Analog Science Fiction and Fact - May 2013
Author: nextek
Date: 2012-07-06 08:12:23+00:00

Vol. CXXXIII No. 5

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May 2013

April 2, 2013

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51

SERIAL

DARK SECRET, part II of IV, Edward M. Lerner ___________________________ 60

NOVELETTES

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH, Martin L. Shoemaker _____________________________ 6

SHORT STORIES

SENTINEL CHICKENS, David W. Goldman ______________________________ 26

ENJOY THE FISHING, Walter F. Cuirle _________________________________ 34

PROMETHEUS, H. G. Stratmann ______________________________________ 42

GEOSPERMIA, Patty Jansen _________________________________________ 51

POEM

IF WE ARE ALONE, Mary A. Turzillo ___________________________________ 33

SCIENCE FACT

THE GOLDEN AGE COMES TO SEATTLE: IS ASTEROID MINING

REALLY PART OF OUR NEAR FUTURE? Richard A. Lovett _____________ 19

READER’S DEPARTMENTS

GUEST EDITORIAL: VICTORY LAPSE, Edward M. Lerner ___________________ 2

IN TIMES TO COME ________________________________________________97

THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer _______________________________ 39

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Don Sakers_______________________________ 98

BRASS TACKS ___________________________________________________ 102

UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis _________________________________106

Trevor Quachri Editor

Emily Hockaday Editorial Assistant

Cover design by Victoria Green

Cover Art by Dominic Harman

Indicia on Page 3

GUEST EDITORIAL Edward M. Lerner VICTORY LAPSE
write this essay a few days after the passing
the arena of crewed spaceflight, NASA has so
of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set
little recent accomplishment to commemorate?

foot (well, boot) on the Moon. I thought

Spiking the figurative football is particularly Ileaders across the globe were quick to unseemlywhen you’ll be sitting out the next praise Armstrong as a hero, while glossing
several seasons.

over, if not totally ignoring, that no human has This is as good a spot as any to clarify: I’m
been to the Moon in nearly forty years.1 NASA
not criticizing NASA per se. The onus—if you
quickly resumed touting as “news” the delivery
agree that there is blame to be placed—lies
of one more space shuttle to a museum. Cue
with the presidents and congresses who give,
more paeans to the shuttle, retired in 2011,
at best, lip service to developing and sustain-
and more dramatic metropolitan flyovers.

ing an American space capability. The respon-

Meanwhile, year by year, NASA’s budget be-
sibility belongs to us all: the American public comes an ever tinier fraction of federal expen-who, as a group, acquiesce to complacency
ditures.2 In 1966, at the peak of spending on
and retreat.

the Apollo program, NASA was allocated

The Apollo program remains the high water

4.41% of the federal budget. In 2011, NASA’s
mark of human endeavor, not merely of
share was 0.53% of the federal budget. The

NASA’s budget, so let’s remember why that
single national politician in the 2012 election program began in the first place. Announcing
cycle who dared to bring up space (Newt Gin-

(in 1962) his commitment to a lunar landing,
grich mentioning a possible Moon colony,

President Kennedy said:

more than forty years after Armstrong’s “one
small step”) elicited widespread mockery.

“We choose to go to the moon. We

As for those dramatic shuttle flyovers . . .

choose to go to the moon in this decade

Contrasting NASA’s present grounded status
and do the other things, not because
with Armstrong’s pioneering moment, and
they are easy, but because they are hard,
the can-do attitude that made possible a Moon
because that goal will serve to organize
landing, I find myself at a loss. I try, and fail, to and measure the best of our energies
grasp what, exactly, NASA expects us to cele-
and skills, because that challenge is one
brate. Thirty-plus years reliance on the shut-
that we are willing to accept, one we are
tle’s ’70s technology? Finishing the Interna-
unwilling to postpone, and one which
tional Space Station, whose purpose is . . . to we intend to win, and the others, too.”

get finished? Backsliding from lunar explo-
ration to low Earth orbit (the limit of the shut-Organizing and measuring the best of our
tle’s modest range)? Backsliding even from
energies: that remains worthwhile, doesn’t it?

NASA sending spacecraft to LEO to buying

Setting ourselves challenging goals, pushing
seats aboard Russian spacecraft for American
ourselves to advance our technology? Inspir-
astronauts?

ing another generation of students to care

I can’t help but ask: why? Why fly victory
about science and tech?3
laps above the nation’s largest cities while, in Not everyone agrees with government and

1 By the time you read this, it will have been forty years.

2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_budget#Annual_budget.2C_1958-2012

3

Certainly the Space Race of the 1960s influenced me towards a (first) career in technology.

2

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2012
big business’s assertions of a shortage of
high-stakes—competition with the Soviet

American workers in the STEM (science, tech-

Union. The U.S.S.R. had earned worldwide
nology, engineering, and mathematics) disci-
prestige for its political/economic philosophy
plines, but few would deny the importance of
by becoming the first nation to launch an arti-

STEM workers to the overall economy. How
ficial satellite (1957), and then the first to put important? The Business Education Forum
a person, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit (1961). The

(2005) declared:

Moon was a more distant destination, and to
reach it entailed fresh technical challenges. Se-Increased global competition, lackluster
lecting the Moon as America’s goal afforded
performance in mathematics and sci-
the United States an opportunity to catch up
ence education, and a lack of national
and achieve its own spectacular first.

focus on renewing its science and tech-

And so the U.S. did. Boy, it felt great.

nology infrastructure have created a

More than fifty years after NASA put John
new economic and technological vul-

Glenn into orbit (1962), what’s the prestige
nerability as serious as any military or
factor in renting seats on Russian spacecraft to terrorist threat.

reach the space station mostly funded by

American taxpayers?5

And in 2007 the Department of Labor wrote

International rivalries did not vanish with
of STEM workers (or the dearth thereof) in
the Cold War. China, become the world’s sec-

America:

ond largest economy, certainly competes eco-
nomically, philosophically, and geopolitically

This engine of growth is increasingly
with the West. Does China also compete with
precarious in today’s global economy.

the U.S. in space exploration? Not yet, but ChiThe Business Roundtable (2005) warns
na is making rapid strides. In recent years, the that, if current trends continue, more

China National Space Administration has
than 90% of all scientists and engineers
flown several crewed orbital missions and
in the world will live in Asia.

demonstrated its ability to dock in orbit. It’s operating a first-generation space station (Sky-But uplifting words and long-range inspira-
lab-like, though considerably smaller). And
tion aside, Apollo was intended to be practical CNSA plans a robotic lunar landing in 2013. If
in another way. Conventional wisdom (and
successful, that mission would duplicate a feat NASA’s own history of the Apollo program4)

that only the United States and Russia have ac-
traces Kennedy’s interest to Cold War re-
complished—and that neither space power
alpolitik: the Moon race as peaceful—but has undertaken since the ’70s.

4
http://history.nasa.gov/Apollomon/Apollo.html

5

It’s no secret how Glenn feels about this situation. “A class-C movie, not even a class-B movie,”

Glenn said in an interview with CBS News. “Back in those days, one of the major driving forces in support of the program was the fact that we were in competition with the Soviets.

“And yet here we are these fifty years later, (paying) sixty-some million dollars per astronaut to go up there and back. And this is supposed to be the world’s greatest space-faring nation.”

Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding), Vol. CXXXIII, No. 5, May 2013. ISSN 1059-2113, USPS 488-910, GST#123054108. Published monthly except for combined January/February and July/August double issues by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. One-year subscription $55.90 in the United States and possessions, in all other countries $70.90 (GST included in Canada), payable in advance in U.S. funds. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within eight weeks of receipt of order. When reporting change of address allow 6 to 8 weeks and give new address as well as the old address as it appears on the last label. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. Canadian postage paid at Montreal, Quebec, Canada Post International Publications Mail, Product Sales Agreement No. 40012460. (c) 2013 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, all rights reserved.

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ANALOG

And manned lunar landings are a stated Chi-
with no human exploration capability
nese goal, though no firm date has been set.

to go beyond Earth orbit . . . destines

Will the United States lose a second Moon
our nation to become one of second or
race to China? Or did the U.S. concede that
even third rate stature.6
race with the cancellation of Constellation?

NASA’s Constellation program, born in

Under current policy, perhaps the U.S. will

2004 under the policy guidance of the George
send astronauts to an asteroid (Which? That’s

W. Bush administration, aimed to produce
to be determined) by 2025 or to orbit Mars in
heavy-lift rocket boosters, upper stages, and
the 2030s.

crew-rated capsules to: replace the to-be-re-

How many restarts will NASA experience in
tired space shuttle, return astronauts to the
the interim?

Moon, and, eventually, carry humans to Mars.

And yet, a positive revolution is under way In 2011, citing delays and cost overruns, the
in American space policy, begun with NASA

Obama administration canceled the Constella-
seed money: commercialization.7 In 2012,
tion program (although, in the face of con-

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule made the first com-gressional rebellion, elements of Constellation mercial (supplies-only) delivery to the Interna-survived) in favor of starting over with the
tional Space Station. Several American aero-

Space Launch System program.

space companies, traditional and upstarts

Objecting to the cancellation of the Con-
alike, are hard at work on crew-rated launch-
stellation program, Neil Armstrong said:

ers and space capsules, for both suborbital
and orbital missions. That’s all good—only the

We will have wasted our current $10-
timing is problematical, with NASA likely to be billion-plus investment in Constellation,
renting seats aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft
and equally importantly, we will have
until 2017.

lost the many years required to recreate

If the case is so strong for a return to the
the equivalent of what we will have dis-

Moon, or trips to NEOs and Mars . . . won’t
carded. For the United States . . . to be
aerospace companies also rush to fill that need?

without carriage to low Earth orbit and

Corporations might reach out that far, but

6

To be sure, even some Apollo astronauts disagree. Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong’s seatmate in the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module, supports the latest redirection of NASA.

7 See “Lost in Space? Follow the Money,” Edward M. Lerner, Analog, October 2011 (a science-fact article).

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EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2012
it’s less than obvious that they will.8 And if Such as capturing a near-Earth object and leas-they do, how long might that take?

ing the mineral rights to all comers for on-or-

Because as innovative as commercial space
bit construction.

operations will be, private industry is not blaz-Or such as establishing a beachhead on the
ing a trail where no one has gone before.

Moon or Mars, knowing only that exploration

Rather, the essential technologies for reaching has historically delivered unsuspected wealth

LEO are well established and the operational
and revealed unsuspected insights.

environment is well characterized. Companies

And let’s not forget the non-economic rea-
are learning to provide services—albeit more
sons to reach deeper into space. To scratch
cost effectively—that NASA has provided
the human itch to explore. To search for life
since the ’60s. In some cases, these are the
on other worlds, the better to understand ter-
very companies (or their post-merger succes-
restrial biology. To prepare to deflect any as-
sors) that NASA long had under contract ex-
teroid headed our way before one surprises pressly to provide those services.

us.11 To end the precarious state of humanity

Still, won’t private companies reach farther?

living with all its figurative eggs in one meta-Back to the Moon? On to asteroids or to Mars?

phorical basket.

It’s possible—and I would be all for it—but

Challenging ourselves. Inspiring the next
precedent suggests otherwise. High-risk, long-
generation(s). Competing peacefully. Blazing a
term-payoff exploration has historically been a trail, like Lewis and Clark, for opportunities
government-led activity.9 Or, more precisely, a yet unknowable. And yes, opening a frontier
necessary government investment.

to wealth producers.

Investment, alas, has taken on a meaning in

Whither NASA? Whither, more broadly, a
political discourse that seems interchangeable

U.S. space capability? Will it be more flying in with spending. I mean investment in its original circles, with the High Frontier ceded to other
sense of assets diverted from current consump-nations more eager to reach for it?

tion in search of a future benefit. The type of exYes. Unless we change policy.

penditure that involves delayed gratification . . .

Unless we demand an ambitious objective

Basic R & D fits this model. Some science
on a timetable short enough to survive federal
and technology projects are too uncertain of
budget cycles, and then commit the resources
success, too expensive, and the prospective
to make it happen. Not because leaving the
gain too far into the future for private parties planetary cradle will be easy, but because it
to justify taking them on—and yet such pro-
will be hard. And because challenge brings
jects can be of enormous societal value if and
out the best in us. We learned that from the
when the research pays off. Such as the Inter-

Apollo experience.

national Thermonuclear Experimental Reac-

And when the first boot print is made on a
tor, meant to bring fusion-based power gener-
new world, then we can all take a well-de-ation to the break-even point. If ITER (once
served victory lap. ■
finished) proves successful, maybe sifting the
lunar regolith for He

About the author:

3 as fusion fuel will draw
the interest of aerospace and mining firms.

Edward M. Lerner worked in high tech and

Such as—I humbly propose—the end-to-end
aerospace for thirty years, including seven
prototyping of a powersat/microwave-down-
years as a NASA contractor. His fact articles
link/interface-to-the-national-grid system.10
and fiction alike appear regularly in Analog.

8

Planetary Resources, Inc., a young company with deep-pocketed private backers—and excellent PR
staff—earned extensive media coverage for its intention to capture and mine asteroids. For all the hoopla, however, PRI’s only announced activity involves orbiting small telescopes (to survey asteroids).

9

In the United States, long-range government-led exploration dates back to (at least) the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806, chartered to explore and report back on the vast expanse of the Louisiana Purchase. And much earlier, Columbus needed Queen Isabella to hock her jewels . . .

10 As I envisioned in the serialized novel Energized, in the June through October 2011 issues of Analog.

(That serial also showed an extensively commercialized private space sector for near-Earth operations.) 11

See “Rock! Bye-Bye, Baby,” Edward M. Lerner, Analog.

VICTORY LAPSE

5

Illustrated by John Allemand

Not Close

Enough

Martin L. Shoemaker

The best-laid plans must take human
nature into account. . . .

6

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013
w, hell, no!” That had been Ben-

“But not close enough,” Bennie muttered.

nie’s reaction when he had f irst

“Nyet,” Masha agreed from her station across heard about the Tele Orbit Ren-the chamber. “Like Grandfather Oleg’s flight,

“Adezvous plan. Others in the not close enough.”Her English had improved Corps had expressed less printable reactions.

in thirty months of training, seven months of

But forty months later, TOR was the official
travel, and three months in orbit. Bennie’s

NASA plan for Mars exploration; and so Com-

Russian hadn’t improved as much, but he kept
mander Benjamin Cooper hung in his space-
studying. It was valuable for his relationship
ship orbiting Mars, strapped in a harness in
with the Russian contingent, and it was a way

Control Bay 1 so the force feedback controls
to pass the time when he wasn’t teleoperating
wouldn’t push him away, while a damned ro-
or riding herd over the international crew.

bot made its way through the thin Martian Masha was also an incorrigible tale spinner.

atmosphere to the surface.

Unless history had it wrong, her Grandfather

“It makes perfect sense,” Lee Klein had ex-

Oleg had never gotten near the Moon. But
plained in the Mission Planning auditorium.

though Bennie might banter with her at an-

He had been forced to shout over the jeers
other time just for distraction, he needed fo-
from the Astronaut Corps, and then had to
cus right then. The cross shear on the lander
wait for the noise to settle.“It makes perfect suddenly dropped to zero, and Bennie cor-sense. Getting you to Mars is the easy part.

rected with a microburst of the pulse reaction

With what the transport companies have
jets. The trick was to milk whatever lift you
learned, it’s safe. It’s almost routine.”

could out of the thin Martian atmosphere and

“Da,” Masha Desney had called from the
only use the jets as needed. If you relied on
rear, where the Roscosmos contingent had
the jets too much, you could exhaust the fuel
clustered.“So easy monkey could do it. Klein, and leave the lander at the mercy of gravity
if monkey could do it, maybe you should go.”

and the winds. It took experience and instinct

Everyone had laughed. Even Ishiro Hitara,
and human judgment. Despite the best efforts
the shy young engineer from JAXA, had
of programmers over the decades, no soft-
grinned.

ware had ever matched a top pilot at this job.

Bennie stretched out his arm as the micro-

TOR had sucked the spirit of exploration
motors pushed against him, mirroring the
right out of the program. The morale in the
force on the robot lander. He could feel the

Corps hit a low point unmatched since Enos
wind as he pushed, and he adjusted the lan-
the chimp became the first American in orbit.

der’s angle in response. The atmosphere was

Three veterans grew too loud and too public
thin, but the winds were fast and tricky. Still, in their complaints, and they were quietly

Bennie and his team were trickier. They had
transferred to non-flight status.

lost only three landers since they had arrived

That was how Bennie had ended up as
at Mars. They had even managed some preci-

Commander on this particular mission: he was
sion landings. Their success rate was an order
the most senior astronaut who had been will-
of magnitude better than the robots had done
ing to swallow his pride and endorse TOR.

on their own before TOR. But that wasn’t

And the Flight Director had trusted Bennie to
enough to persuade Mission Planning to man-
ride herd over a bunch of eager young explor-
rate the landers.

ers who would continue to argue against

And so Bennie and Masha and their interna-

TOR. Or do more than argue.

tional crew hung in orbit: two dozen brilliant, Bennie eyeballed the landing strip, cleared
ambitious, enthusiastic explorers from Russia,
and graded by the earliest robot landers in or-

Europe, Japan, India, Australia, China, and the der to make the later missions easier. “Radar

U.S., all taking their shifts piloting landers, dri-assess landing fourteen degrees starboard,”

ving crawlers, running tele-experiments, and

Bennie commanded. The forward radar swept
operating construction bots. The time lag
the area as Bennie nudged the engines for a
from the Bradbury to the surface was negligi-slight turn. The deep radar showed f irm
ble, well within the limits of teleoperation sys-ground, and the surface radar showed no un-
tems. To the limits of the engineering specs, it mapped obstacles. SAFE FOR LANDING f lashed
was as close as being there.

twice on Bennie’s display, and he pushed

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

7

ANALOG
down on the stick to drop down for approach.

all.“For unmanned landers only. They still

He had to make two last-second correction
refuse to allow manned landers.”

bursts, and then the lander touched ground

“Today, Daniel. Today. Is like commander
and coasted to a stop. Another safe landing for told Grandfather Oleg during LOK Lunar
the robots of Mars.

program—”

Just as Director Crane had predicted, Ben-

Bennie couldn’t resist the bait.“Masha,
nie had spent much of the past forty months
you’re too young to have had a grandfather
playing wet blanket, squashing wild landing
in LOK.”

schemes both overt and covert. Safety be

“Hush, Benjamin, is my story, I tell my
damned: these eager young explorers would
way.Commander told Grandfather, ‘First suc-
never be happy driving robots from orbit. Ishi-
ceed in this Mission, then ask for Moon.

ro was especially bad: he was a rabid fan of an-Everybody likes victor.’ That is what you can imé space stories, with posters all over his
do, Daniel.You succeed with AGS landers,
walls and collectible paper volumes under his
mission is success, you are victor, and then bunk. He spoke of Mars landing with wide-you ask for Mars.”

eyed awe. But Dan Thorbjornsen was the

And he bought it: a line that Bennie could
worst: the big Swede from the European
never have sold in a million years, Dan bought

Space Agency had the boundless energy of a
from Masha. She was attractive and charming
puppy coupled with more engineering savvy
and persuasive, and she knew how to f ind
than most professional spacecraft designers.

and push buttons. She was, Bennie thought

He never came right out and criticized the

(but only to himself), his perfect fifth colum-

TOR plan, but he was always asking what if?

nist: ingratiating herself with all the different

“What if we landed life support and return
contingents and subtly coaxing them always
fuel in separate landers?” “What if we con-
back to the mission objectives. When she saw
structed a landing strip to give us wider safety a need, she quietly informed Bennie where a
margins?” “What if we modif ied the prof ile
commander’s heavy hand was called for. But
with adaptive glide surfaces?” And the kid
they seldom had to play good cop/bad cop.

didn’t just have wild schemes—he had intri-

Mostly Masha offered sympathy and subtle
cate engineering diagrams and pages of calcu-
redirection. Bennie had worked with some
lations for every scheme.

good seconds before, but none with Masha’s

And damn it, he had a point! Oh, none of
touch. She could play the iron maiden when
his plans were sure-fire; and no astronaut de-
discipline demanded it, but she had a positive
liberately tried to increase mission risk. But his gift for connecting with the crew.

plans were no riskier than the Apollo missions

Masha tapped Bennie on the shoulder. She
or Mercury.

had donned her control harness, the sensors

But it was Bennie’s job to rein Dan in and
and force feedback systems that tied into the
redirect his efforts back to the mission. As sec-control loops and gave the teleoperator a
ond in command, Masha ably assisted him in
wide range of tactile inputs and controls.

that. Her favorite tactic was to take the “good

“Commander Cooper, I stand ready to relieve
idea” upstairs. . . .

you.” That was another great thing about

“Is very good plan, young Daniel. I like

Masha: off duty she knew how to relax; but on
adaptive glide surfaces especially.”Dan was a duty, Russian discipline governed her every
real genius when it came to nanomaterials,
move. She knew how to keep just enough or-
and the AGSes were one of his best ideas yet: der and routine so the crew didn’t get sloppy,
a surface that dynamically redesigned itself but also how to let them blow off steam as
on the molecular level.“I think will revolu-needed.

tionize lander design. I will take to Klein.”

Bennie checked his indicators. Every one of

. . . and there it would be absorbed and yet
his landers was docked or down. Every one of
also diminished, emerging days or weeks later
his ground crawlers was idle, waiting for in-
as a less ambitious plan.

structions. He hit the safety switch on his con-

“But is good news, Daniel! Planners have
trol harness. “Officer Desney, I am powering
approved AGS for new lander designs.”

down.” All indicators switched to standby,

“Yes.”Dan’s face didn’t reflect good news at and Bennie disconnected his harness from the

8

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013
control bay. He reached a hand out, and
as the engineer could tolerate. Ishiro turned

Masha grabbed it and helped him into the cor-
port at the first branch, heading for his quar-
ridor. “Off icer Desney, I stand relieved. Con-
ters. Bennie continued deeper into the Brad-trol is yours.” And then he helped Masha into
bury, heading for the mactory deck. Ishiro’s the bay, and she tied in and powered up.

family news had distracted him, but he hadn’t

“Anything to report, Benjamin?”

forgotten Masha’s intel. He hoped she was

“Nah, fairly routine shift here. Ishiro?” Ishi-
wrong, but she hadn’t been yet.

ro was just getting out of Bay 2, having been

Bennie reached the mactory deck airlock.

relieved by Karthik from the ISRA team.

The stereolithography and laser sintering

“All quiet, Commander. Air and fuel distilla-
macro factories required partial gravity to contion plants are at optimum outputs.” Ishiro
trol the f low of the resins and powders, but
was also big on discipline, perhaps even more
the Bradbury’s scopes and other instruments so than Masha. Bennie had taken months to
required a stable platform. So the designers
break through the young man’s shell; but he
had made the M.D. detachable from the rest of
felt it was important to bond with the crew.

the ship: the crew could deploy it on a long ra-Discipline was all well and good, but a mission dial axis and spin it up while the rest of the
like this needed stronger bonds of trust that
ship remained stationary. The axis tube also
came from a personal connection. Eventually
served as an airlock. Like all ship’s locks, it had Bennie had reached Ishiro by discussing anian announcement chime to let you know
mé. Masha had tipped Bennie off about what
when it was cycling; but Bennie keyed in his
a fan Ishiro was, and so Bennie had hastily
command override to disable the chime be-
studied up in his off hours. Once Bennie
fore entering.

asked some questions about the classics, Ishi-

At the other end of the lock, Bennie
ro went from reticent to talking to gushing.

emerged onto a deck full of noise. The ring-

Bennie was proud of reaching Ishiro that way,
shaped deck spun slowly around the axis, rais-
and he saw him almost as an earnest little
ing a steady hum. Several SL/LS machines
brother; but Ishiro was still very formal except were at work, laser heads zipping back and
off duty.

forth over the work surfaces as the material el-

“All right, then. Masha, Karthik, the deck is
evators slowly descended. Even under the
yours.” Masha looked quickly at Bennie, and
work hoods, that created a constant ratchet-

Bennie slightly nodded. Then he and Ishiro
ing noise in the background. Air circulators
left the control deck, pulling themselves along and filters added to the din; so Rick and Linda the corridor in the microgravity.

never heard Bennie as he approached.

“Anything special planned, Ishiro?” Bennie

The two Australians huddled over the frame
had once tried calling him “Ishi,” but the
of Lander 14. The wing panels had been re-
young man seemed troubled by that degree of
moved, revealing an inner frame the size of a
informality. “Any new animé?”

compact car, but thin and elongated. They

“No, Commander. Something better, and
were working with a laser removal tool, sort
more special to me. My parents have sent
of the opposite of a laser sintering machine:

videos from home on the back channel.” The
laser pulses sliced material into powdery gran-

Bradbury recorded personal messages and ules, and a vacuum tube hooked to a mass
entertainment programs on the back channels
spectrometer ionized and sorted the particles.

and then routed them to the library or to the

It was a reasonably eff icient way to reclaim
crew.

raw materials that could then be reused in

“That’s great!” Family was one of Ishiro’s fa-

SL/LS machines.

vorite topics, right up there with animé and

After watching them work for a while, Ben-
software. “Has that nephew of yours arrived
nie cleared his throat. Rick and Linda both vis-yet?”

ibly started. “So, guys, got a private project go-

“I hope. In the last message, Niina looked
ing? A little redesign?”

like she would burst. She says little Ishiro over-

“Ahhh . . . Yeah, Bennie. Just an idea Linda
sleeps like his uncle.”

had to . . . ahhh . . .”

Bennie laughed and clapped Ishiro on the

Linda nodded. “To reduce lander weight
shoulder, which was as much casual contact
without compromising strength or stress resis-

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

9

ANALOG
tance. I analyzed the frame structure and
without your special add-ons. And then you’re found a conf iguration that reduced weight
both conf ined to general quarters for two
nearly eight percent.”

days. And you’re barred from this deck until I

“Yeah,” Rick continued. “And that will save
stop being pissed off. And let me tell you, that fuel and give us better mass distribution, bet-is going to be a long time.”

ter overall control.”

“Uh-huh. ” Bennie nodded and looked

Bennie had bought himself a little breathing
thoughtful. “That would be a nice improve-
room, but not a lot. Rick had appreciated his
ment.” He pointed at the interior of the frame.

leniency, and even Linda had accepted their

“And these new fittings here?”

failure with reluctant grace; but the Bradbury Linda blanched. “Oh, that’s just . . . some-crew was too small for secrets to remain
thing we were sort of playing around with.”

buried very deeply. Rumors were spreading,

“Funny,” Bennie said, “they look like f it-
and the teams were restless.

tings for oxygen tanks. And a control harness.

Bennie was tempted to begin regular in-

Planning a little trip?”

spections; but he knew that would aggravate

Rick threw the LRT to the floor. “Aw, hell,
morale, so he nixed that plan. Instead he

Bennie. We just had to try.”

asked Masha to work her magic and report

“Like hell you did! You know what sort of
what she could learn. The results were dis-
trouble this makes for me?”

maying, but they could’ve been worse: al-

Linda looked defiant. “How’d you catch us?

though many in the crew speculated with

Somebody dob us in?”

ideas for a landing, only the Australians had

No need to reveal Masha’s investigation.

carried their plans so far. Dan was a never-end-

“Fourteen has been out of service a long
ing fount of ideas, still, but he had learned to while. I set a trace for that. Come on, it’s an route them through ESA. Karthik did the
obvious sign that somebody’s trying to mod a
same, with regular brief ings to ISRO head-
lander.”

quarters in Bangalore. Masha seemed to have

“Heh. I guess it is. We thought we had
good rein over the Roscosmos team, and the
time.” Rick sat on a wing strut of the lander.

Chinese from CNSA also were quiet.

“So what happens now? You turn us in to Mis-

“So worst is over, Benjamin,” Masha assured
sion Control?”

him. They met mostly in virtual conferences

Bennie scratched his chin. He tried to stay
so that she could maintain distance in public.

clean-shaven so he could look like a proper

“If you give it time, let Rick and Linda get over commander, but he sported his usual end-of-hurt feelings, crew will calm down.”

shift stubble. “No. No, I can’t do that. That

Bennie frowned. “I wish I were as sure as
would make this an official incident, and then
you.”

it would become a news item. Next thing you

Masha smiled. “You demonstrated who is in
know, it would cause problems between ASA
command, and you showed no secret gets by
and NASA, and we’d all be tied up in meetings you. Then you demonstrated mercy, and you
for a month. You see the spot you’ve put me
supported crew when could have made ex-
in?”

ample of them. They cannot fool you, but

Linda still had f ire in her eyes, but Rick
they can trust you. Is good combination.”

looked a little sheepish. “Sorry, Bennie. We

“But all these plans . . . all these rogue ef-
just expected . . . well . . .”

forts . . . we’re not working together any more.

“You expected to finish the mods and make

For thirty months we trained together. I
your move before the stupid old American
thought we were a unit, a team. Was that all caught on. Well, this stupid old American has
just a lie?”

seen more crews pull more stunts than you’ll

“Not lie, Commander. Just not whole truth.

ever know, and he still has a few tricks of his We will always be Russians and Americans and
own.”

Chinese and Indians and others. We will al-

“So what will you do now?”

ways be individuals, explorers. But you made

“Now? Now . . . we’ll talk about this later.

us team, and you will keep us team. Worst is

Right now, I’m going to watch as you two get
over, wait and see.”

this lander reassembled and back into service

Masha’s talent with people extended to her

10

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013
commander. Even knowing that she was play-

There was some static, also some stress. “Mis-
ing him, Bennie found it hard to resist. Even-
sion Engineer Hitara reporting, Commander. I
tually he conceded.

am very busy.”

“Ishiro, get back here! What the hell do you

So Masha was more surprised than anyone
think you’re doing?”

when Ishiro made his move three days later.

It was a dumb question, but Ishiro an-

The f irst Bennie knew about it was the
swered it anyway. “I am doing what we should
comm call from Masha. “Commander, please
all be doing, Commander: going to Mars. It is
patch into control interface.”

why we are here.”

Bennie was in his cabin, relaxing after a

“Ishiro, no! This is insubordination!”

long day in the bay; but his command console

Bennie had hoped that duty would motivate
duplicated most of the bay displays on de-

Ishiro, but the hope was immediately dashed.

mand. He glided over and flipped it on.

“I am sorry, Commander. This is something I

“What is this?” The displays showed Lander
must do. We are meant to explore, not play

6 on an unscheduled descent. “Masha, who
safe.”

launched that?”

Bennie noticed Masha waving for his atten-

“Ishiro. Benjamin, I think he’s on board.”

tion, so he cut his circuit. “What?”

“Oh, shit! On my way. Door!” Bennie

“I think I have control channel; but if I am
f lipped off the display and pushed himself
wrong, could interrupt control completely,
through the cabin door as it cycled open. He
leave Ishiro helpless. What do I do?”

caught himself on the far wall of the corridor, Bennie paused. It was only an instant in re-absorbed the momentum with his arms, and
ality, but it felt like hours in decision time.

then sprung off down the corridor to the con-

“No. We can’t interfere now. He did it, he’s on trol deck.

his own now.” He cut back to the lander loop.

Karthik was in Bay 2, Masha in Bay 1. Con-

“Ishiro, you don’t have to do this. You’ve im-
trol deck protocol didn’t allow anyone in the
proved the controls. Let’s take that to Mission bay with the controller, but Bennie hovered

Control and make a case.”

just on the edge, looking over Masha’s shoul-

“Commander, you know how that goes. Al-
der. “What’s the situation?” Bennie asked.

ways the same: Masha takes it upstairs, and

“Have transferred all landers and crawlers to
they say no. Now please, very busy, I must pay

Karthik,” Masha replied. “He clears air space
attention to controls.”

and landing strips. I try to reach Lander 6, but Bennie couldn’t say anything. Ishiro was
have no control.”

right, he couldn’t afford to be distracted. So

“And Ishiro? What do we know?”

Bennie could only watch tensely over Masha’s

“Launch control overridden by software.

shoulder as Ishiro piloted.

Cannot be sure, but I recognize Ishiro’s code. I

“Look, Benjamin. Look at fine pulses.” Ben-
call him to confirm, but no answer. I call JAXA nie nodded silently. Ishiro held the course
lead Machida, but she cannot find him. Com-
somewhere between a fall and a controlled
puter also cannot find him. I reach logical con-glide. Whenever things seemed most precari-
clusion.”

ous, he pulsed the jets just enough to stabilize,

“But no answer on the radio?”

using minimum fuel. “He might make it.”

“Not yet. I still try to get control.”

But then a new squall blew in unexpected-

“Look at that!” Bennie pointed at the flight
ly. Before Ishiro could respond, the lander
trace. “It’s a smooth ride. Look at those cor-
flipped completely upside down. His immedi-
rections. He’s doing pretty good.”

ate reactions told Bennie that Ishiro was dis-

“Da. But as you say, not close enough. Big-oriented. His ref lexes only made matters
ger turbulence, storm coming.”

worse, pushing his craft lower. “Masha! Take

“Damn.” Bennie patched into a comm panel
control!”

outside the bay. “You keep at it, I’m going to

But it was too late. Ishiro’s next pulse threw
try to get an answer. Ishiro!” Bennie paused,
the lander into an uncontrolled spiral straight listening. “Ishiro Hitara, this is Commander
at the Martian surface. Masha turned violently

Cooper. Answer me, Ishiro.”

away from the displays. Bennie saw a single

And then Ishiro’s voice came through.

tear squeeze from the iron maiden’s eye and

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

11

ANALOG
just hang there in free fall. Then he saw the
says, you’re the commander there. You’re sup-
displays from Lander 6 flare up and go dark.

posed to know what’s going on! Do we have
to put Desney in charge?”

This incident, of course, could not go unre-

Crane waved Klein back from the camera.

ported; but before Bennie even had a

“Lee, threats aren’t helpful here. What’s done
chance—good God, what a mess!—Mission
is done. You being an ass won’t help Cooper

Control was on the command circuit. Director
to get things under control.

Crane scowled from the screen, Lee Klein

“But Commander Cooper, this is the worst
standing behind her. “Cooper, what is the
black eye this off ice has had in a generation.

meaning of this? We just got this from JAXA.

We’re not going to live this one down for a

Watch it, Cooper, and get back to us immedi-
long time. I need your recommendation for
ately!”

how you’re going to get control of your crew

Masha and Bennie sat in Bennie’s off ice,
and make sure there are no more incidents
strapped into couches and watching the wall
like this. Or we will put Desney in charge. We screen. The JAXA logo appeared, followed by
won’t have a choice. The administrators have
a scene of an elderly Japanese administrator
to know that the person in charge is in
that Bennie recognized from mission plan-
charge. So record your response and get it ning. The man spoke directly to the camera. “I
back to us on your next transmission. And
am Natsuo Azuma, liaison to the Bradbury
make it soon.”

Project for the Japan Aerospace Exploration

Crane looked down at her desk. “One more

Agency. I am recording this to inform you that
thing, Bennie. Hitara recorded a message to be

Mission Engineer Ishiro Hitara, under my per-
released in the event his landing . . . fails. Fatal-sonal orders, has downloaded new program-
ly. I don’t know what has happened there.

ming for a Mars Lander and is currently pilot-

Maybe he’s safe. Maybe somehow you
ing the lander to the Martian surface. We
stopped him. But maybe . . . maybe you should
encoded this new programming in his person-
see this, too.”

al communications, and we incorporated the

Crane touched a button, and Ishiro’s face
latest research out of Japan’s engine laborato-
f illed the screen. Bennie swallowed; but the
ries. I take full responsibility for these deci-lump in his throat wouldn’t go down, espe-
sions on behalf of JAXA. Commander Ben-
cially once the dead youth’s image spoke.

jamin Cooper is unaware of these actions and

“This is Mission Engineer Ishiro Hitara. With
bears no responsibility for the consequences.

orders from Administrator Azuma and under

“JAXA formally acknowledges that this step
my sole initiative, I have chosen to refit a lan-violates the protocols of the Bradbury Proder with new pulse microjet programming
ject. We voiced our objections to those proto-
and pilot it down to Mars. If you are watching
cols during mission planning, and our objec-
this, then my f light has failed, and I am de-
tions remain unchanged. We believe that
ceased. I take full responsibility for this deci-exploration and settlement of Mars is vital to
sion. Commander Benjamin Cooper, First Of-
mankind’s ultimate survival, and JAXA shall
f icer Masha Desney, and JAXA team leader
not shirk our responsibilities in such an im-

Nichie Machida were all unaware of this plan,
portant matter. By the time you see this, Engi-
and they bear no responsibility for my death.

neer Hitara has either succeeded or failed; but It was an honor serving with all of you. If my
either way, the effort is a fait accompli. We mother is right, I go now to join the spirits of hope that this will convince the mission plan-my ancestors, though it may take long to find
ners to rethink their decisions. We continue to my way from Mars. To my nephew, my little
believe the mission protocols are a mistake.”

namesake: please know that your uncle loves

Azuma’s image faded, and Crane and Klein
you, wherever you go and whatever you do.”

once again f illed the screen. Klein was fum-

Nothing replaced Ishiro’s image, and the
ing. “That hasn’t hit the Internet yet, Cooper, screen faded to black. Bennie turned to
but it’s only a matter of time before it leaks. Do Masha, then turned away. For the second
you know how bad this makes us look? And
time, he caught her crying, and he didn’t
don’t for a second believe that it absolves you think she would appreciate that. He also
from responsibility. I don’t care what Azuma
didn’t want her to see his own eyes.

12

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013

Finally Bennie spoke, still looking at the
odds are better than the test pilots faced back screen. “So what do we tell them?”

in the X-1 days. That’s safe enough for me. For Masha was silent for almost a minute. When
us. And for our crew. This program has be-
she f inally spoke, she sidestepped the ques-
come too risk averse. None of us want to die
tion. “I could have stopped him.”

here. We all . . . we all miss Ishiro. But none of Bennie unstrapped and turned to face
us want to die without taking a swing at this

Masha directly. “Masha, don’t torture yourself
challenge, either.

like that. Ishiro and JAXA worked hard to con-

“It is our considered opinion as comman-
ceal this. You caught and defused plenty of
ders of this mission that TOR is just too much
wild schemes. Don’t beat yourself up over the
stress for our crew to bear. For any crew.

one you missed.”

We’ve come so close. Let us finish the mission

Masha didn’t look at Bennie, and she con-
if you want this project to succeed.

tinued as if he hadn’t spoken. “If I had known

“You asked for our recommendation, and

. . . I did not realize how strong his dream. He that’s it. Please take it under advisement. We

. . . he wanted to be f irst. Like Daniel. Like await your answer. Computer, end recording.”

Grandfather Oleg. They want to explore, and

The recording light dimmed, and the com-
they want to pioneer. You cannot train that
puter spoke. “Review message before trans-
out of them.”

mitting?”

“I hope you’re wrong, Masha, but I don’t

Bennie looked at Masha, but she shook her
know.” Bennie wasn’t sure. If Masha was right
head. “Negative. Sign it Commander Cooper

. . . “That’s not an answer, Masha. Mission Con-and First Officer Desney, and transmit it.”

trol wants a response.”

“Transmitting.”

“Is answer, Benjamin. This will not change.

They sat in silence. Finally Masha spoke.

Humans explore, is what we do. Cannot put

“You did well, Benjamin. But you know it will
goal this close and not expect to finish race.”

not change their minds. Planners have too

Bennie thought about it. Masha was taking
much invested in TOR.”

this too hard, and she wasn’t even that close

“Maybe. But we’ve tried. We’ll have an an-
to Ishiro. Without Masha’s support, Bennie’s
swer in forty minutes or so. Now we need to
job would only get harder. He didn’t want to
do something to help this crew deal with their
admit he was losing control of his crew; but
grief and start thinking like a team again.”

maybe he needed to convey that to Mission

“And what do you suggest?”

Control, or something close to it.

“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll think of some-

“All right, let’s tell them that.” Bennie sat
thing in forty minutes.”

straighter in his couch and strapped back in.

Masha left the off ice, and Bennie sat in

“Come on, Masha, we need to be unif ied in
thought.

this. Sit up. Computer, begin recording mes-
sage for command priority broadcast to Brad-Bennie was still thinking in his off ice, still bury Project Mission Control.”

sitting in semi-darkness, when his console

Masha sat up. The recording light lit up, and
chimed again; and when he heard Karthik’s

Bennie and Masha faced the camera. “Mission
message, Bennie wondered if he was in a re-

Control, this is Commander Cooper and First
curring nightmare. “Commander, another

Off icer Desney. We have conferred, and we
unauthorized lander launch.”

have our recommendation. We realize this

“What?” But Bennie didn’t dare believe this
goes against mission protocol, but we believe
was a nightmare. He should be so lucky. “I’m
it is in the best interests of crew morale.

on my way. Call Masha up to the control

“We understand your reasons for Tele Orbit
deck.”

Rendezvous. We and our crew have had those

“I’m sorry, Commander, but I think Officer
reasons drilled into us for forty months. We

Desney is on the lander.”

can make the arguments ourselves. But re-

Bennie’s head swam. The off ice spun
spectfully . . . look, your reasoning is all wet.

around him like a nasty bout of spacesickness.

You don’t want to risk a crew, and the land-

Again he wondered if this were a nightmare, a
ings are risky. But look at our success record
guilty rerun of Ishiro’s death. Masha? His last with the landers! Sure, we lose some, but the
anchor to sanity on this mission? No, he must

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

13

ANALOG
have heard wrong. “Please repeat, Karthik.”

configuration. CSNA plan has best chance to

“Commander, I can’t find Officer Desney’s
succeed, so I take that plan.”

signal on board. I think she’s on the lander.”

“So everyone on this mission is bucking Mis-The nightmare continued inexorably. Ben-
sion Control? No one gave a damn about the nie would go to the control deck. He would
plan?”

watch Karthik try to communicate with the

“Your naïveté is touching, Benjamin. We all
lander. He would watch him fail. He would
want Mars. All want to be f irst. Is national
watch the lander f lip, and tumble, and crash
pride, personal pride. If I had moved soon-
into the red plains; only this time it would be er . . . Ishiro might be alive.”

Masha he watched die. And then Bennie

“Masha, don’t be foolish. We’ll get there
would be without his second in command,
some day. We will. Who cares who’s first?”

the one person he had relied on for forty

“Every program wants to f ind way to be months. No. No.

f irst on Mars, Benjamin. Roscosmos, ESA,

No. Better to stay strapped down, stay in

JAXA, all of us. None of us want to be second.

the darkened office and just . . . just . . .

Grandfather Oleg and LOK were second to

No. That way lay a psych discharge. And be-

Moon, and so never went at all. I lie to Daniel: fore that, Bennie’s crew—Bennie’s team—
victors go, victors don’t wait. Only program
would suffer and pay because Bennie had
foolish enough to actually believe in TOR is failed in the end.

yours. Rest of us know, without ever dis-

No. Bennie had experienced shocks before.

cussing: this is our one chance, and you gave

Never quite this many, this large or this close it to us with Bradbury Project. After this mis-together; but the program had a long tradition: sion, your commercial interests follow. And

Anything that doesn’t kill you instantly, you they will not apply NASA’s risk protocols.

have a chance to survive. Bennie wasn’t even They take the data we gathered, and they find
threatened by this, not physically. It was just a way down. So if we want to be first—if we
shocks in a series. Bennie would tell his crew
want say in future of humanity on Mars—then
to bear up under them, and he would help
we have to do it now. And for Russia, that is
them do it. Now he had to bear up for them.

what I do. For Grandfather Oleg.

In Bennie’s head, his indecision lasted

“Now must have quiet. Must concentrate
hours; but an outside observer would have
on f lying.” And with that, Masha turned off
seen Bennie pause momentarily between
her comm.

Karthik’s message and Bennie’s exit. The mo-

And then Bennie was immersed in the
ment was over, it was past, and he was on the
nightmare once again. He watched the
way to the control deck.

screens in silence as Masha descended. She

When Bennie reached the control deck,
lacked Ishiro’s pulse-micro control, but her

Karthik called from Bay 2: “Officer Desney is
better glide configuration seemed to compen-
on the comm, Commander.”

sate. And Masha was a much better pilot than

“I’ll just bet she is.” Bennie jacked into the

Ishiro, and the storms were more forgiving.

lander circuit. “Masha, get your ass back up

Bennie wasn’t sure he could ever forgive
here. Now.”

Masha for her betrayal, even though he under-

“Privyet, Benjamin. Nice day for flight, da?”

stood what motivated it; but for this moment,

Masha’s words were casual, but Bennie could
none of that mattered. He was a pilot, one of
sense a nervous edge in her voice.

the fraternity of pilots, watching another pilot

“Masha, this is crazy! Are the Chinese the
brave the unknown and praying she would do
only ones on this crew that aren’t building what no one else had done.

landers behind my back?”

