Analog Science Fiction and Fact - June 2013

“Yes . . . now.”
Something in Antonio’s voice made Blake
turn and look. Antonio was craning his neck,
staring past Blake at the playground scene.
“See the . . . two moons?”
Two moons, daylight pale, glimmered
above the childcare center. The larger body
was at half phase; the smaller was only a crescent.
By their sizes, Aristophanes and Aeschylus.
“Uh-huh,” Blake said. “What about them?”
Antonio reached over Blake’s shoulder, extending
a fingertip into the holo. “The timestamp
shows today’s date. The positions and
phases of the moons are from twelve days
ago.”
Before Rikki fell ill! Before they left! Blake
said, “We have to head back. ASAP. Li and Carlos
are lying.”
“It could be an honest discrepancy,” Dana
said hesitantly.
Blake shook his head. “AIs don’t make mistakes
like that. Not on their own. Li or Carlos
is using Marvin to hide something.”
“I see another possibility.” Dana took a deep
breath. “Blake, you won’t like this. Maybe the
medical situation is more serious than they’ve
admitted to us.”
“And Rikki is . . .” Blake couldn’t finish the
thought aloud. “You think they’re keeping it
secret lest we come charging home without
what they need.”
“It’s possible. Sorry, Blake.”
“You think they’d lie, compel Marvin to lie,
all because they don’t trust us to do the right
thing?”
Dana shrugged.
“They’d have told you, wouldn’t they? Made
sure you knew the urgency?” And to Antonio,
who had jammed himself between pilot and
copilot seats to poke at a console, Blake
snarled, “Can’t that wait?”
Dana said, “But they didn’t. I’d have told
you.”
And she would have. Blake was certain. “Li
and Carlos are hiding something.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I can’t prove it, but—”
“But I can,” Antonio said. “Look.”
The playground was gone, vanquished by a
long-range surveillance image of Dark. On the
shore of the Darwin Sea, the settlement was
little more than a dot.
DARK SECRET
JUNE 2013
“From station beta on Aristophanes.” Antonio
reached into the holo to indicate a faint
oval smudge, darkest around the settlement.
“See that? It’s most visible in infrared wavelengths.”
Smoke? Precious little on Dark could burn,
apart from the ethanol they produced. Blake
banished insane notions of medieval plagues,
of criers calling to bring out the dead, of mass
funerary bonfires.
Dana must have had the same thoughts. “A
dietary deficiency can’t be contagious. What
are they burning?”
Antonio shook his head. “That’s not smoke.
Area temperature readings are normal. We
must be seeing dust. From major construction
or . . . destruction.”
“Amid a health crisis?” Blake said. “They are
lying to us, and they’re not letting Rikki communicate.
Dana, we have to go back.”
“You’re right,” she said. “Buckle up, guys.”
They were deep within the local asteroid
belt and almost a quarter of the way around
the sun from Dark. Over the course of their
search, they had built up considerable speed.
Blake reached for his datasheet to do the
math.
“Three and a half days,” Antonio said.
“More or less. That’s with the DED running
wide open.”
Two gees all the way.
Blake said, “Let’s get going.”
Chapter 36
As jails went, Rikki’s accommodations
weren’t bad. She had windows (too small and
high to wriggle through, even if she had had
the strength), a padded bench on which to
rest, a toilet and sink, even a shower. The
room was clean. At night, the ceiling glow
panel gave more than ample light. Prisoners in
stories paced out the dimensions of their cells,
so she had. Call it four meters by five.
When the nausea and vomiting returned
she saw the silver lining to being locked inside
a bathroom.
After the nausea passed and she could stop
hugging the toilet, she attacked the exterior
wall with a spoon, the only utensil provided
with her—untouched—food tray. She scraped
long enough to confirm she’d need geological
time to dig through the concrete. The shallow
scratch, if anyone asked, was to mark Day
95