COULD WEATHER PREVENT COMMUNICATION WITH PROBE? PROBE SECTOR UNKNOWN. CONTACT WITH PROBE LOST AT 05:00 12/14/56.
That was three hours ago.
WHY WAS CONTACT WITH PROBE LOST? CAUSE UNKNOWN. WHAT WAS STATUS OF WEATHER IN PROBE SECTOR AT 05:00 12/14/56? WEATHER IN STATUS GREEN.
Status green meant above average weather conditions.
So the loss of contact wasn't due to the weather. It looked like either a breakdown or an accident, as she had feared. The probe must have been on automatic control at that time, since if it had been under manual control, Chang would have told her the probe was out of commission.
WAS PROBE UNDER AUTOMATIC OR MANUAL CONTROL AT 05:00 12/14/56? MANUAL CONTROL.
Anna tapped her fist against her mouth. Chang had only authorized himself and Anna to access the probe. In the hours when neither of them were available, the probe functioned automatically. Perhaps Chang had given someone else access, and that person had failed to notify Anna about the loss of contact. Probably afraid to admit they screwed the pooch, Anna thought.
WHOSE CONTROL? Anna asked. MISSION COMMANDER CHANG.
Anna's fist went still against her lips. Perhaps Chang had just forgotten to inform her of the breakdown. But she would have thought he'd have been very upset about it. They were still nineteen days away from the planet, and with the probe out, that would mean nineteen days of exploration and preparation lost. And it would mean nineteen days she'd have to wait before she could study the two mice she'd discovered. Compared to the egg, maybe they weren't spectacular, but Anna felt she'd already made so much progress toward understanding them that they might offer the key to this race's technology.
Perhaps Chang had turned over the probe to someone else without closing down his session, as he'd done with her yesterday. In any case, the records of the probe's activity could tell her how the breakdown had occurred and how serious it was.
She closed her session with the orbiter and accessed the control module itself. The module received the transmissions from the orbiter, recorded them, and relayed them to other parts of the Icarus.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 04:59 12/14/56. NO PROBE RECORD 04:59 12/14/56, the module responded.
Perhaps she was cutting it too close to the loss in contact.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 04:50 12/14/56. NO PROBE RECORD 04:50 12/14/56.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 04:00 12/14/56. NO PROBE RECORD 04:00 12/14/56.
How could there be no record at four o'clock if contact wasn't lost until NO PROBE RECORD 04:00 12/14/56. How could there be no record at four o'clock if contact wasn't lost until five? It was impossible.
Anna began to get a horrible feeling that somehow the entire record had been lost.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 19:00 12/13/56.
That was around the time she'd found the mice.
NO PROBE RECORD 19:00 12/13/56.
Shit.
The little data she had That was around the time she'd found the mice.
NO PROBE RECORD 19:00 12/13/56.
Shit.
The little data she had on them was gone.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 10:00 12/13/56.
Chang had first taken manual control of the probe a little after ten.
LOADING.
Anna squeezed her head into the helmet. The visual was there, and at her command the data and readouts came up. She watched as the probe went about its business for a few minutes, then, at the point Chang must have called for manual control, the interior of the helmet went black. She pulled the helmet off.
PLAYBACK PROBE RECORD 10:05 12/13/56. NO PROBE RECORD.
It looked as if the module had somehow stopped recording when the probe was put under manual control. This seemed like a possible mechanical glitch, except that Anna knew it was impossible. Last night in her quarters, excited by her discovery, she had played back sections of the probe record from that day. It had existed. She had to talk to Chang.
"I haven't had the probe on manual since that first session yesterday morning," Chang said.
"I meant to get up this morning and get on, but I guess you beat me to it."
The drained, slack look that had seemed vanquished since he'd boarded the Icarus had returned; he looked older sitting in the narrow chair in his pajamas, his rounded stomach and knobby knees poking at the fabric. His weathered cheeks were covered with a white stubble. The news of the loss of the probe had hit him hard.
"Did you give anyone else access?" Anna asked.
"Or did anyone else know your access code?"
"No. Only you and I had access, and only you know my access code."
He rubbed his eyes with one callused hand. She'd woken him up when she'd rung at
his quarters. He'd asked the same questions, and come to the same conclusion, that Anna had: someone had put the probe out of commission and covered the evidence by erasing the probe record. His hand came down with a slap against his leg.
"How are we supposed to do a decent job with all this damn intrigue going on?"
"Even if someone had your access code," Anna said, "only a few members of the team are checked out on the probe. And I don't know how any of them would have the expertise to delete the probe record. I couldn't do it."
"I've never tried," Chang said.
Anna leaned forward, her knees nearly touching Chang's in the cramped quarters.
"Could Donne have gotten your access code telepathically?"
"I suppose so. Though that would violate one of the basic tenets of. Psi Corps. But even if she did, she wouldn't know how to operate the probe."
"I know, but she's the person I least trust."
"You're way too trusting."
Chang waved a tired hand.
"You should widen your horizons. There are one hundred thirty-nine people on this ship to mistrust."
