A Simple Truth (24 page)

Knight did not relish the thought of walking very far in his bulky suit.  But as if in response to his fear he felt a sudden gust of wind, then a flash of light made him jump back startled.  There before them stood a small plain looking white cylinder with open sides.  Knight laughed to himself, he should have expected this.  All the same he felt strong misgivings about entering the flimsy looking vehicle.  Red urged him in, but if it accelerated and decelerated at the same rate with occupants as without he feared being crushed to death.  There was nothing for it
though
;
he could not go back now.

Inside he braced himself as well as he could for the impending acceleration.  Strangely though, Red, who was standing beside
him,
was not even bothering to hold anything, and he soon found out why.  Looking up he was taken aback to see the tunnel wall already moving past, and within seconds it had become a mere blur.  There had been no perceptible force at all
;
in fact he could not convince himself other than that it was the tunnel that was moving and their vehicle stationary.  Once again
,
Knight found as he allowed himself to relax, common sense could not be trusted
at all
in here.

The children had stayed behind.  Perhaps they always stayed at the outer level.  Knight felt disappointed, their presence had somehow made the situation seem less formal.  He began to feel uneasy again.  There was no way of knowing where he was being taken.  The aliens' ability to nullify all inertial forces removed any clue as to the direction of travel, and the high speed prevented any clue from observation of the outside walls.  He might emerge at any point in any sphere, or in any of the connecting links.

Abruptly Red stepped forward and out of the cylinder.  It was only then that Knight realised they were stationary once more.  He estimated that they had been moving for about two minutes, but since he could not guess their speed the only logical inference was that they were a considerable distance from their starting point.

The tunnel here appeared the same as before, but Knight noticed that there was considerably less light entering from the tunnel opening.  He followed Red out and silently the white cylinder raced away and in an instant was lost to view.  Knight wondered with great trepidation what he would find here.  He had enjoyed the
journey;
the fascination of his surroundings had distracted him from where he was going and why.  But now he felt sure that he had reached his destination, and would soon know his fate.

They were inside some kind of enclosed area, that much was evident, but he could not make out any recognisable features through the opening.  He had the strong feeling that there was a reception committee waiting for him.  No doubt his companion had alerted his colleagues by whatever communication system he used.

Oddly enough his greatest fear was of making a fool of himself in emerging from the tunnel.  Red was already outside waiting.  Summoning all his courage he crouched at the edge and allowed himself to fall forwards as slowly as possible.  It was a most disturbing experience, all his instincts demanded that he grab the sides before it was too late, but by a supreme effort of will he managed to control them.  Once past the halfway point he wished he had used a bit more force.  He was not moving nearly fast enough to reach a stable upright position and would have fallen back but for Red who skilfully caught an arm and pulled him up.

There was no reception committee.  They were quite alone and in some sort of cavern.  Orientation was difficult at this angle, but as he walked down the outside of the tunnel and turned onto the ground things made more sense.  It was indeed a cave and the gravity was much stronger.  The walls were roughly contoured and the floor was sandy.  Knight looked around, but there was no visible opening, but when he looked for Red he had disappeared.  He was gripped by a pang of cold fear.  Perhaps he would not be questioned or allowed to see more of the
vessel;
perhaps this was where he would live out his last few hours until his oxygen was consumed.  His heart rate had doubled by the time Red reappeared only a moment later.  Evidently he was wondering why Knight had not followed.  His relief was immense.

He resolved not to lose sight of his guide again and eagerly rushed over to where he was waiting.  He expected to see a concealed opening but there was none.  Red just walked straight into the solid rock face.  Knight stood gaping and extended a cautious hand to investigate.  To his astonishment it too disappeared into the rock.  It was not solid at all, but an illusion.  Very slowly he edged forwards until he was half in and half out.  He gently poked his helmet through until his eyes crossed the imaginary rock boundary.  At that point he saw yet another similar cave.  It was as if the boundary itself had no depth but was only an illusory curtain dividing two caves.  Knight moved his head back and forth in childlike fascination, until Red gently touched an arm to remind him that their destination had not yet been reached.

The second cave did have a way out.  Light was streaming in some distance away, perhaps they would return to an open space after all.  Knight intensified his helmet filter.  His eyes had become accustomed to the dark and he did not wish to take any chances with the light outside.  It was much brighter than in the outer sphere and might be harmful.  At the mouth of the cave he hesitantly readjusted the filter until he could see once more, and the sight that met his eyes was so completely unexpected, so utterly impossible, that once again the sensation of dreaming passed across his mind.

He was back on earth.  The sun was well up in a beautiful blue sky, and before him lay a wide grassy plain with low bushes and small trees.  And the peaceful scene was backed by a range of craggy mountains easily twenty kilometres away.

15
   
A
nother
B
lunder

"Right Sharma just once more
,"
said a persistent Helen Bajoga.

"I'm happy now, I could carry on with my eyes shut
,"
replied Sharma.

"Maybe, but this is a complex task and we can't afford any mistakes.  Ready?"

"Ready
,"
agreed Sharma impatiently.  He understood what was required and was itching to get on with the job.  Knight had a limited supply of oxygen so every second was vital.  But he knew that until Bajoga was satisfied he had to stay put.  He had been responsible for his young companion.  It should have been he who was in the alien ship instead of Knight, he had let him down.  If anything happened to Knight he would never forgive himself.

