Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

"Just warning you so you can expect it," Ernie explained.

  "First of all I bet almost all of these guys are Earthies, right? I don't expect to visit Earth again."

  "Well yeah, oddly enough out on the actual frontier worlds and planets with aliens it's pretty damn hard to find a professor of any sort of alien studies," Ernie admitted.

  "Why do you think that is?" Lee asked.

  "Well, I've never taught. Certainly not at the university level. But from what I've seen traveling around, frontier worlds are short on schools, especially graduate level studies, and way short on extravagant funding of anything that doesn't have an immediate return on investment. There aren't any grants. Fargone bureaucrats may look superficially like Earth bureaucrats, but if you asked them for a grant to study the effect of coffee imports on single parent Fargoer households they'd probably bust something laughing. Frontier worlds are short on Hiltons and soft beds, long on bugs, and supposedly noble savages that can put a spear in your chest if you treat them like freshman students. Derf clan Mothers have even less tolerance of foolishness."

  "The Red Tree First Mum told me a neighbor keep had an Earth scientist visiting. When the conversation turned to firearms he disagreed with her plain statement that Derf had had them before contact, and quoted a seminal text which held forth that Derf had no firearms when contacted. Nothing like calling your hostess a liar."

  "What did she do? Ernie wondered.

  "She tossed him out on his ear. I doubt she has hosted many Earth scientists since," Lee guessed.

  "There have been places on Earth the ruler would have put his head on a lance outside the city gate to act as a warning to those lacking manners," Ernie assured her.

  "I have my own lands on Providence I haven't built on, and there are no settlers yet. But I'll keep that in mind for when I build a home. It has a certain directness I appreciate."

  It wouldn't have bothered Ernie so much, but Lee smiled thinking about it...

  After eating silently for awhile Lee looked up and regarded him seriously. "You said when we go back and reveal all this stuff. We need to go back and file our claims. The rest of it, dealings with Badgers and their friends will mostly be between governments. Every little detail of everything else we did – like these artifacts – why do we owe that to anybody? What business is it of theirs?" Lee asked. "When I speak to Gordon I'm going to ask him what we owe the Earthies. Why detail a claim on junk we already sifted through and hold in our possession? It's a private voyage. I see no need to open our logs to them, knowing they'll be critical. Just state the basics of your claim. Fargoers maybe, they supported us. But Earthies, I see no reason to chat with them beyond business. I don't like Earthies.”

  * * *

  With the mismatch between their ship-shifts and the planet's rotation they didn't drop back on the planet until the morning of the second day from before. This time they brought the wheeled wagons most Deep Space Explorers carried to transport camp supplies and field specimens. Ernie also had learned his lesson cutting the wall and had a powered saw.

  They landed closer to the large buildings, sure they weren't delicate and ready to fall over from an innocent nudge. Ernie brought something Lee hadn't been aware he owned, a folding bicycle that only weighed a bit more than two kilograms. The unfolding and locking of the frame, extending the kick-stand and parking it drew the Caterpillars. It looked so dainty Lee thought it should be crushed when Ernie sat on it, but it survived. He used it to circumnavigate the nearest big building before using the saw to cut an opening. He didn't want a repeat of the previous embarrassment.

  "That's your private, uh, vehicle?" Lee asked him when he returned to where he left the saw.

  "Yeah, I figured we'd be visiting planets. I've carried it with me for a few years now and even though it cut into my mass allowance I couldn't bring myself to leave it behind.”

  They watched as the Caterpillars inspected the parked bike. The lifted it and spun the wheels.

  "I b... think it very unlikely they ever invented a two wheeled vehicle," Ernie said, amused.

  "Yes, but I can see them with a unicycle at each end," Lee said.

  Ernie did a full double faceplant and still didn't have his face under control when he dropped his hands. "I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but that image is stuck in my brain now. I have this picture of a Caterpillar kid learning to ride and he can't get the rear to turn the same direction."

  "Yeah, well I doubt training wheels would help them," Lee agreed.

