Part 39 (1/2)
”I think I know where their stupid door is,” she murmured, wheeling her chair away from the drafting table to her desktop screen and calling up a world map. ”I just can't believe no one's noticed before now.”
Like all the information on the gate, she had the location where the gate was in geosynchronous...o...b..t over the Earth's equator. She found the point and zoomed in. ”It's so simple. Pittsburgh is on Elfhome because the gate projects the veil effect down through the Earth, where the magnetic core bends it, kind of like a prism bends light, thus. .h.i.tting Pittsburgh on the other side of the planet.”
Only partially under the gate was a tiny island surrounded by ocean. She laughed. ”Of all the dumb luck, a few more feet and their gate would have been totally in open water.”
Pony peered at the island for several minutes before saying, ”I don't understand. How can this open to Onihida, and this,” he pointed to the other side of the world, ”open to Elfhome?”
”That's the simple part. The Earth core is acting as a lens.”
”Pardon?”
She closed the incriminating map and opened a scratch file. ”Look, here's Earth with the core in the center. This side is the China Sea, and the other side, up here, is Pittsburgh. The gate orbits over the sea. The veil effect comes down a cylindrical shape, but the core acts like a lens. That means the veil is 'flipped.' ” Seeing Pony's blank look, ”You see things because light comes down and reflects off it. So if you have a tree, the light comes from the sun, hits the trees, and reflects to your eye.”
He nodded. ”Yes, I know this.”
”But if you hold a gla.s.s lens up between you and the tree, the light is bent by the lens. The top of the tree is bent to the bottom, and the bottom is bent to the top, so the image is flipped.”
Pony pointed to the tree. ”Onihida.” And tapped the upside-down image. ”Elfhome.”
”Yes. That simple. For twenty years, every Shutdown and Startup, that tropical island has been going to Onihida and back, and no one has noticed.”
”Or noticed and the oni killed them.”
”Yes, that too.”
Pony pointed then to the gate in orbit. ”Whatever you do-build the oni a gate or not-means little while that exists. That is the true prison door hanging open.”
The carpenters tried to quit after dinner, but she tracked Riki down in the ocean of sawdust with shoals of ma.s.sive timbers and littered with the flotsam of cut ends.
”Tell them that they can't leave,” she said.
”They've been working for like ten hours.”
”They can work until they drop,” Tinker growled. ”Tell them to get back to work.”
”They're tired.”
”I don't care! If I'm going to meet Tomtom's deadline, then everyone everyone is going to have to work until they drop.” is going to have to work until they drop.”
”Be reasonable.”
”Your people started this. I'm just going to finish it. Tell them to go back to work or I'll take a crowbar to them.”
Riki winced. ”Okay, okay, I'll get them back to work.”
Only Tomtom's appearance at midnight kept the carpenters from revolting. The carpenters would jerk to a stop, bow low, and get waved back to work, which they did with stunning enthusiasm. No, no-no slackers here. Tinker shut files on her desktop as he closed in on her office.
”It looks nearly complete.” Tomtom motioned to the ma.s.sive circle of wood taking form.
”The frame work is getting there,” Tinker said. ”It's still a long way to go on this gate. Once we finish here, the carpenters can start work on the second gate. The frame itself will be identical, so the crew will need less guidance-I need Riki here with me.”
”Hanno.” Tomtom c.o.c.ked his head. ”Second gate?”
Tinker picked up evidence A. ”Well, you've got enough material here for two gates, maybe three. I just a.s.sumed that you were building more than one-since the gate size is limited by the roof.”
”A second gate,” Tomtom said slowly.
”I haven't had a chance to look over the area.” Tinker indicated the buildings around them. ”I recommend you keep the two gates as far apart as possible; there might be possible interference between the two. Besides, it would prevent bottleneck.”
”Bottleneck?”
”Traffic jams.” Tinker turned to Riki as he arrived from the other side of the warehouse. ”Riki, can you explain 'bottleneck' to him?”
Riki looked puzzled, but launched into Oni, pus.h.i.+ng his hands together to ill.u.s.trate two forces colliding together. Tomtom's reply made Riki jerk around to stare at her. ”A second gate?”
”Doh!” she said.
Riki looked at her in blank confusion.
”The framework for a second gate might go faster.” She ignored Riki to focus on Tomtom. ”But the rest of it will take the same amount of time, and I won't be able to start it until after this one is done. The schematics will need to be tailored to the location and orientation and various other deciding factors.”
”Riki can not do them?” Tomtom said.
Tinker shook her head. ”No more than he can do this one.”
Tomtom turned to Riki for verification.
Riki looked at her strangely. ”No. I can't. I'm still not grasping how the gate works. I have no clue what the next step will even be.”
Tomtom accepted the truth. ”Fine, we will have a second gate, on the other side of the compound.”
The carpenter foreman came up to grovel and beg.
Tomtom laughed, showing sharp cat teeth. ”As eager as you are, I can not have you slave-driving my people. It would reflect poorly on me. Everyone quits for the night. Even you.”
Twenty days left.
Just stay focused, Tinker told herself but found she eyed the clock often as the numbers jumped through the hours of the day at despairing speed.
Chiyo appeared at the workshop late in the morning, with head high and hard stares at anyone glancing at her. Of the mating, there was no outward sign. The kitsune, however, radiated hostility like a steel blast furnace. The looks she gave Tinker s.h.i.+fted Pony from nearly invisible behind Tinker to between the two females. Unfortunately, he could do nothing about Chiyo's illusions; since the kitsune no longer needed to keep her mental abilities secret, she began torturing Tinker with them.
”Does she have to be here?” Tinker asked Riki later after reacting to the third giant illusionary spider.
”She's the only one besides me and Tomtom that speaks English, Elvish, and Oni.”
”Fine.” Tinker resolved herself to factoring numbers, and occasional remembrances of a nasty brush with a steel spinner-anyone that could do spiders that creepy had to be scared of them. ”I've done some research. Normally you'd lay down ceramic tiles onto a backer board, but we can't do this here. In s.p.a.ce they used these brackets. We're going to have to modify the brackets, since they were designed to connect to the framing with these connectors.” Tinker showed him the hooks, and then tossed them over her shoulder. ”Can't use those.”