Law's End (10 page)
Authors: Glenn Douglass
Tags: #adventure, #travel, #dog, #future, #space, #rescue, #supercluster
As far as Greene was concerned the status of
the abandoned platform was of little importance. "After they
abandoned the station to reach the relative safety of the world's
gravity well something must have gone wrong, a critical reactor
failure, something."
Pointing significantly to a fragment that
looked like little more than a wireframe model of an egg carton
Kassad said, "No, the reactor section is more or less intact. From
what's left it looks like the explosion was in one of the habitat
sections." Realizing what this sounded like he quickly added,
"Could have been one of the labs. No reason to think they didn't
get out. So far the total mass doesn't add up anywhere near to the
whole platform with escape pods. There's a good chance they all got
out."
A bit too insistently Greene said, "So we
should focus on One-Nine-Four-Beta instead."
Extending his fingers palm out Kassad rejected
the idea. "We've got two hundred hours to reach the world, and
we're going to use all of that time to learn what we can." With a
few console taps Kassad swept through the various spectrum bands
Sabha's sensors used to perceive the cosmos around them. "I may be
going into this blind, but there's no way I'm coming out of this
that way."
Losing patience with Kassad's paranoia Greene
complained more petulantly than she'd intended to sound, "I don't
care what's really going on here. I don't care if there's a
conspiracy or a crime. I just want my husband back."
Frowning at the short sightedness Kassad
explained, "And if that warship has orders that no one is to make
it back alive it would be better that we know that now rather than
wait until a hole gets burned through the hull killing us
all."
Rolling her eyes Greene responded, "You can't
be serious. That's a Lawship. They wouldn't do anything like
that."
"Really? Ever? What if there was some horrible
Law's End plague that would wipe out the hundred thousand galaxies
if we were allowed to bring it back? Do you think they would
hesitate to take a shot at us then?" Kassad waited only a second
for an answer before concluding, "No, we have to know why this is
all happening if we're going to save ourselves let alone anyone
else."
With deliberate insistence Greene said, "The
science team will have all the answers we need."
"Maybe." Kassad responded skeptically then he
changed his verdict after a little more thought, "Probably, however
even if they do there's no assurance that anyone we come across
here is going to be any more forthcoming than anyone we've run
across so far."
Realizing that she wasn't getting anywhere
against Kassad's paranoia Greene concluded, "You don't trust me
either, do you?"
Conceding the fact with a nod Kassad said,
"I'll grant that you probably don't know that you know you know
more than what you've said, but I still believe that you do know
more than you've said."
Shaking her head in exasperation Greene said,
"You're just paranoid. Too many years spent as a
ne're-do-well."
"I'm just being practical." Kassad insisted
dismissively. "We'll divert slightly to get a better look at the
platform."
"We shouldn't divert at all."
"And what if someone is still alive on that
thing?" Kassad asked, stopping Greene in mid protest. "The reactor
is intact so it could still have some life support. Anyway, it's
not far off from the course to One-Nine-Four. It'll only add three
hours to the flight time."
"Fine." Greene said standing to leave. "I'm
going to lie down. Either Lawless space or your paranoia is giving
me a headache."
Greene departed leaving Kassad to worry over
the sensor returns. A few hours later Greene returned to find
Kassad unmoved. This defined the pattern over the next few days as
they closed with the increasingly confusing scene.
"Are you ever going to leave that chair?"
Greene finally asked. "You still need to eat and sleep you
know."
Distracted by the flow of raw information from
the sensors Kassad answered, "I eat and sleep here when you're
sleeping below."
Greene smirked. "You just don't want to leave
me alone at the controls do you?"
Waving away the accusation Kassad replied
bluntly, "No, you don't know-how to work them anyway. But if you're
truly interested what has me concerned is here." He pointed to the
wireframe display.
Whatever had happened to the survey platform
had roughly clustered debris into two groups held together by
momentum and microscopic gravitational force the debris exerted on
itself. One group was a large and still expanding ball with the
remains of the reactor near its heart. The other group was a long
debris trail with the bulk of its mass heading towards the system's
primary, into the system's star.
It meant nothing to Greene and she wasn't
afraid to say so. "You find something meaningful in that? You
really need to leave the cockpit. Get some real sleep and something
to eat."