Eventually the checks were complete, the hastily made but lucid film loaded into
the
computer's memory and the remote control system prepared and ready for use.  Sharma stood in the airlock, fully suited, equipped, and waiting for the chamber to evacuate.  A link had been established with a voice analyser, a language simplifier and an encoding facility via the ferry's radio system so that Sharma could give verbal instructions to and receive verbal messages from the computer; a useful refinement suggested by another member of Lincoln's staff.

"Four-o-two
,"
said Sharma when cleared.  This was the code signal, arbitrarily chosen, which prepared the computer to receive a
verbal
instruction sequence.

"Proceed
,"
replied the machine.

"Open the port outer airlock door
,"
instructed Sharma.  The computer repeated the instruction to verify the command.  If it had been inadvisable for any reason then the computer would have given the reason and waited, but would have complied if Sharma insisted.

"Execute
,"
said Sharma, whereupon the door lifted smoothly, exposing him once again to the vacuum of space.  Sharma had previously run through many such instruction sequences to familiarise himself thoroughly with the
technique.  He found the cross-
check procedures a little tedious but accepted that the delays were necessary for both safety and accuracy.  In emergency they could be overridden by the prefix 'Urgent'.

Sharma
attached
himself to the external cable and began the slow descent to the shining sphere below.  He was in continuous contact with earth control via the cable connection and the ferry's radio, and was comforted by the knowledge that in emergency control could be taken over by earth.

A wide-
angle lens camera was fixed to his helmet so that earth could see what he could see.  Lincoln and the ground staff watched his progress keenly, tension was high
, one bad mistake had been made;
another could be fatal.

As he watched Lincoln felt himself right there with Sharma.  He was feeling what Sharma must be feeling, sharing his fears and hopes, as no doubt were the rest of the team.  The mirror surface reflected faithfully the ferry and the earth.  But at one point Lincoln noticed that there was a distinct blemish, something not quite right about the earth's reflected image.  It was difficult to make out exactly what was causing it, and continued staring at the same spot caused a reduction in visual sensitivity.  He looked away momentarily, hoping the eye movement would permit a clearer view when he next looked.  In that instant though the effect vanished, the reflection was perfect once more.  He concluded that his imagination was playing tricks on him.

When Sharma was a few metres from the surface he instructed the computer to apply a slight tension to the restraining cable and to pay it out at a slow rate in readiness for the gravitational pull.  He used his suit jets very gently now, just enough to balance the cable tension and allow a cautious approach.

"I can feel the pull now
,"
he reported at about two metres.  "OK to proceed?"

Naganda advised Sharma to proceed with extreme caution.

Sharma entered the silver liquid.  Thirty seconds or so and he would be inside.  All eyes were fixed on the blank monitor, waiting for the moment of
emergence.  Ten seconds passed;
then unexpectedly the computer broke the silence.

"Breach of safety cable; r
equest further instructions."

Naganda and his chief engineer looked at each other in astonishment.  This was an unbelievable report.

"Sharma
,"
shouted Naganda...
nothing.

"Sharma, respond please."

Then, as if addressing a child, the computer responded with "Communication with Sharma not possible, safety and communication disconnected, request further instructions."  Still it was impossible to believe.  Another five seconds and they would know for certain.  Everyone expected the screen to burst into life again, to show that there had been a computer malfunction and not a true breach of the cable.  The five second
s passed, ten, fifteen, nothing;
nothing at all.

"In the absence of further instructions I shall rewind the cable
,"
said the long-
suffering computer.

"No
,"
shouted Naganda, "rewind until just clear of the skin."

His engineer reminded him of the instruction procedure. 
A choice stream of expletives escaped his lips followed by the same instruction coded properly
.  "Get on to Pangani control
,"
he snapped to one of his staff, "tell them to manoeuvre one of the probes so they can see if Sharma is on the end or not."

That was sensible thought
Lincoln
,
i
f there had been a system fault and if Sharma was still attached to the cable then they could reel him in and deal with the malfunction.  But if the report was true then it was better to return the cable to the inside of the sphere in case Sharma was able to reconnect himself.

But what had happened?  How could he have been disconnected while still in the surface film?  Then Lincoln recalled the irregularity in the reflecting surface and with dismay realised that it had not been his imagination.  It must have been one of the aliens observing Sharma's approach.  And even while Lincoln was watching, it was preparing to receive its second visitor.

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

In the space of a few seconds a hundred thoughts raced through Knight's mind and a hundred questions vied with each other for his attention.  He kept looking at Red to make sure he was real and not merely part of his imagination.  Behind him was a shallow cliff face, pockmarked here and there with caves, but oddly there was no entrance at the point where they had emerged.  Knight reached out and felt his way along the cliff until his hands went through the rock.  So that was it, another rock curtain, but this time it was a one-way illusion.

He walked back through.  The cave was the same as
before
and outside the scene was as he had left it.  He felt that if he took his eyes away everything was liable to change, in fact he was more than half convinced that the whole thing was a vivid dream, and that before long he would wake up.  He retraced his steps through the outer cave to the first illusory barrier.  It was still the same, and inside the tunnel was as before.  He raced up the side and peered in through the opening.  Yes, it was exactly as he had left it.  Somehow the aliens had engineered a link between their vessel and the earth.  But such a thing defied so many physical laws that Knight could not begin to guess how it had been achieved.  Variable strength and direction of gravitational fields seemed like child's play in comparison.