Tevis had been around for billions of years, silently orbiting Renal. Some scientists had thought there might be life there, but that had never been proved or disproved.
If a mountain or the river disappears, that's much closer to home...
Beyond the wide picture windows and curtain of tall pines, the river eddied quiet and green around a slight bend. To the west, white clouds rolled inland, their bottoms heavy and grey.
In the kitchen, amid hanging copper pots and pans, Raven cracked eggs into an iron skillet on the broad gas stove.
"We've known each other for thirty years," he said bringing out two plates of scrambled eggs and sausage and laying one on the thick oak table before his friend. "We don't see nearly enough of each other."
"That's why we've been friends for so long." Harry tapped the end of his fork lightly on the tabletop. "This air," he said. "Makes me feel like thirty years ago was when I last ate. What a refuge."
"Your cramping my sentimentality," Raven said, returning to the kitchen for a pitcher of orange juice.
"The sausages...?"
"Uteran National."
"God Bless." Harry dug into the fluffy yellow pile on the round stoneware plate. Raven sat down across from him.
"How do you ever get any work done here? I prefer concrete cells. Helps the concentration."
"You slept well."
"I snore, Raven, whether I sleep well or not."
Raven smiled. "And you call yourself an outdoorsman, a fisherman." He cut the tip from a sausage and lifted it to his mouth. "Between consulting and reeducating myself, I've been trying to write a book about the previous administration. Haven't even seriously started on chapter one. I'm not sure how to describe what happened. What a wonderful tragic comedy it all was."
"That administration did give science more credibility than any president since... Well," Harry said, "since." He lifted one hand and splayed his fingers.
"I'm hoping Crokerman-"
"That name. A president."
"May not be so bad. He's part of the reason I invited you out here."
Harry raised a bushy eyebrow. The two were as much a contrast as any classic comedy team - Raven tall and slightly stooped, his brown hair naturally tousled; Harry of medium height and stocky to the edge of plumpness in his middle years, with a high forehead and a friendly, wide-eyed expression, that made him seem older than he was.
"The bureau is being revived. In a way."
"Crockerman's reviving Betsy?"
"Not as such." The Bureau of Extraterrestrial Communication - BETC or 'Betsy' for short - had been Raven's last hurrah in the capital. He had served as science advisor and Secretary of BETC for three years under the previous administration, who had appointed him after the incident 8 years previous. It had turned out to be a false alarm, but they had kept Raven on until the presidents assasination in Tuscow City the previous year. Vice President Cockerman had been sworn in on a train in Tuscow, and had immediatly moved to place his own stamp on the Capital, replacing most of the cabinet with his own choices. Three months after the swearing-in, the new chief of staff had told Raven, "No little green men, no vanished ships... might as well go home, Mr. Shadowclaw"
"is he going to make you science advisor?" Harry asked. "Kick out that idiot Rotterjack?"
Raven shook his head, grinning. "He's forming a special task force."
"Astrila," Harry said, nodding sagely. He put down his glass of orange juice without taking a sip, braced as if for an assault, his eyes fixed on the salt and pepper shakers in the center of the table. "Greater Desert."
Raven was not suprised. "How much do you know?"
"I know it was found by opal prospectors and that its not supposed to be there."
"What do we have to do with it?"
"Astrila is finally asking for advice. The Prime minister is going public with a report in three days or less. He's under some pressure."
"Little green men?"
"I can't even comment on that until I've asked you the questions, Harry."
"Than ask," Harry said, still braced.
"The president has put me in charge of the civilian science investigation team. We work with the military and with state. You're my first choice."
"I'm a biochemist. That means..."