The Stars Down Under (10 page)

“Security measures?” Myell asked the driver.

“They don't tell me much, Chief,” the driver replied.

“What do you think's going on up here?”

The driver's voice was dry. “They're vidding a game. Izim Extreme, I hear.”

They passed trailers and vans, and security guards dressed in casual clothes, and bits of vid equipment propped up in different areas. The three Spheres were just a hundred meters down the road, in a clearing surrounded by redwoods. Father, Mother, and Child. The stone triad that repeated itself through the Seven Spheres. The Father loomed largest, almost as tall as the redwoods around them. The Mother was exactly half its size, and the Child half again. Each Sphere had a single archway, darkness spilling out from inside.

Leorah Farber met the flit in a parking lot. She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, with a ball cap tucked over her hair. She gave Myell's gym clothes a speculative look.

“Don't ask,” he said. “Where's Commander Scott?”

“Just up here,” she said, walking him toward the Spheres. Activity had picked up a little, with several of the fake vid crew retreating to the vans and other personnel, military by the look of them, securing the perimeter. “We haven't started yet. It should be fairly straightforward. Either the Sphere responds to you or it doesn't.”

He said, “To my wife. I'm only here to observe.”

Farber touched the headset under her ball cap. “On our way,” she said to someone, and a moment later they met up with Jodenny and Teddy Toledo on a dirt path through the redwoods.

“Any problem getting away from school?” Jodenny asked, eyeing Myell's clothes.

“It's all fine,” he assured her. She wasn't in uniform, either, but instead wore trousers and a shirt that made her look like any other member of the pretend vid crew.

Toledo, his green shirt already stained at the underarms, clapped his hands. “I've got a good feeling about this.”

Myell's palms felt damp, and he instinctively reached for Jodenny's hand. She squeezed it briefly, gave him a smile, then let go as Anna Gayle met them.

“Chief Myell,” Gayle said, offering him a brisk handshake. She was all business, he decided, very confident, not a single red hair daring to stray from the tight braid on her head. Slim, beautiful, hard: That was her husband out there somewhere, and she was determined to find him. Gayle said, “So very glad you decided to join us.”

“I'm not joining you,” he said. “I'm supporting Commander Scott.”

Gayle's smile was bright and tight. “Same difference. We're almost ready, Commander. As you've been briefed, events will be direct and straightforward. I'll try activating a token, as will two others who've traveled in the network before. Each time we'll give the system ten minutes to respond. Then it will be your turn.”

“I'll do my best,” Jodenny said, though they all knew she had no control over it at all.

“We've got monitoring equipment set up inside, recording everything. The data's being fed up to that van,” Gayle said. “You can watch from there if you'd like, Chief.”

Myell squinted at the green van barely visible in the trees. “I'll stay here.”

Gayle walked down toward the Mother Sphere. Myell sat with Jodenny in the grass by the side of the path. Farber and Toledo remained standing. The air was filled with birdsong and soughing wind, and a steady crunching sound from Toledo as he chewed on peanuts.

Ten minutes after entering the Mother Sphere, Gayle emerged with a flat expression.

“Nothing,” she said.

Two other people whom Myell hadn't met came down the path and took their turns. The Sphere didn't respond to either of them.

“My turn.” Jodenny stood up and brushed grass from her trousers. “No worries.”

Myell rose with her and kissed her soundly. “Be careful.”

“Always,” she said.

“Good luck, Commander,” Gayle said, her arms tightly folded over her chest.

Jodenny nodded at all of them, and went down to the Mother Sphere. She paused at the archway to throw Myell a questioning look. He forced a smile.

She walked inside, and was lost to his sight.

*   *   *

Jodenny didn't know why she was so nervous. Even if the token came, she wasn't going anywhere. The mission to save Dr. Monnox and Commander Gold would fall to others. But she couldn't shake off the memory of her last trip—the hard yellow light pushing them onward, ever onward, through dusty Spheres flung across the universe. The sickness ripping through her gut and head. The way Myell had looked when they finally returned to Warramala, his face slack and limbs cold.

