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Chironians will be forced to make the first moves, which gives us both a free hand to respond and a
clear-cut justification that will satisfy our own people...which is doubly important with the elections
coming up. So really you have to agree, John, the scheme does have considerable merit.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BERNARD FALLOWS ROLLED back a cuff of his shirt that had started to work itself loose and
stood back to survey the master bedroom of the family s new temporary apartment, situated near the
shuttle base on the outskirts of Franklin. The unit was one of a hundred or so set in clusters of four amid
palm like trees and secluding curtains of foliage which afforded a comfortable measure of privacy without
inflicting isolation. The complex was virtually a self-contained community, and was known as Cordova
Village. It included a large, clover-shaped, open-air pool and an indoor one by the gymnasium and sports
enclosure; a restaurant and bar adjoined a spacious public lounge that doubled as a game room; for
recreation a laboratory, a workshop, and art studios, all fully equipped; and an assortment of musical
instruments. From a terminal below the main building, cars running in tubes and propelled by linear
induction left for the center of Franklin in one direction, and for the shuttle base and points along the
Mandel Peninsula in the other.
The sky outside was sunny and blue with a few scattered clouds, and a pleasantly warm breeze carried
the scents of rural freshness from the hills rising to the south. Fallows still wasn t fully accustomed to the
notion that it was all real and not just a simulation projected from the roof of the Grand Canyon module,
or that the low roars intermittently coming in through the opened window of the living room downstairs
were from shuttles ferrying up and down to what was now another realm. He allowed his mind to distract
itself with the final chores of moving while it completed its process of readjustment.
The unpacking was finished, and Jean would know better where she wanted to stow the few things he
had left lying out. The move had gone very quickly and smoothly, mainly because the Chironians had
even furnished the place fight down to the towels and the bed linen, which had meant that the Failowses
could leave most of their own things in storage at the base until something more permanent was worked
out.
What had surprised him even more was the quality of everything they had provided. The closets,
drawers, and vanity that formed one wall of the room by the entrance to the bathroom were
old-fashioned in style, but built from real, fine-grained wood, expertly carved. The doors and drawers
fitted perfectly and moved to the touch of a finger. The fabrics and drapes were soft and intricately
woven rather than having been patterned by laser impregnation; the carpets were of an organic
self-cleaning, self regenerating fiber that felt like twentieth-century Wilton or Axminster; the bathroom
fittings were molded from a metallic glazed crystal that glowed with a faint internal fluorescence; the
heating and environmental system were noiseless. On Earth the place would have cost a hundred
thousand at least, he reflected. He wasn t sure if the Chironians still owned the complex and had leased it
to the Mission for some period, or what, but the letter from Merrick assigning him to quarters allocated
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on the surface hadn t mentioned rental payments. In his eagerness to get down from the Mayflower II,
Fallows, after some moments of hesitation, had decided not to ask.
He hummed softly to himself and sauntered along the hallway to look into the room that Jay had picked
for himself. Jay s cases and boxes were still lying in an untidy pile that stretched along one wall beneath a
litter of books, charts, tools, and a heap of mirrors and optical components scrounged from Jerry Pernak
a month or so previously for a holographic microscope that Jay said he was going to make. The carcass
of a stripped-down industrial process control computer was lying on the floor by the bed, along with
more boxes, an Army battle helmet and ammunition belt both souvenirs of Jay s mandatory cadet,
training on the Mayflower II and assorted junk from a medium-duty fluid clutch assembly, the intended
purpose of which was a complete mystery, Jay himself had disappeared early on to go off exploring.
Bernard shrugged to himself. If Jay wonted to leave the work until the end of the day when he would be
tired, that was his business.
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