FSF, March-April 2010 (14 page)

He went as far as possible on his hands and knees. If he crawled any farther, he'd fall off the digger's slick back.

Wolverton peered over the side and saw the line of spiders climbing down the bulging metal hull, seeming to defy gravity in much the same way that living spiders do. Wherever they were going, he wouldn't be able to follow them.

Ahead was the encroaching sunrise. It was nothing more than a rosy haze on the horizon, but it wouldn't take long for the digger to meet it. Wolverton had to get out of its way, or he'd be burned to a crisp.

He sensed something moving behind him, and turned in time to see the alien ship becoming partially visible as it rose like a shimmering oyster.

"Don't go!” he cried.

But even if they'd heard him, it wouldn't have mattered. The ship hovered for a moment and shot off over the horizon, leaving him kneeling alone on the digger's back. Wolverton had never felt so vulnerable in a lifetime of vulnerability. But he knew it would do him no good to succumb to fear.

The first thing to worry about was survival. He could either get out of the sun's way, or he could stay here like an idiot and fry.

He jumped. During his slow descent, he brushed against a spider as he tumbled over the side. It looked so fragile that he thought he might damage it.

Instead, four wire-thin legs lashed out and caught him. Wolverton sank down a meter or so, but the spiderlegs held him. He bobbed back up, firmly in their grasp. Other spiders broke ranks to help. A dozen spindly legs lifted him, and he was carried along like a crumb to an anthill.

As he was borne underneath the bulge in the digger's side, Wolverton was suspended over the ground.

The spiders shifted him so that he was facing downward. He was fascinated to watch the asteroid's surface roll beneath him. There was barely light enough to see it, but it was there, a faint red coursing a few meters below his face. The digger's immense legs churned on either side of him. He was pretty far from the ground, fearful that the spiders might drop him.

But they didn't. He was plunged into complete darkness, in the shadow of the digger's undercarriage.

Wolverton's heart pounded furiously. He was going to be ground up with the spiders. Pieces of him would be shot out behind the digger. He was as good as dead.

Suddenly there was an upturn. A tubular corridor led to a hatch, where the spiders were clustered. They tugged at its edge, their multi-jointed legs stretching with tensile strength until the hatch was forced open.

Wolverton was carried inside.

It was dark, but Wolverton could faintly see the spiders working on another hatch. Apparently he was inside an airlock. He kept his helmet on, since whatever the digger's builders breathed wasn't likely to be his kind of atmosphere.

The inside hatch jerked open and Wolverton was set on his feet in a narrow corridor inside the digger. He expected to hear alarms, but it was quiet. He looked back to see the spiders closing the hatch.

Wolverton stood in the corridor, waiting for something to show up and attack him. He was ready to fight. The digger's masters were his enemies, since they'd already savaged his home, his friends, and the woman he loved. They'd made life miserable for everyone at base camp, and now he was prepared to strike back.

There wasn't much to see from where he was standing, just a path that wound around some unidentifiable clusters of machinery.

Wolverton stole his way along the corridor, determined to find a way to undermine the digger. He wondered if he were being watched. He certainly didn't hear or see anything that indicated an alarm had been set off by the break-in. But that didn't mean much. For all he knew, the digger's builders didn't possess any sensory apparatus he'd recognize.

The path curved through the digger's vast interior. Wolverton emerged on a catwalk that looked down on an enormous bin, from which scores of conveyor belts streamed. Nimble metal digits on flexible armatures separated ores to send them in one direction or another. The catwalk trembled from the digger's forward motion and the crashing of the ore, as minerals were scooped up under the gigantic rotary blades and dumped into the bin. But it was a pretty smooth ride, all things considered.

Wolverton passed through a hatchway and descended a ramp leading toward the digger's heart. Judging from the dimensions of these passageways, the digger's creators weren't giants, but they weren't small either. If his luck held, he wouldn't run into any of them before he found the power source.

