“Hello, Emily. It’s good to see you again.” The years had not assuaged the grief of loss. Maybe it had to do with the fact that there’d never been a body. Kim had never really given up hope that her sister, her other self, would come back.
“You see me in every mirror. How’ve you been doing?”
“Pretty good. I’m working at the Seabright Institute.”
“Wonderful. What do you do?”
“Public relations. Fund-raising.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It’s not exactly what I wanted. But I’m good at it. And the pay’s not bad.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She lowered herself onto a log. “I’m surprised to be here. Has something happened?”
“No. Yes. Do you remember Yoshi Amara?”
“Of course. She was the fourth crewmember on the last flight.”
“An old teacher of mine called me. It turns out he was related to Yoshi.”
“Really? What did he want?”
“He wants me to look into her disappearance.”
“Oh.”
“What happened to you, Emily? Where on earth did you go that night?”
“I wish I knew. I really do.” She used her heel to draw a line through the sand. “What does he think you can do that hasn’t already been done?”
“You know the stories about Mount Hope.”
“I know that Markis would never try to steal a fuel cell. Or at least I know that if he did, he’d succeed and wouldn’t blow everybody up.”
Kim leaned forward in her chair. She would have liked to embrace Emily, to hold onto her, to prevent her inevitable retreat into the shades. “Sheyel says there’s something strange about the valley. He’s implying you brought something back with you. And it got loose.”
She sighed. “What can I say to that? Your former teacher shouldn’t be allowed out by himself.”
Kim looked past her, out onto the lake. “Emily, did you ever have any reason to distrust either of them? Kane or Tripley?”
“No,” she said. “Kile was a little erratic. But I’d have trusted him with my life. In a heartbeat.”
“And Kane?”
“Markis was a man you meet once in a lifetime. I hope one day you’re as fortunate, Kim.”
“How about Yoshi?”
“Yoshi. I can’t really answer that because I barely knew her prior to the last mission. She seemed okay. A little shallow. But she was very young.”
They had talked about the disappearance before, years ago. And it was unlikely that Shep could have fed her fresh information. Yet framing questions for Emily helped her think.
“I’ve agreed to go up to the Severin Valley with Solly.”
“Why?”
“To look for whatever you brought back from wherever you were.”
“Well, I hope Solly’s good company. Because other than that, you’ll be in for a long trip.” She tilted her head. “It’s cool out here.”
Kim felt only the warmth of the living room. “I miss you, Emily. I wish you’d come back.”
“I know—I’m sorry. I wish there were a way to do it all again. And have it come out differently.”
3
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
The Germane Society held its monthly luncheon on the first Saturday of the month, at the Pioneer Hotel in downtown Seabright. They sponsored exceptional students for extended education grants, provided emotional support for those who had begun their final decline, and underwrote the Midwinter Carnival. They also tried, each month, to reward someone for outstanding service.
On the day that Kim attended, the award was presented to a nineteen-year-old woman who’d rescued her mountain climber buddy from falling to his death. Watching the presentation, Kim was impressed by the woman’s exploit, which had required her to hold on to him for almost ten minutes while he dangled from the lip of a deep gorge.
The thought of cliff-hanging heroics chilled Kim, who doubted she could imitate the feat. Still, the young woman was nervous in front of the audience. She hung her head and mumbled her acceptance, and Kim took a degree of perverse satisfaction in that. We all have our demons.
They read the minutes from the last meeting, took some motions, heard the results of the annual midwinter tree sale. And then it was her turn.
The emcee read her bio from the printed card she’d given him. It identified her as an astrophysicist with a specialty in galactic evolution. During the business portion of the luncheon someone had argued that they needed to think big about a proposal to expand membership, and the emcee couldn’t resist inserting a lame joke that someone who thought about galaxy construction was just the person they needed. She rose to polite applause.
They were a good audience. She had an advantage at these affairs because everybody expected to be bored silly by an astrophysicist. She’d learned long ago that the correct way to begin with a group was to violate the old adage about starting with a gag. Her aim was to win them over and she always did that by recognizing the work performed by her listeners and glamorizing it where she could. When she spoke to librarians she described them as the guardians of civilization. Teachers were the first line of defense. For service groups, like the Germane Society, she offered a similar tack.
She started by congratulating the young mountain climber on her courage. “People these days are inclined to tell us we’re all going downhill,” she said. “But I have to tell you, as long as we have people like Amy here, we’ll be all right.” The woman blushed prettily. “If I could be certain that, in a hundred years, the Germane Society will still be here, still recognizing the heroes among us, and still providing help where needed, then I’d have no qualms about the future of the Republic.”
Now of course she had them.
She compared their goals with those of the Institute, stretching the facts a little, because the Institute didn’t go out of its way to help anybody, not directly at least. But that was okay. People did profit in the long run from scientific advance. And if the forward movement was slower than it used to be, that was all right too. Her listeners were concerned about where the nation was going. They were interested in the Beacon Project, and anxious to show they weren’t among those who thought stars were sacred.
“If eventually,” she concluded, “the program gets a response, and someone shows up to see what we’re really like, I believe I’d try to bring them over here to sit down with you folks and have lunch. I know that would get everything off to a good start. Thank you very much.” She stepped away from the lectern as her audience broke into enthusiastic applause, and sat down. Overall time consumed was roughly thirteen minutes.
Solly, waiting just outside the entrance to the dining room, had caught most of it. “You have no shame at all,” he said, when they were alone.
She grinned. “To be honest, if I could arrange to have our first visitors eat with the Germane Society, instead of with the Council, I’d do it in a minute.”