Devlin was first outside. He turned immediately to get pictures of McGruder coming through the air lock. Michael preceded Priscilla and Vesta. Cornelius remained inside.
Priscilla called him: “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “We figure there’s nobody here to create a problem and the biggest danger would be that the air lock jams or something, and we get locked out of the lander.”
“I left the hatches open, Cornelius.”
“That’s no guarantee it wouldn’t close on its own. Look, no sweat, Priscilla. I know nothing like that is very likely, but we have to take into account all the possibilities.”
* * *
MCGRUDER APPROACHED THE monument and stood looking up at it.
Carved from rock and ice, it stood serenely on that bleak plain, an unsettling figure of curving claws, alien eyes, and lean power. The lips were parted, rounded, almost sexual. Priscilla wasn’t sure why it was so disquieting. It was more than simply the talons, or the disproportionately long lower limbs. It was more even than the suggestion of philosophical ferocity stamped on those crystalline features. There was something—terrifying—bound up in the tension between its suggestive geometry and the wide plain on which it stood. It was scratched and clawed by micrometeors, the driving dust between the moons, but no serious damage had resulted. Its wings were half-folded, and its blind eyes stared at Saturn, frozen low in the hostile sky by its own relentless gravity just as it had been eons ago, when Iapetus received its visitors.
Most striking, the creature was female.
There was no obvious evidence to support that notion. Certainly, no anatomical clues were apparent through the plain garment covering the body. It was, perhaps, some delicacy of line or subtlety of expression. It reminded her vaguely of a stalking cat, and yet was somehow erotic.
“It is creepy, isn’t it?” said Devlin.
Vesta agreed. “Wouldn’t want to meet one of those in my backyard.”
It stood on a block of ice about as high as Priscilla’s shoulders. There was an inscription. Three lines of sharp white symbols, characterized by loops and crescents and curves, were stenciled in the ice, possessing an Arabic delicacy and elegance. And, as the tiny sun moved across the sky, the symbols embraced the light and came alive. No one knew what the inscription meant.
The ramp was designed to allow visitors to get close enough to touch the artifact without disturbing anything. McGruder stood close and gazed at the figure while Devlin took pictures. Despite the show business aspect, the governor looked as if the experience was having a genuine impact. “How old is it, Priscilla?”
“The estimates run from twenty-three thousand to twenty-eight thousand years.”
“We were still sitting around campfires.”
“Of course,” said Vesta, “we’re still active. Looks as if these things are gone.”
McGruder reached out and touched it. Pressed his fingertips against one of the legs. “You know,” he said, “if not for this, we probably would never have had a serious manned space program.”
He might have been right. At another time, when support for NASA had dried up, and the space industry was effectively closing down, a robot vehicle had detected the monument. The hard reality had been that interest in spaceflight had faded when Mars was ruled out as a potential home for life. Unfortunately, there was nowhere else to go. The United States had put men on the Moon to make a political point. Without the Cold War, there would probably not even have been an Apollo XI.
“I’m not sure we do have one,” said Priscilla. “A space program.”
McGruder could not take his eyes off the monument. “Economies go through ups and downs. This is the first dip since the development of the Hazeltine drive. We haven’t discovered anything out here except ruins. So we’re back where the public is bored and doesn’t want to pay the bills. What we need, Priscilla, is a major discovery.”
“You mean first contact.”
“That would be good.”
Maybe, she thought, we should give Talios some publicity. But she resisted the temptation to ask him if he knew about the missed opportunity. Maybe if he becomes president— “We’ve already had one of those. A couple, really, if you count the ruins.”
“Voters don’t get excited by ruins,” he said. “And the Noks are so dumb, nobody cares.” He chuckled. “That might be our future if we don’t get seriously off-world. No, what we need is somebody who can set an example for us. Show us what we might become. Inspire us.”
Well, what the hell? She didn’t want to be overheard, so she signaled him to switch to a private channel. Then: “It’s already happened, Governor.”
“How do you mean, Priscilla? What’s already happened?”
“They don’t want it released. But there was an encounter years ago at Talios. I’d appreciate it if it went no further. Or at least if you wouldn’t mention your source.”
She told him about Dave Simmons and the lander, and the Forscher. And about the message she and Jake had found.
He listened. Initial surprise morphed into disbelief. “That can’t be right, Priscilla.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Governor.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t guess you would.” He was silent for a moment. “Thank you. I appreciate your telling me.”
“I’d be grateful if you said nothing about it.”
“I won’t,” he said. “Unless I see a need. In any case, you’ll be protected. I’ll see to that.”
* * *
SO FAR, FOURTEEN monuments had been found. This one was unique because it was the only one that was arguably a self-portrait. The creature’s hands, each with six digits, reached for Saturn. That this was what the sculptor had looked like was established when the Steinitz expedition matched the prints on the ground with the statue’s feet.
“Governor,” said Devlin, “if you can move over a bit more and look up at the head, I’d like to get some more shots.”
McGruder waved him off. “We have plenty of time to take pictures, Al. Let it go for now.” He turned back to the monument. “It’s magnificent,” he said.
