Drew nodded. “That’s right. Those are traces of abrasion—erosion caused by waves and tides. There are abrasion marks on all the rocks from here down into the valley—and they are very pronounced. I would bet my bottom dollar that not long ago, all this was under water, which then drained off again very quickly.”
“Not long ago? You mean on a geological scale?” asked Russell.
“No, I mean literally. Not long ago. A few decades.”
Russell tipped back his head to look up at the rock formations of the canyon. Suddenly the lines transformed into waves and the rockface was colored jet black. He gasped for breath, but the suffocating feeling remained.
“Russell? Is everything okay?”
Marlene’s voice came from far away. His legs gave way. He stumbled forward to support himself on the car, but he couldn’t keep his balance. He smacked onto the hard ground and fell unconscious.
Chapter 3
Twenty years ago:
“The meeting is hereby opened. Quiet at the back, please!” said Marlene. The chattering in the corner of the room didn’t die down. She raised her voice. “Kenneth, Stanislav! Please!”
Stanislav Radinkovic, one of the ecologists, looked up guiltily and stopped talking.
The mess hall, assembled out of prefabricated parts and the biggest building on the base, was full to the rafters. They had taken out the tables and set up rows of folding chairs, but there were not enough for everyone to have a seat. There were people leaning against the walls and others sitting on the ground. Everybody from the base had come, just as she had ordered. Twenty-nine men and women, of whom nine were soldiers from the Special Engineers unit, herself included, and the rest scientists and assistants. Marlene Wolfe was sitting at a long table at the front of the room, flanked by Lieutenant Hawke, who was fidgeting with his ballpoint pen, and Dr. Lindwall, who was leafing through some papers he had lain out on the table. His hands were trembling and he was chewing loudly on a piece of gum. Marlene guessed that he was still suffering from nicotine withdrawal. Sitting beside him was John Dressell, head of the scientific expedition. At the end of the table, in handcuffs, and guarded by Ernie Lawrence and Chris Neaman, crouched the two men who had abruptly destroyed all their hopes one week earlier: Russell Harris and Christian Holbrook.
They had interrogated the traitors until they had discovered every detail of what had happened. Marlene had not known that General Morrow had sent prisoners in the transporter and that he was responsible for a number of deaths. In principle, it was no different from Ben Hawke’s suggestion. And it had obviously been approved by the president. Marlene had been shocked when she found out. She would never have countenanced something like that. Since then, she had been wrestling with her conscience; not only about what to do with the traitors, but also about their situation in general. Over the past few days, it had become clear to her that she couldn’t make this decision on her own. Although this was a military operation and she was the captain, the decision affected them all. A return to Earth was impossible and her mission was thereby ended. They found themselves in a new situation. Their base had turned into an independent colony and the expedition members had become involuntary colonists. Marlene did not want to establish a military dictatorship. The only problem was, they could not survive on Russell’s Planet. The upcoming decision needed to be made democratically.
That was her opinion, but unfortunately not that of her deputy. Hawke leaned over to her. “Think about it again. We don’t have to go through this bullshit,” he whispered in her ear. He had been in favor of proclaiming martial law, and restricting the freedom of the scientists. Their first act should be to set an example: Harris and Holbrook should be court-martialed as traitors, and shot.
She shook her head. If they did that, they would possibly rob themselves of the only chance of finding a planet on which they could survive, because neither Harris nor Holbrook had revealed the code to the planet to which they had fled before destroying the transporter on Earth. Hawke had suggested torturing the men to find out the code, but Marlene refused.
Marlene stood up. Immediately the ripple of voices died down. Marlene took her time, and looked as many people in the eye as she could. She wanted to give them the feeling that she was addressing each and every one of them in person. “Our situation has fundamentally changed. You know that we are stranded here and that we cannot return to Earth.”
Angry muttering rippled through the room. The men and women knew exactly who was to blame for that.
“The first point we need to decide today is what should happen with these two men.”
“String ’em up!” cried Eliot Sargent from the back row. There was a murmur of approval. On the very day the two men had arrived, there had already been an attack. Holbrook had got away with a deep wound to his neck after the soldier Andrea Phillips had attempted to slit his throat with a knife. Marlene had put Andrea under arrest and protected the men against further attacks by personally locking them into the lab and keeping hold of the only key. Although of course it had been she who had first laid a hand on Mr. Harris and broken his nose. It had been a kneejerk reaction and she had immediately regretted it. However, she had not apologized.
“The death penalty is one possibility. We will decide that together today,” said Marlene.
“You’re the commander!” pointed out Igor Isalovic from the second row.
Marlene shook her head. “Our mission has become obsolete, since we no longer have any hope of returning to Earth. I can’t be in command of our colony for the rest of our lives.”
“Colony?” asked Dr. Cashmore in the first row.
