Nemesis (13 page)

“It seems to me I’ve heard of her eyes, too. Well, send her in, send her in, and I’ll try to survive her eyes. Come to think of it, she has some explaining to do.”

She entered. (Remarkably self-possessed, Pitt thought, though properly demure and with no sign of defiance.)

She sat down, her hands loosely in her lap, and clearly waited for Pitt to speak first. He let her wait a little, while he considered her in a rather absent fashion. He had seen her occasionally when she was younger, but not for a while, now. She had not been a pretty child and she
wasn’t any prettier now. She had broad cheekbones, and a certain gracelessness about her, but she did have remarkable eyes, and shapely eyebrows and long eyelashes, too.

Pitt said, “Well, Miss Fisher, I’m told you wanted to see me. May I ask why?”

Marlene looked up at him, her eyes cool, and seemed entirely at ease. She said, “Commissioner Pitt, I think my mother must have told you that I told a friend of mine that the Earth was going to be destroyed.”

Pitt’s eyebrows hunched down over his own rather ordinary eyes. He said, “Yes, she did. And I hope she told you that you must not speak of such matters in so foolish a way again.”

“Yes, she did, Commissioner, but not speaking about it doesn’t mean it isn’t so; and calling it foolish doesn’t make it so.”

“I am Commissioner of Rotor, Miss Fisher, and it is my function to concern myself with such matters, and therefore you must leave it entirely to me, whether it is so or not so, whether it is foolish or not foolish. How did you get the idea that the Earth was going to be destroyed? Is this something your mother told you?”

“Not directly, Commissioner.”

“But indirectly. Is that it?”

“She couldn’t help that, Commissioner. Everyone speaks in all sorts of ways. There’s the choice of words. There’s intonation, expression, the flicker of eyes and eyelids, little tricks of clearing the throat. A hundred things. Do you know what I mean?”

“I know exactly what you mean. I watch for those things myself.”

“And you feel very proud of that, Commissioner. You feel you’re very good at it and that that’s one of the reasons you’re Commissioner.”

Pitt looked startled. “I didn’t say that, young woman.”

“Not in words, Commissioner. You didn’t have to.” Her eyes were fixed on his. There was no trace of a smile on her face, but her eyes seemed amused.

“Well then, Miss Fisher, is that what you came to tell me?”

“No, Commissioner. I came because my mother has found it difficult to see you recently. No, she didn’t tell
me so. I just gathered it. I thought you might see me, instead.”

“All right, you’re here. Now what is it you came to tell me?”

“My mother is unhappy about the chance that Earth may be destroyed. My father’s there, you know.”

Pitt felt a small spasm of anger. How could a purely personal matter be allowed to interfere with the welfare of Rotor and all that it might become in the future? This Insigna, for all her usefulness in having found Nemesis in the first place, had long been an albatross about his neck with her unfailing way of heading down every wrong path. And now, when he would see her no more, she sent her mad daughter.

He said, “Are you under the impression that this destruction you speak of will happen tomorrow, or next year?”

“No, Commissioner, I know that it will happen in just a little bit less than five thousand years.”

“If that is the case, your father will be long gone by then, as will your mother, and I, and you. And when we’re all gone, it will still be nearly five thousand years before destruction for Earth and possibly other planets of the Solar System—if that destruction happens at all, which it won’t.”

“It’s the idea of it, Commissioner, whenever it happens.”

“Your mother must have told you that long before the time comes, the people of the Solar System will be aware of—of whatever you think will happen, and will deal with it. Besides, how can we complain of planetary destruction? Every world faces it eventually. Even if there are no cosmic collisions, every star must pass through a red giant stage and destroy its planets. Just as all human beings will die someday, so will all planets. Planetary lifetimes are a little longer, but that’s all. Do you understand all that, young lady?”

“Yes, I do,” said Marlene seriously. “I have a good relationship with my computer.”

(I’ll bet she does, thought Pitt, and then—too late-tried to wipe out the small sardonic smile that had twitched into existence on his face. She had probably used it to understand his attitude.)

