Winter World (The Long Winter #1)(45)

The more we laugh, the more carried away Harry gets.

“We’re gonna make the artifact an offer it can’t refuse.”

Sooner or later, the quotes cross over to other Brando movies, some I don’t even know.

“This drone, it coulda been a contender. It coulda found the artifact. But now look at it. A bum. A piece of debris floating through space, its fuel cell spent.” I’m told that the contender bit came from On the Waterfront, though I never saw it.

Harry moves on to a quote from Apocalypse Now: “This drone, it’s seen horrors. Horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call it a murderer.”

From The Island of Dr. Moreau: “This drone, it’s seen the devil in its telescope, and it has chained him.”

And finally, back to The Godfather. “Look how the artifact massacred my little drone. I want you to use all your powers to clean him up. I don’t want the crew to see him like this.”

But one of his many quotes—he clearly knows these movies well—is quite timely. “Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”

That’s good advice. Though if the artifact is connected to the Long Winter that’s killing the human race, I don’t know if I can keep myself from hating it.

Emma hands me a circuit board to inspect. It’s perfect, as usual. She’s getting better at building them. And faster.

“Harry, how do you remember all those quotes?” she asks as she pulls another board from the pile.

“Who knows. If my head were full of useful stuff like James, maybe we’d have already found the artifact.”

“Doubt that,” I mutter.

I missed this: working. And with people I like. Sure, I worked in prison, but I wasn’t using my mind. Mental work is like a vitamin a person needs every day. A muscle that otherwise atrophies with disuse.

In truth, I had worried about my ability when Fowler first briefed me; I had been out of the lab for eleven months. I’m thankful that it came back to me so quickly. Harry has been a huge help. Not for the first time, I wonder if that’s why NASA sent him to the Pax: they had second thoughts about my ability. Despite having little to show for our efforts, I think we’re working at peak efficiency. It feels good to be building something again.

With the Icarus fleet’s lack of contact, we’re more aware, with each passing day, that our time is slipping away. I feel as if we’re sailing past a new land we were bound for, but an unfavorable wind has blown us off course.

Madre is almost done, but we have no idea where to send her and which litter of drones she should repurpose.

I worry more and more about Emma’s bone density. The exercise simply can’t keep pace with the deterioration. It’s a progressive condition: the more bone mass she loses, the quicker she’ll lose it. Izumi is concerned too. We’ve discussed it several times, in private, but arrived at no solutions. Neither of us has said anything to Emma. I don’t know if she’s aware of the severity of her condition. I hope not.

The secret meetings between Izumi and me aren’t the only ones occurring on the ship. Harry has been slipping off to meet with Grigory and Min. More often lately. He says it’s about Madre’s propulsion, but the meetings are too long, and they all stop when I float into the nav module, as though they’re talking about me. I like Harry. I trust him. But I feel that something is going on. I’ve told no one else about my suspicions. But I’m close to confronting him about it.





I’m asleep in the lab when a hand shakes me awake.

Emma’s face is inches from mine, smiling.

“Come on.”

We float hand-in-hand out of the robotics lab, through a series of supply modules, and into the bubble. Half of the crew is here. Grigory is smiling—a rare occurrence.

Harry slaps me on the back, the force muted in zero-g.

“We’ve got it, James! The artifact!”

“Which one?”

“The second one. Beta. James, we’ve done it.”





Chapter 29





Emma





Locating Beta has given this crew a much-needed morale boost. Everyone feels a renewed sense of purpose, that we’re on the right track, and that we’re going to figure this out, one way or another. Any team, no matter what you’re doing, can’t go too long without a win. Finding the artifact is a big win for us. But this isn’t close to being over.

Yesterday, we launched Madre to seek out the Janus fleet. It will refill their fuel cells and redirect them to Beta, which is much closer to the Sun than we expected. In fact, the Icarus drone that found the artifact had a far-out search vector, at the edge of Min’s projections. He believes the artifacts are solar-powered, and that their acceleration increases rapidly as they approach the Sun.

If he’s correct, there are several implications. For one thing, we’re pretty sure the original artifact did accelerate beyond our search grid.

The discovery has forged consensus among the crew on several issues. Yesterday we launched comm drones to Earth and the Fornax. The drones are loaded with all of our data and everything we know so far. We’ve also altered course to intercept Beta.

When I asked Grigory if we could reach it, he was cagey. “Possibly.” He shot Harry a look, then went into a long diatribe about the artifact’s unknown acceleration capacity, variable solar output, and the effect of gravitational pull.