To The Stars (The Harry Irons Trilogy) (34 page)

He looked around and spotted exactly what he had in mind. A short distance away, a thick branch curved to the forest floor. He could walk up the natural ramp and find a place to nap.

How long had it been since he’d left the cave? Not so long, he admitted. Age had taken away the vigor of youth and the old Bedoran relinquished it stubbornly. Still, his body told him it was time to rest.

He wouldn't be out in the forest if it weren't for his grandsons. When he and Kretin had returned from taking the female to the forest, Arai was missing. A few hours later, Kretin was gone. The old man instinctively knew Kretin had gone looking for his younger brother. By mid-afternoon, neither had returned and, being the only other male of age, the task fell upon him to search for them.

He walked to the tree branch and stepped upon the limb. Before going any farther, he took a good look around to ensure nothing was watching, then shuffled up the limb. Grandfather curled up in a large crook of the tree and went to sleep.

He awoke before dawn to the sound of thunder in the distance. No, it wasn't thunder, he realized as he turned an ear to the sound. Loud and frightening, but not thunder. Well, in any case, it was time to get going again. The deep rumble had passed, but he was sure of the direction, and when he climbed back down to the ground, that was the way he went.

*

The computer aboard the Magellan was state of the art. It was fast and powerful and, with the proper stimulation from a knowledgeable user, it could perform astounding feats of computation. Blane was the quintessential computer user. The implants in his head allowed him to access data channels and process a digital stream nearly as fast as the computer could feed it to him. But still it wasn't enough.

Years of being plugged in had trained his mind to hunger for and demand information. Yet he had discovered that the digital stimulation still lacked something of what he craved. It was so simple he had a hard time coming around to the idea, but when he finally accepted it, he knew that there was no substitute for intelligent companionship. The problem was, people communicated slowly, and people lied, and even Blane would admit, he was certainly anti-social. Like any other coping anti-social, these were problems he’d learned to live with. Computers satisfied his need for companionship to a good degree but there was still a part of him that was only satisfied by his electronic connection to a handful of trusted friends. Kathleen had been one of these.

Over time, Blane had grown dependent on his Kathleen's thoughts. They provided just the right amount of chaotic stimulus to balance the beautiful logic of his beloved computers. He and the young woman had shared adventures in cyberspace and had helped one another in both school and in professional life. They were close. Not in a sexual way either: Blane had never entertained the thought of having sex with the woman. She was beautiful, indeed, but Blane's sexual needs were oriented toward obscure fantasies, and even these encounters were fulfilled in cyberspace. The thought of sharing such an intimate act with another human being made Blane shudder. Cyberspace supplied his needs.

With a shaking hand, he reached for the cable that ran to the laboratory computer and plugged it into the back of his head. Using the network control program, he piggy-backed the lab computer onto the powerful ship's computer. The extra processing power helped somewhat but the hunger remained.

At first, he thought it was the same feeling of urgency and abandonment he had felt when he learned he could no longer depend on transmissions from Kathleen. For a time, the hunger gripped him and washed over him in waves. He held the sides of the chair until his knuckles turned white. Beads of sweat popped out along his brow. For a moment, he lost control of the flow of data and his head felt as if it was being overloaded.

His anxiety grew to an almost intolerable level before he finally managed to gain control his thoughts. While he continued to monitor the alien ship and the other telemetry functions aboard the Magellan, he opened the files that held the recordings of his encounter with the alien computer and browsed the data.

Again, Blane marveled at the complexity and efficiency of the alien machine. If it was a machine. He recalled that in the few, brief moments he was connected to the alien computer, he had acquired the distinct feeling that the thing was alive. Certainly, its network, processing power, and efficiency were far beyond anything he'd seen before. The thing was complex but simple in its operation. Its composition was along the lines of a neural network, but a neural network based on something wholly different from anything humanity had to offer.

Blane also knew that everything the survey team wanted to know was stored in the alien computer. He wished, no, he yearned for the opportunity to re-establish his data link and to allow his thoughts to wander through the alien net. What wonders he would find.

A call from the intercom interrupted his thoughts.

"Blane? You still down there?" Nadine's voice sounded patronizing.

He reached over and pressed the call button. He knew she could see the computer activity.

"Yes, I'm here."

"Just checking. Everything all right? You feeling okay?"

He pressed the call button again. "I'm not frothing at the mouth or anything, if that's what you mean." There was a pause at the other end. Finally, Nadine's voice came through again.

"All right, Bart, just checking."

On the bridge, Nadine turned to a relaxed Bonner. "He's got his head in the computers."

"So what's new?"

"Have you ever tried it, Bill?

His expression showed denial. "What do you mean? Cybersex? Me?"

"Oh c'mon, everybody's tried it by now."

"No, not me. How about you?"

Nadine flashed her teeth and laughed.

"You have, haven't you?" Bonner sat upright and looked at her. "What's it like?"

She laughed again. "I didn't say I had."

"But I can tell you have. Come on, tell me what it's like."

"Well," she said and cocked her head, "I guess it was like being an actor in a cartoon."

"Doesn't sound too satisfying."

"No," she said, "I prefer the real thing." She unstrapped herself from her seat and floated over to Bonner. She faced him and positioned herself on his lap. "Don't you?"

"Oh yeah," he said. "Hold that thought. Lemme check the rad levels."

Nadine didn't bother to get up. Bonner leaned across her and punched commands into his keyboard. She didn't bother to look. Instead she asked him what the display said.

"Still going up."

