Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

The big thing wants them to come inside.

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rjb

Chapter Forty-Six – The Doorbell

The marked area on Wayfarer’s screen was almost right in front of them, just ahead of midships, but it was right up at the top. After they’d come around the bow, which had exhibited no interesting features at all, much to their disappointment, they’d returned to their original position. This meant that they were halfway down the twenty kilometer cliff face that was the side of the monster, only they were standing just a kilometer off rather than their original hundred. That put the marked area a little over ten kilometers above them.

“Specialist Blunt,” said Supervisor Steel, “set course. Follow those arrows.”

“But sir …” Blunt began, then caught himself. “Sir,” he said, visibly controlling himself, “what if it’s a trap?”

“I have considered that possibility,” said Steel, “and I have concluded that it doesn’t matter if it’s a trap or not.” Blunt tried to say something, but Steel stopped him. “You see,” he said, “if it’s not a trap, then it’s a great opportunity. And if it is a trap, then we’re done for anyway. Do you honestly think we could escape if that thing wanted to kill us?”

Blunt thought for only an instant before he dropped his head. “No, sir,” he said quietly.

“No,” said Steel. “Our best course is to follow the arrows and see where they lead us. If it’s a trap, then so be it, but the opportunity is too great to pass up.” He looked at the other two. “Does that sound all right?” he asked. “Have I missed anything?”

“No, sir,” they both said. Tallgrass added, “I don’t think we came all this way to turn away now.”

“Exactly,” said Steel. “And imagine if we left and the Sunward ship got invited instead.”

That clinched it. Not even Blunt was prepared to let that happen. He set course and began to follow the arrows up.

At first he found he was overtaking the arrows, so he instinctively decreased his acceleration. Once he matched their speed, they accelerated smoothly until they were halfway there, then decelerated just as smoothly. He matched them by keeping one arrowhead right in the middle of his display, and it was still there when they came to a full stop five meters from the wall.

They were about twenty meters from the top. They couldn’t see them, but they knew the twenty-eight smaller vessels they’d seen were parked about fifteen kilometers inboard, near the ship’s center line. At this angle, they could just make out a section of the light sail’s frame curving out and up and away at its thirty degree angle. They couldn’t see the sail at all from this side, only the stars in their correct positions on the other side of it. It was perfectly transparent from this side.

In front of them was a blank wall. There were no markings. Nothing that looked like writing. All they could see was the faint outline of a square ten meters on a side, and they were parked opposite the center of it.

Nothing happened. Nothing changed on the wall to show that their arrival had been noticed. The arrowhead remained unmoving and unblinking in the middle of Blunt’s display. They were on the Grasswind side of the big vessel, in deep shadow, with the Sun on the other side. The wall mutely reflected their spotlights, revealing nothing.

“Now what, sir?” asked Blunt.

“That’s a good question,” said Steel. “Does anyone have any suggestions? Wayfarer? Tallgrass?”

Wayfarer shrugged, and Tallgrass didn’t seem to hear. He was staring intently at a point just to the right of the ten meter square in front of them.

“Tallgrass?” said Steel.

Tallgrass shook his head and closed his slack mouth. “Sorry, sir,” he said. Then to Blunt, “Could you angle one of the lights over there? Just to the right there.”

Blunt complied and they were able to make something out. It was a shallow depression about a meter long. It had the shape of an elongated, somewhat rounded triangle. But that was all. There was no further indication of its purpose.

It looked as if it should do something. It was different from the surrounding area, and it stood out. They all stared at it, not saying anything, until Wayfarer said, “Do you think it might be a doorbell?”

That got a good laugh, and Steel said, “That’s as good an idea as any.”

Tallgrass looked at Wayfarer and said, “Ah!” then headed for his alcove.

“What?” she said.

“You’ll see,” he said as he ducked behind the curtain.

They looked at each other and shrugged, and he popped right back out with the glider.

“What’s that for, Run- … Runner?” asked Blunt.

Steel said, “Ah,” and glanced at the doorbell.

Wayfarer noticed and looked, too, then said, “Oh. Of course.”

