Chapter 81: The Last Faithful

The captain had conjectured that if an advanced nearby civilization had recovered Garen Antor, it would indeed have to be fairly close. He asked Doux Soleil and the onboard AIs to simulate Multitude a few dozen years backward, which proved to be a gruelling exercise.

Once the planets’ coordinates had been calculated, it was enough to plot a route from planet to planet, from the nearest to the farthest, with the idea of scanning them one by one. They had already flown over a large planet, about one and a half mythical Earths in size, covered in ice except for an equatorial strip devoid of constructions. Next came two rocky planets with no atmosphere. Taken by doubt, the captain ordered geological scans of the planets, and nothing was found beneath the surface. The fourth planet was young, small, covered with sharp mountains, its tectonics so vigorous that rivers of lava were common. The fifth brought hope: a thin atmosphere, an iron-oxide red landscape that recalled Mars before terraformation. There was some kind of unknown beacon there, a primitive metal structure without an AI, which simply sent information out in all directions from the planet. Andreï judged it preferable not to use that wildcard immediately, and continued on to the next planet, similar to Destination, which was so peculiar that they named it Green Ball.

It was green, even at the poles, where a tenacious taiga cut through the eternal ice, and streaked with large canyons entirely covered in vegetation. What hid beneath their luxuriant foliage? Probably rivers. The channels did not appear as depressions but in relief, because the trees rose higher into the sky where they ran. From a certain angle, the channels crossed the planet from one side to the other so thoroughly that it looked like a ball of green yarn, hence its name.

Geneva arrived with a geological survey. There were constructions in the canyons. By rotating the planet simulation, one could clearly see that all the depressions converged.

“Should we prepare the protocol for first contact with the civilization of Green Ball?”

The question was mandatory, but everyone knew the answer: the protocol included the presence of a member of the HS Council or a representative, the deployment of invisible probes, the report of xenobiologists...

“Thank you for asking. Record in the logbook that, by virtue of the exceptional circumstances, the captain decides to make contact with the planet’s civilization himself.”

She inclined her head. Pallas made room for Geneva beside the captain on the Alecto’s bridge. She coughed, while sending a mental message to Andreï: “Ignore everything I am about to tell you. I must speak to you in absolute confidentiality about a critical matter.”

“As requested, I traced with our resources and the onboard AIs the possible faithful of Garen who could have survived the Lodovico affair, and any search expeditions. I found nothing. However ... I think we do not have as many means at our disposal as necessary to carry out this search.

- Understood. It is not the absolute priority for the moment. Thank you for your work. Captain on deck, I will descend in reconnaissance to the planet. Thank you for staying on that point...”