John Maddox Roberts - Space Angel

by John Maddox Roberts

  "Go to it, then."

  Torwald picked up one of the cutters and, for a moment, held it while indulging in a private reverie. Only Michelle, standing by the AC, had an inkling of what was going through his mind. She had seen his psych profile, knew something of his history. She guessed that the feel of the tool was taking him back to Signet and the smell of blood and sweat and dead men in the quarries, the starvation and exhaustion and the never-ending fear.

  After a minute, Torwald shook off the mood and made a test cut. A sheet of impure crystal streaked with rocky matrix fell away cleanly. One by one, he tested the other cutters. All worked perfectly. Under Popov's supervision, they were soon cutting away at the outcropping while Achmed, Kelly and Lafayette were disposing of the dross. The debris was worth a fortune as gem and industrial diamond, but it would have to be recovered by the next team when Minsk Mineral established a permanent installation.

  Once the worst was cleared away, Torwald set the cutters on mounts while Popov scribed lines on the now fiat-surfaced outcropping, using Bert's templates. The slabs were to be cut ten centimeters thick and fifty on a side, rectangular, except for those that were to fit the circular walls of the hold. Each slab weighed nearly twenty kilos, and wrestling them onto the pow-erbarrows for the ride to the hold was rough work. Ham and Achmed tried to rig up a suction crane to make the loading easier, but the unstable surface of the hillside made it impracticable. Muscle labor was the only answer.

  After ten hours of continuous work, everyone was bone-tired, but still stimulated by the prospect of the wealth this voyage would bring.

  "Quitting time," Torwald announced suddenly. "Everybody back to the ship—everybody, that is, except you two." He pointed at Kelly and Lafayette. "You get to clean up the site and make sure everything is ready for us to start work in the morning." Both groaned.

  When the others had left, Kelly and Lafayette got up from where they had been leaning against a rock and brushed the seats of their coveralls. They began sweeping up and loading the dross into the power-barrow to be hauled away and dumped.

  "Hurry it up, kid," said Lafayette. "I'm getting hungry."

  Kelly stopped what he was doing. "We're not on the ship now."

  "So?"

  "I have to take that kind of treatment from you on the ship, but down here I'm not taking it. -Back in the State homes, I had to put up with a lot from the dorm chiefs because they had authority backing them up. But they didn't try to pull any of that stuff on me out on the street. They knew better. You'd better learn better, too."

  "Oh? What do you propose to do about it?" He placed his palm on Kelly's chest and began to shove, but he had barely touched Kelly when he caught a roundhouse punch to his jaw. The redhead went down and skidded away downslope.

  "You've been riding me long enough, Lafayette."

  "I'm disappointed in you, kid." Lafayette wiped his mouth, then glanced briefly at the smear of blood left on the back of his hand. "I thought you were coming along pretty well. Now it looks like you've got to be put in your place again." He got up, dusted himself off and charged. Kelly sidestepped and tripped him, then jumped on his back and tried for a stranglehold. He missed his grip, felt Lafayette's hands get him behind the neck, and found himself tumbling through the in until he landed on his back with the redhead on top. Kelly saw stars as he caught what he presumed to be two swift punches to the face, then he got a hand under Lafayette's chin, forcing his head back and thrusting the stiff fingers of the other hand into his throat.

  Lafayette fell away, gagging, and Kelly took the opportunity to push him over on his back and drop a handful of sand into his open mouth. He found, however, that Lafayette wasn't as helpless as he seemed. I he older boy threw a double kick into his stomach with both space boots. Kelly flew back, coming up short against the crystal outcrop, his head banging into the unyielding surface. He slid downward until he was in a sitting position. When he caught his breath, he saw that Lafayette was sitting up, spitting the last of the sand-and-blood mixture from ids mouth. Kelly derived a qualified satisfaction from the sight. Qualified, because he wasn't feeling much better.

  "Had enough, Kelly?"

  "What do you mean? You look worse than me."

  "I guess I do," Lafayette admitted with a rueful smile. The smile hurt, so he stopped. "Shall we call a truce for a while, kid?"

