Solar Express

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  At that point, he recalled the spy-eye to the ISV and then turned the rest of the recovery over to the AI.

  Because transmission was strictly line-of-sight within the alien artifact, if he wanted to do any exploring of any depth, at least through the equipment, he needed to establish a hardwired connection. So while the AI was recovering the ISV and the spy-eyes, he made his way back to the cargo section, where he found the spool of enhanced fiber-optic line, and then laid it out in the former passenger section, which was rapidly becoming his workshop. Then he began work on modifying the AI rover, by attaching a thruster pack to it, and then adding, just in case, the nanorod drill assembly and a laser cutter, not that the small laser had anywhere near the power necessary to cut through the depth of the hexagon walls, but Tavoian wanted to know if a laser would have any effect at all.

  He decided against sending a report to Donovan Base and the colonel, at least until he had more information.

  Almost an hour later, at 1113 UTC, Tavoian began the second exploration by sending the ISV back to the artifact and down the center hexagonal shaft to the lowest openings. That had required using the lock again. Then he sent the AI rover, trailing fiber-optic line, from the ISV into one of the six lowest openings, chosen at random, since there was no indication either he or the ship’s AI could discern that any opening was any different from any other.

  The rover did need to use both thrusters and treads, but it did seem to gain some traction on the surface that would have been the “deck” during rotation, possibly confirming Tavoian’s suspicions that the artifact had been a sphere rotated to create artificial gravity. He guided the rover along one stretch to the next junction, then on to another passage sixty degrees to the left and along another side of a hexagon, and then left another sixty degrees and straight “down,” at which point the rover entered a trapezoidal space blocked another twenty-odd meters ahead by a solid wall of the dark green—seemingly identical to the wall that had blocked the bottom of the hexagonal shaft. If Tavoian had calculated correctly, it was in fact the same wall.

  He had guessed that what lay beyond the wall might be either a drive or control section, based simply on the pattern of discoloration detected on the curved outer hull by the AI. That was fine, but exactly how was he going to get through the wall to see what might be beyond it?

  “Can you detect any variations in reflectivity or color from the rover data?”

  AFFIRMATIVE.

  “Display in false color.”

  What Tavoian saw on the control wall screen was the hexagonal coloration of what apparently was an opening into the section beyond, except there was a large circle that touched two sides of the passageway, and within the circle was a symbol that appeared to be a backward “Z.” Entrance forbidden?

  “Copy that false color image and save it for transmission.”

  IMAGE SAVED.

  Now what?

  Tavoian eased the rover forward until it touched the presumed entry. After repeating touching the entry, using lights, Tavoian then had the AI attempt to drill into the dark green material. The drill made no impression on the entry. Neither did the small laser. Nothing.

  Tavoian didn’t have much hope, but decided to see if the silvery curved side of the artifact afforded any better possibilities. It took almost an hour to return the rover to the hexagonal shaft, then have the ISV carry the rover to the other side of the artifact, where he set the rover down beside one of the discolored circles that only the ship’s AI could discern.

  Another hour’s worth of effort brought no result, and Tavoian recalled the ISV to Recon three, docking it to receiving and refueling assembly on the outer hull, then asked the ship’s AI, “Scan all of the rectangles on the dark side of the artifact. Determine if there are any that look to have contents of some sort or narrow openings.”

  COMMENCING SEARCH.

  While the AI combed through past images, and refueled the ISV, Tavoian tried to figure out what he had actually learned. The false color images suggested two possibilities, that either the aliens could easily discern colors too close in shading for human eyes, or that there had been a system of internal illumination that would have made those distinctions clear, or even of radically different colors or shades when powered. That seemed more likely, but he couldn’t discount the first possibility. If the sizes of the chambers and the putative entries were any indication, either the long-gone aliens had been larger than humans or they needed more space. Or all the hexagons you investigated were for storage of some sort.

  At 1407 UTC, the AI announced, YOU HAVE EIGHT MESSAGES.

