Her touch ranged onward, calling for a sight of Demeter. This problem her unaided brain could have solved. Having newly made transit, Emissary floated near the gate; and it held a Lagrange 4 position with respect to the planet, in the same orbit though sixty degrees ahead. The scanner must merely course along the ecliptic to find what she wished.
At a distance of 0.81 astronomical units, unmagnified, Demeter resembled the stars about it, stronger than most and bluer than any. Are you still yonder, Dan Brodersen? Joelle wondered, and then, oh, yes, you must be. I’ve been gone for eight years, but a bare few of your months have passed.
How many, exactly? I don’t know. Fidelio isn’t quite sure.
Captain Langendijk’s general announcement interrupted her reverie.
“Attention, please. We’ve registered two vessels on our radars. One is obviously the official watchcraft, and is signalling for tight-beam communication. I’ll put that over the intercom, but kindly do not interrupt the talk, or make any unnecessary noise. Best they don’t know you are listening.”
For a moment Joelle was puzzled. Why should he take precautions, as if Emissary’s return might not be the occasion for mankind-wide rejoicing? What put the note of strain into his tone? The answer struck inward. She had been indifferent to partisan matters, they scarcely existed for her, but once recruited into this crew, she couldn’t help hearing talk of strife and intrigue.
Brodersen had rather grimly explained the facts to her, and they had often been a subject of conversation at Beta. A considerable coalition within humanity had never wanted the expedition and would not be happy at its success.
Two vessels, both presumably in orbit around the T machine. The second must be Dan’s.
“Thomas Archer, commanding World Union watchship Faraday, speaking,”
said a man’s voice. His Spanish was accented like hers. “Identify yourself.”
“Willem Langendijk, commanding exploratory ship Emissary Spanish Emisario,” replied her captain. “We’re passing through on our way back to the Solar System. May we commence maneuvers?”
“What- but-” Archer obviously struggled with amazement. “Well, you do seem like- But everybody expected you’d be gone for years!”
“We were.”
“No. I witnessed your transit. That was, uh, five months ago, no more.”
“Ah-ha. Give me the present date and time, please.”
“But- you-”
“If you please.” Joelle could well imagine how Langendijk’s lean face tautened to match his sternness.
Archer blurted the figures off a chronometer. She summoned from the memory bank the exact clock reading when she and her fellows had finished tracing out the guidepath here and twisted through space-time to their unknown goal. Subtraction yielded an interval of twenty weeks and three days. She could as readily have told how many seconds, or microseconds, had passed out of Archer’s lifespan, but he had only given information to the nearest minute.
“Thank you,” Langendijk said. “For us, approximately eight Terrestrial years have passed. It turns out that the T machine is indeed a time machine of sorts, as well as a space transporter. The Betans -the beings whom we followed-calculated our course to bring us out near the date when we left.”
Silence hummed. Joelle noticed she was aware of her environment with Side 2
Anderson, Poul – Avatar, The
more than usual intensity. Free falling, the ship kept her weightless in a loosened safety harness. The sensation was pleasant, recalling flying dreams of long ago when she was young. (Afterward her dreams had changed with her mind and soul, as she grew into being a holothete.) Air from a ventilator murmured and stroked her cheeks. It bore a slight greenwood odor of recycling chemicals and, at its present stage of the variability necessary for health, coolness and a subliminal pungency of ions. Her heart knocked loud in her ears. And, yes, twinges in her left wrist had turned into a steady ache, she was overdue for an arthritis booster, time went, time went. Probably the Others themselves could not change that.
“Well,” Archer said in English. “Well, I’ll be God damned. Uh, welcome back. How are you?”
Langendijk switched to the same language, in which he felt a touch more at ease and which was in fact used aboard Emissary about as often as Spanish.