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talked to me in space when she was very little, but now it's like she and
Mengjai are there together. Maybe not.
First one talks to me, then the other. I've never heard them speak to each
other. If Mengjai is a Searcher, he has an unheard-of range, Kati. The
mothership is out there some two thousand kilometers. I've begun to wonder if
the children are somehow linked together."
Both of them fell asleep, still wondering about it.
"They're asleep," said Mengjai.
"Let's give them an hour before we go. Mother has her best connection to the
gong-shi-jie right now, and
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- Chapter 7
that's when Abagai is most likely to be there. I'm glad they didn't fight.
Mother was angry when she left us," whispered Yesui.
"Yes, but Father is getting dangerously close to the truth."
Yesui smiled. "In a way, he knew it before I did. I didn't know you were with
me when I talked to Father in space."
"You admit you were fooled, then?"
"I didn't say that," said Yesui. "I always felt something there, but I
couldn't identify it. It was when I
started saying things I had no knowledge about that I began to wonder."
"You were still surprised when I told you. We should tell Mother and Father
everything. It's not fair to give them a partial truth."
"Not just yet," said Yesui. "There are some things I want to do first."
"Like now."
"Yes. What you've taught me in theory is fine, but I have to get in there to
really see what I'm dealing with."
"It's a simple model, Yesui. You need to double the mass, and Tengri-Nayon has
the best composition for it. The size of Lan-Sui's rocky core is irrelevant;
you're dealing with a big ball of hydrogen and helium. Put the mass anywhere,
and convection plus planetary rotation should distribute it. The helium rain
should begin right away, and that alone should increase the surface
temperature."
"It sounds easy, brother, but you're not doing it. I have to do the navigating
and the mass transfer, and I
can't do it in steps. Every time I leave mass in the gong-shi-jie for even an
instant, it turns into that flickering, violet light that bends real space. I
have to bring mass directly to Lan-Sui's interior, and you are my target."
"If I can stay there while you flit in and out," said Mengjai.
"Only experimentation will work; there's no theory for this," said his sister.
Mengjai nodded in agreement. "This game is dangerous. Take only a small piece
of a flare, better still a prominence, where the densities are smaller. Too
much mass could be like hurling a comet into the upper atmosphere."
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"Yes, Mengjai. We've gone over this many times."
"Then let's do it! They must be fast asleep by now."
Yesui put a finger to her lips. "Wait a little, and call up that image of
Tengri-Nayon again."
Mengjai's fingers jabbed at the keyboard, and an image of Tengri-Nayon
appeared, a single prominence forming an arch above its surface. Yesui
outlined a portion of it with her finger. "How much mass?" she asked.
Mengjai did the calculation carefully on his machine. "About a thousandth of
Meng-shi-jie's mass. We want to see an effect, don't we? Try a larger portion,
maybe out to here." He made a new outline with his finger on the screen. "That
should be like a very large comet, and you'll be deep inside, but not too
deep, I hope. We don't want to wait months or years to see an effect."
"I'll be happy just to get into the interior," said Yesui, and then she closed
her eyes. Mengjai did it also, and they both listened.
"I think we can go, now," said Yesui. "Let's get comfortable."
They lay side by side on Mengjai's bed. If anyone came in the room, it would
appear they had fallen asleep together, and only their parents or grandfather
would know otherwise.
You're excited
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, said Mengjai.
Apprehensive. This is the first thing we've really done together, brother.
Lead on
, said Mengjai. Their hands touched, and joined, fingers entwined as Yesui let
out a slow exhalation, and they were on their way.
Yesui seemed in no hurry at first, spreading the threads of the spiderweb-like
interface of the gong-shi-
jie, and closing it behind them.
Do you realize you're twisting real space when you do that? If you did that on
a large scale, whole galaxies could be smashed together.
Really? Maybe I should give more attention to it.
The swirl of purple light, with the colorful signatures of stars stretched far
in every direction, and they drifted without manifestation on their secretive
mission to the vortex of Tengri-Nayon, already in view, yet nearly two
light-years distant in real space.
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You're still not relaxed, Yesui.
I'm thinking about what I have to do, brother. You only have to observe.
Yes, but what happens to you, happens to me, and we'll both do better if we
relax.
Yes, yes.
Yesui was still apprehensive, despite her solo time in the gong-shi-jie. There
was a new presence in her consciousness, now, and it was different from her
mother and Abagai being there.
Do not talk so much
, she said.
Let me concentrate.
I am a mute
, said Mengjai, and then he was silent for her.
They hovered above the vortex of Tengri-Nayon and the tiny blue dimple there
that was Lan-Sui, dropping slowly towards it, correcting for drift, then
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