Spindrift

by Allen Steele

  “Commander? Lieutenant?” Ramirez was becoming annoyingly persistent. “Hate to interrupt, but you may want to notice where we are.”

  Turning to look back at him, Harker started to tell Ramirez to shut up, but Emily’s startled gasp caused him to glance instead at the cockpit windows. And suddenly, everything changed.

  While they’d been arguing, the shuttle’s prow had slowly drifted on its own accord. Where once had been only a starfield lay an immense planet. A gas giant, banded by swatches of light blue and purple, surrounded by a vast and elegant silver-gold ring that cast a dark, narrow shadow upon the cloud layers far below.

  47 Ursae Majoris-B, also known as Bear. Harker stared at it in wonder, forgetting his quarrel with Emily. Just beyond the ring, glowing in the mellow light reflected by Bear from the system’s distant sun, lay the jovian’s family of satellites. Even though he’d never seen them before, he knew their names from the ESA database. Dog, Hawk, Eagle, Snake, Goat…

  And largest and brightest among them, Coyote.

  He was still staring through the cockpit windows when the voice of Starbridge Coyote came through his headset. “Roger that, Maria Celeste. We have you confirmed. We…” A moment passed. “Never mind. Wherever you’ve been, welcome home.”

  Emily reactivated her headset. “Thank you, Starbridge Coyote. We’re glad to be back, too.”

  Perhaps this wasn’t home, not exactly, yet the sound of another human voice was all that mattered. Harker let out his breath, then tapped his mike. “This is Commander Harker. Please give us proper landing coordinates, if you will.”

  Under normal circumstances, the transit to Coyote would have taken at least ten hours. The hjadd drive slashed this time to less than two. Yet there was no sensation of acceleration; even as the shuttle hurtled through space, everyone aboard remained comfortable, as if the Maria Celeste possessed its own Millis-Clement field generator that negated the tremendous g force they should have been experiencing.

  Harker tried to discuss this with Jas, but heshe had become silent since leaving Starbridge Coyote. Sealed within hisher environment suit, heshe refused to answer all but the most obvious questions. Apparently Jas was reluctant to divulge any further details about hjadd technology than was absolutely necessary. After a while, Harker gave up; settling back in his seat, he watched as Coyote steadily grew closer.

  They were little more than an hour away from touchdown, with Coyote now a planet-size moon whose mottled green surface was crisscrossed with a complex pattern of blue river channels, when the com channel came alive again. “Maria Celeste, this is Liberty Communications, Coyote Federation.” The voice was male, speaking in Anglo. “Do you copy? Over.”

  Sitting up straight, Harker glanced over at Emily. Her hands remained on the yoke—she’d refused to switch to autopilot, even though Jas had told her that it was safe to do so—yet her eyes met his own. “Coyote Federation?” she asked. “Liberty Communications?”

  “Damned if I know.” Harker shook his head. They’d learned little from their earlier exchange with the gatehouse. “Fifty-six years…they must have some sort of government going on down there that we…”

  “Maria Celeste, this is Liberty Communications, Coyote Federation.” The voice became more insistent. “Do you…?”

  Harker touched his mike. “We copy,” he said. “With whom am I speaking, please?”

  “That’s rather rude, don’t you think?” Ramirez bent forward from his seat behind them. “After all, we’re…”

  He was interrupted by a new voice, female this time: “Maria Celeste, this is President Wendy Gunther of the Coyote Federation. Would you please identify yourself?”

  “Like you said before,” Emily murmured. “They’ve heard we’re coming…but they still don’t believe us.”

  “Hush. Both of you.” Harker tapped his mike again. “Theodore Harker, first officer of the EAS Galileo. Never heard of the Coyote Federation, ma’am, but all the same we’re glad to hear you.”

  A long pause, during which Harker took a moment to gaze through the window. Coyote lay half in shadow, yet even from this distance he could make out lights here and there. He reached forward to punch up the nav display on the main comp screen; the coordinates they had been given corresponded with a location just north of the equator, near the place where daylight was beginning to fade. Late afternoon down there; he didn’t want to land at night if they didn’t need to do so.

