“Anything conspicuous in the data transmission of the AI?”
“No, always the same internal status reports. No in- or outgoing connections apart from the ping.”
“Ping?” asked Russell. He was having trouble concentrating. His eyes kept wandering back to the monitor showing the body of Lee. But it was no use. If he didn’t want the engineer and the major to have died in vain, they had to make the best of the situation and analyze the data the instruments were sending them from the alien world. There would be time to mourn later.
“The transporter is sending a short signal to the network every five seconds,” Dr. Hope whispered. “Simply to let us know that it exists and can be dialed.”
“Is the data being gathered somewhere?” asked Holbrook. His voice was hoarse. He was clearly still in a state of shock at what had happened to Lee. “I mean, is there something like a central register of all transporters in the network?”
“If there is, we haven’t found it yet,” Mitchell said. “My guess it that the network works decentrally.”
“If you ask the network a question——like about the atmosphere on a particular planet——where does the answer come from?” Russell asked.
“The question is spread through the network at lightning speed. Watch this.” Mitchell rolled on his chair to the neighboring console and tapped something into the keyboard. “I’m sending a question to the AI in the transporter about the environmental conditions on today’s planet.” He pressed the return key and rolled back to the first console. He pointed at the screen. “There’s an incoming data package and several outgoing ones, as we can see from our measuring devices on the planet’s transporter. The sphere has answered the question itself. Because the network works via submicroscopic wormholes, the exchange happens almost instantaneously. They don’t need any servers for data management. That would just make the network susceptible to disruptions.”
“Concentrate!” Morrow interrupted sharply. “It’s going to happen any second now.”
As if spellbound, Russell looked at the monitor with the data from the transporter network. When the connection broke off, the data stream would stop. But then his eyes wandered back to the monitor with the TV image. Lee was still lying in front of the transporter. His mummified face was looking in their direction. Russell wished they could pan the camera away via remote control until they could only see the transporter, but that wasn’t possible.
Finally, Mitchell took a folder from a shelf and placed it in front of the screen so that it hid Lee’s face. Morrow acknowledged his action with a grunt. Russell was relieved, and concentrated on the transporter. What would happen to it? Would it disappear? Explode? Or would the connection just be broken, leaving the black sphere to lie around on the planet till the end of time——a useless object?
“The time frame has begun. The connection is still holding,” Morrow said.
“It’s strange that the death zone ...” began Marlene. Her voice dried up as both screens suddenly tuned black at the same moment. The data transmission from the measuring devices had stopped in an instant, the video transmission had broken off.
“Did the spin resonator stop working?” Dr. Hope asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mitchell said drily. “The transporter disappeared from the network at the same time.”
“Didn’t you say the spin resonator functions independently of the transporter network?” Russell asked.
“That’s correct. Neither of them have anything to do with each other, except that they’re based on the same technology.”
“So why was the TV image interrupted?”
“No idea.”
“Maybe the transporter was violently destroyed and the explosion destroyed the measuring instruments,” Morrow speculated. “We should have set up the camera further away.”
“But there was absolutely nothing to see.” Dr. Hope’s voice was shrill. “Not in the data transmission or in the TV transmission. It can’t just stop so suddenly!”
In vain again! Russell sighed. Lee and Palmer had died for nothing.
“And now?” Marlene asked.
“I need to analyze the data more closely,” said Mitchell. “Not all of the transmitted parameters were shown on screen.”
“How long do you need?” Morrow asked. His voice was quiet, hardly more than a whisper.
Mitchell shrugged. “A few hours.”
“What do we do if you don’t find anything out? I mean, what do we do next?” Dr. Hope asked.
Morrow’s face suddenly turned red. “Goddammit, that’s your job! Think of something!”
The scientist stumbled back a few steps. Russell also jumped. He had never seen the general so angry——normally he was usually very restrained in his emotions.
Morrow took a deep breath and turned to Mitchell. “I want your report on my desk in three hours.”
Chapter 14
“We’ve already been on two missions and haven’t found out anything. Lee and the major are dead. It’s just like back in Nevada. We shouldn’t have got mixed up in this,” Albert said.
Russell shook his head. He, Marlene, Albert, Chris Holbrook, and Ernie had gone straight to the canteen. They sat at the formica tables and talked. Russell hadn’t spoken yet. He had taken some time out to think. Now he said: “We need to know what this death zone is all about before it reaches New California in a few days. I’m really worried.”
Marlene nodded. “If the transporters are being destroyed by God knows what, then our colony is in grave danger. That thing is only a few miles away from Eridu.”
“Yeah, the explosion must have been big, if it destroyed the measuring instruments and the camera so fast,” Holbrook said. The former astronaut’s brow was furrowed. Just like Russell, he was probably thinking about his family on New California.
“Who said anything about an explosion?” Albert flared up. “It was impossible to see anything. We should just admit we don’t have a clue what happened to the transporter and the instruments. It’s just as likely all of the wormhole connections were cut off.”
“But by whom?” asked Marlene.
“What do you mean?”
“As you say, it sounds as if an alien intelligence is behind it, deliberately destroying the wormhole connections.”
