“We can’t interfere in the functioning of the transporter anymore, now the interface has taken over control. I’m not taking the risk.”
“But ...”
Morrow frowned. “The answer is no and I will not discuss this any further.”
Marlene took a step back. She was boiling with rage, which was an unusual feeling even for her. She had always placed so much importance on keeping her emotions under control, but she had never felt this powerless. Not even a few weeks ago during the crisis on New California.
Dr. Hope leaned over the console. “Good, the test is complete. Now start the program for disconnecting the transporter.”
“Understood,” Albert confirmed.
It was an experiment. Dr. Hope had explained it a few hours ago in the meeting room. They could order the AI of the transporter not to transmit any more status signals. The transporter would then be removed out of the list of transporters that could be selected.
“The program is running now. I can’t tell from here whether it’s working,” Albert said.
Mitchell clapped his hands. “It’s worked!” He pointed at one of his screens again. “It isn’t showing the other transporter. There is nothing to indicate it exists.
Marlene came up behind him. “But it’s still connected to the network!”
“Yes, but nobody knows that now,” Dr. Hope replied, laughing.
“But I don’t think ...”
“Silence!” called Morrow. “The time frame has just begun.”
He put on his headset, which he had been swinging in his hand, and instructed Albert: “Now keep the transporter out of the network for twelve hours, until the death zone has passed by. Then start the reactivation protocol and we’ll see if the plan has worked. Until then, remain calm.”
“Can we leave the transporter? I’d like to take a look around,” came the sound of Travis’ voice.
Morrow shook his head. “No, you may not leave the transporter. I repeat, do not open the transporter to go outside. Have you understood?”
“Sure, don’t worry. We’ll ...” A brief rustling noise and then there was silence.
Morrow looked at Dr. Hope in confusion. “What happened?”
The physicist slowly raised his shoulders.
Mitchell turned around on his chair. His face was pale. “The resonator has lost contact,” he whispered.
“Oh God,” Russell said quietly.
“Shit!” the general sounded genuinely shocked.
Marlene closed her eyes. She knew exactly what that meant. She turned around and tried in vain to hold back her tears.
“It didn’t work,” Dr. Hope said flatly.
Chapter 18
“Marlene?” Russell knocked at the door of her room. No answer. Again. Carefully, he put his ear to the door to listen. He could hear quiet sobbing. He had never heard Marlene cry.
Russell felt terrible. He should have helped her convince Morrow to postpone the mission, or at least call back one of the men. Instead, he had stood passively to the side. He’d been desperate to find out if the plan would work. The experiment hadn’t given them any answers as to why the death zone even existed, but using this procedure he’d hoped they would be able to take the transporter on New California off the register and save it from destruction. Maybe they never would have activated it again, but at least his family would have been safe. But it hadn’t worked, and now Albert and Travis were dead.
Cautiously, Russell turned the knob and opened the door a crack. Marlene was sitting on her bed with her face in her hands. “Marlene, I’m sorry,” he whispered.
She looked up briefly. Her eyes were red, and her face puffy. Then she looked back down.
“What do you want?” she asked hoarsely.
He opened the door a bit more and slipped inside. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” she said, this time in a firm, bitter voice. “Get out!”
Russell raised a conciliatory hand. “Listen, I——”
She interrupted him brusquely. “No, Russell, now listen to me. I asked for two days. Two days! I knew Morrow wouldn’t agree, but I expected more from you. I thought you were my friend.”
“It was a mistake, I’m sorry.”
She jumped up and screamed: “You’re sorry? Jesus, Albert was your friend. And now he’s dead!”
Like Lee, Ernie, and Travis. Only he, Marlene and Christian were still alive. Had it been worth it? Russell was inclined to answer the question with “yes.” The death zone posed an existential threat to New California. They had to find out what was destroying the transporters. Urgently. That was the difference to the missions twenty years ago, which had simply been about uncovering the secrets of the alien object. And Albert and Travis had known that, just like Marlene. Was her anger toward him still justified? Yes it was. He only hoped that today’s events hadn’t created an unbridgeable rift between them. On the other hand, in a week’s time it wouldn’t matter anymore, anyway. But he didn’t see any point in trying to carry on the discussion right now.
“General Morrow wants to speak to us,” he said.
“I said, get out,” Marlene spat back at him.
Russell retreated from the room and closed the door. He briefly considered taking Chris Holbrook with him to the meeting, but his friend was just as devastated as Marlene. He couldn’t forgive himself for leaving Ernie on Target B. He had locked himself into his room and wouldn’t let anyone in. Whatever it was the general wanted, Russell would have to deal with it alone.
He left the accommodation wing and made his way to Morrow’s office. The door was open and the general waved him straight in.
“Sit down, Harris.” He sighed. “Where’s Ms. Wolfe?”
Russell sat down on the uncomfortable chair and leaned back tiredly. “She asked to be excused. She’s not feeling well.”
Morrow looked at Russell coolly. He didn’t seem surprised. “Was she in a relationship with Mr. Bridgeman?”
Russell nodded.
