Principal Katya was no stranger to technology. It took her a few seconds to bypass all privacy protocols on the home registry and to tap through to Principality 19 government administration using Tabernacle codes. A surprised, smiling face appeared.
“Councilman Sanchez,” Principal Katya acknowledged the young woman.
“Principal Katya! What an unexpected pleasure, and on a coded carrier. Are you still away from the Tabernacle?”
“I am returning there soon. Councilman Sanchez, I need your help—and your discretion.”
Moments later, Principal Katya turned from the registry, “Job done, Alice, it is arranged. You will attend the government building on the mainland this evening at 7. I have arranged a city shuttle and preset the coordinates. Councilman Sanchez will perform the chipping on both you and Eliza, and Eliza will receive immunisations. Now, Alice, this matter will not wait until Noah returns. Immunisation against the Moses Pathogens is important. I could give dispensation for the chipping, but two years is far too long in the absence of a marriage covenant, and questions we wish to avoid for now might be raised. I have explained to Councilman Sanchez the father cannot attend, and this circumstance is restricted. She will encrypt the record to my personal files at the Tabernacle and embed them at the Principality once Noah is informed. Barring a catastrophe, he will not find out from anyone else.”
“Yes, Principal Katya. I’m sorry.”
Principal Katya leaned forward and smiled, her earlier officialdom now giving way to the Principal Katya Alice was more familiar with.
“The sky isn’t going to fall in, Alice, but little lies have a habit of becoming big lies, as I am sure you are now painfully aware. Jane and Mary risked a good deal on your account. Now, I will take tea with your aunties, and then I am going home to crochet the most splendid blanket for my new great-niece!”
Alice smiled her relief, then suddenly remembered, “I didn't even ask if you are feeling better!”
“I recovered, my dear, within a month of being at the monastery, and then enjoyed not having to leave until it was necessary. But I did miss you and looked forward to your text links. Seems I missed all the fun! But there were no pressing matters—well, none of which I was aware, anyway—and I took advantage. Statesman Mellor coped admirably, and it was good practice for him. I need more holidays! Now I have the perfect excuse to visit you often,” she bent and kissed Eliza’s sleeping face.
Auntie Jane poked her head around the door to signal tea was laid out and ready for them.
“Lamingtons I hope, or lemon meringue pie?” Principal Katya said to Alice, her eyes lighting up, “food at the retreat tastes of grass and manure, I hope Chef at the Tabernacle has prepared hamburgers for dinner!”
Chapter 37
Eliza’s arrival brought Alice and the aunties indescribable joy. Principal Katya visited often, but she secretly longed for the day when Noah would learn of his child. Not telling her sister was the most difficult to endure, but Noah should know of Eliza first. She wished Ben and Selina could be part of the little girl’s babyhood; it was not right she was growing up without their knowledge and their love. She prayed the Significator would return safe and sound and on time.
Meanwhile, unaware of all the fuss her arrival caused, Eliza thrived. As she learned to crawl, the dogs became accustomed to having their fur combed and preened, and the cat often slept with objects attached to his half-tail. Pecky took on the role of guardian to his new little friend, usually falling asleep on the job while Eliza napped.
By the time she turned 18 months old, Eliza could swim, ride with Alice on Jorrocks’s back and hold babbling conversations with the registry. Her hair, lighter than when she was born, was now a mix of Alice’s red and Noah’s fair, resulting in strawberry blonde curls. She’d inherited Noah’s blue eyes and sported a determination to have her own way; a trait Alice at first couldn’t pinpoint, but eventually recognised a compelling argument that this organising side of her child’s nature might just come from Noah’s aunt and mother.
Alice waited for news of the Significator, but the days and weeks stretched endlessly. The date the Significator was due back in median space brought hope, but it came and went, with no communication received from them in over 14 months. The Accessor was again dispatched to patrol the border of threshold space. The Inquisitor positioned itself as close to the Significators entry to threshold as possible, to maintain open registry communication, and the Argos diverted from its usual duties to be used as a supply ship, allowing the larger ships to focus on their task.
