In the com dome, late morning, I confirmed to Neil that we were planning to visit the rille with a guaranteed safe passage from Roy. He was concerned but gave me a go.
Thirty minutes later we had a firm plan for the visit. Roy would collect Bill, Anna and myself at eleven. I needed to speak with Doug without giving away that I was now a host to an entity. I used my new talent to speak mentally to my entity and told him that he must remain totally inactive during my meeting.
Doug had made his military HQ in a side room off the rec dome. As I walked in, I could see him at the far side, throwing darts at the dartboard.
I grabbed a set and we took turns to throw.
I said, ‘Neil has given Bill, Anna and I permission to visit the rille under a guarantee of safe passage from Roy.’
‘I’ll get Mike and another Marine to accompany you.’
‘No. We need to be alone inside the rille,’ I said.
‘Wow, Mark! That’s the second hundred plus score you’ve thrown in a row!’ said Doug.
‘My lucky day,’ I said, ensuring my newly found accuracy was suppressed. I threw a couple of twenty-sixes and a forty-five to try to defuse suspicion.
‘I don’t like it,’ he said.
What did he mean? Had he guessed from my sudden new skill with darts?
He continued, ‘Take a couple of my men with you as bodyguards. I promise they’ll melt into the background, but if there’s any attempt to take you over, they can react and irradiate everyone.’
Phew! My high darts scores hadn’t given me away. ‘They won’t let us in with a projector but I can understand your concern. You can always check us when we return,’ I said.
I would have to find a way of protecting us if we were to be irradiated. Either that or we’d have to leave our entities in the rille. Roy had told me not to be too concerned about it, which just added to the mystery. He must have something in mind.
‘Okay, but I’ll have a squad at the entrance in our buggy,’ he said.
He put down his darts, walked into his room and returned with a small clip-on microphone and an architectol – a 3D scanning device.
‘Take this scanner. We might as well get some intel. You can also wear this mike; use it to let us know if you need help. This is the switch which turns it on,’ Doug said, handing over the architectol and pointing out the switch on the collar microphone.
I turned them over in my fingers and popped them into my pocket. ‘Okay, Doug. Sounds like a plan.’
It took Doug eight attempts to hit the winning double while I was contriving to miss double one by not too great a margin.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘I still don’t like this,’ said Doug over the radio.
I stood on the regolith in a lightweight EVA suit together with Anna and Bill. In the distance, buggy one was approaching.
‘We’ll be okay, Doug,’ I said. ‘I’m wearing the mike and will turn it on if we feel threatened in the slightest. Your squad will be in buggy three, yes?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘We’ll follow you to the rille and will be waiting outside.
‘Copy that, Doug,’ I said.
Buggy one pulled up beside us. I climbed the ladder and entered the rear section of the familiar vehicle with the others following closely behind. I could see Roy in the front section without a helmet. I closed the hatch, checked the seals and said, ‘Selena, pressurise the aft section.’
‘Pressurising the aft section, Mark,’ said buggy one’s computer.
Once pressurised, Roy said, ‘Welcome aboard.’
The buggy turned and headed off across the surface of the moon. Once again that thrill of knowing where we were and staring at the magnificent desolation, as Aldrin had once described it.
‘Why did you want me to bring the entities in the box? They’d have been perfectly secure in my cabin safe. In fact, there are now three. Anna’s reproduced,’ I said.
‘Tosh wants them. He’ll explain,’ said Roy. ‘How’re you getting on with them?’
He was answered with a chorus of ‘Fine!’ from all three of us.
‘Did you get any response from the universities?’
‘No. Neil said they wanted more time,’ I said. ‘Can you tell us more about what you’re doing in the rille? We understand it has to do with unifying quantum gravity with relativity.’
‘Well, it’s more to do with what that means to us in terms of astrophysics and spaceflight. I’ll leave it to Mary to explain. She’s the astrophysics genius. Have you experienced the clearer thinking you now have with your entities?’
