Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [107]
Her father beamed. “See, Orli, I told you so.”
Orli wrinkled her nose as the shaggy explorer stepped closer. He smelled sour and dusty, but he seemed friendly enough. Ahead she could see the colonists shuffling forward group by group toward a shimmering image displayed on what had been a flat stone wall. Loud voices echoed in the rock-walled chamber. Hansa managers told people to keep moving as each group marched forward through the instantaneous transportation system.
Orli recalled a day once, when she’d been a little girl, when her father had taken her to a crowded amusement park full of rides, holographic simulations, and old-fashioned roller-coasters. The wait had seemed interminable as they inched forward. It had felt as if they’d had to stand forever just to get to the roller-coaster…and the ride had been over in only a few minutes. But the thrill had made every moment of anticipation worthwhile.
Orli hoped the payoff on this distant Klikiss world—Corribus?—would be just as gratifying.
As they came closer, listening to the hum of alien machinery, the quick discussions of technicians, and the nervous excitement of the colonists, Orli could see the wall up ahead. People marched forward and then vanished, as if they had stepped off the edge of a cliff. Finally, the crackling stone trapezoid loomed in front of her, ringed by well over a hundred tiles, each one containing a strange symbol.
Hud Steinman turned to them with a grin, showing off bad teeth. “Here we go. You’ll see what I mean.”
“Next!” the technician called. “Step up. Don’t delay the rest of the line. We have a lot of people to get through on this transmission.”
Orli clasped her father’s hand. He squeezed hers for reassurance, and they looked at each other, eyes bright. Then together they stepped through the transportal—and emerged under the sunny skies of Corribus and into a whole new landscape.
Chapter 53—CHIEF SCIENTIST HOWARD PALAWU
The Klikiss ruins on Rheindic Co bustled with a clamor of crowds. All the chaos made it damned hard to get any work done. Sent here on direct orders from Chairman Wenceslas himself, Chief Scientist Palawu had all the data files and equipment he needed, even authorization to supersede the technologists who had studied the first known operating Klikiss transportal since its discovery.
Despite Palawu’s supposed clout, however, the activities of the colonization initiative dominated so much of the time and space in the transportal chamber that he managed to study the system for only an hour or two in the dead of night. Figuring out how the transportals worked didn’t seem to be a priority for anyone but him.
Every few hours, Hansa staff rounded up colonists, then opened the transportal that corresponded to one of the numerous approved coordinate tiles. The pioneers filed forward, carrying their possessions on their backs. Cases of supplies and overloaded hoverpallets, barely able to fit within the trapezoidal frame, drifted through the stone wall and vanished. Presumably they arrived at the other end, though it wasn’t immediately obvious. As he watched person after person step through the shimmering wall, Palawu wondered if Margaret Colicos had escaped this room in the same manner…and been unable to find her way back.
Some colonists passed through with excitement-bright eyes and smiling faces. Others wore doubtful or uneasy expressions, but momentum carried them along. After coming this far, very few changed their minds and backed away. Anyone who declined the offer at the last moment was required to pay an exorbitant fee to go back home.
If Palawu had been younger, if his wife had still been alive, if he’d still had something to prove, he might have considered taking the chance himself. Instead, the Chief Scientist sat in the control room and listened to loud conversations, excitement building to a pitch of hysteria.
Hansa managers noisily directed the exodus, while transportal technicians monitored the machinery, keeping careful notes, because even they