5. I could not tell how much time had passed when Dieter finally returned to the PriFly deck. It seemed I had been there an age but concluded it could not have been more than a couple of hours. He held a screwdriver in his left hand.
“We do the burn in an hour. Do you need to go to the toilet?”
I nodded.
“Gut. I take you there now. Just before you go in you will swallow this pill.” He drew a small, white capsule from his trouser pocket. “It is a sleeping pill. It will begin to work about ten minutes after you take it. After you swallow it open your mouth. I want to see you do not hide it under your tongue. Then I untie your hands and leave you in the toilet. Ten minutes later I come in to get you. I will have this in my hand.” He held up the screwdriver. “You do anything and I kill you. Understand?”
So that’s how he planned to do it. A screwdriver in my chest in response to a cooked up escape attempt. My mind raced. No, he wouldn’t do it just yet. It would be more convincing to let some time pass first. I nodded again.
“We go.”
Everything took place as he described. When I awoke I was back in the PriFly deck, groggy and confused, hands and legs bound as before. I was alone. The PriFly, or Primary Flight deck, served the dual purpose of storage space and bridge—the latter only when performing major manoeuvres with the main engine. Five couches, heads oriented outwards, ran along about a third of the outer wall. Racks filled with equipment and supplies took up another third, and the crew’s spacesuits took up the remaining space. I felt a spasm of anger. There was a gap where Domingo and Tessa’s suits had been. Dieter had not recovered their bodies. It would have been impossible to keep them on the Terra Nova, nonetheless I despised him for making what was at the end of the day a practical decision.
The hours passed. My mind grew weary of examining impossible ways of escape. Above me the forward window revealed a small circle of night sky dotted with a few stars. Eventually the edge of Mars’ disc appeared in the corner and after a time, the entire planet came into view. We were further away from it than we had been when I occupied the Annex. Dieter had evidently done a partial burn as he originally intended, and we were in a long, elliptical orbit that would bring us back to Mars for the first aerobraking manoeuvre. I searched my memory. Each pass through the upper atmosphere would initially be thirty-five hours apart, the gap gradually narrowing to two hours as the ship slowed and the orbit became shorter. The ship would need to be under human control during aerobraking. It would become tiring for just two people to do, especially towards the end. I might have a chance then, if Dieter hadn’t killed me first.
After an eternity Cloe came through the hatch with a food tube. There was no sign of Dieter.
“Eat this.” She held the tube to my mouth. I took about half then pulled away. “Finish it,” she said.
“I have a name.”
She did not answer.
“You talk like him,” I continued. “Has he got through to you that much?”
Letting go of the food tube she gripped a strap holding me to the couch. With her other hand she struck a stinging blow across my cheek. “Salaud. He let you live.” With that she pushed herself off and disappeared through the hatchway.
Terra Nova had been built to withstand high temperatures during its close encounter with the sun inside the orbit of Venus. Hence although not designed for it, it could cope with the heat generated from passing through the Martian ionosphere. Dieter and Cloe did not come down to the PriFly deck during the first pass as the main engine was not needed for the altitude corrections. I was alone when a slight shuddering ran through the ship. I looked through the window but saw nothing except the night sky. After a time the shuddering ceased. Time passed. Eventually Dieter appeared with a food tube. Neither of us spoke as I took it. When I had finished he left without a word.
I knew I was going to die, and soon. The knowledge filled me with leaden despair, punctuated by sharp points of panic. I thought of Domingo who had taken death head-on and prayed his way right through it. It was no use: I had no inclination to pray. Whatever the faceless being was that was called God, it was not something I could have anything to do with, not even with my life running out. Only life had meaning. Death made that life meaningless, but it did not itself acquire any meaning thereby. It was a futile, pointless, dreadful thing, to be escaped, not comprehended. I had to escape, escape, escape. I twisted my wrists until I felt the slipperiness of blood. No good, the flex was as tight as ever. I remained bound to the couch, waiting for the moment when Dieter would come to take me to my place of death. I resolved that when he did, I would attack him whilst I still had a few minutes of consciousness, and kill or be killed. He would be wary, ready for and expecting it, nonetheless I would try. One clings to any hope at the moment of one’s dissolution.
