“Who?” asked Rudy.
“Name’s not pronounceable. At least not by somebody with your basic equipment. He’s a physicist. Appeared on a health show yesterday. They even posted his code so we can contact him.”
“You know how to translate the code so we can input the right signal?”
“I think so. But there’s a problem.”
“Which is?”
“They use radio communication, but only as a public medium, or for point-to-point commercial purposes. It’s not used for personal links. It’s ships at sea, planes to airports, that sort of thing.”
“And personal communication?”
“I’d guess by landline. They have wires strung along many of their highways. That’s probably what we’re looking for.”
“Do we know where this person with the unpronounceable name lives?”
“I pinpointed the area where the broadcast originated.”
“You said the code refers to a landline. We’d have to go down and tap in.”
“That’s correct.”
“And you say you can’t pronounce the name of the place he’s from?”
“I said you can’t.”
“It should be doable,” said Rudy.
Hutch shook her head. “Phyl, show me what the landlines look like.”
A stretch of highway appeared on-screen. It was night, with a cloudless sky and a big moon. The lines were strung on a series of posts off to one side of the road.
Rudy sighed. “It doesn’t look much like an elder civilization.”
As they watched, a pair of lights appeared in the distance. Vehicle approaching.
“Are they communication lines?” Hutch asked. “Or power lines?”
“Probably both. You’ll have to go down and find out.”
“That sounds dangerous,” said Antonio.
That was exactly what Hutch was thinking. But the opportunity to sit down with aliens from an advanced civilization, something humans had been trying to do her entire lifetime, to sit down with one of these guys and ask a few questions…It was just too much to pass up. “How do we go about doing it?” she asked.
“I’ll design a link for you to use.”
“Okay.”
MATT WANTED TO make the flight down. But there was no way Hutch was going to pass on this one. “I’ve got it,” she said. “You stay with the ships.”
“I’ll go with you,” Antonio said.
“Me, too,” said Rudy.
She needed a backup, just in case. And if she got in trouble, she was reasonably sure Antonio would be more help than Rudy. “I have to take Antonio,” she said. “He’s the media. But, Rudy, we’re just going down to tie a link into the landlines. We aren’t going to talk to anyone.”
His jaw set. “Hutch, I want to go.”
“Rudy.” She adopted her most reasonable tone. “I’m going to need you to help conduct the conversation when we establish contact with these creatures. Meantime, I want you out of harm’s way.”
He sighed. Grumbled. Sat down.
She led Antonio below to the cargo area, which also served as the launch bay for the lander. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have used grip shoes for a surface operation, but they were rubber and would ground her against electrical shock. She pulled on rubber gloves, made sure Antonio was similarly fitted, collected two e-suits, and asked belatedly whether he’d ever used one before.
“Ummm,” he said.
“Okay.” It was beginning to feel like old times. “It’s simple enough.”
The equipment generated a virtual pressure suit, a force field that would protect him from the void or from a hostile atmosphere. She showed him how and helped him get the harness on. They tested the unit until he was sure he could manage it. Then she helped him strap on his air tanks.
When he was ready, she picked up a knife from the equipment locker, and they climbed into the lander.
An hour later, they descended into a clearing alongside a lonely road with electrical lines.
HAD IT NOT been for the poles lining the side of the highway, she might almost have been in Virginia. The road was two lanes. Its shoulder was cleared for about three meters on either side, then the forest closed in. It was late, the stars were bright overhead, the moon in the middle of the sky. A brisk wind moved through the trees, and insects buzzed contentedly. She’d been in forests on a dozen or so worlds, and they all sounded alike.
Dead ahead, the road went over a hill and dropped out of sight. Behind them, it disappeared around a curve.
She walked over to one of the poles and looked up. The pole itself had, in an earlier life, been a tree. The lines were high. Phyllis had thought there’d be footholds, but she didn’t see any.
“How are you going to get up there?” Antonio asked.
“Not sure yet.” A car was coming. From behind them. As headlights came around the curve, they sank back out of sight.
It was a small, teardrop vehicle. Three wheels. It was quiet. Probably electrically powered.
Then it was past, over the hill, and gone. She didn’t get a good look at the driver. The only thing she could be sure of was that it was smaller than she was.
She looked again at the pole. “How the hell do they get up these things?”
“Probably use machinery of some sort.”
Crosspieces supported two sets of wires. They were fastened to the top, one above the other. Phyl had told her that the higher wires would probably be the power lines.
“Wait here,” Hutch told him. “Stay out of sight.” She went back to the lander, climbed in, and got some cable out of the storage locker. Then she started the engine and took it up.
“What are you going to do?” Antonio asked.
She’d have preferred to work directly out of the vehicle, but she didn’t think she could get close enough without running into the power lines. Moreover, she’d have to lean pretty far out to make the connection, and it was a long way down.
Funny how perspectives changed when gravity became an issue.
She got above the trees and eased the lander over until she was immediately above the pole. Then she opened the door. Antonio looked up at her. He waved. “Be careful,” he said.
She leaned out and dropped one end of the cable to him. Then she looped the line around the pole so that it was supported by the crosspiece, and dropped the rest. Both ends now lay on the ground.
“It looks like a long climb up,” said Antonio. “I think I should do it.”
“You’re too heavy,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to lift you.”
“Hutch, I’m not excited about this.”
“Me neither, Antonio. I’m open to suggestions.”
“Car coming,” he said.
She saw the lights. Damn. The lander was hanging in midair, silhouetted against the moon. She grabbed the yoke and, with the hatch still open, arced away.
“Hutch, he’s stopping.”
There was no place to hide. She took the vehicle as low as she could and simply kept going.
“It sees you. Getting out of the car.”
“Keep down, Antonio.”
“It’s trying to get a better look. I think you’re out of sight now. The trees are in the way.”
“Let’s hope so.” She was looking for a place to set down, but there was no clearing.
“Uh-oh.”
“What uh-oh?”
“It sees the line.”
“Okay. Just sit tight. We’ve got more cable if we need it.”
“Good.”
“What’s it doing?”
“Just standing there, looking around. That’s a nice-looking car, by the way.”
Hutch finally saw an opening in the foliage and took the lander down. Gently. No noise. “What’s he doing now?”
“Staring at the cable. They’re ugly critters. Wait, there’s another one in the car. They’re talking…Okay, now it’s getting back in. There’s another car coming. From the opposite direction. No, a truck rather. A flatbed.”
“Let me know as soon as they’re clear.”