Chapter 3
1 “It’s 100 meters ahead of us, Commander. I suspect it’s growing, or expanding,” Johnny said for Stubbs’ benefit. “Maybe 30% of the gel is has been shed.”
“You’re about to be eclipsed by Bubba, Johnny,” said the garbled voice of the Commander. “Keep up the chase. We’ll pick you up on the go-round. Remember that ...” Stubbs’ voice faded into static.
Mary glanced back at Johnny and shook her head. “They’re gone.”
As Diver moved into the shadow of Bubba, Alex eased back on the stick, slowing their approach to the sphere. Below them, the frigid gas giant rippled with faint flashes of lightning beneath the veil of icy clouds. The soft glow helped Johnny’s enhanced imaging render the sphere as it continued to shed bits of shell. One chunk bounced gently off Diver’s windshield.
“Looks like it’s coming apart fast,” said Alex.
“We should get this on camera,” the Professor announced. “I recommend using floodlights.”
“There goes our stealth,” offered Howarth with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Matt,” Johnny laughed. “We lost that when we moved in close. If it’s a sensor of some kind, and can see at all, you can bet it can see us. Now that it’s losing the shell we’ve no choice. Hit the floods, Connie. Light her up.”
He folded his arms resolutely and glared at the screen.
“Roger that,” replied Tsu. “Floods on.”
Suddenly the sphere and its fractured shell became glaringly visible. The shell was still largely intact, but pieces were coming off more quickly.
In the next few minutes the sphere lost the last of its shell. Now all that remained to describe the jet black sphere on the viewscreen were the reflections of Diver’s lights and a faint background of stars.
Matt unbuckled his belt. “A coffee for me,” he said. He rose and floated across the cabin, pausing a moment to scratch Inky behind the ear. He looked up at the screen. “You know, it hasn’t changed in size. Not since we moved into the shadow of the planet,” he said.
Matt reached over to the co-pilot seat and tapped Connie on the shoulder. “What’s your take on it, Connie?”
Tsu’s eyebrow arched. “How should I know?”
“Come on. Tell me what you think,” coaxed Matt, he floated over to her seat and planted a kiss on her cheek.
Connie brushed away Matt like a bug. “Not paid to think! Slide off n’ get us a joe, will ya?”
Alex laughed. “Your opinion’s as good as any, Tsu. You were stuck down inside that egg.”
“I guess,” replied Connie, looking up at the screen. In the enhanced version of their surroundings, the star filled universe was cleaved by the gas giant, but all that defined the planet were flashes of lightning under its clouded surface. “There’s lots of power down there on Bubba,” Connie said. “If somebody down there’s usin’ it ...”
“It’s gone!” Johnny said with a gasp, staring wide-eyed at the screen. “Look! It’s not there.”
Alex looked at the screen, then out the cockpit window. There was nothing there.
Forgetting his thirst, Howarth dove back to his radar station as Alex reflexively grabbed the stick. “Engines engaged,” announced the computer, sensing Alex’s hand on the drive.
“Computer! Do a spin scan. Do it now!” shouted Matt as he jabbed angry fingers at his console.
“Good move,” commented Johnny. “Buckle up, everyone.”
Alex glanced at Mary. “Hold Inky tight,” he said as the ship began its sweep of the skies. The computer automatically swiveled the seats so everyone faced the center of the cabin. In the next few seconds anything in the cabin that wasn’t secured went flying through the air. Squeezers of coffee, Howarth’s datastrator and a dozen other items were suddenly thrown to the walls of the cabin by the centrifugal force of the spin.
Watching the flying debris in horror, Mary clutched the cat to her chest. “I think I really hate this trip,” she hissed through clenched teeth. She kept saying that over and over as the spin reached its maximum speed.
“The sphere has been located,” announced the computer. “Point seven five kilometers behind our trajectory.” The retro engines fired, stopping the spin. The ship came to rest facing in the direction of the sphere.
