Spinneret by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page A

do when that happens.”
    Her face darkened still further, but before she could speak, the door was opened and one of the guards peered in. “Olivero? Colonel Meredith’s ready for you.”
    â€œAll right.” Carmen stood up—with more than a trace of relief, Perez thought—and went to the door. There, she paused and looked back. “I’ll tell the colonel what you said. But no promises.”
    The door closed behind her. Wincing with the effort, Perez eased himself back to the floor. Closing his eyes, he replayed the conversation and Carmen’s facial expressions as best he could. Still on the side of the middle-class conservatives, he decided, but not close-minded, either. Obviously has some influence with the colonel. …
    He was still sorting out the possibilities when the soldiers came to turn him loose.
    The drive back to Unie was long, dusty, and quiet. Meredith kept his eyes on the patch of lighted road ahead of them, his brooding silence stifling all other conversation in the car. Which was fine with him: most of the team’s reports could wait until they were officially filed onto the computer, and the single exception could wait until they reached the privacy of his office.
    The lights in the admin complex were still burning when Andrews pulled the car to a stop in front of it—one more reminder that there were a war’s worth of details still waiting to be handled. “Your reports are due by oh-nine-hundred tomorrow,” Meredith told the group as he opened his door and climbed out. “Miss Olivero, come with me; the rest of you are dismissed.”
    The colonel led the way down deserted hallways and into his outer office—and because it was the last thing he expected at that hour, he was three steps into the room before his eyes registered the visitor waiting there for him.
    He stopped abruptly, combat senses flaring with the surprise; but the other showed no signs of hostility as he scrambled to his feet. “Colonel Meredith?” he asked, his casual stance and tone immediately tagging him a civilian.
    â€œYes,” Meredith acknowledged. “You?”
    â€œDr. Peter Hafner—I’m a geologist with Dr. Patterson’s group. Sorry about the hour, but your secretary said I could wait until you got in.”
    â€œNo problem,” Meredith assured him, making a mental note to set up new guidelines on such things. “What can I do for you?”
    â€œWell, sir, I’ve been trying to arrange for a flyer and pilot to run me out to Mt. Olympus, but everyone I’ve talked to says the flyers have been grounded.”
    â€œYou haven’t heard about the crash?” Meredith asked sourly.
    â€œYes, sir, I have; and I’m sorry about the loss of its crew. But everything I’ve heard indicates the accident was a fluke, some aberration of the plasma itself and not an actual equipment malfunction—”
    â€œWhoa. An aberration caused by what?”
    â€œMaybe a rogue solar flare or something— I don’t know. The point is it’s very unlikely the other flyers would run into the same problem.”
    â€œUnlikely’s not good enough,” Meredith said, shaking his head. “Until we have a better idea of what went wrong you’ll just have to make do with cars or the Cessnas.”
    â€œNeither of which will be of much use,” Hafner sighed. “I understand your concern, Colonel, but please recognize I’m not talking about some abstract search for knowledge here. Astra has got to have some metal somewhere, and if it’s not in the crust it must be deeper down. If volcanos like Olympus show any evidence at all of metal content in their rocks, it’ll offer a reasonable alternative to the asteroid mining you have planned.”
    Meredith held up a hand. “Doctor, it’s late and I’ve had a very hard day. If you’ll file a formal request with Martello Base,