Prelude to Extinction

by Andreas Karpf

  “Give us a few minutes here. It’s just flash-blindness. Just a damned stupid thing for me to have done.”

  “You sure you don’t need us?” he called back.

  “No! standby,” he answered with more sternness than he intended. He turned around and thought he could make out some ghostly silhouettes. Calling back in a conciliatory tone, “I’m starting to get some sight back already. Just ... just give us some time here.”

  “Understood.”

  Time passed intolerably slowly. Jack tried forcing his eyes to focus on his surroundings, as if he could will his sight back. The action was of course futile, and he was relegated to letting nature take its course. He succumbed to an irresistible urge to move and do something, but after shuffling backward a couple of steps, he realized the foolishness of his actions. The last thing he needed was to fall blindly on some sharp piece of rock. The crater wall was visible now, but was little more than a fuzzy, black-and-white image. “How long has it been,” he barked into his radio.

  “Three minutes sir,” was Palmer’s prompt response.

  “Thanks,” he answered, forcing a hint of appreciation into his voice. “I’m definitely seeing improvement here.

  “Devon how’re you doing?” he continued.

  “I’m not blind anymore if that’s what you’re asking. But my sight’s not going to pass any flight physicals right now.”

  “Uh-huh,” Jack answered, only half paying attention. He was able to make out enough detail now to see that the cutter hadn’t made any headway into the object; its smooth surface was completely unharmed. He stared at it a little longer as his sight improved – hoping to find at least the hint of a scratch, but there was nothing. The metal fragment seemed impervious to anything they had. Finally, he shouted, “It didn’t do a damned thing!” Suppressing an urge to throw the cutter in disgust, Jack instead just took a breath and stepped back from the wall.

  “Let me give it a try with my drill,” Devon said. “It’s got a diamond-coated bit.”

  “Knock yourself out,” Jack answered, but stopped short of telling his pilot he thought it was useless. Devon crouched down near the spot on which Jack had been working and gracefully flipped the drill into position. As he started, Jack began walking around the perimeter of the crater. Though he chose the direction opposite to that which Devon had covered, it appeared just as his pilot had described. The wall was an amalgam of blackened solidified lava, fractured rock, compacted soil and other debris. Peppered sporadically throughout it were small fragments of the silver, alien metal. He picked at a couple pieces as he walked, but they were all firmly embedded in the wall.

  He paused at a moderate-sized piece that was maybe a half a meter across, and dug at it with his fingers. The looser material near its edge fell away easily, but his fingers soon encountered solid rock. Jack once again hoisted the laser cutter into position, but this time aimed it squarely at the rock adjacent to the metal. The violet beam cut through the rock as if it were paper, effortlessly pealing it away from the buried metal surface. He carefully guided the beam downward and released the trigger as he reached the crater wall’s base. The metal, unscathed by anything he had done, gently curved downward, and apparently continued deep into the ground.

  Devon’s voice came over the radio, “Captain, I haven’t had any luck here.”

  Jack took a breath and said, “Masako, what’s your status?”

  “I’m back at the shuttle, it doesn’t look like we have anything here that’ll do any good.”

  He glanced at the clock on his glove and said, “It looks like we’ve been at this for over an hour. We’re not gonna get anything else done out here today – not like this at least. Board the shuttle, I’ll be there in a minute and we’ll head back. Devon do you copy?”

  “Affirmative.”

  Jack started at a brisk pace, but A832’s miniscule gravity complicated things. Shuffling around the rim while examining the metal fragments was one thing; moving with a normal gait, however, meant that each step he took contained enough upward force to launch him a couple of meters above the ground. This was followed by a seconds-long wait as he floated back down before he could take his next step. Even turning a corner suddenly required deliberate thought – he had to gauge his trajectory and push off at just the right angle. True, each step covered better than five meters; it was just impossible to walk with a comfortable rhythm.