Even the thought of food and eating made Kassad
grimace as he explained, "I'm forcing myself to eat, but nothing
has any flavor. I'm sleeping fine, and I don't need the constant
change of scenery you well-dwellers do."
Kassad used the popular spacer slang for those
who resided inside gravity wells instead of living their lives out
among the stars. It was only a mild pejorative. It had numerous and
much more vitriolic counterpart terms used by those living on
worlds to describe those who lived among the stars.
Kassad also understood the typical well-dweller
attitudes towards those who 'didn't get out enough' as they applied
to spacers. It was true enough that those who chose a spacer career
had to endure prolonged isolation and solitude. Those who couldn't
either gave the life up or cracked up. Kassad had long since
adapted to spacer life, however the adaptation had taken long
enough that he could still feel sympathy for those who hadn't.
Greene wondered if Kassad, still gazing
distractedly at the wireframe display of debris, was purposefully
trying to annoy her. "Gee thanks."
"These look like D class cargo containers."
Kassad said, pointing at blocky masses behind the long trail of
debris.
"Not very surprising since you see those
everywhere." Greene said, noting that the big rectangular blocks
were so ubiquitous as to be invisible in any given situation.
Kassad leaned closer to Greene and said, "Ah,
but look where they are in the debris field. They're at the back,
and they're caved in like they absorbed the brunt of the
explosion."
"So?"
Rather condescendingly Kassad explained as if
it were something every child should know, "So, no one stores these
delta class cargo containers anywhere but near the exterior of a
vessel. It's just too much trouble to move the things around. Here
it's like they were placed to push the debris in a specific
direction."
"And what does any of this have to do with why
we're here?" Greene tried to follow his logic but found nothing. "I
suppose now you want to run down these cargo containers after we
search the power plant?"
"No, they're too far out and moving too fast to
go after without expending more fuel than we can afford, but this
does tell us something. The position and velocity of the debris
tells us the explosion happened a month ago, and if I'm right the
crew abandoned the platform long before the explosion. This gives
us a more complete timeline than the supply ship report." Kassad
sighed in frustration at the mystery. "You are right about one
thing. There's nothing more we can learn up here. Any answers to be
had are on the surface of that world."
That conclusion was one Greene was eager to
endorse but the questions Kassad raised made her curious. "Not that
I'm displeased that we're finally getting to this, but are you
trying to say they deliberately set the place to blow after they
left. Why?"
Shrugging Kassad speculated, "Destroying
evidence perhaps?"
Her irritation rising again Greene insisted,
"It was an innocent research project."
Inputting an adjustment to Sabha's course
Kassad wondered aloud, "Maybe they were concerned the Lawless
wouldn't see it that way? Or maybe they're concerned about
something else?"
Trying to turn the conversation to the more
relevant rescue issues Greene asked, "And you still haven't
detected a beacon from the team?"
To Kassad's mind that was a lesser mystery.
"No, the world's geothermal activity is putting out a lot of noise
across the normal frequencies. Still, I've got a pretty good idea
where they are. The sensors picked up some metal reflections on the
surface."
Not wanting to appear irrationally optimistic
Greene said, "That could just be debris from the platform."
If Kassad noticed Greene's efforts to appear
reasonable he didn't comment on them. "Possibly, but I don't think
so. Not unless the fragments fell in a way that just so happens to
be arranged to catch light and reflect it out into space. It
couldn't be more designed to catch attention if it were a big disco
ball a kilometer across."
"A what?"
"Oh, never mind." Kassad said, quickly
abandoning any attempt at an explanation. "Big reflective surfaces
like this are part of most escape pod survival kits." Collapsing
down to the size of an ebook they could be unfolded to cover a
large area at angles to the gravitational source thus
distinguishing it from pools of reflective water. "Even if it's
not, right now we have somewhere to start looking, and we'll know
more when we get closer."
Chapter 7: "Alone"
"Nature abhors a vacuum and so the great
void calls to us. We are called to reach out and fill it in with
understanding."
- attributed to Herself
dreams to find a world that was just slightly off. It had no color
or sent and somehow managed to smell wrong even though it had no
odor. Strangest of all these incidental sensations she was aware
that she couldn't taste the inside of her mouth.
