Charles Sheffield: Summertide

“Well, it is amazing — if you believe it. But there’s another way to look at things. The Dobelle system doesn’t just contain an artifact, the Umbilical. The Dobelle system is an artifact! The whole thing.” She grabbed at Rebka’s arm again, caught up in her own vision. “Its whole orbit and geometry were created by the Builders, designed so that once every three hundred and fifty thousand years Mandel and Amaranth and Gargantua are so close to Quake that a special interaction can take place between them. Something inside Quake captures and uses those tidal energies.

“Before I came to Quake, I thought that the Builders themselves might be here — maybe even appear at this particular Summertide. But that’s wrong. The Grand Conjunction serves as a trigger for the departure of those spheres — ships, or whatever they are — from Dobelle. I don’t know where the first one went — out of the galaxy, from the look of it. But we have enough information to track the other one, the one that went toward Gargantua. And if we want to know more about the Builders, that’s where we have to go.

“And soon! Before whatever it is that happens out near Gargantua is over and done with, and we have to wait another three hundred and fifty thousand years for a second chance.”

Finally able to get a word in edgewise, Hans Rebka asked a question of his own. “Are you suggesting that Quake splits open, and something comes out of it at every Grand Conjunction?”

“I certainly am. That’s the purpose of the Grand Conjunction — it provides the timing trigger and the tidal energy needed to open up the interior of Quake. So when Quake opened—”

But it was Rebka’s turn to talk. “Darya, I’m no theorist. But you’re wrong. If you want proof of that, go and talk to Max Perry.”

“He wasn’t watching what happened when we left Quake.”

“Nor was I, particularly. Max and I had other things on our minds. But when I first arrived on Opal, I asked about the history of the doublet. The history of Opal was hard to determine, because it has no permanent land surface. But Perry showed me an analysis of the fossil record of Quake. People had studied it in the early years of colonizing Dobelle, because they needed to know if the surface of Quake was stable enough to live on through Summertide.

“It isn’t, for humans — we proved that pretty well for ourselves. But there has been native life on Quake for hundreds of millions of years, since long before the planet went into its present orbit. And any recent opening of the deep interior of Quake — like the one that you saw — would show clearly as an anomaly in the fossil record.”

He reached out for the display control and set it to show an image of the space above the capsule. Mandel and Amaranth were visible, still huge in the sky, but they were less bright. The knowledge that they were on the wane for another year was comforting. As the stellar partners dimmed, Gargantua shone brighter in the sky over to their right. But the giant planet was well past its own periastron, and the orange-brown disk was already smaller. No blinding beam of light shone forth from Gargantua, or from one of its satellites. Quake hung above the capsule, its surface dark and peaceful.

“You see, Darya, there’s no evidence in the whole fossil record of a deep disturbance of Quake, comparable with what you saw. Not three years ago, or three hundred, or three hundred and fifty thousand. The deep interior of Quake has been hidden from view, as far back as people can trace the history of its surface. And that’s at least five million years.”

He expected Darya to be crushed by his comments. She came back stronger than ever. “So this Grand Conjunction was special. That makes it more important to find out why. Hans, let me give you the bottom line. You can go back to your work on the Phemus Circle tomorrow. But I can’t go back to Sentinel Gate. Not yet. I have to go on and take a look at Gargantua. I didn’t spend my whole adult life studying the Builders and then come all this way just to stop when the trail gets hot. Maybe the Builders aren’t out near Gargantua—”

“I’m sure they’re not. People would have found them when they first explored the Mandel system.”

“But something is out there. The sphere that took Nenda’s ship wasn’t just leaving Quake. It was going somewhere. I have to find a ship of my own and hustle out there fast. Otherwise I may lose the trail completely.”

She was still gripping his arm, hard enough to hurt.

“Darya, you can’t dash off to Gargantua like that. Not on your own, or you’ll kill yourself for sure. The outer part of the Mandel system is cold and hostile. It isn’t an easy place, even for experienced explorers. As for you, coming from a nice, civilized world like Sentinel Gate…”

Hans Rebka paused. First she booby-trapped him and knocked him unconscious by accident. Then she took him to the waterfall cave, fussing over him and caring about him, in a way that no one had ever cared. And now she was booby-trapping him again. He had to be careful and not commit himself to anything.

“I don’t know how to find a ship,” he said. “It’s too much to ask the people on Opal — they have no resources to spare after Summertide. But I’ll scratch around and see what I can do.”

Darya Lang released his arm, but only because she had other things in mind. Her bear hug was interrupted by a cough from the stairway. Julius Graves had reappeared in the chamber. Close behind him came J’merlia and Kallik.

Graves gestured J’merlia forward. “Go on. Say it for yourself — it’s your speech.” He turned to Hans Rebka. “I told you they had trouble in mind. And I told them that this sort of thing was not my decision, though I do have an opinion.”

J’merlia hesitated, until he was given a hard nudge from one of Kallik’s spiky elbows, accompanied by a hiss that sounded like “S-s-s-spee-k.”

“Indeed I will. Honored Captain.” J’merlia was moving to debase himself before Rebka, until a warning growl from Graves stopped him. “Distinguished humans, the Hymenopt Kallik and I face a grave problem. We beg your help, even though we have done nothing to deserve it. We would not do so, if we could see any way to proceed without asking your assistance. Already we have been a burden to you. In fact, by our stupid actions on the planet Quake, we endangered the lives of every—”

This time both the growl and the nudge came from Julius Graves. “Get on with it!”

“Yes, indeed, honored Councilor.” J’merlia shrugged at Rebka with a near-human gesture of apology. “The point, distinguished Captain, is that the Hymenopt Kallik and my humble self believed when we left Quake that Louis Nenda and Atvar H’sial had surely been killed, or had decided — as is their perfect right — that they did not choose to make use of our services anymore. Both possibilities were deeply disturbing to us, but we saw no alternative to accepting them. We would then be obliged to return to our homeworlds, and to seek new masters for our services. However, a few minutes ago, we heard that Masters Nenda and Atvar H’sial escaped from the surface of Quake.”

“True enough.” Rebka looked at Darya. “But Professor Lang saw what happened, and Nenda and Atvar H’sial were killed.”

“I know you think that. But Kallik points out that this may not be the case. She notes that if the ship were gravitationally accelerated in its departure, the beings inside would feel no forces on them — it would be exactly as though they remained in free-fall. Then they would have been carried away alive toward Gargantua, against their wishes, and may now be in need of assistance. And if this is the case, it is the clear duty of the Hymenopt Kallik and my humble self to pursue them. They are our owners. At the very least, we cannot leave the Mandel system until we are assured that they either do not want, or cannot make use of, our services. We therefore ask you, bearing all these facts in mind, and with due consideration of the possibility that — oof!”