Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [204]
34
Silence is deep as Eternity.
—THOMAS CARLYLE, Sir Walter Scott, 1838 C.E.
By morning nothing had changed. “To tell you the truth,” Ali said, “being watched by something I can’t see is uncomfortable. I’m glad the banshee’s here. Makes me feel a lot safer.”
Kim drank her coffee without replying. By now everyone on board knew that the fleet had arrived. Some admitted feeling the way Ali did. But they all knew it spelled the end of the mission.
The scan warning blinked on, burned steadily for three seconds, and went off. They were always three-second flashes now, still coming on their precise schedule. “You think the banshee’s getting the same treatment?” she asked.
“Probably.”
“I wonder what they make of it.”
“Fro sure they’re not happy. They’re probably keeping everybody close to battle stations.”
“Incoming from the fleet,” said the AI.
Ali glanced at Kim. “Maybe they’ll tell us. Okay, Mac, let’s hear it.”
“Audio only. Relaying.”
Kim sank back in her cushions.
“McCollum, this is the commanding officer of the RE Dauntless.” The voice rumbled with authority. “You’re directed to leave this area immediately.”
She looked at Ali. “They don’t have any authority out here, do they?”
All made a face. “Technically, no,” he said.
“So tell him to go harass somebody else. He’s interfering with a civilian enterprise. Here, I’ll tell him—”
She reached for a headset but All held up a hand. “I’m sorry, Kim. I have to cooperate. It would be my license.”
“But you said—”
“I said technically they have no authority. But we’re Greenway registry. They have lawyers.”
“Everybody’s worried about his job,” she grumbled.
“Well, what do you expect?” he demanded, frustrated. “We’ve had almost a week out here. What’s happening that’s worth making major sacrifices for?” He switched on the speaker. “Captain, we’ll start preparations for departure immediately.”
“Not just yet, Captain Kassem,” said the Dauntless. “Do you have a Dr. Kimberly Brandywine on board?”
Ali looked sidewise at her.
“Go to visual,” said Kim.
The warship’s commander was tall, blond, with wide-set blue eyes and a neatly trimmed mustache. There was no evidence of flexibility in his rock-hard features. This was not a man with whom she would want to negotiate. “Go ahead, Captain. This is Dr. Brandywine.”
“Doctor, I’m informed you’re in possession of a piece of government property. Is it with you now?”
She looked toward Ali.
He shook his head. No use lying. They’d only board and search. “It is,” she said.
“Very good. Please use care with it. We’ll be drawing alongside shortly. I’ll expect you to have it ready for me.”
He signed off.
“It probably doesn’t matter anyhow,” Ali said. “You can’t give the Valiant back to the owners if they don’t even want to say hello.” He looked subdued.
“Are we still sending out the vocabulary package?”
“Every sixty minutes.”
Everything was coming apart. The Valiant would go into a government laboratory somewhere, search efforts for the civilization which produced it would be misdirected, and Kim would not hear about butterflies and shrouds again during the course of her lifetime. The world would never learn of the sacrifice made by the celestials at Mount Hope. And when we do finally meet, at whatever remote date that might be, it will be as potential antagonists. “Every hour,” she said. “That seems stupid, doesn’t it? Under the circumstances? I mean, we’re not getting any results.”
“We don’t seem to be.”
“Shut it down, AH. We’ve still got some time. Let’s try something else.” She brought up the Valiant package, the Valiant running beneath crescent moons, the Valiant hovering in the sky over the nightside of a world illuminated by vast pools of light, the Valiant fleeing before an exploding nova. Kim had done her work well, and the ship looked by turns regal and exotic and elegant. The only thing it lacked was a clean red-orange flame from a pair of thrusters. “Send these,” she said. “Send them all.”
Ali passed the instructions to the AI. “Canceling second-phase package,” it said. “Proceeding with Valiant