Page 22 of Measure of the Stars

Someone was already waiting for them on the porch of the old house as they approached.He was a genteel middle-aged man with the light brown skin and dark eyes of someone from northern Katoikos, and he was dressed in trousers, a dark tunic, and fine black gloves with bright gold buttons.He sat up when he saw them, and Wes slowed as he realized that his chair had wheels.It was an invention Wes had only seen a handful of times on shore leave in Kallistos, but this one seemed less bulky and cumbersome.The man propelled himself forward on the chair with hand cranks near the arm rests, coming to a stop only a foot away from Delauney.

“Hello, there, Lane,” he said.“You’re three and a half minutes late.That’s nearly fifteen minutes better than last time.Come in and I’ll show you the device.”

“Wes,” Delauney said, as the man turned his chair around without another word, “this is Fern.Fern, this is—”

“Wes,” Fern said, without looking back.“Yes, I heard.Is he another astronomer?”

Wes gave Delauney a pointed look.Anotherastronomer?Did Delauney have an interest in the stars?Surely Wes would have noticed by now.

“No, no, he’s a friend.”Delauney trotted ahead, keeping pace with Fern.“Is it done?”

“Of course it is.I told you it would be.Come in and don’t make yourself at home,” he added, pausing to push open his door.“I have apprentices sleeping upstairs and the cats have their routines.”

Wes cautiously stepped into the house.It was spacious and tidy, organized in a way that was clearly meant to fit Fern and his chair, with books and shelves all at reasonable heights and a wide work table with a much more comfortable, padded seat.Little devices and tools lay in neat, meticulously-labeled trays, and Wes couldn’t help but appreciate the order that went into such a space.It was like looking into his future, where everything would have its own, designated spot.

An enormous, three-legged black cat hopped out from under the work table, regarded Wes, and cried softly.

“Yes, I know,” Fern said.“They’ll be gone soon enough.”

Several other cats roused from their hiding spots as they moved through the house, watching Wes and Delauney with an unsettling intelligence in their wide eyes.One of them, a large orange cat with a striped tail, hopped onto Fern’s lap as he passed and started kneading his legs.

“How many cats do you have?”Wes asked.

“Not enough,” Fern said.

“You know, we have this man on the ship.”Wes bent to hold a hand out to a sleek tabby, who hopped to bump its forehead head against him.“Gregory.He quite likes cats, too.”

Fern interrupted him with a cry of disgust.If he were a dominant, Wes would have probably dropped to his knees. “You mean thetraitor,” he said.Too late, Wes caught Delauney making furtive gestures over Fern’s shoulder.“If you see that no-good, back-stabbingscoundrelof a man again, tell him that I’mnotthinking of him and I’llneverforgive him.”

“Sir?”A girl who couldn’t have been older than fourteen peered out from the loft over the first floor.She was in a Gerakian-style nightgown, traditionally dyed black to summon the god of dreams.“If this is about Gregory again, you know that he was just looking after you.”

“Go to bed, Serafina,” Fern said.“You have lessons tomorrow.”

“Yes, but he was so nice,” Serafina said.Fern scoffed again.

“Nice!Imagine this, young man,” he said, turning on Wes.“I’d shared the diagrams of an invention to Gregoryin confidence,and he went behind my back to register it with the Gerakian patents office in my name!”

“And now you get two-hundred silvers a year,” Serafina said.“And ten coppers every time someone makes a new model.”

“Bed!”Fern demanded.“It’s the principle of the thing.He could haveasked.”

“Fern,” Delauney said, a little desperately.“The device?”

“Oh.Right.Yes.”Fern paused to scratch the cat in his lap.“It’s next to the window.I tried to keep to your specifications, but your handwriting is terrible, Lane.Ifyou’dlike to file a patent, let me know and we can sign a contract.”

“It’s just a variation,” Delauney said, rushing to the window.Wes followed him, still reeling from the knowledge that Gregory had some connection with the irritable inventor.He’d been under the impression that Gregory didn’t care for people at all.

The device Delauney had commissioned looked a little like a telescope someone had split in two and angled in different directions, with a funny series of prisms and mirrors placed seemingly at random.It didn’t seem to have any practical use to Wes, but it was clearly well-made, because Delauney was cooing over it like a newborn child.

“It’s magnificent,” Delauney said.

“I set it up so that you can test different chemicals,” Fern said as Delauney examined it, “and it works well enough at night if there aren’t too many lights nearby.”

“I could marry you,” Delauney said.

“Please don’t.”Despite his curt, stern tone, Fern was smiling.“Will this answer your questions?”

“Possibly,” Delauney said.He seemed to have forgotten that Wes was even there.“Quite possibly.Can I test it?”