โIlet the modelย ๏ฌoat in the middle of the room. The xenonite is nearly indestructible, so I donโt need to worry about it bumping into anything.โ
Is this a good idea? I have a planet to save. As awesome as it is to meet up with intelligent aliens, is this risk worth it?
The Eridians clearly understand Astrophage. At least well enough to make engines out of it. AndโI thinkโtheyโre trying to tell me theyโre here for the same reason I am. They might have information I donโt know. They might even have the solution Iโm looking for. And they seem friendly enough.
But this is the interstellar equivalent of a stranger o๏ฌering me candy. I want the candy (information), but I donโt know the stranger.
Whatโs my alternative? Ignore them?
I could carry on with my mission as if I never saw them at all. Theyโre probably as spooked to see me as I am to see them. They might continue trying to talk, but they wouldnโt get hostile, I donโt think.
Or would they? I have no way of knowing.
No, this is a no-brainer. Iโve got to at least have a conversation with them. If they have any information about Astrophage at all, no matter how minor, I have to talk to them. Itโs a risk, yes, but this whole mission is a risk.
Okay. So what would I do if I were them?
Iโm an Eridian. I want to build a tunnel that connects to the weird human ship. But I donโt know what the human shipโs material is made of. How can I guarantee any kind of attachment or seal? My xenonite knowledge is beyond dispute, but how do I connect it toย โhumaniumโย or whatever that ship is made of? Iโve sent the human xenonite models. So he knows what I have. But I still donโt know what he has.
Theyโll need a sample of my hull. And theyโll need toย knowย itโs a sample of my hull.
โRight,โย I say to no one.
I donโt know if this is a good idea or a terrible idea. But Iโm going to knock a chunk of my hull o๏ฌ.
I grab a set of EVA tools. They live in the lab in Drawer 17E. I found them a while ago. Theyโre on a tool belt that can clip onto the EVA suit and everything. Stratt and the gang made sure we had all the equipment we would need for hull repairs if needed. Normally it would be Ilyukhinaโs job toย ๏ฌx stu๏ฌ, but sheโs gone.
Huh. Random memory. Ilyukhina was our engineerโourย ๏ฌx-it gal. Okay.
Well, now itโs me.
I get back in the EVA suit, and back outside. Again. Bouncing in and out is getting kind of annoying. I hope this tunnel thing works.
I make my way along the hull, one tether adjustment at a time. And I get to thinkingโฆ
What good is a tunnel, exactly? I doubt we have compatible environments. We canโt just connect the ships with a tunnel and shake hands. I think thereโs a lot of ammonia over there.
And then thereโs the temperature. Those cylinders are hot when I get them. Some back-of-the-napkin math tells me thatย ๏ฌrst cylinder they sent should have lost 100 degrees Celsius or more during that forty-minute trip
(depending on what temperature it started at). And it was still hot when I got
it. So it wasย reallyย hot when it left their ship. Likeโฆway higher than the boiling point of water.
I try not to speculate too wildly, but come on. Iโm a scientist and these are aliens. Iโm going to speculate.
Do Eridians live in an environment hotter than the boiling point of water? If so, it proves I was right! The goldilocks zone is bull-puckey! You donโt need liquid water for life!
I should be more focused on theย โ๏ฌrst contact with intelligent aliensโย thing or theย โsave all of humanityโย thing, but gosh darn it, I can spend a moment to be happy about being right when everyone said I was wrong!
Iย ๏ฌnally reach a spot of hull that seems right for the job. Iโm aft of the entire pressurized portion of the ship, well past the part where it widens out. If Iโm right, Iโm standing on a big empty tank that used to be full of Astrophage. If I breach the hull here, it shouldnโt matter.
I pull out a hammer and chisel. Not the most elegant way to do this, but I canโt think of anything better. I start by putting one corner of the chisel on the hull and giving it a little tap. Thereโs a notable dent. It doesnโt take much to get through this outermost layer.
I use the hammer and chisel to separate a 6-inch circle of hull material. Thereโs a layer of something underneath. I can feel it with the chisel. Probably insulation.