He said with a note of finality, “Then we come to the end of our conversation. The talk of destruction is foolish, and even if it weren’t, it has nothing to do with you, and you must never speak of it again, or not only you, but your mother as well, will be in trouble.”

“We’re not at the end of our conversation yet, Commissioner.”

Pitt felt himself losing patience, but he said, quite calmly, “My dear Miss Fisher, when your Commissioner says it’s the end, it
is
—regardless of what you think.”

He half-rose, but Marlene sat where she was. “Because I want to offer you something you would dearly like to have.”

“What?”

“The good riddance of my mother.”

Pitt sank back into his chair, truly puzzled. “What do you mean by that?”

“If you will listen to me, Commissioner, I will tell you. My mother can’t live like this. She’s concerned about Earth and the Solar System and—and she thinks about my father sometimes. She thinks that Nemesis may be the nemesis of the Solar System and since she gave it the name, she feels responsible. She’s an emotional person, Commissioner.”

“Yes? You’ve noticed that, have you?”

“And she bothers you. She reminds you every once in a while about matters that she feels strongly about, and you don’t want to hear about, and so you refuse to see her, and you wish she’d go away. You
can
send her away, Commissioner.”

“Indeed? We’ve got one other Settlement. Shall I send her to New Rotor?”

“No, Commissioner. Send her to Erythro.”

“Erythro? But why should I send her there? Just because I want to get rid of her?”

“That would be your reason. Yes, Commissioner. It would not be my reason, though. I want her on Erythro because she can’t really work at the Observatory. The instruments always seem to be in use and she feels she’s being watched all the time. She feels your annoyance. And besides, Rotor isn’t a good base for delicate measurements. It turns too rapidly and too unevenly for good measurements.”

“You have it all at your fingertips. Did your mother explain this to you? No, you don’t have to tell me. She didn’t tell you directly, did she? Only indirectly.”

“Yes, Commissioner. And there’s my computer.”

“The one you have friendly relations with?”

“Yes, Commissioner.”

“And so you think she will be able to work better on Erythro.”

“Yes, Commissioner. It will be a stabler base, and she might make the kind of measurements that will convince her that the Solar System will survive. Even if she finds out otherwise, it will take a long time for her to be sure of that and for that time, at least, you’ll be rid of her.”

“I see that you want to be rid of her, too, is that it?”

“Not at all, Commissioner,” said Marlene with composure. “I would go with her. You’d be rid of me, too, which would please you even more than being rid of her.”

“What makes you think I want to get rid of you, too?”

Marlene fixed her gaze on him, somber, unblinking. “Now you do, Commissioner, since you now know that I have no trouble in interpreting your inner feelings.”

Suddenly, Pitt found himself desperately wanting to get rid of this monster. He said, “Let me think about this,” and turned his head. He felt that he was being childish in looking away, but he did not want this horrible youngster to read his face like the open book it was.

It was, after all, the truth. He
did
now want to get rid of mother and daughter alike. Where the mother was concerned, he had indeed thought, on several occasions, of exiling her to Erythro. But since she would scarcely have wanted to go, there would have been a most unappetizing fuss and he had no stomach for that. Now, though, her daughter had given him a reason why she might indeed want to go to Erythro, and that, of course, changed things.

He said slowly, “If your mother really wants this—”

“She really does, Commissioner. She hasn’t mentioned it to me, and it may be she hasn’t even thought of it yet, but she will want to go. I know that. Trust me.”

“Do I have a choice? And do
you
want to go?”

“Very much, Commissioner.”

“Then I will arrange for it at once. Does that satisfy you?”

“Yes, it does, Commissioner.”

“Then shall we
now
consider the interview at an end?”

Marlene rose and ducked her head in a graceless bow, presumably one that was intended to be respectful. “Thank you, Commissioner.”

She turned and left, and it wasn’t till she had been gone for several minutes that Pitt dared unclench the grip that had kept his face in place till it was aching.

He dared not have allowed her to deduce from anything he said or did or seemed, the final item that he, and only one other person, knew about Erythro.

Pitt’s quiet time was over, but he did not wish it to be over. Quite arbitrarily, he canceled his afternoon appointments. He wanted more thinking time.

