She described everything. She explained that they were trying to find out where the Hunter had gone. She told them how they had intercepted the broadcasts between the Tripley mission and an unknown vessel, and she showed them the disk. She described the object that had come in pursuit, and how Solly had gone outside to get rid of it. “But it didn’t work,” she said. “Something got on board. And it tried to take us over.”
“Kim,” said Matt, “are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “It’s in the ship’s record.”
“There’s not much left of the ship’s records,” he said softly.
Of course. Her mind was still at quarter speed. The Hammersmith had died. And Solly with it.
“It doesn’t matter at this point,” said Woodbridge. “Whatever happened, it’s over.”
“You need to warn people about the Alnitak region,” said Kim. “Probably about that whole area. Quarantine it. Keep them away.”
Woodbridge frowned. “I don’t see how we can do that.”
“Why not? These things are malevolent, Canon.”
“That’s why we can’t do it. Look—” He turned the chair around, moved it closer to the bed, crossed his arms over its back, and braced his chin on them. “It’s not that we wouldn’t if we could. But we’ve no way to enforce any such stricture. Not even with Greenway registrations, let alone with anybody else’s ships.”
“Then issue a warning.”
“What do you think would happen if we did that?” He lowered his voice, suggesting he was taking her into his confidence.
“Every private vessel with long-range capability,” she said, “would immediately go out there.”
“That’s right. That’s exactly what would happen.” He looked over at Matt. “Your colleague here is already thinking he’d like to go himself. Isn’t that right, Matt?”
“Not if these things are lethal,” he said.
Woodbridge managed a reassuring smile, “What it means is that somebody would eventually give them our address. If your story, and your interpretation, are correct, we have a serious problem.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Nothing.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Nothing. Not a thing. We want to keep people away from the area. That’s our prime concern.”
“You’ve just said you can’t do that.”
“I said we can’t order them to stay away. Or warn them. But nobody ever goes there anyhow. When was the last survey done at Alnitak?”
“Two centuries ago,” said Matt.
Woodbridge looked with satisfaction at the ceiling. “My point exactly. The place is remote, nobody cares about it, it’s not exactly a tourist spot. If we say nothing about this, nothing to anyone, I think we can assume there’ll be no further visits over the short term.”
“What about the long term?” asked Kim.
“The government will begin to prepare quietly. I’m sure those preparations will include some automated probes. We should be able to find out what’s happening without undue risk. Of course, everything depends on nothing being said about celestials outside this room.” He looked at Kim. “We can count on your discretion, I’m sure.”
“I was expecting a parade,” she said, trying to make a joke of it.
An uneasy smile touched his lips. “I’ll arrange something.” He got up and turned to Matt. “The Institute of course will want to drop the charges.”
“Oh,” said Matt. “I don’t think Phil would be amenable to that.”
“He’ll have to be. Bury the incident. The ship wasn’t stolen; it was a communication breakdown.”
“I’ll tell him what you want,” Matt said. “How do we explain the loss of the Hammersmith to our board of governors?”
Woodbridge pulled on a jacket and started for the door. “I don’t know. We haven’t completed our investigation yet. Tell Agostino I’ll call him this afternoon and let him know what caused the accident. It was an accident, by the way.” He glanced at Kim, but continued talking to Matt. “When’s the next nova?”
“In a couple of weeks.”
“That’ll be the third one.”
“Yes.”
“It’s the one that will establish the timing sequence. Identical intervals between events.”
“That’s correct.”
“It’s what indicates the events are triggered.”
“Right.”
“Cancel it.”
“Cancel it?” Matt looked shattered. “We can’t do that.”
“I don’t think the Council would agree, under the circumstances, that advertising our presence is a good idea.”
“But, Canon, light from the novas won’t reach Alnitak for a thousand years.”
“Matt.” The room grew intense. “There’ll be a court order in a few days suspending the operation for environmental reasons. It’ll only say ‘suspension.’ But you won’t want to plan on any more of these explosions.”
Matt looked over at Kim and she could see he was assigning the blame to her.
“Something else you should know, Canon,” Kim said. “The creature that was on the ship—”
“Yes?”
“There’s another one, or something very much like it, in the Severin Valley.”
His brow creased. “The Severin Phantom?”
“Yes.” She saw him glance at Matt. Too many wild stories for one day.
“We’ll look into it,” he said.
“Canon,” she asked, “this didn’t happen before, did it? A cover-up?”
He stroked his beard, apparently puzzled. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
“Oh,” he said. “The Hunter. No. Not that I know of.” He must have read the skepticism in her face. “I wouldn’t lie to you, Kim.”
“Okay,” she said.
He paused in the doorway. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. And I’m sorry about Solly.”
At home, Shepard greeted her with enthusiasm. He was glad to see her again after all this time. He’d been worried, he said, about reports of her misadventure. And he was dreadfully sorry about Solly, whom he’d liked.
Messages were waiting.
Most were from friends and relatives, some with advice, others saying they were glad to hear she wasn’t a thief after all. The Institute had already released its statement, explaining that the entire Hammersmith affair had been a misunderstanding. There were a few lawyers who thought she should sue somebody, usually the Institute for operating a vessel with unsafe engines, or for defamation of character. Sheyel expressed his concern, saying that he assumed the incident was connected with the Hunter, that he’d been surprised and gratified that she would go to such extraordinary lengths. He was, he added, anxious to hear what she had learned.
The cause of Emily’s death, the authorities announced, had been massive abdominal and chest wounds. Possibly inflicted by a particle beam or a laser. Rumors of scandal swirled: There’d been a lovers’ quarrel and she’d been thrust out the air lock; Kane and Tripley had been in collusion and had murdered the two women, probably because they refused to cooperate in some sort of bizarre sexual ritual; Life on board the Hunter had been orgiastic in nature and the murder had occurred after a wild night of debauchery; Tripley and Kane had been homosexuals who’d wearied of trying to deal with the constant demands of the women, had killed one, and let it serve as a lesson to the other. Authorities promised a full investigation. Meantime, both men’s reputations were demolished. And Kim was sorry for that.
So was Ben Tripley, who had been thrown on the defensive by the blizzard of charges that rained down on him. Tora Kane issued a terse statement denying that her father would ever deliberately have harmed anyone. Next day an editorialist commented dryly that any number of Pacifica’s defenders had died at his hands during the late war.
The official story moved Emily’s death several hundred light-years, well away from Alnitak, so as not to rouse any interest in that area.
Kim still had no idea how or why either of the women had died. She felt responsible for the charges being laid against Tripley and Kane, but for all she knew it was possible the two men had done everything that was now being charged against them. Somebody, after all, had killed the women.