Death Wave (44 page)
Authors: Ben Bova
He was close to exhaustion by the time he and Aditi reached their hotel suite. But as he sat on the bed and bent down to take off his shoes, Aditi touched his shoulder and said, “Adri is calling.”
The leader of the New Earth people appeared in solid three dimensions in the viewer on the opposite bedroom wall.
“Friend Jordan,” the old man said, “and Aditi, my dear one. I call to offer you my congratulations on your success.”
Adri was standing, wearing a long robe of royal blue filigreed with silver threads. His bald, wrinkled face was beaming at them contentedly.
Without waiting for their response, Adri went on, “Perhaps you don't fully appreciate the high accomplishment that you have achieved. The first rescue mission is a significant step in itself, but it is symbolic of something far greater.”
“Greater?” Jordan blurted, knowing his word would take an hour to reach New Earth.
With an almost guilty expression clouding his aged face, Adri explained, “You see, this crisis of the death wave has actually been a test of your people's vision and resolve.”
Jordan felt his brows narrow and saw that Aditi looked equally puzzled.
“The death wave is a very real and very dangerous problem. Its threat to the less-advanced civilizations is acute, gravely serious. Entire species of intelligent creatures are under a sentence of death unless you people of Earth help them.”
We know that, Jordan said to himself.
Adri continued, “But there is something else involved, as well. Something of even greater significance for the human race.”
“Greater significance?” Jordan echoed.
“You have led your people to starflight. You have succeeded in one of the most significant steps that any intelligent species can take.”
Aditi moved to the bed and sat beside Jordan. The two of them watched Adri's ancient, seamed face like a pair of schoolchildren listening to their tutor.
“A species that achieves spaceflight,” Adri went on, “has separated its fate from the fate of the planet that gave them birth. Once a species has spaceflight, it can survive a catastrophe that destroys the world of its birth. No natural disaster on its home planet, no global war or environmental devastation, can drive that species into extinction, for it has created new homes for itself elsewhere in its solar system.
“But in the long termâthe
very
long termâthe species' eventual fate is tied to the fate of its birth star. If Earth's sun explodes, or merely throws off a supermassive coronal flare, life on Earth, life throughout the solar system, could be wiped out.
“Starflight gives your species a way to separate its fate from the fate of its home star. With starflight the human race can live for untold eons, spreading through the galaxy and giving rise to new intelligences, both biological and electronic. That is why starflight is so important. It guarantees the immortality of your species and its descendants.”
Adri fell silent. Jordan started to reply, found his throat was dry.
Aditi said, “And the rescue missions we are undertaking are merely the first steps toward creating a true interstellar civilization.”
Jordan found his voice. “We won't get his answer for another couple of hours, at least.”
She nodded.
He grasped her wrist and led her to the glass sliders of their balcony. As they stepped into the dark, cloudless, desert night, Jordan murmured, “Astronomy began in the desert.”
Gazing up at the thousands of bright pinpoints sparkling across the dark sky, Aditi said, “Yes, I'm sure that's right.”
For long moments they stared upward. Jordan pointed out the Dippers, the fainter Dragon twining between them, the lopsided W of Cassiopeia, and, in the opposite direction, Orion climbing above the distant horizon.
“There's a story from the Old Testament,” Jordan told her, his voice oddly low, “about God taking Abraham out into the desert night and telling him, âI will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.'”
“That must have pleased Abraham.”
“I'm sure it did. But I've always interpreted those words in a slightly different way. I think what they mean is that we will populate the stars in the sky. We will become a true interstellar civilization.”
Aditi leaned her head on his shoulder. “And we're taking the first step, now.”
“Yes, now,” Jordan replied. “But it's only the first step.”
Above them, the stars beckoned.
Â
Ben Bova
is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of
Analog,
former editorial director of
Omni,
and a past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Florida. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
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Tor Books by
Ben Bova
As on a Darkling Plain
The Astral Mirror
The Best of the Nebulas
(editor)
Colony
Cyberbooks
(with Gordon R. Dickson)
The Kinsman Saga
The Multiple Man
Orion Among the Stars
Orion and the Conqueror
Orion in the Dying Time
Out of Sun
The Starcrossed
Tale of the Grand Tour
Test of Fire
(with A. J. Austin)
To Save the Sun
(with A. J. Austin)
(with Bill Pogue)
Vengeance of Orion
The Return: Book IV of Voyagers
The Winds of Altair
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