The Methuselan Circuit (19 page)

Alexander took it all in, acting innocently curious. That wasn’t too difficult. He didn’t know what this was all about, but even if he wasn’t supposed to be here he could hardly be blamed. He was here under Commandant Augesburcke’s direct order. “There you are Professor,” he said excitedly, holding out the yellow memory card. “Commandant Augesburcke sent me to give you this.” He pressed the card into the Professor’s hand. The Professor took it reluctantly, more because Alexander gave him no choice than because he was interested. As soon as the card was out of his hand, Alexander looked at his watch, saying, “I’ve only got six minutes to get to math. I’ve got to zoot; I’ll see you Monday Professor!”

The Professor blinked at him through oval spectacles, mumbling, “All right, Cadet Wolfe.” He shook his head, looking at the memory card as if it bore some terrible label, but as Alexander turned to leave, he seemed to recover his academic bearing. “Don’t forget your homework: Chapter one on post-galactic technology transfer! There’s a quiz!”

“Yes professor,” Alexander replied, but the man with the harsh voice reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Hold on there, young fellow,” he said in a most unfriendly manner. He turned Alexander to face him, staring down at him with clear cold eye. If he was trying to intimidate Alexander it didn’t work. His father had a much more terrifying stare. The man held him there for a long moment, and finally asked, “Exactly what were your orders from, who was it you said?”

“Commandant Augesburcke,” Alexander told him and he related the entire chain of events with the exception of eavesdropping. “I got here as fast as I could; the Commandant reminded me not to be late for my next class. So I can’t use this as an excuse.”

“You’re concerned about that are you?”

“Have you ever met Lieutenant Mortimer? She’s a stickler for the regulations, and I’ve already stood guard duty for detention once this term. I don’t want to do it again.”

“You’ve already gotten in trouble have you?”

“No sir, well, me and a Golkos cadet got into it during Z-Crosse, so we both stood guard duty on the
Iowa.
”

“Let him get to class Larry,” the woman said. “The kid doesn’t know anything.”

He eyed Alexander narrowly. “Tell me cadet, what is it you saw here?”

Alexander shrugged and said what he thought would put the man at ease—he didn’t really want to be late. It was mostly the truth, but he thought he put it in quite the clever way. “I saw the Professor and a few government people inspecting a circuit of some kind, same as in a dozen other places in the Tube. There are science teams everywhere.”

That seemed to satisfy the man. He took his hand off Alexander’s shoulder. He turned to go but suddenly asked, “Professor Strauss said you were Cadet
Wolfe
?” His hard stare settled on Alexander again. “Say, you wouldn’t be the son of Major Achilleus Wolfe?”

Alexander was taken aback, answering abruptly, “No sir, my father was an officer in the Fleet. He sails freighters now, but he is of course a Citizen.”

The man’s expression softened. “Really, I thought you looked like,” he shook his head and forced a smile. Patting him on the shoulder, he said, “Well good for him. You better get back to class. There’s no need for you to get any more demerits on our account.”

“You’re letting him go?” The Seer’koh said, his thin red tongue darting out from between his sharp teeth. “This area is classified. He shouldn’t have seen any of this!”

“What has he seen,” the man asked, spreading his arms wide. The smile was absolutely artificial. “Everything on this Methuselan ship is classified to one extent or another. This is just one of many circuit boards we have yet to identify.” Glancing toward Alexander, he nodded. “Get along now cadet. You’ve done your duty.”

“Yes sir,” Alexander said, and he zooted around the corner and back out into the Tube. He stopped just a few meters away, checking his watch, but in reality he wanted to wait for just one moment in case they said something interesting. He wasn’t disappointed.

“Well, are you going check that memory card?” It was the man in the suit.

Alexander heard the slight click of the card going into the Professor’s compad. There was an immediate gasp. “My manifesto—how did he get it? I’m ruined!” He didn’t wait, but hit his zoots as hard as he could, zooting out into the middle of the Tube as fast as he could.

