Odyssey

“Yes.”

“All right. Let me talk to Taylor. Then — ”

“Michael, don’t say anything to him until tomorrow. Give me a chance to get back to Amy. Warn her, so she can tell him herself.”

“You say they’re going to run this Blueprint soon?”

“It sounds as if they’ll do it within a week or two.”

These things don’t happen. “It’s a kid with an overactive imagination,” he said. “It has to be.”

“She told the others about Blueprint right after it happened. It’s too much of a coincidence, Michael. How much clout do we have with the Europeans?”

“Not much. Look, even if I pass this along, I can’t swear to it. Nobody’s going to believe it.” He was talking to himself under his breath. “Okay. I’ll head home. Keep a cha

We?

SHE ALERTED AMY, who got a

“We don’t really have a choice.”

She was silent for a time. “Okay, I’ll tell him.”

“Something else you should be aware of. We’ll try to keep your name out of it, but I doubt we’ll be able to. You’ll probably have to deal with the media again. This time they might be a bit more aggressive.”

ASQUITH WAS IN a di

“I didn’t think there was anything to the story. That’s beside the point now. We need to call the Europeans. Warn them.”

He dropped into a chair, looked away, played with his cuffs. “How?” he said. “How do I tell them to evacuate two hundred people, but the only evidence we have is a kid’s dream? How are we going to look?”

“You’ll also want to tell them to cancel Blueprint.”

“Hutch, this is crazy. My career is on the line here. So is yours.”

“There’s a lot more on the line than our careers, Michael.”

“That’s easy to say. You know, this probably is nothing more than the kid’s imagination.”

Hutch was tired. It had been a horribly long day. “Let’s grant that. So we give them a warning, nothing happens, and you and I look dumb. But suppose it’s the other way round and we sit on this and two hundred people die?”

“I know. It’s not an easy call.”

Don’t say what you’re thinking, Babe. “We have no choice, Michael. If you want, you can disappear, and I’ll make the call. If it goes wrong, you can deny all knowledge.”

“No.” He climbed gallantly out of his chair. Squared his shoulders. “It’s my job.” It was right out of a vid. You go ahead, get clear, I’ll take the heat on this one. He told the AI to get Dr. Allard. Then he turned back to Hutch. “Make yourself comfortable. This might take a while.”

It took only seconds. Allard’s official title was Director of the European Deep Space Commission. Hutch had met him at a formal di

Hutch was safely out of Allard’s view, apparently there for the sole purpose of lending moral support.

Asquith led off by describing the Salvator’s visit to the Origins Project. Marvelous concept, and all that. Very good.

“Thank you.” A modest bow. “But I know you didn’t call me at this hour to extol the virtues of the initiative.” Allard was in his sixties, with sharp features softened by a sense of absolute calm. This was not a guy who got excited. He had intelligent eyes, a wide brow, a goatee. “Isn’t the Salvator the same ship that performed the rescue at the Galactic?”

The commissioner nodded, yes, and took his opening. “Hans, your organization is involved with a project called Blueprint.”

“That is so. We’ll be ru

“We had a curious experience while our people were at the Surveyor museum. We think we may have made contact with aliens.”

Allard’s eyes widened slightly. “Aliens?”

“Yes. We’re pretty sure.”

Hutch shook her head no. You have to be absolute about this. It happened. We don’t think it did. But he waved her off.

“If I may ask, in what way was this contact made?”

“The details aren’t important, Hans — ”

“The details aren’t important? How can you say that, Michael?”

Asquith pressed ahead. “The aliens are concerned about Blueprint. They’ve indicated they are going to destroy Origins.”

“My God, Michael. That’s the wildest story I’ve ever heard.”

“Nevertheless, it’s so.” He kept his voice firm, and she was proud of him.

“How did it happen?”

“It happened at the museum…” He described the visitation. Mentioned the warning that moonriders were in the area. That they’d specifically mentioned Blueprint. That Amy’d had no idea what Blueprint was.

Allard resisted for a while. Rolled his eyes. Clamped jaw muscles. “When?” he said. “When are they going to do this?”

The two men stared at each other. “We don’t know when. But it seems logical they will not permit you to initiate the experiment.”

