The World Game

by Allen Charles

  “What do you see, Tom?” asked Fuller.

  “Same thing. Damp concrete barrier. I’m assuming that when there was gravity, the water may not have reached the concrete barrier. Now it is in free fall and it will find its way through every crack or porous area, assisted by the spin.”

  “Okay, both of you head back my way. There’s nothing you can do other than capture some images of what you see. My tunnel seems to be heading around the edge of the fragment, or better yet, around something and heading towards the complex. I am guessing it follows the outer limits of the reservoir system. Catch up with me guys.”

  The trio carried on for a while, the two catching up slowly with Fuller, when suddenly he called out, “Bingo! This tunnel becomes an excavated conduit. I just hit reinforced concrete walls and I do believe I see light fittings. I’ll wait for you here.” He sat down against the light pseudo gravity and waited. Soon he saw reflected light flickering from the walls. It was a little disorienting as it came from all around. In fact it was getting stronger, but not from the direction he expected.

  He pulled himself as close to the cavern wall as possible, trying to blend in and warned the others not to come any further. It was certainly Zardooz coming his way.

  The apparition that caromed into sight looked like a skinnier version of the Michelin Man as it bounced from wall to wall. What was not funny was the black pistol this clown figure was holding. It stopped its motion and looked at a note taped to its wrist. Zardooz had not seen Fuller - yet.

  Zardooz raised his hand and pointed the pistol towards Fuller and pulled the trigger. The shot sent up a spark inches from Fuller’s head as it ricocheted its way down the cave. There was an “Ow!” from Shaw as the slowing projectile nicked his shoulder. “What was that?” he called out.

  “Zardooz took a shot at me, but I don’t know how he could have seen me.” answered Fuller. “He didn’t compensate for the recoil and now he’s flying backwards and out of control.” Fuller watched as Zardooz struggled to regain equilibrium. After a few minutes he struggled back to his last position and once again referred to the paper on his wrist. He started working his way towards Fuller but stopped short and extracted another paper from his belt pouch, which he stuck onto the cave wall. He was careful to check that the wall was excavated bedrock and not concrete, but all Fuller saw was the bulls eye target hanging on the wall.

  “You guys need to get out of here quickly. Zardooz is doing target practice. He never saw me so I will stay put. I don’t have time to get out of the way. Go now! Move”

  The pair, now together, responded and started back. They were trying for a sharp bend in the tunnel that would afford them reasonable protection from the bullets.

  They hadn’t quite made it when Zardooz started firing, slow, deliberately aimed shots. The slugs vanished down the curved tunnel in a series of sparks, narrowly missing Tom and Gerald until, “Uhh! I’m hit!” gasped Tom.

  They were almost at the bend so Shaw struggled to drag Tom to safety, the sparking bullets coming steadily. They all hit the end wall that the cave presented because of the bend and rebounded into energy sapping ricochets, finally slowing enough for the gravity well to drag them to the rock face where they came to rest. Except for the one that had hit the President and broken his rib. The youniform had done its job, preventing penetration, but it could not stop the impact, just as Shaw would have a decent bruise on his shoulder.

  The buddies went to work on both wounded men and started accelerated healing, applying pain suppression to Tom’s ribs and soothing Gerald’s shoulder.

  Even as Gerald looked back, another spark flashed at the end wall as a bullet struck, but this time it rebounded almost perfectly. With few ricochets, the slug travelled back the way it had come and plowed into Zardooz, puncturing his diving suit and sending him tumbling about as his pressurized air blasted out. He was slapping his hands about looking for the hole but couldn’t find it as he gasped for the last vestiges of atmosphere. Then he blacked out.

  Fuller moved quickly to the prone form. He had seen that against all odds, Zardooz had shot himself. He didn’t think twice about saving him. It had to be attempted.

