I did the introductions and we sat down. “It’s good to see you again, Chase,” she said. “And to meet you, Alex. Do you have any idea what happened to her? To Charlotte? And the station?” She was wearing a soft green button-down blouse with a collar. The color matched her eyes. She was obviously a bit awed by Alex.
“I wish we did, Karen,” he said. “We were hoping you might be able to help.”
“I can’t imagine how I could do that.”
The table invited us to order. We did sandwiches, sides, and a round of beer. It thanked us and said the food would be there shortly. I couldn’t resist wondering aloud what kind of life an AI in a restaurant would have. It was a mistake, provoking an expression from Karen that made clear she thought my mind had come loose. But she didn’t say anything, substituting instead a tolerant smile.
“I understand you had a continuing correspondence with Charlotte while she was at Octavia,” Alex said.
“Yes, I did. Though I thought of it more as occasional than continuing.”
“Did she ever say anything that indicated there was a problem of any sort?”
“Well, I think Charlotte got lonely sometimes. And they weren’t always happy with the menu they had. But no, I don’t recall anything that could have been connected with a hazard.”
“It’s possible, Karen, you could have picked up something without being aware of it. What kind of messages were you receiving? Were they visuals?”
“No. They were audio. It cost too much to send visuals. There a couple, though, a picture of the space station that she took from the shuttle. And one of the station’s interior. Del Housman was posing with her and, umm, Archie Goldman in the background. Oh, and there was a picture of the black hole. More or less. I think she took that one from the shuttle too.”
“You mean Archie ,” Alex said.
“Yes. That’s right. Womack. Sorry.”
“Charlotte must have been pretty happy to have been selected for that mission.”
“I guess. She didn’t talk much about it. Mostly, I suspect, because for the first year or so, they didn’t any results. It was only toward the end that they found the wormhole. I didn’t get the impression she was all that happy. She enjoyed having people around her. I was shocked when she first told me what she’d signed on for. I mean, she liked going out. She spent a fair amount of time on the beach. I never understood how she managed to get her degrees. Most of us have to invest a lot of time to accomplish what she did. I guess the reality is that she was just seriously smart. You know she was a pretty good chess player too, right?”
“We’ve heard,” Alex said.
The sandwiches showed up. Karen took a bite from hers and put it down. “She got pretty close to Rick Harding. He was a committed chess enthusiast too.”
“I hadn’t heard that,” I said. “Who usually won? Do you know?”
“She never mentioned the results. But if Harding was winning, he’s the only person I know who managed it. And I suspect if that had been happening, she’d have said something.”
“Did she ever indicate she was tired of being out there? That she would have liked to come home?”
“She implied it. But I don’t recall her ever actually saying that. I remember she talked sometimes about things she missed, guys, Tully’s, sunlight. About how nice it would be to have an occasional stranger show up and say hello.”
“What’s Tully’s?” Alex asked.
“It’s a bar located near the university. It was a good place to meet guys. In fact, that’s where I met my husband.”
Eventually the conversation wandered into other areas, Karen’s career doing PR work for the Andiquar police; her husband, who was an electronic technician; her infatuation with tennis; and finally Gabe. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like getting pulled out of the and discovering that eleven years had passed.”
We finished our lunches, and Karen thanked us as Alex picked up the tab. “I know this hasn’t helped you,” she said. “I wish I could have given you something.”
Alex assured her she had. “You described her life on the station. The fact that she had no serious problems eliminates one area of inquiry. Did she ever mention Reggie Greene?”
“No. I knew the guy. And I know the stories about him. But she never brought him up.”
We left the restaurant and walked out into the parking lot. “There be one other thing,” she said. “It’s so trivial I’ve been reluctant to mention it. At one point, Charlotte indicated there something going on. She didn’t specify what it was. She said it would probably go away but that if it didn’t she’d send me details later. Either to me or to Poliks.”
“Who’s Poliks?”
“I have no idea. I don’t know anyone with that name.”
“Did she ever mention it again? The name?”
“No. Not that I can recall. ”
“Did you ever ask her for any details?”
“I think what I did later was tell her I hoped that it had cleared up. But I don’t recall her ever saying anything about it again.”
“So you never got the message?”
“No.”
“Karen,” Alex said, “do you remember when you received that message? How long was it before the station disappeared?”
“The one when she said there might be a problem? You don’t think it could have had anything to do with , do you?”
“Probably not. But who knows?”
“Well, anyhow, I think we lost the place about a month later.”
“And you say it was audio? She was talking to you?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re not sure how to spell the name?”
“I guess not.”
“Are you aware of anybody Charlotte might know whose name sounds even remotely like ‘Poliks’?”
She needed a minute. “Poulter,” she said. “Erik Poulter.”
Alex thought about it and shook his head. “Anybody else?”
“Yes. There’s one other. Jules Colix.”
“You know both these people?”
“Colix was a chess player. One of the people she competed with. But he died a few years ago. Poulter was briefly a boyfriend. Though I don’t think it was ever serious.”
“Did you ever check with either one to see if they’d heard from her?”
“No. I never thought to do anything like that.”
“Okay, Karen. One more question, and we’ll let you go.”
“Sure.”
“Were you at all surprised that you never got the follow-up message, something explaining what it was all about?”
“Surprised? Sure. And disappointed.”
Alex asked me to do a search for Poliks and whatever variants I could think of. I started by looking for Charlotte’s avatar, which was established when she was about twelve years old but never updated. The avatar told me she’d never heard the name.
I checked names of adults around the planet and found just over two hundred. In three cases it was a given name. None had an obvious connection with Octavia, with Charlotte, or with anyone else involved with the station. Marion Poliks had attended the same grade school as Charlotte, but several years earlier. And Michael Poliks had invented several virtual war games. But that was a long way from chess.
I tracked Marion down. She hadn’t changed her name. She lived on Mayven Island, and when I talked with her, she told me she knew who Charlotte was because of her reputation, but had never met her.
“Okay.” Alex looked frustrated. “Maybe Poliks, whoever he is, lives on another planet.”
“If he does,” I said, “the connection would probably be through the Quantum Research Group or DPSAR. They’d have shown up on the net. I checked all kinds of variations, but I just couldn’t find anything.”