Giant Series 01 - Inherit the Stars

by Inherit the Stars [lit]

Navigation and Communications

  Division

  FROM: Dr. V. Hunt Section Head

  Special Assignment Group L

  ANOMALIES OF LUNAR CR1~TERING

  (1) Hemispheric Anomalies

  For many years, radical differences have been known to exist

  between the nature and origins of Lunar Nearside and Farside

  surface features.

  (a) Nearside

  Original Lunar surface from 4 billion years ago. Nearly all surface

  crater- ing caused by explosive release of kinetic energy by

  meteorite impacts. Some younger-e.g., Copernicus, 850 million years

  old.

  (b) Farside

  Surface comprises large mass of recently added material to average

  depth circa 300 meters. Craters formed during final phase of this

  bombardment. Dating of these events coincides with Lunarian

  presence. Origin of born- bardment uncertain.

  (2) Nearsicle Exceptions

  Known for approx. the last thirty years that some Nearside craters

  date from same period as those on Farside. Current theory ascribes

  them to overshoots from Pars ide bombardment.

  (3) Conclusion From Recent Research at Omaha and Pasadena

  All Nearside exceptions previously attributed to meteoritic

  impacts. This belief now considered incorrect. Two classes of

  exceptions now distinguished:

  (a) Class I Exceptions

  Confirmed as meteoritic impacts occurring 50,000 years ago.

  (b) Class II Exceptions Differing from Class I in irradiation

  history, formation of glasses, absence of impact corroboration and

  positive results to tests for elements hyperium, bonnevilliuin,

  genevium. Example: Crater Lunar Catalogue reference MB 3O76/K2/E

  currently classed as meteoritic. Classification erroneous. Crater

  MB 3076/K2/E was made by a nucleonic bomb. Other cases confirmed.

  Investigations continuing.

  (4) Farside Subsurface Intensive sampling from depths approximating

  that of the original crust indicate widespread nucleonic

  detonations prior to meteorite bombardment • Thermonuclear and

  fission reactions also suspected but impossible to confirm.

  (5) Implications

  (a) Sophisticated weapons used on Luna at or near time of Lunarian

  presence, mainly on Farside. Lunarian involvement implied but not

  proved.

  (b) If Lunarians involved, possibility of more widespread conflict

  embracing Lunarian home planet. Possible cause of Lunarian

  extinction.

  (c) Charlie was a member of more than a small, isolated expedition

  to our Moon. A significant Lunarian presence on the Moon is

  indicated. Mainly concentrated on Farside. Practically all traces

  since obliterated by meteorite storm.

  chapter twelve

  Front page feature of the New York Times,

  14 October 2028:

  LUNARTAN PLANET LOCATED

  Did Nuclear War Destroy Minerva?

  Sensational new announcements by UN Space Arm Headquarters,

  Washington, D.C., at last positively identify the home planet of

  the Lunarian civilization, known to have achieved space flight and

  reached Earth's Moon fifty thousand years ago. Inf ormation pieced

  together during more than a year of intense work by teams of

  scientists based at the UNSA Navigation and Communications Division

  Headquarters, Houston, Texas, shows conclusively that the Lunarians

  came from an Earth-like planet that once existed in our own Solar

  System.

  A tenth planet, christened Minerva after the Roman goddess of

  wisdom, is now known to have existed approximately 250 million

  miles from the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in the

  position now occupied by the Asteroid Belt, and is firmly

  established as having been the center of the Lunarian civilization.

  In a further startling announcement, a UNSA spokesman stated that

  data collected recently at the Lunar bases, following research at

  the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and the UNSA Mineralogy and

  Petrology Laboratories, Pasadena, California, indicate that a

  large-scale nuclear conifict took place on the Moon at the time the

  Lunarians were there. The possibility that Minerva was destroyed in

  a full-scale nuclear holocaust of interplanetary dimensions cannot

  be ruled out.

  Nucleonic Bombs Used at Crisium

  Investigations in recent months at the University of Nebraska and

  Pasadena give positive evidence that nucleonic bombs have caused

  craters on the Moon previously attributed to meteorite

  impacts. H-bomb and A-bomb effects are also suspected but cannot be

  confirmed.

  Dr. Saul Steinfield of the Department of Physics at the University

  of Nebraska explained: "For many years we have known that Lunar

  Farside craters are very much younger than most of the craters on

  Nearside. All the Farside craters, and a few of the Nearside ones,

  date from about the time of the Lunarians, and have always been

  thought to be meteoritic. Most of them, including all Farside ones,

  are. We have now proved, however, that some of the Nearside ones

  were made by bombs-for example, a few on the northern periphery of

  Mare Crisium and a couple near Tycho. So far, we've identified

  twenty-three positively and have a long list to check out."