It was not Dieter who came next, but Cloe. Though stiff and weary I was instantly alert at her approach. She was not carrying a food tube. She came up close and began to undo my straps. Once I was floating free of the couch she turned me to examine my bound wrists. I felt tugging movements. It was some time before I comprehended that she was untying me.
“What’s going on?”
“He’s unconscious. Sleeping powder in his food. I had to wait until he trusted me.”
“That slap...”
She nodded her head towards the spacesuits. “He switched on one of the visor cameras to keep an eye on you. I had to slap you to convince him. I’m sorry.”
My hands were free. “I’ll undo my feet,” I said. “Where is he?”
“He’s strapped to a chair in the Wardroom. He will not be conscious for a while.”
Once my feet were free I looked at her. “Why didn’t you believe him?”
Her mouth twisted in what might have been a smile or a grimace. “He is like you. Big IQ and still stupid. Jason, who else could have done it? He thought to make evidence that was good in a court of law is enough to convince me. As if you are one who would even think to do such a thing.”
I said nothing. She held on to a wall stanchion and looked up at the faint gleam of stars through the window. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. We’ll have to tie him up.”
She continued looking through the window. “I am married to him for ten years and never do I think he can do such a thing. But as he talks to you I know it is him. When I mixed the sleeping powder into his food I think, for a second, to put in an overdose. But I cannot be like him, never.” She gave another grimace. “Je l’ai épousé après tout.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Life is full of surprises.” She turned to face me. “We’d better go.”
It took time to get Dieter’s inert body down into PriFly and bind him as securely as he had done me. I was not an expert with knots but after half an hour was satisfied I had done a good enough job. Cloe and I debated the practical problems of looking after him as a prisoner.
“We don’t untie him unless he is unconscious,” I said. “Not for any reason. We’ll work around any problems that causes.”
“Can you feed him?” she asked. “I do not wish to have anything to do with him. I prefer not see him at all if possible.”
I nodded. “He can stay here. I’ll keep an eye on him from the Annex with the suit camera for the rest of the time. We’ll keep the hatch to the PriFly bolted when we’re not around. We’ll only have to be here for burn manoeuvres.”
Cloe glanced at me. “When do we do the next burn?”
“No point carrying on with the aerobraking. The three of us can’t live on the food we have for the next two years. We’ll do a burn into circular orbit and head back to Earth in two months’ time.
“What about a Mars landing? There are the supplies on the surface.”
I shrugged. “What’s the point? We have enough supplies already and this mission is a bust. It’s too risky in any case. We can’t leave Dieter here alone.”
“We could make him unconscious. We just need a few hours.”
“Do you really want to plant a flag in the ground?”
“I want to do something he wouldn’t do.”
“So would I, but without worrying about getting myself killed. I’ve worried about that enough already.”
She smiled, sadly. “Fine, your decision. It doesn’t matter anyway.”
The next priority was to let Mission Control know what had happened. Dieter had already sent a message containing his version of events. To clear my name, it was necessary to make an audiovisual report that left no detail out. Cloe spoke for me. It should be possible for the psychologists at NASA to work out who was telling the truth, I thought. As a postscript I added a message for Eugene Trinny.
“Director Trinny, after what has happened it is absolutely imperative that we know the truth. Dieter suspected, and we also suspect, that there are neither supply ships or additional boosters on their way to us. With every available launcher needed to take bombs to the asteroid we cannot see how anything can be spared to prolong our mission. Also the specifications of the boosters make it clearly impossible that they could be constructed and launched in the time available.
“This being the case we have decided to cut short the aerobraking manoeuvres and do a burn into circular orbit, with a return to Earth as per the original timetable. We do not see the need for a Mars landing given the current circumstances, but it is understood that that is ultimately Mission’s decision. There is only one thing I ask. Please don’t lie to us again.”
He can chew on that, I thought, and hit the Send button.
The reply was not long in coming. It was a video of Trinny. For a few moments he did not speak, as if weighing his words.
“All right, commander, We know you’re in the clear. What has happened is tragic. We suspected Dieter right from the start. He was...how can I put it...too clinical about the whole thing. I don’t know how he thought he was going to get away with it. Sitting cooped up in a tin can for ten months I suppose. Skewed his thinking. No-one suspected he was capable of...never mind.
