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Phasewave

Page 14

by David Gill


  'I'm going for Option Two,' said Carrick. 'We'll try again tomorrow.'

  'You're not thinking straight,' said Ellen. 'The worst that can happen is a couple of hours of signal distortion. Look, if some number cruncher on Vennica who doesn't know one end of a comet from the other decides that a two-day shutdown is long enough for the lane to clear then it's okay by me. If, however, you decide at the last minute to question the validity of that decision and tack on another day's delay for good luck I think you can kiss goodbye to this year's bonus. The Company can be a bit funny about that kind of thing, so bear that in mind when you collapse the Wave.'

  'I'm addressing a valid safety issue,' said Carrick. 'It's my decision, not the Company's. I have that option.'

  'Okay, smart guy. Name one person who's ever taken that kind of option and is still working for the Company. Get real. The Wave took ten hours to stabilize; it's not something you can just turn on and off like a light. Why take a risk if you don't have to?'

  Carrick stopped pacing the floor and checked the time again. 'I've left it too late! Oh, shit! It's too late to cancel the start.'

  'Let it ride,' said Ellen.

  Carrick let out an audible sigh of resignation.

  'Relax,' said Ellen. 'You worry too much.'

  'You're right,' said Carrick, brightening up. 'That's right. It wasn't up to us; it was up to them. They made the decision and it was the wrong one. I just hope to God that nothing goes wrong.'

  'Nothing will,' said Ellen, looking through the tracker again. 'That's the beauty of Phasewave - it's so dependable.'

  Two minutes to go. Carrick glanced at the status read-outs one last time. Outside the control room twelve perfectly functioning Phasewave transceivers waited hungrily to receive data from the far reaches of space. Rogan and Sewell were stationed at the distribution point ready to monitor the transfer. Everything was in place; there was nothing to do except wait for the incoming transmission.

  A slight quiver, caused by the reactors' increased output, shook the room and signalled the arrival of data. Ellen stood by Carrick and watched the units change status one by one as they absorbed the load. Unit Eight came on line and Carrick started to relax.

  Ellen slipped her arm around Carrick's waist. 'There you are. What was difficult about that?'

  Carrick gave a short laugh. 'You're right, as usual.' He stopped and stared at the status displays. 'Unit Nine's not initialized. What's the matter with it?'

  'Maybe the data backlog is complete,' suggested Ellen.

  'It's too soon, we were told to expect a ...'

  A blinding flash of light turned the inside of the room white, and the shock of a nearby explosion rattled the building.

  'What the fuck was that?' shouted Carrick.

  Ellen ran to the window but could not see anything.

  'I knew it!' Carrick was beside himself with fury. 'I should never have listened to you. This is your fault. Why the fuck did I listen to you?'

  Ellen still could not see what had taken place. 'Where was the explosion?'

  'Here,' said Carrick, pointing to the screen. 'Unit Nine's flagged a fail caption. Thanks to you we've just lost a Phasewave unit.'

  'So how come it's my fault? Let's get something straight, shall we? There was a lightning strike, okay? That's no big deal in these parts; it's not like we've never seen lightning before. So the Company gets a big bill; what's it got to do with the comet?'

  'There's never been a recorded surface strike on Bouron,' said Carrick. 'That discharge could only have been caused by debris brought down from the comet tail. '

  'Balls,' said Ellen. 'It was just a lightning strike; it had nothing to do with the comet.'

  Rogan joined them in the operations room. 'Did you see that big mother? Wow, that was some hit.'

  'Tell me, Rogan,' said Ellen, 'was that a lightning strike or not?'

  'It looked more like an energy surge through the microwave grid,' said Rogan. 'I actually saw the splitter divert the beam into Unit Nine.'

  'We'd better take a look at it,' said Carrick.

  'Don't bother,' said Rogan. 'Sewell's already down there, but I wouldn't count on using that one again.'

  'Thanks,' said Carrick sarcastically. 'That's just what I need.'

