Solar Express

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “2114 FQ5 will pass closer to the sun than previously calculated. Separation distance at perihelion is now calculated at one point seven million kilometers.”

  “One point seven?” That’s a huge change! Or a huge miscalculation, and Alayna doubted that Marcel was that inaccurate.

  “That is under present conditions.”

  “Can you calculate possible changes?”

  “Not at the present time.”

  As she sat down in the control center, she called up Chris’s latest message, which had arrived shortly after 1900 the evening before, delayed only a few hours. She read through it quickly and then began her reply.

  Dear Chris,

  You’re kind to ask about my work with the multi-fractals, and yes, it is frustrating at times, but at times there are also surprises. The sun has been experiencing a solar minimum over the past several years, and that has meant fewer sunspots and greater photosphere convection. Over the past few days, the convective forces appear stronger and hotter, and there are more of the multi-fractals than I’ve ever observed before—and I have no idea why. It may be that the greater number of the smaller mini-granulations may provide some insight, but it’s too early to tell.

  COFAR has been keeping track of the artifact’s course and speed. The artifact continues to pick up speed, and our calculations show that it will pass much closer to the sun than originally calculated. This is probably because of the unknown factors that have resulted in the greater increase in speed than originally figured. This does mean that when it crosses the averaged orbit of Mercury (fifty-eight million kilometers), it will be traveling much faster than originally calculated, and possibly at a rate close to eighty kps.

  We don’t have the data for that, but it’s going to be about that. And that means that to be safe, you need to get out of there. But she couldn’t say that, not without risking her message being delayed. No matter what the Space Service might say, with Chris investigating the only alien artifact they’d ever seen, they weren’t likely to look favorably upon their one source of possible fantastic new technology departing a moment earlier than absolutely necessary.

  Because I’m stealing time from my observations, I have to be short, but I did want to let you know how things are going. A brief quote before I return to the solar array and the mini-granulations …

  She wasn’t that pressed for time, not with Marcel handling the details. Her work would come later, trying to make sense out of the images and data. But she didn’t know what else to say in a message that had to get through censoring.

  … Here is a quote that might apply to pilots as well as scientists and engineers, and I think you know where I feel you belong …

  Are engineers really scientists? An engineer who’s passionate about knowing what’s behind what he or she does is a scientist. An engineer whose basic concern is getting something to work well is an engineer. Knowing who is which kind of engineer and the best place for each is where most engineering departments have the most trouble …

  Please do take care.

  She read it over, and then sent it. Just as she finished, another message arrived from her father. She read through it quickly. He was worried. But then, he was usually worried.

  She smiled wryly, but fondly. She needed to answer him, but that could wait a few hours. She had another cup of coffee as she checked the rest of the message queue, before turning to her morning duties … and checking the cargo lock seals and the aeroponics.

  Another day without a single word from the Foundation. Not exactly promising, but at times, no news can definitely be good news.

  65

  THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

  27 NOVEMBER 2114

  (JERUSALEM) “There will be no Sinese Empire dominating the solar system,” announced Prime Minister Merav Meir early this morning. “This is the unanimous position of all UAAS member nations. Any military action by Sinese forces outside Sinese borders, in particular against India, will be taken as a military action against all UAAS member states.” All Israeli forces are in a high state of readiness, and several nuclear missile submarines have remained at sea past their scheduled return dates.

  Indian Prime Minister Ravindra made a similar announcement from New Delhi almost simultaneously, declaring, “India has done absolutely nothing of a military nature within Sinese lands. Nor has India threatened the Sinese Federation. Yet the Sinese persist in making false claims against India. These are nothing more than another facet of Sinese opposition to the Dyaus space elevator. The Federation is attempting to weaken India and the Unity of African and Allied States in undertaking yet another attempt to dominate the commerce of the world and the solar system. If there is any Sinese military incursion on any Indian territory or space installation, India will retaliate with all forces at its disposal.” No information is available about the deployment and disposition of Indian armed forces, but sources close to the military high command have confirmed that all Indra missiles, as well as other “defensive measures,” are ready to be launched on command, or if any indication of attack on Indian territory or installations is attempted.

