Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (27 page)

The rest of them were empty.

* * *

Gordon was still thinking on it, mystified, two days later. He was about ready to take the fleet and move on. He was working on the bridge even though they were in orbital watch mode. It beat working from anywhere else on the ship as long as he didn't take the conn. He expressed his frustration to John Burris who was standing the watch.

"Perhaps they were in the process of setting up something here and the asteroid strike caught them before they brought stuff in and filled the buildings," Jon Burris guessed.

The technician who was so afraid of drilling the huge housing had a report finally and said, "The seamless shape was an aluminum bronze, with nickel, silicon, iron and traces of other metals. The odd one is tantalum. Why would it have tantalum?"

"I don't know, but it would explain them mining the asteroid if they build many of these things. It wouldn't take much added to something that size to add up to a
lot
of tantalum. Otherwise it's not so different than some of the alloys Derf use," Gordon informed him.

"Yes, Humans have some similar alloys. But nothing of this
size
," the man emphasized.

"Well, yeah. Neither do we," Gordon admitted. "Thanks for the report."

"Something else that might interest you, sir."

"Yes?"

"The bullet in the cartridge you gave me is a bit better than twenty-two karat gold."

"That is really going to interest my daughter," Gordon said, laughing. "Did you check out the propellant? Would it burn?"

"It has degraded and out-gassed. It might burn half-heartedly if you put a match to it in air. But it isn't going to go 'bang' for you."

"OK, thanks again, Todd," Gordon said remembering his name finally. He had a block for the guy.

Vigilant Botrel showed up on the bridge in a better mood than Gordon. He tried to jolly his commander a bit and didn't have much success. He turned his head and looked surprised.

"Wow! Look at that aurora," Vigilant said, and then frowned. "Have you changed to a polar orbit? No, I'd have woke up if you shifted this much."

Gordon hooked his toes under his console foot bar and stood to give himself the same view as Vigilant. "Mr. Burris, I am looking at an aurora on the surface below. I want to know
where
it is located. And call Mr. Goddard to the bridge right
now
."

He remained standing, looking at the shimmering glow unbelieving. It was two concentric rings and occasionally when it flickered bright three. It was receding as they orbited, but still clearly visible when Ernie Goddard arrived at the bridge short of breath and freaked out. Gordon never said 'right
now
' unless it was life or death.

"What do you call that, Mr. Goddard?" Gordon said pointing at it like it was his fault. Ernie came in past Gordon and hovered beside Vigilant.

"
Impossible
," Ernie said.

"And yet there it is," Gordon said swinging his open true hand toward it.

"The planet doesn't
have
a magnetic field," Ernie objected.

"Actually, it does, now," Jon Burris informed them from the com board. "And that display is centered on... the buildings we visited."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Gordon asked.

"The star threw out a bunch of crap a few hours ago," Jon said. "That isn't surprising. It's noisy. I never gave it much thought because it would take a lot more to give us any trouble."

"The planet
doesn't
have any magnetic field," Gordon agreed. "Whatever ill fated installation they built before it was obliterated needed to be shielded from particle storms. So they built this device to shield the whole planet. Or who knows? Maybe they did it so commonly they don't have to custom build them and they came in standard sizes. They could have just measured the planet and put in an order to home for a number four... Maybe there is a model tag and build date on it down in the crack."

"So, what would be the optimum angular separation between the device and the protected area?" Vigilant asked.

"I don't know what's
optimum
," Ernie said. "but from where the center of the asteroid strike was to the buildings is pretty close to ninety degrees. I remember that from mapping it."

"Then I'd expect another machine generating the field opposite this one," Vigilant said.

"We didn't see anything. Well, the computer didn't
tag
anything," Ernie corrected.

"I have this small gift of prophecy," Vigilant said, grabbing his forehead theatrically with his spread fingers and tilting his head back at the overhead. "We shall see another aurora come over the horizon in about ten minutes, and it will be exactly opposite the other machine on this globe. If you don't go look at the surface pix, and see what is there, I predict your commander may pitch you out the airlock to make a flaming decent without benefit of shuttle to personally inspect the site."

