“ALIEN SPACECRAFT!” murmured Joe, slowly. “Magnificent!”
He and Mark had followed Zip into the hangar. George St. George and his
men came after them. They huddled close together and remained at the
door while the Starmen strode across the floor of the hangar toward the
spacecraft.
The five ships were sleek craft with a highly swept delta wing design.
The hulls were a startlingly reflective deep forest green color. The
craft looked identical to each other, each about 75 feet long with a
wingspan of about 45 feet. The windshields were black and opaque. They
lay horizontally on the floor of the hangar, all pointed toward the
airlock.
“Beautiful! Just gorgeous!” exclaimed Mark. As he approached the alien
craft he noted that the hull was not merely colored, but patterned. “Oh
my! Look at this!”
Joe and Zip were right behind Mark and came over to see what the big
Starman was showing them. The hulls were not only beautifully colored,
but showed evidence of leaf patterns. Subtle gradations in color gave
the impression that the ships were almost camouflaged--that they could
land in a deep forest and become almost invisible.
“This is a work of art, a work of genius!” exclaimed Joe.
“How do you get in?” asked Zip, looking for a door. He was running his
hands over the surface. There was no sign of a doorway, no seal or join
anywhere he could see or feel. He could see his reflection in the side
of the spacecraft as if he were looking into a still pool in a forest.
“So close, yet so far,” said Mark. “Here are ships, there is an airlock,
but we’re not any closer to escaping than we were before.”
“This’ll take some time,” said Joe, with a grimace. “It’s probably
voice-activated, like the computer screens below.” The company had
passed large computer screens regularly on their trek through the power
plant. “All we need to do is learn the language of an alien race we
don’t know, have never met, and whose language we can’t read. Then we
can break free of here.”
“Let’s get busy,” said Zip. “I like a challenge. We were led here by our
hosts. There has to be a way.”
Zip went back to George St. George and his men. “We’ll be working on
getting into one of the spacecraft and learning how to use it. You can
help by exploring this place and finding out what’s here. George, would
you please take an inventory of what we’ve got in the way of food and
drink and make a plan for making it last as long as you can. We’ll also
need spacesuits. We can probably fly without them if we have to, but
it’s a bad risk.”
“Okay, Zip. We’ll do our part,” responded George. His men scattered
throughout the hangar. There was a lot to investigate. It was only about
200 yards long and 50 yards wide, but was lined with cabinets. There
were shelves and racks with equipment of various kinds, some
recognizable and some decidedly not. More than a dozen doors opened into
the hangar. Zip went back to the spacecraft the Starmen had chosen for
their escape vehicle.
Joe and Mark were at the closest work station, where there were tools of
curious manufacture.
“What can you guess about the alien race that built this place?” asked
Joe as he ran his hands across a set of tools, picking one up and
putting it back down. “What do we know about them?”
“They’re humanoid, definitely,” replied Mark as he gazed at a rack of
instruments. “We’ve already agreed on that. I assume that the two
figures I saw last night are from the people who constructed this
amazing facility. Can’t guess why they’re not out in force here, unless
there are only a few of them aboard. Can’t guess why they don’t show
themselves. Don’t know how old this asteroid is or what it is for. But
they’re definitely humanoid. Even if I hadn’t seen them, we could tell
that by the shape of the tools and everything else we’ve seen.”
“And the food they gave us is not too different from what we’re used to.
And think about this: they put fresh fruit in those food packages. They
must have a hydroponic orchard somewhere in this asteroid. There must be
a huge portion of this complex that no human has ever seen--and maybe
can’t get into! This place is big enough to house an entire city. Maybe
there are _thousands_ of them here! George said that he only explored a
tiny part of the inhabitable region when he was here. Everything we’ve
seen tells me that they’re a lot like us.”
“That might tell us something about the nature of the universe, Joe. I
like to wonder about things like that.”
“And look, these spacecraft have wings. They’re not just for travel in
the void; they’re made for flight on a planet with an atmosphere.”
Zip came over the joined the conversation. “If they helped us get from
the warehouse area to this hangar, why aren’t they helping us get into
the spaceships?”
“Maybe there’re only two of them--the two I saw last night,” suggested
Mark. “Maybe they’re caretakers or something like that, and not
spacemen. Maybe they don’t know much more than we do how to get into
these beauties.”
“Well, whatever the reason, I guess we’re on our own, at least for the
time being.”
“Looks like some sort of laser here,” said Joe, picking up an object
that resembled a flashlight. It had two dials on it with signs of
calibration, and a button that was probably intended to activate it. “If
it _is_ a laser, and if these dials move the power from low to high, who
knows which end is which?”
“Take it into the power plant and aim it at the floor. An instrument
that small can’t have too much power and won’t hurt a half mile of solid
iron. See what happens,” suggested Mark.
Joe shrugged. “Okay.” He went over to the door through which they had
come a half hour before. He was back in a few minutes.
