Outward Borne (4 page)

Physicists on ObLa understood
gravity and had worked out that it must be dependent on distance,
the farther away the less the effect and all that. RaLak worked out
that if the source of the light-of-day was massive enough and if it
circled ObLa once each day, it could be the cause of one of the
cycles of high water levels. Perplexingly, it was the smallest
force and the other two did not have any detectable light
associated with them. So RaLak forced himself to postulate that
three ridiculously large bodies were circling ObLa, the least of
which happens to provide the light-of-day, and these produced the
modest, but real recurring changes in water levels on the surface
on Head and Foot lakes that, from time to time, changed the
direction of water flow through the Filim channel.

It was an elegant piece of work,
detailed, clearly described, and almost completely ignored within
the scientific community and unknown outside of that body of
disinterested individuals. ObLaDas had many fables about the
light-of-day, but none as outlandish as RaLak's fantasy of some
massive perpetually aflame object flying around the planet at some
tremendous speed. That, by the way, was a whole lot likelier than
possibility number two: that has the planet was itself spinning
madly around while circling at super fantastic speeds some
permanently burning globe that sent light and heat over immense
distances, which was why he didn't mention it.

Somehow, the idea that all this
weighty speculation was based on some ripples in the water that
could not be seen if the wind was blowing did not compute. It was
not to be thought of. Surely old RaLak was making a bit too much of
his data that he spent too much time collecting anyway, and was it
not about time he retired because who is paying his salary, come to
think of it. Thus, the discovery that ObLa was not alone in the
Universe was ignored. Kind of a let down, but then –

Chapter 4 Breaking
Through

Some years after RaLak retired
and, sadly, a year after his death, MaxNi MaxRo came to head a
small team that set out to study the high velocity winds in the
upper atmosphere. It was a small project, one of his first, but one
he relished. The COW had conducted several previous studies in
which they launched instrument-laden balloons into the high
altitude wind streams. The light, bulky probes were carried away in
the turbulent currents and were never as successful as hoped. There
were two streams raging around ObLa that they knew of, one at a
higher elevation than the other. The air between the streams was
exceptionally unstable as the two currents twisted and turned in
their own way, sometimes mixing to form great high-energy cyclones.
It was well known that these winds were highly variable and had
never been mapped with any certainty.

MaxNi learned from his time with
RaLak to look for that extra level of detail. He knew that none of
the previous studies of upper atmospheric winds had attained very
high altitudes. They had tried, but had failed, though one cause or
another, much below their balloon’s limit. That was his goal, to
gain that full elevation. Balloons that entered the high-speed wind
streams, if not immediately torn apart, were blown horizontally
until they lost buoyancy and fell back to ObLa. Previous studies
had been launched from the easily accessible central latitudes, but
there was a theory that there may be irregularities in the northern
wind streams that might be exploited. So that was where he would
go, or as far north as he dared to go. This was considered both
risky, some said stupid, and dangerous; for balloons could be
launched only when surface winds were dead calm and calm days were
rare in the northern reaches, while sudden damaging storms were an
ever-present possibility.

The famous expedition began with
MaxNi and two big young techs, JaDom RaDac and HuMat JonSi, packed
into an all terrain van that was pulling a trailer filled with the
balloons, liquid helium cylinders, and all their rapid-launch
equipment. They set out from their temporary monitoring station for
a two-day drive northeast into a remote region at twenty-five
degrees of latitude. They had two well-equipped balloons; each of a
new two-stage design that MaxNi hoped would have sufficient lift to
break through the wind currents to the heights beyond. The
prediction was for still air during the next six days, which they
would need to fill the wispy things, but on the second night of
their trip, clouds lowered, the fog thickened and the winds picked
up, a dense mist was blown out of the bogs and covered the land,
slowing their speed considerably.

A warning was received from the
COW weather station - conditions were worsening. The expedition
should seek a safe location and wait out the storm. The land over
which they were moving was a series of low mounds that had been
swept clear of any vegetation and bogs of wet mud and scummy
floating plants that were piled in rotting mats along the shore.
There was no place to hide. As the winds increased, the big van
began to buck and swerve with the gusts. Tensions rose apace, for
everyone knew that if the winds got much stronger, neither the van
nor themselves would survive for long. They could not drive into a
bog and hope that their profile would be low enough to wait out the
storm for bogs rarely had a hard bottom and the heavy van might
sink out of sight. As one blast of the heavy wind almost rolled the
truck, JaDom spotted a stream off to the left and he turned to
follow it.

The stream was little more than a
wet swath meandering between the nearly flat mounds. It did not
look promising, but it traced the lowest land and low was good. The
stream suddenly turned right, where it cut across the side of a
hillock forming a low face in the soft mud. JaDom turned hard
against the rise, rubbing the side of the van as close to the dirt
wall as possible. Sand and gravel hissed against the window and
larger chunks of something heavy rolled across the roof. The wind
picked up. It began to rain. A streambed was not the place to be
during a rainstorm. Flash floods were common on these rolling
planes, but there was no better choice. The wind would surely take
them if they tried for another, safer spot. The van was still
bucking and jerking with each gust when a loud screeching sound
tore through the air followed by a sudden stillness. Water began to
enter the van and cover the floor, slowly rising as the long night
stretched on. Tensions were high with every swath of blown rain
scrutinized for some sign that the worst had past. Hours went by;
gradually the storm decreased and the noise lessened.

