Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [9]
“He made it quite clear that Tripley wasn’t going to be satisfied just bagging a bacterium somewhere. He wanted to find a thinking creature. A civilization. It was the whole purpose of the Foundation—the whole purpose of his existence.”
Like Emily.
One of the saddest places anywhere in the Nine Worlds was the abandoned radio telescope array on the far side of Earth’s moon, designed explicitly to search for artificial radio signals. Far more versatile than anything that had gone before, it had closed down its SETI function after something over a century and a half of futility, and was eventually diverted to other uses. By now, it was obsolete, standing only as a monument to a lost dream. We’re alone.
There’s never been a signal. Never a sign of a supercivilization building Dyson spheres. Never a visitor. There was really only one conclusion to draw.
She spread her hands helplessly, wondering how to break off the conversation. “Professor—
“My name is Sheyel, Kim.”
“Sheyel. I’m inclined to accept whatever you say simply because it comes from you. But I’m reminded of—”
“—The danger of assigning too much credence to the source when weighing the validity of an argument. Of course, after this you may categorize me as an unreliable source.”
“I’m thinking about it,” she admitted. “You must know something you haven’t told me.”
“I do.” He rearranged the cushions. “The Hunter left St. Johns February twelfth, 573.” St. Johns was an outpost in the Cynex system, last water hole before leaping into the unknown. “They were bound for the Golden Chalice in the Drum Nebula. Lots of old, yellow suns. First stop was to be—” he looked down at something she couldn’t see, “—QCY449187, a class G. But of course they never got that far.”
“They had a problem with the jump engines,” said Kim.
“According to the record, yes. They came out of hyper-space in the middle of nowhere, made temporary repairs, and turned back.
“But they didn’t return to St. Johns. Kane decided St. Johns couldn’t manage the problem. So they came all the way home to Sky Harbor, arriving March thirtieth. It was ironic, of course, that the Hunter, whose owner had made a fortune repairing and maintaining jump engines, should suffer such a breakdown. But nevertheless—”
There it was.
“Okay,” said Kim, in a tone that suggested she saw nothing out of the way in any of this.
He produced another picture. Yoshi, Tripley, and Emily in Foundation jumpsuits. Yoshi had chiseled cheekbones and riveting dark eyes. A white scarf highlighted her youth. Kim saw a monogram on the scarf and asked about it.
“It’s a crescent,” he explained. His gaze turned inward. “She liked crescents. Collected them. Wore them as jewelry and monograms.
“Anyway, an hour or so after they docked at Sky Harbor, Yoshi called me.”
That got Kim’s attention. “What did she say?”
‘“Granpop, we struck gold.’”
“Gold?”
“That’s right. She said that she’d be in touch; but she couldn’t say anything more for the moment. Asked me to say nothing.”
“Sheyel—”
“It can only have one meaning.”
Kim tried to hide her frustration. “She might have been talking about a romance.”
“She said ‘we.’”
“Did you talk to Kane?”
“Of course. He maintained that nothing unusual happened. He told me he was sorry about the others, all three missing within a few days of the return, but he had no idea what had happened to them.”
She sat watching him a long time. “Sheyel,” she said at last, “I don’t know what you want me to do about any of this.”
“Okay.” His expression revealed nothing. “I understand.”
“To be honest, I haven’t heard anything that persuades me they made contact. That is what you’re implying, isn’t it?”
“I appreciate your time, Kim.” He moved to cut her off.
“Wait,” she said. “We’ve both suffered losses in this incident. That’s painful. Especially since we don’t know what happened. My mother was haunted by it until the day she died.” She took a deep breath, knowing this would be a good time to break away. “Is there anything you’re not telling me?”
He watched her for a long moment. “You mentioned contact. I