Solar Express (38 page)

Tavoian debated whether he should even attempt analyzing the lump of material recovered from the artifact. Still he had to try … but after what had occurred with the laser being used as a cutter, he wasn't about to apply high power to anything. Even so, he had his doubts as to whether even the more sophisticated and high-powered sampling equipment onboard Recon three would be any more effective in revealing anything about the silver or green material comprising the structure of the artifact. The only place where spectrographic analysis had worked thus far was on the melted and damaged protrusions in the handful of hexagons with partly opened doors … and in revealing the silicon and silver in the outer hull, but even Tavoian knew that silver and silicon couldn't make a hull as durable as that of the artifact—not with any technology known on Earth.

Finally, he decided he'd attempt an analysis at low power. Less than a minute after he closed the bay door, the display panel showed its results.

No gasification at current power settings.

Spectrographic reflection analysis reveals the following elements: carbon, silicon, silver.

Material impervious to electromagnetic penetration beyond surface.

Impervious?
How could that be? What looked to be the same material in the door-frame area of the hexagons showed a photosensitivity. Was the photosensitivity confined to the surface of the material? Tavoian had to think that over. The perceived color of an object or material was determined by the wavelengths reflected. Yet the door frames had selectively accepted photons in the wavelength that was being reflected, in addition to all other wavelengths of visible light, as well as UV and IR. Was there something about that material that changed its composition when exposed to light? Or when it became the surface? The lump presumably had come from the interior, and the majority of interior surfaces were the dark green.

He needed to report on the sampling results, but the report could wait until he had at least some preliminary results from attempting what Alayna had suggested. He made his way back to the controls.

“Interrogative status of ISV?”

ISV IS IN POSITION RELATIVE TO THE OUTERMOST HEXAGON YOU SELECTED.

“Conduct spectrographic analysis on hull area outside the circle.” Tavoian doubted that he'd find anything differing much, but sometimes things didn't.

ANALYSIS REVEALS CARBON, SILICON, AND SILVER.

“Nothing else?”

NO OTHER ELEMENTS DETECTED.

Even though he'd expected that, it still bothered him. How had the aliens managed to create such a hard and durable material from just those three elements?
Finding that out isn't your job. Your job is to get as much information as possible to those people who can.
Except Tavoian was finding his job far harder than he—or anyone else, he suspected—had thought it would be.

“Commence reflectivity tests on the hull area beyond the circle and report results.”

COMMENCING REFLECTIVITY TESTS.

Tavoian waited.

REFLECTIVITY IS NINETY-NINE POINT EIGHT ACROSS ALL WAVELENGTHS. RANGES FROM ULTRAVIOLET TO INFRARED.

That level of reflectivity seemed extraordinarily high for a ship's hull. From his messages and his initial conversations with Alayna, Tavoian knew that optical telescopes came close to perfect reflectivity … but for a white hull that didn't seem polished, that didn't seem possible. “How can that be?”

IN THEORY, NANOLEVEL DIFFRACTION GRATINGS COULD ACHIEVE THAT REFLECTIVITY.

“With a surface so hard that lasers can't scratch it?”

AT PRESENT, THERE IS NO RECORD OF SUCH A MATERIAL HAVING BEEN FABRICATED.

But the aliens managed that, it appears.
“Move the laser to the center of the circle. Repeat the tests and report.”

A few seconds after the two minutes had passed, the AI reported,
REFLECTIVITY IS NINETY-EIGHT POINT THREE ACROSS ALL WAVELENGTHS. RANGES FROM ULTRAVIOLET TO INFRARED, EXCEPT FOR WAVELENGTHS OF 379 AND 380 NANOMETERS.

Absorbing two wavelengths and one and a half percent drop off … but why there?
“Is there any detectable difference in the hull surface inside the circle?”

ANY DIFFERENCE IS BEYOND THE SENSITIVITY OF THE EQUIPMENT.

Tavoian thought about another high-power test, then shook his head. With near perfect reflectivity of the hull surface, about the only thing that could happen was to damage his own equipment. “Repeat the tests on eight other circles, two on this side of the curved section of the hull, three in the middle, and three on the far side. Then test two other open sections of hull. Report the results when the tests are done.” He had a good idea what those results would be, but he'd need at least that many confirmations to report back to the colonel and the DOEA scientists.

At the same time, he realized that there was … something … about the hull and the measurements, something that nagged at him. But he couldn't recall exactly what it was, except that he'd fleetingly thought it was unusual.

You're tired. You'll think of it later.

He hoped so. In the meantime, he began to write up the results of the tests and investigations conducted over the course of a very long day, knowing that he'd have to be careful about exactly how he wrote up the results before he sent them off to the colonel. He'd likely have to rewrite them at least once, knowing that he tended to be sloppy when he was tired, but if he didn't take care of it immediately, he'd worry about it instead of sleeping.

He also needed to eat.

After that, if his eyes could still focus, he'd see about writing a message to Alayna … and maybe to Kit and his parents.

 

50

T
HE
N
EW
Y
ORK
T
IMES

15 N
OVEMBER
2114

[O
TTAWA
] “The North American Union has not placed remote explosive devices anywhere in space,” declared President Dyana Yates late yesterday. “We remain fully open to peaceful cooperation in matters of space research and development.” Her statement was in response to a charge by Sinese Minister for Space Wong Mengyi that a small laser-triggered explosion in space was absolute proof that the Noram Space Ministry had already begun to militarize space in violation of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and the Joint Space Agreement of 2051.

The explosion occurred near the possible alien artifact many have termed the Solar Express. DOEA Secretary Luvalle declared that the “minuscule explosion” was the result of the energy reflected from the surface of the artifact back into a laser measuring unit that caused a power overload in the remote sampling device.

