"Hell no. I just want to wait until we're relieved, so we can make
this announcement in person. I'm not going to let some old wheezer in
Washington get credit for this.... Besides, I want to know just what
they're trying to tell us."
It was agonizing, painstaking work. Most of the formulas meant nothing
to either one of us. We had to ransack the dome's meager library of
microspools to piece them together. They started simply enough--basic
chemical combinations: carbon and two oxygens yield CO_{2}; two
hydrogens and oxygen give water. A primer ... not of words, but of
equations.
The equations became steadily longer and more complex. Then, abruptly,
they simplified, only to begin a new deepening, simplify again, and
finally become very complicated just at the end. The last few lines
were obviously repetitious.
Gradually, their meaning became clear to us.
The first set of equations started off with simple, naturally-occurring
energy yielding formulas. The oxidation of cellulose (we found the
formula for that in an organic chemistry text left behind by one of
the dome's previous occupants), which probably referred to the burning
of plants and vegetation. A string of formulas that had groupings in
them that I dimly recognized as amino acids--no doubt something to do
with digesting food. There were many others, including a few that Rizzo
claimed had the expression for chlorophyll in them.
"Naturally-occurring, energy-yielding reactions," Rizzo summarized.
"They're probably trying to describe the biological set-up on their
planet."
It seemed an inspired guess.
* * * * *
The second set of equations again began with simple formulas. The
cellulose-burning reaction appeared again, but this time it was
followed by equations dealing with the oxidation of hydrocarbons: coal
and oil burning? A long series of equations that bore repeatedly the
symbols for many different metals came up next, followed by more on
hydrocarbons, and then a string of formulas that we couldn't decipher
at all.
This time it was my guess: "These look like energy-yielding reactions,
too. At least in the beginning. But they don't seem to be naturally
occurring types. Then comes a long story about metals. They're trying
to tell us the history of their technological development--burning
wood, coal and eventually oil; smelting metals ... they're showing us
how they developed their technology."
The final set of equations began with an ominous simplicity: a short
series of very brief symbols that had the net result of four hydrogen
atoms building into a helium atom. Nuclear fusion.
"That's the proton-proton reaction," I explained to Rizzo. "The type of
fusion that goes on in the Sun."
The next series of equations spelled out the more complex
carbon-nitrogen cycle of nuclear fusion, which was probably the
primary energy source of their own Cepheid variable star. Then came a
long series of equations that we couldn't decode in detail, but the
symbols for uranium and plutonium, and some of the heavier elements,
kept cropping up.
Then came one line that told us the whole story: the lithium-hydride
equation--nuclear fusion bombs.
The equations went on to more complex reactions, formulas that no man
on Earth had ever seen before. They were showing us the summation of
their knowledge, and they had obviously been dealing with nuclear
energies for much longer than we have on Earth.
But interspersed among the new equations, they repeated a set of
formulas that always began with the lithium-hydride fusion reaction.
The message ended in a way that wrenched my stomach: the fusion bomb
reaction and its cohorts were repeated ten straight times.
* * * * *
I'm not sure of what day it was on the calendar, but the clock on the
master control console said it was well past eleven.