Communion of Dreams, page 24
Jon nodded as the inner door slid open. The familiar sweet aroma from the old man’s pipe gave Jon a certain comfort.
Navarr, stepped first into the dome, glancing around. The others followed.
Darnell barely looked up from his reading at first, then he saw the girl. His book dropped into his lap, and his full attention was focused on her.
“Well, y’all come on in.” Darnell stood, reached out a hand to Navarr, then to Gish, but he never really took his eyes off of Chu Ling.
She studied him. Not timid, not hesitating, not at all shy, she looked him full in the face, met his gaze with one of equal intensity. Jon spoke, “I thought that it might be good if you two met one another.”
Ling looked up at Jon, then back to Sidwell. Then back again to Jon. But she said nothing.
“C’mon in. Have a seat.” Sidwell gestured to the table. They sat down around it, Jon setting the holo projector in front of himself. Sidwell looked over at Jon. “Doin’ OK, son?”
Jon nodded. “Yeah, for the most part.”
“Good.” He turned, looked close at the girl, who was still standing beside Gish, holding on to the scientist for security. “Hello Chu Ling. I’m Darnell.”
“Yes. You the man Mr. Jon sees.”
“Tha’ right?” Sidwell glanced at Jon, a glint in his eye. “Did he tell you ‘bout me?”
“No, but I can see. You the one. The one with the glow.”
“What glow is that?”
“She thinks that she can see some kind of . . . aura . . . around those who have been in contact with the artifact,” said Jon.
“Huh.” He looked back at the girl. “But I haven’ touched it.”
She furrowed her brow, trying to understand. “You glow.”
“Like Mr. Jon?”
She shook her head. “Not like Mr. Jon. Mr. Jon has big glow.”
Sidwell chuckled. “So, my glow isn’ as big, eh? Guess that’s wha’ happens when you get old . . . ”
But the girl shook her head vigorously. “No. Mr. Jon has big glow, bigger than others. But you glow . . . brighter. Like . . . ”
She stood, stumped, trying to think of a word. Without asking, she reached over and hit the activation control on the holo projector, said something low at it. In a moment the image of Seth appeared, dressed in his tutor’s robes, facing her. They whispered to one another, then Chu Ling turned back to Darnell and said, “Like angel.”
Sidwell laughed heartily. “Child, lemme assure you, I’m no angel.”
“Like old deva.” She pointed at Seth. “He say ‘angel’.”
“Well, I’ve been called worse. But I’d say ol’ Seth there’s more a spirit then I am.”
Now a different voice came into the room. “Jon?”
Jon looked at the holo projector, sitting on the table in front of him. Seth had disappeared, replaced with the image of Tops.
“Yeah, doc. What’s up?”
“Got those results for you.”
Jon looked around the table at the others. “Um, excuse me a moment.” He picked up the projector, went to the other side of the room. With his back to the others for a little privacy, he turned down the volume and said, “OK, what’ve you found?”
“First, the tests with Duc confirmed that the three of you all share a similar reaction to new cyberware implants.”
“So I’m stuck like this?”
“Well, until we can figure out what is going on, and how to counter act it.”
“Yeah. OK, I’ll have to deal with it some other way.”
She looked at him, curious. “How?”
“Navarr gave me the idea, going with pre-cyberware tech. I’m going to go talk with the communications expert who came up with Bradsen’s team.”
“Makes sense. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” He went back to join the others.
“News?” asked Navarr.
Jon nodded. “Tops is fairly certain that I can’t replace my cyberware.”
Gish raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Chu Ling remained quiet at his side, just watching Darnell. Sidwell asked, “Why?”
“She’s guessing some kind of interference from the artifact. We don’t understand it yet.”
“It should be fairly simple to hook you up with pre-cyberware tech,” said Gish.
Jon nodded toward Navarr. “Yeah, Commander Navarr suggested that. One of the reasons I came down was to discuss it with Theo Crane. He should be able to rig up something for me.”
“We should go over and see him about it,” said Navarr.
“Yeah.”
The Commander looked at Gish. “I’ll come back and get you when we’re ready to leave. I don’t want anyone outside without an escort, if it can be avoided.”
“Oh, we’ll come along now. I imagine that Chu Ling might be interested in seeing what all the fuss is about.”
Jon saw Navarr start to object, said. “It’s OK, Commander, let them come with us.”
* * *
As they were waiting for the airlock to cycle, Navarr leaned over and said to Jon, “Another flip coming.”
Being ready for it did help, but Jon still felt slightly disoriented and a little sick by the sequence. From what he could remember, it was the same pattern as before. The inner hatch of the airlock opened as the gravity stabilized.
Popping his helmet, Jon stepped into the large dome. He stepped to the side, and leaned against the wall near the changing benches, letting the others have those. Eyes closed, he just stood there a minute, calming his stomach and getting stable. A nearby voice spoke.
“You don’t look so good. You OK?” It was Don Bradsen.
Jon took a long, slow breath and opened his eyes to look at the man. “That AG dance is just a little rough.”
