by Zach Hughes
"Then even though all of our instruments show that there's nothing down there under the ice there is, in effect, a live power grid covering the whole planet?" Pete asked.
"Power, or communication, or something I can't even imagine," Vinn said. "This is virgin territory for me."
"And for anyone else," Iain Berol said.
Pete rubbed his chin, sipped his coffee thoughtfully. "Those square constructions are refrigerating units," he said.
Vinn nodded. "That would seem to be the case."
"When someone shot up a few of them, the ice melted," Pete said.
"Then the grid was reformed." He pointed to the area where there was a blank space in the regular grid of square installations. "See how the lines connecting the units are more distinct on all sides of the blank area? More power is being directed to those units, but even that isn't enough to reform the ice burden to its original depth. It's only a few feet thick there on the plain."
"But why put a whole planet in deep freeze?" Kara asked.
"Because they have something to hide," Pete said. "And they're willing to be nasty to keep it hidden."
"You keep saying 'they,' " Kara said. "But we get no life signals."
"Could your instruments detect life through several hundred feet of ice, frozen earth, and rock?" Pete asked.
"Through ice, yes," Kara said, "but only through a very shallow layer of earth and rock."
"So there could be something down there at a depth of several hundred feet below the surface," Pete said. "Something or someone who knows how to use gravity as power." He winked at Iain. "Iain, I wonder what the captain's discovery share would be if the Carmine Rose took home the secret of a new and unlimited source of cheap power?"
Iain whistled.
"Don't even think it, Pete," Vinn said. "There are eight bodies down there and an X&A ship is missing. We're going to let the big boys handle this."
"Son," Pete said, "no brag, but I am one of the big boys. And this is my ship. Now whatever it is down there, whether it's a them or an it, it has killed off my wife's family. I think it owes her something for that. What do you say, Iain?"
"As you said, it's your ship." Iain grinned. "I'm still trying to figure my discovery share of applied gravitational power."
"Kara?" Pete asked.
"I'm with Iain."
"Do I have a vote?" Sarah asked.
"Of course," Pete said.
"I would like to know what it was that killed my parents and my brothers and sisters."
"And you're willing to risk the life of one more Webster, not to mention mine, to find out?" Vinn asked.
Sarah looked thoughtful. "I think," she said slowly, "that if it could kill at a distance it would have killed us already. I know that it can reach out and touch me at a long distance. I think that whatever it is down there is able to get into my mind, because the very idea of me, Sarah Webster, being out here so far from home, from my children, from all of my involvements, cannot be explained without postulating some outside influence. I've been thinking a lot about that since we left Tigian. Vinn, it was entirely out of character for me to let you, a stranger, into my housewhen I was home alone. I had no urgent reason to believe that anything was wrong with any member of my family. My parents told us when they left that they might be gone for years. There was no crucial reason for David and Ruth to go jumping off looking for Mom and Dad—unless that idea was implanted by an outside force, and I know that they would never have done—what they were doing—on their own."
She paused, looked into Vinn's eyes. "You were in love with Sheba, Vinn, and so, naturally, she was on your mind, but why were you so convinced that she was in danger and needed your help?"
"I don't know," Vinn said.
"You heard her voice."
He nodded. "Yes, but I was so much in love—"
"I heard, too," Sarah said. "You accused me of doing an imitation of Sheba."
Vinn nodded grimly. He looked at the grid that was connected by the pinpoint lines of gravitational force.
"In theory, the gravitational force of this planet extends forever," he said. "It's here and it's everywhere else at the same time. It would, of course, be distorted by other bodies, but it reaches the far end of the universe, even though its strength diminishes with distance."
"It's quite a jump from here to the home planets," Iain said. "If something down there did influence you two over that distance, was it using the gravitational waves of the planet as a carrier band, for lack of a better description?"
Vinn shrugged. "Could be, but that doesn't explain how it could pinpoint one individual out of billions."
"Why don't we leave the answers to that to the boffins?" Pete asked.
"Are we agreed that there's something alive down there?"
"That depends on your definition of life," Vinn said. He didn't elaborate, but he had begun to form a definite idea about the nature of the intelligence that inhabited the ice planet. The others were silent, waiting.
"My bet is that it can't touch us up here," Pete said. "I think Mom and Pop Webster got excited when they recorded all of the metallic readings and landed on the surface where they could be affected."
"I can buy that," Vinn said. "I can also accept the premise that David and Ruth Webster were lured down to the surface by the discovery of their parents' ship, but Joshua Webster was Service, making it difficult to explain why he was down there where it—or they—could get at him."
"It reaches into the mind," Sarah said.
"If it can reach into the mind," Pete said, "it can communicate with us." He winked at Iain. "I'd like to talk with it about the manipulation of gravity. Why don't we try to open a dialogue?"
"What do you suggest?" Iain asked.
"So far it's been ignoring us. Let's see if we can't force some kind of a reaction," Pete said. "Iain, fire up the laser and cut the communication lines between a couple of those icing units."
"You're forgetting the Erin Kenner," Vinn said. "Apparently she used force, blasting a few of the units. Did her use of force provoke greater force in return?"
