Chapter 11: All you need is a good gun and a bottle of malt
liquor.
Chapter 12: Drassel to
Krass angrily, “When did you first learn to compromise Sheep butts?”
Chapter 13: Computers
make very fast and very accurate mistakes.
Chapter 14: “Don't piss
me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.”
Chapter 17:
"You're a dead man, you hear me, a dead man!"
Chapter 18: "You
call yourself an Explorer? You big UGLY son of a witch!"
The
time passed swiftly for the group of Earth ships. They made the slingshot
transit with no problems and soon had taken up orbit around the ice planet as
planned. Eon had carefully studied the landing points and picked a spot roughly
equidistant between three possible sights that showed promise. As he put it,
“Why put all your eggs in one basket when we can maximize the sites we can
visit.”
The
first site showed massive refined metals readings under perhaps two hundred
feet of ice. It would be relatively easily to dig down that level with portable
melters. The area was quite large. This was either a very unusual metals
deposit or as Ludington pointed out it could be a large buried city! It seemed
worth an investigation.
The
second area was smaller and very far under the ice. It was a large radioactive
source and highly concentrated. This was a dangerous area and precautions would
have to be taken but a rich find of radioactive materials could make them all
very rich. It would be harder also to get to this area but if it could be
reached and safely mined it would very likely not only pay for the trip but
make them quite well off financially. This was exciting news to Krass when it
was mentioned.
The
third and final area was the strangest. It was a large hollow area under tons
of ice. It showed no power readings or any sign of being in use and could have
been a large cave except for two problems. A cave of this size would not be
hollow but would have probably collapsed or been eventually filled partially in
by the ice in spots. This area showed no sign of interior ice at all, according
to the seismic tests. The second was that the hollow area was almost completely
and perfectly round and the outer layer was made of some extremely dense
metals.
It
was not long after that when the Horizon landed without incident on the landing
area and work began on the base. Work proceeded quickly without incident and
soon the Hospital ship and finally the scout craft touched gently down on the
landing field. Now would come the real work.
Eon
of course led off at this point, as exploration was his specialty. Eon started
out by looking at the satellite, metallic, seismic scan, and science reports
from Krass and Drassel. ’Not much info in the satellite reports,’ he mused, as
he looked them over. He really hadn’t expected much there anyway. The grounds
they would cover were all underground anyway. The satellite scans were good
enough to show that there was no infrared activity except for the new base.
This showed up clearly as a heat source now. The rest of the planet was as cold
and nasty as you would ever want. This was going to be a cold and dangerous
exploration.
He
set aside the satellite scans for Drassel and Krass to examine more closely.
Maybe the science guys could see something he didn’t but he doubted it. Next he
looked closer at seismic scans. These had been done initially after they had
landed by setting off a small charge directed at the ground. The resulting
vibrations were captured as they bounced back and presented a fairly
informative view of the denser objects under the ice. The atmosphere ice was
about four miles deep and contained a lot of water as well. There was a fair
amount of hydrogen at the top level. He noted that Drassel had done the work on
the atmosphere and ice investigation. He and Krass had come up with a lot of
data and some theories that sounded possible but Eon preferred proof not
theories.
Still
several facts had come out of this. Krass had proven that this sun had been a
‘G’ or Earth type sun at one time before it went Nova. His facts were pretty
solid. Then Drassel had taken samples of the atmosphere layers on the planet
and had pretty much proven that the atmosphere of this planet had been Earth
like as well. They both agreed that given the planetary orbits, the cleanliness
of the system, and the fact that it appeared to be an Earth style planet with
many cities and constructs dotted across it there was little doubt left that
this planet was in the wrong orbit. They had found no sign of melting in the
seismic scans so that planet appeared to have been deliberately moved to this
orbit to avoid the Nova.
Eon
had scratched his head when confronted by this information. He had looked at
Krass and had asked the obvious question, “Then why didn’t they move it back,
instead of freezing everyone?” Krass had looked disgusted, “They didn’t move it
back half-wit because obviously something went wrong! They knew the Nova was
coming. That is obvious, so they moved the planet outward as the sun expanded.
However maybe radiation or heat somehow affected or broke his or her controls
or a machine broke down or someone hosed up. They couldn’t move it back and
they died for it.” It appeared that was the prevailing theory right now. It was
simple and explainable but Eon didn’t buy it. A civilization capable of moving
planets should not have depended on a one shot deal. They would have had
backups on backups. It was too simple and too pat.
Exploration
was like a giant jigsaw puzzle. You put bits and pieces together and then tried
to tie those pieces into a whole. Not every piece fit properly. It was too soon
in his estimation to go tossing around theories that could not be proven. The
worse thing was that all the pieces to this puzzle might not be all present in
this solar system. They could be scattered across a vast time and distance as
well. It would take more than lifetimes to put all this together and it would
generate more questions as it continued. It would also generate more theories.
They would be missing large parts of this puzzle. It was just too vast. He
would be satisfied with some immediate answers. The best place to get those
answers was in the city rather than chasing ghosts across the solar system.
They might never learn why the planets were orbiting in so circular a manner or
why the system was so clean. They might never learn why the sun went Nova or
why the planet was where it was. So an attainable goal would have to be set.
Eon
sat back and thought carefully. The goal of this mission seemed to be at odds
with what they were doing. They were looking for signs of God? His companions,
except for the priest were not so spiritually inclined. They were looking for
wealth foremost and power as a very close second. Power could be a dangerous
thing to find and those chasing gold could get greedy and stupid. What was his
goal at this point?
That
was easy. He wanted a site in the city that was fairly easy to get to. Solidly
constructed with little damage that would hold valuable and required
information about the history of this planet. This would satisfy both sides’
needs. It seemed likely that he would require a site something like a museum or
university or even a governmental records office as he placed the concepts as
put in human terms. He was not going to get bogged down in semantics either. Just
because it was an alien race did not mean that they would not have developed
similar institutions, call them what you will. There would be similarities. He
looked again at the scans carefully and found what he wanted almost immediately
in the metallic scans. Just to the north of the city placed upon a higher than
normal elevation was a huge complex of buildings.
