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  1.

  Alex skipped down the corridor in the style known system-wide as the Academy Shuffle, one foot probing ahead like a blind man’s cane, the other dragging behind, wearing a groove in steel flooring. Rushed as he was, Alex still took pride in looking like a spaceman should. His cadet uniform was smartly turned out, his cap perched at the jauntiest of angles.

  Pursuing his headlong course, Alex swung quickly into the corridor leading to the station’s hub. Just as quickly he applied the brakes, but under semi-weightless conditions, momentum had the better of him. Heart sinking in despair, he chose between the two targets that seemed to fill the narrow tube. Of the two he chose the full bird colonel. It would have been a shame to land in the admiral’s lap.

  The ensuing collision was muffled only by Colonel Kai’s gasps for breath. The admiral was under no such restraint.

  “Cadet, put yourself on report! What the blazing sun did you think you were doing—and in officer’s country too. What’s your name, mister?”

  “Cadet Harrison, sir.”

  “You just may not make third year, mister. What’s your excuse for this outrageous behavior?”

  Alex was pulling himself ruefully together while Colonel Kai continued to gasp for breath sitting undignifiedly on the floor. In one corner of his mind he searched for an answer, any answer, if only it would appease this unknown member of the top brass. Colonel Kai, he knew, was a pretty good sport. “I was called urgently to the bridge, sir. The director summoned me.”

  “The director,” the admiral fumed. “And just what can you do for Director Henshaw?”

  Colonel Kai had gained his feet and was sucking in long, strangled breaths. He was evidently trying to catch the admiral’s eye, though his own were streaming and watery. Finally he managed to gasp, “Harrison, sir. This is Cadet Harrison.”

  The admiral paused in mid-imprecation and gave Alex a piercing glare. What he saw must have given him indigestion, because he put his hand to his stomach and frowned even more deeply. Under his gaze, Alex was beginning to wilt visibly, but he decided to try again.

  “Admiral, and Colonel Kai, please accept my apologies. The lieutenant instructed me to hurry here as fast as possible. I’m in my first year at the Canaveral Space Academy and I’ve only been stationside for three weeks. At first I was worried that I’d never be able to navigate for myself up here, now I’m afraid I can’t stop.” This last was delivered with a sly glance at the colonel, to see how he was taking it. In fact, if it weren’t for the admiral’s severity, Alex would scarcely have been able to suppress a grin. Damn the man anyway, who was he?

  “Well, Mr. Harrison,” the admiral said, “I hope the drill sergeant will be able to help you pursue that vital portion of your lessons. In the meantime, I believe the director does require your presence on the bridge. Perhaps you’ll be good enough not to keep him waiting. Step to it, mister!”

  The admiral led the way, with the portly Kai puffing behind him. Alex followed somewhat sheepishly, but with every step toward the bridge lock, his spirits began to pick up. He’d never been to the Ondine’s bridge before, and the prospect excited him. Most cadets didn’t have a chance before their second year, and he was still fresh from Earth-side training camp. This was a real opportunity and he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth—even if all this was finally going to mean a pretty heavy dressing down. Alex was born to be a spaceman, and nothing, he felt, could stop him long. That he’d never been Up before didn’t matter. He’d been training since he was a kid—first at home, in his father’s observatory/laboratory, later in the Boy Scouts, during long hours taking advanced space-tech courses after school, and then, finally, during the last nine months at the Academy. Alex knew space like few of his fellow cadets, and he was determined to make a life for himself there.

  The safety lock cycled slowly; inside, the admiral shuffled impatiently and Alex stood rigidly at attention. Colonel Kai, quite recovered, seemed to have something on his mind and looked almost troubled. When the white “safe” light began to blink, the admiral cracked the port and grabbed Alex by the arm, drawing him forward onto the bridge.

