SAMPLING ANALYSIS INDICATES THE PRESENCE OF SILICATE PARTICLES, WATER ICE, POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDOCARBONS, NITROGEN, CARBON GRAINS, PALLADIUM, AND SILVER.
Palladium and silver? The silver and silica he understood. Alayna had indicated that both were present … but palladium? “Is there anything else?”
THE ANALYSIS REVEALS NO OTHER ELEMENTS.
“Are there other samples waiting for analysis?”
THERE ARE NO OTHERS.
“Have the rover gather more samples from the chamber.”
Tavoian was having great difficulty keeping his eyes open by the time the rover finished scouring the hexagonal chamber. Only two of the remaining four corners contained material, and probably, from what he could determine, only a few grams worth. Still … he waited for the results.
The results were essentially the same as those for the last sample.
With that, Tavoian recalled the rover and the ISV. Once they were safely inside the main lock, he managed a deep breath. Any reports would have to wait. He dimmed the ship’s lights. Almost immediately, his eyes closed.
43
HOTNEWS!
11 NOVEMBER 2114
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Sinese Minister for Space Wong Mengyi—he’s demanding that Noram and India share all their deep space discoveries! And without any Sinese sharing of theirs? Who could believe it? Maybe better said … who couldn’t? Have to admire the man for his effrontery! The Sinese Minister for Space wants to be everyone’s minister for space … and then some. Noram Prexy Dyana Yates is not amused.
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The latest realie of the year? That’s—dare we say it—the full-bodied exposé The Falwell Fiasco. Producer Kuomo Allen-Farrow claims that every word is absolutely true. That may be true of the words, but what’s full-bodied and exposed is anything but true. Too bad. Might have been interesting to see how the politician granddaughter of an evangelical colossus actually looked when she took Wall Street underwater, figuratively and literally.
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You want to read a book? Once this year? You could do worse than Throne of Gamesters. A bracing retelling of how one man united publishing and media by stooping to literary depths everyone thought were heights. Call it inverted perspective. Delightful, if horribly dated.
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Noram Secretary of Defense Olassen Trudeau has another rebellion to worry about. And it’s not in Mongolia. This one’s on his home territory. Rumor is that his military chief of staff is so exercised that DOEA’s supposed nonmilitary fusionjets are getting refits—is that another word for militarized?—that he’s gone straight to President Yates. Much good that’s likely to do him.
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Here’s one for you tree-cuddlers and squid-lovers! So much of Utah’s Great Salt Lake has evaporated that the water’s now too briny for even brine shrimp. In another fifteen years, all that will be left will be salt flats. It definitely won’t be the place … if it ever was.
44
RECON THREE
11 NOVEMBER 2114
Sunday morning, Tavoian woke early, slaked his thirst with water from the squeezebottle, which he then had to refill, and immediately composed a message to the colonel, reporting the findings of the night before, essentially the fact that the small samples of free material inside the artifact seemed to represent some of the elements indicated by spectrographic analysis of light reflected from the object and possibly some elements that might indicate carbon-based life, but mostly represented an accumulation of circumstellar dust. He also attached all the analyses.
There were no messages, not that Tavoian had expected any, given the effective, if de facto, censorship and message management exercised over his communications by Donovan Base.
Since he hadn’t done any exercises for the past four days, he ran through half an hour’s worth, knowing that was far from sufficient, then ate while he considered what explorations might be most fruitful. With that in mind, once he finished eating he decided to take an inventory of resources. The efficiency of the solar cells had increased with the ever-decreasing distance to the sun, and that increase was even slightly more than projected. That had resulted in not having to use the auxiliary power unit, in turn meaning that the ship hadn’t drawn down fuel supplies for shipkeeping.
The big surprise—except it really shouldn’t have been one, Tavoian realized—was that the ISV and the rover had already gone through seven point three percent of the total thruster propellant stocks. Because of the need to continually reposition themselves with relation to the artifact as it rotated. Even so, going through seven percent of thruster propellant in the first three days of a mission projected to last almost another seven weeks … At least.