  'Well, let's wait and see what Sewell has to say,' said Rogan. 'Things might be okay.'

  'The unit's scrap,' said Sewell. 'The accelerator casing has distorted. It took one hell of a discharge.'

  Carrick glared accusingly across the room at Ellen. 'I should have terminated the start. That damage was definitely caused by something picked up from the comet tail, and now we've lost Unit Nine. Thanks a bundle.'

  'Oh, come on,' said Sewell. 'You know you wouldn't have got any thanks from the Company if you'd cancelled the start. They'll more than recover the cost of a new unit from the profits generated by the backlog. Forget about it.'

  Ellen walked up to Rogan and gave him a hard stare. 'That was a lightning strike, wasn't it? It had nothing to do with the comet tail, did it?'

  Rogan shrugged, recognizing the signs of an impending and usually unwinnable altercation. 'I guess. It was a big one though.'

  'But it could have been lightning?'

  'Sure. Yes, it could have been.'

  'There you are,' said Ellen. She turned to Carrick. 'It was a lightning strike. It was nothing special, just a straightforward act of nature.'

  Sewell and Rogan exchanged glances and left the room, leaving Carrick at his desk to worry about the loss of the unit. Ellen went and stood behind him and started to massage his shoulders, kneading the hard knots of tension in the muscles at the base of his neck.

  Carrick eventually craned his head back and sighed. 'That feels good.' He looked down again at the log he was working on. 'I can't think of a way to put this on record without incriminating us.'

  'It's not a problem,' said Ellen, driving her thumbs deeper into Carrick's shoulders. 'Here's what you're going to say: the start-up went perfectly, just like those clever people on Vennica said it would, and after you've put that in the log you add yet another warning about the increased electrical activity on Bouron and the possibility of a lightning strike hitting an installation, just like all the other warnings which have been ignored. And in a few weeks' time, guess what? A lightning strike does hit the ground and takes out poor old Unit Nine, just like you always said it would. That'll cover us.'

  Carrick felt the tension flow out of his muscles under Ellen's expert manipulation. He started to feel happier. 'Yes, that might work.'

  'And it'll be a real shame when those nice people in head office start digging around and find all the previous warnings they've been given. This way, at least when heads start to roll they won't be ours.'

  'I like the sound of that,' said Carrick, and then gasped as Ellen stabbed her fingers into his neck again. He felt her firm breasts press against his back and knew that she was aroused. After a few more minutes of massage Ellen took hold of his hand and pulled him to his feet.

  'Where are we going?' asked Carrick, although he already knew the answer to his question.

  'You'll see,' said Ellen, and led him from the room like a captive animal.

  Ellen's cries of passion could be clearly heard through the thin walls of the base complex.

  'I can't take this for another four months,' said Rogan, putting down the repair he was working on. 'Don't they ever stop?'

  Sewell laughed. 'It sounds like Carrick's got a wildcat in there with him.'

  'Well, that's Ellen for you,' said Rogan, and then saw the humour in the situation and joined Sewell in laughter.

  'Carrick's got his hands full, believe me,' said Sewell. 'You wouldn't want to get involved with her.'

  'Seriously,' said Rogan, tugging at his ear, 'that strike was the strangest thing. I was looking at the splitter when the transmission came through and it was definitely a straight line discharge. That's the one thing lightning doesn't do.'

  'Maybe the transmission did pick up
something from the comet tail after all,' said Sewell.

  'I reckon it could have. The transmission only became visible after it came through the wave guide and then burnt brighter when it was deflected at the splitter. Would that happen if there was something in the beam? Would the kinetic energy increase each time it was deflected?'

  'Search me,' said Sewell. 'Do you know anything about particle beam transmissions?'

  'Only that that they were made illegal after the war,' replied Rogan.

  'Well, if there had been anything in the beam it would have been destroyed by the heat of the explosion. It certainly didn't do Unit Nine any good.'

  Rogan packed up his tools. 'You're probably right, but I think I'll stick with the lightning theory, at least it's something everyone understands.'

