Probability Sun by Nancy Kress Read Free Book Online Page B

you, Roz. You keep us honest. No prematurely ejaculated conclusions for you, no matter what Gruber says in absentia . But I’ll bet my nonexistent soul that our sneezing geologist is right. Ol’ Syree’s wave effect was real, and it hit Nimitri, and it rolled on outward to hit World. Had to.”
    “Ja!” Gruber said.
    Kaufman said, “Much weakened? Did it obey the inverse-square law?”
    Albemarle said, “No way to tell until we take measurements on the rest of the system and compare them with the initial data from the Zeus .”
    Kaufman nodded. He was surprised at how interested he was in the answer.
    Marbet said to him quietly, “Fascinating stuff, isn’t it?”
    “To me, yes. To you?”
    “Not the science,” she admitted. “But the team interactions certainly are.”
    Again he wondered what she saw. He’d avoided asking her; her mission here wasn’t with the humans.
    “Lyle,” she said, as the others became involved in some debate about mathematics, not one word of which was intelligible to Kaufman, “we’re now in the World System. Don’t you think it’s time you told me about this Faller I’m supposed to be presented with?”
    “Not yet,” Kaufman said, “because so far there’s nothing to tell. The moment there is, I’ll put you in the data chain, Marbet. I promise.”
    “All right.” She went back to watching the mathematical debate.
    Kaufman didn’t know whether to feel piqued or pleased. She seemed to have no interest in him apart from her mission here. Or was it just that she trusted him to communicate anything important without her having to press?
    He studied the curve of her brown throat, pure and strong. In profile like this, the startlingly high, sharp cheekbone made a clean plane below one emerald eye. Soft auburn curls clustered over her small ear. On the lobe was a jade earring. She looked as precise as if she were carved, and yet the flesh on that perfect genemod throat moved in and out with the breath of warm life.
    Lyle Kaufman suddenly hoped she hadn’t caught him staring.
    Albemarle finally said huffily, “Well, naturally, if you think that, there’s no point in arguing.”
    “That’s true,” Capelo said, “because whatever I think must be right. I came eighty thousand light years for no other purpose than to be right when you’re wrong. I live for the pleasure of flattening stupid mathematical theories, and you’re supplying me with food and drink. Isn’t that right, Roz?”
    “You are correct on this one mathematical point,” Dr. Singh said, “but no, you are not always right. Now leave Hal alone, Tom, so he can do the analysis I’ve requested of him.”
    “You sound just like my daughter,” Capelo said, “ordering me around. I’m surrounded by bossy women. Lyle, remind them who’s in charge here.”
    “I am,” Kaufman said mildly, and was rewarded by Marbet’s turning to him with her amused, full-lipped smile.
    “Dinner, sir,” announced a serving cart, entering with a full, fragrant tray. And that was another problem. Except for sleep, the team now pretty much lived on the observation deck, working and talking and eating there. They had all been invited to take their meals in the wardroom, but this had not worked out very well. The officers of the Alan B. Shepard were the usual mixed lot off-duty, ranging from the sophisticated, music-loving executive officer to the communications officer, who had the foulest sense of humor Kaufman, during a long Army career, had ever encountered. Despite the differences among them, they were all Navy officers, military men and women first. They found Tom Capelo just too weird, and the presence of his little girls too inhibiting. Marbet Grant clearly unnerved them. Everyone knew who she Was. Kaufman saw the officers gazing at her sideways when they thought she wouldn’t notice, and he knew they were wondering what she noticed about them that they would rather keep hidden. Most of them didn’t meet her eyes.
    So a