“Didn’t Tuttle tell you they were human?”
“No.”
“That’s odd.”
“Well, I don’t know. He might have said something.”
“You still have a copy of his report?”
He nodded.
“Send it to me when you can. I can’t see that it helps you, but it will clear Rachel from some of the recrimination. And Cavallero.”
“Some?”
“Walter, any of you could have stepped in and helped save those people. All that was necessary—” Alex showed him pictures. Of Viscenda. Of Turam and Seepah. Of Rikki and Barnas. Of a crowded dining room. Of a half dozen kids playing on the riverbank.
Korminov made a strange sound in his throat. “They look like us. But they’re not us.”
A deadly silence fell across the office. Finally, Alex sighed. “I can’t see that it makes much difference.”
Walter picked up the blaster. His hand shook. “I know I should have done more. But I was desperate, Alex. It would have brought down everything I stand for.”
“What actually do you stand for, Walter?”
Slowly he brought the weapon around. Pointed it at Alex. “If I were the kind of person you think I am—” He looked at it. Laid it on the table. “But I’m not, of course. If I were, wouldn’t it be foolish to put one of these in my hands?” He laughed. “I assume you’ve drained the energy.”
“Does it matter?”
“No.” He stared at the floor. “I would not willingly harm anyone. Surely we can arrange things to keep my name out of it. All we have to do is avoid mentioning the company. That’s all I ask. It was a natural event that destroyed Echo III. Had our ship not been there, nothing would have changed. I mean, it’s not as if we caused it.”
“Rachel knew of the impending collision, didn’t she?”
“Yes. She knew the asteroid was going to hit. They all knew. It was the reason we timed the flight the way we did. But we thought it was a sterile world. Cavallero never really did the inspection. He was too busy. Too goddam busy.
“There was no electronic signature, nothing, so he just let it go. He wasn’t supposed to do that. Under any circumstances. I’d written the job specifications very clearly.” He swallowed and managed to look contrite and indignant at the same time. “So Rachel took her passengers to watch an asteroid strike. That’s all it was supposed to be. We did that whenever the opportunity offered. Then she saw the cities. But it was too late. She couldn’t have turned the asteroid aside without putting her passengers in grave danger. I mean, grave. She told me she doubted the ship could have survived. She would literally have had to try to push the damned thing off course.” He stopped, raised his hands in frustration. “Her first duty was to her passengers.”
Alex was silent.
“Ever since that day,” Korminov continued, “since that moment, she was torn. I don’t think she ever had a decent night’s sleep again.” His lips quivered. “You think I don’t know that? I did everything I could for her. But she was relentless. She blamed herself. The woman never got past it.” His face was pale. “I didn’t pursue the matter because it would have become public. It would have destroyed her. And you want to bring all this out now.
“I’d hoped you’d simply give up on it. I didn’t know Tuttle had brought back an artifact. Never knew it until you started asking questions. But, Alex, please: Making all this public now does no one any good. You’ll destroy Rachel’s reputation. And you’ll also ruin Cavallero. He hasn’t had a very easy time either.” He was breathing hard. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Alex walked to the door. Opened it for him. “Walter, I suggest you make a statement. Get out ahead of the media.”
I watched him stagger along the walkway to the pad, to his skimmer. He stopped before he got in, looked back at the house, and shook his head. Then he was gone.
“You know,” I said, “we never did figure out where Sunset got the tablet.”
“I guess not. It just doesn’t seem important anymore.” He got up. “Come on, Chase. Let’s go get a drink somewhere.”
EPILOGUE
The reconstruction effort on Echo III is going well. Outposts in other parts of the world survived, as well as the compound, and some of the experts are saying it will be years before we find everyone. But a substantial number of the communities now have electrical power, supplied in some instances by wood-burning power plants, more often by solar stations. Massive shipments of food and supplies began arriving almost immediately after we’d made our report. The Sickness is now a thing of the past. An army of engineers have gone in and are assembling a supporting infrastructure. The inhabitants, it turns out, were not human, after all. They only have forty-two chromosomes.
They also have a somewhat slower pulse rate and heartbeat than we do. Which is why Seepah got alarmed when he first checked Alex.
Korminov was charged with criminal negligence, but the only victims cited were the planetary inhabitants. Unfortunately, in cases growing out of homicides, the laws impose penalties when the victims are either human or Ashiyyur, but they had never included any reference to other intelligent life-forms. There’s a debate about extending that going on as I write this, but there’s no agreement yet on how to define “alien.” Consequently, the case was thrown out of court.
World’s End has gotten a ton of publicity and, when I last checked, business was booming.
Echo III has become a popular tourist spot, despite the weight problem, and a group at the compound are operating river tours, a hotel, and have a lucrative gift and souvenir shop. The hotel restaurant was named Alien Pizza.
An abandoned interstellar, found in orbit, was traced eventually to Petra Salyeva. We told Fenn what had happened, and he shrugged and said something along the lines of how everyone would miss her.
The inscription on the Tuttle tablet has been traced to a four-thousand-year-old culture on Echo III. The symbols are hieroglyphic rather than alphabetic, and they represent the life cycle. Its specific source is unknown. The tablet itself, also, has never been found.
Korminov somehow managed to get his name associated with the relief effort, took a lot of the credit, and has embarked on a political career.
A delegation led by Turam visited Rimway last year, and another trip is planned.
We’ve been back twice to the compound. The first time we went, Viscenda apologized, fearing that we’d gotten the wrong message from her, that we might have thought they’d blamed Alex and me for the Dark Times. She added that she loved the electric lights.
And she had a gift for us, which now rests among the artifacts at the country house. Most are in a display room that’s readily accessible to visitors. A few are up in Alex’s personal quarters on the second floor. Some are in my office, where no one can miss them. Among those few is Allyra, with her wings spread. She occupies the top shelf of the bookcase.
Beside her is a sketch of Rikki.
I’ve always regretted that I never really got to know Rachel Bannister. And especially that I hadn’t been eloquent enough to talk her down off the bridge. But I’m pretty sure, had we met under different circumstances, I’d have liked her.
And then there was Mira Espy, who was coming out of a restaurant, minding her own business, and got dumped into a river and swept over Chambourg Falls. Alex tells me it wasn’t my fault, that I had to make a choice. “She died,” he said, “because she got unlucky.”