  Involuntarily, Alex uttered an almost tremulous gasp. Even the two officers paused briefly to take in the view over their heads. The three stood surrounded by a semicircle of blinking, complex machinery tended by silent and serious techs in gray overalls. Leaping high above the arc of machines was a greater arc—the vault of the transparent dome glowing with the soft, indescribable blues and greens of Earth hanging overhead.

  “Alex?”

  The wonder in Alex’s face changed to bewilderment. Subduing a sob, he took a step across the control room. In front of him, a man detached himself from a small group and rushed forward.

  “Dad!”

  Alex’s famous father was standing there, back from Pluto.

  “Well, that’s the story, Alex,” Dr. Harrison was concluding. “When System Patrol and, of course, the Academy (since they were sponsoring our project) hadn’t heard from Pluto Base in over a month, they sent a drone after us. Nobody on Earth even knew we were missing, although you kids in the Academy must have had a good hunch something was up. When the drone reported no life in evidence, Admiral Haigg here was appointed liaison commander. I understand the order for battle readiness was only days away.”

  “Get on with it, man!” the admiral demanded. “Get to the point.”

  “Alex, I’ve been able to convince the good admiral that such an order would be foolish, even dangerous. You see, Pluto Base simply does not exist at all.”

  At his father’s words, Alex’s heart gave a little leap. Here was adventure! But he quickly squelched the thought with shame; what of the men and women of Pluto Base who were missing? The people with whom his father had worked so hard and so long—where were they?

  “But what could have happened to it?”

  “I wish I knew. When the colony vanished—as near as we can tell, on April 12, 2003—I was taking readings at the observatory on the dark side of the planet. Since the planet occluded line of sight from the base and Earth, I was unable to receive any of the radio demands for information. I had no way of knowing that anything unusual had happened back at base. When I returned sunside after my tour, the base was—well, as though it had never been. Nothing was left to indicate where they’d all gone. Simply nothing. Since then, I’ve been in hypnosleep, riding the observatory’s utility boat sunward. The patrol intercepted me as I entered Earth orbit.”

  “Well, thank God you’re safe, Dad! But what could’ve happened to them? Joan and Dr. Thoet, Professor Carberry—all of them?”

  “We’ve only one clue, son—that’s what I’ve been conferring with Admiral Haigg about. The only thing I found at the base, our only lead, is a message I found cut deep into Pluto’s crust. That’s why I had them call off the task force. This is something too big and with far too many ramifications for the military to handle. If I’m right, we’re dealing with something that is hardly new, something that has happened time and time again in human history. And it’s only now that we have a shot at investigating it scientifically. What I found was a single sentence written over four hundred years ago in the lost colony of Roanoke. It’s Raleigh’s Lost Colony of Virginia all over again. Now, as then, our only clue is the message: ‘Have gone to Croatan.’”
/>   “And that,” interrupted Admiral Haigg, “is what I don’t understand. What does sixteenth-century Virginia have to do with Pluto Base? And I’d like to know by God just how you came to be the only survivor.”

  “That, Alex,” the doctor sighed, “is our problem. Military minds being what they ought not to be, I seem to make an admirable suspect.”

  “A suspect!”

  “Just so. As far as anyone knows, I may have hidden the colony in my back pocket—or so the military supposes. As sole survivor, I am to be allowed, mind you, the pleasure of heading up an exploratory mission to determine just what has happened to the missing colonists. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be allowed freedom of movement. I can go, but only under house arrest.”

  With a nervous shrug of his shoulders, Colonel Kai broke his silence. “‘Arrest’ isn’t quite the term we envisioned, Doctor. ‘Military observation’ would be more accurate—and politic.”

  “Politic or not, when a man isn’t allowed to be alone, or talk to his son alone, I call it arrest. When this mission is declassified, we’ll see what the press calls it. Alex, I’ve called you into this because you’re my son and I know I can count on you. Because I’m under arrest, and because this mission is, as the good admiral would say, classified hush-hush, I can’t bring along a regular assistant. I have to choose from among military ranks, and I choose you. If this turns out wrong, it may cost you your commission, but I hope you’ll come with me, boy.”

