“You will stay within radio range?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
The office fell silent. Finally, Zyra walked over to Derek and took his arm. “May I show you around the museum? I understand you’ve seen the first floor, but there’s considerably more. Security can clear the building for us.”
“Oh, yes,” he said. “I’d love that.” Derek was faking the enthusiasm. But he didn’t want to offend anyone, and he got away with it. “Can we do it without forcing anybody to leave?”
“We can try it if you wish. We’re not allowing anyone else inside the building. So, there will only be a few visitors to contend with.”
“Good. Let’s do it.”
• • •
The place was empty. It was obvious that the people who’d been in the building had been escorted outside. Either that, Hutch thought, or they’d decided they didn’t want to hang around with something that scared the kids.
Zyra walked with them among the displays and described the significance of urns and vases and rifles and aircraft that were thousands of years old. She talked about civilizations that had risen and fallen over the ages. It was difficult for her, of course, like showing off a sword that had once belonged to a member of Augustus’s Praetorian Guard to someone who had never heard of Rome. But she was energetic. Especially when they arrived at the interstellar section. “We’ve had to reinvent FTL vehicles twice after losing the technology. And I guess we’ve reached that stage again.”
They had religious artifacts from sects that had once prospered but had long since disappeared. There was a lectern that had belonged to the leader of the first global civilization, which had established and maintained peace for centuries. (Though Tasha had not yet worked out the actual length of a century.) There was a chair that had been the property of a celebrated playwright, and a timepiece that had belonged to Kamas Gordone, a mathematician who’d either constructed or solved the Gordonian Enigma. Shalon tried to explain it. Derek listened, asked some questions, and finally concluded that it was Fermat’s Theorem. But he admitted he wasn’t sure.
There were statues of historical leaders, mythical figures, artists, and even of a famous entertainer. “During her lifetime,” said Zyra, “everyone loved her. She is still very popular. I don’t know if anyone was more successful at making us laugh.
“These are not the originals,” she continued, speaking of the statues. “They are reproductions. Some of the originals still exist, but most, like this one of Morikai the Great, have been lost.”
“What happened to it?” asked Derek.
“The original was left in front of a capitol building on the other side of the world, completely abandoned, and eventually torn apart by religious fanatics who believed sculptures were forbidden by the gods. Thousands of years ago.” She paused in front of a statue depicting a native, probably a female, holding an infant in her arms. “This is Queen Elza.” She stopped and tried to think of an easy way to explain. “She opposed the Orgalians, who were a race of barbarians. She succeeded in beating them back. It’s a replica of a statue placed at the Crescent Pool in her honor. Centuries after her death, the Orgalians returned, seized everything, and destroyed the statue.”
Another female replica stood nearby. Hutch caught only a passing glimpse, but she recognized it immediately. As did Derek. “Wait,” he said. “That’s the Iapetus sculpture.”
When he turned so she could get a better look, she saw it wasn’t strictly true. It was similar but not identical. But it was clearly the same species. It also was female, and at first glance, it portrayed a creature you would not have wanted to confront in a dark place. It had claws and wings and eyes that were somehow focused elsewhere. But the suggestion of discontent, of loss, of anger, was gone. It was, somehow, more warrior and less female. There was more a sense of conquest and less of longing.
Derek had to stop and catch his breath: “Zyra, where did that come from?”
“The original was from the Kamersik Era. At least six thousand years ago. We think. It disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to it. Of course, there’s not much that’s survived from that period.”
“What does it represent? Who’s it supposed to be?”
“Sola.”
“And Sola is?”
“She was one of the gods who, in the sacred texts, brought us off Adjuban.”
“Can you,” Derek said, speaking slowly, “tell us a bit more? About the religious interpretation?”
“There were several conflicting versions. Basically, we were living in a place of gathering darkness. The gods themselves were divided over whether we should be allowed to survive. They were weary of the way we lived, and Okondo decided to do away with us. Okondo was a second-level deity who simply thought we were more trouble than we were worth. In some versions, he was the one who imposed mortality on us. It was supposed to be a warning, but we didn’t listen. And finally, he brought the darkness.
“Sola was more tolerant. More loving. She intervened with other gods, and they carried us to a safe place. That is what Tarka means: a safe place.”
Derek’s voice came through to Hutch: “Are you getting all this?”
• • •
The black car pulled up alongside the lander. Hutch thought about standing in the airlock when it opened and letting herself be seen by Shalon and Zyra, both of whom were in the vehicle. But they already knew she was there, and she was disinclined to rattle Derek. So, she waited in her seat.
Meantime, Derek talked with his hosts: “Shalon,” he said, “Zyra, we’ll need to find out whether we can help the Volarians. Our world is very far from theirs. As it is from here. And we have political issues at home. But we’ll wait to hear from you. If your people can help, we’ll do everything we can on our end. And we’ll get back to you and let you know whether we’ll be moving ahead. There’s a chance we won’t be able to get off our world again, so if you don’t hear anything from us within the next year, I guess you can forget it. But I do not think that will happen.”
They all got out of the car, clasped one another’s shoulders, shook hands, and said good-bye.