  Further evidence collected from deep below the Farside surface

  indicates heavier bombing there than on Nearside. Obliteration of

  the original Farside surface by a heavy meteorite storm immediately

  after these events, accounts for only meteorite craters being found

  there today and makes detailed reconstruction of exactly what took

  place unlikely. "The evidence for higher activity on Farside is

  mainly statistical," said Steinfield yesterday. "There's no way you

  could figure anything specific-for example, an actual crater

  count-under all that garbage."

  The new discoveries do not explain why the meteorite storm happened

  at this time. Professor Pierre Guillemont of the Hale Observatory

  commented: "Clearly, there could be a connection with the Lunarian

  presence. Personally, I would be surprised if the agreement in

  dates is just a coincidence, although that, of course, is possible.

  For the time being, it must remain an unanswered question."

  Clues from ILIAD Mission

  Startling confirmation that Minerva disintegrated to form the

  Asteroid Belt has been received from space. Examination of Asteroid

  samples carried out on board the spacecraft Iliad, launched from

  Luna fifteen months ago to conduct a survey of parts of the Belt,

  shows many Asteroids to be of recent origin. Data beamed back to

  Mission Control Center at UNSA Operational Command Headquarters,

  Galveston, Texas, gives cosmic-ray exposure times and orbit

  statistics pinpointing Minerva's disintegration at fifty thousand

  years ago.

  Earth scientists are eagerly awaiting arrival of the first Asteroid

  material to be sent back from Iliad, which is due at Lana in six

  weeks time.

  Lunarian Origin Mystery

  Scientists do not agree that Lunarians necessarily originated on

  Minerva. Detailed physical examinations of "Charlie" (Time
s, 7

  November 2027) shows Lunarian anatomy identical to that of humans

  and incapable of being the product of a separate evolutionary

  process, according to all accepted theory. Conversely, absence of

  traces of Lunarian history on Earth seems to rule out any

  possibility of terrestrial origins. This remains the main focus of

  conrroversy among the investigators.

  In an exclusive interview, Dr. Victor Hunt, the British-born UNSA

  nucleonics expert coordinating Lunarian investigations from

  Houston, explained to a Times reporter: "We know quite a lot about

  Minerva now-its size, its mass, its climate, and how it rotated and

  orbited the Sun. Upstairs we've built a six-foot scale model of it

  that shows you every continent, ocean, river, mountain range, town,

  and city. Also, we know it supported an advanced civilization. We

  also know a lot about Charlie, including his place of birth, which

  is given on several of his personal documents as a town easily

  identified on Minerva. But that doesn't prove very much. My deputy

  was born in Japan, but both his parents come from Brooklyn. So

  until we know a lot more than we do, we can't even say for sure

  that the Minervan civilization and the Lunarian civilization were

  one and the same.

  "It's possible the Lunarians originated on Earth and either went to

  live on Minerva or made contact with another race who were there

  already. Maybe the Lunarians originated on Minerva. We just don't

  know. Whichever alternative you choose, you've got problems."

  Alien Marine Life Traced to Minerva

  Professor Christian Danchekker, an eminent biologist at Westwood

  Laboratories, Houston, and also involved in Lunarian research from

  the beginning, confirmed that the alien species of fish discovered

  among foodstocks in the ruin of a Lunarian base on Lunar Farside

  several months ago (Times, 6 July 2028) appear to have been a life

  form native to Minerva. Markings on the con-

  tainers in which the fish were preserved show that they came from a

  well-defined group of equatorial islands on Minerva. According to

  Professor Danchekker: "There is no question whatsoever that this

  species evolved on• a planet other than Earth. It seems clear that

  the fish belong to an evolutionary line that developed on Minerva,

  and they were caught there by members of a group of colonists from

  Earth who established an extension of their civilization there."

  The professor described the suggestion that the Lunarians might

  also be natives of Minerva as "ludicrous."

  Despite a wealth of new information, therefore, much remains to be

  explained about recent events in the Solar System. Almost

  certainly, the next twelve months will see further exciting

  developments.

  (See also the Special Supplement by our Science Editor on page

  14.)

  chapter thfrteen

  Captain Hew Mills, UN Space Arm, currently attached to the Solar

  System Exploration Program mission to the moons of Jupiter, stood

  gazing out of the transparent dome that surmounted the two-story

  Site Operations Control building. The building stood just clear of

  the ice, on a rocky knoll overlooking the untidy cluster of domes,

  vehicles, cabins, and storage tanks that went to make up the base

  he commanded. In the dim gray background around the base,

  indistinct shadows of rock buttresses and ice cliffs vanished and

  reappeared through the sullen, shifting vapors of the

  methane-ammonia haze. Despite his above-average psychological

  resilience and years of strict training, an involuntary shudder ran

  down his spine as he thought of the thin triple wall of the

  dome-all that separated him from this foreboding, poisonous, alien

  world, cold enough to freeze him as black as coal and as brittle as

  glass in seconds. Ganymede, largest of the moons of Jupiter, was,

  he thought, an awful place.

