The Devil's Eye

want to take a look. Where is it?' 'Don't know. We lost it.' She laughed at her own joke. We were beginning to accelerate. 'They found it a couple of centuries ago. But they didn't keep good records, and next time they went out, they couldn't find it. It had reasonably intact cities. Everything frozen.' 'Sounds like another hoax.' 'Sounds like one,' said Ivan. 'But the original mission brought back some artifacts. And the experts say the artifacts are legitimate.' We sank back into our seats. 'Apparently the world got blown or dragged out of its home system. And the lights went out.' 'And they lost the thing.' 'It's out there somewhere. Cities. Roadways. Even a few ships frozen in harbors.' 'Does the place have a name?' 'Malaki. It's named for the captain who found it.'

During the short run out, Ivan tried to talk sense into me. 'Don't go back to Samuels. When we're done out here, I can take you someplace where you'll be safe.' 'What did you have in mind?' 'Well, I can't take you all the way to Rimway. For one thing, we don't have enough fuel.' 'It doesn't matter. I can't leave Alex.' 'Chase, if the CSS really have him, there's not much you can do. Except get a good lawyer.' 'Maybe.' 'Look, I don't know this guy Benedict. But I'll bet he'd want you to get clear. Especially when there's no point-' 'Let it go, Ivan. I've been through too much to walk out on him.' He shrugged. 'Okay. You do what you think is right.'

We were lucky. We came out of hyperspace almost on top of our target. Not that it was visible to the naked eye, of course. The asteroids-there were thousands of them-drifted through a dark sky. But Ivan didn't have much trouble picking out the one with the monument. Within a few hours we moved in close. It was an ordinary asteroid, surface smooth in some areas, cratered in others. About three hundred kilometers in diameter. Even when we were on top of it, and I mean literally on top, just a few klicks away, we couldn't see it visually. The sky behind it was unbroken darkness. Ivan didn't take his eyes off the monitors. Moria, Salud Afar's sun, was behind us. But at that range it was invisible. The three of us were on the bridge, looking down into the darkness, when Ivan said something I couldn't make out. 'What?' said Kara. 'I was just thinking how we'd react if a light suddenly went on.' A few minutes later, a soft glow did appear in the sky, outlining the rim of the asteroid. We'd gone halfway around it and were looking back at the haze along the edge of the Milky Way. 'Okay,' he said. 'We're here. What's next?' I was wishing Alex were with us. 'I'm not sure.' 'Surely, madame, you jest.' 'Great place for a monument,' I said. Kara smiled. 'The original plan was that the monument would light up when anybody approached. You'd have come rolling in and the lights'd go on and you'd be looking at the thing. Actually, it could have been pretty striking stuff. But after what happened, they decided to leave it dark.'

'I'm not surprised.' 'There are a bunch of monuments on other asteroids that do light up. But not out here, of course.' 'This is the only monument in the Swarm?' 'Yes.' Ivan aimed one of the navigation lamps at the ground. But we still couldn't see anything. The light faded away. Rachel, the AI, asked for instructions. Ivan held out his hands. 'What do we want to do, Chase? You want to go down and see what's there?'

We climbed into the lander and rode it toward the surface. 'The monument?' he asked. 'Yes. That seems like the logical place.' As we descended, I asked whether either of them had ever been there before. 'Nobody ever comes out here,' said Ivan. 'What about the Family of God?' 'I think they had enough of the place. Something out here was dangerous, and they aren't dummies.' 'What did they think it was?' 'I don't know. You'd have to ask them.'