Blunt said, “What?” He frowned at everyone before looking back at the doorbell, then understanding dawned on his face. “Oh,” he said.

Tallgrass said, “When Wayfarer said it might be a doorbell, it just jumped into my head.” He held up the glider. “A doorbell, maybe. Or a key?”

“It looks the right size and shape,” said Steel. “Blunt, measure that depression.”

He did, and the dimensions matched the top of the glider, with its etching of a water molecule, perfectly.

“Permission to make an excursion, sir,” said Tallgrass, holding up the glider in its mesh sack.

“Permission granted,” said the Supervisor.

“How did your mom know?” asked Wayfarer as she helped Tallgrass into his pressure suit.

“I don’t think she knew,” he said, squatting into the legless back end. “She just thought that the gliders probably came from space, and this thing was out here, so …”

“It makes perfect sense when you think about it,” she said. “The difference is, your mom thought about it when no one else did.”

“Yeah,” he said, stepping into the front legs. “My mom is the smartest person I know.” He got his hind end and his front legs well seated, then he shoved his arms, one at a time, into the suit’s arms.

Wayfarer reached down between his hind legs and grabbed the zipper, which she pulled all the way up to the top of his long neck. When she lowered the fishbowl helmet over his head, he tucked his ears back to fit. They would stay back there until the helmet came off. The top of the helmet was clear, so all four of his eyes had unobstructed vision, and the bottom was solid, housing switches and readouts, and tubes for water and the energy syrup.

All sealed up, he switched the suit on and watched all his indicators come up ready. Then he took the mesh bag holding the glider and headed for the airlock.

He cycled out into the five meter space between the Emissary and the great wall. He was able to work his way over to the doorbell without using any propellant, using his hands to push himself along. When he got there, he carefully removed the glider from its bag and gripped it firmly in both hands. He looked back and could see the heads of his crewmates in the forward port. He nodded and turned and held the glider out to the matching shape on the wall.

It fit perfectly, seating itself with a tug and a click that he could feel through his gloves. After it snicked into place, it began to glow with a soft white light, as did the line beside it. The whole ten meter square outline lighted up, then that part of the wall drew back inside before sliding sideways. He was looking into a big, brightly lighted chamber, with a line of arrowheads flowing inward on the floor.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Up close the thing just gets more mysterious. And it knows that they’re there.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Forty-Five – The Line

“All stop, Specialist Blunt,” said Steel when they came to rest a hundred kilometers from the thing. They could see it quite well, even at that distance, because of its size. Its length was the same as their distance from it. A hundred kilometers. It was as if they were to stand back five meters from their own vessel, the Emissary, and look at it.

They couldn’t make out any surface details, partly because of the distance and partly because of the lumps of rubble attached to it. They could see now that it wasn’t completely covered by the debris, which was artfully placed to break up its outline. With the telescope they could see a little better. Well enough to see that there were some things that seemed to be attached to its top. Or, what they were calling its top. They had instinctively begun thinking of the long side with the line rising out of it as the top. The things attached there were just ahead of where the line met the body. They had also decided that the thing had a front and back, with the line leaning back.

“Specialist Wayfarer,” said Steel, “please give us a radar sweep of the thing. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

“Yes, sir,” she said, turning on the radar.

“But sir,” said Blunt, “do you think that’s wise? What if the radar wakes it up, or something?”

Steel just looked at him and said, “Don’t you think it might have noticed us by now if it was going to?” To Wayfarer he said, “Go ahead.”

No sooner had she aimed the radar and transmitted a pulse, than they received a pulse in reply, the same duration and the same frequency.

“I told you so!” said Blunt, his hands taking the flight controls.

“Stand easy, Blunt,” said Steel. “Wayfarer, send another pulse.”

She did, with the same result.

“We should get out of here!” said Blunt.

“Relax,” said Steel. And to Wayfarer, “Send a longer pulse.”

She did and the reply was just as long.

Blunt just threw up his hands, but Steel said, “Change the frequency by ten gigahertz and send again.”

The reply exactly mimicked them.

Steel said, “Turn the radar off.” That done, he said, “Okay everyone, opinions.”

