Free James P. Hogan by Migration Page B

in anticipation of this day. From there he headed on south for the launch facility at Yaquinta, about three hours’ drive away, where a shuttle for the Aurora was scheduled to leave shortly after midnight.
    Not generally known was that the ground staff at Yaquinta had been reduced to a skeleton crew. Neither was the fact that the daily shipping volumes over the last couple of months had been quietly increased, and as a result Yaquinta’s quota of materials for the Aurora was already up in orbit and aboard. The same was true for the quotas assigned to the other launch bases.
    On arriving at the gate, Lubanov supplied the pseudonym and password that he had been issued, and was admitted. His first act after entering was to have the operations supervisor transmit a coded message to the Aurora confirming that “Redman” had terminated ground work and was on his way. The shuttle lifted off on time, balanced on a lengthening column of plasma glow, several hours later.
     
    Aboard the Aurora , Lubanov was met by two officers from the ship’s Police Arm and conducted directly to a room in the Council Center, where a representation of the Command Directorate and its advisors had convened and were waiting. Lubanov reported that the situation on the surface pointed to military intervention, and that the order to move could be given in as soon as two days. The mission’s director in chief was notified, duly arrived, and summoned more of his senior staff and the ruling Council to join the assembly. Shortly afterward, orders went out to the captain and Flight Engineering to prepare for flight readiness within twenty-four hours.
    What Lubanov had said to Dreese about delays likely to be incurred over the drive sequencing wasn’t quite accurate. The last data calling for changes had come in from the outward-bound test craft some time ago, and the necessary adjustments were already completed.
     

NINE
    Masumichi Shikoba was still awaiting the arrival of some equipment to be installed in the lower-level lab area of his unique apartment-cum-arboretum, and in the meantime had been given the use of working space in an engineering research section of the Aurora ’s college system. Nath Borden, who attended the Council as the representative of the Recruitment Board, which Masumichi dealt with extensively, called while Masumichi was alone in the office, studying a student paper on algorithms for resolving ambiguities in robotic vision. Humans just “knew,” for example, that the top of a lamppost seen protruding above the roof of a house probably wasn’t a part of the house, but to machines such things weren’t always so obvious. One of Masumichi’s experimental models had recently demolished a small maze of mirrors that it had tried to negotiate with its sonar ranging turned off.
    “Are you alone?” Borden asked from the screen. His voice was oddly low and confidential.
    “One moment.” Masumichi got up, went to close the office door, and returned. “What’s up?”
    “There’s just been a special meeting. Things have started moving quickly, so there isn’t a lot of time right now. I’ll give you the full story later. It will be general knowledge very soon, in any case. Basically, news from the surface is that they might be planning to move against the bases in the next two or three days. The chief has started the countdown to flight readiness. Everything on the ground is being wrapped up. The last of our people down there should be aboard within twenty-four hours. This is it, Masumichi! We’re on our way!”
    “Oh.”
    Borden looked out of the screen searchingly for a few seconds, as if he had been expecting more of a reaction.
    “That’s nice,” Masumichi obliged.
    “There’s a piece of unfinished business that I’d like to try and take care of,” Borden went on. “One catch of fish out there that we haven’t netted.”
    “The magician,” Masumichi guessed. He was the one who had nominated Korshak for