The
area was on what looked like the top of a mountain but it was like no mountain
he had ever seen. The top had been shaved off the upper half and then, on large
metal girders, the whole thing had been erected so that it was roughly of equal
height to the buildings of the city. Why?
He decided to take it to Krass. He had a suspicion as too what this
facility might be and he felt sure about what the answer would be but it was
always nice to have confirmation. Krass and Drassell had proven to be pretty
adroit at coming up with concepts or ideas and he wanted a second opinion.
When
Eon arrived he was not surprised to find Drassel and Krass in another shouting
match argument. Ludington as usual was trying ineffectively to calm them both
down. They ignored him as they stood toe to toe shouting in each other’s faces.
He had always thought of scientists as calm and controlled. That was obviously
not true in this case. This looked like it might be a long one. Eon motioned to
Ludington and they both took a seat. The best case was to let the storm sort itself
out until he could get their attention with a problem that both could work on.
Krass
spoke angrily, “Spaceships? Spaceships? I’ll give you Spaceships right in that
stupid, ugly, idiotic baboon face of yours you stupid cow. Why are you always issuing
theories you can’t back up with proof? For all you know it could be a giant
outhouse or garbage scow! There are no engines or power sources on that at all
that we have been able to detect. There is nothing that even remotely looks
like sensor equipment. What the heck do you think they are going to use to fly
it around, the soap bubble express?”
Drassel
was not the least intimidated though and he was heartily sick of Krass and his
glory hound science and constantly following him around. “If you would stop
customizing sheep butts long enough you molester of stinky woolies, you might
understand that not everyone makes a space ship the same way. Why should anyone
that moves planets around use a power source you would understand with your
feeble intellect? It’s better than your dumb theory that this is the device
they used to move planets around. Do you realize how much power it takes to
move a planet? Besides that think of the tectonics and upheaval you would
create as you move the planet around the solar system. There are laws to
acceleration you know. Especially in something as dynamically and energy
charged as an Earth like planet. The ground is not like a metal construct that
takes such changes into its design. The weather patterns alone would cause immense
difficulties. Your theory or ideas are no better or scientifically more
accurate than mine and your stupid comments are as screwed up as you are!”
Krass
shook his fist angrily. “Customize sheep butts? This coming from a guy who uses
insecticide on his rubbers? Go screw yourself and you might kill that bug up
your ass. Maybe that is where you’re going to find that stupid “Rosetta Stone”
you keep harping about. Another one in a billion chance you ever will find
something like that under all this ice. You would have better luck hitting the
solar lottery! Like an alien race is going to leave such a thing with a big
sign on it laying around, like they expected you to show up in 2,000+ years to
decipher it. You won’t even have years of study of an Earth like language to be
able to understand it in the first place! Do you think you can just look at a
foreign language or even it’s writings and immediately understand it? You are a
fool!” Krass stalked away in disgust and suddenly turned on Drassell again.
“An
interesting fact I have learned about the Rosette Stone. A stone found in an
ancient site where some General or another was bragging about what he did. Only
it was written in three languages, two of which we could not read. ONE language
said something so it was ‘assumed’ that the others said the same thing and thus
based upon ONE assumed fact several assumptions were made and we now believe we
can read ancient Greek and Egyptian. In fact it is JUST an assumption that the
other two languages were A) the same exact word for word speech. Or B) Translated correctly even if it was the
same speech. I would like to think that scientists would not make such ignorant
assumptions but then I watch the History channel or Discovery channel and watch
them flaunt "FACTS" that they can't possibly have proven and theories
that my idiot cousin can make better sense of about concerning the dinosaurs
and space travel as well as every other ‘mystery’ that comes along. Popular
opinion sells and the winner writes history. To assume either of them is TRUE
or FACT is a quick way to die. You do your JUNK Science the same way.”
Drassel
shook his head in stubborn disgust. “Yes, but other samples of writing found
later actually did prove that the Rosette Stone was in fact what it was assumed
to be. So Mr. Moron while educated assumptions are THEORIES, the theory does
not have to be always wrong either, especially with the facts we already have!”
Krass looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth. He spoke back quickly.
“I also have been aware
of this ‘First Contact’ program you’ve been trying to make. Do you realize that
we have nowhere near the computer capacity or background to make that work? I
remind your royal idiocy that these ships are one step up from ‘suicide ships’.
They are bare bones working machines and you can’t go around trying to add
moronic enhancements without screwing something up big time. I flushed and
wiped all that crap you’re doing straight out of the system and then I locked
your access codes so you can’t do it again.”
Drassell
was shocked. “You WHAT? You destroyed my scientific work? It was going to be my
masterpiece! Well at least I have backup’s and I archived all of it as well.”
He was interrupted by Krass’s smirking reply, “Not anymore. I got those too.
When I wipe something I wipe it clean. I then overwrote the areas where it was
stored so there is no recovery. You can’t even archive now. I totally killed
your access to the computer. You can’t even tell it to make you toast.”
Drassel was speechless for a moment. “You wouldn’t dare do such a thing! Do you realize I tied in the automatic archiving from all the scans into that file? If you had wiped my file the entire system on the ship might fail as it begins to follow all the links I put in and I am sure by now that we would have had a warning because the alarms would be going off all over the base. You’re bluffing.” He stated with finality.
At that very moment
the lights started blinking and the harsh sound of a klaxon went off. Over it
all was the harsh voiced announcement, “Total systems failure on the Horizon.
Power shutdown has switched to manual. All hands to repair.” Drassel and Krass
looked dumbfounded as Eon and Ludington shook their heads. “C’mon guys,” stated
Eon disgustedly, “let’s get out to your ship and get your computer fixed then
maybe we all need to sit down and have a long talk.” The group quickly moved
towards the air lock. Krass and Drassell eyed each other in incipient mayhem.
