The Long Sunset Read online

  “Your call, boss.”

  “Why don’t we let it go for a while? That was a fairly exhausting few hours. Let’s let everybody get some dinner and a good night’s sleep before we decide. We can talk about it in the morning.”

  Hutch understood: They’d relax more easily with a sky full of stars.

  • • •

  They watched an episode of Lost in Berlin, and the full-length film Party On. Both would normally have been received as hysterically funny, but there just wasn’t much laughter that evening. Afterward, Hutch retired to her cabin, where she lay quietly reading for almost an hour. Concentrating on the book, Life and Limb, was a struggle. Its subtitle was Aging in the 23rd Century. It was Ginjer Hudson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning account of the social problems that arrived with reversing the aging process. Under normal circumstances, it would probably have absorbed her, but on that night it barely held her attention. Eventually, she gave up on it, played a couple of chess games with Barry—they split—and turned out the lights. Moments after she’d closed her eyes, Barry whispered to her. “You still awake, Captain?”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “There’s something else unusual out there.”

  “You don’t think we’ve had enough for one day?” He’d probably found a third planet. If so, please, no more cities.

  “I cannot determine what it is. But I do not see how it could be an asteroid. Or any other kind of natural object.”

  “It’s a ship?”

  “I do not know. If it is, the design is different from anything I’ve seen before.”

  “Show me the object.”

  “I can’t get a good look at it. It’s too far away. It appears too large to be a vehicle. It may be a space station gone adrift. But the design is not right.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Length appears to be in the range of seventeen kilometers, but it is relatively narrow.”

  “Any indication of activity?”

  “Nothing, Captain. There’s no evidence of power.”

  Hutch’s heart had picked up a beat. “It’s in orbit around the black hole, I assume?”

  “I won’t be able to make a determination on that for several hours. But it is highly likely.”

  “Okay. We won’t be taking any action for a while, Barry. I’ll get back to you.”

  “There’s another feature. A crosspiece, quite small, near one end of it.”

  That brought a jolt. “Is the object a religious symbol?”

  “Certainly not Christian. The crosspiece is too short.” At this point, nothing would have surprised her.

  • • •

  She called Derek.

  He listened while she told him about Barry’s discovery. “How long will it take to reach it?”

  “It depends how close the jump takes us.”

  “And Barry thinks it’s a station?”

  “He didn’t say that. He just doesn’t know.”

  “What else could it be? If it’s not a ship or a station?” She could hear him breathing. “But it’s big. I can think of one possibility.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Maybe they were trying to escape. Maybe they built something oversized and didn’t make it out.”

  Hutch was beginning to wish Barry hadn’t seen the thing. She’d had enough depressing news for one mission.

  • • •

  In the morning, the AI confirmed that the object was in orbit. They talked about it at breakfast. Beth looked puzzled. “And there’s no sign of power?”

  “Not that we’ve been able to pick up,” Hutch said.

  “Then I don’t see any point bothering with it. If it’s just a ship they tried to use for an escape, and they didn’t make it . . .” She glanced around at the others. “Haven’t we had enough? What can we really get out of it except more bad news?”

  Derek’s eyes closed momentarily. “We might be able to find out whether that statue outside the church was what they really looked like.”

  “Maybe they were plants,” said Wally.

  The comment drew a glare from Derek, who was in no mood for jokes.

  “Aren’t we going to figure that out anyhow,” said Beth, “when the follow-up mission comes in? I mean, they will send another mission out here eventually.” She frowned at the skeptical faces around the table. “They’ll have to.”

  Ken looked as if he’d been intending to jump in, and when Derek hesitated, he took the opportunity. “So, we go home and spend the entire trip back wondering what the thing was? And maybe the rest of our lives because there is no next mission? Does that really make sense? Besides, I can’t write the book and have somebody else supply the answer. Or worse, without getting an answer.”

  “Absolutely,” said Wally. “Let’s go see what it is.”

  Hutch understood Beth hadn’t recovered yet from the shock of the previous day. Probably none of them ever would really get away from it. But they were all reacting differently. Beth had had enough. Wally, she thought, understood that Derek would have his way, that they’d chase the thing down, and he just wanted to get it over with. Ken knew what it would mean for book sales.

  • • •

  After they’d finished eating, they got into their harnesses, Hutch turned the ship in the direction of the object and, using Barry’s estimate, set the jump for forty million kilometers. Then she activated the Locarno. It was a run of only a couple of minutes. They surfaced, the stars came back, and the AI informed her they’d arrived almost directly on target. Just more than three hundred thousand kilometers. For a drive system that had an extremely long reach but was notorious for missing destinations by millions of kilometers, it came as a major surprise. “Why is it so consistently off?” Beth asked as they all shook hands and congratulated the captain.

  “It’s not so much the system,” Hutch replied. “The Locarno gets used primarily for exceedingly long jumps. The basic problem is that we don’t usually have an accurate range to the target. Like when we came out here. Seven thousand light-years is a rounded-off guesstimate. If we actually knew how much ground we had to cover on any given jump, we’d do much better.”

  “Let’s get the scopes on it,” said Derek, “and maybe get it on screen?”

