“We can’t be sure,” Max answered, “but—”
“Your screen’s flashing,” Alice said.
Max touched the message release:
I’M AT YOUR HOUSE AND WOULD LIKE
TO TALK WITH YOU—LISSA
“The ship’s back!” Max shouted, springing up and pushing past the group. Voices babbled excitedly behind him as he hurried from the library.
He raced home on his bike, and was surprised to find Lissa sitting on the back steps to his house. She looked up and smiled.
“I promised, Max, remember? I’ve been here for a few hours, talking with your parents and Lucinda’s. The announcement that we’ve returned should be going out to everyone here any minute now.”
“What took you so long?” Max slipped his bike into the rack and sat down next to her apprehensively.
“We had some trouble with the ship,” she said, “and I had to break a few bureaucratic heads, but I do have some good news, too.”
“I thought you might not come back,” Max said.
“I’m sorry for the anxiety we’ve caused, but it couldn’t be helped. We found the other window, Max. It’s just past the orbit of Venus. Alek—Captain Calder—thinks there may be others. It seems likely that we’re being invited to come and go as we please.”
“What do you want to talk to me about?”
“I promised we’d talk. But you’re right, there’s more. You’re an important player in what’s happened, and I want to find out more about you.”
“About me?”
“Don’t be so modest. I want you to come back to Earth, with a stop at Bernal One, where we’ll go over what you’ve already recorded. We have experts and facilities there that can help you get at things you may not have registered completely, or which you don’t think important. Have you drawn your map?”
“Yes, I have, and I would like to come. Have you asked Lucinda?”
“Of course. I had a long talk with her. She was with the guards at the column when our ship was brought in. She thinks that the habitat should become our outpost inside the Sun, a staging area for further exploration of the portal system. She suggested it to her mother.”
“That seems logical,” Max said.
“We can’t take the habitat out. Its drive systems are still dead, for no good reason at all, so she thinks maybe the habitat is supposed to stay here.”
“Lucinda said that?” Max asked.
“Yes, and I think she’s right. The navigator agrees.”
“But you will be taking people out,” Max said.
Lissa nodded. “We’ll ferry out those who want to get back to Earth and other points in Sunspace, and we’ll bring in fresh teams. Many of your habitat’s people, the navigator told me today, feel they’ve put in the years they contracted for, and are anxious to get back to Earth, Mars, Bernal One and the Moon, where they have friends and relatives, or new jobs waiting for them. Many just want to retire and pursue their interests for a few years. Ferry service will begin as soon as we assemble ships at the Venus window.”
“When do you want Lucinda and me to go?”
“How about in a few days? Your parents will be coming with you, of course. Lucinda’s won’t just yet. They’re still hoping for news of their son.”
“You know about the closed passage,” Max said.
Lissa looked puzzled. “I still don’t see why it should be closed. They wanted to show us their system, so we’d see how knowledge and mind could bend the limits of space-time to overcome distance. We’ve struggled with relativistic ships and radio, but nothing we’ve done can compare to using the very strength of suns for both travel and faster-than-light communications. The scale they’ve worked on is elegantly equal to the task.” She sighed. “But maybe the builders no longer exist.”
“They have to be there,” Max insisted. “You’ve been monitoring tachyon communications for years, haven’t you?”
“Maybe those are automatic, too, routine signals between suncore stations, old cybernetic systems babbling to each other.”
“No,” Max said. “That would be too disappointing.” He realized that he sounded like Lucky Russell.
Lissa said, “I’ve been thinking that our suncore station is a kind of automatic cradle rocker, keeping our Sun adjusted, protecting the Earth from catastrophe. When you found the portals, it signaled to the Others that we were ready to look beyond our Sunspace, that we could appreciate, if not fully understand, what they had left for us to find.” She looked at him with interest. “What do you think about the way the three of you were lured outside?”
“I think they only weakened our resistance and let our curiosity lead us,” he said. “It’s not too different from sleepwalking. I’ve read some stuff about that. Have you ever walked in your sleep?”
“A long time ago.”
