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We stood silently and looked out into the blue ice surface. Flakes of snow flew by and smacked our Arctic jackets and our faces. With my gloved hands I wiped my Arctic mask.
“There’s one more thing,” Cajun said.
“Oh, shucks! There’s always one more thing, isn’t there?”
“Sometimes it seems that way. When I arrived and started investigating, I assumed the cataclysmic event that caused the ice age happened hundreds of years ago. Now I’m changing my mind. Logan, I don’t think that event occurred hundreds of years ago. Or even a year ago. Whatever did this, it was done relatively recently. Two months. Maybe a month ago.”
I frowned. I looked around, but there was nothing to see.
“Cajun, my respected colleague. Even with my limited knowledge of advanced science, I know that’s impossible. If this planet was like Earth in terms of climate and weather, it could not have turned into frozen barrenness in just a few months.”
“What if it did?”
“I know you’re in contact with scientists on the Intrepid and they’ve been running calculations. So what could possibly explain such a thing?”
“I don’t know and neither do they. But I think it’s logical to believe that what occurred here was not a natural phenomenon. As I said, this is contrary to all physical laws.”
I groaned again. “I think I know your destination, but I don’t like where you’re going. Care to take a detour?”
“This is a wild guess, but I think we will find the inhabitants of this planet and their civilization below the ten miles of ice.”
“Tell me they destroyed themselves. Tell me they were trying some incredible experiment with the weather and it backfired and annihilated the planet. Please don’t tell me what I think you’re going to say.”
“No, the inhabitants here did not destroy themselves. This was an attack. An attack that somehow wiped out the planet's surface and caused an ice age to envelop this world. An attack that stopped the very rays of the sun from hitting the crust. An attack that we can hardly imagine, much less understand.”
“You’re full of good news today.” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the entrance door. “So some aliens attacked Sandeling and wiped out the population and the planet for that matter. The questions is: where are they now? Our sensors didn’t pick up any life here. Not just human life. No birds, no fish, no insects. No nothing. So the aliens can’t be here. Why did they attack? What’s the benefit in freezing an entire world? Why would they do that?”
“I have no idea, but it was done. And if the inhabitants of this planet had enemies, the chances are the Federation has new enemies.”
The entrance door opened and Blackjack Curry stuck his head out. “Major, you better come look at this.”
“An afternoon matinee?” I said.
“Not quite.”
We rode the elevator in silence. Cajun’s theory of a recent attack at least accounted for all the functioning machinery and the lack of dust in the underground corridors. The temperature underground was pleasant, and the lighting and ventilation systems still perfectly working. It looked like somebody had left home in a hurry, forgetting to turn off the lights. I followed Blackjack as he walked through the winding tunnels. He stopped when he stood at the front of a vast cavern. It must have stretched for three miles. The rock walls were pulsating and flashing with colors. An odd hum came from the walls. For a second the room seemed to jolt, as if hit by an earthquake.
“What’s happening?” I said.
“Have no idea,” Cajun said.
“Blackjack, get me Dr. Fincus. He’s over in the science section.”
“Yes, sir.”
The bright red color faded and the walls flashed burgundy instead. The humming waxed and waned. I blinked. For a minute the walls seemed to be fluid, as if they were made of elastic. They expanded and then constricted. The colors changed into a dark blue.
“Oddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Can this be a natural occurrence?” I said.
“I’d put the odds on that at about ninety-nine percent against.”
I clicked on my mic. “Headquarters, this is Ryvenbark.”
“Yes, sir. This is Ryan.”
“Mr. Ryan, is there anything showing on our scanners? Is there anything showing on anything?”
His reply was immediate. “No. Everything looks calm here. I’m in contact with the ship too. Their scanners are registering nothing.”
The noise had transformed to a low hum accompanied by purple flashes from the wall. The voice came from behind me.
“You wanted to see me, major?”
I looked around and spied Fincus, head of our science section. His nickname was Panther because he enjoyed wide, open spaces. I don’t know where he picked up the name, but it had stuck. He was six-three with a thin build and a face akin to dark mahogany.
“Yes. I want you to tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know. This is not the only section that’s lighting up and humming. We have another one on the fifth level. Same thing. Walls are flexing and singing,” he said. “It’s strange.”
Cajun’s hand grabbed my arm when a dark figure appeared. It was only a shadow, but looked human. Two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. But like a shadow, it blinked away. It popped up a second time and then faded. About ten yards beyond the original figure, a second shadow appeared, but only for about three seconds. Then disappeared. A third shadow appeared about ten yards to the right of the second, but it too dissipated.
The hum gradually lowered into nothingness. All the shadows vanished. The colors stopped flashing.
“Guess the show is over,” I said.
I turned to Cajun and the Panther. “I want some answers. So why don’t you two get busy and find me some? I want to know what has just happened.”
Three minutes later I was at our small command headquarters and told Mr. Ryan to patch me into our communications system. For all our advanced technology, the system sputtered and coughed before Ryan gave me the thumbs up to speak.
“This is Major Ryvenbark. We are now on full alert. You will consider this a battlezone. I want every soldier armed while on duty. We are seeing some strange things occur and I want to make sure those strange things do not become deadly things. Report anything suspicious to Sgt. Rabelais. That is all.” I turned to Ryan. “Can we get in touch with the Federation from here?”
He shook his head. “Not with this primitive communication system.”
“Then patch me into the ship.”
Two seconds later Captain Ian Liddle popped up on a screen. He saluted. Which I thought was a nice gesture, but unnecessary.
“Captain, dispatch a shuttle ship if you would. While I’m on the way up, get in touch with the Federation. I want to talk to them.”
The screen went blank. Sgt. Rabelais wore his ragtag grin when he walked up.
Ian Rabelais Stone was a veteran of too many campaigns to mention. And a very good friend. I had never met a tougher, or more intelligent soldier. On more than a dozen planets, many enemies of mankind died because Rab had shot or knifed them. He had a closetful of medals and deserved every one of them.
“I heard about the singing walls,” he said.
“Humming walls is more like it. Keep things in order until I get back. This shouldn’t take long.”
“Think the Federation knows something it isn’t telling?”
“I don’t know. It wouldn’t be the first time. When you’re a bureaucrat and sit behind a desk, there are two great errors you can make. One is you’re sloppy and incompetent and let secrets slip. The other is you guard them too closely and don’t reveal what you should. Few deskmen can walk down the middle of that road. Of course there is another possibility. Perhaps our friends in the Federation just don’t know anything. It wouldn’t be the first time for that either.”