Meanwhile, Jack was dealing with a crisis of his own. Two of his crewmembers were ready to tear each other down to their component atoms and the third had decided to sit back and watch the entertainment. He motioned them all to be quiet. “We will ignore this issue for now as I have other work that should be performed. “ Thirst-Quencher spoke angrily, “I must protest. To ignore such an infraction is to invite more from this criminal who knows no decent bounds of civilized behavior. If you allow him to do this with impunity I will wash my hands of this whole affair and on your tendrils will be the consequences.” Willfulness smiled.
Jack
ignored the outburst and continued as if nothing had happened. “Nutritious, I
want you to convert the four missiles to probes and launch them to investigate
the three moons. The fourth will be launched to investigate the third planet. I
want you to gather all possible data and when that is completed I will hold a
meeting to decide on our next course of action. Thirst-Quencher will assist you
with the heavy work. You two may go and start now.” After both had departed
Jack turned to Willfulness.
“I
want you to prepare for first contact but do not engage in any such contact
without my prior approval.” Willfulness looked disgusted. “I am already
PREPARED to initiate contact. My preparations require that you land this tub
and get the hell out of my way you useless weed! How can I prepare anything
when I am not allowed to take the actions required to initiate the contact? In
case you have not noticed I have already attempted to make several contacts
from long distance. They have been, to date, unsuccessful. The next step is to
land and let me go out and try to find something to talk with face to face. You
have still, a predilection for wasting valuable time. What are you afraid of? I
offer you this alternative. Set the ship down on one of the moons, the closest
will do, and let me off with my equipment then you may return to orbit and sit
on your collective fundament to your hearts content. I’ll go scout for myself
and make contact. I’ll call you when I want to leave. What do you say to that?”
Jack
spoke quietly, "I do not wish to stifle you. However I must take every
precaution to insure the safety of this crew. That said I ask you wait until
the data from the probes it collected. After we go over the data so that you
have more details about the terrain and settlement locations we will land and
let you off. I offer assistance if you need, but if you feel that you can do
this on your own then that is your choice. Is there anything else?"
“You
commanded me to prepare,” Willfulness spoke angrily, “it seems you are the one
that is woefully unprepared. I have told you what is required and you chose to
ignore it waiting for probe photos when we are already in orbit around one of
the moons. The probes will discover no more than we already know and we know so
much more because I acted boldly and acquired some of the information we need.
What frightens you so much? Nothing has happened to us, no hostile activity is
in sight. Why do you continue to fuss and delay when it is obvious that we must
act? You offer assistance, well I want you to land this ship and let me off and
then you may go and watch till even you are satisfied that you hide from your
own backside! Meanwhile I will accomplish what I was sent here to do. That is
the assistance I require now will you comply or rescind your order requesting
me to prepare for a contact?”
Jack
looked pointedly at the crewman/explorer. “I find it troubling that you are not
willing to wait a few hours. Perhaps there is something you missed? You make it
seem like I am intentionally trying to oppose you on everything. The point in
having a crew on this ship is to have multiple ideas brought forth and discussed
all of them to reach a compromise. Why do you feel that I am ignoring your
suggestions?
Willfulness was not
bashful about looking back though. "That is easy. You are. Look back over
the record. Who has contributed more to this voyage than anyone else, and yet
you still disregard my suggestions and comments. You would have saved time and
fuel by following the initial course I set. You would have been here weeks
earlier. You found out more information from me than anyone else. So when do
you intend to play the odds and start taking seriously what I tell you, instead
of listening to dumb butts who never had an original thought in all their
lives? "
Jack looked at the
explorer, “Ok, we will land and drop you off on one of the moons. Unless you
request other wise we will return and pick you up in 4 days. Do you think that
will give you enough time?”
"Hmm, that seems
reasonable.” Stated the crewman; “I
should at least know something by then. Four days it is." He placed a map
of the nearest moon down on the table and showed a small valley like area.
“This place should due nicely.” It is sheltered and should offer some
concealment. I suggest a night landing. You touch down long enough to unload
and then leave immediately. I will place a beacon so that you will know where
to meet me four days from now. If there is no beacon your on your own.” Jack
nodded in agreement and Willfulness went to prepare for the landing. Jack hoped
he was doing the right thing.
Ronilion
looked at Krass and Drassell in disgust, “Would you two clowns like to explain
whet the hell you think you’re doing? I mean besides endangering our lives and
the mission?"
Krass looked back
angrily, “This hack has been screwing up the computer with his dumb butt
enhancements. We only have so much space in the system and he has been stuffing
garbage into like it was a gigantic-vac. Not only that but he has been linking
the system in ways that are dangerous. Let me put it this way; he linked to the
main core on our ship. How many links did he make to the core of your ships?”
At that very moment the alarm bells on Liberator suddenly went off and the
lights dimmed. “Total systems failure on the Liberator. Power shutdown has
switched to manual. All hands to repair.” Krass looked disgustingly happy.
Ronilion glowered and Drassell glared at Krass, as he was sure that somehow the
toad had set him up!
Several
hours later a tired group reconvened in the Horizon. The Doctor’s ship had
followed the previous two computers down the road of failure and it had taken
all the hands many hours of hot sweaty work to bring everything cleanly back on
line. Many of the others were looking at Krass and Drassell with unfriendly expressions.
Ronilion
glowered at the two scientists. “Do either of you have any reason I shouldn’t
space your butts right now?” Ronilion asked ominously. Krass spoke up, “I
warned you this guy was a loose cannon and before you go blaming me do you
realize how easy it is to hide a one line link in the millions of lines of
garbage that idiot used to propagate his virus to all the ships? I could have
gone through this DREK for years and not found the proper lines and you may be
sure that he had several redundancies put in as well! I warned you guys and you
ignored me. So before you morons go blaming ME you better start at the place
where this all began, namely him toying with the tech to ‘improve’ it. There is
a difference between maintaining it and trying to make it do something it was
never designed to do.”