Chang seemed a bit paranoid to her. But even if he was right, only a handful of people could operate the probe. Petrovich and Standish. Favorito, Razor, and Scott. Chang himself. And Anna. She didn't know if Morden was checked out on it or not.
"But what's the motivation? What does anyone gain by knocking the probe out? It hampers our advance planning, but we will still get there, we will still find whatever we're going to find."
Chang picked at his callus.
"I don't know."
"We have to find who did this. Keep them away from the dig so they can't cause any more harm."
"Sheridan, we're not set up to mount an investigation."
"I could do it. I could question the crew, check the ship's logs. What else are we going to do now until we get to the site?"
"We have no evidence. You'd never be able to prove anything."
"How do you know until we look?"
Chang's eyes met hers.
"It's not what IPX wants."
That stopped her. She didn't know how to react.
"What does IPX want?" Chang's voice had taken on its neutral tone.
"They want us to do our jobs, and come back with the goods. They knew they were sending us out with a nest of vipers. And they expect us to deal with it. I want no hints to the others that the probe's malfunctioning was anything but accidental."
"We may never find out who's responsible."
"Worse things have happened."
With a sigh he turned to the side, leaned toward the bed.
"By the way," he said, reaching under the pillow, "did John ever teach you how to shoot?"
He brought out a small PPG.
"I've begun carrying this with me. You take it. I'll sign out another one."
He handed her the pistol, a weight in her hand. Anna shook her head.
"We're sitting on the find of the century. Don't they see that we need to be able to do our jobs..."
"That's just it, Sheridan."
He sank back in his chair, a slump in his chest.
"It is the find of the century. And the find of the century is not found with the calmness of the find of the year, or the find of the year, or
the find of the month. This technology is going to change everything. And whoever controls it is going to control everything. We're way out of our depth here. That's what being a part of history means."
CHAPTER 10
"I know you're out of touch, and you probably won't get this for months, but I just wanted to say happy New Year. There's a godawful party going on here, with an ancient goddess and prancing professors wearing ceremonial dewlaps and stuff that would send you into a cold sweat, but all it reminds me of is that New Year's when we were in Lucerne, on the lake, and the fireworks, how they seemed to cover the sky, and how we both shivered under that coat you borrowed, and the way you looked at me..."
"I don't know what evil spirit possessed me to cancel our vacation. I should have gone AWOL. I miss you so much tonight. I even miss those sandpaper hands of yours. I tried to reach you on our anniversary, but I was notified that all communications had to go through IPX. Is that some new policy? It seems a bit extreme. Anyway, I gave up. I didn't want your bosses watching some mushy anniversary message from your lonely husband. And then tonight I realized, who cares if they see it? So long as you see it. I know where you are this message won't reach you for days, but I love you to my wife on New Year's Eve. I still love saying my wife...."
"I know you felt guilty about canceling, and you shouldn't. I'm so proud of you. I've been worried that we've been letting obstacles get between us-borders. But I realized tonight that I feel as close to you as I ever have. It's fifteen minutes to midnight, and I can feel you near me, thinking of me, loving me."
"I'm so sorry that I snapped at you the last time we talked. I can't wait to see you and make it up to you. I love you, Anna."
"I love you, John."
Though she hadn't heard from John in over a month and had no idea when she would hear from him, she could feel him, his love, his concern , the sheer integrity of his presence, as if he were in the next room. Anna hesitated, then ordered:
"End message. Send. Access code Idol Worshipper."
Chang's code.
"Message sent," the com station said, and Anna stood, preparing to leave the lab and, God help her, reenter the party.
She could hear the beginnings of a Gigmosian chant coming from the conference room next door.
"Message error," the com station said.
"Communications off-line."
Anna went to the com station, not sure what had happened. She hadn't used the com station in the main lab before, but the conference room was occupied, and only Chang's quarters came equipped with a full corn station.
"Captain Hidalgo."
After a few moments, he appeared on the screen.
"Hidalgo here."
"The corn system says communications are off line."
"Yes, communications went down a few minutes ago. We're looking into it."
"What happened?"
He shot her an irritated look.
"We'll know that after we look into it."
"Right. Thank you."
She ended the communication. She wondered if her message to John had gotten through. The system had said "Message sent" first. She wasn't sure if there was some way to find out whether the message was st uck in the system or not. She certainly didn't want the mushy message floating around in Dr. Chang's mailbox.
"Corn system check unsent mail, access code Idol Worshipper."
"Two messages."
Two? Perhaps Chang had sent a message as well that didn't get through.
"Play message one."
She recognized herself instantly, hated hearing the sound of her own voice.
"Stop. Transfer message one to mailbox access code 120349."
Her wedding date. Once the communications were back on line, she could use Chang's access to send it. At least this way it wouldn't be floating around for him to find until then. She wondered what the second message was. Of course, it was private, but she should make sure that it wasn't some duplicate of her own message, created through the malfunction in the system.
"Com system who is sender of message two?"
"Mission Commander Chang."
As she'd suspected. But for the sake of completeness...
"Who is recipient of message two?"
"Mission Supervisor Galovich."
