Solar Express

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  Tavoian coughed and cleared his throat. “From the Sinese longliner? Full display.”

  THE UNITS DEPARTED THE SINESE LONGLINER FORTY-TWO MINUTES AGO.

  Simultaneously with the words, an image appeared on the control display, showing three widely separated objects, each with a squat cylinder mounted on a rectangular box with miniature thruster ports on all surfaces, essentially spy-eyes, or the equivalent, attached to a thruster pack of some sort.

  THE UNITS ARE THRUST-BRAKING.

  “How far away are they?”

  TWO HUNDRED TEN METERS.

  “Are they still closing?”

  NEGATIVE. THEY ARE MAINTAINING SEPARATION AT 205 METERS.

  “Notify me immediately if they change position.” Given just the time it had taken the small devices to cover the distance between the Sinese spacecraft and Recon three, Tavoian was relatively confident that they were just what they seemed to be. The slow speed meant they didn’t have to use much propellant. He also suspected that at least one of the spy-eyes was focused on Recon three’s main lock. Their most likely purpose was to give the Sinese warning if Recon three attempted anything that appeared hostile. “Is the Sinese scanning of the artifact continuing?”

  SCANNING CONTINUING.

  “Are there any other detectable activities being undertaken by the Sinese?”

  ONE SMALL REMOTE ISV ENTERED THE CENTRAL SHAFT OF THE ARTIFACT FOUR HOURS AND ELEVEN MINUTES AGO. IT RETURNED TO THE SINESE CRAFT TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES AGO. DELAY WAS PROBABLE SIGNAL LOSS WHEN ARTIFACT ROTATED. RETURN OCCURRED WHEN CENTRAL SHAFT FACED SINESE SPACECRAFT.

  So it’s not just our signals. Except Tavoian had never thought that, but he was perversely gratified to know that the Sinese had apparently not had any better fortune than he had with transmitting signals inside the artifact and had also not thought about the total opacity of the alien artifact. He did wonder why the Sinese hadn’t observed what he had done the day before with the signal repeater as he had finally finished investigating the last of the eighteen hexagons … except maybe their AIs weren’t that bright or whoever was monitoring things from wherever hadn’t seen what he’d done, or hadn’t understood what it meant. He had found some more detritus and debris, and analyzed it, but the results were discouragingly similar to the earlier analyses. He just hoped that someone—Alayna or a DOEA scientist at Donovan Base, if there was one there—would offer a suggestion. That assumed that the colonel had let his message to Alayna go through … and that she had a viable suggestion.

  So far, he’d had no response to the report he’d sent the night before, but since the colonel had ordered him to report Sinese activities, he immediately began to compose a message.

  Recon three under close surveillance by three remote spy-eyes. Spy-eyes do not appear to be armed. Images attached.

  From observation, Sinese longliner has experienced difficulty in maintaining direct control of probes when lines of transmission are blocked. They also cannot maintain physical contact with outer surfaces of artifact.

  Recon three was initially required periodically to use drives to maintain station on alien artifact, but not in the last few days …

  That bothered Tavoian. According to his basic pilot training, gravity had the same force of attraction for any object, regardless of mass. So why had the artifact seemingly been attracted slightly more strongly than Recon three? And what had changed? Because he just might have missed or forgotten something, he wasn’t about to ask those questions, just send the observation.

  Once he finished the message he dispatched it immediately, and then fixed himself a squeezebottle of hot tea, hot meaning that it didn’t immediately cool to sickeningly lukewarm, followed by preparing and eating a pseudo-ham and cheese omelet on a passable bagel. Then he exercised, both because he knew he needed to and because none of the remaining tests or explorations that had been suggested and sent with Recon three by the DOEA science types were possible because of the artifact’s properties. He also thought the exercise might get his blood flowing and metabolism speeded up, which just might help with his own creative processes.

