Charles Sheffield - The Spheres of Heaven

He was still staring outside. There was no light inside the observation chamber itself, but light shining out from other ports of the Hero’s Return illuminated the cloudy water for a few meters. The outside view was a uniform green, broken now and then by faint glints of silver.

Apparently the ship’s sensors had the same problem as Chan at visible wavelengths. A calm voice said, SWITCHING TO ULTRASONICS AND ULTRA-LONG FREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION AS PRIMARY SENSING MODES. PERFORMING PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SHIP STATUS AND OF IMMEDIATE ENVIRONMENT.

And then, after a pause too brief for any human analysis, THE FOLLOWING STATUS REPORT IS RANKED ACCORDING TO PERCEIVED HUMAN SURVIVAL PRIORITIES.

ITEM ONE: THE SHIP’S HULL REMAINS INTACT, ALL INTERIOR SYSTEMS ARE OPERATING NORMALLY, AND THERE IS NO IMMEDIATE DANGER TO PERSONNEL OR EQUIPMENT.

ITEM TWO: THE SHIP’S EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT IS RADICALLY DIFFERENT FROM PRE-TRANSITION ESTIMATES. THIS MAY LEAD TO LONG-TERM PROBLEMS.

ITEM THREE: THE SHIP FLOATS IN A CLEAR LIQUID OF DENSITY 1.156. THE LIQUID’S REFRACTIVE INDEX, DENSITY, CONDUCTIVITY, AND GROSS CHEMICAL PROPERTIES ARE CONSISTENT WITH THOSE OF DEUTERIUM OXIDE CONTAINING A SMALL FRACTION OF MINERAL SOLVENTS.

ITEM FOUR: THE SHIP SITS IN A GRAVITATIONAL FIELD OF 0.154 GEES. THIS IS TOO SMALL TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THE VALUE OF SURFACE GRAVITY ON ANY KNOWN HABITABLE PLANET POSSESSING A LIQUID WATER SEA. ALSO, THE PLANETARY RADIUS AS INFERRED FROM LOCAL HORIZON SENSING IS TOO LARGE TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THE OBSERVED SURFACE GRAVITY. NO EXPLANATIONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR THESE ANOMALIES.

ITEM FIVE: THE SHIP’S ESTIMATED DEPTH BELOW THE WATER SURFACE IS 161 METERS. THE ESTIMATED WATER DEPTH BELOW THE SHIP IS 1.52 KILOMETERS. THE CURRENT RATE OF DESCENT IS 1.1 METERS A SECOND. WARNING . IF THE PRESENT RATE OF DESCENT WERE TO BE MAINTAINED, HULL STRESSES WOULD EXCEED TOLERABLE LEVELS IN 13.8 MINUTES. AUTOMATIC REMEDIAL ACTION WILL BE TAKEN IN 9.4 MINUTES UNLESS HUMAN OVERRIDE COMMANDS ARE PROVIDED.

“Remedial action?” Deb glanced at Chan.

“I don’t know. But the computer knows what it’s doing. It will keep us safe unless we tell it not to.” He stood up. “We’re getting just the summary over the address system. If we really want to know what’s going on we have to be in the control room. Come on, let’s go.”

Progress through the interior of the Hero’s Return was slow. Walkways and handholds had been designed for free fall or for uniform fore-to-aft acceleration. In its slow watery descent the ship was canted far away from the vertical. That tilt seemed to affect Deb Bisson very little. She floated from chamber to chamber without effort and with no wall contact other than an occasional foot or hand. Chan, lacking the balance and sense of body position that made Deb unbeatable in single combat, floundered along behind.

The ship’s computer continued to offer its summary from every audio outlet. ITEM SIX: THE SHIP’S OVERALL LOCATION WITH RESPECT TO KNOWN MARKER STARS IS UNKNOWN. THE ANALYSIS OF AMBIENT SUNLIGHT SUGGESTS A NATURAL STELLAR ORIGIN, BUT THE RECONSTRUCTED STELLAR SPECTRUM MATCHES NO KNOWN STAR AND NO POSSIBLE STAR TYPE. THIS DISCREPANCY HAS NO EXPLANATION.

No possible star type , Chan thought, struggling vainly to catch up with Deb. Not just lost, way lost. We’re near a star of a type that can’t exist.

She had turned in midair and was resting with her back against a bulkhead. “What does it mean?” She was not even out of breath. “I thought this ship’s computer knew everything. How can we be near a star with no stellar type?”