  Talker, quiet this morning, and not at all talkative, had taken video of Ernie approaching on the bike wearing a spacesuit. His daughter Tish would enjoy it. He also looked up training wheels on his pad. Training wheels as a search brought up a picture of a six year old girl with training wheels on a much sturdier bright pink bike that had a basket on front. An innovation that made sense to him, but there was also a bunch of colored ribbons hanging from each hand grip, which seemed to have no function at all. The wheels and ribbons all made as much warped sense as a lot that Humans did, but why would they include an article about them it in the web fraction they brought along on an interstellar journey? It was as odd and pointless as... He tried to think of an example. Then he realized it no more weird than actually bringing a bicycle, and closed his pad.

  Ernie had most of the door cut while he was searching, and enlisted him to pry on the side to open it. He'd left a centimeter or so at each corner uncut to act as a hinge and keep it attached. Lee had a pry bar and pried it open enough for them to both get hands in the crack. Trouble was, when they swung it full open it sprang back almost shut. This composite was tough stuff.

  Ernie reduced the hinges by about half and ran the saw down the outside of them, scoring a deep grove on the outside. This time when they forced it back to touch the wall beside it the door only sprung back about a third of the arc. Ernie adjusted his com from local transmission to the general channel and said: "This one's open, Gordon. I'll go cut check the next and cut it open if need be." One of the Caterpillars detached and floated along with him as he left.

  The other Caterpillar was much less shy than their previous visit. He flowed through the door before Gordon could arrive and, like Ernie, was also better equipped than before. He had a super bright floodlight that lit the place up almost into the far corners when shone on the ceiling. Lee and Talker were not so bold and waited. When Gordon arrived he didn't say anything about the Caterpillar, but just looked inside and waved at them from the door to follow.

  Gordon had no ready reference to describe the giant shape inside. Lee having visited an older lady on Earth, and helped in the kitchen, knew exactly what it looked like. It was a huge gold-colored Bunt pan sitting upside down. The Caterpillar was near out of sight, intent on gliding around it by all indications. Did it mean anything the float his board worked just fine beside the huge shape? Gordon walked over and laid a hand on it, almost as if he could feel it through his suit glove. Perhaps a vibration, but not temperature unless it was dangerously extreme.

  "Get some sensors in here and see what you can find out about this thing," Gordon ordered.

  "Look where it meets the floor," Lee said.

  There was a gap, all of about two centimeters, where the floor stopped short of the monolith. Gordon leaned close and shone his helmet lights down it and rolled his head.

  "And a thin line," Gordon added to the order. "Something under three millimeters with a thin but heavy plate or bar. Something for a weight to plumb down a hole for depth."

  "So, was the hole made so precisely and the... thing, machine, installed in the hole or was the floor formed right up to it?" Lee asked. "It looks odd, but I've seen very few ground side installations. I'm used to big machinery in a ship, but even there you leave more room around something."

  "No, you're right. I've seen our power plant for the keep and various pumping stations and things. All of which are basically Human design. If this was an Earthie designed installation there would probably
big enough gap there to go down and service things. The floor would have a metal 'L' shape along the edge to protect it from chipping, and it would be painted with bright yellow slash lines to mark it as a hazard. It does look alien."

  The line arrived from the shuttle with a large washer, about the size of Gordon's palm. Lee immediately wondered what it could be for, but stifled asking.

  When Gordon tied the line around it and dropped it down the crack he seemed to play out the line for an awfully long time. Finally there was enough weight of line to make him uncertain he'd feel it hit. He continued to drop it but giggled it up and down as he did so. Finally he stopped and tested the feel in one spot. Lee turned up her suit mics and heard a ting-ting-ting.

  "You got it," she assured him.

  Gordon reached down and gripped the line at floor level with his middle arm. He looped the line around his elbow and back to his thumb. "Two meters," he informed Lee. She watched as he did twenty-six turns. "Fifty meters and a bit," Gordon said, scrunching his brow up perplexed. "Why didn't they build it flush on the ground or sunk all the way below grade? Why halfway?"