Despite his better judgment, Bennie let him-

Masha laughed. “Who you think I get lander
self believe. Thus he was even more stunned
from? When I find their modified lander struc-
when at the last instant, Masha’s port wing
ture, told them would not turn them in. Told
dipped unexpectedly right at landing. Bennie
them no need cause trouble. But I must con-
couldn’t see the wing hit; but watching
f iscate their modif ications, of course. I see through her camera, he knew that’s what
their plans, I see all plans. Except poor Ishi-must have happened. Suddenly the image
ro’s. CSNA has new wing design, better glide
spun wildly to port and then shifted madly.

14

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013

Bennie could only imagine the scene on the
ty.” He flipped off the comm. “Karthik. Keep
surface: the lander tumbling, rolling, twisting, her talking. Keep her spirits up.”

and crashing; air spilling out from multiple

When Bennie reached the hangar deck, he
cracks in whatever pressure cabin Masha had
f loated in to a sea of anxious faces. Ishiro’s improvised; Masha screaming and dying, ei-death had shaken them; and already news of
ther from impact or lack of air.

Masha’s crash had spread throughout the ship.

As the moment dragged on, Bennie feared

In their own ways, they each depended on
he would succumb to the nightmare and de-
her as much as Bennie did. He could see that
spair once more. But then Masha’s voice from
his nightmare was contagious, and his crew
the speakers pulled him away again. “Brad-
were falling victims to the despair that had al-bury, Lander 6. Down . . . on surface. First Of-most claimed him.

ficer Desney . . . injured but . . . alive.”

Bennie had thought this through all the way

Bennie breathed out a huge sigh. “Masha,
from the control deck. There were a lot of

I’m so glad to hear that, I might not put you
things he should say as commander of this
on report.”

mission. He should address their ongoing grief

Masha breathed into the comm. Her breath
over Ishiro and their shock over Masha. He
came in ragged gulps. “Not care about . . . re-
should chew them all out for their insubordi-
port now, Benjamin. Think not . . . matter for
nation and their private schemes. He should
long.”

remind them all of their obligations. He should

“Masha, I won’t put up with talk like that.

listen to that damned message from Mission

What would Grandfather Oleg say if he heard

Control, play it for them all, and then tell them you give up? Now give me a status report.”

to get Mars landing out of their damned heads

“Da. Lander is . . . inoperable. Might be re-once and for all and start acting like the pro-
paired, in time. Consumables are in good
fessionals they were supposed to be.

shape. Air for several hours. Water for . . . suf-But here, two-hundred million miles from
ficient water. Spare fuel is. . . . gauge says spare Earth, there was something more important
fuel is leaking, probably too little remains for Bennie had to do. Masha’s words came back to
ascent operations . . . But lander in no shape
him: But you made us team, and you will
for ascent anyway.”

keep us team. That was his task: to make this

“What about you, Masha. How are you?”

mob a team again, Mission Control be

“Pilot . . . injured. Leg broken. Sore, but . . .

damned. But Masha had helped in making
meters show no definite internal injuries. Ribs them a team, and he needed Masha’s help
maybe broken, too, but cannot tell for sure.”

again now. And so all Bennie said when he

“That’s good news. I thought you were a
had their attention was his prepared speech:

goner.”

“Masha’s on Mars, and we’re going to rescue

“But am goner, Commander. CSNA plan
her. All of you with all of your secret landing was best plan. I am best pilot. Still not good
plans, put them on the table. Now. Starting
enough. Tell Mission Control . . . TOR is right.

this instant, we stop tackling the landing as a Landing still too risky.”

bunch of rogues, and we tackle it as a team.

Bennie looked at his command circuit. The

We’re going to Mars. For Masha.”

incoming message light was blinking. There

That was all he said—one of the oldest
was an answer from Mission Control. But Ben-
tricks in the history of team-building—but that nie had just decided on his own answer.

was enough. The teams offered up their ideas.

“Nope, too busy.”

Dan synthesized a hybrid design incorporating

“What?”

their best elements: Rick and Linda’s re-

“Nothing. I’m just reprioritizing some mis-
designed frame, Ishiro’s new pulse micro-jet
sion objectives. You sit tight, Masha.”

programming, the CSNA glide configuration,

“Da. Sit tight. As long as can. I record my and Dan’s newest adaptive glide surfaces. It
observations.”

turned out that most of the rogue efforts were

“Sure. Karthik will keep you company. I
well under way, and parts of each could be in-
have to hold a team meeting.” And with that,
corporated directly into Lander 14. Rick and

Bennie switched to the all-ship channel. “All

Linda put the mactories into overdrive.

hands to the hangar deck. Emergency priori-

And three hours later, Bennie and his

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

15

ANALOG
team— his team—looked with pride on Lan-
that. Any crawlers in that vicinity? Any air stills der 14 Prime. It was a spindly-looking thing,
or fuel stills? Wouldn’t hurt to have some
but the designs showed a surprising strength
spare consumables.”

and agility. As a finishing touch, someone had

“Karthik’s ahead of us there as well. He has
painted a name on the nose: Ishiro Hitara.

crawlers topping off Masha’s air now.”

“All right, team.” Bennie felt a new warmth

“How’s she doing?”

all through his body. “We’re going to do this.

“You can ask her yourself. I’ll patch her in.”

We are. But this next part, I have to do alone.

There was an electronic click sound, and I’m flying it down.”

then Masha’s voice. “Benjamin?”

Dan raised his hand. “But Commander—”

“How are you doing, Masha?”

“Sorry, Dan, it has to be me. I can’t order

“Pain down. Meds good.” Her words sound-
any of you to disobey Mission Control. Be-
ed fuzzy, her accent thicker than usual. Good
sides, if I disobey, it sends a message: we’re re-meds indeed. “But Benjamin, why robots are
defining the mission objectives. We. The team.

refilling air? Only . . . prolong inevitable.”

So it has to be me.”

“They didn’t tell you?”

“Of course, Commander,” Dan said. “But

Dan cut in. “No one thought to, Comman-
you don’t fully understand this design. You’ll
der. We were all too busy. By the time we
have a copilot, too, via teleoperation.”

thought of it . . . well, we decided you could

“There’s too much data for one operator,”

tell her.”

Linda explained. “That’s what Ishiro and

Bennie grinned. “Sure. Masha, hold on.

Masha missed. A teleoperator can watch the

Keep watching the skies. We’re coming down
big picture, and you can watch the details.

for you.”

And Dan understands the design best.”

“What? Nyet! Is too dangerous. Cannot risk

“Hmmm. I can see that. That could work.

another in crew.”

Okay, Dan, I want you up in Bay 1. I’m getting

“Sorry, Masha, we’re unanimous. You’re
my suit.”

outvoted. Your team is rescuing you. I’m on
my way down now.”

The lander slid from the hangar deck,

“Nyet! Nyet, nyet, nyet! No! Cannot risk pushed out by the launch sled. Once safely
commander especially. Complete vio—viola-
away from the Bradbury, Bennie experimention of mission protocols.”

tally pulsed the jets. The Ishiro jumped in re-

“Ha! You’re telling me about mission proto-sponse, nimble as a leaping deer. Bennie acti-
cols? After the scheme you pulled right under
vated the comm. “Bradbury, this is the Ishiro.

my nose? You’re not one to talk.”

Communications check please.”

“Sorry, Commander . . . did what had to do.

Dan’s voice sounded in Bennie’s ear. “Ishiro, For Grandfather Oleg . . .”

Bradbury. All comm circuits check. How are

“And we’re doing what we have to do. Now
the controls, Commander?”

kindly shut up. Must have quiet, as you said.”

“Very smooth, Dan. My compliments to the

The lander had started to buck amid the
team.”

f irst faint traces of Martian atmosphere. Ben-

“I shall convey them, Commander. May I
nie’s control harness translated the hull read-
test teleoperation, sir?”

ings into tactile feedback all across his body.

“Clear to test.” Bennie relaxed as Dan put

The tactile feedback freaked out new pilots
the lander through a series of tests.

every time, and some of them never adjusted

Finally Dan and Bennie were both satisfied,
to it; but those who adjusted soon said it was
and they began the descent. “Okay, Dan, let’s
the only way to f ly. With his whole body
plan our landing path. We want to get near
mapped cybernetically to the skin of the lan-

Masha, but not so near that we risk a collision.

der, Bennie’s full range of senses were dedicat-We can roll the lander over to her once we’re
ed to the task of piloting. It felt as if Bennie down.”

flew under his own power, as if the man were

“Agreed, Commander. Karthik has already
flying, not the lander.

plotted three options.” Dan pushed the op-

And up in Bay 1, Dan felt the same forces
tions to Bennie’s display.

buffet his body. But where Bennie saw a lan-

“Hmmm . . . I like number two. Let’s go with
der’s-eye view of his f light, Dan had a more

16

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MAY 2013
global view: weather fronts, wind patterns,

Dan and Bennie slowly worked out their
dust clouds, and other threats that might ap-
collaborative piloting approach; and so the
proach unawares. Bennie clicked back to
rest of the descent was uneventful. Bennie

Dan’s circuit. “How’s the weather looking,
made mental notes as they went. Over time,

Dan?”

they would turn these into new mission pro-

“Not good, Commander. The winds have
tocols. Manned landing protocols.

shifted, and dust is kicking up. I recommend

And at last they came to the landing. They
shifting to approach one.”

actually pulled Karthik into the task, watching

“Approach one, conf irmed. ” Bennie
the Doppler while Dan watched for wind
banked to starboard. Approach one ended up
shears and Bennie watched the ground. There
in the same area as approach two, but it re-
was one final gust, one quick instant of terror, quired him to start sixty kilometers farther
but Dan reacted instantly and just enough.

south.

Bennie barely felt the shift as he pulsed the

As Bennie banked, the wind shifted. The
jets into a smooth landing.

lander dipped too far. Perhaps this was what

“Bradbury, Ishiro is down. Repeat, Ishiro is had happened to Masha, only she had been
down safely.”

too close to the ground. Bennie had time to re-

“Good news, Commander.” Bennie heard
cover. A quick pulse of the jets, and the nose
cheers behind Dan. It sounded like half the
and wing lifted back into the glide path. “Nice crew had crowded the control deck.

move, Commander.”

Bennie switched Masha back into the cir-

“Thanks, Dan. Where did that wind shear
cuit. “Officer Desney, we are on the ground.”

come from?”

Masha sounded more clear-headed than be-

“Trying to track that now, Commander. Ad-
fore. “So you have done it. You landed safely
justing the Doppler frequencies. That will
on Mars.” There was an edge to her voice.

shorten the range, but it should give us finer

Maybe the meds had faded, and the pain was
discrimination.”

back?

“I think that’s a good trade-off. Nice plan.”

“Yes, with a lot of help. I’m rolling up to

“All right, you’re closing in on approach
you now.” With help from the computer, Ben-
one, Commander.”

nie spotted Masha’s wrecked lander. It lay

“I see that. Lining up now.” Bennie veered
partly off the landing strip. Its landing gear had back to port. “All right, I’m on the approach.

snapped or scraped off. Amazingly, after the

Beginning my descent now.” Bennie eased for-
tumble, it had settled right side up; but the en-ward and down: just a subtle shift of his body, tire port wing was gone, rubble spread far
but the lander smoothly matched and ampli-
across the Martian soil. Scavenger robots were
fied his motions.

already reclaiming bits of metal.

Soon the lander was in full descent mode. It

The Ishiro rolled up next to the wreck, its was part glide, part thruster ride, with the
port wing practically touching the fuselage.

pulse microjets chipping in where the atmos-

“I’m here, Masha. How’s your suit?”

phere failed to provide lift. Bennie almost

Masha’s response was slow. “Had two . . .

started to enjoy the ride.

holes I could see. Patched already. Seems to

And then suddenly the nose dipped danger-
hold pressure.”

ously; and just as suddenly, it pitched back up.

“So you have your helmet on?”

Bennie felt a sudden instant of nausea, gone al-

“Da. Helmet . . . on . . .”

most before he noticed it; and Dan spoke in

“Okay, I’m coming over.” Bennie checked
his ear. “Sorry, Commander. Doppler picked
his own helmet and suit pressure. All good.

up another shear. There wasn’t time to tell

Then he opened the lander hatch and set a
you, so I overrode to correct it.”

splint kit out on his port wing. He crawled out

“Good job, Dan, exactly right. Maybe I
onto the wing, picked up the kit, stood, and
should just relax and enjoy the ride.”

walked across the wing to Masha’s lander. He

“I am but a copilot. My skin isn’t on the line, dropped down onto her remaining wing and
so I can take a relaxed view. But I’m not sure
opened her hatch. “First Officer Desney.”

you should.”

“Commander.” Masha’s face didn’t show

“All right, copilot, I’ll pay attention.”

pain, but she was strangely downcast.

NOT CLOSE ENOUGH

17

ANALOG

“Let’s get you out of there. I need to splint

Masha. You made them a team again.”

that leg and check that suit. Then we’ll get you

“For Masha?” Bennie nodded. Masha almost
on the Ishiro, and Dan can f ly you up to the managed to grin. “A team. Feels good. But still Bradbury. I’ll wait here until it returns for a

. . . Roscosmos will review mission. Will go
pickup.”

down as failure in my record.”

Masha nodded. “All planned out, da. You Bennie patted the splint. “You survived.

make it work. Always you make it work.”

That’s not a failure. That’s our victory.”

In Mars’s low gravity, it was easy to pull

That time Masha did smile. And she only Masha out and set her on the wing. Bennie
winced a little as Bennie bent down and lifted
splinted her leg in the suit, checked the med
her in his arms. He walked over to the edge of
pack in her belt, and replenished the
the wing. “Okay, I have one more question be-
painkillers.

fore I put you in that lander and Dan flies you Finally Bennie realized: Masha wasn’t in
back up. Do you think you can stand on that
pain, she was sullen. Instead of being glad she leg?”

was rescued, something was bothering her.

“Da . . . Can stand in this gravity, I think. But Well, he couldn’t let that stand. “Okay, Masha, why? You will not carry me up to lander?”

spill.”

“I just wanted to be sure. You’re going on

“What?”

that lander, and you’re going up for medical;

“Explain yourself. What’s bothering you?”

but we have a new mission objective to com-

“Nichevo. You rescue me. Am grateful.

plete f irst. And I would hate for the f irst

Am.”

words of the f irst person on Mars to be

“But?”

‘Ouch!’ Here we go!”

Masha sighed. “But is like Grandfather Oleg.

And with that, Bennie twisted Masha

In the end, forces beyond his control ended
around in the air and lowered her over the
his career. Only in my case is worse. I broke
edge of the broken lander until her boots
protocols, forced you all to break protocols.”

touched the ground and took her weight.

“Forced? Ha! Masha, you should’ve seen the

Masha bit back her scream. Grandfather
way they worked. There was no stopping

Oleg would have been proud. ■
them, once they knew they were working for

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18

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

Science Fact

The Golden Age

Comes to Seattle:

Is Asteroid Mining

Really Part of Our

Near Future?

Richard A. Lovett
here are lines some people wait all
who previously teamed up with Diamandis to
their lives to deliver. Chris Lewicki, for-
create Space Adventures, now in the business
mer f light director for NASA’s Spirit
of selling vacations in space. Also lending their Tand Opportunity Mars rovers,got to re- names and/or moneyto the project are film cite one last spring at a press conference filled director James Cameron (“Titanic” and
with science writers and billionaire venture

“Avatar”), Larry Page (founder of Google),
capitalists. “Good morning, everyone,” he

Ross Perot, Jr. (son of the two-time presiden-
said. “I’m Chris Lewicki, and I’m an asteroid
tial candidate), and K. Ram Shriram (also on
miner.”1
the Google board of directors).

Lewicki was part of a well-publicized press

Although the press conference carried plen-
conference announcing the launch of a new
ty of references to classic science fiction, the company, Planetary Resources2 whose mis-people involved weren’t engaged in the pro-
sion is nothing less than mining the asteroids, ject simply as a lark. “I’m sure venture capital-beginning as soon as possible. He himself is
ists sometimes do things for fun,” says John
the company’s president and chief engineer.

Lewis, a retired planetary scientist from the

Its founders are Peter Diamandis, chairman of

University of Arizona who is one of the com-
the X Prize Foundation, and Eric Anderson,
pany’s advisors. “But when you have several

1

As of this writing, parts of the press conference, held in Seattle, on April 24, 2012, are available on YouTube.

2

Website: www.planetaryresources.com.

THE GOLDEN AGE COMES TO SEATTLE

19

ANALOG
billionaires in a project like this, I think they now identif ied nearly nine thousand near-see the opportunity to make money.” Or, as

Earth objects that are both big enough and

Shriram put it, “I see the same potential in
close enough to pose impact threats . . . or to Planetary Resources as I did in the early days
be mineable for resources.3 Of these, f ifteen
of Google.”

hundred are no harder to reach than the

But how, exactly, would the project work?

Moon. “You [only] need to achieve escape ve-

There are two basic ways to conduct aster-
locity from Earth,” says Brian Wilcox, a robot-
oid mining. One is to bring home intact re-
ics engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
source-rich asteroids for processing close at

Laboratory in Pasadena, California (who isn’t
hand. Many science fiction stories have envi-
part of the Planetary Resources team). “Then
sioned this, suggesting that such asteroids
you can float very slowly to the object.”

might provide materials for building every-

In fact, it’s already been done. In 2005, the
thing from giant orbital habitats to orbital

Japanese Hayabusa mission landed on one
power stations or space elevators.

such asteroid, 25143 Itokawa, scooping up

The other approach is to mine asteroids on
samples that were returned to Earth in 2010.

site, bringing back only the most valuable re-

Due to a failure of the robotic scoop, the
sources. This has the disadvantage of requir-

Japanese only got a few milligrams of dust, but ing operations far from home . . . but the
they clearly proved the feasibility of the con-
advantage of not having to move massive ob-
cept.4 A NASA mission called OSIRIS REx,5 tar-
jects that might either accidentally crash into geted for launch in 2016, hopes to duplicate
the Earth or be hijacked as terrorist weapons.

the feat with larger samples (about two

Both proposals have been discussed for
ounces, hopefully more) from another near-
years. But they didn’t move out of the realm of Earth asteroid—but the basic point is simple:

science fiction until scientists began to realize we can indeed “mine” an asteroid and return
just how many asteroids lie close at hand,
materials to Earth.

rather than far off in the main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Ruth-whatium?

At the simplest level, of course, we’ve long

For most purposes, of course, bringing ma-
known there are asteroids in our vicinity. After terials back to Earth doesn’t mean bringing
all, the Earth has periodically been hit by
them all the way down to the surface. Aster-
them, such as the ten-kilometer object that
oid mining would be an extremely expensive
smashed into the Yucatan 65 million years
source of steel for automobiles, for example.

ago, wiping out the dinosaurs. Sure, the dino-

But there are a few metals valuable enough to
killer might have been a comet rather than an
be exceptions. These are the “platinum-series”

asteroid, but it was a heads-up that asteroids
metals, which include not only platinum, but
don’t need to stay sedately out where they
also iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium,

“belong,” far from Earth. Nor do objects have
and ruthenium—all of which are extremely
to be all that large to be asteroids. As one sci-valuable as, among other things, catalysts, and entist once put it to me, any space rock we
heat and corrosion-resistant coating
pick up on the ground, however tiny, was an
materials.6
asteroid before it became a meteorite.

They’re not all that rare in the Universe at

But it turns out there are a lot more of these
large, but on Earth they’re so scarce they can
objects than we thought. Astronomers have
cost upward of f ifteen hundred dollars per

3

Interestingly, these objects are not long-lived, at least compared to the rest of the Solar System.

Scientists estimate that once they are def lected from the main Asteroid Belt, they have about a thirty-million-year lifetime until they either hit something (such as us) or are ejected from the Solar System.

4

They also got enough material for micro-assays that yielded a suite of six scientif ic papers, in the August 26, 2011, issue of Science. See R. A. Lovett, “Asteroid visit f inds familiar dust,” Nature News, 25 August 2011, doi:10.1038/news.2011.506.

5 See www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/osiris-rex.html.

6

For details, see http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/platinum/.

20

RICHARD A. LOVETT

MAY 2013
ounce. “The cost of platinum is more than the
extra money to be made by sending back re-
cost of putting things in space,” says Planetary search samples.

Resources cofounder Eric Anderson, “and

“It’s another market,” says Lewis. “For many there aren’t many things for which you can
of these near-Earth objects, sample return is
say that.” Iridium is so rare on the Earth’s sur-very easy. The propulsion requirements are
face, in fact, that geologists can trace the signs easier than returning from the Moon to the
of ancient asteroid impacts via global iridium

Earth.”

layers in sediments enriched by the fallout

Scientif ically, the most interesting class of
from the vaporized asteroid.

asteroids are carbonaceous chondrites. Often

The reason for these metals’ rarity is that
referred to as “primitive” asteroids, these are they are highly soluble in liquid iron/nickel.

composed of materials that never underwent

This means that in our planet’s early days,
the heating, melting, and resolidification that most of them sank to the core, where we
occurred in the radioactivity-warmed interiors
can’t get at them. Not so on asteroids. “The av-of many early Solar System bodies. “These car-
erage meteorite that falls to Earth has a higher bonaceous chondrites are the native material
concentration of platinum-group metals than
out of which the planets formed, ” says
the richest known ore bodies [on Earth],” says

Wilcox, “so knowing the details about them is

Lewis. Anderson adds that some of the Earth’s
very interesting.”

platinum-series ores may have come from as-

Humberto Campins, an asteroid researcher
teroid strikes, such as a ten- to fifteen-kilome-at Central Florida University, in Orlando, adds ter object which, 1.85 billion years ago,
that these asteroids probably contain organics
appears to have created the rich ores of Cana-
similar to those f irst brought to the early
da’s Sudbury Basin. And in South Africa, the

Earth. Analyzing them would offer a glimpse
even-larger Vredefort impact may have played
of the earliest building blocks of life: materials a role in forming the mineral-rich Bushveld Ig-that have now been so thoroughly used, di-
neous Complex. “We’ve been mining aster-
gested, and otherwise altered by billions of
oids on Earth for centuries,” Anderson says.7
years of organisms on our planet that all traces What this means is that we should be able
of their original identity have been erased.

to f ind even-better ores by going to the

To some extent, asteroids can be analyzed
source. Lewis, who is author of the 1997 book
by studying meteorites. But carbonaceous

Mining the Sky, says that a single f ive-hun-chondrites don’t fare as well as other types of dred-meter platinum-rich asteroid could con-asteroids when they hit the Earth’s atmo-
tain as much of these metals as have been
sphere, meaning that carbonaceous chondrite
mined everywhere throughout human history.

meteorites aren’t as representative of carbona-

In exploiting such an asteroid, where ore con-
ceous chondrite asteroids as other types of
centrations could hit one hundred or more
meteorites are of their parent bodies. That’s
parts per million, he adds, the problem
because they are high not just in heat-intoler-
wouldn’t be f inding enough valuables. It
ant organics, but also in volatiles. “The kinds would be not returning them to Earth so
of meteorites we normally find are strongly se-
quickly the markets crash and prices plum-
lected by which ones survive going through
met.

the Earth’s atmosphere,” says Wilcox. “The

Also worth bringing back to Earth are re-
ones that are rich in water, ammonia, and oth-
search samples. The Hayabusa mission cost
er things that would normally be liquid or gas

250 million dollars, and OSIRIS REx is budget-
at room temperature don’t survive.”

ed for eight hundred million dollars.8 Thus, if And even if they do make it through, he
you’re going to the asteroids anyway, there’s
notes, space volatiles can still be lost while

7

There is some dispute over this. The impacts might simply have brought up materials from the Earth’s mantle.

8

A new Japanese mission, Hayabusa 2, is also in development, for an estimated four hundred million dollar cost. See Leonard David, “Japan Eyes New Space Mission to Sample an Asteroid,”

Space.com, 2 March 2012, www.space.com/14759-asteroid-sample-mission-hayabusa-2.html.

THE GOLDEN AGE COMES TO SEATTLE

21

ANALOG
meteorites sit around on the Earth’s surface
worth the better part of a billion of dollars.

waiting to be found. “There’s a certain class of That’s a huge incentive for f inding cheaper

[carbonaceous chondrites] that are thirty per-
ways to get it there.

cent or more volatiles,” he adds.

Furthermore, materials can be nearly as

Volatiles aren’t the only interesting things
valuable without bringing them all the way
on these asteroids that don’t easily survive pas-back to Earth orbit. That’s because a properly
sage through the Earth’s atmosphere. Car-
positioned asteroid can serve as a supply
bonaceous chondrites, Campins says, are built
house for missions to Mars or beyond. Sure,
of nanometer-scale particles swept together
these asteroids won’t always be on station. But from different parts of the dust cloud in which near-Earth asteroids can come back again and
the Solar System was forming. And because
again, often for decades.

these asteroids were never heated, these ma-

The idea is to pick one you might want in,
terials have since been retained in their origi-say, 2035 and go to it in some other year when
nal state, for billions of years.

it’s easy to reach. You then create a stockpile of supplies and wait for the asteroid’s orbit to Objects We Could Never Have Imagined
carry it to where you want it. If it happens to Sample retrieval wouldn’t need to be a one-be useful every few years for several decades,
off mission. “Every object we sample is going
so much the better. It’s largely a matter of plan-to give us a different piece of the puzzle,” says ning ahead . . . and picking several such aster-Campins. In support, he points to what scien-
oids, so that one or two are always in useful
tists found when they tracked down some six
places. “We’re going to be able to create a net-hundred pieces of an asteroid that fell to the
work of gas depots that will open up the rest

Sudanese desert on October 7, 2008. Even
of the Solar System,” says Anderson.

though the asteroid was probably only two to

The “gas” in this case is water.

five meters in diameter, it turned out to have

One of the surprises of asteroid research is
been amazingly complex, like a jigsaw puzzle
that all of the ones we’ve looked at so far seem patched together from shards of many bodies
to contain water. Some contain quite a bit—
that had formed separately then broken up,
enough that many scientists are coming to
only to coalesce again.

think it was asteroids, not comets, that

Because scientists had watched the asteroid
brought water to the infant Earth.

fall, they had spectral data from its fireball pas-Water isn’t useful only for drinking. It’s also sage through the atmosphere. They thought
valuable as rocket propellant. And, interest-
they knew what the pieces would be like
ingly, it (plus ammonia and other volatiles) is when they tracked them down.

also valuable as radiation shielding.

But the oddball conglomerate they found

On Earth, most of us think of lead as the
wasn’t even on their mental radar.

best shielding material. And inch-for-inch, it’s

“[They] thought they knew what to ex-
good stuff. But pound-for-pound the best thing
pect,” Campins says. “Then when it gets
going is hydrogen, which is plentiful in water
picked up, it’s [a] strange object we could nevand (by weight) even more plentiful in ammo-
er have imagined even existed. Nature is [con-
nia. That’s because one pound of hydrogen
stantly] giving us surprises.”

contains 207 times as many atoms as does a
pound of lead. Even if individually they’re not Space Petrol
as good at blocking radiation, their numbers

Despite the value of sample-return missions
add up.

and platinum-group metals, the real money

This means that carbonaceous chondrites—
will come from more mundane materials.

the very asteroids planetary scientists are most Boosting a lump of anything off of Earth cur-excited to visit—are also the best for mining.

rently costs several thousand dollars per kilo-

They have it all: water, other volatiles, rock
gram (estimates range from ten to three

(also good for shielding), and metals for con-
thousand dollars)9—which means that in or-
struction.

bit, a hundred tons of practically anything is

* * *

9

See www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=301.

22

RICHARD A. LOVETT

MAY 2013

Swarming Our Way There
be a success, allowing a much cheaper design

All of this, however, is a decade or more in
for individual probes. “We can accept failures
the future. The first step, Anderson says, is to in a way the government’s expensive scien-launch a series of space telescopes, beginning
tif ic missions cannot afford to risk,” says
as soon as 2014. Dubbed the Arkyd-100 series,

Thomas Jones, a former NASA astronaut who
they will scan the skies for the 98–99% of
is another of the new company’s advisors.

near-Earth asteroids bigger than f ifty meters

Lewicki adds that government research mis-
that scientists believe remain to be discov-
sions cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

ered.10

“We’re going to do it for tens of millions and

Finding riches isn’t the only reason for cata-
we’re charting a path to single-digits of mil-
loging these asteroids. A f ifty-meter asteroid lions.”

could pack a serious punch if it hits Earth. At As for launch capacity, it already exists. In
about the time Diamandis and Anderson were

May 2012, SpaceX made history by accom-
announcing their asteroid-mining company,
plishing the first private supply launch to the Spanish astronomers were reporting a newly

International Space Station, then returning the discovered asteroid called 2012 DA14 that
empty capsule to Earth. “The private launch
came close enough to Earth in February 2013
industry is highly competitive,” says Lewis.

that it could have hit a communication satel-

“Companies are in existence [and] some are
lite. It might come even closer in the future.11
flying large payloads.”

The asteroid, estimated to be forty-five meters Once on site, prospecting probes wouldn’t
across, is roughly the size of the one that ex-
need to return samples to Earth except for
ploded with H-bomb power over Tunguska,
scientif ic research. Instead, they would use

Siberia, in 1908, NASA scientists calculate. Not onboard instruments to analyze their asteroids
that it’s likely that this particular asteroid will and beam back information about their com-ever hit.12 But with hundreds of thousands of
position. Using that, asteroid specialists could other such objects out there, f inding them
figure out enough about each asteroid’s com-
and tracking their orbits is an obvious side
position to f ind matching meteorites that
benefit of the new company’s plan.

could then be sent to the space station for

That’s step one.

scaled-down engineering studies on how to

Step two, Anderson says, is to use spectral
extract their valuables—without the delay of
and orbital data to pick likely candidates for
having to wait for samples to be returned to
prospecting. Spectral data will give a hint as to Earth.

what the asteroid is made of. Orbital data will Step four, not yet formally discussed, would
tell not only how easy it is to reach, but how
be mining and the return of valuable materials
useful it might be as a way station en route to to Earth orbit, as desired.

Mars, etc. “Some don’t come around often

That said, there’s one major “if” hiding in all enough,” says Anderson.

of this. Even if all the probes reach their tar-Step three is to go there.

gets and all the analytical equipment functions NASA’s approach has been to launch one-off
as designed, we don’t currently know how to
spacecraft engineered to have a high likeli-
mine asteroids, even if they prove to be trea-
hood of success. But Planetary Resources will
sure troves of everything we might want.

use a “swarm” approach, Anderson says. This

One problem is quarrying materials in mi-
means using a single launch vehicle to send as
crogravity—although Jones notes that many
many as a half-dozen probes to each target. If
asteroids appear to be loosely consolidated
all survive, great. If not, the mission can still

“rubble piles” in which digging might be no

10

In other words, scientists think there are between f ive hundred thousand and a million as-yet undiscovered near-Earth objects in this size category.

11

Richard A. Lovett, “Approaching Asteroid May Get Close Enough to Smash Satellites,” National Geographic News, May 17, 2012, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120517-
asteroid-close-earth-satellites-danger-space-science/.

12 As of this writing, NASA puts the likelihood of a strike anytime in the next several decades at 0.031
percent.

THE GOLDEN AGE COMES TO SEATTLE

23

ANALOG
problem. “It shouldn’t be too hard to invent a
cinched tight with a wire. “You basically have
machine like a snow blower that would scoop
a frame that holds the trash bag open,” he
up some of this material,” he said.

says. “[Then] you f ly up and pull the cinch

But nobody knows exactly how to smelt
lines tight.”

ores in space. (Or extract water from them,

Once the asteroid is in the bag, the space-
for that matter.)

craft moves to a specially designed frame-
work, clamps on, and f ires up its engines to

Moving (Crumbly) Rocks
begin the laborious process of pushing the

Supply depots might be easy to create, but
bag toward Earth at accelerations on the order
full-blown asteroid mining also involves bring-
of a few thousandths of the force of gravity.

ing materials back for those make-everybody-

To do this it relies on solar electric power.

rich power satellites, etc.

This technology, used on (among others)

Doing this in small quantities is “sample re-
the Hayabusa mission, employs solar power to
turn.” Doing it in large ones is not all that dif-accelerate an ionized propellant (such as
ferent from the other form of asteroid mining:

xenon) out the rocket nozzles. The advantage,
asteroid capture.

compared to conventional chemical fuel, is

Wilcox is one of the scientists looking at the
that the energy comes from solar panels,
latter, which he thinks could be done for
rather than chemical reactions. Wilcox says it
about the cost of a Mars rover or another
can spray out gas at speeds of ten to thirty kilo-NASA “flagship mission” (roughly two billion
meters per second, providing several times
dollars).

more impulse per kilogram of propellant than

Again, though, the def inition of “asteroid”

chemical rockets, whose exhaust speeds are
must be understood to include space rocks of
on the order of 4.5 kilometers per second.

any size: in this case, no more than about sev-

“It’s all feasible,” adds Campins, who notes
en meters in diameter. Such an asteroid isn’t
that Lewis has spent years arguing for it.

large but it’s bigger than it sounds. “The
amount of material would be hundreds of

Unlike classic science fiction stories, how-
tons, probably greater than the mass of the In-
ever, the on-site miners will initially be robots.

ternational Space Station,” Wilcox says.

“Human beings will appear in it when they are

Nor would such an asteroid be all that dan-
needed,” Lewis says.

gerous if the engineers lost control of it.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no place for

“Every year asteroids that size get into the
grander dreams. Lewis isn’t the only one in-
atmosphere and burn up,” says Marco Tantar-
volved in the project who thinks in terms of
dini, an Italian space engineer who was part
opening up the rest of the Solar System for hu-
of a 2011 study team from the Keck Institute
man use. Diamandis cites as inspiration “Hein-
of Space Studies that looked into the feasibility lein, Clarke, and [all the] others who
of bringing back such an asteroid for study.13
envisioned what the future would look like.”

And just to be on the super-safe side, adds

“We are living in an age where small teams

Wilcox (who was part of the same team), the
can do what only governments had been able
asteroid could be parked in lunar orbit so that to do before,” he added.

if something did go wrong it would crash onto

Grand words? Absolutely. Reality of the fu-
the Moon, not Earth.

ture? Time will tell. “I have absolutely no

The major technological problem is that as-
doubt that the announcement of this compa-
teroids can be odd-shaped and a bit fragile—a
ny will be a seminal event in the future of
problem that might also apply to a package of
moving off this planet,” Anderson said.

resources being brought back from a larger as-

Diamandis argues that the new company is
teroid.

taking “a page from the playbook that’s been

The solution, says Wilcox, is to snare the as-
used by humanity for century after century”—
teroid in a giant “garbage bag” that can be
a playbook that says great leaps are driven not 13

Keck Institute of Space Studies (KISS), Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study, 2 April 2012,
http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/asteroid/asteroid_final_report.pdf. See also. www.nss.org/settlement/
asteroids/Asteroid_Retrieval_Feasibility_Study_2012.pdf

24

RICHARD A. LOVETT

MAY 2013
so much by the desire to explore as by the re-

About the author:

alization there’s something of value just over

Richard A. Lovett has been a full-time writer
the horizon. “Exploration has [always] been
since 1989. Before that, he was a former law
driven by resources,” he said in Seattle. “We
professor, astrophysics major, and Ph.D. econ-
are going from a species that used to use only
omist. In addition to being a regular contribu-
resources within a day’s walk . . . to a species tor to Analog, he has written more than 3,000
that has access to the resources on our planet
articles for such publications as Nature, Scien-

. . . to a species that has access to the re-
tific American, New Scientist, Science, Cos-sources in the Solar System.”

mos, National Geographic News, Travel &

“The pursuit of resources drove the discov-

Leisure, Running Times, and Psychology To-ery of America and opened the West,” added
day. He is also a distance-running coach who Eric E. Schmidt, executive chairman of Google
had the privilege of coaching two women
and another of Planetary Resources’ investors.

marathoners to the Olympic Trials last year.

“Expanding the resource base is important for

His short-story collection, Phantom Sense & our future.”

Other Stories (all collaborations with fellow If it works, we at Analog can claim our own Analog writer Mark Niemann-Ross) was re-minor role its success. After all, we’ve been released in 2012 by Strange Wolf Press. Follow
hearsing just such a future for eighty years. ■
his professional page on Facebook, or f ind
him on the web at www.richardalovett.com.

THE GOLDEN AGE COMES TO SEATTLE

25

Sentinel

Chickens

David W. Goldman

It’s great when research results match
expectations, but sometimes more
meaningful when they don’t. . . .

s the pickup jolted over yet another
of birds.”

pothole, chill morning air puffed in

He pulled his jacket tighter around him.

through the door’s loose, rattling frame.

“Don’t they make automatic feeders?”

AJack jammed his hands deeper into his Claypon snorted.“Can’t refill themselves.”

jacket pockets.

With her mug she gestured over her shoulder

“Not what you expected, is it?” asked Dr.

toward the sacks in the cargo bed. She took

Claypon.

another sip. “But really. I’m guessing you just He glanced over at her, smug in her big
assumed that after graduation you’d waltz into
quilted vest. She drove with one-handed non-
a job with the CDC. Where, no doubt, you’d
chalance, sipping occasionally from a travel
be the one who solves CPNS.”

mug.

His gaze jerked toward his window, and he

Jack wore thin slacks and, under his wind-
didn’t answer. He felt his cheeks warm.

breaker, a polo shirt. He wouldn’t have mind-

She chuckled. “At least, that’s pretty much
ed a coffee of his own—he had assumed that
what I assumed when I got my degree.” She somebody would hand him a cup when he
swerved to skirt a downed branch stretching
showed up at the off ice for his f irst day of
halfway across the road. “CPNS, bird f lu,
work.

AIDS—there’s always some sexy new pan-

Probably he should have asked why he was
demic to chase. But the boring old diseases?

supposed to get there so early.

Somebody’s still got to keep tabs on those,

The truck bounced across a corrugation of
too, hey?” She lifted her mug to her lips, tip-
ruts—last night’s rain didn’t seem to have
ping it nearly upside down for its final drops.

done much to smooth the old dirt-logging

She let out a small sigh as she set the mug
road. Scents of wet leaves and decaying tim-
onto the seat, next to her small backpack.

ber blew in around the door.

“We can’t all get the glory.”

Claypon went on, “I mean, a shiny new

Jack considered the stains on the seat’s

Ph.D. in epidemiology, and here you’re getting
worn fabric, the jangling of the ailing heater
out of bed at oh-dark-thirty to go feed a flock fan, the crack growing down from the top

26

DAVID W. GOLDMAN

MAY 2013
edge of the windshield.

the Nigerian vanishing genitalia craze?”

“No,” he said, “I guess not.”

“Sure. All the classics—the Mad Gasser of

She must have heard something in his

Mattoon, the 1954 Seattle windshield-pitting
voice.

epidemic, you name it. Plus some that no-

“Hey, you want to work in Atlanta and see
body’s really studied before, like the 1980s be-

‘Centers for Disease Control’ after your name?

lief in systemic yeast infections, or the

Well, fine, good for you. But listen—I’ve been
child-kidnapping hysteria of the past couple
at this a quarter-century now, and I can tell
decades.”

you that all the real action is out here, down at The truck slowed. They turned onto a small-the county level. Who wrote the initial report
er, even bumpier road.

about AIDS, back in the eighties? L. A. County

“Okay,” she said, “mass delusions and belief

Health Department. Who f irst identif ied
fads. What about them?”

CPNS, three years ago? Arapahoe County, Col-

He shifted in the seat, tr ying to f ind a
orado. While your CDC pals are sitting in
warmer spot. “We’ve got lots of data points for meetings in their big, pretty buildings, we’re
most of those. Especially from online newspa-
the ones gathering stats on emergency room
per and government archives. And for the
admissions and school absenteeism, chasing
most recent ones, with all of their online sup-
down outbreaks of food poisoning, watching
port groups, after a few web searches you’ve
disease trends.”

got yourself a really massive database to work

So, thought Jack, defensive much?

with. So I did a comparative time series analy-

But he merely said, “And feeding chickens.”

sis of reported incidents.”

She chuckled again. “Yup, one morning

“Huh.”

every other week. Nice break from paper-

The pickup turned once more, and its
work. But I’ll tell you what, Dr. Graunt—if this speed dropped further. He figured they must
is the year that our chickens detect Eastern
be getting close to their destination.

equine encephalitis f inally arriving in the Pa-Thoughtful, she said, “I suppose you’d see a
cific Northwest, we’ll make sure that yours is
sort of bell-shaped curve. A few reports at
the name in all the news interviews. They
first, then lots more as the fad takes off. Then probably won’t misspell ‘John,’ anyhow.”

I’d expect them to plateau for a while, and

“I prefer Jack.”

eventually die away?”

Keeping her eyes on the road, mostly, she

He nodded. “Sure. But the data turn out to
extended her free hand to him. “Jan.”

be really noisy. To get beyond that general de-

Jack pulled his hand out of its pocket just
scription, I had to eliminate a surprising num-
long enough for a quick handshake.

ber of high-frequency components.”

They drove on, rattling and bouncing. As he

“Yeah? Like what?”

watched the interminable moss-wrapped trees

“Well, some of them I could explain.” He
pass by, Jack started to wonder exactly how
shrugged. “Seasonal cycles, of course, for the
far into this forest the Health Department kept longer-lasting delusions. And the windshield-its chickens.

pitting epidemic contained both four-hour

“So,” Claypon said, “I’m told that I should
and twelve-hour oscillations.” He let her pon-
ask what your dissertation topic was.”

der that for a moment before giving her the

Jack smiled. This, at least, was always fun.

answer: “People’s reactions to multiple news-

“Mass delusions,” he said. “And conviction-
paper editions coming out through the day,
al fads.”

each containing the latest updates.”

“Okay, mass delusions I know about. . . .”

“Nice!”

“Fads of belief. Like the Salem witch trials,

“Anyhow, once I got everything cleaned up,
or the satanic-ritual panic of the late twentieth all the curves were nearly identical. Bell-century.”

shaped, like you guessed. Though left-

“Ah.”

skewed—the fads always drop off faster than

He watched her begin to smile as she con-
they start.”

sidered the possibilities. Epidemiologists all

The road, now little more than a muddy
loved this stuff.

path, emerged from the forest into an open

“What else?” she asked. “Did you include
f ield of clumpy grass and prickly-looking

SENTINEL CHICKENS

27

ANALOG
bushes.

side, but she just glared past him at the pad-

She said, “Very nice, indeed. You’re publish-
lock, shaking her head in disgust. “The de-
ing this, I hope.”

partment, ” she explained, “pays a local

He frowned. “There’s one loose end I’d still
teenager to come out here a couple times a
like to f igure out—a single case that doesn’t
week to collect eggs and clean out the ma-
match the pattern. Came on more quickly
nure. Not the f irst time this has happened.”

than usual, plateaued for decades, and then all She sighed. “At least today we didn’t lose anyof a sudden, twelve years ago it just stopped.

body.”

Overnight—literally—with no warning. I

“I’m surprised they didn’t all get out.”

haven’t—”

“What?” She turned to face him, absently

“Damn!” Claypon stomped on the brake.

stroking the bird in her arms. “Not a lot of

The pickup slewed to a halt.

poultry experience, hey? These guys tend to

Jack tried to figure out what she was staring
stick with what they know.” She nodded
at through the streaked windshield. They’d
toward the perching chickens. “Shelter, food,
just come around the f inal curve—directly
water—why leave?”

ahead stood a chain-link fence enclosing a rec-

He frowned, looking again at the substan-
tangular area nearly the size of the pickup. Intial, roofed-in pen.

side was a wooden structure that looked like a

“Ah, ” she said. “Raccoons. Foxes and
small jungle gym with a roof and some partial
weasels. Hawks. We go to a lot of trouble to
walls.

keep our sentinels safe and unmolested.”

But after Claypon shoved open her door

“Except by mosquitoes, right?” Trying to
and climbed out, she headed not toward the
move the conversation past his mistaken as-
enclosure, but instead to a spot a few yards
sumption, Jack surveyed the area. “Where are from the fence—where a fluffy brown chick-the mosquitoes, anyhow?”

en stood pecking at the grass. Noticing Clay-

Claypon pointed toward the edge of the
pon’s approach, the bird started walking in
clearing. “See where the ground rises over
the opposite direction.

there? On the other side is a nice, scummy lit-

As Claypon chased after the now-scuttling
tle pond. Perfect breeding conditions.” She
chicken, Jack got out of the truck to join her.

nodded back toward the sun, still rising be-

But before he took his third step she shouted,
hind the trees at the f ield’s opposite side.

“Check the gate!”

“Once things warm up around here, not all

It took him a few seconds to realize what
the DEET in the world is going to save you
she meant. He turned to give the fenced en-
from getting eaten alive.”

closure a better examination.

