Authors: Karl Kofoed
He smiled as he surveyed the console. “How do I point this ship so it looks like we’re going to Earth and not invading another planet?”
The Commander calmly ordered his coffee and waited patiently while the food console produced the drink. He took it gingerly from the slot and walked slowly back to his station. “That’s your idea?” he asked. “Have the ship hang a left to assure the aliens we’re not invading them again?” Stubbs sipped from the steaming cup, then examined its contents.
“Brown,” he said thoughtfully, giving the contents of the steaming cup closer scrutiny. “It tastes ... brown.”
“Lab grown and brown,” said Alex. “Just the way we like it!” With a bow, he offered the Commander his seat, but Stubbs ignored the gesture, facing the holographic display. The red blip was glowing weakly behind the ship.
Stubbs suddenly noticed that the entire control room was watching him. “There’s an unknown out there, people,” he said sternly. “Shouldn’t you be watching it, and not me?”
The staff obediently turned their attention back to their own workstations, but Professor Baltadonis remained standing, facing Stubbs. “The data suggests two objects, a thousand kilometers distant, Commander,” he said, “ahead of us, and to the rear. Personally I think we are being scanned. Signals bouncing back and forth. I’ve suspected that for a while, to tell the truth.”
“Two ships out there bouncing signals through us?” Stubbs nodded. “Scanning us.” Stubbs looked around at the rest of the crew. “Confirmation?”
Johnny continued. “An extremely low wave pulse has been detected. Almost beyond the range of our instruments.”
Stubbs raised an eyebrow. “That makes sense. But there are no ships out there.”
“That we can see, at least,” noted Johnny.
As if on cue, the blip on the screen shifted position again. “Is Baltadonis right?” Stubbs asked the group. “Is it bounced signals? Anyone?”
A crewman stood up. “The computer’s nav checker agrees with that, sir. It’s seeing a pulse.”
Stubbs thanked the crewman, took his seat and put on his headset. He glanced at the Captain. “Steady as she goes, Captain.”
8
The Commander ordered no course change, as Alex had semi-jokingly suggested. After a few hours, with no other theories offered to explain the mysterious blip, Alex and Mary decided to leave, as did several others. Tsu was among the first to go, complaining that if she was going to do battle she needed some beauty sleep. By the time Alex and Mary arrived home, the cylinder’s light had dimmed completely.
A bite to eat left them both sleepy and they entered their bedroom dome to find Inky waiting for them, amusing himself with a pair of Mary’s panties. She snatched them away and stowed them in the cleaner tube. “Oh ...” Mary groaned. “I forgot to run the laundry cycle. Do you think I missed my chance?”
Alex sprawled on the bed. “I hit the button before we left. No matter. Even if we lose the fusion cells, the rotation of the cylinder produces juice enough to run the ship. Or so someone told me. I don’t really remember who.”
“That’s reassuring, at least,” said Mary, sitting down next to Alex as she undressed.
“That we have power?” Alex fluffed a foam pillow without noticeable effect. Frustrated, he slid the pillow back under his head and angrily folded his arms across his chest.
“No, Alex,” replied Mary, with a giggle, draping her panties across his head. “That we have clean laundry.”
“Dingers!” growled Alex, pulling the gauzy briefs from his head. He threw the panties toward the laundry panel.
Mary looked surprised. “Jeeps, Alex. Raging over a pair of silkies?”
“Why couldn’t Stubbs just take us directly home?” mumbled Alex. “Sorry, love, but it really gripes me. Why is he playing games with the aliens? Who knows what they’ll do if they think we’re a problem?”
Mary sighed. “He told you his reasons. He felt obliged to take a look at the other planet. And, as far as I can tell, that’s what was on his mind.” She stretched out, naked, on the bed. “And, besides, why should our sailing by the planet piss them off? I think you’re as full of assumptions as Stubbs, frankly. I say, don’t get upset until you have to.”
Alex watched Mary Seventeen’s perfect movements as she called Inky to her lap. Obediently, the cat complied. “You scared Inky again.” Like the cat, she was glaring accusingly at him.
“I’m worried, that’s all.” Alex grumbled, getting to his feet. “Maybe a shower’s in order.”
When Alex returned from his shower, wrapped in only a towel, Mary was still in bed with Inky on her chest. She was intently watching the overhead display, an image of deep space. “What’s this?” he asked, sliding into bed beside her. “Looks like nothing but stars.”