Blunt blurted, “They know we’re here. We should go now before they decide to do something about it.”

“Thank you, Blunt,” said Steel. “Anyone else? Wayfarer?”

“It strikes me as an automated system,” she said. “It’s just copying us.”

“I agree,” said Steel. “But why? Tallgrass?”

“I don’t know,” said Tallgrass. “It’s almost as if it’s acknowledging us. Just letting us know that it knows we’re here.”

“Again,” said Steel, “agreed. But why?”

Tallgrass said, “Maybe it’s a kind of welcome. It might be telling us that we’re welcome and that we’re safe.”

“Could be,” said Steel. “After all, it could probably have replied much more forcefully, couldn’t it?” He thought for a moment, then said, “Blunt, let’s circumnavigate this thing. Go to the left and take us around the back of it first.”

Blunt very reluctantly said, “Yes, sir,” and put them in motion.

“What’s that?” They were just rounding what they thought of as the stern of it, and Steel was pointing at something that looked different from the rest of the hull.

Wayfarer focused the telescope on the area and they could see a small spherical object apparently affixed to the hull. “It looks odd,” she said. “It’s completely different from everything else.” She observed quietly for a minute, then said, “I think it’s transparent. Like glass.”

“A little glass ball?” said Steel.

“It’s not that little,” she said. “It’s diameter is about two hundred meters.”

“Right,” he said. “I keep forgetting the scale of this thing.”

He looked up at the looming bulk of the main object, and tried to pick out the line that extended away from it. He couldn’t see the line any more, and realized that he hadn’t seen it for a while. Not since they began their circumnavigation. He scanned the whole area just ahead of the midpoint, but couldn’t see anything but stars. He shrugged and looked back at the glass ball, wondering why this thing would have such an anomalous thing attached to it. This thing. They couldn’t keep calling it that. “You know,” he said, “we should come up with a name for it.”

“I’ve got one,” said Blunt. “Nemesis.” He spoke the name with an ominous voice.

“Thank you, Blunt,” said Steel. “Anyone else?”

Wayfarer was studying her instruments intently, and that left Tallgrass. “I’ve been trying to think of what to call it,” he said, “but I haven’t come up with anything.”

“Neither have I,” said Steel. “Nothing suitable, anyway.”

“So, Nemesis it is, then,” said Blunt.

“No, Blunt,” said Steel. “We need more than one to choose from.”

Blunt didn’t look happy and Steel was waiting for him to say something when Wayfarer spoke.

“It’s not glass,” she said. “It’s ice.”

“Ice?” said Steel.

“Yes,” said Wayfarer. “The ball. It’s ice, not glass.”

“Someone made a two hundred meter ball out of ice?”

“Apparently. I was trying to get a good look inside – it’s hollow, by the way …”

“I thought it might be,” said Steel.

“Yes,” said Wayfarer. “Anyway, looking through the shell I noticed the refractive index was wrong for glass, and I checked, and it’s ice.”

“I see,” said Steel. “So, looking inside, did you find anything interesting in this big hollow ball of ice?”

“It’s got some structure inside, mostly at one end, but most of it is just open space with what looks like some fabric forming kind of walls.” She put her best image on their screens. “Here, have a look.”

They looked, and Tallgrass said, “That looks purpose-built, to me. I mean, it doesn’t look strictly utilitarian.”

They all agreed, Blunt grudgingly, and Steel said, “Does it look to anyone else as if someone might have lived there?”

“Yes,” said Wayfarer. “I think … people of some kind lived or worked there. But there’s no sign of habitation now.”

“Right,” said Steel. “So we have this enormous object that was obviously constructed by someone, and it has an incredibly long line leading away from it, and a little, well, relatively little hollow ball of ice attached to one end. Oh, and it mimics our radar signals.” He stared at the ball, then said, “Okay, Blunt, continue the circumnavigation. Wayfarer, report to Mission Control. Tell them everything. Tallgrass, you’re off shift. Get some sleep. I’ll be in my alcove.” He stepped to his curtain. “Wayfarer,” he said, “see if you can find that line again.”

