The Unreasoning Mask (9 page)

 

 

The smoke came from vast fires raging over thousands of large areas.

 

 

"My God!" Nuoli said. "What could have caused that?"

 

 

It was not from atomic warfare. The radioactive readings testified to that.

 

 

The chief geologist reported detection of an unusual number of active
volcanoes on both sea and land.

 

 

"Twenty-four thousand. The dust from them alone is enough to cover the
planet for many years. By the time the dust settles, most if not all
the plant life will have died. As for the life that depended upon the
plants . . ."

 

 

The chief meteorologist reported atmospheric disturbances that could not
be explained by the flrestorms and volcanoes.

 

 

"Something has pulled the atmosphere up into space in the recent past.
There are too many traces of atmospheric gases above the normal upper
boundary. And there's a phenomenon I've never heard of before. I don't
know what caused it, but there's a -- how shall I put it? -- an oscillatory
humping of the air. As if it's still reverberating, reacting to a tidal
effect. Let me call you back on that. I'm just giving you my first
impressions. I need more data and more time to put them into the computers."

 

 

A little while later, the chief geologist reported again.

 

 

"Something has made Walisk a hotbed of earthquakes. We're detecting
thousands of temblors on land and the sea bottoms. I'd estimate that
there are fifty thousand macroseisms occurring at this moment. They're
all equal to or exceeding 12 on the Neo-Mercalli scale.

 

 

"Also, it's evident that colossal tidal waves have inundated the coastal
areas and still haven't subsided. These can't be accounted for only
by the seismic activity, immense though these are. Walisk has no moon,
as you know, sir, but I'd say that the quakes and the tidal waves and
the atmospheric tides could have been caused if, say, Walisk did have
a moon the mass of Earth's and it suddenly changed its orbit to one
not very far above the exosphere. Anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000
kilometers above the planet's surface. Of course, that's only a fantasy
speculation. I won't be bound by that statement."

 

 

"Of course not, Doctor," Ramstan said. "Thank you."

 

 

Al-Buraq orbited Walisk in a descending spiral, repeatedly crossing all
of the four continents, each having approximately the surface area of
Africa though not its shape. The readings indicated that the smoke and
volcanic dust were so thick that little if any multicellular life survived.
Ramstan doubted that much had survived the quakes, tidal waves, and
firestorms before the clouds began spreading over the planet.

 

 

Two of the continents were on the equatorial line. Their interiors were
masses of firestorms so bright that they could be seen through the clouds.
Here and there were darker areas which the scientists said were the results
of heavy rains. The fires had been put out there, but the bordering regions
were so hot that the moisture would quickly be dried up and the vegetation
reignited.

 

 

"There were vast rain forests there," Toyce said. "Much like those in
Africa and southeast Asia before they were cleared and became deserts."

 

 

Ramstan decided to investigate at close range one of the continents in the
southern hemisphere. It had a great interior desert but had been heavily
populated on the coastlines. Though the fires were still raging along
the shores, extending sometimes to 300 kilometers into the interior,
there were temporarily extinguished areas. The clouds had moved in from
outlying areas, carried by the very strong winds, but spacesuited personnel
could fly in jeeps a few meters above the still-quaking ground.

 

 

Al-Buraq poised above an area where rain was falling heavily. The stony
desert was only 10 kilometers to the north, but ruins of buildings
indicated that the region directly beneath ship had once been thickly
populated. Not that there were many objects detectible by the probers.
Most of the wooden materials and trees and bushes had been burned
entirely and their ashes swept away by the winds and rains. If there
were any bones left of the sentient and animal inhabitants, they could
not be detected by the probers.

 

 

The chief meteorologist reported again.

 

 

"The winds have a velocity of 150 kilometers per hour. They're mild,
though, compared to the winds in the northern area."

