"Very little. That it projects matter through hyperspace and
materializes it where you want it."
"Not exactly; the materialization is spontaneous. Mass somehow distorts
hyperspace, and when the projected matter has penetrated a certain
distance into such distortion, it pops back into normal space. The
penetration depends mainly upon a sort of internal energy in the
missile; you might think of it more as a voltage than as velocity.
You've made it very hard for us to get reports, but I understand we
successfully placed stuff in Sennech's crust."
"Yes; causing volcanoes. Our scientists speculated that any kind of
matter would do it."
"That's right. Actually, we were projecting weighed chunks of rock. When
one bit of matter, even a single atom, finds itself materializing where
another already is, unnatural elements may be formed, most of them
unstable. That's what blew holes in your crust and let the magma out."
Tulan considered the military implications of the weapon for a few
moments, then pulled his mind back. "I see; but what about the
radiation? It wasn't more than a trace when I left."
Kliu looked away for a while before answering. "When we learned you'd
defied your government, our own military got out of hand. They had a
couple of days before the sun cut us off completely, and they began
throwing stuff as soon as it could be dug and hauled to the projectors.
They used high energies to get it past the sun. As we realize now, a lot
of it hit the planet deeper than at first, below the crust. Under such
pressure a different set of fissionables was formed. Some of them burst
out and poisoned the atmosphere, but most of them are still there." He
leaned forward and eyed Tulan hard. "We've got to get an expedition out
there to study things. Will you help?"
There was another of the palpable silences, and when he spoke Tulan's
voice sounded unnatural. "I--yes; we'll help. Whatever you want. Is ...
Sennech finished?"
Kliu smiled tightly. "Sennech, for sure; and she may take the rest of us
with her. Nobody conceived what this might come to. A lot of those deep
materializations produced pockets of dense fissionables, and they're
converging toward the center under their own weight. When they get to a
certain point, we'll have a fine monument to Man's ingenuity. A
planet-size nova." He stood up. "I'll start organizing."
* * * * *
Tulan existed someway through the preparations, and when they were in
space again the solid familiarity of his ship helped. His staff was
carrying on wonderfully; shielding him, he suspected, from considerable
hostility. Discipline held up.
A technology that had spanned five orbits and probed beyond was at bay,
and the expedition was tremendous. Hardly an art or science was
unrepresented. If need be, whole ships could be built in space.
A beam from Teyr as they passed told of refugees by the hundreds of
thousands, dumped in the wilderness with a few ships still trickling in.
Tulan would have traded everything he could command to hear a word of
Jezef or the family, but Teyr wasn't concerned with individuals and he
didn't ask.
Sennech was dull gray in the telescopes, showing, as they neared, flecks
of fire. They went in fast, using her gravity to help them curve into a
forced orbit as they strained to decelerate. Thermocouples gave readings
close to the boiling point of water; that, probably, was the temperature
of the lower air.
Roboscouts went down first, then, as conditions were ascertained, manned
ships. Tulan took the flagship down once. Her coolers labored and her
searchlights were swallowed in murk within a few feet. Sounds carried
through the hull; the howl of great winds and the thumps of explosions.
Once a geyser of glowing lava spattered the ship.
Within hours the picture began to form. The surface was a boiling sea
broken only by transient mountain peaks which tumbled down in quakes or
were washed away by the incessant hot rain. It would have been hard to
find a single trace of the civilization that had flourished scant hours
before.
* * * * *
The slower job was learning, by countless readings and painful
deduction, what was going on inside the planet. Tulan occupied himself
with organizational tasks and clung to what dignity he could. After an
eternity Kliu had time for him.
"She'll blow, all right," the scientist said, sinking tiredly into a
seat. "Within half a year. Her year."
"Twenty thousand hours," Tulan said automatically. "How about the other
planets?"
"Coar has one chance in a hundred, Teyr possibly one in ten."
Tulan had to keep talking. "The outer satellites. We can do a lot in
that time."
Kliu shrugged. "A few thousand people, and who knows what will happen to
them afterward? It's going to be a long time before the System's
inhabitable again, if ever."
"Ships ... people can live a long time in ships."
"Not that long."
"There must be something! The power we've got, and this hyperspace
thing."
Kliu shook his head. "I can guess what you're thinking; we've been all
over it. There's no way to get to the stars, and no way to move a planet
out of its orbit. Don't think we haven't been pounding our skulls, but
the figures are hopeless."
Tulan stared at the ulcerous image on the screen, built up by infra-red
probing through the opaque atmosphere. "She looks ready to fall apart
right now. How much of her could you blast off?"
Kliu smiled wearily and without humor. "We've worked that idea to the
bone, too. If you could build a big enough projector, and mount it on an
infinitely solid base, you could push something deep enough and
accurately enough to throw off stuff at escape velocity, but it's a
matter of energy and we can't handle one percent of what we'd need. Even
if you could generate it fast enough, your conduits would melt under the
current." He got up and walked a few steps, then sat down again.
"Ironic, isn't it? All we can do is destroy ourselves."
Tulan's mind couldn't accept it; he was used to thinking that any amount
of energy could be handled some way. "There must be something," he
repeated, feeling foolish as he said it.
He went over the figures he knew so well; the acceleration and the total
energy necessary to drive a ship to the nearest stars. Even a ship's
Pulsors, pouring energy out steadily, were pitiful compared to that job.
Schoolboys knew the figures; mankind had dreamed for generations ...
He sat up abruptly. "This hyperspace; didn't you tell me there were such
things as velocity and momentum in it?"