Impact

62

Abbey awoke in the shack to the smell of bacon and eggs on the woodstove, the sun streaming in the windows, the lapping sound of water on the cobbled beach outside. As she came into the main room, Ford was at the kitchen table, hunched over the laptop connected to the NPF drive. She could see he was paging through the pictures.

"About time!" Jackie cried from the stove. "It's the crack of noon." She pushed a coffee cup into her hands, prepared just the way she liked it, with tons of cream and sugar.

"Come outside and have breakfast."

With a glance at Ford, Abbey left the shack and walked over to a weather-beaten picnic table set up in front. A long unruly meadow sloped down to a cobbled beach. Beyond lay a scattering of spruce-clad islands with a few openings among them showing distant views of the sea horizon.

Jackie laid the breakfast in front of her and took a seat with her own cup of coffee.

"Where's the Marea?" Abbey asked, tucking into the bacon and fried eggs. She was starving.

"I moved her to the cove behind the island," Jackie said.

Abbey drank her coffee, letting her mind wake up, staring out to sea. Their island, Little Green, was tucked amidst a swarm of thirty islands, separated from the mainland by the Muscle Ridge Channel. To the south lay Muscongus Bay and to the north Penobscot Bay. It was a perfect hiding place, tucked in the middle, invisible from both sea and land, and extremely well protected from the weather. As far as she knew, no one had noted their departure from Round Pond, no one knew where they were going. Not even her father. Here they were safe. But safe from what? That was the question.

She mopped up the last of her eggs with a piece of bread and refilled her coffee from the pot sitting on the table. The ocean was calm, an easy swell falling on the rocks and withdrawing in a regular cadence. Seagulls cried overhead and a distant lobster boat chugged among the islands.

Ford came out, holding a coffee cup, and eased his lanky frame down.

"Morning!" said Jackie, giving him a big grin. "Sleep well, Mr. Ford?"

"Never better." He took a long sip of his coffee and stared out to sea.

Abbey said, "I see you've been looking over those images of Deimos."

"Yes."

"What do you think?"

Ford didn't answer right away, gazing at her steadily with pale blue eyes. He spoke slowly, in a low voice. "I think this is an extraordinary discovery."

Abbey nodded.

"It's unquestionably alien and quite likely the source of those stray gamma rays. It must be old to have gotten so pitted and worn."

"I told you it was real."

He shook his head slowly. "This is the answer to one of the deepest mysteries in the cosmos. By finding that alien construction, now we know we're not alone. My mind is just reeling."

Abbey stared at him. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head. " 'Alien construction', my ass. That's a weapon. And it just fired on the Earth."