Phasewave

by David Gill

  'We can't involve Vance. You just told me he wasn't well; he won't be interested in doing anything.'

  'Vance is the crew chief and we can't leave the base without his permission.'

  'If we don't find anything he won't need to know. Let's visit Tracker South.'

  'I'm not prepared to do that,' said Brant. 'Look, you've only just arrived here and you're already making your own rules. Vance is still our senior engineer, whatever your opinion of him, and I won't agree to help you unless he becomes involved.'

  'All right, I'll go by myself.'

  'No you won't. I stayed here to look after you, and I'll stop you if you try to go off on your own.'

  'I don't believe we're having this conversation. Are you seriously telling me that I can't search for the missing crew members?'

  'That is precisely what I am telling you. Four people are unaccounted for, and you want to break base regulations to go wandering off without knowing what happened to them. For God's sake, Jenna, listen to me. I'm trying to help you!'

  'Help me? I'm ... Oh, is it always going to be like this?' Jenna lost her patience. 'Are we going to argue over nothing?'

  'What's the matter? I'm only ...'

  Jenna held up her hands. 'I give in, let's not fight. So we have to tell Vance, but first let's check the skimmers and find out when they were last used.'

  Brant nodded. 'That's fine by me, but remember, we have to stick to laid down procedures at all times. We can't take any unnecessary risks'

  'Whatever,' said Jenna, feeling frustrated. 'Let's see if we can learn anything from the skimmers.'

  Under the white glare of inspection lights four skimmers lay lined up in their individual charging bays. Brant climbed onto the nearest one and ran the self-test, but the power source was dead. He tried the next one but it indicated a major fault, as did the two remaining skimmers. 'It's unusual to find four skimmers inoperative. I can't understand why they've been allowed to get into this state; they look like they've never been maintained.'

  'This one's practically worn out.' Jenna squatted down next to a skimmer and ran her fingers over a patch of torn, bare metal. 'What would cause wear like this? Can you fix them?'

  Brant stood back and surveyed the skimmers. 'I might have to cannibalize them, but it'll depend on the state of the motors. I've no idea how long it will take, and Unit Nine's top of my list at the moment.'

  'I can't help you with the skimmers,' said Jenna, 'so why don't I take a look at Unit Nine while you sort something out.'

  'Okay, but let me know what you find, and be careful, the sub drive will still be active.'

  Jenna looked him in the eye and said, 'Trust me for a change, I might surprise you.'

  Brant stood and watched Jenna step lightly into the shadows of the cargo bay, taken aback by her remark. He started to remove the cowlings from the nearest skimmer, laying each one carefully on the floor next to the machine, and found himself smiling. So far his anticipated year of boredom had failed to materialize, and he was already starting to speculate about how Jenna might surprise him.

  It was about Brant and the skimmers that Jenna was thinking when she made her way along the underground access tunnel leading to the Phasewave units. She entered a corridor and, after taking a few paces, noticed that the doors on either side were sealed with quarantine tape. The area which she had inadvertently entered was part of the accommodation block previously occupied by the missing crew and which Birne, as a sign of respect to them, had cordoned off before returning to the Giran. Jenna became curious. She furtively looked around the deserted corridor, almost expecting to find someone watching, and then quickly snapped the nearest tape and opened the door. The cabin was larger than hers and contained a double bed which occupied the centre of the room. Jenna walked over to a small table next to the bed and picked up a framed hologram. Held to the light, it produced a three-dimensional picture of a serious-looking couple who Jenna instinctively knew to be Ellen and Carrick. Ellen was not unattractive, with a strong, square face, but Jenna took an immediate dislike to Carrick who, standing a head taller, was powerfully built with narrow eyes and a cruel mouth. Jenna returned the frame to the table and inspected the room. Rumpled sheets had been untidily pulled across the bed, and inside an open cupboard a pile of clothing waited to be laundered. Jenna felt guilty prying into other peoples' belongings, as if there was still a remote possibility that the previous occupants might come barging in at any moment demanding to know what she was doing inside their cabin, but she needed to find out more about the mysterious strangers who had spent the last part of their lives in that room and forced herself to continue the search. She rummaged through the drawers and lockers but found nothing out of the ordinary, then stood and looked around her and tried to imagine Ellen and Carrick in there - talking, getting dressed, and making love. Was it possible for an inanimate object to possess a memory? Was there anything inside the room that could yield the stored vibrations of those last hours before its occupants left, never to return? Jenna closed her eyes and let her mind drift, listening to the silence that came and went in waves, willing it to yield a clue, a hint, anything, just one tiny piece of evidence to throw light on the mystery.

