Age Of Unreason - Newton's Cannon Part 38

"He does not wear them with me."

"I'm sure he doesn't. Neither was he wearing them when the barge was attacked. It was a whim of his to leave them off. He felt that it disturbed the lines of his costume."

"Then there is something else."

"Yes, there is." Reaching into an inner pocket of his coat, he withdrew a small book and pa.s.sed it to her. "You will find what details I know in there. I am not a magus, Demoiselle. I know poison has no effect upon the king. He may, indeed, be immortal. We can only pray that he is not, and I can only pray that you can find the solution to France's dilemma."

Adrienne took the book without hesitation and opened it to the first page. It was a notebook, unsigned, scrawled in a tight but clear hand. Notes to the Experiments Concerning the Persian Elixir of Mehemet Mira Bey, or the Elixir of Life, it read.

"The elixir that saved his life?"

"Yes. The king's piety was always mostly an affectation, you know, but he once had enough sense not to defy G.o.d's will with some diabolical liqueur. Would that he had retained it for another hour that day in Marly. He would have died honorably. Instead, he has d.a.m.ned himself and France, and now I, too, face the flames of h.e.l.l."

"Well, sir," Adrienne said sardonically, "I will meet you there, I suppose. Perhaps you will be Lucifer's minister." "I fear I already am," Torcy said.

The Orrery

"Of course!" Maclaurin muttered, as he and the rest followed Ben into the orrery room. "How stupid of me!"

"How stupid of all of us," Heath added, "except for Ben.""I had more time to mink about it," Ben said, but he was secretly pleased at Heath's left-handed praise.

"But the alchemical symbols..." Voltaire muttered.

"Ciphers, again," Stirling said suddenly. "They don't represent the elements-but the planets."

"Yes, yes," Maclaurin agreed. "And the groups of numbers represent coordinates in three dimensions."

"It's an addition to the orrery," Vasiusa exclaimed. "But what, a new planet?"

They were all crowded around Ben, gazing at the oblong object "No. It's a comet or some similar body," Stirling answered. "Its...o...b..t must be built into it, like the models already in the orrery. The coordinates are so we can insert it at the proper point."

"And this numeral set here Jells us what date to set the orrery at when we insert it," Maclaurin went on excitedly. "You see, Jove must be in this position, and Mars in this - Stirling?"

"Right away." The astronomer extracted a key from his pocket and crossed the room. There he unlocked a cabinet Ben had never seen opened. Inside, mounted on a hardwood board, were a number of polished bra.s.s wheels.

"I need people to stand at the predicted positions," he said. "Ben, you be Mars; Maclaurin, Jupiter; Vasilisa, I think you would fit Venus nicely-"

"Mercury for me, then," Voltaire cheerfully volunteered.

"How do I know where to stand?" Ben asked.

"The first coordinate refers to the position out along the plane from the sun. Those are marked on the floor."

Ben saw a series of concentric circles traced on the tile and wondered why he had never before noticed them. He supposed it was because the floating spheres themselves were so captivating.

"The second number refers to the rays coming out from the sun, in degrees. That places you at the right spot along the orbital path. We have to use both, of course, because the planets don't follow truly circular orbits, though our coordinate system does."

"I see." Though he had guessed what the numbers represented, he had never had the orrery system explained to him. He didn't ask about the third number: That would represent the distance above or below the imaginary plane of the solar system, drawn through the sun's equator.

He found his spot and stood there, noticing that Mars was nearly across the room from him. Vasilisa, Voltaire, Maclaurin, and Heath ranged out to complete the system, Heath playing Saturn. Ben noticed that Heath was nearest to him.

"Now, mind being hit!" Stirling cautioned.

The planets slowed and stopped, and as Ben watched, excited and bemused, reversed their courses.

"I've been running it ahead, to check some calculations I made on Jupiter's moons," Stirling explained. "I'll have to run it back a few years."

Voltaire gave a little yelp as Mercury fairly whizzed by him, hurtling back along its mayfly years. Vasilisa waved Venus by her with a laugh. The others were in no danger; even at this accelerated speed, the planets from Earth outward moved sluggishly, Saturn and Jupiter crawling like twin hour hands.

It took a fair half an hour, but at last Ben stepped aside and let Mars take his place.

"This looks right," Maclaurin said, "or near enough."

"Saturn isn't quite right," Heath complained. The ringed planet was still half a foot from him.

"Saturn is never quite right," Stirling said. "I've said more than once that that French philosopher was correct in predicting a seventh planet. It shouldn't matter, though. Newton's object will be inserted-" He walked out across the now stationary orrery, eyes on the floor markings. He hesitated a moment, held the egg-shaped object up, and released it."-here."

It remained there. Vasilisa applauded delightedly, and Ben released the breath he had been holding. How angry they would have been if he had been wrong.

"Now, if everyone will step off the floor," Stirling entreated, returning to the cabinet.

Ben backed to the edge of the room. The marble-sized sphere, unconcerned with the effects of gravity, continued to hover just inside the orbit of Mars.

