LINKS
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The Christa Affair
Chapter Sixteen
"Only their reduced performance in this low-density field saved us," Jashi said, referring to the runaway grav-plates. "If they'd been at full power, I'm sure they'd have shattered the dome.
"What went wrong?" asked Suu. Jashi had just finished bringing Rang and the four females up to date on the events in the dome; everyone was present in the control room including Roi, who was still a little shaky from the heat exhaustion he'd suffered. "I thought the computer had it all figured out."
"So did I," said Jashi. "I should have known something was wrong when the warm-up took less time than the computer projection. You're the scientist, Toko -- wanna explain it?"
"The computer gave you an accurate prediction," responded Toko, "then several things changed that it wasn't told about. First, the layer of ice formed on the surface inside the dome, acting as an insulator and speeding the warm-up. Second, the computation of the necessary minimum surface temperature for safe pressure suit operations was based on operations in a vacuum -- not in an atmosphere at one hundred seventy-five degrees. We were absorbing heat from the air faster than we were losing it to the surface thru the boots of the suit -- especially with the insulating effect of a foot of ice underfoot."
"Since when did ice get to be an insulator?" demanded Mowii rudely. "Ice feels \cold\ to me!"
"It \is\ cold," explained Toko patiently, "but it still doesn't absorb heat nearly as rapidly as the surface itself. So, in effect, it's an insulator, and a very good one."
"I can't believe it's \raining\ in there!" laughed Suu. "Who ever heard of an indoor rainstorm?!"
"I can." responded Jashi sheepishly. "What I \can't\ believe is that none of us realized it would happen if we didn't vent the heaters! I was only thinking of saving fuel; a pure atmosphere wasn't necessary because we were working in P-suits. I should at least have made the interior surface of the dome smooth, instead of textured... "
"And used three times the power to run the dome generator..."
"The condensation would have run down the walls then, and frozen around the sides."
"Yeah... And probably iced the airlock door shut..."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Little Brother," said Rang. "How many times have you constructed a pressurized heated dome, in vacuum, on a planet this cold?"
"Point well taken. I didn't know there even \was\ a planet this cold. Toko, go run the whole thing thru the computer again and let's correct the situation... And be sure you tell the damned machine \everything\ this time. I don't want any more surprises! This time we're gonna get inside one way or another."
*********
Clad in pressure suits, Rang, Jashi and Karli stood inside the dome looking down at the thin layer of ice still covering the entrance to the underground habitat. Before Roi's overheated condition had forced them to stop, Toko had melted thru the ice all the way to the surface. The small amount of water they had failed to vacuum up had refrozen into a clear transparent layer during their absence; beneath it, the outline of the door was plainly visible. Heat from the torch and water from the melted ice soaking into the surface had brought it into view.
The computer's new instructions had produced a comfortable working environment; half an hour of careful work with the lasertorch and the vacuum hose, and the door was clean and dry. "The sphere goes \there\," said Rang, pointing to a deep, fist-sized recession in one corner of the door that had been exposed by the clean-up.
Jashi looked at his brother in surprise. "Are you sure?" he demanded.
Without answering, Rang took the alien orb from a pocket of his suit and dropped it into the hole. The door moved slightly inward and slid about a foot to one side, then stopped; the sphere popped from its recess and hovered in mid-air in front of Rang, waiting for him to snag it. Shocked, all three could only stare at the alien object that had suddenly decided to exhibit a life of its own. "Damn!" Karli muttered under her breath.
At last, Rang reached out and took the sphere. At his touch, it returned to its normal weight and the door began to move again; Rang returned the object to his pocket. "It's a key! That's the message in its molecular coding!" he gasped in amazement.
The fully opened door revealed a square chamber some ten feet deep, slightly larger on the sides. In one corner a spiral staircase led to the bottom; in the center of the chamber was a smooth circular shaft like the one shown by the \Klondike's\ sensors at the habitation on the far side of the planet. Jashi shined his torch into the shaft; it appeared to be bottomless.
They descended the staircase and carefully explored the room. On one wall was a recess identical to the one on the outside of the door; before Jashi or Karli could stop him, Rang took the sphere from his pocket and inserted it into the receptacle.
