Green Comet

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

Now the big thing wants them to bring their ship inside.

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

rjb

Chapter Forty-Seven – Inside

Tallgrass reached out with his left hand and gripped the edge of the opening. He pulled himself over to where he could see further inside, but there was nothing to see. The room was cubical, about fifteen meters on a side, and it was bare. He stuck his head inside, eyes wide, all four of them, and had a quick look before snatching it back out again.

“Tallgrass,” said Steel, “are you all right? What did you see?”

“Nothing,” said Tallgrass, laughing shakily at himself. “It just felt weird sticking my head in there. The room is completely empty. Those arrows are the only thing going on.” He took a couple of breaths, then said, “I’m going in.” He pulled himself through the opening and floated into the center of the room.

Steel didn’t have time to protest, so he just said, “Be careful. What do you see?”

“Still nothing,” said Tallgrass. “The room is cubical, about fifteen meters across. The surfaces are plain and smooth. I don’t see any markings, or anything else, on the walls. On the right hand wall, though, I see an outline of what might be a door. It’s about five meters high by three wide.” He moved in that direction, going out of their sight. “I’m going to have a closer look.”

“Careful, Tallgrass,” said Steel. “We might lose contact if we lose line of sight.”

“Testing,” said Tallgrass. “Testing, one-two. Do you still read me?”

“Loud and clear,” said Steel. “We must be getting some reflections.”

“Maybe,” said Tallgrass. “It sounds normal to me. And this door, or whatever it is, doesn’t look as if you can open it from this side.” He pushed off from the wall and flew back to the middle of the room. He looked at their faces in the forward port and said, “I don’t think there’s anything else to learn this way. I think you should bring the Emissary in here.”

Steel was silent, and Tallgrass heard Wayfarer draw a surprised breath. Blunt, though, didn’t hesitate. “No way!” he said. Tallgrass could see him talking to Steel. “You can’t do that,” he said. “Tell me you’re not thinking of doing that.”

Steel looked at Blunt, who subsided. He looked at Wayfarer, who looked back calmly. Then he looked out the port. He looked at the glowing glider, which seemed to have turned out to be both a doorbell and a key. He looked at the arrows beckoning them in, and he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Take us in there, Blunt.”

“No,” said Blunt. “No, sir. We can’t. It’s too dangerous. We don’t know anything about this. It could be a trap.”

“We know plenty about it,” said Steel. “We know they, or it, or whatever, was expecting us. We know they’re inviting us in. And we know that they could have destroyed us many times over without this elaborate trap, if that’s what it is.”

“What if they don’t want to kill us? What if they want to take us alive for, I don’t know, experiments or whatever?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take. We didn’t come out here on a holiday cruise. We have a mission to explore and learn. If you don’t want to do it, I’ll have Wayfarer fly us in.”

Blunt slid narrow eyes at his fellow mission specialist, and muttered, “No, I’ll do it.”

With tiny puffs of thrusters and attitude rockets, he deftly brought the Emissary, a five meter padded sphere, to the middle of the room and down onto the lighted target there. As soon as it stopped, the ten meter door slid shut and sealed itself behind them.

Tallgrass flew over and put his hands on the big door. He couldn’t see any way of opening it, and he was about to fly back to the Emissary when he felt something. His hand was still on the door and he could feel a rhythmic thumping. For a crazy moment he wondered if the Sunward ship had arrived and they were knocking to get in. He chuckled at himself, shaking his head, and lowered one foot to the floor.

“What’s going on?” asked Steel. now at the aft port.

Tallgrass looked at him, feeling the thumping through his foot now. “I’m not sure,” he said, “but I think they’re pumping air in.”

“Air?” said Steel. “So, do you think we’re in a big airlock?”

“Could be,” said Tallgrass. “Yes. The air pressure is increasing. I can feel it in my suit. It’s shrinking.”

“Right,” said Steel, turning away from the port. “Suit up,” he said. “We’re going outside.”

Half an hour later the four of them were out of the ship, exploring. The thumping had carried on for much of that time, with them being able to hear it transmitted by the thickening air during the later stages. As it faded away, Steel said, “So, what now I wonder?”

“Well,” said Wayfarer, “if I was writing the story, this is when the bug-eyed monster would come out.”

Blunt said, “If I see a bug-eyed monster, I’m blasting it.” He had his hand on the pistol strapped to his front right thigh.

“On my orders only, Specialist Blunt,” said Steel.

“I don’t know why you guys brought the guns,” said Tallgrass. He was the only one without one, not having taken one when he took the glider out.

“It’s a reasonable precaution,” said Steel, “given the circumstances.”

“The circumstances don’t seem that dangerous to me,” said Tallgrass. “It feels more like we’ve been invited in for a visit.”

“That may be,” said Steel. “In fact, that’s what it feels like to me, too. Still, it’s my duty to protect my vessel and crew.”

Tallgrass nodded. “I know, sir,” he said. “It feels weird, though. Being here like this.” He raised his hands to indicate their surroundings, and more.

“I agree,” said Steel, “but when things get weird, it can be good to have procedures to fall back on.”

Tallgrass nodded again, and fell silent. They were all quiet then, thinking their own thoughts. Wayfarer was turning in slow circles, eyes wide, face open. Blunt was the opposite, with narrow, suspicious eyes. He kept his hand near his gun, and if anyone had looked closely they would have seen that it was trembling. It closed on the grip when they heard the noise at the door.

They all turned to face it, and saw it separate from the wall and slowly swing open. They hovered, four abreast, all dealing with their own thoughts as they waited for whatever would come through that big, five meter opening.

Tallgrass wondered what could need a door that big. Maybe it would be a big bug-eyed monster after all. What would it think of them? Would they just be little primitive animals to it? He had a fleeting regret that he didn’t have his gun, but then snorted softly, scoffing at himself. He wouldn’t know what to do with a gun, his training notwithstanding. He was pretty sure that in a situation like that, he would hesitate long enough to make a gun useless. So he waited, watching the opening, trying to prepare himself for whatever would come through it.

It seemed like a long wait, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, when something appeared in the doorway. They had to drop their chins and bring their eyes down, because the creature there couldn’t have stood more than a meter and a half tall. They all relaxed, except Blunt.

It walked through the doorway with an odd gait that seemed to stick and peel its feet on the floor. It looked bipedal, walking on two limbs, with another pair extending from up near the head, and ending in something resembling their own hands. The head was on a short neck above the upper limbs, and it had features on it resembling a face. There were two forward looking eyes, like their predator eyes. Below the eyes was a small fleshy nose, its two nostrils hooded and facing down. Below that was a mouth, and on the sides of the head, two barely visible ears.

The entire body, except the hands and feet and the area around the eyes, was covered in something brown and soft looking. Either clothing or some kind of natural body covering, something like their scales. On its back, with bits showing at the sides and above the shoulders, Tallgrass could see something that he guessed were wings.

They were shocked when it spoke in their own language. It said, “Greetings. Welcome to the Prime. Are those weapons?”

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.

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

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.”