The alien light display ended, and the Military probe started a new light sequence. I recognized the patterns for two, followed by four, but got muddled after that. I glanced at Fian, who was better at deciphering the patterns than I was. ‘What are we saying this time?’
‘We’re just counting up even numbers,’ said Fian. ‘I bet we stop at sixteen, and the alien sphere just sits there and does nothing. Again.’
We waited. He was right.
‘Talking to aliens was never going to be easy,’ I said.
Fian sighed. ‘I know, but basic mathematics should work.’
He changed the wall vid from the command feed to Colonel Leveque’s science feed. I didn’t even try to understand that, just waited quietly while Fian frowned at it for several minutes.
‘There’s something wrong,’ he said at last. ‘The sphere in Earth orbit is 4.71 metres in diameter. So is this one. They’re also the same colour, and unfolded in exactly the same way to start displaying their light sculptures. The way they manoeuvre matches perfectly as well. As far as we can tell, they’re identical.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’ I asked.
‘They shouldn’t be,’ said Fian. ‘Think about it, Jarra. Our dating techniques give wildly varying results on the alien artefact we found in Earth Africa, but we know the tunnel the artefact was found in was at least three thousand years old. The sphere here should be far more advanced than the one in Earth orbit.’
I thought for a minute. ‘When we dig up a stasis box in one of Earth’s ruined cities, and find an old data chip inside, we have to use a converter to read it. The aliens could be using an old style sphere to talk to us, because it has to be able to recognize and display the old signal sequences.’
‘That’s possible,’ said Fian. ‘Now tell me why their sphere gives the same response every time we try and talk to it, and ignores anything new, even the simplest mathematical sequence.’
I couldn’t. I groaned, and put the grim truth into words. ‘You think the alien civilization has fallen?’
He nodded. ‘It’s happened over and over again in our own history. We build up civilizations and they fall. Remember how close humanity was to going back to barbarism after Exodus century.’
‘We answered their invitation, but we came too late.’ I shook my head. ‘That’s …’
‘I know,’ said Fian.
I forced away my emotion and tried to be practical. ‘One of their ancient spheres is talking to us, but it isn’t getting any new instructions from them. That probably means the aliens are confined to their own planet these days, and don’t have communications technology any longer.’
I turned to Raven. ‘We need to talk to Colonel Stone. She’s in Zeta sector so …?’
‘Major Tar Cameron is still here,’ said Raven. ‘Call her and ask her to set up a secure link with Gateway base.’
I did that and Rayne Tar Cameron replied in a briskly efficient voice. ‘Yes, sir. We’ll route the link to the wall vid in your quarters.’
It was ten minutes before we saw Colonel Stone and Colonel Leveque looking out at us from the wall vid. They were in a tiny room, sitting on the same sort of grey flexiplas chairs that we had in our dig site dome. Brightly coloured crates were stacked against one wall. Most of them were labelled with incomprehensible jumbles of letters and numbers, but the black lettering on the heap of red crates just said ‘OXYGEN’.
‘You have a habit of throwing drastic things at us, Jarra,’ said Colonel Stone, ‘so I thought we’d better take this call in a side room. What have you thought of this time?’
‘It’s not my idea, sir. It’s Fian’s. He’ll explain.’
There was a twelve-second pause while my words went through the comms portal relays to Zeta sector, and Colonel Stone’s reply was sent back. ‘Go ahead Fian.’
It was strange watching the faces on the wall vid react to Fian’s explanation with that delay. It underlined exactly why Colonel Stone needed to be in Zeta sector right now rather than on Earth. Finally, Fian stopped talking. Twelve seconds later, Colonel Stone spoke.
‘If you’re right, this is wonderful news. We need to confirm it as soon as possible, so we’ll set up a drop portal to send a probe to take a look at Fortuna itself.’ She glanced at Leveque. ‘Risk assessment?’
‘Minimal if the probe arrives at a reasonable distance from Fortuna and instantly displays the light sculpture of the test sequences,’ he said.
Stone nodded. ‘Thank you Fian, Jarra.’
