Solar Express (62 page)

“They were hit by high-speed space debris.” Tavoian paused. “It might be better said that way. I was short on Hel3. It struck me that the less mass was in the ship, the longer the fuel would last. So I tossed out everything that was either broken or not of further use before we entered the second decel—”

“What was your speed at that point?”

“Eighty kays per second.”

“So … did you have any idea that any Sinese ships were nearby?”

Tavoian knew what the colonel wanted. He wouldn't go that far. “I knew there were Sinese ships near L1, but the way I jettisoned the excess equipment was designed to avoid the L1 installations.”
Which it was.
“I had so little Hel3 remaining that I couldn't make any major course changes.”

The colonel nodded. “That's perfectly understandable. The fact that nothing hit any L1 installation shows just how accurate you were under very stressful circumstances. The data and images you brought back will prove invaluable.”

“I doubt it, sir.”

“Oh?”

“The only thing that all the data, observations, and images will show is that it is theoretically possible to design a starship with an almost impregnable hull out of common materials reconfigured on the hadronic level in a way we know nothing about, powered by a technology we can't even guess at. With the only hard physical evidence being a 38 millimeter chunk of an impregnable substance, I have my doubts how invaluable what I did was.”

“What you did was invaluable.” The colonel smiled. “Invaluable enough that I've put you in for the Medal of Valor. You will receive it. Both the DOEA Secretary and the Secretary of Defense have signed off on it.”

Tavoian understood that part of the reason for the medal would never be mentioned directly.

“Once we wade out of this current morass, Major, you'll be very much in demand, and you're going to be the voice for interplanetary exploration … and beyond. I assume that meets with your approval?”

Tavoian did not reply, thinking about that magnificent fragment of a giant ship.
Who else could talk about it … and be believed?
“I take it that my health is good enough that I can do almost anything—except long space voyages?”

“You take it, correctly, Major. Rather, your health will be … once you complete gravity reacclimation. We'll talk about that tomorrow. We've talked enough today.” The colonel nodded, then turned and left the small chamber.

Tavoian's mouth dropped.
What was that all about?

When no one appeared, he decided that he'd better finish reading Kit's message and send a reply.

 

91

D
AEDALUS
B
ASE

6 D
ECEMBER
2114

Even though Alayna had known from Chris's message that he wouldn't be back until late in the day on Wednesday, when she went to sleep that night, she'd still heard nothing. Nor had there been anything in the news summaries. There had only been a notice that all travel to and from all lunar and L1 and L2 locales had been suspended due to the presence of armed Sinese spacecraft.

On Thursday, she woke up early and worried. As soon as she was in the COFAR control center, she checked her messages, but there was only the news summary, just the second one since the CME had hit Earth's magnetosphere. Because of her concerns about her father, from whom she'd still heard nothing, and Chris, she opened the news summary first. She knew what she was about to read would be anything but encouraging, and she wasn't in the slightest surprised by the long litany of areas of the world where the power grids were nonfunctional, including most of the midwestern Noram states. She didn't worry about power in the case of her father because he had both solar and wind power systems at his house outside of Lincoln. What worried her more was the report of heavy snow across the area. Snow and overall power shortages were not a good combination, especially in early winter. That New York was flooding and failing was no surprise, either, not when there wasn't enough power for all the pumps that kept everything dry.

The tiny blurb at the end caught her attention, and she froze for a moment, then read it once more.

Two Sinese spacecraft were destroyed within several thousand kilometers of various L1 installations around 1830 UTC yesterday. Noram sources declared that the two craft were warships destroyed by high-speed natural space objects. Sinese Space Command sources insist the ships were unarmed and were the victims of an unprovoked attack by a single militarized fusionjet of Noram origin. Whether there was a ship in the vicinity at the time, and if there was, what became of it is unknown at this time.

“
Unknown at this time” doesn't mean destroyed.
Alayna also knew that just because Chris had been scheduled to arrive somewhere around that time, the unidentified craft didn't have to be his. But she also knew that if the Sinese ships were holding L1 installations hostage, that they had likely been warships, since travel had been suspended. Under those conditions, Chris was the type to try to do something.
Even if you did tell him to be very careful.

She sent off a short message to her father, not knowing whether it would reach him, just saying that she was fine and that she hoped to hear from him.

Finally, she fixed herself coffee and breakfast, then began to eat while she considered her day, which was actually lunar night. The scheduled observations were continuing, although the system was still having to store some of the data and images for later transmission. The monitors showed everything operating normally, even the extreme ultraviolet telescope, for which she was thankful, since she'd had to replace several components the day before. She wondered if that might have been a possible aftereffect of the concentration of the system on the destruction of the Solar Express.

She still had no idea of how the high-temperature particle beam had been generated, or why it had focused on the alien artifact. In thinking about the alien artifact, another thought popped into her head, this time about the “circles” Chris had observed on the outer hull. If the alien ship had been using a graviton drive or gravitons as a way to traverse a wormhole, were the circles merely an affect of the gravitons projected due to scattering from the hexagonal columns that were projectors?
How would you know?
And what would it imply?

It might …
she began to think in terms of how to express that in mathematical theory.

At least, that would keep her mind partly off worrying about her father and Chris.

Less than an hour later, another message arrived, and Alayna immediately dropped what she was doing and called up the message, hoping it was from Chris or her father.

She couldn't stop smiling as she saw it was from Chris, and she immediately began to read. When she finished, she read it again to make certain that she wasn't missing anything. He sounded well, but she could sense that he was worried about the medical tests, worried that he wouldn't be able to continue as a pilot, or even in the Space Service.
That would be hard for him. But he's back. He's back safe.

