The Spheres of Heaven

“I know. That’s why we have to do it now, and slowly, when nobody’s around to hear us. Come on.” Deb started to retrace their original path, back toward the sea. “If you get tired I’ll give you a hand.”

“Where are we going?”

“First, we’re going to the shore. Then you’re going back to the Hero’s Return with Vow-of-Silence, and you’ll tell the others what’s happening. I’m going to stay ashore for the night and wait for Eager Seeker.”

Da

“Da

“Well, you are. You’re a weapons master.”

“I am. And at the moment there are no Stellar Group aliens around to tell me that violence is totally unacceptable. I’m telling you, if they’ve killed Chrissie and Tarbush …”

The look on Deb’s face worried Da

“ — Is the only rational thing to do.” Deb moved forward, heading again for the shore and the sea. Da

“Sure you can manage both of you underwater?” she asked. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“I’ve got muscles you don’t even know about.” Da

“Tell them that tomorrow morning, if nothing has happened here, I propose to take another look at the alien encampment. Tell Chan to give me a full day. If I’m not back then — well, then it will be up to him.”

Da

She watched until he was waist deep, then shoulder deep, until at last his small figure with its outsized burden vanished below the surface. Then she turned and faced inland.

The sun was moving behind a line of clouds to the west, and the evening light suddenly dimmed. The dark vegetation ahead seemed gloomy and impenetrable. As she retraced her steps to where they had left their supplies, Deb told herself that she was being foolish. Da

Maybe because she had no one to boss around now. When you were organizing what other people did, there was less time to worry about yourself.

Deb came to the big supply case in the clearing that marked their original base. It was exactly as she and Da

It suddenly occurred to Deb, much to her surprise, that she was very hungry. No one had thought to eat since they left the Hero’s Return over twelve hours ago.

She opened the supply case, pulled out four sealed containers, and examined them. A solar system culinary selection: shellfish from the nurseries of Marslake; Europan sea-kale, not her favorite but a highly nutritious vegetable; korlia , the richly flavored protein that started life as a warm-blooded engineered plant in Earth’s polar regions; and finally, beer made from the synthetic grains of the Oort Harvesters. On second thought, Deb reached into the supply case and pulled out another container of that.

She ate and drank slowly and thoughtfully. Now and again she looked up at some faint sound in the scrub, thinking that maybe it signaled the return of some of Eager Seeker’s components. It never was.

The sun was on the horizon now, and full night could be no more than an hour away. Before dark she would need to pull out a sleeping bag and a light in case she needed it before morning. There were no weapons in the supply case — the Stellar Group aliens would have vetoed those — but Deb had all she needed hidden away inside her suit.

She leaned her head back to drain the second container of beer. As she did so, something rushed out of the plants around the clearing and jumped into her lap.

She gasped, dropped the beer, and flicked a needle gun from the wrist of her suit. She had it aimed and was triggering the release when she saw her assailant.

“Scruffy! Where have you been?” She picked up the animal and held it to her chest. “You fat furball, I never dreamed I’d be so glad to see you.” The ferret snuggled close and whined. “I know, I know. I’m not your human of choice. But Tarbush isn’t here.”

Deb glanced in the direction of the alien encampment. “I hope that your lord and master is all right, but we can’t find out about that until tomorrow. Now I think it’s time for you and me to settle down for the night.”

She placed Scruffy on the floor, removed the flat package of a sleeping bag from the supply case, and waited as it inflated. The expanding bag gave a hiss like a striking snake, making the ferret leap for cover.

“Coward.” Deb laughed. It was good to have someone around you more nervous than you were. “Come on, Scruffy. Let’s see if we can get some sleep.”

She didn’t have high hopes. There was too much strangeness around her, too many frightening issues waiting for morning before they could be resolved. She lay on her back, the ferret a warm oval curled on her belly.

The light faded. As night moved on, the mysterious spheres filled the night sky of Limbo. It was Deb’s first view of them except on a display screen. She studied the globes. They were far less bright than a star or a planet, but far bigger and far more diffuse. She stretched out a hand at arm’s length, and found that she could barely span the biggest one. The spheres were so pale, they seemed to hover at the very edge of color.

Deb closed her eyes. This was what she and Chan and the other team members had hoped to find, back in the happy days before the quarantine. All they had dreamed of, and more. This was not just an alien star or planet, it was an alien universe.

She had intended to open her eyes again, to study in more detail the intriguing spheres of Limbo’s heavens. Somehow it did not happen. Instead she drifted away to other thoughts. What were they doing now, back on the Hero’s Return ? Had Da

Deb drifted into sleep. The spheres of heaven glowed pale above her, wheeling their stately course across the night sky.

She became conscious all at once, rolling instinctively to her right and already holding a weapon without knowing what had wakened her. It was deep night. Clouds must have moved in, because the glimmer of the sky spheres had gone and when she opened her eyes she could see nothing at all. Off past her feet she heard Scruffy give a warning hiss.

“Now then, no need for all the excitement,” a cheerful voice said. “Here, I’ll put a light on if it makes you feel better.”

A bright yellow-green glow lit up the night. Deb, shielding her eyes against it, saw a male human standing about six feet away from her holding a luminous cylinder. As her eyes adjusted she realized that it was the same person as she had seen the previous day, waving and talking to Chrissie and Tarbush.