  One thing was certain. He wasn’t about to waste thruster propellant in attempting to gather more samples of material. Going back for materials observed in trying other tests was one thing, but given how little loose material there was, just looking blindly for it didn’t seem to make much sense. He also hoped he could keep use of the lock for repairs and equipment changes to a minimum, since he’d already used almost twenty percent of reserve air supplies.

  He had finished a solid hour of exercise and had done his best to cool down and clean up by the time he received a response from the colonel, along with a message from Alayna. Tavoian read the one from the colonel first.

  Sinese Space Ministry lodged a complaint with DOEA two hours ago, declaring that you were jamming their transmissions to their research probes. DOEA replied at 0714 UTC that the artifact is opaque to all electromagnetic signals. DOEA also made complaint and reply public. No response yet from Sinese.

  Be advised that Sinese are seeking any pretext to use force or to declare that DOEA and/or Space Service have militarized space beyond Earth.

  Sinese expedition likely to arrive by 16 November 2114. Report arrival soonest.

  By the sixteenth? How are they managing that? Part of the shorter travel time was that the artifact had traveled in-system and Earth had moved closer to it, but that time was still less than a Noram fusionjet would have taken.

  DOEA science board requests more sampling be attempted, and suggests using laser at full power on narrow surface near severed edge of hull to obtain minimal sample …

  That might work. It was at least worth a try.

  … board also suggests inspecting rim-interior interface as potential location for loose or trapped material …

  When Tavoian finished with the colonel’s message, he immediately composed and sent a short acknowledgment that also asked the colonel to convey his appreciation to the DOEA science board. Then he began to read the message from Alayna. He found himself nodding at her suggestions, although he wondered if the laser measurements would actually reveal anything new about the material factors behind the silvered side of the artifact having a higher albedo. Yet, whatever the results might be, if enough brilliant minds studied them, there just might be someone who might tease something meaningful from data that, to Tavoian, was just too often inscrutable numbers and patterns. The fact that the colonel had let his messages go through to Alayna was an indication that he thought she might be one of those brilliant minds … and that the DOEA science types were almost as perplexed by the artifact as Tavoian himself.

  He couldn’t help but smile at her quotation about the fractal nature of ocean coastlines, and he saved the quote to his personal storage so that he could send it on to Kit. She’d appreciate it.

  Then he stretched and headed aft. Between the DOEA science board and Alayna, he had a good day’s work cut out for him … and maybe a lot more, given the circumference of the artifact where the shimmering silvery hull ended, well over six kays, that the ISV would have to inspect to see if there were any sampling possibilities. It would take some work to reconfigure the ISV so that it could handle the laser, the sampling array, and the AI rover needed to recover any scraps for sampling. But once he changed the configuration, the ISV wouldn’t need any additional reworking for a time. You hope.

  Reconfiguring the ISV so that the sampler and the tunable laser array were on the same side took another hour’s doing and some ingenious fastenings, but by a little after 0900, the ISV was once more on its way over to the artifact, on a course that avoided coming too close to the Sinese spy-eyes. Tavoian could only hope that whoever or whatever was monitoring the feeds from the Sinese spy-eyes would be able to understand that the ISV was not making hostile moves toward the spy-eyes or the longliner.

  Initially, as the ISV neared the rim of the alien artifact, the image from the ISV’s optical system showed what appeared to
be a clear and sharp demarcation. On one side was the dark green material of the interior. On the other was the silvery, metallic-looking, and seamless hull. But as the ISV’s scanner came even closer to that edge, Tavoian could see that it was just slightly rounded, as he had earlier determined for the edges of the hexagonal chambers that had been sliced open. Still, if the AI guided the ISV all the way around the circumference there was a chance, just a chance, that there might be a sliver hanging loose … somewhere.

  Another hour passed as the AI monitored the optical and infrared scans of the seam where the green and silver had been sheared side by side and as Tavoian intermittently considered whether to stop the methodical approach to scanning the artifact, while also watching the latest efforts by the Sinese probe. Those consisted of a good thirty small and self-guided spy-eyes descending into the artifact, heading down various passageways … and vanishing.