Jack looked at the chicken that Claypon still

The chain-link fencing covered the pen’s
held, which had begun a soft clucking as if
top as well as its sides. And those sides
muttering to itself. “How about them? Are
reached not only down to the ground, but ex-
they protected by their feathers?”

tended into it. He hadn’t realized that chick-

“Nope.” She tucked the bird’s head against
ens were such formidable escape artists.

her arm; after a few seconds it quieted. “These As he hiked over, though, he saw that the
guys will get bitten a couple hundred times
pen’s door—gate—was ajar. The four remain-
each day. Well, each evening, mostly. But then
ing occupants eyed him sleepily as he pushed
that’s how they earn their keep, isn’t it? Speak-it closed and set the latch. On the fence to his ing of which . . .”

left—beneath a large sign explaining that this

She took a step forward, and Jack moved to
flock was the property of the Department of
open the pen’s gate for her. But instead of re-

Health, and that trespassing and vandalism
turning the chicken to its home, she strode
were not only strongly discouraged but in
past him, back toward the pickup.

some vague way perhaps life-threatening—

When he caught up to her behind the
hung an open padlock.

truck, she held the chicken out to him.

Claypon strode over, breathing hard. She

“Here—reach down from both sides and lift
held the chicken against her stomach, its head
her. No, more like—yeah, that’s it.”

bobbing forward and back.

The bird struggled in Jack’s hands, trying to

He expected her to deposit the chicken in-
f lap its pinned wings. He was surprised at

28

DAVID W. GOLDMAN

MAY 2013
how little it weighed.

the wing and started tidying up her used

Claypon lowered the pickup’s tailgate. She
equipment. “Day after tomorrow, the lab will
climbed onto the bed to drag a Styrofoam
tell us if any of the blood samples contain anti-cooler and a plastic tackle box back to the
bodies to Eastern equine encephalitis. If so,
edge, then hopped down.

then it’s off to the press conferences for you!

She opened the tackle box to reveal sy-

Otherwise, though, in two weeks you and I
ringes, rubber-stoppered test tubes, and other
come back here and do it all again.”

supplies. As she picked out various items and

Jack rolled the chicken right side up. She
arranged them on the tailgate, she said,
shifted her head from side to side to study her

“When I’m by myself, I sit on the ground and
newly upright surroundings. “The chickens
hold her in my lap. But with two people it’s a
don’t get sick?”

lot easier.” She pulled on a pair of blue gloves.

“Nope. If a mosquito carrying EEE passes it

“Okay, so go ahead and grab both of her
to one of our birds, she’ll simply develop antilegs—no, just use one hand. Good. Now roll
bodies to the virus. It’s such a low-grade infecher over until she’s upside-down. That’s it—
tion for them that nobody’s ever reported a
whoa, hold on tight! She’ll settle down in a
chicken showing any symptoms whatsoever.”

few seconds. Yeah, let her rest her head

She closed the lid of the cooler.

against your arm. There you go.”

“Come on,” said Claypon. “Time for your

Claypon gently spread open one of the
first blood-letting.”

chicken’s wings. “Use your thumb to hold her

They traded Jack’s bird for a black and
wing like this.” As Jack adjusted his grip, Clay-white rooster. “Bigger veins than the girls,”

pon f lipped open the lid of the cooler and
said Claypon. “And the boys are actually more
stuck a finger into the crushed ice inside. “I’m cooperative.”

just going to moisten the feathers over the

Back at the pickup, she patiently guided
vein here, to keep them out of the way. When
him through the procedure. One test tube
it’s your turn, though, we’ll have you pluck
slipped from his gloved fingers to the ground,
out enough of them to see what you’re do-
and his hand was trembling when it came
ing.”

time to jab in the needle. Finally, after seem-

“My turn?”

ingly unending minutes of fumbling, the sy-

She chuckled. “Ever hang out with any med
ringe began to fill with blood.

students? They’ve got this saying about learn-

The rooster, despite any supposed coopera-
ing medical procedures: see one, do one,
tiveness, appeared considerably less than
teach one.”

pleased with Jack’s performance.

Jack swallowed. She was right—this def i-

As Jack pressed on the vein afterward, Clay-
nitely was not what he’d expected from a
pon said, “Not bad, Dr. Graunt. Not bad at all.”

Ph.D. in epidemiology.

“Thanks.” His voice was glum.

She grabbed the wing with one hand, her

She gave him a chuckle. “Oh, cheer up.

thumb pressing on what Jack assumed was

This could be worse — suppose we were
the vein. The chicken let out a bawk and shift-
screening for CPNS instead of EEE, hey?”

ed back and forth in his grip. After a quick

He looked up, unsure what she meant.

swab with an alcohol pad, Claypon carefully

“Anal swabs,” she explained. “Ick.”

inserted the needle of a syringe into the vein

Jack’s second chicken went a bit better.

and slowly drew out a few milliliters of blood.

Claypon handled the final two. As she was fin-

She withdrew the syringe but kept squeezing
ishing, she asked, “Speaking of CPNS, what do
with her thumb.

you think of last night’s article?”

“Got to keep pressing for a few seconds.

“Huh? What article?”

Otherwise they can get really big, nasty bruis-

“Ah. Clearly we’re going to have to sign you
es.” Still working with just one hand, she
up for the right newsfeeds.” She closed the
stuck the needle into one of the test tubes,
cooler and clipped shut the tackle box, then
which sucked in the blood. She inverted the
pointed to the pair of burlap sacks up on the
tube a few times and then pushed it down
bed. “Grab me one of those, will you? And
into the ice.

bring the other one.”

“And that’s all there is to it.” She released

As they carried the bags over to the pen,

SENTINEL CHICKENS

29

ANALOG
she said, “You’re going to like this study.

hoisted her sack to fill the barrel of their feed-These epidemiologists in India sent out ques-
er.

tionnaires to a thousand CPNS cases.”

“So,” she said, “this new questionnaire

“What, there’s some question they haven’t
asked the usual questions, but it went further
already been asked?”

back than usual—twenty years. And then the

The world’s CPNS sufferers had been sub-
team combined the questionnaire results with
jected to dozens of studies, hundreds of inter-
deep web searches on the participants, col-
views, thousands of questionnaires. And yet,
lecting data on social networks, employment
no risk factors for CPNS had been identified.

history, time spent online—anything they

The condition—colonic/peripheral neu-
could dig out.”

ropathy syndrome—had popped up without

She paused to show him how to pour the
warning three years ago, with some fifty thou-
contents of his sack into the feeder without
sand cases scattered all over the Earth. The
spilling grain and seeds all over the ground.

f irst symptoms of the disease were due to a

“So,” he asked, “what did they find?”

partial paralysis of the colon. Over time, the

Claypon didn’t answer for a moment. She
neurological symptoms spread to limbs and
collected the empty sack from him, then
trunk, with increasing tingling, numbness,
walked over to the pen’s gate. “My tablet’s in
and paralysis. Eventually the victims devel-
the truck. Easier to just show you.”

oped a thus-far untreatable inf lammation of

A few minutes later, back inside the pickup,
the retina, leading to blindness.

she pulled her tablet from her backpack. After

The cause of CPNS was unknown, and at-
a few seconds of f iddling, she held it out to
tempts to find any correlations—other health
him. “Okay, here’s a world map of where
conditions, smoking, drugs, nutrition, ethnici-
these cases lived three years ago.”

ty, economic status, education level, pets, cell-Jack glanced at the familiar image. “Looks
phone usage, favorite brand of shampoo—had
like they got a good sample,” he said. Red dots so far come up empty.

were scattered all over the Earth, with only a

But at least CPNS didn’t seem to be infec-
few in clusters. Cities and rural areas were
tious. Since the initial outbreak three years
both represented, as were both hemispheres
ago, no new cases had emerged.

nearly from pole to pole.

Not that anyone felt tremendously reassured

“Now watch,” she said, “as we let it run
by the hiatus.

backwards in time.”

The only clue that had emerged was as mys-

She tapped a button, and as the date dis-
terious and confusing as the disease itself. Suf-played up at the top ticked backward, some of
ferers differed from their neighbors in a single the dots began moving. At f irst they seemed
respect—their intestinal flora. The balance of
to wander randomly, ref lecting the society
bacterial populations in their gut was off—

Jack knew well—graduates seeking jobs,
way off—with normally rare bacteria species
workers being relocated, families chasing bet-
supplanting the usual inhabitants.

ter opportunities. But as the reversed clock

Cause and effect were unclear, but the most
continued, larger patterns emerged. He
popular theory speculated that the bacterial
guessed that some must represent wars and
derangement came f irst, and that the neuro-
natural disasters, though he hadn’t been pay-
logical disruptions arose from changes in bac-
ing enough attention to world news over the
teria-produced chemical signals. Which
past few years to be sure of the specifics.

suggested a long latency period between the

As he watched the dots roam the map, Jack
bacterial changes and the development of clin-
thought of chickens wandering over a f ield.

ical CPNS. Which in turn had led several labs

The patterns forming and breaking up were
to mass population screening of intestinal flo-
mesmerizing—
ra.

“Wait!” he said. “Can you roll it back?”

Jack didn’t really mind the smells coming

She handed him the tablet and pointed to
from the wood shavings at his feet. But he
the scrollbar beneath the map.

agreed with Claypon—blood draws beat anal

He panned time forward and back, staring
swabs any day.

at the red dots. Three years ago, and twenty

The chickens paced and clucked as Claypon
years ago, they were scattered everywhere.

30

DAVID W. GOLDMAN

MAY 2013

But between 11 and 14 years in the past, all of He was skimming down through the com-the dots converged into a limited number of
ments that, after a few minutes pause, had fu-
big clusters.

riously followed the meteorite proposal.

Those clusters were still sprinkled across

“Some kind of radiation, maybe. Or subatomic
the globe, so it wasn’t as if all of the cases
particles. Could even be microorganisms, or
shared a single exposure. But, he thought with
spores.”

growing excitement, there must be some-

“Too weird,” said Claypon, shaking her
thing common to all these locations. . . .

head. “But at least it would mean the rest of us Claypon took the tablet from him. “Hang
can relax. Just a one-time freak event.”

on,” she said. “Let’s see what the group-mind

Jack set the tablet onto the seat between
has come up with since last night.”

them.

She f lipped to some blog. While she

“Or the first wave of a bigger exposure.”

scrolled through comments, Jack pulled out

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

his own phone and after a minute found him-

Then she turned away and opened her door.

self a copy of the map. He ran the years up

“Whatever,” she said. “In the meantime,
and down, trying to see the pattern behind
you and I have some chickens to tend.”

the clusters. Big cities? Some, yes, but only a He got out and joined her around by the
minority. Tropics vs. temperate zones? No.

side of the truck. “Now what?”

Maybe coastal vs. inland—

She handed him a couple of big plastic

“Huh,” said Claypon.

buckets, keeping another two for herself.

“What?”

“Now we refill their water barrel.”

“Altitude. All of the clusters are above one

“What, from the scummy pond?”

thousand meters.”

She gestured off toward a different edge of

Jack pondered that. If it wasn’t just a coinci-
the clearing. “Little creek down there. With
dence, then what could it mean? Reduced
you helping, it will only take us two trips.”

oxygen levels? Some wind-borne agent,

Scrambling down the muddy bank was kind
maybe—or did winds work like that?

of fun. But climbing back up, holding two

She interrupted his thoughts. “Here’s some-
heavy pails of water, made Jack envy Clay-
thing else. There’s a big wedge of the Earth
pon’s clunky boots. Even crossing the f ield,
that’s completely clear of cases—from the
now he felt every jagged rock through his thin

North Pole to the South Pole, sweeping from
soles.

the middle of North America halfway out into

The discomfort and physical exertion drove
the Pacific.”

other thoughts from Jack’s mind. After empty-

What the heck? He glanced down at his
ing his last bucketful of water, he leaned
phone to confirm that observation. Try as he
against a fence pole as Claypon tipped each of
might, though, Jack couldn’t come up with
her pails into the barrel. He watched the
even an unlikely explanation.

chickens scratch about their pen, and his

Then Claypon sucked in a quick breath.

thoughts drifted—first to the CPNS study, and

“Oh, my,” she whispered.

then, as always, to his dissertation research.

“What? What?”

After a moment he said, “Oh.” A few sec-

But she just stared at her tablet, ignoring
onds later, he said it again.

him. Finally, without moving anything but her

Claypon, stacking the empty buckets,
arm, she handed him the tablet.

looked his way. “What is it?” She stood, frown-

The comment at the screen’s center read,
ing. “What’s wrong?”

“What if a big swarm of meteorites or some-

He was staring at the clucking birds. “What
thing hit the Earth from the side? For several
do you suppose they think about us?”

hours, but not long enough for that wedge of

“Who? The chickens?”

the planet to rotate into the path? Could ex-

“They barely know we exist, do they? Their
plain the altitude correlation, too.”

water comes from this barrel, their food from

Oh, my, thought Jack.

that machine. You and I, we’re just these crea-

Claypon spoke, quiet and thoughtful. “How
tures that swoop in now and then. We yank
would meteorites affect intestinal bacteria?”

them out of their pen, poke at them for a few

“Wouldn’t have to be meteorites,” said Jack.

minutes, and then we’re gone.”

SENTINEL CHICKENS

31

ANALOG

She gave him a sharp look. Then she said,

“Anal probes.”

“Come on,” and led him toward the gate.

After a few seconds, they both turned to

She held it open for him. He stepped
peer in at the oblivious chickens.

through, then turned to stare some more at

He said, “They have no idea how good
the chickens.

they’ve got it. Food and water just show up.

“What happens,” he asked, “once we f ind

The hen house keeps off the rain and keeps

EEE antibodies in one or two of these birds?”

them warm at night.” He reached out and rat-

She shrugged. “Then we’re done. We know
tled the chain links. “This fence keeps out
that the virus has reached this region.”

predators they don’t even know exist. They

“So we stop drawing their blood.”

have no clue about the outside world, about

“Well, sure. What’s the problem?”

how dangerous it really is.”

He stared through the fence. The chickens

Claypon set her buckets onto the ground.

seemed unaware of his existence.

She lifted the open padlock from where it

“My dissertation—remember that one loose
hung on the fence.

end? The convictional fad that stopped

He asked, “When their antibodies develop,
overnight, twelve years ago?”

and we stop drawing their blood, what next?

She waited.

What happens to the chickens?”

“UFOs. Not so much sightings, though.

“Oh,” she said, “we’ll keep bringing them

No—alien abductions. After a half century of
food and water, I guess. And maintaining their
reports, twelve years ago they simply
fence.”

stopped. ”

She slid the padlock through its loop, and

“Wait,” she said. “What are you—”

clicked it shut.

“Alien abductions,” he repeated. “Physical

She added, “Until the project budget runs
exams.” Now he turned to look her in the eye.

out, hey?” ■

32

DAVID W. GOLDMAN

If We Are Alone

If we are alone, this galaxy is ours.

We can explore, exploit, destroy, or plunder.

We will find worlds that orbit other stars;
the universe will still be full of wonder.

If we are alone, they will not hear us call;
the rocks of other planets will lie mute.

We need not safeguard creatures huge or small,
nor share the worlds with sapient or brute.

But humans will forever feel alone.

Why, we will ask, is ultimate truth veiled?

Are there no other beings, just cold stone?

And we will wonder if the gods have failed.

From world to world it may be ever thus
unless they, too, are searching, seeking us.

—Mary A. Turzillo

Illustrated by Beryl Bush

Enjoy the

Fishing

Walter F. Cuirle

The traditional approach is
seldom the only option. . . .

hen a civilization is so big it won’t

They are also my clients.

fit on one planet, and when it is so

Funny thing about this kind of rich: you
rich it can touch other stars, it cre-
never know what will make them spend. Take

Wates people of astonishing wealth. mypresent client.He was at some kind of par-There’s nothing special about them, most of
ty and met another lucky little blip who told
them, they are just the lucky little statistical him about an unspoiled planet, a paradise for
blips on the long tail of an enormous econo-
the serious outdoorsman. Fishing, hunting,
my.

wilderness, and, best of all, the planet didn’t 34

WALTER F. CUIRLE

MAY 2013
have any real continents, just several hundred
the west.

large islands formed along the joins of the tecLou shaded his eyes with one hand and con-
tonic plates. With enough money and the
sidered. “We’ve already got more than we can
right connections, says this guy, a man could
eat tonight.”

buy himself one of those islands and have his

The comment surprised me. “True,” I said,
own private wilderness. Five hundred klicks

“but we’ve got the cooler. And there’s always
by two hundred. Mountains, lakes and every-
tomorrow.”

thing. A great investment. He’d just been and

He shrugged. “I suppose. Go ahead.”

would be happy to make introductions.

I set up again. This lake was full of what

Another funny thing about this kind of rich:

they call glacial flour: pulverized rock so fine they’re a vain and suspicious bunch. They’ll
it stays suspended in the water and scatters
spend amazing amounts for personal services
the sunlight. It’s subtle. In close to shore,
and tangible goods. Tell them they paid well
you’d never know it was there; the water
above market price, and they’ll just say they
looks like a couple of meters of crystal over
bought luxe and it’s worth it. But when it
the rocky bottom. From a height, though, in
comes to investments, they’re suspicious.

the right light, it can make the lake look like a They’ll spend a hundred times the potential
backlit emerald. And out here on the boat, in
loss just to avoid looking foolish.

this light, we got the effect of f loating in the This is fine with me. Those who are suspi-center of a large jade bowl. Just for fun, I
cious, those who are reluctant to travel to a
picked a spot on the edge of the bowl, cast,
property for fear of looking too interested,
and hit my target spot on. Glorious.

they can just call me. I’ll check it out. I love to After a little while, I noticed Lou had kept
travel. I love the bubble that goes with travel, his gear stowed. He just sat there in the stern, that feeling of being there without being of, if watching.

that makes any sense. I go, I see, I do, and I

“Not fishing?” I asked.

never bring back more baggage than I took.

“Limit’s three per day.”

All of which is by way of explaining how I

It took me a couple of seconds to process
came to be sitting in a boat on a lake with a
that.

guy named Lou. Lou represents the guy who is

“You mean a bag limit?” Lou hadn’t struck
known to the guy who met my guy at that par-
me as a guy especially taken with rules. “Not
ty. This makes us peers, in a way, but even
that I don’t respect the principle, but come
though we work for opposite sides we are not
on. There’s no pressure on this ecosystem.

competitors. We are agents. Lou’s job is to

There’s nobody here. And besides, who is
show, my job is to see, and today we were just
there to enforce a bag limit?”

fishing.

“It’s not just a bag limit. It’s Leonard’s limit.”

“Nice and easy,” said Lou, “I’ll net him from

Lou might actually have gone on for another
below.”

sentence or two’s worth of explanation, but

I kept the angle on the line and brought the
just then I got another strike and stopped lis-
catch in alongside with a final steady pull. Lou tening. I set the hook and pulled back a little reached down with the net and scooped it up.

on the line, letting my wrist and f ingers tell

“That’s a keeper.”

me what my eyes could not. It felt like another I’d noticed in the week we’d been together
catch as big as the last, so I began to play it the that Lou, when he spoke at all, was something
same way. It worked. After several pleasant
of a master of understatement. Keeper. The
minutes of this, Lou leaned over and un-
f ish looked to be ten kilos easy. We went
shipped the net.

through the brief ritual of getting our tackle

Then something else struck the line and
cleared and the fish into the cooler. Now we
pulled. Hard. If I hadn’t already been working
each had one, and they were both big ones.

this catch, I’d have lost the rod. As it was, the

“Is there time for another?” I asked. The
action happened fast enough to pull my arm

Sun—okay, the primary, a little bigger and a
out straight before I gathered my wits and
little redder than Sol—still sat well above the starting paying out line.

horizon but low enough to bring a blush to

The fish behaved like nothing in my experi-
the clouds gathering above the mountains to
ence. It didn’t dive, and it didn’t thrash, and it ENJOY THE FISHING

35

ANALOG
didn’t really try to pull away. No. It moved
ered the cooler over the side and into the wa-
back and forth, parallel to the boat, keeping a ter. It splashed some, then f loated. He made
steady tension and forcing me to feed it more
only a little noise doing this, but he grunted in line. It zigzagged its way out to about thirty
annoyance.

meters, then quit pulling and starting moving

“Okay. We can still do this.” Talking to him-
back and forth in a f igure eight. After a bit I self.

thought I had the rhythm; I pulled a little as it At that point, the fish—I couldn’t let myself
approached, but it compensated by pulling a
think of it as anything else—changed tactics.

little harder on the retreat. I tried giving it line It slowed down and started to move off in a
on the retreat, but it didn’t take it. The line big clockwise circle around the boat.

went a little slack instead. It wanted to keep

“Keep the tension, nice and easy. Follow
that thirty-meter distance.

him with the tip of your rod. We don’t want to

I turned to Lou and shrugged a question.

bring him in, but we do want to let him know

Eyes on the spot where the line vanished into
we’re still here. Keep him to the circle.”

the water, his mouth serious, he stowed the

I followed instructions, my full attention on
net and pulled the knife from his belt.

the line.

“We’ve got a little problem,” he whispered.

With one hand on the line attached to the

“Just do what I say, when I say, and we’ll be all cooler, Lou duck-walked the couple of steps
right. I’ll explain later.” He shifted his gaze to the stern and sat. He cut the line at the
long enough to look me in the eye. “Please.”

cleat, quickly fashioned a loop with a slipknot Then his eyes were back on the motion of the
and held it open in one hand. He paused,
line.

ducked to let me pass the circling line over his I think it was the way he said ‘please’ that
head, and then turned to the outboard’s con-
did it. My heart came up in my throat and
trols. I heard the power switch click, but I
started pounding away at the back of my eyes.

didn’t hear the start-up whine of the electric

My whole attention shrank to the rod and the
motor. I chanced a glance over my shoulder.

line, especially the point where it disappeared Lou noticed. “We’re all right. You’re all
into the water. That jade bowl, which seemed
right. Keep doing what you’re doing, but now
so enclosing and glorious just a little while
move slowly back here. You’re going to hand
ago, now felt like a veil, and a menace hid be-
me the rod, and then get down low in the
hind it.

middle of the boat, where the cooler was. Got

“Okay.” Lou still whispered. “We’ve got to
that?”

keep the noise down.” I didn’t want to know

I nodded.

why. “I want you to keep a steady tension on

“Move quick. When the thing’s astern, I’m
that line. Pretend your hook’s not set and you
going to gun the motor. You don’t want to fall
don’t want it to tear and you don’t want it to
overboard.”

bleed.”

I noticed he wasn’t calling it a fish anymore.

“Pretend?”

We couldn’t have rehearsed it better. I kept

“Whatever. Just keep it steady. Don’t let it
my arm raised and the tension steady, and
go and don’t yank.”

moved carefully to the stern as the—thing—

Lou cut lengths of line off his reel and used
circled. The next time it got in line with the
them to lash the cooler’s lid closed. He cut a
bow, I passed the rod to Lou, got down on my
long line and tied one end to a handle of the
hands and knees and crawled back to the cen-
cooler and the other to a small cleat near the
ter of the boat.

stern. Moving as low and as quietly as he

Lou quickly passed the slip-knotted loop
could, he squatted over the cooler and tried to over the end of the rod and tugged it shut for-lift it. I started to move to one side to get out ward of the reel. Then he set the rod down in
of his way.

the water and let the line to the cooler take

“No. Stay put, concentrate on the line. I’ll
the tension. He held onto it until the thing
get this.”

was astern, then let go. When the cooler start-

He puffed out a breath, stooped, and lifted
ed to move away, he sat up, turned on the mo-
the cooler onto the gunwale behind me. He
tor and gunned it.

got on his knees, paused for a breath, and low-

The motor keened. The bow rose. I risked a

36

WALTER F. CUIRLE

MAY 2013
peek forward and only now noticed that Lou
we were in the first wave. We could both see
had lined us up so that our heading was along
the possibilities, but Len saw a downside, too.

the shortest path to shore. Staying low, I care-In his opinion, Earth is mankind’s battered
fully looked over my shoulder. Lou was
spouse. His words. He didn’t want that hap-
hunched down, grim, one hand tight on the
pening here. He wanted nature here to have
outboard’s rudder, the other clenched on the
the means to fight back.”

gunwale.

“With what? Monsters and booby traps? Hu-

Behind him, and, thankfully, moving farther
mans have taken down worse.”

away, the cooler floated in the water, my rod

“Nothing so absolute. You can f ish here.

pointing away from it and circling like a min-

You can hunt. You can build. Len’s idea,
ute hand. I watched the rod for the short time
though, was that nature should have the
it took it to move a quarter, then saw it stop
means to enforce a limit.”

and get dragged below the surface, point first.

“The bag limit.”

The cooler rolled. Then a great dark mouth

“That’s part of it, yes.”

on a great dark thing rose out of the water all

“How’d he do it?”

around the cooler, and the cooler disappeared

“For the f ish? There’s a native species that
and the dark flowing thing rose out of the wa-
uses pheromones or something like them for
ter, and turned and slipped back beneath the
mating and territory. Len engineered Terran
surface with hardly a sound, and a f luke or
game f ish to release scents when they were
something like it stuck up in the air, and then stressed. Then he tweaked the native species
the water was still.

to respond.”

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t take a full breath

“Like dogs with a flock of sheep?”

and I could hear myself gasping, my chest

“Something like that. A clever predator can
heaving, and I could smell the fear-stink puff
take a couple every so often and get away
out my collar. At the back of my head the mon-
with it, but take too many at once and the
key-brain chattered: It’s down there.The water dogs will react.”

is deep. It’s down there.The boat is so thin. It’s

“So. All you can eat, but no more. If the
down there.You can’t see it coming. It’s down stress signal gets strong, the guardians come.”

there. It’s going to get you. It’s down there. It’s

“Right.”

down there. It’s down there.

“But wait. I had a f ish on the line, then

The boat hit the rocky beach, slid up it and
something hit that fish, and then that thing . . .”

jolted when the outboard snagged. I hardly

I couldn’t say it. Not yet.

noticed. I went over the bow and across the

“The fish are prey for the guardians, too. If
rocks and into the woods, where I ran until I
you draw its attention, a guardian is supposed
couldn’t see water, and I huddled with my
to chase away the game fish, then harass you
arms around my knees and my back against a
until you leave the area. Somehow, this one
tree and I shook and I shook and I shook.

took your line—probably swallowed your
catch—and couldn’t get free. It was in dis-

The sun almost touched the horizon by the
tress.”

time I pulled myself together and headed back

I could see where this was going, but I
to the beach. Lou sat on a rock facing the lake.

asked anyway. “So if a game f ish in distress

He must have heard me coming, but he didn’t
calls a guardian, what does a guardian in dis-
move; I sat down on a rock in front of him.

tress call?”

“You knew,” I said.

“Backup.” Lou grinned. “That’s what you

He nodded.

saw.”

“But you took me out there anyway.”

I laughed, and, f inally, relaxed. “So when

He looked surprised. “Oh no, it wasn’t like
did this get started? This is stable and self-sus-that. I knew the guardians were there, yes, but taining. It can’t be very recent.”

they don’t come up unless you’re over the lim-

Lou paused again, longer this time. “Len
it. At least, they’re not supposed to.”

and I met in school,” he said, f inally. “Long

“Guardians? Tell me.”

time ago. Len was hot on politics then; he was

“Leonard’s idea.” Lou paused, collecting his
going to save the human race from itself.

thoughts. “When this world was discovered,

When other worlds started to open up, he

ENJOY THE FISHING

37

ANALOG
shifted to what he called his long-range plan to er.

save the universe from the human race. I was

Lou pointed silently. A plaque, about the
the money guy. I made a bundle early on, we
size of my hand and made of some kind of
came here, and Len tried out his ideas on a
stainless alloy, hung in a thick layer of adhe-
couple of islands. Once he worked the bugs
sive on the rock in front of us. I bent close to out, we spread these kinds of systems all
read the three lines engraved on it: Leonard over.”

Norman / 2287—2433 / Enjoy the Fishing.

“You were the money guy.”

Sketched in the corner was the stylized figure

“Yep. Not a big deal. Some inherited money,
of an old-fashioned scale, a pan balance. I
a few lucky investments. Funny thing about
pointed to it.

that kind of rich: you can’t just let it sit and

“Scales of justice. Enjoy the fishing, but play live off it. If you don’t do something useful
fair. That was Len. You wanted to know
with it, it’ll corrode you.”

where he is; he’s all around here. In many

“But I thought . . .”

ways.”

He shrugged. “So I represent myself. This

We stood in silence and watched the light
world is starting to attract attention. It’s going fade.

to need new kinds of protection.”

“You know,” I said, “I don’t think this place

I thought about that a minute. “So where is
is a good match for my client.”

Len?”

Lou nodded, but said nothing. He didn’t

Lou stood. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

need to.

We walked toward a field full of boulders a

After a while, I bent down and picked up
little way up the beach. When we got there,
two small stones. I rolled them in my hand,

Lou walked in among them and conf idently
pressed them in turn between thumb and fin-
made his way to a waist-high stone. He must
ger. One was smooth, worn by water and trav-
come here often; I couldn’t tell one boulder
el and time. The other was a different, tougher from the next. I picked my way through the
material, dark and with sharp edges to it.

field and joined him.

I carefully placed the smooth one on top of

We stood facing the lake. The mountain

Leonard’s stone. The other I placed in my
range caught the last light of day and doubled
pocket; there would be plenty of room for it
it with a red and gold image in the darkened
in my baggage.

waters. A light breeze blew in from the forest

Then I turned to Lou and said, “I’ll bet the
behind us, rich with the scent of sun-warmed
rabbit hunting here is very interesting.” ■
trees. I felt I could stand in this moment forev-My experience of the world is that things left to themselves don’t get right.

—T. H. Huxley

38

WALTER F. CUIRLE

THE ALTERNATE VIEW John G. Cramer HIGH-Z HELIUM: IS QED FAILING?

hysics is an experimental science. The
dozen arbitrary parameters; for example the
intricate dance between physics theory
masses of quarks, leptons, and bosons, the
and experiment proceeds with well de-
strengths of the fundamental forces, and the

Pfined dance steps:a set of experimental strengths of interconnections between parti-observations suggests a theory, which is usual-
cles. Some of these parameters are set to zero, ly formulated mathematically; the theory
while others have definite values that must be
makes predictions for the results of new ex-
derived from measurement. We have no very
periments that have not yet been performed;
good ideas about where these parameters
experimental tests are made and the results
come from, how they were set, or how they
compared with the theoretical predictions; the
are related to each other. We are confident that theory is either supported by the experimen-there must be some better, more fundamental
tal tests or falsified and shown to be in need of theory that lies behind the Standard Model’s fa-modification; the falsified theory is either mod-cade. Up until now, however, we have been
ified and improved to agree with the observa-
unable to make the Standard Model “break,” to
tions or replaced with a better theory; new ex-
find places where its predictions conspicuous-
perimental tests are made; and the dance goes
ly fail, to find a crack in the solid and unblem-on . . . This, in a somewhat oversimplified
ished wall of theory that might provide some
form, is the “scientific method,” the way that
inkling of what lies behind it. Until such a
science progresses.

break occurs, we are stuck with the Standard

In general, the method works very well, but

Model and its imperfections.

scientific progress can be inhibited in certain areas because the theories are too good. The

This situation may have just changed, and

Standard Model of particles and fields, which
changed in an unexpected regime. Quantum
includes quantum electrodynamics (QED) to
electrodynamics, which in many ways is the
describe electromagnetic phenomena at the
most trusted part of the Standard Model, may
quantum level and quantum chromodynamics
be showing signs of a crack. Experimentalists

(QCD) to describe strong-interaction phenom-
at the National Institute of Standards and Tech-ena at the quantum level, works altogether too
nology in Gaithersburg, Maryland have been
well. The Standard Model is in good agree-
pursuing an ongoing series of experiments to
ment with essentially all of the data collected test QED using their electron-beam ion trap-by physics experiments during the past several
ping (EBIT) facility. EBIT technology was first decades. The recent discovery of the Higgs bo-developed at the Lawrence Livermore Labora-
son (see my column in the December 2012 is-
tory in about 1988 and has been duplicated
sue of Analog) represents a great triumph for and improved at several other laboratories in-the Standard Model, because it had predicted
cluding NIST. It provides a way of simultane-
the existence of the Higgs decades earlier.

ously trapping some selected highly ionized

Yet, in another way, the Standard Model is
atoms in an electromagnetic field in a very
an unsatisfactory and temporary theory. It fails high vacuum while bombarding them with a
to provide any deep understanding of the in-
beam of accelerated electrons. The trap con-
ner workings of the Universe. Instead, it de-
sists of a 3-tesla magnetic field limiting the
pends on the ad hoc values of about two trapped ion’s transverse motion and a set of

HIGH-Z HELIUM: IS QED FAILING?

39

ANALOG
electrically charged cylindrical tubes limiting along with some higher energy ultraviolet pho-the trapped ion’s longitudinal motion. Highly
tons at around 39 electron volts that are pro-
charged ionized atoms finding themselves in
duced by transitions to the ground state of he-
this combination of crossed fields have
lium. Accurately predicting the energies of
nowhere to escape and are repeatedly struck
these photons proved impossible with the
by a beam of fast electrons, producing inter-

Bohr model, and had to wait for the full-blown
esting and otherwise unreachable states of
development of multi-body quantum mechan-
atomic excitation. The trap can be set to trap
ics and QED. The electromagnetic interactions
ionized atoms having a particular charge-to-
between the orbiting electrons, as well as their mass ratio, while rejecting all other atoms, so electromagnetic interactions with the nucleus,
that specific atomic systems can be studied.

had to be accurately described. It was neces-

To understand the significance of the EBIT
sary to solve the quantum three-body problem
technology as applied to the recent measure-
accurately in order to account for all of the in-ments, let’s start by reviewing a bit of atomic teractions between the helium nucleus and its
physics. A neutral atom of atomic number Z
two orbiting electrons.

consists of a heavy nucleus with a positive

The EBIT technology offers a new way of
electric charge +Ze orbited by Z lightweight studying the spectra of modified helium atoms
electrons, each with one unit - e of negative as a test of three-body QED predictions. In par-electric charge. It is rather like a tiny electric ticular, one can change the nuclear charge Z
solar system with a massive central star orbit-
from two to some larger value and see what
ed by many lightweight planets.

happens. What is expected to happen is that

The simplest atom in the periodic table of
the observed spectral lines of helium should
elements is hydrogen, with a nucleus (a pro-
systematically be shifted to smaller wavelength ton) of charge +e orbited by a single electron values by a factor of 4 /Z2. Changing the Z val-of charge - e. If this hydrogen atom is “kicked”

ue is done by starting with some heavy atom
to an excited state, for example by collision

(neon, argon, titanium, iron, barium, uranium
with a fast electron, its orbiting electron will

. . .), removing all but two of its electrons, se-find itself in a more loosely bound orbit that is lectively trapping it, and bombarding it with
farther away from the nucleus. It will then un-
electrons while observing the photons it pro-
dergo one or more “quantum jumps” to small-
duces during quantum jumps from a “high” or-
er and more tightly bound orbits, releasing ex-
bit to one closer to the nucleus. The recent
cess energy along the way by emitting one
work at NIST has focused on high-precision
photon of light with each jump, until it reach-
measurements on helium-like titanium, a two-
es the atom’s “ground state”, the lowest al-
electron atom with a nuclear charge of Z=22.

lowed orbit around the hydrogen nucleus. It

These results, with rather small uncertainties, remains in that state until another collision oc-were combined with previous data, most of it
curs.

with somewhat larger uncertainties, on the

Helium is the second simplest atom in the
photons from high-Z helium-like atoms with
periodic table of elements. It has a nuclear

Z=16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 32, and 36, and charge of +2e, and is orbited by two electrons.

compared with the predictions of 3-body QED.

That sounds like only a modest change from

The most energetic photons from electron
hydrogen, but in the early days of atomic
transitions in helium have energies of around
physics it was a showstopper. The first fairly

39 electron volts. The photon energy scales as
realistic atomic model, developed by Neils

Z2, so analogous photons observed in the heli-Bohr, could accurately predict the observed
um-like atoms with a nuclear charge of Z=22,

“spectrum” (the wavelengths of emitted pho-
should have energies that are (22/2)2=121
tons) observed when hydrogen was excited,
times higher. The most energetic photons
but it utterly failed to predict the spectrum for from the helium-like atoms, studied with high-helium. The helium spectrum has a number of
precision bent-crystal spectroscopy, have en-
visible-light photon “lines” spanning the red to ergies around 4,750 electron volts, which is in violet, including a bright yellow one, with a
the soft x-ray region. The energy vs. Z of the few electron-volts of energy that are produced
most energetic photons from these studies of
by transitions among the higher excited states, helium-like atoms were compared with the

40

JOHN G. CRAMER

MAY 2013
predictions of quantum electrodynamics, a

Model to fail, and many of the QED techniques
part of the Standard Model that, up to now,
and assumptions are carried over to QCD. Per-
has had an essentially unblemished record in
haps we are doing both QED and QCD wrong,
predicting the results of experimental mea-
and the consequences are just now showing
surements. It was found that the data are sys-
up as tiny energy shifts in the excitations of
tematically larger in energy than the 3-body
high-Z atoms. This could be the breakthrough,

QED predictions by about 0.1 to 0.6 electron-
the crack in the wall, that physics has been
volts, depending on the value of Z. Further, needing for decades in order to progress to the the deviations in the heavier high-Z helium-like next level of understanding. ■
atoms appear to grow as Z3. The reported dis-crepancy with QED has a statistical signifi-

AV Columns Online: Electronic reprints of cance of about five standard deviations. Thus,
over 160 “The Alternate View” columns by

QED, a central and highly trusted component

John G. Cramer, previously published in Ana-of the Standard Model, seems to be failing in a log, are available online at: http://www.npl.

very fundamental and consistent way.

washington.edu/av/.

Does this mean that new physics is lurking
just offstage, and that the Standard Model is

References:

wrong in some fundamental way? Or is this

EBIT Technology:

only an indication that the theorists who are

“Overview of the Electron Beam Ion Trap
applying QED to this system have missed some

Program at NIST,” J. D. Gillaspy, et al, Physica subtle effect that only appears in high-Z 3-body Scripta T59, 392-395 (1995).

systems or that is some unexpected artifact of

Test of QED:

the trapping technique?

“Testing Three-Body Quantum Electrody-

It’s too early to say, but I hope that this rep-namics with Trapped Ti20+ Ions: Evidence for a
resents a real crack in the Standard Model that Z-dependent Divergence Between Experiment
will lead us to understand in a deeper way just and Calculation,” C. T. Chantler, et al, Physical how the universe works. QED has been con-Review Letters 109, 153001 (2012).

sidered the least likely place for the Standard HIGH-Z HELIUM: IS QED FAILING?

41

Prometheus

H. G. Stratmann

First contact is an experiment—but who is
the experimenter and who is the subject?

Four hundred thousand years ago . . .

all the work needed to carry it out. But unless he ocean was calm—a good omen.

we show today that the aliens can be trained

Golden light shimmered on its warm
to help us, I’m afraid the elders will decide
waters beneath a cloudless sky as Hk’tya
we’re just diverting precious resources from

Tdarted from one of her pod-sisters to an- more immediate needs and forbid anyfurther other, whistling f inal instructions to them as attempts.”

they prepared the experiment. Tp’tya, her

Tp’tya’s voice lost a little confidence. “Then
oldest and cleverest daughter, swam beside
we’ll just have to do whatever it takes to suc-
her and nudged her reassuringly while the
ceed.”

others worked. She clicked, “Don’t worry,

“Yes. Whatever it takes.”

Hk’tya. We’re all doing everything we can to

The two listened for a moment as Cst’tyo,
make your test succeed. If the aliens don’t re-
the pod’s most venerable Mother, improvised
spond this time, we’ll try again.”

an exquisite song. Too frail after many years of

“If they don’t accept our gift today, I’m
life and births to do the work herself, she
afraid there won’t be a next time.”

weaved her clicks and squeaks into a joyous

Hk’tya f licked her beak toward where
ode encouraging the far younger workers
those who would judge their efforts bobbed
swimming around her to redouble their ef-
just out of earshot. “You heard that ultimatum
forts. She sang of the thrill of discovering rich the Council of Elders gave us when we met
new feeding grounds free of greattooths—of a
with them twenty Lights ago. We would be
bright future full of food and healthy calves if satisf ied with making just a little progress
they did their tasks well.

with this test and willing to go on if it fails, but And her daughters in f lesh or spirit re-they’re demanding complete success now. If sponded to the wise Mother. The pace of their
what happens today doesn’t impress them, I
labors increased as they blended their voices
doubt repeating why this project is so impor-
in a harmonious chorus echoing the refrain of
tant and pleading with them to be patient will
her song. Rich homes for the pod, full bellies keep them from ending our work.”

for all, time for play without fear, all dreams She waved a flipper toward the great float-come true if we do our best.

ing platform their pod-sisters were preparing.

Hk’tya glided away for another inspection

“The only reason the elders let us do this ex-
of the large rectangular platform and the ma-
periment is that I convinced them it’d be fool-
terials being loaded on it from smaller ones
ish to stop it when we’d already done nearly
f loating close to it. Satisf ied everything was 42

H. G. STRATMANN

MAY 2013
going as well as it could, her sleek gray form
surface near her pod-sisters and Tp’tya had
jetted toward the spot where the three elders
taken many Lights to construct. Floating sticks observing her pod-sisters’ activities waited
of the right length and thickness had been
nearby. Each bore jagged scars on his slick
gathered close to unwet areas. Workers skilled
body—badges of honor won in battle against
at grasping and manipulating objects with
warriors of enemy pods, rivals within their
their mouths had meticulously bound the
own, and even greattooths. These elders, se-
sticks together with vines and strands of sea-
lected by the Council as its representatives to weed culled from the ocean.

judge the experiment, had seen and done

Next those raw materials were covered on
much in their long lives. It would not be easy
top with a thick coat of mud scooped up into
to impress them.

workers’ mouths from the ocean floor. Many

As Hk’tya approached them she rose out of
chips and shards of coral were embedded
the water for a moment, dancing on her tail in
carefully into the outermost layer of that mud, the traditional display of respect for these lead-which was then gradually baked to hardness
ers. But though she performed each move of
beneath the Great Light. All that intensive ef-
the ritual with pristine precision the elders
fort created a surface able to resist the artif i-showed no sign of appreciation for her efforts.

cial heat it was designed to support.

The largest and senior of that trio looked

The final product of those painstaking tech-
down his long blunt beak at her and clicked,
niques was the large platform, as long and just

“How much longer must we wait?”

over half as wide as one of the elders’ bodies,

“Not long, Honored One. This experiment
bobbing gently in the tide in front of them.

is very complex and too important to begin

Hk’tya hoped the elders saw it as the beautiful before we’ve prepared everything as well as
work of art she did—the perfect vessel for this we can. Even if all goes well it represents only great experiment.

one swim in a project that will take many

She pointed her beak at the mound of sticks

Lights to bear f ish. And we cannot eliminate
and leaves her pod-sisters, working carefully
every risk.”

to keep them dry, had just finished heaping in

The youngest elder snorted through his
the middle of the great f loating platform.

blowhole. “Then why even attempt it? Your

“When it is time, we will use this material as
work is keeping all of you from doing things
fuel for burning air.”

that would be useful right now. You and your

Hk’tya looked up at the Great Light shining
pod-sisters could be gathering food, tending
brightly in the clear High Ocean far above
the young, or caring for the sick instead of
them, then in the direction of the shoreline.

wasting energy on something so speculative

“We’ve trained the aliens to come here about
and dangerous. How do you know what
this time every Light. They should be arriving
you’re doing will really help the pod?”

soon.”

The last of the three elders frowned

The elders said nothing, but Hk’tya sensed
thoughtfully. “We won’t know the potential
attitudes ranging from doubt to curiosity hid-
benefits from exploring unwet space until we
ing behind their expressionless faces. At first do it. Hk’tya’s research has already shown us
they waited patiently to see if her prophesy
how to create better weapons to ward off
about the aliens’ impending arrival would
greattooths. Instead of fleeing from them, we
come true. But as the Great Light descended
can now defend our feeding areas better with
ever lower from its zenith with the beach re-
the sharpened stonesticks she invented. And
maining empty even the most open-minded of
her latest discovery could be an even more
the three began to glance uncertainly at her.

powerful deterrent against our enemies.”

The disparaging remark the most skeptical

Hk’tya added, “It might also have peaceful
elder started clicking stopped in mid-syllable.

and practical uses we cannot even imagine

All three battle-hardened males seemed star-
yet. But to discover them we must make these
tled by their first sight of the aliens.

first swims into unwet space.”

