“I didn’t do a thing. Couldn’t do anything. Belle got us clear.”
“Belle? How’d she do that?”
“She took the lander up and brought it down on top of that thing. Crushed it. Whatever it was.”
Of course she had. Where was my head? “Belle,” I said. “You okay?”
“Got a bent antenna. Otherwise I’m good.”
“Thank you.”
“Well, I didn’t want to go home without you guys. It would have required some explanation. Are you okay, Captain?”
“I’m fine. Maybe we should get out of here.”
“Excellent idea,” said Belle. “Please take your seats.”
My hip was hurting and my neck felt as if it was several centimeters longer than normal. “It’s a good thing we were wearing the suits,” said Gabe. “Otherwise I don’t think we’d have made it.”
I could see bruises on his neck and arms, and he began pressing his ribs and making faces. “You sure you’re okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’ve been worse.”
I just sat there with my eyes closed and my head back while Belle took us well above the treetops.
Gabe was moving around in his seat, trying to get comfortable. “I hate leaving here,” he said. “I wish we had a way to do a serious search. There might be some documents on board, something we could recover and take back with us. We didn’t even get the jacket.”
“You want to go back?” I asked. It was a joke, of course.
He laughed. “I can live without the jacket.”
I’d been afraid we were going to find out the plant, whatever it was, had done some damage to the lander. I sat examining the controls. Everything appeared normal.
“I think it’s dead,” Belle said.
Gabe was looking down through his window. “There’s another one on top of the ship. I don’t know where that came from.”
I didn’t like being the reason we were pulling away from what might have been a major discovery. “If we went back, we wouldn’t be taken by surprise again. We could go in with the blasters and take out the damned things.” I became aware I didn’t know where my blaster was. “Uh-oh.”
“What’s wrong, Chase?”
“I think I lost mine.” I was checking my belt when Gabe gave it to me. “I think you dropped it.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I apparently dropped my cutter too.”
“I didn’t see that. Sorry.” He was quiet for a minute. “You know, we could go back. I’d like to have a little more time in there.”
“I don’t think,” said Belle, “that’s a good idea.”
“We should be fine. We could clear the area before going back inside the lander. Kill everything within twenty meters.”
“Gabriel,” said Belle, “I strongly recommend you let it be.”
“It’s okay, Belle,” said Gabe. “You’re programmed for safety first. The plants won’t be a problem.”
“I’m not sure how you can be certain about that. There might be other hazards down there.”
“Gabe,” I said, “you’re really interested in the AI, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought we decided it’s dead.”
“We can’t be certain. I doubt that anything recorded a few thousand years ago would still be recoverable. But if there were something . . .” He turned toward me. Pointed at the white light that signified Belle was active. He frowned and lowered his voice. “Maybe you should shut her down.”
“Why?”
“Do it, Chase.”
“Before you do that,” said Belle, “I’ve sealed the hatch so you can’t get out.”
“She can’t do that, can she?” asked Gabe.
“I don’t know.”
“Try me. I have serious doubts about your safety. On another subject, I have some news. Maybe good. I’m not sure.”
“And what is that?” asked Gabe.
“I picked up a signal. A vocal one.” She let us hear it. A voice, speaking too swiftly and in a pitch that was too high to be human.
“Beautiful.” Gabe was delighted. “I never expected it to be so easy. It’s probably emanating from the surface somewhere.”
Coladia did not feel like a world with radio stations.
“The transmission is coming from the sky. It is unlikely to have originated on this planet.”
“You sure, Belle?” I asked.
“It seems very unlikely, Captain.”
“And it’s still coming in?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Do you have any idea where the source might be?”
“Not yet. I would like to leave orbit so that I can get a better angle on the transmission. That would allow us a reasonably accurate result.”
• • •
I’d never seen Gabe so hesitant about making a decision. He thought about testing Belle’s ability to seal the hatch. But I was inclined to trust her judgment on going back down to the fourth-millennium vehicle, or whatever it was. “Why don’t we follow the transmission?” I said. “Before it shuts down. Go take a look and come back here later? If it’s that important.”
Discontent wrinkled his features. “It could be a while before we get back. And to tell you the truth, I’m dying to know what might be inside that thing. We can get into it and be back out in an hour. Can you handle . . . ?” He pointed at Belle’s status lamp.
Ultimately, he was insistent. Belle admitted she’d been bluffing. “Thanks for the effort,” I said.
She went silent.
“You okay?” I asked.
We still got no response. It was the only time I’d ever seen anything like that from her.
• • •
It had gotten dark at the site of the wreckage. Going down there under those conditions would have been an even dumber decision. We entered orbit, returned to the Belle Marie, and got some sleep. Belle was back talking to us again. Mostly to Gabe. I couldn’t hear them well enough to make out what they were saying, but the subject was obvious. We needed to look at the downed ship before we left. Was the transmission still coming in? Clearly it was or Gabe would have come pounding on my door. I’m not sure there was a guy more passionate about history anywhere in the Confederacy than he was.
