The Unearthing (43 page)

“Excellent news,” Bloom said, “Any idea how long that’ll take?”

“We should be in full communication within eight to ten days,” Aiziz replied. Bloom took a long swallow of her coffee, making a note on her console.

“That’s terrific,” She said, “Doctor Kodo, anything to report from biology?”

“Well, we now know that a great deal of the Ship, including parts of the interior and exterior hull, is made of living tissue,” Kodo replied, “Much of which is capable of nourishing itself by photosynthesis and osmosis. We haven’t seen evidence of neural pathways, muscle tissue, or even circulatory systems; it looks like the Ship’s cells are generalized instead of specialized; they do a little bit of everything. We know the cells generate more energy than they need, but I think this energy is passed on to other cells as well as used in cellular mitosis. I don’t believe, however, that these cells produce enough energy on their own to be the source of the Ship’s power.”

“Neither do I,” Bloom concurred, “However, I would like to know what purpose all the biological components have.”

“We’ve discussed this with Mister Paulson,” Doctor Cole replied. She turned to look at Peter.

“Looking at the Ship from an anthropological point of view,” Paulson said, “It seems to have been built by a society that was on a developmental cusp; a transition from a mechanical-based technology to one that was driven purely by living, biological technology. The Ship is a biomechanical hybrid and may have been one of the last of its kind to use mechanical components at all.”

“The living tissue within the Ship has been grown into the existing airframe and inner and outer hulls,” Cole continued, “The biological components very probably serve many functions. Not the least of which is the lift tube that carries us from the Pyramid into the Ship. But until we can get further into the Ship we won’t know for sure how extensive the biotechnology is.”

“Peter, I understand you also made discoveries within the Ship?” Bloom asked. Paulson nodded and swivelled his chair from side to side as he spoke:

“I’ve identified about ten different alloys that we’ve never seen before,” He said, “I’ve got a full report, but just glossing over: there are materials stronger and lighter than titanium; one metallic compound that is completely non-conductive--it doesn’t even get warm when exposed to flame. Another alloy conducts direct current, but not alternating current and another alloy that reacts to different wavelengths of visible light. I’ve only just begun cracking the molecular structures. I’ll have more for you, later.” Bloom made a further notation on her console and then turned her attention to the newest member of the Ship Survey Expedition.

“Doctor N’banga,” she said, “Granted, you’ve only been with a very short time, but do you have anything you would like to add?”

“Actually, thanks to Doctors Aiziz and Andrews’ help I’ve been able to start studying many of the physical laws described in the Shiplanguage lab database,” N’banga said, “I’ve seen quite a number of basic laws that concur with many of our own findings and a few new equations that, if I translated properly, are quite enticing and bound to shake up academia.” N’banga referred to his own console, pulling up the now-familiar two hundred and twenty-seven-element periodic table.

“Most importantly, I think I’ve cracked the Ship’s periodic table of elements.”

“And what have you found?” Bloom asked.

“All the elements we’ve been able to predict are present. However, many of the new elements reported on the Ship’s table can only exist when fused with lesser elements, creating, perhaps, some of the alloys Mister Paulson reports having identified but not yet classified,” N’banga said. “Other elements, only a very small number, can only exist in spacetime states in which the known laws of physics break down completely: higher dimensions in spacetime, within the destructive environment of a black hole, et cetera. But there are still other elements on the table, by far the vast majority of the new elements, that don’t work under either condition. I have ideas about what specific conditions would allow for these elements to exist, but I have to model out the equations.”

“You’ve been busy,” Bloom observed.

“I’ve had the help of some of the best minds around,” N’banga acknowledged. Bloom smiled. Andrews cleared his throat.

“Tell me Matthew, what do you make of the fact that the number of elements reported on the Ship’s table is a prime?” Andrews asked, “Specifically, two-hundred and twenty-seven elements? And that two hundred and twenty seven is the fifty-ninth prime number and that fifty-nine is itself a prime number?”

