Read Online The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: John Varley
Ads: Link
to tell you he can’t come,” Mari said. “Vaffa will be coming with you. I asked to go, but the Boss needs me because there’s another prisoner who…oh, I’m not supposed to tell you that. But it doesn’t matter.” She kissed Lilo. “I hate good-byes,” she said, looking away. “You be careful. Maybe we’ll meet again.”
“I hope so.”
Lilo did not see the ship. She followed Iphis and Vaffa through a collapsible tube into the living quarters. They were quite small. Iphis heaved himself out of his walker and into his couch, and Vaffa put the contraption out of the lock.
“Grab seats,” Iphis said. “We lift in two minutes.”
Lilo tried again. “To where?”
“Titan.”
They had planned a tacking maneuver on Jupiter. Lilo didn’t like it, but was not about to mention the fact. She had not bought a ticket, and couldn’t complain about the service.
But a few days before the insertion Vaffa had a surprise for her.
“We’re not really going to Titan. I am, eventually, but you’re not.”
“Where am I going?”
“Little place called Poseidon.”
“Where the hell is that?”
Vaffa and Iphis exchanged glances. Lilo had the uncomfortable feeling that the name should mean something to her.
“Try Jay-eight. Jay dash vee eye eye eye. Roman numerals.”
“One of Jupiter’s retrograde moons,” Iphis explained. “A chunk of rock about twenty kilometers through, twenty million kilometers out.”
“But that’s…”
“Illegal?” Vaffa laughed, and was joined by Iphis. “Tell it to the Invaders.”
“Invaders,” Lilo mumbled.
6
Why We Can’t Go Home.
The March 5 Oral Creative Co-op. (Illit. level transcribed tape)
They came in the year 2050, old style. (Two asteroid-sized objects entering the solar system from interstellar space. Palomar scope pans upward. Astronomer bends over eyepiece.) They were decelerating, heading for Jupiter.
Two astronauts, Purunkita and Mizinchikov, were diverted from a regular supply mission to the Mars base. (Stock footage of P & M boarding spaceship
U Thant.
Cut to actors in ship: watching instruments, getting radio message, firing engines, eating meals, copping.) They were to swing out to Jupiter in six months and arrive with empty tanks. Their orders: Sit tight, observe, and await the arrival of a robot tanker. (Process shot of P & M at port of
U Thant
, Jupiter outside. P is as black as space. Her arm is around M. She is pregnant.)
One of the objects did orbit Jupiter. The other changed course at the last moment and headed for Earth. It landed in the Pacific Ocean, near the equator. That was the Year One of the Occupation of Earth. (Flat newsreel footage of Invader ship, twenty-kilometer sphere sitting half-submerged in water, dull-surfaced, pocked with holes.)
What little we know of Invaders comes from Purunkita and Mizinchikov, the only people known to have entered one of the ships and returned. This is what happened to them. (The alien ship matches with the
U Thant
, swallows it. Camera follows P. M. and infant daughter through water-filled stone tunnels.) They met Doctor Ellen Bronson and her two companions, who had entered the ship that landed in the Pacific. They had been in the ship no more than a day, but had entered on the day of landing. On that day, the astronauts had still been three months from Jupiter.
If the story the astronauts told is true, space and time exist in a different manner inside the ships. There is little reason to doubt the story.
Doctor Bronson is thought to be the only human ever to have seen the aliens themselves and survived. (B alone, entering large chamber, as big as the interior of an engineered asteroid. It is half-full of water. In the distance, special-effect distortions represent Invaders. Tight shot of B’s face, indicating shock and fear. She turns and runs.)
Bronson claimed to have had a strange experience. Things were told to her in a mysterious way, and she could never account for it when she
“I hope so.”
Lilo did not see the ship. She followed Iphis and Vaffa through a collapsible tube into the living quarters. They were quite small. Iphis heaved himself out of his walker and into his couch, and Vaffa put the contraption out of the lock.
“Grab seats,” Iphis said. “We lift in two minutes.”
Lilo tried again. “To where?”
“Titan.”
They had planned a tacking maneuver on Jupiter. Lilo didn’t like it, but was not about to mention the fact. She had not bought a ticket, and couldn’t complain about the service.
But a few days before the insertion Vaffa had a surprise for her.
“We’re not really going to Titan. I am, eventually, but you’re not.”
“Where am I going?”
“Little place called Poseidon.”
“Where the hell is that?”
Vaffa and Iphis exchanged glances. Lilo had the uncomfortable feeling that the name should mean something to her.
“Try Jay-eight. Jay dash vee eye eye eye. Roman numerals.”
“One of Jupiter’s retrograde moons,” Iphis explained. “A chunk of rock about twenty kilometers through, twenty million kilometers out.”
“But that’s…”
“Illegal?” Vaffa laughed, and was joined by Iphis. “Tell it to the Invaders.”
“Invaders,” Lilo mumbled.
6
Why We Can’t Go Home.
The March 5 Oral Creative Co-op. (Illit. level transcribed tape)
They came in the year 2050, old style. (Two asteroid-sized objects entering the solar system from interstellar space. Palomar scope pans upward. Astronomer bends over eyepiece.) They were decelerating, heading for Jupiter.
Two astronauts, Purunkita and Mizinchikov, were diverted from a regular supply mission to the Mars base. (Stock footage of P & M boarding spaceship
U Thant.
Cut to actors in ship: watching instruments, getting radio message, firing engines, eating meals, copping.) They were to swing out to Jupiter in six months and arrive with empty tanks. Their orders: Sit tight, observe, and await the arrival of a robot tanker. (Process shot of P & M at port of
U Thant
, Jupiter outside. P is as black as space. Her arm is around M. She is pregnant.)
One of the objects did orbit Jupiter. The other changed course at the last moment and headed for Earth. It landed in the Pacific Ocean, near the equator. That was the Year One of the Occupation of Earth. (Flat newsreel footage of Invader ship, twenty-kilometer sphere sitting half-submerged in water, dull-surfaced, pocked with holes.)
What little we know of Invaders comes from Purunkita and Mizinchikov, the only people known to have entered one of the ships and returned. This is what happened to them. (The alien ship matches with the
U Thant
, swallows it. Camera follows P. M. and infant daughter through water-filled stone tunnels.) They met Doctor Ellen Bronson and her two companions, who had entered the ship that landed in the Pacific. They had been in the ship no more than a day, but had entered on the day of landing. On that day, the astronauts had still been three months from Jupiter.
If the story the astronauts told is true, space and time exist in a different manner inside the ships. There is little reason to doubt the story.
Doctor Bronson is thought to be the only human ever to have seen the aliens themselves and survived. (B alone, entering large chamber, as big as the interior of an engineered asteroid. It is half-full of water. In the distance, special-effect distortions represent Invaders. Tight shot of B’s face, indicating shock and fear. She turns and runs.)
Bronson claimed to have had a strange experience. Things were told to her in a mysterious way, and she could never account for it when she
Similar Books