We made about five passes over the vehicle before we were satisfied with the amount of daylight it was getting. We climbed into our pressure suits and got into the lander. A couple minutes later we were descending on it again. He didn’t say anything, but it was clear he was enjoying the moment. Man over machine.
• • •
The forest possessed a level of animation we had not noticed earlier. It wasn’t obvious, but when we got close to the ground, we could see tree branches and bushes and vines moving in ways that should have set off alarm bells during our first descent. Maybe it was because there was no wind whatever this time. “Or maybe,” said Gabe, “it’s not targeting us now. Maybe it only hides itself when it sees a possibility for lunch.”
“Don’t get too confident, Gabe.”
We set down in the same area. Belle cautioned us to be careful. We put on our helmets, climbed out, and spent several minutes watching the ground around us to make sure no vines or thickets or briars were creeping in our direction. We used the blasters in a couple of suspicious locations and were satisfied there was no immediate threat from the vegetation. Then I went looking for my cutter while Gabe kept an eye on the forest. It wasn’t anywhere on the ground but I eventually found it inside the ship, just a step or two from the air lock. The dead vegetation that had wrapped itself around me was still there, scattered across the deck.
Gabe began a search of the interior while I disconnected the ship’s AI from the control unit and from its power source. Then I carried it to the lander.
I needed a few minutes to get it reconnected to power. Nothing happened. “So it’s dead?” Gabe asked.
“Looks like it.”
He was disa
ppointed. I was too, but I’ll confess I was happy just to get away from that place alive. He spent an hour inside the ship but came away with nothing except the jacket, some spare parts, and an electronic wrench.
• • •
The transmission was still coming in when we rendezvoused with the Belle-Marie. “I’m glad we didn’t lose the signal,” he said. “That would have been especially painful after we got nothing from the ship.”
“Belle,” I said, “we’re ready.”
We left orbit with mixed feelings. I’d have liked some evidence that the ship’s crew had been rescued. Even though whatever had happened occurred thousands of years ago, it was still painful to think of their being ambushed—and no joke is intended—by the local trees. We never got the answer to that. There was simply no record of the mission. Details didn’t seem to support the idea that it had been the Farport flight.
“We should go out about four billion kilometers,” said Belle. “That will give us a good angle.”
“First,” said Gabe, “let’s go pick up the radiotelescope. I don’t see any need to leave it out here now.”
• • •
The signal ceased while we moved to the other side of the sun. Then it came back. “There are two voices again,” said Belle. “I don’t recognize either.”
Gabe raised a fist. “Excellent,” he said. I would just as soon have seen it gone. I’d had enough aliens. But I said nothing. “Have you located the source?”
“Working on it. The origin is outside the system.”
It didn’t take long. “It seems to be coming from a star listed as KKL7718. It’s a type-K dwarf. A red star. It’s about seven light-years.”
I’d been Gabe’s pilot for roughly two years. What he wanted from me, other than guiding the ship, was simply someone to talk with during flights. On this occasion, though, I was the one who needed someone to talk with. Getting wrapped up by that plant and dragged into the air lock had been the most terrifying experience of my life. I hadn’t settled down yet, hadn’t begun to settle down, when we turned in the direction of KKL7718 and activated the star drive.
“I understand,” Gabe said as we sat on the bridge. “I was pretty rattled by it too.”
I hadn’t been “pretty rattled.” I’d completely lost it. I’d been in a few life-threatening situations before, but getting shot at was nothing like having those plants try to drag me out into the trees. I couldn’t even bring myself to think about what it might have done with me had Belle not stepped in.
Immediately after we slipped into hyperspace I changed the subject, but I have no recollection now about the new topic. I only know that I kept feeling the vines around my throat and my helmet banging against the overhead. Then Gabe was telling me again it was okay. He poured me a drink and said I should relax, that it would go away, and how about we get a snack?
Belle remained unusually silent. I’d been surprised by her stepping in to argue we not go back to the ground on Coladia. I’d never known her to take that determined a stand before against the wishes of either Gabe or myself. Or Alex. It made me wonder if she’d changed in some elemental way.
Eventually we arrived near our destination. I’d begun to pull myself together and felt almost normal when we broke the surface. For about twenty minutes we got no signal; then Belle informed us she’d recovered it. “But the voices are different.”
“Of course they would be,” I said. “The two who were having the conversation have probably disconnected by now.”
Belle snickered. The reality was that, assuming the conversation had originated here in KKL7718, the transmission had needed well over seven years to reach Coladia.
Gabe began talking about how he wished Belle could manage a translation. How great it would be, he said, if we could listen in on what they’re saying to each other. I commented it would be even better if we could participate. “Hi, guys,” I would like to have said to them. “How’s it going? What have you been up to lately?”