#

Larry, the man in the suit, was unfazed. Calmly, he told Professor Strauss, “Get a hold of yourself. You didn’t think Augesburcke was ignorant of your fanatical youth did you? He knows who and what you were: a Gaian terrorist who has since joined the ranks of respectable people through the institutions you formerly called corrupt—so what?”

“Why reveal it now?” Professor Strauss was obviously terrified that his past was known to the Commandant. He was a civilian on a military station. It would be far too easy for him to simply disappear. He ran his pudgy fingers through his sparse gray hair, mumbling, “I should never have let you talk me into this. I’m exposed here. You promised me there was no way they’d know!”

The man laughed harshly, “I promised you what I needed to promise you, Professor. We needed you here, on this ship, helping us decipher this thing. You’ve done that so far; don’t stop now or we can’t protect you—we
won’t
protect you.” He smiled, but the smile was more terrifying than any threat could be.

“How can you protect me on a military ship,” Strauss replied angrily. “This isn’t just any ship, it’s the Academy! The Legion and the Fleet loyalists are here. I was a Gaiaist and a terrorist; they’d like nothing more than to take me out to Titan and send me swimming in the methane sea!”

“If that was their intent, they’d already have done it Professor, since they already know.”

The Seer’koh broke in, saying, “Therein lies the mystery, why haven’t you been exposed Professor Strauss? You are at the very center of conservative military minds in the Terran Empire. We have precious few friends here. Now it doesn’t matter how they found you out. What does matter is why your hide isn’t floating from the mast of the
Iowa
. There are two possibilities as I see it. Either Commandant Augesburcke is malleable in his opinion or you’ve cut a deal with him and this is your cover.” He tapped the memory card with his claw and hissed at the Professor.

Strauss shuddered, “No,” he insisted, “I don’t work for them, I swear it!”

Larry glowered at him, “You have nothing to swear on Professor; you’re the worst kind of atheist. You didn’t believe in anything because it got in the way of you doing what you wanted to do. Still, you were intelligent and arrogant; you knew better than anybody, but you don’t hold anything dear except your skin. We know all about you. You professed to have all these ideals and you planted bombs to make your point of view known. That’s the coward’s way of doing things, but that’s fine. We knew we could use that as leverage. You’re scared of prison, the mines or worse, Pantrixnia.” Larry straightened the lapels of the Professor’s white lab coat in a provocative manner. “Fortunately for you, we can use you—for now. Don’t worry Professor; as long as you serve us we will protect you. Besides, what better protection can you ask for than the President of Pan America? Play ball and you have nothing to worry about.”

“I don’t know, I’m surrounded by enemies here—even the cadets!”

“Now you’re just being paranoid,” Larry said, sounding irritated. “Cadet Wolfe’s story didn’t sound concocted. Augesburcke simply used him as a messenger, that’s all.”

“I’m not so sure,” Professor Strauss said nervously.

“He’s a cadet,” Larry said, shaking his head in disbelief. “He can’t be twelve or maybe thirteen years old. He can’t pose any sort of threat to us.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” said the woman. “The Professor may be right. Our young cadet may have been more than a messenger. I just accessed the surveillance camera for this section of the Tube. He was eavesdropping on us. It’s a good bet Augesburcke knows we’ve found the circuit.”

“But does he know what it is used for?” the Seer’koh said, his voice rattling and tail twitching.

“I doubt it,” she replied. “There are only a dozen people in the galaxy who know that.”

Larry zooted out from behind the tarp and looked off through the Tube in the direction Alexander left. “We know Augesburcke is on to something and he’s enlisted the help of his cadets, though I seriously doubt he’s let them in on anything.” He thought for a moment, and then announced, “We’ll play this by ear. Leave the circuit unpowered. I don’t think Augesburcke is willing to interfere—this is his way of warning us. Download the internal scans to Washington, and Ms. Jameson—you can find out everything you can about Cadet Wolfe.”

