they understood what they were doing. However, without their knowledge, slowly but surely the robustness of the genes that were being transferred from generation to generation was deteriorating. When they finally understood what they had done to themselves, it was too late. They had preserved no pristine specimens from the early days, before they had begun to modify their own genes. They could not go back. There was nothing they could do.
“Imagine,” the Eagle said, “not just being the last member of your group on an isolated spaceship like the Carrier, but being one of the terminal survivors of a species rich in history, art, and knowledge. Our encyclopedia contains many such stories, each containing at least one object lesson.”
The shuttle moved through an open port in the side of the spherical module and came to a gentle stop against a wall. Automatic gantries on each side were deployed to keep the vehicle from drifting. There was a ramp from the passenger side of the shuttle to a walkway, which in turn led toward the hub of the transportation complex.
Nicole laughed. “I was so engrossed in our conversation,” she said, “that I didn’t even look at this module from the outside.”
“You wouldn’t have seen much that was new,” the Eagle said.
The alien then turned to Nicole and did something very unusual. He reached across the shuttle and took both of her gloved hands. “In less than an hour,” he said, “you are going to experience something that will astound you and also arouse your emotions. Originally, we had planned that this excursion would be a complete surprise. But with your weakened condition, we can’t risk the possibility that your system might be overpowered by emotional input. Therefore, we have decided to tell you first what we’re about to do.”
Nicole felt her heart rate increase. What is he talking about? she thought. What could be so unusual?
“We will board a small car that will travel several kilometers into this module. At the end of this short journey you will be reunited with your daughter Simone and Michael O’Toole.”
“What?” Nicole shouted, tearing her hands away from the Eagle and placing them on the side of her helmet. “Did I hear you correctly? Did you say that I was going to see Simone and Michael?”
“Yes,” the Eagle replied. “Nicole, please try to relax.”
“My God!” Nicole exclaimed, ignoring his comment. “I cannot believe it. I just cannot believe it… I hope that this is not some kind of cruel trick.”
“I assure you that it is not.”
“But how can Michael still be alive?” Nicole asked. “He must be at least a hundred and twenty years old.”
“We have helped him with our medical magic, as you call it.”
“Oh, Simone, Simone!” Nicole cried. “Can it be? Can it really be?”
Despite the pain in her hip and the unwieldy space helmet, Nicole almost jumped across the seat to give the Eagle a hug. “Thank you, oh, thank you,” she said. “I cannot tell you how much this means to me.”
The Eagle steadied Nicole’s wheelchair on the escalator as they descended into the center of the main transportation complex. She looked around briefly. The station was identical to the one she remembered from the Node near Sirius. It was about twenty meters tall and laid out in a circle. Half a dozen moving sidewalks surrounded the central display, each running into a different arched tunnel leading away from the complex. Above the tunnels, to the right, were a pair of multilevel structures.
“Do the intermodule trains depart from up there?” Nicole asked, remembering a ride with Katie and Simone when the girls were both young.
The Eagle nodded. He pushed her wheelchair onto one of the moving sidewalks and they left the center of the station. They traveled several hundred meters in a tunnel before the moving sidewalk stopped. “Our car should be just to the right, in the first corridor,” the Eagle said.
The small car, which opened from the top, had two seats. The Eagle lifted Nicole into the passenger seat and then folded the wheelchair into a compressed configuration no larger than a briefcase, which he stored in a pocket area inside the vehicle. Shortly thereafter, the car moved forward through the maze of light cream windowless passageways. Nicole was extraordinarily quiet. She was trying to convince herself that she was indeed about to see the daughter whom she had left in another star system years and years ago.
The ride through the Habitation Module seemed interminable. At one point they stopped and the Eagle told Nicole she could remove her helmet. “Are we close?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he answered, “but we are already in their atmospheric zone.”
Twice they encountered fascinating aliens in vehicles moving in the opposite direction, but Nicole was too excited to pay attention to anything except what was going on inside her head. She was barely even listening to the Eagle. Calm down, one of Nicole’s inner voices said. Don’t be absurd, another voice replied, I’m about to see a daughter I haven’t seen for forty years. There’s no way I could remain calm.
“In its own way,” the Eagle was saying, “their life has been as extraordinary as yours. Different, of course, altogether different. When we took Patrick over to see them very early this morning—”
“What did you say?” Nicole asked abruptly. “Did you say that Patrick saw them this morning? You took Patrick to see his father?”
“Yes,” said the Eagle. “We had always planned for this reunion, as long as everything went according to schedule. Ideally neither you nor Patrick would have seen Simone and Michael and their children—”
“Children!” Nicole exclaimed. “I have more grandchildren!”
“— until after you were settled at the Node, but when Patrick requested reconsideration… well, it would have been heartless to let him leave forever without ever seeing his natural father.”
Nicole could no longer contain herself. She reached over and kissed the Eagle on his feathered cheek. “And Max said you were nothing but a cold machine. How wrong he was! Thank you… For Patrick’s sake, I thank you.”
She was trembling from excitement. A moment later Nicole could not breathe. The Eagle quickly stopped the small car.
“Where am I?” Nicole said, emerging from a deep fog.
“We are parked just inside the enclosed area where Michael, Simone, and their family live,” the Eagle said.
“We have been here for about four hours. You have been sleeping.”
“Did I have a heart attack?” Nicole asked.
“Not exactly… Just a significant malfunction. I considered taking you immediately back to the hospital, but I decided to wait until you awakened. Besides, I have most of the same medications here with me.”
The Eagle looked at her with his intense blue eyes. “What do you want to do, Nicole?” he said. “Visit with Simone and Michael as planned, or go back to the hospital? It’s your choice, but understand—”
“I know,” Nicole interrupted him with a sigh, “I must be careful not to become too excited.” She glanced at the Eagle. “I want to see Simone, even if it’s the last act of my life. Can you give me something that will calm me but will not make me goofy or put me to sleep?”
“A mild tranquilizer will only help,” the Eagle said, “if you consciously work to contain your excitement.”
“All right,” Nicole said. “I’ll do my best.”
The Eagle eased the car onto a paved road lined with tall trees. As they drove, Nicole was reminded of the autumn in New England she spent with her father when she was a teenager. The leaves on the trees were red, gold, and brown.
“It’s beautiful,” Nicole said.
The car rounded a curve and drove past a white fence enclosing a grassy area. There were four horses in the enclosure. A pair of human teenagers were walking among them. “The children are real,” the Eagle said. “The horses are simulations.”
At the top of a gentle hill was a large two-story white house with a sloped black roof. The Eagle pulled into the circular drive and stopped the car. The front door of the house opened an instant later and a tall, beautiful, jet-black woman with graying hair came outside.
“Mother!” Simone yelled as she raced for the car.
Nicole barely had time to open her door before Simone flung herself into her mother’s arms. The two women hugged and kissed, weeping profusely. Neither of them could speak.