“It’s a laser, all right. This dial here changes the intensity of the
beam from low to high, and this one--well, watch. There’s a barrel of
powder over here. Talcum or something.” He reached in, took a handful of
the dust, and dropped it back into the barrel. A cloud of dust rose up.
He activated the laser through it. A bright blue beam appeared. He
turned a dial and the beam became a brilliant green.
“Lasers of different frequencies, all in one tool!” Mark exclaimed.
“Yeah, and it’s got red too!”
“Lots of possibilities with this,” said Zip. “I’ll bet it can be used to
open the spacecraft. The doors can’t be only voice-activated, or they
couldn’t open the door in a vacuum. What else is there? Heat, magnetism,
light? They used heat, body heat, on the panel back in the room where we
were kept prisoner. Heat won’t work in deep space. Let’s try light.
We’ve got the tool here.”
The Starmen went back over to the spacecraft. Joe set the laser for blue
light and ran the beam over the surface of the ship. For several minutes
he tried various colors and intensities. When he set the laser for
yellow light, there was a change in the surface of the ship.
“Ah!” said all three Starmen at once. The outline of a door appeared,
with markings in several places. Joe experimented a little more, placing
different intensities on the markings. In a moment he was rewarded. The
door recessed a few inches into the ship, and slid aside with quiet
efficiency. Joe immediately stepped through the portal.
The furnishings of the alien spacecraft were similar to what the Starmen
were familiar with, but the control panel was more challenging. Some
controls were obvious, since they were necessary for any spacecraft;
others were completely unfamiliar.
After about an hour of looking around, Joe sighed, “Gonna need more
time, Zip.”
“I know. We’ll just have to dedicate ourselves to it until we feel
confident enough to take the ship into space.”
“I’m making some progress here,” announced Mark. He was at a side panel
near the navigation station. As he worked the keyboard, various schemata
appeared in quick sequence. “I can’t read anything, but it’s obvious
that these are engines. I can’t recognize everything that’s coming up,
but most of it I can. See, here is a circuit diagram, and this part here
can only be a reaction chamber. I think this ship might use cold fusion
for power, but I can’t know for sure until I can read this stuff, or see
it in action.”
“You figure it out, Mark, and I’ll fly it,” said Joe confidently.
“Well, this stuff is you boys’ specialty,” said Zip. “I’ve got to think
ahead to the next problem. Assuming we can get this rig to fly, and
assuming we can open the airlock, we’ve still got to escape the pirates.
I doubt this ship is one of the invisible ones, and they’ll have us
spotted and speared in less then three minutes if we just fly out of
here, saying, ‘Thanks for the hospitality, sorry we have to leave so
soon.’”
“You can figure it out, Zip! We’ll get this grand machine ready!” Joe
was enjoying the challenge. It was hard to keep him down.
* * * * *
After eight hours of work on the spacecraft and with dinner behind them,
Joe said to Mark, “Let’s go back into the power plant and see if we
can’t find some way to sabotage the system so that the pirates can’t
find us when we take off. You can bring up some files on those huge
screens. Maybe we can even find some way to close down their whole
operation.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Mark, picking up a glass of water. He took a
sip and swished his mouth with it, then swallowed. “Best we can do
without toothbrushes, I guess.”
“If it were that easy,” said Zip, “our hosts would probably have shut
down the pirates long before this. After all, it’s their plant and they
know it better than anyone.”
“You’ve got to be right, Zip, but I don’t like sitting around. We’ve
been in this room all day and I’m ready for a break. I really do like
that huge plant. Man! Imagine a room ten miles long!”
The three Starmen descended the metal stairs and exited into the
enormous plant. A few yards away was one of the large computer
terminals. Mark went over to it and activated it.
“I can recognize a few things, now that I’ve been through so many of the
files upstairs,” he informed his partners. “This, I think, is the
lighting system.” He pressed a button. There was a loud “chunk” sound
and the plant lit up brightly.
“Ow!” said the three Starmen and covered their eyes. They were not
prepared for the sudden brightness. When they could tolerate the light,
they looked above them. Without a word, Mark lay down on his back and
just stared upward. Rank after rank of lights went up on the iron
framework for nearly a mile. A ceiling the color of charcoal was barely
visible, with what looked like rectangular viewports imbedded in it.
Joe and Zip remained standing and looked to their left. The lights
blazed for about half a mile. Beyond that point was darkness.
“It will take a lifetime to learn everything there is to know about this
place,” said Mark dreamily.
“I think we’ll be back someday,” replied Zip. “What else can you do,
Mark?”
Mark got up and turned the lights off. It took nearly a minute for their
eyes to adjust to the dimness. While Mark looked through file after
file, Joe and Zip wandered through some of the iron latticework. They
climbed spiral staircases for a level or two before descending again,
and examined the connections of tubes, pipes, and circuits.
“I’ve got something!” called out Mark. The others ran to him. He pointed
at the screen. “See, this is the main power generator. I can tell
because of the coils over here and the way the circuits are connected.