 

 

Ramstan knew this because he could read the indicators on the tec-op
panels. He thanked the scientist, anyway. What interested him was the
detection by the fine-discriminator probers of thousands of golfball-shaped
and -sized objects on the ground or half-buried in the mud. He ordered
that the investigators in the jeeps secure some of these. Then, impatient,
he commanded al-Buraq to get close enough to the surface to extend a
suction pseudopod and bring in some specimens immediately.

 

 

While waiting, he ordered a launch sent to the northern shoreline to
determine if there were similar objects there. "And if you find them,
proceed to the continent above this in the northern hemisphere and look
for them there."

 

 

Al-Buraq headed into the wind at 5 kph. It was not easy for her to scoop
in the spheres. The ground was subject to shock after shock, many strong
enough to toss the spheres a meter into the air. A few times, fissures
opened, and the spheres fell into them. Al-Buraq did not try to obtain
these. If she had inserted her pseudopod into the fissure, she might
have been trapped if the fissure closed.

 

 

At another order, ship brought in some pieces of what had been stone
columns and some twisted and dented steel beams.

 

 

The chemicophysical laboratory reported that there were many smaller spheres
in the mud which had been carried in. These had a diameter of three
millimeters.

 

 

Al-Buraq continued sampling, and she began to trace a spiral path over
a twenty-square-kilometer area.

 

 

The launch left ship with two pilots and six scientists aboard. It shot
northward at 300 kph, its probers scanning the area for 100 kilometers
on both sides.

 

 

The laboratory chief reported again.

 

 

"The larger spheres have a diameter of four centimeters. Each weighs one
kilogram. Each has a shell of nickel-iron five millimeters thick. That's
estimated, since the shell has been partially melted and some of the
nickel-iron has evaporated. Burned off. The core is some black, unknown
substance, though it looks like metal. It can't be X-rayed. It's unaffected
by the strongest acid. It won't bend or break under a pressure of 500,000
tons per square millimeter, and that's the greatest force we have. It won't
melt at 100,000 K. It resists the most powerful laser -- so far, anyway.

 

 

"The smaller spheres are of the same substance or seem to be. They only
lack the nickel-iron shell of the larger. They've been subjected to the
same tests with the same results."

 

 

Wendell Tong shook his head. "I've never seen or heard of anything like it."

 

 

The screen split into three sections, and the heads of the chief geologist
and the chief astrophysicist appeared by Tong's.

 

 

"We've been listening in," the geologist said. "May I ask a question?"

 

 

Ramstan gave his permission. However, the question was not directed at him
but at Tong.

 

 

"You say that the nickel-iron shells were partially melted. I doubt that
the firestorm could account for that. Wouldn't you say that the melting
could only have come from great velocity through the atmosphere? That
these spheres are, in effect, meteorites of some sort?"

 

 

Tong nodded. "Yes, I'd say so. I'm not competent . . ."

 

 

"It's a matter of common sense, of logic," the geologist said. "Only . . .
damn! . . . whoever heard of meteorites like this?"

 

 

Ramstan said, "The hot nickel-iron shells could have started the worldwide
fires, right?"

 

 

"That's the only explanation we have at the moment."

 

 

 

 

Two days later, al-Buraq left, the jeeps having returned the day before.
The launch was over the northern continent now and sending in reports.
Al-Buraq proceeded to the western coast of the southern-hemisphere
continent, spiraled over a hundred-square- kilometer area, then flew to
one of the continents in the equatorial region. Another launch was sent
to the third continent. After a six-day sampling of the second continent,
al-Buraq plunged into the ocean and spiraled over the bottom. When she
emerged five days later, she went to the fourth continent. At the end
of the sampling there, she was joined by the two launches.

 

 

The results of the investigation were both puzzling and mind-numbing.

 

 

The spheres were undoubtedly of meteoritic origin or, it would be more
accurate to say, they had been launched at high velocity from outside
the atmosphere. Both the large and small spheres had been found embedded
in trees that had not entirely burned and even in stones and steel
beams. They were everywhere from pole to pole. Whatever had shot them
had covered the planet by making many orbital sweeps and by missing
neither land nor sea.