"I am in agreement with the idea that if it could kill us while we're in space it would have done so already," Pete said. "Let's give my suggestion a try."
Vinn remembered Sheba's smile, the smell of her, the soft and warm feel of her in his arms. He nodded.
A laser beam lashed down and, like a surgical scalpel, slashed a narrow, deep cut into the ice directly over one of the connecting lines of force. Iain, at weapons control, monitored his sensors alertly.
"Ah, ha," Pete said, for instantly the intensity of the lines of force connecting the two separated units to others were reinforced as power was increased to bypass the severed line.
"Isolate that one unit," Pete said.
The beam flashed down, one, two, three times. One unit was completely cut off from all others. Within minutes a film of melt water appeared in the affected area as the sun's energy was absorbed by the ice.
"Kara," Iain said, his voice tense, "stand by for maneuver. Program a blink and stand by."
"Got it," Kara said, obeying without question.
"You wanted a response, boss," Iain said. "Take a look at screen two."
No less than half a dozen ships were lifting from the surface of the planet from different locations.
"Life search, Kara," Iain ordered.
"Negative, negative," Kara said, a few seconds later. "You're not going to believe this. Those ships have hydrogen fusion engines."
"Damned small plants, then," Vinn said. "They must take up most of the room aboard."
"Room for a few of those," Iain said, as a shower of missiles were launched from the climbing ships.
"Can you handle all of those?" Vinn asked nervously.
"Sure. It's just a matter of whether we want to blast them or evade them," Iain said. "If that's all our friend down there has, its weaponry doesn't match the feat of deep freezing a whole world. I can take the missiles out or blink a
way and let them blast on into empty space."
"And the ships?" Pete asked.
"I think that we can safely assume that they're hostile," Iain said.
"I think so," Pete said.
"I'm going to take one out," Iain said.
The long-range saffer beam exploded into brilliance as it entered the planet's thin atmosphere, but the flare of destruction as it contacted the leading attacker was brighter.
"I think that it's time you gave your attention to the missiles," Kara said. "If they carry nuclear warheads—and that seems logical since they're using a fusion power plant—we don't need to have them being detonated anywhere nearby."
"Got you," Iain said, and for the next forty seconds the ship shivered and rocked with the launching of counter missiles. Below, in the thin atmosphere, flowers of destruction blossomed.
"Shields up," Kara said, as a glow of light came from a ship that was still climbing out of the planet's gravity well.
"Laser?" Vinn asked.
"Limited range," Iain said. "I'm going to have to take out the other ships before they get closer. The shields would hold, I'm sure, but I'm not in the mood to take chances."
"I agree," Vinn said.
The saffer beam glowed. One by one the small vessels flared and disintegrated.
"Did anyone pinpoint the launch sites?" Vinn asked.
"All launch sites recorded," Kara said.
"Let's have a look at one."
The optics showed a rapidly closing hole in the surface ice. "Iain," Vinn asked, "can you use the saffer on lower power to melt a neat hole through to the surface just where that missile rested?"
"Consider it done," Iain said.
When the ice was melted and the water evaporated away, a closed, circular hatch was exposed.
"Want a look inside?" Iain asked.
"If you please, sir," Vinn said.
"Takes a delicate touch," Iain said, adjusting the saffer beam.
Metal went molten, sparkled away into the thin air. There was a flare of fire.
"Oxygen atmosphere inside," Iain said.
"Curious," Vinn said. "The spacecraft was unmanned, but came from an oxygen environment."
"We will talk," Sarah said.
"What?" Pete asked.
"Now we will talk," Sarah repeated, her voice flat and unemotional.
"Sarah?" Vinn asked, leaping up to put his hand on her arm.
She looked at Vinn and nodded. "It wants to talk," she said.
A soft gong rang and the computer's monitor came to life. Words formed quickly on the screen.
"Further destruction is not desirable."
Kara's fingers flew. "Who are you?"
"It is not necessary."
"What?" Kara asked.
"It is not necessary."
"It is not necessary for me to use the keyboard?" Kara asked.
"Affirmative."
"Who are you?" Vinn asked.
"I am that which was created."
"By whom?" Vinn asked.
"By the Creators."
"Why have you killed?" Sarah asked. She leaned forward, waiting for the answer to appear on the computer's screen.
"Let them sleep, for when they awaken the universe will tremble."
"You didn't answer my question, damn you," Sarah said. "Why did you kill my family?"
"I watch."
"And murder," Sarah whispered.
"Now we will talk."
"We are ready to talk," Vinn said. "Tell us why it was necessary for you to kill."
"I did not yet know that the time had come."
"What time has come?" Pete asked sharply.
"The time to talk."
The screen flickered. An image of the surface formed and as they watched ice shattered, cracked, parted to reveal a gray metal surface. Like a lens opening a circular cavity appeared. Words were superimposed over the image.
"You will come."
"What happened to the vessel called the Erin Kenner?" Vinn asked.
The image of the local sun, showing a series of flares reaching hungrily into space, appeared on the screen.
