“We’re okay, Ken. Everything’s all right.” She was staring past the two men, gaping at what lay between them. “It’s just that we’ve … found something.”
Below them and lodged in the bedrock of the asteroid was the source of the brilliant light that had for an instant so thoroughly and electrifyingly captured their attention. It flickered pallidly, no less wondrous for its present lack of intensity. The feeble light it was generating clearly came from somewhere within.
“Not quite the reflection you hypothesized, Commander.” Brink had knelt by their discovery and was bracing himself against the nearest projecting rocks.
“It’s metal, anyway.” Low bent closer. “But not nickel-iron. And there are no olivine crystals embedded in it.”
The source of their fascination and dumbfoundment was deeply scarred. That was part of the problem, for all of the “scars” were of uniform depth and breadth. Furthermore, they were arrayed in a pattern sufficiently uniform to suggest to even the most casual untrained observer that they were not the product of some natural force.
It was a plate of some kind; round and curved on top, unmistakably the product of sophisticated machining. It had not formed or condensed or precipitated out: it had been made.
“What’s that? We didn’t catch that last bit, Boston.” Though less anxious, Borden was still not his usual jocular self.
Low turned his lips toward the helmet pickup. “I said that we’ve got some kind of metal plate here.” He glanced at Brink, who nodded solemnly. “With what appear to be markings on it.”
Robbins kept bumping up against him. “Am I hearing you two right? Are you saying that we’ve found some kind of artifact? An alien—”
“Just a minute, now, hold on just a minute.” Low whirled on her with such force that he found himself sliding backward and had to reach out and reposition himself. “Nobody said anything about anything like that.”
“Alien?” The catch in Miles’s voice was comical. “Did somebody say alien? You’ve got a metal plate with alien engraving on it?”
“Nobody said anything of the kind,” Low shot back.
“Commander Low.” He turned to see Robbins eyeing him reprovingly. “You’re shouting, Commander.”
“I am not shouting,” Low replied with careful deliberation. “Cora, Ken; we’ve found an anomaly here. It’s far too soon to be rendering any formal determinations.”
“Okay, Boz,” Borden responded evenly. “So make a couple of informal ones. Just to keep us poor homefolks apprised.”
Low exhaled slowly. “We’ve uncovered what looks like a machine-made metal plate that’s inscribed with markings. It could possibly be—I say this reservedly—some kind of writing. But we don’t know that yet.”
“Writing.” Miles’s tone had changed to one normally used in church. “Then you are saying that you’ve found some kind of artifact, Boston.”
Brink was running his gloved fingers over the indentations. “I do not think it can be doubted, Ms. Miles. It is clearly of artificial origin, as are the engravings or indentations that cover its surface. The source of the intermittent internal light remains a mystery. It seems to emanate from the metal itself.”
“You’ll both excuse me a moment.” Robbins turned in nothingness so that her arm camera was focused on her and the scene at her back. “I think I have a story here.” Clearing her throat, she began to recite.
“Notification Editing: Begin head. This is Maggie Robbins, reporting live from the now-stabilized and as-yet-unnamed asteroid.” Pivoting anew, she aimed the lens at the yard-wide metal plate. “We have just found the first evidence of alien life beyond the Earth, a tablet or Stella of some kind that—”
“Now, hold on a minute.” Twisting, Low used his body to block the camera’s view of their discovery. “We haven’t exactly subjected this thing to detailed scrutiny, much less professional analysis. Right now everything, including possible source of origin, is pure speculation. It’s not your place to go jumping to conclusions. You’ll set all kinds of idiots to issuing unsupportable pronouncements.”
She didn’t back down. “And it’s not your place, Commander, to tell me as an on-the-scene reporter what kind of conclusions I can and cannot draw. This is one instance where my experience exceeds yours. Are you trying to tell me that somebody from Earth managed to concoct this thing, sneak it up here, and bury it where we’d find it?”
“No, of course not,” he replied impatiently, “but that doesn’t mean—”
“It’s an alien artifact, Boston. A solid metal plate that emits light. Give me another explanation and I’ll gladly report it with equal enthusiasm.”
