“This is all very interesting, professor, but I would simply like to know the results of your study. Information of this kind is only of limited interest to me.”
“I’m just getting to the point now. Anyway, many such portals exist in our galaxy. Up to now we thought they were close to star systems colonised by the aliens. But after studying them thoroughly, we have found some that are far away from any star system. Rather strange, don’t you think? This one, for example.”
Shelby approached the wall and started to make a gesture, but stopped himself and looked at MacQueen. “May I?”
“Of course.”
Shelby gestured to activate the screen and link it to MacQueen’s computer. He then made several manipulations, and a huge map of the galaxy appeared on the office wall. A blue beacon light winked on it. He waited a few seconds so that the general could study it properly, then used another gesture to fix and magnify the image. The blue beacon remained in the centre, but numerous small points of different colours, magnitude and brightness appeared around it.
“You see, each point denotes a star,” he explained. Then he made another gesture, and the winking points acquired broken-line rings. Some had only one or two, while others had about ten or more.
“Now you can see which of the stars has a planetary system.”
A closer look at the rings denoting the planetary orbits revealed small planets. Shelby gestured again, and a distance grid beginning from the winking beacon was added to the image.
“Look,” said Shelby indicating one particular point. “This is the nearest star, which is forty light years away. Of course, such space highways could not be built in the direct vicinity of planets for safety reasons, obviously. They are powerful disturbers of the space-time continuum, and consequently they influence cosmic objects, including stars and planets.
“But if you take the portal that they built for the Solar System, it is only six light years away. On the one hand, this distance is sufficient to avoid disturbing planetary orbits, but on the other, it is easily accessible even for our fast ships, let alone the aliens’, which, as we know, are capable of speeds up to three quarters of c.
“But 40 light years is a very long way. Just imagine you wanted to send freight or make a journey, you would need at least 40 years to reach the nearest portal. A portal at that distance is too far away for economic use.”
The general nodded.
“I agree, it would be quite a long way. Are there many of them?”
“We found seven. Here they are.”
Several more dark blue marker beacons appeared on the star map of the galaxy.
“And here is something interesting. Whereas the other portals are scattered more or less chaotically, these seven lie on a plane with a thickness not exceeding ten light hours, in the same direction as the plane of the Milky Way’s ecliptic.”
Shelby stopped briefly, apparently to allow time for MacQueen to take in what had been said.
“I’m all ears, professor.”
“But that’s not all. Look carefully at what happens now.”
Shelby again adjusted the image, shifting it so that MacQueen was looking at the galaxy from above, from farther away. The winking blue beacons now formed a regular octagon, but with one of the apexes missing.
The general got up from his chair, went right up to the image and pressed his finger to the place where the eighth marker beacon should have been.
“But what about this one? Why is it missing?”
“Do you know what part of the Milky Way you’re pointing to?”
“No, I haven’t the faintest idea.”
“That’s where our Solar System is.”
9
Steve pedalled furiously, climbing higher and higher uphill along the forest road. After a long separation from his bicycle, his body was longing for some real sport and he could feel the blood pulsate in every cell of his body and his breath break into a gallop as the road suddenly took an upward turn. The trees gave off an intense smell of pine resin.
His tablet, fixed under the frame, made its familiar squeak. Steve continued turning the pedals for a while without changing the tempo, wondering if he should answer it. To take the call would mean he would have to return to that awful base and the sterile air inside.
The trip helped him switch off from the events of recent weeks, so that he could forget for a second that Parliament’s decision was due to be published today. Steve was not a pessimist, and he thought the aliens were quite a peaceful race; nevertheless, once their plans had been discovered, he realised how much was at stake for them in building the sphere in the Solar System.
However peaceful they might be, if Parliament rejected the terraforming and the construction of the sphere, the aliens would go ahead and build it anyway, even against the will of the Earthlings. The president could obviously not fail to respond to this, and the only possible response would be MacQueen’s prerogative. Who knew where such a dialogue would end? Lest the worst befall, he should not miss the opportunity to enjoy the pine forest while it still existed.
Steve lowered himself into the saddle and allowed the bicycle to slow down. Once it had come to a stop, he put a foot to the ground, sensing with satisfaction that it had become immersed in a thick layer of pine needles, covering the whole forest with a soft brown carpet. He got out his sunglasses and activated the link to the tablet and the augmented reality mode. His field of vision was at once filled with all sorts of information: time, cardinal directions, air temperature, humidity, wind velocity, weather forecast for the next 12 hours, latest news headlines, missed calls and messages... In fact, everything capable of returning him to the modern world, totally spoiling the sensation of being close to nature. The incoming call was from Clive. Steve nodded slightly, permitting the tablet to make the connection.
“Steve, are you there? Parliament has taken the decision. The sphere will be built!” reported Clive in a triumphant voice.
“Brilliant. When does construction start, is that known?”
