Starhawk (3 page)

“I'm surprised he didn't end it,” said Priscilla. “He could have walked out of the air lock.”

“I suspect he kept hoping somebody would come. He'd sent out a distress call.”

“I guess so, Jake. But he must have known nobody would hear it for a long time.”

“Maybe. But he was an actor. Maybe he didn't really understand how big it is out here. He got here in a few days. When that happens, you kind of lose the feel for the size of everything. Or maybe he didn't know it wasn't a hypercomm. Whatever it was, it doesn't matter now.”

Maybe, she thought, he just wasn't inclined to give up.

 * * * 

SOMETHING HAD BECOME
stuck to one of the storage cabinets in the rear of the vehicle. It looked like a notebook. Priscilla removed it, opened it, touched the keypad. Nothing happened. “I think it needs charging.”

“We'll take it back with us.”

“What do we do about Simmons?”

“We'll put him in the deep freeze.” He released the restraints and took a last look around. Pulled the body free, which was of course easy in the zero gravity. “Nothing more for us to do here. Let's go home.”

They crossed back to the
Copperhead
, and Priscilla called in the report. Then she connected the notebook to a power source. And began paging through.

“What's it say?” asked Jake.

She frowned at it, scrolled through to the last entries:
Whoever reads this: Get to Talios III by the last week of November.

And, the last line:
Guess we bombed.

Jake leaned down, closer to the screen. “I guess they did.”

“
Get to Talios by November?
You think they were running an experiment of some kind?”

“Whatever,” said Jake. “It's irrelevant now. That would be November nine years ago.”

 * * * 

“BENNY, SHOW US
anything that deals with what happened to the ship.”

He put it on-screen: Simmons described the moment: He had been enjoying a quiet hour, reading the comic novel
Last Man Out
, which was not at all the kind of book she'd have expected. The voices of Trelawney and Kobayashi were just barely audible on the bridge. Then, in Simmons's words,
Everything came apart.
There was a loud bang, screams, and darkness.

“Probably a power surge,” Jake said. “It would have knocked everything off-line. Including the AI.”

When Simmons got to Trelawney and Kobayashi, they were both dead on the bridge. Electrocuted. The backup lights had come on, and, of course, life support had been maintained. But other than that—

The hypercomm system either didn't come back online, or Simmons didn't know how to operate it manually. Normally, all that's necessary is to give an instruction to the AI, but the AI was down also. Simmons decided his best chance was to use the shuttle radio, send out a distress call in case anybody was nearby, then come back and try to figure out how to work the hypercomm. But he thought the hull would reduce significantly the strength of the radio signal. So he got into the shuttle and launched.

As if things could not have gotten worse, the launch doors closed behind him and wouldn't reopen.

It was hopeless. The last pages were filled with messages left for his two ex-wives, for his kids, and for friends and colleagues. There was no sign of self-pity. Frustration, yes. But if he was frightened, he didn't leave any of it on the record. Incredibly, he remained the action hero so many had come to admire. Except this time, it didn't end happily.

Get to Talios by the last week of November.

Guess we bombed.

Benny broke into her thoughts: “I think,” he said, “I've discovered what he's referring to. About November.”

“And what's that?” she asked.

“In the Talios system, they encountered an interstellar vehicle.”

“Too bad it wasn't around when they broke down,” said Jake.

“You misunderstand me, Captain. It doesn't seem to have been one of ours.”

 * * * 

JAKE AND PRISCILLA
sat frozen while Benny explained. “They were on the surface, doing fieldwork, when their AI alerted them that they weren't alone. She told them there was a spacecraft in the area that did not fit any known configuration. And that it was approaching.”

“My God,” said Jake.

“Do you want me to put the pertinent sections on-screen?”

The vehicle had been considerably larger than the
Forscher
. It was enormous. Probably three kilometers long, its hull black and smooth. They could see illuminated ports, including an area that had to be the bridge.
We ran for the shuttle,
Simmons wrote.
Ten minutes after we got back inside the ship, they were on the radio. Strange-sounding voices. Not human. Nothing like us. But we responded. We said hello, and I'll admit I used the friendliest tone I could come up with. They answered. One of them did. Don't know what it said. Though it wasn't hard to guess.

“You know,” said Jake, “there should be a complete record of this on the
Forscher
. Pictures, the radio transmissions, everything. We're going to have to find the ship.”

“That won't be easy out here,” said Priscilla.

She kept her eyes on the screen: During the course of the first day, the AIs learned to communicate with each other. Greetings back and forth. The alien vessel was an explorer from a distant place. Trelawney, apparently beside himself with exhilaration, pointed out that
Forscher
also meant “explorer.”

They got a quick reply: “There is little to do out here other than explore.”

The aliens had a sense of humor. And another question: “Would you allow us to visit your home world?”

Nobody on board the
Forscher
thought that would be a good idea. There was no way to know the intentions of the visitors.
Above our grade level,
Simmons commented. They didn't dare reveal Earth's location.

The visitors replied:
We understand.

When Trelawney asked where they were from, they also showed reluctance, and would say only that they'd crossed the galaxy.
We have come a great distance.

And the biologist gave the same response.
We understand.

They talked for several days. Simmons and Trelawney both visited the alien vehicle. Apparently, Kobayashi passed on the opportunity. Several of the aliens came aboard the
Forscher
, after the pilot had arranged a trigger that would overload and blow the drive unit—which was to say everything—if a problem developed. “He doesn't say what they looked like,” said Priscilla.

Jake shrugged. “The AI probably has all kinds of pictures. I wonder,” he continued, “if that's what created the problem going home? Rigging the ship to explode, just in case? When he disconnected, Kobayashi may have overlooked something.”