"When was this?" Vasilisa asked. "When was this alignment represented?"

"A few months ago," Stirling told her. As he said this, the planets began rotating again, very, very slowly.

"That's at real speed," Stirling said. "But I'm certain that Sir Isaac must have wanted us

to see the motion of this new object, so I will quicken it."

"Why did he go to all of this trouble?" Maclaurin wondered. "He must have found this

comet using the affinascope. It must be small indeed. Why not simply calculate its...o...b..t and send us the projection?""It must be something he wants us to see," Vasilisa offered. "Something interesting.""I'm moving it up so that a minute equals a day," Stirling said.Now the Earth and most of the other planets were spinning on their axes quite visibly, and Mercury and the moons of the larger planets began to inch noticeably around their

orbits. Ben kept his eye on Newton's spheroid. "It's moving," he whispered.

Maclaurin moved nearer, fixing a critical eye upon it "Yes, the orbit must be highly elliptical. See how it plummets sunward? And my G.o.d, the speed! It must be traversing a thousand miles per minute!"

"And accelerating, of course," Heath added.In five minutes-five days to the orrery-the thing had moved an astonis.h.i.+ng distance.Vasilisa saw it first "Matka Bozhye," she muttered. "See? See?"For another instant, Ben did not, but then he got it."Oh, s.h.i.+t," Maclaurin swore.They continued to watch for the next quarter of an hour, but by then they all knew.

When the object b.u.mped into the model of the Earth with a metallic ping, none of them were surprised.

"There is still one inscription unaccounted for," Maclaurin said. He had just retrieved the model and was looking it over more thoroughly. "Just two numbers, and no symbols at all-nine and zero."

That nagged something in Ben's head, but he could not remember what.

"It's the object's dimensions," Stirling offered.

"Possible." Maclaurin shrugged. "Though how can something na' a dimension of zero?

In any event, I'm goin' up't' the observatory. I want't' ken if that thing is really out there or if this is all some part of Sir Isaac's illness. Heath, would you a.s.sist?"

"Of course. Stirling?"

The astronomer shook his head. "I need to consider this. Perhaps if we tell Halley-"

"Halley? Are you daft?"

"No one knows more about comets and their kin," Stirling replied stubbornly.

"James, I do' na' ha' the power to forbid you, but I beg you not to tell Halley of this until we ha' better proof and can substantiate that Sir Isaac made the discovery. One thing we do' na' need in the present climate is another priority dispute."

"Halley would never-"

"I know that, but Sir Isaac must na' get it into his head that even the possibility exists."

"Consider, also," Voltaire inserted, "that since this discovery represents a potential danger to the Crown, this information may actually aid Halley and his cronies in impounding the orrery-and perhaps the afflnascope, too."

"Pardon me," Vasilisa said, her voice rising from the back of the room, "but isn't it more important that Earth is soon to be bombarded by a comet? I for one would like to contact my emba.s.sy and warn them."

"Warn them?" Heath said. "Warn them of what? Such bodies strike the Earth every day."

"This one appears considerably larger than most, Heath."

"But of course the simulacrum is exaggerated in size."

"Yes, still, it must be quite large. Suppose it were a few hundred thousand feet in diameter? Such a ma.s.s, with the velocity it has-"

"I know that. But we know that only the tiniest part of our planet is inhabited. The odds that this comet will strike anyplace of import are pa.s.sing small."

"That may be," Maclaurin interceded, "and the orrery is too crude a device to show us where it will strike. But a few hours with the affinascope, and a bit of time calculating, and I'm sure I can discover where it will fall to within a gross region, anyway. Shouldn't you wait at least for that, Vasilisa, to avoid alarming your people?"

Vasilisa, for the first time since Ben had met her, looked somewhat dour. "I will wait a day, no longer. Colin, this comet will fall in less than a week!"

"I ken that. Heath is probably right, however. This is likely't' be an event of stupendous scientific consequence, but of little danger, save to perhaps some unlucky savages in South America or the Islands of Solomon."

Vasilisa seemed unconvinced, though she finally nodded. "Very well," she replied. "I'm going for a walk."

"Vasilisa, please-"

"Ben will accompany me," she snapped, "to a.s.sure that I do not act the spy."

Maclaurin sighed. "Do' na' be absurd, Vasilisa. Of course we trust you."

"Of course. Nevertheless, Benjamin, if you would not mind?"

To Ben's relief, Vasilisa didn't walk even generally west-toward the foreign emba.s.sies -but turned pointedly east and south into the city.

For five minutes or so, neither of them said anything.

"Take my arm, Ben," Vasilisa requested softly. He offered it, though it felt stiff, tightened by the knotted muscles in his chest and stomach.

"Do you have any questions about last night, Ben?" Vasilisa asked him.

"Why did it happen, Mrs. Karevna?" he asked.

"I think you can safely call me Vasilisa, now," she said. "It happened, Ben, because I

like you, and because we had been drinking, and because I like that sort of thing." .