The wall vid went blank. There was a short silence before Fian spoke. ‘That was a bit of a brutal reaction.’
I sighed. ‘I know, but we’re reacting like history students, grieving for a fallen civilization and lost knowledge. Colonel Stone’s not a historian; she’s the acting commander of the Alien Contact programme. If the alien civilization has fallen, then they can’t harm us. If I was sitting in her command chair, knowing the survival of the human race could depend on my decisions, then I’d feel nothing but relief too.’
‘You’re right,’ said Fian. ‘The collapse must have happened thousands of years ago. The aliens obviously lost space travel entirely, but it’s surprising they haven’t regained it by now.’
‘If it was thousands of years ago, they could have rebuilt their civilization and had it collapse several times since then,’ I said. ‘Humanity had one major collapse after colonizing too many new worlds in Exodus century, spent a century rebuilding, and then the chimera of Thetis caused more problems.’
A thought suddenly nagged at me. A ridiculous idea, but worrying enough that I had to prove it wrong. The alien ship had passed through Beta sector on its way to Earth, and Thetis had been in Beta sector. I used my lookup to project a holo of the three concentric spheres of humanity’s space, and added a bright line running from Fortuna in Zeta sector, to Earth at the centre of the holo.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Fian.
I didn’t explain, just told my lookup to add the dot that marked the position of Thetis. That was supposed to prove me wrong, so I could stop worrying, but it did the opposite. Thetis was on the edge of Beta sector that bordered on Zeta sector, directly positioned on the bright line of the alien ship’s course.
‘Oh nuke!’ I stared at my holo, had a sudden moment of relief as I saw the flaw in my logic, and then felt sick as I realized I’d had it backwards. The real answer was … ‘Oh nuking hell!’
30
I was vaguely aware of Fian frowning at me, and Raven looking utterly shocked at my swearing. I couldn’t make myself explain to them. I just cancelled the holo image, and called Major Rayne Tar Cameron.
‘Get me Colonel Stone again,’ I said. ‘Tell her it’s extremely urgent.’
A couple of minutes later, Colonel Stone and Colonel Leveque were back, looking at me from the wall vid. ‘You’ve some extra information for me?’ asked Colonel Stone. ‘The comms portal relay lag gets really annoying, so just go ahead and say it.’
‘I’ve got a theory, sir, but …’ I took a deep breath. ‘I know this will sound unreasonable, but I can’t risk saying this in a call, and I can’t leave Earth, so I need you and Colonel Leveque to come back here.’
I had to wait twelve seconds to see her startled face, and another couple of seconds for her to speak. ‘This is a secure link, Jarra. Only my most trusted officers could possibly eavesdrop on it.’
‘I appreciate that, sir,’ I said, miserably. ‘We still can’t risk it.’
After another anxious wait, I saw her nod. ‘Given your past record, Jarra, I trust your judgement. Colonel Leveque and I will come and join you at the meeting room in the Alien Contact Operations Centre at Zulu base. That has every possible security defence against eavesdroppers.’
I opened my mouth to say thank you, but she’d already ended the call.
Fian stared at me. ‘Jarra, you’ve just ordered the acting commanding officer of the Alien Contact programme to come to Earth to talk to you.’
‘Yes,
I have.’ I stood up.
‘This is something really bad then.’ He stood up as well.
‘Yes, it is.’
Raven led the way out of the door, the three of us portalled to the Alien Contact Operations Centre, and walked through its deserted expanse to a side room. Raven checked no assassins were waiting inside the room, then turned to go out of the door again, but I called him back.
‘Take a seat, Raven.’
He frowned but sat down at the circular table with us. Only minutes later, Colonel Stone and Colonel Leveque entered the room and sat down as well.
Leveque raised an eyebrow as he saw Raven sitting at the table. ‘Should Captain Raven be hearing this?’
‘Major Eklund and Captain Raven saw me looking at a holo, sir,’ I said. ‘Judging from Major Eklund’s expression, he’s just worked out what that holo meant, and Captain Raven will soon, so …’
Leveque nodded. He worked briefly on a bank of controls set into the table, before putting a small flashing pyramid in the centre of it. ‘This room is now as secure as possible.’
