The Stars Down Under Read Online Free PDF Page A

said suddenly, “I’d like to talk to Chief Myell alone.”
    Toledo flicked a gaze her way, then back to Myell.
    â€œGo,” Farber insisted.
    When they were alone, she sat down and laid her hands flat on the table. “He’s not telling you everything, Chief. We want you to do more than just activate the transport ring.”
    Myell waited. The room was soundproof, but he imagined Toledo standing at the door trying to listen.
    â€œI know that when you were debriefed on Warramala, the agents didn’t believe your story about a serpent telling you how to get home. The official conclusion is that you were hallucinating, and that you were enormously lucky navigating the network back to Warramala.”
    He stayed quiet.
    Farber leaned forward. “I think you did encounter some kind of intelligence. It communicated with you. The first alien sentience that mankind has ever made contact with, and you were chosen for the honor. That makes you our liaison. Our best chance to establish a dialogue with the beings who created or control the Wondjina Spheres.”
    Myell phrased his answer carefully. “Miss Farber, whatever’s out there, it doesn’t want us using the system. It’s not my place to go against that. If it’s meant to be, those scientists will find their way back.”
    If the Rainbow Serpent meant it to be.
    â€œYou’re condemning them to death,” she told him.
    Not true. They had done that themselves, the minute they stepped into a transportation system they knew nothing about.
    â€œI’m sorry you feel that way,” he said.
    Myell walked back to Captain Kuvik’s suite alone. The secretary gave him a sideways look, made a discreet call, and then said, “Your office is on the equipment deck.”
    â€œIs that the basement?” Myell asked.
    The secretary smiled coldly.
    Myell took the lift down. The equipment deck was dim and airless, with machinery sounds muffled behind thick locked doors. One door bore a sign with his name printed neatly on it. He’d seen closets that were bigger, but inside was a desk and a chair. No deskgib. He used his bee to ping Betsy.
    â€œWhere’s Jodenny?” he asked.
    â€œShe’s sleeping, sir. Shall I wake her?”
    â€œNo. Let her rest.”
    He sat there, alone with nothing to do, pondering snakes and lost travelers. Fleet would ask Jodenny, of course. They would appeal to her sense of honor. But she would say no. Together they had made their decision, and there was no going back on it now.

CHAPTER THREE
    After a while the view of four blank walls grew claustrophobic. Myell searched through the desk drawers but found nothing to write on. He ventured down the passageway and tried other doors. Most were locked, but close to the lift he found a closet filled with unwanted office supplies. Old deskgibs sat piled in boxes, their screens cracked or coated with dust. Printers and copiers with missing power units filled shelves. After sneezing a few times Myell dug up boxes of envelopes bearing the name of Captain Kuvik’s predecessor, and at the bottom of a filing cabinet he found some pens and thumbtacks.
    He brought the discovered treasures back to his office. On the backs of envelopes he began to sketch out the most common shipboard duties of a supply tech. The envelopes went up on the wall in decreasing order of importance. He sorted through the old courseware. He was even coaxing one deskgib into clicking, flickering existence when footsteps hurried past his door and farther down the passage.
    Myell hadn’t heard anyone else since coming down. He suspected students weren’t allowed in the area. Curious, he followed the sound down to one of the mechanical rooms. The hatch was open, revealing a dim and noisy interior full of water pipes and hot-water heaters.
    â€œHello?” he asked. “Who’s down here?”
    Something clattered to the floor. Myell turned to a