The door slid closed overhead and the room was suddenly lighted with a soft glow that seemed to come from everywhere. What appeared to be a control panel materialized just below the receptacle where Rang had inserted the sphere; there was a sudden puff of air from the shaft and their pressure suits squeezed against them slightly as the room was pressurized. A light on the panel turned from red to amber, then changed to green; the sphere popped from its hole and again floated in mid-air, waiting to be retrieved.
Angrily, Jashi snagged the hovering ball and stuffed it into the pocket of his suit. "Stupid son of..." He chopped off the outburst in mid-sentence. "What made you do that?" he demanded, when he had regained his self-control. "I hope to hell you know how to get us out!"
Rang looked at Jashi and Karli blankly. "I don't know," he answered lamely. "I don't know..."
"What's going on, guys?" came Lito's voice over the ship-to-suit comm circuit; because of the shielding from the closed door and the underground room in which they suddenly found themselves confined, the signal was weak and noisy.
"The door closed and we're trapped in the underground entrance chamber, Lito," Jashi transmitted. "Better have Roi and Toko suit up... They may have to cut us out if we can't find a way to get the door open."
"...to shore-party. \Klondike\ to shore-party. Come in, Jashi!" It was obvious Lito wasn't reading his transmission back in the \Klondike\. The ship's higher-power transmitter was barely able to punch thru the shielding and reach them; the lower power of his suit communicator wouldn't do the job.
(.... Fear ...."What'll we do now, Jash?....")S
(.... "Don't panic, Kitten. Won't take them long to come looking for us....")
"Sorry, guys," Rang apologized. "I don't know why I did that..."
"Stow it," replied Jashi, "and let's see what we can figure out. First things first. Our air supply is limited. Suit sensors show the air in here to be breathable... Let's open up." He reached up and opened the face-plate of his helmet.
The air was definitely breathable -- it was as fresh and pure as the unpolluted open spaces of Ultazari-Seven. Seeing the expression on Jashi's face, the other two quickly followed his example.
"At least we won't suffocate," said Karli, taking a deep breath of the sweet atmosphere within the chamber. "Where does it come from, Jash?"
"Don't know, Karli," he replied. "Must come up the shaft... I don't see anything that looks like a ventilator." Indeed, the room seemed to be totally featureless, except for the control panel on the wall and the shaft in the center of the floor.
"What now, Jashi?" asked Rang.
"See if you can make any sense out of the control panel, Rang. You knew where the sphere fit when you saw it -- probably part of the telepathic instructions you received from the Estarani -- maybe you were told something about the panel you haven't remembered."
While Rang tried the panel, Jashi and Karli carefully explored the entire room inch by inch. Jashi pulled the collar button from his tunic and dropped it into the shaft. It fell rapidly toward the bowels of the planet until it disappeared from the light of his torch; the sound of it reaching bottom never came.
*********
Almost an hour later, they knew no more than when the door first closed -- indeed there seemed to be no way to open the door. Suddenly there was a pounding overhead, followed by Toko's voice, amplified by a contact transmitter. "Jashi, we can hear you. Can you hear me?"
"Toko! Thank the Gods!" answered Jashi. "We're trapped in here. Can you cut us out?"
"Can do! Which end do you want us to cut on?"
"Cut on the south end, the one nearest the airlock... And watch it when you cut thru, we're at higher pressure in here than in the dome."
"Will do, Jash. Advise when you're clear."
The little group closed up their helmets and huddled at the north end of the tiny room, safely out of range of the beam of the lasertorch. Several minutes passed and no hole appeared in the door; Jashi opened his face-plate again so he could be heard by the contact receiver above. "What's the holdup, guys? I'm starting to get real tired of this place!"
"You're not gonna believe this Jashi," came Roi's amplified voice from above. "The lasertorch won't touch it! The door just absorbs the beam. Full power doesn't even make it warm."
(.... ??!! .... "That's not possible Jashi. The lasertorch will cut anything!....") The fear showed in Karli's expression behind the face-plate of her helmet.
(.... ??????? .... "Easy Karli. Gotta be something wrong....")
By now Rang had opened his helmet; Jashi explained the situation to him. "An indestructible metal? Is that possible, Toko?" Rang asked.
"The Federation never found one," Toko answered thru the door. "Hullplate is as close as I've ever heard of, and the GE will cut right thru that! What do you want us to do, Captain?"
For what seemed to be the millionth time since they had altered course for Ultazari-Seven, Jashi had no answer. "Stand by for a minute while I think," was his only reply.
