“What’s wrong, Chase?”
“I think I lost mine.” I was checking my belt when Gabe gave it to me. “I think you dropped it.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I apparently dropped my cutter too.”
“I didn’t see that. Sorry.” He was quiet for a minute. “You know, we could go back. I’d like to have a little more time in there.”
said Belle,
“We should be fine. We could clear the area before going back inside the lander. Kill everything within twenty meters.”
said Belle,
“It’s okay, Belle,” said Gabe. “You’re programmed for safety first. The plants won’t be a problem.”
“Gabe,” I said, “you’re really interested in the AI, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought we decided it’s dead.”
“We can’t be certain. I doubt that anything recorded a few thousand years ago would still be recoverable. But if there were something . . .” He turned toward me. Pointed at the white light that signified Belle was active. He frowned and lowered his voice. “Maybe you should shut her down.”
“Why?”
“Do it, Chase.”
said Belle,
“She can’t do that, can she?” asked Gabe.
“I don’t know.”
“And what is that?” asked Gabe.
She let us hear it. A voice, speaking too swiftly and in a pitch that was too high to be human.
“Beautiful.” Gabe was delighted. “I never expected it to be so easy. It’s probably emanating from the surface somewhere.”
Coladia did not feel like a world with radio stations.
“You sure, Belle?” I asked.
“And it’s still coming in?”
“Okay. Do you have any idea where the source might be?”
I’d never seen Gabe so hesitant about making a decision. He thought about testing Belle’s ability to seal the hatch. But I was inclined to trust her judgment on going back down to the fourth-millennium vehicle, or whatever it was. “Why don’t we follow the transmission?” I said. “Before it shuts down. Go take a look and come back here later? If it’s that important.”
Discontent wrinkled his features. “It could be a while before we get back. And to tell you the truth, I’m dying to know what might be inside that thing. We can get into it and be back out in an hour. Can you handle . . . ?” He pointed at Belle’s status lamp.
Ultimately, he was insistent. Belle admitted she’d been bluffing. “Thanks for the effort,” I said.
She went silent.
“You okay?” I asked.
We still got no response. It was the only time I’d ever seen anything like that from her.
It had gotten dark at the site of the wreckage. Going down there under those conditions would have been an even dumber decision. We entered orbit, returned to , and got some sleep. Belle was back talking to us again. Mostly to Gabe. I couldn’t hear them well enough to make out what they were saying, but the subject was obvious. We needed to look at the downed ship before we left. Was the transmission still coming in? Clearly it was or Gabe would have come pounding on my door. I’m not sure there was a guy more passionate about history anywhere in the Confederacy than he was.
We made about five passes over the vehicle before we were satisfied with the amount of daylight it was getting. We climbed into our pressure suits and got into the lander. A couple minutes later we were descending on it again. He didn’t say anything, but it was clear he was enjoying the moment. Man over machine.
The forest possessed a level of animation we had not noticed earlier. It wasn’t obvious, but when we got close to the ground, we could see tree branches and bushes and vines moving in ways that should have set off alarm bells during our first descent. Maybe it was because there was no wind whatever this time. “Or maybe,” said Gabe, “it’s not targeting us now. Maybe it only hides itself when it sees a possibility for lunch.”
“Don’t get too confident, Gabe.”
We set down in the same area. Belle cautioned us to be careful. We put on our helmets, climbed out, and spent several minutes watching the ground around us to make sure no vines or thickets or briars were creeping in our direction. We used the blasters in a couple of suspicious locations and were satisfied there was no immediate threat from the vegetation. Then I went looking for my cutter while Gabe kept an eye on the forest. It wasn’t anywhere on the ground but I eventually found it inside the ship, just a step or two from the air lock. The dead vegetation that had wrapped itself around me was still there, scattered across the deck.
Gabe began a search of the interior while I disconnected the ship’s AI from the control unit and from its power source. Then I carried it to the lander.
I needed a few minutes to get it reconnected to power. Nothing happened. “So it’s dead?” Gabe asked.
“Looks like it.”
He was disappointed. I was too, but I’ll confess I was happy just to get away from that place alive. He spent an hour inside the ship but came away with nothing except the jacket, some spare parts, and an electronic wrench.
The transmission was still coming in when we rendezvoused with the . “I’m glad we didn’t lose the signal,” he said. “That would have been especially painful after we got nothing from the ship.”
“Belle,” I said, “we’re ready.”
We left orbit with mixed feelings. I’d have liked some evidence that the ship’s crew had been rescued. Even though whatever had happened occurred thousands of years ago, it was still painful to think of their being ambushed—and no joke is intended—by the local trees. We never got the answer to that. There was simply no record of the mission. Details didn’t seem to support the idea that it had been the Farport flight.
said Belle.
“First,” said Gabe, “let’s go pick up the radiotelescope. I don’t see any need to leave it out here now.”
The signal ceased while we moved to the other side of the sun. Then it came back. said Belle.
Gabe raised a fist. “Excellent,” he said. I would just as soon have seen it gone. I’d had enough aliens. But I said nothing. “Have you located the source?”