Parker's Folly (24 page)

Dr. Saito was intently studying the readouts on the navigator's console, where the results of the ground penetrating radar survey were being displayed.
These readings are quite anomalous,
he thought,
I was expecting to find some buried water deposits or some minerals, maybe an empty lava tube or two, but that return looks for the world like an empty space beneath that small crater.

“Mr. Medina, could you look at this display and tell me if everything is working correctly, please?” Yuki asked the engineer, who was once again OOD.

“Hmm,” said Jo Jo Medina, examining the settings on the radar console. “Everything seems to be functioning fine, Professor. What seems to be the problem?”

“If this instrument is correct, then there is a void under the floor of this crater,” Yuki said, indicating the computer generated visualization on the monitor. “I think I need to have Mr. Taylor come back to the bridge, since he is our astronomer.”

“I didn't know the Moon had caves,” Jo Jo remarked. “What's the name of the crater?”

“It is called Giordano Bruno.”

Tommy Wendover was alone in the crew's mess when Col. Kondratov found him. The Colonel had been searching for the disaffected young man since Dr. Tropsha's diatribe in the passenger's dayroom. At first Ivan had thought that simply gathering as much information as he could about the ship and its fantastic technology would be sufficient. But now, given Ludmilla's description of the Captain's insane ravings, he felt that stronger action might be necessary.

Unfortunately, there was little that a single man could accomplish on a ship full of fanatics. Ivan needed allies and had decided to begin his search with the angry young stowaway. The Captain's highhanded treatment of the boy should make turning him against the others simple.

“Hello, Tommy was it?” the Russian Colonel said, walking up to where Wendover was seated.

“Who are you?” Tommy asked, looking up with a scowl on his face. The other crew members were either sleeping or off working elsewhere in the ship. He had been ordered to clean out one of the storage lockers and stack the equipment on the deck. When he finished that, the grizzled old Chief had come back and told him to put the stuff back into the locker. In other words, they were just messing with him. Now Tommy was sitting in the crew's mess, hoping to be ignored.

“I am Col. Ivan Kondratov, mission commander from the International Space Station.” That last was not technically a lie, he had been acting commander after the real commander abandoned the station. “I could not help but notice the unfair treatment you have been receiving from the Captain and his officers.”

“Oh?” Tommy perked up. Up until now, nobody on board had a kind word for him.
And this guy says he's some kind of officer, maybe he can help me out,
the young man thought. “Uh, how are you Colonel?”

“I am fine, except that I'm very concerned about the situation on board this ship. I have begun to realize that the Captain may be mentally unbalanced and that this is a kind of pirate ship.”

“If the Captain ain't crazy that little fuck they call the Chief is. That old coot is nuttier than a shithouse rat,” Tommy fumed, his hatred poring out in the presence of the seemingly sympathetic Russian. “And you're saying these jerks are pirates? No shit?”

“Yes, Tommy,” Ivan agreed in a calm, sympathetic voice. “I believe that they are all in violation of international law and must be brought to justice. Their treatment of you is certainly a crime that warrants investigation.”

“Ain't that the truth! Hey, all I want is out of here, can you help with that?” Like all con-men, Tommy was particularly susceptible to being conned himself.

“Not this instant, but a time will come for decisive action. I'm looking for those who would be willing to help bring these brigands to the international court in the Hague.” Ivan had no intention of charging the Captain and crew in the international court of justice. What he had in mind was more along the line of taking over the ship, a secret landing in Mother Russia and a long interrogation of the ship's crew by the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency.

“Well I'm willing to help with that, Colonel,” said Tommy eagerly. “I want some payback.”

“What about the American Marines? I understand that they are not members of the original crew but were on board at takeoff because they were ordered to take over the ship.” These Marines may not be Spetznaz, but they could be a help in handling the crew.

“I don't know, they were all pretty pissed off at being wounded and zapped with ray guns,” Tommy said, throwing himself into the developing conspiracy with relish. “And they are all sure afraid of that talking bear. But the woman in charge, the Gunny, she cut some kinda' deal with the Captain and the rest are all going along.”

