Winter World (The Long Winter #1)(59)

He’s getting choked up now. “We’ll miss you. But get home safely, okay?”

He reaches up and presses a button, and the message ends.

A long silence stretches out.

“What do you think happened?” I ask.

“I think… the artifact detected the nuke. Or it detected the broadcast from the Fornax to the nuke—for flight control. Either way, the artifact traced it back, struck the Fornax, and then the blast after… It was too big to have been the nuke alone. My guess is the artifact did some kind of self-destruct. Maybe a power overload.”

“Why?”

“To take out anything hostile in its vicinity. Or records of its existence. Or maybe it was trying to destroy the sample that was sheared off.”

“You think it succeeded?”

“I don’t know. The drone carrying the sample would have been at the very edge of the safe zone for the nuclear blast. The Pax was farther out than that, and it got rocked, for sure.”

“I saw a module break free.”

“Me too.”

James sits there, staring at the wall. I’m still a little woozy from whatever they put in my suit. Maybe he is too.

“Harry was right, you know.” I take James’s hand. “The world needs you. I still have family on Earth, and for their sake, I’m glad you’re coming home. If anyone can figure this out, you can.”

He exhales heavily. “Still don’t like it. Leaving them. I haven’t had friends like that in a long time.”

I take his hand in mine.

“Me either.”





For the first week of our journey home, James stews. He reviews every piece of data and video from the Pax. I know what he’s doing: second-guessing. He was the de facto mission commander. He feels responsible. He’s blaming himself right now.

I know exactly how he feels. I might be the only person who does. I wonder if that’s the other reason they sent me with James. To help him with what he’s feeling. He was there for me when I went through it. That’s what I’m going to do for him.

“Hey.”

He looks up from the tablet.

“We need a plan.”

He nods absently.

“And a schedule. We’re going to work this problem—together, you and me, one day at a time. And we’re going to take some time off every day. Sound good?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“First things first. We can’t change what happened back there. The truth is simple: you advanced the mission way beyond where any of us could have gotten without you. We’re ahead of the original mission schedule by months. And we found an artifact and learned a lot. We might have even gotten a sample of it. That’s incredible, given what we’re up against.”

His eyes meet mine. I know what he’s thinking.

“The Pax crew could still be out there,” I say. “We have to assume they are. And they’re counting on us.” I float closer to him. “They’re counting on us to get back to Earth and make a plan and come get them. Their survival is in our hands. We may be the only two people who know what happened to them.”

I can almost see him coming back to life, like a man in a coma waking up, re-entering the world, finding a reason to live again.

“You’re right,” he says.

“I’m glad you’ve finally admitted it.”

A smile tugs at the edges of his lips. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” I hold my hands out. “Let’s start with our biggest problem: how to safely land on Earth.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” He crosses his arms. “I think the biggest danger is getting shot out of the sky.”

“Yeah, that feels like a big danger.”

“Indeed. As far as we know, Earth has no functioning orbital satellites. Unless they launched more while we were gone. Add to that the fact that we probably shouldn’t broadcast anything on our way to Earth. Silent running is still safest. The other artifact, Alpha—or whatever else is still out there—could pick up our transmissions.”

“So we’re going to look like an unidentified bogey heading toward Earth.”

“Yeah. And they’re not expecting us.”

“Harry’s message said we’d get control of this capsule when we reach Earth. How long will we have?”

“I checked the software. Roughly forty hours before touchdown. Ground-based telescopes will definitely pick us up before then. Nukes will have time to reach us before then.”

“The crew was betting Earth wouldn’t take us out.”

“Clearly,” James says quietly. “It’s a good bet. But we need to be prepared.”

“You think you can break Lina’s lockout?”

“Not a chance.”

“You have another plan?”

“The start of one.”

“Now we’re talking.”





James has ripped the inside of the module apart. It looks like a bomb went off in here. It’s also given us something important to do, which has taken his mind off the Pax. I’m glad for that—the distraction—and to have a problem to work on.

His plan is simple: a comm buoy. We’ll place the small broadcast satellite in the airlock and jettison it. Once it has drifted ten thousand miles from our vessel, it will start transmitting a signal to Earth, one that’ll get there long before we will. And if the artifact reacts to the transmission, it’ll destroy only the buoy—not us.