The buildings at the center of the city weren’t as tall as they’d appeared during our approach. The highest was maybe five or six stories. Thousands of smaller structures, mostly houses, spread out toward an encroaching forest, which seemed to overwhelm them at the fringes.
“The streets aren’t paved,” Alex said. The only visible vehicles were carts. They littered the sides of the roads. One was in the middle of a bridge.
The buildings, close-up, had a dilapidated appearance. “It’s pre-industrial,” I said.
Alex nodded. “Where is everybody?”
“I’d assumed the polygon was built by someone from this world. But that can’t be.”
“Hard to say, Chase. A planet’s a big place. The fact that there’s a low-tech city here doesn’t mean—” He looked at me. Shrugged. “It’s too early to make judgments.”
A large open enclosure lay ahead. Maybe a stadium. It, too, was empty. If the field within had once been grass, it was now mostly just tall brown bushes and weeds.
We kept going, leaving the city. Headed west, with the sun behind us.
We passed over a road. Or a trail.
Nothing moved on it.
“Another town ahead.”
Smaller this time, a few hundred houses. Some relatively large buildings that might have been municipal structures or churches. We passed over a lake, lined with houses. Boats were still tied up in some places. Several had sunk.
We were outrunning the sun, fleeing into a gathering darkness. Alex remained silent and simply watched, alternately looking out the wraparound and studying the images Belle put on-screen.
We rode through the night. Hoping to see lights somewhere. But none were visible. And eventually, under the glow of a full moon, we reached the western edge of the continent and passed out over the ocean.
There were no lights at sea, either. Then we were over land again. But it didn’t matter. The ground was dark. After a while, clouds blocked off our view. Lightning bolts flickered.
“Still nobody home,” said Alex.
It was unsettling.
Belle must have sensed the disquiet in the cockpit. Whatever it was, she began giving us details:
“Equatorial diameter is twenty-one thousand kilometers. Temperatures are moderate, an average of two degrees cooler than Rimway’s. Gravity is one point one five standard. And there is a second moon, not visible at the moment.”
“Belle,” I said, “I don’t think any of that matters just now.”
“I’m sorry,”
she said.
“I was trying to be helpful.”
“Let’s try a change of orbit,” said Alex.
“Have you any specifications?”
“Just angle it by about twenty degrees above and below the equator. Let’s get a good look at the areas where the temperature is most conducive—” He didn’t finish.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Yeah.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know, Chase. I don’t know what I’m thinking. Did that city, those towns, look old to you?”
“No,” I said. “I mean, nobody’s been taking care of them, but they didn’t look
ancient
.”
Belle broke into the gloom:
“We’re picking up a radio signal.”
THIRTY-ONE
Fear the assassin who waits in the lonely passages of the heart.
—Teri Kilborn,
Broken Fences
She played the transmission for us. A voice with a remarkably high pitch.
“It is an unknown language, Alex.”
It was almost a series of squeals. Not at all like a normal voice pattern. We listened in silence for several minutes. “That can’t be human,” I said.
“Belle, how many voices are there?”
“Only one.”
“So nobody is responding to the transmission.”
“Not that I can determine.”
“It never pauses,” said Alex.
It went on and on. “It seems more like a general broadcast,” I said, “than a two-way transmission.”
“Belle, what’s the point of origin?”
She showed us on the display. It was coming out of a string of islands in the middle of an ocean, at about thirty degrees south latitude.
“What time is it there?”
“Approaching midnight.”
“What can you see?” Alex asked.
“I’m running a scan now. There seems to be a town. A group of buildings. They’re all single-story. Small houses, apparently. But one of them seems to be illuminated.”
She showed us, and I caught my breath. There were about twenty houses in the town. With lights on in the ground floor of one.
Lights!
If they were humans, they’d been cut off a long time. But the voice certainly didn’t
sound
human.
When I pumped a fist and made some noise, Alex kept watching the displays. I knew what he was thinking. But I was inclined to enjoy the moment. How many people, how many Sunset Tuttles, had lived and died over the past nine thousand years, hoping for a moment like this? A glimmer of light? A radio transmission from an unknown source. A voice that was almost certainly not human.
Please, God, let it be so.
“Don’t get too excited,” he said. In fact, he was having problems following his own advice. His voice sounded uneven. “We don’t know what we have yet.”
“Hey, I’m calm. You know me.”
“Absolutely.” He was staring at the house with the light.
“You think that’s where the signal’s coming from?”
“There’s an antenna. Belle, do you see any others?”
“Antennas? No, Alex.”
“That’s strange. Anything moving anywhere?”
“Other than what appears to be windblown, no.”
“The town looks run-down,” I said. We were approaching it from the east. “We going down?”
“You bet.”
“We can do it on the next pass.”
He nodded. “Let’s get ready.”
“Maybe we should radio them first? Say hello?”
“What language would you use?”
“Standard. Friendly voice. See what happens.”
Alex looked uncertain. Finally, he said okay. “You talk to them, Chase. You’d be less threatening.”
