Galaxias by Stephen Baxter

Author:Stephen Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473228887
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2021-10-20T16:00:00+00:00

27

September 2057

‘I just never imagined I’d be doing this myself,’ Tash said to Grace Butterworth.

Or rather yelled to her, over the noise of the RAF helicopter that airlifted them out of Gateshead into a murky, volcano-ash sky, headed north towards Thorness.

Grace, ex-military herself, looked at home strapped into the confines of a bucket seat. Tash thought she would never have guessed that there was a cute photo of Grace’s nine-month-old niece Billie tucked under her bullet-proof vest. But even as she spoke, Tash noticed Grace never took her eyes off Fred Bowles, or rather the back of his head a couple of rows of seats ahead of them, as he earnestly went through material on phones and tablets with a couple of his advisers.

Grace said now, ‘Doing what? You mean a ride in a chopper? A plane would be quicker, but choppers fly lower, under the volcanic ash—’

‘No, not that. Well, yes, me, in an RAF chopper. But mostly, me, going to the Moon!’

‘Oh, right.’ Grace grinned, and ran a hand over her crewcut hair. ‘I know. Well, I did this bit once before – the ride into space at least. Training on military hardware in low orbit. Fred has never flown either. He has to go. England has to establish a presence at Sinus Medii, in that Monument Park that’s grown up there.’

The Park had grown out of the gathering, in the last few months, of streams of international visitors to the lurker on the Moon, many of whom had left behind tokens and messages. Similarly nations, corporations, churches, colleges, and other groups had sent small probes to the area, carrying inscriptions or tokens. It had grown into Earth’s more or less spontaneous cultural response to the startling presence of an alien artefact on the Moon – and, apparently, to one you could see, even could have touched without the security barriers. As opposed to the immense invisibility of Galaxias itself.

Soon, inevitably, the Park had been formalised, and under FIS governance was hosted fairly graciously by the Chinese, who had a more significant presence on the Moon than any other nation. But security had got tighter after a number of attempts to challenge the ‘spawn of Galaxias’, as some called it, with displays of obscenity, defiance, threat.

And now it was the turn of the Federal States of England to make a formal contribution to the Park. As Tash had understood it, the English monument itself was already up on the Moon; now she was flying up there with a party for the formal unveiling.

Grace went on, ‘The PM had to send a Cabinet minister with our contribution, and it had to be Fred, didn’t it?’

Mel, sitting behind them with Charlie Marlowe, herself buried in work, leaned forward and yelled over the noise of the chopper. ‘Logical, yes. He’s the science minister. It’s his domain—’

‘No,’ Grace said. ‘It’s not that. He’s senior enough to be a weighty presence. Junior enough to be disposable.’

Tash suppressed a grin. ‘Don’t let him hear you say that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.