Ernie stared at him mouth full open. "I'll be right back," he said, and exited like a salmon headed upstream on a mission.

The twin to the other aurora was fully in sight by the time Ernie returned.

"It was close to noon, local, when the pix were taken of the other site," Ernie explained. "It didn't cast any shadows. The stupid computer is
blind
. There are three buildings there and a couple smaller ones. I gotta write this up! I'll credit you on the paper, Vigilant! It's going to be astonishing!"

His exit ran straight into Vigilant's extended arm.

"Are you going to take up signing my checks for me too?" Vigilant asked. "Perhaps change your name and declare you are my heir?"

"Huh?"

"You don't put my name on anything you little twerp. When you have your paper all polished and want to ask me if I'd like to co-author it, I
might
decide to allow it, after you make any revisions I fancy. That's how you do it. I'm not easy going Choi Eun-sook, or the pleasant Mr. Burris over there, with whom you may take liberties. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes sir!"

"Very well." The arm was withdrawn.

"That was entertaining," Gordon said after he was gone. Vigilant just rolled his eyes.

"I guess the Caterpillars couldn't figure out what the big machine did either, or they wouldn't have walked around it unafraid. If that thing had started up, anything magnetic would have been smashed against it and pinned there until it shut off," Gordon said. "We lucked out on that."

"Possibly, or they might be
much
better at space weather prediction than us, and knew it wasn't going to activate," Vigilant suggested.

"Then we should only go there if they are willing to accompany us," Gordon joked.

"That or have nothing iron about our persons," Vigilant agreed. That made Gordon look thoughtful.

"Mr. Burris, we will be making another landing. No need to rush anyone. Have Brownie set it up since he'll be coming on soon. We can wait for the second dawn on the new site if that works better. I also need to talk to Ha-bob-bob-brie and Mr. Hillerman from engineering."

* * *

"We want to revert to landing further away," Gordon told the pilot before they even left orbit.

"Yes sir. Do you have a number?"

"Let's give it two kilometers, and see how it goes. I don't want you passing closely
over
the site either," Gordon warned him. "It's a critical safety issue."

"Got it," the pilot assured him.

"How did you pick two kilometers?" Lee wondered.

"Because that was how far the small shed with all the junk was from the big machine," Gordon said.

Lee didn't say any more, but scowled at him.

"Some of the objects in the smaller building were
magnetic
," Gordon elaborated.

"Ohhh... "

* * *

"Mr. Goddard, Lee, and Talker are going to go see if the smaller building contains artifacts again. Ha-bob-bob-brie and I are going to the large building we think contains the field generator. The field should be clearly centered on one specific building. My suit, being Derf made, contained little steel or other magnetic materials. We've replaced those few parts with copies printed of other materials. Ha-bob-bob-brie assures me his suit contains nothing magnetic, and a thorough check with a magnet by hand confirms that.

"Unfortunately we can't carry much in the way of instrumentation because of this limitation. We had to remove a few items we shouldn't need such as my helmet lights. It didn't seem worth fitting another non-standard part for this short excursion."

"It did occur to me we'd have been in a world of hurt if the star had fired up and made the machine kick in when we were standing right there." Lee said.

"Indeed," Gordon agreed. He didn't repeat his conversation with Vigilant. Lee already thought the Caterpillars were smarter than them, and for some reason it irritated him.

"I see the Caterpillars have landed. Likely wondering why we are so far away. They are a constraining factor. If I can't dissuade them from follow us to the building we may have to abandon the trip for their safety. Asking them if they have magnetic materials in their suits is
way
beyond what I'd trust to explain with sign language."

"I predict they will either stay away, or they already are aware what it is doing and don't have any materials that would be affected and so are safe," Lee said, confidently.

Gordon considered that. He'd found arguing with Lee's bolder assertions had a poor record of success. The quicker she came to a conclusion the worse it was to bet against it for some reason. "Maybe," was all he'd say.