From a small speaker mounted near the door a
voice came, "This is Kassad. We'll hit the atmosphere of Alone in
one hour. Try not to have anything loose or rolling about my ship
in an unsecured fashion."
They'd been decelerating almost the entire way
to the lone habitable world in the system since completing their
inspection of the debris field. This meant they'd turned the
engines towards their destination so they could no longer perform
sensor sweeps of it. Kassad had assured Greene that they'd be able
to see everything they needed to once they got into orbit.
Taking advantage of the remaining time Greene
took advantage of the stateroom's sanitation facilities. Somehow
she'd grown accustomed to their inelegant efficiency. It didn't
make the experience any more pleasant, but it was more
efficient.
On the bridge Greene found Kassad in his
consistent position in the pilot's seat. Canis lay belly up in his
acceleration bed. In the wireframe display their destination loomed
tantalizingly close.
Taking her own place in the co-pilot's chair
Greene asked, "Why did you decide to name it Alone?"
Smiling at his nickname for the work Kassad
explained, "Anomaly, Lawless, One, Nine, and I've chosen to ignore
the B. That works as an acronym to spell Alone. More or less. At
any rate it is certainly better than calling it Alpha Lima One Nine
Four Beta."
Out of a desire to be contrary more than to
voice any real concern or interest Greene asked, "Why?"
"Brevity is the soul of wit?" Kassad
suggested.
"What?"
Only a little deflated at the quote not being
appreciated Kassad dismissed the subject, "Never mind."
More than willing to let the topic go Greene
asked, "So did you verify that the reflections were from where they
landed?"
"I think this is pretty good proof." Kassad
said, bringing up a magnified wireframe display.
At first the display just looked like a jumble
of disassociated lines. Gradually Greene's mind found the patterns
of familiarity in the low resolution display. Forms that had to be
people and the cube shapes of spent escape pods dragged into a
rough circle from where they had landed.
They'd found them and with seemingly surprising
ease. Unless there had been a malfunction in one of the triply
redundant systems of the escape pods they should have all landed in
the same area. After that the pictogram survival instructions in
the pods would have had them tending to wounded, organizing
supplies, and arranging the escape pod shells to serve as
shelters.
Shocked at the sudden propinquity of their goal
all Greene could manage to say was, "We found them."
the abandoned platform was of little importance. "After they
abandoned the station to reach the relative safety of the world's
gravity well something must have gone wrong, a critical reactor
failure, something."
Pointing significantly to a fragment that
looked like little more than a wireframe model of an egg carton
Kassad said, "No, the reactor section is more or less intact. From
what's left it looks like the explosion was in one of the habitat
sections." Realizing what this sounded like he quickly added,
"Could have been one of the labs. No reason to think they didn't
get out. So far the total mass doesn't add up anywhere near to the
whole platform with escape pods. There's a good chance they all got
out."
A bit too insistently Greene said, "So we
should focus on One-Nine-Four-Beta instead."
Extending his fingers palm out Kassad rejected
the idea. "We've got two hundred hours to reach the world, and
we're going to use all of that time to learn what we can." With a
few console taps Kassad swept through the various spectrum bands
Sabha's sensors used to perceive the cosmos around them. "I may be
going into this blind, but there's no way I'm coming out of this
that way."
Losing patience with Kassad's paranoia Greene
complained more petulantly than she'd intended to sound, "I don't
care what's really going on here. I don't care if there's a
conspiracy or a crime. I just want my husband back."
Frowning at the short sightedness Kassad
explained, "And if that warship has orders that no one is to make
it back alive it would be better that we know that now rather than
wait until a hole gets burned through the hull killing us
all."
Rolling her eyes Greene responded, "You can't
be serious. That's a Lawship. They wouldn't do anything like
that."
"Really? Ever? What if there was some horrible
Law's End plague that would wipe out the hundred thousand galaxies
if we were allowed to bring it back? Do you think they would
hesitate to take a shot at us then?" Kassad waited only a second
for an answer before concluding, "No, we have to know why this is
all happening if we're going to save ourselves let alone anyone
else."
With deliberate insistence Greene said, "The
science team will have all the answers we need."
"Maybe." Kassad responded skeptically then he
changed his verdict after a little more thought, "Probably, however
even if they do there's no assurance that anyone we come across
here is going to be any more forthcoming than anyone we've run
across so far."