The night she heard the news an alert was issued for the Significator, Alice put Eliza to bed and walked alone on the clifftop. Above her, the stars were hidden by rainclouds—no moon shone, nothing to illuminate, nothing to reassure her Noah was safe and would return to her.
Summer was almost over when the Significator entered a remote area of far side median space, four months overdue. Principal Ahmed's communications team on the Accessor picked up the signal on long-range sensors several days earlier, but so far, the ship failed to answer any hails.
When the Accessor came alongside, the external damage was clearly visible. The Significators new communications array was destroyed, which accounted for the lack of contact, and a generated field was protecting most of the aft tower. Ahmed shuttled across, fearing what awaited him.
To his relief, Principal Ryan and Statesman Patrick met him at the airlock, both men looking weary, and Patrick’s usual enthusiasm notably absent.
“I’m glad to find you both alive and well,” he dispensed with any formalities in finding them unharmed. He looked around. The damage to the tower extended to the bulkhead. “What happened here? We couldn’t get a lock on the Significator, echoes only; it was like trying to throw a dart at a moving object.”
“We’ll give you a run down, Ahmed,” Ryan said. “We’re just glad to be back in one piece.”
“We’ll link the data manually, Ryan, and upload it to the Accessor,” Ahmed suggested when they reached the bridge. “I doubt you’ll have much in the way of communications until proximal. The Inquisitor stayed close to the mouth of threshold where you first entered, but obviously, can’t remain there too long. I sent word to the Inquisitor and the Tabernacle when we confirmed the Significator was intact. The Inquisitor is coming across to assist, but I will also leave a few extra hands here. Ryan, we didn’t know what to expect, if there were casualties or worse, and I certainly didn’t expect to find you in this area of median space, it’s pretty barren.”
“Evesham’s plan was too ambitious,” Ryan said. “You’re aware of the mission parameters Ahmed, so I won’t bore you. I—we,” he acknowledged Patrick, “advised the Tabernacle moving away from the grid principle in an unknown region was inadvisable. Evesham didn’t agree, so we followed orders.”
“You encountered something, that much is evident.”
“It had the appearance of a cirrus dust cloud,” Ryan said, “almost 4 billion km across. It didn't show up on any sensors until it blocked our path. We realised then; it wasn't like any stellar dust we'd encountered before.” Ryan opened the registry to give Ahmed more detail; it looked like fine dust to him as well.
“It blocked our way,” Ryan continued, “initial analysis proved inconclusive, so we didn’t take the chance of flying through it. We came to all stop while we investigated.”
“What’s the source of the light emission?” Ahmed asked, pointing to a dense area in the centre of the cloud.
“We have no idea,” Patrick joined in. “We launched a probe but received no telemetry, so Quintock and Junnot took a tube and flew along the perimeter. They located the probe and picked it up, dead in space, almost half a light year away as if something spat it out.”
“When did this happen? You’re months’ overdue.”
“About nine months in,” Ryan said. “After encountering the anomaly and sustaining damage, we changed course and didn’t engage magnitude until we cleared the anomaly at i
ts furthermost edge.”
“We plotted a course away from the anomaly,” Patrick commanded the registry to display the scale and detail of the cloud. “In following Evesham’s directive, it would appear we already, and unknowingly, travelled along this edge, here,” he outlined their trajectory along the longitudinal edge. “When we started moving again, we were hit with a projectile.”
“A projectile? From another ship? A weapon? An asteroid from a cloud that fine wouldn't have caused this amount of damage.” Ahmed studied the cloud for a clue; it looked like any cloud except for the dense nucleus.
Principal Ryan held up his hand, indicating to Ahmed he should wait for a moment before speculating further.