“I never said that!”
“Well, we should at least take it into consideration,” Marlene continued. “It’s one thing if a malfunction or an automatic mechanism is disabling the transporters. But if our own wormhole connections are being disabled as well, then there must be more to it.”
Russell shook his head. “I talked with the transporter intelligence at the time. It told me, without a doubt, there were no other intelligent life forms in the galaxy apart from us humans. So that eliminates that possibility.”
“Could the thing be lying to us?” Marlene asked.
Russell shook his head. “Even if we say intelligence, I still regard it as a computer, which only carries out orders. Nothing else corresponds with the experiences we made at the time. And in terms of the transporter’s job, it wouldn’t make any sense. No, we can rule out that possibility.”
“What do you think is happening?”
Since his first talk with Morrow, Russell had come up with his own theories. He had considered many possibilities and rejected most of them. Only one solution seemed plausible to him. “I think during all these experiments with the transporter here on Venus, we’ve activated some kind of self-destruction mechanism.”
Chris shook his head. “A safety feature that’s destroying the whole transporter network? I find that hard to believe. Why not just destroy the transporter on Venus.”
Chris had a point, but Russell couldn’t think of any other explanation. He was about to reply when the door opened and General Morrow, Dr. Hope, John Mitchell, and Dr. Payne entered the room.
“Since you’re all gathered here anyway, we might as well have our meeting here,” the general said, and sat down along with the
other members of his team.
“Found anything out?” Marlene asked.
“Less than I would have liked. Item one: What happened to Major Palmer and Mr. Shanker? Dr. Payne, please!”
The doctor stood up slowly. Her unkempt blond hair streaked with grey tumbled to her shoulders. “As the physical and chemical conditions of the destination planet were friendly, I assume we are dealing with a biological cause, and the images that I’ve looked at closely resemble a case of very rapid necrotizing fasciitis,” Dr. Payne began.
“Necro ... what?” Chris Holbrook looked puzzled.
“Fasciitis. The body’s soft tissue is destroyed by flesh-eating bacteria, for example staphylococcus. Even on Earth, tiny skin injuries that become infected can quickly turn into a necrosis, in other words a dying-away of the skin.” She paused briefly. “Of course not as quickly as in the video I just saw.”
“An infection?” Russell asked. “And it can spread that fast?”
The doctor shrugged. “Since we don’t have any samples that we can analyze, it’s ultimately just speculation. But it’s conceivable, and it’s what the images suggest.”
“I don’t understand why the transporter didn’t warn us,” General Morrow said, turning with a sullen expression to Dr. Hope.
“The transporter can warn us of physical dangers, but obviously it has limitations when it comes to other threats. We’re going to have to accept that the level of risk on a transport to a strange planet has risen again.”
“Can we protect ourselves?” Marlene asked.
The doctor nodded. “Theoretically, you can protect yourselves against biological dangers with a full body suit——the kind we use in some labs on Earth.”
“Theoretically?”
“We don’t have any here on Venus.”
“Great!”
“We could wear the space suits,” Chris Holbrook suggested.
“And then select only planets without an atmosphere. That would protect us against all possible biological dangers.”
“That makes sense,” General Morrow agreed. “Let’s get to the second and most important item on the agenda, which is what happened to the transporter and our measuring instruments on the target planet. Mr. Mitchell, please.”
The young engineer nodded. “Right. Well, the flow of data from the transporter itself was suddenly broken off at the critical moment. Still within a data packet. No variance in the signal strength or anything else. Just gone.” He raised his arms almost apologetically. “But I found one anomaly in the sensor package which also controlled the camera. It couldn’t be seen on the video footage, but the radiation sensor caught something. The last byte shows a clear increase in gamma radiation.”
“How much?” Dr. Payne asked.
“As if an atomic bomb had exploded right next to the sensor.”
“And you don’t have anything else?” Russell asked.
“No.”
“Is it possible?” Marlene probed. “I mean that the sphere destroyed itself in an atomic bomb explosion? After all, Russell also managed it at the time.”
“At the moment it’s all we have. The rest is speculation, but it’s a possibility,” General Morrow said. “Although we have no idea what could cause such an explosion.”
Russell thought uneasily about the transporter on New California. It was situated just a few miles from the settlement. If it were in danger of blowing up in an atomic explosion in a few days’ time, they would have to evacuate Eridu. And that would take time. Time they didn’t have. “We need to find out how big the explosion is.”
Marlene had obviously been thinking the same, and nodded.
“We still have too little information about what actually happens,” General Morrow said. “Dr. Hope has an idea and I think we should support his plan. Dr. Hope, please!”
The physicist stood up and walked over to a screen on the wall at the front of the room. Black ellipses and circles appeared against a white backdrop. Russell could see it depicted an alien solar system.
“We’ve found a very interesting planetary constellation, which the death zone will reach tomorrow,” the scientist explained. He touched the screen and the image zoomed in on a planet. As the section was enlarged, Russell saw he was looking not at one but two planets side by side.
“That’s a double planet. The two celestial bodies aren’t very big and are orbiting a shared center of gravity, although they aren’t far apart from one another——just a few thousand miles. From one planet you have a good view of the other.”
