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  The voice answered, “They were created so that your first contact with another intelligent civilization would be as easy for you as possible.”

  “And now that we’ve made contact, what’s to become of these people?”

  “They have served their function. They will live out their lives and then wither away, as all organic creatures do.”

  “That’s not right! Not fair. It’s … inhuman.”

  “It is the nature of organic species to eventually pass into extinction. Neither fairness nor your concept of right can alter biological inevitability.”

  “But—”

  “Jordan,” said Adri, placing a calming hand on Jordan’s knee, “the Predecessor is speaking in terms of millennia, eons. Be content. The human race will also face extinction eventually, perhaps not for many millennia … perhaps sooner.”

  “No! We’re not dinosaurs, not trilobites. We’re intelligent! We can overcome biological dead ends.”

  The voice countered, “Intelligence is rare in the galaxy. Sadly, most intelligent species destroy themselves, just as your species is doing now.”

  Almost angrily, Jordan demanded, “Then what’s the reason for your going to all this trouble? Traveling here. Building a planet to resemble Earth. Populating it with human beings. Why have you done all this?”

  THE DANGER

  For several moments the voice was silent. Jordan sat in the cramped compartment and watched the multicolored lights flickering across Adri’s weathered face, as the old man sat beside him, stroking his calming pet.

  At last the voice said, “Intelligence is extremely rare in the galaxy. Most intelligent species destroy themselves.”

  “You’ve said that,” Jordan replied impatiently. “You’ve said that the human race is already in the process of destroying itself.”

  “That is true.”

  “Have you come to help us, then?”

  “Yes, Jordan Kell. But, more important, we have also come to ask for your help.”

  That stunned Jordan. “Our help? What do you mean?”

  “Twenty-eight thousand Earth years ago the two black holes at the core of the galaxy merged into one. Their merger caused a massive gamma-ray burst that is spreading across the galaxy, killing everything in its path.”

  “Twenty-eight thousand years ago?”

  “In slightly more than two thousand years your planet Earth will be bathed in lethal levels of gamma radiation. All life on your world will be erased.”

  “But our astronomers haven’t seen any such discharge in the galaxy’s core,” Jordan objected.

  “Your astronomers see the core as it existed some thirty thousand years ago. The light of the gamma burst has not reached your telescopes yet. When it does, you will die.”

  Jordan’s insides felt hollow, quavering. This can’t be, he told himself. It can’t be!

  But he heard himself ask, “If this is true, why have you come here? To warn us? To help us? To watch us die?”

  “To warn you, yes,” the voice intoned. “To help you, yes. And to ask for your help.”

  “Our help? To do what?”

  “To help as many intelligent species as possible.”

  “To help them do what?”

  “To help them to survive.”

  “Survive?” Jordan snapped. “But you said everything will be destroyed, we’ll all be killed.”

  “It may be possible to survive the danger,” said the voice, as flat and calm as ever.

  “Your energy shields!” Jordan fairly shouted. “Could they be used to protect an entire planet?”

  “It is possible.”

  “Then … we can survive the danger.”

  “If you believe it exists. If you accept our help. If you overcome your innate paranoia and xenophobia.”

  “Of course we will,” Jordan snapped. “We’d be fools not to.”

  “There are many fools among you,” the voice said, flatly, without accusation, without disapproval.

  “If you mean Meek and the others—”

  “Your group is a microcosm of Earth’s teeming billions. How many fools are there on your home world? How many fearful ones who would turn their backs on the truth? How many would-be dictators who would take this opportunity to seize power for themselves? How many who would say that a danger two thousand years in the future is no concern of their own? How many who would let their descendents face the danger unprepared?”

  Chastened, Jordan replied in a low voice, “I see. I think I understand the problem. It won’t be easy to convince my people of the need to act, to face a danger that’s two thousand years away.”

  “There is more,” said the voice.

  “More?”

  “I am the last of the Predecessors here. Adri’s people are few. They can help you, but you must help them, as well.”

