“We did not consider it possible that anyone would decide to do such a thing, so we concentrated our efforts on protecting space in other sectors of the Solar System. Those where an unauthorized flight through the portal was most probable. Apart from which, the space criminal...”
“Criminal?”
MacQueen got up from his chair and began walking around the office, deep in thought.
“Have you ever met a space criminal in battle?”
“No sir, but I don’t think they should be underestimated.”
MacQueen snorted and turned towards the window.
“Oh, no, they’re like a pack of wolves. Fast, strong, clever... a different type of mind altogether. Impulsive, crazy... They know how to hit, how to kill, how to set a trap and when to take to their heels. Action according to the situation, improvisation... They take by force. At that they have no equal. But not planning many steps ahead, no, they’re the last ones for that. This is a different sort of case.”
Chuck thought for a second.
“The whole thing shows that whoever’s behind it knows a lot about the internal workings of intelligence. That we use the Wise Men, knowledge of the algorithm of their operation. I don’t know which scares me the most – the fact that such information is being leaked, or the presumed circle of suspects.”
MacQueen turned back and stared fixedly first at the head of intelligence and then at his analyst.
“I’m saying this quite categorically. Your orders are to dig as deep as you have to. Is the order clear?”
“
Yes, sir.”
11
All eighteen of them were gathered in the laboratory, standing silently looking at the varicolored graphs on the spectroscope monitor.
“It’s time to make a decision. Let’s vote. Who’s for the main thesis?” asked Steve, raising his own right hand.
“One, two, three...” He started counting the raised hands, his eyes traveling from left to right. “Seven...” He paused when he reached the engineer, who was sitting with his arms demonstratively folded on his chest.
“I’m abstaining,” the man said.
“Understood. Eight, nine...”
The last on the right was Clive, holding his hand as high as he could, like an over-eager first-year schoolchild. “So, we can say we have a consensus,” summed up Steve.
“This completely changes our agenda,” Clive remarked.
“I agree, but that will be up to the captain.”
Steve signaled to be connected to the bridge and the captain’s tired face appeared on the screen.
“We have news about the meteorite flow we ran into yesterday.”
“Excellent. What was it?”
“The substance itself is probably of no great interest, but the conclusions we drew are.” Steve paused for a reply, but the captain only looked expectantly from the screen. “Well, if you wish... Seventy-four percent silicon...”
“Let’s go straight to the conclusions,” interjected the captain.
“The conclusions... The meteorite flow consisted of a certain substance whose composition is not typical for material of natural origin. The explanation, in the opinion of the majority of those present here, is this: we are talking about a space structure, created, obviously, either by the Gliesians themselves, or by the aliens we already know.”
“Structure?” The captain looked up towards the ceiling, thinking over what had been said. “It is beyond my imagination to picture a structure through which we can fly at a relative speed of 400 km/sec and still be in one piece.”
“We believe that we did not come upon the structure as such, but its ruins. It had clearly disintegrated and then the forces of attraction of the star and the other planets scattered them to their present density. This explains the high rarefaction of the flow...”
One of the physicists coughed loudly.
“...but nevertheless assumes a suspiciously low density up to the moment of disintegration,” finished Steve, giving him an irritated glare.
“Do you mean that this structure dispersed totally? Common sense suggests that some pieces bigger than just grains of sand must have survived,” objected the captain.
“Yes, if you assume technologies like those of Earth. The technology at our disposal does not permit us to create a one-piece structure of such size. If we made one, it would consist of a number of huge segments joined into one whole.
“The Gliesians apparently know how to manipulate matter at a different level. The material of the structure did not have joints or big segments; it was a single whole. At some point, the assumed glue holding the material together lost its properties...”
“Pretty fantastic glue!”
“Yes,” put in Clive, “but the structure too was by no means trivial. Don’t forget its dimensions. If it consisted of a closed ring, those dimensions were not merely gigantic, but monstrous. Its diameter would be comparable with that of a whole stellar wind bubble! You couldn’t build such a vast object from the strongest steel, or even from nanotubes...”
Steve gestured to Clive to stop talking.
“We know that the aliens actively used threads as thick as the Planck length for the manipulation of the space-time continuum. This technology played a dirty trick on their race at the time of the Andromeda incident. We saw other small objects built on this principle simply disappear before our eyes. The same reason may be behind this too. Although there remains the question of the manufacture of such a quantity of threads...”
“Oh, yes!” exclaimed the physicist so vehemently that they all immediately looked at him. “That really is an interesting question!”
The captain smiled. “It seems I am not alone in my skepticism,” he said.
“You certainly aren’t! Steve, we have never held such threads in our hands and, let’s not kid ourselves, we have never even seen them in microscopes, we only have some concept of them from theory. They are extremely difficult to manipulate.
