“Yes, Sir!” Mitchell said in a sarcastic tone of voice.
Russell was surprised at Mitchell. Considering he saw the plan as the only way of saving his own skin, he seemed to be carrying out his orders reluctantly. Could it be there was an alternative, which Morrow had rejected?”
“Connection is being established,” Mitchell said.
Russell noticed a movement inside the transporter. It was like an optical illusion. The egg-shaped room lengthened even more until it resembled a tunnel. The other end receded further and further into the distance. When the process stopped, the other end was about three-hundred feet away. But the gray, diffuse light hadn’t changed.
Mitchell watched the process open-mouthed. Morrow, on the other hand, stood motionless with folded arms and didn’t seem in the least surprised. Or he just wasn’t showing it.
“What’s going on?” Russell asked in a whisper.
“Quiet, it isn’t over yet,” Morrow hissed.
The general was right. In the middle of the gray tunnel a bulge suddenly appeared. A new branch to the tunnel appeared on the left.
“A triple connection?” Russell asked.
As if from nowhere, a strong wind started to blow, tousling his hair. His ears popped. The storm was over in the space of a few seconds. Obviously there had been some kind of pressure compensation.
“Yes,” Morrow said. “It’s one of the things we found out about the transporter after you showed us how to communicate with it acoustically. Suddenly we discovered all kinds of possibilities. And they are greater than we ever dreamed of.”
“And this new connection——where does it lead? To TZ-1?”
Morrow shook his head. “No, to a transporter we’ve christened Dante.”
“Dante?” Russell asked. “Like the poet?”
“Correct,” Morrow replied. There was pride in his voice. “The transporter is undertaking a journey as incredible as that of the hero in the Divine Comedy. Come with me!”
Morrow and his soldiers started walking into the tunnel. Russell and Mitchell followed him up to the point where it branched off. He looked down the new tunnel, which appeared to be endlessly long.
“Dr. Hope was right. It’s just as he described it.” Mitchell’s voice was no more than a whisper.
“What did he describe?” Russell asked, dumbfounded by what he could see. “Where does this tunnel lead?”
“To hell!” Morrow said triumphantly. “Or at least to a place that resembles it.”
“What’s this all about, damn it?”
Mitchell replied on behalf of the general. “We found a transporter on an asteroid that is orbiting one of the big black holes in the center of our Milky Way. It’s on an instable orbit, and as a result, it has gotten closer and closer to the point of no return. Today——in a few minutes in fact——it will finally lose its battle against the black hole. That’s the reason for the long tunnel. The transporter is already deep in the gravitational funnel and falling in ever deeper.” The engineer glanced at his watch again. “In a few minutes, Dante will crash through the event horizon. Then there is no going back and the transporter will race toward the singularity of the black hole. According to Dr. Hope’s calculations, it will reach it in twenty minutes.”
“And then? What happens then?”
Morrow grinned. “The transporter at the other end of the tunnel will be destroyed.” He looked Russell straight in the eye. “And will destroy all other transporters connected to it at that time. In a few minutes, we will establish a connection to TZ-1 from the transporter on New California.”
Russell began to understand. “You want to——”
Morrow interrupted him. “Correct, Harris! We will turn the world of the aggressors into a black hole. We will defeat them with their own weapons!”
Russell felt dizzy. So that was the plan. Morrow wanted to destroy the alien’s entire planet. Obviously he hoped that would also bring the death zone to a standstill. Could it work? There were so many unanswered questions. “But the transporters have safety mechanisms. They’ll disconnect before the sphere has reached the event horizon.”
Morrow laughed again. Russell had never heard the general laugh as much as today. If he hadn’t known better, he would have said the man was drunk.
“What do you think we’ve been doing these last few days on New California? We manipulated the transporter. The AI itself told us what to do. We’ve overridden all of the safety mechanisms, we’ve even turned off the artificial intelligence. The transporter now only does what Mitchell tells it to do. It will keep the connection to Dante as well as TZ-1 open, and there is nothing the enemy can do.”