  “They just arrived?”

  AFFIRMATIVE.

  The first message was from Colonel Anson. The operative section was simple enough.

  Interrogative any evidence of advanced technology.

  Tavoian skimmed through the headings on the rest of the messages. Two were news summaries; one was a notice to all Space Service personnel, and two were personal, one from Kit and one from Alayna. He opened the allpers notice. He smiled sardonically at the notification that all Earthside leaves had been canceled pending the resolution of current political and military “uncertainties.”

  He decided to answer the colonel’s message immediately, since he didn’t have any immediate and good ideas for learning more about the alien artifact that, it was clear to him, definitely represented an artifact of advanced technology, possibly an artifact so advanced that no Earth technology could even get into it.

  Tavoian saw no point in sugarcoating what he had determined and began with a straightforward statement:

  In response to your inquiry, there is overwhelming evidence that the artifact was manufactured or created with advanced technology, but initial exploration has failed to reveal any evidence of what that technology was or how it operated …

  He went on to explain what he had learned and accomplished so far, mainly that the artifact was incredibly durable, so tough that even a nanorod diamond drill could not scratch it, nor could a laser cut it, and that whoever or whatever had used it had left no obvious traces. He also noted the present apparent inaccessibility of sealed chambers, then had the ship’s AI assemble information and images on the interior and exterior of the artifact.

  After Tavoian finished his reply and sent it, he smiled wryly. Given the positions of Recon three and Donovan Base, the one-way time lag was around thirteen minutes, which made any sort of real-time communications effectively impossible, and gave him twenty-six minutes before the colonel came up with another question or potentially impossible demand.

  Next he read Kit’s letter.

  Dear Chris,

  I’ve just learned that no Space Service personnel are being allowed to return to Earth. You already suggested that would happen. Why now? I know that the universe and politics don’t accommodate to personal needs, but do they have to be so perverse in when they affect us? That’s taking the indifference of the universe personally, I know. But life is personal …

  Tavoian smiled as he read the last words. They were so like Kit, who could be so analytical in talking science and so intense on a personal level.

  … and I miss you so much at times like these. I feel so emotional, but I can’t be cold and rational when it’s our mother who’s failing and probably won’t see you again, and you can’t do anything at all about it. You’re better balanced than I am, or maybe you just hide what you feel better. Sometimes, I think you even hide it from yourself.

  I don’t understand all this threatening and fighting. Not personally and not even intellectually. There’s what everyone claims is an alien artifact headed toward the sun. If that’s true, there is or was another civilization that could do more than we have. There might be so much to learn from whatever it is. But the Sinese seem to want to destroy India and the rest of the world with the Indians because India wants to be independent in getting into space. What’s that all about? More power-politics blackmail, and our own weak-kneed President won’t even call it
what it is. It makes me furious. No … I don’t want a war, especially with you in the middle of it. If she said more, the Sinese might reconsider …

  Then they might not.

  … but she’s probably afraid to say too much, with all the Noram bonds and notes that the Sinese hold. Talk about being damned one way or the other …

  I’ve ranted long enough, but who else can I tell?

  Besides all my senior officers?

  All I can say is to please take care, little brother, and come home safe when you can.

  When he finished reading the message, Tavoian wondered when he should let Kit know what he was doing and where he was. Not yet. That would just worry her more and not accomplish much of anything.

  Because he wasn’t certain how he wanted to answer Kit, he called up Alayna’s message and began to read.

  Chris—

  The silence from the Foundation has been deafening. Not a word from either Director Wrae or from the Director-Generale. I have a feeling about that. Rather, two ambivalent ones. Either my explanation was completely accepted … or I’ve lost all shot at ever having a career as an astrophysicist.

  Or they could be waiting to see how things turn out before deciding which way to go. One thing Tavoian had learned was that people often failed to recognize which decisions had to be made immediately and which did not. Should you suggest that? Tavoian decided to finish reading the message before deciding. Or maybe longer.