  "Close-approach radars have locked on. Landing sequence is active.

  Estimated time to touchdown: three minutes, fifty seconds." The

  voice of the duty controller at one of the consoles behind Mills

  interrupted his broodings.

  "Very good, Lieutenant," he acknowledged. "Do you have contact with

  Cameron?"

  "There's a channel open on screen three, sir."

  Mills moved around in front of the auxiliary console. The screen

  showed an empty chair and behind it an interior view of the

  low-level control room. He pressed the call button, and after a few

  seconds the face of Lieutenant Cameron moved into the viewing

  angle.

  "The brass are due in three minutes," Mills advised. "Everything

  okay?"

  "Looking good, sir."

  Mills resumed his position by the wall of the dome and noted

  with satisfaction the three tracked vehicles lurching into line to

  take up their reception positions. Minutes ticked by.

  "Sixty seconds," the duty controller announced. "Descent profile

  normal. Should make visual contact any time now."

  A patch of fog above the landing pads in the central area Of the

  base darkened and slowly materialized into the blurred outline of a

  medium-haul surface transporter, sliding out of the murk, balanced

  on its exhausts with its landing legs already fully extended. As

  the transporter came to rest on one of the pads and its shock

  absorbers flexed to dispose of the remaining momentum, the

  reception vehicles began moving forward. Mills nodded to himself

  and left the dome via the stairs that led down to ground level.

  Ten minutes later, the first reception vehicle halted outside the

  Operations Control building and an extending tube telescoped out to

  dock with its airlock. Major Stanislow, Colonel Peters, and a

  handful of aides walked through into the outer access chamber,

  where they were met by Mills and a few other officers. Mutual

  introductions were concluded, and without further preliminaries the

  party ascended to the first floor and proceeded through an elevated

  walkway into the adjacent dome, constructed over the head of

  number-three shalt. A labyrinth of stairs and walkways brought them

  eventually to number-three high-level airlock anteroom. A capsule

  was waiting beyond the airlock. For the next four minutes they

  plummeted down, down, deep into the ice crust of Ganymede.

  They emerged through another airlock into number-three low-level

  anteroom. The air vibrated with the humming and throbbing of unseen

  machines. Beyond the anteroom, a short corridor brought them at

  last to the low-level control room. It was a maze of consoles and

  equipment cubicles, attended by perhaps a dozen operators, all

  intent on their tasks. One of the longer walls, constructed

  completely from glass, gave a panoramic view down over the workings

  in progress outside the control room. Lieutenant Cameron joined

  them as they lined up by the glass to take in the spectacle beyond.

  They were looking out over the floor of an enormous cathedral, over

  nine hundred feet long and a hundred feet high, hewn and melted out

  of the solid ice. Its rough-formed walls glistene
d white and gray

  in the glare of countless arc lights. The floor was a litter of

  steel-mesh roadways, cranes, gantries, girders, pipes, tubes, and

  machinery of every description. The left-side wall, stretching away

  to the far end of the tunnel, carried a lattice of ladders,

  scaffolding, walkways, and cabins that extended up to the roof. All

  over the scene, scores of figures in ungainly heavy-duty spacesuits

  bustled about in a frenzy of activity, working in an atmosphere of

  pressurized argon to eliminate any risk of explosion from methane

  and the other gases released from the melted ice. But all eyes were

  fixed on the right-hand wall of the tunnel.

  For almost the entire length, a huge, sweeping wall of smooth,

  black metal reared up from the floor and curved up and over, out of

  sight above their heads to be lost below the roof of the cavern. It

  was immense-just a part of something vast and cylindrical, lying on

  its side, the whole of which must have stretched far down into the

  ice below floor level. At the near end, outside the control room, a

  massive, curving wing flared out of the cylinder and spanned the

  cavern above their heads like a bridge, before disappearing into

  the ice high on the far left. At intervals along the base of the

  wall, where metal and ice met, a series of holes six feet or so

  across marked the ends of the network of pilot tunnels that had

  been driven all around and over and under the object.

  It was far larger than a Vega. How long it had lain there, entombed

  beneath the timeless ice sheets of Ganymede, nobody knew. But the

  computations of field-vector resultants collected from the

  satellites had been right; there certainly had been something big

  down here-and it hadn't been just ore deposits.

  "Ma-an," breathed Stanislow, after staring for a long time. "So

  that's it, huh?"

  "That is big!" Peters added with a whistle. The aides echoed the

  sentiments dutifully.

  Stanislow turned to Mills. "Ready for the big moment, then,

  Captain?"

  "Yes, sir," Mills confirmed. He indicated a point about two hundred

  feet away where a group of figures was gathered close to the wall

  of the hull, surrounded by an assortment of equipment. Beside them