“Well, what happens is that you know, in a distant way, what you’re doing. At least that’s what it’s like for me. You feel you have to do something, even if it makes no sense. When you realize it’s crazy, your mind regains control and you wake up. It’s as if dream states are a different way of being awake, maybe a simpler one, and you’re only completely awake when all the different parts of your brain work together.”
She nodded. “That’s interesting, Max, but we couldn’t do what they did to you. Hypnosis is the closest.”
“I know,” Max replied. “I wasn’t affected at first. I just went along with Emil and Lucinda when they came to get me. I felt it when I came outside, and later. Other people were affected, but were stopped, so we weren’t the only ones.”
“But that was later. You three were the first. Any ideas?”
“Maybe just chance,” Max said. “We happened to get scanned first, if that’s how they did it.”
“Or the system could only handle three at a time?”
“Maybe. Or maybe we were more suggestible.”
She smiled. “I guess we won’t know until they tell us. What plans have your parents made?”
“Dad wants to visit New York. He grew up there. Mom will probably visit her father on Bernal One, if he’s still living. After that I don’t know.”
“What do you want to do?” she asked, looking at him carefully.
“I’m not sure,” he said, looking out across the length of the hollow. It seemed too small, suddenly, to become a crossroads to countless worlds. Its importance would grow, but his endless days of school and private afternoons were over, and he was no longer sure that he would miss them. But where would there be a new place for him?
“Would you like to study at the Interstellar Institute on Earth?” Lissa asked.
Max looked at her with surprise and interest.
“I think you have the aptitudes,” she said. “Our main activity, besides teaching, is the study of the alien signals that crisscross the Galaxy. But to that we’ll now add exploration through the portals. You’d come to your studies with a lot of experience, which at the Institute counts for very little if you can’t get knowledge out of it, but talking with you makes me think you’ll know how to make the most of what you’ve seen. You’re lucky. The kind of discoveries you’ve made often come at the end of an explorer’s career, not at its beginning.”
“Do you teach at the Institute?” Max asked, feeling a growing excitement.
“I often lecture at the teaching center in the Himalaya Mountains. But we also have research branches on Lunar Backside, Bernal One, on Mars, and a research habitat in the Oort Cloud.” She shook her head and smiled. “Those signals. They fascinated me when I first came to the Institute, at about your age. Now more than ever they seem to me to be the conversations of adults, and we’re the children who know they’re probably being talked about, now and then, but can’t understand a word.” She looked at him, and it seemed to Max that this slim, attractive person couldn’t be very much older than he was. “You’ll get a good college-level education at the Institute, and you’ll meet people who have odd and creative ways of looking at things, as you do. You’ll see the Himalaya Mountains.”
“But will the school take me?” Max asked.
“My recommendation will be enough. Remember also that you’re one of the first interstellar explorers now. You’ve used the alien passages, and you’ve been to Centauri twice—the hard way and the quick way.”
“I wasn’t alone,” Max said.
Lissa nodded, “Lucinda has shown interest, and I think she has ability, but she and her parents can’t make any decisions until they find out about her brother.”
“I know she’d want to go,” Max said, “but I don’t know how she’ll feel if she finds out that Emil is gone.”
“I know you want her to attend,” Lissa continued, “but you should go even if it’s by yourself. I should also tell you that you’ll both be given the most thorough medical exams you’ve ever had when you stop at Bernal. I don’t think we’ll find anything, but you did travel through the passages, and we have to know if you were affected.”
“I understand,” Max said. Things were moving faster than he’d expected, leading to a new choice just as he was freeing himself of his doubts.
“I’ve looked at Emil’s school reports, too,” Lissa said. “If you’re wondering whether he would be accepted by the Institute, the answer is yes. He’s very smart, much smarter than you probably knew.”
Emil’s struggle with the alien toxin was probably long over by now, Max reminded himself. Even if he survived, he might never be himself again. For a moment Max felt as uncertain and afraid as when the habitat was approaching Sunspace. But when he looked at Lissa and saw the confidence in her face, he felt encouraged.
“I’ll come,” he said with a twinge of guilt, “no matter what happens.” Lucinda would want him to go, even if she couldn’t. He imagined her berating him for his hesitation.