  *******************************

  Jenna interrupted the story. 'What's this got to do with your being inside the Phasewave?'

  'Because that's when the alien joined us.'

  'You mean it came down on the beam?'

  'Something like that,' said Ellen. 'We didn't come into contact with the alien until later and then only briefly after we became trapped inside the Phasewave. I've no idea how it survived because it didn't have a physical form; all we knew was that somehow it had ended up living inside Unit Nine. Carrick was convinced that it was to do with the strike that knocked out the unit, that it had been picked up in space and brought down into the receiver mixed up with the transmission. I'm not so sure. There's a lot of unexplained electrical activity on Bouron, and it could have been there all the time living in the rat-runs underneath the base. Who knows?'

  'You must have learnt something about the alien if you shared the machine with it.'

  'Yes, we did discover certain things before it moved on,' said Ellen. She went over to the cooler and refilled the jug of water. 'Only they weren't good things. The rest we guessed at.'

  'So why did it want your bodies?'

  'We were never sure about that. To us it appeared to lead a perfect existence. Think about it, no body to worry about, no illness, just pure, formless intelligence, but I guess we'll never know what gives an alien its buzz. It was clever though. Somehow it had learned to think like a human being, and it had been watching us all the time, working out a way to get hold of our bodies. It came up with a weird idea, but it worked. It's not really that difficult. When you tell someone what they want to hear they'll generally believe you. Ask Vance why he changed his mind about going into the Phasewave after he was told it would sort out his heart. We went into that machine with our eyes open and our minds closed. Looking back I can't believe we were so naive, but we were all taken in at the time.'

  'Why did it choose Scyros Maddoc? What brought that about?'

  'Have you ever noticed a tiny spot of light appear in the middle of your communicator screen, even when it's not switched on? There is a reason for that, but first, to return to Scyros Maddoc, there was also a good reason for his appearance.'

  *******************************

  'I don't know what you see in that show,' said Ellen.

  Carrick was almost hysterical with mirth. 'Come and watch ... there it goes. Yes!'

  Ellen looked at the dishevelled, white haired man on the screen. He looked mad, that was all she could think of. 'Turn that crap off,' she said.

  'Wait! Look, this is a good one.'

  Ellen turned her back on the screen and carried on with her work.

  'Yes! Here's another cracker coming up,' said Carrick. 'Just come and watch this.'

  Ellen gave up trying to concentrate and sat next to Carrick on the couch in the living room. 'I don't find him the slightest bit funny,' she said.

  'It's interactive. You've got to get into the show,' said Carrick. He put his arm around Ellen's shoulders and she leaned against him.'

  'Most of his crackpot ideas don't work, they're just plain stupid.'

  'That's the whole point,' said Carrick, 'they're not supposed to. Only a few of the inventions on each show are actually genuine, that's what makes it addictive. You've got to watch closely to spot the real ones.'

  'I'd rather wait for rain on Bouron,' said Ellen, 'I'm sure it would be more productive.'

  Carrick burst out laughing as yet another contraption collapsed in pieces on the floor. His laughter was drowned by that of the studio audience.

  'Oh, please.' Ellen got up from the couch. 'Count me out. How can you expect me to waste time watching that lunatic? It's an insult to my intelligence, and also yours. That's assuming you had any intelligence in the first place.'

  Carrick looked at Ellen in surprise. 'Lunatic? You owe that lunatic.'

  'Sleepless nights are what I owe him. Why can't he invent something to blank out the sound of someone braying all night in the next room while I'm trying to get some sleep? Why can't he produce something useful for a change?'

  'He already did,' said Carrick with a knowing grin. 'He invented Phasewave.'

  Ellen stopped at the door. 'Are you trying to tell me that old fool Scyros Maddoc invented Phasewave? Do me a favour!'

  'It's true,' said Carrick. 'Scyros discovered the Phasewave principle by accident, and then didn't know what to do with it. Nothing is straightforward where he is concerned. In the end he practically gave the patent away, and the rest, as they say, is history.'

