Neptune Crossing Page 16

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  /Bye!/ Bandicut barked, and the prompt vanished. They were out of Planetview Systems, but the datanet still gleamed around them like the ice of Charlie’s cavern. /You didn’t want anything else, did you?/

  The quarx seemed lost in thought.

  /Charlie?/

  /// Sorry.

  No, I think that’s all I wanted

  from Planetview.

  I was just wondering

  how to get this data to the translator. ///

  Bandicut shrugged helplessly.

  /// I could repeat what I did last time,

  but it’s much longer.

  There’s a greater risk of detection.

  In person would be a lot better. ///

  /Well,/ Bandicut said, /I don’t know how soon I’ll have any chance of going out on another survey run. And even then, I won’t exactly be free to just wander out to your cavern./

  /// I think I can help you manage that last part.

  The question, though, is—should we wait?

  I think, for now—yes. ///

  /Are we done here?/

  /// Yes. ///

  Bandicut nodded and peered at the spangles of light that formed the datanet. Another time, if he were less tired, he would like to peruse them further. /Okay,/ he said, and touched the connection with his thought, and let the sensation of the disconnect cascade like cooling water through his brain.

   Chapter 10 

  Memory Death

  HE DREAMED VIVIDLY that night, but of his own past, not Charlie’s. He dreamed of his parents and his brother Joe, and Megan, before they were killed in the collapse of the EuroChunnel; he dreamed of them the last time he saw them, saying good-bye in St. Louis after Joe and Megan had dropped Dakota off with Megan’s parents. The four of them were heading for a grownups-only holiday in London and Paris, while John was about to catch a flight to Bogotá, Colombia, and the railgun launcher. He was bound for a tour of duty in space, and his family was bound for death. But they didn’t know that then.

  He dreamed of Dakota at the funeral, bewildered and trembling, hugging him briefly but too shaken to say much of anything. But her eyes, those green Bandicut-child eyes, caught his just long enough to seem to make a silent plea. Begging him to take her to space. If not now, then soon. She’d always been a space nut, always asked him about his work every chance she got. It was out of the question, of course; at twelve, she was much too young, and what would she do at L5 anyway? Megan’s parents were Dakota’s legal guardians now, and they didn’t think too highly of space work, and even if he didn’t think that highly of them, there was nothing he could do to change it.

  Then the dream changed, and he was floating through a wispy, star-filled nebula, speeding to catch up with someone from whom he’d gotten separated, but he couldn’t quite picture who it was . . . .