  She complied and put it up for them. It started as a glowing line, but it got progressively larger as they drew closer. And became a blade. The crosspiece Barry had mentioned was a handgrip. Ken’s voice came through the open doorway: “It’s a sword!”

  ARCHIVE

  Walter Esmeraldo’s Log

  We were all sitting watching the screen, waiting for the picture to show up. We didn’t know what we were expecting. We’d heard something about it being maybe a cross. And I thought maybe that’s just what we needed at a time like that, because everything was starting to seem absolutely crazy. We’d spent the previous day looking at a world where probably everybody died. You don’t think much about the end of the world. That’s something for fantasy, but you never really see any possibility of its happening. But it did for those poor people, or whatever they were, dragged out of orbit and frozen. If there was any time that I would have wanted to see a cross, that was it. And don’t ask me to explain that. I don’t know what I’m talking about.

  So what do we get? A sword, hung out there in the sky as if it had been left by a devil. I don’t really believe in devils, but that thing scared me. I’m ready to go home. I’ve had enough.

  —Monday, April 7, 2256

  18.

  I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

  —Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, 1816

  It was a sword. There was no question. They pulled in close and watched the blade slide past. And the crosspiece, which was, of course, part of the hilt. The edge of the blade narrowed to a perfect cutting edge.

  “What the hell is this about?” asked Wally.

  Ken’s eyes were locked on it. “It’s the Monument Makers again,” he said.r />
  Derek shook his head. “No. The Monument Makers always did artistic stuff. Subjects that had a tranquil ambience. They would never have done anything like this. Anyhow, this is too far out. I can’t believe they’d have been leaving sculptures all over the galaxy.”

  “We don’t really know,” said Hutch. “Maybe it was put together by whoever lived on the ice world.”

  “You mean,” said Beth, “they were saying hello to the black hole.”

  Derek nodded. “I’d guess that’s a better explanation than anything I can come up with.”

  “There’s an inscription,” said Hutch. It was embedded in the handle, four lines of golden characters that possessed an Arabic grace and style.

  Derek watched as they drew closer. Then slammed his fist on the arm of his chair. “It is the Monument Makers. Shows you what I know.”

  Hutch was surprised to see it too. “Yeah. That’s their alphabet, okay. And their style.”

  “I wish,” said Ken, shaking his head, “we could learn to read these things.”

  Derek got up, disappeared into the galley, and came back with a cup of coffee. He raised it. “Here’s to them. Long may they reign.”

  “Pity it’s so far out,” said Ken. “This is one of those things that no amount of picture-taking will ever convey the effect. You have to come here to really get the point.”

  “You mean,” added Beth, “unless you see it in correlation with the lost world.”

  They took pictures from every angle. “I wonder,” said Wally, “if the Monument Makers might be more closely connected with this than we’ve thought.”

  “How do you mean?” asked Ken.

  “It might have been their kindergarten that we were just looking at.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Hutch.

  “Why not?”

  “We’ve always assumed the statue on Iapetus is a self-portrait. And it probably is. It fits the footprints. The statue on the ice world looks completely different.”

  They stayed nearby for the better part of the day, and finally they began talking again about going home. “Before we do anything like that,” said Ken, “let’s have Barry scan the area. Who knows what else we might find out here?”

  “Barry’s been doing that automatically, hasn’t he, Priscilla?”

  “Yes. And if he’d seen anything, we would know about it. But our view of the local area is limited. If we really want to do a serious survey, we should make some position adjustments.”

  “Okay,” said Derek. “Let’s do it. If we don’t find anything, and I suspect we won’t, we’ll leave tomorrow.”

  • • •

  It came in the middle of the night again. “Captain Hutchins, are you awake?”

  “Barry.” She’d been dreaming that she was on a beach, just headed into the surf. And the voice had come out of the waves. “You found something else?”

  “It appears to be a ship.”

  “Onscreen, please.”

  It looked more like a box, twice as long as it was wide. “I can detect no power. It is apparently adrift.”

  “How big is it?”

  “It’s too distant to determine.”

  “Okay. Stay with it. We’ll track it down in the morning.” She pulled the sheet up around her shoulders and tried to go back to the beach. But it wasn’t going to happen.

  • • •

  “It is approximately nine kilometers front to rear.”

  It was a ship. An enormous box with rounded edges. Several lines of hatches were located along a perfectly smooth black hull. The object was tumbling slowly end over end as they approached.

  It was probably two kilometers wide. The rectangular shape didn’t seem right either. Not that you couldn’t design an interstellar that looked like a carton, but it just didn’t fit her preconceptions of what a space vehicle should look like. In addition, Hutch could not make out any sign of thrusters. “Are we getting any activity from it, Barry?”

  “Negative, Captain. No indication of onboard power.” There was a series of hatches on each side. She counted forty-four altogether. What kind of space vehicle needs forty-four hatches?

  “Derek, do you want to try to contact them?”

  “If there’s no indication of power, why bother?”

  “We don’t know what a sufficiently advanced technology might look like. They could be in there, just not putting out a signal.”

  “Priscilla, how could that be possible? Look at that thing!” They watched it tumble past. “If there’s a crew, I suspect they’re pretty sick.”

