Charles Sheffield: The Spheres of Heaven

“Easy enough. You send a third team. If it doesn’t come back, you’ll know for sure.”

“Regarding a third team—” began Dougal MacDougal, but he was drowned out by the Pipe-Rilla, screaming a reply.

“ Y-yes . A third t-team. But that would m-mean s-s-sending s-s-s-someone t-to almost s-s-s-sure d-d-d-d-d.” The Pipe-Rilla’s speech degenerated into a series of sputtering noises. The Tinker Composite broke into a myriad small components that darted frantically around the imaging volume.

“It is difficult to speak of such things,” the Angel said slowly. “Impossible for a Pipe-Rilla or a Tinker, and possible for me only because I am able for brief periods to operate in human simulation mode. You know the prime rule of the Stellar Group: Intelligent life must be preserved. It cannot be destroyed — ever . But we suspect that it is being destroyed in the Geyser Swirl. The Swirl is dangerous .”

“Sounds like it. But you won’t be sure of that unless somebody goes there again and takes a look.”

“Yes indeed. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data . Therefore let me, quickly, attempt to say the rest of this. We concur with your suggestion. We should send a third expedition, to learn the fate of the first two and if possible rescue them. But that might mean our sending intelligent life, knowingly, to its death in the Geyser Swirl.”

“Can’t be helped. That’s what you have to do.”

“But, Chan Dalton, that is what we are unable to do.”

“Then you got problems.”

“Problems indeed. And, as we see it, only one possible solution. Humans. You do not have the same attitude toward the preservation of life — even of your own lives — as other Stellar Group members. An expedition to the Geyser Swirl, headed by a human whom we already know and trust, a human who is willing to do whatever is necessary to learn the fate of the earlier teams, and if possible bring them home …”

The Tinker Composite had vanished from the Star Chamber. Its components, mindless as individuals, had dispersed and flown out of the imaging volume. The Pipe-Rilla was still present, but it had bent forward and curled its body until the narrow head was almost on the floor.

“Let’s see if I have this right.” Chan Dalton stood up. “You want me to leave the nice, cushy job I have back on Earth and fly a team out to the Geyser Swirl in the ass end of the known universe, where chances are I’ll get knocked on the head the second I come out of the Link exit. I’m supposed to bring the other two teams back, dead or alive. Suppose I say yes — and I’m not saying that I will. What’s in it for me?”

“If you undertake this task, we, the members of the Stellar Group, are ready to lift the quarantine on humans. Naturally, it will be for a trial period, while we again evaluate human behavior. But this time we will recognize, as we are recognizing now, that certain tasks cannot be performed without the assistance of humans.”

“Very nice — for humans. You haven’t said what’s in it for me , but we’ll worry about that later. So I go off to the Swirl, and when I’m there things get kind of nasty. I have to kill off a few aliens before there’s any chance of coming home. Are you saying that will be all right?”

“No!” The blue-green fronds on the Angel’s upper body were thrashing in agitation, while the recumbent Pipe-Rilla in the next imaging volume uttered a continuous spluttering moan. “You refer to the killing of other intelligent beings! Of course it is not all right! It is absolutely forbidden. Violence is never the only solution . The rules of conduct of civilized beings must not be violated.”

The Angel turned slowly, from right to left. “It appears that the other representatives are no longer able to participate in this meeting. What is your decision?”

“No decision. I have to think about it.”

“Then think about it well, Chan Dalton, and with all possible speed. We will return, one of your days from now, to learn your answer.”

The Angel became a prismatic blur of colors. The Link was closing.

And that was probably just as well. Chan Dalton happened to be looking right at the monitor as he moved toward the front of the chamber, and his muttered words came through clearly to Flammarion and Milly Grant.

“Crazy. What do they think I am, some kind of human sacrifice putting my butt on the line for nothing? I’m out of here.”

But he could not leave. Dougal MacDougal stood right in his path. “Ah, Chan Dalton.” MacDougal took him by the arm, then released him when he saw Chan’s glare. “That was most interesting, and most promising. They are ready to end the quarantine!”

“I agreed to nothing.”

“Ah, but I know you will make the right decision — for the good of humanity. However, there are one or two points that we urgently need to discuss before the Stellar Group returns tomorrow.”

The Ambassador had a most odd expression on his face. Flammarion would have said it was embarrassment, had he been able to think of any reason for such a look. He said urgently to Milly, “Don’t turn off the monitor!”

“Of course I won’t.” She sniffed. “And don’t you try to teach me my business, Flammarion. I’ve been doing this for years, and I know how to read MacDougal. When he gets that pie-faced look something peculiar is on the way. Sit tight, keep quiet, and maybe you’ll learn something.”

“Something to eat? Something to drink?”

The Ambassador was over by the Star Chamber’s service machine, fiddling nervously with the controls.

“Nothing.” Chan sat with arms folded and knees together. “Cut the crap, MacDougal. You knew, didn’t you?”

“About the ending of the quarantine? I swear, it was a total surprise—”

“About the Geyser Swirl. I’d never heard of the place, but you had. I could see your face in the little monitor on my seat, and when they said that their expeditions hadn’t come back, you nodded.”

“I knew about their expeditions, but that wasn’t what had me worried. It was whatever I knew.” MacDougal moved to sit across from Chan. He had a gigantic drink in his left hand and placed another just as big on the table next to him. “Cheers.” He raised the glass he was holding and took a long draft. “God, I needed that. I had no idea they were going to talk about the Swirl, and when they did I was more afraid of what they might know than what they might tell us. Look, Dalton, you’ve not been off Earth for a long time. You know they closed all the remote Links so we can’t use them?”

“Of course I do. If it weren’t for that I wouldn’t be down on Earth. I’d be out where the action is — where it used to be, near the Perimeter.”

“Then you should have some idea how frustrating it has been for me; Ambassador to the Stellar Group, and I can’t even visit another star or a planet outside the solar system. It’s been twenty years. We keep on testing, living in hopes that we might find a Link open. Nothing. The Stellar Group has some sort of general Link inhibitor that closes down everything for human ships. Or it did. About seven months ago, we picked up a signal from a new Link. You can guess where.”

“In the Geyser Swirl.”

“Right. The Swirl is at the edge of Angel territory, and we knew next to nothing about it. As the Angel said, it just seems like an uninteresting clot of dust, a few lightyears across, with no Sol-type stars. Why put a Link there? The answer was, nobody did. So humans never felt a reason to go there when we had Link access. When we picked up the signs of a new Link, we thought the Angels must have opened it. We did our usual tests, expecting the usual “denied access” message. But we didn’t get that. The return signal said the Link was open to our ships.”