  “I think they’re trying to make up their minds about us,” Emily said. “Ted…?”

  “Right.” Time to be a little more persuasive. Harker touched his mike. “Liberty, do you read?” he asked, and didn’t wait for a response. “We know this must be a surprise to you, but we’re coming in fast, and we’d like to know where we can land. Assuming we have your permission, of course.”

  Again, no immediate response. “They must be really confused,” Ramirez said, no longer as sarcastic as he’d been before. “Don’t count on a warm reception.”

  Harker nodded reluctantly. Although they’d picked up telemetry from weather and communications satellites during their approach, there was no sign of either the Alabama or any of the Union Astronautica starships subsequently sent by the Western Hemisphere Union. Yet the starbridge was a clear indication that the European Alliance already had a presence here. No telling what the political situation was like down there, but if they had to…

  “Affirmative, Mr. Harker.” President Gunther’s voice came back online. “You have permission to land. We’re dispatching a craft to escort you to a nearby landing site.”

  “It may not be safe for them to do so.” Jas abruptly broke hisher silence. “The field generated by our drive will cause problems with their vessel if it comes too close to us.”

  Now you tell us, Harker thought. On the other hand, he seriously doubted that President Gunther or the Coyote Federation would allow a suspicious craft to enter their airspace unescorted. “We appreciate that, Liberty,” he replied. “However, please advise your craft to maintain safe distance. Our drive may interfere with their control systems if they come too close.”

  “They’re going to love that,” Ramirez said.

  “They’re going to have to.” The last thing Harker wanted was a crash caused by hjadd drive. He looked back at Jas. “Thanks for the warning.”

  The hjadd had barely lifted a hand in acknowledgment when President Gunther’s voice returned. “We copy, Maria Celeste, and we’ll take that under advisement.” An uncertain pause. “Mr. Harker, the Galileo has been missing for a very long time. Where is it? And where are you coming from?”

  “Here it comes.” Emily’s mouth tightened. “The first of many, many questions.”

  “Tell me about it.” Harker sank back in his seat. Simple and obvious questions, yet none with any simple or obvious answers. So much had happened in what subjectively seemed to be a short span of time, and yet he had to remember that fifty-six years had gone by since anyone had heard from the Galileo. Sooner or later, he would have to face a board of inquiry, account for not only his actions, but also those of others that were beyond his control.

  Damn you, Ian, he thought. You should have never been in command. If it hadn’t been for you…

  “Ted?” Emily’s quiet voice broke through his reverie. “You need to say something.”

  He sighed, sat up straight again. “The Galileo has been destroyed, along with its crew, including the captain,” he said, prodding his mike. “Only three survivors, myself included. We made the jump from HD 143761, Rho Coronae Borealis…”

  Feeling his voice grow tight, he paused to swallow. Suddenly, the last thing he wanted to do was to explain to anyone what he and his crew had just been through. “We’re very tired, and we’d just like to land. We’ll explain everything once we’re on the ground. ETA”—he glanced at Emily, and she held up a finger—“um, about an hour or so from now. Maria Celeste, over and out.”

  Before he had to answer another question, he reached up
to snap off the com. “That was rather abrupt.” Ramirez said. “What if they…?”

  “Jared, I’m getting tired of asking you to do this, but…”

  “Shut up. Right.” Ramirez withdrew from the space between him and Emily.

  Harker rubbed his temples with his fingertips. Beyond the cockpit windows, Coyote lay below them as a vast hemisphere that stretched as far as the eye could see, the outermost edge of its atmosphere appearing as a thin haze that lay above its curved horizon. Somewhere down there was human civilization, the first he’d seen in…a little over a week? No, years, really…and suddenly he found himself hungry to see his own kind again.

  “What about you?” he asked, impulsively twisting about in his seat to look back at Jas. “You’ve met three humans…ready to meet some more?”

  The hjadd said nothing for a moment. Within his visor, Harker saw only his own face. “I am prepared,” heshe said at last. “I have complete confidence that this encounter will be a success.”

