Read Online Gift From The Stars by James Gunn - Free Book Online

gestured at the laptop. “You look like a Jessie.”
    “That’s me,” the woman said. “Jessica Buhler.”
    “And you flew halfway across the country to check up on your e-mail friend?”
    “How did you know?” Jessica said.
    “You don’t get a tan like that around here,” Frances said. “Florida?”
    “California. Near San Diego. But you haven’t told me who you are.”
    “A real friend of Adrian’s—Frances Farmstead. Like you I got concerned when I couldn’t get in touch with Adrian, and I got really concerned when I discovered that he didn’t exist.”
    “He didn’t exist?”
    “Not according to all the electronic records.”
    “No!” Jessica said. And then, “Adrian has mentioned you.” Now it was Jessica’s turn to appraise Frances. “He said you’d helped track down the author of the UFO book with the diagrams. That’s how we got acquainted, on a serve-list for spaceship enthusiasts.”
    Frances wondered, for a moment, why she hadn’t been included on such a list. “You don’t look like a spaceship enthusiast.”
    “What does a spaceship enthusiast look like?”
    “Strange,” Frances said. “Like me.”
    “That’s odd,” Jessica said. Then, “I mean, why should someone who wants to build a spaceship be strange?”
    “You look like someone who could get plenty of satisfaction right here,” Frances said. “You wouldn’t need to leave Earth.”
    “You don’t know me. The question is—where is Adrian?” Jessica continued. She looked around the room as if he might be lurking somewhere.
    “That’s what a number of people would like to know. The government suspects aliens; I suspect the government.”
    “Aliens!” Jessica echoed.
    “That’s the way I said it,” Frances responded. “Oh, aliens might have the motivation; they sent us a ticket to the stars and we cashed it in for creature comforts. They could be screwing things up, casting an occasional sabot in the machinery of our joy. But why send us a design ifthey’re already here? And they sure aren’t going to be interacting from a distance of dozens of light years. On the other hand, Adrian might be an annoyance to the people who don’t want our peace disturbed.”
    Jessica stood as if poised between attack and flight. She had, apparently, never before considered either of these possibilities. “Aliens!” she said again. Then, heading for the door, she called over her shoulder, “Maybe that explains it.”
    “Explains what?” Frances called after her. When Jessie didn’t reply, Frances trotted to catch up.
    Jessica led the way to a meadow beyond the circle around the cabin that Frances had made before she entered. “This!” Jessica said, pointing.
    Frances stood beside the young woman, panting. In front of them was a circle of burnt and blackened grass, about fifteen meters in diameter. Frances looked at it, puzzled.
    “See?” Jessica said.
    “You see,” Frances said, absently, “but, as Sherlock Holmes said, you don’t observe.” What she couldn’t see was the scenario this evidence fit. Oh, clearly it would fit an alien abduction category, but the questions to be asked seemed to hang in the air, unsupported, and to suggest no good answers. It was the wrong genre.
    She looked up and started back toward the cabin, ignoring Jessica trotting along beside her, trying to talk about aliens, when she saw the smoke. She ran as fast as she could, but Jessica got there before her and stood looking at the flames already rising above the back of the cabin.
    “My god!” Jessica said. Frances brushed past her. Jessica tried to grab her arm. “What are you doing?”
    Frances ran to the front door, raised her arm across her face and over her mouth and nose, and went through the open front door. The room was filled with smoke pouring through the kitchen doorway. Frances felt her way to the desk. She grabbed for the computer. It was hot, and she almost dropped it as she picked it up, but she yanked it free from