“Asteroids would have made sense, but we were targeted—it was too well placed. Another ship hidden within the cloud was our initial thought, but our sensor readings after the attack came back garbled. Junnot's sweep of the anomaly gave up little. She said that even visually, there didn't appear to be anything concealed within it, apart from the dense area. But she reported stars being visible on the other side, so she wasn't convinced it harboured anything resembling a ship.” Ryan changed the registry to a view of the aft tower.
“That single projectile caused this amount of damage. We evacuated the tower and implemented the field.”
“Were you able to analyse the composition of the missile?”
“Yes.” Principal Ryan sat down. “A rock.”
“A rock?” Ahmed echoed.
“Yes, silicates, carbon…a simple rock.”
“I suppose not unexpected in stellar dust, but how could it cause so much damage, particularly if you hadn’t entered the cloud?”
“It could only be the force with which it was propelled,” Patrick shrugged, but a little of his inherent good nature showed through his weariness, and he grinned. “It didn’t like us spying on it.”
That’s better, Ahmed felt relieved, even after all this, it was good to see Patrick still had his sense of humour intact.
“The dense interior holds the key, I'm convinced of it,” Ryan said, “Evidently there is intelligence involved, only we don't know how to communicate with it. The rock might not even have been a hostile act because, despite the force, our defences didn't respond. It makes me wonder if the attack was measured, designed to discourage our interest. Another rock came our way as a warning when we tried to reverse to go back the way we came, we had to go ahead and negotiate the opposite end of the anomaly; we decided against attempting magnitude until we cleared, but it took us light years out of our way.”
“The outcome could have been worse, Ryan. In the scheme of things, the damage isn’t too bad,” Ahmed pointed out as Ryan closed the registry. “Did you encounter anything else of interest?”
“We were out there to learn, Ahmed,” Principal Ryan said, smiling to himself a little at the idea of anyone, particularly a man who spent his life in space, asking if there was anything interesting out there. “I suppose you might say the anomaly alone made it interesting.”
“I mean other life forms?”
“No, no life forms, well not humanoid, unfortunately,” Patrick spoke up. “But Ahmed, what we did find, including the anomaly, was amazing and marvellous and terrifying.”
“Very poetic, Patrick.”
“Until we reached the anomaly, Ahmed,” Patrick said, rapidly regaining his old enthusiasm now they were in familiar territory, “it was pretty mundane, but once we were able to back away and leave, what we found on the other side was incredible. Junnot and I took a tube to a planet with oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere after our communications were knocked out, risky but so worth it.”
“He’s right Ahmed,” Ryan agreed. “That system had several planets capable of supporting life without the domes used on Mars and Kepler.”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t tell me that, Ryan. It might put people out of work.”
"Well, let's adjourn this discussion until after the official briefing at the Tabernacle."
Patrick took advantage of the change of subject. “What’s the news from Earth? I feel like I’ve been away forever.”
“Not many changes there I’m afraid. Principal Katya finally had a holiday. A long one, a few months, the first year you were away,” Ahmed momentarily forgot Principal Katya was Ryan’s aunt, reminded only by the slight change in Ryan’s usually impassive expression.
“She's fine, Ryan,” Ahmed hastened to add. “Don't worry, she's a tough old bird and back at the Tabernacle. Other news is Lawrence Clere has been retired. Apparently, he made a fuss about Dr Langley, you know, the Sleeping Beauty, and not being able to study her. As soon as she was declassified, he petitioned the Tabernacle that he might study her; I understand Principal Katya stepped in and retired him. That stopped him. He wouldn't get any support from the wider community, anyway.”
Noah knew it was Alice, not his aunt, who stopped Clere.
“Oh, any news of her?” Patrick tried not to sound too eager.
“Who?”
“Dr Langley.”
“She got married and had a baby, extraordinary in itself,” Ahmed shrugged. “I don’t know anything else.”
Noah’s heart pounded so hard he thought it might lift him from his chair. The veins in his temples throbbed and his throat tightened, but he forced himself to appear calm and detached. Not so Patrick, who could barely stammer out the single word,
“Married?”
