Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (26 page)

When the back was full piled high, Thor sat on the tailgate to ride to the shuttles. The back end of it sank so low the Caterpillar got out and looked. Gordon thought maybe he'd have to walk, but the Caterpillar got back in and adjusted something. The vehicle leveled out and rose a bit from the surface. Thor gave a wave as he rode away.

When the first lander that carried the smaller folks back to the lander returned Gordon made shooing motions over the motorcycle on the board. When the Caterpillar seemed uncertain he went over and pushed on the board toward the bed of the second vehicle. However it had whatever sort of parking brake the things used. That impressed Gordon as much as the hovering.

"How about unlocking this thing?" Gordon said out loud. The Caterpillar took the hint seeing him pushing and made an adjustment. You could push on it now but if you let up it coasted to a stop in about a meter. Gordon pushed it around until it was lined up to go in the bed. The Caterpillar adjusted it to just clear the edge of the tailgate but left it to Gordon to push it in. Once the Caterpillar leaned in and dropped the hover board to the bed Gordon Hopped on the back like Thor had and said: "Let's go!" There wasn't anything else to load so that wasn't hard to figure out.

When they got to the shuttles Gordon jumped off and walked right up the ramp. If the Caterpillar couldn't figure out the motorcycle was his he could dump it there if he didn't want it. Or put it back in the building for all Gordon cared.

"Hey, watch and record these guys leaving," Gordon said in his com. "I'm curious if they take the motorcycle with them or leave it." By the time he climbed up to the control deck and strapped in the Caterpillars were lifted. He watched the video as his driver went back and secured a strap across the cycle and then they both lifted off and seemed to climb in no particular hurry.

Chapter 17

"You know when we get back and reveal all this stuff, the xenoarcheologists will all denounce us as looters and grave robbers," Ernie informed her. "They'd much rather stuff never be found than ugly amateurs have it. They moan it isn't available to everybody if it's held in private hands. Truth is it gets cataloged and boxed, and stuck away in some basement. The public has very little chance of seeing it again once it is in professional hands. And if some artifact doesn't comport with the current orthodox theory it may never be found again."

Lee regarded him over her pancakes and gave him a blank look. Since he was still looking at her, ignoring his own breakfast, he must expect an answer, so she said: "So? What do I care about them?"

"Just warning you so you can expect it," Ernie explained.

"First of all I bet almost all of these guys are Earthies, right? I don't expect to visit Earth again."

"Well yeah, oddly enough out on the actual frontier worlds and planets with aliens it's pretty damn hard to find a professor of any sort of alien studies," Ernie admitted.

"Why do you think that is?" Lee asked.

"Well, I've never taught. Certainly not at the university level. But from what I've seen traveling around, frontier worlds are short on schools, especially graduate level studies, and way short on extravagant funding of anything that doesn't have an immediate return on investment. There aren't any grants. Fargone bureaucrats may look superficially like Earth bureaucrats, but if you asked them for a grant to study the effect of coffee imports on single parent Fargoer households they'd probably bust something laughing. Frontier worlds are short on Hiltons and soft beds, long on bugs, and supposedly noble savages that can put a spear in your chest if you treat them like freshman students. Derf clan Mothers have even less tolerance of foolishness."

"The Red Tree First Mum told me a neighbor keep had an Earth scientist visiting. When the conversation turned to firearms he disagreed with her plain statement that Derf had had them before contact, and quoted a seminal text which held forth that Derf had no firearms when contacted. Nothing like calling your hostess a liar."

"What did she do? Ernie wondered.

"She tossed him out on his ear. I doubt she has hosted many Earth scientists since," Lee guessed.

"There have been places on Earth the ruler would have put his head on a lance outside the city gate to act as a warning to those lacking manners," Ernie assured her.

"I have my own lands on Providence I haven't built on, and there are no settlers yet. But I'll keep that in mind for when I build a home. It has a certain directness I appreciate."

It wouldn't have bothered Ernie so much, but Lee smiled thinking about it...

