The Myst Reader (44 page)

Aitrus lowered his head, acknowledging what Master Telanis said. The Council was the ruling body of D’ni and their word was law. His own opinion was irrelevant—it was what the five Great Lords and the eighteen Guild Masters decided that was important.

“That is why,” Telanis went on, “it is so important that we impress our guests, Aitrus, for they represent the Eighteen and the Five. What they report back might yet prove crucial in swaying the decision … either for us or against us.”

“I see.” And suddenly he
did
see. Master Kedri was not just any busybody, butting his nose into their affairs; Kedri was a potential enemy—or ally—of the expedition. All of their hard work, their patient progress through the rock, might prove to no avail if Kedri spoke against them.

“I am not sure I can do this, Master.”

Telanis nodded. “I understand. Do you want to be relieved of this duty, Aitrus?”

He stared at Master Telanis. It was as simple as that, was it? And then he understood. It was like going home. He
could
go home, at any time, but it was his choice
not
to go home that gave this voyage its meaning. So with this. He could quit, but …

Aitrus lowered his head respectfully. “I shall do as you wish, Guild Master.”

Telanis smiled broadly. “Good. Now go and eat. You have a long day ahead of you.”

FOUR LONG, EXACTING DAYS FOLLOWED, ONE
upon another. Aitrus was ready to go back to Master Telanis and beg to be taken from his task when news came to him that they were ready to start drilling the next section.

Master Kedri was in the refectory when the news came, and, delighted that he could at last show the Legislator something real and tangible, Aitrus interrupted him at table.

“Yes, Guildsman?” Kedri said, staring at Aitrus. The conversation at table had died the moment Aitrus has stepped into the cabin. All four of the Observers seated about the narrow table had turned to stare at him.

“Forgive me, Masters,” Aitrus said, bowing to them all, “but I felt you should know at once that we are about to commence the next stage of the excavation.”

There was at once a babble of sound from all sides. Some stood immediately and began to make their way out. Others began to hurriedly finish their meals. Only Kedri seemed unmoved by the news.

“Thank you, Aitrus,” he said after a moment. “I shall finish my meal then join you. Wait for me at the site.”

Ten minutes later, Master Kedri stepped out of the excavator and walked across to where they had set up the sample drills. The other Observers had already gathered, waiting for operations to commence.

“Let us see if I understand this correctly,” Kedri began, before Aitrus could say a word. “Master Geran’s ‘sounding’ is a rough yet fairly accurate guide to whether the rock ahead of us is sound or otherwise, correct? The next stage—
this
stage—is to drill a series of long boreholes to provide us with a precise breakdown of the different kinds of rock we are about to cut through.”

Aitrus nodded, for the first time smiling at the Legislator.

“Oh, I can retain some minimal information, Guildsman,” Kedri said, a faint amusement on his own lips. “It isn’t only contracts I can read. But there is one thing you can tell me, Aitrus, and that’s where all the rock goes to.”

“The rock?” Aitrus laughed. “But I thought you knew, Master. I thought
everyone
knew! It is reconstituted.”

“Reconstituted?”

“In the fusion-compounder. The machine reconstitutes the very matter of the rock, reforging its atomic links and thereby reducing its volume by a factor of two hundred. The result is
nara
.”

“So that’s what nara is!” Kedri nodded thoughtfully. “Can I
see
this fusion-compounder?”

Aitrus smiled, suddenly liking the man. “See it, Master? Why, you can operate it if you want!”

AITRUS TOOK A SHEET OF PAPER AND, FOR
Master Kedri’s benefit, sketched out a cross-section diagram of the tunnel.

“This,” he said, indicating the small shaded circle at the very center of it, “is the hole made by the excavator. As you can see, it’s a comparatively small hole, less than a third the total circumference of the tunnel. This,” and he pointed to the two closely parallel circles on the outer wall of the tunnel, “is the area that the Cycler removes.”

“The
Cycler?
” Kedri looked puzzled.

“That’s what we call it. It’s because it cuts a giant ring from the rock surrounding the central borehole.”

“Ah, then that would be the big spiderlike machine, right?”

Aitrus nodded. Only two days before they had exhaustively inspected all of the different excavating tools.

“What happens is that the Cycler removes a circular track around the outer edge to a depth of one and a quarter spans. We then fill that space with a special seal of D’ni stone, let that set, then chip out the “collar”—that is, the rock between the inner tunnel and the seal.”

“Why one and a quarter?”

Aitrus sketched something on the pad, then handed it across. “As you can see, we insert a special metal brace a quarter of a span wide, deep in the cut, then pour in the sealant stone. Then, when the collar has been chipped away, we remove the brace and set up the Cycler ready to start all over.”

