Echo. Part 43

"The Horgans?"

"They'd been preaching for centuries that the final days were coming." He made a strange noise in his throat. "Now they've come and gone, and the Horgans are still here. Left behind. I wonder what they make of that."

Belle faded out of range, but we stayed where we were, trying to talk to one another without her help, relying instead on a combination of laughter and patience. We drank the local hot brews, and eventually Viscenda gave up and left, saying that she had work to do. Or something like that. I had never realized that so much communication was non-verbal. That language was a kind of refinement of information pa.s.sed by other means. We discovered that, with the most limited vocabulary, a half dozen words, you could still cover a lot of ground. And eventually, Belle came back.

We asked her to get an explanation about "the Dark Times."

When she asked for details, they all looked surprised. "Well," said Turam, "it was, in fact, the end of the world."

"What happened?"

That brought laughter. "It got dark," said Seepah. "And cold."

"When?"

"Do you really really not know?" not know?"

"Humor us."

Belle complained she had no phrase for "humor us." Alex said, "Just ask them to a.s.sume we've been asleep a long time and to tell us what happened."

"Twenty-four years ago," Turam said, "the skies grew dark, and the world became cold." I did a quick calculation: Echo III needed fourteen months to complete an orbit. So twenty-eight years had pa.s.sed on Rimway.

"Crops wouldn't grow. Whole species of animals died off. We got storms more severe than anything anyone had ever seen. Shortages led to struggles over resources. In the end, people died by the millions.

"It went on for eighteen years. In fact, it never really went away. It's still colder here than it used to be. But the skies have cleared. More or less."

For a long moment no one spoke. Then we prompted Belle again: "Why? What caused this to happen?"

"We don't know. Maybe the Horgans are right. Maybe it was a divine judgment. I have no idea."

Somebody who had stopped to listen said that it was was, and a woman standing off to one side remarked that the notion was crazy.

"How did you you survive?" we asked. survive?" we asked.

Seepah answered: "We were lucky. We were here. At Akaiyo Akaiyo."

"Akaiyo?"

"It means," said Turam, "the sacred place. It was designed as a place where you could escape, for a time, the outside pressures. Ironic, isn't it?"

"So this is a religious community?" I said.

"No. Think of it, rather, as a place of contemplation. Where the only thing barred is a closed mind."

"Good," I said. "If we had to crash, this was the place."

Turam smiled. "We're reasonably well isolated here. When the troubles began, most of the people who were here went home. And probably died. A few made it back. With terrible accounts of life on the outside. Others arrived during the years, and stayed."

"It was the greenhouses that saved us," said Seepah. "We already had two when the Dark Times began. Kaska-he was the director at the time-knew immediately that greenhouses were essential for survival, and they built several others and began to utilize them."

The room was still.

"We have a hard life here," said Turam. "But it is is a life." a life."

"The Dark Times," said Alex, when we were alone. "That's the connection."

"I've been thinking the same thing. It began about the time the Silver Comet Silver Comet was here." was here."

"Yes."

"It sounds like an asteroid strike."

"I suspect that's exactly what happened, Chase."

"So maybe she saw it. And couldn't help. She saw millions die. And never really recovered from the experience."

"If that had happened," Alex said, "wouldn't her pa.s.sengers have said something?"

"Not necessarily. They might not have known. They wouldn't have had access to the images from the scopes. To them, it would just have been a matter of watching the asteroid go down."

Alex shook his head. "I think there's more to it."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It doesn't feel feel right." right."

And suddenly I saw what had happened. "There's another possibility, Alex. We know Cavallero didn't do his job properly. He never found the civilization that was here. Probably never looked. So Rachel came out here on a tour. Probably because Cavallero had had noticed an asteroid on a course toward Echo III. It was close enough that they could steer it into a collision. And that's what they did. Give the customers a real thrill. n.o.body ever knew there were people here. There was no electronic signature, so Rachel didn't see them either. Until it was too late." noticed an asteroid on a course toward Echo III. It was close enough that they could steer it into a collision. And that's what they did. Give the customers a real thrill. n.o.body ever knew there were people here. There was no electronic signature, so Rachel didn't see them either. Until it was too late."

Alex pressed his fingertips against his forehead and closed his eyes. "You think she dropped a rock on them?"

"Yeah. The more I think about it-They set the asteroid on a collision course, then sat back and watched it happen. When it hit, it threw up a lot of dust. The weather got cold. Crops failed. When she realized what she'd done, she went back and screamed at Cavallero."

"But what about the Amicus Society?"

"The Amicus Society? What do they have to do with it?"

"And Winnie."

When he saw I didn't know what he was talking about, he sighed. A man of infinite patience. "Rachel's pet gorfa gorfa. We saw two of them, remember? And she said she had a third. All strays."

"I'm sorry, but I-?"

"Chase, do you think for a minute that a woman who took in strays and worked for at least one animal-rights group would drop an asteroid on a green world?"

We waited twenty minutes until Belle was in range again. Then Alex called her. "Belle, I want you to go off course for a while."

"Okay. Why?"

"Look for a crater. One that was formed recently."

THIRTY-NINE.

