The image on the screen wheeled for a minute and then resolved to a body lying in an otherwise nondescript alley. The head of the body was covered in blood; as the PDA got closer, Lowen could see the deep crease above the right temple. Someone had cracked the head wide open.

For all that, the face was still blandly handsome, with the residue of a small, tight smile.

“That’s him,” Lowen said. “Of course it’s him.”

Episode Thirteen: Earth Below, Sky Above

EPISODE THIRTEEN

Earth Below, Sky Above, Parts One and Two

PART ONE

I.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Harry,” Hart Schmidt said. “I’m a little concerned that you’ve taken me to a maintenance airlock.”

“I’m not going to toss you into space, Hart,” Wilson said. He tapped the outer portal of the airlock, which had among its features a small porthole made of a thick, transparent alloy. “It’s just that the airlocks are one of the only places on this whole godforsaken tub where you can find an actual one of these.”

“Don’t let Captain Coloma catch you calling the Clarke a tub,” Schmidt said.

“She knows it’s a tub,” Wilson said.

“Yes, but she wouldn’t like you to say it,” Schmidt said. “She’d start the purge cycle on this airlock.”

“The captain’s on the bridge,” Wilson said. “And anyway, she’s got a lot of better reasons to space me than me making a crack about her ship.”

Schmidt peered at the porthole. “This isn’t going to be a very good view,” he said.

“It’ll do well enough,” Wilson said.

“There are lots of monitors on the ship that will give you a better look,” Schmidt said.

“It’s not the same,” Wilson said.

“The resolution on the displays is better than your eyes can resolve,” Schmidt said. “As far as your eyes are concerned, it will be exactly the same. Even better, since you’ll be able to see more.”

“It’s not the eyes that matter,” Wilson said. “It’s the brain. And my brain would know.”

Schmidt said nothing to this.

“You have to understand, Hart,” Wilson said. “When you leave, they tell you that you can never come back. It’s not an idle threat. They take everything from you before you go. You’re declared legally dead. Everything you own is parceled out according to your will, if you have one. When you say ‘good-bye’ to people, it really is for the last time. You don’t see them again. You never see them again. You won’t know anything that ever happens to them again. It really is like you’ve died. Then you get on a delta, ride up the beanstalk and get on a ship. The ship takes you away. They never let you come back again.”

“You never considered the idea you might come back one day?” Schmidt said.