“They might be a really old race,” she said.
“And?”
“Maybe they don’t care about whether we’re warned. Maybe they’re so far ahead of us they don’t see us as a threat. Maybe they’re playing games with us. Or maybe with each other, using us as pieces. As pawns.”
Mac closed the notebook. “See who can hit the monkeys with the rock. Extra points for a big rock.” He sat back. “You might have something.”
She managed a brave smile, but hearing it put that way sent a chill through her.
AMY SPENT THE afternoon doing homework. After dinner, they played a political game that Mac liked in which you chose strategies that would defame opponents while defending yourself as best you could. He was particularly good at it.
There were no recurrences of Amy’s vision. But then she didn’t go off by herself anymore. They watched a sim, and by eleven, she was exhausted and glad to climb into her sheets.
Eric also retired early. The day had been wearing for him as well. He would be glad when the experience was over. Mac was awake and working, seated in a chair with his lamp set up beside him. The rest of the welcome center was dark.
He remembered waking briefly and seeing Mac turn off his light. Then he drifted off again, waking a second time to Meredith’s soft voice. “Eric, the Lin-Kao is calling. Do you wish to take the call, or would you prefer I respond?”
“I’ll take it in the souvenir shop,” he said. He climbed to his feet and padded across the cold floor. The lights came on in the shop. He went in and closed the door behind him. “Okay, Meredith,” he said.
The Lin-Kao’s captain looked well along in years. He had white hair, grizzled features, steely blue eyes. “Surveyor.” He straightened himself. “We have just made our jump into your area. We’ll be there in about five hours.”
“Okay, Lin-Kao,” he said, feeling very professional. “We’ll be waiting.” He felt as if he should say something more. “You may have heard that moonriders were reported locally. You’ll be glad to know they are gone. As far as we know.”
There was a delay of about three minutes while the signal traveled out, and the response came back. “Good,” the captain said. “I am indeed glad.” His tone suggested he was not much impressed by wild stories. “We’re in good shape here, Surveyor. Other than running late. I have eleven people with me. All of whom are anxious to get off the ship. See you when we get there.”
He’d just settled into his blankets when Meredith was back. “Another call,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Salvator.”
“Okay.” Eric trooped back to the souvenir room. “Let’s hear it.”
Valya appeared, seated in the command chair. “I’ll be at the Galactic in a few hours,” she said. “I’ll pick these folks up and be on my way back as quickly as I can.”
The green lamp came on, inviting him to answer. “We’ll be waiting.” He should have stopped there, perhaps. “Valya, Amy thinks she saw something in the museum last night. She thinks it might have been one of the moonriders. She claims it looked like Hutchins. And that it told her they, whoever they are, are going to destroy Origins. She insists it wasn’t a dream. Anyhow I thought you should know.”
He signed off, unsure whether it had been a good idea to pass the story along.
HARRIET HEADS FOR GULF COAST
Monster Hurricane to Make Landfall Tomorrow Evacuations Ordered
ASTEROID CLOSES IN ON ORBITING HOTEL
Galactic Would Have Been First of Its Kind
Has Been Under Construction Six Months
Rescue Effort Under Way
MOONRIDERS SEEN IN NEBRASKA
Hundreds Near Omaha Watch Lights in Sky
GROUP GATHERS ON MOUNTAINTOP TO AWAIT
SALVATION
“Salvation City” Adherents: The Lord Is Coming Tonight
Seventeen Hundred Packed and Ready to Go
Camped atop Mt. Camelback in Poconos
MOONRIDERS MAY BE GROUP HYSTERIA
Study: Sightings Are Delusional
Rock Clusters, Reflections, Imagination Account
for Phenomena
“People See What They Want to See”
MOONRIDER COMMITTEE: THEY EXIST
“Too Many Sightings to Dismiss”
MOONRIDER ACTION TOYS GETTING HOT
Aliens Jumping off Shelves
CHURCH GROUP RECOMMENDS REVIEW OF CURRICULA
NAC: Overemphasis on Damnation?
chapter 30
For males, sex is like baseball. Hit-and-run. Or put one out of the park, circle the bases and score, head for the showers, and clear out. That kind of behavior necessarily upsets the ladies. But it’s not anyone’s fault. It’s the way people are wired, and nothing’s ever going to change it.
— Gregory MacAllister, “Love and Marriage”
Amy watched on one of the welcome center screens as the Lin-Kao docked, and she was at the foot of the exit ramp when the hatches opened, and the workers from the Galactic trooped in. They were a noisy bunch, six women and five men, carrying their belongings. Plus the captain, whose name was Hugo Something. They dropped their bags, Hugo exchanged a few words with his passengers, glad he was able to help, see you at home sometime, took a moment to wave at Amy, and shook hands with Mac and Eric. “Got to get moving,” he said. “There’s a bunch more to pick up.” And that quickly he was gone.
The new arrivals were happy to be off the ship. “It was a bit crowded in there,” one of the women told Amy. “The air was getting stale.”
They were all hauling supplies. They’d arrived with the impression that food would be scarce at the museum, and had consequently brought a substantial amount from the Galactic. They also had blankets and pillows. A few took up residence in the welcome center; others moved into outlying locations.
The shadow that had hung over Amy dissipated, and the image of Hutch on the bridge suddenly felt far away. It couldn’t have happened. Maybe Eric and Mac were right.
Valya called to say she had picked up her contingent and was on the way back. A few minutes later a transmission arrived from the Cavalier. Its captain, a young man who looked barely older than Amy, told them he was on his way from Union to provide transportation home. “We’ll be there in four days.” The announcement was greeted by a cheer.
Amy struck up a friendship with one of the women, Vannie Trotter, a design specialist from Toronto. Vannie was amiable and reassuring, a dark-complexioned woman with black hair and a relentlessly upbeat personality. She was pretty old, about thirty, and had a husband and one son at home. She won Amy’s affection by questioning her about the moonriders, and about Amy’s reaction to them. At first, Amy said nothing about the experience on the bridge. Vannie was taking her seriously, and she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. But eventually she could no longer hold back, and she told Vannie everything.
“It really happened?” Vannie asked, when she’d finished.
“Yes.”
“What did the others say? The two guys who were here with you?”
“They think I was dreaming.”
“Were you?”
It seemed remote now. Something that couldn’t have happened. But she remembered how she’d felt when she saw the image, and how certain she’d been when she was pleading with Mac and Eric. “No,” she said.