The plan was perfidious and demonic. And it would mean the end of New California. The thought that he would be sitting alone in a cell on Venus in an hour’s time, while Ellen and his children died in the inferno triggered by the transporter, was almost too much for Russell to bear.
“Why New California?” he screamed at the general. “Why? Couldn’t you have chosen another planet? Couldn’t you have created a direct connection from the transporter to the black hole?”
Morrow remained unfazed. “I already told you. We couldn’t take other measures. There wasn’t enough time left before Dante fell into the singularity. On Dante itself we wouldn’t have been able to work properly because of the lack of gravity. And even from New California, it was only possible to implement the plan because we had done the groundwork earlier. And there was no time for an evacuation. As I told you already.”
“How can you square this with your conscience? There are sixty men, women, and children living in Eridu. How will you ever be able to sleep in peace again, General Morrow?”
Morrow’s eyes were like ice. “I am doing what must be done. I’m rescuing the aliens’ technology on Venus, from which——in the end——all humanity will benefit. No, Harris, I have neither a bad conscience nor will I have trouble sleeping in future.”
He turned around and returned with his escorts to Mitchell’s laptop. Russell followed the men at a distance of a few feet. He tugged at the handcuffs behind his back, but they were made of metal. He didn’t stand a chance——without a key he wouldn’t get rid of these things in a million years. What could he do now? He couldn’t let his children die as a result of this crazy plan. He couldn’t!
“General, I beg you, at least let the children escape to Venus. I beg you!” He was about to fall to his knees in front of Morrow. He would have done it if he’d thought it would have any effect.
“I already told you, we do not have enough food on Venus.”
“We can travel with the transporter to other planets and find food. Then at least we’d stand a chance!” Russell’s eyes filled with tears.
“Will you stop this, Harris! You’re making a fool of yourself. There is no time left. We are about to start Stage Two.” Morrow looked at his watch. “We have nineteen minutes left. It’s time to make the connection with TZ-1.”
“Shouldn’t we wait till the last minute for that?” Mitchell asked. “We don’t know what might be waiting for us there.”
Ellen! The children! They’ll die if Morrow follows through on his crazy plan. In a few minutes! Black spots danced in front of his eyes, but he forced himself to concentrate. He was the only one who could still do something.
But what was the general planning to do with his task force? Why didn’t he wait? The longer the planets were connected, the more opportunity there was for the enemy to attack. Or was there something Morrow wasn’t telling him? “What are you going to do with your men, Morrow?”
“I have been given the order to identify the enemy. Mitchell is right about one thing. We know absolutely nothing. We’ve been able to extract some historical data from the transporter, and have found out that the enemy planet resembles Earth, but that’s it. I don’t like the idea either, but orders are orders.” He turned to Mitchell. “As soon as the connection is made, we will go through the tunnel to the enemy transporter. We will
use the element of surprise and eliminate all enemy forces. We will take a quick look at the world outside the transporter, if possible take a few of the aliens prisoner, and then return.”
“And if you’re attacked?” Mitchell asked nervously.
“We stay in radio contact. If we are killed, you can return to Venus. Dr. Hope will then end the connection from there and the job will be done.”
Maybe Russell could use the time when Morrow and his soldiers went to the alien transporter. He had to convince Mitchell to stop this madness. Somehow. Maybe he could destroy the interface. If need be, he would kick at it until it gave up the ghost. Although God knows if that would be of any use.
“OK,” Morrow said. “T minus eighteen minutes. Make the connection to TZ-1.” He turned to his troop. “Get ready! We need to be prepared for an attack at any moment.” Then he shoved Russell in the back. “And you’re coming with us.”
“But——”
“I’m not leaving you alone here. I want to keep an eye on you! Now go!”
One of the soldiers, a hulking bear of a man, pulled him along. Russell wanted to cry.