“Behind us?” gasped the Professor, out of breath and staring at the ceiling. “Dammit, Howarth, how the hell did you miss something like that on radar?”
Matt stared at Johnny blankly. “It didn’t move! We ... we were all looking right at it!”
“He’s right, sir,” offered Connie. “It was there, and then ...”
Johnny laughed. “Are you serious?”
Still following its mission parameters, the computer aligned the ship and set the cameras for a good look at the sphere.
Matt looked up from his radar screen. He raised a finger and looked at Johnny. “We’ll ask the puter what happened,” he said.
And without waiting for a response Matt said: “Computer. How did the sphere change position? What course did it take?”
“Insufficient data.”
Matt hung his head briefly. “I should have guessed it would say that. Okay, computer, was there any movement detected on the part of the sphere?”
“Yes, Matt, there was movement ... recorded by optical sensors 4, 7, and 9, sequentially.”
“How long did it take to change position?” Johnny asked.
“Exact time unknown.”
“An estimate will do.”
“Two to three seconds, Professor Baltadonis.”
“Can you speculate, computer, as to the cause of the change in position?” Johnny rolled his eyes, as though he didn’t expect an answer.
The computer was silent for a moment, then, when Johnny was about to give up, it answered him. “Speculation based on known variables. Possible magnetic anomaly. Possible planetary origin.”
The chairs were still facing the center of the cabin, giving it the look of a conference room with Johnny at the center.
“Thank you, computer,” the Professor said loudly. “That makes sense ... I guess.” His eyes scanned the crew, finally coming to rest on Alex. “Our people have been reporting some interesting stuff relating to Bubba’s magnetic field. There’s every possibility that the sphere is somehow driven magnetically.”
“Somehow,” said Alex, folding his arms and looking back at the screen.
“Computer,” said Johnny, “Keep track ... I mean, fix our sensors and cameras on the sphere. If it shows signs of moving ...”
The sphere was suddenly gone from the screen again. Johnny was watching when it happened. “Jesus! It’s gone again,” he shouted. “Crap!”
“What?” asked Mary, swiveling her chair around. When she saw the empty screen she reached out and grabbed Inky, who protested with a hiss. “Not again,” she moaned, clutching the angry cat. Alex smiled when she caught his eye. He could hear her silent curses.
“Wide radar scan, slow rotation!” shouted Johnny. “At once.” He chuckled at the worried expressions around him.
“Don’t worry ... I’m not ordering a spin scan. It’s probably behind us again.” Johnny leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “We’ll be out of the planet’s shadow soon. Goddard will be wanting answers and I have no idea what to tell them.”
Alex suddenly had a terrible idea. “Professor, we shouldn’t waste time searching. We should get back to the ship.”
“What?” growled Johnny. “Break off the search? We have to find that sphere.”
“I don’t think it’s out there. What if it’s returning to Goddard?” said Alex ominously. He took the drive stick in hand, disengaging the computer, and quickly let go as the ship began to wobble. “Sorry about that,” he said. “But I have the strongest feeling there’s danger for Goddard.”
Alex,” said Mary. “What are you talking about?”
Alex shook his head in frustration. “It’s clear to me. If the sphere IS a probe, a mobile one, and it has a mission ...”
Johnny stared wide-eyed at Alex. “Computer,” he almost shouted. “Take us back to Goddard. As fast as possible ... now!”
The chairs had barely returned to their normal positions when the ship launched at top speed. Alex looked out the side window. In the totality of the shadow of the great planet he could see lightning leaping from cloud to cloud. It looked hostile and foreboding, certainly not a place one might call home.
He wondered if the sphere had gone there. As Diver accelerated and he watched the seething clouds below, the notion seemed unlikely. Yet the idea that the sphere had gone back to the Goddard also seemed farfetched. It could have gone anywhere. Perhaps it was still out there somewhere, invisible to the radar.
