Icehenge Read Free Page A

breathed, still stunned at the very idea.
    â€œNot impossible,” he said patiently. “That’s what the MSA has been working on these last forty years—”
    â€œOne of those ships is Hidalgo? ” I interrupted. My processing was still impaired by the drugs he had shot me with.
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œSo Davydov is alive.…”
    â€œHe certainly is. You knew him, didn’t you?”
    â€œYes.” Davydov had been the captain of Hidalgo when it disappeared in the Achilles group three years before. I had thought him dead.…
    â€œThere’s no way I’ll go,” I said after a pause. “You can’t kidnap me and drag me along on some insane interstellar attempt—”
    â€œNo! No. We’re sending Rust Eagle back with all the non-MSA people from the three ships.”
    I let out a long sigh of relief. Yet sudden anguish filled me at the thought of the mess I was suddenly in, of the fanatics who now had control of my life, and I cried out, “Eric, you knew this was going to happen out here. Why didn’t you arrange to keep me off this flight?”
    He looked away from me, pushed himself down to the floor. Red-faced, he said, “I did the opposite, Emma.”
    â€œYou what? ”
    â€œThere are MSA people in the expedition scheduling office, and”—still staring at the floor—“I told them to arrange for you to be aboard Rust Eagle this time.”
    â€œBut, Swann!” I said, struggling for words. “Why? Why did you do that to me?”
    â€œWell—because, Emma, you’re one of the best life-support systems designers there is on Mars, or anywhere. Everyone knows that, you know that. And even though our systems designers have got a lot of improvements for the starship, they still have to be installed in those two ships, and made to work. And we have to do it before the Committee police find us. Your help could make the difference, Emma.”
    â€œOh, Swann.”
    â€œIt could! Look, I knew it was imposing on you, but I thought, if we got you out here ignorant of our plans, then you couldn’t be held responsible. When you return to Mars you can tell them you didn’t know anything about the MSA, that we made you help us. That was why I didn’t tell you anything on the way out here, don’t you see? And I know you aren’t that strong a supporter of the Committee, are you? They’re just a bunch of thugs. So that if your old friends asked you for help that only you can give, and you couldn’t be held culpable, you might help? Even if it was illegal?” He looked up at me, his blue eyes grave.
    â€œYou’re asking for the impossible,” I told him. “Your MSA has lost touch with reality. You’re talking about travel across light-years, for God’s sake, and you’ve got five-year systems to do it with!”
    â€œThey can be modified,” Swann insisted. “Davydov will explain the whole project when you see him. He wants to talk with you as soon as you’d like to.”
    â€œDavydov,” I said darkly. “He’s the one behind this madness.”
    â€œWe’re all behind it, Emma. And it isn’t mad.”
    I waved an arm and held my head in my hands, as it was pulsing with all the bad news. “Just leave me alone for a while.”
    â€œSure,” he said. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Just tell me when you want to see Davydov. He’s over on Hidalgo. ”
    â€œI’ll tell you,” I said, and looked at the wall until he left the room.
    *   *   *
    I had better tell about Oleg Davydov here, for we were lovers once, and for me the memory of him was marked with pain and anger, and a sense of loss—loss that no matter how long I lived could not be recouped or forgotten.
    I was just out of the University of Mars, working at the Hellas Basin, in the new settlement near the