  "No truce. You stop riding me, on or off the ship, or we do this every time we're off-ship together. If you can't live with those conditions, we can have at it again, right now."

  "All right," Lafayette said after a pause, "it's a deal. Now, let's finish up here."

  On board, the others raised some eyebrows as the unkempt duo entered the mess. "What happened to you two?" the skipper asked.

  "We fell down the stairs," Lafayette replied. There was no further comment.

  After three weeks of labor, the hold was nearly full. The crew were all bent over from the strenuous labor, and those who were not dark to begin with had been heavily tanned by the ultraviolet light of Alpha Tau's sun, which easily penetrated the thin, cloudless atmosphere. The last few days, the quarriers actually worked within the hillside since almost all of the outcrop had been removed. On the final shift, Kelly and Torwald were slicing the crystal face when Achmed arrived with the powerbarrow.

  "Bert says there's room for fifteen more slabs," the Arab announced.

  "Great!" Torwald said. "We'll finish up and lift for home this afternoon."

  "Hey, what's this?" Kelly asked, sounding mystified. He was lifting the slab Torwald had just cut free. Beneath it, glinting in the light of the lamps they had rigged, was the upper surface of something spherical and metallic.

  Calmly, after a moment's hesitation Torwald turned to Kelly. "Run to the ship and bring everybody back on the double. There's something weird here."

  After a couple of hours, every test the crew could devise to determine the object's significance had been conducted. Nothing they tried yielded any useful data.

  "Well, Skipper, it looks metallic, but it doesn't behave like metal. No reagent will touch it, and, besides, the laser didn't cut it."

  "Now what kind of substance lets a laser beam go right through it and cut crystal beyond?" the skipper mused while looking at the slab that had topped the thing. It showed a depression that Finn's measurements had shown to be a perfect section of a sphere.

  "The beam didn't necessarily go through it,""Nancy pointed out. "It may have bent around."

  "Well, if it did it once, it can do it again,' said the skipper. "Tor, cut away the remaining crystal and let's have a look at that thing. But don't waste more diamond than necessary."

  Finn read off some measurements and Torwald set the controls on his cutter. He made three vertical cuts to a depth that should have been at the thing's maximum girth, if it were indeed a true sphere. He then made a horizontal cut at the same depth to meet the others. Gingerly, Ham lifted away the slab. The thing now looked like a globe of liquid mercury, about the size of a soccer ball.

  After examining two small instruments that Finn held, the skipper turned to Torwald. "It carries no charge, and it emits no radiation, Tor. See if you can lift it out."

  "How about somebody more expendable, Skipper? Kelly for instance. After all, I'm the only quartermaster you've—"?

  "Pick it up!"

  He picked it up. It lifted easily from its bowl, and Torwald figured its weight at about five kilos. It was silver, but colors chased each other across its surface. It was undeniably beautiful, but the emotions it aroused in the watchers had little to do with aesthetic appreciation. The skipper took the sphere from Torwald and regarded it balefully.

  "I'm taking it back to the ship. Finish filling the hold and we'll study this some more when we're on our way."

  She left, and the crew increased its work pace, trying to get the rest of the crystal cut and stored. Suddenly, they were all anxious to depart. The operation had been proceeding without a hitch, and suddenly they were thrown a curve.
A spacer learns early to distrust intrusive anomalies.

  Once again, the crew was gathered around the mess table, but this time they had a new centerpiece. The whatsit sat there enigmatically, in defiance of all common sense. The skipper was fishing for theories to explain the thing.

  "Sergei, how old do you figure that crystal stratum

  is?"

  "Well, the planet's primary star is a stable yellow Type G, much older than Sol, and the diamond would have formed at a fairly early period in the planet's life, so, at a minimum, maybe one billion years. More likely two or three."

  "And yet," said Bert, voicing what was in all their minds, "this thing looks more like an artifact than a natural phenomenon. Is that a valid possibility, Nancy?"