But he knew that if there was a chance that he was right and their home away from home was in danger, they had to act in her defense. Only Diver and one other shuttle carried weapons.
2 As the red sun rose above Bubba’s dark hazy horizon, Diver’s engines were still firing at full throttle. Alex and Connie both gripped the sticks in front of them, but they were testing the weapons systems, not piloting the ship.
Johnny had ordered both of them into their military helmets and assigned each of them one of the ship’s two weapons systems. Alex controlled the lasers while Connie used the pulser.
“I hope to heck we’re wrong,” breathed Alex as he squinted at the crosshairs before his eyes. “I hope this is just a panic attack.”
The Professor overheard him. “We can’t let the sphere punch another hole in our only ticket home.”
“I donno. It’d be a nice souvenir, to take back home,” Connie laughed, squinting at the dull red sunrise directly ahead.
“Damn, is that a sorry sight?”
Johnny groaned. “Connie, we can’t go home with contamination aboard. You know that.”
“Sheesh!” Connie looked at Alex in disgust. “Just tryin’ to lighten it up a bit.”
Diver’s computer had calculated a fix on the Goddard, and they should soon be seeing the ship silhouetted by the pale red star Lalande. Everyone eyed the viewscreen, watching the artificially added crosshairs that marked the presumed location of the mother ship. Diver was throwing out massive bursts of radar, hoping to find the sphere.
Alex squinted at the screen but saw nothing. His hand gripped the drive stick’s handle like a pistol. Indeed, when the ship shifted to military mode, a trigger system extruded from it. His finger fired the weapon, but the computer did the targeting.
All he could do was hold the stick and wait for the computer to find him a target. But so far it had found only the Goddard.
Connie Tsu wore a half smile. Her finger was also on the stick, poised to shoot Diver’s pulser. Alex remembered how the pulser worked in Bubba’s atmosphere, where it used acoustics to carve a hole in Howarth’s egg, and inside the egg, to excavate the trapped Tai Chi, but he had never seen a pulser used in space. From the weapons briefing he knew that it used a plasma stream broken into pulses and ejected magnetically, like bullets. He had heard that it was the weapon favored by EarthCorps’ police ships because a sustained burst could penetrate anything, even polyceramic shielding.
Alex was dubious about using weapons against a race they knew so little about, but he steeled himself with the hope that action might not be needed. “I’m guessing the thing’s gone south to meet its family,” Alex said to whoever was listening. He looked back at Matt. “Seeing anything on radar, Matt?”
Howarth shook his head doubtfully. “I’m not even seeing Goddard.”
“I see why, Matt,” said the Professor cheerfully. “We’re seeing Goddard’s nose. No, it’s the tail section.” Johnny pulled a lever beside his chair and looked up. “Time to go to work, boys and girls.” The black cowl dropped smoothly, covering his console and chair. The cabin intercom came on with a beep. It was clear the intercom was working because Alex could hear Johnny mumbling, “Where is it? Where are you?” as he tried to find evidence of the sphere.
Alex spotted the ship just as Matt announced his own radar lock. “I have a bearing,” he said happily. “I should have known. It’s right on the cross hairs, ten klicks or so.”
Matt reached over and touched Alex’s arm. “Why’s his screen better than mine? I’m feeling kind of useless here,” he whispered.
“Welcome to the crew,” said Alex. His eyes returned to the screen. “Connie and I get precious little piloting done with the computer runnin’ all the time.”
“Radio contact with Goddard, Professor,” Mary announced. “Patching it in,” she added, dutifully. “It’s the Commander.”
“... Diver. Do you read?”
“Behind you, Commander,” answered Johnny. “Have you seen the sphere?” Over the intercom Johnny’s bubble made his voice boom strangely.
“Something hit us,” said Stubbs. “Our sensors said so, at least. We suspect it was the sphere.”
