“I see,” said Yamamoto, privately resisting a smile.
The procedure began. Within a minute of contact the Symbiants made the link complete by touching the now active amorphous form. It took an agonising two hours of apparent inactivity before Red disengaged. He waited another minute or so before declaring he had structured the extracted data. Alex 2 followed the same sequence and they both stated together, “We have confirmation that the Continuance is involved with the Rabo.” The mummy with which Red had interacted was true Rabo, and that explained the shorter time to full data extraction. Alex 2’s interaction was also with a genuine Rabo, but one who had been replicated, which had more data to extract and a physiological signature of replication. The data was sketchy because of the length of time for decay to set in, but the mummification technique had helped considerably. What they could pool between the two extractions only amounted to qualitative links between the Continuance and the Rabo. It did not shed much more light on the level of comprehension by the Rabo of their own accomplishments in the paradigm jumps they had applied so successfully.
Alex 2 said that this knowledge made the forthcoming visit of the caretakers even more significant. The team was now more comfortable in continuing with their respective assembly tasks on the production lines. The first to complete the sequence were Red and Keriakis, but rather than it feeling like an achievement, they were startled by the message screen flashing ‘simulation complete’. When inputting the acceptance command the new message asked whether full manufacturing mode was required. An affirmative reloaded the inventory call up. They decided to leave it for a while and check on the space travel section. They passed on their experience of the practice mode and said it might apply to all assembly routines. When Alex 2 and Nielsen had completed their sphere they too confirmed the ‘simulation complete’ message. All seven of them plus the Symbiant who delivered the amorphous form resumed work on the space vessel construction. Even with the degree of automation and robotic power it took over a week to reach the first component construction layout pattern. The next stage was to network the software systems. At this point the delivery Symbiant returned to Marineris Central with recordings of the three assembly procedures and the results of the mummy data extraction. They were for onward transmission to Xiang. The second stage mechanical interfacing of the plethora of units was estimated to require six weeks as there was limited capability to perform concurrent rather than consecutive tasks.
********
Columbus was underway. Carvalho reflected on the policy to continue to send younger personnel to Mars. There was a view in Beijing that the younger crew members were less blinkered in their general reaction to setbacks, and this could be very important in forging success with a new frontier. He looked around and was not entirely convinced. The three engineering graduates had only just acquired that title. Park was not much older. The new doctor was hardly more experienced than an intern. The astrophysicist was the oldest but still well short of her thirtieth birthday. There was a tangible whiff of fantasy aboard. He wondered how this would transform into ordered discipline if danger made a dramatic entrance. Simulation training could only do so much. At least he had a hands-on role as Commander, which he hoped would be a welcome distraction from calling bedtime.
After touchdown and formalities the engineers were to report to Van de Ende after his return from Echus Chasma. The main projects would be assembly of fabricating robots and vehicles, plus laying a pipeline to pump ice water from the Rift to Central, and an excavated clearing in the forest – to form an artificial lake. It was hoped that selection of European personnel would facilitate interpersonal relationships in the Martian engineers’ union.
Park was to report to Nielsen and try to catch up on geological/chemical analysis at the two new sites. It would require transportation of the various pieces of lab test equipment to the particular site being worked.
Both the medical and astrophysics experts were female; this was another balance to be addressed in forthcoming missions. There was a loosely worded objective to pencil in the first Martian-born child within the blueprint for the planned colony ships. Carvalho couldn’t help comparing these raw recruits to his first mission, which had brought elation, frustration, intrigue, boredom and mild insubordination in their own measure. Maybe he was being a little unkind in his appraisal of what would probably be his last outward crew.
********
Koppelt said he had not found his Chinese contact very helpful. As he had only discussed recent security concerns, over a ‘retirement’ lunch, and broadened the convivial chit-chat to general stuff within Chinese borders, he was made aware of a clamp down on official requests for unsupervised foreign projects on their turf. This covered all kinds of stuff, from oil exploration to monitoring of endangered species. “My advice to you, Roberto, is to get these guys to apply for civilian holiday visas and just go walkabout for a couple of weeks at a time or look for another location until this nervous period blows over.” Xiang was philosophical about it. “Ok, thanks again Karl. I had better let you get back to your family.”
“Just one more thing then,” said Koppelt, “can I tell Ledovskaya she can have time with Radmanov when he returns?”
“Yes go ahead. I’ll inform Radmanov myself that since we learned of his agenda for the Russians taking priority over the mission security, we are going to detain him for internal protocol breach. Then I will bring him up to date with the discovery of his collusion with Korolev. He will serve time here or wrestle with the prospect of ‘jumping from the frying pan into the fire’ when I wheel in Ledovskaya. Will you ask her to be here in advance of Columbus’ return?”
“Of course I will. I hope we can do some of this kind of work again – hopefully not too frequently.”
