Convergent Series Read Online Free Page B

appreciate it if you would take a look and give me your opinion."
    In other words, let me see how smart you are. Rebka took the documents and skimmed them in silence for a minute or two. He was not sure what the test was, but he did not want to fail it. "These all appear to be in the correct official format," he said at last.
    "You see nothing unusual in them at all?"
    "Well, perhaps in the diversity of the applicants. Do you often have visit requests from outside the Dobelle system?"
    "Very seldom." Perry was nodding in grudging respect. "Now we get four requests, Captain, in one day. All want to visit Opal and Quake. Individuals from the three major groups, plus a member of an Alliance council. Do you know how many visitors a year we usually get to Dobelle? Maybe fifty—and they all come from our people, worlds in the Phemus Circle. And nobody ever wants to go to Quake."
    Max Perry picked up the folder again. Apparently Rebka had met some initial acceptance criterion, because Perry's manner had lost a little of its stiffness. "Look at this one. It's from a Cecropian , for God's sake. No one on Dobelle has ever seen a live Cecropian. I haven't seen one myself. No one here knows how to communicate with one."
    "Don't worry about that." Rebka focused again on the sheets in front of him. "She'll have her own interpreter. But you're right. If you get only fifty a year, four in a day is way outside statistical limits." And you haven't said it to me, he thought, but as far as you're concerned it's f i ve in a day, isn't it? These requests arrived at the same time I did. So as far as you are concerned, I'm just another outsider. "So what do they all want, Commander? I didn't read their reasons."
    "Different things. This one"—Perry poked at the page with an emaciated finger "—just came in. Did you ever hear of a man called Julius Graves? He represents the Fourth Alliance Ethical Council, and according to this he wants to come to Opal to investigate a case of multiple murder , somehow involving twins from Shasta."
    "Rich world, Shasta. A long way from Dobelle, in more ways than one."
    "But if he wants to, according to the way I read the regulations, he can overrule anything that we say locally."
    "Overrule us, or anyone else on Dobelle." Rebka took the document from Perry. "I never heard of Julius Graves, but the ethical councils carry the weight of all the groups. He'll be a hard man to argue with."
    "And he doesn't say why he's coming here!"
    "He doesn't have to." Rebka looked again at the application. "In his case, this request is a formality. If he wants to come, no one can stop him. What about the others, though? Why do they want to go to Quake?"
    "Atvar H'sial—that's the Cecropian—says her specialty is the evolution of organisms under extreme environmental stress. Quake certainly qualifies. She says she wants to go there and see how the native life-forms adapt during Summertide."
    "She's traveling alone?"
    "No. With someone or something called J'merlia. A Lo'tfian."
    "Okay, that'll be her interpreter. The Lo'tfians are another life-form from the Cecropia Federation. Who else?"
    "Another female, Darya Lang from the Fourth Alliance."
    "Human?"
    "I assume so. She claims to be interested in seeing Builder artifacts."
    "I thought there was only one in the Dobelle system."
    "There is. The Umbilical. Darya Lang wants to take a look at it."
    "She doesn't have to go down to Quake to do that."
    "She says she wants to see how the Umbilical is tethered at the Quake end. She has a point there. No one has ever understood how the Builders arranged for its retraction to space at Summertide. Her story is plausible. Believe it if you want to."
    Perry's tone of voice made it clear that he did not. It occurred to Rebka that they had at least one thing in common—their cynicism.
    "And then there's Louis Nenda," Perry went on. "From the Zardalu Communion. When did you last hear from them ?"
    "When they had their last skirmish with the