  The brute force approach. Most of those won’t make it back, and they can’t transmit anything they find from inside the artifact.

  Tavoian had twenty similar probes remaining, but he had been reluctant to send more out, at least until he had a better idea of where they might prove most useful, especially after the difficulties experienced by the AI rover. The only problem was that he still had no real idea just where they might prove the most useful.

  You have to try something, especially before a full-fledged Sinese exploration team appears. With that thought, he called up the route taken by the rover to the “drive” section of the artifact, and began running calculations based on the distance and the thruster propellant carried by each of the two classes of spy-eyes he had available.

  Finally, he asked the ship’s AI to calculate the most propellant-efficient route for the larger spy-eyes, not from Recon three, but from the farthest point into the artifact that the ISV could go using the anchors Tavoian had developed.

  MOST DISTANT POINT THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE IS FIVE HUNDRED METERS BEYOND THE POSITION REACHED BY THE ROVER.

  Five hundred meters beyond what the rover had seen was better than anything else Tavoian had come up with. He went back to the cargo area and unpacked five of the ten larger spy-eyes, then had the ship’s AI program each with a different direction once they reached the defaced entry to the artifact’s “drive” chamber. Then he began to ready the second ISV.

  ISV HAS DISCOVERED A POSSIBLE SAMPLING SITE.

  “I’ll be right there.” Tavoian could have let the AI handle the sampling, but he wanted to be watching, especially given just how difficult it had been to find any material at all to sample. He just hoped that the AI was right.

  When he reached the control area, the largest display screen showed a close-up from the ISV, a thin threadlike strand trailing from the edge of the dark green material, at the end of which was a small lump of the same dark green matter. The thread was so fine that Tavoian couldn’t make it out without visual enhancement. “How large is the lump?”

  THIRTY-EIGHT MILLIMETERS AT ITS GREATEST DIMENSION.

  “What about the strand attaching it to the rest of the green material?”

  IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THAT EXACTLY THROUGH THE SCANNING IMAGE. THE THICKNESS IS BETWEEN FIFTY AND NINETY MICROMETERS.

  “See if the rover’s clamp can cut the lump free.”

  Tavoian watched as the rover used its thrusters to position itself, then extended a sharp-edged clamp, which closed around the dark green strand that was likely the thickness of a human hair. The lump vibrated, but did not break free.

  THE CLAMP CANNOT CUT THROUGH THE STRAND.

  Tavoian wasn’t surprised in the slightest. “Bring the laser to bear and tune it to cutting at the shortest UV wavelength possible for the laser.”

  TUNING AND CUTTING.

  The screen went black for several moments.

  RETRIEVING IMAGE USING ROVER’S OPTICS.

  From what Tavoian could make out from the image that appeared on the screen, the front of the tunable laser assembly was a fused mass and what looked to be wisps of vapor surrounded it, most likely particles of what had been part of the laser.

  “What happened?”

  THE CAUSE OF THE EXPLOSION IS UNKNOWN. THE ROVER HAS RECLAIMED THE SAMPLE WITH ITS GRASPER. ITS CLAMP ARM HAS BEEN DESTROYED.

  “Display stored view from Recon three’s opticals. Maximum magnification.” Tavoian watched the view of the ISV, but there was really nothing to see. One moment, the ISV was poised above the circumference of the artifact. The next, there was a flash that blotted out any image of the ISV, and after that, the ISV was still poised where it had been, with the faint haze around the damaged laser.

  “Return the ISV to Recon three. Is the sampler functioning?”

  IT IS NOT.

  “Can you determine whether it is repairable?”

  NEGATIVE.

  “Note the location where the sample was found.”

  LOCATION NOTED.

  Tavoian left the controls and returned to working on the second ISV. Then, almost half an hour later, after the ship’s AI had locked in the damaged ISV, and the ISV and its equipment were warming in the lock, he unpacked the second rover and the backup tunable laser. Before continuing a search for another sample along the rim of the artifact, he wanted to test Alayna’s suggestion for spectrographic analysis, especially of the hull section and the off-colored “circles.”