Stepping into the Sphere was like plunging from day to night, despite the half-dozen large floodlights that had been erected in the interior. Darkness persisted high in the ceiling and at the base of the round walls. The place smelled cool and dry and musty. Nothing like the deep lushness outside, the redwoods that stretched like giants to the sky. This was a different giant, molded by the Wondjina, long before the trees outside had been saplings, or seeds, or even the idea of seeds.

“Radio check, Commander,” said a voice on her headset, and she nodded for the benefit of the cameras.

“Loud and clear,” she said.

She resisted the urge to rub the goosebumps on her skin. Instead she walked back and forth across the width of the Sphere, watching her boots make faint marks in the hard-packed dirt. She felt silly, walking around under remote scrutiny and waiting for a piece of alien technology to put in an appearance. What was Myell thinking, up on the path? She was glad he had come. Maybe when evening came they could find a nice, intimate restaurant, a place far from the crowds where they could talk and bask in just being with each other.

She knew after a few minutes that the token wasn't going to come for her. A relief, actually. If it wouldn't come for her, surely she wasn't in any way responsible for the system shutting down in the first place. Nor would she bear the responsibility of enabling more people to go off down the network on a second mission that might end in tragedy. But it was disappointing, as well, to find out that she wasn't special in any way. The token that wouldn't come for others wouldn't come for her, either.

Her radio clicked. Gayle's clipped voice said, “Thank you, Commander. You can come out now.”

The sunlight was exceptionally bright outside, and Jodenny had to blink several times against the harshness. Myell and Gayle had come to meet her at the archway. Gayle nodded appreciation for Jodenny's attempt but her gaze was averted.

“I'm not discouraged,” Gayle insisted. “I never expected immediate success. We can try the Spheres at Swedenville next. Still, while we're all here, I'm wondering if Chief Myell wouldn't agree to test his presence as well.”

Myell kept silent.

Gayle said, “I understand that to you, this network is more than just ancient technology. More than machinery. There are severe political, economic, and religious implications if Team Space finds a way to make it a practical mode of transportation, and the repercussions cannot be underestimated. I wish I could see into the future and reassure you that the network will be put to only the most beneficial of purposes, and that all mankind will benefit. But we both know it's not in my power to do so.”

Myell was still silent. Jodenny couldn't tell what he was thinking.

“But it is in your power to step into that Mother Sphere, Chief, and I'm asking you to do so. You know that my husband is out there somewhere. I believe he's alive. I believe he needs my help. To that end, I'll do everything I can to try and get this system working again. I'll beg you, if that's what you want. I'll get down on my knees right here. Because that's how badly I want to have him in my arms again.”

“Dr. Gayle…” Myell sounded appalled. “Please don't.”

Gayle's eyes started to glitter. “I believe you came here today not just because you wanted to support Commander Scott. I believe deep down that you want me to persuade you, that you truly want to help. It's a dozen steps from here into that Sphere. All you have to do is take them. Twelve steps, and you could enable my husband to come home again.”

Jodenny watched indecision play out on Myell's face. Perhaps he had come out here just to be persuaded. It stung a little that Gayle could succeed where Jodenny had not, but then again, the stakes were much higher for Gayle.

Myell stared at the archway of the Mother Sphere.

“It won't work for me,” he said, but not very strongly.

“Please try,” Gayle said. “Please just try.”

He looked hopelessly at Jodenny, but she couldn't help him. The decision had always been his to make. But she doubted that his convictions were strong enough to withstand the force of Gayle's grief and hope.

Myell said, “Only this once.”

Gayle was instantly on her radio. “Chief Myell's going in. Make sure you're monitoring.”

Jodenny squeezed his hand. “Thanks.”

He kissed her hard, then disappeared into the Sphere.

“Thank you,” Gayle said to Jodenny.

Surprised, Jodenny said, “I didn't do anything.”

“You could have stopped him.”

“You don't know him very well.”