“I wonder,” said Gabe, “if that will ever be possible? If we’ll ever get communication technology that’ll allow people in different star systems to talk directly to each other?”
“I doubt it.”
“You can be such a pessimist, Chase. What do you think people at the beginning of the space age would have said about ships that traveled from star to star within a few hours? Or twenty minutes?”
“That’s a little different.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, sitting at the country house carrying on a conversation with somebody on Dellaconda just seems completely off the charts.”
“I’ll tell you what I’d really like to do,” said Gabe. “I’d love to live long enough to be able to visit another galaxy. Maybe drop by and have a dinner in Andromeda.”
“If you wait long enough Andromeda will come to us.”
“Is that really true?”
“Sure. Andromeda and the Milky Way will collide eventually.”
“When?”
“A couple million years, I think.”
Belle broke in: “More like four billion.”
Gabe couldn’t resist laughing. “I don’t guess it’s anything we need to worry about.”
• • •
We hadn’t yet determined the source of the signal, so we simply followed it into the system. There was no point considering another jump until we knew where we were going.
We were both getting tired, but I was still too rattled to try to sleep. I didn’t want to retreat to my cabin, where I’d be alone. Normally at the end of the day I picked something from Belle’s library to entertain myself with until I fell asleep. But that wasn’t going to happen on that night. So I remained in my seat. Gabe understood what was going on and he stayed with me. Eventually I closed my eyes and drifted off. When I woke an hour or so later, he was still there, snoring softly.
XXII.
Science, through the ages, has opened a wide assortment of doors. It has given us guns, nuclear weapons, and technologies that brought us very close to plundering the Earth. Thousands of terrestrial species no longer exist as a result of technological advances. Science made possible the efforts of corporations and politicians to control what people think and ultimately to harvest sufficient wealth and power to manipulate the lives of tens of millions. Some doors should not be opened.
—REV. AGATHE LAWLESS, SUNSET MUSINGS, 1402
In the morning, Belle told us we’d picked up a second signal. “It’s coming from the same direction. But there’s a problem. There’s nothing in front of us within the habitable zone.”
“It’s a ship,” said Gabe. “Or a space station.”
“Belle,” I said, “can you determine whether both transmissions are using the same language?”
“I am trying to make that determination now. But I will need some time. One of the transmissions has stopped, by the way.”
They went on and off. The voices changed. Sometimes Belle could identify a speaker as someone who’d been part of the conversation earlier. And finally she told us we were still tracking the signal: “The transmissions are not coming in from this system. They are coming through the system. From somewhere else.”
By then it hadn’t been a surprise. “Where is it coming from?” I asked.
“A G-class star. GRD43991.”
“How far?” Gabe asked.
“About six hours.”
• • •
When we arrived, we saw immediately that there was something strange about the sun. We were close to it, barely a hundred million kilometers out, and Belle was showing us telescopic images of artificial objects closer in. “They appear to be in orbit,” she said. “And I should add that we are receiving multiple transmissions.”
“I don’t believe this,” said Gabe. “I think it’s a Dyson Sphere.”
“What’s a Dyson Sphere?” I asked. I’d heard the term but I couldn’t remember what it meant.
“It’s an artificial system us
ed to gather solar energy. A giant structure composed mostly of solar panels or other types of energy collectors. They surround a star, pick up some of its energy, and transmit it to a place that uses it to power a civilization. Or whatever. It’s named for a third-millennium physicist.” He paused. “Belle, you say we are receiving multiple transmissions?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
“And a Dyson Sphere,” said Gabe.
“Do you wish to get a better look at the objects?”
“It’s not safe,” I said. “They’re too close to the sun. The locals are seriously high-tech. If they can put together something like this, they’re way ahead of us.”
“There would probably not be a problem with the sun,” said Belle. “It’s a class K, which means we should be able to approach within twenty million kilometers. Heat will not be sufficient to damage the ship.”
“I’m wondering,” I said, “whether we should be hanging around at all.”
“That’s the whole point,” said Gabe. “They’re highly advanced. As societies progress they should become less inclined to attack others.”
“That’s the theory.”
“Yes. I think we’ll learn that’s characteristic of intelligence generally. Intelligent beings understand the value of cooperation. That attacking each other is stupid.”
“I hope so, Gabe.”
“My bet is that Harding came out here, landed somewhere, and went back home with the trophy.”
“You think that’s what happened? That he went down to say hello and they gave him a prize?”
“Yes. That’s probably exactly what happened.” He folded his hands together and smiled at me. “I think we’re perfectly safe. But your concerns are valid. Let’s just go in and take a closer look. I don’t mean get closer to the sun but to the planets. But I won’t insist. It’s your call, Chase. If you want we’ll go home and I can set up a mission.”
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