“And how does that help us?” Albert asked.
“The same parts of both planets are always facing each other. A bit like Pluto and its moon Charon in our solar system. And now the most important bit: there are transporters on both planets, and they are in view of one another.”
“And?” asked Marlene.
“Well, we already know the transporters are being disabled at different times. If we set up powerful telescopes on both planets, each of which observes the transporter on the other planet, we’ll know for sure whether the atomic explosion theory is right and how big the radius of the destruction is. At precisely the moment when the first transporter is taken out of the network and the other is still there.”
Interesting plan!
That means tomorrow we’ll have to go on two simultaneous missions,” Russell concluded.
“Exactly,” Morrow confirmed. “We will send two teams, who will set up the camera and sensor packages with spin resonators on the respective planets. If everything goes as planned, by tomorrow evening we’ll know what’s really happening.”
Chapter 15
“The suit’s OK——I’m ready,” Ernie said.
“Good, I’ll unhook you from the external energy supply,” Ryan replied. The technician had been showing Ernie how to operate the space suit. Slim and slightly disheveled-looking, and with a dry sense of humor, Ryan was the first soldier Ernie had met on the Venus base whom he liked. The two men had immediately hit it off. The improvised lesson had lasted two hours, since Ernie had never worn a pressure suit before. Ryan had lightened the mood with jokes and cynical remarks about General Morrow, and for the first time since his wife’s death, he had really laughed. “Don’t forget: only turn up the heating very slowly. Otherwise it’ll burn your butt off.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll try to remember.” Ernie activated the timer on his watch. Contact to the two transporters in the alien system would break off in just over an hour. Ernie and Chris Holbrook were Team B. Marlene and Travis had already left for Target A five minutes ago. Ernie could listen in on their communication with the control room via his headset, as both teams were equipped with a spin resonator.
“Space-suit check complete. Everything looks great,” Ryan said.
“Now we just have to wait for the go-ahead from the control room.”
“Which leaves some time for me to tell you the joke about the general and the two doctors.”
“I’m all ears!”
Ryan grinned. “So, the general is injured on a mission and returns to Venus with two bullet wounds. He goes to the infirmary where two female doctors examine him. He shows them the first bullet wound on his upper arm. One of the doctors removes the bullet and dresses the wound, while the other doctor looks for the other bullet. She can’t find it, but she realizes that the general has had his hand in his crotch the whole time, and guesses that the second bullet is in his dick or one of his balls. She tells him he needs to take off his pants. The general looks at her in irritation and says: ‘But nurse, you don’t honestly expect me to ...’”
“The transporter is configured for Target B. Please leave immediately,” Ernie heard the voice of General Morrow clearly through his headset. He picked up the sensor package in front of him and turned round to Chris Holbrook. The astronaut, who was finally getting a chance to return to his real job, nodded to him. Ernie could hardly see the face of his comrade behind the gold-coated visor of the helmet.
Ryan patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck. When you get back I’ll tell you what the doctor found in the general’s pants and we’ll treat ourselves to a little something!”
Ernie grinned. Ryan had told him about a bottle of gin that he had smuggled onto Venus in his private belongings. “Looking forward to it. So long.”
Ernie followed Chris into the transporter. They closed the outer shell and climbed the steps up to the smaller sphere. A few seconds later, they were ready to be teleported to the alien planet, over a hundred thousand light years away from their solar system according to Dr. Hope.
Ernie looked at the control pillar in the inner sphere and felt a little queasy. He wasn’t afraid of going on a mission to an alien world, but he still found the alien technology creepy.
“Team B ready. Shall we initiate from here?” Chris asked.
“No,” Ernie heard Morrow’s voice through the headset. “We’ll control the transporter from here. We’re starting the transport in five, four, three, two, one ...”
Ernie felt his stomach heave. The gravity had changed. The display in his helmet indicated a vacuum outside of the suit.
“A sixth of a G. Like on the moon,” Chris said.
“Comm check,” Morrow’s voice blared from the headphones.
“Loud and clear,” Chris replied.
“Loud and clear,” Ernie confirmed.
“Team B, can you hear me?” Now Ernie heard Marlene’s voice in his helmet.
“Yes, I can hear you. Is everything going as planned?” Chris asked.
“So far, so good, but we need your help. Have you left the transporter?”
“No, we’re just about to leave. Hold on a minute,” Ernie said. Chris had already made an opening in the smaller sphere and was letting down the rope ladder. Ernie grabbed his own sensor, which in this gravity was light as a feather, attached it to his space suit and climbed down the ladder. A moment later they were standing at the outer wall of the transporter.
“Ready?” Chris asked.
Ernie nodded. The astronaut touched the wall with his hand. An opening appeared. The inside of the transporter was bathed in cool, white light. Ernie stepped through the opening behind Chris and onto the rugged, rocky ground. Dark-grey rocks loomed up just a few dozen feet from the transporter. The sky was black, but the blazing light of a white sun dazzled Ernie. He pulled the golden visor down over his helmet.
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