Salvation

Yuri’s impassive gaze looked down on Alik from some immeasurable height. “Every time.”

I caught Alik mouthing “Smartass.”

“What’s the schedule?” Callum asked.

“We’ll go from here directly to Nkya in the Beta Eridani system. Our transport is ready. Journey time from the base camp to the artifact should take about forty-eight hours, maybe a bit longer.”

“Fuck’s sake,” Alik grunted. “Why so long?”

“Quarantine,” Yuri said tersely. “We need to keep it completely isolated. Physically and digitally. So there’s no portal opening to it; we’re going the old-fashioned way, by ground vehicle.”

“Digitally isolated?” Alik’s stiff face registered nothing. It didn’t have to; his tone revealed all. “Please tell me you have access to solnet onsite?”

“No access,” Yuri said. “It’s the Alpha Defense contact protocol. We can’t take the risk. I’m sure DC appreciates that.”

Callum smirked.

“There’s a science team already onsite,” I told them, and gestured at the three assistants. “And we welcome the additions you’re bringing.”

“The additions,” Jessika said. “Makes us sound like a band.” She and Eldlund shared a smile. Loi ignored them, staring directly at me.

“You’ll be given total access to the science team’s data,” I continued. “And if there are any further aspects of the artifact you want to examine, we’ll prioritize them for you. In effect, you’ll be determining the direction of the investigation.”

“How long will we be there for?” Callum asked. I could still hear an Aberdeen burr in his voice, even though the file said he hadn’t been back there for over a century.

“Our investigation has two priorities,” Yuri pronounced. “First priority is to assess the artifact’s threat potential. Is it hostile, and if so, to what extent? Secondly, based on that, we’re required to formulate a response recommendation. So that’s going to take as long as it takes. Good enough?”

Alik wasn’t happy, but he nodded.

“If there’s nothing else?” I queried. Nobody seemed to have a question. “Excellent. Please follow me.”

The seventy-sixth floor had a portal door direct to Connexion’s Exosolar division in Houston. Alik Monday was 188 centimeters high, so he walked straight through after me, but Eldlund had to duck slightly. Connexion Corp portal doors are a standard two-meters-fifteen-centimeters high. Maybe sie didn’t really need to duck, but no denying it, sie was tall.

We came out into a circular hub, with fourteen other portal doors around the edge. Bright morning sunlight shone in through the glass cupola above. Air-conditioning thrummed loudly as it battled Texas heat and humidity. Our trollez were all waiting for us in a cluster at the center of the hub: meter-high pearl-white cylinders with very flexible wheels, carrying all our personal luggage. Sandjay pinged mine, and it locked on. Of course, Loi had two trollez. All those designer shirts need careful packing.

I walked clockwise around the wall, trying not to peer through the portal doors. Some led into neat department lobbies while a couple opened directly into big assembly halls that looked empty.

The door to Connexion’s Exoscience and Exploration Department was the fifth one along. I stopped in front of it and waited until all the trollez had caught up with us before going through.

Given that interstellar travel is the most glamorous activity the human race has ever undertaken, the building housing E & E is surprisingly ordinary. Concrete, carbon, and glass, just like the thousand other corporate blocks scattered across Houston’s technology zone. The entrance lobby had four portal doors opening into it, all of them with a picket of security barriers—slim silver bars spaced close enough to prevent physical access. That was the visible obstacle. There were other, more discreet, and lethal, security measures (the company got quite jumpy after the incident 112 years ago that caused Callum to switch from being a good and loyal Connexion Corp employee to a full-on Utopial). The G8Turing that managed building security interrogated Sandjay and scanned us all. Then the bars slid down into the floor.

Geovanni, the Beta Eridani mission director, was waiting for us just beyond. He bobbed about uneasily as so many alpha visitors stepped into his domain. He introduced himself, shook hands tentatively, and finally said: “This way, please.”

He led us down a long corridor, with pictures of various star fields and cheerless exoplanet landscapes on the walls. Our trollez trundled along quietly behind us. The few Connexion personnel we passed gave us curious glances; most of them recognized Yuri. Amazing how many people suddenly look guilty when they’re face-to-face with that level of authority.

“What’s the planet like?” Kandara asked.