Drassell
spoke calmly. “I don’t think I could create this amount of trouble all on my
own. I suspect I had some help from our known demonic source that has been
trying to make me look bad since we started this trip. Unfortunately, the
evidence is against me at the present time. I did indeed as previously logged
set up links to all the ships and was archiving the data. I was indeed working
on translator software. Now that all my work has been so conveniently wiped out
I have no way to prove that it was not my program that did the damage. Since it
is almost everyone’s opinion that I am indeed the culprit and I have no way to
prove otherwise then I will have to accept my punishment,” he glared at Krass
who smile back thinly, “at least for now.”
Ronilion
looked disgusted, “ I can’t put it all on you Greg. I Okayed your copying of
all the data to all of our ships. Devlin saw the degradation and tried to clean
up a local mess. He had no idea the errors were replicated to every ship and it
would follow the trail. The good thing from all this is that it didn’t happen
while we we’re in space or under way and we did get the chance to clean up the
mess while in a secure base. Another nice thing is it didn’t happen on each
ship at the same time. The shear bulk of stuff out there made the separate
computers crash at different times so we never lost complete life support. It’s
a good thing Luddington and you guys decided to tie all the computers into the
base to monitor it. If one failed the others took up the load.”
Krass
made a disgusted motion with his hand, “So that means you’re going to overlook
all this crap? I don’t think so. I think we need to have some sound rules not
to tamper no matter how much we think we can improve the systems. I have no
desire to continue serving in a MORONocracy form of government. In my
estimation Drassell should stay locked out of anything critical and maybe you
as well!”
“Look
lamebrain, while I will admit that I approved his copying the data to all three
ships. I did NOT approve his tampering with the code of any ship. However, as he owns half of your ship he has
the right to mess with it anyway he wants and you guys can work it out, I am
not your mother. BUT he doesn't have the
right to endanger all of us with his tampering.
His 'universal translator' was NOT an approved project and is/was a
serious waste of time and resources not to mention a severe risk to our
lives. He can do the digging at the site
under your supervision and Eon will monitor you both. I expect you to show him
how it is done!”
“BOTH of you will
also work TOGETHER to fix the 'garbage' that got erased that we just might need
once we take off again. Your going to go back through all the stuff he did
since arriving in system, every report and put it all back from the hard copy
and tapes, leaving out the Universal Translator stuff and the links to the
computer cores. You will correct the archives and bring them back up to date on
YOUR time. This should keep both of you from being a royal pain in the ass for
a while. You will both do it on YOUR ship first and then it will be reviewed
before being put into any other ship by the Priest and the Doctor. I make it
your responsibility that if Drassel is such a problem that you TRAIN him NOT to
BE a problem. The next time he screws up it’s not his ass, it’s yours!”
Ronilion smiled at Devlin. Drassell also smiled at Devlin.
“Gee I hope I don’t
screw up too bad next time.” Said Drassell in an innocent tone of voice that
said he was a harmless idiot. Ronilion glared at the scientist. “You better not
or I may just decide that you both will have a future as reactor shielding.” He
stated ominously. The smile vanished from Drassell’s face. “Now both of you two
idiots get the hell out of my sight and go try doing something useful to make
up for all the mess you both caused.”
Both of the
scientists left followed by the priest and Gunray. As they went out the door
Eon shoved a chart in front of the two scientists. “Look, you guys want to get
out from under the that pile of trash you created and do something useful? Look
at this and tell me what you think.”
Drassell was the
first to remark. “A metals scan of site one. Good quality, nice definition so
you must have already been out there. This is the one we think is a city,
right? There is a lot of refined metal on this peak and the buildings are
fairly heavy construction. It looks solid, like an industrial complex and
probably contains heavy equipment and machinery, but why build one that high
where the pollution might cover the city?”
Krass was looking
thoughtful though and took out a magnifier. “Drassell is right for once. It
appears industrial, but I think it is more in line with a city service
building. Notice it is outside the city proper not inside with the city
spreading out around it. The height may be for water pressure. It is easier to
capture water up top and send it downward than to pump it upward. It might have
been a water collector or even an evaporation unit. See how the pipes seem to
run downward, at least the ones that aren’t broken off?”
Gregg spoke again, “Maybe it has more than
one purpose. It might be a water distribution point but it also may be a power
plant. If they used the sun as a source of clean power they may have needed it
to be that high to capture the energy. Some of that looks like mirror panels.
Also don’t those pieces look like wind generators? They would probably have had
some interesting winds up that high and it could have been a good source of
electrical power for chemical collectors.” He looked thoughtful for a moment.
“You know if they depended on the sun and the nova died sooner than expected it
would explain a lot. The sudden loss of power could have been devastating as
the cold hit and it might explain why they could not move the planet back. It
would also explain why the radioactive stockpile was gathered close by as well.
They might have tried to build a fusion plant but it got too cold to fast for them
to complete the job.”
“More half-baked
theories?” Stated Krass looking nauseous. “Sure it could be a power source or
power plant, maybe. Those things could be power conduits as well. It is not a
bad guess but I hesitate to say that is what it is yet just based on what looks
like wind towers and mirrors. I can think of several uses for mirrors to
reflect sunlight downward into the lower regions for health reasons. Those wind
things could be used for air intakes as well. Maybe they are used to circulate
fresh air in the city for cooling purposes. A city that size would have heat
problems and possibly air problems as well. It’s much to early to say with any
confidence at this time without some solid looking on site. I am not about to
plan a whole dig based off one scan. Still it is a good place to start. It is
up high, the buildings are solid and it should be fairly easy to get to.”
Eon spoke up, “The
problem I have is if that if it is some type of power station, wind and sun
technology is too unpredictable for a city this size. The whole thing is too
much resource for a power supply that is not a constant. It’s a stupid design
for a power plant for a city this size that would need large amounts of
constant energy. Even fossil fuel plants are a better choice because the output
can be maintained without the vagaries of nature. Sure it LOOKS like some type
of power installation but it just doesn’t seem like it should be.”
