A Simple Truth (19 page)

At only six hundred kilometres the image was growing rapidly.  The structure was clearly visible but it was still impossible to decide what the shape was in three dimensions.  The dots grew steadily brighter but no larger.  Lincoln performed a quick calculation and decided that they could each be no bigger than about four metres in diameter, disappointingly small for such a large structure.

Abruptly Khan strode over to one of the controllers.  Lincoln watched the two conversing but could not hear what was being said.  Apparently his idea had been taken up because the controls were being adjusted and Lincoln noticed one of the enhanced images step up in magnification until only one bright dot was visible in the field of view.  The controller then began to pan the probe's camera over to the left until the dot moved out of the field of view and the screen was blank.  Lincoln could stand it no longer
;
he walked over to the front to find out what was happening.

"Look at that
,"
said Khan eagerly as he saw his colleague approach. 

"Yes I see it - a blank screen
,"
Lincoln replied, perplexed.

"That's just it - BLANK!" Khan exclaimed.  Then added
,
"
Wait
, you'll see
,"
as he caught sight of Lincoln's face, as blank as the screen.

"There, stop there
,"
he said to the controller, then peered at the enhanced image.  Lincoln had been slow on the uptake but realised now what Khan had been up to.  The left side of the image showed the distant stars quite clearly and appearing normal
, t
he right side was completely dark.  Lincoln gasped as he surveyed the dividing line between the two
areas;
it was an arc of a very large circle.

So that was it.  The bright dots were not the full extent of the spheres at
all;
they were merely the reflection of the sun from each spherical surface.  The rest of the spheres were in darkness.  They were vast convex mirrors
,
faithfully reflecting their surroundings.  But convex mirrors reflect a distorted image.  They make things appear smaller and present a wider field of view, so the sun's reflection was tiny and the stars were so dim as to be invisible.  He also understood now why the connecting links had shone so brightly for such a short time.  When the vessel changed its orientation the cylindrical links had turned in relation to the probe cameras, and what had appeared to be a strange pulse of bright light had been nothing more sinister than the sun, reflected from each cylindrical surface.

"So what's the real size of the spheres
?"
queried Lincoln.  The controller made some measurements and calculations, looked at his result and repeated the process a second time.  "Yes, no doubt about it, five hundred and seventeen metres
,"
he concluded confidently.

This was unbelievable.  Everyone looked again at the image of the alien vessel.  It still appeared the same as before but the meaning of that appearance had changed.
It now represented a totally different concept.  Enormous was too mean a word for it.  Hundreds of spheres, each over half a kilometre in diameter
, t
he prospect was overwhelming.  Lincoln found it impossible to appreciate fully what he was actually seeing.  He knew now that this was a vessel of staggering proportions, and that it was approaching the earth at still colossal speed.  But what his eyes told him was that it was a beautiful and intricate work of art, a jewel made from tiny gems suspended by invisible threads, and seen from only a couple of metres away.  Try as he might he could see it in no other way.

At fifty kilometres the probes began to diverge to surround their mysterious quarry.  The true shape was disc
ernible now, a vast
regular
tetrahedron, a
pyramid with four identical triangular faces.  Lincoln counted seventeen of the spheres from corner to corner, and a calculation revealed that in total they numbered almost a thousand.  A peculiarity was that the beautiful symmetry of the vessel was marred at one corner seen now towa
rds the bottom on the left side, f
or some reason those spheres had been omitted.

Silently the enigmatic machine approached the tiny probes.  The difference in size was ridiculous.  Any one of these gigantic spheres could engulf all three of the craft together with
hundreds of
thousands like them.  No action was taken by the aliens at the intrusion, although any sort of surveillance would have revealed the three strangers long ago.  But then why should such a majestic giant deign to acknowledge such trivia.  Here was a true starship, a craft tha
t had achieved the unbelievable, a
ship that had crossed a gulf of over a hundred million million kilometres.

Lincoln was suddenly filled with a deep sense of humility.  These people, whoever or whatever they were, with their great power, their wealth of technical knowledge and ability, had crossed interstellar space with just one purpose, to know mankind.

Then another thought struck him.  He looked again at the corner where the beauty and symmetry had been shamefully spoiled and the reason was suddenly as obvious as it was painful.  He winced as a stab of intense and bitter resentment took hold of him
, r
esentment for the man who had bequeathed this burden of shame and guilt to his fellows, Stanislaw Raminski.

12
   
A F
irst
T
ouch

The long years of preparation were about to reach their climax.  Now that her hour was close at hand the tension seized Chattaka's troubled heart and threatened to overwhelm her.  She wanted to run and hide, to ignore her terrible knowledge and live out her life without conflict.  After all it would be comfortable enough. 
It would be many thousands of years yet before the evil ones were
cap
able
of
forc
ing
her children
into submission
.  W
hy provoke a conflict that might well destroy her long before necessary?  Alternatively why act now?  Why not wait, enjoy her children while she could and confront the evil ones later, much
,
much later?  Yet even as these voices sought to dissuade her from her intended course she knew in her heart that it could not be so.  There could be no possible contentment while the future held only darkness, no matter how far away that might be.  A dark future meant a tortured prese
nt;
her only course was confrontation.  She must somehow
track down, expose,
understand, and
finally
destroy
the inexhaustible
driving force
that terrified her.

