The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(36)

“I think we’d need all kinds,” Marce said, carefully. Cardenia could tell he wasn’t aware why he’d been summoned, and now that she’d asked the question, he wasn’t sure why this needed to be answered at 11:55 at night. “Flow physicists, obviously, but I’d also think we want biologists, chemists, astrophysicists, ordinary physicists, anthropologists and archeologists—”

“Archeologists?”

“Dalasysla has been dead for centuries,” Marce said. “We need people with an understanding of how to process that sort of history. We’d need forensic scientists and pathologists; we’d need historians, particularly the ones with a knowledge of Dalasysla and the early Interdependency. We also need engineers and people who were familiar with the computers and systems of the era. That’s who I can think of off the top of my head. I can write you a longer report, if you like.”

“What if I wanted to keep this small?” Cardenia said. “Small and quiet?”

“Why would you want to do that?” Marce asked.

“Because right now the fewer people who know about it, and about the evanescent Flow streams you and Roynold have discovered, the fewer headaches I have to deal with trying to explain everything without you around,” Cardenia said, and then caught Marce’s look. “I’m not saying I want to keep this classified forever. I’m saying I want to know what this expedition has found out about Dalasysla before I make any announcements.”

“Other Flow physicists have been working on the data we’ve given them,” Marce pointed out. “Some of them might find out about this anyway.”

“They’re working on your and your father’s data, yes?”

“That’s right.”

“And not Roynold’s.”

“No.”

“Then it’s a risk worth taking.”

“If you think so.”

“I do. Back to my question. Small and quiet. How many scientists would you need, then?”

“We could double up jobs,” Marce said. “Flow physicists. We can do without the other sorts because we are schooled in general and classical physics, and we can make observations available for others to work with. A forensic pathologist who has some general biological expertise. There are lots of archeologists who have experience in anthropology and vice versa. We’d still need someone familiar with the computer systems of the time. And someone familiar with the habitats of the era as well. Maybe those could combine.”

“So five or six, depending.”

“I suppose. Plus an actual crew for the ship.”

“How much time would you need at Dalasysla?”

“However much time you want to give us.”

“Give me a time frame, Marce.”

“Two weeks minimum, I would think.”

“How long there and back?”

“We estimate about eight days, going from the data we have and the historical data about the system. We’re confident this is a reopened Flow stream and not a new stream mimicking the previous stream. But there’s a plus or minus of about three days.”

“So maximum eleven days there, two weeks at Dalasysla, eleven days back. That’s more than a month.”

“Now you know why we want to get this expedition going sooner than later,” Marce said.

“Why would you need two Flow scientists?” Cardenia asked. “If you’re doubling up expertise with everyone else.”

Marce looked a little hesitant at this. “I don’t think that’s a question of need,” he said.

“Then what is it?”

“This is our discovery,” Marce said. “Both mine and Hatide’s. We both want to be part of it, and I think we both deserve to be part of it. I wouldn’t want to ask her to stay here for it. And I definitely want to be part of it. Maybe it’s a luxury in terms of personnel. But I think we can afford it.”

“What if I asked you to stay behind?” Cardenia asked.

Marce gave Cardenia a very slight smile. “Asked?” he said.

“Asked,” Cardenia said. “Not ordered.”

“Your Majesty, if the emperox asks for something like this, one would be foolish to see it as anything other than an order.”

Cardenia had a momentary flashback to her discussion with her father’s ghost the night before, on the distinction between an emperox commanding or inviting someone to bed. “Oh, forget it,” she said, and walked over to her bar to pour herself a drink.

“I’m confused,” Marce said, after a moment.

“Join the club,” Cardenia said, and put ice into a tumbler.

“What am I missing here?” Marce said.

Cardenia poured the drink, slugged back a nontrivial amount, and then set her glass down. “I’m really, really bad at this,” she said.

“Bad at what?”

“Look, are you with Roynold?” Cardenia asked Marce.

“What?”

“Are you with Roynold? Are you two, you know”—Cardenia made wavy motions with the hand holding the tumbler, sloshing the liquid as a result—“a thing? An item? Romantically involved?”

Cardenia watched as Marce—bless his stupid, oblivious, nerdy heart—finally put it together. “No,” he said. “No, we are not an item. We are not romantically involved.”