Starquake.pdf

"An Elder from your clan has arrived to approve the final scrollwork," Sabin-Salk said. "If you will
follow along behind, I will spread the way to my office."
06:58:06 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050
Zero-Gauss had left the faculty dining compound after a nourishing turnfeast and headed for her
underground magnetic-field-free laboratory. She passed by some students who stopped their
conversation to allow their treads to listen to her. She seemed to be simultaneously talking to herself and
emitting squeaks.
"I have a delicious piece of baked Flow Slow egg for you. I wiped off most of the sauce so it shouldn't
be too hot," she said as she formed a manipulator, reached into a holding pouch to extract the tasty
morsel, then put the manipulator into another pouch. As the orifice of the pouch opened, a fuzzy little
Slink hatchling tried to climb out, but was distracted by the sight of the food. It grabbed it eagerly and
tried to stuff it all into its too-small eating pouch.
"A little too big for you, Poofsie?" she asked. Her manipulator sliced the bit of egg into smaller pieces,
which were greedily devoured by the hungry hatchling. She closed the orifice just enough to keep the
animal inside while allowing a small hole so he could keep a few eyes waving about outside to see where
they were going.
She entered a small compound that was the,top of her unique research facility, which contained
subcompounds for her office and those of her graduate students. A second com-
pound a short distance away contained the machinery that operated the underground machinery and
provided the cooling for the simulated sky hanging beneath the strong superconducting roof of the
laboratory. The second compound had a very unusual structure in one corner—arectangular box made of
thick metal with a door in one end and a covering over the top.
She went to her office and glanced through her computer net mail. There was nothing important, so she
paid a visit to a compound containing two of her graduate students.
"How are the plants doing, Careful-Mover?" she asked one student.
"We did have one fountain plant die," Careful-Mover replied. "It shot seeds all over the room as it did
so. But it had lasted 46 turns, which is close to a record."
"Did you get all the seeds picked up?" Zero-Gauss asked.
"Yes. And in the process, Fuzzy-Crust and I found another 'hot spot' in one corner," said
Careful-Mover.
"Is it bad?" Zero-Gauss asked. "I'd hate to have to go through the process of pumping out the whole lab
again so soon."
"It was 100 gauss right on top of the hot spot," Careful-Mover answered. "But it's quite small, and a few