Lt. Rohit Sharma was thankful for a change for the conservativeness of the brass, whose attachment to archaic procedures meant that he still had a foolproof tool to measure radiation even when his hi-tech suit was all shot. He removed the strip from his suit, stuck one edge of the strip at the rim of the hatch and put the lid of the hatch back into place to cover the opening such that the strip was stuck inside but held in place due to the part sticking out of the rim. He started counting down from one hundred and twenty. A fried suit meant that the marines didn’t even have access to such a basic equipment as a clock to keep time.
Lt. Sharma’s primitive time measuring technique allowed him to roughly calculate two minutes before he opened the lid again and inspected the strip. The strip had been off-white when Lt. Sharma had removed it from his suit. It was a rough measure of the amount of radiation he had taken so far during the mission. Most of it had been mainly due to the time he had spent in the previous compartment devastated by the nuclear device. That exposure had turned the otherwise pristine white strip to off white. Still, it was nothing to worry about. It was well within the acceptable range, nothing a good scrub and a few radiation pills couldn’t fix.
In the roughly two minutes that Lt. Sharma had exposed the strip to the radiation inside the sphere, it had turned to a noticeable tan. If this strip had been submitted to a medic back at the base, the Marine would have been put under serious medication and close observation. A few more shades darker and the Marine would have been hospitalized. If the tan had turned to brown, the Marine would be assessed as being in a life-threatening situation. Anything darker than brown meant almost certain death eventually from radiation poisoning. The speed of death depended on the span of time over which the radiation had accumulated. Long period meant a slow but painful death. Short period meant a quick and even more painful death, only the period of agony would be shorter!
That the amount of radiation inside was killer was not in doubt. Lt. Sharma wanted to expose the strip for a few more minutes to get a more accurate count on the amount of time a Marine could spend safely inside, but he realized that he didn’t have the luxury of time. The demons could be upon them any time. He made a quick mental calculation based on the evidence gathered from the radiation strip.
By his best reckoning, anything more than five minutes of exposure inside would be life threatening. More than eight minutes of exposure would make the person a dead man walking. After another five to eight minutes, depending on the hardiness and constitution of the person, nausea would kick in followed by other symptoms of radiation sickness like disorientation and hallucinations. A few more minutes after would be followed by vomiting of blood and partial asphyxiation, leading to blackout. After passing out, the body would rapidly start shutting down, leading to death within another ten to fifteen minutes.
While Lt. Sharma was contemplating the morbid fate of any hypothetical Marine that ventured inside the sphere, Desmond arrived at the hatch lugging a bulky arc light tethered to his suit. He had sent message back to the other compartment where most of the Marines were waiting with their equipment, and they had sent the one of the rare pieces of analog equipment that a brigade sized Marine formation carried with them for space campaigns – a powerful arc light. Most of space and the places Marines fight is dark. Lighting is a necessary part of a Marines’ accoutrement. Bigger the force, bigger the lights they carry with them.
Before Desmond could shine the light and peer inside the sphere, Lt. Sharma gave him the piece of bad news about the deadly radiation inside the sphere. “Be aware sir, that even fifteen second is going to expose you to a lot of nasty radiation.” Desmond nodded, acknowledging the risk and then went ahead and placed the arc light inside the hatch. The two men didn’t know what to expect when they switched on the light, but they weren’t expecting what they saw – nothing! Desmond moved around the light in confusion.
On a hunch, Lt. Sharma broadened the arc of the arc light. That way they would be able to see a wider field of vision, albeit at a shorter distance. Immediately something came into view close to the opening of the hatch. Running the light along the object, they realized what it was – a cable. It looked like a taut metal cable as thick as human arm. The cable seemed to be made of woven strands of metal very similar in design to cables used in bridges by humans. The reason they had missed the cable initially was that it ran from the inner surface of the sphere close to the hatch towards the center of the sphere, the very direction they were looking. So, this cable ran almost parallel to their line of sight, hence only a slight profile of it was visible.
Now that they knew what to look for, Desmond swept the light slowly along the nearby inner surface of the sphere instead of concentrating on the center of the sphere. They found more cables in similar disposition. All of them were tethered to the inner surface of the sphere at various positions, while their other end stretched out towards the center of the sphere. Other than those cables, there seemed to be nothing else inside the sphere. It was mostly empty! Having seen enough of the nearby landscape, Desmond once again narrowed the arc to see maximum distance and followed one of the cables slowly towards the center of the sphere. The cable seemed to stretch away into nothingness!
It was Sha’ad with his enhanced eyesight, peering over the shoulders of Lt. Sharma who spotted the tiny bump on the cable. It was barely discernible, but once pointed out, both Desmond and Lt. Sharma could spot it. Lt. Sharma’s first instinct was to dismiss it. The apparent bump was so slight that it could have been anything, and not necessarily significant. Then he had to remind himself that when a tiny human looks at structures made at this massive scale kilometers in diameter, the eyes often betray the limitations of the brain to process the information correctly. Apparent scale and size can be deceiving!
