“I also must have some conversations,” he told Orwen. “With my niece, to help her prepare. There are things that she will need to understand, before I leave her. She was fit to be tied, when we said she could not join the emissaries, but it is a good thing. Time to heal, and time for conversation.”
“It is a big responsibility. Do you think she is ready?”
On this question Axiom was certain. “She is already a leader. And events have a way of telling us. When we all walked across the desert together, I thought I was ready for anything. Because it had to be, it turned out to be so. Most important is that she will always have friends to help her.”
“Of course,” Orwen assured him. “We will all help her.”
“I am grateful. Let’s get more snacks. I’d like to have some fruit.”
And so Axiom and Orwen spent the evening planning Axiom’s celebration.
Coda
Evan wasn’t sure how to put it. “Hey, I don’t mean to leave you, Mira, but−”
“Got a date, eh? I’ll bet she’s all fired up, now that we’re going to survive and all. Could be your lucky night.”
“Mira−”
“I know, I’m being bad. So have a good date.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“You could do worse,” Mira admitted. “Considering it’s you we’re talking about.”
“There’s some praise, I guess.”
“Just one thing. Let’s say for whatever reason you decide you want to be with little miss privilege, how about this time you don’t blow it? Even she deserves better than what you pulled last time.”
“Hey, there’s a lot you don’t know,” Evan protested. “It was complicated.”
“Then let’s make it simple. If you say you love her, you can decide that means a little more than chasing the next rumor. You can stick around this time. Even if it means you have to read one of those insufferable books and pretend to like it.”
Whenever Evan thought he understood Mira, there was something new to learn. “You are totally confusing me now. What do you mean?”
“I mean,” and she reached out with her good arm to tap his chest, “that if you are not fair and honest with her, if you don’t do what you promise, then you will have to answer to me. And you don’t want that. Do we have an understanding?”
“I guess – yes. We have an understanding. You’re not, um, going soft, on−”
“Oh, no. Can’t stand her.”
“Good news. So what are you going to do tonight?”
“I’m getting together with Ted later,” Mira told him.
“Ted?”
“You know, the governor. We’re going to talk about that military exclusion zone, around the Valley of Dreams.”
“To get it revoked? So you can go back?”
“No way!” Mira exclaimed. “Expanded! And enforced. No entry, by anyone at any time, for any purpose. It will be a preserve. Because it’s not like there’s anything out there that anyone would ever want.”
“Nobody? Not even you, Mira?”
“Nobody.”
“But, you know, Unfinished Business?”
“Will remain unfinished,” Mira declared. “There’s nothing out there. We are going to talk about expanding the preserve, and then Ted might give me a putting lesson.”
Evan was floored. “Putting? You don’t mean that.”
“Well, I can’t do a full swing yet. And putting is half the game. He says it’s tough to master, but he doesn’t know me. I’m totally going to take him. After I’ve had a few lessons.”
Mira, golfing. Evan wondered if he had somehow been transported to an alternate universe.
“I bet you will take him,” he offered. “So, have fun. Little one.”
Evan realized that he was easily within range of Mira’s crutch, held in her good arm. He started to back away, expecting the worst.
Mira just smiled sweetly at him and said goodbye.
Evan headed for the location of his hundredth date with Kate. Or their first, depending on how you counted it. By Evan’s reckoning, the first ninety-nine or so of their dates consisted of field rations and beer, in and around the Valley of Dreams site. By Kate’s reckoning, their first date had been at this place. The food was called Mexican, after a nation that used to exist on Earth, in the mostly uninhabitable equatorial zone. It was a choice they could always agree on.
He was on time, arriving just moments before Kate. Apparently he was capable of modest learning achievements, as measured against past years. They were seated and ordered their wine.
Evan enjoyed the luxury of getting to really look at Kate, across the small table. Clearly she had gone to some amount of trouble for the evening out. Her full hair flowed in cascades off her shoulders. He still couldn’t believe that he might get another chance. It was like being struck by lightning twice in one lifetime.
“So, what are you going to do now?” she asked.
“No fair, I wanted to ask you first! You go. Really.”
Kate had a surprising answer. “It looks like I’m going to have to get a job.”
“Tell me another one. You, a job? Slumming with the plebes now?”
“No, I need it. For pay.” She didn’t look unhappy about the prospect.
“But why?”
“Well you know, the family is gone. It’s all been seized. Everything.”
“I heard you before, at the hospital,” Evan said. “Your friend Lieberthal helped you get money out. And you gave some of it to Mira.”
“He did, at that. He rescued a little over two million for me.” Kate held up two fingers for emphasis.
“You mean−”
“It’s gone, save a few scraps. And now I am free.” Kate gave Evan a big, peaceful smile.
“Gone. Wow. Hey, does this mean I’m going to have to pay for dinner? I never had to before.”
“As you should. You’ll just have to get used to it,” she told him.
