LINKS
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The Christa Affair
Chapter Thirteen
For twenty-eight days the hyperdrive flung the \Klondike\ and her crew outward, along the spiral arm of the galaxy toward uncharted space. This far out on the rim, there were few stars along their course to impede the ship's progress, and for most of the journey they maintained maximum speed -- one light-year every sixteen hours. Several times during the voyage, the hyperphone was able to lock on to a useable signal for a few moments before it would fade into the continuing interference. They had been unable to make contact with anyone, but from the bits and pieces of hyperphone traffic they intercepted, a dismal picture emerged.
On virtually every inhabited planet in the galaxy, Estarani were appearing in vast numbers, attacking everything in sight. Someone else had remembered ultrasonics, but as quickly as they were brought under control in one place, more of the repulsive creatures popped up somewhere else. Over half of the Federation military fleet had been destroyed on the ground in the first hours of the chaos, and on top of it all, word of Christa's disappearance had leaked out.
Repairs to the damaged landingcraft and sled took three days; by the end of that time, their injuries were completely healed under the restoring influence of repeated treatments in the regenerator. Suu pronounce them all fit, and the crew settled in to enjoy the peaceful respite of hyperspace flight.
The \Klondike\ needed little attention while under hyperdrive. Except for occasional maneuvers in normal space to avoid passing too near a star or other dense body while hyper, the ship's computer handled navigation and lifesupport without need of Human assistance. The wave-front generated by the passage of the ship thru hyperspace pushed aside the space-dust and debris that lay within their trajectory; anything large enough to pose a hazard would be detected, and the crew would be notified by the computer in plenty of time to maneuver safely. Jashi and Karli spent much of the time in their cabin.
*********
Before joining the crew of the \Klondike\, Toko had been a scientific research assistant at Summit Labs Limited, a government-sponsored facility doing research in the area of molecular engineering. The \Klondike\ carried only limited laboratory equipment, but Jashi assigned Toko the task of determining as much as possible about the mysterious sphere by the use of whatever nondestructive testing the ship's lab had to offer.
While the rest of the crew worked to repair the damaged equipment retrieved from the surface of Ultazari-Seven, Toko spent long hours in the lab. By the time the repair work was done, he had performed every test possible with the ship's limited equipment, and knew only slightly more about the alien object than when he had started.
Toward the end of the third day, Jashi joined him in the lab. "How's it coming?" he asked, as Toko looked up from his work.
"Not very good I'm afraid, Jashi," Toko replied in frustration. "What with our limited equipment and having to do nondestructive testing only, I really haven't been able to learn much. I doubt I could destroy this thing if I wanted to, but I don't dare take the chance. Sure would like to try to crush it though... Or shoot it with a particle beam."
"Sheesh! Don't even think it!" replied Jashi in shock. "It's the whole reason we're going on this crazy trip. I'm betting you're right and it \is\ indestructible, but we can't take the chance."
"I know... Just wishful thinking," laughed Toko. "I'm just frustrated. About the only thing I know now that I didn't three days ago, is that it is probably solid; it appears to be some kind of metal -- although nothing that's listed in Federation catalogs; and it absorbs x-rays and every other kind of radiation I can throw at it except visible light and ultrasonics, which it reflects beautifully. It's nonmagnetic and emits no radiation of its own. Its size has remained constant since I first measured it, and temperature variations from below zero to two hundred degrees don't cause any expansion or contraction... In fact, the sphere doesn't itself change temperature. Yesterday I put it into boiling water for over an hour, and when I took it out I could hold it in my hand... Same thing after freezing it overnight. Wish we had a molecular analyzer," he finished wistfully.
"We do!" exclaimed Jashi. "Number three hold. We got stuck with it on our last trading run to Bardara-Twelve. Remember?"
Three hours later they knew one more thing about the sphere: The unknown material of which it was composed contained three hundred eighty-two slightly different variations of the same molecule, arranged in apparent random sequence. Computer analysis determined that the "random" sequence was some kind of code; contained in its molecular structure, the mysterious sphere carried a message. That night they threw a party to celebrate their discovery; only Mowii didn't attend.
