TOTAL ECLIPSE

CHAPTER 1 LAST PART

"Data already obtained? From viewing on earlier occasions?" he asked. Lomax nodded

"But you know better than that, Lomax Why are you asking?"

Now was the time to tell Berlins about the data change in Core 9 Lomax had engineered the moment and now all he had to do was speak. But caution, or perhaps instinct, held him back. He paused

"Yes, Lomax?"

He floundered "I... well..."

Berlins took another sip of coffee and waited.

"Hi" said the new assistant. She stood, hesitating, in the doorway. Berlins gestured her into the room She apologized, Lomax was not sure why, and waved some papers at Berlins.

"I typed most of these but I had some problems with your writing.''

"Everybody does," said Berlins morosely

Julia had changed into jeans and a sweater, pastel-colored and soft like baby clothes. Nothing she wore was tight but you were left in no doubt that her figure was perfect. Lomax fixed his eyes on his galaxy.

She took a tissue from her pocket and wiped the spilled coffee. Then she leaned over Berlins, pointing to places on his scrawled pages that she had marked in green Lomax noticed that she wore a wedding ring.

"Redshift," said Berlins and Julia wrote it out clearly in a large, childish hand.

"Doppler effect. Two p's. Bahcall-Peebles. That's B-a-b."

"Okay, thanks." Julia turned to leave Then she stopped and looked at Lomax

"Still excited?" she asked.

"Well, um... not really. I mean, we now know that the telescope's faulty, even though we don't know what the problem is."

"You look tired Want some coffee?"

Lomax refused. He didn't know why. He liked the idea of Julia fetching him coffee. Within a few moments he knew he wanted some badly. Berlins returned to his office with Julia, his unfinished conversation with Lomax forgotten, and by the time they had left, coffee was all Lomax could think about. He waited as long as he could and then sneaked to the drinks machine. He pressed the buttons for strong and black and, while he waited, Julia suddenly appeared by his side. He jumped guiltily. The machine finished its hissing and buzzing and he reached into its mouth for his drink.

"I knew you wanted some coffee I guessed you'd be here." She paused "Would you help me with something? Now that Professor Berlins has gone back to the telescope?"

"Sure," he said, his hand baking round the plastic cup. They were going to lean over a keyboard together and watch the screen, theirfaces close, as they checked the spelling of "angstrom."

"Would you read through the paper I've just typed? Because it doesn't make any sense to me. It's not just the words I don't know, it's the sentences. I can't tell where they begin and end... I mean... don't want Professor Berlins to think..." her voice trailed away helplessly.

Lomax followed her to Berlins's office.

"What's an eclipse committee?" he asked her.

She turned to reply as they walked and he found himself admiring her forearms. They were long and graceful. He had never admired anyone's forearms before. He tried to remember anything about Candice's and couldn't. By the time they arrived at Berlins's office she had told him about the eclipse committee and he had not heard a word.