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"Interesting situation, ain't it?"
"What is that thing?"
"Nobody knows. That's the whole point." Stafford turned and studied Carter's
eyes, as if looking for some medical symptom. "You know that strange feeling
when you were near it? I noticed it right away, the first time. Later, after I
had been around the thing a lot, I got used to it. But it doesn't go away. Can
you imagine a machine that interacts somehow with living material? Maybe
through some sort of field at a close distance? Hell, I don't know ... I'm
just drifting. But I keep thinking, whoever built it might have seen linkages
in nature that we can't even think of, and built them into machines whose
purposes we can't even imagine."
"But there must be some way to start looking at the design, the purpose..."
Stafford tapped Carter on the shoulder in a fatherly gesture. "Look. Sometimes
you run up against a brick wall. You're frantic to find out what's on the
other side. You know it's something wonderful. You and Annie and Philippe are
going to knockyourselves out for the next few days trying to figure out what's
on the other side. I know. That's what I did myself when I got here. But
sooner or later, you'll realize that it truly is a brick wall. You beat on the
wall, but the only thing you come to know is the brick wall itself.
Would Neanderthals have been able to make sense of a radio?" He sighed. "What
I'm saying is, I've come around to thinking we'll never know what the machine
was, what it did."
Carter was annoyed by the gleam in Stafford's eyes. "This thing on the other
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side of the wall, are you sure it isn't just another secret you and Sturgis
and Elena are keeping for yourselves?"
Stafford grew defensive. "Don't put Lena in the same boat with Sturgis. She
didn't know she was going to get caught up in this."
"I know. I finally figured that out. But what about you? You're telling me
you're just gonna sit around in your base here with your friends and spin
secret theories...."
Stafford's face turned red against his white hair. "God damn it, Carter, don't
lecture me. You know as much as we do now. If you're so damned smart, you go
figure out what it is."
"But you could've brought in all this help from Earth. So much equipment ...
All you had to do was make this public. Experts would flock..."
"To hell with the experts from Earth. God never wrote any rule that said you
have to publish a new discovery on the first day, before you've had a chance
to study anything. Show me where it says that in the Ten Commandments."
Stafford stared at the lifeless gloves he had placed on the little shelf in
front of their seats. "Sorry. Christ, Carter, you know I'm defensive on this,
in spite of my bluster. Anyhow, it was only for a few weeks. ... I didn't know
how it would turn out. I suppose now I'll turn into the scientific villain of
the piece when Annie puts out her story. It was a dumb thing, you bringing
her. I thought you had more sense."
"Don't you start in onAnnie. I get enough of that from Lena."
"She's just jealous."
"Oh, sure."
"It's normal."
"Let's change the subject."
"Even if I did know any big secrets, how could I tell you? Way I got it
figured, anything I tell yougoes in
Annie's ear." He elbowed Carter in the ribs. "I can't take that chance, can I?
I probably shouldn't have showed you that little screw."
"I thought we were going to change the subject."
Stafford smiled enigmatically.
"I can never figure you, Alwyn. Sometimes I think I know you. Other times ...
Here you are, part of some underground government conspiracy. It doesn't fit.
You always seemed, well, irreverent."
"Remember the hobgoblin of small minds? I may be inconsistent, but it got me
in on the biggest discovery of the age, didn't it?" He was still smiling
mischievously. "Devious little game I got to play with my buggy back there, I
admit it. But it gave me the chance of a lifetime here, not to mention my
chance to go after Mars-2. You gotta admit I played my cards pretty well."
"But Sturgis..."
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