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.Please, go ahead, transmitthis.It doesn t give away any useful technical details, which is all I m officially assigned to watch for.Page 189 And who knows? somebody might decide to go excavate Chi.Chick.Chicken Little.Whatever.Once you tell them. Chicxulub, Helen said, enunciating the syllables through a wide smile. All right, Rich, Jane, we have ajoint paper to write, as we re just about squarely in the middle of all our disciplines. As Helen and the two linguists launched into a discussion of the projected paper, A.J.left the table andcame over to Madeline. Thanks, he said quietly. I figured there wouldn t be a problem, but you did stick yourself with the jobof clearing everything. Yes, I did. She frowned. Actually, I am concerned about this, although I see no reason to keep itsecret.I ve heard the arguments as to why we aren t going to meet Bemmius or any of his relatives, afterall this time, and I d presume all those arguments apply to any other species that was contemporaneouswith them as well.But, still, I have to wonder if they were fighting something that existed on more thanone world at once, wouldn t that something else also be able to detect and stop things like that? And ifso, how do you manage to hit them with falling rocks? Yeah.That is a question.Maybe we ll get an answer when we look over the rest of the base and startsifting through the pieces that remain of the puzzle. A.J.shook his head. Wouldn t that have been a hellof a fight to see? It would, Madeline said quietly. Pray that we don t. She saw by the sudden widening of his eyes that he had abruptly made the connection to her job. Yes, that is what I have to think about.Every day. You can t prevent scientific progress, though or hide technology forever. His tone wasn t mocking,but serious. In the end, people will find out anything you re trying to hide, and there s no way you cankeep them from using it.You do realize that, don t you? Or do you actually believe that you can stuff thegenie back into the bottle? Yes.No.Most of the time, maybe-and-maybe-not.And some days I m not sure what I believeanymore.I m sorry this whole situation exists, A.J., I really am.But I m also very much afraid of whatmight happen to the world if certain things got out of control. Can t say I entirely blame you.Joe says you have good reasons, and I trust Joe.Speaking of which, gosee him. She looked away. He told me not to speak to him. For a while, he said.But since I don t know whatthat means, I thought I should let him decide. Yeah, I know.But. A.J.seemed torn.He started to reach for her arm, obviously to lead her out of the conference room.Then, drew it back sharply, as if he d spotted a viper. Jesus! she heard him hiss. I lay so much as a finger on you, Helen will have my scalp. Page 190 A.J.turned the dramatic withdrawal of his hand into an equally dramatic gesture of invitation. C mon,Madeline, let s go somewhere else to talk.Ladies first. As she preceded him out of the room, Madeline found herself in a good humor for the first time in days.Once they were in the corridor beyond, she looked at him over her shoulder. Did she really make you sleep on the couch? Sure did.And let me tell you, even at one-third gravity that couch was lumpy. Good for her! A.J.smiled. Funny.That s exactly what she said about you.We gotta veritable feminazi Waffen SS onthis moon. Madeline grinned at him.Despite their little brawl if something so one-sided could be given theterm she liked A.J.Baker.And was glad to see that whatever animosity had existed seemed to havefaded away.He grinned back, although the look in his eyes had something of calculation in them. Look, I m sorry, he said quietly. Helen s right and I was way out of line.Even if For just an instant, he looked like a falsely-accused six-year-old boy. I still think Helen s nuts to accuseme of trying to beat on a woman.I was just going to grab you by the shoulder, stop you.And besides. The calculation was back in his eyes. I never had a chance, did I? Even if I had really been trying to getyou. To be honest? Not a cold chance in hell. Didn t think so.What exactly are you, anyway? Seventh dan? Eighth dan? Ninth dan? Madeline shook her head. The terms don t mean anything, in the schools I finished my training with.They weren t even schools, really.By the end I was learning one-on-one from the best senseis I couldfind, in whatever school and none of them are people you ll ever see mentioned in the martial artsmagazines.They pay no attention to that ranking business at all.They either decide to teach you, or theydon t.The move I threw you into the wall with, I learned from a seventy-four-year-old Okinawan duringthe months I was on the island.Never mind what I was doing there.He was almost a hermit, havingspent his whole life studying the art.Didn t speak a word of English or any other language I knew. A.J.winced. Oh, Lord.You re talking about a whole nother league, aren t you? About as different as the major leagues are from double-A.The truth is, A.J
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