XXIX.
I called Chad from Skydeck. “We’re home, Chad. Sorry it took so long.” We’d been gone three months.
“We’re fine. Just glad to be back.” It was strictly an audio exchange. No visuals.
“It was no big deal, Chad. Just a downed lander and some planetary exploration.”
“We don’t have many details. It was on the ground a long time. Probably thousands of years.”
He sounded annoyed.
“Yes.” I wanted to change the subject. “Chad, we’ll be getting back on the ground later today. Do you want to get together tomorrow for lunch?”
“So where were you?” asked Alex.
“I told you,” said Gabe. “Checking out a wrecked ship. I showed you the artifacts.”
Alex looked in my direction. We were in Gabe’s quarters, surrounded by his luggage and the artifacts we’d recovered from the wrecked vehicle. “What else is going on?” he asked. The question was directed at me.
“That’s it,” I said. “Listen, I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I’ll see you guys in a bit.”
“Stay,” said Alex. “We’ve always trusted each other.” He eased down onto the sofa. “You guys are hiding something. You want to tell me what it is?”
The conversation continued in that vein for several minutes. Gabe and I sank into chairs while Alex poured coffee for everybody. “We promised we would tell no one,” Gabe said.
“Promised who?”
“Some people we found.”
“Humans?”
“No.”
“Okay, Gabe. You have any idea what artifacts from that place would be worth?”
“I’m fully aware of that, Alex. We didn’t bring anything back.”
He looked puzzled. “How did that happen?”
“They don’t want us talking about the place. And I guess we’ve already violated our promise to them.”
“You saying you don’t trust me? After all we’ve been through?”
“It’s not a matter of trust, Alex. We gave our word.”
“And what did you get in turn?”
“Let’s just let it go, okay?”
“You know I can ask Belle where you’ve been?”
“You can.” Gabe took a deep breath. “But she’s sworn to secrecy.”
He looked over at me. “You in on this too, Chase?” I didn’t need to respond. He saw the answer. “Okay,” he said. “I understand.”
It was time to change the subject. “How are you doing with Octavia?” I asked. “You figure it out yet?”
“Not yet. I’ve spent a lot of time researching Housman and Womack. And talking to Womack’s avatar.”
“Housman didn’t have one?”
“No.”
“Have you picked up anything at all?”
“Not really. Womack seemed to be the more curious of the two. He wanted to get into the science, to understand why the quantum world operates the way it does. Why wormholes actually form. Housman was more interested in making a reputation for himself. He was annoyed that Newton lived at a time when nobody understood about gravity. Or anything else. He says the scientific giants, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Descartes, weren’t necessarily all that smart. They just had the advantage of being alive at a time when nobody knew anything. So it was fairly easy to make discoveries. He was determined to find a wormhole, which he thought would lock in his name with the others.”
“And look what happened,” I said.
“Anyway, Chase, I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Really? Why?”
“You were going to set up a conversation with Karen Randall. Charlotte Hill’s friend.”
“Oh. I guess I got caught up in this other stuff. I’ll call her today.”
“Good. No hurry. Don’t bring her in on the circuit. See if you can arrange for us to take her to dinner somewhere. Anyplace that’s convenient.” That was typical of him. The reality of a person didn’t always come through with modern technology. He believed a physical presence could be much more revealing.
“Okay. You said ‘us.’ You want me there too?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, Chase.”
Chad showed up on time next morning. He seemed a bit standoffish, but he looked good. His hair was windblown, a smile was playing on his lips, and his eyes were gleaming. He told me how relieved he was that we were home. “I guess this is the way life is,” he said, “when you get mixed up with the planet’s loveliest pilot.” He welcomed me into his arms.
We went to the Lyrica, a quaint little restaurant overlooking Mount Ecott. “I’d have been more comfortable,” he said as we strolled through the door, “if we could have communicated better. If I could have sent you a simple message just asking if you were okay, and gotten a reply. . . .”
“I understand, Chad. I’m sorry it was hard on you. It’s difficult, and expensive, to try to communicate with a ship that’s light-years away.”
“But you were able to send me messages.”
“We knew where Rimway was at any given time. But you don’t usually know where the ship is, so nobody knows where to send the signal.”
“Couldn’t you have told them, Chase?”
“If we were staying in one place, yes. Let’s just let it go, okay?”
“All right. I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up again.”
Gabe and I both got checked out by doctors to make sure the radiation hadn’t done any damage. We were pronounced okay, but my doctor was clearly unhappy and told me I should stop the nonsense. “Why on earth,” he asked, “would you want to get that close to a sun?”
We’d made up a story about lost antiquities that was as close to what really happened as we could. We claimed to have found a lost interstellar orbiting a star whose name Gabe made up. He got the same lecture, and we both assured our physicians we wouldn’t do anything like that again.
It took a couple of days to find Karen Randall. But eventually the three of us were able to get together at a place called Manny’s. It was located across the street from the Oberley Theater, which at the time was undergoing reconstruction. I’d never been there before. Karen was already seated at a table when Alex and I went in. She raised a hand to catch our attention.