They were around the corner and partway up the other side when Wayfarer noticed it. She wasn’t able to find the line again, but while she was looking she noticed that the stars were wrong. In the area right above the big object, where the line originated before, the stars were wrong. She checked and re-checked, and she was right. The stars she was seeing there were actually a reflection of the stars in the opposite direction. She made a series of observations and calculations, then she started to tell Blunt what she found. She changed her mind when she realized that he would probably just use it as another excuse to go home. Instead, she called out, “Supervisor Steel. Come out here. You should see this.”

He came out looking a little blurry, as if she had awakened him. When she told him, he had to think about it, then he said, “Light sail. It’s a three thousand kilometer light sail.” He was practically whispering.

“Actually, sir,” said Wayfarer, “it’s five thousand. It’s a five thousand kilometer light sail.”

Tallgrass came out of his alcove not looking at all blurry. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said, floating over to them. “What’s happening? What’s this about a light sail?”

Steel nodded at Wayfarer, who said, “That long line we saw angling away? It turns out it’s the edge of a big light sail. And I mean big. It’s five thousand kilometers in diameter.”

“Five thousand? But that’s …” Tallgrass paused to think, then said, “I guess it would have to be big to push this.” He tossed his chin in the direction of the big thing. His eyes widened. “Can you imagine the size of the laser array you’d need for something this big?”

Wayfarer nodded and Steel said, “Yes. You’d want it to be the same diameter, or almost, since collimated light doesn’t spread much.”

“You know what this means,” said Tallgrass. “This proves that it came from interstellar space. You wouldn’t make something like this to get around in a small area like a solar system.”

Steel laughed. “Small,” he said. Everyone laughed with him. Here they were barely a million kilometers from home, nowhere near the next planet, much less the further reaches of their solar system, and they were able to think of it as small. He sobered and said, “So, now we know it came from another star. Now we have to find out what it’s doing here.”

Blunt took a breath to speak, then closed his mouth. He knew it was pointless. They would just ignore him anyway.

“Specialist Blunt,” said Steel. “Please alter course to bring us closer. I want to see those objects on top, in front of the sail.”

“Yes, sir,” said Blunt, suppressing a shudder.

It would be an hour on their new course before they would get close. They’d been hanging back a hundred kilometers during the circumnavigation, and their new destination was another fifty kilometers forward. There was nothing to do but wait, and speculate.

After Wayfarer advised Mission Control of their latest discovery, and their new plan, she said, “So, do you think this was made by the people who destroyed our civilization thousands of years ago?”

Steel was quiet, so Tallgrass spoke. “Assuming that the legends are true …”

“What else could it be?” blurted Blunt, looking over his shoulder from his flight panel.

“Right. So let’s assume it’s true. Okay?” said Tallgrass. “Okay. Then it would stand to reason that this thing was involved somehow, wouldn’t it?”

Steel and Wayfarer agreed, and Blunt loudly said, “Of course it would. And if we keep fooling around here, it’s going to wake up and …”

“Emissary, this is Mission Control, over,” crackled the radio, making them all jump.

Wayfarer recovered and replied, “Mission Control, this is Emissary, go ahead.”

After six seconds they heard, “Emissary, Mission Control, be advised that the Sunward vessel has been detected and is estimated to reach your position in just under one day, over.”

“Roger that, Mission Control,” said Wayfarer. She got the details, including the fact that the Sunward vessel wasn’t talking to them, and signed off. “Well,” she said, “I guess that gives us a kind of deadline, doesn’t it?”

“Yes it does,” said Steel, “and the first order of business is to complete this circumnavigation. And that starts with finding out what those things are up there ahead of the sail.”

They didn’t talk much for the next half hour. Each time someone tried to start a conversation, it faltered and petered out. They were above the top of the big starship, flying close enough to get under the sail, which came down to within one kilometer. They could make out details of the hull, which looked sort of unfinished. It was as if it was put together however it would go, with no thought to an overall design.

