* * *
THEY WERE STILL taking pictures when Michael pressed a hand to his ear, listening to something. He nodded a couple of times. Then she heard his voice: “Governor, we’re being ordered home. Immediately.”
McGruder turned and stared at the agent. “Why?” he demanded.
“There’s a threat.”
“How the hell can anybody threaten us out here?”
“Not here, sir. Apparently there’s a credible threat to destroy the Wheel. They want us to start back without delay. To go directly to Reagan. They’re evacuating the space station.”
“Okay,” said Vesta, “let’s move.”
McGruder laughed. “Hold on. We come all the way out to Saturn, and we get ten minutes? Let’s just relax. I’m not finished yet.”
Priscilla’s link chimed. Yoshie’s voice: “Priscilla, we’re evacuating the Wheel. Bomb threat. We need the Thompson to help. Please get back here as quickly as you can. But take your passengers to Reagan first. Make all possible haste.” The message was, of course, already well over an hour old.
She acknowledged, then switched back to Michael. “You have any details?”
“Negative, Priscilla.”
“Okay,” she said. “Governor, I guess we’re ready when you are.”
* * *
THE MILES CONOVER SHOW
(The Science Channel—Guest: Howard Broderick)
MILES: Howard, what is your response to this latest threat?
HOWARD: I don’t see that we have a reasonable option, Miles. You’re not suggesting, I hope, that we should give in to these lunatics?
MILES: Bear with me, but I don’t see what’s so important about a terraforming operation light-years away that we should be willing to risk so much for it. Marcus Barnes was on the show yesterday, and he maintains that we’re only a few years away from developing the technology to do this without harming anything.
HOWARD: You’re suggesting we just shut everything down? That we cave in to these nut jobs? Do you have any idea what that will do to the colonists who are already planning to move out and claim these worlds for humanity? Or what it would cost? And if we were to do that, and the next time somebody got upset about some corporate or government policy, do they just threaten to blow up the Wheel to get their way? Is that the kind of precedent you want to set?
IVY: Mr. Broderick, I can’t help noticing you’re not on the Wheel today.
HOWARD: That’s correct, Ivy. I’m attending a Seattle convention, where I am the guest of honor. Consequently, as much as I would have liked to remain up there, I had no choice. I do not think, in any case, there’s any real danger. Security on the space station is solid. I’m not worried, and I expect to be returning as soon as the convention is over. If you’d like, Kosmik would be happy to have you come up and join us for a few days. At our expense.
Chapter 51
EMOTIONS WERE MIXED as the Venture left Orfano. Samantha sat with Jake on the bridge, watching the fading image of the dark planet on the auxiliary screen. A sad smile played on her lips. “Can’t believe it,” she said. “An intelligent life-form unlike anything we’ve seen. And we’re leaving it behind.”
“It’s the right call,” said Jake.
“I know. Thing like that: We don’t know how much patience it has. I didn’t want to push it. And when we get home, nobody’s going to buy the story.”
“Will you come back again at some point?”
“I’d like to say no. But I don’t see how we can avoid it in the long run. Eventually, there’ll have to be another mission. I’m just not comfortable with the idea.”
“You know what makes no sense?” said Jake. “Something alone like that for possibly millions of years. You’d think it would welcome some company.”
“I suppose,” she said. “Though I guess we shouldn’t expect much in the way of social skills.”
When Jake announced they were five minutes from entering Barber space, he heard Denise whisper a soft good-bye. Tony broke out his violin and played a few mournful notes. Everyone laughed, but the laughter was artificial.
Then the stars were gone.
* * *
THE MOOD DURING the flight home was different from what it had been on the way out. The casual conversations about politics and science went away, the general lightheartedness was not to be found. They had succeeded, at least in their own minds, in establishing the existence of a sentient being. Or beings. And they’d even made contact, after a fashion. But, as Mary put it, “Who would have thought we could have done all that and still failed?”
The presence on that world became the sole topic of conversation. Where does it get its energy? What would it have done if we’d stayed? Obviously, it was empathetic, but did it have any curiosity at all about us? Was it there when Orfano was torn away from its sun? Was the superdense object a remnant of that event?
“We’ve always assumed,” said Denise, “that if a living world got expelled from the planetary system, everything would die. But here’s a possible exception. And if it was there at the time, what must it have been like watching the sun grow smaller and dimmer every day?”
“It probably doesn’t have eyes,” said Tony. “Maybe it just felt the cold coming on.”
That led to a discussion of senses.
And so it went.
* * *
BY MORNING, THE shock of the experience had, to a degree, worn off. They still talked about nothing else, but the conversation took a lighter tone. Since the presence had responded to Jake’s projections, Samantha argued, communication seemed possible. “Maybe we could get it to say hello. And eventually get answers to some of these questions.”
“Like how long it had been there?” asked Jake.
“Or,” said Tony, “how it brought the lander down.”
“That would be easy enough to explain,” said Mary, “if we really are talking about a sentient atmosphere. A thing like that could lift pretty much anything it wanted.”
Denise smiled. “Do you think it could tell us how long it had been there?”
“Sure,” said Samantha. “Why not?”
“I don’t know. How would it measure time?”
Tony had an answer for that one: “Maybe by counting Orfano’s rotations.”
“You think,” said Mary, “it’s been counting?”
“I’m kidding. But it might be aware of changes in the positions of stars.”
“Whatever,” said Jake, “it doesn’t seem as if it would have much else to do.”
“Except reshape mountains.” Denise frowned. “I feel sorry for it.” Nobody responded, so she continued: “We should give it a name.”
“The Omnivore,” said Brandon.
Samantha shook her head. “I don’t think we should use anything that has ‘the’ in front of it. That makes it sound like a monster.”
Tony laughed. “How about Herman?”
“Is it a male?” asked Mary.
“That’s a point,” said Samantha. “We need something sexually neutral.”
Brandon grinned. “Windy.”
* * *
THEY’D BE MAKING their jump into the solar system a couple hours before midnight.
As the time approached, Samantha came onto the bridge and looked down at the right-hand seat. “Mind?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Jake, I just wanted to say thanks. This has been an odd mission, the goofiest I’ve ever been on. We’ve got some major questions remaining. But we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you.”
“I was glad to help,” he said. “Truth is, I wouldn’t have missed it. Orfano’s been a whole new experience for me.”