Parker's Folly (38 page)

“What I'm saying, Captain, is the planet is not inhabited. There may be an alien base on the surface or, more likely, in orbit, but there's no civilization on that world.”

“Interesting, thank you JT.” The Captain pondered the implications of JT's words for a few seconds and then turned to Yuki. “Dr. Saito, what do you think? Have we failed to contain the alien probe's information or is there still a chance to head it off?”

“I would say we need to assume the information was passed to whatever installation sent the reply signal. In light of the lack of activity from the planet, I would guess that there is a monitoring site on or around the planet, much like the one we destroyed on the Moon.”

“And you, Dr Gupta? What are your thoughts?”

“I concur with my colleagues. If this planet is inhabited by the aliens who built the probe and placed it secretly on our Moon then I would have expected a response to our presence in this system. The aliens are obviously capable of traveling between star systems and must have spaceships of their own. Why have they not responded to our invasion of their space?”

The Captain nodded and looking at Gretchen raised his eyebrows. “Lt. Curtis?”

“Sir, I would say we need to investigate more closely. The lack of response from the planet makes me suspect that Rajiv is right—this system probably has a monitoring outpost like our home system did. We haven't detected any other ships like the alien vessel trying to depart the system, have we?”

“No, Gretchen,” responded Rajiv, “we would have detected the drive signature of anything similar to the probe we just destroyed.”

“So we have an uninhabited planet, probably with a monitoring station nearby and, as far as we can tell, nothing has left the system. In short, the situation may still be contained if we can destroy the local monitoring station.”

The assembled advisers all nodded agreement. The Captain pressed his fingers together, their tips pointing upward. Closing his eyes, Jack brought his steepled fingers to just touch his pursed lips, as though he was a child praying. From experience, Gretchen knew this posture as an indication of deep thought—or perhaps he was actually praying for guidance. Uneasy silence pervaded the group. Finally, Jack dropped his hands to the table and cleared his throat.

“Very well. We will proceed to the planet for a closer look. Any other suggestions?”

“Yes, Captain,” Rajiv immediately offered. “If I might suggest that we follow a course similar to that which the probe would have followed? I believe that we can detune the reactor grid slightly and produce a signature similar to the one of the alien vessel. That way, if we are detected, the station might think we are the probe.”

“Yes, that makes sense. The crew will not be endangered and the ship's performance will be unaffected?”

“Oh no, we will be perfectly safe. And the instant we need full power the grid can be restored.”

“And how long will it take us to arrive at the planet? Mr. Taylor?”

JT consulted his tablet. “We are below the local plane of the ecliptic and about one AU away. At 5 Gs and a turnover half way, we can make orbit in a little more than 32 hours.”

“Very well. Let's proceed with the mission. Dismissed.”

It is astounding how large a solar system is. Though the Folly had just past 30 light-years in a week by slipping through alter-space, it was now faced with a voyage of only eight light minutes that would take more than a day. Still, any previous spacecraft launched by humans would have required months to make the same trip. The crew stood down from general quarters for 24 hours. Now, as the ship drew near the mysterious Earth-like world, the rapid bleating of the klaxon once again summoned all on board to their battle stations.

“Captain, I think you might want to have a look at this,” JT called from the navigation console. “Dr. Tropsha and I have been analyzing the planet, looking for signs of an active ecology. There's more going on here than is immediately obvious.”

“Something on the big scope? Put it on the forward display,” the Captain ordered. The view forward was replace by an image captured by the ship's large telescope, which was capable of nearly Hubble like magnification and clarity. Hanging in front of the bridge was a closeup view of a dun colored planet, with sizable ice caps at either pole. A scattering of small seas were flung haphazardly across the landscape and a few wispy clouds streamed from where moist sea breezes caressed worn mountain ranges.

