The Shoulders of Giants

Ling exhaled. “Im glad we didnt blow ourselves up,” she said. “Now, I guess we should find out what were dealing with at Tau Ceti. Computer, swing the dish to face Soror, and again scan for artificial signals.”

“Doing so.” There was silence for most of a minute, then a blast of static, and a few bars of music, and clicks and bleeps, and voices, speaking in Mandarin and English and—

“No,” said Ling. “I said face the dish the other way. I want to hear whats coming from Soror.”

The computer actually sounded miffed. “The dish is facing toward Soror,” it said.

I looked at Ling, realization dawning. At the time wed left Earth, wed been so worried that humanity was about to snuff itself out, we hadnt really stopped to consider what would happen if that didnt occur.

But with twelve hundred years, faster spaceships would doubtless have been developed. While the colonists aboard the Pioneer Spirit had slept, some dreaming at an indolent pace, other ships had zipped past them, arriving at Tau Ceti decades, if not centuries, earlier — long enough ago that theyd already built human cities on Soror.

* * *

“Damn it,” I said. “God damn it.” I shook my head, staring at the screen. The tortoise was supposed to win, not the hare.

“What do we do now?” asked Ling.

I sighed. “I suppose we should contact them.”

“We — ah, we might be from the wrong side.”

I grinned. “Well, we cant both be from the wrong side. Besides, you heard the radio: Mandarin and English. Anyway, I cant imagine that anyone cares about a war more than a thousand years in the past, and—”

“Excuse me,” said the ships computer. “Incoming audio message.”

I looked at Ling. She frowned, surprised. “Put it on,” I said.

“Pioneer Spirit, welcome! This is Jod Bokket, manager of the Derluntin space station, in orbit around Soror. Is there anyone awake on board?” It was a mans voice, with an accent unlike anything Id ever heard before.

Ling looked at me, to see if I was going to object, then she spoke up. “Computer, send a reply.” The computer bleeped to signal that the channel was open. “This is Dr. Ling Woo, co-captain of the Pioneer Spirit. Two of us have revived; there are forty-eight more still in cryofreeze.”

“Well, look,” said Bokkets voice, “itll be days at the rate youre going before you get here. How about if we send a ship to bring you two to Derluntin? We can have someone there to pick you up in about an hour.”

“They really like to rub it in, dont they?” I grumbled.

“What was that?” said Bokket. “We couldnt quite make it out.”

Ling and I consulted with facial expressions, then agreed. “Sure,” said Ling. “Well be waiting.”

“Not for long,” said Bokket, and the speaker went dead.

* * *

Bokket himself came to collect us. His spherical ship was tiny compared with ours, but it seemed to have about the same amount of habitable interior space; would the ignominies ever cease? Docking adapters had changed a lot in a thousand years, and he wasnt able to get an airtight seal, so we had to transfer over to his ship in space suits. Once aboard, I was pleased to see we were still floating freely; it would have been too much if theyd had artificial gravity.

Bokket seemed a nice fellow — about my age, early thirties. Of course, maybe people looked youthful forever now; who knew how old he might actually be? I couldnt really identify his ethnicity, either; he seemed to be rather a blend of traits. But he certainly was taken with Ling — his eyes popped out when she took off her helmet, revealing her heart-shaped face and long, black hair.

“Hello,” he said, smiling broadly.

Ling smiled back. “Hello. Im Ling Woo, and this is Toby MacGregor, my co-captain.”

“Greetings,” I said, sticking out my hand.

Bokket looked at it, clearly not knowing precisely what to do. He extended his hand in a mirroring of my gesture, but didnt touch me. I closed the gap and clasped his hand. He seemed surprised, but pleased.

“Well take you back to the station first,” he said. “Forgive us, but, well — you cant go down to the planets surface yet; youll have to be quarantined. Weve eliminated a lot of diseases, of course, since your time, and so we dont vaccinate for them anymore. Im willing to take the risk, but…”

I nodded. “Thats fine.”

He tipped his head slightly, as if he were preoccupied for a moment, then: “Ive told the ship to take us back to Derluntin station. Its in a polar orbit, about 200 kilometers above Soror; youll get some beautiful views of the planet, anyway.” He was grinning from ear to ear. “Its wonderful to meet you people,” he said. “Like a page out of history.”

* * *

“If you knew about us,” I asked, after wed settled in for the journey to the station, “why didnt you pick us up earlier?”

Bokket cleared his throat. “We didnt know about you.”

“But you called us by name: Pioneer Spirit.”

“Well, it is painted in letters three meters high across your hull. Our asteroid-watch system detected you.