Read Online Energized by Edward M. Lerner - Free Book Online

across the road. Boldly lettered signs announced DIESELS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT and TURN OFF YOUR DIGITAL CAMERAS . A well-trodden footpath circumvented the gate and he kept going. By the time he spotted the Jupiter sign, the first big antenna had caught his interest. It had a descriptive sign, too. The dish was forty-five feet across! How big were the antennas in the distance?
    Marcus understood the scale of the solar system—intellectually. Hiking it, even at a 1:3,000,000,000 scale, was something else again. Pluto and the last of the big dishes were still more than a mile away. He turned around without ever seeing the sign for Uranus.
    *   *   *
    Valerie’s office in the Jansky Lab overlooked the parking lot, and she glanced out her window whenever she heard a car. First-time visitors tended to arrive very early or very late. No one’s intuition about the drive was any good until they had made the trip once. Twice cars came, and both times technicians she knew got out. A third car brought one of her grad students.
    Rapt in her work she must have missed a car, because the next time she checked outside a man wearing a suit and tie was striding toward the building. Looking down from the second floor, she could not see his face, but it had to be Judson. No one but govvies dressed so formally, and then only on a first visit.
    Scientists dressed casually. Today she wore jeans, a random T-shirt, and a plaid flannel overshirt. When the Nobel Committee called, she would shop for a dress. Maybe.
    Shutting her office door behind her, Valerie bounded down the stairs. The man with the charcoal suit was in reception, signing for a visitor badge. “Marcus?” she called out.
    The man turned, and she recognized the face from last week’s conversation. Judson, all right.
    He had clear blue eyes, wavy black hair (at the moment wind-stirred) gone gray at the temples, a strong jaw, and, despite the early hour, hints of a five o’clock shadow. A bit guarded in his expression, perhaps, but fair enough: she had been less than forthcoming. Forty or so, she estimated. Not Hollywood handsome, but handsome enough. Not that that mattered. He was about six two and broad shouldered. Maybe a few pounds over his ideal weight, but he carried it well. Other than overdressed, he seemed, all in all, like an everyday sort of guy.
    â€œI’m Marcus,” he agreed, extending his hand. “Hello, Valerie.”
    â€œThanks for coming.” She hesitated. This was a person in front of her, not some bureaucratic abstraction.
    But neither were powersats abstractions.
    â€œValerie?” he prompted.
    â€œRight.” She took his hand, casting off her doubts. “Welcome to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, NRAO. We’ll start with a tour. The things we need to discuss will make more sense with some background.”
    â€œWhat else have you planned?”
    â€œThe weekly technical lunch discussion among the professional staff, always fascinating, and we’ll wrap up with a quiet conversation in my office.” A long and pointed conversation.
    â€œOkay. Lead on.”
    Following her outside, he seemed surprised at her beat-up old Volkswagen Jetta.
    â€œBecause it’s a diesel model,” she explained. “We only take bikes and diesels near the dishes. Anything else would mean RF from spark plugs or electric motors. And the older the car, the better. New cars have electrical everything, from locks to clocks to seat positioners. Makes them noisy.”
    â€œThe instruments are that sensitive?”
    Wait till you see the dishes up close, she thought. A short drive brought them to the internal gate. She got out of the car to swipe her ID badge through the reader. Just past the gate, she pulled onto the shoulder. “That’s one of our smaller telescopes. Forty-five feet across.”
    â€œI know. I walked around for a bit.”
    â€œHow far did you