A moment later, another tunnel appeared on the other side of the fork leading to Dante. The wall bulged out mysteriously, and absolutely silently, and Russell could see to the end of the new gray tunnel. The soldiers were already aiming their automatic rifles at the far end.
“There’s nobody in the alien transporter,” one of the men said in surprise.
“They’re not expecting us,” Morrow replied. “But we don’t know what’s outside the transporter. When it opens, shoot right away, no matter who or what appears. Move!”
Morrow had drawn his weapon and moved forward cautiously.
Russell hoped to find an opportunity to break away from the soldiers, but the general constantly checked that Russell was following the group. They had reached the end of the tunnel. It was hard to imagine they were now on the planet from where the death zone had been instigated.
With a sharp hand movement, Morrow got his men to take up their positions. The soldiers seemed nervous——even for a special forces unit, this was a strange situation to be in. “I will now open the sphere and take a quick look around. Make sure your helm cameras record everything you see. And expect to encounter resistance from the first second!”
The tension in the air was almost unbearable. Russell pulled back to get himself out of the firing line. They couldn’t assume the aliens would let their planet be destroyed without a fight. Somebody out there must know that their transporter had been captured. Russell was surprised that armed lizard-beings——or whatever these aliens might look like——hadn’t already stormed into the transporter.
“Ready!” Morrow hissed. “Three, two, one ...” He touched the outer wall with the palm of his hand. The opening appeared right beside the general, who leaned forward to sneak a look outside.
He let out a cry of surprise. “What the hell ...?”
Russell couldn’t see anything from where he was standing. He joined Morrow at the entrance and looked outside. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting. Perhaps a laboratory, similar to the one on Venus or Nevada. Or some kind of futuristic environment with uniformed aliens running around. But what he saw was nothing of the kind.
Russell looked out onto a barren desert beneath a dark-gray sky. Rain was hammering down on the rocky ground. Bolts of lightning streaked in a staccato rhythm back and forth between the low-hanging clouds and the ground. These were followed by thunder claps like volleys of artillery. But no aliens. No futuristic building.
Slowly, Morrow lowered his gun and stepped outside, his mouth half open. Drops of rain fell on his uniform. His men followed him.
Russell remained standing in the entrance. He was speechless. Something must have gone wrong. This couldn’t possibly be the home of the technologically superior aliens who had manipulated the transporter and created the death zone.
“Sir?” one of the soldiers piped up, a tall man with a hawk’s nose, his weapon still at the ready.
“Morrow, you made a mistake,” Russell said. “Or the aliens have tricked us. Call the whole thing off!”
Morrow stood rooted to the spot and looked around in bewilderment. Finally he reached down to his belt and took his walkie-talkie out of the holster. “Mitchell, can you hear me?”
“Mitchell here.”
“What’s going on?” Morrow asked.
“That’s what I wanted to ask you. Are you under attack?”
Morrow snorted. “Where have you sent us, man? I don’t know where we’ve come out, but it sure as hell isn’t TZ-1.”
Silence at the other end. Then an irritated Mitchell replied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but the connection is definitely to TZ-1. Without a doubt.”
The engineer’s voice could hardly be understood above the rolls of thunder. Another bolt of lightning flashed from the fast-moving clouds and struck the ground. But it did not simply disappear; it turned into a bright blue orb. The sphere danced around for a while before eventually merging with a sharp needle of rock that stuck about six feet out of the ground. The stone carried on glowing for a few seconds in a livid red.
“What a nightmarish world!” one of the soldiers next to Russell spoke up.
“For Christ’s sake, what’s going on here?” Morrow asked. Nobody gave him an answer.
“I’ve got a really bad headache,” the soldier holding on to Russell said.