  The shuttle lay only a few meters away now and he took a moment to focus his attention on his last two steps. The key was to ensure that he landed at the base of the craft rather than reaching it at some high-point in his arcing leaps. As he floated gently down to meet the exterior airlock door, he grabbed its handle to keep from rebounding away. Turning to look back, he saw Devon bounding toward him. The man was coming in high and way too fast. “Devon, watch...” he started but it was too late. He twisted away to shield himself from the inevitable impact, but instead was pelted with a spray of dust and rocks as Devon stopped himself in his tracks with a hockey skater’s stop.

  Before he could put together the words to chastise him, Devon said, “Uh, sorry sir. Didn’t mean to get you covered in...”

  Jack simply held up his hand to quiet him. Without another word, he opened the exterior door. As they climbed in, Devon was quick to change the subject and asked, “I know Masako said this was likely an explosion, but do you think it was deliberate – like an attack?”

  “I don’t know,” Jack answered as he sealed the airlock and started the decontamination cycle. Several high-pressure gas jets roared around them, blowing even the finest dust off their suits. This was followed by an equally loud set of pumps removing the gas and debris from the airlock. A few moments of silence followed while the computer scanned them for any residual contaminants. Finally, there was the hiss of air being pumped back into the chamber. “If this was a strike,” Jack continued, “then who did it?” A green light on the inner door flashed, indicating that they had achieved atmospheric pressure, but Jack’s mind had wandered. If this was the result of some attack, then what were they walking into? The only thing that gave him any solace was the fact that whatever happened here, happened a long time ago. “But how long ago?” he muttered to himself.

  “I was wondering that too,” Devon said, as if he had anticipated the question.

  Jack stared at the green ‘proceed’ light, but didn’t see it. His mind still labored to make sense of it all. “There’s too damned much we don’t know,” he said as he finally opened the inner door and removed his helmet. “Hell, we don’t even have any idea what that metal is out there; or, if it’s metal at all.”

  Devon opened his mouth but Jack cut him off. “Think of it. We literally couldn’t scratch it. Whatever it is, it’s a hell of a lot more advanced than anything we’ve got. I can’t even imagine how we’ll come up with a way to figure out how long it’s been out here!”

  Devon finished removing his suit, and began stowing his gear. “Well, whatever it is, I’d bet that it’s been out here for at least a few centuries.”

  “Maybe longer,” Jack answered. “Let’s let Masako and Don do a more detailed analysis.”

  “What do you think this means for E-Eri-D?” Masako asked hesitantly from her seat.

  Jack didn’t want to lead them on, but neither did he want to quash their hopes altogether. “My gut tells me there’s no threat there. If there was, they’d have done something already.” He drew a breath before continuing, “It’s the same mission as before, except that we now know there is or was intelligent life here. We’re going to be the first humans to walk through an alien city. Even if they’re not there anymore, think about just being able to sift through their ruins and maybe even their libraries. Whatever we find, it’ll be unmatched by anything in all of human history.” As Jack and Devon took their seats in the cockpit, Jack hoped his words at very least masked his own disappointment.

  Devon activated the shuttle controls and prepared for ascent. Jack hit the comm. butt
on, and said “Magellan, we are preparing to return.”

  “Understood,” Palmer replied.

  “Good, Shuttle-one out.”

  Chapter 8 – July 7, 2124

  Jack stood quietly in the lab as he watched Don carefully pick up a small metallic nugget from the sample tray. The scientist held it up to the light before turning to him and saying, “It’s truly amazing. We’ve developed the technology to travel to another star system, but I still cannot give you any details about this stuff’s composition.”

  “How’s that possible?” Jack asked.

  “We just don’t have the equipment on the Magellan to do the analysis. My best guess at this point is that it’s some sort of super conductive material with an extraordinarily high critical temperature and critical field strength – way beyond anything we’ve even theorized.”

  “Don, explain what you mean,” Jack pressed.