  The reaction from Sinese Head of State Jiang Qining was equally forceful. “The Sinese Federation has never sought war, but the so-called Dyaus space elevator is nothing more than a concealed military installation in space. We have not militarized space, but if the Dyaus project is completed, we will regard it as a violation of all treaties and agreements against the militarization of space, and we will act accordingly. We will not bow to threats to our way of life. Nor do we believe that other nations have the right to determine what actions we may take to protect our people.”

  The EC government has made no comment.

  Noram President Yates stated that Noram would not be party to “any instigation of hostilities.” Numerous sources have noted that the Noram Space Command has canceled all leaves of all its personnel and that all Noram military bases on Earth and all space installations have been placed at the highest level of security …

  66

  RECON THREE

  27 NOVEMBER 2114

  Tavoian woke later than usual on Tuesday morning. After he dispatched one of the ISVs with an AI rover, a large spy-eye and two smaller ones, and the fiber-optic line reel to look at and hopefully into other hexagonal chambers, he found himself massaging his forehead, trying to ease the slight aching in his skull, not quite a headache, or at least not one that was particularly painful. He tried drinking some water, but that didn’t help. Then he asked, “What’s the CO2 level?”

  THE CO2 LEVEL IS NOW UP TO TWO POINT FOUR PERCENT. NOTIFICATION IS AUTOMATIC IF LEVEL REACHES TWO POINT FIVE PERCENT FOR MORE THAN TEN MINUTES.

  Tavoian nodded. That made his headache a bit worse. “Are you certain there’s no malfunction in the atmosphere system?”

  THE ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN ACCEPTABLE LEVELS. THERE ARE NO INDICATIONS OF MALFUNCTIONS.

  Tavoian didn’t believe it. There had to be something that wasn’t working quite right. Didn’t there? Whether or not there wasn’t a malfunction, he’d have to watch the air quality. Even if he left the artifact on the twenty-ninth, he wouldn’t be back at Donovan Base for another six days, possibly seven. He’d have to check that, based on his inbound speed when he departed. Even if he headed back early, that meant more than five weeks on a system that had only worked constantly for five weeks once. Systems on large installations like ONeill Station or Donovan Base kept the levels below point five percent for years on end, but the systems on a fusionjet weren’t as large, and there hadn’t been that much experience with extended and continuous use. And you’re short on atmosphere reserves, too.

  He checked the monitors, and scanned the Sinese ships. The two space-sleds were towing another large object toward the center of the artifact. As he ate a ham and cheese omelet sandwiched into the middle of a bagel, he continued to watch as the sleds maneuvered the object down the center hexagonal shaft.

  Some sort of drilling ap
paratus? An ultrasound scanner? Some form of structural sonar? Tavoian hadn’t the faintest idea from where the idea of ultrasound had come, except it made a sort of sense. The materials of the artifact were opaque to the electromagnetic spectrum, and while sound didn’t carry in vacuum it would carry, theoretically anyway, through solid materials. He just wished he’d thought of that earlier. Although he didn’t have anything like that among his analytical equipment, he might have been able to rig something up. Then again, that kind of engineering wasn’t his strongest point.

  In any case, because he wanted to see if the Sinese were having any success, he swallowed the last of his breakfast, took a long swallow of water, and headed down to the passenger area to dispatch the second ISV with an AI rover and two of the three remaining and functioning large spy-eyes in hopes of learning more about what the Sinese were doing. He hadn’t had any success in attempting to repair the spy-eye damaged by the Sinese laser backflash and recovered by the rover and ISV. That had left him with four large spy-eyes and fifteen smaller ones, of which ten were positioned around the artifact.