Karli snuggled close and looked up at him trustingly. (.... "Don't worry, My Darling, you'll think of something. You always do ....").
"Maybe they could tunnel down and cut thru the wall," offered Rang.
"Probably made out of the same stuff as the door," responded Jashi. "May have to try it, though." The three captives fell silent again.
*********
*********
\"YOU SEEM DISTRESSED... MAY I BE OF ASSISTANCE?"\
*********
*********
The voice was softly intense, and seemed to come from everywhere at once. Startled, Rang, Jashi and Karli all looked about the room in surprise. "Who was that?" Toko demanded thru the door overhead.
"Quiet, Toko!" Jashi ordered sharply. "Who are you? Where are you?" Jashi struggled to keep his voice steady. His needlegun was in his hand; he didn't remember having drawn it.
"Do not be afraid, Captain-Jash-Jashi... There is no need for your weapon."
"Show yourself! Who are you?" Jashi repeated.
"I am the Keeper," asserted the voice. "I am far below you in the heart of the city... I repeat, there is no reason to fear nor any need for your weapon."
"Our sensors showed no life on this planet. We did not intend to trespass. Are there others besides yourself?"
"Only myself. This is the only remaining city; I am the last Keeper. All others have been deactivated."
"You live here all alone?" asked Karli incredulously.
"I have no need for companionship. I am a \rstlphfrtz\, in your language, an electro-dynamic differentiator."
"It's a computer!" whispered Karli.
"That is correct, Karli. I am the Keeper. My apologies for the length of your distressed condition before my offer of assistance, but it was necessary to learn your language. How may I assist you?"
"We wish to return to the outside," said Jashi. "Can you open the door for us?"
"Only he who has the \Dyolfknip\ may open the door. You do not wish to enter the city?"
"We have left our companions behind. We must return to the surface and bring them with us.
"You refer to the one you call Toko and the one called Guys-Roi?
"Yes"
"Their voices are in the entrance chamber, but I do not detect their pneuma. They are not with you in the chamber?"
"No, they are outside. You must open the door so they can come with us to the city."
"Only he who has the \Dyolfknip\ may open the door. That is the Hegemonic Injunction."
"What is the \Dyolfknip\?," inquired Rang.
"You must posses the \Dyolfknip\ or you cannot enter the city. You do not have the \Dyolfknip\?" The voice changed from pleasant to threatening. "Unauthorized entry is forbidden! All who attempt entry without the \Dyolfknip\ must be destroyed! Destruction sequence activated!
"Wait!" snapped Jashi.
"Unauthorized entry is forbidden! All who attempt it must be terminated!! That is the Hegemonic Injunction!! I am the Keeper!! Destruction Sequence activated... five... four... three...
"Good God, Jashi! It's gonna kill us!"
(.... "Jashi, the sphere! ....")
In desperation, Jashi jerked the alien orb from his pocket and crammed it into the receptacle above the control panel.
"... Two... one..." The countdown of death stopped; there was silence in the chamber for several seconds. At last the Keeper spoke. "I do not understand... You said you did not have the \Dyolfknip\... Do you wish to be terminated?" The machine sounded confused.
(.... "That was close, Jash! ....")
(.... "Quick thinking, Karli. Thanks! ....")
"It was a misunderstanding Keeper. We do \not\ wish to be terminated! In our language we refer to the \Dyolfknip\ as the sphere."
"Round ball?... Geoid?..." The voice was again angry. "The \Dyolfknip\ bestows upon the person possessing it the highest authority of this world! You would degrade it by referring to it in this manner?! Perhaps you have obtained it by devious means and are unworthy of its authority!"
(.... "Here we go again! Talk fast, My Darling ....")
(.... "Temperamental, isn't it? ....") "Please forgive my ignorance, Keeper. I meant no disrespect. I assure you that we obtained the \Dyolfknip\ most honorably!" He stumbled a bit with the alien word.
The voice became soft and pleasant once again. "Very well... You have the \Dyolfknip\... Supreme Authority is granted to he who possesses the \Dyolfknip\. How may I assist you?"
(.... "Damn machine! Hope it doesn't change its mind again.")
(.... "And I thought the \Klondike's\ computer was obstinate! ....") Jashi addressed the Keeper, "Please tell me how to open the door; I wish to return to the surface."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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