Usurper of the Sun (30 page)

“The power of their nanotech—it’s astonishing,” Raul said.

“The only hollow space is in the Torus. Everything else is solid or filled with what looks like a foamy liquid.”

An estimated cross section of the Torus, based on the data from the mini-probes, revealed a circle forty meters in diameter. The external surface was smooth and gray with occasional swollen humps. Even from this closer perspective, there were no signs of windows, airlocks, or maintenance panels. The close-up inspection showed seamless joints where the spokes connected to the center and the rim.

“Look at the design. Incredible! I can’t see a single joint where pieces are fused. They used nanotechnology to grow this in a single piece, one molecule at a time,” Igor said.

“You’re right. It’s definitely not modular. It’s one massive form with no connection points; it’s a living organism,” Raul said.

“Does that mean there is no special entrance for human visitors? I guess we will have to punch our own hole. Contact Team, airlock in five minutes. We will figure out how to proceed while we get ready.” Aki had meant for her words to sound lighter than they came across. She was trying to balance unavoidable tension with the need for vigilance. She could not help but think that the risks were so great that caution would not change a thing.
If they want to kill us, they will kill us. If it comes to that, I just want to know why they are going to do it before it happens.

Moments later, Aki, Raul, and Joseph emerged from their cocoons and stepped into their space suits. They set the internal pressure for six-tenths of an atmosphere and did not bother to connect spare air tanks. Their suits were equipped with data screens—visible from inside the helmet—that were identical to the screens in their cocoons. The systems were operated visually, also responding to verbal commands and tongue-manipulated toggles. The upperright corner of each display showed a clock counting down to the
Phalanx
’s launch time.

“Six hours and twenty-seven minutes until the launch sequence begins,” stated Igor, testing the communication systems inside the suits.

“Roger that. Raul and Joseph, you ready?”

They said they were.

“Opening the airlock,” Aki said.

All the air in the small chamber was removed. The outer door opened, revealing the Builders’ ship. It looked close enough to touch. One by one, they floated away from the
Phalanx
and toward the alien vessel. Raul and Joseph had large tool kits attached to their suits. All three members of the Contact Team fired their thrusters in unison, skimming along the length of the
Phalanx
. The helmet visors darkened just before they passed in front of the solar shield to protect their eyes from the blazing light. The Builders’ ship was directly in front of them, too large to fit in their helmets’ limited field of view.

“Thanks to Natalia, the Builders see the
Phalanx
as an extension of themselves. What about us?” Joseph asked.

“I’ve added feeds from the
Phalanx
’s external cameras to Natalia’s primary visual field. I hope they see us through her eyes,” Raul said.

The Contact Team floated alongside the Torus. It passed beneath them in a blur, rotating at a speed of nearly eighty kilometers per hour. Grabbing on to the Torus from where they were was too dangerous to attempt. Gradually, the center of the ship came closer.

“Wait,” said Joseph. He moved ahead, then attached himself to the inner end of one of the spokes. He rotated along with the spoke, slipping out of view. Forty-three seconds later, he was back where he had started. During that time, Joseph had looped a tether rope thinner than a shoelace around the spoke and secured it into place. The reel connected to Joseph’s suit contained a total length of three hundred meters.

Aki and Raul held Joseph’s arms as they passed the tether through the carabiners and clamps attached to their suits. The artificial gravity created by the rotation increased with each step. They walked back out toward the Torus, walking the spoke as if it were a balance beam. At first, they used their thrusters to propel themselves. After the halfway point, the centrifugal force was strong enough that they had to use the tether to rappel down to the Torus. There was enough Coriolis force for them to touch down softly on the Torus and remain there without floating away. Even though local gravity was only three-tenths of a G, it was the strongest sensation of gravity the crew had felt in a long while.

The surface was less smooth than it had appeared to be from a distance. It had the texture of mortar, conveniently providing the friction they needed to walk without slipping. Nonetheless, the dizzying effect of the
Phalanx
and the stars spinning above was enough to cause Aki to drop to all fours.

They heard a rumble through their helmet speakers. Startled, they realized it was the echo of their footsteps reverberating inside the Torus that was being picked up by the external mics on their suits.

“I bet we just triggered a burglar alarm,” Raul said.

“We can hear our steps because the Torus is conducting it directly into our boots. An alarm would almost certainly be too quiet to be conducted by this material.” The sound reminded Aki of an exercise she did in elementary school where the students listened to tree trunks with stethoscopes. Her teacher had said that what the students heard was the sound of the tree sucking water from the ground. Aki had believed it.

Joseph and Raul secured their tool kits to the surface material with high bond tape. Joseph removed a collapsible airlock from his kit and began assembling an airtight dome tent with a base four meters wide. He adhered the base to the Torus using a quickdrying resin.

“I hope this stuff sticks to whatever this thing is,” Joseph said.

“The tape seems to be holding. We will go with what we have,” Aki said.

Once all three were inside the tent, they closed the hermetic seal. They filled their dome with nitrogen to a pressure of three-tenths of an atmosphere. They had no idea what the internal pressure was, though any level would be better than a vacuum. Aki took an axe and tapped the surface three times. No response. She tried again, applying more force.

“Anybody home?” Raul asked. Aki knew he was joking but noted the trepidation in his voice.