Johnny was quiet for a moment. “I’m seeing the aft section. No damage that I can see. Where were you hit?”
“No fears, ya’ Gannys,” said the unexpected voice of Captain Wysor. “We saw ‘er comin’ ‘n I pointed ‘her aft.”
“Yes,” interrupted the Commander. “The Captain deserves high praise, indeed. We had less than two minutes warning, and lucky to get that much. Our illustrious Captain managed to move the ship, smoothly I might add, and the thing glanced off the hull. At least we think it did.”
“So ... then where is it?” asked Alex. “Did you see it leave?”
“Greetin’s, Rose,” said Captain Wysor. “Armed fer war, I see?”
“To answer the first question, it’s ahead of us,” Stubbs interrupted again. “But we lost it on sensors. And, no, we didn’t see it leave.”
“I see no marks on the hull. If it glanced off, it might orbit and return, maybe speed up.” Johnny heaved a sigh.
“Computer? Can you hazard a guess when the sphere will be back?”
The computer didn’t respond.
Alex guessed that the computer was in tactical mode, following stealth procedures. It was now operating silently, trusting no one except the two gunners, under the assumption that the enemy might detect even cabin conversation.
The silence continued. “Computer,” said Alex. “Fix on the sphere. Gunner priority Monty.”
Alex had expected a protest from the Professor. His questions, after all, had interrupted the chain of command. Still, he knew that the manual stated that stealth priorities were overruled by requests from the pilot for essential information.
“So, you read the manual, after all,” said Connie with a smile.
“Just the juicy parts,” quipped Alex, never letting his eyes stray from the targeting image displayed in his helmet.
“Target is in a fixed position,” the computer whispered in his ear. “Center screen.”
Alex jumped. “Really? Locate and display.” All he could see in the image was the engine section of the Goddard.
The computer zoomed in on one of the engines of the gargantuan ship. Alex raised one arm, almost involuntarily, as a signal to the crew. “I see it. It’s lodged in one of the engines.”
“Wonderful,” said Johnny. “Stubbs, are you hearing this?”
“We are,” answered the Commander’s voice.
“Maybe no one felt it hit ’cause of the motor’s anti-shock system,” offered Matt, watching the screen with his mouth hanging open.
“Targeting,” said the computer. “Armed and locked.”
“Is the word given?” asked Connie with a broad grin. Her hand, like Alex’s, was still gripping the stick in front of her.
“Commander,” she quipped. “Let’s pop this thing. My arm’s tired.”
Mary looked at the back of Tsu’s chair and frowned. At the same time, Alex heard Mary’s voice inside his head. “Don’t pull that trigger, Alex.”
Johnny stayed silent under his black cowl while the rest of the crew waited. The Professor had switched off his intercom but they could hear him mumbling. Alex could imagine the debate that was raging among the Goddard’s high command.
If they told him to pull the trigger, Alex knew he had to obey. Still, Mary’s words rang in his memory like a bell. Stuck where it was, the alien sphere seemed a minimal threat. Igniting the engine, just for a moment, would blast its icy surface with white hot plasma. Also, the sphere was an easy target and in an ideal place for Diver to use its weaponry without harming the Goddard. The bulkhead where the sphere had landed was all but impervious to laser or pulser fire.
Diver was keeping a good distance away from the engine so that any sudden reaction wouldn’t harm them. Since they were reasonably safe, Alex saw no reason for Mary’s concern. Yet her words persisted in his mind, “Alex, don’t you touch that trigger.”
Additionally, Alex saw no reason for Mary to only speak to him so covertly. Why not just say it to Johnny, if she had concerns? Alex looked at her. His expression was like a big question mark.
Mary Seventeen looked at him but no words came to his mind. Alex shook his head. Instead of clearing up the mystery, Mary was adding to it.
“Locked and ready,” urged the droning voice of the computer.
“Commander?” said Johnny.
“Stand down for a moment,” said Stubbs’ voice.