“You’re right, there aren’t any supply ships or boosters coming your way, at least not for the present. Even if we throw everything we’ve got at Ganymed, it’s still touch and go. I’m sorry we strung you along. Seemed the right decision at the time. We felt that the pressure of knowing you might come home to, well, a pretty huge mess, would be too much for you added to the other pressures of your mission. Seems you’re smarter than we gave you credit for.
“Negative on a landing on Mars at present. The first missiles will be hitting Ganymed pretty soon. We’ll examine their effect and see if Earth is in the clear. If so, a landing might be possible, but that depends on the circumstances. Something else has come up.”
Trinny’s face disappeared, replaced by a photograph of a fairly regular, rocky oval lump set against a starry background. “We’ve been tracking that second asteroid that was going to swing by Mars and leave the solar system. Someone became curious when it was finally found in older photographs. Its path didn’t make sense. Now something’s happened that doesn’t make sense either. It’s rotated 180 degrees on its axis of movement and has started slowing down.”
There was a pause as the photo was replaced by a diagram, showing a dotted line with a kink in its middle passing through the orbits of Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. “It’s path is quite normal as far back as Jupiter. Before that, though, the path was different. It changed direction. The original line took it to Earth. The new path takes it to Mars, and its new speed should put it into a geostationary orbit around the planet. There’s more. It did its course change after 43225 impacted on Ganymed. The only conclusion that makes sense is that it realised Earth was going to be hit and changed its destination. That means it’s some kind of a craft with an intelligent pilot.”
The diagram was replaced by Trinny’s face. “You are close enough to investigate it. You will be able to alter your elliptical orbit to match its geostationary orbit without compromising your return journey. We advise you to wait a few days until we can better assess its intentions, if that’s at all possible. Hold to your current orbit but keep out of the atmosphere. Gather all the data you can. We’ll give you everything we have from this end.”
Trinny gave a wry smile. “I am not pulling your legs, honest. We’re talking about the first alien visitation outside of a science fiction book. We need to find out what we’re dealing with. That is now your primary mission. Good luck.”
The Rec room screen went blank. Neither Cloe nor I said anything for a few moments. Then I turned to her. “This is becoming a bloody space opera.”
“It is difficult to believe.”
“A little too coincidental for my taste. I’d have been happy just with the human race’s first and last manned mission to Mars.”
“‘Last’?”
“There’s not going to be the money for a second one. This was a prestige mission, to show the East we Westerners aren’t done yet. Once we come home with the T-shirt that will be that.”
“I never think you are such a cynic.”
“Kept it to myself. I enjoy my job and I wanted the ride. To be honest the risk was something of an attraction as well. A certain amount of uncertainty, in due moderation. Enough to make it interesting without it becoming unsettling.”
“Yes, something more ordinary than knocking on the hatch of a five-kilometre-long alien spaceship.”
I laughed. “Are you up to it?”
“I suppose. Yes.”
“You know why we’re doing it, don’t you?”
She looked at me.
I grinned. “Worked it out ahead of you this time. We’re going to ask for help”.
6. It had noticed the arrival of the new object but paid little attention to it. Its interest was taken up by the two objects on the planet’s surface. As it slipped into orbit it felt within itself. The Great Thread was nearly ready. Not in an age had it spun such a one, and it was filled with a sense of anticipation as it prepared for planetfall. This world was dead, but it was nonetheless a world, with ground, sky, mountains, even a touch of wind. It would give relief from the vast, endless night it had spent so many centuries traversing.
Reorienting itself it studied the earthbound asteroid and weighed up the devastation it would wreak. It adjusted its vision and looked deep within the Earth at the place where the asteroid would strike. It saw something. In a matter of minutes its brain performed a billion instinctive calculations, tested them, and performed them again. It spread its gaze over the visible surface of the Earth. What it saw only confirmed its conclusions.
After hours of deliberation a decision was reached. It would bring up to itself whoever had made those objects on the surface.
Director Eugene Trinny to Commander Jason Montague
Attached are photographs from Mars Orbiter of the alien entity. The entity is 4.7km in length and of a flattened oval shape, with a maximum width of 1.5km. Its surface is a dark rock probably containing a large iron component. It is covered with craters of which one seems anomalous in that its floor is entirely black and featureless, as if in complete shadow. This is the large crater that Dieter noticed was facing the same direction in all the photographs we initially sent you.