I have to pry the circle out with the chisel. The underlayer holds strong, but then gives way suddenly. The hull sampleย ๏ฌies o๏ฌย into space.
โShoot!โ
I leap o๏ฌย the ship. I get a hand on the circle right before my tether snaps tight. I breathe for a second, thinking about how dumb I am, then pull myself back along the tether to the ship. Looking at the circle it seems like thereโs a light, foam substance attached to the underside. Styrofoam, maybe. Probably something more complicated than that.
โI hope you guys watched all that,โย I say.ย โBecause Iโm not doing it again.โย I throw the hull chunk at theย Blip-A.
By doing this right in front of them, theyโll know for sure Iโm sending them
a sample of the hull. I hope itโs enough for what they want to do. I donโt even know if they wanted it or needed it. They might be looking at their screens right now and saying,ย โWhat is this idiot doing? Is he poking a hole in his own ship? Why?โ
I stay on the hull and watch as the chunk tumbles in the Taulight. The multi-armed robot on theย Blip-Aโs hull slides along its rails for the reception. Once positioned, it waits for the hull chunk to arrive and makes a perfect catch.
And then, I swear to God, it waves at me! One of its little arms waves at me!
I wave back. It waves again.
Okay, this could go on all day. I head back toward the airlock. Your move, guys.
โ
Their move is taking a long time and Iโm getting bored.
Wow. Iโm sitting here in a spaceship in the Tau Ceti system waiting for the intelligent aliens I just met to continue our conversationโฆand Iโm bored. Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.
I look through the controls of the Radar panel to see what other features it has. After some digging through preference dialogs, Iย ๏ฌnd what Iโm looking for: the proximity-warning parameters. Currently set to 100 kilometers. Fairly reasonable. You would expect things to be millions of kilometers away. Tens of thousands at the very least. So if some rock is within 100 kilometers of you, thatโs a major problem.
I change the setting to 0.26 kilometers. I worry itโll reject the setting as too low, but it doesnโt.
I stretch my back andย ๏ฌoat out of the pilot seat. Theย Blip-Aย is 271 meters away. If they get closer than 260 meters, or if they send another present that gets within that range, the proximity alert will go o๏ฌ. I donโt have to sit here and stare at the screen anymore. The control room will blare a warning when theย Blip-Aย does anything interesting.
Iย ๏ฌoat down to the dormitory.ย โFood,โย I say.
The arms pull a box out of their little stash in the ceiling and stick it to my bunk. Someday I should look around in there and see whatโs available. For now I kick o๏ฌย the ceiling andย ๏ฌoat down to the food. The box, labeledย 10
โย 1, has a Velcro-like strip on the bottom that helps it stay in place on the bedsheet. I open it up and see a burrito.
Not sure what I expected, but okay. Burrito it is.
Turns out itโs a room-temperature burrito. Beans, cheese, some red sauceโฆall pretty tasty, really. But room temperature. Either the crew doesnโt
get hot meals around here or the machine doesnโt trust a recent coma patient not to burn himself on hot food. Probably the latter.
Iย ๏ฌoat up to the lab and put the burrito in the sample furnace. I leave it in there for a few minutes before pulling it out with tongs. The cheese bubbles and a cloud of steam slowly emanates out in all directions.
I leave the burrito toย ๏ฌoat in the air and cool.
I snicker. If Iย reallyย wanted a hot burrito, Iโd turn on the spin drives, do an EVA, and hold the burrito in the light emitted from it. Thatโd get it hot really quick. As in: It would get vaporized along with my arm and whatever else was in the blast range, becauseโ
โ
โWelcome to Little Russia!โย said Dimitri. He gave a theatrical wave at the aircraft carrierโs lower hangar deck. The whole space had been repurposed into a bunch of labs full of high-tech equipment. Dozens of lab-coated scientists toiled away at their tasks, occasionally speaking Russian to one another. Dimitriโs Denizens, we called them.
We probably put more e๏ฌort into naming stu๏ฌย than we should have.
I clutched my little sample container like Scrooge with a bag of coins.ย โIโm not happy with this.โ
โOh, hush,โย said Stratt.