  Something brushed against the back of Jenna's neck, sending a shiver down her spine. She wheeled around, convinced that someone was standing close by, but only the blank emptiness of the room greeted her. It was only a cold draught that had played tricks with her imagination. She did not belong there, and the memories deserved to be left in peace. Jenna walked back to the door and was about to turn out the lights when a tiny dot of white light in the centre of the communicator screen caught her eye. It must have been left on since the previous occupants left, she thought, and went over to the monitor only to find that the power was already switched off. So what was causing the dot of light? Jenna stepped back and examined the machine, which was obviously inactive, and remembered a conversation with Birne about the lights in the base sometimes operating remotely. The mystery was solved - the point of light was obviously being caused by the stray electrical currents which flowed beneath the base. Jenna took one last look at the contents of the room and then gratefully closed the door behind her, after which she replaced the seals and determined to bring Brant with her if she ever needed to go there again.

  The heavy door bearing the sign "Unit Nine" swung ajar with a metallic grating sound. Jenna slid the inner door aside and immediately detected the odour of soot in the air. She stepped inside the Phasewave unit and examined the crowded racks of inert equipment, then ran her hand along a horizontal surface, producing a black stripe on her finger which proved that there had definitely been a fire in there at some time. The main console and its surrounding equipment casings were bowed and buckled, as if they had been subjected to an enormous internal pressure, but it looked as if a repair had at least been attempted - two vertical rails had been attached to the front of the unit. Jenna was puzzled by the unusual fittings, which were not standard Phasewave parts, and got down on her knees to inspect the installation. The rails were connected to the adjoining console by a wiring harness. What was going on? She followed the route of the harness round the back of the unit and stopped and stared in amazement. The console's rear casing had been removed and some serious work had been done to the internal components. Hundreds of neat, wire bundles festooned the equipment racks, each one attached by old fashioned fused connectors. It was an incredible piece of workmanship, but for what purpose had it been carried out? She peered down inside the machine to where the modifications disappeared into its internal structure. At first sight it looked as though whoever had carried out the work had accessed the plasma chamber, which would have been a hazardous operation at the best of times, but why would anyone risk opening up a plasma chamber when there were two more Phasewaves waiting to take up the load of the failed unit? Jenna continued to follow the path of the modifications until she established that the plasma chamber had indeed been opened and then got to her feet an
d hurried from the room to find Brant.

  It was only after passing the closed door to the recreation hall that Jenna heard the noise. She stopped and quietly walked back to the door. The distinct sounds of movement and other, unrecognizable noises came through the metal panels, followed by a definitely human groan. Jenna's heart beat faster. Brant was in the cargo bay looking at the skimmers, and Vance never left his room. It sounded like someone was in pain. Who could be in there? Jenna seized the handle and threw the door open wide, to find Brant lying slumped over an exercise machine, soaked in perspiration and breathing heavily.

  'What are you doing?' she cried.

  Brant wiped the moisture from his eyes with a towel and shakily dismounted from the machine. 'It's the reduced gravity,' he gasped. 'You think you can do more than you were able to on Vennica, then the gravity catches you out. I must have overdone it. Our bodies obviously don't see things the same way as we do.'

  Brant was wearing shorts and was naked from the waist up. It was the first time Jenna had seen him out of uniform and she was surprised to observe his well-muscled physique.