After eating silently for awhile Lee looked up and regarded him seriously. "You said when we go back and reveal
all
this stuff. We need to go back and file our claims. The rest of it, dealings with Badgers and their friends will mostly be between governments. Every little detail of everything else we did – like these artifacts – why do we owe that to anybody? What business is it of theirs?" Lee asked. "When I speak to Gordon I'm going to ask him what we owe the Earthies. Why detail a claim on junk we already sifted through and hold in our possession? It's a private voyage. I see no need to open our logs to them, knowing they'll be critical. Just state the basics of your claim. Fargoers maybe, they supported us. But Earthies, I see no reason to chat with them beyond
business
. I don't
like
Earthies.”

* * *

With the mismatch between their ship-shifts and the planet's rotation they didn't drop back on the planet until the morning of the second day from before. This time they brought the wheeled wagons most Deep Space Explorers carried to transport camp supplies and field specimens. Ernie also had learned his lesson cutting the wall and had a powered saw.

They landed closer to the large buildings, sure they weren't delicate and ready to fall over from an innocent nudge. Ernie brought something Lee hadn't been aware he owned, a folding bicycle that only weighed a bit more than two kilograms. The unfolding and locking of the frame, extending the kick-stand and parking it drew the Caterpillars. It looked so dainty Lee thought it should be crushed when Ernie sat on it, but it survived. He used it to circumnavigate the nearest big building before using the saw to cut an opening. He didn't want a repeat of the previous embarrassment.

"That's your private, uh, vehicle?" Lee asked him when he returned to where he left the saw.

"Yeah, I figured we'd be visiting planets. I've carried it with me for a few years now and even though it cut into my mass allowance I couldn't bring myself to leave it behind.”

They watched as the Caterpillars inspected the parked bike. The lifted it and spun the wheels.

"I b... think it very unlikely they ever invented a two wheeled vehicle," Ernie said, amused.

"Yes, but I can see them with a unicycle at each end," Lee said.

Ernie did a full double faceplant and still didn't have his face under control when he dropped his hands. "I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but that image is stuck in my brain now. I have this picture of a Caterpillar kid learning to ride and he can't get the rear to turn the same direction."

"Yeah, well I doubt training wheels would help them," Lee agreed.

Talker, quiet this morning, and not at all talkative, had taken video of Ernie approaching on the bike wearing a spacesuit. His daughter Tish would enjoy it. He also looked up training wheels on his pad. Training wheels as a search brought up a picture of a six year old girl with training wheels on a much sturdier bright pink bike that had a basket on front. An innovation that made sense to him, but there was also a bunch of colored ribbons hanging from each hand grip, which seemed to have no function at all. The wheels and ribbons all made as much warped sense as a lot that Humans did, but why would they include an article about them it in the web fraction they brought along on an interstellar journey? It was as odd and pointless as... He tried to think of an example. Then he realized it no more weird than actually bringing a bicycle, and closed his pad.

Ernie had most of the door cut while he was searching, and enlisted him to pry on the side to open it. He'd left a centimeter or so at each corner uncut to act as a hinge and keep it attached. Lee had a pry bar and pried it open enough for them to both get hands in the crack. Trouble was, when they swung it full open it sprang back almost shut. This composite was tough stuff.

Ernie reduced the hinges by about half and ran the saw down the outside of them, scoring a deep grove on the outside. This time when they forced it back to touch the wall beside it the door only sprung back about a third of the arc. Ernie adjusted his com from local transmission to the general channel and said: "This one's open, Gordon. I'll go cut check the next and cut it open if need be." One of the Caterpillars detached and floated along with him as he left.

The other Caterpillar was much less shy than their previous visit. He flowed through the door before Gordon could arrive and, like Ernie, was also better equipped than before. He had a super bright floodlight that lit the place up almost into the far corners when shone on the ceiling. Lee and Talker were not so bold and waited. When Gordon arrived he didn't say anything about the Caterpillar, but just looked inside and waved at them from the door to follow.