“Too bad.”
Yes, that is a disappointment,
Ivan thought.
He had hoped for some useful allies among the American military personnel.
“No matter, we must be careful and bide our time. We need to gather intelligence and wait for our moment to come. Are you with me, Tommy?”

“Sure thing, Colonel. Just tell me what to do.”

Susan was sitting at the ship's bar, nursing a glass of Shiraz. Next to her was Billy Ray Vincent, who had just come off watch and was  looking for some relaxation. He was doing his best cowboy act trying to get the normally talkative reporter to come out of her funk.

“Well, Susan, I don't know what yer so down about. After all, you got a free trip to the Moon out of this assignment. You know how many times I told a fine looking gal I'd take her to the Moon?”

“Come on, Tex. Cowboy cool doesn't work on me, I'm local grown.”

“Now that hurts,” Billy Ray said, acting slighted. “Can't a couple of native born Texans enjoy a conversation in a bar? I can't imagine a more exotic locale.” He motioned to the large viewport through which the craggy visage of the Moon could be seen slowly passing in review.

“Look, Billy Ray. I know you're trying to cheer me up, but it isn't that simple, you know?”

“Well why don't you tell me about it, and we'll see?”

“OK, how well do you know the Captain?”

“I've been with the project goin' on four years, so about that long. Why?”

“You heard that Ludmilla, Dr. Tropsha, had dinner with the Captain in his cabin last night?”

“We live in a four hundred and forty foot long metal cigar, everyone pretty much knows about everything.”
If I was the Captain I'd take a run at the Russian doctor myself,
he added silently.

“OK, so this morning, Ludmilla offloads on me and Ivan and JT, down in the guests' dayroom. Now I've had some bad first dates, but she was really upset. She claimed the Captain fed her all kinds of crazy stories about aliens visiting Earth four million years ago.”

Oh shit, cat's out of the bag,
thought Billy Ray.
I guess we'll just have to see where this goes.
He smiled encouragingly.

“And that's not all,” Susan glanced around conspiratorially. “He said that we were made by aliens.”

“We?”

“People, and the talking polar bear.”

“Yer point being?”

“Dr. Tropsha thinks that the Captain is clinically insane, at least that's what she told us. Frankly, I don't know what to think. Maybe this is just cover for her date with the Captain going wrong or something.”

After airing the secret, Susan felt relieved, more like her normal self. Perhaps confession really was good for the soul. Suddenly realizing that the rather handsome Billy Ray was alone with her in the cozy bar, she shifted gear. In a low, breathy, just-between-the-two-of-us voice she said, “What do you think, Billy Ray?”

“Well, Susan, I can tell you that Captain Jack is just about the sanest man I ever met. He's been around the world and back, seen some rough situations too. It ain't like we're best buds or anything, but I respect the man.”

“What about the aliens and spaceship stuff?”

“Yer on board a spaceship now, how do you think that came about if things didn't happen like the Captain said?”

“You're telling me that everything he said is true? The little green men, the human breeding program, all of it?”

“All I'm sayin' is that I worked on building this ship for more than three years and I know that the technology involved was not invented by us. We adapted it as best we could, but making it work was still a challenge. A lot of what they decoded is still way beyond us. On top of that, I'm on a crew where one of the officers is a talking polar bear. Nope, given what I've seen, I'm pretty much thinkin' the Captain is telling the truth.”

“Really? And the whole crew knows?”

“Not the whole crew, but everyone in important technical positions—the engineers, the bridge crew and the like.”

Susan's head was now spinning and it wasn't from the wine.
If this is all true, it really is the biggest story in the history of mankind! I've got to find out as many details about this as I can.
She looked at Billy Ray, gazed seductively into his eyes and purred, “Tell me more about this mission of yours, cowboy.”

JT arrived on the bridge to find Dr. Saito and Jo Jo Medina engrossed by the images on the navigator's console. Specifically, they were staring at the survey data visualization, which showed what lie beneath a small crater on the far side of the Moon, just beyond the northeastern limb.

