Quan, she discovered, was on theground looking up at them.
The tower, she discovered, had beentransformed.
She wasn’t certain what it had beenconverted to, but … something a little bizarre.
And oddly familiar.
It looked rather more like a watertower now than the microwave tower it had been—except that therewasn’t actually a tank on the top—just the shape of one and a goodbit of extra wiring.
Quan flicked a look at her and did adouble take.
“You should not behere.”
Ultima looked at him with dawningindignation.
“They dropthings.”
“Oh,” she responded,feeling deflated as she moved back a few yards. “Why are youstanding under it, then?”
He smiled faintly. “It is my job.Today. I attach the things they need to the cable, or the thingsthey drop, and then pull this side to send it up.”
“What are we building?”she asked curiously.
Something flickered in his eyes, butapparently he decided to let her in on the secret project. “A powerplant and transmitting station.”
Ultima gaped at him blankly. Theanswer had thrown her into a complete state of chaos as her mindwent wild with conjecture. But doubt surged almost immediately tothe forefront.
What in the world were they going todo with a power station?
It wasn’t as if there was much ofanything that ran on electricity that was left.
And nothing that immediately came tomind that would run on electricity that even might have some effectin stopping the war of alien aggression.
“What are y’all going touse to generate the power?” she asked finally.
He was busy hauling something up usingthe cable and didn’t answer her until it had been secured at thetop. “It is a Tesla Power Plant. It will get the energy from theplanet.”
That jolted through her hard enough itactually shook a memory loose. “I’ve heard about him!” She frowned.“I didn’t think they ever actually successfully built one,though.”
“Your people did not. Butours did.”
That comment really rocked her back onher heels. “I’m lost,” she said finally. “How would your peopleknow about something that was never actually invented here—excepton paper?”
“Thecollective.”
She was still lost for a time, but aniggling thought finally surfaced and she recalled that she’d readthat several geniuses in Earth’s past had claimed to be able to tapinto a ‘universal collective intelligence’ and that it had inspiredthem and helped them with some of their greatestachievements.
“So … you’re saying it wasinvented by your people, not Tesla?”
He chuckled. “It was inspired by thecollective. I am not certain anyone can claim it as solelytheirs.”
Ultima was still doubtful, but it wasclear from the way they were working that they knew what they weredoing.
Or at least appeared to.
“So … we have a weaponthat requires electricity?”
“We have you.”