Alex let his hand drop from the stick and Connie followed suit. “Dingers,” said Alex, shaking his head. “They should pay us double for this duty.”
In the back of his mind Mary was talking. Alex heard the words so clearly he thought everyone else did too. “Don’t fire, Alex.” He looked at Mary again but this time she wouldn’t return his gaze.
3 Diver was now a gunship ready for war – the last thing Alex ever wanted his ship to become. His was the best equipped shuttle in the fleet. He might have taken pride in that, but as the ship’s owner, Captain and pilot, he was also its gunner, and he felt completely alone. Alex had no particular fear of action, but if he was going to war, he needed a reason. For most of his life, his driving force had been exploration and discovery. He had prided himself that he had been working for IoCorp when war broke out on Earth. He was part of an essential workforce, far from the conflict. It was grueling work, but at least he could say that he wasn’t fighting a war for someone else’s political gain.
Now he was light years from Earth and, ironically, the man charged with holding the gun. Looking through his tactical visor at the glistening black object tucked in the massive engine port, all Alex could think about was that he and his beloved ship had become instruments of destruction in the hands of others.
Inside his tactical helmet the view was filled with readouts and telemetry. Small screens projected on the visor showed thermal images and radar contours of the object tucked in the engine’s exhaust port, but Alex kept his eye focused steadily on the object.
He had already fended off two drops of sweat threatening to trickle into his eye. “What’ll it be, gents?” he asked in a voice he hoped wouldn’t sound too desperate. “The computer’s getting nervous.”
“We need to look at this for a minute, Alex,” said the Professor impatiently.
“If we’re standing down, let us take off these helmets,” Connie answered the Professor. “What’s the point, anyway?”
“We need a finger on the trigger, Tsu. Your finger,” said Stubbs firmly. “Yours too, Alex. Do I have to remind you that we don’t want to make any mistakes?”
“No, sir,” said Alex, smiling at Tsu. He pulled off his helmet and wiped his forehead. He took a moment to glance at Mary, remembering her words in his mind. She looked at him and smiled enigmatically.
Alex took a deep breath and reseated his helmet. Another minute passed and Stubbs’ voice told the crew of Diver to stand down and hold position.
Alex took off his helmet again and hung it on its stand next to his seat. “Dingers,” he sighed. “This is strange duty.”
Connie slid off her own helmet and held it between her knees as she leaned forward, staring exhaustedly at the screen. A moment later she sat up straight and blinked at the screen. “Whazzat?” she snapped. “Professor, are you doing that?”
Johnny had lifted his virtual bubble and was about to get up when Tsu called out. “Doing what?” he asked. His eyes went to the screen. “Stubbs!” he shouted. “Are you seeing this?”
For the last hour the sphere had appeared on their viewscreen as a dark spherical shadow lodged neatly in the nozzle of the gargantuan engine. Now it seemed to be glowing as if a light had come on inside it.
Stubbs began shouting orders over the intercom. “All hands at emergency positions!”
Alex put his helmet back on. “Roger, sir.”
“We’ve never seen this before,” said Stubbs.
“Dammit!” The bubble above Johnny’s chair lowered, just in time for Stubbs’ first inquiry.
“Johnny, any takes on this?” Stubbs sounded almost humble. “We’re not sure whether to blow that engine, or not. Maybe you should take a shot at it. We can’t wait too long ...”
The moment Alex had reseated his helmet, the computer returned to military readiness, its targeting systems focusing unerringly on the sphere.
“Don’t have them shoot it, Johnny,” said Mary unexpectedly. “It’ll only make things worse.”
“Make what worse?” asked the voice of the Commander. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
On the screen the sphere seemed to be enlarging, as its light grew brighter.