“So they are going to destroy the project within the next week or so.”

“Yes.”

“What did these aliens look like? Did they have faces?”

“There was only one of them. She looked like a young woman.”

“And this young woman said they are going to destroy Origins? No question about it?”

“Yes.”

“I take it no one else witnessed any of this?”

“No.”

“Is there any independent evidence it happened?”

“None other than what I’ve mentioned.”

“Michael, you’re aware Blueprint is not exactly a secret. It’s been in the media. This person might easily have seen it and forgotten about it. And you’ve nothing else?”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Very good. Thank you for warning me. I shall certainly take it under advisement.”

When he was gone, Asquith sat looking dejected. “I told you.”

“Maybe,” said Hutch, “we can get him the evidence he wants.”

“You’re suggesting we send a ship out there ourselves to, what, look for rocks?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what we need to do.”

“Hutch, I really hate all this.”

“Doesn’t matter. We can’t just stand by and hope we’ve misread things.”

“Do we have a ship?”

“Not really. The Salvator is scheduled for the Moscow Affiliates Group.”

“Okay.” He shrugged. What the hell. “Cancel them.”

“This’ll be the second time, Michael. They won’t be happy.”

“Then don’t. Let it go.”

“I’ll make the calls.”

“Do it. And, Hutch? Let’s try to keep a lid on this, okay?”

SHE CALLED VALYA at home and explained.

“You need a volunteer?”

“Yes. You’re the obvious person for the assignment.”

“You want me to go to Origins and do a sweep and make sure there are no incoming.”

“Yes.”

She was in a blue robe, sipping a drink. “Okay.”

“I don’t like asking you to go out again so soon. I could get somebody else.”

“No. I’ll do it. It’s just that it seems like a waste of effort.”

“You don’t believe Amy’s story?”

She was seated behind a coffee table, on which a book lay open. “No,” she said. “Not really. I think she got hysterical. But what do I know? I wasn’t there. I’m pretty sure Eric believes her.”

“What about Mac?”

“Mac didn’t want to talk about it. I think he was afraid of hurting the kid’s feelings. Which tells me the answer to your question.” She put the glass down and leaned back. “When do I leave?”

“Can you be ready to go by Thursday?”

“You’re giving me a day off?”

“Maintenance needs time with the ship.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

“One other thing, Valya. I’m trying to raid Union’s supply of air tanks. I’m going to put as many of them on board as I can get my hands on.”

“Why?”

“Worst-case scenario. In case there’s a rock inbound, and it’s too close to mount a rescue. You won’t have enough to save everybody, but you’ll be able to get a few.”

“Hutch, aren’t you overreacting a little bit?”

“Sure. And I won’t mind listening to the jokes if they’re not needed.”

The Blueprint experiment holds out hope that we may for the first time be able to start piecing together the events that led to the Big Bang. Until the construction of the Origins Project, scientists had been unable to accelerate sufficiently massive particles to achieve the desired results. Now, however, we can create black holes of an adequate size to produce, as they dissipate, sufficient levels of energy to reveal the character of the dimensions that our senses do not perceive, but which account for quantum action. In plain English, we may finally break through the ultimate singularity and discover how it all happened.

— Tuesday, May 5

VATICAN ISSUES STATEMENT REAFFIRMING

REALITY OF HELL

Pope: “Forewarned Is Forearmed”

— Los Angeles Times, May 5

chapter 34

People tend to think well of their fellow humans. We see them as, for the most part, generous, noble, brave. We admire their tenacity in desperate times, their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the common good, their kindness to those in need. These perceptions generally result from another human trait: our failure to pay attention.

— Gregory MacAllister, “Down the Slippery Slope”

Wednesday was MacAllister’s first full day home. He pla

He’d forgotten about the Beemer trial.

“Starts tomorrow,” said Glock. He was extremely tall, a head higher than MacAllister, who checked in at over six feet. Blond hair, impeccably dressed, eyes that looked right through you.

“How do we stand, Jason?”

Glock always gave the impression everything was under control. “I’m not optimistic,” he said. “The issue clearly flies in the face of the First Amendment. People have a right to tell kids whatever they want about religion.”