“Yes. Our camp has become an involuntary colony. This is no longer a military mission. And we need to decide our fate together. I will give up my command as soon as we have democratically elected a council, which will oversee the future of our colony for a fixed amount of time. Since we have little choice but to establish a new colony, it should at least be based on the same democratic principles as our homeland. America was also founded as a colony, and we must not forget that many of the early settlers came unwillingly, but turned America into their home. I would like to follow their inspiring example and hope it gives us the strength and fortitude to come to terms with our difficult situation. And I would like the decisions that we make to be consistent with the beliefs and principles of our forefathers.”
“Hear, hear!” Sammy Yang called out. A few people nodded. Marlene had the feeling she’d struck the right tone with her impassioned words. She walked around the table and stood next to Harris and Holbrook. “And I am not sure our new colony should start off with two death sentences.” She paused histrionically.
“But that is for the community to decide. One thing is for sure: We cannot stay here, or else we will die. Let’s not forget: these prisoners also offer us a perspective. I would like everybody to listen to what they have to say. Mr. Harris?”
Russell Harris stood up slowly. He knew his life was at stake here, but nonetheless he radiated a strange tranquility, as if this was nothing new for him. Harris had told her that he had once been a soldier in an elite unit. She assumed he had probably survived some dangerous missions. As much as she hated him for getting her and her men and women into this mess, she was curious to hear his story. She hoped the assembled group wouldn’t condemn him to death before she got the chance. Harris cleared his throat.
“First of all, I would like to thank Captain Wolfe for giving me this opportunity to speak to you. I am aware that I and my colleagues are responsible for the fact that you can no longer return home. I apologize for this with all my heart. We, too, would have wished for a different outcome. After we found out the transporter technology posed a threat to very existence Earth, we decided to pay the price and—”
“Traitor! You should burn in hell!” Chris Neaman called out.
“Quiet! Let him speak,” Marlene spoke calmly but firmly.
Harris did not respond to the remark. “We are only a s
mall group of survivors. Myself and Christian Holbrook, and—on the planet to which we fled from Earth—Ellen Slayton, Albert Bridgeman and Jim Rogers. Five people. We can survive, but there are too few of us to establish a colony. We would like to invite you to come with us to our planet to start a new life together and establish a permanent colony. We have everything on our planet that we need in order to survive. The weather is pleasant, there are edible plants, and the soil is suitable for growing your seeds. There is no way back. Not for you and not for us. Let’s build our future together.”
Eliot Sargent stood up. His face was flushed. “Who gave you the right to destroy the transporter? What gives you the right to decide which technology is available to mankind and which isn’t? The transporter was a gift that could have helped us make unimaginable progress. We could have colonized the galaxy with it. Perhaps the secrets of the technology would have helped us solve all of mankind’s problems. You’re the worst kind of scum that planet Earth ever produced.” He spat out the last words so loudly that Julia Stetson, sitting beside him, had to cover her ears.
Sarah Demig, who was sitting one row in front of them, waved his remarks aside. She turned around to Eliot and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Oh, come on. The first thing humans have always done with any new technology they’ve got their hands on was to create new weapons. Perhaps the destruction of the transporter was the best thing that could have happened to Earth.”
“Are you telling me that you agree with these traitors?” Eliot roared into her face. She simply shrugged.
“Hush now!” Wolfe raised her hands. “Dr. Dressel has prepared a report about the spheres, and whether they really posed such a threat.”
The chief scientist stood up. “Over the last few days I have talked at length with Mr. Harris and Mr. Holbrook and found out as much as I possibly could. I have already been able to verify some of the facts. If you put yourself into a meditative trance-like state, you can talk to the artificial intelligence of the sphere by means of telepathy. Mr. Harris taught me how. I have already learnt a thing or two about the technology. The transporter works on the basis of an asymmetrical . . .” He hesitated and searched for words that the soldiers could understand. “Well, let’s just say, the teleportation is made possible through the creation of a wormhole. The machine manipulates space-time and creates a strong gravitational field by means of some energy the source of which I haven’t understood—similar to a black hole, but without an event horizon.”
“Get to the point, Doctor,” Captain Wolfe whispered.
The scientist paused, nodded and searched for the right words again. “In any case, the concept is inherently unstable.”
“What does that mean?” asked Ben Hawke sharply. Every time Dressel slipped into science jargon, Hawke rolled his eyes.
“Well, it’s like in a unstable nuclear reactor. In order to have a stable chain reaction, you have to constantly readjust the control rods. If you fail to do so, the chain reaction either breaks off or increases exponentially, like in Chernobyl. The transporter has to precisely regulate the creation of the wormhole.”
“So what are you saying?” asked Marianna Waits. “That there might be chain reaction like in Chernobyl?”
Dressel shook his head. “No, worse. An event horizon would form and a stable black hole would be created, which would first destroy the transporter and finaly the whole planet.”
“I thought that microscopically small black holes would immediately evaporate through Hawking radiation,” said Dr. Cashmore. Although he was a chemist, Marlene knew that he devoted much of his spare time to reading about other areas of science.
Dressel nodded. “Generally, yes. But the event horizon generated by the transporter would be as big as the diameter of the inner sphere, the corresponding mass would be equivalent to about a thousandth of the mass of our sun.”
“But that’s impossible. How could that thing generate so much energy?”
