The Time Surgeons
Chapter 17 The Stars Above

Pachmeny woke early, her body tingling from the aftermath of the previous night. This was not the first time she had experienced intellectual excitement, nor the first time she had spent the night with a man, but it was the first time both had melded together into such perfection.

Arragath was still asleep, still holding her body in a gentle embrace, and she bathed in his warmth and the regularity of his breathing. Then he woke, and she felt a gentle start, as if he had been surprised to replace himself holding her. But then he mumbled “good morning, Pachmeny”, and he kissed her neck. She could tell that he had a particular type of good morning in mind, and so she eagerly turned to join his embrace. Ah, young men, she thought happily. Even you, my dear Arragath, who can seem so cold and austere, have the same passions. And for now, at least, they are mine.

Afterwards they ate a companionable breakfast, during which their thoughts and conversation returned with a vengeance to the more intellectual discoveries of the previous night. Then they headed off together to see Shemsak.

Shemsak was a busy man, and though he took his responsibilities to his students seriously, sometimes those responsibilities had to wait. But when Pachmeny, in whom he had seen a spark of something beyond what the dry figures of her schooling might predict, arrived with the stellar Arragath in tow, only a true emergency could have stopped him making time for them. Especially when they both came bathed in a glow implying they had news of startling import. Either that or signaling they had just had sex together, but they would hardly come here to tell him that.

“Good morning, Pachmeny,” he said, “And you, Arragath. What would bring the two of you to see me, especially when Arragath’s own Sage Timmony is not with you, and has not advised me of your visit?”

Arragath bowed to him. “Our apologies, Esteemed Shemsak. But this is Student Pachmeny’s discovery, and yours. I merely helped with her calculations.”

“Please call up these slides, and play them in sequence,” asked Pachmeny, handing him a printout of the reference numbers.

Shemsak did what she asked, then looked up at them in surprise. “Curious. What is your interpretation?” he asked.

“I haven’t done a full analysis,” Arragath replied, “only a quick one when Pachmeny showed me this; and no doubt you and the Esteemed Timmony will want to get together on that before anyone else is told. But according to my calculations, this combination of luminosity, separation and relative speed is only possible if we are looking at a pair of white dwarf stars in tight orbit around each other, about seven light years away. With any luck, we have images of this same part of the sky from another point on the Earth’s orbit and can confirm that distance more precisely by parallax measurements.”

Shemsak nodded. “Yes… yes. As you say.” Then he looked up at them again. “Remarkable! Truly remarkable. Well done, both of you! Especially you, Pachmeny, for seeing its importance so quickly. I will discuss this with Timmony. Meanwhile, Pachmeny, you can collect all our images of this region and do more analyses; and Arragath, you can refine your calculations based on that… then, well, we’ll see what we see!”

The two bowed, turned and left. Unconsciously, Pachmeny reached out and took Arragath’s hand. Shemsak saw and smiled in amusement. Right on both counts, it seems. But then his smile faded and his face took on a haunted look.

Enjoy your triumph, children. And hope it is a triumph, and not the death of us all.