It was located on a bare plain. I knew right away it was something apart from the rockscape, even before I had a good look at it. It was tall and narrow and obviously artificial, a lost piece of a well-lit, warm world abandoned in a place where time had stopped. We only had two pressure suits. Kara said it was okay. 'You go ahead. I'll wait here.' We got dressed and went out through the air lock. Ivan had left the navigation lights on, but the ground was rougher than it looked from inside. 'This way,' he said. He turned on a helmet lamp and plunged ahead. 'Watch your step.' It was rough going. And the fact that I weighed next to nothing made it even more dangerous. The lights played against a wall. It served as a base for a sphere. A set of steps mounted to the sphere, and a silver door stood partly open in its side. Above, a diamond-shaped crystal pointed at the sky. When the beam from my lamp touched the crystal, the doorway caught the reflection. 'Is that what they intended?' I asked. 'I guess,' he said. 'I don't really know anything about this place.' Names were engraved on the wall. Thousands of them. 'Supporters, I guess,' Ivan said. And a legend: THEY HAVE PASSED TO A BETTER WORLD. KYLE ROJEAU IRA AND HARM KAMALANDA CELIA TI 'How were they going to power it?'

'I don't know. Probably a grid installed somewhere. I'm not much of an electrician.'

I climbed the stairs and studied the partially open door. And the corridor behind it, which went completely through the sphere. Into the night on the other side. The walls and overhead were rough-hewn; the floor was smooth. And I wondered if, sometimes, the asteroid turned and lined up with Callistra so its light appeared in the passageway, illuminated that smooth gray corridor.

They have passed to a better world.

The sensors had been installed, of course. It only required someone to throw the switch. But the switch had been removed, to ensure that no one circumvented the will of the survivors. The monument would stay dark. And so it had. I was just talking, trying to hold up my end of the conversation, while I looked for something that would tell me what Alex had expected to see out there. There was nothing. No fractured space, no alien ships,

no Coalition vehicles engaged in a conspiracy. The place, the tower, the rockscape, the sky, was simply quiet. And dark. 'Ivan?'

'Yes, Chase.'

'Where's Callistra?' He looked up. 'Must be on the other side.' 'It wasn't. It was just as dark over there.' He grunted. 'Well, that doesn't make sense. It has to be here somewhere.' What had Orrin Batavian told us in what now seemed that long-ago afternoon in downtown Moreska? They'd picked one asteroid for a very special reason. And suddenly, in that moment, in the permanent midnight of that place, it all came together.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Whatever it is that hides in Uncle Lester's garden, it comes quickly and silently. Six have died, but no sound has been heard.

- Midnight and Roses

We climbed back into the air lock. 'What's going on?' Ivan demanded. He was out of patience. When we got back into the cabin, Kara was staring at us. 'You mean it's missing? It has to be somewhere.' I couldn't stop trembling. It was cold inside the lander. I hadn't noticed it before. 'No, Kara,' I said. 'I don't think it's anywhere.' We were getting out of our suits. 'What's that mean?' asked Kara. 'I'm still working on it. Ivan, we need a chart.' 'Why?' he asked. 'Please just do it.' I'm pretty sure my voice had gone shrill. He backed off. 'Rachel, give us the chart, please.' The lights dimmed, and, over the navigation display, Callistra blinked on. Its soft blue glow touched everything, softened Ivan's intense eyes, coated the chairs and the control panel. 'Where's Moria?' I asked. Salud Afar's sun. Ivan pointed toward the hatch. It was a dim yellow light. A white light, off to one side, marked Seepah. 'Okay. Can we see our position? The asteroid?' A red light, a hand's width away from Moria. 'Good. Draw a straight line from Callistra through the asteroid and extend it as far as you can.' A blue cursor left the star, crossed the cabin, touched the asteroid, passed off to one side of Salud Afar, and struck the bulkhead. 'I know what you were thinking,' said Ivan, 'but I could see right from the start they weren't going to line up.' 'That's because we have an adjustment to make. The asteroid is, what, thirty-six light-years from Salud Afar?' 'Right.'

Kara's eyes found me. They were afraid. 'Okay. Let me think about it for a minute.' Math wasn't my strong suit. 'Ask Rachel to move us, the asteroid, to where its position would have been thirty-three years ago, when they were putting the monument down. And move Moria to where it will be in another three years.' 'How'd you get that?' 'Thirty-three from thirty-six. Okay? Now draw the line again from Callistra.' 'Done.' The line from Callistra went directly through the asteroid and touched Moria. Touched Salud Afar. Ivan's mouth opened, and his head fell