“Are you sure?” Lissa asked.
“I’m sure,” Max said against his doubts.
Two ships waited when Max and his parents went out across the great floor to Lissa’s vessel. A week had passed since her return. There would be at least one ship a week from now on, taking people out and bringing others in. Lucinda and her parents were already at the ship, saying their farewells. Max peered in the direction of the column and made out its vague shape rising into the bright blue glare.
Linda and Jake tried to smile as Max and his parents approached, but the strain in their faces had increased.
“Take good care of her, Max,” Linda said.
Lucinda looked at her mother. “I’ll be back in a week or two, and I won’t decide anything about the Institute before then.”
“We’d come with you if we could,” the navigator said, embracing her, and Max had the feeling that they had decided it would be better if their daughter went away for a while.
Jake and Linda would stay on until the new administration of the habitat took over. There had been rumors that they might even sign new contracts. They were still hoping that the passage might suddenly open. Max had heard that they were even willing to try the other portals in the column, on the chance of finding another route to Centauri, rather than wait four years for news of Emil to arrive by radio.
Suddenly Jake was talking to Rosalie and Joe was saying something to Linda. Captain Calder shouted down the gangway. Max stared back across the bright, solid sea of floor at the massive, half-submerged shape of the habitat. The rough outer crust seemed primitive next to the hard alien surface. The stone that Earth had thrown into the Universe had come to rest here, inside a star.
“All aboard!” Captain Calder shouted.
Lissa came out next to him. “Come on folks, time to go.”
Joe and Rosalie started up the ramp. Max looked at Lucinda, but she was staring toward the column.
“Look!” she shouted, pointing.
Two small dark shapes were moving toward the habitat. Lucinda bolted and ran toward them.
Max sprinted after her, suspecting that the figures might be only two guards returning from their watch at the column. He caught his breath, unable to see clearly at this distance. They could be two people from Centauri, bringing bad news about Emil.
“Slow down!” he shouted, straining to catch up.
The distant figures stopped. Max slowed as Lucinda raced on.
“Emil! Emil!” she shouted to the blurry shapes, as if her words would make it so.
Max halted for breath. His stomach tightened as he followed at a fast walk.
She reached the dark shapes. He stopped and turned away, unable to look, expecting to hear her cry of disappointment. After a moment, he glanced back and saw that she was embracing one of the figures.
He hurried toward them, and recognized Emil.
The boy had lost weight, which made him seem taller, but he looked well. Lucinda hugged him, stepped back, then hugged him again, laughing.
“Max!” Lucky Russell shouted, coming toward him. “The barrier let us through, but now I’m stuck here.”
“It closed up behind you?” Max asked, recovering from the welcome shock of seeing Emil.
“As soon as we came through,” he said, putting his arm around Max. “It’s great to see you. You did the right thing to go through.”
Emil was okay, Max told himself as if in a dream, and in a moment he was embracing him, holding him close, as if he might suddenly dissolve, and Emil didn’t seem to mind.
“The antitoxin stopped the alien stuff in me a day after you left,” he said, squeezing Max back. “I’m glad to see you, too. Thought you’d gotten rid of me for good, huh?” He pulled free and grinned, and Max grinned back.
“We’re leaving for Earth,” Lucinda said with tears streaming down her face.
Emil looked around. “So they found us. Where are we?”
“Inside the Sun,” Lucinda said, sniffling.
“And that’s a ship from Earth,” Max said, pointing.
Emil’s eyes grew wide as his jaw dropped. “No kidding? The ship I believe, but the Sun?”
Then both sets of parents caught up with them. Linda pounced on Emil. Jake couldn’t get close, so he embraced them both. Joe and Rosalie stood aside, their eyes glistening from relief. Max’s throat tightened. His knees felt weak. It was all over. Emil was safe. He could finally let go of the doomed feeling that he thought would be with him forever. He glanced at his mother, and saw that she knew what he was feeling. Joe went over and shook hands with Lucky.
Lissa reached them and told Emil that Max and Lucinda were leaving. “You’re part of the team,” she finished, “if you want to come. Max and Lucinda can tell you everything on the way.”