Ishtar Rising Book 1 - Michael A. Martin [5]
Saadya grinned. “As long as I have the assistance of the Bynars, you’d be surprised at how little else I need.”
As if cued, two high-pitched voices issued from Saadya’s wristcom, disrupting his train of thought. “Dr. Saadya?” said 1011 and 1110, uttering their words in alternation.
“Speak of the devil,” said Seyetik, a look of mock surprise blossoming across his face.
Saadya raised his wristcom. “Saadya here. Go ahead.”
“We are receiving an incoming communication.”
“It is from the Central Processor Pair—”
“—on Bynaus. They wish to confer—”
“—with you—”
“—immediately.”
The uncharacteristically jangled cadence in the Bynars’ tandem speech told Saadya at once that the news couldn’t be good. “I’m on my way,” he said, already walking toward the holodeck door.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, Dr. Saadya,” Seyetik called out as the hatch opened.
“Computer, delete—” Saadya paused on the threshold. He had been about to instruct the holodeck to delete the insufferably egomaniacal scientist. Then he smiled grimly as he realized that that description might just as easily be applied to Saadya himself. He was, after all, trying to accomplish the impossible.
“Computer, end program,” he said finally. Mandl, Sagan, Seyetik, and the transmogrified Venus all vanished like morning mist as Saadya strode quickly into the corridor.
* * *
Saadya trotted onto the orbiting station’s observation deck, which faced the planet, whose bilious yellow cloudtops seethed some three hundred and fifty kilometers below. Ishtar Station currently straddled the slow-moving day-night terminator of Venus.
Despite his hurry, Saadya spared a moment to glance at the clouds that concealed a surface that couldn’t have differed more from his terraformed-Venus holodeck scenario. Below that dense, poisonous atmosphere lay a surface whose temperature would quickly melt lead—and which could just as quickly destroy the string of tiny ground stations that lay along the equator, as well as their human crews, should their force-field generators suffer catastrophic failures of the kind that had burned up Ground Station Hesperus. The tiny planet Mercury was not in orbit around Venus, as had been the case in the holodeck scenario; the battered, iron-rich world still cleaved to the same sunward track it had followed since time immemorial. Here, in the unmodified reality of the inner solar system, the barren little planet would soon appear as an evening star, a bright dot visible only briefly between the setting sun’s waning glare and Venus’s gradually darkening western limb.
I know we can make my Venus a reality, Saadya thought. All we need is more time. And perhaps a small miracle or two.
Adrienne Paulos cleared her throat, interrupting Saadya’s reverie. One of Saadya’s senior research assistants, the young Denevan had apparently materialized out of nowhere, as had the holodeck planetologists. He couldn’t help wondering if this was a subtle hint that she, too, was destined for greatness.
When Saadya turned toward Paulos he immediately saw the stricken look on her face. “I see Bynaus didn’t waste any time giving you the bad news,” he said as they began walking together toward his small private office.
Paulos shook her head, and a shock of blond hair popped up from where she had pinned it back. “They won’t talk to anybody but you, Pas. But you don’t have to be a Betazoid to guess what they have to say. They’re pretty grumpy.”
“Well, you know how Bynars hate to be kept waiting when they have data they want to upload.” Saadya smiled weakly. Though she returned the gesture, it was clear to him that his studied nonchalance wasn’t reassuring her in the least.
1011 and 1110 stood sheepishly beside the office door, their