That hope was dashed as he emerged from a hatch at the bottom of the ramp and came face to face with a biped, clad in a strange looking protective suit, head covered by an enormous helmet with an opaque visor. He saw something metallic in one of its hands.

Wolverton turned and fled down a corridor. He bounded to an intersection, and as he turned he saw the biped coming after him. Rounding the bulkhead, he turned. He backed up against the wall and waited.

The biped came around the corner and Wolverton sprang.

His surprise attack was easily fended off. Wolverton found himself on the floor, unsure of what had happened. He looked up at the biped.

Its visor screen lightened, and he saw a familiar face.

"Nozaki!"

She helped him up. Removing her helmet, she shook her black hair free and smiled at him.

"Hi, Wolverton,” she said, her voice muffled. “I saw you on a security monitor. I hope I was the only one."

"How did you...?"

She gestured for him to take off his helmet. “It's all pressurized in here now."

"Am I glad to see you!” he said as soon as his head was free.

"Me, too,” Nozaki said.

"Where did you come from?” he asked, still not quite believing she was there.

"It's a long story. How about you?"

"Not long, but eventful,” he said. “How did you end up here?"

"It depends on who you ask. They think I'm working for them, but I've got a hidden agenda."

"Same as mine, I presume."

"Believe me, it wasn't easy to arrange being here for the digger's maiden voyage."

"This was intended to be the last maintenance check before letting it go?"

"Yeah, nobody stays aboard once it's exposed to the hydrogen shell's radiation."

"So that's why it came through and destroyed base camp, unattended...."

"Right, and knowing these people, they'll write off the digger when it disappears through the bubble, rather than admit they screwed up."

"Do you know your way around in here?"

"More or less.” She held up the blue metal blob he'd thought was a weapon. “See this thing?"

"Uh, huh. What is it?"

"It's a portable field generator."

"What's it for?"

"Come on,” she said. “I'll show you."

She led him to an angled shaft and hopped in, sliding down into the digger's bowels. Wolverton jumped in after her. Their descent was slowed by the light gravity, and Wolverton landed easily next to Nozaki in a large chamber.

"This is the place,” she said. “The crew knows there's been a security breach, so we better hurry."

Eleven big electromagnets were arranged in a circle, and another one was set directly below something suspended at eye level, something that bent the light inward.

"Is that what I think it is?” Wolverton asked.

"If you think it's a primordial black hole, the answer is yes,” Nozaki said. “That's exactly what it is."

Wolverton's throat felt very dry all of a sudden. “That's the digger's power source?"

"Yes."

"Kind of reckless, huh?"

"That's the way these people are.” Nozaki pointed upward. “Those conduits carry energy to the digger's segments."

"How can we stop it?"

"We can't—it's a force of nature."

"Then how do we shut down the digger?"

"It's a long shot,” Nozaki said, “but we can try to redirect the black hole's tidal forces."

"How?"

"Well, these electromagnets emit monopoles, so it may be possible to deflect the current and change the domain wall's parameters."

Before Wolverton could ask any more questions, two figures came through a hatchway. He prepared to do battle, crouching like a wrestler to square off against the nearest of them. Nozaki grabbed his arm and held him back.

She squeezed the blue metal blob and a shimmering field shot out of it, enveloping her and Wolverton just as the larger of the two bipeds ran toward them.

Their attacker bounced off the field and fell to the floor, squirming from the shock. Wolverton took a good look at him. He was a man.

"They're human!” he cried.

The other one, a woman, ran back out through the hatch.

"She's gone for help,” Nozaki said. “We've got to hurry."

Now he understood how Nozaki had infiltrated. They had accepted her because she looked like them.

Wolverton followed Nozaki as she stepped between two of the monopolar electromagnets. The field generator shielded them from the current restraining the black hole's energy.

Taking a closer look, Wolverton saw that the light's distortion was due to a steady stream of dust that sifted down from above, fed into the event horizon so that its dimensions would be easy to see. The primordial black hole itself was probably no more than a few microns in diameter, invisible to the naked eye. Its core was three meters from where they stood.