“This transportation gives us a terrible headache, but they would have to be delivered and distributed for a ring the diameter of a stellar wind bubble. That’s not even to mention its manufacture. One little backyard workshop wouldn’t do, it would require production capacities the size of a planet...”
“As you see, captain, our thesis has its weak points, but the majority still favor it.”
“OK, you’re the scientists, you know best. What consequences does this have for our mission?”
“If the Gliesians used threads to build space structures, this could explain why we have still not come upon their space infrastructure. All these structures must have suffered the same fate: instant disintegration.
“The Andromeda incident took place five years ago. It seems that the Gliesian race has still not recovered from the blow.”
“So you don’t expect them to make contact with us?”
“On the basis of recent events, most likely we will not get a response. It appears that the crisis of their civilization goes deeper than we thought. They can’t be bothered with us.”
The captain plunged into thought, stroking the short beard he had been growing since the very beginning of their expedition. No-one dared to break the long silence.
“What are your proposals?” he asked finally.
Steve shrugged his shoulders and offered no reply. The others present looked in different directions, implying that it was nothing to do with them. The decision was left on the table and the captain knew this all too well, but he seemed reluctant to put it into words for fear of being responsible for the consequences if anything went wrong. So many people, all pretending not to know the obvious conclusion.
“Sir, it looks as if we’ll have to plunge into the atmosphere of 581-c and get out onto the surface of the planet,” said Steve eventually, unable to stop himself.
The captain laughed.
“That’s virtually the same as entering a house uninvited.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t see any o
ther way out. Perhaps in time we could think up something other than an invasion, but the mission time is strictly limited.”
The captain plunged into thought again.
“
We meet in the conference room in 15 minutes,” he said eventually and switched off.
12
The onboard AI, one of the latest models, delicately corrected the flight trajectory, using the starboard nose jet occasionally. Its nozzle was directly under the nose and every time the computer’s brain decided to operate it, the hissing of the heated plasma rushing out under pressure could be clearly heard from the captain’s seat. The density of the atmosphere, the upper layers of which they had entered at a tangent before coming out onto the set trajectory, seemed to differ from that in the program. Friction against the gaseous medium slowed the ship down from its cosmic speed, introducing a perceptible error into the calculations.
They were traveling with the hold virtually empty, so it was easy enough to maneuver, even close to the gravitational field of 581-c. Over the past few hours, they had changed their position in space several times, turning sometimes their belly and sometimes their side towards the planet.
Zach was sitting relaxed, with a self-satisfied smile, observing the flight. Flying in a new ship with all the latest equipment was much more pleasant than piloting the old junk he normally flew. In an old ship, written off and restored to service, there was always the fear that some important system would fail, giving up the ghost from old age.
From their present position, the mysterious planetary tail was a magnificent spectacle. The nearby star directed rays of orange light onto it from the side. Their reflections were distorted, as if part of the planet’s appendage consisted of a myriad of tiny snowflakes.
The majestic landscape opening up before Zach, the star of unusual color, the strange tail throwing its shadow onto the milky-white atmosphere and the planet of enormous size, awakened his memories of five years before.
At that time the fleet had opened fire on Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, and the military had torn half of the moon apart, testing some new weapon. The explosions were so strong that mountains of ice and water had been ejected into space – a volume comparable to the Amundsen Sea. The hole created in the moon by the monstrous force of the explosion had instantly been filled by water rushing in from the ocean under the ice. With no atmosphere present, the water had quickly cooled and was soon frozen, but even this could not completely erase all traces of these events. The consequences of this barrage were still evident on Europa’s even surface.
The loss of mass had also had consequences. The orbit in which the satellite circled around Jupiter had changed and the water and ice ejected into space had acquired a life of its own, forming a fantastic ring. Ignoring the difference in color, the novelty created by human hands shone in the Sun’s rays just as this mysterious tail was doing now.
Once the fuss around Europa had died down and the fleet had withdrawn its ships, Zach was the first to think of landing on the satellite to comb through the region of the tests in search of anything interesting. His expectations were met and his reward was mountains of trash mixed with valuable metals. He had been very successful in selling it all, which brought him not only solid profits, but also fame in certain circles. As well it might, for making such a packet all by himself!
He was now given confidence by the same feeling he had experienced when combing through the ocean of Europa using the deep-search radar installed in submarine drones. For a long time, their electronic eyes had only seen the bottomless abyss. In places, the ocean under the ice was tens of kilometers deep, far beyond the range of the radar. Zach had kept watching the screen intently, seeing only the abyss, but had not been prepared to give up. Anyone else would have despaired, but not him. He had a feeling that he was bound to find something. That was the first time he had had it, but it had since become a true helper in his subsequent career as an adventurer of fortune and had never once let him down.