  "Not as far as I know. If Sergei is right about the age, then it predates any alien artifact ever found by a tremendous span." Kelly noted that the usually taciturn Communications officer was talking more today than she had since he had joined the ship. He decided that the sphere must be making her nervous.

  "But, how could something like this end up imbedded in a mass of diamond?" the skipper asked. "According to Sergei, even the diamond shouldn't have been there. What do you think, Ham?"

  "Well, Gertie, we've seen some strange things in our years in space, but this is one of the best. An enigma literally inside, an enigma. I feel we'll get nothing more out of it until we reach Earth. We have no research facilities other than what we've already tried. We'll just have to leave it to the scientists at the XT Phenomena lab."

  That evening, there was a great deal of casual visiting and discussing throughout the ship. Everyone was edgy about the strange thing they had found. Kelly was in Bert's cabin, allegedly receiving instruction in space law, but doing nothing of the sort. He liked to visit the old spacer's cabin because it was a museum devoted to Bert's long life in space. He had models of every ship he had served on and souvenirs of every planet he had landed on. Bert felt that his collection was far more interesting than keeping a diary.

  Kelly was relaxing on the deck, lying back with teddy sitting on his stomach. Teddy's stubby-fingered hands were dismantling a ship model, carefully lining the pieces up on Kelly's chest. Bert never scolded teddy lor taking such liberties. Neither did anybody else' Kelly had learned that the Narcissan Teddybear was the only creature in known space to have developed lovability as a survival mechanism.

  I don't know about you, Kelly, but I feel we erred in bringing that sphere aboard. It's in violation

  natural law, and I long ago made a vow never to space with violations of natural law. It gives me a feeling of uneasiness, as when someone aboard ship mentions a certain four-legged animal that oinks and makes bacon. I'm not superstitious, you understand, but it simply isn't done."

  Bert, do you really think that thing's an alien artifact?"

  "Why fabricate a thing and bury it in diamond? It smacks of vulgar ostentation. True, it would last lunger that way than by doing almost anything else, but what kind of people would have ambitions to perpetuate a work for untold billions of years?"

  "Actually," Torwald's voice came from the hatchway, "that's what I came to ask you." Torwald entered, followed by Achmed, and Torwald picked up Teddy, whereupon the pseudobear began unbuttoning his tunic collar. "Why aren't you studying, kid?"

  "We were talking about that thing we found." Kelly was on the defensive. "It seemed more important."

  "It is, but that's not why you weren't studying. You were just goofing off, as usual. Let's hear your thoughts, Bert—about the ball,,I mean."

  "Well, as I see it, Torwald, it could be one of three things', an artifact, a natural object, or an entity."

  Achmed started suddenly. "Explain that last one, please. You mean, it could be a sentient being?"

  "Possibly. As such, it could still be a natural object or an artifact. Remember, intelligent guidance makes a mockery of even our limited knowledge of natural order."

  Achmed nodded. "True, Bert, but the fact remains that that thing went into the diamond stratum eons ago."

  "So? Stars have been forming and spawning planets for untold millennia. Those planets have been producing intelligent life for a like period. Is it to be wondered at that one of them produced an indestructible object? Or that a life form that is immortal, or nearly so, has evolved? You know that we've all hoped to stumble onto that secret. Sometimes I think that the main reason our species broke into space was to find the secret of immortality."

  "I thought we were just going where the money was, Bert."

  "You are a man of little scope, Torwald. What is money, after all, except a poor substitute for immortality?" Bert winked at Kelly.

  "And you're a sententious old coot!" The quartermaster laughed. "What about you, Achmed?"

  "I won't offer any opinions until we have better data. But, I haven't felt so uneasy about a situation since Uncle Abdul let the genie out of the bottle."

  Three

  HE sensed a pursuing malevolence, and a goal'., and eons of time so vast that they had no meaning, there was a task of creation and a long, long wait and then there would be a meeting with the Enemy and then—

  Kelly woke sweating. The dream had been so alien, yet so real! Kelly wondered if he dared repeat his dream to the others, for fear of being suspected of some psych problem. He decided to try to go back to sleep, but it was no use, so he dressed and set out for the galley. He could at least start breakfast. Anything to keep busy and avoid thought.

