Procyon's Promise

By: Michael Mccollum

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Synopsis: For hundreds of millennia, the Makers' robot probes had slowly crossed space in search of a faster-than-light drive. To each race encountered along the way, the same offer was made--all the Makers' immense knowledge in return for a fast interstellar drive or help in finding one. Among the species that accepted the offer was Mankind. And 24th-Century Earth had been made very comfortable because of it But the Community of Nations was about to learn that a promise is a contract--and the Makers would collect for breach. Then Chryse saw the ship. It was spherical and getting larger by the second. This was no rich man's yacht. If anything, it was the biggest spacecraft she had ever seen. ¯' But its size was hardly worth mentioning when compared to the vessel's obvious peculiarity. For almost as long as men had built spaceships, their craft had ridden on tails of plasma fire yet the newcomer was decelerating with no signs of a drive flare. Whatever shipyard had built the craft, it wouldn't be found anywhere in the Solar System. Mankind, it seemed, was about to welcome its second visitor from the stars.