Alayna was still thinking about what she might say that wasn't excessive when another message arrived. She hoped it was from her father. It wasn't. She didn't recognize the sender. At least, she didn't think she did. The name was Caldwell Blaakner. She immediately began to read.

Dr. Wong-Grant:

It's been a number of years since we met. It was, just after your second year at Princeton, when you returned to Lincoln to visit your family …

Who is this Caldwell Blaakner?

 … and your mother was kind enough to introduce you to my son, who was interested in either astronomy or astrophysics and wanted to know more …

Now … Alayna recalled the name … and the face. A tall stern-faced woman who had been her mother's physician.
A doctor? What's happened to Dad?

 … You may have learned that Lincoln suffered a sudden devastating blizzard in addition to the failure of the power system. That's why I'm contacting you from the hospital. I wish there were another way to convey this …

Alayna swallowed.

Your father knew that his neighbors, the Kalimpuras, were not so well provisioned or powered as he was, and he made his way through the snow to offer them a warmer place to stay. Unhappily, two others had gone there before him. He surprised them as they were attacking the couple. Both the Kalimpuras were injured, Yakob more so than Isbella, but with your father's assistance, they subdued the attackers. Your father did not realize that he had been as severely wounded as he was. When the couple realized that, they managed to stop most of the bleeding and rushed him to the hospital in his own vehicle …

Of course, Dad was prepared for everything.

 … I can't be certain, but I believe he died before he reached the hospital. We tried everything … I'm so sorry.

Alayna just sat before the controls and screens. Finally, she read the last lines.

Your father had mentioned to Dr. Neher that you were the resident director of COFAR, and a friend managed to find the address for us. I did think you would want to know …

The rest of the words washed over Alayna. In a way, she'd almost known. Her father would have tried anything to let her know he was all right.
So like him … thinking of others …

How much time passed, she wasn't certain, but it was well into early afternoon when she realized that another message had come in. She almost didn't want to open it, especially when she saw it wasn't from Chris … or anyone else she knew, but from the Department of Off-Earth Affairs.

Now what?
Was it terrible news about Chris? She shook her head. Even if something had happened to him, no one was going to notify her. They weren't related.

Thinking about her last encounter with the Noram government and the rather intrusive and overbearing nature of more than a few members of the Inspector-General's investigatory team, she didn't even want to open the missive, especially after the last message, and particularly one addressed to her as Dr. Alayna Wong-Grant, Resident Director, Combined Farside Array, Daedalus Base. The first lines weren't any more reassuring.

Director Grant:

All lunar entities receiving funding, whether partial or full, have certain obligations to the government, said responsibilities being administered by the senior DOEA official in the area under whose jurisdiction such entities fall …

Alayna took a long deep breath. The last thing she needed was another run-in with anyone, especially DOEA, since the DOEA funding that Farside Foundation received was critical to maintaining COFAR.
And your appointment and future.

At that moment, Marcel announced, “You have an urgent message from the Director-Generale, Dr. Wong-Grant.”

Why now? Can't they all just leave me alone?
After a moment, she sighed.
No doubt a directive to comply with whatever DOEA requires.
It had to be something like that, because Alayna couldn't believe DOEA would require something without notifying the Foundation. She switched to the Director-Generale's message. While it took two paragraphs, the bottom line was simple: Do what DOEA wants and make them happy.

Alayna wouldn't have expected anything else. She nodded and returned to finishing the DOEA message—more like a requisition, she thought. But, upon further thought, probably not unexpected with everything that had happened in the wake of the Solar Express and the CME.

Whether or not you like it, you don't have any choice.
Slowly, she began to compose her replies, first to the local DOEA authority and then to the Director-Generale.

Later … when she was more settled, she'd reply to Chris.

 

92

D
ONOVAN
B
ASE

7 D
ECEMBER
2114

At precisely 1000 UTC on Friday Tavoian entered the colonel's sanctum sanctorum on the main level and seated himself.

“We'll keep this meeting short,” the colonel said. “Dr. Cattertyn doesn't think you should be spending more than an hour at a time in half gee right now.”

“She won't tell me why, except that I didn't get enough exercise, and my blood chemistry is out of sorts.”

“That should be sufficient, considering you were operating on the edge of consciousness for more than a few hours. You're very durable, Major. You were also very fortunate. Now … let's go over the mission. You can skip the outbound trip. Just begin from when you took station on the artifact. Don't bother with anything that's logged into the system. More about what you saw, any conclusions or observations that you've kept to yourself…”

Tavoian was more than happy not to have to dwell on his stupidity in trying to use every gram of Hel3, although those details were certainly in the AI's records, and if the colonel didn't know already, which he likely did, he would before long. “One of my first impressions, sir, was just how damned big the artifact was … and how perfect and untouched everything was…”

Tavoian had talked for close to forty minutes before saying, “I really can't think of anything more that I haven't already reported.”

“If you remember anything else you think might be important, just make a note on it, and we'll go over it when you get back.”

“I'm leaving soon?”

“In about three hours.” The colonel paused. “You're not to mention where you're taking your low grav reacclimation to anyone, particularly to your friend the astrophysicist.”

“But—” Tavoian started to protest.

“No ‘buts,' Major. We can't risk anyone knowing where you're headed. Even our burst transmissions might not be perfectly secure. That's another reason for your early departure, and why we've already dispatched all the information you brought back to DOEA HQ and Space Command. It will blow over, especially after the Sinese understand the position they're in, but they're still furious about what happened to their ships, and not all their dispersed elements are necessarily under the full control of the new government.”