‘Yes,’ I said, moving forward and slotting myself into the right cockpit seat. ‘You couldn’t save Blake?’
‘No. I managed to reseal his faceplate. He did regain consciousness back at Moonbase when Tosh pumped some adrenaline into him, but smashing his faceplate irreparably damaged his lungs, beyond even the ability of his entity to repair.’
‘I feel dreadful that I killed him,’ I said.
‘You almost killed both of us.’
‘Presumably you got clear of the blast somehow.’
‘Yes,’ said Roy. ‘Blake falling knocked me off the Dragonstar ladder. I bounced to my feet, grabbed Blake and pulled him clear as you took off.’
‘Very lucky,’ I said.
‘Well, you must remember that Dragonstar launch motors have little more power than a hovercraft. I’m not sure they’d do much damage unless you were directly beneath them,’ explained Roy. ‘Moon-landing deniers used to claim there was no blast crater visible under the Apollos, but, of course, the engines were never powerful enough to create a blast crater. Ignorance was always the conspiracists’ ally.’ I nodded agreement. ‘Nevertheless, being hit by the direct blast would not have been good for my health.’
The Asimov Rille was soon directly ahead. Roy turned buggy one so that it was square on to the cave entrance. ‘Helmets on and secure,’ he said fitting his own helmet as the three of us attached ours. The lightweight suits had a two-hour air supply so were nowhere near as bulky as the main moon EVA suits.
We all checked each other’s helmet seals and climbed down onto the surface of the moon. I turned and looked in the direction of Moonbase and could see buggy three approaching through lengthening shadows as the moon’s fourteen days of daylight slowly approached their end.
We entered the cave.
‘Fascinating tunnel,’ I said over the radio.
‘Yes, when this is all over, I’d like to write a paper on this one. You saw that it branches?’ said Roy.
‘I did. Quite a surprise.’
‘Indeed. It also has a large cavern.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes,’ said Roy. ‘You’ll see soon enough.’
We made our way down the gentle slope, came to the junction and continued along the left passage.
‘Longer than I expected,’ Bill said.
‘Yes, we were surprised, but, as you’ll see, there’s an even bigger surprise at the end,’ said Roy.
We followed a gentle curve to the left until we reached the airlock, seamlessly built into the tunnel and surrounded by aluminium sheets set into the walls. Roy pressed the green button and the air began to cycle.
‘What are you using for power?’ I asked.
‘We’re using the hydrogen generator.’
‘Regolith providing the H20?’
‘No. At the end of the rille we found a frozen water source. As the rille warmed we’re able to tap it. That provides our oxygen and surplus hydrogen for the generator. Works fine,’ said Roy.
‘Impressive,’ I said.
It took two or three minutes for the air to be extracted. The “augmented” or “enhanced” humans, descriptions I preferred to “infected”, would not have air to waste even if they had found a water source. I was sure they would be very carefully preserving their resources.
Roy swung the door open and the four of us entered. It was a tight space. Four was about the maximum who could use this airlock at any one time. Roy pulled the door shut behind us. The inner airlock door was a mirror image. He hit the green button and the atmosphere flooded into the space, causing our lightweight spacesuits to deflate. A chime sounded; Roy removed his helmet and the rest of us followed his lead. The inner door opened.
We were greeted by a smiling Tosh and Jenny. We all hugged, and it was special for me because I hadn’t seen them since I’d fled Moonbase with Linda.
‘Tosh, Jenny, so good to see you,’ I said, finally escaping Tosh’s bear hug.
‘How are you getting on with your little friends?’ he asked.
‘Fine, so far,’ I said.
‘Yes, no problems,’ said Bill.
‘Wonderful,’ said Anna. ‘I’ve been hosting the longest and it just gets better.’
‘Yes, it does, doesn’t it?’ said Jenny.
‘Get those suits off and come through,’ said Tosh as he set off along more of the tunnel with Jenny, leaving extra space for the four of us to remove the suits.