Ludmilla, who had come to the bridge to help JT present their findings, nodded to the newest member of the science team and continued the explanation. “We are both in agreement—this is a nearly dead world. If there is anything alive down there it must be at the microbial level. There may be bacterial mats in shallow water, perhaps some sponges in the deeps, but nothing large or complex.”

“Is there a reason that would be unusual? After all, the right conditions for developing complex life may never have occurred.” Jack was spellbound by the desolation sweeping across the projection before him.

“Well, Sir. That's the bitch of it. This world used to be alive, perhaps as thriving with life as Earth.”

“What!” Everyone on the bridge was stunned, not least the Captain. “How can you tell?”

“From this,” JT's years as a camera man had given him a feel for the dramatic. As he spoke he zoomed the image in and then panned across the coastline of one of the larger seas. Faint lines and faded circular outlines could barely be seen. Concentric traces mostly centered on points near the coast, with linear marks radiating into the interior. Slowly, those viewing the tableau before them deciphered the meaning of those markings.

“My God,” Jack said. “Those were cities. With networks of roads or railways connecting them. But now they are all dead—buildings worn to nubs and only a hint of connecting roadways. What in heaven's name happened here?”

“Water used to flow more freely and the climate was once much more Earth-like,” Ludmilla replied. “You can tell by the rock strata and erosion patterns. Now there is no visible life, not even vegetation, on land. As near as we can tell, Captain, this planet has been blasted back to the Precambrian stage.”

Seeing several blank looks around her, she explained. “On Earth, about 550 million years ago there was a sudden blossoming of multicellular life forms, where previously life had been mostly limited to simple single cell organisms. During the Cambrian Period that followed, life underwent an evolutionary explosion that continues to this day. Despite five major and many minor global extinction events—the worst of which killed off more than 90% of all living creatures—Earth has never been returned to a state where complex organisms vanished. On the planet below such an event seems to have taken place, there are signs of vanished complex life but nothing present today. ”

“You're saying someone did this deliberately? Wiped out an entire populated world?” the Captain demanded.

“Not just its civilization, but every living thing more advanced than a bacterium,” was Ludmilla's grim reply.

“Could they have done this to themselves? The inhabitants I mean.” asked Jo Jo. “From the size of the cities they must have had an advanced, technological civilization. Perhaps this is the end result of a planet wide arms race—nuclear Armageddon.”

“If so it must have happened some time ago,” answered Ludmilla. “From background radiation levels perhaps 10,000 years, maybe more.”

“Perhaps,” JT added tersely, as he manipulated the telescope's controls. “I'm more inclined to think it had something to do with that.”

The image blurred and refocused on the limb of the planet, where a strange bluish-gray shape was emerging from behind the dun colored crescent. As the bridge crew watched a large, obviously artificial object slowly filled their field of view.

* * * * *

The ship was still several hours from making orbit. Jack called the rest of the science team to the bridge so he could get their opinions first hand. Not that he didn't trust Ludmilla and JT, but he wanted everyone to be in agreement with what he was about to do next.

“It looks like a giant mushroom,” said Billy Ray.

“More like a medusa, a giant jellyfish,” offered Bobby. “How big is that thing?”

“The cap is about 20 kilometers in diameter and perhaps 5 km thick at the center. The stalk is more than 40 km long,” Rajiv supplied.

“Is it alive?” the Captain asked Ludmilla, who was now acting in the role of xenobiologist rather than ship's surgeon.

“No, Captain. As best we can tell, it is a construct. Yuki is being cautious but Rajiv is willing to bet that it was left by those who wiped this world clean. Maybe the same ones who were spying on Earth.” Rajiv nodded his agreement with Ludmilla's statement.

Jack had never seen Ludmilla so grim faced. As both a doctor and a biologist, she held life sacred. Just thinking about a race that could kill an entire world both frightened and enraged her.

“Has there been any reaction from the satellite at all? Have we been scanned by radar or other active sensors?”

“No, Sir,” answered JT. “Not a peep out of it since the initial response to the probe's signal.”