*********
As the \Klondike\ drew near her rendezvous with the unknown, the relaxed atmosphere within the ship began to evaporate. By the twenty-forth day, all except Mowii had begun spending long hours in the control room, drinking coffee and watching the moving symbol on the star map that represented the ship. Hour by hour the tension mounted, as they pushed farther and farther into unexplored territory.
On the twenty-eighth day, they dropped out of hyperspace and began searching. The view thru the forward port was one of awesome empty blackness; not a single star was visible as they peered into the void beyond the galactic rim.
It took four days of intensive scanning to find it. It was a planet some eight thousand miles in diameter, in free transit, travelling across the spiral arm in opposition to galactic rotation -- headed outward into the unknown. Scanning showed no atmosphere or surface ice, and indicated gravity eighty-nine percent that of Summit; the surface temperature was four hundred degrees below zero, Federation-Standard.
*********
"We're going to land on that?" demanded Mowii indignantly as the \Klondike\ dropped into orbit around the frozen body. "What the hell do you think we're going to find?" The entire crew was present in the control room.
"Don't know, Mowii," responded Jashi gently. "There's \something\ down there though, sensors show a power source in operation below the surface."
"How do you suppose it got here?" asked Suu.
(.... !!!!!! .... "What an awful place! ....") Karli said in his mind. Except for an occasional impact crater, scan showed only a smooth, featureless surface, as though it had been blasted clean and then polished smooth by some incredibly powerful force. In the dim starlight it was jet-black. (.... "Looks like an eight-ball! ....")
(.... !!!!!! .... "Consider it named, Kitten ....") Instead of answering Suu, Jashi addressed the computer, "Analysis please... Use all available data. Aural and hard-copy response."
"Aye, Captain," responded the computer. "The object was once a planet, in orbit around a type-six star. It had animal and plant life; there are fossilized remains of both buried beneath the surface. There are no remnants of either the atmosphere or surface liquid. The surface has been polished clean by radiation and cosmic dust of many thousand years duration. The object has an unusually weak magnetic field in relation to its mass.
"Beneath the surface at several locations, there are habitations -- at least one of these contains atmosphere and will support Human life. I can detect no life-forms of any kind. The entrance to the functional sub-surface habitat is \here\..." An indicator winked into life on the projected surface map.
Three more times around, with scanners on full; no new data was gathered, and still no indication of any life on the planet or beneath its surface. Jashi took the \Klondike\ out of orbit and rode the anti-gravs down to a landing on the airless surface. They touched down some fifty yards from where the computer had indicated the entrance into the sub-surface habitat. The door stood out on the infrared scanner like a beacon -- it was \warm\ on the other side.
They powered-up both of the \Klondike's\ landingcraft and stationed them overhead -- Lito in one, Roi in the other; the telepair would make an efficient team, should aerial support become necessary. Performance of the little boats was barely nominal in the low-density field of the planet; just hovering taxed the machines' flux-powered generators at almost eighty percent of capacity. They were consuming copious amounts of reserve power.
Toko had the conn, with Suu and Mowii as crew. The \Klondike's\ floodlights bathed the area around the ship in dazzling brightness, in sharp contrast to the inky blackness beyond the reach of the powerful lamps.
Clothed in pressure suits, Jashi, Karli and Rang stood at the forward airlock, ready to descend to the planet's hostile surface. "Both boats in position, Captain," reported Roi. Jashi hoped they wouldn't have to perform any fancy maneuvers -- \that\ would require the use of hydrofusion, with the accompanying danger of radiation exposure to the landing-party.
Jashi acknowledged, then turned to Toko. "Remember, Toko," he said urgently, "if anything funny happens when we open that door, get the ship out of here. Stat! Roi will pick us up while Lito flies cover, and we'll rendezvous in orbit. No matter what, get the ship out. If we loose the \Klondike\, we're \all\ dead."
"Don't worry, Jashi," responded Toko. Jashi closed the face-plate of his helmet, and the three of them entered the airlock.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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