Was there any way to anchor the ISV to a spot above the artifact, given the smoothness of every surface? Abruptly, he shook his head. There certainly was a means to anchor the ISV, if only over the partly “open” hexagons, one he should have thought of earlier.
He made his way back to the cargo section and the extruder. There he programmed it to produce three lengths of heavy-duty carbon/nanorod tubing, each rod three meters long, close to the maximum length possible with the formulator aboard Recon three, which was why he needed three lengths. Then he programmed in five meters of carbon cable. Leaving the extruder to do its job, he returned to the control area.
SHIP APPROACHING. ETA ESTIMATED AT 0709 UTC.
“Is that the Sinese longliner?”
THE SHIP FITS THE PROFILE FOR SINESE LONGLINER.
More than an hour earlier than the colonel had expected. Tavoian immediately composed a short message to the colonel, noting the anticipated arrival, sent it, and then thought about what he should do next. “Focus scanners and optical imagers on incoming ship once it’s in range for clear identification. Relay those images to Donovan Base.”
COMMENCING TRANSMISSION.
Tavoian checked his two torps, making sure both were ready, if necessary. He wasn’t about to undertake any immediate explorations, not with the Sinese approaching and not until he had his makeshift “space anchor” in place. As he waited for the Sinese vessel, he considered where else he might be able to position the ISV, besides over the hexagonal chambers whose “doors” had frozen in partly open positions. Finally, he asked the ship’s AI, “How many openings has the rover encountered in the artifact that have widths of about a meter? Where are they?”
NINETEEN OPENINGS MEET THAT CRITERION. EIGHTEEN ARE IN THE HEXAGONAL CHAMBERS ADJOINING THOSE WHERE THE ROVER TOOK SAMPLES. ONE IS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE LARGE CHAMBER ON ONE SIDE OF THE HULL THAT YOU SPECULATED MIGHT BE A LAUNCHING BAY FOR SOME FORM OF SPACECRAFT.
Tavoian wanted to shake his head. The only places where he could really anchor the ISV were near the chambers he had already investigated. No one said this was going to be easy. At the same time, he doubted any of those who had prepared Recon three had had any idea just how advanced the technology and materials seemingly used by the builders of the artifact really appeared to be.
Still … he might be able to investigate the photosensitivity to a greater extent. The “door frames” off the center shaft that had not been directly exposed to the force of whatever had sheared away the artifact showed greater photosensitivity than those that had. But the “doors” on the inner levels he had been able to reach were sealed closed. Before he tried there, given how much thruster propellant it would take, it might be better to test the idea on the partly open lower doors of the eighteen hexagonal chambers. The most obvious problem was that only the ISV was large enough to carry the tunable laser, but it was too large to enter any of the largely intact hexagons with open doors to get to the doors on the lower side. Going around the hexagon through the passageways bordering the hexagons was possible, but not without losing contact. He’d only been able to maintain contact with the ISV using two repeaters for a short time when he’d investigated the chamber doors right off the central shaf
t. Trying to go around the outside of those hexagons would take much longer, long enough that using the repeaters as he had before would result in losing contact long before he could do a test. Unless you do some creative engineering and programming.
As he headed back down to the crew area to make some changes and additions, he smiled wryly. He should have thought about reverse engineering sooner. You’ve been thinking like a pilot, not a problem solver. That brought up another thought. Wasn’t there anyone more suited at Donovan Base? He shook his head. They’d all been trained for every possible set of problems dealing with fusionjets and space installations, not alien artifacts and high-technology archaeology.
The first thing he needed was three more of the long rods and almost fifty meters of the carbon cable, the fabricating of which would take a good hour more, if not longer. He programmed the additional items into the fabricator, and then set to work reprogramming, if slightly, one of the signal repeaters. Then he set up contingency programming for the ISV, largely along the lines of returning the way it had come until it reached a signal, or Recon three. Finally, he assembled the first “space anchor” by fastening the three rods already completed by the extruding fabricator together at their midpoints and with each set at sixty degrees from the next. Then he sealed the rods in position to form a spindly-looking starburst shape.