“It’s whatever’s tracking us,” said Mary. “The telescopes are on it.”
Alex scratched Inky behind his ear as he moved next to Mary. The cat began to purr. “I’m forgiven, I see.”
Mary’s eyes stayed fixed on the image. “There’s nothing there, Alex.” She looked at him doubtfully. “Nothing that I can see, at least. There’s no ship. But they say something is there and it’s tracking us. It must be small, or dark, or out of optical range.”
“Nice report, my love,” Alex commented, stretching out beside Mary and looking up at the image. “They’re convinced it’s a sphere. I wonder if it might be something generated by the
Goddard
. Maybe a shock wave of some kind.”
“That would be detectable.” Mary squirmed and pulled a sheet over herself. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it!”
Alex put an arm around her. “This is giving everyone the creeps, Mary.”
For several minutes they both stared at the screen wide-eyed, certain that there was nothing there but stars, then they slowly drifted off to sleep. The computer’s voice woke them.
“
Alex Rose, please come to Master Control
.”
“Here we go,” said Alex as he forced himself awake.
Mary pulled the covers back over her bare arms. “They didn’t say ‘we’,” she mumbled. “Sounds like they just want you.
Briefing, I bet.”
Alex looked out the window as he dressed in his blue flight suit. “I’ll bet they’re sending me out to do battle with whatever’s out there.”
Mary had gone back to sleep. Alex kissed her forehead gently, without waking her, and left. A few minutes later he was in the control room lounge, drinking faux-coffee in a meeting with Professor Baltadonis and Connie Tsu. “So, we’re going out?” asked Alex, sitting down next to Connie on the sofa.
“What do you think?” Connie said, moving over to make room for him.
Alex shook his head in disbelief. “What am I,
Goddard’s
hit man?”
Johnny laughed. “After all the fuss you made about it? No. You’re the pilot. Connie’s the gunner.”
“We’re taking
Tai Chi
,” said Connie with a smug smile. “My ship.”
“
Tai Chi
?” Alex looked at Johnny in disbelief.
“It had to be refitted anyway,” explained Johnny, taking a seat across from Connie and Alex.
“Why?” Alex asked. “
Diver’s
already armed to the teeth. Isn’t one armed shuttle enough?”
Johnny shrugged. “You sound angry, Alex. I’d have thought you’d be glad to hear we’re not using your ship. It was my idea to outfit another shuttle. Besides,
Diver
is a better scout vessel and you’re more valuable to us as a pilot.”
Alex hated being judged. It made him feel like a piece of hardware. But he’d been invited on the mission and was under orders. He took a deep breath, smiled bravely, and replied. “I guess I should say thanks.”
“Perhaps you should,” agreed the Professor.
Alex pointed to the screen. “What do you think’s trackin’ us, Johnny? We were watching the same image at the house.
Mary couldn’t see ...”
Johnny raised a finger, interrupting Alex. “That’s why you’re going out there. We’ve been watching that empty space for hours. Most of us got bored and stopped watching. But the computer, bless its vigilant heart, kept its eyes peeled and noticed that occasionally background stars were being blocked out by something. Something fairly big. We tried to infer its shape, with little luck. All we know is that it doesn’t appear solid. It may be in pieces.”
In the center of the control room a young officer approached the Commander and said something to him. Stubbs nodded, then looked at Johnny in the lounge and gave a thumbs up. He added a cursory wave acknowledging Connie and Alex.
“That’s our cue,” said Johnny. He got up and headed for the exit. “
Tai Chi
is primed and our tube car awaits.”
The shuttle stood waiting for them when they reached the zero gee hangar bay. Its lights were on and the hatch was open.
Letting go of the tow cable that had taken him from the tubeway, Alex caught the hatchway door and paused briefly to examine the ship. When last he’d seen it the hull was bruised, cracked and covered with gray stains from its visit to the strange world inside Howarth’s egg. Now it sported a new polyceramic shell and bristled with weapons. He counted two pulser pods, a large central laser array, and what appeared to be a brace of missiles strapped to its belly.
Connie and the Professor had already entered the airlock. Two security officers hung weightless on tow lines, waiting to seal the door when Alex got inside. He was looking at the windows of the waiting room, hoping Mary would be there, but for the first time in quite a while she wasn’t on hand to see him off.