“Belle,” I said, “open a channel.”
A momentary pause. Then:
“Done.”
“Hello,” I said. “This is Chase Kolpath aboard the
Belle-Marie
. Do you read?”
The voice stopped. Then, it
answered
. We had no idea what it was saying, of course, but it sounded excited.
I told it we were visitors, that we wanted to meet whoever it was, and that we were friendly. When I finished, it replied again.
I would at that moment have given anything to have been able to understand it. I explained how we’d come from Rimway, how we were curious who was speaking with us, and explained that we were going to come down to meet him, or her, and we hoped that wouldn’t be an imposition.
“It understands,” I told Alex. “It knows what’s going on.”
Alex remained cautious.
While all this was happening, we were getting into our pressure suits and preparing to leave the ship. Alex buckled on a holster and slipped his scrambler into it. “You know,” he said, “it would kill me if we actually found an alien and had to shoot him.” He leaned over the control panel. “Belle?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“Are there any other artificial structures on the island? Other than the town?”
“There are two piers. Something that is probably a boathouse. Nothing else shows any activity, however.”
“That means there’s no vehicle of any kind, either?”
“That is correct.”
“Is there a possibility there could be a lander down there, and you missed it?”
“If it’s hidden in a cave. Or buried. Otherwise, the possibility is remote.”
“Okay.” His face scrunched up the way it does when he’s trying to make up his mind. “There’s an outside possibility that after we’re on the ground, I’ll send you a message that I will want you to ignore.”
“Then why would you send it, Alex?”
“Only out of necessity.”
“And how shall I know this bogus transmission?”
“I’ll start by saying, ‘We have a problem.’”
“ ‘We have a problem’?”
“Yes. If you hear that sentence, play along. Okay?” I must have been looking at him funny. “It’s just a precaution, Chase. Until we find out who’s down there.”
We went below and climbed into the lander. I was talking to the voice the whole time. We are leaving now. Will be on the ground in an hour or so. I’m looking forward to meeting you.
When the
Belle-Marie
was in position, I started the engine, the launch doors opened, and we were on our way. The smaller moon was overhead, a pale, diminutive orb barely visible in the crowded sky. The bright definition of the night sky at Rimway had given way to a kind of misty blur. Too many stars out there in the Veiled Lady, too much loose gas.
Alex remained quiet on the way down. When I offered to put him on with the voice, he shook his head no. “You’re doing fine,” he said.
The rim of the second moon, the big moon, was just visible over the horizon. As we descended, it disappeared into the ocean.
“The air is breathable,”
Belle said.
“And there is no evidence of dangerous bioorganisms. However, I suggest you exercise due caution.”
She meant wear the pressure suit. No surprise there.
We began to pick up a bit of wind. Then the wind went away, and we drifted down through occasional clouds, and finally we emerged in clear weather above the island.
It was the largest in a chain of five or six, about eight kilometers across at its widest point. It was mostly covered by forest. There was a natural harbor. And it was generally flat save for a pair of low hills on the north side. The town was located near the hills, along the shoreline.
“There are a couple of open places in the town where we can land,” I said. “Or we can use the beach.”
“Use the beach. It feels safer.”
“We’ll have a fifteen-minute walk.”
“That’s okay.”
While we made our final approach, I kept the scope on the house with the lights.
House
might be a bit of an exaggeration for the structure. It was a two-story shanty, typical of the town, run-down and in need of paint, with a sagging front porch. Curtains were pulled across the windows. One of the shutters was broken. The place had a chimney, but there was no sign a fire was burning.
But Alex never looked up from the screen. And as we dropped toward the sand, he caught his breath. “Something moved inside.” He spoke in a whisper, as if concerned that he might be overheard.
I was still talking to the Martian, which was how I’d begun to think of the owner of the voice. We are coming down on the beach. See you in a few minutes. The view out here is magnificent.
“Look,” said Alex.
“What?” He was pointing at the screen while I tried to make sure we didn’t land in the ocean.
“Belle, rerun that last segment.”
We were looking at the house. And a shadow moved across the curtains.
I couldn’t believe this was actually happening. We’d known all along that maybe this was what Rachel had found, that she had come across
someone
.
Something.
When I shut off the engine, the gravity came back. My weight jumped by about seventeen pounds. Alex’s went up by roughly twenty-seven. It’s a feeling you never get used to.
I released my belt. “We’re here,” I told the Martian.
Alex was surveying the outside. Moonlight. Incoming tide. Forest. “But no movement.”
“Alex, what do you expect? He couldn’t understand a word I said.”
I told him we were coming, that we’d be there in a few minutes. We put our helmets on and went for the airlock. With a hole cut through the outer hatch, it was of dubious value. We got into it as quickly as possible and closed the inner hatch. (Belle would check to ensure that no dangerous bioorganisms had gotten into the cabin.) The sound of insects and the rumble of the tide were audible through the hole in the outer hatch. I opened up.