“What else could an
installation of this size be unless it was maybe used to move the planet? If
that is what it actually is and it was controlled from this city why build it
like this? That makes even less sense.” Drassell remarked quietly. “It would
not always have a line of sight and it seems it would have been better to have
some orbital station to monitor and control as an oversight to the planet where
you could monitor feeds from each area of the planet. This facility has to be
something related directly to this city. A power plant or a city service
building seems to be the most likely. It just might be a geo-thermal power tap
as well. If they built near a volcano and shaved off the top and then built
their distribution facility on top it would also provide clean, inexpensive
heat energy, and as you pointed out those fan like objects could be intake or
heat exhaust ports as well. We will know more when we get closer and examine
it.”
Krass grumped, “Stop
guessing at the unknown. We go look and then we will have a chance to know. It
seems like a good time to be out of here anyway. Eon, why don’t you go round up
the priest? Drassell and I will get the equipment ready. If we hurry we can be
out there in about a day and a half. Then I suggest we start an angle tunnel
down to this installation and go from there. It might not hurt to set up a small
base camp just under the ground. Give us a week and we might have some new
facts to report.” Both men nodded and proceeded to get ready.
“No
amount of money is worth all this,” thought James Patterson as he again changed
the filters. It was all Ronilion’s fault of course. After the notorious
‘Drassell Virus’ he had decided that everyone had entirely too much time on his
hands. He had found work for everyone. In his infinite, usual, and shortsighted
way he had decided the doctor should become a refinery expert.
“You
want me to do WHAT?” Patterson had asked in shock when the leader had
approached him on the ship.
“I want you to set up a refueling station,”
was the reply from the stuffed shirt. “This place could be a gold mine as a
refueling and resupply point for passing exploration ships. The way the
atmosphere is layered it should be pretty easy for you to filter oxygen,
hydrogen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and helium as well as other more rarefied
gasses. Then I want you to store them in tanks for later missions to this area
and beyond. We can sell the fuel for huge profits. You should have no problem
since you know about filters right?”
“Dammit
Ronilion I’m a Doctor, not a fuel dispensing depot” Patterson had exploded
angrily.
“Well you are now,”
was the complacent reply. “While your filtering this stuff and storing it you
can also start rewriting the Security procedures that have to do with comm.
traffic, entering a system and a procedure about not making radical changes in
the ships and exploration equipment without the proper authority. After all the
pumps should work fine as long as you do the maintenance on them and keep the
filters cleaned up.”
Once you’re done with
that I want you to start setting up hydroponics tanks. You can use the
nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide. It would be nice if we could offer
visitors fresh fruits and veggies when they arrive and I am sure they will pay
to get it. You can get the seed from Krass before he leaves”.
“Listen
you MORON, I am not trained or qualified for this! How did an ignorant bastard
like you get the time to think up such insanity? What in the seven hells do I
know about hydroponics’ farming? I didn’t sign on to be a farm hand, either!”
The Doctor screamed.
“Ronilion smiled as
if he was really enjoying this conversation. “Sure you did. You’re a Doctor
aren’t you? Did you think I was going to let you sit here and do only one
specialized job? Everyone pulls their own weight here and more. You went to
school to learn to be a Doctor; you can learn to do other things as well.
Luddington, Krass, Drassell and Eon are all going out soon to start the initial
site exploration. They certainly can’t do the work here that needs to be done
when they will be doing twelve to eighteen hour days digging in a hazardous
area.”
The Doctor growled in
disgust, “You must have pointy-hair under that hat. What do you think your
going to be doing, thinking up more work for the rest of us?”
“Not at all,”
Ronilion replied, “I have to maintain the base and three ships as well as the
satellite scans along with all the day-to-day chores and paperwork to keep the
expedition going. I’ll be running back and forth with supplies for the digging
parties each day and bringing back recyclables. We can’t afford to waste
anything here you know. You on the other hand get the nicest and cushiest job
where you can sit in a nice base camp with your thumbs up your ass ninety
percent of the time all safe and secure.” Ronilion
smiled brightly but there was an undertone of menace, “Time to earn your
percentage Doctor and learn some new skills that will make you as useful as the
rest of us. This isn’t an Earth side berth where we can afford specialists. I
am sure you will find all the information you need in the ships computers for
so easy and simple a series of tasks, especially considering all the schooling
you have had, if not, then figure it out by using the old standby RTFM! That’s
what you’re getting paid for.”
Ronilion started to
turn to walk away from the red faced Doctor and them stopped. “While you’re at
it read up on cloning in your spare time, it would be nice to have fresh cloned
beef and chicken as well from the meat cultures we brought.” The Doctor was to
stunned to answer. Ronilion smiled,
turned and walked away singing a Michael Jackson tune, horribly. Patterson
thought it was “Scream” but it was rendered so badly he couldn’t be sure. He was
ready to throttle the supercilious twit!
So
several hours later, there he was, sitting in a small cold hollowed out room,
outside the main base and connected only by a small underground tunnel and
getting intimate with a heater for slowly heating gasses and a pump to move it
in liquid form into some tanks to refreeze for future refueling purposes. Sure
the stuff was almost pure given the freezing rates but still every hour or so
the filters had to be changed and the intake and output nozzles moved as an
area that was cleared became unable to pump more fuel or a tank was filled up.
That required long hours of intensive stooped labor. Labor the Doctor was
unused to. ”Ronilion you suck in a whole NEW way!” He yelled to himself
irritably as he thought of imaginative ways to try to get even. Maybe
hallucinogenic mushrooms?
James
sat down and looked at the procedures again. Writing under these conditions was
darn near impossible. Spacesuit gloves were just not meant for reading or
writing. He set those aside disgusted. There would be no opportunity to work on
that stuff here and he was not going to sit up all night rewriting when he had
to spend all day just keeping the pump station going! He took out his computer PAD and tied into
his ships computer. At least he could read up on cloning techniques. A large
logo suddenly appeared on the screen in large letters, RIAA Rules! Strange
Michael Jackson music came from the PAD and transmitted to his spacesuit
frequency. “What in HELL is the RIAA?” He asked himself and got an answer as
the logo changed. RIAA ‘Really Ignorant and Arrogant Assholes’ and we want your
clam sauce recipe! We have contacted your ISP and have subpoenaed all your
access records. You owe us $250,000 credits. Pay now or get sued, ass wipe!