“Again, at the risk of anthropomorphizing something totally alien, that doesn't sound to me like the response of anything living,” Jack ventured. “By that I do not mean the satellite, but any crew on the satellite. Could that thing be a robotic station like the one in crater Bruno, granted, on a much bigger scale?”

“It may not be alive,” Yuki said. “But there is a great deal of energy being expended inside of that structure. If you notice the orientation of the cap, it would appear to be a giant solar collector.”

“Captain?” the voice of the ship's computer inquired. “I may know what purpose the structure serves.”

“And what would that be?” Jack asked.

“It is a refueling station.”

“What brings you to this conclusion? More newly remembered information from the artifact's memory?”

“Yes, Captain. That and readings from the radiation and particle detectors. The structure's form and its heliocentric orientation are consistent with Dr. Saito's observation. Given the amount of energy being collected it makes little sense for antimatter reactions to be powering the station, yet the unmistakable signature of matter-antimatter annihilation is present. I can only conclude that the station is creating antimatter for later use.”

“And the radiation?” Jack inquired.

“Evidently, the process is not all that efficient. Some of the generated fuel is evidently being destroyed during the process.”

“Well, if that station is storing a large quantity of antimatter, and given the energetic response of the probe to having a rail gun round breach its storage, this may provide an answer to our dilemma.”

The eyes turned to the Captain. “We needed to find the base that received the probe's message, the satellite is most likely that base. Having found the base, we need to destroy it. Unfortunately, that is a damn big satellite. If we emptied our entire magazine into it we might not damage it enough to stop the alien vessel's report. Besides, though it has not responded to our presence, there is no telling what it might do if we started bombarding it. No, I think the best way to proceed is as we did on the Moon—Lt. Curtis!”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Have the Marines and appropriate members of the crew form in the cargo hold. Organize a boarding party—we are going to pay that space station a visit.”

The Captain decided to approach the alien satellite on a straight in course, decelerating constantly like the probe ship had been. Jack was hoping to identify a suitable landing or docking area as they drew nearer the huge construct. The shallow convex cap, which appeared to be a translucent cover over top of a dark, multifaceted array, did not offer any obvious entry points, so the ship continued on course to pass under the 20 km in diameter circular collector.

Heading for the long central “stem” of the satellite, a fringe of pipes—perhaps heat exchangers or antennae of some type—could be seen hanging down from the rim of the circular cap. Of seemingly random lengths, some extended for a quarter of a kilometer, though most were less than half that length. Passing well clear of the fringe, Parker's Folly headed for the central spine of the structure—the long stalk looked like it was made up of a bundle of individual columns bound together. Looking up at the huge structure, Billy Ray recited:

Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town,
Death looks gigantically down.

“What was that?” asked Jolene, sitting behind the helmsmen at one of the weapons stations. “It sounds sort of familiar.”

“That'd be Poe,” answered Billy Ray, “The City in the Sea.”

“I can understand the Captain knowing obscure literary passages,” Jolene whispered to Bobby, “but how does Billy Ray know this stuff?” Bobby whispered back, “He has a Master's in English lit. from University of North Texas.”

“Yep,” Billy Ray said, obviously overhearing them. “Just imagine what old Edgar would have written if he saw yonder space mushroom.”

Overhead, the underside of the cap did, in fact, look much like a mushroom, with radial ribs from the cap's rim arching inward to join the top of the central stalk. There the ribs merged into the larger columns that comprised the stalk itself. About four kilometers down the stalk there were two flat, circular plates each roughly three kilometers in diameter. The plates were separated from each other by a gap of 200 meters.

There were no obvious sources of artificial lighting. What light did illuminate the satellite's underside was reflected from the planet below. In that dim light, protuberances of many shapes—spherical, cylindrical, multifaceted prisms—could be seen clustered around the central stalk on top of the upper plate. Similar structures could be seen on the underside of the lower plate—an infrastructure created by alien minds to satisfy alien needs, silent and unfathomable.