To The Stars (The Harry Irons Trilogy) (29 page)

"Uh, I guess you're right."

"Look, we're only a half mile from the alien landing site. That's an easy hike. Let's leave the hovercraft. We can drag it out later if we need to."

"We'd have a better chance of finding Kathleen if we used it." Harry added.

"Hopefully she saw the shuttle coming down and she's on her way to us right now." Fagen looked at the surrounding forest. "Motion sensors reporting yet?"

"There's nothing in the immediate area."

"Okay, looks like we've got about three hours of sunlight left. Baring any unforeseen accidents, plan on spending the night in the shuttle. I've turned on the homing beacon so if any of us are separated we'll be able to find our way back. Any questions?"

Parker and Harry shook their heads.

"All right," said Fagen, "let's move out."

"Me too?" Parker asked.

"Yes, you too." Fagen replied.

"But shouldn't one of us stay with the shuttle? Corporation rules state..."

"I know what the rules say, Doctor."

"Well, shouldn't we..."

"No, we shouldn't. We're going to stay together. If Kathleen finds the shuttle before we return, she knows how to gain entry. Now let's go."

There was no more argument from the doctor and the three men stepped into the forest.

Harry checked the time and direction by glancing at the heads-up display on the inside of his helmet. He wondered if Kathleen were still alive somewhere, if she had somehow managed to survive. She was; he was certain.

As he walked through the forest, following Parker and bringing up the rear, Harry entertained the notion of again encountering the aborigines. Before Parker had told everybody that he thought all life on the planet was imported, Harry had reckoned the natives to be indigenous primitive hunters and gatherers. Still, Parker's theory was startling. If the aborigines weren't native to the planet, where were they from? And how did they get there?

Harry thought about the great migrations of human history and why, at certain times, people picked up and moved in mass. There were plenty of reasons: lack of food and/or water, threats from neighbors, conquering armies, slavery, and plain old curiosity, just to name a few. But the primitives on Mia Culpa didn't have the means to transport themselves from one planet to another. If what Parker said was true, the aborigines or their descendants were most likely brought there by another party, a party advanced enough to possess the means for travel through space.

Could it be that the aliens he encountered had brought the primitives to the planet? Either them or others like them? Perhaps they were like keepers of a zoo, or maybe it was some kind of grand experiment. Or they could just as easily be visitors, like himself. Both the primitives and the aliens had proved to be dangerous, that was for sure. Communicating with either was a risky proposition.

Fagen stopped and held up his hand. The doctor and Harry stopped as well. Fagen motioned for them to take cover and Harry stepped behind a massive root. Fagen and Parker found guarded spots as well.

For a few minutes, Harry heard nothing. Then, a slight shuffling came to his attention, as if the wind was blowing through the leaves. But the wind wasn't blowing. What Harry heard were the plodding steps of a heavy beast headed his way.

It passed in front of him and turned its head toward him, looking directly at him. Two, large cowlike eyes gazed serenely from an elongated head. The head sat atop a short, thick neck which was attached to a body generally the size and orientation of a grizzly bear. Unlike a bear, this creature didn't seem to be particularly ferocious. It turned its attention from Harry to a clump of ferns. It grazed awhile then moved on. All the while, the three men remained motionless.

Finally, Harry stood and watched the beast shuffle out of sight. Fagen hissed and motioned to keep going. They moved quietly, without speaking, until at last they saw the clearing through the trees. In the middle of the clearing sat the alien lander.

At first glimpse, Harry was reminded of a giant insect squatting in the meadow. It sat on six strutted legs with a dark exterior; the only disruption in its smooth lines came from the long, folded wings high on its sides. On inspection, Harry realized that they weren't wings at all, but rather what could have been a set of solar collectors.

For a time, they sat in the shade and watched. There was no movement around the vehicle. Standard Corporation training ruled that the survey linguist, upon encountering an intelligent alien presence, should first try to broach communications by means of radio or some other long distance method. If that failed, he was supposed to approach slowly and attempt to show the aliens that his intentions were peaceful.

Considering the incident aboard the alien ship, Harry wondered if all the Corporation rules were out the window now. Fagen didn't seem to care about the rules. He seemed to have his own agenda, whatever it was. Harry spoke to him via the intercom.

"Edward, should I follow standard procedures?"

"No, I don't think that stuff's going to work."

"Shouldn't we at least give it a try?"

Fagen audibly sighed over the open radio channel. "It's your neck. Go ahead. Parker and I will try to cover you from here."

It sounded more like they discussed a military situation rather than something as momentous as man's first face-to-face encounter with an intelligent alien species. From his experience aboard the alien ship, Harry already knew there was danger involved. Leaving his weapon with Fagen, he tried to put the image of Doris' impaled body out of his mind. With a pounding heart, he stepped from the shadows into the sunlit clearing.

Harry paused and took a long look. He was in full view of the vehicle. There was an open hatch on the bottom, but it was too far away and the angle was wrong; Harry couldn't see inside. Moving slowly and deliberately, he moved to the front of the craft. If anyone was inside, perhaps they would see him as he approached.

Facing the front of the vehicle where he hoped the cockpit was located, Harry raised his hands and showed that he held nothing. In full view, he removed his helmet and held it in the crook of his arm. He wanted the aliens to see what he was and that he offered no threat.

There was no response from the craft. It sat as impassively as it had when they first saw it. Harry moved closer. The hull didn't look metallic, rather it seemed to be molded in one piece. The only seams were at the open hatch and around the large, folded "wings.”