“I have a very strong feeling that you shouldn’t shoot at it,” explained Mary. She sat holding Inky in her lap almost defensively, her beautiful gray eyes focused on the ceiling speaker. “If I could explain it better, I would.” She sat calmly in her chair, flight suit unzipped to the middle of her perfect chest, glowing with perspiration like the rest of the crew.
On the screen, the glow of the sphere grew ever brighter. “Tell us, Mary, what’s going on,” asked Matt, almost pleading.
“What do you think will happen if we shoot it?”
“You’re asking for a rationale,” said Mary, looking angrily across the cabin at Matt. “I’m a sensor; a biological receiver, if you will ...”
“Thank you, Mary,” interrupted the Commander. “Your input is most welcome. Thank you.”
There was a moment of silence. Over the intercom people could be heard talking to Stubbs, but their words were unintelligible. Finally the Commander’s voice continued. “Alex, you have the lasers, am I right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tsu. Are you targeted?”
“Pulser on the mark, sir,” said Connie.
Inside the engine port it looked like the sphere was igniting. As they all watched, the first plume of white hot plasma jetted from the great engine.
A moment of confusion followed. Stubbs shrieked in his rage. “Who fired engine twenty-six? Wysor???”
Alex could hear the Captain mumbling Ganny denials.
“Who, then?” roared Stubbs.
The plasma stream emanating from the engine completely obscured any view of the sphere to those aboard Diver. From what Alex could see, the sphere itself was the source of the jet.
“The sphere is doing it, I think, sir.”
4 The great ship began to accelerate. With every passing second the speed increased.
“We’re losing orbit! We’ll have to jettison the engine, or you can try to destroy it, Diver.” Stubbs sounded almost frantic.
“Can we get home with one less engine, Commander?” asked Johnny.
After a moment’s silence Stubbs’ assistant, Ned Binder, answered. “Of course.”
“Then jettison the thing. Mary’s hunch may be correct. Shooting may not be a good idea. Besides, all our plasma balls and lasers would just be adding energy to energy. My guess is that we’d only be helping it.”
“If we don’t shoot, we’re showing that we aren’t hostile,” added Mary.
Alex saw the flash of explosive bolts and a shower of debris as the engine broke free and streaked forward like a missile.
It skimmed the hull, doing no apparent damage, then followed a straight course away from the main body of the ship.
“Keep your distance, Diver,” ordered Stubbs. “And keep your instruments focused on it.”
“Does that mean you don’t think it will return again?” asked Alex.
“It’s still stuck in that engine, spending its energy,” said Professor Baltadonis, “and headed to God knows where.”
“Hey, boss,” Connie said loudly. “Any rules against tryin’ out this pulser on a spent engine?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex noticed Mary shaking her head. “Why flirt with it?” Mary said to the back of Tsu’s chair.
“Why not?” answered Tsu. “We don’t want it turning around and coming back, do we?”
Mary lowered her eyes. “Bad idea.”
“If there’s a chance Mary is right, Tsu ...” said Stubbs. “Stand down, please. Shooting it might be interpreted as a hostile act,” he added.
“Who cares?” shouted Tsu. “They attacked us.” Her face was getting red.
“We’re guests in this system, Connie,” answered Stubbs calmly. “We have to play nice. No killing. No shooting. We’ve done too much damage already inside that egg down there.” The Commander paused for a moment to give Connie time to respond. When she said nothing, he continued. “But stay close. I want you to keep an eye on that thing until it’s out of sight.
Otherwise, prepare to return to Goddard.” The intercom clicked off.
“I can’t believe it!” shouted Connie. She released the stick and angrily unbuckled herself from the co-pilot’s seat. “Time to trade some tinkle,” she said, pressing a boot into the dash and launching herself toward the lavatory.
“I need a translator,” said Alex. “What did she mean by that?”
“A leak and a geebrew, I guess,” said Matt with a snicker. “Callisto expression, maybe.”
“You terra toons stow my socks!” shouted Connie as she disappeared into the lavatory.
Alex laughed. “Where did you stow her socks, Matt?”
