“I mean something a little more useful than a self-portrait. How about inscribing a cure for cancer on some of those things? Cancer is not uncommon. The Noks have a problem with it. We know that several species of animals across at least a half dozen worlds are afflicted with it. No matter where it shows up, it’s always the same. How long were we wrestling with it while it killed off tens of thousands? Probably millions? Or maybe they could have shown us a way that kids could be born without handicaps. I can think of a lot of things they might have done. But no, all they seemed able to do was run around bragging about how they’d been somewhere first. Who was that guy who used to leave signs? ‘Gumball was here.’ Something like that.”

“Kilroy.”

“Whatever.” He got up. “I gotta go lie down.”

•  •  •

Ken, Beth, and Wally were seated in the passenger cabin when she came in off the bridge. They’d turned on one of Hutch’s favorite settings, a country porch surrounded by trees and bushes in the path of a warm southern breeze. Something by Beethoven played softly in the background. Ken was reading while the other two talked. He looked up and raised a hand. Hutch sat down beside him. “Is that a history?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” he said. “It’s Andre Sainte-Angelou’s Harbingers.”

Hutch had read the book two months earlier, immediately after its release. It was an attempt to explain where the omega clouds came from, and how they functioned. Unfortunately, her grasp of physics was too shaky to allow a dependable analysis. “What do you think of it?” she asked.

“It’s all guesswork. I don’t think there’s any question they were weapons. And somehow they got out of control.”

“I know. It’s hard to see how they could have evolved naturally. But they were intelligent beings. I’m not sure how that equates to weaponry.” She sat back, closed her eyes, and let the scent of gardenias, sweet lemongrass, and honeysuckle envelop her.

Ken shook his head. “Who knows? Maybe we discovered what super soldiers really look like. By the way, I should say thanks.”

“For what?”

“For helping make all this possible. Hutch, I’ve been reading and theorizing about history all my life. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to be part of it.” He closed the notebook. “A thousand years from now, people will still be talking about this mission.”

“Even if we don’t find anything?”