  Once he had sent off the ISV, refitted with the two spy-eyes to observe the Sinese efforts in the center shaft, he returned to the controls and checked on the progress of the first ISV. Since the ISV and AI rover were using the fiber-optic line as a link, only the large spy-eye was investigating, and the view from that spy-eye revealed just another passageway angling sixty degrees at intervals of slightly less than twenty-five meters, with no openings in the hexagonal chambers on either side.

  Less than a half hour later, Tavoian was observing the central shaft on the artifact’s darker side, although at the moment, it was lit by the sun. Two Sinese sleds were positioning the apparatus at a place where a vertex of one of the hexagons was close to the shaft, about halfway down, some fifty meters from the bottom.

  A good half hour followed during which one of the two scientists or technicians positioned and repositioned the equipment, while the other remained with his sled, apparently studying some sort of readout. Neither Tavoian nor the ship’s AI could discover any comm traffic, except on a single band, and that was clearly encrypted.

  “Can you decipher that?”

  NOT AT PRESENT. WITH LONGER CONVERSATIONS IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE.

  Tavoian doubted the two Sinese would be having long conversations.

  Then the Sinese handling the equipment returned to the sled, and the two moved the assembly to the bulkhead at the base of the shaft, the one with the hidden symbol that suggested, at least to Tavoian, that the area beyond was forbidden or dangerous, or somehow out of the ordinary. Assuming that the aliens thought anywhere close to the way we do.

  Tavoian did not move the spy-eye into the shaft immediately, since maintaining signal continuity was a problem for longer periods of time, and since there was nothing to be gained by doing so while the Sinese were setting up again.

  CO2 LEVEL IS NOW TWO POINT FIVE PERCENT.

  “Thank you.” The fact that the level had risen when Tavoian wasn’t even exercising was a concern, but not a huge one. Not yet. Not unless it keeps rising steadily.

  Once the Sinese seemed to have established themselves once more with the equipment, Tavoian continued to monitor the Sinese efforts, which was possible even when the shaft was in darkness because of the lights on the Sinese sleds. After another twenty minutes passed, during which the Sinese seemed to be faring no better than before, Tavoian began to ease the spy-eye down the center of the shaft, trying to get close enough to get a better view of the equipment at that moment when the shaft would be facing the sun.

  He halted the spy-eye about fifteen meters away and started to study the image of the equipment more closely when suddenly something appeared, a whitish shape that arrowed from one of the space-sleds toward the lower spy-eye. Tavoian immediately fired the thrusters on the left side, trying to move the spy-eye out of the way, but the blanking of the image indicated he hadn’t been successful. He immediately checked the images from the more distant spy-eye and the ISV. The spy-eye was held by a missilelike device with large grabbers, which had already turned and was headed out of the shaft and then toward the larger Sinese ship. Rather than risk losing the other spy-eye, Tavoian recalled both the remaining remote and the ISV.

  What was that all about? From what Tavoian had observed, the Sinese had been singularly unsuccessful in whatever they had been doing. Even if they had succeeded, and Tavoian was only guessing that they hadn’t, there was no way his spy-eyes could have determined whatever they might have discovered. Frustration? Anger?

  “Ready torp one. Target larger Sinese vessel. Stand by.”

  TORP ONE IS READY. POSITIONING RECON THREE. STANDING BY.

  Tavoian wasn’t about to attack first. He also wasn’t about to assume that nothing was going to happen. He hoped that the grabber-device’s attack had been the result of a moment of frustration, but …

  As he watched all the monitors, he sent an immediate message, along with several images of the disabled and captured spy-eye, and the few images he had of the equipment, to the colonel, informing him of the event and his current status. Then he continued to monitor the Sinese ships and the top of the shaft, inside which the two sleds remained.

  Fifteen minutes later, the sleds and the equipment assembly emerged from the shaft, clearly returning to the larger Sinese ship.

  THE CO2 LEVEL IS NOW UP TO TWO POINT SIX PERCENT.

  “Interrogative status of environmental systems?”

  SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONING WITHIN OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS.