  He found most of the crew already assembled at the mess table, and they all looked as bad as he felt. Torwald arrived on Kelly's heels.

  "Good Lord!" he said, "I've seen brighter faces going into a battle."

  "Shut up, Tor," the skipper said. "Now, let's compare notes. Starting with you, Lafayette. What did you see?"

  "Damn, Skipper, I don't know, but it sure scared me. There was something chasing me—" he stopped and frowned, searching for words "—no, it wasn't me, exactly. It was all happening to something else. Something that wasn't human. And I think it made a planet. I think it made that planet back there." He was becoming more frightened just talking about it.

  "Was that all?"

  "No, Skipper, there was more, lots more, but that was about all I could begin to understand. Oh, yes, there was something about thinking stars . . ." his voice trailed off in fearful puzzlement.

  The skipper looked at Nancy. "How about you?" Nancy related much the same story, cracks beginning to show in her habitual icy poise. It was soon established that the entire crew had seen the same vision. The skipper looked around the table. "Well? Theories? Opinions? Comments?"

  "I have a question," Michelle said.

  "Let's hear it," the skipper urged.

  "How come we're all avoiding looking at that thing?" she pointed at the sphere in the middle of the table. As she said it, everybody turned and looked toward it with a wary horror.

  "All right," said the skipper, "this thing is somehow the culprit. Are we all agreed on that?" There were no denials.

  "Now comes the big one," said Ham. "Just what is it?"

  "May I venture an opinion, Skipper?"

  "That's all that any of us can venture just now, Bert. What's yours?"

  "If this thing caused that vision, and it can really do what the vision seemed to indicate, then we may be dealing with some kind of god."

  "There is only one," said Achmed, quietly.

  "I agree," the skipper said. "Although I'll admit that the point is a little academic when dealing with a being that can create a planet out of raw material and wrap it around itself like a blanket. In any case, it's intelligent and extremely powerful."

  "Skipper, your mastery of understatement is truly staggering," Torwald commented wryly.

  "All right, then, let's hear your thoughts on the matter."

  "First off, this may be the first living, intelligent alien humanity has ran across. Aside from a few scattered artifacts, we've found no life more intelligent than the average g
ibbon. So, this is an historic occasion, even if it is kind of spooky."

  "Let's not celebrate just yet," the skipper warned. "And second?"

  "Second, however powerful this thing is, it was being chased by something even more powerful." This observation caused them to look even more glum for a few minutes.

  "That was a long time ago, right, Ham?" Kelly chimed in.

  "Time doesn't seem to mean much to these things. Sergei, how old would you estimate Alpha Tau to be?" The Russian shrugged and spread his hands, palms up.

  "Two billion years? Three, maybe? Who can tell when the circumstances of its birth are so singular? Numbers like that are meaningless when applied to human perceptions of time, anyway. A few dozen zeros more or less hardly matter."

  It is well that you recognize your mental limitations:

  They all jumped as if they had been stung, several leaping to their feet. If their chairs had not been bolted to the deck, they would have tumbled over backward. the voice had come from within their minds, but there was no doubt as to its origin. They now eyed the sphere with a mixture of fear, awe, and excitement.

  "What are you?" The skipper was fighting to keep her voice steady.

  A being.

  "So we had surmised. We found you during an

  excavation. We did not realize that you were intelligent at the time. Do you wish to return?"

  No.

  That disappointed some of them a bit.

  "We are returning to Earth, our home planet, with a cargo of crystal," the skipper said, gaining confidence. "Do you wish to accompany us?"

  No.

  "I fear that those are your only choices. We are not able to make extensive side trips. Our schedule does not permit it." She was beginning to sweat.

  I have a mission. You will help me to accomplish

  it.

  The inward voice was completely uninfected, but the imperative was thrillingly powerful.

  "I am in command of this ship, and I refuse."

  They all braced themselves.

  I would prefer your consent, but you have no choice. I can control this vessel.

  "I believe you can do it. But why, with your power, do you need my ship?"