Saul glanced back at the transport and saw it reverse away from the cliff edge, before turning and heading back, presumably, in search of the nearest charging port. Further inland, he could see rows of agricultural buildings stretching into the distance, each surrounded by fields of experimental crops specially designed for the Galilean soil and atmosphere.
He turned back to Erkrnwald and nodded, the young political officer’s expression politely bland as he placed one hand on the railing that guarded the steps down. White-capped waves thick with yellowish-blue algae crashed constantly against the shore, beyond which dozens of drilling platforms were visible, stretching out to the horizon. A motorized launch waited for them below, rising and dipping with the tide.
‘Is there a reason we couldn’t just fly out there?’ he asked.
‘Not at this time of year.’ Erkrnwald shook his head. ‘We’re coming up to drift-spore season, so too much risk of getting our engines clogged.’
Saul nodded and they began to descend the steps. The air away from town smelled different, lacking that particular odour all of Galileo’s larger settlements seemed to share. It wasn’t quite the smell of the sea back home on Earth, but close enough. He tasted salt on his lips as the wind carried a thin spray of sea water up towards the cliff top.
A few dozen metres out from the shore, a submarine whale’s single eye pushed up from the water on its rubbery stalk, glancing briefly around in a typically comical fashion before once more sliding beneath the waves.
The launch was a one-piece fab job, low and sleek, its lines distinctly organic. Anor man, older than Erkrnwald, waited on the shore close by.
‘I’m Representative Kayes,’ he said, stepping forward to greet them. He glanced at Erkrnwald the same way Saul had seen most people here do, with a mixture of cautious respect and unease. ‘And you must be Mr Dumont,’ he said, addressing Saul. ‘I’ve been following you on the news ever since they brought you down from orbit last month.’
‘To be honest, if heading out to the platforms means I can get away from all the press attention, that’s enough reason to be here, all on its own. And, please, call me Saul.’
Kayes chuckled in sympathy. ‘Still, it can’t have been easy for you. You were stuck on that starship for Lord knows how many weeks before it reached Galileo.’
Saul smiled wanly. ‘It could have been worse.’
‘When they first contacted you, I was glued to the feeds,’ said Kayes. ‘I know there’s still people don’t believe your story, but I believe it. I listened to every word you said during the interviews. If I could have been there when they brought you down from orbit, I would’ve been.’
‘About the girl,’ said Erkrnwald, an impatient tone to his voice, ‘does she know?’
‘Yes.’ Kayes nodded, turning back to the officer. ‘There was still some uncertainty over her identity until this morning. We’ve asked her to take the afternoon off from her duties.’ He glanced at Saul. ‘She . . . she doesn’t know you’re coming, though she should by the time we get there.’
‘You’re absolutely certain it’s her?’ asked Saul. ‘Definitely her?’
‘You must understand it took quite some time to sort through the Revolutionary Council’s records,’ Kayes explained. ‘So many government records were destroyed in the early days, before the fighting ended.’
‘I’ve been thoroughly informed of the political changes since the first gate failed,’ Saul replied drily.
‘Then I’m sure you understand why it took quite so long to be sure,’ Kayes continued. ‘But we are now
Saul felt momentarily dizzy. He stepped over to the launch that had been pulled up on to the beach and placed a hand on its hull. It felt very slightly slick to the touch. ‘You’re
Kayes nodded. ‘It’s your daughter, Mr Dumont. There’s no doubt.’
To his consternation, Saul found that by the time he had arrived on Galileo he was already something of a cause celebre. Once the Revolutionary Council had realized an invasion force was never going to come pouring through the starship, they had allowed Saul greater freedom, although he was accompanied always by Erkrnwald and other men who served the Revolutionary Council.
He quickly discovered that the Council had been working hard all those long years at reverse-engineering the technology within the defunct Galileo Array, so that they might learn how to create their own paired wormholes. Once they had heard Saul’s story, the Galileans began talking excitedly about reconnecting with the other surviving colonies, all now stranded from each other with the destruction of the Lunar Array.
Sometimes, on those rare occasions he had a moment to himself, Saul would look up at the night sky and wonder if Olivia and Jeff were still alive. Even though he had no way of knowing, he felt somehow sure the answer was yes.
Sometimes, he thought, the one thing keeping him sane in the face of all that he had witnessed was the single goal remaining to him, coming ever closer as they crossed the choppy waters towards the nearest of the platforms.
They moored amid the tangle of rusty girders, conduits and concrete posts supporting the platform. The Galilean sun was like a pale spectre as it shone through a dense freezing mist that still clung to the surface of the ocean. They ascended in a steel cage that rattled and jerked as it was drawn upwards. Erkrnwald clapped his hands together, his breath frosting, a heavy coat wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Kayes, clearly of a hardier nature, eyed the political officer with a touch of disdain whenever Erkrnwald wasn’t looking his way.
They’d awoken her that morning without explanation, it turned out, at just about the same time that Erkrnwald had also roused Saul from a sleepless night. He wondered how Gwen was taking it. He kept trying to picture how she must look now: she’d be sixteen, very nearly a full-grown woman. But, when he tried to picture her as an adult, he kept getting her mixed up with his last memories of Deanna. In his mind she was still the same little girl he remembered from ten years before, frozen in time like a snapshot, barely much more than a baby back then.
Kayes led them up a series of ladders to a walkway lined by doors with rusting latches, the air thick with the odour of burning petroleum. Kayes stopped at one of the doors and began to push it open.
‘No,’ said Erkrnwald, stepping up next to Kayes. ‘I should speak to the girl’s foster parents first. If you don’t