James
looked in bewilderment at the scrolling PAD as it continued to spew meaningless
garbage over his screen and through his suit speakers. The device continued
relentlessly calling him a Hacker and a software pirate. He saw several quotes
from people that he had never heard off saying he deserved whatever was
happening and several offers of amnesty if he would admit his guilt. It was all
so confusing! {WTF????} He then thought of that prime A-hole Ronilion and
glowered.
Francois de La
Rochefoucauld wrote in Maxim’s, "The height of cleverness is to be able to
conceal it," thought Sir Eon Gunray as he contemplated the hellish
landscape they had traversed to site one. They had set up a temporary base camp
and already they had started using the portable melters in shifts as they dug
down at a gently sloping angle to the area of greatest interest.
While one person
melted a tube carefully in the ice to avoid cave-in’s and created the steps
that would take them down into the city. Another kept the heated hoses that
sucked out the water, clear of obstructions and the pumps running. The water
was pumped to molds to create triangular supports which were them placed back
into the tunnel to reinforce it against sudden cracks and drops. It was a slow
process for the four men but they worked in shifts of two and they made good
headway doing about 20 to 30 feet a day. It would be two hundred feet to the very
top area of the city and the unusual area they were targeting. They would most
likely have to go at least another 150 feet beyond that.
The tunnel would get
longer and longer and of course it would take longer to pump out the water and
to place support triangles as well. Krass took some readings and could see no
way to speed up the process. The deeper they went the slower they would go
until they would be lucky if they made ten feet in a day. The tunnel would have
to curve back and forth as well on it’s slanted trip down to allow for the
digging. It would in essence be a downward zigzag under each previous level
hence the shoring of the tunnel as a necessity.
They obviously were
not going straight down and this would add many feet to the task even if they
made a 45-degree down angle. Krass had set it up for only a 15 degree down
angle for safeties sake on the treacherous ice with level platforms every
twenty feet down for safety purposes. It would be too darned easy to slip and
tumble all the way to the bottom otherwise. That ice was just to darned
dangerous.
Krass figured about
two or three months of digging if there were no problems. That would place them
about five months into the one-year mission with only seven months to go unless
they elected to stay longer. That would be Ronilion’s decision to make. Given
the current circumstances they would not be able to check site two at all. It
was just too deep and too difficult to get to in the time allowed.
A shame that, there
was a fortune in radioactives at that site and it could well be one of the
richest finds on the planet. Site three was still a remote possibility but if
they encountered delays or found something interesting in the city it might
have to be ruled out of the picture as well. The priest had been right about
that. This excavation, that was the easiest of the three, was still going to
take a lot of time. They had found interesting things but it was obvious that
there main job was the preliminary mapping mission.
This meant that
despite what was happening they were actually ahead of schedule. They had
already mapped the system and found several anomalies worthy of investigation.
They had completed a base in a good location and were improving it for later
research. They had started an excavation and would be done in time to have
seven months of research time in the city proper. They might even have time to
start another excavation to the mysterious ball but Krass doubted they would
get that completed. Especially if they left on the schedule as it was
established with only a year on site. Hellfire, even five years would not be
enough to really examine a city of this size and complexity.
Finally as a footnote
the scientists did have a couple of good theories on why the system was the way
it was given the few facts that they had uncovered to date. At least they had
opened several promising lines of investigation. The system could be a rich
find in alien wealth, concepts as well as art and since their appeared to be no
surviving owners it put them that much ahead. The situation could be worse.
Every six days
Ronilion made the trip out to the dig site with supplies for the diggers. He
would then pick up the recyclables and the progress notes and return. The round
trip with the time-spent onsite took roughly three days to complete. He had
learned to turn off his suit speakers so he wouldn’t have to listen to Eon and
Devlin bicker at each other constantly. To date they had been calling each
other such endearing terms as “Flamingo Legs” and “Swamp Ass” as two of the
milder terms. The conversation had become over time even bluer than the ice
ball they were stuck on!
Still he had to admit, everyone was working hard and putting in some very long hours. Many had lost substantial weight under the killing and backbreaking work. Ronilion ignored the comments, as it seemed to be a good release valve. He had to admit the dig was going very well. Devlin might be the biggest pain in the ass ever created but he did know his digging and he was doing it safely. Ronilion reflected that he would have just moved a ship down to the site and would have burned a hole straight down. This way though slower was better. Not that he would tell Krass that, the man already had an ego bigger than the solar system.
The Doctor had become
even surlier as time had gone on but he at least had made some headway. The
refueling tanks were full. Each carried 10,000 solid gallons of pure hydrogen
and there were 10 of those. The air for renewing atmosphere was in four
50,000-gallon tanks and they were almost full. He had started the hydroponics
farm as well, but the meat cultures and SOP writings had yet to begin. Still
Ronilion was not displeased at the work already accomplished. Back at the base
he sat back to reviewed the latest reports.
Jack
had dropped the stubborn explorer off on the moon at the landing site at night.
Nutritious had taken the opportunity to make pictures and recordings of the
area and to store a completed sensor scan in the short time she had been there.
Thirst-Quencher had wasted no time helping Willfulness to unload his gear and
then the ship had quickly taken off into orbit again where the normal work
continued.
The
four days passed quickly with no word from the Explorer. A fifth day passed and
still no communication and no beacon had been placed. The sixth day and then a
seventh passed. Finally on the eighth day Jack met with his crew.
Thirst-Quencher
was the first to speak bluntly, when asked his opinion. “The criminal has
obviously sucked more water than he can handle and was washed away in the
flood. He was reckless and thoughtless. I say good riddance to him. He was a
bad seed and should never have been allowed on this expedition. Still I suppose
we will have to try to find out what happened to him. If you take my advice you
won’t bother even looking for him. As fodder for dangerous animals he probably
had his finest moment.”
