Alex Benedict 06 - Firebird (Award 2012) by McDevitt Jack

Author:McDevitt, Jack [McDevitt, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Action
ISBN: 9781937007805
Google: 8eKnU0lqOAQC
Amazon: 1937007804
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2011-10-31T22:00:00+00:00

It was the same as the Sanusar vehicle. The one that Tereza had seen so many years ago. The one with the woman trapped inside.

TWENTY-THREE

Trust, but verify.

—Attributed to Ronald Reagan, a twentieth-century American president

If you can't verify, keep your gun loaded.

—Barry Ensel, End of the Dream, 1211

We sat in the ship's cabin and watched the interstellar in front of the church dwindle, while the skies around that lonely place grew dark and fell behind until we were out of range.

“I don't get it,” I said.

“They came here to confirm a suspicion.”

“Which was what?”

“That the ship spotted at Sanusar came from this era.”

“How's that possible?”

“That would be a better question for Shara. But apparently some ships, like the Abonai, get screwed up somehow when they make their jumps. My guess is that they get lost, and travel in time as well as in space.”

“Wait a minute.” I couldn't make sense of it. “The Sanusar ship was lit up. And Tereza said she saw a woman in one of the windows—But you're saying they launched seven thousand years ago?”

“I think that's exactly what happened.”

“And the Abonai—?”

“Same thing, probably. I think it also explains the Capella.”

“My God, Alex. That might mean Gabe is still alive.”

“Yes. In a way.” He looked tired. Drained. “Trapped somewhere. Robin and Winter apparently suspected this was the case. But they were talking about vehicles from an ancient era. Nobody knows much about them. We don't even know what kind of drive they had. But what better place to look for replicas than Villanueva? Where the churches put models on display? The one we saw is probably reproduced at a number of churches. And they found one, just as we did.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because it was a couple of years after he'd been here that Robin began buying up yachts. He was trying to reproduce the effect.”

“And he did it four times?”

“Maybe. But I doubt it. I think it's more likely he kept trying until he succeeded. The fourth flight, the Firebird, that would have been the one. If there was one.”

“But why didn't he bring the other yachts home?”

“I'm talking success in the sense of sending the vehicle forward and then going to the place of emergence later to find it. He'd have had to do that in order to convince himself that the experiment had worked.”

“But they go forward thousands of years. How would you confirm that?”

“Maybe it doesn't have to happen that way. Maybe you can rig it so the thing goes forward twenty minutes. I don't know. It's why we need to find Robin's notebook.”

“Good luck on that.”

“I know.” He stared out at the stars, but I didn't think he was seeing them. “We need to talk to Shara.”

“So you're saying they knew precisely what they were looking for.”

“Yes. That's correct.”

“But then how did Winter get killed? There was no need to go down and look around. They could do everything from orbit.”

“Maybe they couldn't resist it. Couldn't resist going down and taking pictures of themselves standing beside the Sanusar vehicle.

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