Pandora's Star

“Oh, shit,” A

Dudley had followed the tu

He glided out from the tu

“This has been cleaned out,” Emmanuelle reported. “No direct co

“Okay,” Oscar said. “Tu

“We can manage that,” Dudley said confidently. At last, some real uncharted territory.

“All right, proceed with care. Don’t forget the comrelays.”

Dudley wanted to say something like: Of course we won’t, but it lacked professionalism. In fact, Oscar’s calm voice in his ears was reassuring. You can always depend on Oscar. It was a pleasant psychological safety net.

He ordered his boots to release the floor, and pushed himself toward entrance three. With his suit lights shining down into the slate-gray interior it didn’t look any different from the dozen others he’d already passed, it was curving away counterclockwise. “Start recording the route,” he told his e-butler, and pulled himself in.

After fifteen meters the surface changed from the usual tough carbon composite to a thin aluminum skin, dull with age, and cracked to reveal rock directly underneath. The curvature tightened, becoming regular. Dudley stuck a comrelay to the wall. Twenty-five meters later, he had to use another.

“According to my inertial guidance, this is a spiral,” Emmanuelle said. “We’re descending almost along the rock’s axis.”

“Oscar, is there a hole anywhere on the rock surface?” Dudley asked. “Anything that could be the other end?”

“Difficult to say. There are a few fissures that could be openings. This is why we need you guys.”

“Thanks.”

After a couple more twists, they came to the first junction. It was a straight tube seven meters long. Dudley shone his suit lights down it.

“It just leads to the other side of the spiral, like a shortcut.”

“I don’t think so,” Emmanuelle said. “The angle is wrong. Hey, you know what? I bet this whole shaft is laid out like DNA. Two spirals ru

“You could be right. Oscar, I’d like to try something. If we put a comrelay at the other end of this link, then we might be able to pick it up if there’s another cross link below us.”

“Go ahead, Dudley, it’s worth a try.”

Dudley zipped through the short length of tu

Wilson stared at the small triangles inching their way across the big portal’s tactical display. Digits flickered around each one, delivering yet more bad news. The lead ship was eighty-two million kilometers distant, and accelerating hard at eight gees. It was going to reach them in just over three hours. That was bad enough, but what he really didn’t like was that it hadn’t flipped over to decelerate.

All eight ships had launched from the moons or inhabited asteroids of the outermost gas giant, three AUs distant, the closest center of any alien activity. If that lead ship didn’t decelerate at all, it was going to have a relative velocity of over seven and a half thousand kilometers per second when it reached them. No human machine had ever reached a fraction of that speed in real space. Even now, he could see it on the visual display as the Second Chance’s main telescope tracked it. The fusion drive was a streamer of near-invisible violet fury stretching for hundreds of kilometers behind a scintillating golden sphere. Every stray gas molecule and charged particle impacting on the force field was dying in a burst of radioactive splendor, contributing to the coronal hue around the ship. If it hit the Second Chance or the Watchtower at that velocity, the explosion would briefly rival a solar flare.

“Only ships five and seven have flipped,” A

Wilson nodded silently as he absorbed the tactical situation. Given their vectors and positions, all eight ships in the first flotilla must have launched from various bases over a period of several hours. They were well spread out. There was no doubt about their destination, even if it was only a flyby. As for their intent…

“Thank you,” he said. “Oscar, pull the contact teams out of the Watchtower right now. I want them back on board Second Chance in half an hour.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tunde, I’m trying to think of any possible peaceful or scientific value from a flyby at the kind of speed the lead ship will have.”

“There isn’t any, sir, there can’t be.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. This is territorial. They might even think we’re from the species which put up the barrier, in which case we have to assume the worst. If they do not slow down, we will withdraw from this system. I’m not going to risk our lives and this mission in an attempt to make contact under a combat situation. Hyperspace, I want an immediate flight path for our return to the Commonwealth, ready to initiate on my command.”

“Aye, sir.”

“A

“Captain,” Oscar called.

Wilson missed having Oscar on the bridge, although he grudgingly acknowledged the executive officer was by far the best person to be ru

“We’ve got problems. Two members of contact team A have dropped out of communication.”

“This one is at a different angle again,” Emmanuelle said.

They had both stopped beside the fifth cross link, shining their suit lights into it. Once again, it was a straight tu