Attunga

by Peter Wood

  After a few minutes Wirrin adapted, his apprehension receded and was replaced with curiosity and excitement. Thom was brilliant. Turaku was right about this being a relatively easy task for him. Their course was indirect as it picked its way past narrow sections and irregularities in the walls till the gap closed even further and the ship stopped.

  ‘We are swallowed by the asteroid and it is holding us in its heart. Is there a way past if we move vertically, Thom?’

  He wanted to go further?

  Thom laughed. ‘Not for this ship. The gap is narrower than we are.’

  ‘Can we drill through with our multi-spectrum beam?’

  Thom looked at his instruments for a moment.

  ‘No way! Not unless we drill for over 2 kilometres. There’s less than 300 metres of the whole length where it’s open enough to let us through.’

  Turaku’s voice sounded through the control room.

  ‘Drilling is feasible, but time-consuming and profligate of energy use. We suggest the use of several specially designed remote controlled drones if you wish to explore further. Otherwise we can construct a detailed 3D map for a virtual experience.’

  ‘Virtual reality doesn’t work for Sonic.’

  ‘Channelled through your display screen it would, with no apparent difference to your current viewing experience.’

  ‘We will use the drones. Real experience is superior.’

  Wirrin agreed with Sonic, except for a major drawback.

  ‘We don’t have any drones. The Comet will have to make them and send them in to us.’

  ‘The drones will be made on your ship. It is an excellent opportunity to test your skills with the picofactory.’

  ‘What skills? That’s part of my new training and it will be months before I can do something like that.’

  Thom was right. None of them had any experience at all with picofactories.

  ‘You mean you’ll send the information across and we’ll set it going from here?’

  ‘No, Wirrin, you will do it all as a challenge. You will design two remote controlled drones and operate the picofactory with your InfoSystem. Pirramar has just confirmed that with your capabilities you can easily manage the task. Here are your basic parameters. The two drones need only be simplified versions of a standard surveillance drone, though reduced to a width of half a metre for better access and manoeuvrability in confined spaces. Thom and Sonic have the practical skills for navigation and they can control the drones from their respective consoles. The picofactory is just a dedicated InfoSystem and Pirramar assures me the whole process should take you no more than thirty minutes.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous! Three months of training for me and you expect Wirrin to do the same thing in half an hour?’

  ‘Wirrin has many special skills.’

  ‘Yes, Thom, his months of advanced training with Pirramar have been with closely related work and will transfer to the task at hand with relative ease. Watch and see.’

  Initially Wirrin shared Thom’s astonishment but that quickly disappeared as soon as he applied himself to designing the appropriate drones. He linked to the Comet’s database for information about every drone, searched for design applications and was surprised with a list of thousands. Build a sorting test to determine the most applicable? No, wrong approach. Even if he found the best he wouldn’t know how to use it without practice. Existing experience with design was needed.

  Aha! Yes, that would do it. Now for the picofactory controls.

  ‘There you are, Thom. The two drones will take four minutes each for construction.’

  Wirrin was feeling very pleased with himself and enjoying Thom’s look of disbelief when a loud chitter made everyone look at Sonic.

  ‘I am still trying to finish my design and I need some help. You are too fast, Wirrin.’

  Wirrin quickly synchronised the two InfoSystems and tried to understand what Sonic was doing. It took a couple of minutes.

  ‘I never would have dreamed of doing it this way. It’s very clever but it will take a lot of work. I saved time by using Wanna.’

  ‘The planning assistant for our living spaces? That’s weird. What would he know about drones?’

  ‘Everything now, Thom, because I added all the drone specs to his information base and modified his application algorithms so he could use them with the new data types.’

  Thom rolled his eyes and called it brainiac gobbledygook.

  ‘You mean you taught him to design drones instead of buildings?’

  ‘No, he already knows how to design. That’s built into him. I just made it so he could work with new data.’