โIโve only made eight grams of Astrophage so far, and Iโm supposed to just give away two grams of it? Two grams may not seem like much, but itโs ninety-๏ฌve billion Astrophage cells.โ
โIt is for a good cause, my friend!โย said Dimitri.ย โI promise you will like it.
Come, come!โ
He led Stratt and me through to the main lab. The center was dominated by a huge cylindrical vacuum chamber. The chamber was open and three technicians mounted something to a table inside.
Dimitri said something in Russian to them. They said something back. He said some other thing and pointed to me. They smiled and made happy Russian sounds.
Then Stratt said something stern in Russian.
โSorry,โย said Dimitri.ย โEnglish only for now, my friends! For the American!โ
โHello, American!โย said one of the technicians.ย โI am speak of English for you! You have fuel?โ
I gripped my sample container tighter.ย โI haveย someย fuelโฆ.โ
Stratt looked at me the way I look at stubborn students in my class.ย โHand it over, Dr. Grace.โ
โYou know, my breeder doubles Astrophage population over time, right?
Taking away two grams now is like taking away four grams next month.โย She pulled the container out of my hands and handed it to Dimitri.
He held the small metal vial up and admired it.ย โThis is a good day. I have looked forward to this day. Dr. Grace, please let me show you my spin drive!โ
He gestured for me to follow and bounced up the stairs into the vacuum chamber. The technicians exited one at a time to make room for us.
โAll is attached,โย said one of them.ย โChecklist is done. Ready for test.โ โGood, good,โย Dimitri said.ย โDr. Grace, Ms. Stratt. Come, come!โ
He led Stratt and me into the vacuum chamber. A thick, shiny metal plate leaned against one wall. The middle of the chamber had a round table with some kind of device resting on it.
โThis is spin drive.โย Dimitri beamed.
It wasnโt much to look at. It was a couple of feet across, mostly circular, but with one side of it cutย ๏ฌat. Sensors and wires came out from apertures all over the place.
Dimitri lifted the top casing o๏ฌย to reveal the innards. Things got more complicated. Inside was a clear triangle on a rotor. Dimitri gave it a little spin.ย โSee? Spin. Spin drive.โ
โHowโs it work?โย I asked.
He pointed to the triangle.ย โThis is the revolverโhigh-tensile-strength transparent polycarbonate. And thisโโhe pointed to a nook between the revolver and the outer casingโโis where fuel comes in. IR emitter inside that part of revolver emits small amount of light with 4.26 and 18.31 microns wavelengthโthat is wavelengths which attract Astrophage. Astrophage go to that revolver face. But not too hard. Astrophage thrust is based on strength of
IR light. Dim light make weak thrust. But enough to make Astrophage stick to surface.โ
He rotated the triangle and aligned an edge with theย ๏ฌat part of the casing.ย โRotate 120 degrees, this face of revolver with Astrophage stuck to it now points out the back of the ship. Increase strength of IR light inside. Astrophage nowย veryย excited, pushย veryย hard toward IR light! Their thrustโย Petrova-frequency lightโleaves back of ship. This pushes ship forward. Millions of little Astrophages pushing on back of ship make it go, yes?โ
I bent down for a look.ย โI seeโฆthis way no part of the ship has to be in the blast area of the light.โ
โYes, yes!โย said Dimitri.ย โAstrophage force limited only by the brightness of IR light attracting it. I did very much math and decided best is to make Astrophage exhaust all energy in four seconds. Any faster and force will break revolver.โ
He rotated the revolver another 120 degrees and pointed to the remaining third of the casing.ย โThis is cleaning area. Squeegee wipes dead Astrophage o๏ฌย revolver.โ
He pointed to the cleaning area, then the fueling area, and then the open face.ย โAll three areas active at same time. So while this area cleans dead Astrophage o๏ฌย this face, fueling area adds Astrophage to that face, and other face is pointed out back of ship, providing thrust. This pipelining means the part of triangle pointed out back of ship is always thrusting.โ
Dimitri opened my vial of Astrophage and set it in the fueling chamber. I guess since the Astrophage willย ๏ฌnd their way to the triangle face, no special handling was required. He could justโฆlet the fuel see the IR.
