Close-up of the rim, and the sky behind it eerily distorted —
“A black hole,” Yu breathed. “A supernova greater than the one that made the pulsar. Collapse beyond the neutron stage, in past an event horizon, falling forever.”
The image receded in sight. A map of local star distributions replaced it. A marker ran from a dot marked with the sign for Tahir’s sun, unrolling a distance scale behind it. When it stopped, Nansen read, “About five hundred light-years away. That’s as of today. Obviously it was farther when the eruption happened, or this planet would have suffered badly. But what has it to do with us?”
“Hush,” Yu murmured. “There’s more.”
They peered and puzzled. The characters were mostly unknown to them. “I think that’s the ‘organism’ radical,” Yu said, pointing. “But why are those quantum physics symbols attached?”
Emil trod back in front of them and fingered ens parleur. “(Life)” en declared. “(Intelligence.)”
“Que es?” ripped from Nansen. “No!”
“How?” Yu whispered. “It. . . seems . . . impossible. But — look, the big display — something about quantum states…. I can’t quite understand it. I don’t think Hanny could, either. Not yet.”
Emil whistled what they had come to recognize as a note of warning. “(Do not reveal this until further notice,)” en said.
Nansen steadied the parleur in his grasp. “(Not to our shipmates? Why?)”
“(It is dangerous.)” Emil paused. “(If you must tell any, be sure they will let it go no further.)”
“Someone doesn’t want us to know,” Nansen said.
Dismay shook Yu’s voice. “Factions, among these people?”
“I’ve been getting strong hints of it. We shall have to be careful,” when we cannot now escape to the stars.
“I can’t believe they would be violent. I won’t believe it.”
“I would rather not, myself. But sometimes there are worse things than violence.”
Emil observed them. “(You are weary and perplexed,)” en said. “(The sun is low. Best you take refreshment, rest, and thought. We will resume tomorrow morning early.)”
“That means a short night’s rest.” Nansen chuckled a bit. “Well, I don’t expect I’d sleep much in any case.”
“Nor I,” Yu agreed. “Not when this is waiting.”
The walk across to their quarters was through a chill wind. They didn’t feel it. Emil left them at the entrance. The dilation closed behind them. They were in a curve-walled, rosy-tinted room, bare except for his outfit, their food and drink, and a glower to warm the rations. She had taken the adjoining chamber. Eyes looked into eyes.
“Don’t worry,” Nansen said. “Our friends must know what they’re doing — whatever it is.”
Yu shook her head. The bobbed blue-black hair swished past the high cheekbones. “No fear. The wonder of it! Something utterly strange, I don’t know what, but something we could never have foreseen if we’d stayed home — Oh, Rico, we haven’t come this whole long way for nothing!”
“Ay, si.” Upborne together, they embraced. It became a kiss.
He let go and stepped back. “Forgive me,” he said unevenly. “That won’t happen again.”
“I helped it happen.” Her laughter drained away into sobriety. “You are right, it had better not again. We must be careful about more than secrets.”
He smiled. “Agreed. Permit me only to envy Ajit Sundaram a little in my heart, as well as respect him and you.”
“You have a hard time ahead,” she answered. “May it end happily.” She hunkered down at the supply pile. “Come, let’s put this in order and have that cup of tea before we eat.”
The island was beautiful.
There could be no real knowledge of the life on a planet unless that knowledge included the life in its seas. Once this desire had been expressed to them, some Tahirians brought Mokoena and Zeyd there. Robotic boats came and went from a dockside building full of investigative equipment. It was probably a monitoring station rather than a research laboratory. The civilization must have catalogued every species but be concerned with maintaining a healthy ecology.
At the end of a hard day’s study the humans felt ready for some recreation. Walking across a wooded corner of the island, they emerged on a strip of turf, beyond which a beach lay dazzling white under a clear sky and long sunbeams from the west. The air was warm but laden with fresh sea smells. The ocean rolled deeply blue. Although tides were less than Earth’s, at this point the conformation of the bottom made breakers high and thunderous.