He did notice Ha-bob-bob-brie pivoted his head sharply and regarded him. It was impossible to read the alien's face. Hinth move very little but their eyes. But Ha-bob-bob-brie worshiped the ground upon which Lee trod. He probably was offended Gordon would doubt his beloved Mistress. Talk about having him wound around her finger... The Hinth was far worse in that regard than Talker. Gordon was just glad
he
wasn't like that...

"I'm very worried about you approaching that
thing
," Lee said. "We already saw the other one. Why do you need to see its twin?"

"To know it
is
the twin," Gordon said. "I think it will be too, but I'm filing a claim on this world and specifically salvage rights to the magnetic machines and their tech. We'll be sending somebody back to investigate how this shield system works, and I want to establish it's clearly abandoned, and there aren't any aliens still here with property rights."

"It still scares me," Lee insisted. "I'd like a rope on your ankle to drag you back if it grabs on to you."

"We do have safety tethers for space work," their pilot volunteered. "Clip one to your suit and we can winch you in. They're strong enough we use them to pull heavy freight into the hold. Plenty strong enough to drag you back, but you might consider which side you'd rather have against the ground."

"Yes, but how long? And do you have one for Ha-bob-bob-brie too?" Gordon asked.

"Just one line on the winch, but it's six kilometers long. We can rig a 'Y' on the end to secure both of you easily."

The problem was Gordon couldn't think of a good reason to turn it down. Lee was already looking happier about it, and rejecting any safety advantage sent the wrong message to the crews.

"OK, clip on to us. I want mine on the back. I certainly don't want to be dragged on my face two kilometers.” Ha-bob-bob-brie agreed with that.

Outside the Caterpillars stood to the side towards the smaller building and ignored Gordon and Ha-bob-bob-brie. Gordon was sort of disappointed.

The line was only three millimeters thick and Ha-bob-bob-brie was dragging it too, so it was no burden. When he looked over his shoulder the other were already headed to the lesser building.

Ha-bob-bob-brie was thrilled to be doing one of his specialties, and to be working with the commander too. Repairing spacesuits had been a worthy job. He didn't think Gordon
disliked
him. But he was aware Lee had sponsored him to assume more responsibility.

Gordon was rambling on about some part of the war Ha-bob-bob-brie knew nothing about. He listened with half an ear but marked it as nervous chatter. Gordon would never admit that, but the huge alien building and knowing the power it must contain and channel to shield a planet intimidated him. Gordon didn't seem to have an intimidation gene. Maybe if he was seven hundred plus kilos with claws like daggers he wouldn't intimidate worth a damn either. They were about half way to the building.

Gordon seemed to be breathing noisily, and he stopped for a second and paused. "You hear something ?" He breathed.

"No, can you describe it?" Ha-bob-bob-brie asked.

"Kind of a hum... no more like a ringing." Gordon looked down and stood still a moment after a few more steps. "I'm kind of sick to my stomach," he said. That was alarming. He was never nauseous.

"Trip your purge valve," Ha-bob-bob-brie urged him. It sounded like hypoxia.

"Nothing," Gordon said. "Don't work."

"We have to turn around," Ha-bob-bob-brie insisted. Gordon just stood head hung ignoring him.

Ha-bob-bob-brie took him by the big middle arm and tried to gently turn him around. Normally he couldn't move Gordon a centimeter, but he took a couple steps off balance at the tug, and turned around falling to his knees. As soon as Gordon turned Ha-bob-bob-brie heard the roar of his purge valve blowing the suit free. Gordon propped himself on his middle arms, staying on his knees. He heard him gasp a few times and he shook his head.

"You need to be dragged back?" the pilot monitoring them asked on com. Gordon ignored him.

"Do you need reeled in?" Ha-bob-bob-brie asked.

"
No
, just shut up a minute," Gordon said with unusual anger, and stayed still. "I'm trying not to throw up in my suit," He paused again. "If I throw up I'm going to shut my eyes, open my faceplate and hurl," he said. They stayed still like that for a good two minutes. That would be a dangerous stunt.