Her early a
spirations
had not worked out as she had hoped.  Although she struggled unceasingly to understand
all she could of
the evil ones so as to thwart their
ambitions
,
the key that would unlock the mystery remained elusive.  What was it that fuelled the all-consuming fire that drove them on so fiercely?  What evolutionary process could
bring into existence
a species whose appetite was so far in excess of
every possible
need, and at the same time create a level of ingenuity that served that
appetite so well
?

Her nightmare was embodied in just two unfathomable
but perfectly matched
characteristics
: their
relentless
drive towards total domination of
everything
they could use or exploit, and their
irrepressible
resourcefulness tha
t
would deliver precisely that end.  They had no concept
ion
of contentment.  They had no concept
ion
of sufficiency.  Always they wanted more.  They wanted it all.

How could she gain access to their deepest motivations?  How could she neutralise their ambitions?  She had to tread so carefully, to engage their curiosity and assuage their fears.  They had already taken action against her, but she knew that in carrying out that action she herself had not been the target.  It was nothing compared to the action they would take if they knew, or even suspected, however vaguely, the course to which she had committed herself.

***************

Damian Knight eyed his companion critically.  Cyrus Sharma was not the person he would have chosen to lead this survey.  He knew from his biography that he was competent, experienced, observant, capable of prolonged concentration, and that he always stayed calm even under extreme stress.  Yet there was something lacking in him.  It was difficult to define precisely, a sense of adventure or curiosity perhaps.  He had accepted the assignment with as much enthusiasm as if he had been asked to ferry someone to one of the orbiting factories.

Knight was determined not to allow his own flair for exploration to be dulled by anything.  To be chosen for this mission logged simply as Special Operation 1307 was the most exciting thing that he could ever have imagined.  It was incomprehensible that Sharma could be so unmoved by it.

The pair of them had been on standby for twelve days.  At first they were scheduled to make a close flyby of the vessel but when it became clear that the aliens would enter earth orbit the departure time and flight plan had been rearranged.
Continuous updating was still in progress but it was now fairly well established that takeoff would be in three days, unless anything changed in the meantime.

Knight was very lucky to have been chosen and he was fully aware of the fact, but nevertheless he considered that the privilege had been earned.  He had graduated from Auckland Institute of Astronautics with distinctions in every subject, and had demonstrated his ability in many highly significant missions in the seven years since then.  Lucky, yes; but deserved, certainly.

Time and again the reconnaissance
probe
recordings were
played until both Sharma and Knight knew the strange craft better than any other living person.  Even so, their knowledge was still very limited.  All the spheres were identical, linked symmetrically by the latticework of tubes.  Examinations had been made from every angle and were still progressing, but by now no-one expected any surprises.  Even where the spheres had been destroyed there was nothing to be seen,
just an irregularity in the otherwise perfect geometrical structure
.  The most unusual feature was the drive mechanism.
High velocity ionised particles materialised apparently from nowhere.  Their source was some six kilometres from the vessel out in space.  But there was nothing there at all to produce them, nothing that could be detected except for the stream of particles themselves.  How they got there in the first place, how they acquired their energies
,
and how the forces were transmitted back to the vessel were all mysteries.

Six
probes were now accompanying the vessel, weaving in and out of the giant structure like tiny fishes in a coral reef, watching, measuring and recording every part in great detail.
Nowhere was there any sign of an entry point, of any windows, or of anything in fact other than spheres and links.  And if the visitors were aware of the tiny inquisitive craft then they did nothing to show it.  People were beginning to suspect that the whole thing was working automatically without any living being on board at all.  Certainly the continuous transmissions of music, the predictable course adjustments, and the way all attempts to communicate were ig
nored did nothing to dispel that
suspicion.

Knight watched his companion as he studied the activity programme.  By the time they were ready for takeoff he would practically know the thing by heart.  Knight and Sharma had been consulted on the major
elements
of
the
mission, but a team of WSA scientists, engineers and tacticians had carefully compiled all the details, which gave instructions for every part of their investigation together with detailed contingency plans for unusual developments.  In hard print it would have run to several thousand pages.  Knight considered it impossible to digest in detail.  He understood the essentials well enough, the major tasks to be carried out and policies to be adopted.
In any case it was intended for the ship's computer, which would relay the instructions at each stage.  Sharma explained that he wanted to discern the
spirit of the contingency plans
so that he could stay 'in tune' with it if something occurred outside its scope.
He didn't seem to realise that even if the
programme's scope was exceeded
the backup team would be ready with further advice instantly available to cover any possibility. 
Knight
felt it better to humour him
though;
he had already found that argument was useless.  It led quickly to one of those most infuriating of put-downs like 'when you've been in the business as long as I have you'll know why'
,
or something similar accompanied by a patronising smile.