  Zardooz was out and close to death. Fuller found an emergency youniform patch and applied it to the obvious bullet hole in the dive suit. There was no blood so it was likely the bullet had buried itself in the tough suit as there was no exit hole. Once patched, Fuller took what was clearly an extra oxygen bottle and attached it after removing the exhausted one. The suit began to inflate ad bring oxygen to Zardooz’s starved brain. Fuller thought about taking Zardooz captive but decided they did not need the difficulty involved in guarding him. Instead he took all the weapons and ammunition Zardooz had strapped to himself.

  Finally Fuller looked at the paper on Zardooz’s wrist and carefully removed it and folded it into his belt pack. Zardooz was coming to, his eyes just visible behind the diving face plate fluttering into consciousness. Fuller wrapped Zardooz with his own cable to disable him, and pressed his youniform faceplate to the diving plate.

  “Zardooz! Can you hear me?” Inside the helmet Fuller could see the sudden confusion and fear in Zardooz’s eyes as he fully awoke, his head splitting with pain from the oxygen deprivation.

  “Whaa? Who?” he rambled and then focussed on Fuller’s face, inches from his own.

  “Do you hear me?” demanded Fuller.

  “Yah...” Zardooz gasped.

  “You know who I am. We spoke earlier.”

  “Yah... yes.”

  “Zardooz, I can kill you right here. I could have left you to die when you shot yourself. I did not. You need to cooperate with us. I am not going to kill you. I am going to take your weapons and let you live. Go back and think about this. I saved your life so you owe me. Go and think hard Zardooz. The next time we meet, if you are not with us, I will kill you.”

  Fuller pulled away from the helmet to helmet contact. This was non-negotiable. He stood over Zardooz and pointed the pistol at his face. Zardooz was frozen, but began to wriggle and struggle when he finally realized he was trussed up. Fuller held up a palm in the universal stop signal and Zardooz calmed, as Fuller released the binding on his wrists. The first thing Zardooz did was to look at his wrist where the paper had been attached, then he looked back at Fuller who just smiled and tapped his belt pouch. Zardooz slumped in defeat as Fuller backed away, now laden with guns and grenades. Fuller stopped for a moment, still illuminated in the edge of the flashlight beam, Zardooz watching him, as he bent forward a little and signalled “think” by tapping his head, then he turned and vanished into the darkness of the tunnel.

  Zardooz unwrapped his ankles and got up, slowly making his way back to the emergency air lock to the caves from the complex, his mind now racing. If places had been traded, he would not have hesitated to kill the American. Zardooz was puzzled.

  CHAPTER 66

  Aboard the transport.

  Tom had his youniform stripped off to the waist allowing Amy Young to apply the Bio-Meter to his tender ribs, while behind them Felicity examined Shaw’s shoulder. The Bio-Meter indicated nothing broken and applied a topical analgesic and bruise treatment.

  In the front Fuller had laid out the weapons he had taken from Zardooz and Janine asked him why he had allowed Zardooz to go. He explained his reasons, stressing the point that as they were not prepared to kill a prisoner and due to Zardooz’s profile, he would be impossible to hold as a long term prisoner, so it was kill him or let him go, but with a lesson in mind.

  “He’s just going to come back and try to hit us again.” reflected Janine.

  “I don’t know.” mused Fuller. “I think this time I got to him. I guess we wait and see.” He picked up the paper he had taken from Zardooz and unfolded it. “Look at this. We struck gold.”

  Janine peered at the faded sheet and saw it was a map printed off an ancient laser printer. It showed the complex layout in plan and from one side, but in addition there was an attempt to depict th
e cave system behind and under the complex. The center of the cave section showed a substantial void that must be the water reservoir and the tunnel where Fuller had encountered Zardooz was marked with a red line. That tunnel diverged away from the reservoir leaving a substantial and increasingly thick wall the further it digressed. Zardooz had chosen this area for his target practice so he would not pierce the reservoir.

  “Look at these intakes from the water storage to the complex,” said Fuller, pointing at a series of fine lines in the side view. “I wonder if there is water getting into the complex now? This system was gravity based with pumps moving water to small storage tanks in the complex. Gerald? Are you done there? Come take a look at this and tell me what you think.”