JaDom woke to a dim light coming
through the dirt-covered windows. None of the doors could be
opened; the left side of the van was covered almost to the roof.
Blown sand had filled in the space between the ledge and the van,
while the stream cut a new channel and the van became part of the
new cliff side. MaxNi crawled out of the least obstructed window,
pushed the wet dirt and sand aside, and fell into the rushing
water. It was not strong enough to carry him downstream, and he was
able to crawl up onto the far side and out of the current. Only the
side and rear windows of the van were visible. The trailer was
mostly gone, although the twisted hitch and wheels were still
attached.

They found the trailer body, half
buried in a sand bar, but intact. Everything inside was wet and
muddy. It might still work, but they would have to launch from
where they were. HuMat pulled the equipment out of the muck and
cleaned it up, while JaDom dug the van out from the hillside. They
did have some luck in the end, the winds died down and finally
stopped, as sometimes happens after a storm. They rushed to stretch
out the wet but intact balloons and began to fill them as quickly
as they could. MaxNi would launch them both rather than wait to see
if the first was successful. They were able to successfully
complete the launch procedure for the first balloon just as the
breeze started to stir again and they rushed to get the last one
into the air. The filmy white bags quickly rose into the mist and
disappeared from view. Their progress could only be followed
electronically by mapping signals from the multiple tracking sites
and MaxNi went to the van to learn their fate. The upper level
currents carried off the first attempt. It failed soon after
launch, but the second succeeded in reaching a higher elevation
before being carried away to the east. MaxNi had obtained a
specially built camera having an extremely wide dynamic light range
and a precise positioning carriage that allowed pictures to be
taken at any angle, except that blocked by the balloon itself. He
hoped to get images of the highest cloud formations. Fortunately
for history, the camera was carried on the second
flight.

Once the balloons were away there
was nothing more they could do. The three Das left most of their
equipment behind in the wrecked trailer and monitored the flight
information during their return. It was a long worrisome trip. The
balloon held together, but it was being pushed further eastward
without any increase in altitude. It survived, hour after hour,
then suddenly spun out of the main air stream and seemed to gain
sufficient height to clear the winds altogether. It seemed to go
straight up, but it was too late. It was night by the time the
device reached an altitude sufficient to enter the light-of-day and
any record any clouds that might be visible. It would be hours
before it would be bright again. An opportunity lost, or so it
seemed.

ObLa’s daily cycle of light and
dark had never been explained, although there were any number of
myths and stories to describe its presence. It was generally
believed that some substance high above the surface the planet
emitted light much like some plants and small animals did on the
surface (photoluminescence, for those who care), and that this
patch oscillates in a daily cycle (thirty-hours our time) that
continuously made its way around the planet.

MaxNi fell asleep in the jostling
van fearing that the balloon would burst apart without recording
anything but black clouds, still it had reached a record altitude,
he was sure of that. He was still asleep in the van's hammock when
the light meter recorded a significant rise. Nothing near the
intensity expected, but then it was the middle of the night. Why
was there any light at all? Excitement shook the van. What this
might mean was still a guess when they received a second report.
Another substantial light meter reading was obtained, but it had
come from a different direction. It was still a long trip back to
the Center, but spirits were high. It looked like this mission was
going to be a success. No one then knew that it would be the stuff
of legend.

Three days later, MaxNi, JaDom and
HuMat arrived at the Center. Their colleagues greeted them with a
rush of excitement. The balloon had held together for hours and
hours, well into the new day, and all of the instruments had worked
perfectly. More importantly, the instruments successfully separated
from the balloon when it finally ruptured and had parachuted to the
ground. All of the instrument measurements and over ninety percent
of the photographic data were transmitted before the package
crashed to the land and broke apart. There was a mountain of new
data to climb.

Another three weeks had passed
before MaxNi finished with the pressure, temperature, wind speed,
humidity, and the other common data that the COW was accustomed to
seeing, and he finally had a chance to look through the imaging
data. The camera had started operating at an elevation well below
the topmost clouds. It was night at the time. It was hard to tell
from the black-on-black featureless images that the camera was
working at all. After an hour of looking at sequential images of
blackness, MaxNi's famous discipline deserted him, and he jumped
forward to something better.

The first image he chose showed a
few dim, blurred white dots against a black background. The next
two images had the same white spots, very clearly all across the
frame. That was disappointing. MaxNi did not know what they were,
but he suspected that the camera's photon detector was
deteriorating at the high altitude. Perhaps the failed matrix
elements were giving a burst of signal. That would explain why the
same pattern of dots showed up in different images, but no. The
pattern was constant, but it shifted across the frame as the camera
slowly rotated around its long tether. It had to be a real image of
something.

The light meter had recorded high
signals on three occasions. The image corresponding to the first
instance had the now familiar small white dots on a black
background, but it appeared to have a light haze on the lower left
corner. MaxNi’s disappointment was wiped away with the next
picture. It clearly showed what appeared to be a crescent shape,
probably a sphere that was lit from the side by some bright source.
If that was so, only about a quarter of its dark surface was
visible. There was no doubt that this was a real object and one
that was either much closer or much larger than the dots in the
background. He could even make out some details on the lighted
surface, although they were only hazy patches. He quickly found a
second sphere farther to the west. This one was slightly larger and
almost thirty percent of the surface was lighted. MaxNi was
stunned. Nothing existed outside of ObLa. Everyone knew that. There
was never any indication the there was anything at all in the sky,
but now MaxNi was staring at two, and perhaps hundreds of
objects.