“No idea. I assume the transporter pumps out vacuum energy. But that’s speculation. In any case, during the formation of an event horizon, part of Earth’s mass would immediately be sucked into the black hole that had been created. The rest would be ripped apart by cosmic forces, and hurled in every direction at almost the speed of light.”
“How high is the probability that this all would have come to pass if these men hadn’t destroyed the transporter,” asked Wolfe.
“It’s impossible to quantify, but I’m sure it would have happened at some point. Murphy’s Law.”
Ben Hawke snorted.
“Are you sure?” asked Dr. Potter from the first row. “Even if all safety precautions had been taken?”
“Absolutely. How can you establish safety measures if you don’t understand the underlying principle? And they definitely would have continued to experiment with the technology. I would have done the same myself.”
“Even if you knew that the technology is dangerous?” asked Wolfe.
“Yes, it would be almost impossible to resist the urge to discover the technology’s secret. Imagine a horde of Neanderthals in the control room of an atomic power station, playing around incessantly with the switches. A reactor has emergency shut-off systems, but those can be deactivated too. At some point, someone would have found the right switch.”
“But we’re not Neanderthals,” said Dr. Lindwall indignantly. The doctor took a piece of chewing gum out of his mouth and wrapped it in a tissue, which he slipped into his pocket.
The physicist laughed. “There’s a far greater gap between us and these aliens than between us and the Neanderthals. They only died out thirty thousand years ago, while the builders of the sphere were millions of years ahead of us.”
“We’re getting off topic,” Wolfe interrupted the discussion. “Dr. Dressel, you are also sure that the destruction of the sphere was justified?”
The scientist sighed. “Everyone has to decide that for themselves. All I will say is: I wouldn’t have bothered putting aside any money for my retirement.”
Wolfe nodded. “Thank you, Doctor. I would also like to point out that—”
“For Christ’s sake!” Chris Neaman had stood up. He was puffing angrily. “Why do we have a chain of command? It would have been the task of the leaders on Earth to decide whether or not to investigate the technology. The Army also has plenty of outstanding scientists, who ought to be trusted to make the right decision. Every year, the USA spends billions of dollars on think tanks in Washington and elsewhere to analyze precisely these kinds of questions. But these idiots here . . . ” he pointed with a quivering finger at Harris and Holbrook, “. . . made the decision all on their own. It’s treason. High treason. For which there is only one possible punishment.” He collapsed back into his seat.
Camille Ott stood up in the row behind. “I’m too young to have experienced it in person, but my parents often told me about their experiences during the Cuban Missile Crisis—when it seemed as if a nuclear war between the USA and the Soviet Union would begin at any minute. My parents feared for their lives. My mother told me later that back then, she woke up every morning thinking the day might be her last. At the time, I think most people would have given anything to reverse the discovery of nuclear fission.”
“Bullshit,” cried Travis Richards. He was leaning against the wall next to the entrance. His voice was quiet but firm. “You can’t compare the two.”
“Why not? Every time humans have invented a new technology, it’s a sure bet that something will go wrong. We were always told nuclear power stations were safe. Then came Three Mile Island. People said it wasn’t that bad, nobody was hurt. Then came Chernobyl. That time, there were victims. We were reassured by being told the reactor was a Soviet piece of junk. And then came Fukushima, and I’m sure that won’t be the last reactor disaster.”
“But you can’t . . .” interrupted Neamen.
Camille ignored him. “It’s the same with space travel. When the shuttle was developed, clever scientists
calculated there would only be a disaster every few hundred years. Just five years later, the Challenger exploded during take-off. And despite every effort made to make it safer, a few years later came the Columbia crash. The Titanic was also supposed to be unsinkable. Whenever we think we’ve come up with a fail-safe system, something goes wrong. If you ask me, it’s a miracle that humankind survived the last century. And there are greater dangers lurking on the horizon. Genetic engineering, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence. We throw ourselves enthusiastically into playing with these new toys, all of which have the potential to eradicate humankind. So we don’t need hellish alien machines that can turn the Earth into a black hole on top of that.”
Now she turned to Chris Neaman. “If we’ve spared the whole of humankind from this danger, then I think being stranded in space was a small price to pay. You want to execute these two men? I would give them a medal for bravery. That’s my opinion.”
“Does anyone else have something to add?” asked Marlene Wolf.
Marianna Waits raised her hand timidly. “Will we really never get back home?”
Wolfe shook her head. “Since the sphere on Earth has been destroyed, there is no chance. None of us will ever step foot on Earth again.”
“I wouldn’t say that so categorically,” said Dr. Dressel.
Captain Wolfe turned her head and blinked. “What do you mean?”
“According to Mr. Holbrook there are other spheres in our solar system. For example on Mars. And they know that on Earth. I’m sure now that the transporter on Earth has been destroyed, the race will soon begin to find that sphere and take possession of it. It’s only a question of time until the transporter on Mars has a manned station. If the government really wants it and is willing to provide unlimited resources, it could be done in five years’ time. So we could get back to Earth via a circuitous route. Our exile is perhaps only temporary.”
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