The Killeen was startled. It shimmied in the air for a moment, as if this news shook the entire representation. “You . . . don’t have the tools.”
“I know. Did the best I could.”
“She . . . was too much?”
“I couldn’t manage her.”
The Killeen nodded somberly. “She wasn’t easy in the flesh, either.”
“I think I got—”
Beside Killeen, condensing out of the air, was Shibo. She was translucent and her legs were gone but the upper body moved naturally. Head turning, first to Killeen, then to Toby. A thin smile.
“I . . . am still . . . partially . . . in . . . here . . .”
Walmsley said to Toby, “The reader is picking up fringing fields from you. She must be integrated into your perceptors.”
Toby nodded. “Yeasay, and wants to talk.”
Shibo’s face pleaded. her words sounded faintly in Toby’s sensotium. “I will be here . . . to help. I had to come out. My dear . . . Killeen . . .”
With small jerky movements and a wrenched face she turned to the Killeen. Toby felt an eerie current between the two. Valences moved, blunt and blind. They peered at each other a long time in silent, still air. Toby sensed a stuttering, hesitant sensation pass between them. Small signals across a furious gulf.
Then Shibo lifted one hand, as if in salute—and vanished. Toby did not understand any of it.
The Killeen shook his head and turned to look off into the distance. His face seemed carved with deep, dry ravines.
“Good then,” Walmsley said crisply. “You’ve sucked most of the juice out, I gather. Hurry along—we have work to do.”
When Toby looked back to see his father’s reaction, the Killeen was gone.
The suddenness of loss staggered him. He closed his eyes, steadied himself.
Walmsley waved him on. “I know all this is a bit quick, but there really is pressing business.”
Toby took a last look at the endlessly roiling perspectives and followed Walmsley down the ramp. Into a dark where light sharpened into hard points like a waiting bucket of stars.
So time had done its work and his father had changed. So had Toby. Who had been right or wrong was nothing now, a dry rattle
among fading facts, lost in the curve of events. The places where the esty had scarred him were firmer and he could take whatever
came without clinging to the past or foreboding for the future. His steps were light and he went forward into whatever would
be.
Timeline of Galactic Series
2019 A.D. Nigel Walmsley encounters the Snark, a mechanical scout.
2024 Ancient alien starship found wrecked in Marginis crater, on Earth’s moon.
2041 First signal received at Earth from Ra.
2049 First near-light-speed interstellar probes.
2060 Modified asteroid ships launched, using starship technology extracted from Marginis wreck.
2064 Lancer starship launched with Nigel Walmsley aboard.
2066 Discovery of machine intelligence Watchers.
2067 First robotic starship explorations. Swarmers and Skimmers arrive at Earth.
2076 Lancer arrives at Ra. Discovery of the “microwave-sighted” Natural society.
2077 Lancer departs Ra.
2081 Mechanicals trigger nuclear war on Earth.
2085 Starship Lancer destroyed at Pocks. Watcher ship successfully attacked, with heavy human losses.
2086 Nigel Walmsley and others escape in Watcher ship, toward Galactic Center. Humans launch robot starship vessels to take mechanical technology to Earth.
2088 Humans contain Swarmer-Skimmer invasion. Alliance with Skimmers.
2095 Heavy human losses in taking of orbital Watcher ships. Annihilation of Watcher fleet. No mechanical technology captures due to suicide protocols among Watchers.
2097 Second unsuspected generation of Swarmers emerges.
2108 First in-flight message received from Walmsley expedition: “We’re still here. Are you there?”
2111 Final clearing of Earth’s oceans.
2128 Robot vessels from Pocks arrive at Earth carrying mechanical technology. Immediate use by recovering human industries.