โCome, come,โย he said.ย โExperiment time!โ
We left the vacuum chamber and Dimitri sealed it o๏ฌ. He yelled something in Russian, and all the Russians started repeating it. Everyone made their way to the far side of the hangar deck, including us.
Theyโd set up a folding table. It had a laptop on it with Cyrillic writing on the screen.
โMs. Stratt. How far is carrier from closest land?โย Dimitri asked.ย โAbout three hundred kilometers,โย she said.
โThis is good.โ
โWait, why?โย I said.ย โWhy is that good?โ
Dimitri pursed his lips.ย โIt isโฆgood. Time for science!โ
He pushed a button. There was a mu๏ฌedย whumpย from the far side of the bay, followed by a hum, and then nothing.
โExperiment done.โย He leaned forward to read the screen.ย โSixty thousand Newtons of force!โ
He turned to the other Russians.ย โ60,000ย ะฝัััะพะฝะพะฒ!โย They all cheered.
Stratt turned to me.ย โThatโs a lot, right?โ
I was too busy staring slack-jawed at Dimitri to answer her.ย โDid you say sixtyย thousandย Newtons?โ
He pumped hisย ๏ฌst in the air.ย โYes! Sixty thousand Newtons! Maintained for one hundred microseconds!โ
โOh my God. From that little thing?!โย I started to walk forward. I had to see this for myself.
Dimitri grabbed my arm.ย โNo. You stay here, friend. We all stay here. One point eight billion Joules of light energy was released. This is why we needed vacuum chamber and one thousand kilograms of silicon. No air to ionize. Light goes directly to silicon block. Energy is absorbed by melting the metal. See?โ
He turned the laptop toward me. A camera feed from inside the vacuum chamber showed the glowing blob that was once a thick plate of metal.
โWhoaโฆโย I said.
โYes, yes,โย Dimitri said.ย โThat Mr. Einstein with hisย E = mc2. Very powerful stu๏ฌ. We let the cooling system work on it for a few hours. Uses seawater. Will beย ๏ฌne.โ
I just shook my head in awe. In just 100 microsecondsโthatโs one ten- thousandth of a secondโDimitriโs spin drive melted a metric ton of metal. All that energy had been stored up in my little Astrophages. Slowly harvested from the carrierโs nuclear reactor heat over time by my breeder. I mean, the math all checked out, but to see it actually demonstrated like that was another thing entirely.
โWaitโฆhow much Astrophage did you use there?โ
Dimitri smiled.ย โI can only estimate based on thrust generated. But was close to twenty micrograms.โ
โI gave you two entireย grams! Can I have the rest back, please?โ
โDonโt be greedy,โย Stratt said.ย โDimitri needs it for further experimentation.โ
She turned to him.ย โGood work. How big will the real drive be?โย Dimitri pointed to the video feed.ย โThat big. That is real drive.โ โNo, I mean the one on the ship.โ
โThat,โย he said, pointing again.ย โYou want redundancy, safety, reliability, yes? So we donโt make just one big engine. We make thousand little ones. One thousand and nine, actually. Enough for all thrust needed and much to spare. Some malfunction during trip? Not a problem. More thrust from the others to compensate.โ
โAh.โย Stratt nodded.ย โTons of little spin drives. I like it. Keep up the good work.โ
She headed to the stairwell.
I stared at Dimitri.ย โIf youโd set o๏ฌย all two grams of that sample at onceโฆโ
He shrugged.ย โFwoosh! We are vapor. All of us. Carrier too. Explosion would make small tsunami. But three hundred kilometers away from land, so is okay.โ
He slapped me on the back.ย โAnd I would owe you drink in afterlife, yes?!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!โ
โ
โHuh,โย I say to myself.ย โSo thatโs how the spin drive works.โย I munch on my burrito.
So I guess I have a thousand of those (โA thousand and nine!โย I hear Dimitriโs voice in my head). At leastโthatโs how many I started with. Some probably went kaput during the trip. Thereโs probably a panel on the Spin Drive console thatโll tell me the status of each little one.