“It’s started already!”
“Wow, they’re not wasting any time! Is any kind of activity visible yet? They said the first job would be to build a temporary hemisphere very close to the Sun.”
“Yes, there’s a whole load of small ships orbiting there, most likely pilotless drones. By the way, where are you? Shelby said we should stay together here on the base to keep an eye on the construction, and call him if anything happens.”
Steve raised his head and looked in the direction from which the Sun was shining. His sunglasses at once darkened the lenses, shielding his eyes from the bright rays penetrating the thick foliage of the trees as if it were suddenly twilight in the forest. The tall trees rocked slowly from side to side, obscuring his view of the central star. Although even if the Sun had been visible, he would hardly have been able to see anything with the naked eye.
“Where is Shelby anyway?” asked Steve, lowering his head. The lenses of the sunglasses became lighter.
“I don’t know. I think he has a meeting with MacQueen today, but I could be wrong. So when will you be here?”
Steve activated the navigation map and told the computer to work out the route to the base. Before his eyes, the forest was filled with road markings, signs indicating traffic direction and a small map. The computer gave an estimated journey time of two hours, based on his average rate of travel over the last few hours.
Magnifying the map, he looked at the proposed route and frowned discontentedly. The navigator proposed leaving the forest at the nearest road, following it into the city and cutting through the industrial zone, where there was not a single tree, only concrete buildings. It would have been hard to think of a more unpleasant route. He corrected the route, forcing the selection of a forest road wherever possible. The new route would take one and a half hours longer.
“I’m in the forest, riding my bike. I’ll be back in about four hours,” replied Steve.
“Four hours, as lo
ng as that? Aren’t you afraid of missing all the most interesting bits?”
“Do you mean to say they’ll have the hemisphere built in four hours?”
“Who knows? They’re certainly not going to assemble it manually, so anything is possible.”
“I doubt that. But I can’t get there any sooner.”
“I could ask Shelby to send a ship for you...”
“No thanks, Clive, I’ll manage it myself somehow.”
“Well, as you like. But get a move on.”
“OK,” said Steve, and switched off.
He checked the route on the map again, got the thermos out from under the frame, took a few gulps of cool water and looked around him. The birdsong was unusually loud for the time of year, as if they were discussing the events of the past few months and sensing big changes ahead, and a murky future.
He turned the bike around and jumped onto the saddle. Pushing hard on the pedals, he was soon moving fast enough to hear the wind rushing past his ears. Riding downhill was easy, he just let gravity do its work, letting the bicycle go faster and faster.
A little over four hours later, Steve reached the base. After waving to the familiar guard at the entrance and obtaining permission to enter, he found himself inside. It was easier to ride on the asphalt road than on the forest track covered in leaves and pine needles and he soon reached the block he wanted. After securing his bicycle to the nearest tree, he passed through the scanner frames and entered the hall.
During his journey to the anomaly, the hall had become much more sparsely populated. Most of the scientists were now working remotely, as their physical presence was not required. Shelby’s work station, like at least half the others, looked abandoned. Steve passed between the tables, looking around him. There was a light on over in Clive’s section of the hall and some sort of activity was going on there. Finally, Steve reached his table, which he felt as if he had left decades ago.
Alongside his seat was Clive. Like the incorrigible nerd he was, he was sitting at the monitors, surrounded by a heap of empty mugs and doughnut packets.
“At last! There are more important things in life than cycling through the woods!” said Clive reproachfully.
“You know, there’s no-one in the world who has ever said on his deathbed: ‘I regret not spending enough time in the office.’ Although you stand a good chance of being the first exception to this rule.”
Clive just waved dismissively in response, not wanting to get bogged down in the subject.
“Shall I bring you up to speed?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“The aliens are still orbiting at a short distance from the Sun, apparently in the zone where they intend to create the temporary hemisphere.”
“And is that all that’s happened in four hours?”
“They are swarming about there in a strange way, as if they were spinning a web. Otherwise, nothing has happened. The results of their activities are not visible yet.”
Steve gave a sigh of disappointment. He had been hurrying along, pedalling like mad, when he could have taken his time.
“I’m going for a shower, you carry on observing. I won’t be long.”
“Good idea, you smell like a stray dog.”
“Don’t worry, I still have a couple of onion sandwiches with me, for after the shower.”
“How witty!”
“I don’t know about witty, but they’re certainly tasty.”
“Oh, by the way, Maggie was asking after you.”
“Is she here?” asked Steve, turning towards the biologists’ table.
“She said she’d come.”
“Nice try, Clive,” said Steve with a smile, clapping him on the shoulder.
“Oh, go and get washed.”
“Wait, I’ve got to get my things out of the rucksack...”
Whistling some melody or other, deliberately out of tune, Steve got out a change of clothing and went off to the shower. Such an insult to Clive’s musical ear might be enough to make him blow his top and Steve knew he was taking a big risk. But he could not help getting his own back after Clive had torn him away from his forest bike ride.