The dozen creatures emerging from the tall

The three elders followed her as she swam
dense plants near the shoreline moved with
back to the test site. The largest platform
odd jerking motions through unwet space.

buoyed up on the water’s gently undulating

Each stood upright on a widely separated pair

PROMETHEUS

43

ANALOG
of long thin fins, waving a set of even thinner Hk’tya said, “Our ultimate goal is to domes-segmented ones attached to its upper body.

ticate them and train them in skills useful to

The largest wasn’t quite as long as Hk’tya her-
the pod. Although they have limited intelli-
self. Several were so small they must be the
gence, the aliens have a great advantage over
aliens’ young.

us. The waters that give us life also limit what Much of each alien’s skin was matted with
we can do in it. Making air burn and keeping
coarse dark tendrils. But most unnatural of all it burning within our own environment is ex-were the creatures’ heads—dangling precipi-
tremely diff icult. It’s extinguished by expo-
tously atop short stalks attached to their upper sure to only a little wetness. Even obtaining
bodies. Their flat faces and tiny mouths were
enough dry material for fuel is hard. But with-
hideously misshapen.

in the natural dryness where these aliens live

Regaining their composure, the elders
in unwet space, creating and maintaining
watched as a group of workers with freshly
burning air is much easier.”

caught f ish clutched f irmly in their teeth

The senior elder snorted. “Yes, you’ve told
swam toward the shore. The aliens grew more
the whole Council how you want to teach
excited as the pod-sisters cautiously eased
these aliens to produce stockpiles of burning
closer to the water’s edge. With practiced skill air and give us burning sticks whenever we
they flung the still-living fish in their mouths need them in exchange for more food. You’ve
toward the group standing on the muddy
also stated your belief that, in the hope of get-ground just beyond the gently undulating
ting more fish, the aliens might even throw us
waves. The recipients of those gifts tried to
things like plants and stones from their world
catch them and scampered after any flopping
that are unknown to us and that could prove
fish falling near them. Every one of the aliens useful. But I’m still not convinced all this ef-grasped f ish easily using the f ive nimble seg-fort to explore and exploit unwet space is jus-
ments at the end of each upper f in—then
tified.

brought that food to its mouth with both of

“I’ve supported your research until now be-
those fins to eagerly rend and tear its flesh.

cause some of your inventions have indeed

Hk’tya turned to the elders. “It took a long
been beneficial. The stonesticks you and your
time to train the aliens to come close to the
pod-sisters make help us f ight off smaller
waters. But as you see, it’s possible to modify greattooths. The floating platforms you build
their behavior using rewards.”

are helpful for transporting more fish and sup-

Tp’tya added, “We’ve already taught them
plies at one time than we could carry in our
to give us things in return. After we got them
mouths. But, except perhaps as an improve-
into the habit of coming to the water’s edge
ment over conventional stonesticks as a
for a daily feeding we showed them what we
weapon, you’ve been suspiciously vague
wanted to do before throwing them food. One
about what else burning air might be good for.

of us would hold a stick in her mouth and

Even if you do f ind other uses for it I f ind it then toss it to another of our pod-sisters. The hard to believe those disgusting creatures over second one would then toss the first a fish.

there can be taught to do anything worth-

“After watching us perform those actions
while.”

many times, one of the smaller aliens found a

Tp’tya’s tail wagged disrespectfully for an in-
stick and threw it at us. When we rewarded it
stant before she composed herself. “But Hon-
by tossing it a fish, several others threw sticks ored One, the reason we are doing this
at us too and received food in return. Then we
experiment today is to help answer the ques-
repeated the lesson with small stones—hop-
tions you so wisely ask. It’s been diff icult to ing some of them might throw back the spe-study burning air and learn what it can be
cial kinds we need for our work.”

used for because, at present, we can only pro-

She squeaked wryly. “We learned to stay a
duce small amounts for short times. But if we
little farther back when the aliens hurled
can teach the aliens to help us we’ll be able to stones at us. Their aim was sometimes too
work with much larger quantities of burning
good, and they’re stronger than they look.

air and replenish them when needed. That

Some of their ‘gifts’ were sharp and heavy
will let us conduct many more experiments to
enough to give us nicks and bruises.”

determine its practical applications.”

44

H. G. STRATMANN

MAY 2013

Hk’tya bobbed her head in agreement.

great things and not—as it usually is—a dan-

“Even our discovery of burning air itself was
gerous dead end.”

an unexpected byproduct of our previous re-

Hk’tya glanced at the creatures standing on
search.”

the shoreline—still waiting for more f ish.

She motioned for two of their pod-sisters to

From past experience she knew that, unless
swim closer. Each held a long stick in her
they received more gifts soon, they’d surely
mouth tipped at its far end by a sharpened
wander back to their lairs.

stone.

Returning her gaze to the elders, it was

Hk’tya continued, “Notice, Honored Ones,
clear they had as little patience as the aliens that each stonestick has a different kind of
did. “It’s time we all learned that, Honored
stone tied at its end—one yellowish, the oth-

Ones. With your permission, we are ready to
er gray. When we did our initial studies on
begin our experiment.”

how to make stonesticks, we gathered many
types of stones that washed into the shallower

Hk’tya and Tp’tya watched with growing
waters near the unwet areas and from the
despair as four of their pod-sisters continued
ocean f loor. We tested them to see which
to work. Two workers bobbed in place at op-
could be honed and sharpened to a point
posite ends of the great floating platform, one most easily by striking and scraping them to-at each of its shorter sides. Nudging it as need-gether. That’s how we discovered that these
ed using their heads and bodies, they carefully two types of stone could produce tiny brief
kept the craft’s position in the water stable
flecks of light.

and one end pointed toward the shore. The

“During one of our experiments some of
other two, each holding a stonestick in her
those flecks landed on a dry spot of the stick
mouth, were positioned across from each oth-
one stone was bound to. It produced a small
er along either of the platform’s long sides.

localized area of heat, mist, and blackening.

They repeatedly struck the yellowish stone at

Then, by testing the effects of those hot flecks the end of one stonestick against the gray one
on different materials, one day we were sur-
attached to the other just above the dry sticks prised to be see air itself begin to burn.”

and leaves heaped across the middle of the

The middle elder clicked to his peers, “She
vessel. Hk’tya looked intermittently at the
has a point. Sometimes the greatest discover-
aliens to make sure they too were watching
ies are made unexpectedly or by accident. You
this spectacle—and hopefully would imitate
both remember how, back when we were all
that action to make burning air on their own.

much younger, I was sent by the Council to

But though many bright hot flecks had fall-
scout an unexplored region of ocean to see if
en onto the fuel piled on the platform, they’d
it would make a good feeding ground. But a
all failed to make air burn. Only a smoldering
storm tossed me far off-course—and I found
gray mist rose upward from their craft.

myself swimming instead in another area that

Worse, as the ocean around them began to
proved to be one of the best feeding grounds
undulate more forcefully, they had to carefully in the pod’s memories. That experience
move their platforms farther and farther back
showed me the important thing is that we set
from the shore to calmer waters. Hk’tya cast
out to explore in the f irst place—even if we
worried glances at the aliens, who were still
don’t know for sure before we do it what we’ll
watching their activities—for now—from a
find or accomplish. Perhaps what they’re say-
much greater distance, and hoped they
ing about burning air and teaching the aliens
wouldn’t lose interest and leave. And she
is like that too.”

hoped that the trio of judges scrutinizing them He turned back to Hk’tya and Tp’tya—and
wouldn’t realize that, if her two pod-sisters
his eyes hardened. “But the three pod-broth-
couldn’t make air burn soon, the natural
ers who went with me on that scouting expe-
rhythm of the ocean would make it too dan-
dition were separated from me and lost in that
gerous to proceed with the experiment.

same storm. They never returned to the pod

The elders looked at each other, as if silently and must’ve perished. You’ll have to show us conferring whether they’d seen enough. The
that what you’re doing really is one of those
youngest elder clicked, “You’ve wasted
times when exploring the unknown leads to
enough of our time. We’re leaving—”

PROMETHEUS

45

ANALOG

He jerked back after a light breeze blew
making it harder to move the platform for-
across the platform—and the air above it f i-
ward. Hk’tya had known this would happen if
nally burned. The two workers holding the
they started their push toward the shore too
stonesticks immediately laid them on the plat-
late in the Light. Though she hadn’t dared vo-
form away from the flickering fuel.

calize her reasons in front of the elders, she

With more prearranged choreography, all
was grateful Tp’tya hadn’t questioned her de-
four workers around the craft swiftly swam
cision for the two of them to take over the in-
out of the way. But as the two pod-sisters
creasingly hazardous task of bringing the
she’d previously selected to move the plat-
platform to the aliens—and must’ve guessed
form toward unwet space maneuvered into
why she’d done it.

position behind it, Hk’tya shouted to them,

The rhythmic cycles of the moving waters

“Stay back! Tp’tya and I will bring it to the
changed little from day to day, and Hk’tya
aliens ourselves!”

knew their margin of safety was gone even be-

Tp’tya whistled in surprise at this unexpect-
fore she and Tp’tya started pushing the plat-
ed change in plans. She started to speak to
form toward unwet space. The chance of

Hk’tya—but after glancing at the elders, she
them reaching the shore in time diminished
silently swam toward the platform.

ever more rapidly as the tide continued to re-

Hk’tya clicked sternly at her pod-sisters,
cede. It would’ve been hard enough to ration-

“Whatever happens, don’t follow us!” Then
alize sending the two pod-sisters she’d
she and Tp’tya assumed forward-facing posi-
selected for this mission into such terrible dan-tions near the corners of the platform at one
ger. But even more importantly, with so much
end, along the short side farthest from the
at stake she couldn’t rely on those two being
shore. With gently undulating tails and f lip-
brave enough to carr y on when they ap-
pers the two of them slowly pushed the
proached the shore and realized how close to
aliens’ gift—the burning air and the stone-
death they might be pushing themselves. She
sticks to make it—toward unwet space.

could only count on herself—and hopefully

Hk’tya kept her head against the end of the

Tp’tya—to push on if that happened. If only
platform, concentrating on nudging it con-
the aliens had arrived sooner, or if the air
stantly forward in continued synchronization
hadn’t taken so long to start burning. . . .

with Tp’tya. Behind her she heard Cst’tyo be-

There was no time for regrets or second
gin trilling a traditional song of celebration. It thoughts. She glanced up toward the aliens
sang of victories over greattooths, the ecstasy and saw them still watching their advance. But
of mating time, and easy births of healthy
with each pulsing tide the waters were gradu-
calves. Then their pod-sisters joined in with
ally retreating from where those creatures
their own contrapuntal comments about a ju-
stood waiting.

bilant future with yet unknown joys—a future

She heard Tp’tya, swimming beside her,
that what they did today would create. Hk’tya
recognize the danger too and click, “We may
thought she even heard a lower-pitched voice
not be able to reach the shore in time!”

from one of the elders rumbling within that

Hk’tya’s reply sounded calmer than she felt.

grand chorus.

“Let’s move a little faster—but not too fast,

That song faded into the distance as she and
otherwise the air might stop burning. Start

Tp’tya plunged deeper toward unwet space.

swimming harder . . . now!”

Hk’tya noticed a brisk breeze was making the

Her strokes grew stronger—but Tp’tya’s
air above the platform burn a bit too well. At
didn’t. With that sudden imbalance in their
that rate its fuel might be consumed too rapid-
motions her side of the platform started to
ly—and for their experiment to succeed, the
move ahead of Tp’tya’s, threatening to send it
platform had to reach the creatures on the
into an uncontrollable spin, perhaps even
shore before the air on it stopped burning.

making it rock so much enough water would

But as the two approached their goal, even
splash onto it to extinguish the burning air—
the ocean began to fight against them. Instead
and her hopes. Hk’tya immediately matched
of rolling nearer and nearer toward the shore,
her daughter’s more hesitant nudges until the
each to-and-fro heave of those foaming waves
platform stabilized.

made the water’s edge slowly retreat from it—

Though forced to follow Tp’tya’s slower

46

H. G. STRATMANN

MAY 2013
pace, Hk’tya knew there was no point scream-

Timing her move perfectly, Hk’tya used sud-
ing at her to speed up. They both realized the
den powerful strokes of her f lippers and tail
water might soon become too shallow for
to send her whole body slamming laterally
them to swim in. Soon she’d have to make a
against Tp’tya. As her daughter careened away
decision whether to push on—or risk death
from the side of the platform Hk’tya quickly
from exposure.

centered her head on the back of the craft be-

As they moved ever closer to where the wa-
fore it too could spin out of control.

ters ended and unwet space began Hk’tya fear-

Waves lapped ever more lightly against her
fully imagined her tail striking the bottom of
sides as she plunged on alone with all her
the ocean f loor any moment now. Too many
strength. Her eyes focused straight ahead on
times during her life she’d seen what hap-
the gradually diminishing burning air.

pened when someone foolhardily swam too

Through its distorting shimmer Hk’tya saw the
close to the unwet and became stranded on its
aliens scamper back a little, as if fearful of
hard deadly surface. Nightmare memories of
what she was bringing them. She tried calm-
seeing Nl’woc’s body f lailing, f lippers and
ing her pounding heart with the faint hope
f lukes beating in panic, as he tried to regain that she could still get the platform close
the ocean suddenly flooded her mind. She and
enough to the aliens and out of the water
others had watched helplessly from nearby as
enough for them to retrieve it—but not ven-
her mate struggled to survive—hoping that
ture so close she’d run out of ocean herself
the waters might advance again soon enough
and be stranded.

for him to be washed back to safety.

Closer and closer to the shore she pushed

But that didn’t happen. Instead he’d starved
into ever shallower water—past the depth
and baked under the scorching Great Light,
where she knew she could swim away, to one
dying slowly in agony. Eventually only rotting
where her escape to safety was ever less likely.

flesh picked at by dark airthings and bleaching The salty spray splashing on her head seemed
bones marked his passing.

to quickly evaporate from the heat of the

And now, as she and Tp’tya pushed the plat-
burning air in front of her and the Great Light form forward, they swam toward that same
above. As her down-f lapping f lukes scraped
danger. Hk’tya knew from experience that the
the ocean f loor she realized she could go no
aliens wouldn’t venture far out into the wide
farther. The platform suddenly resisted her
muddy border between the deep waters and
push as its far end struck the slightly upslop-
where they stood on the unwet shore. As the
ing edge of the unwet—and she knew it too
tide receded she saw that they were nearly out
had gone as far as it could. Her body twisted
of time to get the platform close enough to
to turn around and head back into the safety
the creatures for them to come to it. Two
of the ocean—
heads pushing the platform would get it to its

But she couldn’t turn. The ebbing tide had
target sooner—but it also put two lives in dan-
retreated just enough that she’d gone past the
ger.

point of no return. Shallow rippling water still

“Tp’tya, swim away now! I’ll take it in the
lapped around her belly and lower sides—but
rest of the way!”

not enough for her to swim away, sidle back-

An instant later her daughter’s strokes grew
wards, or even change her head-first position
a little stronger—more resolute. “No, you
on the unwet.

can’t do it alone! I won’t abandon you!”

Hk’tya panicked. Her body f lailed and

Hk’tya simultaneously matched that slightly
writhed—trying to return to the deep waters
faster pace and shrieked in a shrill whistle,
that waited tantalizingly close behind her. Her

“You have to! If we both don’t make it there’ll brain screamed with the realization that she’d
be no one to continue the project! If I fail I
never know whether her mission succeed-
need you to convince the elders that what
ed—whether her death meant anything.

happens to us and our descendents depends

Time lost all meaning as her life sunk to-
on what we’re trying to do today! I need you
ward its end. Soon, already exhausted from
to be my voice and continue our work!”

pushing the platform, she stopped struggling.

“No, I won’t leave! We both succeed to-

Her head was still pointing toward the
gether or both fail—”

aliens—away from the receding ocean she

PROMETHEUS

47

ANALOG
could no longer see behind her. A growing

In that last instant before her mind shat-
peace settled over Hk’tya’s mind as accep-
tered into shards of terror and agony, Hk’tya
tance of her fate seeped into it. Once more
felt herself being eaten alive.

she focused ahead on the still-burning air atop the platform just in front of her beak and the

Tp’tya swam back and forth perilously close
aliens standing across the stretch of unwet.

to the shore, shrieking with the loudest clicks Though she had no future, a part of her still
and whistles she could muster. But the aliens
hoped to see the aliens come and accept this
either didn’t hear or ignored her screams to
gift before she died.

stop. No longer satisfied with using only their And they did. Several of them moved a little
teeth, the larger ones grabbed sharp-edged
toward her—then a bit nearer. The rest tenta-
stones from the beach—using them to slice
tively followed. She saw the aliens much clos-
through her mother’s skin and rip into the fat
er than any of her kind ever had before.

and meat beneath.

Though their bodies were even more mis-

She didn’t notice her pod-sisters, disobey-
shapen and horrifying than they’d looked
ing Hk’tya’s last order, arrive until it was too from a distance, in several she glimpsed a
late for her to try a desperate threatening
brightness of thought glinting from their eyes
lunge at the creatures standing out of reach in that mimicked hers. A few pushed their faces
unwet space. Her pod-sisters bunched them-
close to hers and made small up-and-down
selves into a barricade of bodies, gently but
motions with the f lesh bordering their tiny
f irmly pushing Tp’tya away from the shore.

beaks—as if studying her with some mysteri-

She slammed into an unyielding wall of flesh
ous sense only they possessed.

when she swam back a little and hurtled her-

From out of the depths of her despair a
self against them. Several rose up with per-
glimmer of hope rose within her. Although
fectly timed leaps to stop her flight when she
she didn’t have the power and limbs to push
tried to jump over that blockade. Trying to
herself back into the water, together these
swim around them only made them stretch
creatures did. Perhaps they could even feel out into a thick line swimming parallel with
compassion—or at least gratitude for the gifts
her and the shore.

of fish they’d received from her and her pod-

And all that time her shrieks of “Get out of
sisters.

my way!” were answered by her pod-sisters’

As if in answer to her thoughts, the aliens
hopeless cries of “It’s too late, it’s too late.”

slowly walked behind her. Though she

Her strength spent, Tp’tya glared once
couldn’t see them, Hk’tya felt the f ive-seg-
more in despair at the crowd of aliens feasting mented ends of their f ins touch and gently
on her dying mother in a feeding frenzy rival-
poke her—as if encouraging her to get back
ing that of a pack of her kind’s deadliest ene-
into the water before it was too late. Then,
mies in the ocean. She’d seen the vicious
seeming to realize she couldn’t do it on her
wounds inf licted on others by greattooths—
own, their limbs prodded her more forcefully,
and knew no one could survive all those
rocking her body a bit on the solid surface. If countless smaller ones still being gouged out
they could just push her a little harder toward on the shore. Several more futile threats and
the ocean . . .

curses at the aliens escaped her before the

Suddenly a sharp pain lanced through her
point of a sharp stone reached some vital or-
right f lank. Then a worse one on her left, a
gan and Hk’tya shuddered her last. Plumbing
third on a fluke—still more in a never-ending
the depths of her grief, Tp’tya began to softly crescendo of torment. Hope died as she real-sing a heartrending melody of mourning, leav-
ized what was causing this torture.

ening her anguish with a whisper of bitter-

Not the enormous jaws of greattooths that
sweet thought that her mother was finally free
could kill quickly and mercifully with a single of all care and pain.

bite. These bites from much smaller sets of Then she stopped singing. She knew what
sharp teeth were merely nibbles by compari-

Hk’tya would want her to do so that her sacri-
son, with each successive mouthful of her
f ice might have some meaning. As Tp’tya
body and blood tearing just a little of her life swam back toward the elders, her pod-sisters
away.

followed her, continuing the dirge she’d start-

48

H. G. STRATMANN

MAY 2013
ed. One by one each added her own unique
worked a little more efficiently than it did dur-clicks, whistles, and pulsing rhythms to that
ing its usual state of near-starvation. Whatever lament until a great polyphonic hymn re-the reason, something within his mind made
sounded across the waters. Their voices
the connection that those glowing sticks re-
swelled to the sky, then fell fading back to the sembled what he and his kin occasionally saw
ocean as a despairing murmur.

after water fell from a darkened sky and

The elders looked dully at Tp’tya as she ap-
streaks of light thundered across it.

proached. Each glanced silently toward the

The oldsters had warned him with furious
distant tragic scene on the shore as calmly as
grunts and bared teeth not to go toward that
they might watch calves at play.

bright crackling deep within the forest. Later, Their eyes focused back on Tp’tya as she
when the glow there had vanished, he’d gone
said, “Hk’tya wanted me to tell you that, de-
anyway, staring in puzzlement at the black-
spite what happened, our work must go on.”

ened misty remnants of trees—wondering

The youngest elder dipped beneath the sur-
what had caused that destruction.

face. An instant later he bobbed back up and

The gray powder and blackening sticks
snorted misty water away from his blowhole.

washed up today with their food resembled

Then he swam away, adding to the insult by
what he’d seen then. He walked over and
flapping his flukes obscenely at her.

picked up the normal-looking end of one of

She continued more softly, “Hk’tya would
the flickering sticks. Its far tip flared up—but say our research on burning air and exploring
though he was startled he didn’t drop the
unwet space could still create a future for us
stick. He stared at the hot shimmering air ris-
greater than we can imagine.”

ing from the wood as he walked back toward

The senior elder turned away, churning up
the food on the ground.

languid ripples as he departed.

The great f ish had stopped thrashing. His

Tp’tya looked deep into the remaining el-
sloping forehead furrowed as he looked at it
der’s sad, sympathetic eyes for a moment.

and the end of the stick, wondering if there

Then she swam back to her pod-sisters and
was some connection between the two. As he
joined her voice to theirs.

wrestled with that question he absentminded-

Cst’tyo glided beside her and stroked her in-
ly poked the fish over and over again with his
consolable granddaughter’s side with a com-
stick, prodding deep into several of its gaping forting flipper. Then the Mother began adding
wounds. Then he noticed its flesh looked dif-
new words to the melody the others were
ferent where the glowing tip of the stick had
singing. She wove them into a song and story
touched and lingered—darker and steaming a
of what happened that day—one that would
little. The aroma rising from those sizzling
be passed on from generation to generation,
spots made him lick his lips.

from pod to pod. To all their kind, its message His f ingers tore out a chunk of hot meat
would be taught as lullabies to the young and
from one of those darkened areas. As he tast-
accepted as unimpeachable wisdom by adults.

ed it, his mouth twisted into a toothy smile.

Be content with what we have, for there

With squeals of delight he held the stick
are some things we dare not do. Live for to-against the fish’s body again and again until its day, for there are always more fish to find in end stopped glowing, screeching at his kin to
the ocean we know. . . .

sample where he’d applied its smoldering tip.

As more and more of them followed his sug-

Meanwhile, too far away to hear a song they
gestion, he glanced at the dying glow of the
couldn’t have understood anyway, the hairy
sticks bound and piled in front of the f ish—
creatures on the shore continued gorging
and had another insight. Running quickly back
themselves. A younger one, his smaller belly
to the forest to gather more sticks, he laid
feeling full before those older and larger than them on the nearly consumed ones. He
him were satiated, paused in his chewing to
squealed again and danced excitedly for a mo-
look at the strange glowing sticks in front of
ment as the f lickering light suddenly blazed
their meal. Then something unpredictable
up greater than ever.

happened. Perhaps it was because his brain,

While the others grunted their approval
receiving more nutrients that it was used to,
through stuffed mouths at his earlier discovery PROMETHEUS

49

ANALOG
of how to make meat tastier, he picked up one

Oceans World.”

of the newly glowing sticks. Bringing its bright Suzy interrupted, “Don’t talk so loud, it’s
smoking tip close enough to his face to almost
coming on now!”

singe his whiskers, he wondered what else

But Mommy grumbled, “I still can’t believe
this might be good for. . . .

you let her pet that slimy thing. It could’ve bitten her!”

Present day . . .

“The host at the show said it was safe. And

Four-year-old Suzy squirmed excitedly on
you saw how excited she was when he chose
the couch as Daddy slipped the DVD into the
her out of the audience to do it.”

player. She hugged the smiling stuffed animal

He patted the treasured trophy of the fami-
in her arms and snuggled against her father as
ly’s recent Florida vacation clutched in Suzy’s he settled beside her. Eyes locked on the TV
loving arms. “At least you don’t have to worry
screen, the little girl barely heard him say, “I about this one!”

watched reruns of this show when I was

The child squeezed her plush finny toy and
about your age.”

squeaked, “Is the one on TV as smart as the

Mommy sat down on her other side as Dad-
ones we saw, Daddy?”

dy murmured, “See, I told you she’d enjoy the

“Even smarter—almost like a person. They
trip!”

don’t even need to give him fish to make him

“She didn’t seem to get much out of Cape
do tricks like the ones at the show.”

Canaveral.”

Suzy sat mesmerized as the program began.

“Okay, I guess she’s still not old enough to

Its lilting theme song bubbled from the televi-
appreciate that. But I got a kick out of seeing sion.

where the old Apollo and Shuttle flights used

“They call him Flipper. . . .” ■
to launch. And she really liked going to

50

H. G. STRATMANN

Illustrated by Tomislav Tikulin

Geospermia

Patty Jansen

People will believe what they want—
especially when the evidence is
sketchy and decidedly strange. . . .

o,” Pavlo said, “your brother lives
succeeded. All I could see was the narrow
down there?”

track wedged between the red cliff-face and

The truck slid down a hairpin
the wall of green rising from the steep slopes

“Sbend,the rear end fishtailing. of the canyon below.Right now,I was glad Pavlo’s hands raced hand over hand over the
that I couldn’t see the bottom. This section of wheel. Red mud splattered against the win-Ophis Chasma was five kilometers deep, and
dow. My fingers dug holes into my seat.

every one of those kilometers was screaming

“Yup. He’s had the farm for about five years
its presence to me.

now.” Trying to sound relaxed. Not sure if I

Silly space-adapted woman.

GEOSPERMIA

51

ANALOG

“What does he grow? I presume he’s one of
closed ecosystem, but we rarely saw the re-
the farmers.”

sults.

“Yes. He grows potatoes.”

So this riot of greenery was new to me.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, old Mack-

“Well, here you are,” Pavlo said. He turned
enroy is your brother?”

off the engine.

I nodded noncommittally, wondering since

“Yeah,” I said and hesitated. Damn, it was
when forty-two was old, and really not want-
silent here. No recycling vents, no distant hum ing to talk about Derek. I vastly preferred that of engines.

Pavlo kept his eyes on the road.

The house looked the same as it had on my

And why didn’t Pavlo know this anyway? It
last visit, years ago: a blocky structure made
was not like the Mars settlers’ community was
out of a couple of shipping containers, white
that big. Most of them lived in the towns and
exterior stained orange with Mars dust, and a
judging by the checkpoint we’d passed at the
shed to the side. Functional, but ugly. An un-
top of the valley, the Mars Settlement Authori-
kempt mat of grass had sprung up around the
ty knew exactly who lived where.

buildings. Mother, Annalise, and I often won-

Another hairpin bend, another sideways
dered why Derek didn’t pretty up the place a
slide in crumbly Martian mud.

bit, but he would say that if people didn’t like Sven in the back seat was f idgeting. He al-his mess, they were free to leave.

ways did that when I was nervous.

“Well—uhm . . .” I grabbed the door handle.

“How much further?” I didn’t think I could

Hesitated. I felt so naked. Rarely went outside take much more of this; I was convinced he
without layers of protective clothing and pres-
was doing this on purpose to scare the shit out sure suits. Never without a breathing appara-of me.

tus.

“We should be there soon,” Pavlo said,

Pavlo opened the door on his side. The air
steering around a deep pothole. “Does your
that streamed into the cabin was strangely hu-
brother know you’re coming?”

mid and warm. It smelled of wet soil, a smell I

“It’s a surprise,” I said.

knew well from the new Titan domes. What it

Well, not quite, but that was none of his
lacked was the underlying tang of salt that
business. Rather, I hoped it would be a sur-
came with the first wetting of soil in billions prise, because when Derek had not even sent
of years. The tinge of acid. The ammonia. This
a virt to Annalise’s wedding, and didn’t reply
smelled like life. Earth life, on Mars.

to our subsequent messages, we’d all become

I got out and stood on the red Martian soil.

worried. Long periods of silence were com-

A soft breeze ruffled my hair. I’d seen the pa-mon with Derek, but ignoring an important
pers on predicted air circulation models. Be-
event, that was not like Derek at all. So, yeah, cause the canyon was more than five kilome-that’s why I was here, checking up on him, on
ters deep and at the equator, the shadows

Mars, all the way from Titan.

moved around a lot. This caused big tempera-
ture gradients and real breezes, real clouds and The truck turned into the farm driveway,
real rain, all within the volume of air capped
and Pavlo gunned down the drive.

by the dome. I knew that, but to feel it . . .

The familiar house was at the end of the rut-
damn, it was impressive. Here was Earth life
ted track, surrounded by walls of green. Derek
infecting and slowly taking over a number of
had sent us photos of how the vegetation had
worlds. We found species that were suited to
grown, but it still filled me with awe to see it the harsh conditions, and they grew and
in reality. As a terraforming engineer, I only
thrived millions of miles from home. Geosper-
ever got to see the dome-erections, the soil
mia in action.

f lushing operations, the plantings, and the

There was a rustle behind me. Sven had
building of the very f irst dwellings. My boss
come out of the back seat as silent and preda-
went back to old projects, but I was part of
tor-like as he usually moved. The sunlight
the machine that pushed ahead to the next
made his hair shine like platinum gold. His
project. We made models, we designed, we
perfect face showed no emotion, but seeing as
oversaw construction, we wrote the soil treat-
it was barely two years since his awakening,
ment manuals. We allowed people to start a
he had never seen real planetary life. I had al-52

PATTY JANSEN

MAY 2013
lowed his data streaming to stay on maximum
the darkness of the office. I peered in and no-
just for this trip, and his eyes had that glazed ticed three surveillance camera screens, each
look they took on when he was processing
showing part of the valley.

something. A slight frown crossed his face.

God. Paranoid, anyone?

I went up the house’s crude veranda, al-

A thought: would he have hidden some-
ready sweating in the humidity. Sven followed
where in the valley? Derek could be funny
close behind, his footsteps too silent for some-about strangers sometimes, and with all the
one his size. I knocked on the door, but there
surveillance equipment, he would have seen
was no sound inside the house.

the truck coming for miles.

I knocked on the windows. “Derek?”

I checked the computer. Sven was right; the

Still no reply. I tried to peek through a gap
communication channel was down.

between the blinds, but it was too dark inside.

I left the house and walked into the f ield,

Then I tried the front door. It was locked.

through the cluggy Martian mud that stuck to

I rattled the doorknob, but Sven gently
my shoes and fell off in big clumps so that one pushed me aside and opened the door with
moment I was walking on a platform, and the
ease. If not for the bent aluminum, I would
next, one of the platforms fell off and one leg have thought I’d been crazy about it being
was five centimeters shorter than the other. I
locked. That was what aggregates could do,
made for the shed, Sven in tow, silent and de-
with their engineered muscles and stronger
pendable.

bones.

On closer inspection, the f ield had been

I went inside, ignoring the bent doorframe
churned but not plowed. It looked like the soil and torn seals. Most of these older container
had been dug up by wild pigs. And rained on,
houses still had airtight doors and the rem-
and churned up again. Something told me that
nants of air locks. Thus there was a second
it was a long time since these fields had seen
doorframe in the corridor, with a doormat
any potato plants.

over it, presumably so that no one would trip

I pulled a green grass-like shoot, of which
over the raised threshold. Typical Derek. Any
there were plenty. It lifted from the soil with a sane person would have removed it ages ago.

piece of thick woody rhizome attached.

My footsteps sounded hollow in the dark

Bamboo. Like the hillsides, like the whole
hall. “Derek?”

jungle we’d just traversed to come here. Not a

Dust crunched underfoot. The hall was
potato plant in sight.

lined with discarded shoes and socks, jackets,

Derek’s truck was not in the shed. The back
a raincoat. There was a cabinet at the end of
door was open, and tracks of crushed sprouts
the corridor. Empty, except for a couple of ri-
led across the field into the tall bamboo stand.

fle-shaped clamps against the rear wall and a

Tracks that were fairly recent.

cardboard box that had held rounds of ammu-

“I have a bad feeling about this, Sven. It’s
nition. That box was also empty.

like he’s fled after he saw us coming.” Because In the kitchen I found a cup on the table,
with the cameras, he would have seen us, and
still with a drop of coffee in the bottom. I held would not have known that I was inside the
it up to Sven. “He was here not that long ago.

truck with the Department of Planetary Devel-

This morning probably.”

opment logo on the sides. “Like he’s had a dis-

And then he’d gone out, and taken his gun.

agreement with the department . . .” All of a

“Has he left any messages for anyone?”

sudden, my voice would no longer cooperate.

Sven gazed into nothingness. He shook his

I had expected Derek just to be sitting at
head. “I can’t access the mail. I’m not getting home, being his stubborn self. But instead it
any communication channels, just the shuttle
looked like something was very, very wrong.

base info.”

“We’ll go and find him, yes?”

Hmmm—no reception in this valley? Surely

“Yes.”

it was a temporary outage.

He spread his arms and I let myself be en-

We looked in all the rooms. The bed was
folded.

disturbed, clothes on the f loor around it.

His voice rumbled in his chest. “You worry

There was water in a laundry tub where a dark
too much. Your brother was here this morn-
piece of clothing lay to soak. A light flashed in ing. He’ll be around somewhere. Watching us,

GEOSPERMIA

53

ANALOG
probably.” He bent over and kissed me softly.

“I can’t let you go by yourself.”

Never mind that he was an aggregate, and had

“I appreciate the concern, but it’s not nec-
bones made of plastic and the capability to re-
essary.” I squinted against the glare of sun-
cycle nutrients internally, Sven was my rock,
light—so much stronger than on Titan. It an-
always there for me.

noyed me; it made me hot. “Derek is my

We made our way back to the truck, Sven
brother, my responsibility. Anyway, I won’t be
still with his arm around me.

by myself. I’ll have Sven.”

Pavlo saw us coming, and raised his eye-

The two men glared at each other. Pavlo
brows.

looked as if he didn’t consider Sven’s company

Sven said, softly, “I hazard a guess that he
to fit the definition of not alone.

disapproves strongly of aggregates.” He drew

I felt Sven tense behind my back. Maybe
me close until my shoulder and back touched
that’s why he was so angry. People in the in-
him.

ner system rarely knew what to do with him.

“I heard that, Mister. Just for your informa-

Do we store him with the bots? the shuttle tion, it is not about aggregates,” Pavlo said, crew had asked. Seriously, I’m not kidding. I
sidestepping me and facing Sven. “It’s about
suspected there was a huge trail of rumors
our right to interfere with nature, and I find it about us waiting for me when I returned to
abhorrent how you planet-razers come and
the shuttle base. You know they slept in the barge in with no respect to the natural cy-same room? Do you think they . . . ?

cles—”

I seriously didn’t have the energy for that

“Natural cycles? On a dead world?”

sort of stuff right now.

“I would expect you to say that, as a half-hu-

I touched Sven’s arm, and hoped he got the
man. But your boss, and the boss above that
message to calm down. Something was bug-
should know better—”

ging him, and if Pavlo kept this up, the two

“If you threaten Wendy, you’ll have to deal
were going to have a massive argument any
with me first—”

moment, and knowing Sven, I couldn’t guar-

“Whoa, whoa!” I stepped between the two,
antee no one would get killed. And that some-
looking from one to the other. “Do you care to
one wouldn’t be me. Or Sven. And I didn’t
explain what both of you are on about?”

think the Mars Settlement Authority took too

Neither of them said anything. I met Sven’s
lightly to having their employees killed on the eyes and tried to look questioning, but he was
job. Last time I looked, opinionated jackassery again tapped into the shuttle base. I wished I
was not a capital offense. Not even on Mars.

could shut off the link, or at least vet it, beAnd frankly, we could use a guide.

cause it seemed he had tapped into a political
stream, but I needed his medi-couch, and

Most of that afternoon, the truck trundled
damn it, at this age, he was meant to be stable.

up the hill, following the trail of crushed vege-

“Derek’s not here,” I said to Pavlo. “Do you
tation between solid walls of bamboo. It was
know if there would be a reason for him not to
slow going, and the heavy engine labored. As
want a visit from the department?”

we climbed, oxygen became suboptimal, and

Pavlo shrugged. “I don’t know.” A bit too
the air took on a stifling feel like you were run-careless for my liking. Oh hell, he knew.

ning but never got enough air. And the closer

“I’m going to find him,” I said.

we went to the dome roof, where the air

Pavlo snorted. “How? Last time I sent one of
pumps churned vast amounts of nitrogen into
you spacers into the valley by themselves, I
the valley, the thinner the oxygen became.

had to assemble a twenty-man strong team for

One thing that didn’t change was the infer-
a rescue mission.”

nal jungle.

“I’m a terraformer, not a spacer.”

“What’s with all the bamboo?” I asked, turn-

“You know nothing about this place. Let me
ing to Sven on the back seat.

tell you: if you go out there, you’ll need a

Sven’s eyes glazed over as they always did
truck. I’m coming.”

when he looked something up. “It says here

“I didn’t hire you for that.” Derek would run
it’s a conservation program. It’s to stop erosion even faster if he saw the department truck fol-and then introduce threatened species from
lowing him.

Earth. The vegetation program f irst planted

54

PATTY JANSEN

MAY 2013
the bamboo about ten years ago. It’s done an
f irst appeared on Earth. We can now prove
excellent job in keeping the soil from eroding.

that life came to Earth from here, so, by their It is also excellent building material and pro-very ancestry, some species are less evolved
vides firewood.”

and remain better suited to life on Mars than

“It looks to me like a pretty one-sided solu-
others. You terraformers barge over the pecu-
tion to the terraforming effort.” A monocul-
liarities of each habitat you form. You try to
ture likely to lead to a massive biosphere col-
make it conform to Earth standards. You be-lapse. I’d seen that sort of thing before. A
lieve in geospermia, where you must use Earth
species took over, did great, until some sort of genetic material to seed life elsewhere.”

disease felled it, or there was a nutrient def i-

“Well, it so happens we have found no oth-
ciency, and voilà, we got an emergency call.

er life in the solar system, save a few bacteria That’s why we advocated diversity and provid-here and in the seas of Europa.” And last time I ed new settlements with a range of seeds. Ad-looked, geospermia was merely a popular
vice, which for some reason, the Mars Settle-
word for what we were doing, seeding Earth
ment Authority had ignored.

life all over the Solar System. It was not a reli-

“We test everything and allow whatever
gion.

thrives to propagate naturally,” Pavlo said.

“That’s extant life. It didn’t always used to

That was exactly how they’d ended up with
be like that. Our work here proves that. Life in this monoculture. “Not all species grow well
the Solar System originated on Mars: Areogen-
when first introduced. Some need a couple of
esis. Some Earth life retains the ability to adapt introductions to establish, even if you use the to conditions on Mars. Those species we need
specially selected strains. If you wet a soil that here, and they will succeed the first time we
hasn’t seen liquid water for billions of years, introduce them.”

you get a release of salts. If the carbon-dioxide God.

levels are high, like here, you get differences God help me. Areogenesis was nothing but
in availability and uptake of trace elements,
an unproven theory.

like arsenic. Different species will utilize and Not only had I been saddled with an opin-dispose of different elements in different
ionated jackass, he was also stark raving crazy.

ways. Lack of variety will lead to even greater imbalances than you started out with.”

We continued on up the hill. Although the

“Reintroducing species you’ve already tried
air thinned, the bamboo did not.

is a waste of money and time. You spend far

Every now and then, a lot of stems were
too much time trying to get something to
broken, the remains scattered over the
grow that won’t ever do well. Take it from
ground. I first thought this was because of the someone with experience. You’re much better
passage of the car, but the destruction reached off taking only species that already show
further than that. I remembered the digging in
promise. Let nature talk to you and listen to it.

the field.

You can’t make it do your bidding.”

I asked Sven, “What kind of wildlife do they

“We’re trying to make alien species grow on
have? It looks like a herd of elephants has
another planet. This is not about listening to
come past. Any idea what could have done
nature.” I had to try really hard to stay civil. I’d this?”

studied, got my PhD, and worked in ter-

His eyes glazed over again. “No elephants
raforming for ten years, and I hated it when
here.”

lay people thought they could do my job just

“Pigs?” They had turned out to be so de-
by listening to nature.

structive in closed habitats that we no longer

He stopped the truck abruptly and pointed
advised pigs to be released.

at a rust-red rock face to the side of the track.

“Could be. Pigs, capybaras, or turkeys. Pan-

“See there, that dark line in the rock? That is das. There is a list of animals that have been re-native organic matter. That is Mars. That’s
leased. There are twenty-three species still
what we’re destroying by forcing our will on
known on this list. Do you want it?”

the planet.”

“Later, yes, thank you, Sven.”

“But it’s only a layer of fossilized bacteria.”

A bit of calm descended upon me. Whatev-

“Yes, but it dates from before the time life
er terraforming decisions the department had

GEOSPERMIA

55

ANALOG
taken really were none of my business. We set
you. I protect your family. This man—these
up the dome, and if the inhabitants chose to
people—want ill. He doesn’t want to help
ignore our advice, then that was their prob-
you. He wants to use us to gain legitimate ac-
lem, yes?

cess to this valley.”

No, because it was also my brother’s prob-

“Is that what you’ve been hearing?”

lem, and I couldn’t imagine him giving up on

“I’m sensitive to a lot more frequencies than
growing crops.

the truck’s antenna picks up. Someone is

Like potatoes. That hadn’t been planted for
broadcasting on a higher frequency. They’re
months.

talking about Pavlo collecting evidence. I

When the light was turning deep red, the
don’t understand what for. It seems they think
van came to a halt on a steep incline in
something illegal happens in the valley and
amongst stands of bamboo. The engine splut-
they’re normally barred from visiting by the
tered out and wouldn’t start again. Ahead, the
farming collective.”

red cliffs of the canyon rose in the golden sun-I thought of the checkpoint we’d passed
light.

and how the uniformed workers had looked

“We can’t go any further,” Pavlo said, lean-
through the back of the truck, for organic ma-
ing on the wheel. His breath was heavy. “It’s
terial, they said, by way of quarantine, to avoid too steep. We’re too high in the valley. Car is cross-infection from one dome to the other.

not getting enough oxygen.”

They hadn’t been, I realized now, from the

Of course I knew about the pressure gradi-

Mars Settlement Authority, but some agricul-
ent inside the f ive-kilometer-deep dome-
tural crowd, and Pavlo had seemed ill at ease
capped valleys. But the track left by Derek still with them.

continued, with swathes of broken and

“God, Sven, I didn’t ask to become their po-
crushed stems.

litical football. I just want to see Derek.”

“What has he been using then? That looks

“Derek is in the thick of it.”

like a car to me.”

“He is all right, isn’t he?”

“Some people modify their engines with an

Sven couldn’t answer that.

extra tank of liquid oxygen to feed directly
into the combustion chamber. It’s dangerous,

We prepared for the night.

not to mention illegal. As for us, we’ll have to I had to admit I found the closing green
go back. Sorry, but you’ll both have to put on a walls rather spooky, more so with the ap-mask and push so I can turn this thing
proaching night and the lengthening shadows.

around.”

The light was turning orange, something I sel-

“I’m not going back. We’ll walk.”

dom saw.

He goggled at me. “I can’t allow that.”

Pavlo said, “We need to get some firewood

“I’m not giving up this easily. My brother
and cut some stalks to drape the tarp. There
has come this way.”

might be rain.”

“He might have gone all the way to the oth-

Sven and I went to collect bamboo stalks,
er end of the valley. Do you know how far that
but that sounded easier than it turned out to
is? Or do you sit in your ship and look at the
be. At this altitude, any physical activity re-
map of a whole planet and think it’s a marble?”

quired a mask that rattled and wheezed with

Sven spoke up. “Look, if you have a prob-
hoses that got in my way. Bamboo was tough.

lem with us, just tell us to our face and be

We only had a pathetic little saw and the
done with it. We didn’t ask you to come. Leave
stands were so thick it was hard to push

Wendy to look for her brother or fuck off.”

through, and awkward to saw close to the

“Sven!” What had gotten into him?

ground. Remember the mask?

The two men glared at each other in heavy

Sven, who needed no mask, offered to take
silence.

the saw so I could collect dead stalks for the

Pavlo got out of the truck and slammed the
f ire, and as I was pulling lengths of bamboo
door, muttering. “At least let’s camp here for
free, there was a crash somewhere out of
the night.”

sight, and thumping footfalls of an animal. A

“What?” I mouthed to Sven.

very large animal.

He leaned over for a fleeting kiss. “I protect

I turned to Sven. “What the hell was that?”