The proximity alert interrupts my thoughts.
โFinally!โ
Iย โdropโย the burrito (itย ๏ฌoats where I leave it) and launch myself up to the control room. The hatch from the dormitory to the lab doesnโt line up with the hatch from the lab to the control room, but thereโs a diagonal line of travel that will send me through both if I do it just right.
I donโt get it right this time. I have to push o๏ฌย a lab wall en route. Still, Iโm getting better at it.
I check the Radar panel and, sure enough, theย Blip-Aย is approaching! Not a cylinder this time. The whole ship is coming my way. Nice and slow. Maybe theyโre going for a nonthreatening kind of approach? In any event, itโs almost here.
Looks like its hull has a new addition. In that diamond part thatโs as big as the wholeย Hail Mary, thereโs a cylindrical tube sticking straight up. The hull robot is sitting next to it, looking proud of itself. I may be anthropomorphizing a tad.
The tube looks like xenonite. Patchy gray and tan with grainlike lines running its length. Hard to tell from this angle, but it also looks to be hollow.
I think I know what comes next. If they follow the plan they indicated with the model, theyโll be putting the other end of it against my airlock.
How will they attach their tunnel? My airlock does have docking capability
โprobably for whatever ship brought me and my crewmates to theย Hail Mary
โbut I canโt expect Eridians to know the intricacies of a universal airlock.
Theย Blip-Aย edges ever closer. What if thereโs a mistake? What if they miscalculate? What if they accidentally poke a hole in my hull? Iโm all that stands between humanity and extinction. Will an alien math error doom my entire species?
I hustle to the airlock and pull on the EVA suit. Iโm in there in record time.
Better safe than sorry.
Theย Blip-Aย is so close now, the Telescope screen just shows a patch of mottled hull. I switch to the external cameras. My hull is littered with them. Theyโre all controlled from a window on the EVA panel. Always good to know where your astronaut is when giving them EVA instructions, I guess.
The tunnel is about 20 feet long. Or 7 meters. Man, being an American scientist sucks sometimes. You think in random, unpredictable units based on
what situation youโre in.
The hull robot reaches out with some seriously telescoping arms. I had no idea it could do that. It extends well beyond the tunnel toward my airlock. Not creepy at all. Five ever-growing alien robot arms reaching for my front door. No cause for alarm.
Each armโs three-๏ฌngeredย โhandโย is holdingโฆsomething. A curved bar with aย ๏ฌat plate attached on the ends. Like a co๏ฌee-mug handle. Three of the arms reach theย Hail Maryย and stick theย ๏ฌat parts of their devices to the hull. Shortly after, the other two arms do the same. Then, allย ๏ฌve retract, pulling theย Hail Maryย toward the tunnel.
Okay. So thoseย ๏ฌat things are handles. How are they attached? Good question! My hull is smooth and made of nonmagnetic aluminum (why do I remember that all of a sudden?). The handles certainly arenโt connected by any mechanical means. Must be an adhesive.
And it all starts to make sense.
Of course they arenโt going to work out how the docking mechanism works. Theyโre going to glue one end of the tunnel to my ship. Why not? Much simpler.
My ship groans. Itโs a 100,000-kilogram piece of equipment that was de๏ฌnitely not designed to be pulled along by its airlock. Will the hull put up with this?
I double-check the seals on my EVA suit.
The control room moves around me. Itโs not fastโjust a few centimeters per second. Hey, for small spaceship velocities I think in metric! Much better thanย โcubits per fortnightโย or whatever.
I let the wall catch up to me. At some lizard-brain level, I like being a little farther from the airlock. Some scary stu๏ฌย is going on over there.
Clunk.
The Eridian tunnel has hit the hull. Clicks and scrapes follow. I watch the hull camera feeds.
The mouth of the tunnel, nowย ๏ฌrmly held to the airlock aperture, is larger than the entire airlock door. I guess thatโs that. Presuming the glue will hold pressure. They donโt even know what my atmospheric pressure is. Whatโs the glue made of? So many questions.
