Starhawk Read Free Page B

call.”
    â€œI guess so, Jake. But he must have known nobody would hear it for a long time.”
    â€œMaybe. But he was an actor. Maybe he didn’t really understand how big it is out here. He got here in a few days. When that happens, you kind of lose the feel for the size of everything. Or maybe he didn’t know it wasn’t a hypercomm. Whatever it was, it doesn’t matter now.”
    Maybe, she thought, he just wasn’t inclined to give up.
    Â * * * 
    SOMETHING HAD BECOME stuck to one of the storage cabinets in the rear of the vehicle. It looked like a notebook. Priscilla removed it, opened it, touched the keypad. Nothing happened. “I think it needs charging.”
    â€œWe’ll take it back with us.”
    â€œWhat do we do about Simmons?”
    â€œWe’ll put him in the deep freeze.” He released the restraints and took a last look around. Pulled the body free, which was of course easy in the zero gravity. “Nothing more for us to do here. Let’s go home.”
    They crossed back to the
Copperhead
, and Priscilla called in the report. Then she connected the notebook to a power source. And began paging through.
    â€œWhat’s it say?” asked Jake.
    She frowned at it, scrolled through to the last entries:
Whoever reads this: Get to Talios III by the last week of November.
    And, the last line:
Guess we bombed.
    Jake leaned down, closer to the screen. “I guess they did.”
    â€œ
Get to Talios by November?
You think they were running an experiment of some kind?”
    â€œWhatever,” said Jake. “It’s irrelevant now. That would be November nine years ago.”
    Â * * * 
    â€œBENNY, SHOW US anything that deals with what happened to the ship.”
    He put it on-screen: Simmons described the moment: He had been enjoying a quiet hour, reading the comic novel
Last Man Out
, which was not at all the kind of book she’d have expected. The voices of Trelawney and Kobayashi were just barely audible on the bridge. Then, in Simmons’s words,
Everything came apart.
There was a loud bang, screams, and darkness.
    â€œProbably a power surge,” Jake said. “It would have knocked everything off-line. Including the AI.”
    When Simmons got to Trelawney and Kobayashi, they were both dead on the bridge. Electrocuted. The backup lights had come on, and, of course, life support had been maintained. But other than that—
    The hypercomm system either didn’t come back online, or Simmons didn’t know how to operate it manually. Normally, all that’s necessary is to give an instruction to the AI, but the AI was down also. Simmons decided his best chance was to use the shuttle radio, send out a distress call in case anybody was nearby, then come back and try to figure out how to work the hypercomm. But he thought the hull would reduce significantly the strength of the radio signal. So he got into the shuttle and launched.
    As if things could not have gotten worse, the launch doors closed behind him and wouldn’t reopen.
    It was hopeless. The last pages were filled with messages left for his two ex-wives, for his kids, and for friends and colleagues. There was no sign of self-pity. Frustration, yes. But if he was frightened, he didn’t leave any of it on the record. Incredibly, he remained the action hero so many had come to admire. Except this time, it didn’t end happily.
    Get to Talios by the last week of November.
    Guess we bombed.
    Benny broke into her thoughts: “I think,” he said, “I’ve discovered what he’s referring to. About November.”
    â€œAnd what’s that?” she asked.
    â€œIn the Talios system, they encountered an interstellar vehicle.”
    â€œToo bad it wasn’t around when they broke down,” said Jake.
    â€œYou misunderstand me, Captain. It doesn’t seem to have been one of ours.”
    Â * * * 
    JAKE AND