  “You do?” Harker was mildly astonished. “We haven’t put on our best face, you know.”

  “Precisely the reason,” the hjadd emissary said. “Your race does not know I am coming. So they have not pretended to be anything other than what they are.”

  It wasn’t until heshe said this that Harker realized that he’d neglected to mention the hjadd at all.

  It was nearly sundown when the Maria Celeste made its final approach to Liberty. As the shuttle lost altitude, Harker got a chance to study the settlement from the air, and was surprised to see just how large it was. There were dozens of buildings down there, possibly more than a hundred, ranging from wood-frame homes and log cabins arranged along tidy streets, to larger structures near the middle of town that might be shops or municipal buildings, to vast glass-roofed sheds that appeared to be community greenhouses.

  These people haven’t wasted any time, he thought. With night falling, lights gleamed within countless windows. He caught a glimpse of children playing softball in a schoolyard; they paused to stare upward at the spacecraft as it soared overhead. At least an entire generation has been born and raised here. Maybe more…those could be someone’s grandchildren.

  “Coming up on the coordinates.” Emily gently pulled back on the yoke. “Landing field should be just ahead.” She paused, then added, “Looks like there’s more than just one town. I’m seeing more lights.”

  As she said, there appeared to be another cluster of houselights, a little smaller than the first, located just beyond several hundred acres of farmland. Two towns so close to one another? There had to be some reason for this; he hoped it wasn’t an indication of social division. “That must be the landing field,” he said, pointing to a broad ring of lights on the outskirts of the second settlement. “Go ahead and take her down.”

  Emily reached forward to click the toggles that lowered the landing gear, then carefully pulled back on her yoke until the shuttle came to a midair standstill. Aside from the whine of the hydraulic systems, the low, steady hum of the hjadd drive was the only sound Maria made. No roar of engines, no blast of rockets; Harker could almost hear the wind whispering past the panes of the cockpit windows.

  Glancing to his right, he caught sight of the spacecraft that had intercepted them just outside Coyote’s atmosphere, descending within clouds of dust kicked up by its VTOLs. The CFS Virginia Dare was smaller and more streamlined than the older craft, but despite its advanced design, the Maria Celeste would have easily outraced it to the ground if Emily hadn’t decreased her airspeed to allow the skiff to keep up with them. No doubt its crew was startled, yet they’d maintained radio silence except when absolutely necessary.

  “Thirty meters…twenty…fifteen…” Emily kept an eye on the altimeter as she gradually coaxed her craft downward. “Ten…five…four…three…two…contact light, one…” The lightest of jars, no more than a gentle nudge. “We’re on the ground,” she said, then reached up to kill the engines.

  Yet she didn’t need to turn off anything. Her console went dark, save for the life-support and communications panels. Red emergency lights glowed to life within the cabin, casting an amber radiance across everything. Harker looked back at Jas. “What do we do now?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” The hjadd remained in hisher seat. “Your craft has safely landed. All you need to do now is disembark.”

  “No, he means…” Clearly baffled, Emily stared at her instruments. “The engines. Don’t we need to…I mean, do something?”

  “The drive will remain inactive until I give you the authority to activate it again.” Jas didn’t move. “Please do not attempt to examine or dismantle it in any way. The results would be unfortunate for all concerned.”

  Apparently the hjadd had taken measures to prevent anyone from reverse-engineering their technology. The drive was, in effect, a sealed box that couldn’t be opened without triggering some sort of booby trap. Best to leave it alone. “Whatever you say,” Harker murmured, then turned to Ramirez. “Make sense to you?”

  “Sure. Fine with me.” Ramirez was staring out his window. “Getting it through to them, though…that’s going to be the trick.”

  Harker followed his gaze. Three people stood at the edge of the landing field: two women and a man, maintaining an uncertain distance from the shuttle. Behind them were two more men, standing near an open gate within the chain-link fence surrounding the field. Harker couldn’t help but notice that, while the first three were dressed formally, the other two wore blue uniforms and carried carbines.