Lt. Sharma struggled hard and for a moment was successful in ignoring what his eyes were telling him instinctively. Instead he let his head do the processing logically. “Ok! Assuming that tiny bump to be at the center of the sphere, which is a fair assumption to make, then it is just over a kilometer away. That is a very long distance over which we are seeing it. The reason we are not getting a sense of how far that thing is because we don’t have any reference around it. Normally if we were to see a bus from a kilometer away, we would still know that it is a bus and large because it may be standing next to a house, and we have a relative reference of how large a house usually is, and the apparent size of the bus relative to the house would enable us to make a judgment.
“In fact, even if we didn’t have a relative reference, the mere act of recognizing a bus from far would enable us to guess that it would be large from our prior experience of having seen a bus at close quarters. We don’t have any such reference for that structure, but the very fact that we are able to discern it from so far away makes me believe that whatever that structure is hanging in the middle of the sphere from all these cables is at least as big as a bus if not bigger.”
“I think you are right on that count, sir. What is fascinating as well is the sheer number of cables attached to it in all directions.” Sha’ad concurred.
“What cables? I cannot see any cables! God what I would have given for a pair of old fashioned binoculars right now!” Desmond asked. He and Lt. Sharma couldn’t see any cables near that tiny bump. In fact, they couldn’t even see the cable that they had been visually following all the way to that bump. The cable had thinned beyond their visual acuity by the time it reached the tiny structure at the center. Sha’ad, with his enhanced vision though could follow the cable all the way through.
“Let me describe it to you sir, I can see…” Sha’ad started but was interrupted by Lt. Sharma. “Wait! I think we have had enough exposure for the time being. Let me close the hatch to prevent further exposure before you continue.”
“I could see that structure in the center” Sha’ad continued. “I concur with Lt. Sharma that it is at least as big as a bus. My own guess would be more like a sphere about the diameter of a
shipping container. I can’t be sure about the shape though. It is too far away even from my enhanced sight. What is most fascinating though is the sheer number of cables it is hanging from. The cable we were following… there are hundreds if not thousands such cables connecting to that central structure from every direction. My guess is that the cables are evenly spread throughout and anchored to the inner surface of this sphere. That structure is hanging from all the cables and held in place right at the center of this sphere.”
“No, no, no, no… there is something wrong with this picture!” Lt. Sharma exclaimed. “First of all, the structure at the center of this sphere is not ‘hanging’ from the cables.” He made a gesture of quoting the word ‘hanging’ with his hands to emphasize that the concept was wrong. “The structure doesn’t need much support to be in that position. Right at the center of this sphere, which is also the absolute center of this ship, it is zero G. That sphere, even if it is made of solid metal, is effectively weightless.
“A few guiding cables, which need not have been this thick would have been sufficient to keep it in place and ensure that it didn’t drift away. Of course, we must take into account that this ship can accelerate very fast, and the central structure’s weight would have to be supported when accelerating. It will no longer be zero G at that point. Even taking that into account, and assuming that the demons have no better material than us humans, a single steel cable like that has enough tensile strength to support tens even hundreds of loaded shipping containers. Such cables are used by us to hold an entire bridge with the load of the entire bridge and hundreds of heavy vehicles with a large safety factor to spare.
“Lets’ say for argument sake that this ship can accelerate in any arbitrary direction, then cables would need to be spread across the inner surface of the sphere in every direction to be able to support that central structure irrespective of the direction the ship accelerated. Even in such a case, that structure can be safely kept in place by just a couple of dozen such cables spread across the entire surface. It definitely doesn’t require hundreds or thousands of cables as you saw. There must be some other reason for seemingly such wanton abundance of cables inside there. From whatever I have seen of this ship so far, the demon designers follow a minimalist engineering philosophy, which is what all good engineers do.
“Adding more than is needed adds weight and complexity without any concomitant benefit. Those hundreds or thousands of cables are there because they serve some purpose beyond supporting the central structure and keeping it in place…” Lt. Sharma tapered off, his train of thought taking him in a direction which Desmond couldn’t fathom. After a few moments, Lt. Sharma looked up to Sha’ad and said. “I have a hunch. We will open the hatch again, and I want you to intensely focus the light and have a good look at the base of the nearby cable at the point where it is anchored to the inner surface of the sphere. Describe that anchor in as much detail as possible.”
Within moments they had the arc light tightly focused at the base of the nearby cable that they had earlier followed visually. “I see a massive triangular plate… the base of the plate is anchored to the sphere with bolts. There is one massive bolt or a pin right at the center of the triangular plate… and… I think the cable is somehow tied or secured to that massive pin. I cannot see on the other side of the triangular plate, so I cannot see how it is secured.” Sha’ad described the anchor as best as he could.
“… and there is nothing else that you can see?” Lt. Sharma asked disappointed. Clearly this wasn’t the description he was expecting to hear.
“Yes sir, it looks fairly standard. If I dare say, it looks almost like the cable anchors I have seen on bridges back home on Earth… wait… there is something else that I can make out. Let me see…” Sha’ad took the light and changed its angle slightly to focus a few inches away. “… ah, I think I know how the cable is secured! That is not a pin at the center of the triangular plate. It is more like an axle, and there is a wheel mounted on it. The cable is going around the wheel behind the triangular plate. I think that the cable can be reeled in and out!”
