The eternity artifact, p.29
The Eternity Artifact, page 29
“Yes, sir. I’ll be going now.”
It might have been my imagination, but I thought I sensed relief as she left.
The light intensity more than doubled when Nuovyl's light struck the sculpture. I had the feeling it was a device of some sort, far more than a sculpture. Yet the curves and the lines were so precise, so artistic, and the crystal and gray were so intense, and the light somehow so serene, brilliant as it was, that I couldn’t help but think of it as art.
I lowered my light and slipped it into the clasp on the armor’s equipment belt. The illumination dropped to the previous level, but it was more than enough. I unslung the imager. “Just keep the light on it I need to take as many images as I can.”
“Yes, sir.”
I moved down the sloping floor, gingerly, shooting images as I moved. I’d already decided not to step onto the dais. I didn’t need to, and I had a healthy respect for anything that worked as well as the Danannian stuff after billions of years.
Once I got within a meter of the dais, perhaps three from the edge of the sculpture device, I checked out the black line between the two spheres. So far as I could see, it was just dark light, not carried by anything crystalline.
“Nuovyl… play the light on me for a moment, not on the sculpture.”
“On you, sir?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes, sir.”
The dimness and the darkness immediately filled the room. Enough of Nuovyl’s light reflected off my armor that I could see there was nothing connecting the two gray spheres directly. I could see the spheres, the crystal arcs, and where they joined, but nothing more.
I took some more images.
“Now… put it back on the sculpture.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once more, the hall was filled with light from that point source. It was definitely a point source, in the pure geometrical sense. I kept moving around the base of the dais, taking images from all possible angles and elevations. Who knew when I’d ever get as much time with the sculpture again?
Finally, responsibility caught up with me. “I need to report to Dr. Henjsen.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We’ll go out and see how Zerobya is doing.”
“You think we can leave this… ?” Nuovyl’s voice reflected the mixed emotions of duty and relief.
“It’s done quite nicely for the last few billion years.”
Nuovyl didn’t say anything until we were walking down the ramp to the first level.
“Do you have any idea what it is, sir? Why would they leave it here? They didn’t leave anything else. If it’s important… I mean, there aren’t even any directions to it.”
I almost shook my head. “We don’t know that There aren’t any directions as we’d recognize them. I’d guess it’s important, but that’s only a guess. I’d also judge that there was a reason it was left, but we haven’t had much luck in figuring out most of what’s here. So whether we’ll do any better with it… who knows?”
“Sir!” Zerobya voice was so loud it rattled my head inside the helmet. “Dr. Henjsen requested that you contact her ASAP.”
“Can you put me through on the slider’s comm?”
“You’re on.”
“Danann Base—”
“What took you so long to report personally, Barna? What do you have? More windows? Or transparent doors?”
I let the silence hang there.
“Barna. It’s damned late.”
“We have a significant piece of artwork, or a technical model of something I couldn’t begin to understand. It transmits and intensifies light in a way I’ve never seen, but it’s also very artistic. It might even qualify as a great work of art, but I don’t think that’s its purpose. It measures roughly three meters from side to side, a meter deep, and about four and half meters high. That’s the physical structure. It projects light another meter above that I’d guess it weighs at least a good five hundred kilos, maybe even double that, but that’s a guess—”
“You’ve found an artifact that significant, and you didn’t report immediately—”
“I haven’t touched it, Doctor. It’s been here for billions of years. It’s sitting on a perfectly circular dais in a perfectly circular room. It’s the first place I’ve seen that’s perfectly circular. There’s nothing at all around the… whatever it is. I judge that the hall that holds it is the closest thing to an auditorium that the Danannian aliens had.”
“What do you mean by intensifying light?” “If we shine a light on the crystalline part, light flows up to the top, then concentrates to a tiny point almost a meter above the crystal. That point puts out enough light to illuminate the entire hall, and it’s forty meters across and more than ten high.”
“Don’t touch anything. Don’t touch anything at all. Cleon and I will be there as soon as we can be.”
“I haven’t.” I didn’t mention that I’d taken a number of images and would keep taking them from as many angles as possible.
“Stay where you can be reached.” “Either the techs or I will be here at the slider.” Henjsen was silent for a moment. She was probably thinking about whether to demand that I stay away. Finally, she replied. “I can’t stress enough that you shouldn’t touch it or anything around it.” “I haven’t. I’ve stayed off the dais where it is.” “Good. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” That gave me more than a good stan to go back and look at it and take some more images. I probably ought to have taken some of the hall as well, because I’d have to paint the sculpture in its original setting.
Could it even be moved? What if it were an integral part of the entire tower?
If that were the case, I’d better get all the images I could.
Then, if it could be moved, Henjsen and Lazar would find a way. With the scarcity of real artifacts, they’d blow a fusactor to get enough power to cut it from the dais. Even if it could be moved, someone would want an impression of how it looked in its original setting. “We need to head back in to get some more images.” “Yes, sir.” Resignation and apprehension filled Nuovyl’s voice.