#

“Ca-det Wolfe, I’m so happy you could join us!” Lt. Mortimer’s voice rippled with sarcastic angst. All eyes turned to Alexander. His heart leapt to his throat as her blue eyes turned from playful blue to steel gray. Her perfectly chiseled brows drew together, forming a harsh line on her alabaster forehead. “Come on then, you’re holding up the class. Get to your seat and select page seven, Theorem one-decimal-five. ”

As quickly and quietly as he could, Alexander went to his seat and took out his compad. James, who was sitting next to him, leaned over and whispered, “You lucky devil, she talked to you; she even said your name!”

Alexander stared at him open mouthed, but he knew what he meant. Lieutenant Mortimer’s hard demeanor couldn’t overcome her beauty—at least not with the boys. All the other boys in K Flight felt the same as James, shooting darts at him with their eyes before turning back to gaze on the Lieutenant and listen to her melodious voice. As James settled back with a sigh to watch her diagram the area of a circle, Lisa and Treya threw him withering glances. Treya turned her purplish tinged eye on Alexander. “You’re not bitten by her are you?”

“Oh of course not,” he lied, punching on the assignment and trying to look as disinterested as possible. “She’s our math professor. I need to pay attention to what she’s teaching and not anything else.”

“Then you’re smarter than any of the other boys in the class,” she said.

Lisa agreed. “Look at them all. They’re like puppies. It’s embarrassing.”

Class lurched on toward its conclusion. Lieutenant Mortimer was all business. The bell brought about a general groan from the boys that class was over so soon, and an answering groan from the girls that the boys should behave in so juvenile a manner. The Lieutenant announced, “Homework tomorrow, questions one through five, and don’t forget we have a quiz on this chapter on Friday. Class dismissed, except for you, Cadet Wolfe. Stay after a moment.”

Everyone glanced darkly at Alexander, the boys with envy, the girls with irritation. He couldn’t win. When everyone had gone he stood in front of the Lieutenant’s desk waiting. She continued to work on her compad until he said, “You wanted to see me Ma’am?”

She looked up. Her eyes were steely gray and he already knew what that meant. “Cadet, you were given seventeen minutes to deliver a memory card to Professor Strauss. It should have taken you only fourteen minutes to accomplish that and yet you took exactly nineteen minutes—why? Explain yourself, and please be specific.”

“They had some questions for me, Ma’am,” he replied. He didn’t have any idea how much he should or could tell her. Should he tell her about his suspicions concerning Professor Strauss? He decided not to, that wasn’t his place, but he did give her a detailed account on his interrogation by the man in the suit.

“What was your take on it,” she asked, and her eyes turned back toward their softer shade of blue.

“I don’t know Ma’am, I’m only a cadet,” he started to say, but she interrupted him, her eyes turning that steely gray again.

“Cadet Wolfe, you are a future officer of the Service! I realize you are only on your first year of training and that everything here is new to you. However, you must also understand that as a future officer we expect you to be responsible and to take responsibility when it is presented to you. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Ma’am,” he said, trying to sound firm and less dejected than he felt.

“Don’t take it so hard Cadet Wolfe,” she told him in a softer tone. “Keep your eyes and ears open. I have faith in your ability to distinguish right from wrong. You come from good stock. Trust your instincts and if you need anything come to me. That’s all. Dismissed, Cadet Wolfe; go join your friends.”

“Yes Ma’am, thank you Ma’am,” he said, saluting her smartly. When she returned the salute he turned on his heel and left. Lisa, James and Treya were waiting for him outside the door. As soon as it slid closed they started talking at once.

“What did she want?”

“Are you in trouble?”

“You lucky duck; you know every guy out here is jealous of you!”

Alexander shot them a sour look, and said, “Very funny, this is serious,” and as they made their way to study hall he told them everything that had happened. When he finished, he added, “I don’t know what to think about this. I kind of liked Professor Strauss, but after what I heard I’m afraid he’s up to something. He’s working with people from the government. That can’t be good.”