“Fifty-nine is the seventeenth prime number,” N’banga replied, after a moment’s reflection. “And seventeen is also a prime number. It is the seventh prime number and seven is also a prime number,” He paused. “However, seven is the fourth prime number on the list and four is not a prime number as it is divisible by more than just one and itself. Therefore, I think the significance of there being two-hundred and twenty-seven elements on the periodic table is that it makes for an excellent intellectual exercise for paranoid and obsessive mathematicians.” Everyone, Andrews included broke up laughing at this observation.

“That about wraps up this meeting kids,” Bloom said, “Let’s go make ready to go down, into the Ship.”

♦♦♦

They stood on the edge of the Ramp leading towards the Pyramid. Doctor N’banga looked out, awestruck by the sight before him, his equipment pack slung forgotten over one shoulder. The golden surface of the Ship was spread out across the horizon, shining brilliantly in the morning sun; the Shipsong a loud, crystalline chorus of alien canting echoing in the air.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Doctor Andrews remarked, standing beside his old friend, “None of us here can get enough. Everyone on the base spends much of their free time just watching it, listening to it.”

“I’ve seen images,” N’banga said, shaking his head, “Three-D’s, also; but nothing…nothing compares to this. Nothing could have prepared me for this. The…
immensity
of it…Dear God in Heaven, Michael; wars have been waged over less!” After a moment’s contemplation, he added: “And one war was indeed waged over it.”

“You should have been here when we did the flyover,” Andrews said, “Back before they had dammed up the Rio Salado. There was a waterfall.” N’banga looked at him, grinning dubiously.

“A waterfall?”

Andrews nodded. “Ten kilometre drop. Not nearly as impressive as Victoria Falls mind; but still quite spectacular.”

“I can imagine,” N’banga said, “Do you think they could arrange another flyover? I
would
love to see it from the air.”

“There are two flights every hour,” Andrews replied, “They barely have time to refuel before taking off again.” N’banga grinned.

“Come along, then,” Andrews said, “The transports are loaded and waiting.”

♦♦♦

The transports rolled to a halt a few meters from the Pyramid. Benedict left to confer with his security crew, already in place within the Ship. Support personnel unloaded cargo from the transports and began hauling it into the Pyramid. The senior members of the SSE gathered together in a tight knot save for Doctor Cole, who was working with her medical staff in their efforts to re-equip the infirmary.

“This trip down is basically to continue working in the Language Lab,” Bloom said, “However, there are a couple of other jobs that need doing. First, I want everyone within the Ship to be recording video and audio on their headsets. Doctor Kodo, after looking over the images taken on our last descent I’ve seen some structures within the Ship that I want us to take a look at. Based on what you and Doctor Cole report, I think they might be points where the biological and mechanical components of the Ship meet. And Peter, Major Benedict will need your help setting up a proper Ship-to-surface communications relay. Sonia, the rest of the show is yours. Let’s go start talking to the Ship.”

♦♦♦

N’banga’s first descent into the Ship was as astounding and humbling an experience for him as it had been for all members of the SSE. Even now the veterans of the Expedition were as awestruck as N’banga as the lift car dropped from the outer hull down through the airframe. The cavernous gap between inner and outer hulls revealed a cityscape of structures woven into the inner and outer hulls, the airframe and the space between. Bejewelled with shimmering lights, the wondrous structures held their awe until at last the inner hull rose up to meet and consume them.

