The crates were packed mostly with straw, their cargo being a few dozen pieces of blown glass filled with intricate contrivances of metal. Marikesh had made several of the specialized valves with her own paws, but the majority were purchased from artisans in Taleb.
As the years of war between Ange and Taleb had dragged on, it had become increasingly obvious that Taleb had achieved some kind of breakthrough in radio. The republic's warships were small, slow and old-fashioned, crewed by citizen-volunteers of indifferent skill. They should have been no match for the exquisitely designed and professionally handled warships of Ange's Imperial Navy, and yet Taleb had dominated in the naval engagements of the war. The War Council had decided that the secret couldn't be kept for much longer, and that there was more to gain for Taleb to reveal it now than could be gleaned from the little time that was left before its discovery.
Marikesh ignored the slate writing boards that lined the walls of the observatory. In Ange, it was customary to lecture to a silent, seated audience, and Marikesh had suffered through many such presentations. Instead, she stood at the center of a knot of scholars, writing her equations on the floor with a lump of chalk stuck into a socket at the end of her staff, erasing with her feet. Instead of lecturing, she asked questions, singling out and confronting individuals of her audience and pulling the new mathematics out of them by sheer force of logic. That was how she had been taught, as were all students of Taleb. It was a brutal style of discourse made famous, or perhaps infamous, by Pandos herself.
When she was satisfied the other scholars would be able to understand its basic principles, she began assembling her device on a clever folding table the lieutenants had set up for her. She placed each globe of glass onto little brass tripods, and set up a wooden lattice above them. Then, she carefully wove wires of drawn gold through the lattice and tied them to the silvered copper studs on the valves. There were several important stages to the construction, and she brought the group back to the equations as she built each part of the apparatus. Finally, she opened the jars of volcanic distillates and connected the terminals. The globes began to glow as they warmed up, and Marikesh tied off the wires the lieutenant had tossed down from the roof of the observatory.
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"Now, here is where we get to see what mistakes I've made today,'' she said, hoping for a bit of camaraderie with her fellow scholars. There were a few dry chuckles, but most of her audience had retreated into a stunned, wide-eyed silence. She closed the final connection, and the apparatus began to emit a horrible screeching sound. The audience startled at the unpleasant noise, but most gathered closer to see more clearly.
"The size of the tuning reservoir can be changed by turning these plates,'' she said, indicating an object with a small crank. She began turning the crank, and the sound began to change in bizarre ways. It hissed, screeched, whooped and boomed.
"Most of what you are hearing is from vibrations in the upper atmosphere. There is a sort of invisible weather up there, driven by the sun and by Vo's magnetic field.'' Then, from the howling chaos, there was suddenly a voice.
"...eight seven seven one zero mark zero eight two. This is a tsunami advisory for Taleb harbor. Repeat, this is a tsunami advisory for Taleb harbor. The Taleb Marine Observation Fleet reports that an eruption has occurred at Kaskari Seamount today at the knees of the third hour of the second watch. The eruption has triggered a category three tsunami. It will reach Taleb at the shoulders of the first hour of the fifth watch. Message digest nine two zero three six eight seven seven one zero mark zero eight two. This is a tsunami advisory for Taleb harbor...''
Marikesh held her breath for a moment as she waited. She had been expecting a weather report, but this would work better for her purposes.
"...This is a tsunami advisory for Ange harbor and environs. Repeat, this is a tsunami advisory for Ange harbor and environs. The Taleb Marine Observation Fleet reports that an eruption has occurred at Kaskari Seamount today at the knees of the third hour of the second watch, Taleb local time. The eruption has triggered a category three tsunami. It will reach Ange at the eyes of the third hour of the fourth watch, Ange local time. Message digest two six zero one zero zero nine eight mark one three six. This is a tsunami advisory for Ange harbor and environs...''
"That is in less than an hour,'' noted one of the Ange astronomers. Two tsunamis had hammered Ange since Marikesh had arrived, so she was familiar with their procedures.
"We should notify the harbormaster,'' she said.
Messages were sent down to the harbormaster, who was skeptical but disinclined to gamble with people's lives. The harbor was made safe, and for fifteen minutes it seemed that the whole city looked askance at Marikesh and the other Talebi visitors. Then the sea began to withdraw. The surface dropped to the alarm buoys, and it was eerie to listen to their mournful clanging without leaping to action.