“No clue,” answered Matt absently, studying the image on the viewscreen. The white hot jet was still pushing the motor on a dead straight course. It was getting ever smaller, blending into the background as just another bright star. “Glad to see the last of that thing,” he added.
“That’s a roger,” said Alex.
The Commander’s voice interrupted them. “We’re shutting down radar tracking, Diver,” he said. “We recommend you do the same, in case that thing homes in on radar. I want at least an hour of EM silence. Good job everybody. We’re winning this thing.”
The Commander’s words stuck in Alex’s mind. He wondered what Stubbs had meant by winning. If it meant that the threat had been eliminated, he couldn’t agree. “We’ll see if we’re winning,” he murmured.
Matt chuckled. “Those were my thoughts, too. We have a lot of data but no real knowledge about the Lalandians.”
Howarth’s words reminded Alex of the clicker men. In all the fuss over the sphere, Alex had completely forgotten them.
“By the way, Matt,” he asked. “What’s the status of the clicks?”
“Two down, eleven to go, on last count. Why?” asked Matt.
“There were thirteen?”
“More than that. But some didn’t form. I thought you knew that.” Matt sounded surprised. Alex shrugged as Matt continued. “Actually, since this whole sphere thing, Jeanne has been supervising them. Her experience ... cocooned by aliens ... well, she’s been keeping to herself. I gave her the job to keep her head occupied.”
“Did you watch them develop? How did they hatch?”
“Sounds like another bedside visit is in order, Alex,” said Matt. “Unless you’re afraid they’ll all explode in front of you.”
Now that the crisis had passed and the Commander had stopped giving orders everyone seemed more relaxed. With the radio chatter between the two ships on hold for the moment Mary was freed temporarily from her duties. “How many clicks were born?” she asked.
Matt found himself saying the number eighteen with Mary.
“If you already knew, why ask?” Matt said, looking totally confused.
“I was guessing,” said Mary. “Where in the reef tank did they live?”
“Where? In the reef material. That black fluff.”
“And the ones that didn’t develop. What happened to them?” Alex asked.
Howarth thought for a moment. “Hmmm.” He tapped a finger against his console. “As I recall they didn’t develop.” Matt laughed, but when he saw Alex wasn’t amused he frowned. “Sorry, Alex. I forgot it’s your kids we’re talking about here.
Actually we have no idea why some survived while others didn’t. Jeanne was pretty upset when some of them stopped floating. We couldn’t figure out why. They just died and withered away. Not even a theory. It was like some of them simply chose to die. Anyway, we have it all recorded, and we retrieved some bodies for testing.”
“Any results?” asked Mary.
Matt shook his head.
Johnny’s bubble rose to the ceiling. The effect was as if he had walked into the room. “Greetings, people,” said the Professor. “I confess, Alex, I haven’t given the clicks a thought, myself. Is there something to be ashamed of in that?”
Alex was genuinely surprised. “Whoa, Johnny. Did I say that?”
Johnny folded his arms and gazed at the tiny white dot on the viewscreen. “No, you didn’t. I heard it in your voice, though, I thought. I hear it whenever you speak about them. Matt’s right. You act like their parents, you two.” He looked at Mary and smiled.
“Why is that a mystery to you, Professor?” Mary said, not looking at him. “Is it so surprising that we might feel guilty when we see creatures we discovered and barely understand abused and used like tools?”
The Professor looked gravely at Mary Seventeen for a long moment, then his smile returned. “Mary,” he said. “You should have been a lawyer. That speech would earn your client an extra million, at least.” He laughed out loud.
But no one else was laughing. Even Howarth and Tsu sat mutely watching the screen. Silence descended on the tiny cabin. In the center of the viewscreen, a tiny white dot was beginning to change course, tugged by the gravity of the planet, but its trajectory remained true to the computer’s prediction. It was headed for Earth’s solar system.