Seas of Ernathe Read Online Free PDF Page B

defense systems again?" He shook his head at what that implied about the defense security—and yet he knew that security had been tightened considerably after the incident with Warmstorm .
    "They seem to . . . just appear when you're not looking . . . whether you're actually looking or not," the guard said, talking to no one in particular. His eyes glazed with recall. "Even when you think you're being watchful, they sneak by as if they were made of air. One walked right in front of me, and he was nearly past before I even noticed him."
    "Yes," Racart said, startling Seth. "They do that, don't they?"
    "Though I've never seen one hurt a person," the guard concluded. Racart's eyes clouded at that, but he shook his head and gave Seth a glance that said, not now .
    "Let's make that tour, shall we?" Holme suggested. The guard nodded and gestured to two others who had arrived to senso-record and remove the body. He led the three men back through the plant, to the primary reducers where the incoming slurry of mynella was thickened and ground to a paste. Workers were clustered around the wide tanks, inspecting beneath cowlings and under the tank lids. The supervisor glanced up at their approach and shook her head; everything there was normal. Seth and Holme poked about for a moment, then followed the others down the line, to the first of the chemical-process converters. Here, also, a work crew was checking, and drawing out material for testing. So far, nothing was wrong.
    "So where's the problem?" asked Seth.
    "Patience," said the guard. "We already know there's a foul-up at the end—I just wanted to see if anything more had been found." They passed the secondary reducers and came to the mynalar end of the facility where the crude drug was refined and purified before packaging and sealing. Here a number of people were gloomily examining a powdery material in a small stainless vat. A middle-aged woman, a chemist, told them what had been found.
    "This batch has been ruined. We don't know yet about the others. And we don't know how it was done. We never know how it was done." She looked tired, but when Seth glanced questioningly at the chemical plumbing she anticipated his query. "There's nothing wrong with the equipment. The batch was half run, and doing fine, when the Nale'nid came."
    Seth stepped closer to inspect the equipment, and listened casually to the conversation of the workers nearby. He was startled to hear them discussing, not the loss of the drug batch, but the death of the Nale'nid. They're really getting used to this business , he thought, but not to people getting hurt over it. Do they know what this could mean to their whole future here? The mood was one of anxiety, of bewilderment, of concern about the reaction of the Nale'nid people to the death of one of their own.
    "There may be people asking for shutdown of operations. Or of the defense batteries," the guard said, unhappily.
    Racart answered without hesitation. "It won't matter, either way." He looked at Seth probingly. "It won't matter at all."
    Seth shook his head. It had to matter. But it could hardly be to the general good.
     
    * * *
     
    Seth and Racart returned to their respective quarters to pack sea-bags, then parted with Andol Holme in the Warmstorm compound. Before heading off to make his report to Gorges and Mondreau, Holme had offered Seth a bit of advice: "Listen to these sailors. If anyone can tell you how the Ernathenes feel, it will be them—none of this official falderal. And they'll probably tell you more than you want to know about the Nale'nid, too." With that, he had given Racart a pleasant nod and Seth a slap on the back, and the two had headed for the docks.
    The activity there was quiet but constant; supplies for up to twenty days at sea were being loaded, though the average run was only three to five days. Ardello was a great broad-nosed floating allosteel iceberg, filtering systems and holding tanks constituting much of its bulk,