He looked at the surface view to the right of the main display and said, “That's got to be Giordano Bruno.”

“How did you know?” Asked Yuki.

“Look at the rays, the bright material that was ejected from the crater in all directions when the crater was formed. T
he ray material extends for over 150 kilometers and hasn't been significantly darkened by space erosion.
That's why Giordano Bruno is thought to be one of the youngest craters on the Moon. Besides that, it's rather famous in astronomical circles.”

“Really? In what way, JT?” asked Jo Jo.

“Almost 850 years ago, a bunch of monks saw something that sounds a lot like a asteroid strike on the Moon. There was a controversy among astronomers when one guy suggested that Bruno was formed by the impact the monks observed.”

“That would make the crater very young indeed,” said Yuki. “In fact, frighteningly so.”

“Why would you say that, Doctor?”

“Because given the size of the crater, about 22 kilometers, it would have taken a sizable asteroid to create it. An asteroid large enough to cause world changing damage had it struck Earth.”

“That's right, Yuki, and the monks described multiple strikes.” JT was warming to his subject. “A dozen or more impacts that made the thin crescent of the Moon
wiggle
like a snake.
In 1976 a geologist named Jack B. Hartung proposed that this described the formation of the crater Giordano Bruno.
”

“So that crater is less than a thousand years old?”

“No, as it turns out a graduate student did some calculations for his thesis and came to the conclusion that what the monks saw couldn't have been the impact that formed the crater. An impact that big would have thrown up so much debris that there would have been meteor showers for a week on Earth. There are no reports of any such showers in the historical records. The calculations make sense, but the conclusion ruins a really good story. So, in any case, why did you call me back to the bridge?”

“Look at the subsurface mapping display.” Yuki could not resist playing the part of a University professor, answering a question with a question. JT peered more closely at the main display. “That really shouldn't be, but it looks like there is a chamber under part of the crater's floor.”

“That's what we thought,” agreed Yuki.

“I think maybe we need to call the Captain to the bridge,” JT replied, Ludmilla's retelling of the Captain's story fresh in his mind.

All this astronomy stuff was new to Jo Jo. “So if this crater wasn't made by whatever the monks saw, how old is it?”

“A while back, the Japanese lunar orbiter team estimated the age to be greater than a million years based on counting smaller impacts inside the crater. More recent estimates peg the crater's formation at about four million years ago.”

* * * * *

The Captain and Lt. Curtis arrived less than ten minutes later. By then the survey crew had managed to enhance the picture resolution of what was under the mysterious crater.

“So what have you found Mr. Taylor?” the Captain asked the excited astronomer.

“Actually Yuki found it,” JT replied, nodding to the Japanese scientist. “He and Jo Jo seem to have found a cavern underneath the floor of a crater.”

“And just where is that crater located?”

“On the far side, just beyond the northeastern limb, between the craters Harkhebi to the northwest and Szilard to the southeast. It's in a location that can be viewed from Earth during a favorable libration, although at such times the area would be viewed from the side. It would be impossible to make out much detail from down below. From lunar orbit, however, it's easy to identify because of the distinctive rays.”

“Does this crater have a name, Mr. Taylor?”

“Yes, Sir. It's called Giordano Bruno, after an early scientific martyr.”

“And you're telling me that this void beneath the crater shouldn't be there, correct?”

“That's right, Captain,” said Yuki. “After an impact the lunar material would have been molten and settled to the bottom of the crater. But this is like the surface re-solidified and then the still molten lava beneath drained away.”

“To where?”

“That is exactly the point, Captain.” Yuki smiled approvingly, the Captain had seen the heart of the anomaly straight away. “Some lava tube caverns have been previously identified, but this structure does not fit that pattern.”

“That's not all, Sir. This is a famous crater to us astronomers, I learned about it in grad school. Some Medieval monks saw a cosmic
fireworks display in its general vicinity back in the twelfth century.”