I’m just a spacer who chanced to be at Kamehameha when Dr. Packer needed couriers.”
    “Anything in your background that might single you out?”
    “Bueno—bueno, I’m third-generation Fireball, but that’s common enough, isn’t it?” Kyra paused. She must force herself a little. “My parents are North American born, but they’ve lived in Russia the past, m-m, fourteen years. They didn’t want to move, but the company transferred them, actually to better positions—for their safety, I suspect. You see, Dad’s fierily anti-Avantist. He grew more outspoken for every new law and regulation the Synod got passed.” A smile twitched. “Mother’s a cooler head.”
    “I see. Yours isn’t the only family we’ve had to move. What do they do?”
    “Dad’s an analytical physicist.” She heard the pride rising. “These days he works on antimatter, designs for improving the large-scale production of heavy nuclei. Mother’s a biotics programmer. I have a younger brother in the Academy.”
    “Wait.
Those
Davises?” Guthrie was still for a moment. “Damn, I know I’ve met their names before, but most of my memories are banked elsewhere. I’m sorry.”
    It was decent of him to apologize, Kyra thought. “Not your fault, jefe. You can’t store everything in … your personal database.”
    If he were hooked to his main hypercomputer, shethought, he could summon anything in Fireball’s files, including detailed recollections of his direct experiences. He’d need less computer capability than that to project a face of his own into a multi, a human play of expressions, instead of having to speak from within a blank box.
    “Thanks,” he said. After another silence: “Close-knit family, eh? I daresay you’ve spent a lot of your Earthside time in Russia with them.”
    “Yes. And otherwise, oh, sightseeing, vacationing around the globe. Hardly ever in the Union, except Hawaii.” Mountain, forest, strand, surf, reef, ocean, remnants of a past that had been wonderfully alive; a hula, a luau, done for the tourists but still remnants of a past that had been wonderfully human; the Keiki Moana, graceful, wistful, remnants of a future that had failed. “Otherwise this country is depressing.” How sour that word tasted. “Not that I’ve been much on Earth at all since getting my captain’s rating. I’ve had some long hauls.”
    “Really? Where?”
    “Asteroid and cometary prospecting tours, as far as the Kuiper Belt. Outer planets, ferrying for the scientific stations. Once on Taurid work, emergency call.”
    Muy bien, she was bragging, and quite aware of