Alarmed, she shifted her position.

"How far can we let it go without doing something?"

Bonner looked at his watch. "If we don't hear something from Fagen in another hour, I think we should prepare to bug out."

"Oh, yes," Nadine said and wrapped her strong arms around the engineer's neck, "that's what I wanted to hear."

Chapter 29

Something stuck Harry in the side. He'd felt it for some time but was just now getting uncomfortable with it. It was a knot on the inside of the log. The dawning light was sufficient to allow him to peer from his cubbyhole and scan the surrounding forest. All was quiet. He slipped out of the hollow log and crouched as he took a good look in all directions.

Nothing moved except for the occasional breeze passing through the upper branches. He got up and began walking back toward the tree where he had spent half the night. It wasn't far and he identified it easily by the deep, clean burns in the bark.

He approached it warily, but there was no need. No one was there. No sign of anyone. On the opposite side he found one of the helmets. It was crushed and useless. There were no spent cartridges. Harry was sure he'd heard shots being fired.

As he walked over the site, he tried to imagine what had happened. He could see where the first alien had appeared and where it had fired and missed. Marks on the ground and the tree attested to the hot beam of the laser weapon.

Beam weapons required a lot of power. Power storage for such devices was bulky and heavy, quite difficult to lug about. That's why Fagen had left theirs back at the shuttle. Even so, the energy drain was so great they could only fire the weapon in bursts. Before the next shot could be fired, the system had to recycle.

The weapon he'd seen last night didn't have any of those characteristics. It fired a varied beam in broad strokes several times within a short span. But still, it had missed. That was odd. Such impressive technology would surely have processor-guided aiming devices. Harry should have been hit, but he wasn't. It was odd.

He walked under the branch Fagen had used for his escape and found the place where he'd jumped to the ground. From there, it looked as though he had run to another tree. Sure enough, when Harry got there, he found the shell casings. There was still no sign of Fagen or Parker or anything to indicate where they'd gone.

If they escaped the aliens, Harry reasoned, they would continue to press on to the shuttle. Suddenly afraid he might be left stranded, Harry set out to find the craft.

He knew it wasn't far. The armor he wore was uncomfortable and he considered removing it, but decided against it while he was still lost in the forest. It would feel good to get back to the shuttle and remove the bulky suit.

Harry picked his way between the trees, occasionally stopping to scan the forest ahead. He walked for forty minutes without seeing anything. By then, he began looking ahead for the clearing that held the shuttle. He didn't see it, so he continued his course for another thirty minutes. By then, he realized he was lost.

*

One hundred yards from the clearing, Fagen and the doctor sat behind the cover of a mammoth tree trunk. They had been there for a little under an hour, watching for movement and signs of the aliens. There was nothing to indicate the aliens had discovered the shuttle.

"Let's just make a run for it," Parker suggested.

Fagen didn't take his eyes from the clearing and didn't reply.

"How long are we going to wait?"

"Until I'm satisfied the shuttle's not being watched."

"Edward," Parker said, exasperated, "we've been here an hour and haven't seen anything. We need to check in with Bonner and Nadine."

"All right, all right. Stay here while I check things out." Fagen rose and worked his way closer to the shuttle. Parker watched as the commander approached the vehicle.

At a distance of forty yards, Fagen stopped. The hatch was open. Perhaps Kathleen had made it back. Or maybe Harry had beat them back. Or maybe there was another possibility, maybe the aliens had located the shuttle and now waited to spring an ambush. Fagen squatted behind a log and watched.

*

Unfortunately, the homing signal emitted from the shuttle was useless without a receiver. Harry's receiver was built into his helmet, and he had dropped it in the confusion of the chase. The forests were nothing like the city streets of Earth. Every few yards looked like the last few yards. Even after he knew he was lost, he doggedly continued until he was sure he had gone in a circle. There was no other way, he had to re-trace his steps to the point where he had gone off track.

Time was of the essence. If Fagen and Parker had managed to survive and if they beat him back to the shuttle, there was a high possibility that he would be left behind. Harry had to find the shuttle. And soon.

He started back on the same path, deviating slightly in hopes that the correction would lead him to the clearing. After fifteen minutes of walking, he caught a glint of sunlight reflecting off a smooth surface. His first thought was that he'd found the shuttle and he almost starting running. That would have been a mistake. As he made his way forward, he once again saw the reflected sunlight. It wasn't reflected off the metal hull of the shuttle-craft, instead it glinted off the metallic body of an alien.

The alien was turned away from Harry. Harry didn't take comfort in the knowledge. Sensors could see in 360 degree circles and the creatures were almost certainly equipped with instruments that permitted them to detect movement from all directions. Harry ducked behind the base of a tree.

The alien remained where it was and didn't appear to have noticed him. For a moment, Harry thought about backtracking and detouring. It wouldn't be easy. The forest was thin there and the alien stood in a place that allowed it to see for a thirty or forty yards in all directions. At least there was only one this time.

Making his decision, Harry began backing up, all the while keeping an eye on the monster. He stepped on a small, dry branch and it broke with a crack that sounded to Harry as if a gunshot had been fired. The sound echoed through the forest and the alien shifted toward its source.

Harry dove for cover behind some brush, but it was too late, the alien had seen him and was now coming his way.

Harry desperately looked for a place to hide. There wasn't much to choose from. Without another thought, he began to burrow his way under the brush and fallen branches. He dug his hands into the earthy vegetation and felt something cold and slimy shudder at his touch. In surprise, Harry fell backwards.