The objects on top – there were twenty-eight of them – looked more finished. There were fourteen larger ones at a hundred meters long, and fourteen smaller ones at thirty meters. They all mimicked the dimensions of the main vessel – one third as wide as they were long, and one fifth as high. They looked complete. They looked as if they contained … something. Power, maybe. Potential, for sure. They glittered in sunlight, which illuminated them in hard contrast.

They looked like an auxiliary craft of some sort. “Lifeboats maybe?” ventured Tallgrass.

“Maybe,” said Steel.

Blunt said, “Are those weapons ports?”

No one could say for sure, but they looked as if they might be.

They flew on up to what they thought of as the bow, then around and back to where they began, just ahead of midships. They were only standing off one kilometer now, and this time the big vessel really did fill half of their sky.

“Try the radar again, Wayfarer,” said Steel. “See if you can penetrate the hull.”

As soon as she did that, her radar screen lit up. A small section of the hull was outlined, and animated arrowheads flowed toward it.

After a stunned silence, Tallgrass whispered, “I think it’s inviting us to come closer.”

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

They finally get to see what is at the L1 Lagrange point. This chapter is a little longer.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Forty-Four – The Thing at L1

“Everything is fine, Mom.” Tallgrass was talking to his mother during their free radio time. They were just past the halfway point. The flip maneuver was done, including all the observations and calculations to make sure they were still on course. The ion engine was back on and they were in deceleration mode. The next major point in the mission would be arrival at L1, in half a week.

“Of course everything is fine,” said Sage, after the three second light speed delay. “I want to know about you. How do you feel? What’s it like to be so far out there?”

Tallgrass knew that his crewmates were listening, even if they were trying to look as if they were doing something else. Blunt wasn’t even trying. He was staring and smirking. “I feel fine, Mom. What’s it like? I haven’t really had time to think about it. We’re halfway, so I guess we’ll be there soon.”

Another pause, with Tallgrass trying to ignore Blunt’s smirk. Then Sage said, “So you’re getting close. Can you see anything at L1?”

“Not really. We’re still half a million kilometers away, and we don’t have much of a telescope.” He called up their latest image on his screen. “It kind of looks like there’s something big there, but it’s really blurry. It could be anything.” He dismissed the image and said, “You’ve got the same pictures there, Mom.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s just that I waited so long to talk to you, and now I can’t think of anything to say to my brave hero.”

“Mom!” he said. “You know we’re on an open speaker here, don’t you? And I’m no brave hero. If there are any heroes, it’s Seagrass. And this isn’t brave compared to what you did.” He saw Supervisor Steel raise his head and look at him.

“You’re right. Seagrass is a hero. He’s right here beside me with a big smile on. But you’re a hero, too. All four of you That’s what everybody down here thinks, so you’d better get used to it.” Tallgrass moaned, and his mother went on. “And you are so brave. If what I did was brave, then so is this, if in a different way. On my trek I had to meet immediate, personal danger every day. Then there was the city, which was its own thing. On the other hand you seem to have compressed it all down into this two week period.” She paused briefly, keeping her microphone open. “This is at least as big as what I did, son,” she finished.

Tallgrass saw Steel nod and put his head back down. He said, “Okay, Mom. I’m a brave hero.” He smirked back at Blunt, then said, “So, how’s everybody there? Moonshadow? Digger and Street? Seagrass’s mom and dad?”

“They’re all fine, and they’re all pulling for you. Do you remember after Moonshadow moved out, when she went into business for herself? Well, just this week she opened a franchise in another city. She calls the company Moonshadow Services, and she takes on people who have worked for me, like her. Or she takes some straight from Digger.” She snorted. “Of course, you know all that. But she’s doing really well and I’m so proud of her. And get this. Digger has set up a kind of franchise over there, too. You know he’s been training people to do what he does. Saving newcomers. Well, now he’s doing that in another city.” She sighed with satisfaction, and he could hear the smile in her voice when she said, “So, yes, everybody here is fine.”

Tallgrass said, “That’s great. I’m really happy for Moonshadow. She was always nice to me. And Digger. If anyone is a hero, it would be Digger. With all the good he does, and hardly anyone notices. How many lives has he saved?”

