Ben Bova - Voyagers

The Secretary General of the United Nations, the Vice-Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Jeff Thompson from Kwajalein, politicians from Britain and Japan, scientists from other lands, people Stoner had never heard of—all the voices of Earth spoke to him, one by one, growing fainter, farther removed, whispering against the crackling background radio noise of the cosmos.

And then a voice he recognized.

“Keith, Keith, this is Kirill. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Kirill. Faintly.”

“Jo wants to speak to you…privately, on frequency four. No one else will eavesdrop, I promise you.”

A burst of static from some unseen star rasped in his earphones. Stoner waited it out, then answered, “I’m switching to frequency four.”

For long moments he heard nothing but background hiss and crackle. Then:

“Keith…oh, god, Keith, what can I say?”

Say you love me, he thought. But he replied merely, “I’m here, Jo. I can hear you.”

The time waiting for her response was an eternity. “Why, Keith? Why have you done this? Why didn’t you come back to me?”

He smiled sadly. “I’m a blackmailer, Jo. I’m holding a hostage to force them to come up here to the rescue. I’m shaming them into it.”

Silence, except for the sibilant whisperings of the stars. Finally:

“And what about me, Keith? Don’t you care about me?”

“Farewell, Roxanne,” he quoted lamely, “for today I die…And my heart, so heavy with love I have not told, cries out…” But he couldn’t remember the rest.

He flexed his gloved fingers as he waited for her reply. It was getting difficult to move. His blood was turning to ice.

“Did you mean that?” she asked shakily. “Do you love me, Keith?”

It was safe to tell her now. “Of course I do, Jo. I’ve loved you for a long time.”

He waited for response. The seconds ticked by, longer and longer.

“And I love you, Keith.” Her voice was faint, barely discernible above the background static in his earphones. “I love you.”

He had nothing else to say. His lips were growing numb.

“We’ll come for you, Keith! We will!”

“I know you will, Jo. Don’t let them stop you, kid. Don’t let them forget. I’ll be here, waiting for you.”

With a final shuddering breath, he clicked off the heater in his suit.

Jo stood alone in the twilight shadows on the roof of the barracks building. She had gone up there to cry.

The floodlamps weren’t on yet, and an evening star hung low over the horizon, shining brilliantly. For a moment she fantasized that it was the alien spacecraft bearing Keith inside it.

The breeze sighed down from the hills, dry and warm. She could hear the faint, tinny noise of a radio somewhere off in the gathering darkness. With a startled shock of understanding, she realized that the voice on the radio was speaking English. An American broadcast, she said to herself. They’re letting an American broadcast through!

It was a news broadcast, of course. “Reaction” stories to the long day’s events, now that Stoner was permanently out of reach.

Jo listened, despite herself. The announcer was reading an item about a flying saucer organization in Missouri that indignantly maintained that the alien aboard the spacecraft was not of the same race as the aliens who had been sending UFOs to Earth.

“According to the Missouri saucer experts,” the announcer said archly, “we have found the wrong aliens.”

Instead of crying, Jo smiled. There are so many fools in the world, she thought. So many. She lifted her face to the heavens, to the stars that were starting to appear in the darkening sky.

“Thanks, Keith,” she whispered into the night. “They’ll have to send a team of astronauts to pick you up and bring you and your friend back to Earth. It’ll take a few years to put it all together, but when they go out after you, I’ll be with them.”

Then she turned and headed downstairs, dry-eyed, head high, determined to get to Houston as quickly as possible to begin her training.

Ben Bova is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed science writer. He has writer more than sixty books, both fiction and non-fiction. A former editor of both Analog and Omni magazines, he is currently editing the Ben Bova Discovery Series for Tor Books. His most recent novel is Cyberbooks , also published by Tor. Mr. Bova lives in West Hartford, CT.