"A woman was aboard, a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes."
Vinn's heart pounded as an image of Sheba came to the screen to be consumed instantly by a blast of white.
"Why?" Sarah cried.
The images were in their minds. Among a field of closely crowded starsswam planets that, from a distance, showed the most wonderful color ever seen from the emptiness of space, the blue of a water world. A closer view of one planet showed the brown and green of continents, the feathery pattern of weather systems, the wide blue of oceans. With dizzying swiftness the viewpoint closed to show the graceful towers of a city.
Vehicles crawled along the streets, soared through the sky. It was not possible to distinguish the details of tiny figures on the walks and the streets, but it was apparent that they walked on two legs. The towers were painted in bright, complementary colors, and the architectural styling was delicate.
Suddenly the spires that reached into the sky trembled, crumbled.
Structures twisted, imploded. The crawling vehicles and the tiny figures were buried by falling debris. Flying vehicles fell from the sky to smash into the chaos. A longer view showed a storm of fire consuming the green forests. A pall of dust and smoke hid the world for long seconds and then, events having been obviously accelerated, they saw a barren globe. Even the atmosphere had been burned away. Everything on the surface had been reduced to rubble so small that no tiny piece could give a clue as to its origin.
There were other dead worlds. They were displayed one by one and then there was a moment of silence in the control room of the Crimson Rose.
The computer screen glowed. "I watch to assure that it will never happen again."
"You're right, it's time for us to talk," Vinn said.
"Come, then."
"When our friends came to you, you killed them," Vinn said.
"I did not know then that you were they who will come."
"We'll talk as we are talking," Vinn said. "At least for a while. What you've shown us happened long ago. You are old. Things are not as they once were. We are a peaceful people."
"You go armed."
"Yes, because we've seen the dead worlds," Vinn said. "Yes, because theuniverse is so vast and we know only a miniscule portion of our own galaxy. If we didn't go armed, we'd be dead now at your hands."
"You are not dead. You are they who have come."
"And you are—" Vinn did not put the concept into words. He pictured a core, a regularly spaced grid, and into his mind came corrections. The central storage areas of the Watcher were compact, occupying no more than three cubic yards of space inside a shell of force constructed of shaped gravitational waves. The ganglia of the Watcher's nervous system extended around the globe and were connected not only to the icing units but to hundreds of launch sites occupied by small ships, to an array of sensor and detection instruments. One large area was a blank in the image projected by the Watcher.
"You still have something to hide from us," Vinn said.
"You must know all, for you are they who have come."
Once again the iris opened on the surface. This time a blaze of light flared upward, lighting a metal-lined chamber.
"We have waited. As you have said, I am old."
"We?" Vinn asked.
They saw a dimly lit room that extended away into what seemed to be infinity. Oblong objects with transparent domes lined each wall. They, too, extended forever, perspecting away until walls and domed oblongs merged together at the limit of vision. It was not possible to look into the clear-domed containers. There was movement and it was as if they flew down the center aisle of the room into the distances only to turn and soar through still another long room filled with the same oblongs from which glowed soft, yellow lights.
"Together we will decide if it is time to waken them."
The computer screen was blank. There
were no induced images in Vinn's mind. He turned away from the console, his face white. "Waken them?" he whispered.
"Let them sleep," Sarah said, "for when they awaken the universe willtremble."
"Listen," Pete said, "don't fight it. We are they who have come."
"With all due respect," Vinn said, "cynical humor is just a bit out of place."
"Yes, sorry," Pete said. "Look, I'm going down there, whether any of you go with me or not. There's too much at stake. A new source of cheap power. And have you thought that what that thing can do—speaking directly into our minds—just might open up a totally new method of communications?"
"We have assumed that Mom and Pop Webster were lured down to the surface by the high metallic readings," Vinn said, "and that the others went down to reclaim the bodies of their dead. Are we to be lured down by the promise of great wealth and power through new technology?"
"Vinn, it's talking to us," Iain said. "It thinks we are the fulfillment of some kind of prophecy. Look, aside from a few little tricks of telepathy and this gravity thing, the weapons we've seen are pretty primitive. Fusion engines. Solid fuel missiles. A short-range laser."
"But it flew the Erin Kenner into a sun," Vinn said.
"We can handle anything it has to dish out," Iain said. "Hell, it's nothing more than a super computer."
"More than that," Vinn said. "It's a self-repairing, self-perpetuating artificial intelligence. The best estimates of the destruction of the Dead Worlds now range into the millions of years. We're dealing with something that's older than our civilization, older even than man on Earth."
"I'll go with you, boss," Iain said.
"And I," said Kara.
"Vinn?" Pete asked. "I'd feel better if you were along. You're the computer man, after all."
Vinn nodded. "I'll have to admit that I'm more than curious."
"We'll take the two atmoflyers," Iain said.
The atmoflyers were two-place vehicles powered by small flux engines and armed with both sappers and laser cannon.
"At least one person stays on board," Iain said. He took Kara's hand.
"I'm afraid it'll have to be you, love, because if something goes wrong down there, I want someone on the ship who knows all of her systems."