By that time, the second set of carbon rods was ready, and he fastened them into the second anchor. When he finished, with nothing more he could do to implement his preparations until more of the cable was fabricated and extruded, he returned to the controls, watching the monitors that showed the approach of the Sinese craft.
He couldn’t see it on the visual screen until it was almost opposite Recon three, on the far side of the alien artifact. The Sinese longliner was a good two hundred meters in length, almost twice the size of Recon three. Tavoian watched for a moment longer, then dispatched a short message to the colonel announcing the arrival of the Sinese ship. There were no attempts at communication, and the other vessel appeared inert, although Recon three’s systems detected scattered light, radiation, and other indicators that the Sinese unscrewed probe, if that was what it was, was busy scanning and trying to analyze the artifact.
THE SINESE SHIP HAS LAUNCHED HUNDREDS OF TINY PROBES. ALL ARE DIRECTED AT THE ARTIFACT.
Tavoian couldn’t make out any of them visually even as he looked at an enlarged view of the longliner. “Let me know if it launches anything else, moves toward us, or does anything but sit there and monitor matters.”
He went back to the passenger/work area to check on the cabling, but had barely reached it when the AI pulsed him.
YOU HAVE AN URGENT MESSAGE.
“From whom?”
COLONEL ANSON.
Tavoian hurried back to the controls and called up the transmittal, skipping over the headings and addresses to the body of the message.
Continue investigations with deliberate haste. Do not attempt contact with Sinese craft, believed to be uncrewed. Do not initiate any maneuvers or actions that could be construed as hostile or provocative.
Do stand ready to retaliate with all means at your disposal if the Sinese craft or any other vessel initiates measures against you or your equipment …
Any other vessel?
… At present, we have no knowledge of other nations undertaking investigations of the alien artifact. That does not mean that others may not be doing so.
The Sinese are preparing a much larger vessel, sixty percent larger than the standard longliner, which appears to be a crewed mission. Should Noram decide to follow up with such a mission, it would be helpful to have your recommendations for what equipment might be most important …
A super laser or particle beam that can cut through something harder than anything human beings have ever created … Tavoian couldn’t put it quite that way, he knew.
… speed in supplying such recommendations would be appreciated … Report all observed activity relative to Sinese craft …
When he finished reading the message, he looked up at the screens, but the longliner still appeared inert. “Has the fabricating extruder finished?”
IT IS FABRICATING CARBON CABLE. IT WILL FINISH IN TWENTY-TWO MINUTES.
“Thank you,” Tavoian said dryly.
He might as well try to write up his recommendations in polite officialese while he was waiting. The first thing was to report the release of the hundreds of minute objects. The second was his evaluation of necessary equipment.
… the laser employed in the initial evaluation of the artifact triggered a limited photosensitivity in what appeared to be mechanisms surrounding openings functioning as doors, the amount of that sensitivity apparently proportional to some degree to the intensity of the light, as reported earlier. Given the limited power of the tunable laser sent with Recon three, a far more powerful laser might better probe that photo-response …
… the extraordinary durability of all surfaces of the artifact has presented another problem, since no equipment aboard Recon three has been able to scratch, much less penetrate, sealed spaces in the artifact …
… the artifact appears, at least in terms of exteriors of surfaces, to be opaque to all electromagnetic radiation and may well, as part of its photosensitivity, actually absorb free radiation. Thus, any exploration within the artifact has required fiber-optic line as a means of control and conveyance of information on a real-time basis …
In the end, it took Tavoian more than forty minutes to craft and dispatch his observations and recommendations. During the entire time, the Sinese ship remained on the opposite side of the alien artifact, apparently scanning the artifact and receiving information from its miniatures.
“Can you detect what is being sent from the miniatures to the Sinese ship?”