  Thor, who had come in while they were measuring it, shrugged. "Maybe they had these buildings pre-fabricated and it's easier to sink the machine a bit than to make a taller building to cover it."

  "It would be easier to guess if we had any idea what it does," Lee said.

  The Caterpillar returned from his long trip around the machine. He didn't seem excited at all.

  "The technician Gordon had requested with instruments ripped the adhesive transducer off the giant shape. "It's about twelve degrees under the surface temperature. I suspect because it has so much mass below grade and linked thermally to the soil or bedrock. Ultra-sound indicates there is a boundary of some sort, not an inside surface, about seven hundred millimeters from the outside. No radioactivity, no radio or audio emissions, no neutrinos and not a damn seam or bolt or rivet on the whole thing, although my partner is still checking. I'm going to have a twenty millimeter bore drilled outside to see what the temperature is at fifty meters, but I expect it to be a little lower than the machine up here. Whatever this does, in my opinion it is not doing it right now or it is completely beyond our comprehension."

  "What is it made of? Gordon asked, patting it again.

  "I'm scared to drill it," the techie admitted. "I respectfully request you allow me back in orbit before you punch a hole in this sucker."

  "No need. How about just scraping a little off? If it can't be scraped off with a good pocket knife leave it well enough alone," Gordon agreed.

  "Yeah, I'll do that," the fellow agreed, warily.

  "Let's go see what Ernie has opened up," Gordon said.

  When they left Lee looked back. The technician had a knife out and appeared to be working up his nerve to scape a little of the material off.

  * * *

  They met him outside the next big polygon.

  "What's in this one? Another big lump? Gordon asked.

  "Nothing."

  Gordon looked shocked.

  "I have two people searching all along the walls, and we'll look at every square meter of floor, but nothing so far, and I don't expect them to find anything, and the next one looks the same," Ernie said.

  The rest of them were empty.

  * * *

  Gordon was still thinking on it, mystified, two days later. He was about ready to take the fleet and move on. He was working on the bridge even though they were in orbital watch mode. It beat working from anywhere else on the ship as long as he didn't take the conn. He expressed his frustration to John Burris who was standing the watch.

  "Perhaps they were in the process of setting up something here and the asteroid strike caught them before they brought stuff in and filled the buildings," Jon Burris guessed.

  The technician who was so afraid of drilling the huge housing had a report finally and said, "The seamless shape was an aluminum bronze, with nickel, silicon, iron and traces of other metals. The odd one is tantalum. Why would it have tantalum?"

  "I don't know, but it would explain them mining the asteroid if they build many of these things. It wouldn't take much added to something that size to add up to a lot of tantalum. Otherwise it's not so different than some of the alloys Derf use," Gordon informed him.

  "Yes, Humans have some similar alloys. But nothing of this size," the man emphasized.

  "Well, yeah. Neither do we," Gordon admitted. "Thanks for the report."

  "Something else that might interest you, sir."

  "Yes?"

  "The bullet in the cartridge you gave me is a bit better than twenty-two karat gold."

  "That is really going to interest my daughter," Gordon said, laughing. "Did you check out the propellant? Would it burn?"

  "It has degraded and out-gassed. It might burn half-heartedly if you put a match to it in air. But it isn't going to go 'bang' for you."

  "OK, thanks again, Todd," Gordon said remembering his name finally. He had a block for the guy.

  Vigilant Botrel showed up on the bridge in a better mood than Gordon. He tried to jolly his commander a bit and didn't have much success. He turned his head and looked surprised.

  "Wow! Look at that aurora," Vigilant said, and then frowned. "Have you changed to a polar orbit? No, I'd have woke up if you shifted this much."

  Gordon hooked his toes under his console foot bar and stood to give himself the same view as Vigilant. "Mr. Burris, I am looking at an aurora on the surface below. I want to know where it is located. And call Mr. Goddard to the bridge right now."