  Tavoian was again aware of his headache. Or is your mind playing tricks on you? He took a long slow breath, trying to relax.

  Eighteen minutes after his message, he had not only a message from Kit, but a response from the colonel.

  Maintain operational readiness to respond if necessary.

  Do not initiate hostilities.

  Did the Sinese appear to have made a discovery that they wished to conceal?

  Would appreciate more information about likely Sinese use of laser with possible weapons-level power usage.

  Request you remain with the artifact and continue investigations as long as is possible, while allowing adequate time for a safe return.

  Tavoian smiled wryly at the last sentence. In short … leave too soon and you’ll stay a major for life … if you’re lucky. Leave too late and you’ll either fry or die of oxygen starvation because you won’t have enough Hel3 for a return to anywhere before the habitability gives out.

  Tavoian’s response was immediate.

  There was no indication of a discovery. If the Sinese were trying to gain access to hexagonal chambers, they were unsuccessful. It is impossible to tell if they were attempting to image what lies within or beyond the walls, or if they were successful.

  So far they have not attacked other remotes or equipment. The two space sleds and the equipment assembly are returning to the larger Sinese vessel. This withdrawal and lack of continuation would suggest a lack of immediate success.

  So would the attack on the spy-eye. But Tavoian wasn’t about to say that.

  All information available to Recon three about the power levels of Sinese laser has been dispatched to Donovan Base. There has been no further use of laser assembly.

  Most likely because the Sinese can’t repair it.

  Once he dispatched the message, he had the ship’s AI continue monitoring the Sinese vessels, while he checked the operations of the other AI—only to find that fiber-optic line had been broken or severed, and he’d lost another large spy-eye. He recalled the ISV with the remaining small spy-eyes and AI rover.

  While he waited for the return of the second ISV, he opened the message from Kit, dreading what it might contain, and began to read.

  Dear Chris,

  Our thoughts are with you in this perilous time. I can only hope that the Sinese will soon—like immediately—understand that you can only push some people and nations so far before they refuse to be p
ushed farther. Yet it’s hard for those who’ve always gotten their way to realize when they can’t push more. You will need to do what needs to be done, but I pray—not in the religious sense, but in the sense of sending forth thoughts of reason—that it will not come to that.

  Mother is still hanging on, but it’s likely only a matter of days. It’s been incredibly hard on Dad. I can’t tell you how hard, but I’m certain you know.

  Know … how could you not know? And being more than a hundred million kays away when it’s all happening?

  I also hope that no harm comes to your friend in Daedalus Crater. She sounds like someone you should see more of when you can.

  Kit … always the matchmaker … even long distance, even when she hasn’t even met Alayna.

  When he closed the message, he remained before the controls, unmoving, thinking. There was also the fact that there was no message from Alayna … one from Kit, but not Alayna. Had Alayna not sent another message? Tavoian doubted that. He suspected she had, and that he wouldn’t receive it for a while, possibly not at all … or not until he’d left the artifact.

  That question, and the colonel’s “instructions,” raised another question. Exactly what was his margin of safety?

  “Calculate the current inbound speed of the artifact.”

  CALCULATIONS ARE NOT EXACT. MARGIN OF ERROR IS BETWEEN THREE AND TWELVE PERCENT. CURRENT INBOUND SPEED CALCULATED AT SEVENTY-SIX KAYS PER SECOND.

  Tavoian winced.

  “Can Recon three return to Donovan Base with a direct course if we wait to leave until 1200 UTC on November thirtieth?”

  NEGATIVE. RECON THREE HAS APPROXIMATELY FOURTEEN HOURS OF HEL3. AT 1200 UTC ON NOVEMBER TWENTY-NINTH, ARTIFACT WILL BE FORTY-SEVEN MILLION KAYS FROM THE SUN. DIRECT COURSE AND STANDARD ACCELERATION/DECELERATION PATTERN WILL REQUIRE A MINIMUM OF SEVENTEEN HOURS.