As he neared, he felt a warmth and a resonant tingling in the air. He stretched out a hand and the tingling increased to an almost electrical feeling. The closer he got, the more uncomfortable it became. He backed off a step or two to think about what he was doing.

The young linguist knelt to the ground and found a pebble. He took the rock and tossed it at the hull. Before it reached the smooth surface, a pop reached Harry's ears and the rock bounced away as if it hit something solid. They already suspected the aliens had force field technology, now they could be certain.

Harry backed away, once again putting himself in a position that would allow anyone inside the vehicle to see him. Still, there was no response. He nervously waited a few more minutes then turned toward Fagen and Parker. He spread his hands and shrugged. Fagen motioned for him to come back. Harry walked backwards, keeping an eye on the craft as he moved.

Back among the trees, Harry admitted to Fagen that he didn't know what to do.

"There's a force field around the ship. We can approach it to within a foot or two, but that's it. Doesn't look like anybody's home."

"Where are they?" Parker asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Fagen answered. "Possibly they're inside the structure in the adjacent clearing." Fagen scanned the surrounding forest. "It doesn't appear they're here. Did you get pictures of the ship?"

Parker nodded. The glowing red indicator on the small video camera attached to his shoulder plate showed that the camera was switched on and running.

"All right," said the commander, "doesn't look like anything's going on here. Let's move to the other clearing and take a look at that building. Stay under the trees."

Fagen didn't have to tell them that. The trees offered the only shelter for the explorers. They weren't likely to leave the shadows unless ordered or forced.

The next clearing was considerably smaller. The building sat in the middle of the glen, an odd, low circular building. As with the alien ship, there was no indication that anyone or anything was home.

Where are they, Harry wondered. Inside the structure or out on a field trip?

"What do you want to do?" Harry asked Fagen.

"Pictures first. Keep your distance and watch for awhile."

Parker stayed in the shelter of the trees and worked his way around the clearing as he took video shots of the building from all sides. It didn't appear to have an entrance, at least one that was visible. There were no windows either. The sloping walls were seamless and dark, reaching a height of ten feet or so. There were no markings, nothing to indicate the purpose of the structure.

The afternoon heat rose to an almost intolerable level. That, combined with the additional gravity of Mia Culpa, forced the men to move slowly and methodically. Inside his armor, rivulets of sweat ran down the sides of Harry's body. He leaned against a tree trunk and hoped Kathleen had seen the shuttle as it landed and even now was making her way to the landing sight.

*

On the bridge of the Magellan, Nadine and Bonner completed their survey of the surrounding stars.

"I can't believe I didn't see this as soon as we got here," said Nadine. "I was so concerned with Miaplacidus, I didn't think about the other stars in the local group."

"We were busy running surveys on the local objects, it's not your fault."

"Maybe so, but I'll bet that bastard Fagen will chew me out anyway."

'Don't worry about it. Let's recheck our figures and take a few more readings. Maybe we're wrong."

Nadine shook her head. "We're not wrong. I've checked the figures three times already. We're in a bad spot."

Bonner grimaced and nodded. The survey had shown what they already suspected: Miaplacidus was a hot, but stable star. That was the good news. There was the problem of the ambient radiation. It had to come from somewhere and it obviously didn't come from Miaplacidus. Nadine was the one who suggested that maybe it came from one of the neighboring stars. That's when they turned their attention to the celestial bodies outside the Miaplacidus system.

Most of the neighboring stars were small and stable. Canopus was the largest and it shined brightly, but it wasn't what they looked for. Canopus was 111 light years away, too far to offer any threat from excessive radiation.

Nadine identified a nearby red dwarf, the smaller of a pair of double stars in the nearby Volans system, as a variable star exhibiting pre-nova behavior. It was small, almost negligible, but it possessed all the right char
acteristics. Gamma-2 was a classic example of a variable star. At times in the past it had shined brightly, emanating heat and radiation at an extraordinary rate. The last time was in the fall of 2040, sixty years before. Since then, it had diminished in size and output and shrunk to a size that made observation from earth difficult at best.

Nadine focused her instruments on the dimly glowing red star and collected the data, as she had done previously for a dozen other nearby stars. Afterwards, she analyzed the data with assistance from the Magellan's
computers. The first thing that caught her attention was the amount of activity on the surface of the star. Numerous spots floated across its surface, each a source of high radiation. The spots were new, they hadn't been viewed before. Nadine was happy about the discovery. It meant she would receive another supplement to her bonus.

But, as she studied the data, her happiness turned to concern. It appeared that the spots were rapidly growing in size, emitting larger and larger amounts of radiation.

Gamma-2 was a dying star. It was in its final throes and had been for a long, long time. The two mission specialists talked at length about radiation levels and star cycles. They concluded that at times in the past, Gamma-2 had flared with a massive display of light and radiation. That's when it was visible from earth. Now it showed signs that it was preparing to flare again and when it did the emanations would wash over everything within a handful of light years. Miaplacidus was inside the danger zone.

"Can we determine when the flare will occur?"

Nadine nodded. "I think so. I need to collect more data and observe any changes, but I think I can come up with an estimate."

"How long will that take?"

"A few hours, maybe a day."

"Okay, let's do that. I want to keep some of the sensors directed toward Mia Culpa though. I hope the guys are all right. I hate this waiting. Especially with that other ship just ten miles away. It gives me the creeps."

"Any change?"

Bonner looked at his instrument panel. "No, nothing. It's just sitting there."

"Maybe they all went to the surface."

"Could be. If that's the case, they sure don't consider us to be either a threat or a curiosity. You know, it seems like they'd be just as interested in us as we are in them. I don't get it."