Colonel Stone looked at me. ‘What is so bad that I had to come to Earth to hear it, Commander?’
I couldn’t make myself say it, so I showed them instead. The holo of humanity’s space. The line marking the course of the alien ship from Fortuna to Earth. I added a red dot and said one word. ‘Thetis.’
I heard a gasp from Raven. Leveque frowned, leaned forward in his chair to study the holo in the middle of the table, and then looked at me.
‘You think the alien ship visited Thetis? Some chimera got aboard and were carried back to the alien home world, which is why the alien civilization has collapsed?’ He shook his head. ‘The chimera can survive incredible lengths of time in their hibernation phase, but the flaw in your theory is we know the ship continued to Earth. It would have brought the chimera to us, not to the alien world.’
Leveque had duplicated the first half of my own logic, but not the second. I moistened my lips. ‘Sir, I thought of that too, but the real answer is worse.’
‘Worse?’ asked Stone in a hard, brittle voice.
‘I think the chimera caused the collapse of the alien civilization, sir, but the alien ship didn’t carry them from Thetis to the alien home world. It was the other way round. The chimera didn’t evolve on Thetis, but on a world in Zeta sector.’
I waited for Stone to say something, but she didn’t, so I carried on. ‘The first ships the aliens built were probably quite simple, and just visited one planet in a neighbouring star system before returning home. One of those ships took the chimera back to Fortuna. The aliens were sending out far more advanced ships by then. Ships designed to travel through star system after star system looking for signs of intelligent life. The chimera caused the collapse of the alien civilization, but not until after a ship had been sent out in the direction of Earth.’
I paused. ‘There were chimera hidden aboard that ship. The ship’s automated systems detected possible intelligent life on Thetis and stopped there. I hope it was wrong about the intelligent life, because the chimera infested Thetis and wiped out every other living creature on it. Humanity was lucky, because if the chimera had reached Earth …’
There was a long silence before Stone spoke. ‘This is currently just a theory with no supporting evidence.’
‘There is no actual evidence, sir, but the position of Thetis directly between Fortuna and Earth is highly suggestive,’ said Leveque.
There was another silence before Stone spoke again. ‘If this theory is true then the chimera are not extinct. They still exist on their world of origin, and may have taken over Fortuna as well.’
‘They could have hidden aboard more than one alien ship,’ added Leveque. ‘In which case, they may have reached other worlds in the same way as they reached Thetis.’
Stone stood up. ‘I’m going back to Gateway. I want to confirm the alien civilization has collapsed before I face telling the General Marshal the chimera are loose again.’
An hour later, Fian, Raven and I were watching our apartment wall vid again. It was showing the view from a probe approaching the planet Fortuna. The probe was busily playing the light sculpture of the test sequences, in case it met any actual aliens, but I felt there was little chance of that happening now.
The probe passed a group of silent, dead spheres floating in space. A couple showed flickers of activity, but there was nothing as functional as the one that had headed out to the edge of Fortuna system to meet us. Perhaps it was the one lone, sad survivor of its kind.
‘Why is the sphere orbiting Earth still working?’ I asked. ‘Pure luck?’
‘It hasn’t been operating for as long as these,’ said Fian. ‘It wouldn’t be activated until the ship carrying it reached Sol system.’
The view on the wall vid zoomed in on the planet ahead. The magnified image showed a mass of bright white lines, zigzagging randomly across the planet. Between the lines was a faint, opaque glow.
‘What the chaos is that?’ I asked.
‘No idea.’ Fian set the wall vid to give us the sound feed from the Alien Contact Operations Centre at Gateway base.
‘… sort of planetary defence shield,’ said Colonel Leveque’s voice. ‘The power beams are linking a network of satellites in orbit around Fortuna.’
‘It’s like a flicker force field then,’ I said, ‘but around a whole planet.’
Leveque was talking again. ‘Some satellites are inactive or missing, leaving gaps in the defences.’