“Bingo! I think I know why there are so many cables when just a few would have sufficed!” Lt. Sharma exclaimed excited. Clearly this was the description from Sha’ad that he had been expecting.
“Such a large number of cables spread out across the entire surface of the sphere would be required for precision positioning of the central structure right at the center of the sphere and ensuring that it stayed exactly at the center of the sphere at all times. Apparently, it is very important for that central structure to stay very precisely at a certain point within the sphere, presumably at its exact center. While a few dozen cables around the sphere can keep that central structure roughly in place, but the direction of movement of the ship was unlikely to be exactly aligned along any of the cables. As a result, the central structure would move slightly, swaying in one direction or the other.
“No amount of tweaking the tension of just a few cables would be able to bring the structure back to the center within the tolerances that are required for this sphere to be operational. The only way to ensure that the structure didn’t sway too much in any direction and stayed in position within tolerances would be to add more cables spread in between.
“With more cables, there was more likelihood of a cable being in the direction of the movement of the ship or being very close to it. The number of cables required would depend on the tolerance within which it was acceptable for the central structure to sway. Apparently that number is a few hundred or a few thousand, which is why so many cables have been used!” Lt. Sharma was clearly happy with his monolog, having finally been able to rationalize the engineering conundrum that had been niggling in his mind.
Desmond however neither had the appreciation, nor did he care much about solving an engineering riddle. He gave a puzzled look towards his engineering corps specialist, expecting him to say something more that made sense to him, and more importantly to say something useful that he could use. Lt. Sharma saw Desmond’s face and realized that he hadn’t understood the unsaid implication of what had been discovered. It had been so obvious to Lt. Sharma, that he had assumed that Desmond would know. Realizing his mistake, he spelt it out.
“Don’t you see it sir!” Lt. Sharma said excitedly, forgetting that the tone he was using was not suitable to be talking to a superior officer. Desmond didn’t react. He didn’t care about the geek engineer’s tone. He wanted solutions.
“If my analysis is correct, and that is a big if, but all I have got right now…” Lt. Sharma started, but Desmond interrupted him rudely. “Get on with it lieutenant, we don’t have time!”
“What I mean is that, it would seem that this machinery, which is what this sphere must be – a machine. The functioning of this machinery depends on that structure being positioned very delicately at a certain point within the sphere. If we could ensure that the central structure cannot be positioned with any precision, then it is possible that whatever this sphere does will not be functional!” Lt. Sharma hastily explained what had seemed obvious to him.
“… and how do you propose we do that lieutenant?” Desmond asked.
“We will need to cut the cables!” Lt. Sharma replied. Then he realized that there were hundreds perhaps thousands of cables, and hastily added. “We don’t need to cut all the cables, only a few, but all from one region inside the sphere so that there is no support for the structure from one direction. That will make it impossible for the other cables to compensate. Even though this ship is in orbit and not accelerating, that structure should start drifting from the center. If my guess on the structure needing to be delicately positioned is correct, that will force a shutdown of the machine.”
The first question that popped in Desmond’s mind. “Will that blow the sphere? Will it cause some catastrophe that could kill all of us?”
“I have no way of knowing that sir. Heck, I don’t even know what this sphere does exactly, let alone the sci
ence or the engineering behind it!” Lt. Sharma replied with a shrug.
“So how do you propose we blow the cables? We can’t bring in any charges through that radiation filled tube.” Desmond half asked the question to himself as much as it was addressed to Lt. Sharma.
“Not blow sir, cut the cables!” Lt. Sharma said pointing at the weapon attached to the side of Desmond’s suit. One of the few primitive functional weapons Marines had been able to bring through the radiation filled tube. The weapon was a design that had been stealthily broadcast from Earth to USC Patagonia, which had been forwarded to the Marines. It was part of the dossier about the overall description of the physical appearance and strengths of a demon, along with the weapons that the humans used to fight them. The weapon carried by Desmond that Lt. Sharma was pointing to was officially called the ‘Grappler’ by the brass.
It was a metal shaft just over a meter in length. Its business end had two opposing hooks that were in an open position like an open jaw. The hooks were held in the open position under spring tension. The hooks cold be snapped close with the press of a button on the grip of the weapon. Humans on Earth used the grappler for close quarter battles with the demons. It was foolish to let one’s limbs get close to the demons’ claws. The safe way to restrain a demon while in battle was to use the grappler at a distance.
Some designs of the grappler, like the one Desmond and the Marines carried had added a simple rotary saw in between the two hooks. The small toothed wheel, equipped with hard tungsten-carbide teeth could cut through granite or steel as long as it received battery power by keeping the button at the grip pressed. It was a simple but very effective device, and humans had managed to cut many demon limbs with it. More importantly for the Marines, it was a simple electrical device, and had no electronics that could be fried.
Game Reserve: Earth (Shaitan Wars Book 5) Page 29