  With a sidelong glance at Adri, still fondling his pet, Jordan asked, “Help them? How?”

  “There are several other intelligent species scattered among the stars in your section of the galaxy. There may be others who have not reached the stage where their civilization becomes detectable. All must be contacted. All must be warned. All must be helped.”

  “And you expect us…?”

  “To join us in the search for intelligence. To work with us to save as many as possible from destruction.”

  “I see,” Jordan said. “I understand.”

  “Will you do it?”

  Almost, Jordan smiled. “I’m only one man, sir. I can’t speak for the entire human race.”

  “Someone must. Someone must lead. Will you take that responsibility?”

  Jordan hesitated. “Let me understand you. You warn that a wave of gamma radiation will sterilize our solar system.”

  “Yours is one of many intelligent species that faces destruction.”

  “But on the other hand, you tell me that all species—intelligent or not—eventually become extinct.”

  “This is true.”

  “Then why bother? Why not accept the fate that’s approaching us? Why prolong our agony?”

  The voice went silent. Adri looked at Jordan with infinite sadness in his eyes. “Friend Jordan,” he began, “don’t you understand?”

  Jordan looked back at the old man.

  The voice intoned, “To live is to struggle against entropy.”

  And then Jordan remembered, “Dinosaurs and birds!”

  Adri smiled.

  To the voice, Jordan said, “The dinosaurs went extinct, but not before they gave rise to the birds. The human race may go extinct someday, but not before we give rise to our successors.”

  “Organic or inorganic,” said the voice. Jordan thought that it somehow sounded pleased.

  “If we let the gamma wave wash over us,” Jordan went on, “all life in the solar system will be snuffed out. Dead end. But if we can survive the danger, even though we might become extinct someday, our successors will live.”

  “Organic or inorganic,” the voice repeated.

  Jordan nodded. “I see. I think I understand now.”

  Adri patted him on the shoulder, pleased.

  “We have a tremendous job ahead of us,” said Jordan.

  “The first step,” Adri said, “is to win the understanding of your group back at your camp.”

  “Yes,” Jordan agreed. “If I can’t get Meek to understand, I won’t have much of a chance back on Earth, will I?”

  REACTION

  Aditi was sitting on the floor of the circular chamber, apprehensively stroking the purring Sleen, when Jordan clambered out of the starship, behind Adri. He felt just as stiff and hurting as the old man: physically and mentally weary, his mind awhirl with all he’d just discovered. The weight of responsibility had never felt heavier. He had the fate of the entire human race on his shoulders. And the fate of other intelligent species as well.

  Aditi jumped to her feet at the sight of him. Sleen scampered off with a complaining yowl.

  Placing her hands on Jordan
’s shoulders, she looked up into his eyes. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “A bit shaken by it all,” he replied.

  “The Predecessor explained it all to you?”

  “Everything.”

  “And you’ve accepted it all?”

  “Everything,” he repeated.

  She smiled happily. “I knew you would. Adri had some doubts, but I knew you’d accept it all.”

  “Yes,” he said. “Now to get Meek and the others to accept it.”

  * * *

  As soon as he returned to the camp, Jordan asked his brother to call a meeting of the entire group. Late in the afternoon they assembled in the dining area, with Hazzard, Trish, and Zadar on-screen from the ship in orbit, as usual. Eleven faces focused on Jordan, intent to hear what he had to say. Slowly, carefully, he told them what the Predecessor had told him. As he spoke, he saw their facial expressions change: astonishment, at first, then apprehension, and—on several faces—stony, stubborn disbelief.

  “They visited Earth to get samples of our DNA?” Paul Longyear looked almost pleased at the confirmation of his suspicions.

  Jordan nodded at the biologist. “Many times, from what the machine told me.”

  “And you believed him?” Meek asked. Then he corrected, “It, I mean.”

  “Yes, I believe it,” said Jordan. “Every word of it. Why else would they go to all this trouble?”