Hutch opened the airlock and Derek came back on board. Then he surprised her: He brought Shalon and Zyra inside. They smiled as he introduced her. “Hutch is our pilot.”
They obviously enjoyed being in the lander and told her they’d like to fly with her someday.
“I’ll do what I can,” she said, “to make it happen.”
Priscilla’s Journal
So now we know who they were. I’d always thought of the Monument Makers as simply a group of prodigies with too much time on their hands, wandering through the Milky Way leaving evidence of their passage. Except for the Iapetus monument. That one had her eyes locked on Saturn, and you could not miss getting a sense of someone resentful of a universe that was completely neutral regarding the welfare of its creatures.
We saw that again, but in more pronounced terms, in the sword that was left in orbit around the black hole. Though I guess the sword reflected outrage. The iconic figure on Iapetus provides primarily sadness and loss.
—Sunday, August 17, 2256
35.
There is no good way to deliver bad news. In my experience, the best way to handle the issue is to stand aside and allow it to deliver itself.
—Gregory MacAllister, “The Flower Girl Always Steals the Show,” Editor-at-Large, 2223
Shalon’s response arrived minutes after they’d rendezvoused with the Eiferman “We are with you,” he said. “We are here because our mythology informs us that the gods once helped us. That is of course not actually what happened, but it demonstrates the compassion that our earliest thinkers believed in. We will help where we can. As you know, we will need your assistance to manage transportation. If in fact you go ahead with your intentions to move forward, advise us, and we can consult on details.”
Hutch confirmed reception, and Derek sent a short reply: “Thank you, Shalon. We will find a way to
make it happen. If all goes well, we will be back within two hundred days.” A day on Tarka lasted slightly less than twenty-seven hours.
“Good luck to us all, Derek,” Hutch said. “We’re ready to leave orbit.”
He took a deep breath. “I guess it’s time to go back and tell Arin and his friends what they’re facing. We have to find out whether they’ll accept the news and be willing to get evacuated. In fact, the more I think about it, the less likely it seems that we will even be able to get them to believe us. Imagine if somebody had come out of the sky at home, before we had decent telescopes, and told us we’d have to move to Mars or something.”
“I’ve thought about that,” said Hutch. “I wonder how the people who pulled these guys off the ice world managed it.”
Derek smiled at her. “Waterfalls.”
She laughed. “Let’s hope something like that will still work. What’s the first step?”
“We’ve got a new world for them. Let’s start by getting a decent name for it. We don’t want to tell them they’re going to Number Twenty Alpha or something.”
“You have a suggestion?” asked Hutch.
“ ‘Greenland’ might work.”
“It might lead to some confusion back home.”
“How about ‘Utopia’?”
“How about we go for something original?”
“How would that matter?” said Derek. “Arin and his people wouldn’t know Utopia isn’t original.”
“It’ll matter at home if we’re trying to sell the package. Hold on a second.” The lander had just pulled alongside the Eiferman. The launch door opened. “Take us in, Tasha.”
The AI eased them into the cradle, which took them into the ship. The door closed.
“So, what’s your suggestion?” asked Derek.
“I think our best approach would be to invite the Volarians to name it.”
Derek thought about it while they released the harnesses. Then they just sat back and waited for the cargo bay to pressurize. “Yeah. That makes sense.”
“We need to explain all this to Arin first,” said Hutch. “We’ll need him with us when it goes public. Then maybe we should take a few of them to see the black hole so they know what we’re talking about.”
“Then,” said Derek, “take them to Utopia or whatever. Let them make the call whether it’s suitable. Yes. That sounds good.” But he frowned. “Maybe we shouldn’t do anything. Once we’re home, it’s highly probable that the WSA won’t allow us to leave the planet again. What happens if we go in and tell Arin about the black hole and then we go back to Earth and they shut everything down? I mean, they have fifty or sixty years left. Maybe not that long. If we go back and let them know what’s coming, we’ll in effect take that away from them. The shadow of this thing will hang over their heads the rest of their lives. We don’t have a fleet, and as of right now, we don’t have any support.”
“Maybe,” said Hutch, “if we’re just going to stand by and let it happen, we should have decided that before we went looking for Utopia. Or talked to the Tarkans.” She kept her voice level. “There is no good option here, Derek. We can just leave them to die. Or we can at least try to do something. Look: They’re adults. What do you think they’d want us to do? What would we want in their position? I say we go back, tell them the truth, and make sure they’ll accept an evacuation. If they won’t, it’s over.”
“Then what?”
“Then we go home and find a way to get the world on board.”
Derek’s features were twisted by frustration. “I hate this, Hutch.”
In fact, she had an idea how they might pull it off. “All right. Before we waste any more time, we know how to find Zyra and Shalon when we come back here, right?”
“Yes. If we come back here. That’s a long shot.”
The life-support status light came on. “Time to get moving.”
• • •
It was a four-day flight back to Volaria. Derek and Ken spent much of their time practicing the local language with Barry. “It’s going to be difficult enough,” Ken said. “We don’t want to have to tell them about the black hole by waving our arms and making faces.”
