The Great Symmetry (22 page)

“I didn’t write you. Do you want to know why? Do you really want to know the reason? You ask and I’ll tell you!”

Evan knew he was going the wrong way. The death of her parents, and he was being the angry one. But he couldn’t help himself. “You tell me
. Why it wasn’t worth even sending me a note.”

“Because you were gone! Always gone, always light years away. No letters. Just another dig. When you stopped coming back to Kelter, I knew I wasn’t worth the trip. Some rocks a million years old were more important than me. That’s why!”

Evan looked down. He had no answer
. Nowhere to go. Only the woman in front of him, speaking the truth.

She had been with him on the day, years before, that he had stood on the low hill overlooking the Valley of Dreams, as the emergency room doc
told him the narrative from halfway across the planet, of everything they had tried. The audio had phased in and out, but Evan had heard enough to know that the moments he had always hoped for, with his own father, would never be. And he had thanked the doc for her efforts, signed off, and stood there, entirely empty.

Kate had comforted him, stood by him, and helped him. Not just at that moment, but in the days and weeks to follow. She had gone
with him to the celebration. She had taken care of those things he suddenly didn’t care about, but still mattered. She had forgiven him when he had said things that were horribly wrong. She
had held him. She had been there.

In turn, when he had had the chance to do one good thing for her, he had done – nothing.

He remembered his mother’s advice, the best advice he had ever received, although he had scoffed at the time. She had taught him
what to say when nothing else would serve.

“I was wrong. And I am sorry,” he told Kate. He looked back up to see that she shared his tears. “And I have missed you. I’m just really bad at showing it.”

Mira abruptly got up.
“Oh no,” she said. “If you two are about to get all snuggy, I’ve seen enough of that for one lifetime.” She grabbed her pack and walked down the passage, sticking her index finger into her open mouth.

As Mira’s steps faded in the distance, Evan looked at Kate. He knew what he hoped for. Reconciliation
. Another chance. But did she also?

Kate called out to the departing Mira. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that!”

The Daughters of Atlas

“It is a very fine day, is it not?” Ravi appeared to be in great spirits.

Sonia equivocated. “There’s no weather up here, you know. Space.
It’s not even day or night.”

“But it is a fine day in our lives. On our campus on Alcyone, it is early morning, did you know that? Your little ones, about to enjoy a Saturday. The blossoms opening for the day. There is so much hope now.”

Ravi had never struck her as much of a botanist. What was with him?

“I do miss them,” Sonia agreed.

“And soon
you will not have to. The gods will deliver us safely back.”

“You mean instead of us going back by ship?” She tried a little humor.

“You may think that we have long since left the gods behind, centuries ago, but it is not so. They walk among us now. Doing what gods have always done. Providing well for those who serve,
and punishing those who do not.”

“Ravi, what in the world are you talking about?”

“Look.” He dialed in a display to show a starfield, and then zoomed in to a star cluster. Familiar, except the positions of the stars were not quite the same as she remembered from her childhood. “The daughters
of Atlas. On every planet in known space they shine. From each place where we may go, we see a different arrangement, but they are always there. Ruling the lesser stars that surround them. The shape may change, but the seven are always there.”

“You mean, the Sisters,”
she said.

“And if the altar at our village is Affirmatix, then let it be so. All we must do is serve well.”

‘They’re just families, you know,” Sonia told him. “Companies, they used to be called.”

“Just. Exactly. They define what is just, through the exercise of their power. And that we must not question. It is a practical thing. In former days, people imagined they could please the spirits, and their offerings would bring them good fortune. But now, it is really so.”

“Good fortune? What do you mean?”

“For the first time I confessed what I have most wished for in my life, even knowing that it is impossible. Just one day later, I find out that it may be so, once I get home. It is a miracle. Do you not see?”

Sonia was still trying to come to terms with the strike
on the Valley of Dreams. Almost certain death for those they were pursuing. And she had done nothing to prevent it. Just a logical continuation, as Ravi had so incisively pointed out, of years of her work on Alcyone.

But Sonia knew that she could not share any of her turmoil with Ravi. “Which one is Alcyone?” she asked.

“From this view, it is the lowest on the left. See, we can look upon our
home, even from here. A home that has been granted to just a few of us, who are privileged to live in such a place instead of out here in the cold universe. A home where even the impossible might be. We will be there soon.”

Sonia put a hand on his shoulder. “Ravi. Krishnan. I
hope we can get home soon. Each of us, we must do those things we think are best, for ourselves and for those we love. And then believe that it will be all right. Maybe it still will be.”

For a moment, they held each other. “Yes, that is right,” he told her. “I think you do see it.”

Shared Burden

Evan awoke, stiff, to see that Kate and Mira had made breakfast, using what they had available. It actually wasn’t bad, considering the circumstances, and there was even coffee that Kate had originally brought for her camp.

“My plan wa
s to publish a paper,” Evan said between sips, “with my latest findings from the Aurora dig. Exo Expo Twelve, coming up in four months. The call for papers is already past, but I know all the organizers, and I was sure I could get a slot. Maybe a keynote, with my new stuff.

“Big fish, small pond, you know,” he continued.
“We might get only fifty attendees. But they would be people that matter. To me, anyway. If you give a good paper, then you get to hold court at the evening reception. People come up and ask questions, and challenge your findings. And you drink bad wine. Not sure what it is
, the wine is always bad. Horrible white or worse red, take your pick. But you drink it anyway because it’s part of the experience. I was really looking forward to that. This paper was going to be great. Such a breakthrough.”

“Now we’re getting to it. Please go on.” Kate.

And then
Evan told her everything.