  ‘Well it seems sneaky to me. Can I do it that way instead of taking three months of training?’

  ‘You can try.’

  Thom laughed because he knew he didn’t have a clue about how to even start.

  ‘Which drone’s being built first? Mine or Sonic’s?’

  ‘Yours? I build it and you call it yours? Well, the one Sonic controls is finishing in about a minute. You’ll have to wait a whole four minutes extra.’

  A blue signal flashed and Sonic, with an eager trill, abandoned his design efforts. He’d come back to them at some stage but right now the pull of further adventure was too strong.

  ‘That means the drone is ready for me?’

  ‘Its controls are linked to your console and you fly it exactly the same as the Comet. I’ve allocated the left half of our display screen for your scanners and the right half for Thom’s.’

  ‘Gotcha! You just said it was mine.’

  ‘… And Calen is controlling the visuals for both, so he can switch either to full screen if there’s something extra interesting.’

  Sonic took remote control of his drone and the left side of the ship’s screen filled with a view, the right went blank, and the drone started moving.

  ‘Hey, wait for me.’

  ‘I am acclimatising to the new controls, Thom. I won’t go far.’

  The view spun crazily as Sonic experimented with his motion controls, then steadied and fixed on the sleek shape of Thom’s ship. After a full 360-degree circuit it darted towards the narrow gap.

  Whoa! Wirrin involuntarily caught his breath as the walls closed in again, this time to a matter of metres. He could see the texture of the metallic-grey rock. It looked as if you could reach out and touch it. This was a marvellous idea of Turaku’s. It really felt as if it was Thom’s ship moving, and despite knowing full well that the drone was just over half a metre in width, Wirrin had to fight the impression that it was impossible to fit.

  ‘Come back! My drone isn’t even finished.’

  Wirrin and Calen exchanged grins. The indicator showed thirty-seven seconds before Thom’s drone was complete. With dizzying speed the view changed as Sonic made an about turn and showed part of their ship in the wider space past the narrow entry gap.

  A small docking port opened and the second drone appeared. When it swivelled on its axis and started moving, the second half of the display screen suddenly filled with a wall of rock, and then shifted to a close-up of the docking port. A glance showed Thom’s face with a big grin and a ton of concentration. His half of the display changed again as he rotated away from the ship, moved towards the gap, then closed with Sonic’s drone.

  Each time Wirrin shifted his attention from one section of the display to the other he had to reorient himself. Weird! From Sonic’s drone you were looking at Thom’s and from Thom’s you were looking at Sonic’s.

  Sonic’s drone turned again and with an unspoken but very emphatic ‘Let’s go!’ the two explorers headed off into the fissure.

  After 2 kilometres of meandering progress, they saw that the main crack in the asteroid turned into hundreds of strange channels burrowing even further into the asteroid, and most of their time involved exploring a selection of these. Thom followed Sonic’s eager lead, but then realising they would see far more if they separated, they went wherever their whim took them through the convolu
ted honeycomb of interconnecting passageways and tunnels. Sonic in particular had a great fascination for the endless tunnels and somewhat reluctantly stopped when Calen pointed out that he was starving, they’d only had a light lunch over five hours ago, and that since it looked like they might be staying in the giant cavern for the night, it was time to experiment with the food factory.

  ‘There is so much more to see. We must return to our drone adventure whenever we can.’

  ‘We should have a sleep and start as early as we can, because we have a very busy time coming up on the habitats,’ Calen said.

  Wirrin wondered what Calen meant – he and Sonic were always busy.

  ‘What time do we have to get back to Warrakan tomorrow? If we can make it late we might be able to have another go at the labyrinth, but remember there are still two more caverns ahead and who knows what else before we meet with the Comet again, and we haven’t even looked at the other three asteroid sections yet,’ said Wirrin.

  ‘I would like to extend our adventure through all of tomorrow and arrive home late. Is that inconvenient for any of us?’

