“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 think they brought something back with them.”
The conversation had already been too exotic for anything to surprise her now. But that statement came close. “What kind of something?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes flickered and seemed to lose focus. “Read the accounts about the aftermath in the Severin Valley. For years after the explosion, people have claimed they’ve seen things in the woods. Lights, apparitions. There were reports of horses and dogs showing signs of restlessness.”
Kim felt embarrassed for him, and he saw it.
“They abandoned the town,” he persisted. “They left.”
“They abandoned it because the explosion weakened a dam. The dam was too expensive to repair so the authorities just encouraged everyone to move out. Anyway people had bad memories.”
“They took down the dam,” said Sheyel, “because everyone was leaving. Kim, I’ve been there. There is something loose up there.”
She listened to the air currents circulating through the room. “Did you ever see anything, Sheyel?”
“I’ve felt it. Go look for yourself. After dark. Do that much. It’s all I ask.”
“Sheyel—”
“But don’t go alone.”
2
We may never know what really happened at Mount Hope. Those who maintain that a secret government project hidden on the slopes went terribly awry on that April night have to explain how a government notoriously unable to keep any kind of secret could have kept this one for so many years. The theory that the area was struck by a micro black hole seems equally indefensible until someone proves that such an exotic object can even exist. As to the antimatter explanation, the board, after exhaustive investigation, can find no conceivable source. For now, at least, the cause of the Mount Hope event cannot be satisfactorily explained.
In effect, Kim and her charges, a combination of commentators, contributors, and political heavyweights, were afloat in the void at relatively close range to Alpha Maxim. They were seated in four rows of armchairs, some sipping coffee or fruit juice, one or two pushed back as if it might be possible to fall. The sun’s glare was muted. Its apparent size was about twice that of Helios at noon.
Two clocks, positioned among the stars, counted down to ignition.
Kim, in the rear, was doing a play-by-play. “The LK6 is now two minutes from making its jump into the solar core. When it does, it will try to materialize in an area already densely packed with matter.” Canon Woodbridge, seated up front, was talking on a phone while he watched.
“This alone would be enough to create a massive explosion. But the LK6 is loaded with a cargo of antimatter. The reaction will be enough to destabilize the star.”
Beside her, a technician signaled that the operation was still on schedule.
“We have a report from the McCollum that the last crewmembers have left the Trent, and that they have begun to pull away.”
One of the observers wanted to know about safety margins. How long would it take before the shock wave hit the Trent?
“There’s no danger to any of the personnel. They’ll be gone long before the first effects of the nova reach their former location. Incidentally, the Trent won’t be destroyed by the shock wave. The light will get there first, and that’ll be quite enough.”
Could she explain?
“A nova puts out a lot of photons. Think of a near-solid wall moving at lightspeed.”
The clock produced a string of zeroes.
“Insertion is complete,” she said.
“Kim.” It was the representative of a corporation that almost routinely underwrote Institute activities. “How long will it be before we start to see the first effects?”
“That’s a gray area, Ann. To be honest, we have no idea.”
There were skeptics among the witnesses, some who believed that the Institute had overreached, that blowing up a star was simply beyond human capability. Several, she knew, would have been pleased to see the effort fail. Some did not like the Institute; some did not like its director. Others were simply uncomfortable at the prospect of human beings wielding that kind of power. Woodbridge was among these. Despite his remarks the previous evening, Kim knew that his real misgivings flowed from a basic distrust of human nature.
Minutes passed and nothing happened. She heard something fall and strike the invisible floor. They grew restless. In their experience, explosions were supposed to happen when they were triggered.