Part 9 (1/2)

”All the towns, though drifting near fis.h.i.+ng reefs or sea mounts, were in essentially open ocean. The biggest quake on this world might shatter someplace stable like Mou'anui, but it would send only a swell rippling under the floating towns. They're immune to quakes.”

”You said you found pieces of the polymer sec- tions?”

”Yes. Shattered and torn. Not only sections of the town foundations but buildings, equipment, structures;

but not a single body. Not one corpse. Either the cause of the destruction has a ghoulish nature, or it's a red

herring. True, corpses will eventually sink, or be taken by the numerous scavenger species, but it does seem unlikely that not one out of twenty-five hundred has been found.”

”Did all the wreckage show similar damage, the effect of identical forces?” Merced was making notes on a recorder.

”Everything was just-splintered.” Mataroreva shrugged enormous shoulders.

”You've been out to the sites?” Rachael asked the question respectfully.

”No, but I've seen the tridee tapes that were brought back.”

”There was no sign of melt-down in the debris?”

Mataroreva looked approvingly back at Merced. ”I know what you're thinking. No, no meltage. No in- dication of the use of energy weapons. The polymer sections would show that for sure. We discarded that possibility long ago.”

”Then you've discarded weaponry as a cause?”

”No, of course not. We have our own specialists working on sections of broken buildings and raft, on the chance that a more exotic variety of weapon might have been used. But the molecular structure of the polymer fragments is unaltered. That rules out, for example, the use of supercryogenics, which could freeze the material and cause it to fragment.”

”What about ultrasonics? That could produce a similar effect without affecting structure.”

Mataroreva threw him a peculiar look. ”I thought you were all just oceanographers.”

”Physics is only a hobby.” Merced sounded apolo- getic.

”Sure. Yes, I suppose that's a possible explanation.

But I've been told by our local peaceforcer computer that in order for ultrasonics to produce that kind of universal destruction, a different frequency setting would have to be used for each element of the town.

42.

CACHALOT.

CACHALOT.

43.

One for the polymers, one for the stelamic walls, an- other for seacane furniture, and so on. Practically every object of any size that was recovered was in pieces. It seems incredible that an attacker could have enough weaponry or could adjust frequencies rapidly enough to obliterate everything before counteraction could be taken.”

”They wouldn't have to destroy everything,” Merced argued. ”All they'd have to do is jam or eliminate a town's communications. Then they could proceed with methodical annihilation under cover of the storm.

You said your satellite system was sophisticated. Can't it monitor the towns through a few clouds?”

”Certain energy weapons, yes, they'd be detected if used. That's one of the things that has contributed to the frustration. Our satellites have given us nothing in the way of explanatory information. It seems self- evident that there are weapons which can operate without being detected.”