 

 

Walisk was slightly larger than Earth though of less density. Its surface
area was approximately 518,000,000 square kilometers. Estimates based on
the samplings indicated that approximately one of the larger spheres and
twenty of the smaller had struck every square meter. Or they had been
intended to do so, but atmospheric and oceanic variations in density
and current had resulted in variations in the number of meteorites or
missiles per square meter.

 

 

"Five hundred and eighteen billion of the large spheres," Tenno had
whispered when he heard the report. "Ten trillion, three hundred and
sixty billion of the smaller."

 

 

Each of the smaller weighed 50 grams. Twenty together weighed 1,000 grams
or one kilogram. This suggested that the large spheres had hollow centers.

 

 

The total mass of the missiles was an estimated 1,026,000,000,000 kilograms.

 

 

"No spaceship would be large enough or have power enough to deliver and
launch such a mass. She'd have to be as large as . . . what? . . . the Earth?
Larger? Let's get a computer readout."

 

 

"An object with that mass and coming so close to Walisk would cause
cataclysmic earthquakes and tidal waves," Ramstan said. "But . . .
you're right, Tenno. It couldn't be a spaceship or even a fleet.
Unconceivable. Anyway, if the thing or things were directed by Intelligence
. . . what sentient would use such inefficient means as the spheres to kill
life? Neutron bombs would be far superior. What good would this destruction
be for war-makers? Unless they were so vicious that they wanted only total
destruction. I can't believe that."

 

 

"The bolg kills all but one. God is sick. Unbreakable flames fall from
the black sky. . . All die. Where to go?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 9 ...

 

 

Al-Buraq was in orbit over Walisk and awaiting orders from Ramstan for
the next destination. He was wondering where this would be when he got
a call from Doctor Hu.

 

 

"The Webnite is well enough to talk for a while. She wants to talk to you.
Lieutenant Davis will interpret."

 

 

Ramstan thanked her and said that he would be in the sickbay as soon as
he could get there.

 

 

"Does that mean right away, sir?" she said.

 

 

"Of course!" Ramstan said. "What the hell did you think I meant?"

 

 

Hu's face became rigid, but she said nothing. Ramstan regretted having
blazed out at her. His nerves were crawling like a mess of worms. He had
to get better control of himself. Walisk . . . the glyfa's continued refusal
to answer him. . . . the Tenolt . . . everything. . . . They were conspiring
to crush him.

 

 

He walked out of his quarters shaking his head.
Conspiring
was not
the correct word. It sounded as if he were becoming paranoiac.

 

 

He concentrated on the Webnite. She might be able to tell him something of
what had happened, though if she had been in the self-contained chamber
when the Raushghol ship was attacked, she might know very little. It was
luck that Davis was aboard, since she was the only one who could speak
Webnian. Al-Buraq had not been to Webn but Pegasus had. During her six-month
stay there, Davis, as a marine biologist, had been in intimate contact
with some of the native scientists and had taken the opportunity to master
as much of the language as she could. She also knew the coordinates for
navigation to Webn, or at least had enough data so that al-Buraq's
astrogators could extrapolate the rest needed. In fact, if it were not
for Davis, there would have been no way to get to Webn except by going
to Raushghol and getting the data from its alaraf navy.

 

 

The Webnite and Davis were in the same sickbay. The Earth-woman was there
for two reasons. One, to interpret if the Webnite should recover enough
to talk. Two, she still had a fever, the cause of which was unknown. She
had been probed by machines and had conducted a self-probing, but the
fever continued to keep her body temperature above normal. Hu had told
Ramstan that she suspected the fever was psychosomatic. It did not seem
to be infectious or contagious, and there was no valid reason to isolate
her. That had been determined within three hours after she had entered
al-Buraq.