Some forty minutes later, Steve returned in excellent spirits with a mug of coffee and some sandwiches. Clive looked suspiciously at his food.
“Are you really going to eat that?”
“Calm down, I was kidding about the onion.”
“Thank God!”
“I used garlic instead.”
“Steve!”
“Just kidding.”
Steve settled back in his chair and put his feet on the console. Clive sighed irritably, but he didn’t complain.
“This time you really did miss something,” he said eventually. “The outlines of the hemisphere have begun to appear in the infrared band. At that distance and size, according to my calculations, it will be able to trap about 30-40% of the radiation.”
“They didn’t agree to share the energy from the temporary hemisphere with us, so that’s roughly the amount they will get when the project is completed,” said Steve, taking a big bite of his sandwich.
“You’re right. It’s a hell of a lot anyway.”
“Is that the hemisphere, on the screen there?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s big, huge. And it’s materialising rapidly.”
“And you thought it wouldn’t?”
They both fell silent, observing the hemisphere gradually taking shape on the screen. Around it, many points were moving about, like mosquitoes. These were the aliens’ drones.
“I’d like to know what they’re doing.”
“I’m more interested in where they’re getting the material from.”
“They told us, didn’t they, that they’re building the hemisphere from solar wind plasma. They’re providing the material for the frame themselves. It will trap the wind and grow of its own accord.”
“If the construction is so rapid, why not build the final sphere straight away, without bothering with this temporary one?”
“The final sphere is meant to work without failure for half a billion years, but this one is temporary. There must be a difference in the design or in the frame. Who knows? They didn’t let us into the details.”
The material the hemisphere consisted of was becoming less and less permeable to infrared radiation. As soon as the hemisphere became clearly visible in its final form, its lower edge began to glow slightly. The glow front started to move upwards slowly and where it passed, the hemisphere screened almost the entire spectrum of solar radiation. At the same time, its surface temperature began to rise. The glow front picked up speed, moving more rapidly towards the apex of the hemisphere.
“It looks as if they are going over to the concluding stage of the construction,” said Steve, pushing aside the empty plate on which the sandwiches had been and picking up his coffee. It was as if he were watching a baseball game rather than aliens building a gigantic structure next to his own Sun.
“Yes, the rise in temperature indicates that they are screening the radiant energy, and seeing how much of it there is, they must be putting it somewhere. Otherwise it would melt, it couldn’t last this long,” commented Clive.
The glow front had already left half the surface of the sphere behind and was continuing to accelerate.
10
MacQueen pulled his finger away from the screen as if he’d received an electric shock.
“So what does all this mean?” he asked, returning to his chair.
“If eight of the portals are arranged in space in the form of a regular geometric figure, it is logical to assume that they form an integrated array.
“The meaning of the array is understandable intuitively. The batteries of a pocket torch could serve as an analogy. For physical reasons, the output current of the batteries is limited both in power and in voltage, but by joining several batteries in a circuit, you can obtain virtually any power or voltage you like. All you need is a sufficient number of
batteries.
“A portal array uses the same principle. By laying out the portals in this way, their energy can be concentrated at a certain point in space, and there you could have one much more powerful portal.”
“OK, I understand the principle. But what is the purpose of joining portals into an array?”
“By studying the portal that the aliens built near the Solar System, we were able to achieve some success in understanding its principle of operation.
“Here’s one example. Before the alien ships flew through it, it had to be open for a certain period of time. For our apparatus set up next to the portal, it looked as if a window in space had opened, revealing another part of our galaxy.
“At the moment when the ships passed through, we were able to look at another star system – the star system from which the alien ships had come. I won’t go into details about what it looked like, but we recorded the solar wind of their star. It passed through the portal and reached our instruments’ detectors as if we were not in the Solar System at all, but in the other star system.
“We were struck by one particularly mysterious feature of the penetrating solar wind. The wind itself consists of a flow of elementary particles radiated by the star, but the kinetic energy of the particles varies. And in this case, the solar wind passing through the portal consisted not of the usual mixture of particles with different kinetic energies, but only of those whose energy exceeded a certain minimum.
“That is, elementary particles moving at a speed below a certain threshold could not get through the portal. It follows that objects passing through the portal, whether that object is a spaceship or an elementary particle, must possess a certain kinetic energy.
“We do not know the nature of this phenomenon, but it may be analogous to a rocket lifting off from the surface of a planet. In order to leave the gravity funnel pressed out in the space-time continuum by the planet, a rocket or spaceship must have a certain speed imparted to it.
“On the basis of our analysis of the solar wind, we discovered that in crossing the portal, part of this kinetic energy is lost. Where it goes and why, we don’t know, but that is not important right now.”
Beyond the Event Horizon - Episode Four Page 5
