Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams by Sean Williams Page A

likely to meet will be wanderers like us. The odds are that we won’t stumble across anybody’s home system. It’ll be just one ship, all on its own.’
     
    I thought about it, nodded slowly. ‘That makes sense, I guess.’ And it did, although I’ll bet she only thought of it after we met the saucer. ‘But, if they’re looking for life as well, then why won’t they talk to us?’
     
    ‘They might well have tried.’ Freedom smiled wryly. ‘You never know what life will be like until you find it.’
      
    ‘Do you know what really scares me?’ asked Sara. It was late one ship’s-night and we were sharing a coffee in her quarters. I hadn’t actually approached her for her thoughts on the matter, but she offered them anyway. Word had obviously spread.
     
    ‘No. What?’
     
    ‘That it might be real.’
     
    ‘Which?’
     
    ‘The, you know, the flying saucer. The aliens.’
     
    ‘What’s so horrible about that?’
     
    ‘Everything. They’re obviously so much better than we are. They make us look like savages in comparison.’
     
    ‘I know.’ I didn’t like to see her so worried. ‘But think of all the things we can learn from them -’
     
    ‘That’s not what I mean.’ She leaned intoxicatingly closer. ‘Maybe they’re toying with us ... ‘
      
    Jake laughed when I sought his opinion.
     
    ‘Does it really matter, either way? If it’s a prank, then whoever infiltrated the system is better than we are. If not, and the aliens are real, then they’re also better than we are. We’re helpless to do anything no matter how you look at it, so we might as well sit back and enjoy what happens next.’
     
    ‘And if it’s us? If we’re losing it?’
     
    ‘As I said: we sit back and enjoy the show.’
      
    Gabe said much the same, in a round-about way.
     
    ‘I’m going to sit on the fence for a while, Alek. Sorry.’
     
    ‘A three-sided fence,’ I said, ‘between aliens, sabotage and madness.
     
    A bit uncomfortable, isn’t it?’
     
    Gabe smiled. ‘Yes, but I’m used to it. It goes with the job.’
     
    ‘And you’re welcome to it. Can I ask one last question, then, just for the record?’
     
    ‘Go ahead.’
     
    ‘We’re not armed, are we?’
     
    ‘Why would we be?’
     
    ‘And we have no escape capsules?’
     
    ‘Where would we escape to? That’s two questions, by the way.’
     
    ‘I know. But don’t you think we’re dangerously vulnerable out here, all alone and with no means of defending ourselves?’
     
    ‘Of course we are.’ His smile broadened. ‘That’s half the fun, isn’t it?’
     
    As Honorary Soap Operator, I could only agree.
      
    So, opinion was divided. Only two members of the senior crew were prepared to admit that they believed in the existence of the aliens; three were undecided, and two thought the saucer was an illusion. Had I been looking for a consensus, I would have been disappointed.
     
    As for me, I had my own theory - a different one again. Like Myrion, the timing was what bothered me. It was too dramatic, too contrived. Months of editing had taught me that the universe didn’t naturally work that way; it had to be nudged before it would perform. Like Andre, I thought it was someone human doing the nudging, not an alien - but, unlike him, I had both a motive and a suspect.
     
    The saucer had appeared not long after our last package from Earth. That was the crucial clue. If our AIs had been corrupted by some sort of virus, then it must have arrived in that package; maybe hidden in Episode Four, dormant until we played the recording. If that was the case, then only one person, or group of people, could have been behind it.
     
    Every package is checked and rechecked for aberrations before leaving Earth orbit; a virus, no matter how dormant, would have shown up eventually. If High Command had been infiltrated by a traitor, then that person could never have been certain the time bomb would reach its destination. Only one