Starclimber Read Online Free PDF

see!”
    Reluctantly she made room for me. I’d never seen anything like it. A second star, flashing green light every three seconds, was slowly gliding toward the first, which pulsed its own blue light like a beacon.
    “What’s happening?” Kate said, pounding on my arm.
    I described it to her as I watched. The flashing became more frenetic and irregular as the stars converged on each other. I stared, transfixed, as the two lights merged into one of even greater intensity. Then it simply disappeared. No interstellar flare, nothing. I stared for a little longer, but nothing reappeared.
    I sank back, letting out a big breath.
    “Gone,” I said. “Both of them.”
    She leaned in to check. “Stars aren’t supposed to carry on like that, are they?”
    I shook my head.
    “Some kind of shooting stars?” Kate suggested.
    “I don’t think they can change direction like that,” I said.
    “We’ll have to tell the astronomers.”
    I winced. “Difficult, without admitting we were playing with their telescope.”
    “But this might be important!”
    “We can send an anonymous note,” I said.
    This seemed to satisfy her. I looked back into the telescope. “Your star’s still there, by the way. What we saw was something else altogether. Here, look.”
    “Oh, good,” Kate said, smiling. “Yes, there she is.”
    “We should get going,” I said.
    “Thank you so much for a thrilling birthday,” she said.
    “I always get more than I bargain for when I’m with you,” I said.
    “Would you want it any other way?” she asked.

A LITTLE SCHOOLING

    I f I’d thought I was going to be famous the next morning, I was sadly mistaken. The Saturday newspapers didn’t even mention the Babelites’ bomb plot. After paging twice through the Global Tribune , I spotted a tiny story about an engine falling off an aerocrane and exploding in the park, but nothing about how the Celestial Tower had almost been destroyed—and saved by me and Hassan.
    “I can’t believe how mean they are,” Kate said angrily when I told her. “Your picture should be on the front page, with a big medal around your neck!”
    We were backstage in the lecture hall at the Sorbonne where she was about to give her talk.
    “They must be covering the whole thing up,” I said. “They don’t want anyone to know the Babelites nearly wrecked their tower.”
    “Well,” she said, “I know you’re a hero.”
    “I was kind of hoping for a medal,” I admitted.
    “I’ll have one made for you,” she said. “Now go find a seat. I’ll be starting soon.”
    “Good luck,” I said. “You’ll be fabulous.”
    Kate needn’t have worried about a poor turnout. The lecture theater was packed. Every seat was already occupied, and people were standing two deep at the rear. I wedged myself into a space against the wall. Near the front was a big group of gray-haired gentlemen in dark suits, hunched forward expectantly like a murder of crows. I wondered which one was Sir Hugh Snuffler.
    On the wood-paneled stage was a screen, and before it a table with a Lumière projector. The general noise in the room was considerable, but it dropped off quickly when the lights dimmed and Kate walked out and took her place beside the projector. She did not seem at all nervous before what must have been two hundred people. Her voice was calm and steady.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, “thank you for coming. Last year I observed a new form of airborne life, which I hope you will find of interest.”
    She touched a switch on the Lumière projector, and the first image appeared on the screen: a detailed scientific drawing of the aerozoan. A great rumble of amazement swelled from the audience. Kate took a pointer from the table, stepped closer to the screen, and began to itemize the creature’s anatomical components. As she spoke, complete silence fell over the audience as they listened, rapt. Kate pointed out the balloon sac, the intestines, the beak.
    “And here,”