Paul Levinson by Borrowed Tides

Author:Borrowed Tides [Tides, Borrowed]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-05-29T18:29:08+00:00

Three things made themselves known upon Bo and Hiro’s rejoining the Light Through: Their ship seemed to have a bit more fuel aboard than previously calculated (good news). They seemed to be heading, for no apparent reason, back toward ACA (not good news). And Bo was not the person he was when he left to enter the hulk (not necessarily bad news-but unsettling because of the obvious parallels to McLaren).

Hiro was talking at a meeting. “I heard your message to return. Certainly. But I don’t know about Bo. He showed up on my shuttle with a hurt look in his eyes. He says he has no recollection of receiving an order from you to return.”

“Hurt?” Kathy asked.

“Yes,” Hiro said. “Hard to describe in words. But his expression reminded me of a peach bruised under the surface, in such a way that the skin wasn’t really broken or even darkened, yet there was something different in the sheen-something speaking of a blow earlier received.”

“A blow to the psyche,” Kathy said.

“Perhaps,” Hiro replied. “Yes.”

“But why’d he return to your shuttle at that time if he heard no order to return?” Nikki asked.

“I don’t know,” Hiro said. “That’s the problem. I agree-it seems too much to be a coincidence. Maybe he heard your message but then forgot it.”

“But you don’t believe that,” Aaron said.

“No,” Hiro said, “I don’t.” He closed his eyes and reached for the right words. “I think it looked to me like he was operating in reverse. Like he was retracing his own steps…”

“But not because of my message?” Aaron persisted.

“No, not because of your message. And not of his own accord. It was like some force had pushed him back again to the shuttle.”

“A force from the hulk?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Hiro said. “Maybe, but my instruments picked up nothing.”

Nikki agreed. “We’ve gone over the shuttle’s data a thousand ways to Sunday, and there’s no trace of anything from the hulk.”

“In other words, no change in the hulk from the first time we saw it. Dead, dead, dead,” Kathy said.

“Yes,” Nikki said.

Jack said, “Meaning, no sign from the hulk that was picked up by our instruments.”

“Well, right,” Nikki said, “but what’s the point of talking about something that we can’t in any way perceive, even through our instruments?”

“OK, please,” Aaron said. “Let’s not get into another debate about Kantian epistemology. Yes, there may be something about that hulk, but our instruments can’t perceive it, and if our instruments can’t pick it up, and we have no knowledge of it, there’s no point in talking about it now. Let’s move on.”

“Oh, there’s definitely something strange about that hulk,” Kathy said. “Turned Roger into an autistic, and took away a piece of Bo’s memory. No doubt about that. Bo wasn’t down on N’urth at all. So if his mind’s going the way of Roger’s, that could only be because of the one new experience they both had in common: that hulk.”

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