  Ellen returned to the couch and watched another experiment fail. It left her cold. She shook her head and got up to leave. 'I really don't know what to say.'

  Carrick reached out and turned off the monitor. 'I've got recordings of all his shows; you can watch them any time you want.'

  Ellen knew Carrick was winding her up and tried to think of a suitably sarcastic reply.

  'While you're here, take a look at this,' said Carrick. He pointed to the monitor screen. 'Have you noticed this tiny spot of light that's left in the middle of the screen after it's been turned off? I'm sure it was never there before.'

  'I haven't noticed,' said Ellen.

  'The other day I actually saw the light come on after I entered a room. I feel as though somebody's watching me all the time.'

  'You're imagining things,' said Ellen. 'It's probably caused by those stray currents that crawl around the base, some electromagnetic field under the foundations. On the other hand it could be one of Scyros' crazy inventions. He's probably watching your reaction to his show; after all, you must be the only person to find him amusing.'

  'Ha, ha. Very funny,' said Carrick. 'You wait, one day you'll eat your words when you find out what a brilliant mind he's got.'

  *******************************

  'That's how it started,' said Ellen. 'The alien was watching us from inside the monitors; the spots of light on the screens were caused by its energy field.'

  Jenna suddenly remembered noticing the light on the screen in Ellen's cabin. Had Ellen been watching while Jenna searched her cabin? She quickly directed the conversation back to the alien. 'So the alien was impersonating Scyros Maddoc on the media shows?'

  'No, not on the shows. He went one better than that and laid on a special live show for us. One day Carrick got a call on his messager to go to Unit Nine and when he got there the communicator screen lit up and he found himself talking to his hero Scyros Maddoc who claimed to be in a laboratory on Vennica conducting an experiment.'

  'I think I can guess what happened next,' said Jenna.

  'I thought it might sound familiar,' said Ellen. 'I can't claim it was an original idea.'

  *******************************

  Chapter Six

  Declan looked through the apartment window at the dark shadows of the nearby mountains. It was later than he thought, but he wanted to resolve some outstanding issues before they finished for the night. 'When you first talked to Ellen and Carrick, was there any way you could determine if the transmission was actually coming from Vennica?'

  'No,' said Jenna. 'Phasewave controls the Intranet, which is very different from the earlier Extranet. The who
le point of the relay process is that it eliminates the time lag from the transmission, allowing real-time communication. If someone contacts you through Phasewave, they could be anywhere within Phasewave range, which covers most of the planetary systems, and you would have no way of knowing. Either that, or they could be inside the machine itself.'

  Nothing seemed to be making sense, and Declan suddenly became aware of an overriding fatigue that cried out for him to be alone. 'I've still got a few things to do tonight. May I suggest we leave off now and start again tomorrow?'

  'Sure,' said Jenna. 'How am I doing? I don't suppose this is making much sense to you.'

  'To use your expression - I'm starting to wrap my head around it,' said Declan.

  Declan savoured the silence inside his bedroom. For the first time since his arrival he had some free time to himself and was enjoying every second of the precious luxury. He remained in contented contemplation for over an hour, and then switched on the communications centre, tapped into its data banks and settled down to study. For the rest of the night Declan pored over the plans of a Phasewave unit, but it was almost dawn before he found what he was looking for and called Gil. The communicator sprang to life and Gil's bleary-eyed face appeared on its screen.

  'Sorry to wake you,' said Declan, 'but I've got some preliminary findings you should know about.'

  Gil yawned loudly. 'Go ahead. I'll be listening, even if my eyes are closed.'

  'I've come to the conclusion that an alien life form played a major part in this incident.'

  Gil's eyes opened wide. 'What?'

  'I believe there was an alien presence on Bouron.'

  'Are you serious?' said Gil. 'Yes, of course you are, nobody calls at this hour in the morning for a joke. Are you really telling me there is a possibility that an alien actually existed?'

 

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