Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [32]
“You want it transmitted immediately?”
“As soon as it’s ready.”
“Transmission time both ways will be about four days, Kim. Plus whatever time it takes them to put the response together.”
“Okay. And now you can get me the Archives, please.”
The circular seal of the Republic appeared: a white star on a field of green. GRAND REPUBLIC OF EQUATORIA was engraved along the upper rim, and its motto, PEACE, JUSTICE, FREEDOM, along the lower. Beneath the star she read NATIONAL ARCHIVES. Then the seal vanished and a young man gazed at her from behind a desk. He looked quite interested in what she had to say, suggesting he was a virtual secretary.
“Good evening, Dr. Brandywine,” he said. “I’m Harvey Stratton. How may I assist you?”
“Mr. Stratton, is it true the Archives stores the logs for interstellar flights?”
“And for interplanetary ones as well, Doctor.”
“Would it be possible to see the logs from a voyage that was completed in 573?”
“Oh.” His face clouded. “That comes under various privacy provisions. You’ll need a court order, I’m afraid.”
“A court order?”
“Oh yes. All ships’ logs are covered by the privacy statutes. Are you a law enforcement official?”
“No,” she said. “I was doing some research.”
Solly looked vastly amused.
“There is a provisionary public domain statute, however,” he said.
“Then they might be available after all?”
He consulted a screen. “For interstellar vessels, privately owned…” He hesitated, found what he wanted. “Looks like forty-five years from date of acquisition.”
“So—?”
“They’ll be available in eighteen years.” He smiled. “I guess that’s not much help.”
He ran down the various grounds which might persuade a court. Mostly they had to do with legal actions or engineering issues. Nothing sounded close to idle curiosity. She signed off.
“What now?” asked Shep.
“What would you recommend?”
“It seems to me that none of this is a fruitful line of endeavor. Little green men. Ghosts. Surely there’s a more advantageous way to spend your time, Kim.”
Solly’s eyes grew luminous. “Do you always get lectured by your AI?”
She ignored him. “What happened at Mount Hope, Shep?”
“I don’t know. But I can speculate.”
“Please do.”
“I think it not unreasonable that someone was careless with a small quantity of antimatter. It is otherwise very hard to account for the estimated energy yield and the absence of meteoric residue.”
“What would anyone have been doing with antimatter on the east slope of the mountain?”
“Perhaps trying to escape a pursuer. The explosion occurred three days after Kane and Tripley returned home from the Hunter. Both lived in the area. One vanished. I think it not unlikely that we are looking at the result of a theft gone wrong.“
“You’re suggesting Tripley stole his own fuel? Why?”
“It’s possible Kane took it, Tripley recovered it, and was unable to contain it. This is, of course, speculation based on no evidence.”
“What can you tell me about Benton Tripley?” she asked.
Shepard put everything on the screen. Benton was a clone of his father. In fact, more than half the population of Green-way during that period were clones. He was in his late thirties, had not married, but had a reputation as a womanizer. He was a board member for half a dozen influential organizations, a close personal friend of the Premier, the recipient of a dozen major philanthropic awards, the CEO of Interstellar, Inc., and the chairman of Lost Cause, which was the successor to the Tripley Foundation. Lost Cause devoted itself to raising money for various worthy enterprises. There were no poor anymore, but there were always children unexpectedly orphaned or cast aside, people who needed advanced educational opportunities, research possibilities, and so on. Lost Cause remained in the forefront of such efforts.
In fact, Lost Cause had stepped in to help Kim, providing scholarship funds after the deaths of her parents. But she’d never known much about the organization. There’d been a counselor who came around periodically to assure herself that Kim was all right, and the