  “They actually built this planet?” de Falla marveled. “This whole planet?”

  “It’s hollow, remember,” Jordan said, with a wry smile.

  Thornberry rubbed his stubbled chin. “They’ve got the technology to do it, they do.”

  “It’s bullshit!” Brandon burst. “Jordy, they fed you a fairy tale and you fell for it.”

  “Fairy tale?”

  “I agree,” said Meek, almost accusingly. “They fed you a cock-and-bull story to hide their real motives.”

  “We’re no closer to finding out what they’re really up to than we were the day we landed,” Brandon growled.

  “Bran, it’s the truth. I’m convinced of it.”

  “How convinced would you be if you weren’t sleeping with one of them?” his brother snapped.

  Jordan stared at his brother. He felt as if Brandon had just kicked him below the belt. Coldly furious, he said in a deadly calm voice, “This is the kind of reaction I should have expected. Maybe the machine is right, maybe the human race is speeding toward extinction.”

  Elyse Rudaki spoke up. “Jordan, how can you expect us to accept such a story, without evidence, without proof?”

  “You’ve been working with their astronomers, Elyse. Haven’t they shown you anything about the gamma burst?”

  “Nothing.”

  “It’s all a lie,” Meek insisted. “A story they invented to get us to accept whatever they want to do.”

  “And what do you think they want to do, Harmon?”

  “Invade Earth. Wipe us out or absorb us.”

  “And you’re helping them, Jordy,” Brandon added.

  Jordan stood at the head of the table, looking down at the eight of them, and the three others on the screen against the wall. Their faces were angry, fearful. Next thing, he thought, they’ll burn me for being a witch.

  From the display screen, Trish Wanamaker said, “Do you have any proof to back up what you’re saying, Jordan? Any evidence at all?”

  Jordan turned back to Elyse. “You could ask their astronomers to show you the evidence they have of the gamma burst.”

  “Perhaps,” she granted.

  Zadar, sitting on Hazzard’s other side, said, “They can’t have any evidence from here. The gamma burst is still two thousand light-years away. If what they told you is true, it won’t arrive in this vicinity for two thousand years.”

  “And when it does it will kill us all,” Jordan said.

  “They must have records of the observations they made from closer in,” Elyse mused. “They said they’re from the Perseus arm of the galaxy, twelve thousand light-years closer to the galactic core.”

  “Evidence can be faked,” Meek sniffed.

  Jordan held on to his temper, barely. There are none so blind, he reminded himself, as those who will not see.

  Carefully keeping his voice steady, even, Jordan said, “Adri told me that his people will gladly share all they know with us.”

  “All they want us to know,” said Longyear. Several others seated around the table nodded agreement.

  Coldly, as emotionlessly as he could manage, Jordan said, “Could we try a little logic here? Must we be ruled by our fears?”

  “What are you ruled by, Jordy?” Brandon challenged.

  “By a different emotion.”

  “I’ll bet you are.”

  “I meant hope,” Jordan snapped. Scanning their disbelieving faces again, he pleaded, “Can’t we look at this thing logically? We can go back to the city and ask them to provide proof of what they say.”

  “I could work with their astronomers,” Elyse granted.

  Turning to Thornberry, Jordan said, “Mitch, we can get them to show you how their energy shields work.”

  “Now that’s something I’d like to see, b’god.”

  “Paul, they’ll show you how their biolab works, how they genetically engineer their animals.”

  “And their people,” the biologist retorted.

  Undeterred, Jordan turned to de Falla. “Silvio, they’ll show you how they constructed this planet.” To his brother, Jordan added, “That ought to be of some interest to a planetary astronomer, don’t you think, Bran?”

  Meek objected. “They’ll show each of us what we want to see. So what? It’s merely a ploy to lull us, to get us to accept them.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is,” Jordan agreed. “But can’t you see that—”

  “What are they after?” Meek demanded. “What’s behind all this?”

