Starplex

Keith looked at Rissa, and could see that she was thinking the same thing. He lifted his eyebrows. "Almost like separate voices," he said at last, finishing the thought.

"But there aren't two hundred and seventeen objects anymore," said Thor, turning around. "There are two hundred and eighteen now."

Keith nodded. "Hek, do another inventory of signals. See if there's new activity at a frequency just above or just below the block of frequencies you've identified as being active."

Hek tilted his head as he worked his controls up on deck one. "Just a second," he said. "Just a second." Then: "Gods of the mud and the moons, yes! Yes, there is!"

Keith turned to Rissa, grinning. "I wonder what baby's first words were?"

EPSILON DRACONIS

Keith hadn't seen Glass reenter the docking bay, but when he looked up, there he was, coming closer, transparent legs carrying him over the fields of grass and four-leaf clover.

His walking was fluid, beautiful, giving the appearance of being in slow motion even though he was moving at normal speed. The hint of aquamarine — the only color in his clear body — was eye-catching.

Keith thought about rising to his feet but instead simply looked up at the transparent man, sun glinting off the latter's body and egg-shaped head.

"Welcome back," said Keith.

Glass nodded. "I know, I know. You're frightened. You hide it well, but you're wondering how much longer I will keep you here. It won't be long, I promise. But there is something else I want to explore with you before you go."

Keith lifted his eyebrows, and Glass sat down, leaning his back against a nearby tree. Whatever his body was made of wasn't glass. His tubular torso didn't magnify the patterns of the bark on the other side of it. Rather, they were seen with only slight distortion.

"You are angry," said Glass, simply.

Keith shook his head. "No, I'm not. You've treated me well so far."

The wind-chime laughter. "No, no. I don't mean you're angry with me. Rather, you're angry in general. There's something inside you, something down deep, that has hardened your heart."

Keith looked away.

"I'm right, aren't I?" said Glass. "Something that has upset you greatly."

Silence.

"Please," said Glass. "Share it with me."

"It was a long time ago," said Keith. "I — I should be over it, I know, but…"

"But it festers still, doesn't it? What is it? What changed you so?"

Keith sighed, and looked around. Everything was so beautiful, so peaceful. He couldn't remember the last time he'd sat outside among the grass and trees, and just enjoyed the surroundings, just — just relaxed.

"It has to do with Saul Ben-Abraham's death," said Keith.

"Death," repeated Glass, as if Keith had used another unknown word like "quixotic." He shook his see-through head. "How old was he when he died?"

"It was eighteen years ago now. He would have been twenty-seven."

"A heartbeat," sam Glass.

There was silence between them for a moment, Keith recalling his reaction when Glass had dismissed his two decades of marriage in a similar fashion. But Glass was right this time. Keith nodded.

"How did Saul die?" asked Glass.

"It — it was an accident. At least, that's what the HuGo decided. But, well, I always thought it was swept under the rug. You know: deliberately suppressed. Saul and I were living on Tau Ceti IV. He was an astronomer; I was a sociologist, doing a postdoctoral fellowship studying the colonists there. He and I had been friends since our undergrad days; we'd been roommates at UBC. And we had a lot in common — both liked to play handball and go, both acted in student theater, both had the same tastes in music.

Anyway, Saul discovered the Tau Ceti shortcut, and we sent a smallprobe through it to Shortcut Prime. New Beijing was a mostly agricultural colony back then, not the thriving place it is now. Of course, it hadn't yet acquired the New Beijing nickname. It was just "the Silvanus colony" then; Silvanus is the name of Tau Ceti's fourth planet. Anyway, they didn't have many sociologists there, so I ended up in charge of trying to figure out what effect the discovery of the shortcut network would have on human culture. And then the Waldahud starship popped through. A first-contact team had to be hastily assembled; even under hyperdrive, it would take six months for people to arrive from Earth.

Saul and I ended up being part of the party that went up to meet the ship, and…" Keith trailed off, closed his eyes, shook his head ever so slightly.

"Yes?" said Glass.