We finished a second helping of toast and refilled our coffee mugs. Then I waved at the walls and said, “We figured the back side of the Moon would have less gravity induced stressing so a crew excavated down to three A-Tunnels entrances. We have level by level maps drawn from Prestrillo’s and my memories. The present time, ARK time, scans get fuzzy about two/thirds of the way toward the core. That may be due to the inefficiency of the equipment, or some shielding layer.”
“If I may.” She brought the contentious area onto the screens. “My opinion, based on the scans going too fuzzy too quickly, is a shield in place, mechanical rather than electronic.”
“I’ll go with that. It’s interesting that only the upper ten percent of the structure suffered damage.”
“Perhaps someone sacrificed that ten percent to make an impact absorption zone. Nine to eleven percent seems to be the variance range all around the surface. Ninety three percent of the expert opinion is, that this is not a natural occurrence.”
“Given that it would seem that someone was in charge after Prestrillo died. Interesting, interesting. Did someone deliver our kit?”
“In your office. Six disintegrators like you asked, keyed for you two only.”
“Good, good; well, let’s see. We’ll try to make a chart with distance from surface notations along three ingress routes, so if we have to go laterally to escape some blockage we can.”
“Can do. I’ll arrange them in a flip format, so you don’t have to shuffle, or worry about numbering.”
“I’m glad we met. Aren’t you?”
“Certainly. Tasty toast.”
We were making steady progress when Captain Prestrillo showed up shortly after 1200. “Sorry, got hung up with Hortimer and messages back and forth from Bren. I told them reinforcements would be there in 24 hours. They figure they can do that. Many technical details to work out between the Scanner and Broadcaster people, it is beyond me. I see you have flip charts for about half the incursion.”
I said, “Her idea. Ensign Molly Trueblood.”
“The A/V person. I noticed. You stole her away, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I promised her adventure beyond imagination.”
“Well, Molly, expect that’s true. How’s your moon walking skills?”
“Walk bent kneed, slowly?”
“That would work. I’ve been thinking XO. I think we should have a land line, or two in play to add another safety feature.”
“Wouldn’t hurt. Molly, do you have a space suit?”
“Everyone does.”
“Get yours delivered here?"
“Done, twenty minutes.”
“Some land line, interfaces and so on.”
“Done, thirty five minutes.”
“Let’s get back to the maps.”
By 1500 we were done to our satisfaction. We’d ordered a team to cut the debris away, down to level that appeared intact. They’d done so and parked a Commo. Container over the hole with three winches in it plus the equipment that Molly had ordered. We declared ourselves ‘good to go’ to our transportation people. We were going up to the Moon from ARK I in a Recovery Vehicle with lots of excess lift capability.
The three of us were suited and ready to go at 1600. I called for a taxi. We’d need our strength for the climb downward.
It all went as planned. The Recovery Vehicle picked us up in the hanger and deposited us at the evacuation site We went through the Commo van and were winched down to the entry point. At 1800, Prestrillo and I cleared away some dust over the hatch of the A Tunnel. I entered the code into the touch pad under a small cover we’d pried up. The mechanism activated and the hatch began to revolve. It got stuck. We helped it and it continued to unlock. Once unlocked, the two meter diameter lid sprung upward. There was no rush of atmosphere. Prestrillo was in telepathic contact with Molly, doing a running commentary. We had more cameras on us than I could count. There were rungs on either side of the tunnel. Our suit belts had an anti-grav feature so we set them for ten pounds. I started down first, head downward. My helmet and shoulder lamps made it as bright as day.
“First junction,” I said, just to let everyone know I was alive. The Med Techs above in the Recovery Vehicle had us on full read outs, just in case.
The junctions had intersecting tunnels at ninety degree intervals with hatches. We ignored all but the one, which went further down. I coded, it opened, no problem. We put the pin through the eyelet to ensure it remained open.