Kate listened carefully, asking for clarification on a few points, but mostly allowing Evan to narrate as he would. Mira, who had heard it before, added a few observations. Evan’s words echoed off the walls and ceiling of the cave chamber as he spoke. At last he was done.

“We could go anywhere” Kate said. “Any star system! And we would know how to get back.”

Evan couldn’t see her expression, because they had all learned hours before not to shine their lights directly in anyone’s face. But he could hear her emerging amazement.

“There might be a few star systems that don’t have a feasible route,” Evan pointed out. “But that’s the sum of it, more or less. Over a million glome routes, to over a hundred thousand stars. The whole network for our corner of the galaxy. And there could be more – I just worked with the data set that had the least cosmic radiation damage.”

“No wonder Affirmatix wants it to themselves! You didn’t see that coming?”

“I didn’t know what it was until I had it. The record could have been anything. The stock market results from a million years ago, whatever. But in retrospect,
Affirmatix was betting I would find something big. For this expedition, they sponsored one hundred percent, exclusive. They got commercialization rights, and I could publish academic papers. The way I saw it, if they wanted to make Versari action figures, or a video game, then they could.”

“Clearly they had something else in mind,” Mira put in.

“When the warships arrived, maybe I should have just gone back to the research station, and it would have averted the whole thing.
But now I don’t think so. They just went crazy. Warships. Missiles. Blockades. Chasing us through the cave. Stopping at nothing. To keep a secret.”

“To make sure there’s not even a hint that it exists,
” Mira pondered.

“Anyone I even contact is in danger, whether they know anything or not. For instance, that Denison fellow who rode down with us. Who knows if he has been rounded up by now, to find out what he knows.”

“And he didn’t tell me a thing about you!”
Kate burst out. “Secrets everywhere!”

Evan was surprised. “You know him?”

“He’s one of my captains. He rode down with you, and still you didn’t send along word that you were alive. Let me go on thinking you were dead.”

Evan turned to Mira. “You held out on me!”

“Because if I told you, Evan, I knew you would do something foolish. And our current situation proves me right. I made Denison promise not to say who he worked for.”

“Because you were keeping us apart,” Kate declared.

Mira agreed. “Exactly. For good reason, as we see right now.
”

“You might have a point there,” Kate conceded. “But back to the present. If the problem is due to it being a secret, then the answer is obvious. It needs to be public. When we get out, we’ll contact the media. I have some friends at the top channels in the Spoon Feed. They’ll be so excited to get the scoop.”

Evan raised his hand up
. “It’s the right kind of solution – spreading the information so widely that we don’t matter anymore individually. And there are other really good reasons to do that – I’ve been thinking this through. But do we really know the media would take the story?”

“Oh yeah! The ratings would be through the roof! Who would turn it down?”

“All of them,” Mira replied
. “All of them would turn it down. Every single one.”

“But why?” Kate asked.

“A story this big would be sequestered, right out of the gate,” Mira told her. “Then it would be evaluated by the infoterrorism office, and their subscribers, to determine whether it should be released. They might release it, they might not, and I am betting not. They would have to consider the interest of Affirmatix
, and releasing the story would definitely not be in their interest. In any case, the only certainty is that we would lose control of it.”

“Independents?”

“We could find some independents who would run with it. But would they have the reach to really get the word out? And let’s not forget that any person we tell is instantly placed in serious danger. Who do we want to do that to?”

“I still say we need to publish it,” Kate said. “Widely
. The solution is dilution. They can’t track down and kill everyone. I could run a big advertising campaign. Oh, maybe not. Not anymore.”

“I am sorry to share this burden with you,” Evan told them. “I can’t solve it. First I knew, and it almost got me killed. Now you two know, and that’s worse. And we have left a trail of others who may already have been harmed. Once you have the knowledge, there is no unknowing it. That is, as long as we are alive.”

Happygram

When she saw the notification on her phone, Sonia abruptly got up and left the meeting. “Carry on,” she told Ravi and Merriam. “I’ll be right back.”

Fifty seconds later the door slid closed behind Sonia in her quarters. “Main display,” she said. “Run the message from Alcyone.”

The scene opened with a lazy, low flyover. Flowering shrubs, ranging from pink through a deep magenta.

The play set came into view. Simone and Jennifer climbed and slid happily. The shot widened to show Yvette, smiling and watching them. The voiceover began.

“Hi mommy!” the girls said in chorus.

Yvette’s voice was low, sweet, and wonderful. For the shortest of moments, Sonia was home. “Sweetie, we wanted to send you a little note to say that we all love you and believe in you. We are doing just great. In fact, I was given some extra paid vacation while you are on your trip. Up to two weeks if I want. So we were thinking of going to the hot springs for a few days.”

“Tell her! Tell mommy!”

“Oh, and Simone wanted me to tell you that she got a hundred percent on her advanced math test.”

“A hundred and five!” Simone corrected.

“And she got the extra credit question right. She knows you’ll be so proud.”

Sonia watched her daughters playing, and tried to imagine something that mattered less than a math score.

“So have a great trip, and we will have
a party when you get back.”

“Party!” Jennifer agreed.

“One, two, three: We love you!” the three of them chorused.

The camera rose until it was looking down on the entire yard. And then the video was over.

Was the point of view selected on purpose? Gracefully floating through the garden, just
a meter or so above the ground, then flying off.

The colorful and enchanting denizens of every garden and park on Alcyone. Welcomed by everyone, the symbol of serene daily life on Alcyone. Over four hundred varieties had been identified, each expressing small variations in color, size, and shape.

Hobbyists strove to capture the best images of their translucent wings shimmering in the sun. There was an annual contest for the best such picture.