‘I tell you it wasn’t there yesterday!’ said Tosh, becoming annoyed at others disbelief at what we were seeing on the screen.
‘They must know to keep clear. The warnings are pretty specific, in speech, proximity alarms and even the sketch we taped to the hull,’ I said.
‘Well, it’s right beside it and closing slowly,’ said Tosh.
‘Surely,’ said Bill, ‘a second spacefaring species in the same system. It can’t be possible.’
‘Might it just be more of the Heradians,’ said Anna.
‘Wouldn’t those on Arctur know about it?’ said Chi.
‘Maybe not if there was a colony elsewhere. We never examined the other planets,’ said Anna.
‘That’s because they weren’t viable. It has to have come from somewhere else,’ added Tosh.
‘Is that the best magnification we can get?’ I asked.
‘The Celestron’s on maximum,’ said Tosh. ‘You can see that it’s larger than the Rimor, but that’s all.’
‘Can you call them from here?’ asked Chi.
‘I’ll try.’ Tosh began adjusting the directional antenna dish. ‘Chi, can you stop our rotation?’
‘Sure thing,’ she said, and we felt some minor jet thrusts.
‘Okay,’ said Tosh, ‘we’re pointed directly at the Rimor. Damn it, damn it!’
‘What’s up?’ I asked.
‘It’s going behind Haven. We’ll lose it until it comes out the other side,’ said Tosh.
‘How long?’ I said, peering at the Celestron screen and seeing the two spots being eclipsed by Haven’s atmosphere. Another minute and they’d vanish behind the planet itself.
‘Well, we put it into a high orbit,’ said Tosh, ‘so, probably only twenty to thirty minutes. Can you check that, Anna?’
‘Will do.’
It didn’t seem possible. A second spacefaring species in the same system as us and the Heradians. Surely too great a coincidence. I didn’t believe in such coincidences.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘Unknown ship,’ said Tosh into the microphone attached to the directional antenna. ‘Unknown ship. This is the Earth ship Spirit. Please respond.’ He followed the voice transmission with some mathematical progressions.
‘If that were us, Tosh,’ said Bill, ‘how would we know someone was trying to contact us? Which receiver would show us?’
Tosh looked around with one of those expressions on his face that told us that it was not something he’d thought of. ‘They wouldn’t, probably. We turn off the directional receiver when we leave Earth.’
‘Is it off, Anna?’ I asked.
‘Damn it, yes,’ she said and touched a control on her console to turn it on.
‘They won’t be receiving us?’ I asked.
‘No,’ said Tosh, sullenly. ‘We’d better go and check them out.’
I barked out commands. ‘Terry, prepare a jump to Haven. Tosh, tell the Heradians what we’re doing and that we’ll be back.’
‘What if they’re hostile, Mark?’ asked Terry.
‘Don’t see why they should be,’ I said. ‘This is real life, not Star Wars!’
‘Well, we’re pretty defenceless,’ Terry said.
‘Okay, when we arrive in orbit, prepare a jump back here which we can activate in an emergency,’ I said.
‘That should do it,’ said Bill.
‘Everyone strap in,’ said Anna.
‘Make sure we turn correctly entering and leaving hyperspace,’ said Tosh.
Anna and Terry gave him a withering look.
‘Just saying!’ he said in his defence.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Spirit leapt through the dark universe, turning correctly to avoid the spolding effect at each end of the journey. Being within the Trappist-1 system, the trip only took a few seconds.
All of a sudden, there was the grey and depressing world of Haven, hanging in front of us. The world where the original Chi had lost her life.
‘Where’s the Rimor?’ I asked.
‘Other side of the world,’ said Anna. ‘Should be able to pick up its signal in about fifteen minutes.’
I watched Tosh’s fingers working their way around his console. I knew what he was looking for.
‘That’s weird. duplicate signals,’ he said.
‘What?’ asked Bill.
‘The landing site cameras and Chi’s grave,’ he said.
‘What exactly?’ asked Bill.
‘There are weak signals from another set-up.’
‘But not the one you set up?’ asked Chi.
‘No, but weak, as if it is somewhere else on the planet,’ said Tosh.
I saw the monitor zooming in on the landing site. Tosh used the remote controls to expand the lonely mound of soil.
‘You’re still there?’ he said. ‘I can read your name on the headstone.’
‘Let me see,’ said Chi, taking hold of his arm. ‘Surely that shows we are able to defeat this entiroverse problem. I’m here, alive, and looking at my own grave.’
‘Yes, I suppose,’ he said.
‘What about the other signals?’ I asked, but he didn’t have time to answer.
‘Rimor coming into range,’ said Anna, focusing the monitor on the rim of Haven, waiting for our old shuttle to come into view.
‘There!’ shouted Terry.
A small spot came into view and, beside it, the alien ship we had seen approaching the shuttle from our vantage point at Arctur.
‘Good grief!’ exclaimed Bill. ‘It can’t be!’
‘It is,’ said Anna. ‘It’s us.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Look at it. Only one tank attached and both Rimors missing. This is the Spirit from the Earth with Penny on board and something has gone wrong. Where are the Rimors and the two tanks? Try calling it again, Tosh.’ I put my arm on his arm and whispered. ‘Don’t want to freak them out, don’t mention our ship’s name.’ Tosh nodded.
‘Spirit,’ said Tosh. ‘Spirit. We’ve just arrived from Earth. Please respond.’
‘No reply, but look,’ he said, pointing at the corner of his console. ‘That other transmission from the surface. It was interfering because it was on the same frequency I set for the original ones. The signal is stronger now that ours has dropped below the horizon.’
‘I suppose they would be the same frequencies – you will have set them. You realise that we are all on board that ship or down on the surface in the Rimors?’ said Anna.
‘Except Chi and me,’ said Terry.
‘Enlarge,’ I said and Tosh let the transmission from the surface fill the screen.