City of Ruins

SEVENTY



The moment Coop got inside the ship, he started barking orders. First, destroy the equipment inside the room. Second, begin the anacapa sequence and get them the hell out of this room.

Dix was waiting for him, just inside the corridor. “Sensors show a lot of people inside the caves.”

“I figured,” Coop said. “You get anything from those guides?”

Dix was supposed to have been asking them about the history of Vaycehn. “We didn’t have a lot of time.”

The outsiders were milling around, looking at the inside of the ship as if they had never seen one before. All except the woman who had been screaming. She looked almost catatonic, her face blotchy and tear-streaked.

“I know that,” Coop said. “Did they tell you anything?”

Dix gave him a baleful look. “They told me that Vaycehn was the oldest city in the known universe. They told me it was founded more than five thousand years ago.”

Coop’s knees nearly buckled. He had to will himself to remain upright.

The woman hadn’t been lying, then. She had been telling the truth all along.

He turned toward her. She was standing just inside the door, watching her people, looking relieved. She had thought they were going to die, too.

She had taken a hell of a risk.

Slowly she looked over at him, and she said something.

“She wants to watch the ship leave,” the lieutenant said. “She wants to be on the bridge.”

He didn’t give permission. He just looked at the woman, wondering what it took for her to trust him like she had.

“She also wants to know if you can do something to make sure the Vaycehnese won’t be able to use the room.”

“Tell her it’s already under way,” he said.

Then he extended his hand.

“Come,” he said in her language.

She grinned. She was prettier than he realized. Her smile-—a real smile— took all the edges out of her face.

She put her hand in his. “Thank you,” she said in his language.

He brought her to his side, then let go of her hand and put his hand on her back for just a moment, indicating that she should come with him.

This wasn’t first-contact procedure. It wasn’t any kind of procedure. Outsiders, no matter who the hell they were, were never allowed on the bridge.

But who was going to punish him now? Who would take away his command? He was on his own out here, five thousand years into his own future, in a universe that had backward technology and ruins instead of cities.

He didn’t pretend to understand it.

But he would have time to figure it out. More time than he probably wanted.

“Let’s go,” he said to her in his language, knowing she didn’t understand the words but that she would understand the sentiment.

She nodded, and they hurried, all the way to the bridge.

* * * *