It was the same now. He was completely calm, the feeling that he was on the right track wrapping him in a comfortable blanket of confidence. His real target was right in front of his eyes, hidden somewhere in the strange tail. He did not know exactly what yet, but he would certainly find out. In a few hours, his ship would catch up with the tail and synchronize its speed and direction of flight with it. Then it would become clear. Not long left to wait...
13
Steve waited until the laboratory was empty. Once alone, he went to the cooler, collected ice-cold water in his cupped hands and splashed it on his face. Although the water was extremely cold, he hardly noticed it. In the mirror his face burned red. Having refreshed himself, he sat in the nearest chair, still warm from someone’s body, and covered his face with his hands. He suddenly felt extraordinarily tired of the ship, the people on board and the whole mission.
The captain would most likely send a reconnaissance expedition to the planet. It would certainly include one of the astrophysicists from the ship, which meant either him or Clive. It would not be Clive, who was too unworldly to be entrusted with such a mission. That left Steve. An unpleasant shiver ran down his spine.
Steve took a glass of water from the table, refilled it with ice-cold water and drank several mouthfuls. Keep calm. It was just another mission, neither the first nor the last.
After several deep sighs, he pulled himself together and set off for the conference room. He felt a weakness in his limbs. It was naked fear, a fear that could not be persuaded or influenced by logical reasoning. Even if you were 100% sure that there was absolutely no danger, it gnawed at you from the inside like a worm. In situations like this, he had still not found a way to suppress this vile worm in the depths of his soul.
The captain was standing at the end of the room, quietly discussing something with the SSS commander. The rest of them, with the exception of the pilots, were already waiting inside. An invisible tension hung in the air. Usually people would be chatting and joking with each other, but now they were all just silently waiting for the captain to speak, immersed in their own gloomy thoughts. It was not only Steve who was racked by fears.
“Today we got the analysis results of that strange meteorite belt we recently entered. The specialists favor the theory that it was the remains of some structure built by the Gliesians,” began the captain, as usual without warning. He paused to look around at each member of the audience.
“I have therefore decided to send a team out onto 581-c as soon as we reach the planet. Two ships will go. I will select the pilots from those who have experience of this kind of military operation.
“If we followed standing orders, then the ships should be civilian ones. The situation has changed, however. We will be arriving uninvited. Therefore we will send warbirds, with adequate armor plating and heavy armament.”
The captain nodded to the SSS commander, giving him the floor. The officer nodded in reply and, after walking to the center of the hall, stood with his feet wide apart and his hands behind his back.
“The complement will consist of two pilots, not more than eight of the scientific personnel, and the rest of the places will be taken by the SSS. Full equipment. We’ll take all the weapons we can carry. The human infantry will be accompanied by four robots per ship. We will move on the surface inside an armored personnel carrier to the extent that this is possible. Any questions?”
“I thought this was not a combat mission...” said someone at the back of the room.
“We know that the Gliesians are in deep crisis. That means chaos, riots, and a struggle for food and weapons. We might also come across predatory animals. We do not know to what extent their civilization has collapsed, so we must be prepared for the worst of the possible scenarios.”
“If it’s so dangerous, why not send out robots for reconnaissance?” asked Steve.
“Tactically that would be the best option, but we don’t have time for it.”
“Even if we’re talking about people
’s safety?” asked one of the physicists.
“We have no choice,” the captain replied for the commander. “The evacuation time for returning to the Solar System was not picked at random. If we miss it, we’ll be stuck here for a long time. Perhaps forever.”
“Why is that?”
Instead of replying, the captain got up from his seat and went over to the screen built into the wall. He entered something on the virtual keyboard that appeared in the corner and the Solar System flared up in front of him.
“We arrived in Gliese on the crest of a gravity wave generated by a special device in our Solar System. The wave starts from a certain point and is directed towards Gliese.
“The generator itself does not stay in one place, it rotates in a special orbit around the center of mass of the Solar System. Because of this, the starting point of the wave is constantly changing, following its antennas. At the time of our journey the wave vector passed through the Sun. The vector keeps shifting and after six weeks will bypass it.
“The gravity field of a star the size of ours is so powerful that it has a strong influence on the wave, amplifying its effect. Something like an initial push, to focus sufficient energy to break through the space-time continuum. A wave passing around the Sun cannot be used for penetration into hyperspace. The gravity compression at the crest will be too weak.
“That’s why the time for the jump is limited. It has to be at the moment planned. After that, there will not be any other possibility.”
“How long does it take for the generator to do a complete revolution in orbit and return to its previous position, so that the vector passes through the Sun again?”
“Part of the device is on the Moon, so the guides of its antennas are firmly tied to the Moon’s system of coordinates. The generator takes 365 Earth days to complete a full revolution around the Sun.”
Fundamental Force Episode Two Page 7
