She nodded and hurried away. He waited a moment, trying to think as simply as he could about the alien technology, concentrating on its style—which was that of a self-servicing biological organism, with never a knob, lever, or button to push.

  Across the way, Lena confronted the entrance to a dome. He hurried over. “It won’t work,” she said, stepping aside.

  He presented himself. Again, the entrance failed to glow. “Let’s try mine,” he said.

  They went back and he approached the oval indentation. “Some of these may be inactive,” he said when there was no glow.

  “I’ll try the next one,” Lena said, hurrying away. He watched as she approached the dome. The glow failed to appear. She came back, beating her arms to keep warm.

  “Here’s Mai,” Juan said.

  “No shuttle, I’m afraid,” the Kenyan said. “What have you two found?”

  “We can’t enter these three,” Lena answered.

  “Let’s go back to the first one,” Juan said. “Might as well be warm while we decide what to do next.”

  “My nose is freezing,” Malachi said.

  They hurried back. Malachi stepped toward the oval. “Bloody strange,” he said when it failed. Juan went up to it and felt the indentation with his gloved hands, hoping to trigger it as he had done with the one in the ship.

  Lena said, “We’ll freeze out here. No telling how long the night will last.” Malachi came up to Juan. “No luck? Take out my binoculars, will you?” He turned around. Juan unzipped a lower pocket and handed them to him. “I glimpsed something from the rise when I was coming back. Let’s take a better look.”

  They followed him to the top of the rise. Malachi put the glasses up to his eyes and scanned the horizon beyond the domes.

  “What is it?” Juan asked.

  “Can’t see much. Oh, hello—there it is.”

  “What?”

  “Look for yourself.”

  Juan took the binoculars. A dark shape appeared in the digital view.

  “I don’t think it’s a natural part of the landscape,” Malachi said. “Push the infrared.”

  Juan touched the mode control and the desert glowed, wrapped in a white haze of radiating heat. The huge mound glowed even more brightly, like something trapped in the sand.

  “There’s a lot of heat there,” Juan said, passing the glasses to Lena.

  “Exactly,” Malachi replied. “These domes are not the whole show.” Lena peered through the binoculars. “What do you think it could be?”

  “Another installation of some kind.”

  “We’ll go see,” Juan said.

  Malachi nodded. “What have we to lose?”

  They tried a dozen domes on their way to the far side of the grouping, without success. Wind lashed them when they came out into the open, throwing sand and clay into their faces. Uprooted plants flew past them. A black tumbleweed-like ball ten meters high rolled toward them across the green glowing desert. Juan stepped out of the way, but it grazed his arm with a dry crackle.

  He marched slowly, his gaze fixed on Lena and Malachi ahead. “Don’t stop!” Malachi shouted to him when he paused to look back at the domes.

  Juan shifted his pack and marched. The gusting wind was a boxer, delivering a variety of blows to his face. His eyes watered from the cold, dusty air, and his nose stung from the pungent odors, but he was getting used to the ache in his muscles.

  Slowly, the black mound grew larger, camouflaging the figures of Lena and Malachi. Juan quickened his pace and caught up with Lena.

  “It doesn’t seem much farther,” she said, taking his arm. They moved against the wind together.

  “We’re here!” Malachi shouted suddenly.

  Juan peered ahead at his motionless figure, but the mound seemed no closer.

  “It starts here,” Malachi said as they came up to him. He set his boot on the surface. The dark structure rose gently away from them toward a distant height.

  “What is it?” Lena asked.

  “Underground installation of some kind.”

  “Not another ship?”

  Malachi shook his head. “It would have to be huge, judging by this flat curvature.”

  “You want to cross it,” Juan said.

  “Either that or go back and try more domes.”

  Juan nodded. “We have little choice.” Sorrowfully, he tried to imagine what Magnus would have thought. Was it linked to the domes as part of some project? He started up the slope, boots catching on the ribbed surface. Lena came up on his right, Malachi on his left, and linked arms with him. The cluster stars merged as he looked up through teary eyes.