The tunnel didn’t look any different. It measured about two point five metres in diameter. It was dark and had rippled walls from the time when lava would have forced its way out and onto the moon’s surface. LED lights every few metres led us deeper into the moon. It was good to feel the texture with my fingers. It was so smooth it seemed to have been fused by the volcanic heat all those millions of years before, but with broken bubbles leaving myriad small and large hollows in its surface.
‘Plenty of time to study the rock in the future,’ said Roy as he led us further into the depths of the moon.
The journey was so like Cavor, Bedford and Kate’s experience with the Selenites and I wondered if, at any moment, one of HG Wells’ fanciful invented creatures would appear coming the other way. As it was, we were accompanying real aliens towards their lair. We were, in fact, also part alien now. Frivolously, I wondered if we should call ourselves the Selenites.
Roy stopped about fifty metres in and turned. The tunnel had developed a lip and he was climbing down a ladder.
‘Eight rungs,’ he said. ‘We’ve put silicone on them so you shouldn’t slip.’
As I got to the lip, I looked forward in amazement. We were entering a huge cavern. The other side was at least thirty metres away. I looked up and it extended five metres in that direction. LED lamps had been installed and they lit the interior. At the bottom, the augmented humans had excavated the curved surface into a flat area on which they lived and worked. The tunnel continued downwards through the wall on the far side.
I was surprised how quickly I saw and, more importantly, absorbed what I was seeing. My entity was obviously helping me interpret the scene. A clearly defined medical centre stood on one side. Adjacent to it was a large area with cooking facilities for relaxing and socialising. A small anonymous structure to the right beneath us was probably the bathroom. It was clearly a home from home, a veritable mini-Moonbase.
I turned and climbed down the ladder. The others were all waiting for us – Crystal, Jenny, Tosh, Mary and Roy. It was wonderful to see them all again because I’d imagined that they might all be dead, or some sort of living-dead, controlled by the alien entities.
Introductions were made for Bill and Anna, then Tosh asked us to come through to the socialising area and we all found somewhere to sit. There were not enough seats, but we were offered what was available, and the original augmented humans sat on chair arms or the floor.
I felt compelled to say something. ‘I’m impressed by your layout here. Looks very efficient.’
‘We had to make the best of a bad job, Mark,’ said Tosh. ‘We considered moving to Ben Lei, the Chinese habitat, but felt we could protect ourselves better here.’
‘Yes, sound decision,’ said Bill. ‘But you can’t survive a sustained military attack or even a siege.’
‘We know that,’ he snapped in his usual bad-tempered manner. ‘We’ve not been twiddling our thumbs, you know. We’ve spent all of this time learning about ourselves and our enhanced abilities and how they can help us.’
‘What’s this about quantum gravity and general relativity?’ asked Anna.
‘Later. For now, we have work to do,’ said Tosh. ‘I need all of your entities on this tray, please.’
‘Why?’ I asked, shocked and, I must admit, reluctant to hand him over.
‘I’m the doctor and I need them!’ said Tosh angrily. He always had been an impatient individual and hated having his medical authority challenged. I suppose it was nice to see that his entity hadn’t changed his underlying character. He really was the same old Tosh.
‘Calm down, Tosh,’ said Roy.
‘Calm down? Don’t tell me to calm down! I need to get this done,’ he said, raising his voice. ‘Those bastards could come to eradicate us any moment!’
‘Give him your entities,’ Roy said, taking the tray from the doctor and passing it to me. ‘He needs to vaccinate them.’
My entity exited to the tray and I passed it to Bill. ‘Vaccinate from what?’ I asked.
‘It’s not a vaccination,’ scoffed Tosh, loudly. ‘I am adding a chemical to them which is absorbed into their outer skin to prevent them being damaged by your damned Star Trek ray guns! They’ll build up resistance over the coming days but should be fine against your current version.’