“I don’t know.” Chan was eager to reach the control room, but he could use the breather. “The Geyser Swirl is one big mess of stars and dust and gas. Maybe we’re close to a star whose light is being filtered through the rest of it.”

“But shouldn’t the computer know that, too?”

It should. Chan shrugged. They started out again as the steady voice came once more over the audio system: ITEM SEVEN: ULF RETURNS INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF THREE OTHER SHIPS WITHIN TEN KILOMETERS OF OUR PRESENT LOCATION. EACH ONE HAS PROVIDED AN ID RESPONSE TO OUR CODED SIGNAL. THE SHIPS ARE:

ONE, THE FINDER , WITH A REPORTED CREW OF ONE PIPE-RILLA AND AN UNSTATED NUMBER OF TINKER COMPONENTS. CAMERON’S DREAM WAS ITS LAST PORT OF CALL, IT ENTERED THE FOMALHAUT FOUR LINK BOUND FOR THE GEYSER SWIRL LINK ON 79/03/07 STANDARD DATE, AND IT HAS NOT BEEN HEARD FROM SINCE. ITS SLANT RANGE DISTANCE FROM OUR CURRENT POSITION IS THREE KILOMETERS, AZIMUTH IS 81 DEGREES, AND IT SITS STATIONARY ON THE SEABED AT A DEPTH OF 110 METERS.

TWO, THE MINISTER OF GRACE , WITH A REPORTED CREW OF ONE OR MORE ANGELS OF SELLORA. AMBROSIA WAS ITS LAST PORT OF CALL, IT ENTERED THE SKYRILLAN LINK BOUND FOR THE GEYSER SWIRL LINK ON 79/05/11 STANDARD DATE AND HAS NOT BEEN HEARD FROM SINCE. ITS SLANT RANGE DISTANCE FROM OUR CURRENT POSITION IS EIGHT KILOMETERS, AZIMUTH IS 151 DEGREES, AND IT SITS STATIONARY ON THE SEABED AT A DEPTH OF 52 METERS.

THREE, THE MOOD INDIGO , WITH A REPORTED CREW OF THREE HUMANS. THIS SHIP WAS LAST OBSERVED IN THE VICINITY OF THE VULCAN NEXUS ON OR ABOUT 79/08/02. THIS SHIP IS IN MOTION, AND ITS SLANT RANGE DISTANCE FROM OUR CURRENT POSITION IS SEVEN KILOMETERS, AZIMUTH 37 DEGREES. THIS SHIP’S CURRENT DEPTH IS 29 METERS.

“Nothing about the Mood Indigo being sent here.” Chan and Deb had reached the control room, but he paused on the threshold. “I wonder what idiot decided that the first expedition was so secret that the next ship going in couldn’t be told. The Hero’s Return computer is no different from the rest of us — it only knows what’s fed to it. What else didn’t they bother to mention?”

The control room of the Hero’s Return was in keeping with the ship’s size. In its heyday three dozen officers had occupied the banks of communications and fire control consoles. Now the weapons had been removed, but the array of desks remained. Just three of them were occupied. Tully O’Toole sat over in one corner, staring at the lanky figure of Elke Siry. Next to him the physicist was curled up in a too-small seat like a praying mantis, ignoring everything except a quartet of data displays in front of her. A lock of blond hair hung over her forehead and she was gnawing at her lower lip.

Dag Korin sat in front of the main control console, his head slumped forward on his chest. He had one gnarled forefinger poised over the button that opened the circuit for oral commands to the ship’s computer.

“Hey, Dalton!” He had seen Deb and Chan at the threshold. “Got a question for you. Your team is supposed to come up with bright ideas once we’re in the Geyser Swirl, but I’m damned if I know whether we’re there or some place else. Anyhow, I figure you should have a say in this. Did you hear what the computer said about remedial action to stop us sinking?”

“I heard it.” Chan came across to Korin, Deb Bisson following. “But I don’t know what the computer is proposing to do.”

“That display shows the plan.” The General nodded to one of the screens. “Reduce the ship’s mass so the average density of the ship becomes lower than the water density, and we start ascending. I like that — I just don’t like the way the computer’s proposing to lower the density. See the listing? A lot of our mass is in the external defensive shields. Every one of them would have to be dumped into the sea. Even with that it’s touch and go, but without the shields I’ll feel as naked as a soft-shell crab. Anyone who feels like taking a potshot at us can blow the Hero’s Return to pieces.”