The Man With the Golden Balloon

Eighty thousand years into the voyage, it is learned that a tiny corner of the Great Ship has never been properly mapped. Quee Lee and her husband, Perri, set out to explore the maze-like cavern, and just when it seems that there is no mystery worth all of this trouble, the lights go out and a stranger's voice comes to them from the darkness.

"The voice was rhythmic and deep, not just easy to listen to but impossible to ignore. Every word was delivered with clarity, like the vocalization of a highly trained actor. But woven through that perfection were hints of breathing and little clicks of tongues or lips, and once in a great while, a nebulous sound that would leak from the mouth or nostrils ... or some other orifice hiding in the darkness. Whatever was speaking to them was slightly taller than their ears, and their best guess was that the creature was sitting on a lump of hyperfiber less than three meters from them. There was mass behind the voice. Sometimes a limb moved, or maybe the body itself. Perhaps they heard the creak of its carapace or the complaining of stiff leathery clothes, or maybe a tendril was twisting back against itself. Unless there was no sound except what the two humans imagined they could hear out in the unfathomable blackness."

Robert Reed has written science fiction for more than 30 years. The Great Ship is one of his most successful inventions -- a world-sized starship weaving its way across the galaxy, filled with odd aliens and even odder humans.


Genre: Science Fiction