Realizing that she wasn't getting anywhere
against Kassad's paranoia Greene concluded, "You don't trust me
either, do you?"
Conceding the fact with a nod Kassad said,
"I'll grant that you probably don't know that you know you know
more than what you've said, but I still believe that you do know
more than you've said."
Shaking her head in exasperation Greene said,
"You're just paranoid. Too many years spent as a
ne're-do-well."
"I'm just being practical." Kassad insisted
dismissively. "We'll divert slightly to get a better look at the
platform."
"We shouldn't divert at all."
"And what if someone is still alive on that
thing?" Kassad asked, stopping Greene in mid protest. "The reactor
is intact so it could still have some life support. Anyway, it's
not far off from the course to One-Nine-Four. It'll only add three
hours to the flight time."
"Fine." Greene said standing to leave. "I'm
going to lie down. Either Lawless space or your paranoia is giving
me a headache."
Greene departed leaving Kassad to worry over
the sensor returns. A few hours later Greene returned to find
Kassad unmoved. This defined the pattern over the next few days as
they closed with the increasingly confusing scene.
"Are you ever going to leave that chair?"
Greene finally asked. "You still need to eat and sleep you
know."
Distracted by the flow of raw information from
the sensors Kassad answered, "I eat and sleep here when you're
sleeping below."
Greene smirked. "You just don't want to leave
me alone at the controls do you?"
Waving away the accusation Kassad replied
bluntly, "No, you don't know-how to work them anyway. But if you're
truly interested what has me concerned is here." He pointed to the
wireframe display.
Whatever had happened to the survey platform
had roughly clustered debris into two groups held together by
momentum and microscopic gravitational force the debris exerted on
itself. One group was a large and still expanding ball with the
remains of the reactor near its heart. The other group was a long
debris trail with the bulk of its mass heading towards the system's
primary, into the system's star.
It meant nothing to Greene and she wasn't
afraid to say so. "You find something meaningful in that? You
really need to leave the cockpit. Get some real sleep and something
to eat."
Even the thought of food and eating made Kassad
grimace as he explained, "I'm forcing myself to eat, but nothing
has any flavor. I'm sleeping fine, and I don't need the constant
change of scenery you well-dwellers do."
Kassad used the popular spacer slang for those
who resided inside gravity wells instead of living their lives out
among the stars. It was only a mild pejorative. It had numerous and
much more vitriolic counterpart terms used by those living on
worlds to describe those who lived among the stars.
Kassad also understood the typical well-dweller
attitudes towards those who 'didn't get out enough' as they applied
to spacers. It was true enough that those who chose a spacer career
had to endure prolonged isolation and solitude. Those who couldn't
either gave the life up or cracked up. Kassad had long since
adapted to spacer life, however the adaptation had taken long
enough that he could still feel sympathy for those who hadn't.
Greene wondered if Kassad, still gazing
distractedly at the wireframe display of debris, was purposefully
trying to annoy her. "Gee thanks."
"These look like D class cargo containers."
Kassad said, pointing at blocky masses behind the long trail of
debris.
"Not very surprising since you see those
everywhere." Greene said, noting that the big rectangular blocks
were so ubiquitous as to be invisible in any given situation.
Kassad leaned closer to Greene and said, "Ah,
but look where they are in the debris field. They're at the back,
and they're caved in like they absorbed the brunt of the
explosion."
"So?"
Rather condescendingly Kassad explained as if
it were something every child should know, "So, no one stores these
delta class cargo containers anywhere but near the exterior of a
vessel. It's just too much trouble to move the things around. Here
it's like they were placed to push the debris in a specific
direction."
"And what does any of this have to do with why
we're here?" Greene tried to follow his logic but found nothing. "I
suppose now you want to run down these cargo containers after we
search the power plant?"
"No, they're too far out and moving too fast to
go after without expending more fuel than we can afford, but this
does tell us something. The position and velocity of the debris
tells us the explosion happened a month ago, and if I'm right the
crew abandoned the platform long before the explosion. This gives
us a more complete timeline than the supply ship report." Kassad
sighed in frustration at the mystery. "You are right about one
thing. There's nothing more we can learn up here. Any answers to be
had are on the surface of that world."