Kedri frowned. “Forgive me, Guildsman, but once again it seems a most laborious way of going about things.”

“Maybe so, Master Kedri, but safe. When we make a tunnel, we make it to last.”

“Yes …” Kedri nodded thoughtfully. “Still, it seems a lot of effort merely to talk to a few surface-dwellers, don’t you think?”

It was the first direct question of that type Kedri had asked him, and for a moment Aitrus wondered if he might not simply ignore it, or treat it as rhetorical, but Kedri, it seemed, was waiting for an answer.

“Well, Guildsman? Have you
no
opinion on the matter?”

Master Telanis came to his rescue.

“Forgive me, Master Kedri. Guildsman Aitrus might well have an opinion, but I am sure he would be the first to admit that at twenty-five he is far too young and inexperienced to express it openly. However, if you would welcome the opinion of someone of greater years?”

Kedri laughed. “Oh, I know
your
opinion, Master Telanis. I simply thought it would be refreshing to seek a different,
younger
view on things.”

“Oh, come now, Kedri, do you really think our Masters on Council would be in the least interested in what a young guildsman—even one as brilliant as Aitrus here—has to say? Why, Lord Tulla is near on eleven times young Aitrus’s age! Do you think
he
would be interested?”

Kedri bowed his head, conceding the point.

“Then let us proceed with more important matters,” Telanis continued quickly, before Kedri might steer the conversation back onto more tricky ground. “Normally we would take bore samples at this stage, but as you are so keen to see us in action, Master Kedri, I have decided to waive those for once and go direct to drilling.”

The news seemed to cheer Kedri immensely. “Excellent!” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Will we need protective clothing of any kind?”

Master Telanis shook his head. “No. But you will need to be inside the second craft. When we drill, we drill!”

THE NODE-GATE WAS CLOSED BEHIND THEM
, its airtight seal ensuring that not a single particle of rock would escape back down the tunnel. The temporary camp had been packed up and stored; the sounding capsule attached to the back of the second excavator, which now rested against the back wall of the node, slightly to the left of the bore-site. Two large observation lenses had been mounted on the ceiling to either side of the site, high up so that they’d not be hit by flying rock.

All was now ready. Master Telanis had only to give the order.

Aitrus was in the second vehicle, standing at the back of the chart room behind the Observers, who looked up at the big screen, watching as the excavator was maneuvered into place.

In operation it seemed more like something living than a machine, its sinuous, quiet movements like those of a giant snake.

Aitrus looked on with quiet satisfaction. He had first seen an excavator in action when he was four—when his father, a guildsman before him—had taken him to see the cutting of a new tunnel between the outer caverns.

Kedri, in particular, seemed impressed. He was leaning forward, staring at the screen in fascination.

“In place!” Master Telanis called out, his voice transmitted into the chart room where they sat. A moment later a siren sounded, its whine rising and then falling again.

The snout of the excavator came around and seemed almost to kiss the bore-mark on the rock face, so gentle was its touch, but the great drill bit had a brutal look to it, and as they watched, they saw the cooling fluid begin to dribble down the thick grooves of the drill.

Slowly the drill began to turn, nudging blindly into the rock, the mechanical whirr of its slow spiral accompanied by a deeper, grinding sound that seemed to climb in pitch as the bit whirred faster and faster until it was a squeal, great clouds of dust billowing out from all around it.

The noise was now deafening, the vibrations making the second excavator ring like a struck bell. Slowly the great sphere of the node filled with dust, partly obscuring their view. Yet every now and then they would glimpse the excavator again, each time buried deeper and deeper into the rock, like some ferocious, feral animal boring into the soft flesh of its victim.

From time to time there would be a clang or thud as a large fragment of rock struck their craft, but there was no danger—the excavators were built to withstand massive pressures. Even a major collapse would merely trap the machine, not crush it.

After a while, Kedri turned and looked to Aitrus. “It’s a fearsome sight,” he said, raising his voice above the din.

Aitrus nodded. The first time he had seen it he had felt a fear deep in the pit of his stomach, yet afterward, talking to his father, he had remembered it with wonder and a sense of pride that this was what his guilds-people did.

Perhaps it was even that day when he had decided to follow his father into the Guild of Surveyors.

“Watch the tail,” he shouted, indicating the screen as, briefly, the excavator came into view again. It was almost wholly in the rock now, yet even as they watched, the tail end of the craft began to lash from side to side—again like a living thing—scoring the smooth-bored wall of the tunnel with tooth-shaped gashes.

“Why does it do that?” Kedri shouted back.

“To give our men a purchase on the wall. Those gashes are where we begin to dig out the collar. It makes it much easier for us!”

Kedri nodded. “Clever. You think of everything!”

Yes
, Aitrus thought,
but then we have had a thousand generations to think of everything
.