He took the tray and the box which contained the other three and disappeared into his medical area. I felt hollow without him. It was like a mild depression, a hopelessness. The second time in a single day. My goodness, I realised what Crystal must have been experiencing for those two days. I wanted him back. I needed him!
‘What about the ones you put in the secret location?’ I asked.
‘Already done,’ said Jenny. ‘Crys and I buried them again this morning.’
‘Does this mean you will no longer be affected by the radiation projectors, or the ray guns as Tosh so accurately describes them?’
‘Not just “we”,’ Roy said. ‘You too.’
‘I see,’ I said. ‘I was thinking we’d have to leave them behind as we’re sure to be irradiated when we get back to Moonbase.’
‘Tosh reckons they’ll be fine for up to twenty seconds,’ said Roy.
‘It should be around half that as there’s been a directive from NASA saying we need to minimise unnecessary human exposure,’ I said.
Mary said, ‘Was it the Van Allen belts?’
They knew! ‘How do you mean?’ I said, playing dumb.
‘Don’t be daft, Mark, this is enhanced humans you are talking to’ said Roy. ‘One of the entities went to Earth with you and Linda. At some point it will have escaped. We don’t think you’d have had one of these then.’ He held up the outer case of a disassembled projector they must have stolen from somewhere. It explained how they’d learned their range and how to create a method of protecting themselves.
‘No, we didn’t have them,’ I said.
‘Well, what happened to it?’ asked Roy. ‘The only solution we could think of is the Van Allen belts.’
Was there any point in trying to hide the truth now? ‘Yes, it was the inner Van Allen belt. The entity had infected me. Linda actually tried to crash the Orion, but it was too late, already on automatic approach. It died before we got into the atmosphere.’
‘See?’ said Tosh re-emerging with the tray. ‘Told you that was the only way it could have died. Here’s your entities back.’
‘Did you really try to kill yourselves?’ asked Jenny.
‘Linda tried to sabotage re-entry, but the Orion had already switched to autonomous re-entry mode,’ I said.
‘Just offer the backs of your hands. They’ll know which of you belongs to them,’ said Tosh.
‘I’d rather think of him belonging to me,’ I said.
‘Delude yourself then, but I can assure you that they are the primary partner in the symbiosis,’ said Tosh.
Was he right? Did I want this? I’d thought I was in charge, but if my entity was, it was still arguable that this was a takeover.
‘What’s the problem, Mark?’ asked Roy.
‘I didn’t think I was subsidiary to him,’ I said. ‘I thought we were equal partners.’
‘Ignore Tosh,’ said Roy. ‘Control is equal.’
‘Human egos!’ huffed Tosh. ‘It’s all semantics.’
He was right, of course. I offered my hand to the tray. One jumped across to me and I was no longer alone. I was whole again!
‘Did Linda come with you?’ asked Jenny. ‘How is she?’
‘She’s fine,’ I said. ‘Expecting, so grounded.’
‘Yours, I guess?’ said Roy.
‘Yes. We married too.’
‘Congratulations,’ said Jenny jumping up and down.
Crystal came across and gave me a hug and I got a kiss on the cheek from Mary.
‘Congrats, mate,’ said Roy shaking my hand.
‘Teach you to be more damn careful next time!’ shouted Tosh as he returned the tray to his lab area.
It was all so natural. Nothing alien about any of them. They were just how I remembered them.
I asked, ‘What’s this gravity thing? NASA haven’t come back with anything from the two universities you suggested.’
‘It could take a day or two for them to even realise what they’ve been given,’ said Mary.
‘What is it?’ I asked again.
‘Even in your now enhanced condition,’ said Mary, ‘it would take some time before you’d understand.’
‘Do your best,’ I said.
‘Dark matter has been hidden from us despite the best efforts of the Large Hadron Collider,’ explained Mary, sitting back into one of the easy chairs which I recognised as missing from the rec dome. ‘Through quantum interaction, it is the dark matter which has prevented physicists linking quantum gravity with relativity. It just couldn’t be understood without taking into account the additional mass of dark matter and its hidden behaviour in our non-quantum universe.’