“I didn’t know, but her behavior in the control room suggested as much. Well, it’s irrelevant now.”
As he spoke these last words, the general stood up and Russell felt a chill down his spine. “What do you mean?”
The general had dark rings under his eyes. His hair was gray, his cheeks sunken. Something had happened. “We have new orders from Earth. Today’s failed mission leaves us with no alternative. Despite our efforts, we haven’t found out the cause of the death zone. And they’ve run out of ideas back on Earth too, so we have received orders to concentrate on our core task until the death zone hits us.”
Russell was in shock. They’ve given up! My God! “You mean, you’ll continue to siphon off and analyze data from the transporter and send it back to Earth?”
“Correct.”
Russell shook his head. “And when the death zone hits Venus in a few weeks? The whole planet will be destroyed.”
“No,” Morrow said coolly. “A few days before we will detonate the atomic bomb embedded beneath the transporter. Supreme Command doesn’t want to risk creating a black hole in our solar system.” He paused. “As far as that’s concerned, we have to thank you retrospectively for doing the work for us and destroying the other transporters in the solar system.”
How the tables have turned!
Morrow looked down to the ground before continuing. “I want to tell you, quite honestly, Harris: after the recent events, I’m inclined to agree with you that the transporters are dangerous.” He raised his head and looked Russell in the eye. “I watched the destruction of Target A with my own eyes. Seems you maybe made the right decision back in Nevada. A machine with such a destructive force has no place on Earth.”
Russell knew it wasn’t easy for the general to make this confession, and he couldn’t help feeling respect for the man for being able to change his opinion after so many years. But what did it help them now?”
“Does it mean you will be picked up and return to Earth? Could we evac
uate New California?”
Morrow’s face was rigid as a mask. “No. Neither you nor I nor anybody will return to Earth. The new ship won’t be ready in time, and even if it were, there wouldn’t be enough time for it to make the journey from Earth to Venus. We have no way of leaving the base.”
Russell could feel the hairs in the back of his neck stand on end. “And they still want you to detonate the atomic bomb? That’s suicide!”
“Those are our orders. If we don’t do it, the base will be destroyed in any case——along with the whole planet.”
Russell thought about Ellen, his children. “What about us?”
“You will return to New California tomorrow. We have no further use for you.”
So this was the end. Morrow was sending them back to New California, where there was nothing they could do except wait for the death zone to hit them. In one week! Russell wasn’t prepared to accept it. “There must be a solution. There must be something we can do.” He could no longer keep the despair out of his voice.
“We’ve exhausted all options. You saw for yourself. Our priorities are clear: until zero hour, we try to dig up every bit of information we can from the transporter. Then we destroy the base. Those are orders.”
Russell’s mind was racing. “Then at least give us an atomic bomb to destroy the transporter on New California. Come with us. You and your men, and we can continue to build up the colony for the future.”
Morrow gave a halfhearted laugh. “Nice thought, Harris. But I intend to stick to orders. We couldn’t carry out your plan anyway, we don’t have any more atomic bombs. Just the one in the ground beneath our transporter.”
“Then dig it out!”
“Impossible, it’s protected. Any attempt to unearth it or deactivate it will cause it to detonate immediately. I only see one possibility for your colony: you could travel with your transporter to a planet at the other end of the Milky Way. That would give you a few weeks.”
That wasn’t a solution. “It would just be a period of grace. Nothing more. In the end, the death zone will reach us wherever we are in the galaxy.”
“You’re right, of course.”
This couldn’t be happening. It was a nightmare. A few weeks ago they’d fought for their lives against wild beasts. They thought they had won, and secured the future of their colony. Only for their entire planet to be destroyed by some mysterious phenomenon.
“Go now, Harris. Tomorrow you will return home.”
There must be a solution! They had to think of something!
Chapter 19
“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry,” Dr. Hope said. His voice was weak. Russell looked at his outstretched hand for a moment. He could tell Hope meant what he was saying, so Russell put down his bag containing his few possessions, took the scientist’s hand and shook it briefly.
“We tried everything we could!” Hope whispered.
Did we really? Russell was doubtful. But he’d also run out of ideas, and Morrow was intent on following orders. Russell looked over to the soldiers standing guard next to the transporter. Did they know what awaited them? Did they know their superiors had decided to detonate the bomb beneath their feet once they’d sucked out all the information they could get from the transporter?
Russell doubted it. He let go of the physicist’s hand and looked up at the glass wall of the control room. Morrow was standing there looking down at him. His face was expressionless as a mask. The general had nodded at him briefly as he passed by, that was all. He probably thought everything had been said that could be said. There was no sign of Mitchell. No doubt he was hunched up at his console. It was possible he had also been given the bad news yesterday by Morrow and was now immersed in his own thoughts. Just like Dr. Payne. The medic had turned up early that morning at Russell’s room with a bottle of whisky and a couple of glasses. They’d downed two glasses each and wished each other well. Then the usually so aloof doctor had given him a hug.
“Good luck.” Hope shook Marlene’s and Chris’ hands, who let the farewell wash over them indifferently. They had both barely spoken a word to Russell. Marlene was still giving him the evil eye whenever they met.
