Echoes of an Alien Sky Read Free Page B

completed.

    "Once again, I must offer apologies," Casselo told them.

    "Greatly appreciated, but unnecessary," Kyal replied.

    "Again, you are too generous." Casselo raised his eyebrows momentarily in a way that signaled a relaxing of formalities. "What can I tell you? We had a slight accident with some equipment just at the wrong moment."

    "Nobody hurt, I hope?"

    "Oh, no-no. . . . Well, since I've held everyone up, why don't we go straight in? They should be ready for us."

    Casselo ushered them toward the doors, which opened on their approach. Inside was a traditionally arranged dining room with cloth-covered tables and draped walls bearing pictures of Terran landscapes. The place was fairly full with lunchtime diners, business or professional dress being seemingly the order of the day. A steward conducted them between tables to a corner booth that had been reserved. The ceiling contained a series of large shutters that were closed at the moment. The alignment of the room with the gallery outside suggested that they could be opened to give an outside view when required.

    "This is something I hadn't expected," Kyal remarked, motioning with a hand to indicate the room as they sat down. "The standard you maintain here. It's very impressive."

    "We try to do our best," Casselo replied. "Can't afford to let anything more deteriorate. Enough has gone to ruin on Earth already."

    Kyal smiled. "Is this where you eat every day?"

    "Oh, not at all. The laboratory section has a cafeteria that goes better with regular working days. But this place does make a pleasant change when you're in the mood. And of course there are times when the company or the occasion requires it."

    Yorim was studying the menu on one of the view pads provided. A short silence ensued while Kyal and Casselo consulted their own. The fare was mixed, with a number of sections dedicated to various types of Terran food, fish, meat, poultry, and vegetarian. Kyal decided he would postpone any such experimenting until another time and decided on a good, familiar Venusian dish that he hadn't tasted since before boarding the ship. The steward returned with impeccable timing and took the orders. When he had gone, Casselo looked across and spread his hands.

    "So, welcome to Earth and to Explorer 6 . And to my modest domain aboard it. We might not be here at all, but for the efforts of your father, Master Reen. Did you know that Director Sherven was a friend of his?"

    "No, I didn't." Kyal was genuinely surprised. But if it were true, he hoped that it hadn't figured in the process of his being selected for this job. "That will make it even more of a privilege to serve here. Did they work together at some stage?"

    "The Director can tell you about it himself when you meet him, if he wishes," Casselo said.

    For Kyal, the assignment to the Earth Expedition carried more than just academic and professional significance. His father, Jarnor Reen, had been a prominent scientific and philosophical figure on Venus, who had played a major role in the development of space electromagnetics and been a driving force for mounting an Earth exploration program when probes sent back the first pictures telling of a former civilization there. Being a part of that exploration now was a fitting way of paying a tribute to his father's work.

    Casselo turned toward Yorim. "Well, we've heard about the son of Jarnor Reen from Ulange. What about yourself, Fellow Zeestran? You are from Gallenda, I understand?" Gallenda was a nation in Venus's mid-temperate northern continent. The northern and southern oceans didn't connect.

    Yorim nodded. Although he'd had the ship's barber trim his hair, he rather liked the look of his facial growth, he had confided to Kyal, and so had declined shaving. The sight of Casselo's luxuriant beard had probably put him at ease on that particular score. "From the southern part. A small town along the coast from Beaconcliff."

    "I know that area," Casselo said. "I