Priscilla looked away from the figure, out across the plain, frozen and white and scarred with a few small craters. The landscape ascended gradually toward a series of ridges, outlined in the pale light of the giant world. Saturn’s rings were tilted forward, a brilliant panorama of greens and blues, sliced off sharply by the planetary shadow.
Saturn was just above the hills. It would still be there when another twenty thousand years had passed, and Priscilla’s distant descendants were standing out here. She wondered where mankind would be then. Spread across the stars? Or would everybody instead be hanging out back on the home world watching talk shows? And maybe laughing at people who claimed we’d once walked on the Moon.
* * *
THEY WERE STILL taking pictures when Michael pressed a hand to his ear, listening to something. He nodded a couple of times. Then she heard his voice: “Governor, we’re being ordered home. Immediately.”
McGruder turned and stared at the agent. “Why?” he demanded.
“There’s a threat.”
“How the hell can anybody threaten us out here?”
“Not here, sir. Apparently there’s a credible threat to destroy the Wheel. They want us to start back without delay. To go directly to Reagan. They’re evacuating the space station.”
“Okay,” said Vesta, “let’s move.”
McGruder laughed. “Hold on. We come all the way out to Saturn, and we get ten minutes? Let’s just relax. I’m not finished yet.”
Priscilla’s link chimed. Yoshie’s voice: “Priscilla, we’re evacuating the Wheel. Bomb threat. We need the Thompson to help. Please get back here as quickly as you can. But take your passengers to Reagan first. Make all possible haste.” The message was, of course, already well over an hour old.
She acknowledged, then switched back to Michael. “You have any details?”
“Negative,
Priscilla.”
“Okay,” she said. “Governor, I guess we’re ready when you are.”
* * *
THE MILES CONOVER SHOW
(The Science Channel—Guest: Howard Broderick)
MILES: Howard, what is your response to this latest threat?
HOWARD: I don’t see that we have a reasonable option, Miles. You’re not suggesting, I hope, that we should give in to these lunatics?
MILES: Bear with me, but I don’t see what’s so important about a terraforming operation light-years away that we should be willing to risk so much for it. Marcus Barnes was on the show yesterday, and he maintains that we’re only a few years away from developing the technology to do this without harming anything.
HOWARD: You’re suggesting we just shut everything down? That we cave in to these nut jobs? Do you have any idea what that will do to the colonists who are already planning to move out and claim these worlds for humanity? Or what it would cost? And if we were to do that, and the next time somebody got upset about some corporate or government policy, do they just threaten to blow up the Wheel to get their way? Is that the kind of precedent you want to set?
IVY: Mr. Broderick, I can’t help noticing you’re not on the Wheel today.
HOWARD: That’s correct, Ivy. I’m attending a Seattle convention, where I am the guest of honor. Consequently, as much as I would have liked to remain up there, I had no choice. I do not think, in any case, there’s any real danger. Security on the space station is solid. I’m not worried, and I expect to be returning as soon as the convention is over. If you’d like, Kosmik would be happy to have you come up and join us for a few days. At our expense.
Chapter 51
EMOTIONS WERE MIXED as the Venture left Orfano. Samantha sat with Jake on the bridge, watching the fading image of the dark planet on the auxiliary screen. A sad smile played on her lips. “Can’t believe it,” she said. “An intelligent life-form unlike anything we’ve seen. And we’re leaving it behind.”
“It’s the right call,” said Jake.
“I know. Thing like that: We don’t know how much patience it has. I didn’t want to push it. And when we get home, nobody’s going to buy the story.”
“Will you come back again at some point?”
“I’d like to say no. But I don’t see how we can avoid it in the long run. Eventually, there’ll have to be another mission. I’m just not comfortable with the idea.”
“You know what makes no sense?” said Jake. “Something alone like that for possibly millions of years. You’d think it would welcome some company.”
“I suppose,” she said. “Though I guess we shouldn’t expect much in the way of social skills.”
When Jake announced they were five minutes from entering Barber space, he heard Denise whisper a soft good-bye. Tony broke out his violin and played a few mournful notes. Everyone laughed, but the laughter was artificial.
Then the stars were gone.
* * *
THE MOOD DURING the flight home was different from what it had been on the way out. The casual conversations about politics and science went away, the general lightheartedness was not to be found. They had succeeded, at least in their own minds, in establishing the existence of a sentient being. Or beings. And they’d even made contact, after a fashion. But, as Mary put it, “Who would have thought we could have done all that and still failed?”
The presence on that world became the sole topic of conversation. Where does it get its energy? What would it have done if we’d stayed? Obviously, it was empathetic, but did it have any curiosity at all about us? Was it there when Orfano was torn away from its sun? Was the superdense object a remnant of that event?
“We’ve always assumed,” said Denise, “that if a living world got expelled from the planetary system, everything would die. But here’s a possible exception. And if it was there at the time, what must it have been like watching the sun grow smaller and dimmer every day?”
“It probably doesn’t have eyes,” said Tony. “Maybe it just felt the cold coming on.”