  “I guess.” She was mildly embarrassed, but she’d seen too much over the years to trust her assumptions. “Barry,” she said, “open a channel.”

  Derek showed a tolerant smile.

  “Ready, Captain,” said Barry.

  Hutch activated her mike. “This is the Barry Eiferman,” she said. “Anybody over there?”

  The receiver stayed quiet.

  Derek leaned toward the microphone. “Barry, what are the radiation levels like?”

  “Relatively low. The black hole is quite distant. But if you’re thinking of sending a team over to look at it, I would nevertheless recommend you not use the Flickinger field.”

  “Okay.” He sat back in his chair. “Let’s get the pressure suits and go knock on the door.”

  • • •

  The object dwarfed the Eiferman. Hutch listened to the oooohs and aaaahs from the passenger cabin as they drew close. “That thing is big,” said Beth.

  The hull was dark brown, and other than the hatches, its smooth surface was unbroken by windows or markings of any kind. “I have, however, found thrusters,” said Barry. “They are located on both sides and also in the rear. But their size and locations imply they can be nothing other than steering units.”

  “The thing could be a big chocolate bar,” said Wally.

  Derek got out of his seat and went into the passenger cabin. Hutch left the hatch open so she could hear. Ken, Beth, and Wally sat in their chairs, watching the giant ship.

  “Okay if I come?” asked Wally.

  Derek was apparently planning to visit the vehicle. “Of course.”

  Ken and Beth wanted to go also, but Derek didn’t like the idea. “Let’s keep it just Wally and me for now. We’ll send back visuals. Shouldn’t be a problem. Once we make sure everything’s okay, you can all come. Except Priscilla.” He looked back through the hatch and smiled. “I feel a lot safer when you’re on the bridge.”

  Derek and Wally both claimed to have had previous experience with the go-packs, but Hutch was nonetheless uneasy as they got ready. She helped them pull on their magnetic boots and get into their pressure suits. She adjusted the go-packs and checked to be sure they were strapped on properly. “I wish I could line up with that thing,” she said, referring to the giant ship. “But no way we can match that spiral without making everybody sick.”

  “Good point,” said Wally. “I was thinking of taking a sandwich with me, but maybe I should wait a bit.”

  “Be careful, guys,” said Beth. “Don’t let it hit you.”

  Hutch got a cutter out of the supply room and handed it to Wally. “You know how to use it, right?”

  “Of course,” he said.

  “Try to find a way to open it without using the thing,” Derek said.

  “Of course.” Wally sounded annoyed.

  They stepped into the airlock. Hutch closed the inner hatch behind them and returned to the bridge.

  • • •

  She’d been a bit nervous about providing Derek with a go-pack. But he handled it okay, shut down the jet at the right moment, and landed with surprising dexterity on the moving hull close to one of the hatches. His magnetic boots took hold, and moments later Wally arrived also, though a substantial distance away.

  They targeted Derek’s nearby hatch, met there, and began pushing and pulling. Finally, Wally said he didn’t see any way to open it. “There’s a press pad here, but it’s solid
as a rock.” He produced the cutter. “Stay clear, Derek. There’s a chance heavy air pressure’s built up in there.”

  Derek backed away and Wally began slicing into the metal. He held the cutter in place for about three minutes. “Got it,” he said finally. Then: “I’ve taken out the lock but the hatch still won’t move. It’s frozen. This is going to take a while.”

  Well, Hutch thought, it wasn’t as if they were going anywhere. Eventually, Wally got through the hatch, pulled it clear, and let it drift into the void.

  “I hope,” said Beth, “there’s not anyone in there.” She meant it as a joke but nobody laughed.

  “There was some air pressure,” Wally said. “Not much, though.” He pointed his commlink down a long, dark corridor that extended along the hull in both directions. A second passageway intersected the corridor.

  Wally aimed his lamp at the overhead. It was low enough for him to reach up and touch. The bulkhead was marked with a pair of symbols. One was a circle with a stroke across it, the other a curved line that looked somewhat like a coiled snake. “Probably numbers,” he said. “Marking the area so occupants wouldn’t get lost. They don’t look anything like the Monument Makers’ stuff.”

  Doors and intersecting passageways lined both sides of both corridors. They entered the passageway that led into the vehicle, walking slowly in zero gravity.

  They stopped at the first door. It had a latch, which wouldn’t turn. There was a small panel beside it. But that did nothing either. Wally tugged at it without result. Derek tried a door on the other side of the corridor, which was also frozen shut. “I don’t think we’re going to have much luck,” he said.

  They continued along the corridor, deeper into the ship, trying each door as they passed. Finally, Wally lost patience, turned the cutter on one, and sliced through.

  It opened into a small cubicle. Two large cots, with tucked-in blankets, were fastened to the deck. There was a bureau with two drawers, neither of which would open. They broke into them, but the drawers were empty, except for a piece of frozen cloth that would not come apart. “Could be a shirt,” said Derek, “or anything.”

  The room had a closet. They had to cut through that as well. A bar was installed across the top for hanging clothes. It had a couple of hangers.