56

PATTY JANSEN

MAY 2013

Sven whispered, “Some creature.” His eyes

“God, his areogenesis proof. Even more so
were wide. He had only known life in space
because the damn things are so rare on Earth.

where animals were either absent or lived in

Sven, has any part of this . . .” areogenesis farms in cages.

nonsense “. . . theory ever passed academic

“Shit. Where is Pavlo?” He had a hunting ri-
scrutiny?”

f le in the truck; I’d seen it way back at the

“No. There may once have been cross-con-
shuttle port when we loaded our luggage.

tamination between Mars and Earth, but noth-

I peered into the maddening tangle of bam-
ing at that scale and to suggest that a higher
boo, remembering the marks in the soil at
life form inherited traits from bacteria is pure Derek’s farm. It was something that could dig.

fantasy.”

Not wild pigs; they had proven too dangerous

“Yet, they use it as excuse—”

for closed environments and no one intro-

Sven held up his hand. “Wait. There’s anoth-
duced them anymore. Some sort of rodent? A
er one.” His eyes were wide.

deer? I went through my mental list of animals

He was right. There was movement in the
we recommended. This animal sounded big.

bamboo and stems threshed violently. I stared

By all rights, it shouldn’t be up here in this
at the bushes, knowing that if another animal
thin air.

would come out, I’d be helpless.

I listened, holding my breath, which made

I yelled, “Pavlo! Come here and bring the
me dizzy.

gun!”

“Can you see it?” I held my hand on Sven’s

The other animal charged out. It made
arm.

straight for Sven, who hauled himself up into

He shook his head. It was the first time I’d
the bamboo just in time. The animal growled
felt his skin sweaty.

and slashed at him with its forepaws, but it

Then something crashed out of the bamboo
couldn’t reach him.

with a savage growl. No wild pig. It was big-

The first animal was followed by two more.

ger, much bigger, much hairier, with a white

“Climb, Wendy!” Sven yelled.

face, black-rimmed eyes, black fluffy ears and

I heaved myself into the vegetation, helped
a black behind.

by weaker gravity than I was used to.

I yelled out, “What the fu . . .” It was coming While the muscles in my arms screamed
straight for me in a flat-footed run.

protest, the group milled about, one animal

Sven grabbed me by the shoulder and
slashing the air under me a few times, but
pushed me down. While I crashed into the
then disappeared, snorting and snarling, into
bamboo, and the hoses of my mask tangled,
the vegetation.

and the contraption dislodged from my face,

Moments later, Pavlo arrived, his face all
the creature charged past me. It was gone in a
smiles. “Did you see those pandas? Aren’t they
f lash, crashing through the bamboo, but I
amazing?”

knew that black-and-white pattern from the
picture books of my youth.

We went back to the camp, where we ate

“Shit. A panda.” I scrambled up, readjusting
survival rations from foil packs, gooey stuff
the mask. “Sheesh, I didn’t realize they were
chemically heated through breaking a seal and
that big.”

then sucked up through a straw.

Sven was silent while he stared in his non-

Several times, we heard animals crash
seeing way. He didn’t need a mask; he could
through the bamboo. I now knew what had
even go outside the dome without one. “Na-
been digging in Derek’s fields, and what had
tive to China, and imported to Mars by the
destroyed sections of bamboo further down

AgVen consortium. Grows bigger on Mars
the hill. God, these things were everywhere.

than Earth. Turned out to be remarkably resis-

“I think we should set up a watch tonight,” I
tant to high carbon dioxide concentrations,
said. “I’ll take first shift.”

moving much higher into the terraformed

Sven said, “I’m not taking a shift unless I get canyons than many other animals. Is also high-a gun.”

ly resistant to higher arsenic concentrations in

“You can’t,” Pavlo said. “Pandas are highly
the vegetation resulting from high carbon
protected animals.”

dioxide concentrations—”

“I want the gun,” Sven repeated, his voice

GEOSPERMIA

57

ANALOG
with that mechanical tone I recognized as a
leveled at the other side of the clearing.

sign of stress.

“Shit, that’s Derek!”

“Pavlo . . .” I warned him.

“I thought so, I thought so!” Pavlo sounded

“I can’t give him the gun, okay? Can’t. The
triumphant. He rummaged in a storage com-

Mars Settlement Authority will have my head.”

partment and pulled out a camera.

“But they’re a pest here, and they’re aggres-

I opened the door and called, “Derek!”

sive.”

He looked aside, lowering the gun. “Wendy?

“We’ve almost wiped them out on Earth. We

What the hell are you doing here?”

should re-introduce them.”

But at that moment, a number of black and

“You can’t do that. They won’t be genetical-
white shapes bounded onto the clearing, in a
ly identical to the animals on Earth. Evolution flatfooted run towards my brother.

can happen really quickly if it needs to.”

I yelled, “No! Derek, no!”

“Not evolution. These are the animals re-

Behind me, Pavlo screamed. “I’m warning
verted to their Martian origins—”

you, if you do that—”

“Don’t give me that bullshit. There’s too

Sven, holding Pavlo’s gun, shouted, “Get
many of them here, and you need do some-
the fuck out of the way.”

thing about them. The most important thing

Bang.

about an artif icial ecosystem is balance. Has

The shot whistled over my head. I dropped
the Authority thought of that? If they start
into the sticky mud, much too late, of course.

threatening people and people’s livelihoods?

My ears rang so much that I only vaguely

Are you going to stop people protecting them-
heard the echoes in the valley. And Pavlo
selves?”

yelling abuse at Sven.

“I tell you, they are protected—”

A black-and-white hairy form lay sprawled

Sven jumped up, pulling Pavlo up by the
in the middle of the clearing. Underneath,
front of his shirt at the same time. “If I said I booted feet moved.

want the gun. You. Give. Me. The. Fucking.

“Derek!” I ran to him.

Gun.”

He was struggling to free himself of the un-

“No, Sven!”

moving animal. “Get that fucking thing off

A loud bang echoed in the valley, coming
me.”

from somewhere on the other side of the

Sven came to help me. We heaved and man-
ridge.

aged to drag the panda aside and I dropped to

Sven lowered Pavlo onto his feet, looked at
my knees into my brother’s arms. He smelled
me and then we both looked at Pavlo.

of sweat and grime and smoke. The front of

“What was that?” I asked.

his shirt was wet with blood, but none of that

Pavlo breathed hard, stuffing his shirt back
bothered me as I fell in his arms.

into his pants and groping for his mask; Sven

He patted my back. “Wendy, this is silly.

wasn’t even flustered.

What are you doing here?” He wasn’t wearing

“To me, that sounded like a gun shot.”

a mask, and wasn’t half as winded as I was.

Questions tumbled from me. “Are you okay?

We clambered to the top of the ridge, from

Why didn’t you contact anyone? Why haven’t
where it was easy to see the origin of the
we heard from you for such a long time? Why
sound: in the gathering dusk, there was a glow
didn’t you send anything for Annalise’s wed-
of artificial light between the bamboo just be-
ding?”

low the crest.

He stared at me, and his mouth fell open.

We ran back to the truck, pushed it up the

“Wait—she married that prune?”

hill without starting the engine—made easy

“Yes, didn’t you know?”

by lousy gravity—then piled in and let it roll

He shook his head, a deep frown furrowing
down the other side of the ridge. We stopped
his brow.

just short of a clearing in which the ground

“You didn’t get our messages?”

was meticulously kept free of vegetation. In

He shook his head again. “Not much mail
the middle stood a hut made from bamboo. In
coming in these days. I was wondering if
front of the hut, my brother, bearded, his gray-you’d finally got the hint and stopped annoy-
ing hair long and wild, holding a hunting rifle ing me, and then realizing that I’ve become so

58

PATTY JANSEN

MAY 2013
used to being annoyed with you that I miss it.”

Derek rubbed dirt and panda hair from his

“Why didn’t you try to send something?”

clothes.

“Because . . .” His gaze went from me to

I gave Sven the thumbs up. That was very

Pavlo. “It was you lot, wasn’t it? Jamming the
mature behavior he’d just displayed there,
communication channel.”

stopping his anger in time without my inter-

“You’re a murdering poacher,” Pavlo said.

ference. That meant he’d be almost ready for

“And here is the evidence.” He pointed to a
full membership on my team. Ready to off i-
pile of cured black and white skins on the ve-
cially announce our relationship.

randa of the hut. “I’ve waited for this moment

“There will be trouble from this,” I said,
for years.”

looking at Pavlo, who started to stir.

“Yes, I hunt them, and I’m not ashamed.

“Yeah, I know,” Derek said. “But hell, let’s

There are so many of the damn things that we
hope someone will at least listen to us because can hardly go outside without being attacked.

we can’t go on like this.”

They are digging up my potatoes. They were

“If there’s anything I can do to help con-
brought here to live off the bamboo, but they
vince them . . .” I said.

don’t eat just bamboo anymore, don’t they?

“You sure can.” Derek gave me a brown-

They’re evolved. Pandas on Earth are solitary
toothed smile. God, he looked old like this. I
animals. They’re hard to breed. Here, they
made a promise to myself to never, ever stop
move in groups and breed like crazy. They eat
checking on him for this long again. He might
potatoes. You hear that? Not bamboo, but
have been all prickles at times, but he was my
potatoes. Did you see my f ield? And you lot
brother.

tell me I can’t shoot them, and Earth won’t

Pavlo growled, “I’ll make sure you’re
have them, but you demand potatoes, huh?

charged, one way or another.” He sat up and

Huh? And who are you, anyway?”

spat in the dirt.

Pavlo took something from the pocket of

“Good luck.” Derek laughed. “I’m looking
his jacket and showed it to Derek. “Mars Set-
forward to having my day in court. I think I
tlement Authority inspection. You’re breaking
could drum up some powerful support. And if

Authority laws. I’m going to have to arrest
not, I’ll just walk off the farm. I’m sure they’d you.”

love an experienced farmer on Titan.”

I felt a surge of anger. “So you offering to

He glanced at me and I nodded; they sure
give us a ride was all a setup from the start?

would.

You only came to spy on my brother?”

Pavlo said nothing.

He smirked. “I can’t help it that you spacers

“Come, let’s go back,” Derek said, and
are so ignorant.”

when Sven turned to the truck, Derek hooked

The next moment, Sven lashed out, and
his thumb over his shoulder. “Not that excuse

Pavlo was on the ground cold. It happened so
for a vehicle, that one.”

fast that I had no time to stop Sven. Not that

Derek’s truck. The one with the oxygen
he needed to be stopped. He stood over
tank and the pile of panda skins in the back.

Pavlo’s prone form, rubbing his knuckles, but

Sven grinned. “I think I like your brother.”

then turned away calmly, without any sign of

Time would tell who was going to win this
lingering anger.

debate, but I knew my brother was his usual

“That looks like a ver y useful kind of
recalcitrant self, and I loved him, warts and all.

boyfriend you have there, sis.” He grabbed

Moreover, none of my past boyfriends who

Sven’s extended hand and Sven pulled him up.

didn’t like Derek had stayed for long. ■

GEOSPERMIA

59

Dark

Secret

Part II of IV

Edward M. Lerner

Uncharted territories require adaptations. The hard part is deciding which adaptations. . . .

The story so far:

each other. Their cataclysmic collision will The planet meets no one’s idea of paradise.

produce a gamma-ray burst. Or, rather, this Its gravity is oppressive and its climate cold.

has already happened, and lethal radiation

Oxygen is thin and the carbon-dioxide level will be following close behind the telltale is almost toxic. The terrain is bleak beneath gravitational waves.The GRB will obliterate sunlight scarcely half as bright as on Earth, life across the solar system.

and the local biota have yet to make the

Working in secrecy lest the doomed popu-
great leap to land. For several good reasons, lations panic, colony ships will be built us-

Blake Westford has named this world
ing Jumoke’s Dark Energy Drive. But the

Dark.

DED is experimental at best. Clermont , into Blake and wife Rikki Westford fly a shut-which the prototype drive has been installed tle from orbiting starship Endeavour to the and integrated, needs lots more check-out.

first landing on Dark.Without experience

Only Dana and Blake are trained to fly the
how weather works here, they’re taken by
ship and work out the DED’s bugs.As soon as surprise by a blizzard.And an avalanche . . .

the DED is made reliable, they’ll scout the Fade to almost seventy years earlier . . .

path ahead to another star. They agree— if Blake, a ship’s engineer, and ship’s captain Blake’s wife can join them.

Dana McElwain, on a test flight in the As-As the distant neutron stars entered their
teroid Belt, are urgently summoned home to
death spiral, the gravitational waves intensi-Mars. Police impound Clermont , the ship fied—ending all ambiguity. In months, not

Blake and Dana operate for Bradbury Uni-
years, the GRB will arrive.There’s no time to versity. The police deliver Blake, Dana, and complete any colony ships. Humanity’s last their passenger, aerospace engineer Dr.

hope of avoiding extinction is Clermont . Neil

Jumoke Boro, to the planetary governor’s

Hawthorne, the governor’s aide, arrives at residence. Astrophysicist Dr. Antonio Valen-
the spaceport where Blake and Dana oversee
ti explains that two co-orbiting neutron stars Clermont ’s retrofit for the scouting trip.

are at best a few years from spiraling into Hawthorne brings Rikki, Antonio, and two

60

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
kidnapped specialists: microbiology/nan-
up . . .”

otech expert Dr. Carlos Patel, and psychia-Whose voice was that? How long had it
trist and family counselor Li Yeo, MD.

been speaking? “Yes,” she said, only the word

Hawthorne also brings commandeered criti-
came out as an inarticulate croak.

cal supplies, including thousands of frozen

“Good, you are awake,” the voice respond-
embryos and a few artificial wombs taken
ed. The words had a f latness that belied the
from an in-vitro fertilization clinic.

sentiment.

To spare billions across the solar system

An AI. Marvin, she recalled. What else did from spending their final months under a
she remember? A racking cough vanquished
cruel death sentence, the embryo theft must that thought. And did she hear someone else
go unexplained. Hawthorne remains on
coughing?

Mars to take the blame, under the cover stoHer eyes, like rusted hinges, resisted open-
ry of a cult stealing Clermont and the eming. Opening them anyway, she glimpsed
bryos for a utopia to be built in the outer through tendrils of white mist a frost-speckled solar system. Clermont (carrying Blake, Rik-clear dome. The dome canted at a steep angle.

ki, Dana, Antonio, Carlos, and Li) evades

So that I can get out. Laughing at the absur-pursuit by Space Guard cutters determined
dity of even sitting, the f irst, sharp intake of to recover the stolen embryos.

breath set her chain-coughing again.

At Li’s recommendation, as a morale

The spasm finally subsided.

builder, the six refugees rename Clermont .

“Mar . . . vin,” she rasped.

They choose Endeavour , emblematic of ambi-

“You might want to take it slowly,” the AI
tion and new beginnings. Studying their
said. “My readouts indicate that you may need
route to Alpha Centauri, Antonio discovers a a minute.”

relic of the Big Bang: a cosmic string. He conI’ll need hours. As glacially as her thoughts
fesses that escaping the GRB is the best-case churned, she had an insight. “I’m not heavy.”

scenario, scarcely possible within the error

“We are decelerating at one-third gee,” it
margins of his observations. But there’s new said. “Endeavour is safe.”

hope, from an old astrophysical speculation Safe? Safe from what?

that along a cosmic string the speed of light The whole panic/horror/insanity crashed
might exceed normal. They alter course,
down on her. Along with whom she was. And
headed for the string, and hand off naviga-
who was with her. And the billions who were
tion to Marvin, the shipboard artificial intel-gone, dead, fried.

ligence. The crew enters hibernation for the

“Blake!” The shout tore at Rikki’s throat, set
long journey, wondering if the GRB will kill her coughing again.

them as they sleep.

“Yea-ugh,” someone sputtered. It might
have been him.

DETOUR

She remembered where his pod was, and

(About forty-five years later)

turned her head. Even in Mars-like gravity, her neck muscles screamed with the effort. She

Chapter 13
found Blake looking back at her.

ndistinct, out of reach, something beck-She said, “You look . . .” Wheezing pre-
oned.

empted the description.

Light? Through closed eyelids, she

“Yeah, but we’re alive.” He attempted a Isensed brightness.Space to move about? smile.“I’ll grant it ...doesn’t feel that way.”

That, too. But most of all—and most enticing

Beyond Blake’s pod, Rikki saw the others
of all—warmth.

stirring. There was Dana, blinking as though

But how to enter the warmth? That mystery
to clear her eyes. And Li, groggily turning her eluded her.

head from side to side. At the end of the row,

From the depths of an abyss, she sensed

Antonio had managed to sit up. With a hand
movement. Shaking? Convulsing? No, some-
raised to his face, he was stroking his chin
thing between. Coughing. She was coughing.

scar. And in the middle—

And there was sound. Speech.

“Carlos’s pod is still closed!” Rikki said.

“Time to get up. Time to get up. Time to get

Marvin said, “His readouts had drifted be-

DARK SECRET

61

ANALOG
yond the desired parameters. I thought Li
been in cold sleep?”

should make the decision whether to inter-

“According to the ship’s clock,” Marvin
rupt his cold sleep, and be here to monitor
said, “it has been almost forty-five years.”

the process.”

Dana struggled into a sitting position. “Mar-

Chapter 14
vin, report,” she whispered hoarsely.

Logic, thermostat readouts, and gushers of

“We avoided the GRB, and all major ship-
warm air from the bridge air vents be damned,
board systems continue to operate within ac-

Dana was freezing. The sensation was all in ceptable limits. As expected, radiation
her head, surely, but she felt chilled to the
degraded external sensors as the ship’s speed
marrow of her bones. She gulped from a drink
increased. I kept sensors powered off and
bulb, burning her mouth and throat, but the
shuttered as much as practical to extend their
scalding black coffee could not melt the cold
lifetimes. The bridge also sustained radiation
fear.

damage. I cannot quantify the impairment, be-

Forty-five years? Something had gone horri-yond severe enough that diagnostic programs
bly wrong.

fail to run to completion. I believe we have

She sat in the pilot’s acceleration seat, dying the spare parts to repair everything.”

to rub her arms with her hands, and resisting.

“What about life support?” Dana prompted.

A captain did not hug herself for warmth.

“Propulsion?”

No matter how shaken she was.

“Both systems are operating within accept-

She had ordered Blake and Antonio forward
able parameters,” Marvin said.

to check out the bridge. In the minutes spent

Rikki sat up and swiveled, dropping her legs
strapping Carlos into a stretcher and helping
over the side of the pod. The change in posi-
carry him to the inf irmary—he limp and
tion made her head spin and she did not dare
delirious, she and the other women lighthead-
to stand. Her arms and legs trembled. The
ed and wobbly—Blake had already begun re-
taste in her mouth was like old cardboard.

pairs. Antonio perched on the outside armrest

All from the cold-sleep process?

of the copilot’s seat, scrolling through data on Once before, Rikki had been in a pod. She’d
the sensor console, uploading numbers from
been researching the history of the ice indus-
the ship’s files to the datasheet draped across try. Getting miners at one of the oldest still-his lap.

producing tunnel complexes to agree to meet

Blake squirmed, muttering, flat on his back
with her had been a struggle. When the ap-
on the sliver of deck between the acceleration
pointed time came, despite having felt queasy
couches. His head and both hands were deep
for days, she’d gone anyway. The queasiness
inside the nav console. After years f lying to-
became abdominal discomfort; having flown
gether, Dana had calibrated his cursing. She in-halfway around the world, she ignored the
terpreted: he had found plenty out of kilter,
feeling as best she could to continue with the
the ship’s overall integrity was satisfactory,
interviews.

and he trusted his ability to make the neces-

But discomfort became soreness became
sary repairs.

pain. Stomach upset turned to nausea. When

She wouldn’t worry until that mumble
the vomiting began, there was no ignoring it.

morphed into something louder.

Acute appendicitis, the miners’ medical AI

“Eighth time’s the charm, maybe.” Blake
had diagnosed. The miners popped her into a
wriggled out of the console, clutching a
cold-sleep pod for transport to the nearest
scorched electronics module. He set the ru-
hospital.

ined part with the rejects already littering the Awakening from that pod in the OR, she
deck. “Oh, hi, Dana. How’s Carlos doing?”

had been in agony. But that had been a local-

“Stable, is all I can tell you. Still out of it.

ized pain. Now she hurt—everywhere. And

How are things here?”

though she had felt feeble that time, she didn’t Squeezing past Antonio, Blake settled into
remember being so bone-weary, or confused
the copilot’s seat. He shut the access panel
about who and where she was. But that inci-
with a shoe tip. “A good question. Marvin, try
dent had involved only a few hours in the pod.

the main displays again, fore and aft views.”

Rikki asked, “Marvin, how long have we

The inf irmary, where Li and Rikki contin-

62

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
ued to monitor Carlos’s condition, must be
required the DED and the fusion drive to even more crowded. But the women’s voic-achieve orbit.”

es—when they rose above the drone of the

And what an odd orbit it must have been!

ventilation fans—were calm. The tone struck

Thin as a proton, Antonio had called it. The

Dana as positive.

cosmic string was like a line in space, a line

Unlike what came from the repaired holo
along which they had spiraled to exploit the
projector. Ahead: countless unfamiliar stars.

locally faster light speed. She downed another

Aft: formless, foreboding darkness.

swig of the hot coffee. It once more refused to So much for her deduction upon hearing
warm her.

they had overslept. That Endeavour’s velocity

“But why remain along the string?” Dana
had peaked early, for reasons unknown. That
asked. For forty-five years!

the ship had crawled, comparatively speaking,

Antonio was only too happy to theorize.

making the trek to Alpha Centauri at “only” a

The stuttering, hesitant torrent of words
few percent of light speed. That if nothing
went over her head, and Dana realized she
else had gone according to plan, at least they
had let curiosity get the better of her. How knew where they were and where they were
they had gotten here, so far from home, no
headed.

longer mattered. Because home was gone.

Wishful thinking, it seemed.

What mattered was that they were here, es-

“All right, Marvin,” Dana said. “Explain
caped from the GRB.

what happened, why you kept us in cold

And that having survived, she had a job to
sleep for so long, and where we are.”

do. They all did.

“I cannot say where,” Marvin said. “Some-

She said, “Antonio, excuse me for a mo-
where beyond my chart files.”

ment.” Because lost or not, dangers might lurk

Dana frowned. “You must have some idea.”

nearby. “Marvin, how fast are we traveling?”

“The cloud may be the Coalsack: that is the

“Relative to the interstellar medium, we
closest dark nebula to Sol system. If so, still rel-have slowed to about one-tenth light speed.

ative to Sol system, we are on the nebula’s far That is estimated from measured radiation lev-side.”

els. I waited to wake everyone until you could

“Past the Coalsack?” Blake said. “That’d be move about the ship in complete safety.”

more than six hundred light-years!”

The interstellar medium was as close as the

“That’s about right,” Antonio said. “I have
galaxy came to a perfect vacuum. Dana asked,
bearings on several beacons.”

“Other than that, what’s our speed?”

Who could have put beacons out here?

“Relative to what?”

Dana pinched the bridge of her nose. Behind

A damned good question, for which she
her eyes, a killer headache waited to pounce.

had no answer. “What’s nearby?”

“What are you talking about, beacons?”

“Nothing is within radar range.”

“Natural beacons. Pulsars.” Antonio kept

Peering into the holos, she saw not a single
prodding his datasheet as he spoke. “Some
star with a visible disk. Thermal readings from neutron stars emit regular RF . . . pulses. Each the hull confirmed that the ship was deep in
star pulses at a unique rate, related to . . . its rothe interstellar deep freeze.

tation. With bearings on a few known RF

“How far to the closest stars?” she asked.

sources, it’s just geometry to find . . . our loca-

“I don’t know which stars are closest,” the
tion.” He did something to the datasheet, then

AI said.

handed it to Dana. “Our coordinates.”

“So where are we headed? Why are we un-

She felt like Marvin: off the charts. The co-
der acceleration?”

ordinates were mere numbers, meaningless.

Marvin said, “We came off the string at near-

They might just as well have read, like the pe-
light speed. We are not so much going some-
riphery of some medieval chart, Beyond this where as we are slowing down. I don’t know
point be monsters. “Why did you bring us where to go.”

here, Marvin?”

And she did? “Antonio? Suggestions?”

“The cosmic string brought us here,” Mar-

“I’ll look into . . . it.” Antonio straightened vin said. “I did not have sensors to character-on the armrest. “About our f light along the
ize it. I only know that it pulled us in. It
string. I have some thoughts . . . what may

DARK SECRET

63

ANALOG
have happened.”

would try bigger and bigger dosages. Eventu-

“Good,” Dana said. “You and Marvin carry
ally, at cold sleep’s glacial rate, as his body did on while I check on Carlos.”

react, he’d have way too many nano-synthed

Blake nodded. “I’ll get you caught up later.”

meds in circulation. His system would over-

His recap would be simpler and more suc-
shoot, and the nanites would have new prob-
cinct than anything she could hear by staying.

lems to address — still without proper

“Great,” she said.

programming for cold-sleep responses. I’ll

A few steps returned her to the infirmary.

have to filter some bots from his blood sample

Carlos was lying on the fold-down cot, be-
and download the memory f iles to know for
neath a thin white sheet. He had sensor patch-
certain.”

es on his forehead, wrists, and, to judge from

Carlos propped himself up on an elbow.

wrinkles in the sheet, his chest. A saline bag

“And until then, Doctor?”

hung nearby, the IV tube coiling and swoop-

“You stay here, under observation.”

ing to his arm. To Dana’s untutored eye, Car-

With his free hand, Carlos stroked his sheet.

los appeared jaundiced, but on the nearby

“As you wish.”

scanner, the EEG/EKG traces were steady, and

Dana guessed he would be discharged as
only scattered amber entries interrupted the
soon as humanly possible. Or that he would
many readouts in green. He was awake.

get a sedative in his IV.

Dana asked, “How are you feeling?”

Rikki said, “Any word as to where we are?

Carlos patted the sheet. “This wasn’t how I

Why we slept so long?”

pictured f irst getting naked with you

“We’re not sure yet,” Dana said. “Blake and
women.”

Antonio are reviewing the data. In a little

It was empty bravado, the bluster of a man
while, I’ll check on their progress.”

terrified by a close call—and too macho to ad-

“Send the men here for a quick eval,” Li
mit it. Behind Carlos, Li rolled her eyes.

said. “And you, too, when you can spare a

Dana let the effrontery pass with, “It’s good
minute.”

that you’re well enough to make jokes.”

Not till Carlos is gone from the inf irmary,

“Jokes?”

Dana resolved. “As soon as it’s practical.”

Dana turned to Li. “What can you tell me?”

Li shrugged. “Not much. Metabolites, neu-

Chapter 15
rotransmitters, platelet counts, a hundred pro-

Dana decompressed with a snack and a
teins and trace-metal concentrations are
fresh bulb of coffee before going to look for
off-kilter. But so are mine, if not as dramatical-Blake. By then he had left the bridge. With An-
ly. So are Rikki’s. When I test the rest of you, tonio and Marvin still babbling in tongues, she and I will, I expect I’ll find much the same. To headed for the opposite end of the ship.

the best of my knowledge, no one has ever

She found Blake in engine room two,
spent this long in cold sleep. The marvel is
frowning at the fuel readout. An access door
that we came out of it at all.”

had been removed, and instrument cables had

“I’m loaded with med nanites,” Carlos said.

been clipped to the paraphernalia within. A

“Top-of-the-line, cutting-edge, full-spectrum
signal analyzer sat on the deck.

health maintenance bots. Why am I the one He followed her gaze. “Half the systems
whose biochemistry is out of whack?”

aboard need recalibration. Component prop-

Because you’re a jerk? As capable as some erties will drift a lot in forty-f ive freaking nanites were, Dana supposed the tiny bots
years.”

weren’t that perceptive. “Li, any thoughts on

“I suppose so.” One more thing that might
that?”

have killed them.

“My guess? It’s because of the nanites. I

“Is Carlos doing any better?”

doubt they were programmed for prolonged

“He’s well enough to kid around.” Dana saw
cold-sleep conditions. Why would they be?

no reason to volunteer that the supposed wit

“With his metabolism slowed way down,
encompassed getting naked with Rikki. “How
bodily functions wouldn’t behave as the
are we doing?”

nanites expected. His biochemistry being

“We almost didn’t make it,” Blake said.

slow to respond to treatment, the nanites

“How’s that?”

64

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

“Our deuterium tanks are about dry.”

uniform line?”

“We were supposed to be f lying on the

“How didn’t it differ? Knotted and snarled,

DED this whole while,” Dana said. “And I
maybe. Or the density varies along the string’s thought the DED drew enough power, from
length. Or there are overlapping pieces, or a
wherever, to also supply shipboard systems.”

dashed line of pieces, the primordial strings

“That’s the point. ” Blake took a deep
having long ago fragmented.”

breath, then exhaled sharply. “You ready to

Dana shivered. “They fragment?”

hear what happened to us?”

“They must have, and repeatedly. The very

“Sure.”

early universe was much smaller. Any cosmic

“If you ask me, the core issue is that no one
strings still intact from that era would have be-had ever before seen a cosmic string. From a
come stretched to millions of light-years,
sufficient distance maybe it’s fair to consider it maybe longer. They would have dictated the
one-dimensional. Antonio and I made that as-
structure of entire galactic clusters.”

sumption when we modded the nav pro-

“Okay, then, ” she said. “Knotted and
gram.”

snarled and whatever. With none of that com-

“I gather that on approach to the string we
plexity in the nav program.”

got within that magic distance. Marvin men-

“Uh-huh. And if we had crashed into the
tioned needing the fusion drive to achieve or-
string . . .”

bit.”

As thin as a proton, Dana remembered.

“I wish the problem had only been on ap-

“We’d have been sliced in two?”

proach.” Blake grimaced. “Back to that one-di-

“According to Antonio, each klick of length
mensional-line simplification. Time and again
along the cosmic string has a mass compara-

Marvin needed both drives to maintain a safe
ble to Earth’s.” Blake paused. “So, yeah. Pic-
distance.”

ture a dandelion puff meeting a chainsaw.”

“The line isn’t so simple?”

After the fact, Dana saw that she had taken

“Back at the university, did you ever catch
a lot on faith. Forty-f ive years after the fact.

astrophysicists telling jokes?” Blake asked.

Such as trusting Marvin to navigate the ship

Huh? “Not funny?”

along a cosmic string. How does one follow

“Funny enough, just odd,” Blake said. “A
something too thin to see?

bunch of their jokes begin something like, ‘As-

Cut yourself some slack, she chided herself.

suming a spherical cow . . .’”

It’s not like you had the time to think about it,

“I don’t get it.”

or decent options. And remember: we sur-

“When a real calculation would be too com-
vived.

plicated, they assume away the complexity.

She said, “I still want to know what hap-

Imagine a galaxy with billions of stars, all of pened to us, and where we are. Did you coax
them in motion, within clouds of dust and gas,
either from Marvin?”

within an invisible halo of dark matter. You

“More Antonio’s doing than mine, but yes.

can’t very well calculate the exact mass distri-You remember how he first found the cosmic
bution. So someone interested in, say, how a
string?”

particular star will move within the galaxy

“Microlensing. There were enough back-
might begin by assuming the stars and clouds
ground stars microlensing to navigate by?”

form symmetric disks embedded in a symmet-

“Nothing so straightforward.” Blake hunted
ric sphere of dark matter. Just as he might con-around the engine room until he located a
sider that a cosmic string is a one-dimensional plate with a half sandwich. “Back on Earth,
thread of uniform density.”

did you ever swim underwater? Snorkel or

It felt good to laugh. “Got it. So mocking
scuba?”

themselves, knowing that they sometimes

“Snorkel. Why?”

oversimplify, a cow becomes a perfect

“Did you ever happen to look up while you
sphere.”

did, and see something unusual?”

“Right.”

One January after term f inals, she’d been

Dana liberated a sturdy-looking crate from
among a bunch of cadets from the Academy
behind cargo netting, set it on the deck, and
who’d flown down to the Virgin Islands. What
sat. “How did our cosmic string differ from a
a week they’d had! Wind surfing. Paragliding.

DARK SECRET

65

ANALOG

Beach volleyball. A day trip to a Mayan ruin on cation of the cosmic string from the level of in-the mainland. And one day they had all gone
cident starlight.” She shifted her empty bulb
snorkeling above a reef, the coral vibrant with from hand to hand. “Still, when the string
sparkling whites, warm pastels, and shocking
twisted or curved or got denser unexpectedly,
pinks. She remembered the f ish, hundreds,
when the starlight went away, how did he
sometimes thousands of them, darting and
know which way to veer? The distribution of
weaving in formation like flocks of birds.

stars isn’t all that constant.”

And one giant sea turtle.

“Know? A cynic would say, ‘guess.’” With a

She remembered Liam, her boyfriend at the
sour expression, Blake set down his plate, the
time, pointing upward when Dana looked to
food untouched. “Marvin didn’t always know see who had grabbed her ankle. The turtle,
which way to turn, especially as external sen-
blue with white speckles, longer nose to tail
sors degraded. Whenever it guessed wrong,
than she was tall, gliding majestically over-
whenever by accident it veered the ship
head. The top of the turtle—it was covered in toward the string, it needed both drives to
overlapping leather plates rather than by a
back away to safety.”

hard shell—seen as clearly as its underside.

No wonder they had all but exhausted their The turtle’s back was ref lecting off the
supply of deuterium!

smooth boundary between sea and sky.

Dana said, “I’d call Marvin a freaking genius,

“Total internal reflection.” She thought the
except for one thing. We aren’t supposed to
startling effect had something to do with the
be here. Why didn’t we break free from the indices of refraction of the neighboring media.

string after a couple of light-years?” Like we Beyond some critical angle dependent on the
told Marvin to do.

ratio (if she remembered that correctly), all

“We were trapped,” Blake said. “Breaking
light striking the boundary bounced off. “Sure, free would have involved prolonged thrusting

I’ve encountered it. What’s that have to do
at right angles to the string. We’d have been
with our situation?”

broadside to the oncoming radiation all the

“You would be surprised. Whatever you
while. It was bad enough that we got short
saw while snorkeling involved light in the wa-
blasts of radiation with every orbit-mainte-
ter unable to cross into the air, never light in nance maneuver.”

the air kept from penetrating into the water.

Dana considered. Endeavour’s only mean-

That’s one example of the rule: total internal
ingful shielding was fore and aft: what they
reflection happens within the medium having
had retrofitted near the bow, plated over the
the higher index of refraction. That’s the medi-decks of the bridge and crew quarters, and
um with the slower speed of light.”

around the fusion reactor. Perhaps more than

Dana flexed her drink bulb, almost empty,
the long years of cold sleep were behind how
as she pondered. “Near the string, where light
crappy she felt, and Carlos’s deterioration. “So is uncharacteristically fast, starlight bounces breaking away would have given us a lethal
off ?”

dose.”

Blake nodded. “Except for incoming light

“Other than by flying off an end of the cos-
that is all but perpendicular to the string,
mic string, yeah. And the attempt would have
that’s the case. The closer Endeavour ap-fried Marvin, too. Its circuits aren’t much happroached the string, the faster the local light pier with radiation than are our cells.”

speed and the less starlight would reach us.”

“So we flew to the end,” she said.

So much for a turtle’s back, crystal clear in

“As fast as the ship could deliver us there.”

reflection. Marvin’s challenge had been more

“What if the string had been a lot longer?”

like a nighttime plunge into the ocean depths.

“Antonio says this string couldn’t have been

She tried to imagine following the distant, un-
too much longer,” Blake said. “Much more seen surface with nothing to guide her but oc-mass would have had a visible effect on the lo-
casional faint glimmers of starlight.

cal distribution of stars. A longer cosmic string The tepid dregs in her drink bulb couldn’t
would have been detected centuries ago.”

touch her resurgent chill. She hoped Blake

Dana preferred that answer to the notion
hadn’t noticed her trembling.

that once Endeavour exhausted its deuteri-Dana said, “Leaving Marvin to infer the lo-
um, they would have been done for.

66

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

Blake yawned, and Dana followed. It was

Chapter 16
ridiculous that after forty-five years asleep, her With a decent telescope and a spectro-body cried out for a nap. Ridiculous, but not
graph, a ship could analyze asteroids from a
to be denied for much longer.

distance. Most asteroids were mere rock,

She said, “Bottom-line it for me. Where the
worthless—but a few were treasure troves of
hell are we?”

precious metals and rare-earth elements. Spot

Blake yawned again. “About one hundred
an asteroid like that and stake a claim, and
light-years beyond the Coalsack. Call it seven
your fortune was made.

hundred forty light-years from Sol system. But

Clermont, become Endeavour, carried a we took the scenic route: sweeping around
decent telescope. Emphasis on the past tense.

the nebula, not through it. If the string had

Decades of pounding by cosmic rays had de-
run through the cloud, gravity would have col-
graded that telescope into something at which
lapsed a big clear channel through the Coal-

Galileo would have sneered.

sack long ago.”

At least that was what Antonio had to say

“Any idea how far we actually came? As the
on the subject.

crow flies?”

“We don’t have replacement mirrors,”

“Marvin knows how long we accelerated

Blake reminded. He was as tired of repeating
and how hard. It knows how long we coasted.

himself as he was of stacking-room-only meet-

From that, at least a thousand light-years.

ings on the bridge. Though he did not mind

Jumoke would have been proud of her DED:

Rikki sitting on his lap. Forty-five years was a we peaked out a little above thirty-nine times
lot of abstinence, even asleep and frozen sol-
normal light speed.”

id. “And before you ask, I can’t polish and re-

Thirty-nine times? Fuzzy-brained from ex-
plate these mirrors, either. I’d have to make
haustion, or radiation, or years in cold sleep, the tools to make the tools to make the tools,
stifling yet another yawn, Dana had to ask, “At with maybe a few more iterations. Don’t even
least a thousand light-years?”

ask how long that’d take. A while.”

“Will you quit that, please,” Blake yawned

“We can’t afford rations for ‘a while,’” Dana
back. “Yeah, at least. The estimates rely on
said. “We need to get somewhere.”

elapsed time as measured by the ship’s clock,

“Look, Antonio,” Rikki said. “I’ll never
and in our own frame of reference, by defini-
know half the astronomy that you do, but I
tion, our clock ticks normally. Did we ex-
know something of the history of the subject.

perience time dilation relative to home? We

The Galileo crack is an exaggeration, don’t
don’t know.

you think? And not just because his telescope

“So: the estimates are in the ballpark if the
didn’t use mirrors.

local light speed was way faster than forty

“By two centuries ago astronomers had ap-
times normal. Otherwise not. We have no way
proximated the distance to nearby stars. They
to know. And do you remember the pulsars
did it without any computers worth mention-

Antonio is using as beacons? Like any star, puling. They did it, being earthbound, despite at-
sars drift. Our locational f ix is as iffy as our mospheric shimmer blurring ever y
time fix.”

observation. We have a modern telescope, If we can’t know where we are, I’ll waste
even if it is a bit dinged up, and Marvin to han-no more energy thinking about it. Because I dle all our calculations, and no atmosphere to
have quite enough to worry about.

distort our viewing. I refuse to believe we

Dana said, “So we’re on the wrong side of a
can’t match twentieth-century science.”

dark nebula, in galactica incognita. No as-

“I suppose,” Antonio conceded.

tronomer has ever seen this region of space. I

“Walk me through the process,” Dana said.

suppose that means no one knows where we

“How would we measure the distances?”

might find a planet suitable for establishing a

“Sure,” Rikki said. “By way of an analogy,
colony.”

hold a finger in front of your nose. With one

Blake arched on eyebrow. “You thought this
eye closed, look at the f inger. Notice where
was going to be easy?”

the finger appears against the background of
the bulkhead behind it. Now switch eyes.”

* * *

“The finger seemed to jump,” Dana said.

DARK SECRET

67

ANALOG

“Right. And knowing the two viewing an-
ter, Blake realized that someone named Patel
gles and the distance between your eyes, you
might be Hindu. No one ate beef on Mars—
could calculate the location of your finger rel-raising cattle took too much water and feed.

ative to your face.”

Grain or grass, Mars didn’t have enough of ei-

“My f inger represents a star,” Dana said.

ther.

“And my two eyes?”

Only now Mars had nothing.

“Two separate sightings on the star. For old-

Wistful, embarrassed, and sad: all in an in-
time astronomers, that meant observations
stant. “Please excuse my obliviousness, Carlos.

made six months apart. Earth’s orbit is about

If I offended you, I apologize.”

one thousand light-seconds wide. The parallax

“My father would have taken offense. He
technique located stars as remote as a few
grew up in Bangalore, didn’t emigrate till he
hundred light-years.”

was twenty-eight. That you would eat beef

“We’re not orbiting . . . ” Dana began.

doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.”

“Scratch that. We’re moving.”

“It’s hard,” Blake said. “Losing our families,

Blake did rough math in his head. “Every
and not even getting to say goodbye.”

three hours or so, we’re crossing a distance

“It was different for me.” Carlos turned
like the width of Earth’s orbit. In a day, even away from the synth vat. “My parents and a
with our scarred-up mirror, we should have
brother died in the Blue Plague when I was a
lots of good readings.”

child. My adoptive parents, from my mother’s

“Can we focus on individual stars?” Dana
family, weren’t religious. Had they been, it
asked.

would have been Catholicism.”

“Focus?” Antonio stroked his chin scar. “Not

“I’m sorry,” Blake said. Blue Plague had
to my satisfaction. But yes, we can locate and
swept Mars in 2120, when Carlos would have
take bearings on individual stars.”

been about ten. Hell of a nasty way to lose any-

“Good,” Dana said. “You and Rikki, get to
one. Hell of an age for a child to lose his par-work.”

ents. “But you had other brothers or sisters?”

“I was the fourth of five children. Sanjiv, the Blake gazed around the machine shop, wait-brother taken by the Plague, was the oldest.

ing for something to happen. Nothing did. He

He was in university, studying nanotech. I al-
rearranged the tool cabinet. He buffed a streak ways looked up to him; my involvement with
of grease off a bulkhead. There wasn’t room to
nanotech maintains the connection. The rest
pace, so he shifted his weight from one leg to
of us? After the Plague, we were close. We had
the other.

to be, coming into a household that already

He did not want to be here. But the only had six children.”

meaningful activity aboard was on the bridge,

A middle child and an orphan. It explained
and he could contribute nothing to star hunts.

a lot about Carlos.

“It’s just milk,” he said.

The synth vat beeped.

“And you’re a pile of common elements,

Carlos checked the readout again. “Ready
worth pocket change.” Carlos sighed without
for a drink? That’s the final test.”

looking up, intent on the scrolling readout

The fluid Blake decanted looked like milk, if
from a portable synth vat. He stood, hunched
with the blue tinge of the skimmed variety. It
over the workbench. The shop stools and
smelled like milk. It tasted like milk. So why
workbenches fit Blake.

was Carlos watching him expectantly?

“Well?” Blake finally prompted. “Did I make

Then Blake’s stomach lurched.

milk, or not?”

Carlos leapt back off his stool, although

“Milk is a complex suspension of proteins,
nothing had come up. Not quite.

fats, sugars, vitamins, and minerals, and you’re There wasn’t a rag or towel in sight, and
trying to synthesize all those. Give me a min-

Blake wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Where
ute to sanity-check what we have here.”

did I go wrong?”

“A cow does it faster,” Blake said.

“It’ll be faster to say what you did right.”

“Do you see a cow on this ship?”

Ignoring the ominous gurgle in his stom-

“No, alas. I would enjoy a good steak.”

ach, Blake said, “You may as well give me the

The words just popped out. A moment af-
complete version. It’s something to do while

68

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
we wait.”

Of course his mind’s eye did a better job
than his physical eyes of looking at people.

Chapter 17

With an even warmer smile: You’ll do fine,

Antonio flopped in his hammock like a fish
honey. Somehow, you always do.

out of water, exhausted but unable to sleep.

From the next hammock: even breathing.

How long had he worked without a break?

Had Li fallen asleep?

Rikki had proposed they take a breather, and

Six of them to raise thousands, if not in per-
then Dana had. Somewhere along the line Rik-
son then by setting the example. The longer
ki must have left on her own, because when
he spent with his shipmates, the more im-
she had returned to the bridge with food trays
pressed he was with Hawthorne’s selec-
he realized he hadn’t seen her for a while.

tions—

Not until he had nodded off in his seat and

Except for one glaring lapse: not one of
startled himself awake with a loud snort had
them had ever raised a child. Carlos had fa-he conceded to reality.

thered a child, in his second marriage, but On the bridge or here in the crew cabin,
from everything Antonio had heard, Carlos’s
eyes open or shut, it made no difference. His
contribution to rearing his daughter had been
mind churned with vectors and parallax meas-
limited to sending money and keeping his dis-
urements and error bars. For star after star,
tance.

there were estimates of mass, and age, and

Neither was an option here.

metal concentrations. About half the stars

Quit worrying, Tabitha gently scolded, still
were binaries, and those added orbital param-
smiling. I know you. You’ll be a great dad.

eters to the numeric stew.