It is confirmed the object is not currently rotating but earlier images appear to show some rotation around its axis of movement. There are no visible signs of artificial structures on the surface. With the exception of that anomalous crater, it has every appearance of a dark-coloured but otherwise normal rocky body.
The Sudbury neutrino telescope detected a notable emission of neutrinos from the entity when it slowed down. Concurrent with its reduction in speed it reversed its orientation by 180 degrees. It has now reversed back again. We suspect it might have some kind of antimatter drive that functions from the end of the entity opposite the black crater. If this is the case it would have virtually limitless power, but for now this is speculation.
All attempts at communicating with the entity have so far been without result. We cannot determine whether it is to be considered benevolent or hostile. Keep to your orbit for the present until we have some indication of its intentions. Will keep you posted.
We were in the Wardroom having the equivalent of a frugal breakfast. I passed my tablet over to Cloe. She perused it for minute or two then shrugged. “They have no idea what to think of it.”
I stretched my arms, then flexed my back. “I doubt they’ll have much more to tell us in the near future. Looks like we’ll have to walk in blind. We can’t play wait and see forever. We have less than two months to establish contact with the thing and work out how to communicate with its occupants. That’s not much time.”
“You think we should just go ahead and approach it?”
“No, not yet. I’m curious about its orbit. Why choose one that’s geostationary?”
“Perhaps it was just convenient.”
“Mmm…perhaps. But I think we should hold off for a couple more days and see what it does. I’m working on the assumption that we’re dealing with a superior intelligence. Everything it does it does for a reason. The more reasons we know about the better our notion will be of what kind of beings they are.”
Cloe frowned. “They were going to the Earth, which means they must have a life-form similar to ours. The most complex organic molecules are made up of carbon and water. No other combination of elements comes close. Earth has just the right conditions for carbon-based life. They like what they see and they want it.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t necessarily follow. They may have been coming to the Earth for other reasons. Heck, they may not even be planning on hanging around.”
“You mean a temporary stop. Like Rama.”
“Could be. We just don’t know.”
“Jason, Earth was their original destination. They’ve gone into orbit around Mars until Earth is normal again then they move in. They are interested in Earth, because it offers something the other planets and moons of the solar system don’t have. The only thing I can think of is favourable conditions for life. They are colonists. We are the natives.”
I rubbed my chin. “New World all over again.”
She nodded. “West Indies, Aztecs, American Indians. It’s bad luck to be a native when a superior civilisation comes to visit. The native has what the visitor wants, so goodbye to the native.”
“I have to admit you’re convincing. I just hope you’re wrong.”
Cloe turned away. “I hope so too.”
A silence fell between us. It had been like that for the last two days. Animated conversation followed by a kind of gloomy lassitude. It was not the alien craft that caused it, but the obliteration of our close-knit team and the shadow of destruction that hung over the Earth. Terra Nova by any human standards was a cramped space to spend two years living in. Now it seemed too large, too silent. We spoke to dispel the emptiness, and for a time we had a sense of almost being normal again. But it was only a reprieve. Two friends killed, a third mutated into their killer, and the shadow of death over us all. The alien craft was almost a relief, something to focus our minds on and distract us from the reality of our situation. The problem was that it was now becoming part of that reality.
“You don’t think they caused Ganymed to change orbit? I asked. “Get humanity out the way?”
Cloe looked hard at me. “Don’t become paranoid Jason. They changed course after Ganymed was hit, you remember? It was not in their plans.”
“True. It could be they don’t even know we exist. Five kilometres is not that big if it has to contend with the whole human race. A nuclear strike could take it out presuming it doesn’t have some kind of sci-fi hi-tech protection we don’t know about. So far it hasn’t shown anything outside the realm of ordinary physics.”
She looked doubtful.
“Look,” I continued, “it’s travelled at a rational speed—all those craters on it show it’s spent a long time in space. It made a course change and reduced its speed in a way consistent with a power source that’s impressive but not incredible. It isn’t out of a movie. It has to respect all normal physical limitations.”
“We still don’t know how dangerous it is.”
“When you’re talking about very high levels of energy it’s impossible to protect yourself. You get your blow in first or you’re history. If this thing had some kind of a force shield that would make it impervious to nukes then it would have the means of getting from one star to the next in much less time. There’s a limit to how far you can manipulate physics. This thing can be destroyed. I’ll wager anything it hasn’t factored us in its plans.”