Fifty more hatches later, the distance between hatches doubled and then quadrupled in intervals of fifty. The last hatch had a reflective coating over it, so I calculated we’d reached the reflective barrier which had foiled our scanners. Molly confirmed that in my ear.
About ten meters below the reflective barrier I took a parabolic scanner off of my belt and swiveled it 360 degrees to enable images to be carried up our land line. We righted ourselves and let the blood flow out of our heads for the moments it took to get results back.
“Molly here. The lab says more of the same to be expected, until the last Kilometer before the zero point. Distortions there, indeterminate what's after that?"
“Acknowledged. We’ll send again, at the distortion point.”
We started down again, grabbing every third or fourth rung. Our progress was rapid and uneventful until we came to another hatch with a reflective cover. This one had two covered touch pads a meter fifty apart. I touched helmets with Prestrillo and said, “This must be where we have to enter our codes in interlocking sequence.”
“Yes, it’s becoming more clear in my mind. Like we are there again.”
“Got the same impression. Ready?”
“Ready.”
We entered our codes, first me, then him, until we got through the numbered sequence. The hatch didn’t swing up; it drew back into the tunnel walls. There were four pins to lock it open. For the next hundred meters, we could see where some force had been exerted against the tunnel, but the force had not buckled it. Past that point, we tried to scan again, but the answer came down: “Won’t focus, some faint reflective force field.”
Another hundred meters, the tunnel bent gradually to ninety degrees and ended in a door which was quite evidently the outer door of an airlock. We lit the interior through a glassed over peep hole.
Prestrillo and I saw the light at the same time. Blue was for open sky, meaning ‘go’. Underneath was a brown space, for brown soil, ‘stop’, but it wasn’t lit.
I could feel his excitement through both space suits, or maybe in his voice when he said, “We still have power, power, amazing.”
“Molly, plan Two. We have to disconnect and go in. Once in, we’ll do a com' check on Ultra Low Frequency.”
“Acknowledged. Two hour countdown from, 2107.”
“Disconnecting and placing camera focused on doorway.”
Both of us placed a camera and hooked the landlines to each. Then we turned our attention to the touch pads behind their covers. He said, “Don’t forget, we have a timed crossover here. First part on each pad and we have to cross over and do the second part on each other’s pads. Right pad delay, ten seconds; left, twenty seconds. Clear?”
“I’m clear, ready? I go first.”
“Stop. You remember we’re on ship time now, ten hour days, and hundred minutes to an hour. Calculate the difference.”
“No need.” I said, “Push the upper right button on your chromo, now.”
I did the same and both of the chromes switched over and synchronized.
He said, “Very foresightful."
“Thelma always says ‘Big bucks’ at this point, for whatever reason. I’m starting sequence---now.”
We must have done it proper; otherwise, we’d have been lasered, if the lasers had power. Odd, I didn’t remember the laser until I started the sequence, and there had been nothing in my briefing about it. Maybe we weren’t omnipotent after all.
The doors swung slowly inward. I resisted the impulse to help them and rest
rained Prestrillo when he would have aided. It might be another failsafe. Evidently someone was reading my mind and transmitting to him because he stiffened and then relaxed and made a half step back.
We stepped inside out of the way of the doors and our weight activated the closing mechanism and closed the doors. I remembered that. Inside the airlock, we did our dance and the inner doors swung inward and stayed open after we stepped through. I looked at my wrist read out panel and we were showing faint traces of oxygen, still yet after so many years that the number was meaningless.
We both put our Ultra Low Frequency amplifiers on the closest wall. The magnetic's held. I tried my helmet radio, very faintly heard. “Molly here.”
“Switching on digital camera.”
“Receiving.”
We both gave each other thumbs up, damn Romans, nice Romans. Another time.
No more rungs, spiral slightly dropping ramp down to a circular desk which had a raised platform in the middle. On it was a seat with a dome overhead.
I touched helmets with Prestrillo and said, “This is as far as I go. The rest is up to you.”
“I know. I have the codes in my mind, freshly reviewed. Let’s see if we have any power for this area.”
