“I’m going to dinner,” Meek said. “I never got to finish my tea, you know. I’ll be back in two hours.”
Jordan watched him go, bemused slightly by Meek’s cool insistence on feeding. The rest of them stayed in the command center, swapping theories and speculations until the region where the laser was slid into the daylit side of the planet. Meek rejoined them, but kept silently aloof from the guessing games.
The area turned out to be a high plateau, heavily wooded. None of the surveillance satellite’s sensors could make out a building or roads or any signs of civilization or even a rough camp.
“Nothing but that damned spot of light,” Brandon muttered.
Thornberry shook his head, scowling at the displays. “I’ve already set up a scouting team: a pair of rovers that can get through wooded terrain. They’ll be ready to go in an hour or so.”
Jordan glanced at his wristwatch. “Wait. I suggest we have dinner and then retire for the night. We can continue this in the morning, when we’re fresh, and the area is in daylight.”
“Go to bed?” Brandon yelped. “How do you expect any of us to sleep with that going on?”
“It’s getting late,” Jordan said calmly. “We’re all tired. I know I am. You make mistakes when you’re tired.”
“But—”
“That light will still be there in the morning.” Before Brandon or anyone else could object, Jordan added, “And even if it’s not, we know its exact location and we can investigate the area thoroughly.”
“I vote we stay at it and launch the rovers without delay,” Brandon said.
Jordan smiled at him. “I didn’t ask for a vote, Bran. Get some dinner and then go to bed. We’ll all feel sharper, stronger, after a good night’s sleep.”
“We’ve been sleeping for eighty years,” Hazzard said mildly, an ironic curve to his lips.
“I’m tired,” Jordan said. “I assume the rest of you are, too.”
“Not me!” Brandon snapped.
A flash of memory raced through Jordan’s mind: six-year-old Brandon kicking and struggling as their father carried him upstairs to bed, yowling that he wasn’t tired, that he didn’t want to go to bed, that he wasn’t the least bit sleepy—then falling asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.
“All of us,” Jordan said gently. “The planet will still be there when we wake up tomorrow morning.”
“You’re right,” said Thornberry. “By the time the rovers are ready to land down there, it’ll be dark again. I’m not happy with the idea of landing me rovers in the dark, night-vision sensors or no.” He went to the hatch and stepped through.
“I’ve set the sensors on the minisat,” Wanamaker said, pushing her blocky body up from the console chair. “If anything changes the system will alert us.”
Hazzard shrugged. “Might’s well eat and then catch some zees. The ship can take care of itself without us.”
Elyse glanced at Brandon, then wordlessly followed the others through the hatch. Brandon gave Jordan a resentful glare, then he too went to the hatch.
Jordan stood there alone in the control center for a few silent moments, listening to the electrical hum of the instruments, the hushed whisper of the air circulation fans, staring at the display screen that showed the laser’s sharp-peaked spectrum.
It can’t be a laser, he said to himself. Even though he knew that it couldn’t be anything else.
Jordan’s quarters were identical to all the other living spaces aboard the ship: a fairly spacious compartment partitioned into a bedroom/lavatory and a sitting room that held a desk, a sofa, and two armchairs with an oval coffee table between them, and wall screens that were glowing with a faint pearly luster. There was a minikitchen in one corner, stocked with a refrigerator, freezer, and microwave oven. The bachelor’s friend, Jordan thought as he eyed the microwave. Then he went past the shoulder-high partition, sat on the bed, and began pulling off his shoes.
The wall screens were blank, although they could be programmed to show anything from the art collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to the latest entertainment or game vids. Or any of the ship’s sensor displays, as well.
Jordan felt very tired. Strange for a man who’s only been awake for a few hours and done nothing more strenuous than lifting a salad fork. But emotional stress can be just as exhausting as physical, and he recognized the demands that his body was making. Or is it a form of fear, he wondered, fear of the unknown. Fear of what we’re going to find down there.
Fear of what’s going on in your own body, a voice in his head reminded him. Fear that the virus lying dormant in your gut will wake up and begin to slowly, painfully kill you.
He pulled the bedcovers over him, expecting to stare wide-eyed into the darkness after all the excitement of the day. Instead he quickly fell asleep. His last waking thought was that it couldn’t be a laser down there. It couldn’t be.
Excursion
Well before 7 A.M., with nothing more than a quick cup of coffee in him, Jordan strode from his quarters toward the command center. As he expected, Brandon was already there, standing behind Thornberry, who was seated at the same console as the evening before.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Brandon greeted.
“Good to see you at work so early,” Jordan replied. “Did you sleep well?”
“Hardly at all.”
Over his shoulder, Thornberry said, “I slept like a rock, I did. A trick I learned when I served with the disaster teams in Africa. Never stand when you can sit, never stay awake when you can sleep, and never pass a latrine without using it.”
Jordan laughed politely. Brandon made a face behind Thornberry’s back.
The command chair was empty; Hazzard had not risen yet, Jordan surmised. Still, he stepped past the chair to stand beside his brother.
“I presume the light is still shining,” he said.
Brandon nodded tightly. “Bright and steady.”
“Are you ready to launch your rovers?” Jordan asked the roboticist.
Thornberry pointed to the center screen of his console and explained, “Got them loaded into a rocketplane and found a good landing spot for them, an open glade less than five klicks from the spot where the light’s emanating from. Be ready to launch in half an hour, we will.”
“Good.”
Slowly the command center began to fill with people. Hazzard slid into the command chair. Elyse came in and stood silently beside Brandon. Meek and Wanamaker and all the others jammed into the compartment, buzzing with low, tense conversations.
We should have made this area bigger, Jordan thought. Perhaps we can enlarge it. Then he told himself, No, that probably won’t be necessary. After all, we’re going to spend most of our time here down on the surface of the planet. At least, that’s what the mission plan calls for.
“Launch in thirty seconds,” Thornberry announced.
The digital clock in the corner of his console counted down: twenty seconds, ten, five …
“Launch,” said Thornberry.
Jordan felt the ship shudder slightly. Launching the minisat had been no big deal, he realized, but launching a rocketplane bearing two sizable rover vehicles makes a noticeable jolt.
Thornberry turned in his console chair. “They’re away. It’ll take nearly an hour for them to enter the atmosphere.” Then he smiled and added, “I’m going to grab some breakfast while I’ve got the chance.”
Jordan and most of the others headed for the wardroom. Brandon, Elyse, and Hazzard remained in the command center.
“Call me if anything … happens,” Jordan said to his brother. He realized he was going to say, if anything goes wrong. He had caught himself just in time.