“You’re Alex Rose, aren’t you, sir?” said one of the officers. “I’ve always wanted to shake your hand. Well, ever since I saw that SciNet special about the reef on Jupiter ...”
Alex smiled and looked at the officer, a young oriental man in his early twenties. “What’d you think?”
“I wanted to ask you ...” The soldier closed his mouth and stared dubiously at Alex.
“Yes?”
“How did you know that the reef was there?”
Alex laughed. “How did I know?” He slapped the officer on the arm as he moved into the airlock. “I’m still wondering about that, myself.”
Chapter 5
1
Goddard
was beyond the gravitational influence of Bubba, almost halfway to Lalande c, a larger, darker, and colder planet.
Lalande c had earned no common name, perhaps because no one expected to visit there.
Alex still feared that in choosing to travel to the other planet and not go directly home, as the aliens might have been suggesting from their actions, Stubbs had made a grave error. Now they were being shadowed by a mysterious anomaly. As he settled into the pilot’s chair of the shuttle
Tai Chi
, he was sure they’d find another sphere, or worse, when they went to investigate.
The checkout took longer than Johnny or the Commander had hoped, due to a green crew and the greener systems installed aboard the shuttle. The cockpit area was similar enough to
Diver’s
to feel familiar to Alex, but the co-pilot’s chair, bristling with new armatures for the weapons, looked as alien as whatever was outside lurking in the dark.
Over his shoulder Alex noticed Johnny in his usual central seat, but this time there was no black cowl hanging over his station. Instead, the Professor had a virtual helmet attached to the large hemispherical console wrapping around his chair that nearly obscured Alex’s view of him. That console, at the moment, had Johnny’s full attention.
Connie Tsu was trying on her gunner’s helmet, identical to the one Alex had worn on the last mission. He knew, when she looked at him, that the display she was seeing had glowing cross-hairs superimposed on his forehead. “Like that view?” quipped Alex with a knowing wink. Wordlessly Tsu turned her head to the front. Her hands were securely holding both grips that controlled the weapons. “Are you going to blast us out of here, Connie?”
“Not armed,” said Connie. “What’s your status?”
“Hot when I strapped in,” answered Alex, matching Connie’s stoic tone. Connie looked at the Professor just as Stubbs’ face flashed on the forward viewscreen. He was standing at his post in the main control room, Captain Wysor and Mary at his side. Mary was waving and seemed to be looking directly at Alex. He heard her voice say, “Be careful,” although her lips didn’t move.
“The shuttle bay is opening,” said the Commander. “Have a safe trip.”
“I miss my bubble,” said Johnny, after the screen went blank.
“I don’t miss anything,” answered Tsu. “This setup is amazing.”
The shuttle gave a heave as the launching rail began moving them toward the open bay. “You’re flying this time, Alex,” reminded the Professor. “The computer and I will be otherwise occupied.”
Once free of the shuttle bay, Alex pushed the drive stick forward and banked the ship to follow
Goddard’s
flight path.
The shuttle responded smoothly and he accomplished the move in seconds. “Heading?” he said cheerfully, enjoying the feeling of actually flying a shuttle once again.
“Bring the nose down four degrees, Alex,” said Johnny. “Port, two and a half.”
As soon as Alex complied Johnny shouted, “Let’s go!” like a seasoned Astrojunker. He even threw in a “whoopee,” for good measure.
Alex was too focused on his job to enjoy the Professor’s jovial outburst. As he pushed the drive stick forward as ordered, he was thinking of Mary, and he knew she was thinking of him.
Alex nudged the stick a bit, rolling the shuttle to the right.
Goddard
came slowly into view. Because of the huge ship’s seamless white surface it looked as if they weren’t moving at all, but their speed soon became apparent as details like antenna masts and access ports went speeding past them. Alex pressed the stick forward a bit more and felt the shuttle’s afterburners cut in. The mighty ship became a blur and then was gone from their view. Ahead, and everywhere as far as he could see, was cold empty space.
2
When
Tai Chi
reached a point five hundred kilometers in front of the
Goddard
, halfway to their goal, Johnny ordered Alex to slow the ship. Alex was happy to comply. Whatever lay before them was still unseen and he had no wish to crash into it. A glance at the console showed all the lights in the green, all systems working nominally.
Before they left, Commander Stubbs had ordered
Tai Chi
flown on stealth mode: no radar, no radio, and no running lights. They were not out of communication with the
Goddard
, however. A link was established between the two ships using a low energy laser.
