Eschaton 1 – The Other End of Time

CHAPTER TWENTY

Pat

Pat Adcock was deep in sleep when the sound of her own voice yelling jerked her awake. It didn't come from her own throat; it had to be one of the new Pats, and she jumped to a conclusion. "Is that damn Jimmy trying something?" she demanded, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

But it wasn't Jimmy Lin. It was one of the Docs, and the person shouting was Patsy, hanging by one arm from the Doc's grasp. "Damn you," she cried, shaking herself free. "Don't grab a person like that!"

The Doc hesitated, glancing at a second Doc standing stolidly by. "Where's Dopey?" Pat demanded; no one answered, and he wasn't there. The second Doc, which was holding some sort of metallic object, didn't speak, of course: They never did, as far as Pat knew; perhaps couldn't. Or simply had no reason to. What it did was make a gesture, and at once the first one abandoned Patsy and casually reached out for the arm of the nearest other human-it happened to be Jimmy Lin-holding him firmly while the other jammed the object down on Lin's head.

"Hey!" Jimmy squawked in alarm, reaching up with both hands to tug it free. In vain; the Doc's grip was firm. Pat thought for a moment of trying to rescue the Chinanaut from whatever new torture the Docs had devised. She could see the thing plainly now: a sort of helmet, made of the same coppery mesh as Dopey's muff. On Jimmy's head it looked almost like a garish wig, cut along the lines of one of those flapper hairdos of the early twentieth century, what they called a "French bob," she thought. And while she waited Jimmy stopped struggling.

"Hey," he said again, sounding startled but now-astonishingly-almost pleased. "There's a Frenchman talking to me. He's saying-no, just wait a minute, I'll translate for you when he's done."

"I speak French," Rosaleen said eagerly-only the first to make the claim; she was quickly followed by all three Pats and both other men.

Jimmy waved impatiently for silence. "He isn't speaking French. He's speaking Chinese. Shut up so I can hear."

"Chinese!" Martin muttered angrily, as the two Docs left as wordlessly as they had come in. One of the Pats-Pat thought it was Patrice-complained:

"That is so inconsiderate!" Both of them were echoing Pat's own thoughts. Chinese, for God's sake! Dopey was showing even worse judgment than usual. But there was nothing to do about it but wait until Jimmy Lin was willing to talk to them.

Evidently the Frenchman's message was short. After a moment Jimmy took the helmet off and gazed at them. "Well," he said, "that was interesting. It didn't actually tell much, but- hey!" Martin had grabbed the helmet from him. Jimmy reached to take it back, but Martin fended him off and settled the thing on his own head. "Now, what's the use of doing that?" Jimmy demanded pettishly. "You aren't going to understand Chinese, Martin."

Martin said triumphantly, "He isn't speaking Chinese! He's speaking Spanish."

"But that's impossible," Jimmy protested. "He was speaking quite excellent PRC Chinese, with a well-educated accent, though there was a trace of the Beijing tones-"

"Be quiet!" Martin thundered. "I can't hear while you're making all that racket! Also, I know who this man is. I will tell you all about it if you will simply let me listen."

Looking petulant, Jimmy Lin did as ordered, but the others didn't. Under the dark eye-patches of the helmet Martin was scowling at the noise, but he said nothing more until it was over. Then he took the helmet off and held it in his hand for a moment.

"The man speaking, he is Hugues duValier. He's a navigator with Eurospace; I met him once at Kourou. What he is saying is a communication meant for everybody in the world. It sounds as though they finally got their own Starlab mission off."

"What did he say?" Dannerman demanded.

Martin shook his head. "Try it for yourself. Since he is so unexpectedly versatile, I am curious to see if perhaps this time he will speak in some language you can understand."

"Hey!" Pat cried as Martin handed the helmet to Dannerman. "What happened to alphabetical order? Who said all the men go first?"

"What happened to women's rights?" Patrice chimed in, and Patsy added:

"Oink, oink, you sexist pigs."

But Rosaleen said, "It's faster if we don't argue. Let him go; we'll all get a turn." And Dannerman placed the helmet on his head.