Treasure Of The Stars rb-29 Read online

  Chapter 23

  Blade walked along the sands of Dover Beach, listened to the rumble of the surf on the shore, and looked up at the stars.

  He didn't look at them with any hope they'd help him sort out his thoughts. He'd already done that, as much as he ever could. He thought he'd done rather well, considering what an absolutely cosmic can of worms this last mission to Dimension X had opened! He'd thought his meeting with the Wizard of Rentoro would hold the record for confusion and complication for a while, but here was the very next trip and the record was up in smoke!

  At least Lord Leighton had rolled with the punch and come up swinging. Instead of dying of frustration over all the maddening new questions this trip posed, he was behaving like a small boy let loose in a candy store with a five-pound note.

  «You've opened up a whole new approach to Dimension X and all the related phenomena,» he'd said, practically rubbing his hands in glee. «We badly need to explore the possibility of movement through space during the transition into Dimension X. I've always said so but I've never been able to get any support from the people who control the appropriations. Fantasy, they call it. Nonsense! I knew I was right, and now they'll have to admit it and provide an appropriation for exploring the possibilities.»

  J's eyebrows rose. He'd heard Lord Leighton conjure up the need for more appropriations often enough before. If all Leighton's brainstorms were added up, the total bill for Project Dimension X would resemble the annual appropriations for the Royal Air Force.

  «How much do you expect to need for this exploration?»

  «For the preliminary stages, no more than a million pounds or so. We'll have to-«Here Leighton went off into a long list of people and equipment that would be needed, most of which was Greek to Blade.

  J's eyebrows rose higher as Leighton went on. When the scientist paused for breath, he asked quietly, «How much do you expect to need eventually?»

  Leighton shot the other man a sharp, suspicious glance. He knew exactly why J was asking this question, but still wouldn't be held back from answering it. «A minimum of ten million pounds over the next five to six years.»

  That more or less ended the discussion for the time being. No doubt Leighton would get some extra money to start off in this new direction. It was far too important to be ignored entirely. But ten million pounds! Blade could see J trying hard not to laugh as they left Leighton's office.

  Here on Dover Beach, Blade did laugh. Leighton certainly had something worth exploring. The computer had snatched Blade back across a hundred million miles of space as well as across the Dimensions. Perhaps they were on the edge of discovering a method of teleportation.

  Yet Blade had to wonder. Was Lord Leighton perhaps dashing off after the possibility of teleportation so he would not have to face the infinity of infinities the Menel scientist had suggested, and what it might mean for not only the Project but for all science? Lord Leighton's intellect was immensely powerful and his courage undoubted-but were there things before which even he quailed? It was a question Blade knew he would never get out of his mind, or ever be able to answer.

  So Blade preferred to leave the possibilities and perhapses of science to Lord Leighton. His mind turned back to remember the other, more solid things he'd done on this trip.

  The technical films made the trip back with him, slightly fogged by radiation in some places but mostly legible. The solar collectors would take some time to develop, because they depended on combinations of metals that apparently were much more common on Kanan than on Earth. The power cells, on the other hand, were something that could be in mass production within a few years. His trip had probably put forward the arrival of a practical electric automobile by a decade or more.

  What had he left behind? He'd left Riyannah-and as he thought of her he looked at the glowing bracelet on his wrist. He'd left her, but if there'd been any way to do it otherwise- No, he hadn't loved Riyannah-he hadn't allowed himself to love her, although it was certain she'd loved him.

  It was also certain that if he ever found in Home Dimension a woman with her qualities, he would love her and leave no stone unturned to marry her. She might not enjoy the ordeal of seeing him hurled off to Dimension X time after time, but she could endure it, and between trips there would be so much they could share.

  So he'd left Riyannah-left her in a strong position to influence Kananite policy. He'd left the whole of Kanan shaken to the point where they'd have to look for new ways of dealing with other races. He'd left Loyun Chard dead, his starship destroyed, his regime crippled, and his enemies greatly strengthened. The Targan underground might not win easily, but no one would be able to ignore them now-and that included the Kananites as well as their fellow Targans.

  He'd brought home a treasure of the stars, but he'd also left much behind in payment.

  FB2 document info

  Document ID: 2ba5e41e-dfb0-4db4-b55f-f7be52dd0ff3

  Document version: 1

  Document creation date: 14 August 2010

  Created using: FictionBook Editor Release 2.5 software

  Document authors :

  golma1

  About

  This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.

  (This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)

  Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.

  (Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)

  http://www.fb2epub.net

  https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/