  Everyone agreed. Sonic was eager about everything he did but the excitement he’d shown since they found the cavern was unusual, and he clearly loved guiding his drone through the ‘labyrinth’.

  ‘It’s our second activity day, Sonic, so we can get home as late as you like.’

  A geyser of water shot towards the ceiling as Sonic did a somersault. Calen and Wirrin dived in and, after setting some automatic controls, so did Thom. For a quarter of an hour the contagion of shared happiness and excitement bubbled through their talk and play.

  ‘Now I’m extra starving,’ Calen said, ‘show us what you can do with this mini food factory, Thom.’

  ‘I don’t even know if it’s functional, Calen. They usually take time to bring online.’

  ‘Of course it’ll be functional. The AIs have made sure everything else works. Why would they leave this out? Go and check … And make sure we all get plenty. If it’s going to be a long day tomorrow Wirrin needs extra energy.’

  ‘Well, okay. I’ll have a look, but I’ll have to do some figuring so don’t complain if it takes a while.’

  Thom moved to his control console.

  ‘Thom’s ship is a wonderful vehicle. We will persuade him to take us to Miranda and explore the great canyon.’

  ‘All that way? It would take more than a week.’

  ‘We will visit the Uranus dolphins and then we can make time. We must have more adventures together.’

  Wirrin looked at Calen to see how he was reading Sonic’s statements. Had this strong desire for adventure just awakened, or had it been there all along but repressed by things that were more important?

  Sonic’s unique dolphin laugh filled the room.

  ‘Yes Wirrin, Calen is pondering my behaviour, but he is pleased too because he thinks I work too much.’

  ‘You should have regular activity days and come with us more often. You always enjoy it when you do.’

  ‘We will discuss it with Yajala and Turaku. Regularity might not be possible but something will be arranged.’

  Thom gave a call and Wirrin and Calen left the pool. Sonic was in charge of his own food and would look after himself.

  ‘It’s easy to work the food factory but we have to go to the galley to eat. Did I hear Sonic say something about Miranda?’

  ‘He wants to go there and explore the canyon with your ship and the drones. He’s really definite about it.’

  Turaku shimmered into view and the trio stared in surprise at the slightly fuzzy image.

  ‘While you have your meal I will move your ship to the greater security of the main rift. In your current position the mass of the asteroid reduces our ability to communicate directly to an unsatisfactory twenty per cent.’

  He shimmered off and the ship started moving.

  ‘Twenty per cent? That sounds bad.’

  Wirrin and Thom both shook their heads. ‘Not really. Everything important would still get through even at three or four per cent. It’s just the AIs being extra cautious.’

  Chapter 29

  The next day was very long and very active. After more exploring in Sonic’s ‘labyrinth’ Thom moved the ship back to the main rift and through to the next cavern area and the most astonishing sight yet. Eyes wide, everyone stared at the display.

  ‘Someone’s done this. It couldn’t just happen.’

  Wirrin agreed with Thom. This great cavern appeared to be an almost perfect sphere seven and a half kilometres in diameter with unnaturally smooth walls. No jutting rocks or mini mountains here, just a disturbingly regular surface curving evenly away.

  ‘Zoom the display on the walls, Calen. We might be able to tell if they’re artificial. Turaku, have you analysed these walls yet?’

  ‘The whole phenomenon is quite natural, as you’ll quickly work out for yourselves.’

  ‘Natural? A globe like this inside the asteroids can’t be natural. Its shape is too perfect.’

  ‘I’ve found something!’

  Thom’s yell brought everyone’s attention back to the display as it shifted then zoomed towards the far side of the cavern.

  ‘Dingoes! This is natural too? What’s going on?’

  Wirrin stared in amazement at a floating ball of rock. Was it rock? It almost looked metallic, and once again it was a seemingly perfect sphere. There was silence while everyone took it in.

  ‘How big is it?’

  Wirrin did some rapid calculations.