  Shaw came over and took a good look at the paper and the diagram and then applied his usual analytical thinking. He applied a set of lines to both views saying, “That would be the probable water level based on piping and access tunnels here and here. Now spin up the fragment and watch where the water goes.”

  Shaw overlaid a transparent blue representing the water volume in the reservoir and any attached cave openings. A large part of the cavern plan was not inundated by water until gravity was removed and the dimage began to turn and emulate the real spin of the fragment. Shaw did some calculations based upon the measured slowing rate of the spin and now that he had a reasonable location for the main bolus of water, was able to calculate the volume required to cause the slowing effect. He applied that value to the dimage and suddenly the picture changed dramatically.

  Much of the water ran back into what was the empty cavern system and some of the previously full areas emptied back. The bolus was gathered to one side of the reservoir space by the pseudo gravity and the intake pipes were left high and dry.

  Shaw looked up and said, “Zardooz has only the water in his storage tanks.”

  “Freeze the image.” ordered Fuller. He moved closer to examine the cave system. “Give me surface topography for this area.”

  The surface showed translucent with the caves below. Fuller traced the surface point from the entry hole bubble back top the first bubble they had encountered. It was filled with water.

  “Someone is looking after us!” Fuller exclaimed. “Imagine if we had smashed through there. We would have lost the lot and blown this fragment off trajectory with no hope of recovery.”

  “So how thick is this glass bubble?” asked Janine with her characteristic wry look.

  “Right now it doesn’t matter because it, and I assume others, are holding. We’ll have to look at protecting them when we know what resources we have from inside the complex.”

  “You think Zardooz will cooperate?” asked Janine.

  “Whether he will or not is irrelevant. We have the Medalizam up our sleeve and we know where his water supply is. I will drug him if he won’t work with us. Fact is, we are still here and he knows it and didn’t blow up the fragment. I think we called his bluff.”

  Back in the complex, Zardooz had unsuited and returned to the control room, his face red with anger.

  “You WHAT?”

  “I pressed the destruct button when I saw the Americans landing.”

  “You liar! You spineless worm! why are we still here?”

  “I don’t know. Look!” Arjmand plunged down on the red button before Zardooz could stop him. Zardooz’s heart leapt into his mouth as he screamed at Arjmand, “FOOL! It is no use now!”

  They both froze, staring at each other as they waited for the final, searing blast to vaporize them.

  Zardooz blinked and looked around slowly. He was still alive. The destruct system had failed.

  “Thank Allah!” he thought to himself and then aloud, “What did you do to the destruct system Arjmand?”

  “Nothing! By the beard of the prophet! Nothing” he was crying, bawling like a baby.

  “It is clear to me that Allah does not desire our martyrdom. We will no longer consider self destruction as an option!” commanded Zardooz.

  Arjmand was still whimpering, but gathered himself enough to ask in a tiny voice, “What happened out there? Why are you back so soon?”

  “There is nothing for us out there. Just empty tunnels and no way to the surface.” lied Zardooz. “We will...”

  His words were interrupted by static on what was a blank screen and garbled noise coming through. It resolved itself into a picture of the American who had accosted him in the tunnel. This time both sides could see and hear.

  “Zardooz, I am Col. Fuller of the United States Armed Forces and you have met our President. I spoke with you in the tunnel and meant every word. You have not destroyed your complex or this fragment so you are clearly bluffing. There is no time left to play these games. You either cooperate with us fully or suffer the consequences.”

  Zardooz wasn’t about to capitulate without extracting as much as he could in the way of concessions, an old tradition in his genes. However Arjmand had seen and heard the exchange and now gaped at Zardooz, mouth hanging open in astonishment. “You said.. you said...” stammered Arjmand.

  “Shut up!” ejaculated Zardooz from the corner of his mouth.

  “But...”

  “SHUT UP!”

  Arjmand cowered back and stopped his questioning, the expression on the face of Zardooz putting him in fear for his life.

  “What do you want?” Zardooz asked Fuller.