I canโt operate the control-room panels with my EVA suit gloves. I wish I could zoom in or something. I squint at one of the feeds showing the tunnel. It sure looks tight against the hull to me. Thereโs some curvature to the hull around that spot. Kind of a complicated shape to make, but the Eridians duplicated it perfectly.
After another minute, the robot arms let go of their handles, leaving them on the hull.
A mu๏ฌed sound comes from the airlock. Itโs a whooshing sound. Is that air๏ฌow? Theyโre pressurizing the tunnel!
My heart races. Can my hull handle this? What if their air dissolves aluminum? What if aluminum is highly toxic to Eridians and one whi๏ฌย of it kills them instantly? This is a terrible idea!
The whooshing stops. I gulp.
Theyโre done. Nothing dissolved yet. Iย ๏ฌoat over to the airlock for a look- see.
I had both airlock doors sealed, of course. More protection in case of a breach. I open the inner door andย ๏ฌoat inside. I peek out the porthole window.
The blackness of space gone, replaced with the blackness of a dark tunnel. I turn on the helmet lamps and angle my head to shine light through the porthole.
The end of the tunnel is too close. I donโt mean Iโm bothered by it. I mean the end of it is not 20 feet away. Itโs more like 10 feet. And while the rest of the tunnel is made of gray and tan blotchy xenonite, the wall at the end is a hexagonal pattern of random colors.
They didnโt just connect a tunnel. They connected my airlock to theirs, with a wall in the middle.
Clever.
I close the inner airlock door with me inside and depressurize it. I spin the outer doorโs hatch handle and push. It opens without resistance. The tunnel is a vacuumโat least, it is on my side of the divider.
I think I see. This is a test. They had all the same concerns I had. Attach it, let me pressurize my half with my air, and see what happens. Either it works or it doesnโt. If it works, great! If not, theyโll try something else. Or maybe ask me to try something.
Okay. Letโs see.
I tell the airlock to repressurize. It refusesโthe outer door is open. Nice to know that safety interlock is there, but Iโll have to work around it.
Itโs not hardโthereโs a manual relief valve that will just let air from the ship into the airlock. It bypasses all computer controls. You donโt want someone to die because of a software malfunction, right?
I open the relief valve. Air rushes in from theย Hail Maryย and, with the airlock wide open, into the tunnel. Within three minutes, the air๏ฌow slows and then stops. My suit readings tell me thereโs 400 hectopascals of pressure outside. Theย Hail Maryย has equalized with my part of the tunnel.
I close the relief valve and wait. I watch the external pressure gauge on my EVA suit. The pressure stays put at 400 hectopascals. We have a good seal.
Eridians know how to glue xenonite to aluminum. Of course they do. Aluminumโs an element, and any species that could invent xenonite in theย ๏ฌrst place must know their way around the periodic table a thousand times better than we do.
Time for a leap of faith. I pop the seals of the EVA suit and climb out the back. The strong smell of ammonia permeates the air but itโs otherwise breathable. Itโs my own air supply, after all. I push the EVA suit back toward the airlock. The helmet lamps are my only source of light, so Iย ๏ฌnagle the suit so the lights stay pointed down the tunnel.
Iย ๏ฌoat over to the mystery wall and reach out to touch it, but stop short. I can feel the heat even from a few inches away. Eridians like it hot.
In fact, Iโm starting to sweat. The tunnel walls are heating up my air. Itโs uncomfortable, but not too bad. I can open theย Hail Maryโs inner airlock door if I want my climate control to take over. Then our life-support systems canย ๏ฌght it out. Theyโll keep the hot side hot and Iโll keep the cold side cold.
Even with the sweat forming on my brow and the strong ammonia odor making my eyes water, I press on. Iโm just too curious not to. Could anyone blame me?
There are at least twenty little hexagons on this wall. Theyโre all di๏ฌerent colors and textures and I think a couple of them might be translucent. I should catalog each one andย ๏ฌgure out if I can identify what theyโre made of. Looking closer, I see thereโs a de๏ฌnite seam running along the edges of the hexes.
Thatโs when I hear a sound come from the other side:ย Knock, knock, knock.