Bradsen seemed surprised. “Huh. No one else has complained of anything. You’re probably just still a little weak from your encounter with the artifact.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Jon looked around, noted that Gish and the girl were going over to the edge of the pit, and that Navarr had gone straight over to where his troopers stood sentry, without bothering to get out of his suit. Then he turned and looked at Bradsen. “What are you trying to do with turning the AG field on and off like that, anyway?”
“What we discussed after Ng and Gates were in contact with the artifact: establish communication with it.”
“I thought we agreed that broadcasting anything at it was too risky, that it might be perceived as an attack.”
Bradsen shrugged. “That was using conventional broadcast spectrum. After we found out that the artifact reacted to the presence or lack of an Apparent Gravity field, and didn’t have a hostile response, I thought it was safe to proceed using that as our communications vehicle. I discussed it at some length with both Klee and Crane, even got Gish’s thoughts on the matter. We’re starting with some simple tests, some basic on/off patterning, with breaks between to see if the artifact responded.”
“Sounds risky.”
“Look, we’ve got someone trying to sabotage our operation, and a trooper has been killed. I thought that under the circumstances, we needed to move a little faster to figure out what this thing is and how to communicate with it if that is possible. Before someone does manage to blow this place up.”
“Yeah, good point. Sorry.”
“No sweat. I’ve heard from Magurshak. He wants you to take operational control back over as soon as you’re able, and that’s fine by me, since I have research to coordinate. But let’s make sure that you’re able.”
“Fair enough. And it’s a moot point until I’m reconnected. It seems that those of us who have been in contact with the artifact can’t have new cyberware implanted. I came here so that I could meet with Theo Crane and see about getting him to make up some external communications.”
“A bit out-dated, but should suffice.”
“Yeah, my thought.”
Bradsen manipulated the back of his hand, then touched the phone wafer at the base of his jaw. “Theo, come on up for a moment, would you?”
“Thanks,” said Jon.
A heavyset man with a blonde crew cut came over the edge of the pit and around to the two of them. “Whatcha need, Don?”
“Actually, I needed to chat with you,” said Jon.
“Oh, hey, Jon. You’re looking pretty good, considering the way they took you outta here.”
“Well, my encounter with the artifact burned out my cyberware, and the doc says that my system will reject any new implant for the time being. Can you help me out?”
He rubbed his hand absently along the top of his head. “Well, yeah. Some stuff I have’ll work just fine with conventional cyberware, if we mount it outside your body somehow.”
“Like what?”
“Well, let’s see . . . we can rig you up a phone, and your contact lenses should be OK, right?” Jon nodded, the man went on. “We’ll need some kind of harness for the pc, but that’s no big deal. Hmm. You want like a thin-film control pad and everything?”
“Well, I’m going to need some kind of interface.”
“Yeah, and probably some kind of palm-key . . . ”
“What about like a glove?” offered Bradsen.
“That’d work.” Crane thought for a moment. “I can handle most of it with equipment I have here, though we’ll need to scavenge some things. I’ll get the kid to help me — Mallory. He’s pretty handy jerry-rigging stuff.”
“OK. Keep me posted.”
Crane nodded, started back toward the pit. Just then the holo projector activated, and Seth appeared. Bradsen’s attention was diverted to the side, where he was obviously seeing a larger version of the expert. “I’m glad to find both of you. Let me transfer... ”
The image shifted, and Soukup’s large face appeared. He looked very preoccupied with something. “Something has happened. I have just heard. The Hawking — we have lost contact.”
“What do you mean, lost contact?” asked Jon.
“Do not know yet. All telemetry was normal, multiple data channels. Everything working fine, routine. Then nothing.”
“You’ve tried sending a message?” asked Bradsen.
“Of course. But will be hours before we get response. They very far away, almost to end of journey before coming back.”
“How long ago did this happen?”
“Just few minutes. I was just sending messages to other ships and stations, asking if they had anything, thought you two should know.”
Jon looked to Bradsen. “Don, I can probably cover things up there, even with only this projector.”
“Fine by me. I’ll stay here, keep in touch.”
“OK, Gregor, I’ll come up.” A thought occurred to him. “Have you considered using the ASA to see if they can locate the ship, get an image of it? That might tell you something.”
Soukup brightened. “No, did not. Will do. See you when you get here.”
The holo went off. Jon looked at Bradsen, tapped the projector plate. “This thing is of limited use. Please continue to handle my other duties until Crane can come up with something better. ”
“You got it. I’ll try and keep you posted, though.”
“Thanks.”
Bradsen nodded, started back toward the pit.
Jon looked around, saw where Gish and Chu Ling were, sitting on the edge of the pit, watching all the activity down below. He went over to join them. Sitting down beside Gish, Jon looked down into the pit. For a long moment he looked at the artifact, but it seemed no different than any other time he looked at it, and he could feel no changes within himself being this close to it. He leaned past Gish and looked at the girl. “So, what do you think, Chu Ling?”
She looked up at him. She had been watching someone work on the far side of the pit. “What about?”
“About the artifact there?”
She shrugged, said nothing. Gish was watching her. “She didn’t think anything of it. Looked at it from up here, but has pretty much just ignored it. Like it wasn’t important.”