“I’ll bring you to the transporter,” Dr. Hope said, and made an opening in the sphere. Russell stepped in behind him, followed by his comrades.
He immediately felt the slight pressure in his head, indicating the presence of the artificial intelligence. To his right, Russell saw the apparatus on the ground which created the interface between the intelligence and the computers of the Venus base. A cable led from the devices to a thick cylinder attached to the wall of the sphere with big suction pads.
“Tell me?” he asked. “How do you actually get the data from the scanner to the outside?”
“Quantum technology,” Hope’s replied. “If you use the tunnel effect, you can get signals through the hull.”
Russell frowned and looked at the inner sphere, which was hovering motionlessly in the middle of the space. The metal steps that led up to it looked out of place in this alien contraption.
“Shall we?” Chris asked. His voice was as emotionless as a robot’s.
In half an hour, Russell would be back with Ellen and the kids, but he failed to look forward to it. What was he going to tell them? They had lost Albert, Lee, and Travis and yet they had achieved nothing. And in a week’s time his family would die. How on Earth was he going to explain that to his wife?
This fucking transporter! The aliens wanted to create a pathway to the stars with their technology. Once the network was established, alien civilizations normally separated by hundreds, even thousands, of light years could contact one another and populate the Milky Way together. But the transporters were not a tool of peace. They were weapons that could destroy whole worlds. And whatever or whoever was responsible for the death zone, the civilization of the creators had brought death and destruction to the galaxy. And they themselves had been the first victims.
The pressure in Russell’s head was getting more intense. “You fucking thing, do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he screamed.
Beside him, Dr. Hope gave a start.
I can’t answer that question.
The words popped into Russell’s mind of their own accord. He knew the feeling. He had experienced it several times in the transporters in Nevada and New California. The more experience you gathered with this strange, telepathic-like communication, the easier it was to make contact with the artificial intelligence.
“Of course you can’t!” Russell snorted.
“What?” Dr. Hope asked, now completely confused.
“That was my comment to the transporter’s answer,” Russell said disparagingly and started to climb up the metal steps.
“What answer?” Dr. Hope asked.
Russell turned around on the first rung and looked at him. “You didn’t hear the transporter’s reply?”
Dr. Hope shrugged. “I’ve heard it’s possible to talk directly with the transporter, but never really managed it myself.” He pointed at the apparatus on the floor of the sphere. “That’s why we have the interface. It’s far more reliable for the transfer of data.”
Russell looked at Hope thoughtfully. All he’d ever seen on the monitors in the control room were columns of numbers that Mitchell accessed with his computer. “Are you telling me nobody has ever talked directly with the transporter?”
“Well, yes, right at the start, when we created the base. But now we have the interface,” the physicist repeated.
“Retrieving a load of numbers isn’t really the same as a proper conversation! So you haven’t talked to the sphere about the death zone?”
Hope gave him a baffled look. He obviously didn’t understand what Russell was getting at. Hope believed he could extract all necessary information from the jungle of data that the interface sent the computer. It didn’t seem to have occurred to him that sometimes you could find out more from a conversation than from bare data.
Russell cl
osed his eyes. “Can you hear me?” he whispered to the transporter.
Yes, I can hear you.
It said hear! “Or are you listening to my thoughts?”
Both are adequate forms of communication.
“But you can’t speak to me,” Russell said.
I have tried, but you don’t hear me.
“What?” Russell asked in surprise.
I can only emit vibrations in a high frequency, which you obviously don’t understand.
That was new! Up to now, Russell had assumed the transporter could only communicate by means of its electromagnetic signals which reacted with human brainwaves. But the artificial intelligence could also communicate acoustically, albeit only through ultrasound.
“What can you tell us about the death zone?”
I don’t understand your question.
“What is causing the transporters to disappear?”
I don’t know.
“When did the transporters start to disappear?”
The current phase started two weeks ago.
“The current phase?” Russell asked in confusion and opened his eyes. Dr. Hope, Chris, and Marlene looked at him questioningly.
Russell was annoyed. They should have tried speaking to the transporter much earlier, instead of staring at some screens with columns of numbers. But he had assumed Dr. Hope or somebody else had already done that. And these were supposed to be specialists? So much for they’d tried everything!
“Dr. Hope! Can you connect the interface in the transporter with a sensor for ultrasound and get the computer to turn them into audio signals?”
The physicist nodded. “Sure, but what for?”
Jesus, this guy was a complete idiot.
“I want to talk to General Morrow. Immediately!”
Chapter 20
“The experiment is ready to go. It should work,” Dr. Hope said. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. Russell had been waiting impatiently beside Mitchell at the console, while the scientist ran back and forth several times between the control room and the transporter to install instruments and check cables. Morrow was standing behind them hopping nervously from one foot to the other. The day before, Russell had gone straight to him to tell him about the artificial intelligence, and after some initial hesitation, he’d agreed to try and set up acoustic communication. He didn’t know whether the general had had it vetted by his superiors on Earth. But after all, his task was to gain as much information about the transporter as possible; this test surely fit that remit.
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