I could have been mistaken, but I didn’t think the Danannians would create something so artistic that could last billions of years just to have it explode the first time some alien looked at it. After all, in their minds, we would have been the aliens.
58 BARNA
We didn’t get back to base until late on oneday. Actually, it was very early in the morning on twoday. I tried to sleep in. I didn’t sleep well. Despite my exhaustion, dreams of light fountains and strange voices that I could not understand or recall filled my sleep. When those subsided, I got all of half a stan past the normal call time before Fernard’s loud voice woke me.
“Expedition director or not, I’m not her errand boy!”
I rolled over and sat up.
“Well, you got the job done, Edmund.” That was Sorens. “You also woke up everyone else who worked late.”
Fernard had bushy brown hair and a wild reddish brown beard. He looked at me. “After you’ve eaten, Dr. Henjsen would like to see you, ser Barna.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d rather not be in your boots, ser Barna,” added the chemist “Most acids I’ve known are less corrosive than Dr. Henjsen these days.” He offered a sympathetic smile and vanished.
Rikard Sorens studied me. “You know the only thing worse than not finding something?”
“What?” I wasn’t ready for questions or riddles. My whole body ached.
“Being a nonarcheologist who finds it.” He grinned. “Do you have any idea what it might be?”
I grinned back—raggedly. “You saw it. You’re the scientist. What do you think?”
“I have no idea, except that the clear crystalline arms are another material that’s unique. It also amplifies light in a way I’ve never seen. I don’t think that’s its purpose, though.”
I didn’t either.
Sorens rose. “I have to meet with the techs.”
“Good luck.”
“The same to you.” He turned and headed toward the facilities.
As I stood on sore feet, my recollection of Fernard’s words didn’t improve my sense of well-being. I also worried about the artifact. While I had scores of images of it, such representations weren’t the device. Still, I was certain that Kaitlin Henjsen had it under guard.
I did wash up, dress, eat, and make my way to the small cubicle where I’d met with Kaitlin before. She was sitting behind a square console.
“You took your time.”
“I was tired.”
“So are we all.”
There wasn’t much to say to that. I didn’t.
“I’d like to know how you knew that artifact was there “ Her eyes accused me.
“I told you last night. I didn’t know. I only knew that there had to be something, somewhere in the city. The pattern of the boulevards—”
“There is a difference, but it’s minute. Almost as soon as we established the base, I had Nalakov analyze all the arcs and towers, everyone in the entire megaplex. They all differ somewhat.”
“These looked different.” They had, and that was all that I could say. I wasn’t about to suggest to her that what was a minute difference to us might not have been so to the ancient aliens.
“While you were sleeping, I had him reanalyze them. How did you know?”
“Artists deal in patterns, Kaitlin. I wouldn’t know the mathematical terms. I only saw that the pattern looked somewhat different. What did he find?”
“The tower is the center of a locus of some sort. You could have mentioned that.”
“I didn’t know that. I only knew it was different.”
“Then there’s another thing. We didn’t catch it until this morning. None of our techs melted that ramp.” She was presenting another not-so-veiled accusation.
“They didn’t? Then… you think the visiting aliens did?”
“I’ve already talked to Nuovyl and Zerobya, Barna. You knew that, and you entered the tower without so much as telling anyone here.”
“Tech Zerobya said that she hadn’t been there, and she didn’t know anyone who had been, but there was nothing about the doors to suggest anyone had tried to break in, the way there was where the visiting aliens had been.”
“There are a few traces. You might have destroyed any others.”
“We only walked down the ramp. I’m sorry if that caused a problem.”
“You shouldn’t have entered that hall once you saw what was there.”
I’d had enough. “My dear Dr. Henjsen, I didn’t see what was there until after I entered the hall. I did not touch the artifact. I did not step on the dais or touch it or anything around it. I found it when none of your people could. I know you’re tired and overstrained, but I’m also tired, and I’m particularly tired of your accusations and your blaming. I haven’t damaged anything, and, frankly, I think I’ve contributed a great deal. All you seem interested in is finding fault with what I’ve done. That’s not an admirable trait, and I would have expected better from you.” I paused for the briefest of moments. “If you don’t have anything else…”
Surprisingly, while she had stiffened at my words, she nodded slowly. “I am tired, and you are right, given the circumstances of the expedition. But I don’t have to like what amounts to smash-and-grab archeology.” She paused. “You’ll need to get ready to leave. I don’t know whether it will be this afternoon or tomorrow.”
“Leave?” I was getting even angrier. “Because I found—”
“No.” Her voice was chill, but resigned. “It has nothing to do with that. Commander Morgan has conveyed the captain’s orders that we are all to reembark upon the Magellan. We’ll leave the basic base and power systems in the hope that we can return. There will be no more expeditions by anyone away from the main base. I trust that you understand this is not my doing.”
“I do. Did Commander Morgan give you any idea why we need to abandon Danann?”
“He did not. He just said that it was necessary and to prepare.” Another pause followed. “I believe we’ve said all we have to say, ser Barna.”
We probably had.
I nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
After I left her cubicle, I was still seething. Were all archeologists like that? Thinking that they owned all the artifacts of the past? That intuition or feeling—or vision—had no place in discovering what might have been? Or was it just that she’d been asked to coordinate too much with too few people over too short a time?
With so much unexplored on Danann and with so many unanswered questions, the captain’s orders to abandon the megaplex suggested that attack or danger was imminent My feeling was an attack.
59 GOODMAN/BOND
Bit by bit, I had rebuilt the torp power converter. Along the way, I’d gathered everything else I needed for the AG signaler—or knew exactly where it was and how to get to it quickly. I had to set everything up so that I could assemble it all during one of the night watches assigned to me. Then, late on oneday, I finally “scrapped” the dummy torp power converter. Standing in the aft bay of the armory, I undamped the false converter. “All right, you miserable hunk of junk! You win!” I picked it up and headed forward.
“Sorry you couldn’t make it work,” Ciorio said. “Friggin’ fine-ass work you’ve been doing, Bond. Shoulda maybe been a mech. Might have gone further in ratings.”
“Didn’t test well enough for that. You’ve got to be a frig-gin’ engineer to be a mech.” I dumped the dummy into the bin that held unusable components. If the fusactors were short of mass, it would become energy. If not, some tech back at base might discover it was faked, but I doubted it. It would just get fed into industrial reformulators.
“I thought you almost had it there.”
“I almost did,” I replied. “I thought I could.”
“Almost doesn’t count much, even with good torps,” Chief Stuval added. “All you can hope is maybe you learned something that’ll be useful later. Repairs like that aren’t so easy.”
“No. But it was more complicated than it had to be.” I’d seen several ways it could have been simplified and made more reliable. “It could have been built simpler, a lot simpler.”
“Simpler is better. That’s if simpler does the job you want. It usually doesn’t,” the chief replied. “Now… we need to get to work on redoing the torp array. We need a complete check-off and inspection on each torp. That’ll take every minute you’ve got for the next few days.”
I didn’t need to be reminded about that. Now I had everything I needed for the signaler, if hidden around my bay in the armory—except for the power section. What I didn’t have was the time alone to assemble it, or the knowledge of which torp I could pull the power supply from. The torp check-offs would mean that both the chief and Ciorio would always be around—and probably Major Sewiki as well, or Lieutenant Swallow. I didn’t ever see much of the lieutenant. While I was scheduled for the evening armory duty on threeday, the chief usually dropped in on the evening watches. A midwatch would have been much better, but the way the schedule fell I didn’t have one of those until sevenday.
I was running out of time. That is, I was running out of time if I wanted to complete the mission and walk—or run—away from it with my body and mind intact.
“You all right, Bond?” asked Ciorio.
“I’m fine. I’ll just be glad when this tour is over.” That was true enough.
“It’s been easy for a combat tour. Only one attack.”
“So far,” I pointed out. “They don’t give combat pay without a reason, and one attack isn’t usually a reason.”
“You worry too much.”
I had more than enough to worry about Somehow, some way, I had to get the signaler assembled and stashed on one of the shuttles. I had to get that done soon, and I might just have to take the kind of chances I didn’t like taking. I couldn’t afford to get caught, but if I didn’t get the job done, I’d either be dead—or I’d be on the run from both the Comity and C.I.S. I didn’t want Colonel Traesdale’s crusaders after me, either. Just as important, I didn’t want the Spear of Iblis or the Morning Star in the hands of the Comity. What the Godless would do with such a weapon wasn’t something I ever wanted to think about, and Danann looked to represent a temptation worthy of Iblis. If I failed, none of the alternatives were good, either for me or the Worlds of the Covenant.
“Bond?”
“I guess I do, sometimes.” I gestured toward the aft bay, where both the torps we needed to inspect were and where I’d hidden my signaler components. “Could be I’ve had too much time to think.” I offered a twisted smile.
“Thinking—that’ll get you!” Ciorio laughed loudly.
So did I, even if I didn’t feel like laughing. I could feel time squeezing in on me like a vise. I needed time alone in the armory, and that didn’t happen except when I had the midwatch, and I usually got those on the enddays. I didn’t like waiting that long, but agents who hurried usually hastened their own discovery or death. I wasn’t aiming for that, although I doubted that Colonel Truesdale would have cared, not so long as the signaler was in place and worked.
I liked the idea of reaching the Paradise of Heaven, but I was in no hurry to get there, either.
60 BARNA
In the end, I rode the passenger shuttle back up to the Magellan late on twoday. If Kaitlin Henjsen could have found a way to get me off Danann sooner, she would have. I was thankful I’d had the foresight to take all the images of the artifact that I had, because I never got near it again. All the physical scientists were out there—all the ones that were on Danann. I hadn’t heard if they’d discovered anything. In the little more than half a day since they had converged upon my discovery, I hadn’t thought I would.
The shuttle was packed, both with passengers and with cargo. I was tired. So was everyone else, and they were all experts in fields deemed uncritical to investigating the artifact.