Gordon had no ready reference to describe the giant shape inside. Lee having visited an older lady on Earth, and helped in the kitchen, knew exactly what it looked like. It was a huge gold-colored Bunt pan sitting upside down. The Caterpillar was near out of sight, intent on gliding around it by all indications. Did it mean anything the float his board worked just fine beside the huge shape? Gordon walked over and laid a hand on it, almost as if he could feel it through his suit glove. Perhaps a vibration, but not temperature unless it was dangerously extreme.

"Get some sensors in here and see what you can find out about this thing," Gordon ordered.

"Look where it meets the floor," Lee said.

There was a gap, all of about two centimeters, where the floor stopped short of the monolith. Gordon leaned close and shone his helmet lights down it and rolled his head.

"And a thin line," Gordon added to the order. "Something under three millimeters with a thin but heavy plate or bar. Something for a weight to plumb down a hole for depth."

"So, was the hole made so precisely and the... thing, machine, installed in the hole or was the floor formed right up to it?" Lee asked. "It looks
odd
, but I've seen very few ground side installations. I'm used to big machinery in a ship, but even there you leave more room around something."

"No, you're right. I've seen our power plant for the keep and various pumping stations and things. All of which are basically Human design. If this was an Earthie designed installation there would probably big enough gap there to go down and service things. The floor would have a metal 'L' shape along the edge to protect it from chipping, and it would be painted with bright yellow slash lines to mark it as a hazard. It does look alien."

The line arrived from the shuttle with a large washer, about the size of Gordon's palm. Lee immediately wondered what it could be for, but stifled asking.

When Gordon tied the line around it and dropped it down the crack he seemed to play out the line for an awfully long time. Finally there was enough weight of line to make him uncertain he'd feel it hit. He continued to drop it but giggled it up and down as he did so. Finally he stopped and tested the feel in one spot. Lee turned up her suit mics and heard a ting-ting-ting.

"You got it," she assured him.

Gordon reached down and gripped the line at floor level with his middle arm. He looped the line around his elbow and back to his thumb. "Two meters," he informed Lee. She watched as he did twenty-six turns. "Fifty meters and a bit," Gordon said, scrunching his brow up perplexed. "Why didn't they build it flush on the ground or sunk all the way below grade? Why halfway?"

Thor, who had come in while they were measuring it, shrugged. "Maybe they had these buildings pre-fabricated and it's easier to sink the machine a bit than to make a taller building to cover it."

"It would be easier to guess if we had any idea what it
does
," Lee said.

The Caterpillar returned from his long trip around the machine. He didn't seem excited at all.

"The technician Gordon had requested with instruments ripped the adhesive transducer off the giant shape. "It's about twelve degrees under the surface temperature. I suspect because it has so much mass below grade and linked thermally to the soil or bedrock. Ultra-sound indicates there is a boundary of some sort,
not
an inside surface, about seven hundred millimeters from the outside. No radioactivity, no radio or audio emissions, no neutrinos and not a damn seam or bolt or rivet on the whole thing, although my partner is still checking. I'm going to have a twenty millimeter bore drilled outside to see what the temperature is at fifty meters, but I expect it to be a little lower than the machine up here. Whatever this does, in my opinion it is not doing it right now or it is completely beyond our comprehension."

"What is it made of? Gordon asked, patting it again.

"I'm scared to drill it," the techie admitted. "I respectfully request you allow me back in orbit before you punch a hole in this sucker."

"No need. How about just scraping a little off? If it can't be scraped off with a good pocket knife leave it well enough alone," Gordon agreed.

"Yeah, I'll do that," the fellow agreed, warily.

"Let's go see what Ernie has opened up," Gordon said.

When they left Lee looked back. The technician had a knife out and appeared to be working up his nerve to scape a little of the material off.

* * *

They met him outside the next big polygon.

"What's in this one? Another big lump? Gordon asked.

"Nothing."

Gordon looked shocked.

"I have two people searching all along the walls, and we'll look at every square meter of floor, but nothing so far, and I don't expect them to find anything, and the next one looks the same," Ernie said.