  'What brings you here?' said Brant.

  'I thought you were working on the skimmers; I heard something as I went by.'

  'Unfortunately all of the turbines have been damaged and I need to get hold of some technical information before I can go any further with the repairs. This is my way of keeping fit; I try to work out in here whenever I can.' Brant noticed Jenna staring at his body and wrapped the towel around him. 'What's the verdict?'

  Jenna was stuck for words. 'Well, I guess ... I mean, you look okay to me, but I'm no expert on that kind of thing.'

  Brant' face broke into a smile. 'I was referring to the Phasewave. What's the score with Unit Nine?'

  The sight of Brant's evident amusement at her mistake caused Jenna to blush. 'Get dressed and come with me. I'm going to show you something that'll take that smirk off your face.'

  'You'd have to be out of your mind to open up a plasma chamber,' said Brant, staring inside the machine. 'This thing draws over fifty megawatts from the sub-drive at full capacity, and the acceleration module is a sealed unit which could only be accessed with dedicated equipment. Still, they at least had the sense not to tamper with the sub-drive.'

  'Why would anyone want to do this in the first place, and what function do those rails on the front of the machine serve?'

  'I'm as puzzled as you are,' said Brant. 'This work was intended to be a modification of some sort, but a plasma chamber can only function as an integral part of the acceleration unit and has no other application. What else could you possibly use it for?'

  'Maybe that's what caused the explosion inside the Phasewave.'

  Brant lifted a wiring loom and ran his hand beneath it. 'The soot is under the wires, which means that the explosion came first. It looks like someone tried to modify the Phasewave after it had been damaged. We have to talk to Vance.'

  'Can't we visit the tracker before we bring in Vance?'

  'It could be days before I can get a skimmer serviceable, and this can't wait.' Brant ushered Jenna from the room. 'Something very strange has happened in here, and we have to find out what it was. Vance needs to be informed about this before we go any further.'

  *******************************

  Jarvine slouched in an armchair, idly watching the moving figures of Jenna and Declan on the video screen.

  Jenna's thin and distant voice drifted through the wall-mounted speakers into the windowless room. 'So that was when we first discovered something unusual had taken place.'

  Jarvine yawned loudly and then stiffened and slid his feet off the table at the sound of approaching footsteps. The door opened and Slater entered the room.

  'Has she come out with anything yet?' he asked.

  'Not much,' replied Jarvine. 'She claims the people they went out to replace couldn't be found, says they vanished into thin air. That can't happen, can it?'

  'I wish.' Slater threw his jacket over the back of a chair and joined Jarvine before the screen. 'I could make money out of a trick like that.'

  'I mean, people can't just disappear, can they?'

  'Jarvine, you and I both know it doesn't work that way. When people die they leave behind one big, stinking mess. You can't hide a body. Make a feature of it, and leave it on show as a warning. Who was that who just came in?'

  'Gil, he went to fetch breakfast.'

  The figures flitted back and forth across the screen to the background sounds of domestic activity. For a brief moment Declan appeared close to the hidden sensor, and his face loomed large on the screen before he re-joined the others at a table. Slater sneered at the image.

  'Jenna also said that one of the Phasewaves had burnt out and someone had tried to repair it,' said Jarvine. 'It sounds like she's making it up as she goes along.'

  'That's what comes from wasting your life on Bouron, but compared to that jerk Declan she sounds quite normal. Mind you, not everyone shares that opinion. Some people are taking her seriously, the kind of people who don't like the sound of what she's pushing out.'

  'How come?' asked Jarvine.

  'Someone's getting cold feet. Word is that they're prepared to pay a lot of money to stop stories about Phasewave getting around.'

  Jarvine became instantly alert. 'What kind of word?'

  'This is big,' said Slater. 'Are you interested?'

  'How big?'

  'Five million. That's two million each. We get a million up front and the other million on delivery.'

  'What happens to the extra million?' asked Jarvine.