The screen over the com now showed two views, one fore and one aft, both displaying only stars. Johnny magnified the forward image, but it still seemed to contain only empty space.
For a long time no one spoke as
Tai Chi
cruised without power. Until Johnny ordered reverse thrust, Alex had nothing to do but watch the screen. From what he could see, even with intense magnification, there was still nothing out there.
“I’m starting to think that the problem rests with
Goddard’s
tracking equipment,” said Johnny, breaking the silence.
“Targeting radar?” asked Tsu, her voice muffled slightly by the military helmet.
“I’m watching the spot, Connie,” replied the Professor. “If something’s there, it has to be warmer than space and I should be able to see it. We’re still on stealth mode, remember. We’re coming up on the position,” he added, peering over his console at Alex. “Retros full. Down to a crawl, please.”
Alex slowed the ship, as ordered, to about two meters per second. He stared at the stars in front of them and saw a bright star blink out, then on again. Then three more stars that happened to lie in a row disappeared all at once. They, too, reappeared a moment later.
“I think I see it,” said Alex, pointing. “It’s there, ahead of us.”
“Oh! Dark rods ... equal spacing ...” answered the Professor.
“Can’t get shit here, tactical is blind.” Tsu’s voice broke with emotion.
“How far?” asked Alex, gripping the drive stick.
“One point seven kilos,” said Johnny. “It’s spread out, though. It’s flat, I think, and spread out.”
“He’s right,” breathed Connie. “I see it now.”
“Put it on the screen so I can see,” growled Alex. “I’m flyin’ blind, here, Johnny.”
In a few moments Alex saw what the Professor was describing. Spread out against the backdrop of stars and dust, now made visible by the camera’s special optics, was an oval shaped gridwork of connected rods, all about the same size and shape except for the central one, which appeared to be twice the size of the others. “How far away?” he asked.
“Stop now, Alex ... if you ...” Johnny’s voice sounded unsteady.
Alex pulled the stick back and watched the speed dial on the console drop to zero as twin puffs of retro smoke drifted past the cockpit windows. “Holding position,” said Alex.
“Computer,” Johnny said, “Open a channel to
Goddard
.”
“Hello,
Tai Chi
!” Stubbs’ voice came over the intercom. “We’re getting the image, thank you. Continue to hold your position. Can you tell what kind of propulsion the thing is using?”
“No but we see a slight heat signature.”
“We see it. But what’s making it go? Any ideas?” Stubbs seemed to be losing his patience.
“We’re about a kilometer from the central rod. Our camera still sees nothing but a rod shape. Pitch black.” Johnny’s voice had an edge of fear in it.
Alex noticed that Connie’s hand was still on the gunnery stick. “What’s doin’, Tsu?” he asked. “You look ready for action.”
“My ass is goin’ to sleep. That’s about it,” Connie said. “I’m doing target practice to keep from sackin’,” she added with a yawn.
“Dingers, how can you be bored?” Alex looked at her in disbelief.
“You’re kidding. Right?” Connie whispered, leering at Alex.
The Commander was silent, presumably while the analysts aboard
Goddard
puzzled over the phenomenon. Then Stubbs’ voice came back on the intercom. “We see no reason you shouldn’t proceed, Johnny. My people urge caution, though.” He sounded uncertain. “Uh ... that means look for any electromagnetic forces.”
“What types of magnetic forces?”
“Just a theory. We don’t see anything from the one near you or the one trailing
Goddard
. Something has to be pushing them. Our best guess is magnetics.”
With a frustrated sigh Johnny ordered Alex to inch the shuttle forward. “Some radar would be helpful,” Alex said. “And some lights?”
“No, Alex. Any radiation aimed at them might be interpreted as a hostile act,” Johnny answered in a strained voice.
“Interpreted by who?” asked Tsu, staring resolutely into the blackness ahead.
“I wish we knew,” replied Johnny.
“Until we know, Connie,” warned Stubbs sternly, “please stand down on those weapons. I don’t want to have to relieve you.”
Connie released the control arm and sat back in her chair. She took off the tactical helmet and looked at Alex in disgust.
“I knew it would be like this,” she snarled. She bit her lip and rose from her chair. Then she smiled. “Well, if this ain’t a shootin’ match ... anyone for coffee, besides me?”