Chang's boss at IPX. The fact that it hadn't been sent was curious. Either the message had been caught by the same malfunction as hers, which meant the attempt to send it had been in the last few minutes, during the New Year's Eve party, or he'd purposely left it unsent.
"Time of message creation."
"Zero hundred hours thirty-two minutes, 1/1/57."
A few minutes ago. She knew Chang had been at the party at midnight; they all had, except Donne. A few minutes later, when the head-bobbing ritual show of dominance began, she'd seen Chang leave and thought it would be a good idea to take a break herself and send a message to John. Odd that he would leave the party to send a message to his boss. Even IPX execs had to take New Year's Eve off.
It must have been urgent. The message must have been caught in the same communications malfunction she'd experienced. She wondered if Chang knew it hadn't been sent. What would he have to tell Galovich that was so important? Since the probe had stopped working two and a half weeks ago, they'd spent their time sifting through old data, mapping out the most promising excavation sites, planning strategies, and playing poker. Only she had found herself in a state of paranoia, as if she'd caught it from Chang, thinking constantly about the probe and who might have been able to access and operate it.
She wanted to discuss it with someone, but the only other person who knew was Chang. And since she'd gone to him with the news about the probe, she'd felt a growing distance from him. The whole expedition was in jeopardy, and he was more concerned with keeping the home office happy than with running an effective, accurate, scientifically valid mission. She forced herself to thoroughly consider the ethics of the situation for three seconds before telling the corn system to play the message.
Dr. Chang appeared on screen, wearing a suit, sitting in the narrow chair in his quarters. Despite his obvious attempt to present a polished exterior, his thumbnail was picking at the callus on his index finger, and his chest was heaving, as if he couldn't catch his breath. She'd never seen him this upset.
"This is an unscheduled report."
His tone was carefully neutral.
"It's twenty-five minutes after midnight on New Year's Day. The team was holding a New Year's Eve party. I left a few minutes after midnight to go to bed. I decided to stop at the observation deck for a few minutes. On the way there, I happened to catch a glimpse of Ms. Donne down a side corridor. I followed her. She met with Captain Hidalgo. I didn't hear everything they said, but I heard enough to know that they have made an arrangement of some kind, I'm not sure of the scope of it...."
The word caught in his. throat, and he paused, swallowing.
"He has agreed to smuggle artifacts for her that will be turned over to Psi Corps once we reach Earth. I don't know whether she plans to get the artifacts past us into the ship, or whether she simply plans to take them out of our inventory somehow.
I've cooperated with Ms. Donne on a limited basis, per your instructions, but this puts our whole expedition into jeopardy. By herself I don't think there's much she can do. But I don't believe I can run an effective expedition with the captain cooperating with Psi Corps. We depend on the captain. I know I don't have the authority to remove him. I need you to give me the authority to remove him, or to order him to step down yourself. I'm not sure how much of the crew is part of his plan. He must have some of them involved in order to do what he's promising."
Chang paused again, and Anna could see him attempting to calm himself.
"Please get back to me on this A-S-A-P. The ship is our lifeline back to you."
He stared blankly ahead for a few moments, then, as if coming back to life, with a deep breath he straightened.
"Oh, as per your request, I
ran a scan of the sector. There are no other ships, biomechanical or otherwise, within our scanning range. This and the failure of the orbiter to detect any ships or other activity supports Dr. Morden's hypothesis that the ships you tracked here from Mars were on automatic and have perhaps gone into a dormant state, like Dr. Sheridan 's mouse. But that's still quite speculative at this point....
I'll be waiting to hear from you. I know tomorrow-today-is a holiday, but please do whatever it takes to get the authorization. We'll be making planetfall in thirty-one hours, and I don't want to do it with Captain Hidalgo in command."
The message ended. Anna had glanced nervously toward the empty corridor throughout the entire message. Now she spoke quickly.
"Copy message two. Send copy to mailbox access code 120349. End."
She brought a hand to her mouth. The first part of the message was frightening enough: the captain couldn't be trusted. But the second part implied something much worse: Chang couldn't be trusted. He had lied to her. She couldn't believe it, even as the words of his message ran through her mind. If ships had flown here, ships with technology similar to the mouse, biomechanical ships that had been on Mars and had been tracked by IPX, then they knew a lot more about this planet, and about biomechanical technology, than they had admitted. And if the probe hadn't detected any ships, then the ships had arrived before the probe.
IPX had become interested in Alpha Omega 3 because they'd tracked the ships here, not because a probe had happened upon it. She remembered Chang's call to her on Station Prime, how he had related the "exciting news" of the probe's discovery.
But the probe had been sent to follow up, to observe. The higher-ups seemed to think the ships had been functioning automatically, but to Anna, active ships implied an active culture, or at least the possibility of one. Which brought into question the whole concept of sending out an archaeological expedition. The promise of biomechanical ships, lying empty and dormant, waiting for pilots and mass production, must be sending IPX into raptures. Dr. Morden's hypothesis...
Babylon 5 07 - The Shadow Within (Cavelos, Jeanne) Page 11