  Slater tapped the side of his nose. 'Operational expenses; people need to be paid to look the other way.'

  'Is anyone else involved?'

  Slater grinned slyly. 'We get first pick. It's our show if we want it.'

  Jarvine gave a low whistle. Two million each, waiting for the taking, just like that. He felt his pulse quicken. 'Who's behind it?'

  Slater shook his head. 'Who knows? But if I were in the business of making money out of Phasewave I wouldn't be keen on the likes of Jenna going around shooting their mouths off.'

  'Level with me. Are we talking about the same thing? Jenna goes down?'

  'She goes down.'

  'That's not going to be easy. Have you found out where Gil's taking them?'

  'Plano,' said Slater. 'It's a holiday resort in the mountains, and Gil's taken over the whole show. He's throwing money around like water.'

  'And security?'

  'Gil's got a team installed in Plano. I think it's Milo and that woman he's screwing. I'm getting feedback from one of our operations staff - all their inputs will be transmitted in code to this building for processing, so we will be able to access their data.' Not for the first time Slater congratulated himself on having had the foresight to tap into the surveillance system at the time of its installation. 'I can't believe Gil's never suspected that his surveillance is blown. I bet he wouldn't even know if he had a bug up his ass.'

  'So there are only two people in the team.' Jarvine thought about it. 'This doesn't sound like a big deal case to me.'

  'And we're automatically excluded, of course,' said Slater. 'What's it like to be a player on Gil's team, to be an indispensable part of the Justice Department?' He snorted. 'Rumour has it that Gil's finally on the way out and this is his last chance. The Department's going to be shut down if he doesn't come up with the goods, which is why he's so desperate to make a name for himself. This might be an ideal opportunity to help him on his way and pick up something for ourselves at the same time.'

  Jarvine offered Slater a pack of cigarettes and waited pensively until he had lit up before taking one himself. 'It's not going to be easy working that close to the surveillance. Have you got anything in mind?'

  'I'm working on it.'

  The two men sat and watched wreaths of suspended smoke drift before the screen while disjointed voices from the speakers interrupted their silence. Against the backgro
und clutter of noise Jarvine heard Declan complain that he could not recognize the taste of real food.

  'How are you going to get past Declan?' asked Jarvine.

  'Declan goes down too.'

  'What! No kidding?'

  'There's no alternative. We can't expect Declan to ignore what's happening while we pull the girl from under his nose. He never knows when to quit, even if he is a dork, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life watching my back.'

  'He's still one of us.'

  'You don't pick up two million for doing nothing,' said Slater. 'Look, Declan's been out of circulation for a long time, and he's been out of sight ever since he got back to Vennica, so it's unlikely that anyone's going to miss him if he fades from the scene. Even when he worked here he never knew anybody. As for some screwed-up engineer who lost her marbles on Bouron, can you see her being an issue?'

  'What about Gil?'

  'Gil unfortunately has to stay. So far as he is concerned all we need to do is make sure he's nowhere around when we take out the others.'

  Jarvine stared at the screen while he tried to absorb the implications of Slater's suggestion.

  'Think about it,' said Slater, 'but I need an answer by the end of tomorrow.'

  'I'm not sure.'

  'This is only a question of timing; it's nothing that hasn't been done before.'

  'Does Gil know about the contract?'

  'I doubt it. Listen, with that kind of money on the table we're going to have to produce results and sooner rather than later. Once Gil's got everyone away from Kalmis he'll start to relax; that'll be the time to make our move.'

  A second screen lit up to show a plump figure entering the kitchen. Slater watched Gil with grim amusement and wondered how he would react to their scheme. Goodbye Gil, and thanks for nothing. If all went according to plan he could probably find some menial job for Gil to do where he could work out the days to his retirement, and making Gil's life a permanent misery was something he was looking forward to. Slater ground the remains of his cigarette into the floor and got to his feet. 'They'll soon be leaving for Plano, why don't you take a break until they get there?'