Senator Riccardo Castenada (CP-NY) charged Luvalle with a “blatant coverup” and declared that if Luvalle thought reflected light was explosive, he had no business serving as DOEA Secretary. Castenada went on to charge the entire Yates Administration with malfeasance in subsidizing a bloated military-industrial space combine, whose only priority was profit, while ignoring the “real and pressing needs of the people of New York and other states” of the North American Union.

In response, a joint statement from Senator Kim Greywinter (D-ALB) and Tanya Patton (D-SASK) noted that Castenada had yet to retract his erroneous statement about the so-called Solar Express being a hoax and a fabrication, a failure that demonstrated Castenada's total ignorance about DOEA affairs. Castenada remains under investigation by the Noram Inspector-General's office in regard to charges that he disclosed classified DOEA material, and a government source indicates that an indictment is “possible” in the near future.

Acting EC Chancellor Alceste Ciorni, serving while Erek Rumikov recovers from injuries incurred from the failed assassination attempt by Scottish separatists, repeated the EC's disappointment with both Noram and the Sinese Federation for failing to inform other nations about the potential alien spacecraft.

One of the top authorities on space law, Kacia Elspeth, noted that while military installations and weapons of mass destruction are prohibited under existing treaties, there is no prohibition on conventional weapons. In addition, the distinction between a warship in space and a ship carrying conventional weapons has never been precisely defined …

 

51

D
AEDALUS
B
ASE

15 N
OVEMBER
2114

Thursday morning Alayna woke up early with the words she'd thought had vanished, at least for a while, going through her head:

Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

I wish, I wish he'd go away.

She didn't even try to push them away as she hurried and got dressed. Since it was day on Farside, and there was actually a free block of time on the solar optical array, she didn't waste any time in gulping down coffee and checking the coordinates she'd set up for her latest observing plan, once “her” block of time became available at 0830 UTC.
Maybe today will be the day when you discover the little solar man who's there again today, but isn't.

After she had more coffee and ate, she went over all the systems, looking especially at the indicators for the aeroponics and the water feeds, but those were doing well, now that she'd adjusted the system to take into account the higher calcium load. The only messages she received were news summaries, one of which reported that a large Sinese spacecraft, almost twice the size of the standard longliner, had left high Earth orbit four days earlier, by which Alayna assumed an orbit well beyond geostationary, in the direction of the artifact dubbed the Solar Express. The Sinese refused to comment, beyond saying that it was an unarmed research craft.

Something that size as a research ship and poor Chris is out there in something like a hurriedly converted fusionjet?
Alayna forced her thoughts back to the next step in her research, which was an attempt to correlate the appearance of the multi-fractal mini-granulations with either the duration or the intensity of the “regular” granulations in the same latitude bands. She would even have been happy if a correlation of a negative sort appeared, that the multi-fractal mini-granulations appeared some time either before or after either greater convection activity or less, although there had been some limited research in the past that could not find such a correlation, but the observation periods had been too short to be conclusive.

While Marcel carried out the observations, Alayna called up the message she'd received late on Wednesday from Emma, reading over the key parts before she dashed off a quick reply.

 … your Solar Express is definitely acting alien! We've seen an increase in its inbound velocity. Several percent more than can be accounted for by standard mass/gravitational force. I don't want to put figures on an open communication. We're not the only facility that's noted this. John Dorcaster at Yerkes has also. If he has, so has most of the astronomical world …

Emma never did like Dorcaster.
With good reason, from what Alayna had overheard, but Yerkes needed an astronomer who was as much mediaslut as astronomer, and Dorcaster was certainly both.

Alayna shunted Emma's message to the side, considering again that it really hadn't been an error in Marcel's calculations. In one way, that definitely relieved Alayna. In another, it was a real concern. There was absolutely no indication of a propulsion system, and Chris had consistently referred to the alien creation as an artifact. The physical parameters indicated that it was old, but the images he'd shared with her definitely didn't show that. The lines were crisp. There were no craters, scrapes or scratches, or anything that revealed wear and age … and that was another worry. What if it was all a colossal hoax? But who or what could have engineered that? The Sinese had a base on Europa, farther out from where the artifact had first been observed … but to create something that massive? With all the reported properties?

Unless Noram and the Sinese were cooperating …

Alayna shook her head. That was most improbable, even more improbable than an actual ancient alien artifact.

She had already replied to Emma, most carefully, trying not to be curt but without revealing too much and noting that COFAR had observed the mass/velocity discrepancy, but that, because of the location of Daedalus Base, did not have recent observations that would confirm the magnitude of that discrepancy. Alayna definitely needed to be careful. The way things were going, she'd need every contact and every possible supporter once she left COFAR and the Farside Foundation … assuming that the growing hostilities between the three major powers didn't escalate into all-out warfare.

She checked the message queue again. Nothing there.

Since she did have time while Marcel actually carried out the observations, and she wouldn't later, when she'd have to pore over them and suggest analytical patterns, she decided to reply to Chris. After what he'd sent her, she definitely owed him, although in some ways, she also envied him.

Chris,

The images are stunning, and I wish I could send you some from a distance, for comparison, but COFAR won't be in position to view you and the artifact for another week. There are disadvantages to observing from a body whose full day-night cycle is twenty-eight days. Sometimes, we have to wait a long time, unlike deep space observatories or even those on Earth. On the other hand, it's all relative, because we have advantages they don't.

I have to admit that the artifact doesn't look as old as all our observations suggest. Whoever or whatever constructed it designed for it to last eons … or longer … That's clear. I can only hope you're able to find out as much as you can in the comparatively limited time you have there.