There are about eight of these; they must be spaced in a row a little
over a mile apart. They can operate singly or in combination. But look!
They don’t just power the life-support systems--in fact, I haven’t found
that part at all yet. But these are thrust systems! Do you know what
that means? _This asteroid is a spacecraft! It’s made to travel!_”
“Can’t be!” said Joe, flabbergasted
“It is. Look.” Mark flipped past a few more files, pointing out the
connections and the diagrams of chambers, coils, and energy field
generators. “I’m just barely getting a glance at this stuff, of course,
and I don’t understand it all, but I have no doubt about what I’ve seen
so far.”
“Why don’t you look for that life-support file and see if you can turn
off the pirates’ energy or something?” Joe suggested.
“No, Joe,” said Zip. “As I said before, if it were a good idea, our
hosts would probably have done it already. I think that whatever they’re
not doing, we shouldn’t try to do. Remember, even St. George didn’t want
to fiddle with something he didn’t understand.”
“George is a real nice guy, Zip,” said Joe, “but I still think he’s
breathed a little too much vacuum for his own good. You have to
experiment in life, sometimes.”
“I want to learn more about this power system! This is amazing!”
rhapsodized Mark. “If I’m right, this button here will...” He pressed
it. Almost at once a stream of paper began to feed out of a slot to the
right of the terminal and fell down, sheet by sheet, into a gathering
tray. Mark picked up the first sheet.
“It’s printing out the diagrams of the thrust system. just like that.
You’re right, Joe--this place is _great_!”
* * * * *
On the northeast edge of the massive area on the surface of Mars called
the Mare Hadriacum, stood a complex of domes and cylinders. Made of
metal and glass, it stood on an open plain about 35 degrees south of the
equator and 85 degrees east of the central meridian. The complex was one
of five atmosphere-generating plants on Mars, and the only one in the
southern hemisphere. In a small crater nearby was the settlement of New
Emmaus, with a population of about 12,500.
The long process of terraforming Mars had begun when a meteor shower
struck the fourth planet in 2009, significantly raising the temperature
of the atmosphere and altering the weather systems. With this jump start
serendipitously provided by meteorites, Earth had hastened the process
of making Mars livable by scattering the surface with spores and seeds,
introducing desert--hardy animals, and establishing the five
atmosphere-generating plants. Thanks to Earth’s efforts, the planet’s
temperature had continued to rise. Eventually water had emerged from
below ground and from the ice caps around the poles, and the air was
gradually thickening.
Terraformation had been taking place for almost 150 years, and it would
be at least another two centuries before it would be possible to live
anywhere on Mars without a spacesuit. The atmosphere-generating plants
were critical to the process. The plants themselves were automated, with
all systems operated and monitored by robots, and the major centers of
population on Mars were located in craters not far from each plant. The
complexes were on the open surface of the planet rather than in craters,
but the air they created flowed first into the nearest depressions in
the surface, and it was here that most settlements were located.
The plant located in the southern hemisphere was the most remote, but
had been filling the Mare Hadriacum, locally known as the Red Sea, for
decades. This great depression was 2,500 miles in diameter. When much of
the southern ice cap had melted, it filled the Red Sea with water up to
about three-fourths capacity, making the region a delightful place for
quiet living.
In the early morning of August 15, 2151, the cloudless sky was a
brilliant violet, and the sun was rising like a bowl of molten gold.
Marshal and Averette North, a retired couple, had climbed to the top of
the crater wall to enjoy the sunrise. Six miles away was the atmosphere
plant, gleaming in the newly-risen sun.
They were the only ones to see what happened next, but it happened so
quickly that there was almost nothing to see. In the thin atmosphere,
there was only a slight vapor trail and a short-lived but powerful
whine; then with a dull, gut-churning thud a ball of black and orange
flame slammed obliquely into the desert floor within a quarter of a mile
of the atmosphere plant. An enormous wave of pinkish-ochre sand rose up
in front of the impact site like a great wall. The shock wave quickly
blew the wall of sand upward and outward, so that it sparkled like
luminous rain until the sand particles became too scattered to be seen.
The shock wave struck the atmosphere plant and shoved it aside as if a
giant, invisible hand were violently clearing a table of unwanted
crockery. The crater wall where the Norths were standing rocked and
heaved as if in an earthquake. The shock wave passed them, blowing their
hair and rippling their clothing as if it were a pleasant breeze that
died away as quickly as it had come.
The elderly couple stood frozen in shock and watched the cloud of dust
gradually fill the entire eastern sky. After several minutes, the dust
was thin enough to reveal a horseshoe-shaped crater almost a mile
across. On the southwestern edge of the crater, where it trailed off
into the desert without a sharp boundary, was the place where the
atmosphere plant had been. Now the plant was broken into many thousands
of pieces and the wreckage was scattered for three or four miles in a
wide fan across the sand.