Interstellar: The Official Movie Novelization Read Free

the screen. “Don’t stop.”
    The drone vanished from view, dropping over the horizon. They must be close to the next valley, Cooper figured, for it to be able to pull that trick.
    “ Dad …” Tom said, his voice sounding a little more urgent.
    Cooper looked up, just in time to see they were barreling toward the sharp drop into the reservoir. His eyes went wide, and his heart dropped into his shoes.
    “Tom!” he yelped.
    The boy slammed on the brakes. Rocks pinged off the bottom of the truck, and they skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust, dangerously near the drop. Breathing heavily, Cooper stared for a moment, thinking how it was good they hadn’t had four working tires, because they would have been going even faster…
    He looked over at Tom.
    His son just shrugged.
    “You told me to keep going,” he said.
    Heart still racing, Cooper reached past his daughter and pushed open the passenger door. Murph hopped out the truck and he followed, laptop in hand.
    “Guess that answers the ‘if I told you to drive off a cliff’ scenario,” he muttered, mostly to himself. Then he looked at Murph to make sure she was okay. She still had the antenna pointed hopefully beyond the bluff.
    “We lost it,” she said.
    Her disappointment made the grin Cooper felt tugging at his lips feel all the better.
    “No, we didn’t,” he said, as the drone came soaring back over them. He continued piloting it with the track pad, banking it in a broad arc above. Both kids watched the machine, a marvel from another era, as it dipped and straightened its wings at his command. Tom looked mildly excited. Murph was clearly in awe.
    “Want to give it a whirl?” he asked Murph.
    He didn’t have to ask twice. As he guided her fingers across the pad, her face lit up with amazement and joy. It was wonderful to see, and he wanted to stretch the moment out forever.
    But they had things to do.
    “Let’s set her down next to the reservoir,” he said, after a bit.
    Spotting a wide, flat spot, Cooper brought the drone to the ground. Then they drove, slowly and unsteadily, across the rough ground, rocks and gravel scraping against the wheel that sported only tattered fragments of the ruined tire.
    The drone was almost as long as the truck, but slim and tubular.
    What a beauty , he thought, rubbing his palm across the smooth, dark surface, imagining the clever hands that had built it, feeling almost like a kid again himself. Not that long ago, mankind had made such marvelous, beautiful things.
    “How long you think it’s been up there?” Tom asked.
    “Delhi mission control went down same as ours, ten years ago,” Cooper answered.
    “It’s been up there ten years?” Tom said, his tone incredulous. “Why’d it come down so low?”
    “Sun finally cooked its brain,” Cooper speculated. “Or it came down looking for something.”
    “What?” Murph wanted to know.
    “Some kind of signal,” he replied. He shook his head. “Who knows?”
    Cooper explored the surface of the machine until he found the access panel. Other than his own efforts—and the faint, sluggish movement of the river—all was still. A slight breeze mingled the scent of burnt corn with aquatic decay. Like everything else, the reservoir had known better days.
    He pried open the panel and peered into the box that housed the drone’s brain.
    “What are you going to do with it?” Murph asked.
    “Give it something scientifically responsible to do,” Cooper said. “Like drive a combine.” He moved to one end and hefted it experimentally. He and Tom would be able to get it into the truck.
    “Couldn’t we just let it go?” she asked. “It’s not hurting anyone.”
    Cooper glanced down fondly at his daughter. She had a good heart, and generous sensibilities. And a part of him ached at the thought of taking this thing that had roamed freely on the winds for more than a decade—maybe the last of its kind, one of the last flying machines ever—and enslaving it to a