  “It’s perfectly reflective in all wavelengths – which can’t really happen in nature. I mean if you extrapolate some of our theories, then maybe a special type of superconductor could do this. But more importantly, since it’s perfectly reflective I can’t really probe its structure. I’ve tried subjecting it to high temperatures and magnetic fields to break it out of this state, but haven’t succeeded. Hell, I can’t even determine if it’s truly metallic or ceramic, or something completely different. It is a low density substance, so it’s not based on any of the compounds we use for high-temp superconductors, like copper oxides. Its extreme strength says that it’s got a very tight crystalline structure. However, I haven’t even been able to cleave a section off of it to start seeing the nature of this structure. The next step would be to try X-ray diffraction or even neutron diffraction, but we just don’t have that type of apparatus on board – it’s not something you typically bring along on any type of off-world mission. Give us a month’s time and maybe we can adapt some of our equipment to try X-ray diffraction. Other than that, I just don’t know.”

  Jack stared at the nugget for a moment before saying, “That piece has obviously been exposed to some extreme conditions – I mean its shape says that it’s definitely been melted. So how can it still be superconductive?”

  Don turned to look him directly in the eye and said, “Jack, that’s the problem. I’ve got no damn idea. Based on our…I mean humanity’s understanding of solid state physics, this shouldn’t be possible. But, here it is.”

  There was a moment of silence before Don continued. “I just don’t know what to say. I mean on the one hand it’s all truly amazing. Here we have evidence of technology well beyond ours. But it’s just collections of debris and rubble.”

  “I know. Do you have any guesses about the original structures?” Jack asked.

  “I had Masako review some detailed maps of A832 we took from orbit, and they failed to show any structures that survived whatever happened here. We looked at the masses of the symmetrical clouds and estimated that each contains on the order of ten thousand metric tons of material. Assuming that each came from a single space station or ship and that there’s no missing material, we’re looking at something quite large. By comparison, the Magellan’s fully fueled mass was only five-thousand metric tons.”

  “I’m well aware of the Magellan’s specs,” Jack said.

  “I know,” Don replied. “Umm…the structure on the asteroid’s surface, however is a different story. I can’t really estimate how much material is or was there. We still can’t even tell if it was a surface base that exploded or something like a large ship that crashed there. As you know, the larger fragments were embedded in the crater, and it seems very likely that there’s more material buried beneath the surface. So all that I can say is that it was probably larger than the lunar polar colony which has about a hundred people. The bottom line is – we’ve got nothing intact to investigate or piece together.”

  The room remained silent as Jack digested their findings statement. Before Jack could formulate a response, Don continued, “On the one hand, it might make sense to search the other large asteroids in this region. However, I think it would be much more useful to go directly to E-Eri D; it is the home of whatever civilization was out here in these asteroids.”

  “Searching the other asteroids right now isn’t possible anyway,” Jack replied. “The Magellan isn’t suited for short trips – it’s too large and has poor maneuverability. On top of that, we’d be going too slowly to use the magnetic scoop to harvest any interplanetary hydrogen, so we’d eat too deeply into our fuel reserves by making one or two more small trips here. Anyway, we can always take a shuttle back here once we’ve set up base camp on the E-Eri D’s surface. There will be plenty of time for that down the road.”

  Don just nodded in agreement before Jack continued, “Were you at least able to make some progress with the fluid sample?”

  “No,” Don replied, and said nothing else.

  Frustration crept into Jack’s voice as he pressed, “You’ve got to have figured something out.”

  “Nothing meaningful. It’s red. Its viscosity is near zero. It’s vapor pressure appears to be zero. It seems to be completely inert. And, there’s no way in the world it’s natural.”

  “You’re not being helpful,” Jack shot back.

  “Don’t you think I’m frustrated too? We’ve spent two days here and aside from what I just said, I can’t tell you anything else about it.” Don took a deep breath before continuing, “At this point, it looks like all of our answers will be on E-Eri D. We should start heading there right away.”