********
While Pascal 2 was watching details of the footage from Echus Chasma and Legrange was transmitting ‘eyes only’ summary to Xiang, Radmanov was busy. Knowing of the activity by eavesdropping he sought out the returned container of amorphous form which had not yet been returned to secure storage. He went to the nearest lab supplies store and took an empty container. He transferred a small amount from the original, making sure there was no contact, to the empty receptacle and hid it in his quarters. He would think of the means to deceive Beijing when he had boarded Columbus. He felt this small offering to Korolev would go some way to make up for the unfortunate failure to gain the analytical data of the composition. The disappointment would also be softened when he told the oligarch of overhearing Pascal 2 categorically say the composition data was useless without knowledge of how the replication was triggered. He thought it might be prudent to begin behaving more rationally now that his rescue ship was coming in. When Pascal 2 had finished watching the visuals he was ‘accidently’ met by the Russian who said he had been doing some soul-searching and would like to make some contribution after all, as long as it was not on the forestation programme. Pascal 2’s reaction was circumspect as he had seen many ‘schizophrenic’ chapters with Radmanov during his stay on Mars. “Ok, I will give this some thought. It is good to see you reclaiming your enthusiasm. Perhaps Marco van de Ende can forward some prep work for the new proposed pipeline. Apparently the tubing has been designed with expandability to allow for the extremely low temperatures. This will negate the need to completely empty it every night. I know that Marco wants his new engineers to provide several routings to consider a branched line or two separate ones. Do you think you could help by making some precise measurements and produce a map of the options we have?”
This suited both of them; Radmanov had his ‘born again’ project and Pascal 2 had him employed on something which was not expected to produce a professional quality survey, but was harmless at worst.
********
At Echus Chasma they were ahead of estimate, or so they thought. They were three weeks into phase two and there didn’t seem to be much more to do. Alex 2 was contemplating the misjudgement. “There must be some information
which we are missing. My calculations suggest there is a lot more to do. The final amalgamation of all of these very large sub-structures must either entail different robots or we have got it wrong. As they put the final touches to the schedule for this stage, two days later they were startled yet again. This time they were obliged to retreat away from the production lines. A massive aperture appeared in the floor at one end of the hall and next to a circular table of similar dimensions, which had previously had no obvious function. A warning flashed to say the robots were being retracted and re-sited. Then the sub-assemblies began to be loaded in sequence on to the rotary table. Giant clamps rose up from the aperture and lifted the waiting units on to a conveyor. A new message indicated that the silo had been informed of the impending arrival of the parts.
It all fell into place. The huge delivery tunnel would have alerted them to the final assembly being elsewhere if they had discovered it. Keriakis beamed. “At least we now know we don’t have to figure out how to get this beast outside and into a launch position.”
“Quite so,” said Alex 2, “and it also explains where the remainder of the estimated work will be carried out. So after all we do have another three weeks or so to completion.”
Yamamoto chirped in, “I wonder if this means we will get a ‘simulation complete’ message at the silo in three weeks’ time.”
They scurried back to the tram and returned to the silo which was closed. The control which had previously opened the horizontal doors provoked a message which said safety overrides were in place until transactions were complete. This took another four and a half hours. When the doors were then opened, an automatic cycle kicked in to bring robots of staggering dimension from out of nowhere. As they descended they could see the recesses from whence these rather menacing machines had sprung. It was now obvious that upon completion of the assembly they would have to return to their cages to allow the floor to rise to ground level. The human members of the team watched breathlessly as the final phase swung into action. The Symbiants were emotionless but impressed with the outstanding precision of this phase. Finally the anticipated message allowed them to resume contact with the schematics and initiate the recommencement of assembly after all safety displays pulsed and were then extinguished.
Chapter 31
Mike and friends had their visas issued from information on the people they had replicated. Dane’s was the last to arrive. They had to be flown out of China to separate destinations and clear customs as holiday makers. They took public transport by a circuitous route until they were sure they were not attracting much attention. There were six provinces marked out as producing significant quantities of antimony. Hunan, Guangxi and Yunnan were the largest, and in that order. The minor provinces were Guizhou, Gansu and Jiangxi; they would be explored later.
They found it easy to ‘lose’ themselves in Hunan and they slowly moved to the area of interest; however they quickly concluded that this source was more blended with other sedimentary rocks than would have been indicative of crystal deposit. Moving on to Guangxi they found more likely lodes of antimony bearing ore so they spent the rest of their allocated time there. Two ravines specifically had beautifully exposed periods of rocks in perfectly delineated layers and they continued under the surface of the lake. A cursory survey however revealed nothing and several caves and extinct mines were barren. They reported to Xiang that they were coming back to Beijing and then onward to South America rather than arouse suspicion in China.
********
The final fitting together of the sub-sections in the silo would have taken more than a year but for the superb programming of the gigantic robots. They ploughed on through the nights with mind-boggling ability to avoid getting in one another’s way, while carrying out herculean yet delicate tasks. The onlookers could really have left the entire operation to them and returned to the other projects but this was such an addictive experience. Van de Ende was filming the closing stages for the benefit of his incoming subordinates. As the outline of the vessel was now clearly visible, albeit in a horizontal position, the robots disappeared with the obligatory safety warnings. They were replaced by dozens of tiny drones which appeared to be attacking a carcass like a colony of ants. The cacophony of hissing, fizzing and buzzing sounds, accompanied by lights to denote tests being passed was perceived as an opera of engineering tribute to the designers. The finale saw a fitting measured withdrawal of the ‘ants’ and then a message to enquire as to whether the silo floor should be raised at this time. The group deferred this until after an in depth evaluation of what they had constructed was completed. The report to Central was also delayed until they had discussed why there was no ‘simulation complete’ message, and they wanted to produce a real sphere and a real Rabo carcass.
