It was snowing again, but this time the snowfall was gentle, almost pleasant, the white flakes sifting down from the leaden sky.
Fingering the translating computer in the pocket of his thick parka, Brad stood between Mnnx and Lnng on the crest of the hill overlooking the villages down in the hollow. The buggy he had driven to this final meeting with the aliens stood waiting a few meters downslope, its energy screen keeping it clear of snow.
“You are leaving us?” Mnnx asked, for the fifth time in the past hour. He looked slightly ridiculous in the padded garment that covered him from his sloping shoulders to his booted feet.
Brad nodded inside his parka’s hood. “Tomorrow morning, after the snow stops.”
“Will you come back, Brrd?” asked Lnng.
Pulling in a breath of the cold air, Brad replied, “I can’t come back. Our village is so far away that it would take hundreds of years for me to return. But others from my world are already on their way here. They will help you. They will reach you.”
“Will they protect us from the Sky Masters?” asked Mnnx.
Brad hesitated a heartbeat, then stretched the truth. “If the Sky Masters return, they will protect you.”
“You said the monsters from Beta will never return,” Lnng reminded him.
“That’s right. You have nothing to fear. The monsters will never bother you again.”
“You did this for us?” asked Mnnx. “Why?”
“To help you to live. To start a new life for you and all the new Folk who will come up from the ground and live in the new village.”
“For us.”
“For all of you. That is my mission, to help all of you to live, to learn, to grow strong once again.”
“You are strong,” Lnng said. “Stronger than the Sky Masters.”
Mnnx started to speak, but stopped himself.
Maybe I’ve convinced Mnnx that he doesn’t have to be afraid anymore, Brad thought. Maybe.
He found that there was a lump in his throat. Suddenly he realized that he would never see these aliens again, that he would not play any further role in their lives. He was surprised at how sad he felt.
Forcing himself to keep his voice from breaking, Brad said, “I must go back to my encampment now.”
The two Gammans stood there, silent, numb. Brad stared at them, tongue-tied, knowing that he had run out of words. Despite the shiver of aversion that he felt at the thought of touching the aliens, Brad wrapped his arms around Lnng, then turned and embraced Mnnx. “Good-bye, my friends,” he choked out.
Then he turned and walked swiftly through the snow to the waiting buggy. He blinked tears from his eyes.
* * *
The next morning Brad and Felicia stood at a display screen in the starship’s main auditorium, their arms around each other’s waists. Planet Gamma, below them, was covered in gray clouds.
Dozens of other people were drifting into the auditorium, gathering at the display screens.
“Not much to see,” Felicia murmured.
Brad called out to Emcee, “Can we see the village through the clouds?”
Emcee replied, “Switching to infrared imagery.”
And there was the village, a tiny dot nestled in the hills.
“Going to maximum enlargement,” Emcee’s smoothly unemotional voice said.
Brad gasped. The whole population of the village was standing out in the central square, gazing up at the clouds.
“They’re trying to catch a glimpse of us before we depart,” Felicia said.
Brad did not reply. He couldn’t. It took all his willpower to keep from crying.
“Breaking orbit in five minutes,” said Emcee.
“You’ve saved them, Brad,” Felicia whispered.
“I hope so.”
* * *
Professor Kosoff and Dr. Littlejohn sat at a table on the balcony that circled the auditorium, watching the growing crowd on the floor below.
They heard Emcee’s announcement, “Breaking orbit in five minutes.”
“Going home,” said Littlejohn, a crooked smile on his dark face.
“Home,” Kosoff murmured.
“You look rather somber.”
With a shrug of his heavy shoulders, the professor said, “There’s so much we’ve left undone.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Littlejohn said. “We’ve put energy screen generators in orbit around both Alpha and Gamma. We’ve accomplished what we came here to do. Both planets are now shielded against the death wave.”
“Yes, but…” Kosoff hesitated.
“The follow-on mission is on its way here. They’ll help the Gammans get through their winter.”
“Do you believe the Gamman tale about the Sky Masters?” Kosoff asked.
It was Littlejohn’s turn to hesitate. At last he replied, “There must be something behind their mythology.”
“The cats on Beta,” Kosoff muttered. “The nanotechnology in their eggs. The disruption of this whole planetary system.”
“That’s not our problem any longer,” said Littlejohn.
“Isn’t it? There was a cataclysm here, and it wasn’t a natural disaster. Someone made it happen.”
“The Sky Masters.”
“Someone. And we’ve interfered with their handiwork.”
Littlejohn shook his head. “It all happened a hundred thousand years ago. Whoever did this is long gone.”
Kosoff let out a sigh that was almost a moan. “I hope so. I really hope so. If not, we’re going to have a tremendous confrontation on our hands.”
Littlejohn’s voice went hollow. “An interstellar war?”
“Sounds melodramatic, doesn’t it?” said Kosoff. “Yet the evidence is there.”
For a long moment Littlejohn was silent. Then, “The one I worry about is MacDaniels. Returning to Earth is going to be very hard on him.”
Kosoff said, “It’s going to be very hard on all of us, returning to a world that’s four hundred years different from the one we left.”
“Yes, but it’s going to hit Brad harder than most of us.” Motioning to himself and Kosoff, the Aussie went on, “You and I will have university sinecures waiting for us. We’ll be honored and feted. Brad’s going to be just another peon returning from the field, a worker with nothing to do. It’s going to be hard for him.”
Kosoff snorted. “For ten minutes, maybe. Brad’s a born leader. He’ll find a place for himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he returns to Gamma. Or maybe runs for a seat on the World Council.”
Littlejohn almost smiled. “Do you think…?”
With some heat, Kosoff said, “Don’t worry about Brad MacDaniels. Just try to stay out of his way. If we’re going to have an interstellar war, he might be just the man we need to lead us.”
* * *
“Breaking orbit,” Emcee announced. The display screens all around the auditorium showed gray-clouded Gamma slide off to one side, then begin to dwindle noticeably.
“We’re on our way home,” Felicia said.
Brad nodded, but his eyes were still on the screen and the shriveling globe that was planet Gamma.
I’ll come back, he promised silently. No matter how long it takes, I’ll come back to them.
That night Brad dreamed again. He was at Tithonium Chasma once more, but this time Felicia was standing beside him, out in the open, and the cliffs did not crumble. This time his father and mother and little brother were outside with him, alive, happy, smiling. This time Mnnx and Lnng and the other Gammans stood there too.
And this time Brad held a pink-faced infant squirming and gurgling in his arms.
Turning to Felicia, he said, “We’ve got a lot to do.”
“Yes,” she said, smiling delightedly. “Together.”