Winter World (The Long Winter #1)(26)

Seeing him makes me realize that there are people like Harry Andrews here on site, waiting. There are replacements for every one of us. Of course there would be. If one of us dies before takeoff—or during the takeoff—they need to be able to send someone else. And there will be no time to bring anyone else in.

Fowler confirms my thinking when he introduces Harry and says, “Dr. Andrews has been watching our meeting and is up to speed. So let’s pick up where we left off.”

Just like that, the conversation continues, as if nothing had ever happened. No objections. No comments. And the debate is different this time. It’s driven by facts. There are no personal attacks, only a discussion about the merits of an idea. We all know what’s at stake.

At a break in the debate, I ask the question that has gnawed at me since I saw the first image of the artifact.

“I think before we go any further, we should consider all the possibilities for what the artifact represents. We need to prioritize our theories if we are to prioritize our payload.”

“Is obvious,” Grigory says. “Is causing the Long Winter.”

“Certainly, that’s the most likely possibility,” I say. “But that’s far from certain. What if we’re wrong?”

There’s silence around the room.

Min speaks up. “It could be a scientist or explorer—not causing what’s happening, just here to observe.”

I nod. “And unable to stop it.” I let those words sink in. “And there’s another possibility.”

All eyes turn to me.

“What if it’s been here all along? What if it’s been adrift for eons, and we just now found it because we just now looked hard enough?”

Harry Andrews looks over at me. “It is small enough to be missed by our telescopes—especially if it hasn’t been moving a lot. For all we know, an ancient civilization on Venus launched it a billion years ago. They didn’t bother to clean up when they left.”

“Or were destroyed,” Grigory adds. “There are other possibilities. Remember, there are two artifacts. What if they are at war with each other? Two space fighters racing through the system. And we are of little interest to them, like ant colony freezing to death while they race by on motorway.”

Charlotte Lewis, the Australian linguist and archeologist tasked with first contact, clears her throat and speaks tentatively. “Ever since seeing the picture, I have also wondered what the artifact might be. The obvious conclusion is that it’s a spaceship. But if so, what is its crew like? Are they humanoid? Insect-like? Or a lifeform with no analog here on Earth? Are they machines? Or is the artifact itself a machine, nothing more than a drone in space? Or could the artifact itself be alive—a species native to space? I’ve looked through the binder but found no answers. Does NASA have any clues to share?”

“No,” Fowler replies. “And I suspect we won’t have any answers to any of these questions before you all reach the artifact. Perhaps the best clue we have is the fact that the Alpha artifact reacted to the probe. Whatever it is, we know it is under power and aware of its surroundings. The event that affected the ISS and terrestrial satellites immediately followed the discovery of Alpha—that fact can’t be overlooked. So while James’s point is valid—it is entirely plausible that the artifacts have nothing to do with the Long Winter—that hypothesis would leave us with a number of coincidences. The timing of the artifacts’ discovery—right at the time when our planet is suffering from an unexplained decrease in solar radiation—the apparently hostile response to our discovery of Alpha, their courses, which put them en route to the Sun… it all strongly implies that the artifacts are somehow related to the solar anomalies causing the Long Winter. And more importantly… we hope that they are. Because if they aren’t… then the Earth is dying, and we have no answers, no ideas on how to revive our planet.”

He turns away from us and paces across the pit. “We have explored all possibilities to enable the survival of the human race. Preparations are being made. But you all know that if solar output continues to fall, our chances of survival drop even faster. As it stands, we’re looking at a future in which, at best, a very, very small number of humans might survive. And the life they’ll inherit will be dark, and cold, and hungry. Those survivors may consider themselves the unlucky ones.”

Fowler looks around the room, staring each crewmember in the eye. “This mission is the best chance we have. We need to play to win. We must assume that the artifacts hold the key to our future, one way or another. If we are to survive, this mission has to end in one of two ways.” He looks at me, then at Major Hampstead. “Plan your payloads according to those two possibilities.”

Fowler leaves the two possibilities unspoken, but we all know what they are: we either make friends, or we destroy the artifact.

My fear is that we can’t do either.





Chapter 19





Emma





Somehow, I managed to fall asleep.

When I wake, I twist violently, afraid that I might have missed something—an alarm or another debris field. I feel like a rock climber trapped on a ledge. It’s a lot like that up here: I’m trapped high in the sky with no way down. The hole in the capsule guarantees I can’t come home in it. Eventually, this vessel will run out of energy and fall into Earth’s gravity well. It’ll be a fiery, agonizing death inside this small furnace.