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." The ones forTsogot had Tauran resting frames as well as human chairs.When the sheriff showed up he brought along Mark Talos, who had worked withthe phone system in Centrus, and was pretty fluent in Standard."They don't pick up everything from Earth all the time," he said."That wouldbe insane and probably impossible.But there's one frequency they do monitorand record all the time.It's basically an ongoing archive.Important messagescome and go by way of the collapsar drone, but this one is basically `Here'swhat happened on Earth eighty-eight years ago today.' "He stepped up to the console and studied it."Ah, Monitor 1." He flipped aswitch and there was a rapid, high-pitched flow of the language they callStandard."So the one under it is Monitor 2?""Not exactly.More like `1A'." He turned off the first one and clicked on 1A.Nothing."I'd guess that it talks to the collapsar drone, and maybe to peoplewho go back and forth.That might be done at the spaceport, though.""Can we send a message to Earth?" Marygay asked."Sure.But you'll be.we'll all be pretty old by the time it gets there." Hewaved at the chair."Just sit down and push the red button in front, the onethat says HIN/HAN.Then press it again when you're done.""Let me write down the message first." She took my hand."We'll all take alook at it and make sure it has everything.""They're probably getting pretty curious," Mark said."Oh, yeah?" I said."Where are they, then?" I looked at the sheriff."Are humans that unimportantin the scheme of things? That we could suddenly disappear, and they don't evenbother to send a ship to check?"Page 82ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Well, they'd still be getting radio from--""Eighty-eight years ago, but bullshit! Don't they think that twenty-four yearswithout an urgent message, via collapsar jump, might be cause for concern? Wesend several a year.""I can't speak for them--""I thought you were a group fucking mind!""William." Marygay said.The sheriff's mouth was set in a familiar line."We don't know that theyhaven't responded.If they came and found what we have found, they wouldn'tnecessarily stay.Why would they stay? We weren't due back for another fortythousand years.""That's true, sorry." It still bothered me."But they wouldn't come all theway here, take a look around, and go back without leaving a sign.""We don't know they haven't left a sign," Marygay said."It would probably beout at the spaceport.""Or maybe here.""If so, it's not obvious," Mark said.He stepped to the next station."Want totry Tsogot?""Yeah, let's do it while the sheriff's here.He knows more Tauran than we do."file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ha.0Forever%20War%2002%20-%20Forever%20Free.txt (83 of 114) [7/12/2004 12:54:35 PM]file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Haldeman,%20Joe%20-%20Forever%20War%2002%20-%20Forever%20Free.txtHe clicked a few switches and shook his head.Turned a dial up and the roomfilled with a roar of white noise."That's all they're sending," he said."A dead line?" I asked, suspecting the answer."Nothing wrong with thecircuit," he said slowly."Just an open mike at the other end.""So the same thing happened there," the sheriff said, and corrected himself."May have happened.""Is it continuously recorded?" I asked."Yeah.If it stops 3.1 years after the big day, then it's compelling evidence.I can check that out." He turned off the white noise and fiddled with somedials.He slid a Tauran keyboard out of the way and a human one took itsplace."Think I can make it go fast-forward here." A small screen gave him date andtime, about eight years ago, and he turned the sound back up.Tauran chattergot faster and faster, more high-pitched, and then suddenly stopped."Yep.Same time, about.""There and here and where else?" I said."Maybe Earth didn't send anybody herebecause there's nobody there."--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter twenty-fourThe next week was too busy with practical matters to allow much time or energyfor mystery.We were keeping the same leadership until things settled down, soI was pretty occupied with the business of turning this corner of a ghost towninto a functional town.People wanted to roll up their sleeves and get the farms started, but ourimmediate needs were power, water, and sanitation.Another vehicle or twowouldn't hurt, either, but nothing turned up in the first search.The solar power plant the university maintained outside of the city limits wasevidently for teaching, thank goodness, rather than research.It wasn'tworking, but that was because it hadn't been completely reassembled for thenth generation of engineering students.I took a mechanic and an engineer outthere, and after we found the plans, it only took us a day to reconstruct itPage 83ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmland two days to carefully take it apart.Then we moved the pieces to the dormitory and reassembled it on the roof, andstarted charging fuel cells.People weren't too happy about all of theelectricity going into batteries when it could be giving them light and heat,but first things first.(My mother and father were always talking about "powerto the people." A good thing they weren't here to agitate.)We got two delivery vans running--I guess we should have called them"scavenger" vans--and raided a plumbing supply depot and a hardware store forthe things we needed to get running water in the dorm.We basically pumpedwater from the river, presumably clean, up to a collapsible swimming pool onthe roof, which served as a holding tank.That gave us gravity-fed plumbingfor the kitchen and the dormitory's first floor, complete with hot water,since it was only a matter of finding the right adapters to run the waterthrough a heater.Still no toilets, since the dorm used conventional "flashand ash" disposal, completely sanitary but requiring truly huge amounts ofpower.There wasn't enough water to convert to the ancient kind of plumbing Igrew up with, andI don't know what you could safely do with the effluent anyhow.I remember bigsewage plants, butI'm not sure how they did what they did.So we kept using slit latrines, asimple design from an army manual, and Sage was researching for more permanentsolutions.file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ha.0Forever%20War%2002%20-%20Forever%20Free.txt (84 of 114) [7/12/2004 12:54:35 PM]file:///D|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Haldeman,%20Joe%20-%20Forever%20War%2002%20-%20Forever%20Free
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