  Jordan thought of the UFO conspiracy theorists. The more the government opened their files to show there’s no evidence that UFOs exist, the more the faithful insisted that the government was covering up the real truth. But then he remembered that the UFOs were real. Adri’s Predecessors had visited Earth many times.

  Still seething inwardly at Brandon’s low blow, Jordan turned back to his brother. “Bran, you’re in charge here. I’m going back to the city tomorrow. What do you propose to do?”

  Brandon’s easygoing smile was nowhere in sight. He looked somber, stern, as if he’d just realized the responsibilities that had settled on his shoulders.

  “I … I’d like to hear what the rest of us have to say,” Brandon temporized. “Mitch, what about you?”

  “I’ll go into the city with Jordan, I will. I want to learn about their energy shields.”

  Longyear raised his hand. “I’ll go, too. I want to see how their biolab works, how they created people from DNA samples they snitched from Earth.”

  “And their astronomers,” Elyse added. “I want to see the evidence they have for this gamma blast.”

  Brandon turned to Meek. “Harmon, what about you?”

  “I’ll stay right here, thank you,” Meek replied primly. “We shouldn’t all put ourselves in the lion’s mouth.”

  From the screen Hazzard said, “For what it’s worth, all the ship’s systems check out fine. We can light up and leave whenever we want to.”

  Jordan shook his head. Maybe you can, Geoff, he said silently. But if you try to, I don’t think you’ll be able to get away.

  SUSPICION

  The meeting broke up. The eight men and women got up from the table and left the dining area in groups of two or three, talking among themselves. The display screen went dark. Meek drew himself up to his full height, cast Jordan a scornful look, and walked out alone.

  That’s a good sign, Jordan thought. Neither Longyear nor anyone else is going with him.

  As Brandon and Elyse passed him, heading for the doorway, Jordan jabbed a finger against his brother’s shoulder.
Hard. Brandon wheeled toward him, scowling.

  “I didn’t expect that from you, Bran,” Jordan said, his voice halfway between a whisper and a growl.

  Brandon’s face flashed surprise, then disdain. “Tell the truth, Jordy, how much of the story they fed you would you have accepted if you weren’t sleeping with Aditi?”

  “That’s got nothing to do with it!”

  “Doesn’t it? For all you know, she was cooked up in that biolab of theirs just to snooker you into believing whatever they tell you.”

  Jordan’s hands balled into fists. But before he swung at his brother, he saw Brandon reflexively flinch back and put up his hands to protect himself.

  Elyse cried, “Jordan, don’t!”

  Very deliberately, Jordan relaxed his hands. Taking a deep breath, he said, “We shouldn’t be enemies, Bran. You’re my brother. We should be able to settle this as intelligent men, not street brawlers.”

  “Yeah, you’re right about that,” Brandon agreed, shakily. But then he went on, “I still think that you’re prejudiced in their favor, though.”

  “Perhaps I am,” Jordan admitted. “But if what they’re telling us is true, if only half of it is true, the whole human race is in grave danger.”

  Elyse said, “But they’ve promised to help us.”

  “For a price,” said Brandon. “And I’m not sure we’ve heard what their real price is.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Jordan insisted.

  “By going to the city,” Brandon muttered.

  * * *

  Early the next morning, Jordan, Thornberry, Longyear, de Falla, and Elyse Rudaki—with Brandon sitting hip to hip beside her—piled into one of the buggies for the drive back to the city.

  Longyear drove. As they started out, Jordan thought, Bran doesn’t like me sleeping with Aditi, but he’s practically welded to Elyse. Can’t say I blame him. Even in the drab once-piece jumpsuit she was wearing, Elyse’s generous figure was eye-catching.

  As he expected, Adri was standing at the edge of the stone walkway that circled the city, stroking his furball of a pet. The animal gazed at their approaching buggy with big, round, solemn eyes. Adri’s expression was almost the same, although as Longyear braked the buggy to a halt he broke into a warm smile.