Soon after meeting Tabitha, he’d deemed

And planets discovered? That also was a
her as trustworthy as numbers. With a grin,
number. Zero.

she had called the comparison high praise—

Numbers had always been his friends. Un-
and it had been like being struck by lightning.

like people, numbers were precise, trustwor-

Another person could understand him. In that thy, and unambiguous. Numbers made sense.

instant he had known she was the one.

And then—

He would have believed the aff irmation

From an adjacent hammock, a shadowy
coming from Tabitha. He had believed every-
presence in the dark, Li said, “Once you find
thing she said. But believe his own wishful
our new home, we become parents to twelve
thinking, words put into Tabitha’s mouth?

thousand children. Imagine that.”

That his subconscious would undertake such

“I . . . can’t,” he’d stammered.

a pitiful ruse only terrified him further.

She laughed. “Soon you won’t have to imag-

Twelve thousand young minds to educate.

ine it. You might want to sleep while you have

Even sooner, twelve thousand mouths to feed,
the chance.”

cribs to build, and bottoms to wipe. Twelve

“Point taken. Goodnight.”

thousand eager gazes to avoid.

Twelve thousand. That single, chilling num-

“You’re restless,” Li murmured. “Something
ber all but drove the rest from his head.

I can help with?”

I’m one sixth of humanity, Antonio

You’ve helped enough. “Twelve thousand
thought. Sixteen and two-thirds percent. Zero
diapers to change. It seems like a lot.”

point one six six six six . . .

“Isn’t that the truth?” she said. “You can

He could recite sixes to himself without
take comfort that we have far fewer artificial
end, and never reach peace of mind. Against
wombs. Though once we have a world into
all odds, he had saved a few people. That he
which to spread, I expect our techies will find could believe. But that he should have a role
a way to construct more. And of course there
in raising twelve thousand children, and then is the old-fashioned way to make babies.”

the offspring they would bear? These were Shelter for thousands. And food. Clean wa-numbers beyond logic, beyond sense, beyond
ter. Sanitation. Power. Healthcare. Clothing. A comprehension.

city’s worth of people—and a city—all some-

Yet here you are, the memory of Tabitha re-
how to be provided on an unknown planet.

minded. She was smiling. In his mind’s eye,

Antonio did not understand people. He
she always smiled.

knew that. Just the attempt—seldom success-DARK SECRET

69

ANALOG
ful—to parse facial expressions could exhaust
if I join you?”

him. He had barely managed to give lectures at

“Please do.” Li folded her datasheet.

the university.

Dana sat across the table from Li. “Earth his-

His right hand, unbidden, rose to his chin.

tory. A very broad subject.”

He began stroking the long, jagged scar that

Dana doubtless imagined herself being sub-
connected him still with Tabitha. How could
tle. She had never admitted to having person-
he be father to thousands?

nel f iles, but of course she did. Neil

(“Short words, honey,” she would counsel

Hawthorne had had his reasons for kidnap-
when he couldn’t get out of giving a lecture or ping this particular crew; he would not have
a public talk. “Simple, direct sentences. You’ll left his surrogate uninformed.

do fine.”)

Let’s show you something about subtlety, Li

“Build a society. From scratch. Do we know
thought. Not that I expect you to notice. “Yes, how?” he asked Li.

a long history. Many accomplishments. Many

“We’ll figure it out,” Li said confidently.

lessons learned. It’s hard to take in that so

How had he ever imagined the worst would
much has come to an end.”

be over once they escaped Mars?

“Aren’t we continuing that history?”

“It’s quite fascinating,” she continued. “I ex-

“In the sense of biological continuity, I can’t pect that the first children we raise will help argue. Assuming we’re successful, of course.

tend to their younger cohorts. Some of them,

But in any deeper way? I have yet to see that.”

anyway. Others of the f irstborn will con-

“We survived. Survival had to come first.”

tribute to supplying the material needs of the

“You caught me in an introspective mood,
settlement. And in time the children will have

Dana. I didn’t mean to imply any criticism.

opinions, too, as to what our priorities should What you have accomplished is little short of
be. Nor will they always be children. Fascinat-
miraculous.”

ing.”

Compliments discomf ited Dana’s type; Li

“I’m still overwhelmed by all the dirty dia-
let her squirm. You have something to ask
pers.” And scared shitless myself.

me, Dana? Then ask.

“Then get some sleep.” Li rolled onto her

“You and I are very different people, aren’t
back. “Goodnight again.”

we?” Dana finally said.

“Good advice and good . . . night.”

“How is that?”

Only Antonio never did fall asleep. Twelve

“I don’t answer questions with questions.”

thousand. The number echoed in his brain.

“Touché,” Li said, laughing.

When he quit trying, when he got up to

“We talk. I enjoy your company well
contend with the more tractable, somehow
enough. I respect you. Still, I know nothing
friendlier, number of nearby stars, he could
about you. After so much time together, that
not shake the oddest impression.

strikes me as, well, not an accident.”

That Li had been awake the entire time, ob-

“How does that make you feel?”

serving him. And that their conversation was

“Damn it, Li, I’m not on your couch.”

not at all as casual as it had seemed.

“Habit. It slipped out,” Li lied. She’d intend-
ed the clichéd question as a goad, and it had

Li studied her datasheet, stylus in hand, sur-
worked.

reptitiously studying Dana. You could not be a

“I’m sure I lapse into habit, too.” Dana
therapist without the ability to read and take
sighed. “Let’s try this. You and I are two of the notes while observing a subject.

last six human beings in the universe. We’ll

Not that Dana was formally a subject. In
need all our strengths to start a colony. As
fact, Dana was studying Li. They had the gal-we’ve seen: without you, I think we would
ley/commons to themselves—and by the way
have lost Carlos.”

Carlos had scuttled off at Dana’s entrance, the

“Circling back to the two of us being quite
coming tête-à-tête was no mere happenstance.

different.”

“What have you got there?” Dana asked.

“I come from a military background. No se-

Li looked up and smiled. “Earth history.”

cret there, but maybe there’s more to it than

She went back to her reading.

I’ve volunteered. Dad was Space Guard, too.

Dana filled a drink bulb. “Would you mind

Dad’s mother f lew in the ASE Force. I guess

70

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

Dad and Gram were made of sterner stuff than
occasion I overlook longer-term goals, people

I. When I left the Guard, no way was I going need to remind me. You need to remind me.”

to retire to Earth’s gravity.”

“That’s good to hear.” But not quite where A self-deprecating admission, to encourage

I want your mind to go. Li waited.

Li to share. How adorably amateurish. How

“So tell me, what does it mean to be hu-patently obvious.

man?” Dana glanced at her wrist. “In ten min-

Li said, “You wanted to know why I came to
utes or less.”

Mars? Let’s just say I chose to put some dis-

“I never claimed to be a philosopher.” Li
tance between me and a messy break-up.”

patted her folded datasheet. “I find comfort in Messy enough to put her practice, even her
reading them, though.”

med license, at risk. Messy enough to invoke

Dana said, “I haven’t had a lot of time to

Mother’s influence in smoothing things over.

read. But maybe, while Antonio and Rikki go

And Li had gotten that help, too. For a price.

on about their survey . . .”

She had been ordered far enough away that

“‘Had we but world enough, or time.’”

Mother would never face such “embarrass-

“What’s that?” Dana asked.

ment” again.

“A classical lament.” From a poem about

Well, Mother, I was just as disappointed,
sex and seduction, not study, but none of Li’s
learning the hard way that the Famous Rad-
shipmates were of a type to know that. Take ical Free Thinker could be so conventional.

the hint, Dana.

So . . .Victorian. I mean, who was hurt, really?

“Enough time,” Dana said wistfully, and

None of which Li had any intention of shar-
stood. “I’m glad we had this talk. We few have
ing.

endured all this for a purpose. I appreciate the She went on, “And if you’re curious about
reminder. But me reading philosophy? I
my family tree, you could just ask.”

wouldn’t know where to begin. Can you offer

Anger flared in Dana’s eyes. “I’m frustrated
some suggestions?”

that I have to ask.”

“Of course.”

“To my knowledge, I’ve followed your every

Dana walked away, then hesitated in the
order, Captain. Now I’m supposed to antici-
hatchway. “You proposed soon after we left
pate your curiosity?”

Mars that the crew rename this ship. That

“That’s ridiculous,” Dana snapped.

turned out to be an excellent idea.”

And Li had Dana where she wanted her.

“I’m happy I could help.” You’re almost

“Yes, we are different,” Li said.

where I want you, Dana. Now take the final

Hawthorne’s files would have reported that
step.

Li’s mother was political. That Li had made a

“World enough, or time,” Dana mused
few unsuccessful runs for municipal off ice,
aloud.

back on Earth. That while she had not run for

“So it goes,” Li said.

office on Mars, she had become influential be-

“What if . . . ?”

hind the scenes in the Social Justice Party.

“If what, Dana?”

What Dana truly wondered? Whether Li

“Suppose we all begin discussing candidate
meant to compete here for authority.

names. Planets and moons. Continents and

Li continued, “Here we are, the sole sur-
oceans. Mountains and rivers and reefs. Every-
vivors. The last, best hope of humankind.

thing will need a place name once we f ind

Here’s what strikes me. That we’ve not had
our new home. Suppose we let those names
one conversation about what it means to be remind us, and instruct us, about our past ac-human, or civilized, or how the colony-to-be
complishments. Maybe, great thinkers. Maybe,
can best preserve our heritage. It saddens
philosophers. Or poets. Or scientists.”

me.”

Li grinned. “I like it. If your proposal

“You never said anything.”

doesn’t get everyone thinking about humani-

“Could I, without undermining your author-
ty’s great accomplishments, and whom from
ity? Your priorities aren’t a big secret.”

our history we should honor, and whom we

Dana frowned. “I’m doing my damnedest to
should strive to emulate, I can’t imagine what
keep us alive. To bring us somewhere safe, no
will.”

matter that we have yet to find a haven. If on

“Thanks again, Li. Net me that reading list.”

DARK SECRET

71

ANALOG

And then Dana was gone.

“And these gases are?” Li asked.

No, thank you, Captain.

Rikki beamed. “Oxygen, nitrogen, and hints

Because you are about to set off a tidal
of water vapor.”

wave of independent thinking.

Like Earth’s atmosphere, then. Only Dana
had started off this session with a just maybe.

Chapter 18

What was the bad news? Carlos asked, “What

Carlos had avoided cargo hold three since
does the planet look like?”

the day he’d been carried out strapped to a

Antonio choked on at least three answers,
stretcher. The other two holds were
or justifications, or excuses, before sputtering crammed; apart from the central corridor, no
to a halt. After a deep breath, he got out, “We place else aboard would have accommodated
can’t see it.”

all of them.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rikki said. “This does:

He would rather have stood on the ladder.

the planet has an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Instead, grinding his teeth, making himself

Without replenishment, an atmosphere
stand tall, he followed the others into the
doesn’t retain oh-two. As happened on Mars,
hold. He took a spot beside Li, between two
the oxygen gets trapped as oxide in the rocks.

cold-sleep pods.

So we know this world has oxygen-producing

“Is everyone comfortable?” Dana began.

life. The water vapor suggests oceans, too.”

Yeah, right. He’d gengineered a virus to

Carlos reserved judgment on whether dis-
mod the software in his nanites, but it re-
tant gases mattered. “Where is this world?”

mained mere theory that addled med bots had

Antonio said, “About fourteen light-years . . .

all but killed him in cold sleep.

from here. Toward the Coalsack.”

Li said, “I believe I can speak for everyone

Li shivered.

in answering, ‘No.’”

Dana said, “I remember as well as anyone

“Fair enough,” Dana said amid chuckles.

that we set out to go four light-years. But con-

“We have something important to talk about.

sider the experience we’ve gained. We know

Just maybe, Antonio and Rikki have found our

Endeavour is good for the distance. We know new home.”

that the cold-sleep pods are good for the dis-

That brought a smile to Carlos’s face.

tance. And we—”

Antonio said, “Marvin. Image . . . one.”

Opinions differ about how well the pods

Someone had magneted a datasheet to the
work, Carlos thought. “How long do you an-
hold’s forward bulkhead. At Antonio’s halting
ticipate it would take to get there?”

request, the display came to life.

“Twenty to thirty years,” Dana said, “which

The parallel black lines, irregularly spaced,
allows for decelerating on the other side.

reminded Carlos of something he had once

Without a cosmic string to follow, we’ll ex-
seen in a museum. Some kind of ancient prod-
perience relativistic effects. We don’t know
uct identifier.

how the DED performs in those circum-

“Absorption lines,” Antonio explained. “A
stances. I’m not inclined to stress the drive.”

glimpse of . . . atmospheric composition. The

Blake said, “In my opinion, we should get
constituent gases . . . gases . . .”

moving sooner rather than later.”

“Would you like me to explain?” Rikki

“Not so fast,” Carlos said. “We’ve only been
asked.

surveying for a few days. Might there be some-

“No thanks.” Antonio added something un-
thing better, closer?” Someplace we could
der his breath.

reach without the cold-sleep pods?

Carlos thought the mumble might have

“A fair question,” Dana said. “Antonio?”

been, “Short words.” And could there have

“The nearest star is five light-years from us.

been something about twelve?

That star is a red dwarf. It could be a flare star, Antonio went on, “We’ve been surveying
as many . . . red dwarfs are. Regardless, very
nearby stars. The lines are spectro graphic data cool. Its liquid-water zone will be very narrow.

about a planet we observed crossing in

Almost surely it has no habitable planets.”

front . . . of its star. The planet’s atmosphere ab-

“Does it have planets?” Carlos asked.

sorbs . . . some of the starlight. Each gas absorbs Antonio shrugged.

at its own characteristic . . . wavelengths.”

“Do any nearby stars have planets?” Li

72

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
asked. She laughed uncertainly, as at the ab-

Five light-years to the nearest star, Carlos
surdity of applying nearby to objects light-thought. Fourteen to the nearest candidate
years-distant.

habitable planet. He could die in the pod the

“Statistically, several . . . should,” Antonio
next time. But for certain, he’d starve to death said. “That’s based on what we . . . know
if he refused.

about solar systems. With our instruments, the

When push came to shove, what choice did
challenge is . . . spotting them.”

he have?

Because we need more challenge, Carlos

“Oxygen and water,” Li said. “Do we have
thought. The universe has taken it so easy on
anything more to go on?”

us thus far. “Maybe you could explain that.”

“By inference,” Antonio said. “The star is . . .

Antonio looked pleadingly at Rikki. She nod-

K class. Orange, like Centauri B would have
ded.

been. By quite straightforward math we—”

“We can’t see planets,” Rikki said. “Not with

“Skip the math,” Carlos snapped.

this telescope. Not at anything near these dis-

Skipping the math rendered Antonio
tances. That brings us to an indirect method,
speechless. He turned again to Rikki for help.

the way astronomers found the first extrasolar

She said, “The planet orbits maybe a tenth
worlds. We look for stars that wobble back
closer to its primary than Earth does to the
and forth from the tug of their orbiting plan-
sun. But this star is only half as luminous as
ets.

Sol, so the planet we glimpsed may be cold.

“We won’t know what we have, though,

But maybe not. Even trace amounts of some
until we see the full cycle of a wobble. If a
greenhouse gases will warm a planet substan-
planet takes, as an example, a standard year to tially—and water vapor is a greenhouse gas.

orbit its star, we’d need half that time to de-

Oh, and the planet may be a tad larger than
duce its orbit. And till we understand a plan-

Earth.

et’s orbit, until we compare that orbit to the

“That’s where the data run out. Does the
luminance of the star, we can’t begin to guess
planet have moons? What’s its land-to-sea ra-
whether the planet is in the habitable zone.”

tio? Are there other planets in the system? We

“Six months cooped up in this tin can?”

have no idea.”

Blake said. “We don’t have the supplies for

“‘The planet,’” Li echoed. “‘Its primary.’ I
that.”

thought we had agreed on some names.”

“You’re right, we don’t,” Dana said.

Carlos said, “Me, too. For certain, I thought

“Then how did you two spot the oxygen
we’d converged on Plato as the name for
planet?” Carlos asked.

whatever star we end up at.”

“There’s another method for spotting plan-

Li turned, looking surprised. She patted his
ets.” Rikki tipped her head, furrowed her fore-
hand. “Thank you, Carlos.”

head, choosing her words. “Imagine a planet

After that misunderstanding back in Sol sys-
that’s crossing between its star and our ship.

tem, he must be the last person she would

We can’t see the planet—it’s too small and it’s have expected to support her. But that was
lost in the glare—but from our vantage point
light-years and decades ago. Since then, she
it covers a bit of the star. The starlight we see had saved his life.

dips just a little. The duration of the dimming Plato, Pluto, Plutarch, or Pippi Longstock-implies how fast the planet is moving, from
ing—what the hell did he care what anyone
which the full orbital period is estimated. And called the star? If calling it Plato f ixed things sometimes, as in this case, we capture the
up with Li—
faint absorption lines of starlight viewed

And if he made it out of the pod alive—
through a planetary atmosphere.”

There weren’t enough women left in the

Carlos said, “A planet that happens to cross
universe.

in front of its star? It sounds like we’d have to

“Let’s hold off on names,” Dana said. “Anto-
be lucky to find anything that way.”

nio and Rikki recommend that we set a course

“You’re right,” Blake said. “We were lucky. If for this planet. You’ve heard what they’ve
we had the supplies, we could sit here for
learned. You’ve heard why we’re unlikely to
years without finding a better possible home.

f ind somewhere better, or closer, even if we

And maybe not find any.”

keep searching. Does anyone disagree?”

DARK SECRET

73

ANALOG

No one did.

“That some of those ‘stars’ move,” the AI

“Excellent,” Dana said. “As there is nothing
said. “There are planets.”

to be gained by delay, as soon as Marvin has

“We came because of a planet,” Dana said.

navigational guidance for the trip we’ll—”

“Extras aren’t a surprise, are they?”

“Excuse me, Captain,” Carlos said. “There is

“No,” Marvin agreed. “Still, we did not
something to be gained. Before I go under, it
know.”

would be prudent for Blake to take more train-

“Any signs of life?” Dana asked. “Of intelli-
ing on programming nanites and using the
gence?”

synth vats.” Because next time, I may not

“Life, to be sure,” Marvin said. “As you
come out alive. And because Blake can’t make
know, a planet doesn’t keep free oxygen oth-
a glass of milk that will stay down, much less
erwise. Intelligence, indeterminate. The only
do gengineering or other precision work.

detectable RF is noise from the star and one of Dana nodded. “I’m confident you’ll be fine,
the gas-giant planets. We remain too distant to Carlos, but to be extra safe we can afford a
see any surface details.”

few days. Barring equipment emergencies,

“Show us all the orbits,” Antonio said.

Blake’s top priority will be to take more trainThe star f ield disappeared, displaced by a
ing from you. Will three days suffice?”

graphic with six nested bright loops. From in-

You’re confident of my safety, are you? I
nermost to outermost, the colors ran the
still plan to enjoy my last cigar before we go.

gamut from purple to red. At this scale the or-

“Yes, Captain,” Carlos said. “I can promise that bits looked like perfect circles, and their dif-by then he’ll know a lot more about using the
fering tilts scarcely registered. A white-orange synthesis equipment.”

spark shone at the center.

And that I’ll have synthed enough tequila

“The star f irst,” Marvin began. “It is about
to get me back into a pod.

what we expected. Compared to our former
sun, this star has ninety-one percent of the
mass. It is about nine percent cooler and its ra-DISCORD
dius is about fourteen percent smaller. The

(About twenty-four years later)

star is f ifty-one percent as luminous as the
sun.

Chapter 19

“As for the planetary system, we now know

Her head throbbing, hollow with hunger,
much more. While decelerating I identif ied
aching from head to toe as though she had
six planets. The orbital determinations are
been pounded on by experts, Dana gazed
most precise for the innermost planets, but
without insight at the nav graphic on the main
they all should be accurate to within two per-
bridge display. “Only” twenty-four years, but
cent.

she felt more wretched than she had waking

“Closest to the star, its orbit shown in pur-
from cold sleep the first time. She would not
ple, is a world somewhat like Mars before
have believed that possible. Maybe the pods
planetary engineering. This world orbits
were wearing out. She knew she was.

about half an AU from the star.”

None of that mattered. Not on this mission.

An astronomical unit: the average separa-

Dana had the pilot’s chair. Antonio stood be-
tion between the Earth and the sun. As a meas-
hind her, leaning, mashing her headrest with
ure of length, the AU was destined for the
his forearms. Blake, looking pale and a bit
obscurity of furlongs and cubits. The realiza-
queasy, had the copilot’s seat. Carlos, cough-
tion saddened Dana.

ing tubercularly, but having reached the infir-

“Not habitable, then, without extensive ter-
mary under his own power this time, was
raforming,” she said.

getting examined by Li. A clatter of plates and

“Quite right,” Marvin said. “Bringing us to
cutlery located Rikki in the galley.

the second planet, its orbit shown in blue, at

Dana wished Rikki would move faster, at
about ninety-one percent of an AU. It has wa-least with some coffee.

ter oceans and an atmosphere with oxygen.

“Okay, Marvin,” Dana said. “I see a star

This is the world we came for.”

field. The very bright star straight ahead must Blake had shipboard diagnostics running on
be our target. What else should I be seeing?”

his console. He looked up from the scrolling

74

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
text. “Earth-like, then?”

Green, yellow, orange, and red: all the out-

“So it seems,” Antonio said. “But water . . .

ermost worlds were gas giants, the one near-
oceans, Marvin? You’re sure? That far from the est to the star Saturn-sized and the rest much
star, it seems like the water would be . . .

smaller. Green and yellow showed prominent
frozen.”

ring structures; orange and red offered hints of

“I am certain,” Marvin said. “Water vapor
rings. Green and red, at least, had substantial would not be this prevalent in the atmosphere
moons. The outer planets ranged from about
without signif icant liquid water on the sur-
two AU to about thirteen AU from the star.

face.”

Her headache easing, Dana tried her sand-

“Can we have a look?” Blake asked.

wich. She chewed, oblivious to whatever was

A tiny disk appeared alongside the blue
between the bread slices, reviewing. An al-
loop. The only features Dana could make out
most sun-like star. Six worlds, one habitable.

were white specks at opposite ends. Polar ice-

She should be ecstatic. And yet—
caps, she presumed.

“The separation between blue and green

“I cannot yet provide much detail,” Marvin
worlds looks wrong to me,” she said. “Too big
said. It managed to sound apologetic. “When
a gap. Could there be a planet you haven’t
we get closer, we will see better.”

spotted?”

“It’s dim,” Antonio said. “Apart from the ice

“Possibly,” Marvin said. “Based on the other
caps.”

interplanetary gaps, theory suggests there

Blake nodded. “I suspect that’s a good
should be a planet orbiting at about 1.3 AU.

thing. That means it’s soaking up sunlight.”

But if there were one, I should have spotted

Where was Rikki with some damn food?

it.”

“Big picture, here,” Dana said. “Is this world

“An asteroid belt?” Rikki guessed. “Maybe
habitable, or not?”

that big gas giant prevented a planet from

“Habitable, yes,” Marvin said. “It may not be
forming, just as Jupiter seems to have done
hospitable.”

back home.”

“What does that mean?” Rikki called.

Marvin said, “If there are asteroids, I could

She stood in the hatchway bearing a tray
not spot them from this distance.”

piled high with snacks. With a grin, Blake got

“Not just asteroids. 1.3 AU will be right up and began handing around plates and
by . . . the ice line. There might be very short-drink bulbs.

period comets, too.”

Marvin said, “It will be colder on average

Blake squinted at the graphic. “Comets or
than on Earth. The air will be dryer than on
asteroids, they would be too damned close.

Earth and thinner than at Earth’s sea level. Still, Lots of rock and ice will orbit nearer to our
parts of this world will be friendlier to life
new home than Earth does to Mars. I have to
than, say, Earth’s deserts and high plateaus.”

wonder, how often does our future home get

The Earth of some dusty database. Earth
slammed?”

now was a charnel house gripped in an ice

“Is there a signif icant bombardment risk?”

age.

Dana asked Marvin.

Dana turned her attention to coffee. Habit-

“Insufficient information, Captain. Sorry.”

able: that was damned good news.

Rikki said, “Maybe the planet looks dark be-

“What else do we know about this world?”

cause of a recent impact. An asteroid strike

Rikki asked.

would put dust and smoke in the atmos-

There was that circumlocution again.

phere.”

Their new home needed a name, no matter

“Same answer,” Marvin said. “I cannot
how uninspired Dana found some of the sug-
know more until we get closer.”

gestions. In hindsight, though, setting every-

Her head once more throbbing, Dana won-
one to talking—arguing—about names hadn’t
dered if the human race had a cosmic bull’s-
been her smartest decision.

eye on its metaphorical back.

She set down the coffee bulb. “Blake can

Not that they had a viable alternative to con-
catch you up later. Marvin, go on with the
tinuing on their course.

grand tour.”

Dana said, “Let’s get closer and find out.”

“The next world, at a bit over two AU is . . .”

* * *

DARK SECRET

75

ANALOG

Chapter 20
ary ability to soothe. Perhaps there could be

Antonio took refuge on the bridge, relin-
too many numbers.

quishing the copilot’s seat only for food, the

Which left him what?

toilet, and twice to splash water on his face.

In college, eons ago, a deep dive into psy-

He needed order and routine, and as the ship
chology archives had uncovered the diagnosis
swooped toward the new planetary system,
once made of people like him. Asperger’s Syn-
the scurrying of his shipmates denied him
drome was a grab bag of eccentricities with
both.

no known cause and no treatment, a label that

For once, he was not the only one obsess-
explained nothing and contributed nothing.

ing. Everyone labored till they dropped. Not The term had fallen into disuse.

that there was a reason to rush about, or any

He just didn’t behave like most other peo-
suspected harm that might come of a few
ple, and that was that.

days’ delay before a closer look—

As activities across the ship became ever

There was only the longing to declare their
more frantic, Antonio set aside numbers for
odyssey at an end.

some other security blanket.

Most intercom mikes were active across the

But which? Beyond salt and pepper, salsa
ship, the better to coordinate, and some half-
and curry, the galley was without condiments.

heard thud brought Antonio shuddering

And never again would he encounter a
awake. He had no memory of having closed
postage stamp: Pacif ic island, commemora-
his eyes. Trying to orient himself, he heard
tive, nineteenth century, or any other. The dai-grunts and terse directions as Blake and Rikki
ly precipitation for cities across Europe—and
continued rearranging crates, still digging for he could recite decades of such data—no
a full set of parts for at least one short-range longer held meaning. And although deep
shuttle. He heard tuneless humming and stac-
within Earth’s oceans some life would have
cato bursts of keystrokes as Carlos reconf ig-
survived, the GRB would have rendered ex-
ured some of their synth vats. He heard the
tinct whole families, orders, classes, maybe
squeaks and squeals of hinges unused for
entire phyla, of invertebrate animals. He decades, the captain inspecting her ship.

would never know which.

From the central corridor, not via the inter-

What remained to count and compare, to
com, he heard a rustle of clothing: by process
categorize and arrange?

of elimination, Li. She moved about the ship

The chatter over the intercom offered inspi-
more than anyone, ostensibly to lend a hand
ration.

wherever she could be most useful, in prac-

The captain had begun the discussion of
tice lobbying for her scheme of planet names.

place names, but his shipmates had been

He was too clumsy to handle irreplaceable quick to join in. Not Antonio. He didn’t see
cargo, too impractical to touch the synthesis
the value. Still: many names were being cham-
equipment or to program nanites.

pioned, and many naming systems. There

That left studying the worlds toward which
were numerous pros and cons that one might
they hurtled. He had terabytes of data, and
consider. . . .

every few hours, interrupting their decelera-

And so—meandering through an archive
tion to turn the ship forward, Marvin collect-
about philosophy, one more prescient gift
ed additional close-ups. There was beyond
from Neil Hawthorne—Antonio encountered
enough information to occupy him for a life-
a disquieting pattern.

time.

He had scans from across the spectrum and

Revived by a quick shower and fresh
plenty of old-fashioned optical imagery. With
clothes, it hit Rikki: she was starving. Before it he had refined orbital parameters, approxi-getting snacks for Blake and herself, before the mated each planet’s period of rotation, identi-two of them resumed an uneven contest with
f ied several moons,
broadened the
the overstuffed cargo hold, she decided to see
spectrographic analyses of atmospheres, and
who else might want a bite to eat. She began
even counted sunspots. Numbers, numbers,
with Li and Carlos in the infirmary.

numbers . . .

Rikki would have bet large sums, had mon-

Alas, numbers had again lost their custom-
ey retained any value, that nothing in the new

76

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
planetary system could infect them. People

It wasn’t only Carlos whom Li was lobby-
had more in common with paramecia than
ing. Rikki hadn’t yet gotten a turn, but she
with whatever life forms they might en-
knew Li had bent Dana’s ear: that fostering re-
counter here. But no one was willing to bet
spect for humanity’s accomplishments and
the human race, and that had left Li dreaming
preserving the past were as fundamental to
up novel infectious agents against which Car-
their mission as preserving genes.

los might preprogram nanites ahead of time.

Rikki wondered who else had been pitched

Just in case.

on Li’s favored planet names. And whether Li

The low voices she heard in the inf irmary
would try that f lirtatious crap on Blake. And
were discussing neither biology nor nanotech.

how he would react if Li did.

Something awkward had transpired be-

Maybe it was time to reclaim the bridge and
tween Li and Carlos early in the voyage; for a
what passed aboard ship for privacy. . . .

while, things had been tense. Rikki was cer-

Rikki found Antonio asleep in the copilot’s
tain Dana knew about it, too. But though she
seat, head tipped at an awkward angle, his
and Dana had long been friends, Dana had
mouth sagging open. Displays scrolled, oblivi-
gone all captain-y on that topic and refused to ous to his stupor. Okay, no snack for him. No
admit anything.

alone time for her and Blake. She grabbed a

Whatever the conflict had been, Li and Car-
blanket from the crew quarters and spread it
los must have gotten past it. Way past it.

over Antonio.

Neither saw Rikki standing in the infirmary

And woke him up.

hatchway.

“Sorry,” Rikki said. Settling into the pilot’s

“Family and loyalty,” Li said. “That’s what
seat, she got a glimpse of the scrolling text:

Confucius stood for. His ethical system be-
very dry philosophy. It was not at all what she came the underpinnings of the most populous
had expected. “How are you?”

society on Earth. How can you not like Confu-

“All right,” he said, looking guarded. Be-
cius as a name for our new home world?”

cause he couldn’t distinguish when how are

Li’s words were serious; her body language
you was or wasn’t meant literally? “I’m taking was a whole other matter. Standing close to
a break from astronomy.”

Carlos. Leaning in. Touching him lightly on

“Fair enough. I’m getting a bite to eat. I
the arm.

came to ask if I could bring you anything.”

“I think I could be convinced,” Carlos

“Not for . . . me, thanks.”

smirked.

She asked, “Any updates about where we’re

Next: the casual hair toss. Li knew exactly
headed?”

what she was doing. All to enlist Carlos’s sup-

“Our destination has at least two . . . moons.

port for a planet name?

Small, maybe four hundred klicks across.”

Li said, “Isn’t loyalty something to cling to?”

“Two moons,” she repeated. “A touch of

“I have a suggestion, while grasping some-
home. Anything else?”

thing is on your mind.” Carlos did a double

“I’ve determined those moons’ orbits.”

take. “Ah, the fair Mrs. Westford. Do not fear.

By basic orbital mechanics, knowing those

There’s plenty for two to hold.”

orbits would serve to establish the mass of the Eww. And if Blake ever hears you hitting
planet. Mass plus the planet’s size determined
on me, you’ll be holding your own head.

its surface gravity. He could have just volun-

Rikki couldn’t understand how Carlos had
teered the gravity.

succeeded in marrying once. But three times?

“Unpleasant, I take it,” she said. “How

It spoke ill of her gender.

heavy?”

She said, “I’m getting snacks for Blake and

“Almost one point four times . . . standard.”

me. I dropped by to ask if either of you want-

Approaching four times the gravity to
ed anything.”

which she had been born. “Ugh.”

“No, thanks,” Li said.

“Nanites might help build up bone mass.”

“Another time, perhaps,” Carlos said, with

“Yeah. Yet another task for Carlos to take
an eyebrow arched.

on.” When Li has f inished leading him on.

“I’ll leave you two to work,” Rikki said. Hint,

“Anything else?”

hint.

“The local day will be about twenty f ive

DARK SECRET

77

ANALOG
hours, fourteen minutes, in standard units.

Marvin to spin the image.

The year is 421.6 local days . . . 443.3 standard

“Not much water,” she commented. By
days. We could be traditional and divide the

Earth standards, she meant. Compared to
year into twelve months, each of thirty-five lo-home this world brimmed with water.

cal days. In that . . . case, I’d suggest f ive- or

“All in how you look at things,” Antonio
seven-day weeks. Or we could use f ifteen
said. “Here, land is seventy percent of the sur-months, each with four . . . seven-day weeks.

face, the rest water. Earth is the opposite. But Or twenty-eight months of f ifteen days. I
the total area here surpasses Earth’s. As dry as guess those would be less months than fort-it . . . looks, this world offers more water sur-nights.”

face than the Pacific Ocean.”

Fortnights? As Antonio rambled on, she

“And desert everywhere else, it appears,”

guessed that obscure units of measure were
she said. “Still no radio signals?”

yet another of his f ixations. And to keep

“None.”

months the same length, there was something

Rikki stood and smiled. “Thanks for the up-
about a New Year holiday not falling within a
date. I’ll give Carlos a heads up that we’ll need month at all, whether the year had fourteen,
skeletal nanites.” And hope I don’t interrupt f ifteen, or twenty-eight of them. And about
anything. “What the hell,” she added to her-extending that annual holiday by a leap day in
self, reminded of Li and her campaigning. “We
three years out of five. And preserving stand-
have to call these worlds something.”

ard seconds, rather than recalibrate their

“One through six?” Antonio asked. “Purple
records and instruments. And . . .

through . . . red?”

Rikki abandoned hope he would ever wind

“Wouldn’t those be nice and easy?” With a
down. “Okay, I’ll be off for my snack.”

chuckle, Rikki turned to leave.

“One other thing. I have a planetary tem-

“Wait,” Antonio said.

perature. Call it five degrees . . . Celsius.”

She turned back. “Uh-huh?”

And that was the afterthought? Not, what-

“Li’s name suggestions,” he said. “So far, I’ve ever they were, fortnights? She said, “Above
studied up on three. Plato. Confucius. Thomas
freezing, if just a little. As you had predicted.”

Hobbes. I’m concerned about the pattern.”

“A planetary average. Marvin, does any

“Hold that thought.” Rikki shut and dogged

Earth city have a similar average temperature?”

the hatches, and made sure the intercom mike

“Fargo, North Dakota.”

was off. “Concerned in what way?”

“Never heard of Fargo,” Rikki said. Or North

“These names are . . . important . . . to Li.” It Dakota, for that matter. “But that there is a city was a struggle, but for a few seconds Antonio
in such a climate is another data point to say
managed to look straight at Rikki. “I wonder
we can settle here.”

why.”

“Marvin has been busy . . . too. With all the

An astute question. Because Li was pushing images we’ve collected, I had it assemble a . . .

hard for her choices.

composite. Cloud cover is averaged out. Mar-

Li was a psychiatrist. She would know what
vin, show Rikki the second planet.”

buttons to push with each of them. Flirting

A mottled, spectral globe appeared be-
with Carlos. Logic with Antonio. Duty with
tween them. Large icecaps surrounded the

Dana.

poles. Gray and brown predominated, with

When Blake’s and my turns come, what will
splashes of dark green.

Li try? Or has she tried with Blake?

Leaning closer, she could just make out in-

“I don’t know that I could tell Thomas
distinct threads on the land surface. The

Hobbes from Tom Thumb,” Rikki said. “But
twisty features, whatever they were, had to be

Plato? Confucius? Even I know those names.

huge. Mountain ranges? Fault lines to shame They were among humanity’s great thinkers.”

the Valles Marineris? Rivers to dwarf the Ama-

“I didn’t know much either,” Antonio said.

zon? The Great Wall of—what did Li propose

“And yet . . .”

to call this world? Confucius?

“Out with it. What’s on your mind?”

Rikki resigned herself to more days without

“Philosopher kings,” Antonio murmured.

answers.

“That’s who Plato thought should run society.

With a f lick of the wrist she signaled for

His so-called republic . . . had an unelected rul-78

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
ing class.”

Hawthorne had drafted her.

“Did it?” Rikki shrugged. “I half remember

That and having her off ice minutes from
some Plato text getting assigned in a poly-sci
the dry dock.

class. At best I skimmed it. Regardless, his re-Rikki wondered just how one phrased the
public is theoretical. I mean, no one ever cre-
question. So, Li, are you setting up the six of ated such a society.”

us as an aristocracy? How about yourself as Maybe Li hopes to be the first.And to be its the queen?

philosopher queen.

Even the questions were too weird, too . . .

“Until . . . now?”

freaking medieval, to take seriously.

Rikki shook her head. “One famous philoso-

She gestured at the spinning globe and its
pher. It doesn’t need to mean anything.”

all-but-featureless expanses. “I’ll be interested Except to judge from the distasteful scene
in what else you learn about our new home.”

she had walked in on, it was more than one.

Looking hurt, Antonio banished philosophy

She asked, “Do you know anything about Con-
from his displays.

fucius?”

Not smooth, Rikki chided herself. She had

“Now, I do.” Antonio gestured at an open
not meant to offend. “Okay, I’ll talk to you lat-text display. “He spoke for family loyalty . . . re-er.”

spect for elders and ancestor worship. About

She undogged the hatches and started aft,
rites and ritual. He saw that kind of family as her appetite gone, keen to lose herself in the
the model for . . . government. Confucianism
mindless slinging about of crates.

developed into a centralized state with a . . .

Parenting and mentoring: they would have
bureaucratic class and the king as moral exam-
those responsibilities, of course. But anything ple. The system of ethics evolved into a ratio-more? Conditioning the children for defer-
nale for political elites.”

ence? Fostering ancestor worship? That was

“And you mentioned Thomas Hobbes?” Rik-
beyond crazy.

ki said.

Nonetheless, as Rikki clambered down the

“Without government, he said, life would
central-shaft ladder, planets one through six
be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and . . .

sounded better and better to her.

short.’ He was defending sovereign abso-
lutism.”

Chapter 21

“Okay,” Rikki said, “Maybe I know one dif-After much shuff ling of cargo and many
ference between Thomas Hobbes and Tom

EVAs, they had assembled what in theory was

Thumb. Didn’t Hobbes talk about the social
a functioning short-range shuttle. So far it had contract? That people consented to govern-passed all diagnostics. Its deuterium tank had
ment to avoid all that nasty brutishness? A so-
been f illed from Endeavour’s depleted recial contract seems progressive.”

serves and its reaction-mass tank with melt

“A contract of submission to the monarch,”

water from an ice body intercepted on ap-

Antonio said.

proach to this new planetary system. For more

Once is random. Twice is coincidence.

than a day the shuttle had maintained a shirt-

Three times is a trend. Maybe Li was predis-sleeves environment. Still, the limit to Carlos’s posed toward certain forms of government. So
faith in the spacecraft-from-a-kit was removing what? She was only one among six.

his pressure-suit helmet.

Rikki said, “Does it matter what we call the

While keeping that helmet within arm’s
star and the worlds? Mars was named for a
length.

mythical war god, but growing up on Mars

The narrow cockpit permitted only two
didn’t make me warlike.”

crew members. Carlos occupied the back seat,

Fingering his scar, gaze downcast, Antonio
his legs spread wide and his knees wedged.

said, “It’s the pattern. Maybe to choose these

Out the canopy the vista was humbling. A
individuals, to make their ideas prominent will short docking tunnel removed: the scorched
sway the children. They’re bound to get curi-
and pitted exterior of Endeavour, the toll of ous about the names.”

the light-years all too evident. Beyond that

If anyone aboard understood the shaping of
abused hull hung the world they meant to set-
children’s minds, Li would. It was why
tle. Scattered seas, clouds, and snowfields in-

DARK SECRET

79

ANALOG
terrupted his view of its bleak surface. A colos-Having something she wants may have
sal mountain range, ridge after ridge after
something to do with that, Carlos thought.

ridge, revealed the slow-motion collision of

“So I wondered . . .” Blake went on.

two tectonic plates.

“What?”

From the cockpit’s forward seat, Blake

“Is Li lobbying you, too, for specific planet
asked, “How are you holding up?”

and moon names?”

“Fine. Just taking in the scenery,” Carlos

“Some,” Carlos admitted. Nonstop. But she
said. The truth was, he had yet to regain his
hadn’t yet made his endorsement worthwhile.

customary vigor. Merely assisting with check-

“Do you find some of her ideas are, well, a
out—toggling switches, tapping in short com-
touch reactionary?”

mands, and reading out displays —had

“As if I know who any of those dead Earth-
exhausted him. In free fall, no less.

worms are.”

“Station-keeping maneuver coming up,”

Except Carlos did understand the question.

Marvin advised by radio.

Let Li be a social engineer. Let her instill re-

“You still secured?” Blake asked.

spect for authority and deference to elders.

“Uh-huh.” Not that, shoehorned in as Carlos

Half of the submissive young colonists
was, a seat harness added much.

would be women.

“All right, Marvin,” Blake radioed. “Do what

“Still,” Blake said, “don’t you f ind Li is
you must.”

rather . . . impassioned . . . about this?”

For a few seconds Carlos felt pressure

Let’s hope so. “What’s in a name?” Carlos against his back and a hint of weight, and then laughed. “That planet out there can be
zero gee returned. He said, “It’s quite the

Gertrude, for all I care.” Or even Li, if she’s view, don’t you think?”

passionate enough.

“No argument here, though I’m more inter-

“You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch
ested in how things look on the surface.

yours?”

When you’re ready, we’ll move on to sensor

“Something like that.”

diagnostics. Passive instruments first.”

In the canopy, Blake’s ref lection disap-

As boring as checkout was, the work need-
proved.

ed doing. “Starting with infrared. IR sensors:

Blake said, “Back to work. Let’s f inish
self-test passes. Temperature readout across
checking out the sensors, and then move on
the surface looks plausible.” And freaking
to backup power distribution.”

cold. “Moving on to visual.” Sweeping the

“Fine by me,” Carlos said.

shuttle’s modest telescope along the moun-

Because the sooner the shuttle scouted out
tains, he homed in on a gray blur. “Directional candidate landing sites, the closer he was to
controls are fine. The focus could be better.”

those thousands of cooperative young

“Try it with the adaptive optics.”

women.

“Adaptive optics: self-test pass.” The image
sharpened; the blur resolved into a roiling ash It’s time, Li thought.

plume. Carlos said, “That did the trick.”

She was the last one to float into the cargo

They exercised the shuttle’s short– and
hold. Smiling, making eye contact with every-
long-range radars, conf irming distances
one, she allowed her gaze to linger on Blake
against Endeavour’s measurements. The very and her smile to broaden. On cue, Blake
precise laser altimeter—wasn’t. Reading
smiled back. Ref lexes, if you understood
records aloud from the run-time log, Carlos
them, were useful tools.

began wheezing.

Rikki flinched.

“Let’s take five,” Blake said.

So did Carlos. Then he motioned Li over to

“Thanks.”

a spot beside him.

Within two minutes the f idgeting began.

Dana shoved off a bulkhead to drift toward

Carlos ignored the pop-popping noises and
the forward end of the hold, grabbed a hand-
the finger tapping. He could use the full five.

hold, and turned to face Li and the others. “If

“So, you and Li,” Blake said.

you haven’t already guessed, I called this get-

“Me and Li,” Carlos agreed.

together to confirm our readiness for a scout-

“You two seem to be getting along.”

ing mission. Blake, how’s the shuttle?”

80

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

“All set to fly,” Blake said.

Breathable air. An ozone layer. A bit more sun-

“And make a landing?” Dana followed up.

light than Mars gets. Plenty of water for agri-

“That, too,” Blake said. “And even return to
culture.”

orbit.”

So Marvin was an Earthworm? Li thought.

“I’ve picked out candidate landing sites,”

Well, maybe his programmers were.

Antonio said.