When they arrived, Hutch put them in orbit and asked Barry to find the island. Then she went back into the passenger cabin, where Utopia seemed to have taken hold as the name of the new world. She thought they should leave naming it to the Volarians, but she wasn’t going to make a fuss over a trivial issue. In the end, she thought, they’d call it whatever they wanted. “You should also,” she said, “ask Arin whether he’s willing to go back to Earth with us. We’ll need him to help make our case.”
“I know.” Derek was unhappy with the idea. “The problem is, if we do that, there’s no guarantee they’ll let us bring him back here.”
“Tell him that.”
Beth broke in: “We’ll also have to pack food on board for him. And invite Kwylla too, by the way.”
“Arin’s island,” said Barry, “is directly ahead, Captain.”
• • •
Ken looked supremely uncomfortable as he started down to the launch bay. He took his notebook with him. Hutch suspected he’d written out everything he wanted to say. Hutch opened the lander and climbed in. Derek held the door for Ken and then followed him inside. Beth appeared at the bottom of the ramp. “You want to come?” Derek asked.
She obviously didn’t want to and had probably made up her mind to stay on the ship. But she couldn’t live with that decision. She came over and got into the lander. Then Wally appeared.
“Wally,” said Derek, “we need you to stay here.”
“Boss, I’d love to see the place.”
“Maybe that’s a good idea,” Beth said. “Why don’t you go ahead? I’ll stay.”
“You sure?” Ken asked.
“I’ll be fine. Wally deserves a chance to see what it looks like down there.”
She got out and Wally took her place. The cargo bay depressurized and the launch doors opened. The cradle carried the lander outside the hull. Hutch started the engine, the control panel lit up, release lights came on, and they were on their way.
The sun was in the eastern sky, maybe an hour above the horizon as they approached. She cruised over the beach, which already had some sunbathers. “Set down at the temple,” said Derek.
There were cars in the parking lot. But there was more than enough room for the lander. She touched down and they sat staring for a moment at the tower, beautiful in the early morning sunlight.
The temple doors opened and a few Volarians came out, looked in their direction, and started toward them. “What are they doing here so early?” asked Ken.
They waved and laughed, and one of them, a female, got as close to the side windows as she could and stood with her arms outstretched, inviting them to come outside.
Hutch opened up and waved back. That got some cheers. Kwylla appeared at the cottage door. She came over and said something to the crowd. They cheered some more, while Hutch thought how this would all soon stop. “That brings up another aspect of this thing,” she said. “I wonder if they have any end-times prophecies.”
“We’ll probably find out before the day’s over,” said Ken.
They were still climbing out of the lander when Arin appeared. He wore dark clothing and a gold neckpiece and was obviously headed for the temple. But he changed course when he saw the lander. “Hello,” he said. “We didn’t expect you back so soon.”
They all greeted him. And Ken asked if they’d gotten in the way of a service.
“Oh no. Have you eaten yet?”
“We just woke up.” He’d obviously been working on his English. “I’ll see you in a little while.” He turned them over to Kwylla and went through the side door into the temple.
• • •
“I wonder,” said Hutch, as Kwylla brought out fruits and vegetables from the kitchen, “if maybe it would be okay to go inside the temple.”
“I still don’t thin
k that would be very smart,” said Derek. “We don’t know what the rules are.”
“I can’t see why there’d be a problem. We’ve spent a lot of time here and they seem to accept us. I’d be interested in learning about Arin’s faith.”
“I don’t think we should do anything like that,” said Wally.
Hutch didn’t buy it. “If we were going to offend him, we’d be more likely to do it by staying away.” She got up. “I’ll be back after the service.”
She expected Derek to direct her not to go, but he remained quiet as she looked at Kwylla. “Ken, ask her if it would be okay for me to attend.”
• • •
They were singing and dancing and playing their assortment of musical instruments when she entered, followed by Derek. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. They sat down in the rear, where they were virtually alone. Arin was up front, bouncing around with a string instrument.
A sphere was mounted behind the table, or altar, reminding her of the symbolic message, We’re all in it together.
She tried to make out some of the lyrics but could manage only one line: “Show us the way.” Eventually, the music stopped, and Arin took charge of the ceremony. He stood and spoke to his audience, but it didn’t sound like an oration. In fact, there was occasional laughter. Hands went up, and they asked questions. Or made comments. Then he led them in prayer.
She would have liked to be able to understand what they were saying, but what she felt was a coming together. And she could not get out of her mind what was going to happen when the ceremony ended. When they sat down with Arin to give him the worst possible news.
Lord, she thought, I don’t know whether you’re there. I cannot see a loving Creator as the functioning force behind this universe. But that may simply be a result of my stupidity. If we never needed you before, we do now. If you’re annoyed with me, please don’t let these people pay the price.
• • •
Hutch returned to the cottage minutes before Arin. He came in, announced how happy he was to see his guests back, excused himself, and went upstairs to change clothes. A gloomy silence settled over everybody. Kwylla had clearly sensed something was wrong. So much so that she went upstairs also, undoubtedly to warn him. They came down together. Everybody put on an artificial smile, and the humans adjusted their ear pods so they could hear Tasha’s translations.
The Long Sunset Page 29