Nutritious
had of course taken a slightly more pragmatic view of the situation. “Perhaps
his communicator or beacon is not working properly? If this is so then he will
be waiting at the place where we left him. He only has a limited amount of
supplies and they have to be running out although we did allow extras in case
of emergencies. I suggest we return to where he was dropped off and carefully
examine the area. If he is not there he may have left a journal or recording
that will give us valuable information. We have proven that we can at least
land the ship there safely. That seems to be reasonable to me.”
"Very
true I think, despite his actions, Willfulness has still provided this mission
with a contrasting point of view. However annoying this might be to most of us
it is still helpful. We will set down and search, as a group, the area around
the landing site. We will go no further than 500 meters. Thirst-Quencher,
please make the proper preparations. I don't want to be taken off guard. Anything else?" Asked Jack decisively.
Nutritious
appeared to have nothing to add. Thirst-Quencher nodded also in agreement. I am
prepared to handle any danger that I have been trained for. I will not let you
down. May I suggest that I take point in any investigation so that I may safely
handle any danger? I would suggest that you and Nutritious follow me at a safe
distance. Both nodded in agreement and while they prepared for another landing
Jack went to land the ship.
Several
hours later the ship again made a night landing at the site where the explorer
had been dropped off eight days previously. The ship alerts and guards were
quickly established and Thirst-Quencher wasted little time in establishing a
defensive perimeter while Nutritious set up a base camp as well as an analysis
site and started to investigate the camp left behind by the Explorer. Jack
monitored the scanners while the others worked and as the sun rose in the
valley the tired crew met in the ship with the airlocks sealed to discuss their
findings. Thirst-Quencher was first to report.
“I
have set the camouflage netting over the ship and placed an electrical alarm
and shock barrier around the camp. I have also set several booby traps outside
the perimeter so please be wary of moving outside without my guidance. I have
set up four automatic defensive emplacements at each corner of the camp. The
recognition scanners will not shoot us. I surveyed the area for dangerous
animals or plants and discovered none. Insect life is benign and the plants are
non-hostile. I have seen some sign of animal life but all that I have
categorized and spotted are also non-hostile. I saw no sign of the explorer.
This concludes my preliminary report that covers an area of 500 meters from the
central ship point starting at the perimeter fence out to the stopping point
you ordered.”
Nutritious
had listened quietly and then spoke diffidently, “I also have set up the
analytical station and started to examine the area inside the perimeter. As
previously stated by our learned brother, the plant, insect, animal and air
creatures all appear unharmful to our species. I have examined the flying
animals and the subterranean creatures as well and they are equally harmless.
We appear to be safe at the present time. I have been monitoring weather
conditions and they also appear stable and quite risk-free for our species.
Having discovered nothing of danger here I started to subject the explorers
camp to analysis as well. I preface this with the fact that our wayward
scientist is undisciplined in his personal habits and does not take instructive
recordings or useful notes. This should come as no surprise to us who know him.
He has the tendency to fixate on certain things and ignoring the possibilities
in other effects.”
She
looked up in some distaste, “Never the less I have made some inroads into what
he was doing and I can at least offer some guidance for us to follow. To make
the story simple, His first two days were spent not securing this camp but
making forays into the wilderness of this planet. He was in the process of
making a large circle of the camp and had started by moving North and doing a
series of 90-degree sweeps in a clockwise manner. It was near the end of the
third day when he was heading roughly southwest of this camp that he came
across a large building made of dressed rock. It was a type of rock that appeared
much like marble but was much tougher and stronger.”
“He
had no time to go in to explore the interior that day as the light was waning
so he returned and wrote in his diary that he was going to go back there
tomorrow for a full investigation into the core of the structure. That was his
last entry. This building would appear to be our starting point. If we follow a
direct trail to where he says it is, it should be roughly 10 kilometers to our
Southwest and should be very noticeable as we approach it. He describes the
building as ‘very large’. That essentially tells us nothing as size can
subjective. It would have been nice if he had included some measurements. Since
he has given us no further information we have only to decide where to go from
there.”
Jack
looked at her a moment. “That is all the useful information you were able to
recover? Did he make mention of any kind of intelligent life?” The female
scientist shook her head negatively. “He makes no mention, except for the entry
of the building and makes no notations of seeing or conversing with an
intelligence. I would have assumed given his known ego, that if he had
discovered such an intelligence he would have most assuredly boasted of it in
his notes or diaries. The building was the only unusual thing he reported.”
The
Captain nodded in agreement. “Then it seems likely that we should go and
observe this building for a few days. Perhaps by observation we can learn what
we need to know without risking further hazards to the crew.” Thirst-Quencher nodded
in complete agreement but Nutritious looked uneasy.
“I will do as you
command but have you considered that time in this matter may not be on our
side? We are already four days past the point when we should have recovered the
explorer. He has been gone from here carrying only a single day worth of
supplies since he expected to return by evening. How many more days do you
contemplate watching and waiting before we seek him out? If he is injured or
running low on water or food he may be dead by the time we get to him.”
Thirst-Quencher
smiled, “Of course the leader has considered this. Why should he risk other
lives when the foolish one is probably already dead? Did the Explorer not take
survival training as well? Why should we risk harming ourselves when he so
foolishly insisted on this very experiment and gave no thought to the
consequences of his actions? I agree with the leader, if he is dead then when
we get there is not the issue to him but it is to us. If there is no further
harm to him and it is only a delay he will appear when he needs to appear. I
prefer to hope that the forces of evolution have removed another unfit one from
the breeding pool.” Nutritious looked shocked.
Jack nodded, “You
have both made good points. I suggest we both go to observe the area and then
decide if we should make any immediate movements or if we should continue to
assess the danger until we are sure we can handle it. Let us not be too
precipitous in our motions. We must continue to be cautious and thus not risk
more mistakes at this time.”