Allyra is the G.o.ddess of the mind. She is the ant.i.thesis of faith, as the word is usually understood. She does not say to us, believe in this or that dogma. Rather, she tells us, show me. If you have a proposition, a theory, a concept, bring the evidence forward. If you have none, be cautious. If it is suspect, be honest. In any case, remember your own fallibility.

-Timothy Zhin-Po, Night Thoughts Alex had also noticed the winged statue in the director's office. He was hoping they might be induced to offer it to us. So he decided to provide the opportunity when he next saw Viscenda, which was outside on the deck. We were sitting out with a couple of the herdsmen and a teen worker, enjoying an unseasonably warm afternoon, when she came in from a tour of the greenhouses. He commented on how beautiful it was. And that the figure appeared to be a G.o.ddess. "I've noticed that most of the rooms have a sketch of her."

Viscenda glanced at the teen, inviting him to answer. "She is Allyra," he said. "Not a G.o.ddess."

"At least," added Turam, who'd just come out behind us, "not in the usual sense."

"Who is she, then?"

Turam explained that she represented free thought. Free inquiry.

"In her presence," said Viscenda, "no dogma is safe. In her time, she stood almost alone against those who claimed to know how we should behave, how we should live, and who should be running things. She is the relentless enemy of certainty."

"She's a mythical figure, of course," said Turam. "But she represents what the community stands for."

n.o.body suggested that we could keep her, but when we were alone, Alex commented that he thought the seed had been planted.

It wasn't easy to sleep on Echo III. The planet turned too slowly, so the nights and days were too long, and we never really made the adjustment. I was falling asleep after dinner, and wide-awake before the sun came up. The following day I was asleep by midafternoon, and awake a couple of hours after midnight. The community had a system for keeping time, and they had windup clocks, but I was never sure what time it was.

We were both asleep in the middle of the afternoon when Belle called. "I didn't want to take a chance on waking Alex," "I didn't want to take a chance on waking Alex," she told me, she told me, "because I know he's still in some pain." "because I know he's still in some pain."

"Thanks, Belle. What do you have?"

"The crater Alex asked about?"

"Yes. You found it?"

"It's almost halfway around the world from your present location. It is at thirty-five degrees north lat.i.tude, in a jungle area. It looks recent. Probably made within the last half century."

"How big?"

"Its diameter is approximately five and a half kilometers. And it's deep. Impact must have been severe. The surrounding jungle shows the effects for hundreds of kilometers."

"Okay. Thanks, Belle."

"You think Rachel was responsible?"

"One way or another."

"Do you wish me to resume my prior orbit?"

"Yes. Please."

I told Alex when he woke. He made no effort to sit up but simply lay there, staring at the ceiling. "Poor woman," he said.

I never really became accustomed to the food. I couldn't forget that the staples had once been part of a living animal. One night they served something akin to a pork-and-beef mix with a choice of vegetables and fruit. And some bread, which, mixed with their jam, was excellent. So I filled up on bread and desserts, which consisted of a variety of baked goods, with flavors I couldn't identify. I think I put on three pounds the first full day we were there. Which, on top of the other seventeen, was just what I needed.

We'd seen some suspicion among the community members when we first arrived, as if we were dangerous in some unspecified way, and I don't think the talking jewelry helped negate that. But by the end of the fourth day, most of them seemed to have decided we could be trusted. If we spoke a language n.o.body knew, we were nonetheless obviously human. And if we rode a s.h.i.+p that floated on air, it was at least no longer in the skies. In fact, it had crashed. And that, too, maybe, helped get us accepted. We were vulnerable. The young ones no longer hid behind their mothers. The adults said h.e.l.lo and even occasionally stopped to talk.

"How long," we asked Turam, "have you been on this world?"

He seemed confused by the question. So we tried again. "When did humans first arrive here?"

"Here?" He looked around. "You mean in Kamarasco?" He looked around. "You mean in Kamarasco?"

"What's Kamarasco?"

"It's this this area. Where we are now." area. Where we are now."

"No, no. When did you first arrive on this world?"

He smiled, as if we were playing a joke. "Is that a religious question?"

"I'm serious."

"Alex, we've always been on this world. What are we talking about?"

Alex looked delighted. They'd been here so long they'd lost track of who they really were. "I wonder if there's a possibility," I asked Alex, "that they really are are aliens?" aliens?"

"What do you mean?"

"That they did did originate here. Is there any reason there couldn't be a second human race? Independent of us?" originate here. Is there any reason there couldn't be a second human race? Independent of us?"

"Probably not." And he lit up at the suggestion. "What a discovery that that would be." would be."

Alex asked how far back their history went.

"Several thousand years," Turam said.

"What kind of world do the earliest records describe?"

"It's hard to be certain. To separate myth from history. The ancient accounts talk about a golden age. People living for centuries. Living in palaces. Food was plentiful. Some of it seems to be true. There are still ruins n.o.body can explain."

"So what happened?"

"There really is is no reliable historical account. The world fell apart. Some of the religious groups will tell you that we offended G.o.d. People got away from Him and He simply shut us down. no reliable historical account. The world fell apart. Some of the religious groups will tell you that we offended G.o.d. People got away from Him and He simply shut us down. See then how well you survive without Me. See then how well you survive without Me."

"Is that a quote?"