City of Pearl Read Online Free Page B

afterwards. Eddie was glad there was some respect left for tradition.
    â€œI put in for the docco assignment they’re advertising on the Ariel staffnet,” he said, by way of a throwaway remark to Wiley. “To Cavanagh’s Star.”
    Wiley, affecting professorial tweeds today, gave him a sympathetic look all the way down his nose. “Well, someone had to.”
    â€œCould be some extraordinary stuff at the end of that.”
    â€œCould be 150 years out of circulation for nothing, too.”
    â€œOkay, what if the planets around Cavanagh’s Star really are habitable long-term? What if the colony made it after all? I’d say that’s one great story.”
    Wiley, gazing up and down the rows of hotel seating in the conference room, said nothing and stayed saying nothing for an irritatingly long time. To a journalist it was the equivalent of a gunslingers’ standoff, and Eddie’s metaphorical hand hovered over his verbal gun. Suddenly he didn’t care anymore and filled in the silence the ex- professor had dug hole-deep before him.
    â€œWhatever you say, I’m still interested,” he said. “I still think it’s the most important mission in the history of the space program. The network wouldn’t be contributing so much to the cost if it weren’t. I’m going.”
    Wiley blew out a long silent breath through pursed lips. “It’s living death,” he said. “Living death. Now, where’s that bloody lunch?” He looked round impatiently for signs of the caterers moving in with trolleys of delights. “You don’t know what audience you’ll have in twenty-five years when the signal starts reaching Earth. Or even which network. All you need is yet another damn planet being detected after you’ve left and you’ve wasted your time.”
    â€œI thought you’d express some concern about my leaving my nearest and dearest.”
    â€œI didn’t think you had any.”
    You bastard. “I don’t. The mission’s restricted to singlestatus personnel.”
    â€œWell, then, I’m sure it’ll be time well spent for you.”
    It was a very tedious news conference after that. Eddie left before the buffet lunch was served.
    He found himself getting angry only when he was halfway through his supper in his favorite restaurant. He hated that habit. He suspected the internal replay of he said, I said that was running before his unfocused eyes while he ate was evident to other diners. Perhaps he was even moving his lips. He snatched the wineglass up to his mouth just to make sure he wasn’t talking out loud.
    Smug little shit, Wiley. He might have been making his money in punditry, dismissing exploration, but he might still be around in twenty-five years when Eddie filed his first reports, and that would show him. This was real drama. There were lost tribes and big business and a new Earth. All right, it was roughly the 67,450th planet detected, but the people factor was immense. It was absolutely logical that he should go, and observe, and report, even if nobody ever got to hear his words. He couldn’t believe that instinct wasn’t hardwired into everyone somewhere.
    After all, facing the unknown hadn’t ever deterred the first explorers, had it? How was he different from the Vikings setting off across the uncharted Atlantic, worried about getting close to the edge of the world? On the other hand, perhaps he already knew too much, perhaps more than the sailors of the past had ever created in their imaginations. He knew that even if his journey took months or years, the world left behind him would be aging far faster. Living death, as Wiley had said.
    Eddie suddenly found swallowing was hard work. He had always thought phrases like “chill of fear” and “cold anxiety” were clichés, and not ones he would lower himself professionally to use, but that was precisely what went