"Don't get too far away from me,” Nozaki said. “The portable field is limited."

"Right,” Wolverton said. “What do we do now?"

"We're going to use the field to bypass the current."

"Isn't that dangerous?” Wolverton asked. “We could destroy more than the digger, couldn't we?"

"We could severely screw up local space for quite a distance,” Nozaki said.

"In which case we'll be dead."

"Yes, but the digger won't go through the bubble, and the reality we know will be irrevocably changed. Base camp will survive."

"The trick is for us to survive, too."

"Right.” Nozaki pointed at one of the electromagnets. “Try to put your hand on it."

"Are you serious?"

"Completely. The current will be repelled by the portable field."

Reluctantly, Wolverton tried to touch the huge electromagnet. His fingers couldn't quite come into contact with it.

"See what I mean?” Nozaki said.

Wolverton could indeed, if only peripherally. The light showing through the dust described a noticeable shift in the event horizon's dimensions.

"It's changing, but the change doesn't seem to be affecting the digger's functions,” Wolverton said.

"Then we need to block more of the electromagnets."

"But how? We've only got four hands."

"I don't know, but we have to find a way."

The subject was moot as three people rushed from behind the electromagnets and charged them. Wolverton expected the field to repulse their attackers, but it didn't. One of them carried another field generator, and it melded with the extant field, enabling them to pass through the shield and engage Wolverton and Nozaki hand to hand.

Two of them assaulted Nozaki with the fury only the betrayed can feel. They quickly overwhelmed her, shouting in a language Wolverton didn't understand.

The one holding the generator faced off against Wolverton.

His assailant lunged. Wolverton dropped down onto one elbow and swung his legs around, tripping him. The man crashed to the floor with a grunt, dropping the generator.

Wolverton jumped to his feet and ran to help Nozaki. He shoved one of her assailants out of the way. The other was flailing at Nozaki, but she kicked him in the knee and his leg gave out.

The fighting was desperate.

The man Wolverton had tripped was on his feet again. He started toward them. Nozaki leaped up and dropkicked him. His head jerked and he staggered back a few steps. Wolverton thought he was going to fall, but he didn't.

He came too close to the event horizon.

It was a gruesome sight, but over quickly. He was sucked in head first, torn to bloody bits, and crushed. His red pulp disappeared into the black hole in an instant.

Wolverton stared in horror. Nozaki wasted no time, throwing herself at the woman, sending her reeling on impact into the event horizon.

The woman's scream was cut short as she too was snagged and compacted by the black hole's superdensity.

Now only one antagonist stood against them. Wolverton could see that he was frightened. He fell to his knees and shouted, imploring them to spare him.

Nozaki said something to him Wolverton couldn't understand.

"Are there any more of them?” Wolverton asked, breathing hard from the fight.

"No, it was a crew of four, counting me."

"Are they at war with the consortium?"

"You guessed it, over mineral rights to this asteroid, among other things."

"Now I know why my friends couldn't get away from here fast enough."

"Humans are quite a headache for them."

"So what do we do with this guy?"

"We're going to make him help us."

"How?"

"He's an engineer, and he knows how to shut down the digger."

"Great!"

"Let's go,” she said, pulling the engineer to his feet and pushing him forward between two electromagnets. She switched off the portable field generator and pointed toward a hatchway.

"Where to?” Wolverton asked.

"The control center is up top,” Nozaki replied.

They stepped into a lift. When they got to the top, the engineer suddenly thrust his elbow into Nozaki's midriff. She backed into Wolverton and both of them fell.

The engineer darted through a hatch and slammed it shut behind him.

"No!” Nozaki cried.

"Can we break in?"

"No, we can't. We'll just have to abandon the digger and go through the bubble."

"At least we can warn everyone in advance.” It wasn't much of a consolation, but it was all Wolverton had at the moment.

"Let's get out of here,” Nozaki said.

"Wait!” Wolverton grasped her by the crook of her arm.

Nozaki didn't appear to be willing to wait, but then she saw why Wolverton had stopped her.