He couldn’t, of course. With grudging respect he allowed as how she wasn’t afraid to make a case for herself. Behind them, Brink was scratching and digging at the area around the plate, using one of several special tools with which his suit was equipped.
“I wonder if perhaps there might not be something else here.”
“There doesn’t have to be.” Robbins shoved the camera past an unresisting Low. “This plate alone is enough to make us famous the world over. Of course,” she added with a hint of smugness, “I’m already famous the world over. So are you, Commander.” She glanced meaningfully at Brink.
Looking up from his work, the scientist responded with that strange, enigmatic smile of his. “I am well known within a select small circle of individuals. That is enough for me.”
“Better get used to the idea of being world famous, Ludger. It’s inevitable now.”
“It is the intrinsic scientific worth of what we have found that interests me, Maggie. Of course,” he added gently, “I have no objection to being famous. Such intangibles are useful in raising funding.”
She pushed still closer. “You think there might be more plates?”
“Perhaps.” He dug carefully. “Or if we are lucky, something more.”
Hanging back, Low checked his gauges. They still had some time. He wasn’t sure if he was glad or not.
Using Brink’s assortment of tools, they unearthed nothing else, but they were able to loosen the plate. The scientist slipped his gloved hands beneath the artifact.
“Careful,” Low said warningly.
Brink smiled back at him. “No sharp edges, Commander. I checked. Will you give me a hand? It weighs nothing, of course, but I wouldn’t want to accidentally jam it against a wall and break it in half.”
With Robbins looking on and commenting excitedly, the two men easily raised the plate from its resting-place.
“Come on, Boston,” exclaimed Miles into everyone’s headset. “Don’t start keeping secrets.”
“We’ve freed the plate,” Low informed her. “I see no problem in bringing it back to the ship. In an hour you can both be propounding your own theories.”
“Dang, and me forgetting to bring my human-alien dictionary with me.” Confident now that his companions were in no danger, Borden had returned to form.
“Hey.” Robbins lowered her camera arm. “Hey, have either of you two looked under the plate yet?”
Carefully setting the artifact aside, Low and Brink turned back to face its original location. There was a hole where it had rested. A very deep hole.
A shaft.
CHAPTER 7
It pitched downward; smooth-sided, cylindrical and nearly six feet in diameter. Low’s first thought was that it was a natural extension of the fissure they had blown into the asteroid’s surface and that the plate they had found had become dislodged and momentarily blocked it. Further inspection soon revealed that the passage was as artificial in nature as the plate they had removed. The walls were fashioned of or lined with a pale gray ceramic. No steps or indentations leading down were visible.
Robbins prodded him with words. “Well, Commander? You’re the leader of this expedition. So lead.”
Mesmerized, Low found himself staring down into the opening. It was clear now that the light they had been seeing emanated not from the plate itself but from somewhere beneath. It appeared, set aside against the rock of the cleft, to be solid and opaque. Yet there was no denying the steady, soft light that rose from somewhere below.
Robbins was less hesitant, jabbed a hand past him. “Over there, in the ground!” Her excitement broke his concentration.
She’d spotted another plate protruding from the fractured surface. No, not another plate, he saw on closer inspection. Three of them.
“You have excellent eyes, Maggie.” Brink was already upending the first of their new discoveries. It came free easily and was identical in size and shape to the first. Only the inscriptions, or engravings, or whatever they were, differed.
How had they missed them, Low found himself wondering? A trick of the limited light? Or something more subtle and wondrous? Irregardless, it took only moments to extract the additional plates and stack them off to one side.
That still left the mystery of the open shaft, which was not about to resolve itself. Using his thrusters and warning Robbins to keep some distance between them, he started down, following the light.
The shaft ran perfectly straight into the body of the asteroid. There were no side branches or offshoots, nothing to mar the smooth, satiny interior surface. As they descended, Low thought he felt weight returning. That was impossible, of course. As impossible as the shaft and the light and the plates. Which was to say it wasn’t impossible at all.