I stood in front of the desk and pictured the room as it had been. Readout screens all over the walls. Controllers behind the desk alertly making adjustments affecting their area of responsibility. Manager on duty swiveling the chair 360 and back. Why it only went 360 and stopped, I never knew. The room grew dim around me. I was more in my memories than here, until the brightness from the over head lights brought me back. I felt a surge of anger that he’d found power available and brought me out of my memories, but it passed. He was on his chair. I wondered what he felt. I felt an overwhelming sense of loss. Tears ran down my face. To have aspired to so much, and been so close, despite the methods of getting there. The individual had failed us. But weren’t we a collection of individuals. No, in the clarity of purpose, once shared by all citizens, we had transcended the individual, if only for a short time in Phaeton's history. I didn’t try to stop the tears. It was the only tribute that I could pay.
My eyes gradually dried from the circulation in my helmet. I became aware that Prestrillo was talking to me. “It surely twinges the emotions. Let’s take a lesson and not have someone sorrowful over our present efforts. I’ve gathered what happened after I initiated the self destruct and died. The saboteurs prevented the explosion I initiated, but they couldn’t prevent the backup destruct system, poison gas, from activating, because the dispensers were so numerous and so widely placed. Fortunately for them there was a built in delay. They got off the station with everything remotely moveable and went down to the planet. Movement tracker has the shuttles and the escape pods landing intact in a valley high up in your highest mountain.”
“And what about the other stations?”
“There was a lot of communication between them before they phased out. Evidently they couldn’t override the unified phase out circuitry. They had enough of a delay to relocate to the area that this station's personnel went.”
“Can you call the other stations? Or ascertain if they are still there without calling them?”
“Just a moment. The four stations had elaborate location interfaces because they had to know exactly where the other was when they were doing magnetic surface adjustments. Let’s see if I can get a screen up, 343 degrees was the setting for location screens, yes, should appear now.”
A large screen activated showing the solar system. Sure enough, around Earth were three blinking dots. Another blinking dot with an 'X' was us.
“That’s not current, is it?”
“Can’t tell without a lot of diagnostic routine running. Take a lot of time. But that’s where they once were.
“Can you sort of ring their bells without making any large waves?”
“Let me think, there was a periodic unified time check, for obvious reasons. That was totally automated. Ah, here we are. Should I request zeroing?”
“Do it.”
We both watched the screen anxiously. A larger circle appeared around each of the four dots, pulsed for five ship seconds and disappeared.
“That should mean the four stations are on time agreement, barring equipment malfunction.”
“That’s as far as I, on my own decision level, care to proceed. It’s your call, Thelma,” I said.
“Stand by. Twelve Frigates will be at those locations in twenty minutes. Captain, have you discovered, or recalled any information to suggest that the stations could explode en-masse?”
“No. We feared no outside influence. We were alone in the Universe, we thought. No single power plant could be engineered to produce such an explosion.”
“So we don’t have to worry about our prize getting away.”
“No. But, on the other hand, no Essences went through the exit vortex which Rangers monitor. Perhaps ‘out of phase’ traps Essences also?”
Thelma said, “I will ask Commander Turquill. Just continue to stand by and take no further action.”
Prestrillo left his chair and wandered around his operators stations observing the active ones while I made a circuit of the room taking care not to disturb anything. At floor level there were two person tables around the entire circumference. I remembered they were used for preparing reports. The reports went directly to discs which were collected hourly and stored somewhere in the vicinity. I said, “Where is disc storage?”
“The next is four levels down. The storage was scattered in the original plans, but I convinced the other Managers to do like me and they did, long before I died. You might not have gotten word of the change. It was closely held information.”
I agreed, “Probably my superiors knew. We were very compartmentalized. Even in the repair work aspect.”
Thelma interrupted our musings, “The Frigates are in place. Nothing on any sensors. No Essence level wave emanation. Can you limit communication to one station, Captain?”