  “You will surrender all weapons and give us free access to your complex. In return we will work together and take you and any survivors on our journey to another star system, where we will look for a new home planet to re-establish humanity. I think that is a pretty good deal.”

  “And if we refuse?”

  “You will find out... just before you go space walking without a space suit.”

  Zardooz could not help but gulp at the overt threat. “I need time to think about this.”

  “Fine,” replied Fuller. “You have thirty seconds.”

  “Or what?” Now Zardooz was truly alarmed.

  “You will figure it out next time you see me. I will be inside and you will be outside - without a space suit. Think fast.”

  “Fine. You win. But you live on your ship, not in here. There is insufficient room.”

  “There will be no conditions if you wish to live. I will decide where people live.”

  “Can we continue to worship Allah in our own way.”

  “Provided it does not result in any further violence or suicide attacks, you may worship freely. Keep it to yourself.”

  “What about Arjmand here?”

  “What about him?”

  “I cannot control his actions. The fool actually pressed the self destruct button at least twice. Fortunately for all of us there was a malfunction.”

  “Zardooz! You are so predictable.”

  “Huh?”

  “This nonsense about the self destruct.”

  “No! It’s true. Arjmand did it. Ask him yourself.” The view swung over to Arjmand still cowering in a corner seat. He leaned forward and his face changed to a snarl, “Yes I did it!” he hissed, “And I will keep pressing it until it works you infidel dog!” He started to move towards the destruct panel again but Zardooz grabbed him and they wrestled for a moment until Zardooz used a carotid block and put Arjmand to sleep.

  “Now do you believe me?” asked Zardooz as he returned to center screen. “Look, I carried the prophet’s flag as far as I could in the name of the Iranian Empire. I am a reasonable man and I know when to give up, but this fruitcake really believes you are the Great Satan, and coward as he is, his fanaticism will override his fear. We are all at risk with him around.”

  “We can take care of him. We have a way that will not harm him. Now let’s work out how we enter the complex without losing atmosphere. Your corridor segment is too large to evacuate. We need to make it smaller. And while we do that, we are going to swing past what is left of the moon. There may be survivors behind it waiting for contact.”

  “Y
ou are going to leave me here?”

  “No, the whole fragment is our space ship. We are going to redirect its velocity for a slow pass by of the moon and look for our friends.”

  “How can you do this? The fragment has no means of propulsion.”

  “It does now.”

  Zardooz shook his head in wonder, congratulating himself for even having survived in the face of these seemingly invincible Americans. “Move the fragment?” he wondered to himself.

  The Dinkshif drives were running perfectly. Only two of the four were deployed, one on each end of the axis of rotation of the fragment. Janine was now the pilot of the largest artificially driven object in all history. The tiny specks of the Drives seemed insignificant, almost invisible, mounted as they were, but the incremental punch of their powerful reaction drives gradually altered the path of the fragment as Janine redirected their thrust by turning them in tandem on their gimbal mounts. Instead of pointing straight back they now slewed in parallel to about a thirty degree angle from their original trajectory. The side thrust component was accumulating and the path was describing a wide arc which would bring them around the moon at a safe distance. The traverse across the hidden region would give them some hours to locate other survivors. They would lift them off with the transport.

  While Janine was redirecting the fragment, Shaw was discussing an idea with the President and Fuller. They did not have the resources to cap the glassy cave seals and protect the irreplaceable water supply, so Shaw had come up with another plan.

  “Once we have passed the moon and picked up anyone Commander Carver will redirect the fragment towards interception with Alpha Centauri in a projected five year journey. Before we switch into the Dinkshif Drive stage, I propose that we stop the fragment spin and bring all the water back to the central holding reservoir, then block the openings to the cave system to remove the problem entirely. With the mass as one, central consistent bolus, we can ascertain the orientation of the complex and reservoir to was originally “up” and “down”. We move the Dinkshif drives to optimum position to give us linear acceleration so that “down” really is “down” and we have a non rotational LINEAR psuedo gravity for the duration of our journey. For the deceleration segment we do a one eighty degree flip. Same thing again.”