“Huh.” Jon looked from the girl to the artifact, then back. “Have you ever seen anything like that before, Ling?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Is there anything . . . unusual that you can see about it?”
“It floats. How does it float?”
Jon shrugged. “We don’t know. That’s one of the things that the people down there are trying to find out.”
A loudspeaker in the dome activated. “Next round of AG tests scheduled to start in one minute.”
Jon glanced at Gish. “How long will this one be?”
Gish touched the back of his hand, read something. “Cycle is 10 seconds on, then 10 off, through the pattern.”
“Might as well stay put and wait until it’s over then, before getting back in our suits and leaving.”
Gish nodded. “I saw you speaking with Don Bradsen earlier. I told him that I thought it was a good idea to proceed with the test. Thought you should know.”
Jon took a deep breath, held it. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“Somehow, I don’t think that it poses anywhere near the kind of danger to us that we pose to ourselves.”
Jon was about to answer this when he felt the gravity cut off and Ling gasped. He looked at the girl to see what had happed, and she was pointing down into the pit. He turned to see what it was that she was pointing at. “It is angel! Like old man Darnell.”
Jon looked where the artifact should be invisible, but all he could see was a brilliant, bright blue orb, floating above the burl of gel.
Chapter 15
“Gates and Ng should be here shortly. My people are escorting them over from the landing pad. Klee and Bailey are on their way down, will land in about 10 minutes.”
Jon nodded an acknowledgment to Navarr, but kept looking down into the pit at the artifact. It had only been about an hour since he and Chu Ling had witnessed the appearance of the blue orb when the AG field had been shut off, but that was already enough time for Bradsen and his people to start to reconfigure their equipment. Gish was down in the middle of it all, annoying some of the other researchers, but he was certain that he had a hunch that would pay off.
“Mr. Jon? Can Ling talk with Seth?”
Jon looked at the girl, who was pointing at the holo projector sitting on a table between them. He smiled. “Sure, help yourself.”
She touched the activation stud and said something low to the projector. A moment later, Seth appeared in his imperial tutor robes, and the two engaged in a rapid discussion in Mandarin. Without his cyberware, Jon had no hope of following the conversation, so he turned his attention back to the pit.
The artifact hung there, looking the way it had looked to him since he first laid eyes on it. But now he had a memory, almost an afterimage, that colored what he saw. The blue orb that he remembered, about the same size though a different shape, was somehow also there.
He looked down at his hand, and remembered his most recent dream. Could it? Could it really be there?
Taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly, Jon let his eyes relax, everything sliding out of focus. There was that shift in the light, a slight blue tint, that he could notice more easily now. Keeping the soft focus, he looked down into his hand, tried to reach out and feel the light. For the briefest moment he thought he saw something, then . . .
“Jon? You OK?”
Jackie’s voice pulled him back. He looked up to see her and Duc standing there, looking at him and past him into the pit. “Oh, yeah, hi.”
“Seth said that something had happened, and we needed to come down right away.”
Duc, nodding there beside her, added, “He wouldn’t say what it was, just that you had discovered something, and wanted us here.”
Jon gestured to the chairs beside him. “Yeah, sorry if it scared you. And for being vague. I didn’t want to prejudice you.”
“About what?” asked Duc as he settled into one of the chairs. Jackie took another.
“Chu Ling and I noticed something . . . wanted to see if you noticed it too.”
“Something about the artifact?”
“Yeah. Here, just settle in for a moment, and we’ll give this a try.”
He stood up for a moment, and waived to get Bradsen’s attention. Don came over to the side of the pit, looked up. “You ready?”
Bradsen glanced back at Gish, who nodded. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
Jon sat, said something to Chu Ling, then turned to Jackie and Duc. “OK, they’re going to shut off the AG field. See if you notice anything about the artifact.”
“I didn’t see anything the other day when you were down there and touched it while the field was off,” said Jackie.
Jon shrugged. “Maybe you were preoccupied. Look again.”
At that moment his stomach flipped. He looked at the artifact, saw again the brilliant blue orb. But now he took the time to really study the object, and noticed several things. While it was brilliant blue, the light from it didn’t spread or seem to affect anything else in the dome. It was more like looking at a bright planet through a powerful telescope. And it triggered a dream memory: the blue rose. Thinking of this, he saw that there was indeed some kind of layering or folding to the surface of the orb, and that it was taller than it was wide, not unlike a flower bud.
The gravity went back to Earth standard. He looked at Jackie and Duc, who were staring down into the pit. “Anything?”
Jackie shook her head. “No. Nothing.”
Duc’s brow was furrowed. “Can you do it again?”
“Why, what do you think you saw?”
“I’d like another look first.”
Jon nodded, gestured to Bradsen in the pit below. The gravity cut off again. This time Jon watched Duc, not the artifact. The artist squinted down into the pit, moving his head back and forth, eyes sliding across the scene. Finally he nodded. Bradsen saw this, and a moment later the gravity returned.
“So?”
Duc frowned. “Well, I didn’t exactly see anything. But it was like there was some kind of ghost there.”