  “It’s colder,” Lena said as they made their way upward in the rising wind. The sloping surface began to seem like a treadmill after a while. The green glowing desert was sullen with shadows as the aurora danced on the horizon.

  The wind died away.

  “That’s a relief,” Lena said. “Let’s rest.”

  They sat down and braced their feet on the ridges. Juan breathed deeply and leaned back against his pack. After a moment, he reached down and rapped his knuckles on the alien surface. “Seems like the same stuff the ship is made of. Mai, what are we looking for?”

  “An entrance, perhaps. There’s something here, and I don’t think it’s a ship.”

  They were silent for a few moments. “You were beginning to feel closer to Magnus, weren’t you?” Lena asked.

  Juan nodded. “Sticking his hand in that cubbyhole saved our lives. I think he had a way of looking at things. The ship, of course, but I felt that he was also looking into me.”

  “He told me,” Lena said, “that he considered himself a failure.”

  “I guess I thought that at first.”

  “He was a father-figure to me,” Lena murmured, leaning forward and hugging her knees, “even though I only saw him once or twice a year.”

  Juan glanced at her. “My father died of a stroke, while taking a leak, on the day I got my first research job. I called home and found out.”

  “Magnus did his best,” Malachi said, “right up to the end. He would have been a special friend to us.”

  “We’ll have to get back,” Juan said, trying to sound decisive, “to make something of all this.” The words seemed hopeless, but he felt as if they were expected of him. He closed his eyes and imagined the roots of the alien tree piercing Magnus’s heart and brain, slowly reviving the body, and shuddered from unexpressed grief.

  A moment passed and Juan awoke. Lena stirred against him. The dwarf was a bonfire on the horizon, lighting up the desert like a dim bulb in a dusty closet. Juan felt stiff but refreshed.

  Lena sat up and checked her watch. “Eleven hours.”

  “We were exhausted,” Malachi said, standing up. “Fortunately, the wind died away and the temperature went up. It may get hot. We should go.”

  Lena drank some water, then handed the canteen to Juan. He gulped some down and gave it to Malachi.

  “Anyone hungry?” she asked as Juan got to his feet.

  “I’m not,” he said, helping her up.

  “No—let’s be off,” Malachi added.

  They went forward three abreast. After a few minutes, Juan said, “We might just march across and down to the desert again.”

  “It seems to be leveling off,” Malachi replied. “I think we’re near the center.”

  They came to the edge of a large bowl in the surface. “Must be fifty meters across,” Juan said.

  “There’s an opening in the center!” Malachi shouted, pointing. “And ribs by which we can descend.”

  “What is it?” Lena asked.

  “Perhaps it’s a vent,” Malachi said, “or an entrance of some kind. I’ll go first.”

  He started down slowly. Juan waited a few moments, then started after him. He looked up when he was a few meters down. Lena was starting her descent.

  Malachi reached the bottom of the bowl and approached the opening at the center. He was kneeling and peering down when Juan reached him.

  “The ridges run down the side,” he said as Lena joined them. “We have to keep going while our water lasts.”

  “He’s right,” she said.

  Malachi climbed down into darkness. Juan glanced at Lena. She gave him a sad look and followed. Juan waited, then sat down and found the ridges with his feet. He turned around and stood up on the first rung as the white dwarf crept up over the edge of the bowl. The sky had taken on a greenish blue hue, reminding him of construction paper he had played with as a boy.

  “Everyone okay?” Malachi shouted from below.

  “Yes,” Lena called out.

  “On my way,” Juan answered, probing for the next step.

  “I’ll shine a light as soon as I reach bottom!” Malachi added.

  Juan descended a dozen rungs and stopped to look down into the darkness.

  “Bottom!” Malachi cried. “Hold still.”