Specifically, he wanted to think about Marlene.

Her mother, Eugenia Insigna Fisher, was a problem, and had, in fact, grown to be more of one over the last dozen years. She was emotional and jumped far ahead of anything reason would allow. Yet she was a human being; she could be led and controlled; she could be pent-up within the comfortable walls of logic; and though she might be restless at times, she could be made to remain there.

Not so with this Marlene. Pitt had no doubt that she was a monster, and he could only be grateful that she had foolishly revealed herself in order to help her mother on so trivial an occasion. But then she was inexperienced and lacked the wisdom to have kept her abilities hidden until she could use them in a truly devastating fashion.

But she would only grow more dangerous as she grew older, so she would have to be stopped now. And she
would
be stopped by that other monster, Erythro.

Pitt gave himself credit. He had recognized Erythro as a monster from the start. It had its own expression to read—the reflection of the bloody light of its star, an expression that was ominous and menacing.

When they had reached the asteroid belt, a hundred million miles outside the orbit in which Megas and Erythro circled Nemesis, Pitt had said, with full confidence, “This is the place.”

He had expected no difficulty. The rational view admitted nothing else. Among the asteroids, Nemesis cast
little heat and light. The loss of natural heat and light was nothing, since Rotor had fully functional micro-fusion. In fact, it was actually a benefit. With its red light dimmed to almost nothing, it did not weigh down the heart, darken the mind, and shiver the soul.

Then, too, a base in the asteroidal belt would place them in an area where the gravitational effects of Nemesis and Megas would be weak, and where maneuverability would, in consequence, be less energy-expensive. The asteroids would be more easily mined, and considering the feeble light of Nemesis, there should be plenty of volatiles on those little bodies.

Ideal!

And yet the people of Rotor made it clear that, by an overwhelming majority, they wanted to move the Settlement into orbit around Erythro. Pitt labored to point out that they would be bathed in angrily depressing red light, that they would be held firmly in the grip of Megas as well as Erythro, and that they might still have to go to the asteroids for raw materials.

Pitt discussed it angrily with Tambor Brossen, the ex-Commissioner, to whose post he had succeeded. The rather weary Brossen openly enjoyed his new role as elder statesman far more than he had ever enjoyed being Commissioner. (He had been known to say that he lacked Pitt’s pleasure in making decisions.)

Brossen had laughed at Pitt’s concern over the matter of Settlement location—not outright, to be sure, but gently, with his eyes. He said, “There’s no need, Janus, to feel that you must educate Rotor into absolute agreement with you. Let the Settlement have its own way once in a while; they will be all the readier to let you have your way at other times. If they want to orbit Erythro, let them orbit Erythro.”

“But it makes no sense, Tambor. Don’t you understand that?”

“Of course I understand that. I also understand that Rotor has been in orbit around a sizable world all its existence. That’s what seems right to Rotorians and that’s what they want to have again.”

“We were in orbit about Earth. Erythro is not Earth; it is nothing like Earth.”

“It is a world and is about the same size as Earth. It has
land and sea. It has an atmosphere with oxygen in it. We could travel thousands of light-years before finding a world this much like Earth. I tell you again. Let the people have it.”

Pitt had followed Brossen’s advice, though something within him muttered dissension every step of the way. New Rotor was also in orbit around Erythro and so were the two others in process of construction. Of course, Settlements in the asteroid belt were on the drawing boards, but the public clearly lacked eagerness to put them through.

Of all that had happened since the discovery of Nemesis, it was this orbiting of Erythro that Pitt considered Rotor’s greatest mistake. It should not have happened. And yet—and yet—could even he have forced it on Rotor? Might he have tried harder? And would that merely have led to a new election and his displacement?

It was nostalgia that was the great problem. People tended to look back and Pitt could not always make them turn their head and look forward Consider Brossen—

He had died seven years ago and Pitt had been at his deathbed. Pitt alone had happened to catch the old man’s dying words. Brossen had beckoned to Pitt, who had leaned close to him. Brossen had reached out a feeble hand, the skin dry as paper. Clutching feebly at Pitt, he had whispered, “How bright the Sun of Earth was,” and had died.