I was on the bridge. Belle had also informed Alex, so I waited for him to appear before playing it. He’d been in his cabin but he needed only about fifteen seconds to join me.
“Okay, Belle,” I said.
A woman’s voice this time: my
“It’s ,” said Alex. “That’s Charlotte.”
.
.
.
We both sat frozen when it ended. Alex was holding his head in his hands. “I didn’t see coming.”
“No. Neither did I.”
“So he killed them all. Rick did. Over what? What could possibly have driven him to do something like that? We never saw any indication of instability in the guy.” He waited for me to say something. When I didn’t his features hardened with an accusatory look. “So what is the big secret?” His patience had run out. “She’s talking ten years earlier. You and Gabe were trying to track down Harding’s silver trophy and you came back with something. Now we have big secrets, both connected to Harding. You know precisely what she’s talking about, don’t you?”
I was trying to think what I could tell him. His eyes locked on me and the anger was obvious. “Chase, do you really not trust me? After all these years?”
“We’ve already had this conversation, Alex. You notice Charlotte didn’t reveal anything? What the secret is? She’s not putting it out there, even here, with a transmission she certainly understood would probably never get picked up by anyone.”
“Chase—”
“Of course I trust you. Implicitly. You know that. But this has nothing to do with trust. I gave my word I would tell no one.”
“Does Belle know what it’s about?”
“She probably does.” In fact I couldn’t see how she could have missed it.
“Chase, I have to figure out how to handle this when we get home. If I don’t know what’s going on, I might screw it up royally.”
“Just leave it alone. If I’d had any idea what this was about, I wouldn’t have come out here.”
“It’s a bit late for that.” He was trying to keep his voice level, to hide growing frustration. “There’s an easy way to do this.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll ask Belle.”
“Alex, you understand she’s subject to the captain.”
“That’s true. But I’m the owner. If I have to, I can get a new captain.”
“Would you really do that?”
“No. But I need you to trust me. I won’t give anything away.”
“Do what you want.”
He put the question to Belle. I should have intervened, told her to be quiet. But I couldn’t. Belle hesitated but finally described everything that had happened on Kaleska, the Dyson world. She described the empty cities, the Dyson Sphere, Ark’s fears about what would happen if more biological beings showed up. And finally our assurances, mine and Gabe’s, that we would not reveal their existence. When she’d finished, Alex asked me if I had anything to add.
“No,” I said. “I think she covered everything. Are we ready to leave?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“There’s a good chance Charlotte’s not finished yet.”
He was right. Twenty minutes later a second transmission came in. Charlotte again, her voice at a higher pitch:
We heard another voice in the background calling her name. Probably Housman. he said.
She switched off. It was the last we heard. Alex and I sat staring at each other.
XL.
.
“We can package the transmissions,” I said, “if you want to send them on to Gabe. Give him time to think about it before we get back.”
“No, not a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“We can’t be sure somebody won’t pick it up. Do we have an encryption capability?”
“Yes.”
He frowned. “Never mind. Let’s let it go until we get home. I think it would be best if we’re both there when Gabe hears all this. Just send him a message, tell him we’ve made some progress, and we’re on our way back.”
“He’s not going to be happy with that.”
“He’ll understand. In fact it’ll tell him we made the intercept.”
“How does it do that?”
“Because if we hadn’t we’d have told him.”
There was no reason to continue waiting. There would not be a third transmission, as much as I hoped, prayed, for one. Something that could somehow give us a happier ending. But we hung on anyway. We sat in the passenger cabin, neither of us doing anything other than looking out windows. It felt as if everything had been playing out over those last few minutes while we sat off to one side and listened, that Harding was closing in with the shuttle, and if we could have somehow been there we might have done something. At least . Eventually Alex got up and poured each of us a drink. “Let’s go home.”
I was ready. I told Belle to take us back.
“You okay?” asked Alex.
“I’m sorry we ever came near this place.”