The Next Continent (58 page)

The two bases immediately put this useful implement to good use. Still, the debate continued: Why this structure? Why on the moon? Two things were clear: the Architects did not possess ultra-advanced technology, otherwise they would not have chosen a mass driver to escape from the moon's gravity; and they had not yet been to the moon, otherwise they would have left a complete structure behind instead of merely its seed.

This suggested that the Architects might not be so very different from humankind. The mass driver accelerated objects at a constant three gravities. If the Architects were planning to use it, that meant their physical structure was roughly similar to that of humans in terms of structural strength. If they were capable of withstanding greater stress, Star Road would have been shorter, with higher acceleration. This was likely an intelligent species with reasoning processes analogous to humans and bodies at least somewhat similar. Would they return to visit their creation? Because of humanity's actions, Star Road had emerged earlier than planned. Would this prove to be a mistake?

Tae rested quietly, her head on Sohya's shoulders. Idly, he called up Lambach's report and began glancing through it. Suddenly he stood up.

“What's wrong?” Tae saw he was looking not toward the crater, but at his wearcom.

“I don't believe it. This report is an analysis of signals between Star Road and the Architects over the last few months. They've been communicating quite a bit.”

“Did Liberty crack the code?” Tae was now looking excitedly at the wearcom.

“No, but the interval between exchanges indicates the distance to the Architects: only five trillion kilometers, about half a light year. Not only that, their transmissions are Doppler shifted. This says that when the first message was sent, they were moving toward us at about two thousand kilometers a second. That would get them here eighty years from now. But the Doppler shift of the last transmission was much greater. Now they're moving close to ten thousand kilometers per second, about 3 percent light speed. They'll be here in fifteen years, give or take. They'll need time to decelerate when they get closer, of course. But we'll be around when they arrive.”

“Star Road must've told them it's ready and waiting. They moved up their schedule.”

“Yes, but why bother?”

“Because now they know about us too. So that means they're coming to meet us…”

“There's no other reason for them to hurry,” Sohya said. “It's what you or I would do if we were late for a meeting. Without our intervention, ENG would have grown anyway, just far more slowly, in time for the Architects' arrival. And extrapolating growth rates back from before Liberty Island's first experiment, it looks like ENG was only planted 150 years ago. It's too much of a coincidence—the Architects acted because they were aware of human activities on Earth.”

“But why take the trouble to physically come here? Are we sure they just want to communicate? We can't decode their signals, and they didn't exactly make it easy for us to notice them. They haven't acknowledged the signals we've sent in the same direction. Maybe we're like fish in an aquarium, and they're just stopping by to check up on us? In any case, once they get here, what do we do?”

“Maybe we should get ready to welcome them.”

Tae looked suddenly somber. “I hope we can do it peacefully. Some people will say we should arm ourselves to the teeth. And Star Road just makes it easier.”

“We can't be certain they'll come in peace, you know.”

Tae looked toward the ramp. “I have to admit I'm a little scared. Maybe we should at least think about preparing some sort of defense.”

“What happens if there's a misunderstanding? You know how easily a minor falling-out can poison a relationship.”

Tae blushed. She'd been needlessly estranged from her father for years. The same thing had almost happened with Sohya.

He put his arm around her. “Don't worry. The Architects know they're dealing with an intelligent species. They know we were capable of waking up Star Road. Now they're hurrying to meet us. Maybe they're worried that we've hijacked their creation, but if they have the power to build something like that, they could've designed ENG to defend itself as soon as we started messing with it. So far their technology has been used only to create, not destroy. I think they'll be worthy of our respect.”

“Sohya…” Tae looked up at him, a twinkle in her eye. “You really believe we can make friends with them, don't you?”

“We've got to try. It may not be easy. Just like in any relationship—you meet, communicate, maybe misunderstand each other, and you figure out a way to overcome that. Eventually you get to know each other really well. You go from total stranger, to acquaintance, to friend—”

“To lovers,” Tae whispered, and smiled. “And there'll be a kind of marriage between humans and Architects. Sixth Continent is just the place for that.”

Sohya laughed. “That's right. Sixth Continent will be the new world. This is where the adventure starts.” He looked down at her. “Maybe Ryuichi was right. Maybe it's our time too.”

She pinched him. “We promised to wait till we can both live here permanently, after the base is expanded. But I'm not Reika. I'm can't wait fifteen years!”

“I can't either. We'll be the first couple to marry and settle here. It's just a little longer.”

“Then again—we could do it now.” She looked at him mischievously. Sohya's eyes widened with surprise. She pulled him down onto a soft bed of ferns.

Their children would be born here, and their grandchildren.

Their descendants would encounter beings from another star and build a new world. Their day would come, just as it had for Sohya and Tae.

Not yet, but soon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in 1975 in Gifu Prefecture, issui ogawa is rapidly becoming known as one of Japan's premier SF writers. His 1996 debut,
First a Letter from Popular Palace
, won the Shueisha JUMP Novel Grand Prix.
The Next Continent
(2003), a two-volume novel (complete in this single-volume Haikasoru edition) about settlement on the moon, garnered the 35th Seiun Prize. A collection of his short stories won the 2005 Best SF Poll, and “The Drifting Man,” included in that collection, was awarded the 37th Seiun Prize for domestic short stories. Other works include
Land of Resurrection
,
Free Lunch Era
,
Fortress in a Strange Land
,
Guiding Star
, and
Lord of the Sands of Time
(Haikasoru 2009). Ogawa is a principal member of the Space Authors Club.

HAIKASORU

THE FUTURE IS JAPANESE

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In the near future, humans will communicate almost exclusively through online networks—face-to-face meetings are rare and the surveillance state nearly all-powerful. So when a serial killer starts slaughtering young people, the crackdown is harsh. And despite all the safeguards, the killer's latest victim turns out to have been in contact with three young girls: Mio Tsuzuki, a certified prodigy; Hazuki Makino, a quiet but opinionated classmate; and Ayumi Kono, her best friend. As the girls get caught up in trying to find the killer—who just might be a werewolf—Hazuki learns that there is much more to their monitored communications than meets the eye.

THE STORIES OF IBIS BY HIROSHI YAMAMOTO

In a world where humans are a minority and androids have created their own civilization, a wandering storyteller meets the beautiful android Ibis. She tells him seven stories of human/android interaction in order to reveal the secret behind humanity's fall. The tales Ibis tells are science fiction stories about the events surrounding the development of artificial intelligence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. At a glance, these stories do not appear to have any sort of connection, but what is the true meaning behind them? What are Ibis's real intentions?

SLUM ONLINE BY HIROSHI SAKURAZAKA

Etsuro Sakagami is a college freshman who feels uncomfortable in reality, but when he logs on to the combat MMO
Versus Town
, he becomes “Tetsuo,” a karate champ on his way to becoming the most powerful martial artist around. While his relationship with new classmate Fumiko goes nowhere, Etsuro spends his days and nights online in search of the invincible fighter Ganker Jack. Drifting between the virtual and the real, will Etsuro ever be ready to face his most formidable opponent?

ALSO BY ISSUI OGAWA

THE LORD OF THE SANDS OF TIME

Sixty-two years after human life on Earth was annihilated by rampaging alien invaders, the enigmatic Messenger O is sent back in time with a mission to unite humanity of past eras—during the Second World War, in ancient Japan, and at the dawn of humanity—to defeat the invasion before it begins. However, in a future shredded by love and genocide, love waits for O. Will O save humanity only to doom himself?

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