Seeker by Jack McDevitt

trips
.”
    “What kind of trip?”
    “One of their flights. They worked for Survey at one time. Used to go together on exploratory missions.”
    “How sure are you? That it came back on one of the flights?”
    She shrugged her shoulders. “
I wouldn’t want to bet on it, Mr. Benedict. Keep in mind that was all pretty much before my time. I was about two years old when they left Survey
.”
    “That would have been—?”
    “Around 1392, I guess. Why? What has any of this to do with anything?”
    “Aside from the
Survey
missions, were there other flights?”
    “Yes.”
She smiled.
“We traveled quite a lot.”
    “Where did you go? If you don’t mind my asking?”
    A love seat appeared, and she sat down in it. “
I don’t know. Not anywhere special, I guess. Middle of nowhere. I don’t think we ever made landfall
.”
    “Really.”
    “Yes. It always seemed odd. We’d go to a station. It was pretty exciting stuff for a kid.”
    “A station.”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you know which one?”
    She was getting annoyed again. “
I have no idea
.”
    “You’re sure it was a station.”
    “Yes. It was off-world. What else could it have been?”
    “How big was the station? How busy was it?”
    “Too long ago,”
she said.
“Anyhow, I don’t think I ever left the ship.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t know. I suspect my memory’s playing tricks on me. I wanted to leave the ship. But they—”
She stopped, trying to recall.
“It’s odd. I never understood, to be honest. They told me it wasn’t a good place for little girls.”
    “You’re right. That
is
odd.”
    “That’s the way I remember it. I’ve always thought it didn’t really happen that way. Makes no sense.”
    “Did you get a look at the station?”
    “Oh, yes. I remember it. It was a big long cylinder.”
She smiled.
“It looked scary.”
    “What else can you remember about it? Was there any unusual structure anywhere?”
    “Not that I remember.”
    “Did you dock in a bay?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How about the lights? Could you see lights anywhere?” Some stations advertised hotels and other services on marquees that were visible on approach.
    “It
had
lights, Mr. Benedict. Spots playing across the station.”
    “Okay.”
    While they were talking, Alex was looking through the family information that Jacob had made available. “You were with them at the time of the avalanche, isn’t that right?”
    “Yes. I was lucky. We were at a ski resort, in the Karakas, when there was an earthquake and the mountain came down. Couple hundred dead.”
    “Must have been a terrible experience for a little girl.”
    She stared off to one side. “
There were only a handful of people at the hotel who survived
.” She took a deep breath. “
The burglary you’re talking about happened about a year before we left on that trip
.”
    I looked at the data screen. After the accident, she’d gone to live with an aunt on St. Simeon’s Island. “Ms. Cable,” Alex said, “what happened to your household possessions? The stuff your folks owned?”
    “I have no idea,”
she said.
“I never saw any of it again.”
    “Okay.”
    “Maybe that’s not precisely true. My aunt Melisa, she took me in, salvaged some odds and ends. Not much, I don’t think.”
    Alex leaned forward. “Can I persuade you to do me a favor?”
    “What do you need?”
    “When you have a chance, take a look at your older possessions and see whether you have anything else remotely like the cup. Anything with English characters. Or anything at all that doesn’t seem to belong.”
    “All right.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Mr. Benedict, there’s something else.”
    “Yes?”
    “I remember my mother telling him, telling my dad, once when they were getting ready to go outside, over to the station, when they thought I was not close by, that she was scared.”
     
     
    I ran a search on the Wescotts. Adam had earned a degree in mathematics at Turnbull, a small western college, then