“That’s an assumption. It may have a shield and we won’t know until something attacks it.”
“Then why the craters? It didn’t have to get hit by anything. Why have a rocky exterior in the first place? That must be its protection.”
“Ah oui.”
“The Santa Maria didn’t sail in and take over North and South America on arrival. In fact, as I remember it Columbus didn’t conquer anything on his first visit. It was just a reconnaissance voyage. The conquests came later.”
“So you’re saying this is a scout?”
“No idea, but if I was on a conquest mission and I knew a planet was as technologically developed as ours, I’d come with a bigger rock.”
One subject we never discussed was Dieter. I made it my job to feed him and see to his other requirements. For the last two days this had been done with a minimum of talk between he and I. Once a man kills it is surprising how quickly and completely he is severed from the bonds of humanity. I took care of his needs without any superfluous chat. I had nothing to say to him.
On the day of Eugene Trinny’s message he spoke after I had resealed an emptied food tube.
“How is Cloe?”
I hesitated. “Well as can be expected.”
“How did she know?”
“…she just knew."
He fell silent. I was leaving the PriFly deck when he spoke again, almost to himself, his words fading into a murmur: “Ich sollte nicht es getan haben. Not to her. Not to her. Not to her…” Glancing back at him one more time before I sealed the hatch I was surprised to see the shine of a tear on his cheek.
The next time I visited him he spoke again: “You do not aerobrake.”
“No.”
“You do not do a burn either.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Something came up.”
He looked away. “You tell me?”
“Not your concern. You are no longer part of this mission. You stay here until we get back to Earth then you go into a cell. Keep your brain busy figuring out your legal defence.”
His eyes turned back to me, bright with anger. “I have no defence. I killed Tessa and Domingo and I was going to kill you. I do it because I work out there is no chance of stopping the asteroid. That ninety-four percent is scheisse. More like zero percent. I do it because I don’t want to die and I don’t want Cloe to die either. I must choose, so I choose.”
I had a strong urge to kill him, then and there. “You chose, so you take the consequences. You can go back to Earth and sit behind bars for the rest of your life.”
The glitter in his eyes faded and he looked away dully. “You think I care about that? I could die now and not care. I do the wrong thing and I cannot take it back.” He was silent for a minute then glanced irritably at me. “Go. Just go.”
Once back in the Annex I saw Cloe’s eyes on the monitor. In the centre of the screen was an image of Dieter bound to his couch.
“You were watching?” I asked.
“I always watch when you go in. Safety precaution.”
I said nothing.
“We may need him,” she said.
“No. He can’t be trusted. He had more than two days to memorise his last act of the opera script.”
Cloe’s mouth twisted, and she shook her head. “I know when he means it, Jason.”
“It’s still no. I can’t trust him. Two’s company and three’s a crowd. He could try killing again, me, even you.”
She gave a slight smile. “He wouldn’t try to kill me.” She looked at me, then glanced away. “All right.”
The Mars Orbiter was programmed to alert the Terra Nova’s main computer if it observed any detectable changes in the alien entity. That warning was to be relayed to me. It was three in the morning, earth-time, when my tablet emitted a gentle ping-ping repeated with gradually increasing intensity, pulling me from a sleep filled with vague and troubled dreams. I was clipped to the bunk bed in my stateroom, my arms inserted in the chest straps as I did not sleep well with them floating free in weightlessness. I opened one eye a crack and turned my head to see where the sound was coming from. Realisation seeped in and, wide-awake, I drew the tablet from its slot. It showed a video stream of the strange rocky entity with something happening on one side of it. As I unbuckled the straps I made the decision: Cloe could carry on sleeping. This new development didn’t require her immediate presence.
A minute later I was looking at the rocky entity on the Annex screen. There. I zoomed in. A small object, a black-coloured irregular oval, had detached itself from the main body and was gradually drifting away. As I watched it slowly picked up speed. There was no doubt as to its destination. It was headed straight for the Martian surface.