  When he finished Alayna’s message, he decided that he would have to wait to reply to her … and to Kit. He also realized he couldn’t put off trying to figure out what he should do next, then realized he hadn’t gotten an answer from the AI on the question he’d asked. “Have you discovered any smaller openings into any of the rectangles on the darker side of the artifact?”

  AFFIRMATIVE.

  With the AI’s response, Tavoian realized he’d ordered an action, but not told the AI to report back on the results. “How many?”

  EIGHTEEN.

  “Display the locations.”

  Tavoian didn’t even have to look hard to see the pattern. All of the eighteen rectangles—which were in all probability the sides of hexagons—were on one side of the artifact, all adjoining each other. “Can you determine if there is anything inside them?”

  THERE IS NOTHING IN THE OPENINGS THAT HAVE BEEN SCANNED. IN-DEPTH DETERMINATION IS NOT POSSIBLE. THE OPENINGS ARE ANGLED WITH REGARD TO SOLAR ILLUMINATION.

  “How big are the openings?”

  ALL ARE LESS THAN TWO METERS BY FIVE METERS.

  Knowing that time was running out before the Sinese probe arrived, Tavoian couldn’t put off sending the ISV back for a look into the partly open hexagons. At least, he hoped they were only partly open. With a half sigh, he unstrapped himself from the control seat and half rose, half floated toward the back of the ship. He needed to restock the ISV with slightly different equipment.

  Almost an hour later, Tavoian was back before the controls watching as he guided the ISV back toward the artifact. The choice was whether to start at one end or in the middle of the line of hexagons. He decided on the middle and brought the ISV to a relative halt above the rectangle that was close to being in the middle of those the ship’s AI had indicated only had small openings, rather than being sealed or totally sliced open.

  The opening was as the AI had described it, roughly except it was little more than a meter wide and extended some three meters from top to bottom. “Show the opening and the area around it in false color.”

  Another screen appeared on the control wall. Tavoian nodded. The opening was exactly in the center of the slightly different colored area that he thought of as a “door.” It also appeared as if something had blocked or diverted, just slightly, the force that had sliced the artifact from the sphere. He moved the ISV closer. A ridge less than ten centimeters high ran across what he assumed was the bottom of the hexagonal opening, as if the material had melted and flowed into the functional equivalent of a doorway, keeping it from fully sealing.

  Why here? He had the ISV scan the area, turning it toward the curved outer edge of the artifact, then asked the AI, “Is there any color differentiation near where the silver hull ends?”

  AFFIRMATIVE.

  “Please display the differentiation in false color.”

  Tavoian switched his attention from the ISV screen to the one displayed by the AI, which showed in false lighter green, a thin arc that followed the hull line. All of the eighteen semi-open hexagons were inboard of the arc, itself just behind what looked to have been three adjoining sections of hexagons whose main part had vanished in whatever had sheared away the remaining artifact. That didn’t tell Tavoian anything about what the arc was, only that it likely had something to do with whatever had kept the few hexagons from having their ends completely sheared off. He just hoped that he could discover something in or through those eighteen hexagons.

  Tavoian didn’t bother with a spy-eye. Instead, he sent the AI rover, using its thrusters and trailing fiber-optic line from the ISV, through the meter-wide space and into the hexagon, hoping he would find something.

  He did. There were large lumps of material, as if stone or the same kind of material that the hexagons were made of had been heated and instantly fused with sections of metal, both dark and light. The lumps ranged in size from a meter square to several more than five meters long and a meter wide. They all jutted out from the surface closest to the edge of the artifact, but no more than a meter, again suggesting that they were what remained of equipment fastened in place and that, under normal circumstances, the massive craft had been rotated and that the outboard surface had been the “floor.”

  “Does the reflected light indicate the materials or elements in that melted mass?” Tavoian asked the AI.

  THERE ARE TRACES OF IRON, BORON, RHENIUM, CARBON, SILICA, COPPER, AND SILVER.