‘And?’ said Bill as Mary paused.
‘Patience. None of it is easy, Bill. Despite our enhanced intellects, it is still complex science for us too,’ she said. ‘In the simplest of terms, imagine an object sitting in space, like this pawn. You might want to push it to another location, like this.’
She pushed the pawn and it moved across the surface of the chess board on the table.
‘If I push it here, it moves this way. If I push it here, it moves in a different direction. So, if I know where I want it to be, using the correct amount of force, I can move it to that position.’
‘Obviously,’ Bill said.
‘Well, this is not so obvious – what if I wanted to push it to mission control in Houston?’
Bill said, ‘You’d put it in a Dragonstar, transfer it to an Orion, collect it from splashdown and put it in a plane to take it to Houston.’
‘You’re correct, I could use that method,’ said Mary, ‘but there’s an easier way. If I give it a quantum shove, it will move through the quantum universe and arrive instantly in Houston. Actually, the quantum shove is more of a quantum pull than a push. It pulls Houston here as if we’d reached out and grabbed it, temporarily stretching a piece of the end location so that it sits beside this location. Imagine a map of the USA on cloth. Now imagine reaching out to it, pinching Houston between your fingers and pulling it towards you. In simple terms, that is what we can do.’ She tapped the pawn. ‘Then that tiny, minimal energy shove, sees it complete the journey in no time at all,’ and she flicked the pawn across the board and it tumbled onto the table.
‘Crazy!’ said Bill.
‘You’re trying to understand it without all the background learning. Of course it seems crazy to you, Bill.’ Mary sat forward in the chair. Bill went to speak but she put out her hand to stop him.
‘Analogies can only offer a little help, but I’d like you to think about Galileo, who had proven to his own satisfaction that the moons of Jupiter revolved around the giant planet and the Earth revolved around the sun. The Church, in its usual ultimate wisdom, said that Galileo was blaspheming because the sun, quite clearly, revolves around the Earth which was solid and motionless at the centre of the universe. Galileo recanted to save himself, but that did not change the fact that Earth does revolve around the sun. Similarly, your cry of “Crazy!” does not change the fact that a quantum push would send this pawn to Houston.
‘Galileo is supposed to have admitted that the Earth was a solid world in the centre of the universe to save his neck. An apocryphal account tells us that he said, “Eppur si muove” or “Albeit does move” when he left court. Let me tell you in modern English, Bill – it would arrive in Houston!’
‘Show me?’ Bill challenged.
‘We don’t have the equipment to do it, only the proof that it can be done,’ she said.
‘I suppose,’ I said, ‘if you can do it with the pawn, you’d be able to do it with a spaceship?’
‘Yes. It is dependent on a number of factors including the amount of energy which is introduced to the system, and the mass of the object, but, yes, it could be done with a spaceship. Want to go to see all those exoplanets we’ve found orbiting other stars, Mark? No longer impossible,’ Mary said.
‘What equipment would you need to demonstrate it?’ asked Anna.
‘We don’t have the main components available on the moon,’ said Mary. ‘Only the Earth can build what we need, but they won’t know how to do it without our help. We’ve given them the maths, but not the ability to make use of it. They need us for that!’
‘Are there other uses?’ I asked.
‘There will be thousands, but another one which we have been trying to produce is the transport system used in Star Trek,’ said Mary.
‘But that’s been proven to be ridiculous, breaking the body down and transmitting it. That really is crazy!’ said Anna.
‘Yes, it is the way you describe it,’ said Mary. ‘But what if I gave a quantum shove to you, Anna? You’d instantly be in Houston!’
‘Really?’ I said.
‘In theory, yes,’ said Tosh. ‘But we’ll need to test it. We need to test all of it, but a bunch of backward humans are likely to wipe us out before we can!’