  He remained standing, looking at the shimmering glow unbelieving. It was two concentric rings and occasionally when it flickered bright three. It was receding as they orbited, but still clearly visible when Ernie Goddard arrived at the bridge short of breath and freaked out. Gordon never said 'right now' unless it was life or death.

  "What do you call that, Mr. Goddard?" Gordon said pointing at it like it was his fault. Ernie came in past Gordon and hovered beside Vigilant.

  "Impossible," Ernie said.

  "And yet there it is," Gordon said swinging his open true hand toward it.

  "The planet doesn't have a magnetic field," Ernie objected.

  "Actually, it does, now," Jon Burris informed them from the com board. "And that display is centered on... the buildings we visited."

  "Why does that not surprise me?" Gordon asked.

  "The star threw out a bunch of crap a few hours ago," Jon said. "That isn't surprising. It's noisy. I never gave it much thought because it would take a lot more to give us any trouble."

  "The planet doesn't have any magnetic field," Gordon agreed. "Whatever ill fated installation they built before it was obliterated needed to be shielded from particle storms. So they built this device to shield the whole planet. Or who knows? Maybe they did it so commonly they don't have to custom build them and they came in standard sizes. They could have just measured the planet and put in an order to home for a number four... Maybe there is a model tag and build date on it down in the crack."

  "So, what would be the optimum angular separation between the device and the protected area?" Vigilant asked.

  "I don't know what's optimum," Ernie said. "but from where the center of the asteroid strike was to the buildings is pretty close to ninety degrees. I remember that from mapping it."

  "Then I'd expect another machine generating the field opposite this one," Vigilant said.

  "We didn't see anything. Well, the computer didn't tag anything," Ernie corrected.

  "I have this small gift of prophecy," Vigilant said, grabbing his forehead theatrically with his spread fingers and tilting his head back at the overhead. "We shall see another aurora come over the horizon in about ten minutes, and it will be exactly opposite the other machine on this globe. If you don't go look at the surface pix, and see what is there, I predict your commander may pitch you out the airlock to make a flaming decent without benefit of shuttle to personally inspect the sit
e."

  Ernie stared at him mouth full open. "I'll be right back," he said, and exited like a salmon headed upstream on a mission.

  The twin to the other aurora was fully in sight by the time Ernie returned.

  "It was close to noon, local, when the pix were taken of the other site," Ernie explained. "It didn't cast any shadows. The stupid computer is blind. There are three buildings there and a couple smaller ones. I gotta write this up! I'll credit you on the paper, Vigilant! It's going to be astonishing!"

  His exit ran straight into Vigilant's extended arm.

  "Are you going to take up signing my checks for me too?" Vigilant asked. "Perhaps change your name and declare you are my heir?"

  "Huh?"

  "You don't put my name on anything you little twerp. When you have your paper all polished and want to ask me if I'd like to co-author it, I might decide to allow it, after you make any revisions I fancy. That's how you do it. I'm not easy going Choi Eun-sook, or the pleasant Mr. Burris over there, with whom you may take liberties. Do we understand each other?"

  "Yes sir!"

  "Very well." The arm was withdrawn.

  "That was entertaining," Gordon said after he was gone. Vigilant just rolled his eyes.

  "I guess the Caterpillars couldn't figure out what the big machine did either, or they wouldn't have walked around it unafraid. If that thing had started up, anything magnetic would have been smashed against it and pinned there until it shut off," Gordon said. "We lucked out on that."

  "Possibly, or they might be much better at space weather prediction than us, and knew it wasn't going to activate," Vigilant suggested.

  "Then we should only go there if they are willing to accompany us," Gordon joked.

  "That or have nothing iron about our persons," Vigilant agreed. That made Gordon look thoughtful.

  "Mr. Burris, we will be making another landing. No need to rush anyone. Have Brownie set it up since he'll be coming on soon. We can wait for the second dawn on the new site if that works better. I also need to talk to Ha-bob-bob-brie and Mr. Hillerman from engineering."