IN THE GLOOM of the cavern, the Triton exoarch team moved with deliberate care. Julie Stone was at the head of the group, but not entirely sure how she had gotten there. She was not the team leader, yet had somehow wound up at the front of the line as the team made its way cautiously along the frozen nitrogen-ice surface of the cavern floor. Helmet-lamp beams flashed in jittery movements over the translucent walls. Julie came to a turn in the passageway, and thought: wait for the others. An instant later, she felt a sudden, almost overwhelming urge to go ahead without waiting. But—
The urge became irresistible. Forgetting caution, she stepped around the bend, the spot of her headlight sweeping before her.
Something flickered and squirmed in the light. She steadied her headlight. There it was! The thing they had come searching for!
Alien artifact.
There was no question of it. It looked like a topheavy array of twirling spheres, iridescent and black, spheres spinning and passing through one another like holo images, not solid at all. Nevertheless, the mass-detectors had established the presence of an extremely dense object here. The whole array appeared to balance on one small, black sphere.
It looked just as John had described it to her in his letter. And yet . . . there was no way his description could have prepared her for this. The artifact appeared new; it appeared ancient. It looked timeless, as timeless as any made object could look. And it seemed . . . alive.
"Julie?" The voice of Kim, the team leader, echoed in her helmet comm. "You're getting too far ahead of us. Do you see anything?"
"Yes!" she whispered. "I have—"
*You have come. Julie Stone.*
She gulped, losing her breath. What was that voice?
*We have a mission yet to fulfill. And we require your assistance.*
And then it filled her head . . . the voice, the presence, of the alien thing . . . and she felt herself falling, falling endlessly, until consciousness abandoned her.
*****