Only the Earthworms about whom Rikki

“I’ll play devil’s advocate,” Dana said. “What
truly worried were her husband and Li.

will we encounter down there? Marvin, give

Rikki was on a tear. “. . . So there’s a lot of us a rundown.”

cee-oh-two? Be glad, because the greenhouse

“Full detail or a qualitative overview, Cap-
effect is what keeps the average temperature
tain?”

above freezing.

“Just the highlights, please,” Dana said.

“And if metals are scarce on the planet?

“It will be cold,” the AI summarized, “not

We’re starfarers! All the metal we could ever
far above freezing even at the equator. The air want is waiting for us in the local asteroid
is thin and dry but breathable near sea level.

belt—and it is more convenient than the old Be wary of exertion, both because of the low
belt was to Mars.

partial pressure of oxygen and the near-toxic

“Can you imagine what the early settlers on
level of carbon dioxide. The ozone layer, al-

Mars would have given to have had this world though thin, will block most of the UV. The
as their starting point?”

magnetic f ield seems suff icient to keep out

And then Rikki stopped, gone red in the
cosmic rays. The sunlight is redder and dim-
face.

mer than you’re accustomed to, but still quite

A bit embarrassed at our outburst, are we?

adequate. Instruments will notice the color-

Li toyed with ways to put that reaction to use.

balance shift, but I doubt your eyes will.

Blake gave his wife’s hand a reassuring pat.

“Because the candidate landing sites are

How touching, Li thought. Especially the
near coasts, be aware that the tidal situation is way Rikki yanked away her hand.

complex. The innermost moon raises tides

“Anything else, Marvin?” Dana asked.

comparable in height to the Moon’s. Because

“No.”

this moon orbits so close to the planet, these

“Anyone else?” Dana pressed.

tides last most of a day. The middle moon adds

“Dress warm,” Antonio said.

tides about a third as high, but with different Dana said, “To recap, a shuttle is prepared.

timing. The tidal pattern shifts day to day be-

The world is habitable. We’re all due for a
cause the moons do not orbit in synch.”

change of scenery. Are we ready to review

“And it’s a rock,” Carlos said. “On land, there landing sites and protocol?”

isn’t a scintilla of life.”

That discussion was more businesslike.

Perhaps he meant to give full value for his

They reviewed the camping supplies a shuttle
side of their . . . transaction, but this was no would carry. They agreed upon an initial four
time for him to improvise. Li thought daggers
areas to inspect. Each region was in a mid-tem-
at him without looking. If she had, someone
perate zone or lower latitudes. Each offered a
might have noticed.

cave system for shelter, a lake or sea to f ilter

“Continue, Marvin,” Dana said.

for deuterium, and a broad river delta for farm-

“Gravity is about forty percent above stand-
ing. On a world devoid of land life, silt would ard. Humidity varies more than across Earth,
be the closest thing to soil.

likely attributable to the reversal of the

“Then that’s it,” Dana said. “I’ll pilot the
land/sea ratio. Not a factor for this initial ex-shuttle and—”

ploration, but worth a comment: I have de-

“No way,” Blake said.

tected few traces of surface metals. Because of Dana blinked. “What’s that?”

the higher gravity, whatever metals there are

“My job was to get Endeavour here. Done.

will have tended to sink before the planet

Your job isn’t finished till you land this ship.”

cooled. And—”

Dana’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like your log-

“That’s enough,” Rikki snapped. “Earth-ic . . . but I accept it. And I concede you’re
worms are so damned spoiled. Apart from the
qualified to fly the shuttle. So, okay. Blake pi-gravity, this planet is a damned paradise.

lots this time. Any other volunteers?”

DARK SECRET

81

ANALOG

“I’ll go,” Carlos offered. Trying to impress
vote whether to decide on names, at the very

Li, of course.

least on picking this world’s name, before the

“Absolutely not, and that’s doctor’s orders.

initial landing. Surely we can manage that.”

You’re not ready yet. I’ll go.” Smiling at Blake, A subtler barb, but this time Dana stiffened.

Li added, “We’ll have fun.”

To manage things was the captain’s job.

Steam seemed to rise from Rikki’s ears. She

By now Blake, Rikki, and Dana would reject
said, “That’s okay, I’ll fly down with Blake. My anything Li proposed. She couldn’t win—and
job was to get him here.”

that was as she intended. Li said, “Well?”

“The gravity won’t be fun,” Li said. “For this

And then Rikki surprised her. “We’ve gone
first outing, at least, we should leave it to”—
on and on about naming conventions. Philoso-let’s push Rikki’s buttons again—“the Earth-
phers. Playwrights. Composers. Poets. Artists.

worms. We have more stamina.”

Explorers and castaways. What we haven’t

And she winked at Blake.

done is agree.

Dana jumped in. “No way, Li. If there are in-

“So here’s my suggestion. There are six fectious agents on the surface, I can’t have our planets and six of us. We draw lots, and each
only doctor exposed. Those are captain’s or-
of us names one world.”

ders.”

“That sounds fair,” Antonio said.

Antonio fingered his chin. “I think I’ll be . . .

“Hurrah,” Blake said. “The Gordian knot,
more useful up . . . here.”

nuked.”

“Then it’s settled,” Dana said. “Blake and

Dana seemed to consider. “In this scheme,”

Rikki will make this first flight. That’s it.”

she asked, “how would we address moons

Rikki was seething, a Vesuvius about to
and geographical features? With this world, for blow. Blake was conf licted: f lattered by the
example, it’s three moons and six of us.”

come-on, and even mildly intrigued; upset at

Rikki stammered, “I . . . I’m in favor of de-

Rikki’s anger; eager to explore. Carlos was jeal-ciding that later.”

ous, Dana annoyed, and Antonio —as al-

Ad libbing are we?

ways—oblivious to the undercurrents.

“Fair enough,” Dana said. “I’m game.”

All Li’s pieces were in place.

“Think about this,” Li said. “We need to be She cleared her throat. “First, we have some
serious. For the sake of the children and their unfinished business.”

heritage. Blake? You understand, I’m sure.”

“Not names again,” Blake stage-whispered.

Rikki’s eyes smoldered.

Li pretended not to hear. “Surely, Captain,

“I’m with Li,” Carlos said.

we’re not about to set foot on our new home

At least his hormones were.

world still calling it ‘the planet.’”

Dana said, “Four out of six, or captain’s pre-

“You’ve made some interesting sugges-
rogative: take your pick. We’ll go with Rikki’s tions,” Dana said. (Interesting carried more suggestion. And Li, we’re following your lead
than a hint of disapproval. The pawns had
by choosing names before the landing.”

been comparing notes.) “The problem is,

Li bowed her head in defeat—exultant in-
we’re nowhere near a consensus on planet
side. After this f inely crafted debacle, none
names.”

would think of her as subtle.

“Symbolism matters,” Li said. “Never mind

May they never learn the error of their
how like Earth or Mars this planet may be.

ways.

We’re keeping it at a psychological distance.

Soon enough, on a dozen folded sheets of

It’s ‘this planet,’ and ‘this world.’ We need to paper, two sets of six numbers waited to be
make it home.”

drawn from opaque bags. One set related to

“Then call it Home, with a capital h,” Blake the planets, the other to the crew.

said.

If luck came to Li’s aid, she might even get

Li feigned considering the suggestion. “Alas,
to name the world below. That would be a
no. There’s none of our heritage in that name.

pleasant bonus. But no. In the lottery for plan-It is my professional opinion that—”

ets she drew four, one of the gas giants.

“Oh, just give it a rest,” Rikki barked.

In the second round, Li did get the consola-

“That’s one opinion,” Li said. “However,
tion prize of naming “her” world f irst. She
this affects us all. I propose that we put it to a picked Hobbes, just in case Carlos had drawn

82

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
the second planet. He had, alas, only drawn

Endeavour could have delivered the weath-the innermost planet, the Mars-like world.

er microsats as easily as the shuttle, but he

Glancing to Li for approval, or maybe to claim
wanted to get a feel for his controls before at-a favor, he declared his world Confucius.

tempting entry and landing.

Antonio, going next, had drawn three: the He had his doubts this exercise would buy
biggest, nearest, gas giant. He dubbed it Ayn
them more than flight practice. None of these

Rand. He didn’t meet Li’s gaze. If his selection satellites would stay parked. Not with three
wasn’t defiant, he wouldn’t have anyway.

close-in natural moons to perturb their orbits.

For the outermost world, when her turn

Not with the innermost moon dipping daily
came, Dana chose Kierkegaard. An interesting
below the altitude of synchronous orbits.

choice: a philosopher who had not made it

Five or six microsats, even drifting, might
onto Li’s recommended reading list. Existen-
keep the entire planet under observation and
tialism. Christian ethics. Blah, blah, blah. Bet-maintain a line-of-sight comm ring. They had
ter, though, than the biblical nonsense to
three.

which Li had expected Dana might turn—not

Synchronous orbits? Above Dark, the no-
that Li would deny that the old myths resonat-
tion was ludicrous. Of necessity, they would
ed with people. Quite the opposite, in fact.

learn to live with sporadic downlinks when

She admired the old stories’ cultural tenacity, one of their few satellites happened to wander
just not anyone gulled by them.

overhead.

Rikki, dithering still when her turn came, The scarcity of on-orbit sensors was em-settled on Newton for planet five.

blematic of everything they lacked. Automat-

But it was Blake who had won the sweep-
ed landers. Robotic swarms to make the initial
stakes: the privilege of naming humanity’s
explorations. Construction equipment. A real
new home. When at last the moment came to
med lab. Months of food in reserve. Portable
exercise his right, he didn’t, as he had intimat-reactors and enough deuterium to—
ed, opt to call the planet Home.

Stop it, Blake ordered himself. You’re alive.

The world they would settle would be

It’s time to earn your place among the lucky
known, forever after, as Dark.

few.

“Copy that,” Dana said. “When you’re done

Chapter 22
with your deliveries, how about you find us a

“Ready back there?” Blake asked. On his
nice homestead.”

cockpit instruments ever ything showed

“Beachfront property,” he promised. “Dis-
green. “This will be fun.”

covery, out.”

“Ready,” Rikki called from behind him. She

“Copy.”

sounded dubious about the fun.

Blake f lipped off the ship-to-ship radio.

He toggled on the radio. “Endeavour, this is

“Main drive in ten seconds.”

the shuttle Discovery. We’re go for launch.”

“Okay,” Rikki said.

“Safe journey, Discovery,” Dana radioed No one had commented on his sponta-back. “Keep in touch.”

neous christening of the shuttle.

“Will do,” he said.

Carlos and Antonio were probably sick of

With mountains and valleys, lakes and rivers
picking names. Dana, traditionalist that she
and seas, icecaps and glaciers and boundless
was, might even approve of Blake’s choice.

plains, Dark beckoned. Here and there, a

Discovery had been among the ships bringing whorl of cloud obscured his view. The planet
the original settlers to the Jamestown colony.

was in all but full phase, and even the slender Another Discovery had accompanied James visible rim of night side glimmered in double

Cook’s third expedition around the world.

moonlight.

Robert Scott had taken yet a different Discov-

“Releasing docking clamps,” Blake an-
ery to Antarctica.

nounced. “Engaging thrusters.”

And Li? Blake supposed she was off licking

With puffs of compressed nitrogen, he
her wounds after the name-the-worlds fiasco.

edged the dart-like shuttle away from the

Unless she had found a reason to like the
much larger ovoid that was Endeavour. “I’m name. When the Jamestown colonists sent
off to deploy our cargo,” he reported.

their Discovery seeking a Northwest Passage, DARK SECRET

83

ANALOG
its crew mutinied. They abandoned the cap-
rattling shudder. The leading edge of their
tain, Henry Hudson, in a small boat. He was
wings glowed a dull orange.

never seen again.

Nothing about their descent was quite

And Rikki? She was all but monosyllabic.

what he expected. The atmosphere was shal-

She was mad about something, and he had no
lower than over any world where he had ever
idea what.

f lown, because of Dark’s high gravity. The

He asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

pressure varied more rapidly with altitude, for

“About what?”

the same reason. His laser altimeter started

He guessed. “We’ll f ind a place for the
talking nonsense again. His backup altimeter
colony. We will succeed.”

was useless, still calibrated for atmospheric

“I know,” she said, but her voice was sad.

pressure above Mars.

“Your family would be proud.”

He had radar and eyeballs. They would suf-

“And yours,” she said.

fice.

He found no more solace in the reassurance

His controls kept refusing to act as his in-
than she had.

stincts expected: pressure-gradient differences Discovery’s trajectory plunged them into again. He put the craft into a steeper dive,
darkness. As his eyes adapted, more and more
pulled out of it, banked left, then jinked back stars appeared—except where the Coalsack
right. Tearing through experimental banks
took a huge chunk out of the sky.

and turns, he began to get the feel of his craft

“Coming up on the drop point,” Rikki
and this world.

called.

“If you do a barrel roll,” Rikki said, “I’ll di-

“Copy that.” He kept watch on his own dis-
vorce you.”

plays. “On my mark, make the drop. Three,

Blake had to laugh. This was fun. “No rolls,”

two, one, mark.”

he agreed.

“First satellite dropped.” There was a pause.

The world became f lat. Plains as colorless

“Telemetry received. It’s online.”

as charcoal stretched in every direction. To

He went on the radio. “Endeavour, that’s the west he glimpsed a great crevasse. From
one satellite on station.” While its onboard
the topo map compiled on orbit, that was a
fuel lasts. “We’re on our way to the next drop
river canyon.

point.”

The gravity wore at him, just sitting—and it

“We have it,” Dana said.

was worse for Rikki.

On the way to the third deployment, Rikki

At about eight thousand meters, the shuttle
said, “Li is beautiful, don’t you think?”

broke through a thin, uniform layer of white.

That was one hell of a non sequitur.

Ice crystals spattered off the canopy. Cirro-

Yes wasn’t what Rikki wanted to hear. No stratus, he wanted to call the formation, too
was hardly credible. Ignoring the question
ignorant of weather processes to even guess if
wasn’t an option. Blake settled on, “Carlos cer-Dark and Earth would share cloud types.

tainly thinks so.”

Maybe Antonio would know.

A sniff said he had taken too long to answer.

They had slowed enough to be out of

So was Rikki’s funk about Li?

comm blackout. (Under Earth conditions, he

After the third microsat was deployed, and
reminded himself.) He gave radio a try. “En-returned to the world’s day side, Blake called, deavour, this is Discovery. Do you read?”

“Endeavour, this is Discovery. We’re ready to

“Good to hear from you, Discovery,” Dana go in.”

said. “Though to judge from the ionization

“Copy that.” In a softer voice, Dana added,
trail behind you, someone enjoyed the ride

“Take care, Discovery.”

too much.”

“Always,” Blake said. “Discovery, out.”

“Negative,” Blake said. “Just the proper

With a blast of their main drive he shed ve-
amount.”

locity. The shuttle trembled at the first wisps

“No, Dana, you were right,” Rikki said.

of atmosphere. He swung left, then right, get-

A blue-and-green dappled expanse was
ting a feel for the bite of the shuttle’s control straight ahead of them. The inland sea was
surfaces. Lower and lower they plunged, and
long and skinny, with a slight bend at its mid-
the tremor became a quiver became a bone-
section. Except for the color it reminded Blake 84

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
of a summer squash.

and lobbed one over his shoulder to Rikki. He

But the sea was a lot bigger than a summer
checked the IR sensors. He and Rikki admired
squash. If his mental arithmetic was correct,
the f iery sunset sparkling off the waters. He
the sea covered an expanse bigger than Lake
checked the IR sensors. They marveled as the

Superior. Two of the many bays that dimpled
apple-green sky faded to something closer to
the seacoast had to be bigger than cities.

olive. He checked the IR sensors. He reached

Radar indicated depths to eighty meters. Most
overhead with both arms, tap-tapping on the
of the lake bottom failed to return an echo;
canopy till Rikki kicked the back of his seat.

the center must be far deeper.

She checked the IR sensors.

Blake said, “Endeavour, we have a beautiful When, at last, sensors showed they could
afternoon. We’ll do a quick f lyover, then set
safely exit the shuttle, the wind had kicked
down at our first landing zone.”

up. The sun had half-vanished beneath the

“Copy that,” Dana said.

sea. Two moons hung overhead, and the

Exploring the area they crossed a great
waves lapped to within several meters of their
chasm. They soared along a mountain chain
landing skids.

that must rival the Andes. Dark was . . . mag-

“Are you ready to make camp?” he asked.

nificent. Reveling in the stark beauty and the

“Sure,” she said. “Ready, in any event, for an
freedom of flight, swooping through the emp-
air mattress.”

ty skies, time got away from him.

“Mask on?” he asked.

By the time he circled back to the sea, the

“Mask on.”

sun, about to set, almost kissed the waters.

“Releasing the canopy,” he advised her, and

(“It’s Plato,” Li’s astral projection scolded.) then did. To the wailing of the wind, louder

The star, by whatever name, sent its rays al-
with each centimeter that the gap widened,
most parallel to the ground. The light cast the the canopy receded into its stowage in the
weathered, snow-capped mountains east of
hull.

the waters into stark relief. Broken ground and Grit pelted him. The air was cold, and it re-boulder f ields extended almost to the toffee-
fused to f ill his lungs. He slipped on his
colored beach.

breather mask, then gloves. He shouted over

“I have to set us down near the shore,” he
the wind, “Stay put.”

said.

He hung the boarding ladder outside,

“Is that a problem?”

hooked over the rim of the cockpit. Leg mus-

“Only for the morning. We’ll have a long
cles screaming, he stepped down the three
walk to the caves.”

rungs and onto the ground. Sand and salt

She said, “A walk by sunlight, in fresh air. I’ll spray stung any bit of exposed flesh.

take it.”

He slid the ladder aft, to Rikki’s end of the

He brought them in low and slow, parallel-
cockpit, leaving his hands on the rails. “Care-ing the coastline. As near to the cave mouth as fully, climb over the side. I’ll steady you.”

he dared to land, he engaged drive deflectors

Her boot slipped off the bottom rung, and
and—gingerly, still getting the feel of this grav-they tumbled together to the ground.

ity—set down. The faint rattle of pebbles

Blake was pissed at himself for not setting
against the shuttle’s underbelly was his imagi-
down earlier, when they had had better
nation, of course; the drive exhaust had fused
weather. He was pissed at Li for goading Rikki
sand and loose rocks into place.

into volunteering, never mind that he’d in-

“Endeavour, he reported, “Discovery has tended all along to invite her. And, to be hon-landed.”

est, he was pissed at Rikki herself. What the

“Copy that,” Dana said. “And it’s about time
hell was her problem? Li? Why wouldn’t Rikki you finished joyriding.”

talk to him about it?

“You’ll have your turn,” Blake said.

Rikki unhooked the ladder and closed the

“Yeah, yeah. Enjoy your evening. Endeav-
canopy with its remote while he stewed.

our, out.”

Unloading their gear from the shuttle’s car-

“Discovery, out,” he responded.

go locker, he asked, “Are you ready for dinner

He read the ground temps with IR sensors.

and some sleep?”

Still hot. He got out Mars-style breather masks And if you get over your foul mood, and I

DARK SECRET

85

ANALOG
over mine, maybe putting an air mattress to After the avalanche blasted through, he
a more communal use?

would be lucky to see the tops of the rocks.

“Sounds like a plan,” Rikki said.

Would he recognize this spot? Rikki’s hiking

But not his only plan. As they ate, the
pole was nowhere in sight; he started slipping
staked-and-inf lated shelter shimmying in the
off the wristband of his pole, to wedge it as a wind, he mentally reviewed the next plan’s
marker among the rocks.

few, simple stages:

And paused. If the avalanche carried away

—A leisurely morning stroll.

the pole, he’d have nothing with which to

—Reconnoitering and approval of the near-
probe for her beneath the snow.

by caves.

(“We have maybe fifteen minutes to save an

— Endeavour on the ground.

avalanche victim,” a ski instructor had once

—Some honest labor, specifics to be deter-
cautioned Blake and a half dozen other begin-
mined.

ners. Blake had been more attentive to the ski

And everyone lives happily ever after.

bunnies than to the lecture. “Do not lose your beacon. Even with a beacon, the odds of res-But as Rikki slept fitfully and Blake not at all, cue are about fifty-fifty.”)

beneath the pitiless stare of an alien sky, the Fifteen minutes. With an organized effort

Coalsack—vast, inchoate, stygian—scoffed at
and a radio beacon to guide the rescuers.

the effrontery of mere human aspiration.

The wall of snow was no more than thirty
seconds away.

In anguish, Blake unclipped from their safe-

DECISIONS
ty line. He began running/sliding/falling

(Landing Day, plus one)

across the slippery slope. He couldn’t outrun an avalanche, but maybe he could get to the

Chapter 23
side of it. With each glance over his shoulder,

“Avalanche!” Blake screamed.

the chaos drew nearer.

Or tried, anyway. Snow down his throat

The tide of snow crashed over the cluster of
choked off the warning and set him to cough-
boulders. He tried to sear into his brain the
ing.

configuration of the boulders.

Rikki didn’t answer.

If the snow completely buried them, he’d

“Rikki!” he managed to wheeze, scarcely au-
never find Rikki.

dible above the roar of the onrushing snow.

Seconds later, with an earsplitting growl,

She had come to rest, bent double against one
the edge of the snow torrent swept him off his
of the jumble of boulders he had just missed.

feet. Downhill he went, tumbling like dice in

Blood dribbled from a gash on her forehead.

a cup.

“Rikki! Avalanche! We have to move!”

Stones and clumps of ice pounded him. The

She didn’t stir as he struggled back to his
snow ripped off his hat and gloves, breather
feet. He shoved her, hard. Nothing.

mask and headset. The hiking pole vanished,

The roar of the avalanche was palpable. The
its wrist strap snapped or torn from his arm.

churning mass racing at them looked perhaps

At least he couldn’t slam into a tree.

a minute away.

Snow was everywhere: down his back, fill-On skis—maybe—he could outrun the
ing his boots, up his sleeves. His breather
avalanche. Not on foot. Not carrying Rikki.

mask was gone, its thin elastic strap unequal

Her breather mask, like his, had been
to this abuse. Snow plugged his nostrils. Each
knocked off. The mask dangled by its f limsy
breath began by spitting out snow, and ended
elastic strap around her neck. He slipped Rik-
with another mouthful.

ki’s mask up over her mouth and nose. His

But the avalanche was petering out. He had
chest heaving, he dragged her in among the
stopped tumbling. Bobbing along on the sur-
clustered boulders and leaned her up against
face, he dared to hope the worst was past.

the tallest of the stones.

Until, being denser than loose snow, he be-

Because he had to leave her! Abandon her!

gan to sink.

If the snow should bury them both—they

Lungs burning from exertion and the thin
both died.

air, Blake started to swim. A knapsack strap

86

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
had snapped, or in his f lailing the strap had

Here, too, the snow was firmly packed.

slipped off one arm. The bag, hanging like an

He stared for a while, stymied, at the bright-
anchor from one shoulder, dragged him into
ly colored nylon line. Then he studied the raw, the snow. Shrugging off the remaining strap,
red, angry flesh of an injured hand. As painful still swimming hard, he managed to stay on
as the wound looked, he couldn’t feel it. Of
top.

course he couldn’t feel anything in either

He came to rest somewhat vertical, leaning
hand. Now what was he doing here . . . ?

forward, in snow up to his diaphragm. Al-

He was looking for Rikki! How could he
ready, he felt the snow settling and compact-
have forgotten that?

ing around him like concrete. He could not

As through a fog, though, he did know: hy-move his legs, not so much as wiggle a foot.

pothermia from the cold. Hypoxia from the

(“Fifteen minutes,” that long-ago instruc-
thin air, the altitude, and the exertion. Maybe tor’s voice echoed in Blake’s mind.)

shock from the pummeling of the avalanche.

A rock slab, leaning, protruded nearby from

Clutching the rock slab with numb fingers,
the snow. The slab might have served as an

Blake pushed in among the boulders. Rikki
impromptu shovel.

would be at the base of the tallest rock. If the Instead, just beyond his reach, it looked to
rush of snow hadn’t swept her down slope.

serve as a gravestone.

He began digging frantically.

With his bare hands—soaking wet, his

Digging, digging, digging . . .

teeth chattering—Blake began to dig.

Confusion overtook him again; he lost sight
of what he was doing until—with a jolt—his

His hands numb with cold, Blake finally dug
improvised shovel hit something. Something
himself free. He’d lost his wristwatch, too, but that twitched!

fifteen minutes must already have passed.

He threw aside the rock slab to burrow dog-

He had left Rikki in the shelter of the rocks.

like with his hands. He found—a leg. Why had

Maybe her breather mask had stayed put.

he dug so far from the boulder? “Rikki,” he

Part of the avalanche had crashed its way to
called.

the inland sea, but to the north of their camp.

If she had heard him, he couldn’t hear her

A good kilometer distant, through the dimin-
answer.

ishing blizzard, both shuttle and inflated shel-The bit of pant leg he’d exposed looked to
ter looked untouched.

be just below her knee. If she still leaned

Half a kilometer in another direction was
against the boulder, then her head would
the boulder f ield in which—he was almost
be . . . he struggled to puzzle it out . . . here.

certain—he had left Rikki. He tugged the

Minutes later, his hands—stiff and blue—
stone slab free of the snow, and set off. Gasp-
rammed the hard plastic of a breather mask.

ing for air, slipping and falling, hands and feet And she moaned! She was alive! Ten inter-like blocks of ice, he slogged through the
minable minutes later, he had uncovered her
snow.

to the waist. He unclipped her from the safety

His suit heater wasn’t working. Controls
line, meters of which remained buried deep in
smashed? Heating circuits broken? Battery
snow.

knocked loose? He did not bother to look.

Only then did he raid her knapsack for her

Whatever the problem, without tools and
spare mask, oxygen tank, and gloves. The oh-
spare parts he could do nothing about it. If
two jolt cleared his muddled thoughts enough
he’d still had a knapsack, he couldn’t have af-
to slam one of her spare battery packs into the forded the time.

empty, lid-torn-off compartment of his f light

A few meters downhill from that group of
suit. Blessed warmth began to flow except in
rocks, a silvery glint caught his eye. A rope
one sleeve, in which the heating elements
clip!

must have broken.

His hands had frozen to the rock slab; when

“Blake?”

he released it, it took skin with it. A sharp tug Her eyes were open! He said, “I thought I’d
drew a few centimeters of red nylon line up
lost you.”

out of the snow—and the frigid clip from his

“I did, too.”

grasp. More palm skin went with the clip.

“I’ll have you out of there soon, ” he

DARK SECRET

87

ANALOG
promised. With the folding shovel from her

Youth,” Blake said. “Is everyone there?”

knapsack, f inishing the job was a matter of

“As you requested,” Dana said. “Okay, it’s
minutes.

your show.”

An hour later, bone-weary, they stumbled

Blake nodded. “Hi, everyone. We surveyed
into their snow-covered shelter.

three candidate sites this trip. Any of them
would meet our specs. This one is damn near

They took off before nightfall for Endeav-
optimal.”

our.

Rikki added, “We’re at landing zone three.”

“For replacement equipment,” Blake ra-

“Tell us about it,” Dana said.

dioed to Dana: a partial truth. The absolute

Rikki nodded. “It’s located at about twenty-
truth, if hands counted as equipment. Under
five degrees north latitude, almost within the
the gloves he hoped Rikki didn’t notice he
tropics. The seasons won’t be extreme. This
continued to wear, knuckles screamed at
near the equator, cyclonic storms won’t be
every motion, and the skin was pale and blis-
common and shouldn’t be severe. It’s local
tered. He suspected severe frostbite on his
spring, so we can try farming without a long
feet, too.

wait. Caves, sea, river delta, the works. Bot-

Soon enough, Li conf irmed his fears—ex-
tom line, it satisfies all our requirements.”

tending the diagnosis to nose, ears, and ran-

“To provide an overview, we made a vid,”

dom patches on his legs. The thawed areas

Blake said. “Marvin, if you’ll project it up
hurt like hell, sometimes also managing to
there.”

itch, until Li pumped him full of painkillers.

On the hold bulkhead, the display switched

As nanite swarms labored to repair the dam-
to a wide-angle, outdoor shot of the sea. The
age, Blake focused on an ever-growing sup-
camera panned along the shoreline, paused to
plies list. They still needed to find a home for admire gentle waves lapping at a white sand
the colony.

beach, then swept up a rock-strewn and fur-

On his next flight to Dark, he would be bet-
rowed slope to a range of low, rounded hills.

ter prepared.

A crescent moon, daylight ghostly, hovered
over the hills.

Chapter 24

Nowhere, apart from slimy green f ilm on

Dana f loated at the forward end of cargo
the undulating waters, did Dana see any color.

hold three, beside a datasheet magneted to

Their perspective returned to the shore,
the bulkhead. The comp projected an orbital
where Rikki, her breathing mask dangling on
view of Dark. “Whenever they’re ready,” she
her chest, mugged for the camera. The shuttle
told Marvin.

and an inflatable shelter stood nearby.

“It should be only another few minutes,”

“Pause,” Blake said. “Our campsite, of
the AI said.

course. The sea offers more than ample water

Three of the crew waited among the cold-
as a deuterium source, and something like al-
sleep pods. Antonio poked at something on
gae mats as feedstock for our synth vats.”

his own datasheet. Carlos whispered unintelli-

“If this is so perfect,” Carlos muttered, “why
gibly at Li, who silenced him with a hard stare.

didn’t you land there first?”

She looked . . . distracted? No, preoccupied.

Antonio looked up from his datasheet. “The

Please, God, Dana thought. Not more
local caves run deep. I couldn’t determine the squabbling about names.

extent of this cave system . . . with ground-

“Blake says he and Rikki are ready,” Marvin
penetrating radar.”

announced.

“Salt water or fresh?” Carlos asked.

The orbital view vanished, displaced by a

“The sea?” Blake said. “Brackish. Nothing
close-up of Blake and Rikki—both grinning
we couldn’t purify, if needed. Any other ques-
from ear to ear. Behind them, seen through
tions?” He paused for a few seconds. “Moving
the clear wall of their shelter, extending to the on, then. The hike up to the caves takes forty-horizon, was an inland sea.

five minutes. Marvin, can you fast-forward, say

“You two look so disappointed,” Dana dead-
f ifty to one, and debounce the vid while
panned.

you’re at it?”

“Well, we didn’t f ind the Fountain of

“Done,” the AI said.

88

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

The vid zigzagged up the slope, dodging
side slopes away from the entrance. The cliff
boulders and gullies. Every few seconds, at
overhangs the cave mouth, so rain runoff and
this accelerated pace, the camera turned to
snowmelt should hit downhill and keep head-
gaze back. From these higher elevations Dana
ing away. Inside the entrance—”

saw that two rivers emptied into the sea. One

“The one we’ve found thus far,” Rikki inter-
river entered in a spectacular waterfall. The
rupted.

second river reached the sea through a sinu-

“Fair enough,” Blake said. “Inside this en-ous gorge and a broad delta.

trance, the cave f loor trends downward. Its

They “arrived” in less than a minute at a
slope should carry away whatever rain and
high cliff face. In the vid, Rikki paused in a
snowmelt does get inside. Supposing the cave
cave mouth that was more or less triangular.

has other, f lood-prone entrances, there is a

With her height as a reference the opening
huge volume to fill before water can reach the
measured about four meters wide at ground
upper chambers. And because the caves are
level, and three meters high.

dry now, we know the river drains some-

“Marvin, resume real time,” Blake said.

where. That’s also encouraging.”

“The front door,” Rikki-in-the-vid narrated.

As much as Dana wanted to believe, she

“And a mere hundred or so meters away”—
wasn’t convinced. “How about rain coming
the camera following as she pointed—“once
through those sinkholes?”

we clear away the boulders, a ready-made

Rikki said, “There are big chambers upslope
landing field for Endeavour.”

of where the sinkholes empty. I’d think we’d

Dana almost missed Carlos glancing at Li
want to keep to those upper reaches, at least
from the corner of his eye.

till we’ve experienced a couple rainstorms.”

What’s she up to? Dana wondered.

Antonio, his brow furrowed, was f lipping

At a walking pace, the vid went inside. Mar-
holo frames on his datasheet.

vin adjusted the apparent illumination so

Dana asked, “Antonio? If you have some-
smoothly that Dana almost didn’t notice the
thing to add?”

sputtering of one flare and the igniting of the

“I’ve been examining the vid up close. A vi-next. They moved from one grotto to another.

olent torrent would sweep up big rocks and

Twice, a soaring ceiling opened through a
scar the cave walls. I haven’t seen grooves like great shaft to the blue-green sky. Sinkholes,

. . . that. There aren’t many puddles. There’s
she guessed. One shaft looked at least a hun-
little dried mud and none of it is high on the dred meters deep!

walls.”

It all reminded her of . . . what? Mammoth

“Then there’s no f looding risk?” Dana Cave. Now there was an ancient memory: she asked.

had been eight or nine when her family

Antonio shrugged.

passed through Kentucky on holiday in North

“And seismically?” Carlos asked. “Is the area

America. And just as in Mammoth Cave, mov-
stable?”

ing deeper and deeper underground brought

Blake said, “On our flyover, I didn’t notice
them to a rushing subterranean river. Sub-
any faults or indications of volcanism. And

Darkian. Whatever.

nothing inside these caves suggests other-

“In-home running water, ” Blake said.

wise.”

“Fresh, by the way.”

“Is that definitive?” Carlos persisted.

“What’s the inside . . . temperature?” Anto-

“You want definitive?” Blake glowered. “We nio asked.

don’t have seismometers. I doubt they’d be

Blake said, “Away from the entrance and
hard to build, but even on quake-prone terri-
the air shafts? Call it twelve degrees Celsius.

tory they might give no indication for years.

Often, that’ll be warmer than the surface.”

And minor shocks, if we did detect any, could

Twelve? Balmy by Martian standards, too.

be the norm everywhere on the planet.”

“How about f looding?” Dana asked. “Any

“Look at these . . . stalactites.” Rikki glanced data?”

at Blake for conf irmation of the word.

Blake grimaced. “My guess is it won’t be a

“They’re old, aren’t they?”

problem, but that’s so outside my area of ex-From what Dana remembered, stalactites
pertise. Here’s what I can say. The terrain out-grew maybe a few millimeters per year. Blake’s

DARK SECRET

89

ANALOG
vid showed stalactites at least three meters

Li cleared her throat, reminding everyone
long. A thousand years old, then, without a
how unsubtle she was. And that something
major temblor? In a few years, surely, they
more than site selection was on her mind.

would learn to build here and would vacate

“The caves seem adequate, Captain, and my
the caves.

compliments to our intrepid explorers. But I

She liked those odds.

have a question.”

“That whole area must be old,” Antonio

“Of course.” Dana nodded agreeably, re-
said. “Consider those sinkholes. There wasn’t
lieved to have consensus about a major deci-
much rubble beneath them. All that rock dis-
sion. Clueless, Li hoped, about the issue at
solved. Imagine how . . . long that process
hand.

took.”

Li said, “As I understand it, we’ll land near

“It’s a new world,” Carlos retorted. “Can we
the beach, hike uphill and clear the boulder
really know?”

f ield on the f lat expanse near the cave en-

“But not new physics. I . . . think.”

trance, then hop Endeavour to its permanent The longer they analyzed and weighed,
landing spot. Right?”

mulled and debated, the more Dana won-

“Right,” Dana said. “Um, wait. What do you
dered, why is Li so quiet?

mean, permanent?”

“That that’s where the ship will stay. Over a

Li would never forget the night Mei Yeo
power cable, Endeavour is our power source.

won her seat in the California state assembly.

When something surprises us, she’s our emer-

Campaign aides and well wishers thronging
gency shelter and, worst case, our way to
the tiny apartment. Anxious chatter and too
evacuate. She’s a secure place to stow some
loud laughter. The sudden hush whenever
reserve portion of our cargo, for safekeeping.”

some volunteer observer texted an update

“And the only place within light-years with
from a polling place. Excitement mounting as
a shower or a galley,” Carlos threw in.

the early returns broke Mother’s way. Exuber-

Dana frowned, uncertainly. “The DED as a
ant cheering—and Mother’s tears of joy—
power supply for six of us? That’s like swat-
when, long after midnight, her opponent
ting flies with tactical nukes.”

called to concede.

“It won’t always be just the six of us,” Li

Li had never seen her mother so happy.

said mildly. “The larger point is, we’re settling And never did again. Anyone electable from
a barren wilderness. For that we need tech.

the People’s Republic of Berkeley was too ex-

Unless we conserve the little tech we have, it
treme to advance her agenda in Sacramento.

will wear out before we can replace it.”

And so Li learned at a young age that the

Dana’s eyes narrowed.

purpose of politics is power, not popularity.

Sensing deeper meanings, finally, are we?

Mother never did get that lesson. She ran and

Li pressed on. “Without this vessel, we have
won and was miserable, stymied, one dreary
nothing. No way to power the synth vats,
term after another, rather than admit to the fu-maintain cooling for the embryos, or run the
tility of it all. Even after, in her bitterness, she artificial wombs. No way ever to develop the
drove Li’s father f irst to sluts and then to di-tech to get us out of caves. No way—”

vorce.

“I take your point,” Dana said coldly.

Li had goals for the colony soon to be. And

“Do you?” Li shot back. Get really pissed off, unlike Mother, she would see them come to Captain. “Wear out this ship through unnec-fruition.

essary use, and to what energy source do we
revert? Campfires of our dried shit?”

Would Dana never come to the point? Li

“Ethanol distilled . . . from algae mats.

wondered.

Maybe a hydroelectric . . . power plant.”

Finally, Dana did. “What do you say, folks?

As he spoke, Antonio squirmed. He did not

Have we found a home?”

fare well with conflict and, moreover, was an

“I’m ready for elbow room,” Carlos said.

innocent bystander. Li regretted putting him

“This site looks good,” Antonio said.

through this, but it was for the greater good.

“Rikki, Blake,” Dana said, “I think I know

She did everything for the greater good.

how you feel. How about—”

“Alcohol lamps,” she sneered.

90

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

With nostrils flaring, Dana said, “And after
shirt to her back. Knees, hips, shoulders . . .

the settlement becomes dependent for power
was any joint in her body not in agony from on Endeavour? She’s unavailable then for the the extra weight hung on her by Dark’s gravi-unanticipated.”

ty? Certainly the damned pickaxe weighed a

“So: alcohol lamps,” Li scoffed again.

ton. Taking a rest break every ten minutes and

She heard Dana’s teeth grinding.

whenever she felt lightheaded, she had man-

Work it through, Captain. I’m defying you.

aged, so far, to forgo a breather mask.

Why? Is it because with the ship grounded

Headache, dizziness, insomnia, and lack of
your claim to any special authority over the appetite: she could be the poster child for alti-rest of us is grounded with it?

tude sickness. Tough. She told herself they

“If I may, Captain,” Blake said. “Li poses an
had higher oh-two pressure than any Tibetan.

engineering problem, and it has an engineer-

Trying to forget that Tibetans were no
ing solution.”

more.

“Go on, Blake,” Dana said.

Once again, the world spun around her.

“The second shuttle is still in crates. Run the Dana laid down her pickaxe, carefully, before
colony off its reactor. Scavenge that shuttle, as she hurt anyone with it. She sat on a boulder
needed, for high-tech parts.”

to wait out the vertigo. The blue-green sky

“While you joyride around the solar sys-
made her queasy, too. She wished she could
tem?” Li challenged. “Endeavour has served remember how long Mars’s red sky had taken
us well, but it’s old. Tired. When our one long-to come to seem normal. Years, she guessed.

range ship breaks down far out in the solar sys-Blake, nearby, wielded his own pickaxe.

tem—and it will—then what?”

The result so far—as in her case—was more

“She’s my ship,” Dana forced the words be-dimple than hole. But pickaxes were easier to
tween clenched jaws. “That hasn’t changed.

fabricate than jackhammers.

She isn’t grounded till I say she’s grounded, Among untold gaps in Marvin’s knowledge,
and if that happens, it’ll be on an engineer’s rock blasting was the first to bite them. How
recommendation, not a shrink’s.”

much explosive would they need? How deep

“It’s all very well to—”

should they plant the explosives? How far

“Enough, Li,” Dana growled. “We’ll offload apart?

the spare shuttle’s fusion reactor. It’ll give

Dropping his pickaxe, Blake wiped his fore-
more than ample power to start our colony.

head with a sleeve. His beard (all three men

We’ll offload most parts and supplies from this had started one, for warmth) remained
ship. Hell, we’ll disconnect and off load Mar-
scruffy. “This is a lot of work on an empty
vin’s servers, so that no matter where En-
stomach.”

deavour goes, if it goes, the colony always has

“Nonsense,” she said, shuddering. “We had
the use of Marvin’s archives. All right?”

gruel.”

“Yes, Captain,” Li said meekly.

He stooped to reclaim his tool. “You always

With a parting glower at Li, Dana turned the
could motivate me.”

conversation to scheduling the landing.

Dana wished he hadn’t reminded her of

“That was brutal,” Carlos whispered to Li.

breakfast. Pond scum à là Carlos. According to

No, she thought, that was reverse psycholo-
every test Carlos and Li had devised, the refor-gy. I have Dana just where I want her.

mulated slop was safe—

And with each mouthful Dana channeled

Chapter 25
old mystery novels. Arsenic poisoning was not Dead tired, Dana swung her pickaxe up
how she wanted to go.

over her head. It came down, clang, on the Dark’s biology, what there was of it, in
unyielding ground. A few sparks flew, and bits
many ways resembled Earth’s. So, anyway, her
of gravel.

experts told her. Both biochemistries relied on From starship captain to manual laborer in

DNA and proteins. Both used twenty-two
one week and one easy lesson.

amino acids, most of them in common. And

Despite the morning chill and a stiff breeze
when they differed? Dana didn’t know one
off the newly dubbed Darwin Sea, sweat ran
amino acid from another, anyway.

down her face and neck and plastered her

But she could not get past arsenic taking the

DARK SECRET

91

ANALOG
role of phosphorus in terrestrial biochemistry.

and crew awaited rescue. In Reliance’s main With every swallow, she wondered how
air lock, suited up, the rescue party stood by
complete was the process of removing arsenic
awaiting their chance to board.

and inserting phosphorus in its place. Maybe

Everyone waited for her to dock. Without only the merest trace of arsenic stayed behind.

crashing. Without dooming everyone aboard

A little poison with every morsel . . .

both ships.

With renewed vigor, she attacked the rocky

Again the wreck lunged. Faster than con-
ground. These excavations were the first baby
scious thought, Dana f ired her forward
step toward farming.

thrusters. Flotsam caromed off her hull even
as, by a terrifyingly small margin, the ships slid

“Fire in the hole!” Dana called.

past one another without colliding.

Two meters distant, behind his own hulk-

Slowly spinning, a vacuum-bloated corpse
ing granite boulder, Blake covered his ears.

floated past the bridge view port.

She flipped the toggle on the detonator.

A warm, firm hand squeezed Dana’s shoul-

The sharp blam! was a satisfying conclusion der. Captain Torrance. Though he must have
to a morning at hard labor. Or would be, if
felt her trembling, he did not say a word.

they’d done it right.

And so, once more, she edged toward the

The patter of gravel slowed, then stopped.

careening, floundering, bobbing wreck.

“Let’s have a look,” Dana said.

There was no denying duty.

The synthed charges had blasted six bird-
bath-sized depressions in the rocky ground.

Dana jerked awake.

Three pits showed hairline fractures; to play

“Are you okay?” Blake asked.

safe, she decided to seal all six.

She shrugged. What could he do?

While the sprayed-on glue cured, they ate

Pursed lips said he knew she was holding
an early lunch: more gruel. What little regular out. After a while, changing the subject, he
food remained was being kept for emergen-
said, “The aggravating thing is that Li’s right, cies. After choking down a few spoonfuls,
in part.”

Dana stretched out on the hard ground. The

“Which part?”

midday sun was warm on her face. She closed

“We don’t have enough supplies.” He gesher eyes. . . .

tured down the beach, to the plumbing mon-
strosity on which Carlos and Rikki had spent

Between feather-light nudges from her atti-
days fussing. Their construction had tied up a
tude jets, Dana was in free fall. No gravity? No major portion of the colony’s metal reserves.

acceleration? No matter.

“Beginning with deuterium.”

Duty weighed her down.

Because every workaround to their many

Her hands had not left the flight controls or
shortages, when someone came up with a
her eyes the console instruments for . . . she
workaround, seemed to take energy. Getting
had no idea. Too long. Surreally long.

more energy took energy.