  Alex had begun to grin. This was the chance of a lifetime falling into his lap. He’d get out to the farthest ends of the solar system years before his chums. And with a mystery to solve. It was just too much. But he knew the job ahead would be no pleasure trip. There was a mystery to solve, and his father’s reputation to vindicate. What son wouldn’t jump at the chance?

  Before he could give a response, however, a new voice sounded behind the group. Cool and yet pleasantly sweet, the voice repeated its question: “Hello, is Dr. Harrison on the bridge? I’m supposed to report to him.”

  Turning, Alex took stock of the newcomer. Blonde and tall, the body attached to the voice was all girl, and nearly every inch of that girl filled a policeman’s uniform nicely. There were very few cops in space, and an active cadet soon got to know them all. She was a stranger, of that Alex was sure, and he intended to correct that condition as soon as possible.

  “Yes, officer?” His father spoke with the precision of a public man used to going on record. “I’m Dr. Harrison.”

  The woman took in the small group with a quickly appraising glance and slipped almost visibly into regulation persona. “I am Space Patrol Officer Dana Drew. I’m ordered to report to you as a personal aide for the duration of the Pluto expedition. In all matters not pertaining to the governance of the expedition, you are to consider yourself under arrest and in my charge. By order of the Space Patrol, Reg. Ord. 952621.”

  The doctor paused to give Colonel Kai a rueful look and said, “Understood and accepted, under protest. And now, let’s get on with it. Introductions, I think, are in order?”

  Introductions were concluded all around, and planning began to get underway. With a smile in his voice, Alex asked Dana if she’d had a chance to stop by the commissary for breakfast. He was beginning to think that his father’s arrest might not be such a hardship after all. His pleasant dreams were shattered, though, by Dana’s response.

  “That’s Patrol Leader Drew, Cadet, and I’m on duty. As I expect you are. Why don’t you look out for yourself and, I might add, your father, and leave me to my job? I’m sure we’ll have altogether too much opportunity to exchange views over the course of the next few months.”

  Abashed, Alex headed for the commissary alone. Behind him, over a sea of military epaulets, his father looked directly into Dana’s eye. With a tired sigh, he turned back to his work.

  2.

  The long, confining months aboard the Space Survey ship Liza Hatcher were difficult for the exploratory party. Alex and Dana fought so often that Dr. Harrison took to calling them Tom and Jerry. But as time wore on, an uneasy truce developed between the two—truce born of mutual respect for Alex’s capable father, and mutual disregard for the brusque and domineering Admiral Haigg.

  Twenty-six dreary days before they were due to land on Pluto, Alex was playing four-dimensional chess with Dana and losing badly. Conversational gambits had long since exhausted themselves, and the two silently fought the game tooth and nail for every pawn, rook, or spacer they could force off the board. Losing, especially to Dana, always made Alex querulous. With ill grace, he advanced his knight to the fourth level, a forced move, where it was immediately captured by Dana’s president. Ignoring his jeopardized vice-president, he burst out, “So what are you doing here, anyhow? Just what are you getting out of this?”

  Dana replied smoothly, “It’s just a job, Alex. A job I intend to do well. Your play.”

  “I know it’s your job, Officer.” Alex was dangerously near to sneering. “But what kind of a person chooses to be a policeman? That’s what I’m interested in. What makes you become a government flunky?”

  “And you’re not, Cadet?” Dana’s disdain was palpable.

  Alex bristled. “I’m a spaceman, Officer Drew. I belong out here, and you just don’t. If you were trained for this, that’d be something else—but you and the rest of these spacelubbers, what do you know about what’s happened out there? Nothing! When something goes wrong, when the unexpected happens, we don’t accuse people. That’s Earth-side thinking. Out here, we know a frontier doesn’t abide by Earth laws.”

