Roger Allen - The Ring of Charon

“Access tunnels,” Daltry suggested. “They needed a way in and out when they built that thing.”

“That was my thought too,” Larry agreed.

“Then we have to go in there and get a look at that thing,” Lucian said.

That brought out dead silence around the table. At last Raphael spoke unhappily. “That was our conclusion,” he said. “We must find out the nature of the Lunar Wheel. Examine the Wheel, and we should learn a great deal more about the aliens—the Charonians—who run it. Who are they? Where are they? Are some of them actually inside the Moon? We must get to that Wheel, somehow.”

“And yet there are other needs,” Daltry said. “We need to get a close look at the gee-point objects, and see what happens when they reach a planet. Mars will be our best chance for that.”

“Can we get an observer team to Mars before the first gee-point asteroid shows up?” Sondra asked.

Vespasian checked with his notepack. “With a constant-boost ship at one gee, sure thing. Get you there in under four days.”

“And while we should have a gravities specialist going to Mars to observe there, I also want at least some of you gravities people back in place on Pluto as soon as possible,” Daltry said. “In the meantime: Dr. Berghoff, Dr. McGillicutty, Dr. MacDougal. A gravities expert, a physicist, and the person who has made the most progress toward communication with the, ah, Charonians. There is a constant-boost ship ready to depart for Mars. I want the three of you on it tomorrow morning.”

Sondra, fresh off a grueling constant-boost flight, swore under her breath, but Daltry did not seem to hear it.

Daltry turned toward Larry and Dr. Raphael. “I’m told that your ship, the Nenya , will be upgraded and ready for the return flight in seven days’ time. Mr. Chao, Dr. Raphael. You will return to Pluto at that time.” Daltry smiled grimly, showing a bit more steel than he had before now. He was clearly not interested in discussion. Obviously, he was assuming he could give orders—and everyone around the table seemed willing to take them. For his own part, Larry dreaded the idea of a return flight to Pluto. Another sixteen days in the Nenya… But there didn’t seem likely to be any pleasant duties ahead.

“But we have one week to put you to use here, Mr. Chao,” Daltry said. “Obviously, a good part of that time should be spent consulting with the scientific people here. But there is the question of the Wheel, and getting to it. That would seem a high priority as well.”

Chancellor Daltry leaned in from the middle of the table and looked both ways down it. Larry at one end, Lucian at the other. “Mr. Chao, Mr. Dreyfuss. One of you knows gravity-wave generators, the other how things are done on the Moon. The two of you ought to be able to find a way to reach the Wheel. You have one week to do it.”

Lucian seemed about to protest, but said nothing. Plainly, he did not want to work with Larry. That stung, more than a bit, but it did not surprise Larry. Even if it was unexplained, unexpressed, he knew there was already something gone wrong between Lucian and himself.

“Very well. I suggest that we give our new arrivals a chance to freshen up, and then reconvene here in one hour’s time.” The meeting broke up into a general hubbub of voices as people stood and stretched. Obviously a number of people wanted to talk to Larry, but he was in no mood for that right now. He found himself drifting toward Daltry at the center of the room, where the holographic displays of the Lunar Wheel and the shattered Sphere still hung in the middle of the air. The Lunar Wheel. Bad blood between Lucian and himself was not a good sign. Not if they were supposed to tackle something the size of the Wheel together.

“How long has that Wheel been down there?” Dr. Daltry asked, looking up at them. “How long has it been waiting for the signal we accidentally sent?” He nodded up at the strange repeating image of the Sphere. “And what in all the names of hell is that ?”

“We can’t answer that, Dr. Daltry,” Lucian said, coming over to stand on the chancellor’s other side. “Why don’t we send a little radio message and ask them ?”

Larry looked at Lucian in surprise. “That’s it !” he cried. “ That’s what I’ve been trying to get my finger on.”

“What?” Lucian grinned sardonically at Larry. “Trying to talk to them? Let me tell you, friend, they won’t listen.”

“No! Trying to talk with Earth ! It’s on the other side of that hole. After all, if they can send radio signals through the wormhole, why can’t we?”

“I am expendable. He is not. The first journey down there is too dangerous to risk more than one person. I should go. He shouldn’t.” Lucian Dreyfuss resisted the impulse to reach across Chancellor Daltry’s desk and shake some sense into the man. “How much simpler could it be?”

“He’s making me seem essential when I’m not,” Larry said, trying to keep his voice steady. “The Nenya’s repairs have been delayed, so I can’t leave for another seven days anyway. I’ve told the science teams here as much as I know, and they’re making progress on their own. And if I do know so much about gravity generators, doesn’t it make sense to send me down to get a look at this one?”

Chancellor Daltry said nothing, and looked at each of the young men in turn. The silence stretched for a long moment. “Do you each want to go around the circle one last time, or shall I speak now?” Neither Lucian nor Larry seemed ready to take the bait, and Daltry went on. “This is not about logic, or sensible reasons. This is ego, and anger, and guilt. And quite frankly, if I did not view you both as essential to our light against this enemy, I would not waste my time on your trivial bickering.

“There are, after all, one or two other claims on my time. It was a bit of miracle that the Martians agreed to sit at the same conference table with you. They were willing to talk with me only because I was not part of the government and thus not associated with this imaginary attack. They wanted you clapped in irons, Mr. Chao, and tried for crimes against humanity. It took a great deal of work to convince them otherwise.”

“Maybe they were right the first time,” Lucian muttered, half under his breath.

Daltry snapped his head around and glared at Lucian with a gimlet eye. “Were they indeed? For what it is worth, Mr. Dreyfuss, I thought so too, at first. I share all your anger and fear. But I have studied the matter, and concluded that Mr. Chao merely stumbled into a trip wire set long before humanity was born. It was chance, nothing more, that made him the one to do what he did. I choose to direct my anger and fear toward whoever set that trip wire, and the hideous trap it set off.”

“You live in Central City,” Lucian said. “Do you know how many dead there were in the quake? How many buildings were destroyed?”

“I do. And I mourn. But Mr. Chao is not guilty of their deaths. If he is, then so are all the people connected with the design and construction of the Ring of Charon, and its researches over the past fifteen years. His amplification technique would have been impossible without their work.”

Daltry turned his attention back to Larry. “And you, Mr. Chao. I know something of you. As I have said, I have examined all the data concerning you. Including your psychiatric profile. Having read that, and having met you, I believe I know what might be motivating you to volunteer for this duty. A sense of guilt. A need for atonement. And a desperate need to prove to persons such as Lucian Dreyfuss that you are not a monster. You seek to prove your innocence, your decent intentions, with a display of valor.”