3
The mystery object lay only a hundred meters ahead of the
Tai Chi
, but still Alex saw nothing but a dark cylindrical shadow against the stars. He inched the shuttle ever closer to it, hoping for permission to activate the floodlights, feeling like a blind man groping in an unfamiliar home, knowing something terrible waited only inches away.
“It’s nearly perfect rod or cylinder measuring a hundred meters thick and a thousand meters long,” reported the Professor. “I’m going to give it a microburst of low energy radar. Nothing too intrusive. The return should tell us something.”
After a moment’s silence the Professor sighed. “No return. How’s that possible?”
“Time for lights,” said Alex.
Connie, watching the proceedings from food service locker, tapped a squeezer of coffee on the wall to get Johnny’s attention. “Infrared light might be invisible to them,” she offered.
“Or cook them,” answered the Professor. “This is a cold system. I doubt IR would be invisible to them at all, Connie.”
“I authorize you to use the floodlights, Johnny,” said the disembodied voice of Commander Stubbs.
The outside floodlights seared into the darkness. They were preset on full brightness, capable of illuminating a small asteroid. Johnny swore and quickly dimmed them, but not before everyone got a dazzling look at the thing that hung before them.
It looked like a great kite or a black multifaceted gem the size of an asteroid. Whatever it was, it was close, less than thirty meters away. Without being told, Alex brought the shuttle to a halt.
“Alex, get us out of here,” said Johnny, almost breathless.
“We’re okay,” said Alex. “Why so soon?”
“Now, Alex!”
Hearing the panic in the Johnny’s voice, Alex complied without further questions. In seconds he had the shuttle turned and accelerating away from the object.
“Faster,” insisted Johnny.
Alex had been trying to creep away from the object without using
Tai Chi’s
full thrusters, but Johnny’s orders were clear.
“You got it, Professor!” Alex jammed the stick forward and felt the gee forces press him deeply into the soft foam of his chair. They accelerated for seconds that felt like hours before Johnny ordered Alex to slow the ship.
Alex looked back at Johnny. The Professor looked as though he’d stared death in the face. “Dingers, Johnny,” said Alex.
“What’s up?”
“We were heating up, Alex,” said Johnny. “The skin temperature reached over 5000°!”
“Dingers! What is it now?” asked Alex.
“The polycer did its job. It’s back to normal now,” the Professor added. “You can bring us about. I have to find the
Goddard
on the laser com.”
Alex looked at the unfamiliar stars and sighed. “I can’t tell even which one is Lalande.”
Tsu returned to her seat and slid into the loosened restraints like a cat. All the while, her eyes were fixed on the screen.
“Were we attacked?” she asked.
“No,” answered Johnny, absorbed in a display on his console. “I think we felt its jets.”
“Is it a fleet of ships out there?” Alex squinted at the screen. “I don’t know how far we came from it. All this skulking around is making me crazy.”
“Computer,” said Johnny. “Can you get a fix on our position?”
“
Yes, Professor Baltadonis,
” said the voice of the computer.
“Do so,” answered the Professor, “and compute our position relative to the unknown object. Also, fix the ship’s cameras on the central object in the alien cluster.”
“
Cameras aligning. Calculating position. Base ST3NAV.
”
Johnny took a deep breath. “At least we’ve confirmed some kind of energy is powering that thing.” He scratched his gray hair angrily. “What I don’t get is that we detected nothing ... no magnetic fields, no plasma trail. But it was heating the ship like a blast furnace.”
“
Radar telemetry would improve accuracy,
” interrupted the computer. “
Angular momentum and trajectory estimated.
”
“Orient the ship for a return visit to the cluster, computer,” ordered Johnny. “Then release control to manual control.”
The shuttle turned to face an inky hole in space. “
Control released, as ordered.
”
Alex took the stick in his hand and looked to Johnny for instructions. Anticipating his question, the Professor raised a hand. “I’m replaying what the cameras saw during our pass, Alex. On screen.”
The picture on the viewscreen changed to something that looked more like an extreme closeup of a multifaceted gem. It appeared transparent, with nothing apparently inside it. There were no doors, windows, occupants, or anything that looked like machinery.
The camera stayed on the object, even as the
Tai Chi
took flight, revealing a complex of rod-like structures joined together in a huge disk shaped cluster. The cameras lost sight of the object as the
Tai Chi
sped away to safety.
“My god,” said Johnny. “I think I know what’s powering it.”