He’s right. I can feel it too. The same kind of headache he’d had all those years ago in Nevada, when the artificial intelligence had tried to warn them against going on transports to dangerous destinations. Was it emanating from the sphere on TZ-1? No, that couldn’t be, because you couldn’t feel the transporter’s vibes once you stepped out of it. Russell closed his eyes and focused. He tried to block out the unreal surroundings and put himself into a meditative state, which had always enabled him to communicate with the transporter. It was very difficult to ignore the constant rolls of thunder. He concentrated on the pressure in his head and slowly he managed to block out everything else.
Something is there. But what?
Usually when he communicated with the transporter, images and voices popped into his head, which gradually turned into a kind of conversation. But this was different: There were no images. And he couldn’t hear a voice, either. Instead he was overwhelmed by a powerful feeling of fear. Panic, an almost mortal terror. His heart was racing. Cold sweat ran down his back. He wanted to end the meditation when he realized it wasn’t his own feelings that were plaguing him.
But whose are they then? There’s nobody here but us.
There were other feelings apart from fear: Anger. And hate. Boundless hate. Then it dawned on Russell that the hate was directed at him. And not just at him but at everything that lived.
Who is this? What is this? Something did exist on this planet. And it was alive. But not like him. Something unimaginably alien must be emitting these emotions. Something whose thoughts were conveyed in the same way as the transporter’s. Something that communicated using electromagnetic waves.
Electromagnetic waves!
A bolt of lightning struck the ground right next to him. The thunder was deafening. Russell’s whole body tingled.
Bolts of lightning!
And then he realized what was happening, and he became wide-eyed.
Morrow looked at him. He must have noticed that something had occurred to Russell: “Talk, man!”
Russell squinted. He was surrounded by streaks of lightning. “Mitchell was right. We’re on TZ-1. And the aliens are here and they are the ones who set the death zone in motion.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Harris?” Morrow shouted into the raging storm.
“Or better said: the alien. It’s all around us. The whole planet is alive. Or rather, the atmosphere. Look around! The whole sky, the whole of the earth is electrically charged. We haven’t just landed in a thunderstorm——this i
s what the whole planet is like. The bolts of lightning are discharging themselves all the time——everywhere between the clouds and the earth. Like neurons in a human brain. They may have been doing this for millions of years. And that’s how some bizarre, unfathomable alien kind of consciousness and intelligence was created.”
The general looked at him, speechless, and the soldier next to him shook his head in confusion, but Russell was sure he had found the solution to the mystery.
He pointed at the transporter. “The consciousness of this living planet works like the artificial intelligence of the transporter.” He had to scream to be understood above the noise of the thunder. “When the sphere landed here, the consciousness of the planet made contact with the AI. The planet grasped what the transporters are and who its creators were. With the help of the transporter it learned what biological beings are. This consciousness will never develop a technology, never form a civilization. It’s forever trapped on this planet, because it is the planet! It perceives the transporter as foreign body and it sees its creators, and anyone else who can use it, as a threat. For this alien, we’re like viruses that get into the brain of a human being and cause damage.”
“That’s monstrous! It can’t be!” shouted Morrow.
Russell talked faster and faster. “By communicating with the transporter it learned how to counter these invaders. It learned how to manipulate the transporter and first hid the spheres in its own galaxy. Then it waited. Millions of years. And when we discovered the transporter on Earth and put it into operation, it put its evil plan into action and started the death zone. It made the transporter destroy all transporters it was connected to. Systematically. One by one.”
“If what you say is true, then it could have simply destroyed the transporters we were using on Earth and on Venus,” the general shouted. “Why the mass extermination of all existing transporters?”
“The consciousness of the planet works completely differently to ours. I haven’t been able to detect any thought processes. Just emotions, frozen in time and space. This planet-sized brain probably works much slower than ours. Maybe a single thought needs many years. We have no way of communicating with it. All I feel is hate. Boundless hate. With the destruction of all the transporters in the galaxy, its goal will have been achieved. We’re basically standing in the middle of its consciousness and probably it hasn’t even noticed us——the same way we don’t detect viruses in our bodies.”
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