blinked. âYouâre right. I hadnât thought of it that way before.â
Rossâs expression eased into genuine interest. Encouraged, Jennie went on. âMia designs and builds things, and prospectors . . . what do you do? How do you get into those ruins? How do you even find them?â
âMaps. Old stories.â He spoke slowly, but with a tentative confidence. âIf you get up high, you can see ruins, sometimes.â
âGo on,â Jennie said, smiling.
Ross flicked a glance at Mia, who nodded encouragingly. âBut even if theyâre buried, the way the plants are growing can show you thereâs something underneath. As for getting in, you can dig if theyâre not too deep. If itâs a collapsed structure, you have to shore it up so it wonât fall on you. Sometimes you have to blast your way in.â
âHow do you do that without blowing up the whole thing, or making the collapse even worse?â she asked.
Behind Ross, Mia automatically raised her hand, then quickly lowered it, embarrassed.
âSee what the structure is made of,â said Ross. âLook for a wall that isnât the sole support of anything. To figure out how much explosive youâll need, you have to calculate the overpressure.â
As Jennie had suspected, however spotty the guyâs overall knowledge was, he knew a lot about his own field. âHow do you do that?â
Mia caught her hand halfway up, then sat down abruptly on the little kidsâ bench, trapping both hands under her thighs.
âWith a slide rule,â he replied.
âI see,â said Jennie. âRoss, thereâre only three or four people in town who know how to do that, and two of them are here in the room with you.â
Mia extracted her hand to tap the slide rule dangling from her waist.
âHow much can you read?â Jennie asked.
Ross ducked his head. âOnly numbers. Well, a couple letters you use in math.â
âWhat about history?â
âI donât know anything. I just wonder. How the things I find got there. What people used them for. Why all the cities were destroyed.â
âI know that one!â exclaimed Mia before Jennie could answer. âAccording to the accounts weâve found, it was a natural disaster. There was a storm on the sun, and it released radiation. Do you know what that is?â
âNo,â Ross muttered, embarrassed.
Jennie wished she could tell him that sheâd never heard Mia this eager to talk to anyone but her father, her old master, Mr. Rodriguez, and Jennie herself. However had Ross gotten Mia to trust him so quickly?
âItâs a sort of energy,â Mia went on. âLike light. It changes living things. Some animals and plants died, and some mutated. Some people died, and others got the Change. Also, the solar storm caused a geomagnetic storm on the Earth. Not a storm with rain. It was a change in the Earthâs magnetic field.â
Ross glanced up. âThatâs what makes a compass work, right?â
Miaâs head bobbed enthusiastically. âYes! Exactly. And back then, nearly everything was mechanical. When the magnetic field changed, most machines stopped working. People had to leave the cities and start farming, and eventually the cities got overgrown and knocked down in earthquakes and storms. And then singing trees started growing around them, so no one could get back in.â
Ross pulled his left arm in across his chest, rubbing it as if it hurt. âThe books. Tell me what happened to the books.â
Under his direct gaze, she fiddled nervously with her glasses. âMaybe Jennie could explain it better.â
âYou go on. Youâre doing great.â Jennie winced inwardly once the words were out. She sounded like she was talking to a little kid.
But Mia didnât look insulted. âBack then, most books were machines. I donât understand how that worked.
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