  A beam of light stabbed up through the shaft. Juan glimpsed Lena making her way from rung to rung. He looked up, and for an instant thought he might see Magnus above him.

  “I’m down!” Lena cried.

  He hurried after her and jumped the last rung. Malachi was examining the chamber with his torch. The beam stopped on an exit. “Follow me,” he said.

  Lena went after him. Juan brought up the rear. They came out into a large white glowing dome. Malachi turned off his light.

  “There seems to be no way out,” Malachi said.

  “Circle the edge,” Juan replied.

  They made their way around. Malachi stopped. “Here’s an oval indentation.” He stepped forward and the portal glowed. He stepped back and turned to Juan. “Shall we risk it?”

  Juan looked at Lena. She nodded. “We’ve come this far.”

  Malachi took a deep breath. “So be it.” He triggered the glow and disappeared.

  “Come on,” Juan said to Lena, taking her hand.

  They stepped through—

  —into a dark space.

  His eyes adjusted, and he saw Malachi on the other side of the dimly lit oval chamber, standing before a large square frame of some kind.

  “It looks like a window into nowhere,” he said as they came up beside him. He stepped closer and peered in. “What do you think, Juan?” He flashed his light into the blackness. The beam disappeared.

  “It’s another kind of exit,” Lena said. “Toss something through.”

  Juan took out a pack of chewing gum, removed one stick, and threw it in. The foil glittered in Malachi’s beam and disappeared in mid-parabola.

  “It’s a way into someplace,” Malachi said. “Where else can we go?” He stepped into the frame and vanished before Juan or Lena could reply.

  Juan and Lena waited in the darkened chamber. She took his hand again as they stared into the frame. “He’s been gone too long,” she said after a while.

  A light appeared and Malachi stepped out.

  “What’s there?” Juan asked.

  “You’ll see. Follow me.” He turned and stepped through again.

  Juan and Lena walked through—

  —into a lighted space. Malachi was grinning at them; Juan saw the shuttle sitting in its dock.

  “We’re back in the suncore,” Malachi said, “in our ship’s shuttle bay.”

  “The bowl in the desert!” Lena exclaimed. “It’s a dock for the shuttle.”

  “More than that,” Malachi said. “Our ship’s shuttle connects with a transmat installation on the planet below.”

  “But why have both?” she asked.

  Juan understood. “The transmat frame came later, but even such an advanced system needs ships to set up terminals.”

  Lena looked puzzled. “But why didn’t the shuttle leave us off at the bowl instead of the desert?”

  “Good question,” Malachi answered.

  “Something may have wanted us to get lost and find our way back,” he said bitterly, thinking of Magnus. He turned around and looked into the black frame. “We didn’t notice it when we were here before.”

  “It’s almost like coming home,” Lena said. “We won’t have to worry where our next meal is coming from.”

  Malachi said, “This may not be the only such frame.”

  “Do you think it’s a matter transmitter?” Juan asked, staring into the blackness.

  “It could be a direct bridge,” Malachi replied, “or a transmission of our patterns across some form of short-space, in which case we’re destroyed and recreated every time we pass through. No way to tell.”

  “But if there are other transmat frames,” Lena said, “then there may be a way home.” She looked fearful for a moment. “Can we be sure this is our ship?”

  “We’ll know,” Juan said, “if we find our other packs where we left them.”

  14. Transmat

  Juan said, “I don’t think we can go back up the drop tube.”

  “There’s got to be another exit,” Lena said, looking around the bay. “There it is.” She pointed to an exit indentation to the right of the shuttle.

  Juan approached. It glowed and he went through—

  —into the ship’s winding passage. Lena and Malachi came out behind him.

  “We’re somewhere below the drop tube,” Juan said, “and probably below our drum-shaped chamber.” At his right, the passage seemed to descend even farther. He started upward, with Lena and Malachi at his left. “We’re lucky the big ship didn’t leave the station.”

  Lena said, “I have the feeling that this is the end of the line for it.”