The Orbiter satellite, now under my control, continued tracking the object. I zoomed in further. There was something trailing from it—no—it was a line of some sort running all the way back to the rocklike mass. Wire-guided? I shifted the Orbiter’s telescope back to the huge body of stone, but could see nothing other than the long line playing out to the strange object. It made no sense. Why connect a landing craft to the mother ship?
Two hours later the small object was still in free fall. It had reached a speed of four hundred and fifty kilometres an hour, still connected by the line to the alien craft. It was about ten metres in length, roughly oval and with an irregularly marked surface. It was time to wake Cloe.
As soon as she arrived I showed her the new development.
“It’s a landing craft evidently,” she said.
“Sure, but why this line?”
She shook her head. “A way of steering it?”
Then suddenly it hit me. “We need a holiday.”
“Why?”
“We’re overworked. It’s staring us in the face.”
She looked at me.
I tapped my head. “Space elevator.”
Cloe turned back to the screen. “We can work out where it will land. Project its current direction down to the ground.”
My fingers flew over the keyboard. “Am doing exactly that.” Time passed, then a red line appeared on the screen, extending from the alien ship to the surface. I zoomed in on the end of the line touching the surface, then further in.
“My giddy aunt,” I said.
“It’s curious about us,” said Cloe.
The red line touched the Martian surface on a flat plain that was familiar to me since I had studied it minutely months before. Ten kilometres away our own landing area was already occupied by the Mars Habitat and the Shirase supply ship.
I placed my hands behind my neck and stretched to relieve my fatigue. “This changes things. It obviously doesn’t think anything orbiting Mars is as important as what’s already gone down to the surface.”
“That makes sense.”
“So if we want to say hello we have join the party.”
“We could go straight to the alien ship.”
“Mmm. That might be dangerous. It may be designed to protect itself from a direct approach. They obviously expect to make contact with us on Mars. They might not like a surprise visit in space whilst they’re on the ground.”
“I don’t argue. I wanted to go down to Mars, you remember?”
I smiled. “Yeah. Looks like your wish is coming true.”
“How long before they land?”
I tapped some keys. “At their present speed, about twenty-two hours. They’re not showing signs of acceleration. Four hundred and fifty kilometres an hour constant.”
“Good. When do we go?”
“Wait, not so quick. I have to run it by Mission first. By the book and all that. The downside of being a commander.”
She poked me with her elbow. “Hurry up and get their approval. It’s a formality.”
“All right, all right.”
Mission’s reply was not a text message as I expected. Instead, Trinny’s face appeared on my Annex monitor. He was in his office and there was a slight tilt to the room. I realised he had used his tablet to make the video.
He ran his hand through his hair for a few moments. When he spoke he did not look at the camera. “All right, what I’m about to say will probably get me cashiered but there’s too much at stake. I’m sending you this recording on my own authority. You probably won’t hear from me again. So be it.
“I’ve come across some leaked information. It seems there are not six hundred Tsar bombs. The nuclear states don’t have a fraction of the atomic payload necessary to deflect Ganymed. When their governments realised that they invented the big bombs to reassure everyone. Apparently they’re building bunkers that will keep them alive for several years until the effects of the impact have passed. Bombs had been sent to the asteroid—the ten megaton Chinese Quántóus. They made a spectacular bang. Footage was broadcast on all television networks. But they had hardly any effect on Ganymed. It will definitely hit Earth eight months from now.
“I should have suspected this from the start—I wonder now how I could ever have been taken in. It was a close friend I trusted who convinced me the Chinese and Russians were on the level. More fool me.
“At this point I can’t tell you what to do. The consensus here is that you must land on Mars as per the regular schedule. If possible make contact with the alien elevator and establish if they can help us. But if you fail that will mean certain death for you. If you carry out Dieter’s original plan and aerobrake into a regular orbit I will use whatever influence I can to get a supply ship to you before Ganymed hits. We have about seven months to put it together. That should be enough time. There are only three of you so your current supplies should last until a ship reaches you.
“I can’t guarantee the powers that be will second what I’m doing. If they do I’ll be in touch. Good luck, people.”
Trinny’s hand reached forward then paused. “No, there’s something else you have a right to know. Sylvia is not doing well. She’s taken a bad turn. The disease has entered its final stage. The brain degeneration is now affecting her physical reflexes. We haven’t told her about the bombs and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it to her. I’ll send you her files with the transmission. Trinny out.”