That led to a discussion of senses.
And so it went.
* * *
BY MORNING, THE shock of the experience had, to a degree, worn off. They still talked about nothing else, but the conversation took a lighter tone. Since the presence had responded to Jake’s projections, Samantha argued, communication seemed possible. “Maybe we could get it to say hello. And eventually get answers to some of these questions.”
“Like how long it had been there?” asked Jake.
“Or,” said Tony, “how it brought the lander down.”
“That would be easy enough to explain,” said Mary, “if we really are talking about a sentient atmosphere. A thing like that could lift pretty much anything it wanted.”
Denise smiled. “Do you think it could tell us how long it had been there?”
“Sure,” said Samantha. “Why not?”
“I don’t know. How would it measure time?”
Tony had an answer for that one: “Maybe by counting Orfano’s rotations.”
“You think,” said Mary, “it’s been counting?”
“I’m kidding. But it might be aware of changes in the positions of stars.”
“Whatever,” said Jake, “it doesn’t seem as if it would have much else to do.”
“Except reshape mountains.” Denise frowned. “I feel sorry for it.” Nobody responded, so she continued: “We should give it a name.”
“The Omnivore,” said Brandon.
Samantha shook her head. “I don’t think we should use anything that has ‘the’ in front of it. That makes it sound like a monster.”
Tony laughed. “How about Herman?”
“Is it a male?” asked Mary.
“That’s a point,” said Samantha. “We need something sexually neutral.”
Brandon grinned. “Windy.”
* * *
THEY’D BE MAKING their jump into the solar system a couple hours before midnight.
As the time approached, Samantha came onto the bridge and looked down at the right-hand seat. “Mind?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Jake, I just wanted to say thanks. This has been an odd mission, the goofiest I’ve ever been on. We’ve got some major questions remaining. But we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you.”
“I was glad to help,” he said. “Truth is, I wouldn’t have missed it. Orfano’s been a whole new experience for me.”
The others were in the passenger cabin, belting down.
“Two minutes,” said Lily.
“Are you going back to Virginia?” Samantha asked.
“I don’t know.”
“We’d like to have you at the Academy. This discovery will bring in some extra funding. I expect we’ll be expanding our operations. If that happens, we’re going to be looking for another pilot.”
“I appreciate the offer, Samantha. Let me know if it develops, okay? And let’s see how it goes.”
The engines began to pick up, signaling that the transition to normal space was beginning. Gradually, the mist swirling around the ship faded, and stars broke through. And the Moon and Earth.
* * *
“JAKE,” SAID LILY, “we are approximately six hundred thousand kilometers out. Estimated time to Union: twenty-two hours.”
Jake switched on the allcomm. “Okay, guys, we’re approaching the station at about twenty thousand kilometers per hour. We’re going to increase that a bit, but before we start, you have ten minutes to wander around. Then I’ll need you belted down again.” He opened a channel to the Wheel. “Ops,” he said, “this is Venture. We are insystem and on our way.”
There was laughter in the passenger cabin. And Tony started with his violin.
“Venture.” The response from the Wheel. “This is Ops. We have you logged in. Wait one. The chief of the watch wants to speak with you. Hold, please.”
Jake frowned, wondering what that was about.
Another voice took over, a baritone which he recognized. “Jake, this is Morgan. Do not approach the station. We want you to use your lander to take your passengers directly to the Reagan terminal. Stay away from the Wheel. When they’re safely down, come back to us. We’re under what the FBI is calling a viable threat. Someone is saying they’re going to destroy the station, and we’re taking it seriously. The Feds aren’t giving us many details. When your passengers are on the ground, we want you to come back and help with the evacuation. Over.”
“Roger that,” said Jake. “Terraforming again?”
He waited while the signal traveled to the station, and Morgan’s response came back. About fifteen seconds in all. “That’s what we’re hearing. They’re demanding Kosmik promise to stop.”
* * *
JAKE INFORMED HIS passengers, adjusted course, and began to accelerate. He talked to Reagan and set his arrival time, which would now be about thirteen hours. It would burn a lot of fuel, but that had become a minor consideration. Eventually, he was able to slip back into cruise. “You guys can go in and sack out now if you want,” he said. “See you in the morning.”
All but Samantha retired to their cabins. She was working on a project, or just reading. Jake wasn’t sure, but he stayed on the bridge. Everything remained quiet. He kept a feeder circuit open to the station, so he would know if something happened. Two hours after midnight, Yoshie called. “We’re still here,” she said, with a smile in her voice. “The people in charge are beginning to think it’s a false alarm. I hope they’re right.”
“So do I, Yoshie.”
Eventually, Jake fell asleep. Lily’s blinker woke him. “Incoming message,” she said. “It’s from Alicia Conner. Addressed to you. Do you know her?”
“Yes,” he said. His spirits rose. “I believe I’ve heard the name somewhere.”
He heard the click as Lily switched to the transmission. Then Alicia’s voice: “Jake. Glad you’re back. When you get a chance, let’s talk. Okay?”
Starhawk Page 34