Shedding debris and spurting gases, spin-

In Dark’s seas, as in Earth’s, heavy water
ning and weaving like a toy top about to fall
could be found as one molecule among about
over, the dying ship had her stymied. Only this sixty-five hundred. To become energy self-suf-gyration would never stop. And faster than
f icient, they had only to separate out the
she could infer any underlying pattern to the
heavy water. And split the deuterium atoms
hulk’s erratic wobble, another of its compart-
from the heavy water. And capture the deu-
ments would rupture, spewing atmosphere,
terium. And freeze it, near absolute zero, into or an attitude jet would misfire.

fuel pellets for the fusion reactor. Simple in

Across the bridge, the mayday call looped
concept; not so simple in execution.

endlessly. As though she needed a reminder.

Witness Carlos and Rikki shouting. Again.

She could end the madness at any time. No

Peering down the beach, Dana still could
one would question her pronouncement that
not make out what they said. Not a tri-
docking was impossible.

umphant declaration of success.

No one except her.

Atop the tallest distillation column, a dish

On the dying vessel, desperate passengers
antenna pointed uphill. On a mast outside the

92

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
cave mouth, a second dish pointed downhill.

only by f illing the basins with water lugged

Between, invisible to the eye, blazed an in-
from the shore in buckets, like cavemen.

tense beam of microwaves: yet another

She giggled. They were cavemen.

workaround. They lacked the copper to run

Blake raised an eyebrow at her.

power cable from the reactor in the cave to

Retrieving an oh-two tank and mask from a
the distiller y on the shore. They lacked
tote bag, she breathed deeply. “It sneaks up
enough, well, anything to build pipes to on a person,” she said.

pump water from the shore up to the cave. Or

“And that’s why you, in your wisdom, de-
a big enough pump.

creed a buddy system.” Grinning, he pointed

And so, while Carlos tinkered, trying to
across the beach. “Though those two don’t
master the process, their scant deuterium re-
sound all that buddy-buddy.”

serves dipped lower and lower. The not-yet-

Dana and Blake took turns, one toting pails,
operational distillery was a power hog, made
and the other dribbling seawater through a
more so by the inherent ineff iciency of
molecular sieve. What passed into the pools,
beamed power.

in theory, was pure water. They had built the

Grunts wielding pickaxes didn’t use deu-
test ponds near the beach, but hauling water
terium. Apart from the power to synth their
was still exhausting. With each bucketful, the
daily gruel . . .

way uphill to the cave looked steeper.

Blake tried again. “I’m worried about sup-

They rested while waiting to see if the
plies.”

ponds held water. All but one did. Dana

Et tu, Blake? “You want the ship ground-hoped the sealant also meant no arsenic
ed?”

would leach from the ground into the ponds.

“Hardly,” he said. “A tech civilization takes

She added to the watertight ponds, in pre-
natural resources. It def ies belief that we’ll cise ratios, sulfur, phosphorus and other trace find everything we’ll need within walking dis-elements from their limited stores. Nutrients
tance. That doesn’t mean I’m not worried.”

whose inventory became more depleted each

“Needing the ship to scout for and recover
day they replied upon, and had to alter chemi-
resources. Too bad I didn’t think to give that
cally, the native biomass . . .

as a reason when Li made her pitch. It would

In Petri dishes, beneath sunlamps, Carlos
have sounded so much better than ‘Because
and Li had proven they could grow photosyn-
it’s my ship, and I say so.’”

thetic earthly bacteria. To feed themselves un-

“Yeah. And too bad I lost my samples in the
til crops came in—and no one had a theory
snow on the first scouting trip.”

yet how long before they could even plant

Because if they had had biological samples
crops—they needed biomass in much larger
earlier, they would have known Dark’s biota
quantities. Once they got bacteria to prosper
relied on arsenic, not its periodic-table cousin, in these test ponds, they would scale up the
phosphorus.

process.

Who knew phosphorus was the sixth most

And she and Blake would fly off, to no one
important element in terrestrial biology?

yet had a clue where, in search of phosphates

Copper. Deuterium. Phosphorus. How
and other nutrients. Take that, Li.

many other critical resources did they lack?

Dana was exhausted well before they f in-

Bringing Dana to wonder how their home-
ished. The sun hung low in the sky, the wind
made glue fared. She said, “Back to work,
off the sea had picked up, and the tempera-
sailor.”

ture had plummeted. That morning, she had

“In a minute,” Blake said. “Answer me this. I
sweated from exertion; now, she shivered.

don’t believe for a minute Li’s proposal to

Pond by pond, she distributed bacterial
ground the ship was spontaneous. She
samples. “Eat hearty,” she commanded her fel-
claimed to be worried our tech will wear out.

low Earthlings. You do your duty and I’ll do Then wouldn’t she also have worried about
mine.

raw materials for that tech?”

“You’d think.” Dana stood. “Come.” Be-

Chapter 26
cause the basins, once the glue set, should be

Rikki traced circles with her spoon in an
waterproof. A theory that could be validated
otherwise untouched bowl of gummy stew:

DARK SECRET

93

ANALOG
lunch, such as it was. Her back was to Blake,
least, till she’d given exercise and a whole dif-but she sensed his worried look. Between her
ferent batch of nanites enough time to bulk
foul mood and her broken arm, he hadn’t got-
her up.

ten much of a homecoming.

The despair was different, whatever the hell

She tried to care.

had brought it on. Besides . . . everything.

“Are you all right, hon?” Blake asked.

Inside the cast her arm itched like mad. She

“I’m f ine,” she said, setting down the
almost welcomed the distraction.

spoon. In the glow of lighting strips, the glop

“Seriously, are you sure you’re okay?” Blake clinging to the utensil looked as insipid as it asked her again as she scratched beneath the
tasted.

plaster cast with the tip of a pen.

“Yeah, right.”

“Suspense aside, yeah,” Rikki lied.

“I’m a bit tired,” she admitted. Dog tired.

Li had requested the meeting. There was

Drained. Exhausted.

never any predicting what that woman had on

Whereas Blake had fallen asleep last night
her mind. Other than trouble.

within minutes, oblivious to her tossing and

“Just rest and enjoy the moment,” Blake
turning.

told Rikki.

“Uh-huh,” he said doubtfully. He gestured at

She tried. The soft breeze that ever sighed
the curtained opening of their little private al-through the caves. The air that, if a bit thin, cove. “It’s almost time. If you’re done with
was eminently breathable. The sunlight that
lunch, maybe we should wander over.”

streamed through the sinkhole high overhead.

The last place she wanted to be was in an-

It only made her mourn for the generations
other meeting, particularly a mysterious one.

who had labored in vain to make such a world

But if she stayed behind it would only bring at-of Mars. Survivor’s guilt and depression, Mar-
tention, from Blake most of all. She didn’t
vin surmised, when she had consulted the AI.

want the attention. And so, she nodded.

She was not about to open up to Li.

He led the way, their footsteps echoing, to

Antonio and Carlos arrived and took seats
the soaring, stone-columned chamber that
on separate concrete benches. Local concrete,
everyone called the cathedral. The two of
mixed from local materials. As time and more
them were the first to arrive. As they sat wait-urgent projects allowed, the men planned to
ing, Rikki wished, or wished it mattered
experiment with concrete construction on a
enough to her to wish, her sadness would go
larger scale.

away.

Huh. Maybe the six of them were making Either way, the despair ignored her. As al-progress. Rikki still couldn’t imagine ever call-ways.

ing this place home.

From the corner of an eye, Rikki caught

At last Dana and Li emerged from a side tun-

Blake chewing on his lip, brow furrowed, de-
nel to join the rest. Somewhere down that
bating with himself. No, Blake, I do not want twisty passage was the cavern’s most recently
to talk about it. She said, before he made up discovered entrance, this doorway opening
his mind, “At least here”—unlike aboard ship,
onto the backside of the ridge. A view onto an
crammed in among the coff in-like cold-sleep
endless, barren, rocky plain? Rikki hadn’t seen pods—“we have room to spread out.”

any point in checking it out.

It wasn’t that she wanted to be far from

Dana looked relaxed. No, happy.

Blake, returned the night before from a

It was hard to fault Dana. She and Blake had
prospecting run. She just didn’t want to talk brought Endeavour home with its holds
with him. And that was problematical because
filled. They had mined enough asteroid ores,
he had not let her out of his sight, annoyingly rich in sulfates and phosphates, to expand the
solicitous of her mood and her arm.

bacterial farms a hundred times over. They

The latter was nothing: a clean break. Over
could jaunt back anytime for more.

the space of two days, industrious nanites al-

The mineral lode assured the six of them all
ready had the bone half knit. Also, it was her
the arsenic-free biomass they could eat. No
own stupid fault. A Martian weakling on Dark
matter that the slime-coated birdbath-sized
had no business levering boulders to help
test ponds reminded Rikki of aquaria gone
clear a more convenient landing field. Not, at
very, very bad. At every single meal . . .

94

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013

And while Dana and Blake had been away
yet see what we have accomplished. A month
prospecting, Carlos had tweaked his seaside
after we first reached an unknown planet, we
deuterium distillery past break-even. They had
have not only survived, we’ve made a home
begun filling their tanks, not depleting them.

for ourselves. We’ve . . .”

Yes, it was hard to fault Dana’s good spirits.

A month. Set at thirty days, after yet anoth-

Rikki still managed.

er inane discussion. A measure of time carried

Dana sauntered toward the unoccupied end
over from a world on which Rikki had never
of Antonio’s bench. At the soft pad of her foot-set foot. On which she never would. Billions,
steps, Antonio, rather than avert his gaze,
surely, had died on Earth. On Mars, everyone
looked up. Rikki, from where she sat, couldn’t would have died. Recoiling from sudden gap-be certain, but just maybe Antonio had made
ing emptiness, Rikki tried to concentrate on
f leeting eye contact with Dana. Was some-

Li’s words.

thing happening between those two? If so, it

“. . . Even feeding ourselves with locally
was long overdue. Someone should be happy.

grown food. I am so proud of us. We all should In principle, anyway.

be proud of ourselves. Above all, I—and I be-

Li had noticed their silent exchange, too,
lieve I can speak for everyone—am grateful to
and her smile broadened.

our esteemed captain.” Li began clapping, and

That smirk made Rikki’s jaws clench and
after a moment everyone joined in.

her teeth grate. Almost nonstop since landing

Rikki glanced over her shoulder. More than
day, Li had flitted about, blathering, full of vac-surprised, Dana looked . . . pleased. Maybe this uous good cheer. Blake called it Li playing
get-together was mere cruise directing—
cruise director. To judge by the funk Rikki

And maybe Li meant to blind-side Dana.

tried but couldn’t shake, Li was terrible at

Li helped everyone with their tasks, but ex-
cruise directing.

cept for cruise director—and seeing to the oc-

Rikki slipped her good arm around Blake’s
casional broken bone — she had no
waist, shrugging when he looked at her ques-
responsibility to call her own. Nothing to dis-
tioningly. She knew a shoe was about to drop.

tract her from scheming.

Why?

But that could be changed.

Still smirking, Li went to stand in a shaft of

“Since we’re doing so well,” Rikki blurted
brilliant sunlight.

out, “maybe it’s time to take the next step.

Li was why. Rikki bent down and whis-

Maybe it’s time we begin raising some chil-
pered, “A bit theatrical?”

dren.”

“I’d say political,” Blake whispered back.

And he detested politics.

Dance, my marionettes. Dance.

“If I could have ever yone’s attention,

Li kept her expression blandly cheerful.

please.” Li, beaming, one by one caught the

How subtly she had conditioned her compan-
eye of everyone but Antonio. (And in the
ions to believe her unsubtle. With such under-
process, didn’t her gaze linger on Blake?) Li
stated skill had she primed them to speak
said, “I asked Dana to call us together, to give their lines!

us the opportunity to celebrate our achieve-

As pathetic, pliable, oblivious Rikki had just
ments.”

taken her cue.

“Let’s all raise a glass of slime,” Antonio said.

“Children,” Dana repeated. Getting out the

For Antonio to joke, this was a special mo-single word seemed to be a struggle. Beside
ment.

her, Antonio twitched in surprise. Carlos nod-

Li chuckled. “I have it on good authority, as
ded agreement, and Li had no difficulty read-
it happens, that our farmed biomass is fer-
ing his thoughts. But he was manageable; she mentable.”

had years before those perv tendencies would

“It’s true,” Carlos called out, grinning. “And
matter.

Tuesday’s vintage is not undrinkable.”

Li struck a contemplative pose, silent, wait-

“Then we have even more to celebrate,” Li
ing. Blake owned the next important line in
said, again laughing. “Seriously, who could
this melodrama—as clueless as he, too, was of
have imagined it? Who among us would even
his role. She studied his pursed lips, his fur-
have dared to hope it? No one, I’m sure, and
rowed brow, the nuances of his posture. . . .

DARK SECRET

95

ANALOG

He would take a while to get there.

Many people stumbled from grief into de-

“Can we?” Dana asked. “I mean, could we
pression. It hadn’t taken much—the occasion-
manage children? Li, what do you think?”

al “ill-chosen” remark evoking memories of

Li took a moment, hands clasped behind
home and family—to nudge Rikki over the
her back, pretending to consider. The point of
precipice. Thereafter, it was all about waiting the exercise was to make the decision seem
for the right moment.

anyone else’s idea. “The artif icial wombs do

Which Rikki, snapping one of those chick-
the work. But are we ready? That’s harder.”

en-wing arms of hers, had obligingly deliv-

“Wrong,” Rikki snapped, rising out of her
ered. Sidetracked, feeling useless—she had
apathy to take the bait. “If we started today,
fallen hard.

we’d have nine months to prepare.”

Li ignored the stirrings of guilt. When the

How sprightly the puppets leapt as Li
cast came off, the “nutritional supplements”

tugged their strings.

she would provide would rebalance Rikki’s

“Is anyone ever prepared?” Antonio mur-
neurotransmitters.

mured something more Li couldn’t quite make

“Well?” Blake demanded.

out. Something, maybe, about diapers.

Head canted, Li gazed off into space. “What

Dana managed a wistful smile. “I remember

I said about the artif icial wombs? Let me
my brother and his wife finding out they were
rephrase it. Of course they’ll nurture the un-
expecting. They spent the entire pregnancy in
born—but I’ll have to monitor the process at
a panic. And when the baby came, they did
all times. We don’t dare put our trust in soft-
fine.”

ware that never had our circumstances in

Carlos offered, “And we have Marvin to
mind.

keep an eye on them round the clock. It’ll take

“What harm did decades of radiation do to
only a few cameras strategically placed.”

the frozen embryos? Without a doubt, some,

“True, children won’t be mobile right
and those effects will be random. Ditto for the away. . . .” Li allowed them to think that they biotech of the wombs themselves. And
were swaying her.

though we understand fetal and early child-

Dana tipped her head, looking unhappy.

hood development on the Moon and Mars and

She wasn’t ready to take on parenting.

piddly little asteroids, we know nothing about

Blake looked close to a decision. When he
the process in more than a standard gravity.

next looked in Li’s direction, she, with an all We don’t know what sensitivities or allergies a but imperceptible nod, answered the question
fetus might develop to amniotic fluid synthed
he still wasn’t quite certain how to articulate: from Dark biomass, or infants to formula syn-would mothering raise Rikki’s spirits?

thed locally. We’ll need major reserves of

And at last—
every possible trace element, nutritional sup-

“I think we should,” Blake said f irmly. He plement, and medicine. We’ll need—”

gave Rikki’s hand a squeeze. “Sooner rather

“We’ll do what it takes,” Blake said. Turning,
than later. Why are we even here, if not to re-
he focused his gaze on Dana. “Won’t we?”

store the human race?”

Would Dana deny her old friends? Li

Quite right. No matter that, at the moment,
doubted it.

humankind’s future was merely Blake’s means

Dana asked, “Does any of this become easi-
to a very personal end.

er if we wait?”

Deep down, a part of Li regretted the pain

“Who cares about easier?” Li said. “I love she had caused. First, do no harm, the an-children. Why do you suppose I did what I
cient dictum went, and she agreed. But in the
did, back home?” Dramatic pause. She would
face of extinction, her priority was the greater have preferred a dramatic, heartfelt sob, only
good. Of the six of them, who better than she
she couldn’t carry that off. Not, in any event, to orchestrate a new society?

with Mother’s sarcastic laughter ringing in her She had tried her hand at politics, at Moth-memories. “This needs to work. I need this to er’s urging, two worlds ago. And gone
work.”

nowhere, not even as far as Mother. But unlike

“We all do,” Dana said. “Tell us everything

Mother, Li had learned from their mistakes.

you will need and how we can help.”

Hence, today’s puppet theater.

And so, centimeter by centimeter, Li al-

96

EDWARD M. LERNER

MAY 2013
lowed them to coax her into starting the first

Everyone at Li’s beck and call.

cohort of babies. Whatever that took. With

Dana, throughout, would be scouring the
everyone standing ready: to test, tweak, and
solar system for every obscure trace element
fine-tune the artificial wombs, under her guid-
imaginable—certain all the while that her be-
ance. To come running whenever her medical
ing anywhere but the colony was wise and re-training—or, so much on Dark being uncer-
sponsible, and vindication of her insistence on tain, her instincts—insisted human eyes and
keeping the ship f lying, and her very own
brains were needed to observe. To synth or,
idea. Leaving a complete leadership vacuum
whenever templates weren’t available, to im-
on Dark.

provise, everything they would need on hand:

Dance, my marionettes. Dance.

from diapers and hypoallergenic cleaning sup-

This, Mother, is how one exercises power.

plies, to blankets and bassinets, to bottles and With finesse. ■
nipples and a stockpile of formula, to specialty tiny surgical gear just in case . . .

to be continued. . . .

IN TIMES TO COME

Just as a number of elements may one day become rare enough on Earth to cause us to go through considerable effort to obtain them from space, there are also substances we take for granted here on Earth that are terribly valuable off-planet and require no lesser amount of ingenuity to procure. Our lead story in June involves just such a material, but it’s probably not one you’ll guess.

Our fact article deals with a particularly Earth-bound phe-nomenon: tsunamis, and what sorts of contributing conditions might help us predict where they’ll strike next.

We’ll have short fiction from newcomers like Maggie Clark’s

“Hydroponics 101” and Amy Patterson’s “In the Green,” as well as from veteran authors, including Jack McDevitt’s “Glitch,” David D.

Levine’s “Wavefronts of History and Memory,” and Linda Nagata’s

“Out in the Dark,” a sequel to her acclaimed “Nahiku West” (October 2012).

We’ll also have a Special Feature by Jeff Mitchell, about what it’s like to work on the Space Shuttle, as well as part III of Edward M.

Lerner’s serial, Dark Secret.

See you next issue!

DARK SECRET

97

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY Don Sakers rom the very beginning, science fiction
the Apes (1968), or Richard Fleischer’s Soylent and the movies have been partners in a

Green (1973, based on Harry Harrison’s novel love-hate relationship. On one hand, the

Make Room! Make Room!). There are many Fpairing is a natural one:both SF readers contemporaryexamples,although manyof and movie viewers are looking for the prover-the best SF books remain unfilmed.

bial “sense of wonder, ” and written SF

When judging the success of these movies-
abounds in unusual visions and grand specta-
from-books, readers must be conscious of (at
cles that just cry out for realization on the big least) two dimensions. The question of
screen. Yet on the other hand, written SF can
whether the movie is a faithful adaptation of a be a very cerebral pursuit, uniquely suited to
book should be distinct from the question of
presentation in words rather than pictures—
whether it stands as a good movie. SF movies
almost the opposite of what makes a good
fall everywhere along both axes. The Holy
film. In this relationship, tension is inevitable.

Grail, a great movie that’s utterly faithful to the This hasn’t stopped a constant cross-fertil-book, is seldom achieved.

ization between the worlds of print and film.

Sometimes a movie is an original concep-

It started almost as soon as movies did: the
tion, based on no single book. Le Voyage dans first science fiction film came out in 1902.

la lune fell into this category; it was loosely (This was Le Voyage dans la lune aka A Trip based on work by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

to the Moon by Georges and Gaston Méliès—

Fred M. Wilcox’s 1956 masterpiece Forbidden notable for its iconic image of the Man in the

Planet is a prime example; the story certainly Moon with a rocket ship protruding from one
owes a debt to Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but eye, which has become a part of popular cul-was largely the original work of screenplay
ture.) Nowadays, of course, SF movies are
writer Cyril Hume. Many popular SF films are
hugely popular, and most action/adventure
such original productions, including some of
films include SF-inspired elements.

the top grossing films of all time. Franchises

From the perspective of the SF reader (I
such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Matrix trust we all know one or two of those, eh?),
were originals, as were standalone block-
cross-fertilization generally flows in one direc-busters like Avatar, Inception, and ET: the Ex-tion or the other, from written SF to film or
traterrestrial. (Yes, yes, yes, all of these were vice versa. The reality is a bit more complex.

highly derivative from the corpus of SF litera-

Let’s look at some cases.

ture—but the point is, they didn’t stem from a

Sometimes an existing SF book is made into
single identifiable book.)

a movie, with varying degrees of fidelity to the In almost all cases, the producers of an orig-original book. Some of the classics of SF cine-
inal movie commission the writing of a book
ma have been produced this way: think of Dis-
version of the movie. Sometimes these “novel-
ney’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
izations” are written by big-name writers. The

Sea (1954), George Pal’s The Time Machine novelization of Forbidden Planet, released un-

(1960), Nathan Juran’s The First Men in the der the pseudonym W.J. Stuart, was penned

Moon (1964), Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet of by bestselling mystery writer Philip MacDon-98

DON SAKERS

MAY 2013
ald. Isaac Asimov wrote the novelization of

Then in 2008 a movie based on Jumper ap-Fantastic Voyage (1966). Some writers are peared. The film diverged from the novel in
well known for their skill at producing novel-
some very significant ways. Along with the
izations: Alan Dean Foster and Kevin J. Ander-
movie, Gould released Jumper: Griffin’s Stoson spring instantly to mind.

ry— a prequel to the movie, very clearly set in In most cases, novelizations are written
the universe of the film rather than that of the based on a movie’s original screenplay, so they books.

can be in print by the film’s release date. Since Well, now it’s 2013 and Impulse returns to it’s not uncommon for a screenplay to go
print continuity. It is, in fact, a direct sequel to through many versions during the filming

Reflex. Those who weren’t fond of the movie process, sometimes events in the novelization

(and there were many) can easily pretend that
diverge from those in the final film. In general, it, along with Griffin’s Story, never existed.

though, a novelization remains fairly faithful to In Jumper we met Davy Rice, an otherwise-its movie. From a reader’s perspective, a nov-
ordinary teen who discovered that he had the
elization can usually be judged solely on the
ability to teleport. In Reflex, Davy, now a quality of the book as a book.

young adult, married his sweetheart Millie,

Sometimes things are more complicated.

and worked part-time for the National Securi-

The book and movie versions of Arthur C.

ty Agency. He ran afoul of a group of interna-

Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space
tional criminals who captured and tormented

Odyssey (1968) were produced simultaneous-him for his abilities—in the course of his resis-ly with constant feedback between writer and
tance and escape, Millie also developed the
producer. Still, there were some major differ-
teleportation power. At the end of the book,
ences between book and movie. (To compli-
they went off to live happily ever after.

cate matters still more, the project was loosely Impulse joins the family fifteen years later.

based on Clarke’s 1948 short story “The Sen-

The main character is Cent, Davy and Millie’s
tinel.”)

fifteen-year-old daughter. The three of them

That’s not the end. Clarke’s 1982 sequel
live in seclusion in an isolated cabin in the
novel, 2010, was consciously written as a se-Yukon. To Cent’s parents, anywhere in the
quel to the movie, not the book. The 1984 Pe-world is just a step away; they’ve taken her
ter Hyams film was firmly based on the book,
everywhere . . . but Cent herself is unable to
but took liberties of its own.

teleport. Like any teenager, she chafes at her

An extreme example of cross-fertilization is
confinement and longs to have a more normal
the case of Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film Total life with school and friends.

Recall. The movie was based on Philip K.

Until Cent sneaks out to go snowboarding,

Dick’s 1966 story “We Can Remember it For
gets caught in an avalanche, and teleports to

You Wholesale.” That film was novelized by
the safety of home.

Piers Anthony as Total Recall.

Now that her power has manifested itself,

All of which brings us to:

Cent argues that she can go to a real school
and live a real life. Soon she has friends and is

Impulse
involved in the social swirl of her school. But Steven Gould
even the most careful teenager can’t keep tele-

Tor, 368 pages, $25.99 (hardcover)

portation a secret forever, and while Cent can
iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $12.99 (e-book)

escape any danger, her friends are not so for-

ISBN: 978-0-7653-2757-4
tunate.

Series: Jumper 4

Like the two previous books, Impulse is a Genres: Adventure SF, Teleportation
multilayered book. It’s a great adventure story.

On another level, it’s an idea story, exploring Steven Gould’s Jumper series is a convolut-the implications and consequences of telepor-
ed example of the porous boundary between
tation. On yet another level, it raises questions print and film. The first book, Jumper, was of good and evil, personal responsibility, inter-published in 1992 to near-universal acclaim. In dependence, and the nature of freedom. And

2004, Gould followed up with the superb Re-
it does all this in a cracking good yarn.

flex, a direct sequel to Jumper.

Definitely recommended.

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY

99

ANALOG

On the Train
the Baroness for treason. Next, they’ll be com-

Harry Turtledove and Rachel Turtledove
ing for the children—so Eli must hide them

Phoenix Pick, 179 pages, $12.99 (trade paper-
and keep them safe, evading the authorities
back)

until The Train arrives in friendly territory.

Kindle, Nook: $7.99 (e-book)

This is a journey you don’t want to miss.

ISBN: 978-1-61242-076-9

Genres: Parallel Worlds/Other Dimensions

Railroad Spine

Geonn Cannon

Phoenix Pick is a small press publisher with

Supposed Crimes LLC, 435 K
a big idea. In what they’re calling The Stellar Kindle, Nook, Smashwords: $5.99 (e-book)

Guild Series (of which On the Train is the ISBN: 9781938108044
third title), they pair a big-name SF writer with Genre: Adventure SF, Psychological/Sociologi-a lesser-known apprentice of his or her choos-
cal SF, Steampunk
ing. Both write novellas set in the same uni-
verse, and the two stories form the resulting

Dice Bodger is one of the Commonwealth’s
book.

most successful Airskips, commander of the

Harry Turtledove, of course, needs no in-
trading airship Tamerlane. She’s good at her troduction to Analog readers. His protégé is job, fair to her crew, and a lusty lover to both his daughter Rachel, and this is her first pub-men and women. The Tamerlane’s travels lished story.

take her from one end of the continent to the

The experiment, I’m glad to report, is a re-
other, from Potomac to Seattle and from Aca-
sounding success.

dia to the Great Lakes. In short, Dice has a per-Central to the book is The Train. Even to
fect life.

those closest to it, it’s impossible to say exact-Then Levi Barton comes aboard as Tamer-
ly what The Train is. For some, it’s a way to
lane’s new engineer. Dice and Levi fall in love, travel from one village to the next. For others, and he begins teaching her things that she

The Train moves between worlds, even be-
should not know. First, the workings of the
tween universes. And for others, The Train
great engines . . . then more, mathematics and
needs no destination—it is an experience in it-
philosophy and chemistry and all sorts of for-
self, a way of life.

bidden knowledge.

For Javan, a young man from the sleepy vil-

In this future world, knowledge is a tightly
lage of Pingaspor, The Train is an adventure.

controlled commodity. One learns only what

After years of tending The Railroad that passes one needs for one’s job; all else is forbidden, through the town, Javan has finally saved
criminal.

enough for a third-class ticket. He’s entitled to At first Dice is shocked by Levi’s knowl-a spot on a hard wooden bench, as long as he
edge. Soon enough, though, she finds that she
wishes to remain aboard—and Javan doesn’t
enjoys learning new things. She and Levi keep
intend to return to Pingaspor.

their illicit activities secret, knowing they

Aboard The Train he learns Traintalk, the
would both be in trouble if their lawbreaking
pidgin that passengers use to communicate
was discovered.

with one another. He makes friends and ene-

Soon enough, Dice is pulled from Tamer-
mies, and learns of news from the outside.

lane for medical reasons: pregnancy, to be ex-He’s left Pingaspor just in time, it seems, for a act. She goes into seclusion, under the care of war has erupted. Outside, bombs and mortars
a midwife, until her baby boy is born. It’s only fall around The Train . . . and then, one night, then that she learns Levi has been apprehend-the unthinkable happens: The Train stops.

ed and condemned as a traitor to society. Her

Rachel Turtledove’s tale concerns Eli, who
child is taken from her, sent to be raised
grew up with The Train running through her
anonymously by a foster family.

backyard. A governess for the Baroness Vasri’s

Then Dice herself is brought in for ques-
two children, Eli is presented with the chance
tioning. Although she denies that Levi taught
of a lifetime: a journey on The Train, along
her anything, the authorities torture her, leav-with the Baroness and her household.

ing her scarred and despondent.

Everything goes well until armed men arrest

Only after she returns to Tamerlane does 100

DON SAKERS

MAY 2013

Dice learn of a secret cabal devoted to free-
revolutionary: Put more money into the space
dom of knowledge. With Nikola Tesla as their
program, involve commercial companies to
patron saint, the members of this cabal pre-
unleash the magic of competition. Make
serve forbidden books and other sources, and
manned exploration of the Moon and Mars the
work for the downfall of the authorities. They
highest priority. Commit to a single plan and
want Dice to join their ranks. Now all her hurt follow it through. Keep politicians from mi-and anger focus on two goals: to topple the
cromanaging the space effort.

system that controls the population through

Nothing particularly new there, but that’s
ignorance . . . and to find her lost child.

not the point. This is a fun book to read, with While this story wears the trappings of
lots to think about and argue about. For any-
steampunk, it’s no mere adventure tale. Like
one interested in the manned space program,

Impulse, there’s a lot more going on under the this is a must read.

surface: questions of freedom and rebellion
and a fundamental belief in the power of

I want to mention two recent books by reg-
knowledge. The story is well told and the
ular Analog authors. Since large chunks of characters are compelling. Join Dice Bodger
these have already appeared in these pages,
on her journey of discovery; you won’t regret
there’s no point in a lengthy review, but you’ll it.

want to know they’re out there.

The first is Captive Dreams by Michael Fly-

A New American Space Plan
nn (Phoenix Pick, 264 pages, $14.99 trade pa-

Travis S. Taylor with Stephanie Osborn
perback, $9.99 e-book, ISBN: 978-1-61242-059-

Baen, 218 pages, $15.00 (trade paperback)

2). This collection includes three of Flynn’s

Baen Ebooks: $6.00 (e-book)

stories that were published in Analog—

ISBN: 978-1-4516-3865-3

“Melodies of the Heart” (January 1994), “Cap-

Genre: Nonfiction
tive Dreams” (August 1992), and “Remember’d

Kisses” (December 1988)—along with three

Travis S. Taylor, Ph.D. is an honest-to-good-
brand-new companion stories.

ness rocket scientist in Huntsville, Alabama

Phantom Sense and Other Stories by

(aka Rocket City). He’s also the ringleader on

Richard A. Lovett and Mark Nieman-Ross
the National Geographic Channel’s show

(Strange Wolf Press, 166 pages, $12.99 trade

Rocket City Rednecks, on which Taylor and paperback, $4.99 e-book, ISBN: 978-four accomplices (all engineering types) take

1468130003) is a collection of six stories, all on a challenge such as building a rocket fueled from Analog. All the stories involve informa-by moonshine or building a “hillbilly moon
tion technology and/or robotics.

buggy.”

And with that, I’m out of space. Until next

A New American Space Plan is a chatty
time, may all your movies be good ones, and
book filled with facts and figures, reminis-
all your novelizations rewarding! ■
cences from the show and from Taylor’s ca-
reer working with NASA and the Department

Don Sakers is the author of A Voice in Every of Defense, history of the space program, and

Wind and A Rose From Old Terra. For more a generous helping of redneck political grum-information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.

bling.

Taylor’s actual plan doesn’t sound all that

We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is disappearing.

—R. D. Laing

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY

101

BRASS TACKS
ear Editors,

Mouse?”

I’ve been a long term (+50 years)

I've seen arguments in the local paper by
reader of Astounding/Analog, and I
non-scientists who are, in fact true believers

Dfound John W.Campbell's editorials al- of EvolutionaryBiology,stating that an “evi-ways a challenge and an inspiration to
dence” of evolution are two species of trout

“think”; not just accept and regurgitate as so
living on opposite sides of the Rocky Moun-
many of my fellow students and colleagues
tains, one having one more gill slit than the
seem to do. I think the educational system is
other. To me this is an example of the confu-
basically structured to teach students to
sion I'm talking about. These organisms are
memorize and repeat back what their profes-
both fish, one is not “above” the other, or a
sors tell them. They are told, and perhaps

“not-fish.” What we want as an example of
punished, for thinking; for analyzing, for

Evolution is a more intelligent fish; perhaps
challenging accepted lines of thought.

one that paints pictures with its eggs, or

Let’s take Evolution for example. It has
builds houses for its young, or . . . or what?

holes you can drive a spaceship through. The

Something that is related to the fish, but tran-confusion that exists in the minds of Evolu-
scends it. What would transcend it? Perhaps
tionary Biologists between the process of
the land vehicle building species found in
species variation and natural selection to pro-
one of Analog's stories, that venture forth duce new species and true “evolution” is
out of the water in systematic exploration. I
quite frustrating. If one takes an organism as
think science fiction writers have spent
an embodiment of information: the genotypi-
decades describing higher stages of evolution
cal information expressed phenotypically,
of various organisms whose genetic origins
then evolution is defined as an increase in in-
are found in lower ones, so there are plenty
formation, not a reshuffling of the deck of
of examples.

cards. After well over 100 years of paleonto-

But even the discovery of such, without
logical investigation, there are still no transi-any transitional forms, requires a “leap of
tional forms of species which link “lower” or-
faith.” There needs to be a clear progression
ders (i.e. less information) to “higher” orders.

from one form to another in a series of close-

We can only speculate a link or links be-
ly related steps. The lack of such inspired
tween them.

“Punctuated Equilibrium,” a theory proposed

Genealogically we cite the close similarity
by Steven Gould a few years back. “We don't
between the chimpanzee and the human be-
see them in the fossil record because the
ing, and point to rudimentary tool use and
transition is so fast it leaves behind no evi-
some similarities in social structure, but use
dence.” Hooray, more circular reasoning and
the mouse to perform medical experiments
another totally untestable theory.

because of the close similarity to the human

However there is one test that can be per-
genome, perhaps giving rise to the perennial
formed, and essentially has been performed.

question: “Are you a Man or are you a

You spoke of viruses: millions of generations

102

BRASS TACKS

MAY 2013
produced in an exceedingly short period of

“not fish.”) That’s simply not how the word time which results in billions and perhaps
is defined or used in this context, but it’s a trillions of generations. And yes, we see dif-handy dodge, because if someone provides
ferent strains of viruses developing because
an example of one, a skeptic can claim it
of the natural selection of antibiotics coupled doesn’t meet the requirements of the other.

with geographical isolation, a natural labora-

Otherwise, if you want transitional forms
tory for testing the theory of Evolution.

(using the commonly accepted definition of

And have we observed Evolution, as de-
the term), there’s no shortage.

fined as an “increase in information?” Have

You’re also badly misunderstanding
we seen something appear out of these tril-
punctuated equilibrium: it describes sud-
lions of generations that is not just a “reshuf-den bursts of evolution among a species af-
fling of the deck,” but a truly new, higher or-
ter long periods without. It has absolutely der of organism (whatever that may be)? Not
nothing to do with transitional forms in the as far as I know. They all remain essentially
fossil record.

viruses, which affect the human being in dif-

Lastly, there’s absolutely no reason a
ferent and sometimes more deadly ways, but
small dinosaur developing hollow bones
are not examples of Evolution.

would have been “a catastrophic mutation

But forgive me. I guess I’m just not “think-

. . . that couldn’t have lived long to repro-ing things through.” If I did, I would certainly duce”: the Tyrannosaurus rex had quite a quit asking for bench level laboratory results
few hollow bones and the modern ostrich
and more coherent step wise evidence in the
has none.

rocks. I certainly wouldn’t ask questions like

I agree that thinking and analyzing are

“if birds are related to dinosaurs where is the important activities, but if you’re trying so transition between cartilaginous bone and
hard to do them for yourself that you fail to hollow bone?” Never mind the feathers,
grasp what the people before you have
somewhere in that transition there was a cat-
done, you’re not going to get very far.

astrophic mutation popping out of its shell
that cer tainly couldn't have lived long

Mr. Quachri,
enough to reproduce.

Congratulations, sir, on your accession to

Oh well. Gotta stop thinking and start re-
the throne of science fiction.

gurgitating. It's easier that way.

Turtledove’s March story (one of the best I

John Young
have ever seen in this magazine—or anywhere) leaves enough questions unanswered

It’s easy to “drive holes” through a theory that I hope for a sequel—or sequels:

when you’re using your own definition of it.

How does a future full of such genetically

In particular, your “increase of information”

domesticated, ineluctably trusting people
requirement for evolution is meaningless:

manage to keep its security AI (“the Voice”)

the grape has 30,434 genes; humans have
operational? Wouldn't the folks with not-

22,333. Ophioglossum reticulatum, the quite-domesticated genomes (like Fritz) work

Adder’s-tongue fern, has 1,440 chromo-
hard find ways to subvert it, so it would stop
somes; humans, of course, have 46. There’s

“sanctioning” them? (Or are a very few of the
clearly more “genotypical information”

Fritz-types—perhaps the most intelligent 1%
stored in the plants, so humans are of a
of the Fritzes—quietly hidden somewhere

“lower” order by your idiosyncratic defini-
and trained lifelong as the “Voice’s” program-
tion. (Also, there’s no such thing as a “high-ming-and-upgrade staff ? Allowed to live, only
er” or “lower” order.)

as long as they protect their more thoroughly

Further, you’re using “transitional” in a
domesticated cousins—like German Shep-
way that would make it about as common
herd dogs guarding an exhibition of
as a True Scotsman: you can’t have an or-
spaniels?)

ganism that’s both transitional and some-

Or . . . What if Willie’s people do manage
thing completely other than its ancestors.

to extirpate every undesired gene? A planet

(Using your example, something that has
of elfy-welfies, pole to pole, for so long that some of the traits of a fish and is entirely no one remembers when it was ever any oth-BRASS TACKS

103

ANALOG
er way . . . And then, one day, the elfy-welfies saved every copy but over the years with a
encounter the descendants of space-colonists
number of moves I am missing some of those
who’d left Earth rather than submit to be-
early Astounding’s.

coming the ancestors of the hyper-domesti-

Thanks for your efforts.

cated? (What if the spacers’ descendants, by

E Robert Jensen
this time, have decided that anything that do-
mesticated is no longer human except in cer-

Dear Stan:

tain mere insignificant generalities of physi-

I have been reading Analog since the
cal form?)

1980s; I have never felt the yen to write a let-I would ask Mr. Turtledove these things, if
ter to you because, of all the editorials of

I knew how to reach him. Without that info,
yours that I have read, I cannot remember a

I hope that Analog will accept—and will con-
single one that I did not wholeheartedly
vey to him—my thanks for a story premise
agree with.

that makes me hope to read many more set

But now that you have announced your de-
in such a future. (It’s a nice place to visit, but parture from the Editor’s desk I simply want

I hope we never live there . . .)

to say thank you, thank you, and thank you.

Kate Gladstone

For wonderful fiction and intelligent thought.

Albany, NY

And I definitely hope to see your own fiction
in the magazine in the near future.

The author responds:

Enjoy your commencement.

I want to thank Ms. Gladstone for her very

Curtis L. Cranston
kind words <brief pause to finish blushing>.

San Diego, CA

Robert A. Heinlein, of course, wrote the sto-
ry about the war of the handful of wolves

To Whom It May Concern,
against the genetic sheep as an aside in Be-I am hoping that this email might be for-
yond This Horizon more than seventy years warded to Mr. Schmidt prior to his departure
ago. But Heinlein’s financial computer still is from the company. I have been a subscriber
mechanical enough to need cams—it’s a su-
since about 1978 (when I was 13 years old). I
per-duper fancy calculator, but that’s all it is.

believe that I have been with the magazine

We’ve come a long way since then, and my
throughout the term of Mr. Schmidt’s time as
assumption for this story is that, electronical-editor. His leadership and the excellent sto-
ly, quantum-mechanically, or biologically,
ries that resulted have been, and will contin-
we’ll come a lot further in the time between
ue to be, one of the great time investments of
now and Willie’s future. Those AIs won’t
my life. For the small cost of the subscription need merely human help to ride herd on the
over the years I have been endlessly enter-
handful of throwbacks and insufficiently nice
tained, passed on stories to friends and even
people. I’ve also assumed that there are no
the magazine itself on occasion. I have al-
undomesticated people out in space any-
ways felt it was/is a staple of my life. Thanks where. I have no current plans to revisit this
so much for the great memories, things to
universe. Like Ms. Gladstone, I wouldn’t
think about and all around time well spent in
want to live there—but that may well be a
the magazine’s pages.

judgment on us rather than on the future I

I wish Mr. Schmidt the best of luck in his
imagined here.

new endeavors and look forward to what the

Harry Turtledove
future will bring in the coming issues.

Your loyal, and permanent, customer,

Dr. Schmidt,

Dwight Webster

Sorry to see you go as I thought your edi-

Carlsbad, CA
torials very thought provoking.

I may be in the running for having read

Thanks for the kind notes. All comments
more Astounding/Analog than any other.

will certainly be forwarded to Stan; we

Was introduced to it in the seventh or eighth
know that he is grateful for the feedback
grade by a buddy in about 1941. I always
and support. ■

104

BRASS TACKS

UPCOMING EVENTS Anthony Lewis NOTE: Membership rates and other details

$75 (child to 16), $480 (family); Supporting:

often change after we have gone to press.

$60. This is the SF universe’s annual get-to-

Check the websites for the most recent infor-
gether. Professionals and readers from all over mation.

the world will be in attendance. Talks, panels, films, fancy dress competition—the works.

31 May–2 June 2013

Nominate and vote for the Hugos. Info: lon-

CONCAROLINAS (Carolinas area SF confer-
estarcon3.org; info@lonestarcon3.org; PO
ence) at Charlotte Hilton University Place,

Box 27277, Austin, TX 78755-2277.

Charlotte NC. Writer Guest of Honor: Timothy

Zahn; Gaming Guest of Honor: Wolfgang Baur;

31 October–3 November 2013

Writer Special Guest: Aaron Rosenberg. Mem-

WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION at The
bership: $35 until 15 May 2013; $40 thereafter

Hilton Brighton Metropole, Brighton, England
and at the door. Daily memberships and group

Themes: World Fantasy Convention: The Next
rates available. Info: www.concarolinas.org;

Generation and Arthur Machen @150. Guests
contact@concarolinas.org; PO Box 26336, of Honor: Richard Matheson & Richard Christ-Charlotte NC 28221-6336.

ian Matheson; Artist Guest of Honor: Alan Lee;

Special Guests: Brian Aldiss & Tessa Farmer; 4-7 July 2013

MC: China Miéville. Membership: GBP100 at-

WESTERCON 66 (West coast Science Fantasy
tending; GBP50 supporting. Info: www.

conference) at Hilton Arden West, Sacramen-
wfc2013.org; info@wfc2013.org; World Fan-to CA. Author Guests of Honor: Nicola Grif-
tasy Convention 2013 c/o 130 Park View,
fith, Kelley Eskridge; Artist Guest of Honor:

Wembley, Middx HA9 6JU, England.

Eric Shanower; Fan Guest of Honor: Radio

Free Skaro (Warren Frey, Steven Schpansky,

Chris Burgess); Small Press Special Guest:

David Maxine. Membership: $65 in advance;

$75 at the door; $30 supporting. Info:

Running a convention? If your convention
www.westercon66.org; info@westercon66.org;
has a telephone or fax number, e-mail ad-

PO Box 61363, Sunnyvale CA 94088-1363.

dress or web page, please let us know so that we can publish this information.We must

29 August—2 September 2013
have your information in hand SIX months

LONESTARCON 3 (71st World Science Fiction
before the date of your convention.

Convention) at Henry B. Gonzalez Convention

Center, San Antonio, Texas. Author Guests of

Attending a convention? When calling con-

Honor: James Gunn & Norman Spinrad; Editor
ventions for information, do not call collect Guest of Honor: Ellen Datlow; Artist Guest of
and do not call too late in the evening. It is Honor: Darrell K. Sweet; Fan Guest of Honor:

best to include a S.A.S.E. when requesting in-Willie Siros; TM: Paul Cornell; Special Guests: formation; include an International Reply

Leslie Fish & Joe R. Lansdale. Membership: un-Coupon if the convention is in a different
til 31 December 2012. Attending: $180
country. ■

(adult), $110 (young adult 17-21/military),

106

ANTHONY LEWIS

Table of Contents

- Part II of IV
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26