Silence from the Mother Sphere. Across the grass, a baby squirrel popped out of a fallen log, peered at them, then darted away again. Gayle's right hand, fisted at her side, looked so painfully clenched that she'd probably have fingernail marks in her palm for hours. The defeat of hope was such a difficult thing.

Then the loud, clear call of an approaching ouroboros blasted through the air, and that changed everything.

*   *   *

The horn cut through Myell as surely as a dagger.

He told himself he hadn't expected the system to respond to him. He'd said as much to Gayle and Jodenny. He was not special; he had in no way been singled out or chosen.

A lie, he knew. The worst kind. The kind told to oneself.

But Gayle had been right. He had come here knowing that they would ask, and perhaps wanting to be persuaded to try.

The scuffle of boots made him turn. Gayle and Jodenny came through the arch. Gayle shook his hand with a forceful grip and a wide smile.

“You did it, Chief,” she said. “I'll always be in your debt.”

Jodenny kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

A half-dozen Marines in gray camouflage uniforms entered the Mother Sphere, each loaded up with equipment, backpacks, and mazers. Leading them was a tall, muscular commander of Aboriginal descent. His hair was cut close to his skull, and his orders to the other soldiers were crisp and confident.

“Saadi, make sure your GNATs are ready to go. Collins, we might need that Blue-Q at the first station. Breme, Lavasseur, that anti-grav sled's got to get in position fast. Remember the window.”

“You're leaving right now?” Jodenny asked, surprised.

“We can't take the chance it'll shut down again,” Gayle said. One of the soldiers brought a backpack to her. She shrugged into it with practiced ease. “The mission leaves with that token.”

Myell said, “But you don't know that the network will continue to work.”

An ouroboros flashed into existence on the ground. The circle was larger than Myell remembered, the cool metal fashioned into a snake devouring its own tail. He could see the interior glowing faintly with symbols. The female soldier and one of the men steered a sled into its confines and took up position.

“It could stop,” Myell said. “You might get one or two stations and the whole thing will shut down again.”

Gayle spared him the briefest of glances. “That's why you're coming with us.”

“No, you can't—” Jodenny started to say, but two of the Marines moved to Myell's side.

“Chief Myell, I'm Commander Nam,” the Aboriginal commander said. “Effective immediately, you've been reassigned from Supply School to the Research and Development branch. You are ordered to accompany and assist this mission. You can go willingly, or you can go carried over our shoulders, but you are coming.”

Leorah Farber and Teddy Toledo had joined them inside the Sphere—Toledo wide-eyed and gaping, Farber vocal in her disapproval.

“Dr. Gayle,” she said, “this wasn't in the plan!”

“It was in my plan,” Gayle said tightly.

“Mine, too,” Nam said.

“No,” Myell said. He wouldn't, he couldn't. “I'm not going.”

“Let me be clear.” Nam nodded to the soldiers, who grabbed Myell by the arms. “You don't have a choice.”

Everyone was talking at once now—Farber and Toledo arguing, Jodenny protesting, Nam giving orders. The Marines tugged Myell toward the ouroboros. He thought about swinging his fists but he didn't want to risk Jodenny getting hurt. He cursed his own stupidity. Of course they had tricked and used him. Of course they had lied.

Jodenny watched helplessly as they took her husband away. She tried to join them, to leap forward, but Nam's other men restrained her.

Gayle and Nam joined the group in the ouroboros. Gayle said to Jodenny, “If all goes well, we'll be back soon. If not—well, if not, then perhaps we'll have been more successful than I hope.”

Myell wasn't saying anything, but Jodenny could see in his face a thousand unsaid things—horror at how the situation had gotten out of hand, desperation at being dragged into the network against his will. Resignation, too. As if this had always been meant to happen. She remembered how they'd nearly died in the network, and realized she might never ever see him again.

“Can't you stop her?” Jodenny said to Farber.

Farber's gaze was locked on Gayle. “This is wrong, Anna. You're not going to find what you're looking for.”

Gayle's face lit up in an unexpected smile. “I'll let you know.”

Jodenny said, recklessly, “I'll follow you—”