And that was getting more infrequent. The doctors, of course, gave orders and asked questions. But those weren’t really conversations in any real sense. Attempts to talk to the crew were uncomfortable at best. Seth was embarrassed. Some, like Tenn or Kady, were actively hostile. And of course, isolated in his own section of the module, Ivan couldn’t just walk over to the common area and say hi.

Ivan thought about phoning Judy again. But the last time had been so difficult. She’d cried, then she’d put the kids on the phone, then they’d cried. Ivan had wanted so much to cry as well. He’d hung up after promising to call again, then curled up on his bunk. Even sleep was no longer available as an escape.

He was overdue to call again, and he dreaded it every bit as much as he longed to hear her voice. What would he say? What would he tell her? Ivan was a dead man walking. The emails were hard enough, dealing with the pleas for more information, for a promise or even a hint that he’d be coming home soon. The last email from Judy had included short vids of his children, saying hi to their father. He had wanted to scream, to tear up his room.

Really, the only company he had were the visitors in his head, and they were looking more like unwelcome tenants. But whatever was in there, it had a plan of some kind. And that plan did not necessarily have the best interests of the human race in mind. Ivan got the impression that direct defiance would result in him being switched off, and the computer would simply pursue its mission without human interaction. But he could cooperate, while pursuing his own agenda.

He would keep his family safe. He could do this one last thing for them.

45.Retrieval

45.Retrieval

Admiral Moore sat, elbow on his desk and chin in hand, staring at the images on his tablet. An ache in his neck told him that he’d been in that position for too long.

The navy ship Gambit had arrived at the asteroid where the anomaly was discovered, and was sending back pictures and data. The crew reported that they’d found both the arm from Pritchard’s suit and the anomaly itself.

Communications round-trip time was up around forty minutes at the moment, making any kind of conversation impossible. Moore split his attention between reading the reports as they came in, and preparing a list of questions to send back.

Admiral Castillo walked in. “Hi, Ted. I saw the images.” He sat down across the desk and crossed his legs.

“Uh huh. They’ve crated the suit arm, using an industrial glass lining. But frankly I don’t expect any activity, given what Dr. Narang has learned. The artifact is much more interesting.”

“Artifact?” Admiral Castillo’s eyebrows climbed his forehead. “Not anomaly, anymore?”