“So I overheard,” Ahmed continued, not noticing Patrick's shocked expression. “She was at Principality 19 with a new baby for chipping, Statesman Carr saw her. I don't know if they spoke.”
“When?”
“I don’t know, Patrick. Recently, I suppose. I pay little attention to gossip. Didn’t you have a thing with her?”
“It appears not,” Patrick excused himself with his short answer, his earlier lack of humour returning. Ryan let him go, wishing he could do the same. But instead, he leaned back in his seat and lifted his left ankle onto his right knee, folding his hands across his chest, pretending disinterest and changing the subject.
“Is there other news, Ahmed?” he asked, hoping there wasn’t enough to keep Ahmed here for too long, but it was several hours before he made it back to his quarters to be alone.
Married? He couldn’t believe it! He paced the room, running his hands through his hair, going to the washer to throw water on his face, anything to clear away the shock of Ahmed’s news, but the words kept playing over in his head.
“She got married and had a baby.”
He should have listened to his father and married Alice and brought her with him. How foolish to expect her to wait—she was spreading her wings, trying out her new emotions. Of course someone would come along and sweep her off her feet—she was beautiful and warm and sweet. But married? And not to him. And a baby?
Noah lay fully dressed on his bed, his emotions switching between disbelief and anger, then back to disbelief and dismay, but he disguised his feelings behind a wall of composure when a link came through from Ahmed.
“Ryan, I received a communication from Principal Katya, she asks you return with us. Patrick can remain on the Significator.”
Ryan could cheerfully have taken a shuttle and gone back the way he came, anomaly or no, but instead he just nodded.
“I’ll be across in an hour, Ryan out.”
At least on the Accessor, he told himself, he could speak to his aunt and casually find out what happened.
Principal Ahmed, in a jolly mood having found the Significator and having got over his initial astonishment at the news of the anomaly, was greatly looking forward to the official debriefing.
“So, Ryan, last time you got chased by aliens with sticks, this time, they threw stones at you, what next, eh? Name calling and face pulling? Strikes me we should send ten-year-olds up with you—might handle it better!” Ahmed clapped Ryan on the shoulder and laughed at his own jokes. Ryan didn't even smile, but then, he seldom did, and Ahmed wasn't disappointed
“Ahmed, I might take an automatrans and leave now.”
“You’re kidding, Ryan?” Ahmed’s laughter ceased abruptly. “That’ll be bloody uncomfortable.”
“I'll wear a support suit. I can manage 48 hours; I don't want to delay any further.”
Ahmed didn’t understand why the hurry, why he would take an automatrans from median space to Earth, but there would be no point in asking.
“OK,” he said, resigned. “Go to the mess and get some protein and then report to Dr Lascelles to check your hydration. I’ll organise a suit.”
“I’d prefer to get going, Ahmed. I’ll be fine.”
“Do you want my arse kicked out into space on the toe of a very angry World Principal’s boot, Ryan? Do it, or I say no, I’m still Principal on this ship.”
Ryan held his gaze for a long moment, but Ahmed didn't waver. He was in the right, and Ryan knew it.
“Very well, thanks, Ahmed.”
Principal Ahmed watched him walk away. Whatever happened out there in threshold space must have been very profound, because he swore he heard Ryan say “thanks”.
Principal Katya couldn’t stop smiling when she saw her nephew’s face on visual.
“Noah, we were so worried. Once the Accessor called in you were safe, we all rejoiced.”
“We're all safe, Aunt. The communications array got destroyed though, and our course, as I suspected, couldn't be controlled in the way Evesham insisted.”
“Perhaps he should have listened to you.”
“Perhaps, but in the end, we encountered much worthy of further study. All reports were transmitted to the Accessor, you can see for yourself in a few hours.”
“I’ve informed your parents you are safe. What about this anomaly you encountered? Ahmed made it sound most intriguing.”
Noah only wanted to ask one question, but he made himself answer hers first.
“It was intelligent, Aunt, I believe protecting something. But it wouldn’t let us get close. In fact, we had to back away, slowly.”
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