“Naturally. Rotation wise I will send to the first in line if you wish.”
“I wish.”
Prestrillo resumed his perch, rotated to some setting he knew and the disc over his head descended and swiveled to a point in front of him. I thought ‘manager keyboard’ and was sure of it when he started to enter a series of characters. It was a lengthy series and when he was done he gripped the arm of his chair and tapped a button placed high center. The screen of the station’s locations now also showed the first station with a blue ring around it, as well as did the Moon.
Prestrillo said, “Contact has been established. What do I send?”
I asked, “Frigates?”
Thelma said, “No change.’
I said, “Ask for a resending of the last transmission, saying minor receiving system malfunction.”
He did. A small yellow (yellow bird flying) arrow came from the first station toward us. I said, “No action here on my screen.” Prestrillo rotated slightly, his keyboard did too, and he did a thumbs up. Damn Romans.
“Got it, reviewed it, from the Manager, going to Long Sleep Bay, and ejecting same for planetary landing site. Also included duplicates of last messages from the other stations who’d already signed off, same information.”
He reached under his chair and took out what appeared to be a portable computer with elaborate, but short, antennas on it.
“This is a short range sending device. If the power is gone, I can adapt it to any electrical flow; it’s made that way. My lantern battery, done. I’d say we, XO, are finished here. The rest is for the Lab workers.”
I asked, “Thelma?”
“The Captain said it. Come on home.”
He said, “One more thing. I’ll load in the transmitter whatever this station has stored in the disc archives that occurred after I died. I already looked for any messages from Phaeton, nothing. Evidently the Moon was taken out of the broadcasts. I’m going to leave the power on, as if I’ve gone for lunch.
I took long lunches, so there’s no time limit. As long as no one touches the control chair nothing will happen, other stations, yes, chair, no.”
He stopped at a station, put the transmitter in a recess, touched some pads, and moments later touched a final pad, removed the transmitter, and said, “Let’s go.”
Chapter 30
Rafe
The next morning Thelma came to my dining room for a late breakfast, which Stalorne laid out. We got down to business right away.
She said to start, “Bad news from the Habitat. The Reverend broke his neck in a fall from a horse. Not much of a rider it appears. I got there and got him away from the Rest and almost to Poisdon before he died. So he’s up on Med Deck.”
I said, “If he won’t digest the actuality and go back and lead, I guess he’ll have to stay ‘dead’. I rather think he’s up to the challenge myself.”
“Yeah, me too. Another thing, - cherry cobbler-, oh that is nice Stalorne. You know Rafe, Stalorne’s people had a nice civilization around what is now called Lake Victoria. Egyptians came in and wiped everyone out, about 1,500 BC. Couldn’t bear to see freedom. Some more ANNU KI influence. Thanks, Stalorne. When you get back Rafe, you and Stalorne are going ‘a recruiting’. I’ll send you the plan.”
“When we get back. Is everything ready on ARK IV?”
“Yes, and you’re leaving early, 1200 today. Everyone’s been notified. You’ve nothing to do. Just listen to me for a while and say, ‘Yes Ma'am’.”
“I’m good at that.”
“You are. What I’ve had in mind lately is that the ANNU KI probably, almost certainly, won’t send a ship from outer space to approach Earth. Too much hysteria about Aliens in the years going up to the end. No, the ship is already here in Earth’s bosom. Only place I can figure is Australia. Also there are the transmissions you and Paula were involved with. I have some intelligence about regular incoming gold shipments I want you to go investigate in Australia. There’s also intelligence, Louise worked it up, on a person who worked very hard behind the scenes in New Mexico to prevent the Civil War. There’s a pivotal point in his life that we may be able to help him with, otherwise he dies. By the time you’ve done all of that, I will have thought something else up. No coffee Stalorne, but I know you have a private stash of soothing tea. How do I know? Thelma sees all. Don’t laugh, you once believed that. Thanks, a big pot.”
Greener Green I: Where Does the Circle Begin Page 21