“Yes,” she said after the delay. “A lot. Mine included, probably. I keep thinking there should be something more I could do for him, but he won’t let me. He brings people to me when he needs to, and he’ll take a little money once in a while when someone needs it, but he won’t accept anything on a regular basis. Nothing official or permanent.”

“He told me once that he didn’t want it to become like a job,” said Tallgrass.

“That’s right,” said Sage. “If it ever got to be like a job, then it would be time to pack it in, he said.” She sighed again, then said, “It looks like my time is up, so I’d better let you go. Be safe, Tallgrass. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom. Say hello to everybody for me. It was good to hear your voice.”

By the end of the next day the big object at L1 was getting clearer. They weren’t able to tell for sure whether it was a single object, though. It could have been two or more things lined up to look like one from their angle. That was improbable, but couldn’t be ruled out. One thing they could tell, even though the image was still blurry, was that it had an irregular outline.

As they got closer it became obvious that it was a single object. Its shape didn’t change. If it were several objects then they would have expected them to move relative to each other, changing the overall shape. With that mystery solved, two big ones remained. First, how could something that big get captured at the Lagrangian? The interactions of the gravity of Grasswind and its star would be too small to stop something that massive, unless it was hardly moving at all. Tallgrass calculated it and decided that the only way it could have happened was if the object’s speed almost exactly matched Grasswind’s orbital speed, precisely when it was passing through that small volume of space. Improbable, but not impossible.

The other mystery was more difficult to solve. In the whole time they had been observing it, from the first blurry blob until now, it hadn’t changed its shape. As the image gradually improved, they were able to tell that it was an oblong, with a length to width ratio of about five to one. That ratio hadn’t changed in several days of observations, which defied all probability. It meant either that the object wasn’t rotating at all, which was highly unlikely, or if it was rotating, it had to be a disk or a square with its axis of rotation exactly vertical relative to them. The odds of that were practically non-existent.

The improbabilities were adding up, and there was more. They weren’t able to pick out anything else there. In spite of near-continuous observation, they hadn’t found even one other object trapped at L1. Again, there was a barely plausible explanation. It was possible that the big one had destroyed all the smaller ones in collisions, or even ejected them right out of there. Another thing that had to be just-so to be true. But even worse than that was the size of the thing. They ran the calculations many times, double-checking and triple-checking each other’s work. They didn’t want to report back to Mission Control with something this ridiculous, and then turn out to be wrong. Finally they had to accept it. There was no other explanation. The long axis on the object was a hundred kilometers.

“That’s impossible,” said Specialist Wayfarer.

“Yes,” said Tallgrass. “Not literally impossible of course, since it’s there, but I know what you mean. The chance of this happening naturally is effectively zero.”

Steel stared at him. “Are you saying somebody put it there?” he snapped.

Tallgrass hesitated. He didn’t want to say that, but what choice did he have? He said, “Given all the possibilities, I think that one is the least unlikely.”

Blunt said, “Whoa, Run- … Runner. Don’t commit yourself or anything.”

But Steel was nodding his head. He said, “I have to agree. It is the least unlikely explanation. But who was it? Was it our ancestors when they were going to space? When they went to Sunward? Or did someone actually come here from another star way back when and destroy our civilization?”

Tallgrass said, “And if they did, where did they go? And why did they leave this behind?”

Wayfarer gasped. “What if they didn’t go anywhere?” she said. “What if they’re still here, living in that thing?”

Everyone was quiet, then Blunt said, “We don’t have the weapons to fight something like that.”

“We’re not in a position to fight anything,” said Steel. “We’ll just have to hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“You’re still planning to go there?” said Blunt. “To go up against that thing?” He pointed at the display, still showing the huge, ominous object.

“I’m planning to complete our mission,” said Steel.

“But that’s crazy,” said Blunt. “I think we should abort the mission and go back to Grasswind.” He pointed at Wayfarer. “Call Mission Control,” he said.

Wayfarer looked at Steel, who said, “Yes, Specialist Wayfarer, call them.”