The next day bright
and early the group shouldered their packs and supplies and proceeded on the
trail of the explorer. The way was easily found for it appeared that
Willfulness had hacked a quick and direct trail. In two hours they suddenly
left the shelter of the trees for a large flat plain of ferns. The ferns were
quite tall and lush and although they made the view limited they did little to
slow things down. The big problem was that the ferns grew so quickly that the
trail Willfulness had used was already long overgrown.
By noon though they
noticed a large stone building standing on a large lone hill. It was pretty
obvious this was what they were looking for. The problem was there was a large
plain all around and the building looked down on the plain and had good
visibility. It would be hard to watch it unseen. The building was a strange
design, as it seemed to look something like a mobius strip rather than a square
or rounded building. There was a cleared and paved road running up to the
building and inside could be seen delicate spires and minarets that appeared to
be Crystalline in nature. It was a strangely freeform but colorful building. “I
don’t think watching it is going to do much good at this point,” remarked
Nutritious.
It was a full month before the group had made contact with the upper side of the industrial area and they were immediately surprised. Krass was cursing a blue streak at Eon who was just as confused and was examining the scanner settings. “I don’t understand it.” Eon stated confused. It doesn’t appear on any of the scans.
Drassel
had just finished placing a support and came up to look and see what was
causing such an outburst of confusion and was shocked as well. They had run
right into what looked like a clear plastic dome covering the whole area! It
was not filled with ice and it appeared unbroken. As he looked in by wiping off
the condensation he could see strange objects on the huge platform. Why hadn’t
the scanners picked it up?”
Eon
though soon came up with the answer. “This stuff is a strange resin-like
substance and completely natural. Nothing artificial about it’s makeup. It is a
highly unusual composition and given all the ice it completely fooled the
scanners making us think this was ice all the way to the bottom. What a find!
We don’t have to excavate around each of the buildings separately and this will
allow us to examine things much faster. I wonder if the whole city is covered
in this stuff or just this facility?”
Drassel
was quick to reply. “Obviously not the whole city but it is easy to miss. Look
here,” he stated pulling out a scan, “many of the buildings are damaged. The
buildings inside this facility show no such damage. We had assumed this was so
because of their heavy construction but it is obvious the dome protected them.
The city does show the crushing affects of the ice and the expansion. See how
some of the walls have burst? I think we have chosen the best site to
investigate because of the intact nature of the find. Now all we have to do is
use the melter to make an entrance.”
“YOU
FRAGGING MORON! I already tried the melter. A solid atomic cutting flame and it
don’t even make a dent in this stuff. I
thought it was just more ice at first and so I couldn’t figure out why I was
making no headway all of a sudden. This stuff takes the heat and absorbs it
like it was a sponge!” Krass screamed jumping up and down as he shook the
melter.
“Just
because the melter doesn’t work lamebrain doesn’t mean everything else is
useless. I have explosives or acids we can try or some drilling might perhaps
have a more lasting affect. Still before we take such steps is their any air in
there? If there isn’t I wouldn’t want to make any holes. Anyone see any sign of
life, food, heat or intelligence?”
Drassel
was quick with a come back, “I see no signs of intelligence even out here.
Given the clarity inside the dome there is no air inside and it looks as frozen
as the outside. However I remind you also that there is no air out HERE either
and we are in space suits so you need not worry about bursting and being sucked
into the cracks. Go ahead and bring up your drills first or axes or whatever
and we will try to make a surgical hole to get through.”
"WAIT A FRAGGING MOMENT," screamed
Krass. "I have a few questions before you idiots just charge ahead. What
happens if we open a hole in the dome and it violates its integrity? We could
go crashing down with tons of ice in a gigantic ten mile wide
landslide." He glared at Eon,
"You put a bomb on this thing and I want enough time to run like Hell and
if we survive after that you do the digging to try to get it all back out. You
can also do all the stuff to repair the damage. Look you incredible moron, we
are standing on about a 45-degree angle on this dome and it's a good five miles
to the bottom. How do you intend to get down there even if you breach the dome
without destroying it?"
Eon
laughed at Krass, “Calm down BONEHEAD. For an archeologist you sure get
excitable easy. Think about it a minute, lamebrain. First you have a substance
that can defy, at least for a short time an atomic flame. That makes this
substance pretty tough. Second it is already holding up tons and tons of ice and
it shows no sign of strain cracks or breaks anywhere. It has done so for at
least 2,000 years. If this stuff was as brittle as you thought something would
have destroyed it years ago. Now sure a
bomb is a bit extreme, but there are bombs and there are bombs. I had more in
mind either a thermite or a small shaped charge. We have other options though
before we get to that point. As you say the hard part will be to get down once
we make the hole. I don’t believe any of us has five miles worth of rope even if
we tie them all together.”
Krass
would have spit in disgust if he weren’t in a space suit. He spoke slowly as if
to a child. “Your method of archeology is too crude for my taste. The idea of
planting a bomb or wrecking this is asinine until we KNOW what we are wrecking.
Let me make it clear to you. This device absorbs heat. It may be that is
exactly what it is suppose to do! If you put a hole in it then it may not be
able to do what it is supposed to. If we cut it or wreck it how much can we
gain?”
“Look at this stuff.
It would make a great armor for ships. It would be great for engine shielding
material and it could even be better in nuclear power plants. This stuff alone
is a veritable gold mine. I am not is such a hurry that I have to have
immediate access by blowing or chopping holes in it. If we have to stop and
bring extra analysis instruments out or even the scientific ship then I am
willing to wait that long. We are after all ahead of schedule. I would rather
not tear it up right away OK?”
“ Besides consider
this. This thing absorbs heat like a sponge. The heat goes somewhere. Now we
are on an ice ball planet with little heat. I suggest a controlled experiment.
We set up a rack that holds a melter and we let it place heat in the dome for 8
hours. I suspect that it will not melt our hole in the dome but if it is a
power plant that uses heat to run we may discover interesting affects right
here. What have we got to lose?” He looked at them expectantly.