  Rhenium? It was heat resistant, but why rhenium?

  Tavoian concentrated on following the gentle sweep of the rover’s lights, but so far as he could tell, and the AI’s sensors confirmed it, the only objects in the hexagonal chamber were the fused masses of material heat-welded to the “floor.” There were also no other objects, equipment, or protrusions. And the image still wasn’t as sharp as it might have been.

  “Still no IR?”

  NOT WITHIN THE ARTIFACT.

  Tavoian guided the ISV to the adjoining hexagon, which had similar fused protruding lumps, as did the two chambers flanking the first two.

  The “door” to the fifth chamber had been frozen in a position that left an entry space of little more than half a meter. Tavoian found himself holding his breath as the rover’s lights penetrated the dimness. He couldn’t help but smile as he saw an unmelted shape affixed to the outboard bulkhead/deck. He guided the rover closer, noting that the shape was an elongated hexagon that extended roughly seventy centimeters from where it melded seamlessly with the bulkhead/deck. The surface was green, but a lighter green than that of the rest of the chamber … and absolutely featureless. There were no signs of the metals that were swirled through the melted and fused masses in the first four hexagons.

  Tavoian had the rover scan the entire chamber, but it was empty, except for the extruded/protruded hexagon. What he did discover at the far or lower end of the hexagon was another “door,” also jammed open the same amount as the one through which the rover had entered. When the rover went through that opening, the view was identical to the passages through which Tavoian had guided the spy-eyes earlier. Further exploration of the maze of corridors could wait until the rover had investigated the remaining “open” hexagons, Tavoian decided.

  Sending the rover into the remaining thirteen hexagons identified by the ship’s AI took another three hours, and discovered no other protrusions, either fused or intact, by which time Tavoian’s head ached, and his eyes burned. Absently, he checked the time. It was 1937 UTC.

  No wonder you can hardly see straight.

  At that, he had th
e rover clamp itself to the ISV, then turned control over to the ship’s AI. “Return ISV to the lock. Refuel the ISV and the rover.”

  COMMENCING RETURN.

  When he checked the message queue, Tavoian found another message from the colonel, whose arrival he had not even noticed when he had been directing the exploration of the alien artifact. The gist of the colonel’s communication was contained in one sentence: “Request immediate update on your progress and findings.”

  Do they think that there’s wonderful technology laid out with a manual for them to follow? Tavoian wasn’t feeling terribly sympathetic to the colonel’s urgency. After almost three hours of following the rover in and out of hexagons, and only four to six hours sleep out of the past thirty-six or so, Tavoian’s eyes were so heavy he could barely keep them open, and his vision was blurring if he didn’t concentrate on focusing.

  The body of his response was short and simple.

  Have spent almost thirteen straight hours investigating artifact. To date, have found great evidence of technological prowess but no immediately identifiable and replicable technological artifacts. More information attached. No longer able to concentrate. Will resume efforts after getting some sleep.

  Regardless of what the colonel thought and wanted, Tavoian couldn’t do anything more without some sleep.

  He didn’t even have to dim the control area lighting before his eyes closed.

  41

  THE NEW YORK TIMES

  10 NOVEMBER 2114

  [OTTAWA] “Getting involved in a fight between the Sinese and the Indians is total idiocy.” That was Senator Castenada’s opening statement in the debate over emergency funds for the Department of Off-Earth Activities. Castenada (CP-NY) called DOEA Secretary Luvalle’s report of a “potential” alien artifact a “blatant ploy” to funnel more money into the military functions of DOEA, adding that Luvalle’s middle name ought to be “Serendipity if he thinks the Senate is gullible enough to swallow the idea of the sudden appearance of an alien spacecraft just when DOEA needs money to embark on deep space military adventures at a time of overwhelming national needs that are far more pressing.” The Senator also dismissed as “pure propaganda” the news reports that the Sinese Federation has already dispatched a probe to investigate the mysterious body that is now halfway between the orbits of the Earth and Mars.