And she heard something behind her.
Eric again.
She swung the chair around. Someone was out in the passageway. The luminous panels were still on, but the figure was nevertheless cloaked in darkness. And gradually she saw that it was a woman.
“Hello,” Amy said, her voice just above a whisper. “Who’s there? Meredith? Is that you?”
The museum’s projection system had obviously broken down.
The woman was approaching, moving smoothly, almost floating. She reached the hatch, and stopped. Amy still couldn’t see who it was. It was a projection, a problem with the software. Had to be.
“Amy.”
A familiar voice. And she realized what had happened. The Salvator had come back. But the voice wasn’t Valya’s. Whose was it?
“Amy, listen to me.”
The darkness shrouding the figure faded. The woman was tall. Graceful.
It was Hutch.
Amy stared at the apparition. It couldn’t be. Hutch was light-years away. And the figure was too tall. “Hutch, is that you?”
“There’s something you must do.” The woman came through the hatch, although she seemed not to walk. She did look exactly like Priscilla Hutchins. But she must have been a foot taller. Maybe it was because Amy was sitting.
The woman wore the same white blouse and dark blue slacks that Hutch had been wearing when they’d said good-bye at Union. “Who are you —?” Her voice squeaked.
“You need not be afraid, Child,” she said. “You have a mission to perform.”
Amy wanted to get to her feet, but her legs felt wobbly. “You look like Hutch.”
“Yes.”
“But you’re not her, are you?”
“No.”
She wanted to run. To call for help. To get away from this creature, whatever it was. “You’re a projection. Something’s wrong with the AI.”
“Stay calm. I will not harm you.”
“What do you want?”
“Blueprint. The Origins Project.”
She looked exactly like Hutch. Except for the size. And the eyes. They were the same color. But they were different in a way that unnerved her. Not human. “What about it?” she asked.
“We are going to destroy it.”
Amy’s voice shook. “Who are you?”
“We will allow you time to evacuate everyone who is there. But do it promptly.”
“Wait.” Amy wondered whether the apparition was crazy. “They won’t listen to me. They’ll laugh at me.”
“Do it promptly, Amy. Don’t test our patience.” It was Hutch’s voice.
“Who are you? Did you attack the hotel?”
The woman was becoming harder to see. The darkness seemed to be gathering about her again. “We’ve attacked no one. See to Origins.”
Amy was pushing back in her seat, the way you do when you’re accelerating. She watched Hutch fade out. Like a hologram.
IT WAS PROBABLY twenty minutes before she found the strength, the nerve, to go into the passageway and return to the welcome center. Mac and Eric were both sprawled comfortably in their sheets.
She knelt trembling beside Mac and pulled on his arm. “Mac,” she said, “they’ve been on board. I talked with one of them. They said we had to warn — ”
“What?” he growled. “Amy? Who was on board?”
“The moonriders. I think. One of them. She looked like Hutch.”
He smiled in his closest approach to a fatherly manner. “You’ve been dreaming, Sweetheart.”
“No.” She knew that wasn’t true.
Then they were both talking at once, she trying to explain what the apparition had said about the Origins Project, he trying to tell her to wait a minute, slow down, take it back to the beginning. “You say it was Hutch?”
“Except bigger. Taller. And she said we — ”
“Hold it. Wait. Stop a second. Think about it a minute. What does it sound like to you?”
Eric was awake now, staring at them.
“I’m not making it up, Mac. I was on the bridge, and I was wide-awake.”
“All right. And what did it say again?”
“She even had Hutch’s voice.”
Mac reached for her. Tried to embrace her, but she kept her distance. “Amy,” he said, “you need to calm down.”
“I’m calm.”
“Okay.” He sat up and pulled his blankets around him. “Tell me again what she said.”
“She said they were going to destroy the Origins Project. Something about a blueprint.”
“A what?”
“A blueprint. I don’t know what that was about.”
“Okay.”
“What’s a blueprint? Do you know, Mac?”
“It’s an archaic term. They used to use blueprints to create architectural designs.”
“Okay. Maybe I didn’t hear it right. But she told me to get everybody off. Before they do it. How am I supposed to do that?”
“Wave a wand, kid,” said Eric. “Did she say why they were going to destroy it?”
“No. Just that they were going to do it.”
“When? When are they going to do this?”
“I don’t know.” She was close to hysteria. “She didn’t say. What she said was I shouldn’t test her patience.”
Mac was getting frustrated. “Did she explain why they were throwing rocks at things in the first place?”
“No. In fact she said…” Amy had to stop and think. “I asked if they’d attacked the hotel. She said they hadn’t.”
“There you are,” said Mac. “It has to be a dream.”
“It’s probably an AI malfunction,” said Eric. “It happens sometimes.”
“I asked her about that. She said no.”
“That’s part of the malfunction, Amy.”
“Well, it’s simple enough to check,” said Mac. “Meredith?”
“Yes, Mr. MacAllister?” Just a voice this time.
“You have a security system, I assume?”
“Yes. We have the Hornet 26. It is top-of-the-line.”
“Do you have a record of the time Amy spent on the bridge this evening?”
“No, I do not.”
“How come?”
“I only record events of a specific nature. Theft, vandalism. If a fight were to break out, I would record that.”
“So nothing unusual happened on the bridge?”
“Nothing that fit within the security parameters.”
“That helps,” said Eric.
Mac looked unhappy. “I don’t know what to tell you, Amy.”
“We have a transmission,” said Meredith. “From the Salvator.”
“Patch it through, please.”
Valya appeared in the middle of the room. “Mac, the Arcturus monitor has reported moonriders in your area. Probably not a problem, but be aware.”
I’ve seen it before. People in trying circumstances, under pressure, scared. You wind up with hysteria. I guess adolescents are especially susceptible. We need another woman on the premises. I don’t know how to deal with it. Amy’s angry with both of us.
As I write this, the lights are out, except for the patches and my lamp. But she’s made no move to lie down. She’s sitting in a chair with her head thrown back. Her eyes are closed, but she’s awake. Valya, where are you?
— Sunday, April 26
In an overnight poll, 66 percent of people in the Council nations think the moonriders are real. Of those, 78 percent think they constitute a serious threat. A clear majority favor arming against the possibility of an attack. Of course almost half think the Earth is 6,000 years old.
— Barcelona Times, Sunday, April 26
FIRST AMENDMENT UNDER FIRE AGAIN?
“Hellfire” Trial Reminiscent of Cohen vs NIH