THE SIGNALS ARE SO LOW-POWERED AND DIRECT-BEAMED THAT NOT ALL ARE DETECTABLE. RECORDING AND TRANSMITTING THOSE THAT ARE IS NOT POSSIBLE BECAUSE RESOLVING THE ENCRYPTION WOULD EXCEED SYSTEM PARAMETERS.
“You can’t do that?”
THAT LEVEL OF ENCRYPTION WOULD DIVERT ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FROM THE MISSION.
Tavoian decided to get on with his next attempts at finding something else new about the artifact. He went back to the passenger/work space and continued preparing the ISV, which included removing the sampler gear, in order to have enough space for the AI rover, so that it could position the starbursts in place inside the two of the meter-wide openings in two of the adjoining hexagons that had traces of what was most likely fused equipment of some sort. Then he loaded the rover, the starburst assemblies he had constructed, with the heavier carbon cord.
What he’d rigged up was almost the reverse of what he’d had in mind originally. The two space anchors wouldn’t anchor the ISV in place, but the heavy line between them would, in the middle of which was a signal repeater, to which one end of the fiber-optic line was connected leading to the spooling mechanism on the ISV. That arrangement would, if Tavoian had calculated correctly, allow him and the ship’s AI to direct the ISV, with the tunable laser, down the larger outer passageway to the lower partly open doors and to run a series of photosensitivity tests on “door frames” that might not be quite as damaged as those more exposed.
Once the ISV was reequipped, he sealed the inner lock door, returned to the controls, where he opened the outer lock door and dispatched the ISV toward the artifact, watching the longliner closely to see if it responded in any way to the small craft. So far as Tavoian could tell, there was no response.
USE OF LOCK FOR REPAIRS AND DISPATCH HAS NOW USED TEN PERCENT OF RESERVE AIR SUPPLY.
The AI’s calm announcement stunned Tavoian. You’ve only been here three days and you’ve gone through that much? Did they expect that he’d launch the ISV and never add equipment to it or repair it? Another thing to consider.
It took more than an hour for the rover to position the two tubing starbursts inside the openings and then return to the ISV. Almost another hour passed before the rover h
ad positioned the signal repeater in the middle of the cable and the ship’s AI could begin to direct the ISV down the “outside” passageway between the two hexagonal chambers.
A slim chance, but what else can you do with what you have?
Once the ISV was in position so that the tunable laser could focus on the side of the partly open door—the one directly below where one of the starbursts was positioned—Tavoian said, “Tune the laser to the same wavelength reflected by the surface immediately adjacent to the opening and direct the beam across the surface adjacent to the opening. Monitor results at all wavelengths.”
THERE IS NO REACTION.
Based on what had happened before, that didn’t surprise Tavoian, but he wanted to use the same steps as before. “Have the laser run the test and reaction pattern. Report on the reflected light.”
PROCEEDING WITH TEST.
The AI reported after the test finished, THERE WAS A DECREASE IN EXPECTED REFLECTIVITY WHEN THE LASER BEAM MATCHED THE COLOR OF THE SURFACE BESIDE THE OPENING. THAT DECREASE WAS SEVEN POINT THREE PERCENT.
Encouraging, it still doesn’t tell you what’s happening to that energy. “What about absorption and retention as heat?”
THE SURFACE TEMPERATURE REMAINS UNCHANGED.
“Try the tests on the openings to the next chamber.”
The AI directed the ISV to the lower opening of the adjoining hexagonal chamber. The results were the same, down to the percentage points. While that tended to confirm the photosensitivity of the “door frames,” and the fact that the doorways exposed to whatever force had severed the artifact from the larger sphere had less photosensitivity suggested damage … But that could also be because they’ve spent thousands of years more directly exposed to solar and other radiation.
“Focus the laser on the door frame at maximum intensity for the maximum time that will optimize the intensity and not damage the laser, its power supply, or any other part of the equipment or ISV. Not more than two minutes.” Tavoian wasn’t quite certain why he’d put in a time limit, but it felt right. “Report on the results.”
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