Aiziz led the way back to the language lab. The columnar central display had recessed itself into the dais and the wall panels ringing the room were blank. But as the SSE crossed into the chamber the language lab came back to life, the black column rising and flooding with gold runic symbols and numeric glyphs. Aiziz approached the main terminal while Andrews led N’banga behind it to the panel from which the Ship’s physics archive was accessed. Aiziz adjusted her headset, ensuring her camera boom was properly framing the scene. Over her left eye the display boom showed everything the camera was recording. Satisfied with the display, Aiziz turned her attention to the keyplate she held in her right hand. She entered a sequence, calling up her careful notations on Shiplanguage, feeding the information directly to her eye boom. Based on what she’d translated of the main display this first message was a greeting of sorts, as well as a command prompt. Given the contextual nature of Shiplanguage she wasn’t entirely confident of her translation; there were a couple of possibilities that made sense, but Aiziz believed she knew what the message said and what it was asking for. Selecting runes from her study list and double-checking the sequence, Aiziz typed a short message onto the Ship’s runic touchpad:
We wish to learn your language
. Suddenly the main display went blank; for a horrible minute Aiziz thought she had entered the wrong sequence of runes into the tablet before her. Then a new message in runic Shiplanguage appeared. Aiziz translated it quickly, while referring to her notes. Roughly translated, the Ship’s response said:
This Emissary aspires to teach our language
. The voice of the Ship burst out a new, complex chain of alien syllables. Aiziz took this to be the vocal equivalent of the written language. A half-second later the Ship printed another line of text below the first. In perfect English, the message was repeated:
This Emissary aspires to teach our language
.

♦♦♦

Bloom and Kodo stood in the middle of the short hall between the First Chamber and the Language Lab. There was a break in the gold mosaic along the wall: a quarter-meter wide area of grey-black that interrupted even the luminous blue band that ran across the walls. The black strip ringed the corridor, floor, walls and ceiling.

“See what I mean?” Bloom asked.

Kodo nodded. “Yeah,” He said, using a laser pointer to trace a line where the gold wall and grey-black material wove together, “This is almost identical to a graft-point between living tissue and a prosthetic limb. You can only see where it interweaves under magnification.”

“I think it serves as some sort of stress joint,” Bloom said, “A flexible zone to channel through shock to the hull, disperse torsion stress, that sort of thing.”

“That makes sense; my dad was an architect. I know a little about expansion joints, that sort of thing.” Kodo looked down the hall, “I think I’ve found something else over here,” He used the pointer to trace around an area above the blue energy line. On their eyepieces, the detail surrounding the area blurred and faded, so bringing the traced section into sharp, clear focus.

“This segment is a shell of polymerized cells,” Kodo explained, “They blend in almost perfectly with the surrounding metal of the wall. You can just see where their colouring is slightly different and their patterning doesn’t quite match that of the surrounding wall.”

“They’re definitely not superfluous or decorative,” Bloom said, “Look there: what is that?” She took Kodo’s pointer and highlighted a subtle curvature on the lower end of the section of cells that Kodo had identified. It sloped down along the wall, towards the band of energy.

“I hadn’t noticed that!” Kodo exclaimed, reaching to touch it, “It seems to be coming out of the wall, but it isn’t a component. It looks like a pipe; a conduit. Look where it meets the cells. There are thin veins of blue.” Bloom leaned closer to the wall. Indeed there were glowing lines of blue, less than a millimetre wide snaking through the pipe-like structure up into the patch of polymerized cells. In the center of the cell body she saw a dull, blue spot, slightly recessed.

“What’s this?” she asked, pointing it out to Kodo. He took a sudden look around the hallway, his eyes widening in shock.

“Oh, my God,” He said.

“What?”

“Look,” Kodo said, “Now that we’ve found
one
of these things, look how many there really are.” Bloom looked around. Plainly visible now along both walls down the entire length of the corridor were off-colour patches of polymerized cells, each with a dull blue orb nested in its center.

“God,” Bloom said in wonder, “I’d love to know what they are.”

“You and me both,” Kodo replied, “I’m going to want to take some samples down here. Run a biopsy on one of these structures; see what the whole thing looks like from the inside out.”

“I think we’ll hold off on that,” Bloom cautioned, “Wait and see if the World Ship Summit clears such an act. I don’t want the Ship to think we’re attacking it.”

“Attacking it?” Kodo asked, incredulous, “Are you kidding, Colonel? The Ship’s almost thirty-two kilometres across. A vessel this size isn’t going to notice the loss of a few hundred cells. It’d be like having a mosquito bite you in your sleep: you just wouldn’t notice.”