“Hey, you could actually charge for your books. They’re pretty good, you know. At a credit a download, you would be set.”
“That unscientific crap, you mean?” Kate raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve been thinking about that. It is kind of crazy that the Versari knew where all of the glomes went. Maybe you’re on to something. Somehow they knew.”
“You, considering something outside of proven hard science? Now I’ve heard everything! But the books won’t amount to any income. Authors can’t make a living from their books unless they load them with advertising, and I won’t do that.”
“I can’t stand the ads myself,” Evan agreed. “And the placements are worse. What products could the Versari have been using, nine hundred thousand years ago? Maybe they zipped around on Philomax choppers, or kept their skin looking beautiful with the latest from CoreValue.”
“Looks like the skin cream didn’t do Elanas any good,” Kate agreed. Elanas was one of the two Versari whom they had removed from the Valley of Dreams.
“So I need to find work,” Kate continued. “On an exo expedition, perhaps. I know a thing or two about the Versari. Have some experience in remote environments. Field data collection, that sort of thing. Let me know if you see any leads that you want to send my way.”
“I might just be able to find you something,” he said. “I’ll need some help with the next expedition.”
“I know that look,” she told him. “What have you got?”
“It was a distraction when I came across it. During the countdown, I was trying to find something, anything, that would help us. I had some hints that we had been looking at the Omega entry wrong, and if I understood it better, we could get some advantage. So I set it aside.”
“And now you’re going to tell me about it.”
Evan wasn’t going to keep any secrets from her. “I think I know the location of the Versari cities! Every place we have ever been, they are all the smallest of outposts. Finding so little of them, it’s not just because of the time gone by.
It’s because there was never much there. And now we can go to planets that once had millions of our friends, or perhaps billions. Maybe we will find out what happened to them.”
He could tell it had her imagination. “We’ve got to do it! We’ll need a sponsor. It almost makes me wish I still had money.”
“Oh, we’ll find someone,” he told her. “Just not one of the Sisters.”
“That’s for certain,” Kate agreed.
“I brought you a present,” Evan offered. He laid the silver mesh pouch on the table. Kate picked it up and felt the object inside, then pulled open the drawstring.
The cube which had almost doomed Kelter.
“The governor gave it back to me,” Evan told her. “Said that as far as he could tell, it was mine. And now it’s yours.”
Kate held it in her hand. “What that simple little artifact did to all of us, it was so hideous that there are no words for it!” Her face was shading red.
“Tell me about it,” Evan agreed. “We were lucky to get out of this alive.”
“Evan, just for me, step out of immediacy, out of our situation, for one moment. I mean, just look at the whole thing. Affirmatix, killing people, nuclear strikes, wanting to sterilize an entire planet. For what?”
The answer seemed obvious to Evan. “Only the most significant chunk of information in human history, worth quadrillions.”
“A crumb! The information, this precious chart, is the most mundane Versari discovery we are ever likely to come across. It’s nothing! Just a road map, containing nothing that we couldn’t gather for ourselves, with technology that is currently available.”
“That would take thousands of years.”
“But we could do it. This item delivers no leap of inspiration, no real breakthrough. Let me put it another way. Consider human civilization. All the beauty, all the technology, the entire span of human experience.”
“A lot of ugly in there, too,” Evan pointed out.
“Include that. Out of the whole pool of wonder, and ugly, imagine discovering a road atlas, and only that. And this pebble sends your world into turmoil. We couldn’t handle finding just that pebble.”
Kate spun the cube into the air. It approached its amber shadow on the ceiling, and then fell back slowly to her palm. “So consider this,” she said. “If this pitiful thing could send us to war, almost destroying the whole planet and everyone who lives here, what will we do when we begin to understand some of what the Versari held precious?”
— The End of Volume 1 —
Author’s Note
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James R. Wells
Glossary
Abilene: The capital city of Kelter
Abilene Consensus: When a group of people outwardly agree to something that they all know is not factually accurate or reasonable.
Adastra, Mira: A pilot. For several years was the lead pilot on Evan McElroy’s archaeological expeditions.
Affirmatix: A family, one of the Seven Sisters. Sponsor of Evan McElroy’s recent work in the Aurora system.
Alcyone: A planet used by Affirmatix as a secret base and research center. Located in the Pleiades star cluster.
Alsatie: Delegate of the RealHealth Family, which is one of the Seven Sisters, to Affirmatix.
Alpha Axis: One of two entry axes into a glome, the other being the Omega axis. Only routes through the Alpha axis have ever safely led to an emergence.
Arrow: A star system. Contains a glome to Aurora.
Aurora: A star system. The location where very well preserved Versari artifacts were found.
Axiom: An infoterrorist on Kelter, infamous for his actions during the confrontations of 2234.
Broker, Tal: Communication engineer on Paul Ricken’s ship. Secretly, a spy for Rod Denison and thus for DelMonaco Shipping.