Red was the first to offer an explanation. “The cost of such an operation as we have just witnessed is phenomenal. Also if the Rabo had needed to leave the planet at very short notice this is a masterpiece of camouflage until the vessel is loaded for launch.”
Yamamoto was not convinced. “This is an untried propulsion unit. Even something as sophisticated as the assembly we have witnessed can have ‘running in glitches’, surely we have to decide how the conventional propulsion system gets this hulk into orbit before the wormhole radar is tested – remember, that is a definite requirement. I still believe this is a simulation to illustrate the technology. Maybe we should go back and answer the questions at the plateau and send an inquiry to the Rabo. If they have mastered interstellar travel with this leviathan, maybe they have also conquered time barriers in communication technology. If they have sub-space contact we could have answers before the caretakers arrive.”
Nielsen chipped in with a slightly different take. “We have observed differences between this vessel’s procedure and the other two in so many ways. They do not have to be linked; they are simply manufactured in the same location. I have to agree with Red – for example, what do we do with this leviathan, as you call it, if it is a simulation? The task of dismantling and scrapping it would be as complex as the assembly. Don’t you think there would be an option to do this if it existed? I believe the other two processes are very different from this one in a major way. They need an existing Rabo to enable them. Anyone, loosely speaking, can fly this kite. Remember the Rabo have their knowledge transferred from redundant to new spheres and carcasses if there is justification. Until they agreed to allow those who wished to ‘die’ a way out they had this cyclical replenishment. I’m suggesting that if we opt for the real assembly of a sphere or carcass we will be asked some questions related to the new tenant. Just a thought.” His idea gained consensus. They returned to the other production lines.
********
Columbus was nearing the separation and orbit phase. The trip had been so uneventful that Carvalho felt like a long haul pilot coming to the end of a month of routine shifts. The young crew had certainly kept up with the recommended physical workouts; there had not been much to distract them. More than any of the previous humans to set foot on another planet, they resembled a bunch of tourists who wanted to stretch their legs and brains. They had got on really well with one another, which wasn’t the case for the earlier crews. The engineers – Maxim Chancel, Per Olsson and Pierce Atwell-Jones were already ‘licking their lips’ at the prospect of studying the legacies of an ancient race while getting on with their main task. Park had moved on from his relief at the unbridgeable distance between Mars and the Columbians, even if they had been rounded up. He was looking forward to classification of new materials, but having been replicated already, the red crystals still held fascination for him. Dr. Caprice Hadberg had been well briefed by Scillacci on the Rabo physiology and was anticipating more revelations by the time they landed. Martina Devereux was French-Canadian by birth, but had only a glimmer of recollection of her young life there. Her parents had moved to Chile when she was six years old. Her father was a physicist by profession but was afflicted with an insatiable desire to make sen
se of the radio ‘noise’ from space. He had successfully applied for a post at a new observatory in a remote part of the country, only to find that it suffered irreparable damage from an earthquake before he worked out his previous contract. He was then headhunted for a similar position in Australia. Martina grew up living through her father’s unquenchable enthusiasm for the merest morsel of proof that there were others out there. He died without anything to justify his vigil other than his belief. He had always told her stories of others who did not live to realise absolute proof of their theories and how important it was to avoid being blown off course by spurious comments by ‘impostors masquerading as true scientists’. Her favourite examples were Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. She simply could not turn away from the opportunity to embrace the proof her father had searched for. Carvalho had realised this early in the mission and without dampening her enthusiasm he recounted his own experience. “I went through periods of elation then depression at the realisation that what my father wanted so badly did not satisfy me. However what it did achieve indirectly was the spin off, which was my true calling. So, Martina, if it all feels a little mundane at times - stay with it, because you are still in the best place to further your own dreams.”
The sequence was upon them – the cargo, then they could begin to imagine that first step into the Martian forest. Not many people had said that before.
********
Mike, Finn and Dane were in Bolivia. Peru was the only other South American known source of antimony ore. However Bolivia had the only type free of contaminants, it was comparable to the South African variety. They didn’t expect success in Peru as it was similar to the Chinese lodes according to their database. They hadn’t felt the same claustrophobic presence of authority here as they had in China. What did surprise them was the presence of others who were ‘scavenging’ similar sites. It was the repeated appearance of familiar faces which was disturbing. Although they ignored everyone they were visited one night by a group of these prospectors. They were friendly at first but they seemed to be obsessed with the Symbiants working all day and through the night without rest. The spokesman asked them in Spanish why it was so urgent for them to work like this. None of the Symbiants had yet learned Spanish so they asked them to repeat the question in English. This produced a distinct change of body language. They became increasingly aggressive and the new English speaking inquirer changed the question. “What are you doing here?” Mike said that they were palaeontologists gathering fossils. He realised his mistake almost immediately.