  Jack simply nodded and said, “There’s a problem with that too…”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Palmer and Devon completed their remote scans of the system; they found at least two more debris clouds near the planet.”

  “So, how does that affect us?”

  “One’s about the same size and composition as the metallic clouds here in the asteroid belt. It lies in our path, so we’ll need to make some course adjustments.”

  “That’s not too hard,” Don said dismissively.

  “The other cloud’s tougher to pin down. It’s closer to the planet – possibly where we were going to park the Magellan. However, the clouds out here in the belt are interfering with our readings. We may need to pull out to some empty region between the belt and E-Eri D to re-evaluate things.”

  “I don’t see why we need to do that,” Don said with an edge. “We’ll get a better read on it once we’re closer. I mean how hard could it be to adjust our course en route?”

  “Don,” Jack said calmly, “it’s one thing to find clouds here near the asteroid. They’re close to one another, and like you suggested, it might even be possible that a single event caused this. It’s another thing to find signs of wreckage tens of millions of kilometers away. That’s a much more ominous sign. Palmer wants to analyze the situation further before we decide how to proceed – and I have to agree, it’s a smart move.”

  “Jack, what are you talking about? You can’t just give in to Palmer’s paranoia. It’s not like we can abort our mission.”

  “I’m just saying there’s no harm in being prudent with our analysis. Let’s take our time and make an informed decision.”

  “It’s one thing to be cautious,” Don replied, “it’s another to sit around doing nothing just so you can say you slowed things down. It’s a waste of time; we’re not going to learn anything else here. Even if we leave right now, it’d still take us several days to get there – plenty of time to be prudent and analyze the situation.”

  “You make a good point,” Jack said in an attempt to appease him. “Let’s go over all of this when we meet later and plot our actual course.”

  “Jack, I can tell when you’re just paying me lip service,” Don said with an edge creeping into his voice. “But, listen to me; there’s no point in just sitting still. If we don’t have the fuel to examine the other asteroids in this belt, then we need to go to E-Eri D. We’re not going to lear
n anything else useful just sitting here.”

  Jack patted Don on the back and said, “I know it’s frustrating, but you are doing good work here. Just bring all this up when we sit down together later.” He headed for the exit, expecting Don to continue the debate, but the scientist stayed curiously quiet. As he left, Jack felt obligated to add, “See you later Don.”

  “Fine,” was the half muttered reply.

  Chapter 9 – July 13, 2124

  Kurt pulled his chair in to the table as he and Nadya sat down for what would be their last normal meal for the foreseeable future. The Magellan had spent three days accelerating away from A832, threading its way through the debris fields, and was now in its third and last day of deceleration as it neared Epsilon Eri-D. In a few hours, they would shut the main engines down and park the ship in orbit near the planet, heralding the start of round-the-clock shifts that would mark the beginning of their real mission. For now, though, Kurt was content to lean back and enjoy the aroma rising from his plate of chicken parmigiana – one of his favorites. It was also one of the few meals he was capable of cooking competently.

  Nadya took her first bite and said, “Not too bad for lunch; it’ll do.”

  Kurt ignored the comment and began eating slowly.

  “So, tell me the truth,” Nadya said. “Do you think Jack would’ve relieved him of duty if he kept it up?”

  “Who, Don or Palmer?”

  Nadya laughed. “Don of course. We all know Palmer wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary – he’s just a jerk. But Don ... the man was actually one step short of inciting mutiny.”

  Kurt took another bite of his chicken; it was much more pleasant than replaying the argument from a few days ago. Don had presented their findings on the asteroid mission, and reported that they still had no idea about what was going on. They were unable to identify the red fluid, or any meaningful details about the metal fragments in the clouds or the crater. At that point Palmer stepped in and tried to convince Jack to delay in their approach to E-Eri-D. To say that it drew a fierce response from Don would be an understatement.