Roger Allen - The Ring of Charon

“Multisystem?”

“The multiple-star system Earth is in now. Had to call it something.”

“And those gravity-wave sources were so powerful they blew out all the detectors.”

Gerald nodded. “Looks that way, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t know if they did it on purpose or not.”

“ ‘They did it,’ ” Dianne repeated. “So you definitely think we didn’t end up here by chance. No weird natural fluke.”

Gerald’s gentle face hardened. “No. Someone did this. We know that. The entire Multisystem is held together artificially. Has to be. The orbits of all the stars, planets, moons and so on are so complex that they could not have occurred naturally. They aren’t stable for even the shortest period of time. Our first orbital projections predicted all kinds of collisions and near misses and close-pass momentum exchanges. There should have been planets crashing into each other and worlds being flung clear of the Multisystem. Except none of that happens. Somehow the orbits of the stars and planets are constantly being tweaked up, shifted from their projected paths into safer directions. The Multisystem is as complex and delicate as a mechanical Swiss watch. The slightest mistake in orbit control could have devastating effects.

“We think that’s what they do with gravity waves—correct and control the stellar and planetary orbits. And also they use them for grabbing planets. We’re pretty sure that all of the objects in the Multisystem were brought here the same way Earth was. Not just the planets, but the stars, too. They built themselves an Empire of the Suns.”

Dianne found herself impressed by that turn of phrase, and unnerved by the idea. “So they—whoever they are—are manipulating orbits, keeping all the planets from hitting each other?”

Gerald frowned. “At least most of the time. It looks like once in a while they’ve gotten it wrong. There are several highly ordered and clearly artificial asteroid belts of minor planets—but also a lot of asteroid-sized bodies in random orbits. We’ve already seen two impact events between asteroids.” He leaned forward and gestured to emphasize a point. “That’s another reason for us to keep things quiet until we know more. The people of Earth don’t need to hear that an asteroid might crash into them. We’ve had enough panic.”

Dianne felt her blood run cold. How could this man MacDougal talk about such things so matter-of-factly? “I understand,” she said.

“But the most disturbing thing about those impacts is that no effort was made to prevent them. Plus there’s been a major upward jump in the number of meteors and meteorites, worldwide. Some of them pretty big rocks. All of which means that control of the bodies in this system is not absolute. That’s why the man on the street doesn’t need to hear about these things just yet. Let things settle down a bit first:”

Dianne nodded vacantly. “Anything else I need to know before you tell me why I’m here?”

“One or two other points,” Gerald said with studied casualness. “The motions of the stars and planets are also being affected by unseen companion objects. Practically all of the stars and planets have periodic wobbles in their orbital motions, very distinct from the gee-wave-induced orbital shifts. We’re sure the wobbles are caused by the gravitic effects of unseen co-orbiting companion objects. And they’re big wobbles, so the companions have to be very massive.”

“Except?” Dianne asked carefully. She didn’t know how many more disturbing revelations she wanted to get.

“Except we should be able to see the companions. There are a lot of wobbling planets close enough, but we can’t see their companions. So the companions are not only very massive, they must be extremely small. Plus we’ve spotted disk-shaped debris fields centered on where the companions should be, and seen some rather odd energy releases, consistent with the impact of debris onto gravity singularities.”

Dianne found herself wishing desperately for a cigarette. “In other words, the Multisystem is full of black holes.”

Gerald nodded. “One of them very close. It looks like there’s one at the centerpoint of the large ring-shaped object hanging in the sky where the Moon should be. A Moon-mass black hole would serve to maintain the pattern of tides and gravitational stresses Earth is used to. Without something stabilizing us, we’d still be getting quakes like the one just after the Big Jump.

“There’s one last thing to tell you,” Gerald said. “It’s not exactly a secret, because anyone could reach the same conclusion we did just by thinking for a minute. It seems at the very least a strong working hypothesis that the Dyson Sphere at the center of the Multisystem is not only the power source, but the control center for the entire system. So we very much want to take a look at the Sphere. The trouble is that the Dyson Sphere has an exterior surface area approximately four hundred million times greater than Earth’s. That’s going to make locating the control center difficult. More so if the interior surface and volume of the Sphere are considered.”

Dianne thought about that for a moment, and found herself adopting Gerald’s air of studied calm. In the act of doing so, she suddenly understood his behavior. He was as scared by all this as she was. His air of calm was like a test pilot’s artificial nonchalance, nothing more than a defense, a way to keep the fear from overwhelming him.

“Okay then,” she said in a voice that was suddenly far steadier. “How about the big question. Who ? Have any theories on that? Who has done this and what do they want with us?”

“No idea. Not a blessed idea. There’s been no sign whatsoever of the perpetrators themselves. Wolf thinks it’s possible they are as wholly unaware of our existence as we were of theirs a few days ago. As to motive, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they have no interest in humanity, and are interested only in Earth, possibly for colonization purposes. Either they think Earth is empty, or they think we will be utterly unable to oppose them when they come to take possession.” Gerald glanced casually at his watch, as if he had been discussing nothing more unnerving than a visit to the library. “Come on, he should be ready for you now.”

He stood up and she rose with him. “The authority they’ve given DSI,” Dianne said. “If Wolf Bernhardt is in charge, that’s his authority. And you said DSI has absolute U.N. priority over any and all resources and facilities. They’re trusting this guy Bernhardt with a hell of a lot of power. He could take over every lab on Earth, just for starters.”

“Yes, I suppose so—if he were a fool. If he wanted to be locked up, or to wake up dying from a bullet in the back of his head. Things are a bit panicky, and I wouldn’t be amazed if people starting playing very rough. Wolf knows that what the U.N. can give, the U.N. can take away. They hope that he can find more positive expression for his ambition. They want him—us—to come up with answers. That’s where you come in.”

Gerald led her out into the hall, down to a proper office, designed for the purpose. Gerald opened the door and walked in without knocking.

Herr Doktor Wolf Bernhardt was seated at his desk, engrossed in his work. Gerald leaned up against the doorframe and Dianne sat down in the visitor’s chair. By the looks of it, Bernhardt had been working at a frantic pace for many long hours.

The room was in chaos—but a neat man’s chaos, a valiant rearguard action against disorder. There were stacks of paper everywhere, and piles of datablocks—but each heap of paper had its edges squared off, and each datablock was neatly labeled in a precise hand. The center of the desk was surrounded by the mountains of information, but was itself an empty plain, nothing on it but a late-model notepack and a single sheet of paper that looked to be a list of things to do with half the items checked off. To one side of the sheet were a pen and a china cup half full of what seemed to be slightly stale, cold coffee.