  After washing and eating, they retreated from the cafeteria to the pit. They found the other two packs where they had left them, and settled down to sleep, feeling safe in the amber glow.

  “The web is a vast maze,” Malachi was saying as Juan awoke. “The shortspace arteries through which power courses to the ships can be used to channel travelers directly. It’s more elegant.”

  “So the web was becoming obsolete,” Lena said, “and the black frame we used was the next development.”

  “Precisely—the ships were used to set up the bridges, if that’s what they are, and to reach local points. Of course, ships would continue to draw power from web stars and be used to service transmat frames at distant points, if they failed. What we have here are two kinds of interstellar transport systems. The ship system was replaced, which was inevitable once hyperspace was entered to place core accumulators inside suns. The final step was implicit—send passengers directly through short-space, as with power transmission.”

  “Good morning,” Lena said as Juan raised his head. She was sitting cross-legged on her sleeping bag. Malachi lay on his side, propping himself up on one elbow.

  Juan asked, “How far do you think they got?”

  Malachi gestured with his free hand. “To begin with, it seems they would have installed bridge frames at all terminals.”

  “That would include ships,” Lena said. “If a starship carried a frame bridge, then it would be linked to core stations, and through them to countless worlds.”

  Malachi sat up. “Exactly—which means all the worlds of the starcrossers are open to us.”

  “We know only one set of linked frames,” Juan said, “but there may be a frame on Earth, or at least in our solar system. Somewhere in this core station or on that planet there may be a bridge frame leading to another station or stations that connect with Earth. We found this ship there, so perhaps it came to Earth for that purpose.”

  Lena stood up suddenly. “There may be a frame for Earth somewhere in the ship!”

  “Yes, I see,” Malachi said, “and very possibly there’s a core station in our Sun.”

  “If they finished the job,” Juan answered, sitting up.

  “Consider this, old fellow,” Malachi continued. “The ships went in pairs to do the job, like chaps who string wire, or some such thing. One vessel would have a transmat bridge on board, just to check out the new connecting frame after it’s been installed. Construction crews could then pass quickly between ships when they were out on the job, even if the ships were at different points on the same planet or at the other end of a solar system. Each ship would also have an interstellar bridge frame linked to core stations, as we’ve seen, and the core stations themselves would be joined.”

  “Then there may very well be a second ship on Earth,” Juan said, “connected with this one.”

  “We’ll find the frame,” Lena said excitedly.

  “It could be anywhere,” Malachi said, “in the chambers along the passage above us, or below us.”

  “Just imagine,” Lena continued. “I might leave Earth by one frame, emerge on one of the web worlds, and find a link with this station by looking it up in some sort of directory.”

  Juan stood up and stretched. “I wonder if the frames are preset, or if they can be adjusted.”

  “We never see any controls,” Malachi answered.

  “It’s possible,” Juan said, “that the frames open into core stations only, or into inconveniently placed ships. Maybe they never finished the system.”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Lena replied. “Where do we start our search? From the outer lock, or from here on down to the end of the passage? Shall we stick together or split up?”

  “Are we in a rush?” Malachi asked.

  “I have an idea,” Juan said. “Let’s follow the passage to its end, which should be somewhere below the exit to the shuttle bay.”

  “What do you expect to find there?” Malachi asked.

  “Maybe nothing, but that’s where the shuttle bay is. A bridge frame counts as a major transport facility, and we found a frame in the bay, so maybe there are others nearby.”

  Malachi smiled. “It’s worth a try, despite the bad reasoning.”

  “If we find nothing,” Juan said, “then we’ll have no choice but to start on the chambers at the bottom and work up to the lock.”

  Beyond the exit to the shuttle bay, the passage suddenly ran straight. They hurried forward. It turned left and ended with an oval at least ten times larger than any they had seen in the ship.

  “Shall we go in?” Malachi asked.

  “We have no choice,” Juan answered, glancing at Lena.