“Could you do that to us?” asked Priscilla. “Rig us to explode?”

“It wouldn't be that hard.”

After a week, it ended. The aliens were moving on.
But,
said Trelawney,
we should arrange to meet again. Maybe, given some time, we can get permission to invite you to come to the home system. Though, to be honest, I think that may be unlikely. I suspect there would be political problems. But we have people who would very much want to meet you. It would be a start.

Simmons quoted one of the aliens:
We would like that.

But how to do it?

Kobayashi pointed out that two of the planets in the Talios system, the fifth and sixth, would line up in the “near future.”
“When they do,”
he suggested,
“perhaps we could arrange to be here with those who would like to take this farther.”

 * * * 

JAKE WAS GETTING
frustrated. “Damn it,” he said. “Are they talking about a few weeks or what?”

“Apparently the
Forscher
never reported the incident. Or if they did, it was kept quiet. “

Benny broke in: “Simmons says that they decided to say nothing until they got home. They had time to do that and come back though he does not say how much time. But he and Trelawney agreed that a hypercomm report would only generate a rejection. That the politicians would want to keep clear of a meeting. Trelawney wanted to be there to fight for the meeting.”

“Well,” said Priscilla, “it doesn't matter now. It's nine years ago. The aliens are long gone. And everybody's dead on this side.”

Jake looked up from the screen. “So what do we do, Captain Hutchins?”

“File a report, hope they can find the
Forscher
, and get on with our own mission.”

“You're not interested in going the rest of the way out to Talios?”

“Is that what you're proposing?”

“Why not?”

“Jake.” She felt uncomfortable. Priscilla was used to running her life on schedules. “It'll throw us way behind.”

“Sure it will. Think anybody will notice?”

 * * * 

TALIOS WAS A
class G dwarf, about the same size as Sol, but younger by two billion years. According to the data charts, there were eleven planets in the system. Talios III had life-forms. And that was pretty much the extent of the available information.

Talios V and VI were where?

They needed several more days to track them down. Talios V was small and airless, eight hundred million kilometers from the sun, completing an orbit every twelve years. VI was a gas giant with an entourage of forty-some moons and a magnificent set of rings. It was just over twice as far out. “Orbital period thirty-one years,” said Benny. “They were lined up three and a half years ago.”

“So we're a little late for the wedding,” said Priscilla.

Jake's eyes closed. “Unfortunately, the groom never showed up at all.”

“Benny, when will V and VI line up again?” asked Priscilla. “Not that it matters.”

“Sixty-five years and a couple of months.”

“It's a pity,” said Jake.

“You didn't expect them to wait around, did you?”

“I wasn't sure I wanted them to wait around.” It was the first time she'd seen him look uncertain. “Still—Well, let's go take a look at Talios III.”

 * * * 

THE PLANET FLOATED
serenely on the navigation display, but it was hard to believe it harbored life. It did have large blue oceans. White clouds drifted through the skies, and there was snow at the poles. But the continents, the landmasses, looked utterly desolate. No fleck of green appeared anywhere. Nothing moved across its bleak, flat plains.

“According to the database,” said Benny, “life got started here less than five hundred million years ago.”

“So it's still in the oceans,” said Jake.

“That may be correct, Captain. In any case, you would not be able to detect its presence.”

“Too small?”

“Unicellular. It will be a long time before there's anything down there that would be visible to the naked eye.”

“I wonder if they'll ever figure out,” said Priscilla, “why life is so rare.”

Jake magnified the images. Large brown patches of land. River valleys. Mountain chains cutting across continents. All empty. “Hard to believe. What've we looked at now, hundreds of worlds with liquid water and stable suns? And just a handful are alive.”

“A century ago,” said Priscilla, “they thought that almost any biozone world was likely to produce living things.” She was thinking that this was why the meeting at this world had been so important. With life so rare, and advanced civilizations virtually nonexistent—Damn.

So close.

 * * * 

THERE WAS NOTHING
to look at. From Priscilla's perspective, they'd wasted time coming here. But she wasn't going to argue the point with the guy who held her license in his hand. “Jake,” she said, “do you want to go into orbit?”

“Yes,” he said.

“How long do we plan to stay?”

“Not long.”

“Okay. What's next?”

“Use your imagination, Priscilla.”

She laughed and raised her hands in confusion. “I'm not sure what you're asking me to do, Jake.”

“Think about the situation. Look at it from the perspective of the aliens.”

She wanted to point out that aliens would probably not think like people. But she let it go. “How do you mean?”

“If you were in their place, and you'd come back here for a rendezvous with representatives from another technological species, something everybody knows is very rare, you'd expect them to show up, right?”

“Yes. Probably.”

“What would you do if they didn't?”

She was thinking of the jilted bride. “They'd never see me again.”

He laughed. “Assume for a minute you're rational.”

“I'm fairly rational.”

“All right then. Let's say unemotional. The failure to show up could not have been personal. Maybe the other side is afraid. Or maybe something happened to delay them. What do you do?”

She exhaled. “I'd leave a note.”

“Now answer your own question: What next?”

“Benny,” she said. “Commence search for artificial satellite.”

“Excellent.” Jake looked pleased. “You're going to be good at this yet, Priscilla.”

 * * * 

THE SATELLITE FOUND
them
. “Greetings,” it said. “We are sorry we missed you.”

Jake took over. “We are, too.”

“We hope there was no difficulty.”

“The people you talked to were lost in an accident. On the way home.”

“That saddens us. Please accept our—” It used an unfamiliar word.

“Thank you,” said Jake.

“We wish we could do more.”