The image was magnified even further, and we could see one of the holes he was talking about.
‘We could drop portal a probe straight into the planet’s atmosphere,’ said Colonel Stone, ‘but a probe suddenly appearing from nowhere would be unnerving for any aliens down there. Can we send a probe through one of those holes?’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘It wouldn’t survive atmospheric entry, but we could send it into a low orbit inside the defence shield.’
The probe moved in past Fortuna’s single large moon, and I saw a sudden bright flash. ‘Chaos! What’s that?’
‘What’s that?’ Colonel Stone echoed my words.
There was a column of light reaching up from Fortuna’s moon, formed of swirling ribbons of red, green and blue coloured light. It looked exactly the same as the signal Fian and I had sent to the alien sphere in Earth orbit.
‘There is a high probability this is intended to attract our attention to something on the surface of Fortuna’s moon,’ said Leveque.
‘This signal is automated?’ asked Stone.
‘Almost certainly, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘It’s probably responding to the probe’s light sculpture.’
There was a short pause before Stone spoke again. ‘Send the probe in to do a low fly past. I want to see what’s on that moon.’
A barren, rocky landscape sped by on the wall vid. I could only get a fleeting glimpse of what was at the base of the column of light, but the moving image was quickly replaced by a magnified still picture. There was a sculpture down there, not a light sculpture but a physical one, seemingly carved out of the actual rock of the moon’s surface. A globe covered in lines.
‘How big is that?’ asked Stone.
‘On the same scale as the Spirit of Man monument, sir,’ said Leveque. ‘Sensors indicate the globe is hollow.’
‘Surely that sculpture is of the planetary defence shield,’ said Stone. ‘The aliens are telling us there’s something inside it that will turn off the defences and let us in?’
‘I would concur with that assessment, sir,’ said Leveque.
Stone raised her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Would it kill him to just say yes?’ She didn’t wait for an answer, just continued speaking. ‘If there’s a similar artefact down there to the one in Earth Africa, then we’ll need to send in a real person not a probe. I assume Commander Tell Dramis has already volunteered.’
‘His message came in one minute fifteen seconds after the light c
olumn appeared,’ said Leveque.
‘Marriage has slowed him down,’ said Stone. ‘Tell him he’ll have to wait a while. I want to take a look at Fortuna itself before I risk sending one of my officers to that moon.’
The probe changed course again, heading for Fortuna’s defence shield. While it was on its way, Raven got a tray of food from the dispensers, but none of us did more than half-heartedly nibble at it. None of us had mentioned the chimera since the meeting with Stone and Leveque, Raven had barely said a word, but I knew we were all remembering the horror vids we’d seen set in Thetis chaos year. I was desperately hoping that the probe would find something, anything, to show I was wrong. I would gladly, joyfully, have Colonel Stone think me a complete nardle for scaring her over shadows.
As the probe went through the gap in Fortuna’s planetary defence shield, its images broke up into interference for a few seconds, before showing a clear picture again. That suddenly zoomed in to show the planet surface in detail.
‘Oh nuke!’ said Fian.
The magnified view reminded me of seeing New York Main dig site from the air. Endless ruins stretched as far as you could see. How big was each of those ruins? The size of an ancient house, a skyscraper, or even bigger? Before I could work it out, the screen went black and swapped to showing the Alien Contact Operations Centre at Gateway Base. Colonel Stone was sitting at the command desk. She frowned.
‘I thought the probe had made it safely through the planetary defence shield. Did we lose contact?’
It was a moment before Leveque replied. ‘It was through the shield, sir, and manoeuvring to enter orbit. It was destroyed by an attack from the planet surface.’
Stone’s frown deepened. ‘Was that an automated response, or are the aliens actively shooting at us?’ She waited for a reply, and grew restless when she didn’t get one. ‘Colonel?’
‘One moment, sir,’ said Leveque. There was a long wait before he spoke again. ‘The response was definitely automated, sir. Evidence from our probe indicates there is no life on the planet surface.’
‘Chaos!’ Stone shook her head. ‘You’re perfectly sure there’s no telemetry error?’