Part 35 (2/2)
”Besides, I'm not even sure it matters anymore,” he conceded. ”Whether angels are standard quanta
or Dr. Qhahenlo's quantum bundles, something weird has definitely happened to Angelma.s.s.”
He gestured toward the row of computer terminals on the long lab table beside them. ”I wish I could get into the files and check some of the details of her theory. I know it predicts some ma.s.s loss here, but I don't know how much.”
”Can't you do the calculation on your own?”
”This isn't like looking up the ma.s.s of a hydrogen atom or calculating a force vector,” he said. ”The mathematics involved are way too complicated to do by hand. And with my funds frozen, I don't have access to the computers.”
Chandris looked at the terminals. ”You want me to get you in?”
He threw her a startled look; suddenly seemed to remember who it was he was talking to. ”You can do that?”
”Probably,” she said, swiveling the closest terminal over into easy reach. ”Want me to try?”
For a pair of heartbeats he stared at her hands as they hovered over the terminal, a battle going on behind his eyes. She waited... ”No,” he said quietly, reaching over to take one of her hands away from the keyboard. ”We can't risk getting caught. Not now.”
His hand was cold and rigid; and as she held it, Chandris found herself looking into his face. Into those foreign eyes, into the dark tension behind them.
Earlier, waiting in the darkness of the Gazelles angel storage room, she'd thought a lot about whether confronting a Pax spy alone was really a smart thing to do. He'd persuaded her to give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but she'd been ready to chop and hop the second he showed what he was really up to.
But now, suddenly, she realized her mental preparations had been unnecessary. Kosta had no sinister private plan, because Kosta was exactly what he claimed to be: a simple academic who'd been thrown into the deep end of the tiger pit. ”Don't worry,” she said. ”I'm not going to turn you in.”
He shook his head, his gaze drifting outward into s.p.a.ce. ”I'm not worried about myself, Chandris.”
”Then what-?”
She broke off as, behind them, the door opened and Gyasi came back in. ”Well?” Kosta demanded, letting go of Chandris's hand.
”It should be finished,” Gyasi said, crossing toward them. ”See if you can pull it up.”
”Right,” Kosta said, punching at the keyboard as Gyasi slid back into the seat beside him. The numbers came up...
Gyasi muttered something under his breath. ”There it is,” he murmured. ”You were right again, Jereko.”
”It lost ma.s.s?” Chandris asked, running her eye down the numbers and trying to make sense of them.
”Ma.s.s and charge both,” Kosta told her, his voice tight. ”Almost three percent each.”
”And it lost them right through the outer ma.s.s coating,” Gyasi added. ”You know, if the angel's breaking down, the ma.s.s loss ought to show up as high-energy particles leaking through the sh.e.l.l. Let me go see if there's a radiation detector setup free.”
”Don't bother,” Kosta said. ”This isn't any spontaneous breakdown. The damage has already been done.”
”Yes,” Chandris murmured, a sudden ache in her heart as she stared at the numbers. She'd tried so hard to convince herself that the angel's presence hadn't been what had kept Hanan and Ornina working so peaceably together all these years. Apparently, that had been nothing but wishful puff-think.
”Chandris?”
She started out of her thoughts. Kosta was frowning at her. ”What?” she said, turning her face away from him.
”It's not the Daviees who did this to it,” he said quietly.
Did I say it was? the defensive retort bubbled automatically up into her throat. To her vague surprise, it stayed there. ”Then who did?” she asked instead. ”You? Me?”
”No,” Kosta said. ”Angelma.s.s.”
She turned back, half expecting to see something on his face that would show he was making some stupid joke. But his expression was deadly serious. ”What do you mean, Angelma.s.s? What does Angelma.s.s have to do with it?”
”It's the source of the angels,” Kosta said. ”Hawking radiation, remember? A particle-antiparticle pair are created at the event horizon. One falls in, the other escapes outward.”
”But there aren't any anti-angels,” Gyasi objected.
”Yes, there are,” Kosta said. His voice was firm, and just as serious as his expression. ”We just haven't found them yet. But they're there.”
He waved toward the display. ”That alone proves it, as far as I'm concerned. Dr. Qhahenlo's theory allows for both quantum bundles and field effects, remember? Angelma.s.s has a huge field-the corrosion of the Daviees' angel shows that much. If that field isn't being generated by an equally huge ma.s.s of anti-angels inside the black hole, where's it coming from?”
”Maybe from the Daviees?” Gyasi suggested. ”I don't know these people. Maybe they're-” He waved a hand helplessly.
”What, evil incarnate?” Kosta scoffed. ”Come on, Yaezon. Anyway, there's an easy way to check.
Remember that ma.s.s murderer you've got on the grounds with the angel in his cell? When was the last time that angel was checked?”
Gyasi made a face. ”It's checked every six weeks,” he conceded. ”You're right; if there'd been any change the whole Inst.i.tute would have heard about it. But if there are anti-angels, why hasn't anyone ever seen them?”
”I don't know for sure,” Kosta admitted. ”But try this. An angel has a huge negative charge, which means that as soon as it's created it starts pulling positively charged particles to it.”
”Which is what creates the matter sh.e.l.l,” Chandris put in.
”Right,” Kosta nodded. ”And the most common positive particles out there are the protons and helium nuclei from the solar wind, plus heavier particles from Angelma.s.s itself.”
Gyasi muttered something startled sounding. ”Of course. Of course.””Of course what?” Chandris demanded, looking back and forth between them.”Anti-angels would be positively charged,” Gyasi told her, his voice the sour tone of someone who's just failed a child's brain-tweaker. ”That means they would be pulling mostly electrons. And
electrons, being a lot lighter than protons, will get yanked in to it that much faster.”
”Which means an anti-angel could go neutral so fast that your average hunters.h.i.+p would never even see it,” Kosta concluded.
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