  A dangerous light gleamed in Dana’s eyes, but her mouth had softened slightly. Although she was angry, her voice was under careful control. Her words were firm but understanding. “Listen, Alex, I know you and your father have been under a great strain through all this. But this is my job. I don’t have to like it, but I’ve sworn to do it. Space isn’t your personal preserve, no matter what the Cadet Corps chooses to believe. A frontier isn’t romantic, my friend. It’s dirty and uncivilized and it happens to be my job to police it. Even—”

  A keening whine interrupted her words. In the instant it took Alex to blink, the cabin was shattered, the bulkhead had suddenly sprung more holes than a sieve. Suddenly they were both pitched into the air, tumbling in an eddy of terrific and conflicting forces.

  Dana reached for some sort of handhold, but the tumbling maelstrom offered no sanctuary. Flashing by, she caught sight of Alex being thrown against the curving bulkhead. For a moment he seemed to cling there, somehow stationary in the chaos. And then, with a look of terror and a squeal that was barely audible above the scream of rending metal and whistling wind, he was torn away from the wall, leaving a bloody patch of skin and torn cloth behind.

  Dana had time only to wince before the force of decompression began propelling her toward another rent in the Hatcher’s hull. She grabbed a seat cushion that was flying past and forced it ahead of her, kneading it against a section of the ship’s wall. With almost explosive force, the thick fabric was extruded into the thick bulkhead… and held. The wailing stopped almost immediately, but the ship was still obviously laboring badly.

  “Atmosphere down,” Alex managed to gasp. “I think we’re still leaking—have to plug the hull.” He was plunging across the cabin toward the remains of the chess set, when some flying debris grazed his wounded right shoulder. With a shout of pain, Alex curled into a protective ball and hung motionless over the scene, unable to move in weightless space, suspended six feet from his goal.

  With a flash of comprehension, Dana saw what Alex had been up to. If the magnetic chess pieces could be released into the air, they would be drawn to the remaining microscopic fissures in the walls—to be held there by their magnetic bases. If only she could release the cushion patch and put Alex’s idea to work. The oxygen, she thought, won’t last long!

  Straining her long, lithe body to its fullest extent, she stretched her legs behind her and tried to kick over the
enclosed chess set and release the pieces. There was very little oxygen now, and her mind was beginning to wander. She thought briefly of Alex—it was a shame he was going to die too. Just as she blacked out, she felt a spasm of pain in her left foot—and then felt nothing.

  Consciousness returned in a series of sickening waves. Whenever it seemed that she was close to knowing who she was and what had happened, a galaxy of nausea would strike her down into the peaceful dark of space again.

  Gradually she became aware of a soothing warmth poised just over her eyes. A quiet and concerned voice was calling her name. She could feel the impression someone made, sitting at the edge of her bed.

  Bed?

  It was gradually coming back to her, but at the first thought of Alex’s motionless body coiled in space, she shrank back into unconsciousness. She was vaguely aware that the warm spot on her forehead came and went several times during the passing hours, and when it did, the bed always sloped under someone’s weight.

  The next morning, after a long and sound sleep, she woke from her dreams and tried to roll out of bed.

  “Whoa there, my girl.” The voice was bright and cheerful, and after a puzzled moment, Dana was able to attach it to Dr. Harrison. He put a restraining hand on her forehead and she felt a familiar warmth. She felt glad, yet oddly disappointed.

  “You’ll just have to take it easy awhile, Dana,” the doctor was explaining. “You suffered from severe decompression, complicated by a good old-fashioned case of the bends when we repressurized your compartment. If you don’t follow my instructions for once, you could have some very tricky lung complications.”

  Dana returned the doctor a wan smile and asked, “What happened? Is Alex all right?”

  “Perfectly, my dear.” He seemed pleased by the question. “My boy’s as strong as an ox. In any case, he was unconscious through the whole ordeal, and accordingly he didn’t need nearly as much oxygen as you did. You’re the one who saved the day, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you were awarded a medal. Using those chess pieces was really quick thinking.”