That conclusion was one Greene was eager to
endorse but the questions Kassad raised made her curious. "Not that
I'm displeased that we're finally getting to this, but are you
trying to say they deliberately set the place to blow after they
left. Why?"
Shrugging Kassad speculated, "Destroying
evidence perhaps?"
Her irritation rising again Greene insisted,
"It was an innocent research project."
Inputting an adjustment to Sabha's course
Kassad wondered aloud, "Maybe they were concerned the Lawless
wouldn't see it that way? Or maybe they're concerned about
something else?"
Trying to turn the conversation to the more
relevant rescue issues Greene asked, "And you still haven't
detected a beacon from the team?"
To Kassad's mind that was a lesser mystery.
"No, the world's geothermal activity is putting out a lot of noise
across the normal frequencies. Still, I've got a pretty good idea
where they are. The sensors picked up some metal reflections on the
surface."
Not wanting to appear irrationally optimistic
Greene said, "That could just be debris from the platform."
If Kassad noticed Greene's efforts to appear
reasonable he didn't comment on them. "Possibly, but I don't think
so. Not unless the fragments fell in a way that just so happens to
be arranged to catch light and reflect it out into space. It
couldn't be more designed to catch attention if it were a big disco
ball a kilometer across."
"A what?"
"Oh, never mind." Kassad said, quickly
abandoning any attempt at an explanation. "Big reflective surfaces
like this are part of most escape pod survival kits." Collapsing
down to the size of an ebook they could be unfolded to cover a
large area at angles to the gravitational source thus
distinguishing it from pools of reflective water. "Even if it's
not, right now we have somewhere to start looking, and we'll know
more when we get closer."
Chapter 7: "Alone"
"Nature abhors a vacuum and so the great
void calls to us. We are called to reach out and fill it in with
understanding."
- attributed to Herself
dreams to find a world that was just slightly off. It had no color
or sent and somehow managed to smell wrong even though it had no
odor. Strangest of all these incidental sensations she was aware
that she couldn't taste the inside of her mouth.
From a small speaker mounted near the door a
voice came, "This is Kassad. We'll hit the atmosphere of Alone in
one hour. Try not to have anything loose or rolling about my ship
in an unsecured fashion."
They'd been decelerating almost the entire way
to the lone habitable world in the system since completing their
inspection of the debris field. This meant they'd turned the
engines towards their destination so they could no longer perform
sensor sweeps of it. Kassad had assured Greene that they'd be able
to see everything they needed to once they got into orbit.
Taking advantage of the remaining time Greene
took advantage of the stateroom's sanitation facilities. Somehow
she'd grown accustomed to their inelegant efficiency. It didn't
make the experience any more pleasant, but it was more
efficient.
On the bridge Greene found Kassad in his
consistent position in the pilot's seat. Canis lay belly up in his
acceleration bed. In the wireframe display their destination loomed
tantalizingly close.
Taking her own place in the co-pilot's chair
Greene asked, "Why did you decide to name it Alone?"
Smiling at his nickname for the work Kassad
explained, "Anomaly, Lawless, One, Nine, and I've chosen to ignore
the B. That works as an acronym to spell Alone. More or less. At
any rate it is certainly better than calling it Alpha Lima One Nine
Four Beta."
Out of a desire to be contrary more than to
voice any real concern or interest Greene asked, "Why?"
"Brevity is the soul of wit?" Kassad
suggested.
"What?"
Only a little deflated at the quote not being
appreciated Kassad dismissed the subject, "Never mind."
More than willing to let the topic go Greene
asked, "So did you verify that the reflections were from where they
landed?"
"I think this is pretty good proof." Kassad
said, bringing up a magnified wireframe display.
At first the display just looked like a jumble
of disassociated lines. Gradually Greene's mind found the patterns
of familiarity in the low resolution display. Forms that had to be
people and the cube shapes of spent escape pods dragged into a
rough circle from where they had landed.
They'd found them and with seemingly surprising
ease. Unless there had been a malfunction in one of the triply
redundant systems of the escape pods they should have all landed in
the same area. After that the pictogram survival instructions in
the pods would have had them tending to wounded, organizing
supplies, and arranging the escape pod shells to serve as
shelters.
Shocked at the sudden propinquity of their goal
all Greene could manage to say was, "We found them."
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