Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [92]
He leaned forward. Squinted. “My God,” he said. “It’s Emily again.”
“She seems to be his favorite model.”
“I’d say. What’s she holding in her hands?”
Kim produced close-ups, watched him study the planet, and the ship. He frowned at the Valiant. “What is that thing?” he asked. “A turtle?”
“It’s a ship of some kind. What’s weird is that Ben Tripley has a model of it in his office.”
“The same design?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell is it doing in the sketch?”
“Solly, it might be a celestial. Maybe it’s what they saw out there.” She took a minute to rearrange her cushions. “I think they came out of hyper near one of the seven stars, and they saw this thing.” She shook the photo. “We’ve got to do a search, see if any ship that looked like this has ever existed. Tripley didn’t know about it, so I’d bet not. Anyhow it has no propulsion tubes, at least the model doesn’t—it’s hard to tell with this—” she meant the sketch. “As far as I know everything we make has propulsion tubes. If I’m correct, the ship is either fictitious or a celestial. If it’s fictitious, why would it appear simultaneously in Kane’s mural and as Tripley’s model?”
Solly tapped his fingers on his armchair. “Why would Tripley—Kile Tripley—want a model?”
“I don’t know. Answer that and maybe everything else becomes clear.”
“Okay,” he said. “Another subject—”
“Yes.”
“You were right. The log’s a complete fabrication. Or at least, it is from about the point where they have the engine breakdown.”
“Maybe that becomes the first question. Did they really experience a breakdown?”
“Probably. If not, and if there was a contact, it would imply a rendezvous. That seems like stretching it. No, I think we can assume the engine problem was legitimate.”
“Okay. If what we saw on the log was accurate, would it have been enough to bring them out of hyperspace?”
“Oh yes. Any kind of problem with the jump engines, you get out before you start monkeying with it. That’s SOP. Because if you don’t and something goes wrong, nobody ever hears from you again.”
“So we’re making some progress. The logs look good until the problem develops. And the virtual Emily shows up at about the same time.”
“So what’s our next step?” Solly’s voice got a little deeper, signaling that his testosterone was pushing him in a direction he really didn’t want to follow. “How about if I go up to Severin and see if I can get some pictures of the thingee?”
“No. It scares me, Solly. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”
“That’s not a very scientific attitude.”
“I don’t care.”
“Okay.”
She could see he was uncomfortable, that he thought he should argue a little, maybe even insist on going. So she changed tack: “Have you decided to take the Taratuba assignment?”
“Not yet. Why? Did you want to come along?”
“I’m going to try to talk to Matt and see if I can borrow the Mac. If I can get it, I’ll need a pilot.” The Mac was the Karen McCollum, one of two Institute interstellars currently at Greenway.
“Why do you need a starship? Where do you want to go?”
“I think it’s time to bite the bullet.”
“You’re getting dramatic. What does that mean?”
“Find out whether a meeting between the Hunter and a celestial really happened.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
“Go out and look at the neighborhood.”
“Kim—” He was studying her, trying to make sense of the proposal. “We’re talking about something that happened almost three decades ago—
“If they found a civilization, it won’t have gone anywhere.”
“But we seem to be talking about a ship. We don’t think they’d still be hanging around after all these years, do we?”
“Maybe not. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Why’s that?”
“Their traces would still be out there.”
She got off the train at Blanche! Preserve and took a cab to Tempest, home of Orlin University. It was the first time she’d been back since graduation, and she was struck by the degree to which the town had changed. The MacFarlane Recreational Complex looked abandoned, much of East Campus had become a public