Mission Control left it up to them. They wouldn’t be ordered to continue with the original mission. If they thought it would be too dangerous to confront whatever was at L1, then they could alter their flight plan and return to Grasswind. No one would censure or discipline them for their decision. It would be good to have as much information as possible, of course. Future missions would need to know as much as possible so they could prepare adequately. Grasswind itself needed the information so it could assess the danger, if there was any.

Supervisor Steel asked them all for their input, but he made it clear that the ultimate decision would be his. He just wanted their opinions to factor into it.

Blunt was first. “I vote we turn back,” he said, “before they see us.”

“Thank you, Blunt,” said Steel. “Wayfarer? What do you think?”

She thought about it, her head turned in the general direction of L1. She glanced at the display, still showing the object, then said, “I don’t think we have enough information to decide. We need to get closer and find out more.”

Blunt muttered something, and Steel glared at him before saying, “What about you, Tallgrass?”

“I agree with Wayfarer,” said Tallgrass. “But there’s something else I think we need to consider.”

“Go ahead,” said Steel.

Tallgrass took a moment to organize his thoughts, then said, “Given how long that thing has been there – thousands of years, if we’re correct – it’s not likely that it would have maintained this stable configuration.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning either it has excellent automatic control mechanisms, or there’s someone there making sure it keeps station.”

Steel nodded. “I’ve been thinking the same thing,” he said. “It leads to some obvious conclusions. If it has automatic systems good enough to keep it on station for that long, then it might have equally good defensive systems. Conversely, if there are people living on it, then they might want to protect it. Either way it’s possible we could be flying into trouble.”

Tallgrass nodded, and Blunt said, “Yeah! We should turn around now.”

Steel said, “You’ve had your say, Blunt. We all know what you think.” To Tallgrass he said, “But you agree with Wayfarer. You think we need to know more.”

“Yes,” said Tallgrass. “We need to gather as much information as we can. For future missions and for Grasswind.” He smiled. “Mostly, though, I just want to know. I can’t come all the way out here and see that, and then just leave it.”

Steel smiled too. “I know just what you mean,” he said. “I didn’t come all the way out here to turn and run at the first sign of trouble.” He drew himself up formally and said, “So that’s my decision. We continue. We gather as much information as possible. We review our options as we go.”

Tallgrass and Wayfarer nodded and murmured their agreement as they headed back to their stations, but Blunt said, “I’m going along with this, but I’m officially registering my disagreement.”

“That’s your right,” said Steel. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my alcove. Wayfarer, advise Mission Control of our decision.”

The information kept coming in. By the last day, when they were well under a hundred thousand kilometers from it, they could see that it looked like a collection of bits and pieces. It looked as if someone had taken all the debris there and stuck it together. Closer yet, it became clear that there was a structure underneath the rubble, which had just been stuck onto it. They were looking at something – a habitat or a huge vessel – built by someone, who then went to the trouble of gathering up all the material around and attaching it to the hull. They were in awe of the accomplishment, but they were still able to wonder why anyone would want to do that.

In the final hours, when they were only a thousand kilometers out and their thrusters had reduced their speed to nearly match the velocity of the object, Wayfarer gave a surprised shout.

“What is it, Specialist Wayfarer?” asked Steel.

“There’s something else there, sir,” she said. “Here, I’ll put it on all your screens.”

“What …” said Steel. “Oh, I see it. Extending away from the long edge. What’s that, about a thirty degree angle? It’s thin. Just a line. The Sun must have caught it just right.” He looked at her. “Can you estimate how long it is?”

“No, sir,” she said. “It just keeps going until it kind of fades out.”

“Can you estimate the part you can see?”

“Yes, sir. Right where it fades out, it’s just under three thousand kilometers from the main body.”

“Three thousand!” Steel shook his head. “Who were these people?”

“I don’t know, but they sure built big.”

“They sure did,” said Steel. “Right. Specialist Blunt, please alter course to bring us to one hundred kilometers from this thing, right where the line joins the main body.”

“Yes, sir,” said Blunt, his hands trembling slightly as he worked his controls.

Over the next few hours the object grew until it seemed to fill half the sky.