  By the time he had the second ISV ready to go, with the second AI rover and the laser fastened in position, the first ISV had warmed enough for him to open the inner lock and pull the damaged equipment into the former passenger compartment. The sampler didn’t look that damaged, and the rover seemed intact, except for the grabber arm, which was totally gone. You might have a spare for that. There wasn’t much left intact of the front part of the laser.

  He checked the parts and supply list. There was a small case of rover parts, including two grabber arms. The spare parts for the tunable lasers consisted of replacement laser modules, a replacement fore-optics chamber, and two replacement sensors. That looked promising, but when he went back and looked at the damaged laser spectroscope/analyzer, he just shook his head. Shreds of metal, possibly from the missing grabber arm, had penetrated the assembly behind the sensor and shattered the analytics module, despite the shielding that looked thick enough to stop what had happened—and hadn’t.

  And you don’t have a replacement for that.

  Next, he looked at the sampler. A small bit of flexible conduit, from the grabber arm, had wedged into the door assembly, preventing a clean seal. That, he could fix … after he finished preparing the second ISV.

  After another forty minutes, the second ISV was on its way toward the artifact, and Tavoian was setting up the larger materials analyzer that had been installed on one side of the cargo section of Recon three. Larger was relative, because the equipment used with the ISV was little more than sixty centimeters by twenty-five and twenty centimeters high. The one in Recon three was eighty by forty by thirty, and much of the extra size was accounted for by a larger sampling bay.

  Tavoian debated whether he should even attempt analyzing the lump of material recovered from the artifact. Still he had to try … but after what had occurred with the laser being used as a cutter, he wasn’t about to apply high power to anything. Even so, he had his doubts as to whether even the more sophisticated and high-powered sampling equipment onboard Recon three would be any more effective in revealing anything about the silver or green material comprising the structure of the artifact. The only place where spectrographic analysis had worked thus far was on the melted and damaged protrusions in the handful of hexagons with partly opened doors … and in revealing the silicon and silver in the outer hull, but even Tavoian knew that silver and silicon couldn’t make a hull as durable as that of the artifact—not with any technology known on Earth.

  Finally, he decided he’d attempt an analysis at low power. Less than a minute after he closed the bay door, the display panel showed its results.

  No
gasification at current power settings.

  Spectrographic reflection analysis reveals the following elements: carbon, silicon, silver.

  Material impervious to electromagnetic penetration beyond surface.

  Impervious? How could that be? What looked to be the same material in the door-frame area of the hexagons showed a photosensitivity. Was the photosensitivity confined to the surface of the material? Tavoian had to think that over. The perceived color of an object or material was determined by the wavelengths reflected. Yet the door frames had selectively accepted photons in the wavelength that was being reflected, in addition to all other wavelengths of visible light, as well as UV and IR. Was there something about that material that changed its composition when exposed to light? Or when it became the surface? The lump presumably had come from the interior, and the majority of interior surfaces were the dark green.

  He needed to report on the sampling results, but the report could wait until he had at least some preliminary results from attempting what Alayna had suggested. He made his way back to the controls.

  “Interrogative status of ISV?”

  ISV IS IN POSITION RELATIVE TO THE OUTERMOST HEXAGON YOU SELECTED.

  “Conduct spectrographic analysis on hull area outside the circle.” Tavoian doubted that he’d find anything differing much, but sometimes things didn’t.

  ANALYSIS REVEALS CARBON, SILICON, AND SILVER.

  “Nothing else?”

  NO OTHER ELEMENTS DETECTED.

  Even though he’d expected that, it still bothered him. How had the aliens managed to create such a hard and durable material from just those three elements? Finding that out isn’t your job. Your job is to get as much information as possible to those people who can. Except Tavoian was finding his job far harder than he—or anyone else, he suspected—had thought it would be.

  “Commence reflectivity tests on the hull area beyond the circle and report results.”

  COMMENCING REFLECTIVITY TESTS.

  Tavoian waited.