Buttonwood Tree: The tree that is in the center of the Untrusted Zone. Was planted in 2186. Became a center of conflict in the confrontations of 2234.
Caledonia: A planetary system, contains a glome to Kelter
Celebration: A funeral
Combustapalooza: On Earth, the civilization-wide frenzy of burning absolutely everything that could be lit on fire, primarily for energy. Peaked in about 2040, causing the deaths of over three billion people through direct and indirect effects.
CoreValue: A family, one of the Seven Sisters, engaged in litigation with DelMonaco Trading over glome royalty rights.
De Beers Method: An agreement where all of the Seven Sisters cooperate to publish information about new glome discoveries on a planned schedule to maximize total revenue and profit.
Delegate: An emissary between families, especially the Seven Sisters. For the President of each of the Seven Sisters, there is an assigned set of six delegates, one from each of the other Sisters.
DelMonaco, Anna: Late CEO of DelMonaco Trading, mother of Kate DelMonaco. Died in a space accident in 2303.
DelMonaco, Kate: CEO of DelMonaco Trading, an independent trading and shipping family
DelMonaco, William: Late President of DelMonaco Trading, father of Kate DelMonaco. Died in a space accident in 2303.
Denison, Rod: Ship captain, works for DelMonaco Trading
Domestic Family: A set of related people, often living together, such as married couple and their children. Different from: Family.
Droogs: Friends
Earth: A planet, where humans originated. Population about one billion, concentrated in the northern polar regions.
Efessem: A popular deity, a kind spirit with a good sense of humor
Ellison, Colin: An Affirmatix employee, who works as a wrangler to researchers on Alcyone, including Sonia West and Krishnan Ravi.
False Story: Information or an idea that is in conflict with the generally accepted truth. See: True Story.
Family: A corporation, especially one of the Seven Sisters. Different from: Domestic Family
Fencing of the Commons: A period during the 2260s when Open Source intellectual property was privatized.
FirstStar: A family, one of the Seven Sisters
Foray: The larger and closer of the two moons of Kelter Four
Forbie: The smaller and farther of the two moons of Kelter Four
Friend: A person
Goodhope: A planetary system, inhabited by over 20 billion people.
Glome: A trans-dimensional connection between two points in space, often many light years apart. Each glome allows a one-way journey from the point of entrance to the point of emergence, if entered exactly along the glome’s Alpha axis of entry.
Green: A planetary system, has a glome to Kelter
Incento: Admiral, commander of Kelter’s fleet
Individua: A family, one of the Seven Sisters
Infoterrorist: A person who spreads information that is in conflict with the generally accepted truth
Kelter Four: A planet, notable for its low gravity and thin atmosphere. The Valley of Dreams archaeological site is located on Kelter.
Kestrel: An infoterrorist, friend of Mira Adastra and of Axiom
Klono: The space explorer’s god
Lieberthal: Former CFO of DelMonaco Trading
Lobeck, Arn: A Senior Vice President of the Affirmatix Family
Lu: President of the ProSolutiana Family, wh
ich is one of the Seven Sisters.
Malken, Eliza: Social and Economic Analyst, on contract to Affirmatix.
McElroy, Evan: Exo-archaeologist, made the breakthrough discovery of decoding the Versari artifact listing the destinations of hyperspace glomes.
Middlefork: A planetary system. Uninhabited, but having a Versari site.
Omega Axis: One of two entry axes into a glome, the other being the Alpha axis. The Omega axis has never been known provide to a safe travel route through a glome.
Orwen: A friend of Axiom
Parrin Process: A medical treatment that can extend a person’s life for many years. Anyone receiving the treatment is required to vigorously exercise in order to stay alive, in an amount that becomes progressively greater as the years pass.
Philomax: A family, one of the Seven Sisters.
ProSolutiana: A family, one of the Seven Sisters.
Ravi, Krishnan: Social and Economic Analyst, on contract to Affirmatix.
RealHealth: A family, one of the Seven Sisters.
Remon: President of the Individua Family, which is one of the Seven Sisters.
Rezar, Theodore: Governor of Kelter.
Ricken, Paul: Captain of an independent trader that is a rival to DelMonaco Trading.
Sanzite, Benar: President and CEO of the Affirmatix Family.
Seven Sisters: The seven largest families, who control between them approximately ninety percent of all commerce. They are: Affirmatix, CoreValue, FirstStar, Individua, Philomax, ProSolutiana, and RealHealth.
Skylar, Mithra: Deputy Vice President of Affirmatix Family, usually travels with Arn Lobeck.
Statistician: Member of a terrorist movement that agitates for more equal distribution of wealth and opportunity.
Terrorist: See Infoterrorist.
Top Station: A large space station in orbit of Kelter Four. A hub of commerce between Kelter Four and other destinations.
True Story: Generally accepted version of events, especially as presented by a government or family.
Untrusted Zone: Founded in 2234, a location on Kelter that is outside of the normal operation of civilization. About 5 kilometers from Abilene.
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