Page 66 (1/2)

"Let’s take a look around," she said

The smooth surface of the Builder ship drifted past the drone as if the tiny craft were floating across a still ocean at night The sun had dipped below the horizon an hour earlier, plunging the vessel into shadow that would persist untilthe drone’s searchlight, but that would burn power Tania would rather save, and besides, she still felt unco too close to the new ship until they knewthe roo the screen She convinced herself that at any moment so at Earth were so ht instant the Builders would pulverize the planet below Or that they were launch tubes, from which thousands of tiny attack ships would swar the few humans who remained

When it occurred to her that all the scenarios running through her mind were doo and focus on the facts in front of her

"Take a look at this," Marcus said

Tania broke her gaze away fro e of the pockmarked end of the ship, the end that pointed away from Earth now, filled the screen Marcus tapped the screen and the iuessed, with distinctly fewer craters and gouges

Marcus flipped back to the first ie, then bounced between them in rapid succession After a dozen cycles, Tania realized they were looking at the same section of the ship’s surface Soes, only s," she said

"Yup!"

Greg whistled "Maybe they can do so for your scalp, Marcus"

"Maybe they can do so for your entlemen Please, act like it"

Marcus repeated her words under his breath in an exaggerated, an to cycle thees fro down at the planet It looked the sa in the first place

"What about the naughty bits," Greg said "Er, sorry, Tania The, um, raised posterior protrusions"

Tania sh and went back to a library view of all the ies between the the extensions close-up, Tania realized they had hints of grooves in their surfaces, like the aura towers

An hour later dawn broke and warht bathed the alien ship The droneits path to look up at it fro" Then, "Wow"

Tania sat with Greg, while Marcus slept in a curled ball on the floor behind them She looked up, startled, and crossed back to the center of the roo the change inasked

On the screen, nestled between four of the huge spikes that jutted froonal mark A portion of the ship’s surface was darker than the rest, with five perfectly straight edges foron was another, se while si instruction of the remote-controlled vehicle to stop above the shape Still fifty kilometers distant, the small drone’s camera couldn’t discern fine detail "Push in?" Ti’s throat He withered under Tania’s sidelong glance

"Yes," she said "Get to within a kilometer"

Tim turned to her "Really?"

"Do it, and if we have any other bands, IR or UV, see if you can put theoes"

On the screen Greg and Marcus had been huddled in front of, the caes appeared Infrared, ultraviolet, and two telemetry views The repair drone wasn’t built for this kind of work, but it was pretty good at findingair or water The tiny craft began a slow approach to the surface of the alien ship Soon the towers surrounding the hexagonal discoloration filled the edges of the screen, and then even they moved out of view as the little craft drifted closer Ten kiloonal patch on the Builder ship filled thetiuessed The s shadows cast fro protrusions draped black patches horizontally across the area

From this distance the drone’s ca which was an obvious groove that ran along the edge of the inner hexagon The outer portion had no such groove, instead appearing to be painted onto the broader surface of the massive ship Not painted, exactly, but a cosmetic feature, whereas that small inner area was clearly a separate portion of hull Like a …

"Door," she said "It looks like a door"

Tim took the statement as permission to zoom in on the inset piece Soon the widescreen display in front of Tania was filled with a sion in the center It looked in abefore her in the room, and she wondered then if that hat she was indeed staring at: a ship identifier, like those painted onnear the center," Marcus said, pointing

The iht Just below the center of the hexagon Tania could see a bright red dot She glanced at the smaller monitor off to the side and studied the quadrant devoted to an infrared view "Look at that," she said

Everyone turned On infrared, five such dots glowed bright in a rough ring around the very center of the door They brightened in unison, then faded The cycle repeated at a pace that gave Tania the unsettling i heart within

"Zooo in farther" She answered his next question before he could ask it "Until we can see those lights close-up"

Tim complied and the remote drone lurched forward in a burst of thrust Tania’s focus alternated between the IR view, the distance-to-contact readout, and the ht presentation

As the craft ht beca ht, but shapes

"There’s another hexagon in the center of them," Marcus said

Tania squinted She couldn’t see it at first, but then found what he referred to This five-sided portion was the sahts around it she would have roove that ht so beacons

Five sides Five lights Five sht But the aura towers dispersed in only four groups That fact troubled her in a way she couldn’t explain

When the craft loo thrust