Joseph assembled a large boring tool, a miniature version of what had been used for crude oil drilling before most of the earth’s oil had been depleted. The drill’s tip had a diamond chip two centimeters wide. When fully extended, the drill could penetrate to a depth of ten meters.

“Here we go.” After making his warning, Joseph pulled the trigger. As soon as the drill started, it skipped across the hull of the ship. It did not even make a scratch. Two more tries led to the same result.

“This material is harder than diamond. Do you think they would sell us the patent?” Joseph said, embarrassed even though the strategy had considered the possibility that this surface would be hard to penetrate.

“Try the plasma torch tip,” Aki said, wanting them to stay loose but concerned that false levity might erupt into fear.

“If they’re waiting for us on the other side of this wall, I hope they don’t attack us because we sliced our way in,” Raul said.

“It’s not like we didn’t try knocking.” When Joseph spoke, Aki could sense his hard resolve, even through his suit.

Aki had dreamed of making first contact with intelligent beings her whole life, but none of the scenarios had started with breaking and entering. The lack of interest—one could not even call it disdain—in communication on the part of the Builders continued to frustrate her. The torch-driven drill cut through the surface as if it were wood. After two meters, the resistance against the bit was gone. The drill moved in and out freely.

“We broke through,” said Joseph. “It’s thinner than we thought.”

A protective cover slid down over the drill, allowing them to remove it and insert a sensor while still maintaining an airtight seal. The image sent from the tiny camera appeared on their helmet screens. The first few centimeters contained a clear substance, followed by a foamy material. As the probe moved deeper, the bubbles in the foam grew larger.

A dark hole appeared in front of the camera. As the camera passed through, the image went completely black. It appeared to be a chamber too large and empty for the dim light on the sensor to illuminate.

Joseph read out the composition of the air tested, “Forty-two percent nitrogen, 56 percent oxygen, 2 percent other inert gases. Air pressure is 43/100 of an atmosphere. Once we become acclimated to the low pressure, the sensors say we can breathe in there, disregarding the fact that we would fill the atmosphere with carbon dioxide quickly, since it’s unlikely that there will be vegetation.”

“Doesn’t look like there are any aliens in this room. Can we cut a door for ourselves?” Raul asked.

“This place is as good as any,” Aki said. Hanging out on the side of the Builders’ ship could not be much safer than going inside.

After equalizing the pressure in the dome to that inside the vessel, Joseph cut a circular hole in the surface. The process took nearly an hour. Even with the low artificial gravity, Joseph was surprised by how light the material was and nearly rocked backward on his heels when he made the lift. Raul shined his light into the hole, the beam reflecting off an object several meters below. The space was packed full of cells reminiscent of honeycombs, each about one meter wide.

“Send the sensor down into those cells to see what the cells are made of?” Joseph asked.

“No time. We go in and find out for ourselves,” Aki said. She was nervous and excited. She could not even begin to imagine what they would find. She recalled how much volume there was to cover inside the Torus, making her even more anxious to locate whatever being or entity was in charge and try to communicate before time ran out.

Aki was given the honor of being first to set foot inside. Joseph adhered a communication device to the edge of the hole and connected one end of the fiber-optic cable from a reel attached to his suit. Since radio signals would not be likely to penetrate the hull, this would allow an open channel with the
Phalanx
and send back a video feed and sensor readouts. The audio and video could be plugged directly into the Worldunity Network. The feeds could be seen on Earth in as close to real time as the vast distance from the planet allowed.

Joseph tied another tether line to the portable airlock. In an emergency, the tether could reel them back out quickly. Aki looked at her two crewmates and gave a nod, then made a final check of the
Phalanx
’s camera to make sure there were not any sudden changes to the Builders’ ship’s orientation or surface.

“Entering the vessel,” she said. She had meant to use a more profound phrase, but the plan had shifted so many times that she could not even remember the ones she had written down. Aki lowered herself several meters into the hole. Reconfirming that the air was breathable, she allowed her sampler to take in a trace quantity. She breathed the ship’s air cautiously. A sensor found a hint of trimethylamine, which Aki tasted as a hint of ammonia.

The next words spoken would be remembered by all for many decades, as they emanated from the sensor.

<
SMELL: RAW FISH
>

She lowered herself into the honeycomb structure. The hexagonal cells were covered with a transparent film. The cells were full of a murky glaze. A large yellow object was beneath them. Aki stepped on one of the walls dividing the cells, gradually adding weight, making sure it would support her. She let go of the tether, then indicated for Raul and Joseph to follow. They joined her and stood in awe. Honeycomb structures arced around them on both sides, all the way to the ceiling, nearly filling the inside of the Torus’s tube above them. Multiple bridges ran vertically and horizontally along the inner wall—thin, varied, and meandering like veins under skin.

Oddly enough, the scene resembled an alien horror movie the crew had all watched together on their way to the rendezvous point. She knew Raul was thinking the same thing but hoped that he did not feel the need to verbalize the thought.

“Damn, it’s just like that movie we watched. Don’t look at them, or they might jump up and eat our faces off! It looks like they hired Giger as their interior decorator,” Raul said, as if on cue.

“Will you keep the
Alien
references to yourself, please?” Aki snapped.