  “Our reception committee,” Harker said. “Bet one of them is President Gunther.”

  “Could be. It’s the ones with the guns I’m nervous about.” Emily sighed, then unclasped her harness and rose from her seat. “Well, no time like the present.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Harker unfastened his harness and followed her. Ramirez waited for them to leave the forward cockpit, then pushed himself up from his seat. Yet Jas stayed where heshe was. Hisher hands upon hisher seat’s armrests, heshe gazed straight ahead, apparently unwilling to move. Harker stopped, turned around to gaze at himher. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked.

  “I will remain here.” The hjadd’s helmet didn’t move in his direction. “Bring your representatives aboard when you see fit. I will meet with them at that time.”

  Harker hesitated, not quite knowing what to say or do next. This was the last thing he expected. After all, it had been the hjadd who’d wanted to make contact with humankind. Now that one of their race was there, heshe had suddenly become reluctant to leave the shuttle. Perhaps this was normal diplomatic protocol within the Talus, and yet…

  “Pardon me,” he murmured to Ramirez, then gently squeezed past him until he stood beside the Prime Emissary. Bending low, he peered at the silver visor. “Jas…Mahamatasja Jas Sa-Fhadda…listen to me. There’s no reason to be afraid…”

  “I do not fear you.”

  “No…no, I think you do.” Harker sat down on the armrest of Ramirez’s seat. “When we were on Talus qua’spah, you were ready and willing to talk to us, but from the moment you stepped aboard our craft, you’ve been reluctant to speak. I know there are reasons why you can’t share everything with us, but…” He let out his breath. “I know fear when I see it.” Even from an alien, he added silently.

  “We do not fear you.” Jas’s hands twitched ever so slightly. “My race has been from one end of the galaxy to another. We belong to the Elders of the Talus High Council. We have seen things that are beyond your imagination. We have beheld the Annihilator…”

  “All this, and more. Of that, I have no doubt.” Harker hesitated. “And yet, you’re frightened of us. I know this because I’ve seen it in my own kind. My captain, Ian Lawrence…so afraid of the unknown that he panicked when your ship appeared.”

  “We have forgiven you…”

  “You’ve forgiven us because you know why he did it.” Harker bent closer. “Fear got the better of him…just as fear is getting the bette
r of you.”

  The silvered faceplate swiveled toward him. “You presume too much.”

  “Then prove it.” Harker opened his hands. “You know we’re not barbarians. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have bothered to revive the three of us. So come meet others of our kind.”

  “He’s right.” Ramirez came closer. “We’ve been waiting for you for a very long time. We have concocted countless stories, folklore, even entire myths and legends about you. Our people have waited centuries, even millennia, for this moment.” He paused. “I’ve told you of the mistake I once made,” he went on, speaking more quietly. “I know now why I was wrong. Life is too rare within the universe for us to waste it.”

  “Exactly.” Harker glanced at him and nodded, then looked back at Jas. “This is our moment. Don’t let it pass.”

  The hjadd didn’t respond. Hisher helmet turned away from them, and Jas sat still in hisher seat, staring straight ahead. Harker waited patiently, wondering where this was going to lead. After a few moments, hisher right hand moved slightly upon hisher armrest. The seat restraints folded away into the seat, and the emissary stood up.

  “Very well,” heshe said. “I will accompany you, but only to the hatch. Once I have become convinced that your kind mean no harm…”

  “We’ll bring them aboard. Fair enough.” Harker stood up, turned toward the other two. “Emily…?”

  “On my way.” She was already heading toward the aft compartment. A moment later, he heard the familiar whine of the gangway descending from the shuttle’s lower hull.

  Harker followed Ramirez down the aisle. Looking back, he saw that Jas was only a few steps behind. Emily patiently waited until everyone was in the aft compartment, then she touched the button that controlled the belly hatch. A hiss of escaping pressure, then the hatch slid open to reveal the lowered ramp.

  “You realize, of course, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Ramirez said.

  Harker forced a smile. “Yes, well…so do they.”