Empress of Eternity Read Online Free

facts, figures, and equations on the pale green screen.
    He wasn’t even aware that he was no longer alone until a soft voice intruded.
    “Maertyn? Will you be coming to bed soon? You’ve worked so late so many nights, and you do have a long journey ahead of you before long.” Maarlyna stood in the archway that separated the largest main-floor chamber from the slightly smaller room that served as his workroom and laboratory.
    “I’m sorry.” He turned the swivel chair to face her, but did not stand. “I was just trying to see if I could make any sense out of the latest observations. I’d really like to be able to report something new. But the more measurements and observations I take, the more it’s clear that the midcontinent canal is perfectly uniform.”
    “Has anyone else taken that many measurements and observations?” Her smile was warm and indulgent, yet not critical.
    “Not in our history. Perhaps the second dawn cultures did. There aren’t any records. In fact, there’s not much of anything left, except some large holes filled with ash, sand, and the detritus of millennia that is still faintly radioactive.”
    “There are fossilized remnants of the ancients, aren’t there? Is the canal that old? Or is it older yet?”
    He smiled. “I’d judge so, but there’s no way to tell with great accuracy. I don’t know of any way to date the stone of the canal, and the stone and bedrock on and in which it rests doesn’t seem to follow crustal movements, or not in any way that we would think as probable. The rock and soil layers farther away from the canal itself suggest far more than a million years.”
    “Isn’t that new information? For the Ministry?”
    “New? I don’t know. It tends to confirm past incomplete data.” His smile was crooked. “The Ministry is looking for somewhat more than that.”
    “You’ll find it. I know you will.”
    Maertyn was touched by her faith, uncertain as he was about whether he could live up to it. “That’s what I’m working toward.” If he could only figure out how to discover a means by which he could discern more about the canal. The biologic sciences of the Unity weren’t suited to deal with the subatomic level physics, and the records of older civilizations were too fragmentary…and enigmatic.
    She smiled. “I won’t keep you. I hope you won’t be too long.”
    With her smile, and the clinging gown she wore, Maertyn knew he wouldn’t be looking at his screens for much longer. “I need to save this format of the data to the backup system. Then I’ll join you.”
    Maarlyna turned.
    Maertyn watched her move through the archway and out of sight, taking in the gentle sway of her hips, neither constrained nor exaggerated, but all of a piece with the woman that she was, then swung back to face the paired pale green screens. He had the unshakable feeling that the data revealed something…but he couldn’t put a finger—or his thoughts—on exactly what that might be.
    He shook his head and initiated the backup sequence. He did wish that he had a cable interface to his own system in Caelaarn, or even a private comsat link, but the Ministry saw no reason to lay cable to the end of the canal, and he and his work didn’t have priority enough for a comsat link. Nor did he have the boost-antenna necessary, either.
    Once he finished, he stood and stretched, then flicked off the lamps powered by the turbine-powered unitary system that the Ministry had grudgingly installed for him, since the area was too chill for an efficient biosystem. He frowned, because every time he turned the lamps on or off, the same recurring thought came to mind. What powered the “doors” of the old building, and what power allowed the “windows” to pass light?
    Even his most precise equipment failed to detect any energy flows. That confirmed, unsurprisingly, that the material comprising the canal and the building in which he was living and working was totally opaque to all energy