Hyperthought (26 page)

Me, I’m leading an expedition to Java to find those old Belahan carvings. What else could I do? Jin asked me personally. He said we need original footage. He said computer generation won’t do. He said, “I need you, pet,” and he looked me right in the eye. Am I the girl who could say no to that?

So I’m pulling together a recording crew and wrestling with the problem of operating holo-cams 100 meters deep in the broiling hot ocean. Mes dieux, but it’s Jolie’s Trips all over again. You can’t see the floor of my sleep cube. It’s stacked half a meter deep in gear, and I find myself singing all the time. The universe can’t stand still? D’accord.