  ‘Its maximum diameter for any cross-section is 330 metres and its minimum is 325. That’s less than a 3 metre variation from the median. I don’t see how it can be natural.’

  There was another yell from Thom. ‘It’s moving! It’ll collide with the wall in … fourteen minutes.’

  ‘Yes, Thom. Now check the density and you’ll have enough information to gain understanding,’ said Turaku.

  Thom would be more interested in the collision then the density but Wirrin was intrigued. The motion and density of the sphere were the factors involved in what they were seeing? No, maybe the imminent collision was also a factor. He thought about it and realised that the sphere was central to the explanation.

  ‘The sphere has shaped the cavern walls?’

  ‘Yes, but it wasn’t a sphere when it was first trapped by the aggregation of the asteroids. Countless collisions over time have smoothed all the surfaces, and the process is continuing.’

  ‘So that piece of rock has been bumping around in here for so long it’s ground the walls of the cavern into a globe and itself into a sphere?’

  ‘That’s correct, though technically it’s one large piece of metallic ore. Rock would have fractured. Thom, I suggest you change position to better observe the moment of collision.’

  That was quickly done while everyone watched the display screen. Thom had a great question. ‘Why does the ball keep moving? Every collision should slow it down.’

  ‘It won’t keep moving. The simulation I’ve just run predicts it will be practically motionless in another seven hundred years. External forces must be affecting the aggregate and re-initiating the process.’

  ‘External? Why would that start the ball moving?’

  Thom explained to Calen that if the aggregate moved the motion of the ball was relative.

  ‘So the ball is still and the big asteroids around it are moving?’

  ‘Sort of. That’s what relative means.’

  ‘It must be a huge force if it can move a 70 kilometre asteroid.’

  ‘We’ve discovered a trajectory confluence with one of the major comets some three thousand years ago as the likely cause of the current motion, but the most usual source will be collisions with other asteroids.’

  ‘A lump of comet bashed into the aggregate? That’s amazing.’

  The whole thing was amazing as far as Wirrin was concerned and getting more amazing with every new piece of information.

  ‘F
ive minutes to impact! Just think, it might be a cosmic dragon’s egg and this collision is the moment it hatches.’ Thom grinned at his own melodramatic and fanciful announcement, but it stirred Wirrin’s imagination and somehow seemed to fit the moment.

  ‘A 300 metre egg? I hope we don’t meet the parents.’

  ‘I would love to meet a cosmic dragon. Thom’s ship would protect us from any danger and Wirrin’s brain would allow us to communicate.’

  ‘We call him Brainiac, Sonic.’

  ‘Brainiac is not appropriate. Wirrin comes to his solutions in a very unusual way. Look at how he designed our drones. You commented on his unusual approach yourself.’

  ‘Oh, his cheating! Well, Brainiac sounds better than Solution Brain.’

  ‘Whenever you say Brainiac from now on it will have a new meaning.’

  Thom became thoughtful. ‘Yes, I suppose it will.’

  Wirrin made a kind of mental blink to clear his thoughts. In a short space of time they’d gone from comet collisions, to cosmic dragons, to the weird interaction between Sonic and Thom, and now it was time to watch the great egg scrape against the cavern wall.

  It was barely even a scrape because the angle of approach was so low, more of a bounce, and from this close you could see the whole thing was rotating.

  ‘Nothing much happened!’

  ‘What did you expect?’

  ‘I don’t know. Sparks, or bits of the cavern wall breaking off.’

  ‘Quite a bit happened, Thom,’ said Turaku. ‘There were sparks but they were hidden behind the mass of the ball, parts of the wall did crumble away, the speed decreased by a small amount and the rotation increased slightly, and of course the direction changed. The next collision will occur in just over an hour.’

  ‘Its path is so close to the wall it almost looks like it’s rolling.’

  ‘The dragon didn’t hatch.’

  ‘It will one day, Sonic. Maybe in a thousand years. Will we wait for the next collision or do something else?’