Zach Hughes - Deep Freeze

"The time to talk."

The screen flickered. An image of the surface formed and as they watched ice shattered, cracked, parted to reveal a gray metal surface. Like a lens opening a circular cavity appeared. Words were superimposed over the image.

"You will come."

"What happened to the vessel called the Erin Kenner?" Vinn asked.

The image of the local sun, showing a series of flares reaching hungrily into space, appeared on the screen.

"A woman was aboard, a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes."

Vinn's heart pounded as an image of Sheba came to the screen to be consumed instantly by a blast of white.

"Why?" Sarah cried.

The images were in their minds. Among a field of closely crowded starsswam planets that, from a distance, showed the most wonderful color ever seen from the emptiness of space, the blue of a water world. A closer view of one planet showed the brown and green of continents, the feathery pattern of weather systems, the wide blue of oceans. With dizzying swiftness the viewpoint closed to show the graceful towers of a city.

Vehicles crawled along the streets, soared through the sky. It was not possible to distinguish the details of tiny figures on the walks and the streets, but it was apparent that they walked on two legs. The towers were painted in bright, complementary colors, and the architectural styling was delicate.

Suddenly the spires that reached into the sky trembled, crumbled.

Structures twisted, imploded. The crawling vehicles and the tiny figures were buried by falling debris. Flying vehicles fell from the sky to smash into the chaos. A longer view showed a storm of fire consuming the green forests. A pall of dust and smoke hid the world for long seconds and then, events having been obviously accelerated, they saw a barren globe. Even the atmosphere had been burned away. Everything on the surface had been reduced to rubble so small that no tiny piece could give a clue as to its origin.

There were other dead worlds. They were displayed one by one and then there was a moment of silence in the control room of the Crimson Rose.

The computer screen glowed. "I watch to assure that it will never happen again."

"You're right, it's time for us to talk," Vinn said.

"Come, then."

"When our friends came to you, you killed them," Vinn said.

"I did not know then that you were they who will come."

"We'll talk as we are talking," Vinn said. "At least for a while. What you've shown us happened long ago. You are old. Things are not as they once were. We are a peaceful people."

"You go armed."

"Yes, because we've seen the dead worlds," Vinn said. "Yes, because theuniverse is so vast and we know only a miniscule portion of our own galaxy. If we didn't go armed, we'd be dead now at your hands."

"You are not dead. You are they who have come."

"And you are—" Vinn did not put the concept into words. He pictured a core, a regularly spaced grid, and into his mind came corrections. The central storage areas of the Watcher were compact, occupying no more than three cubic yards of space inside a shell of force constructed of shaped gravitational waves. The ganglia of the Watcher's nervous system extended around the globe and were connected not only to the icing units but to hundreds of launch sites occupied by small ships, to an array of sensor and detection instruments. One large area was a blank in the image projected by the Watcher.

"You still have something to hide from us," Vinn said.

"You must know all, for you are they who have come."

Once again the iris opened on the surface. This time a blaze of light flared upward, lighting a metal-lined chamber.

"We have waited. As you have said, I am old."

"We?" Vinn asked.

They saw a dimly lit room that extended away into what seemed to be infinity. Oblong objects with transparent domes lined each wall. They, too, extended forever, perspecting away until walls and domed oblongs merged together at the limit of vision. It was not possible to look into the clear-domed containers. There was movement and it was as if they flew down the center aisle of the room into the distances only to turn and soar through still another long room filled with the same oblongs from which glowed soft, yellow lights.

"Together we will decide if it is time to waken them."

The computer screen was blank. There were no induced images in Vinn's mind. He turned away from the console, his face white. "Waken them?" he whispered.

"Let them sleep," Sarah said, "for when they awaken the universe willtremble."

"Listen," Pete said, "don't fight it. We are they who have come."

"With all due respect," Vinn said, "cynical humor is just a bit out of place."

"Yes, sorry," Pete said. "Look, I'm going down there, whether any of you go with me or not. There's too much at stake. A new source of cheap power. And have you thought that what that thing can do—speaking directly into our minds—just might open up a totally new method of communications?"

"We have assumed that Mom and Pop Webster were lured down to the surface by the high metallic readings," Vinn said, "and that the others went down to reclaim the bodies of their dead. Are we to be lured down by the promise of great wealth and power through new technology?"

"Vinn, it's talking to us," Iain said. "It thinks we are the fulfillment of some kind of prophecy. Look, aside from a few little tricks of telepathy and this gravity thing, the weapons we've seen are pretty primitive. Fusion engines. Solid fuel missiles. A short-range laser."

"But it flew the Erin Kenner into a sun," Vinn said.

"We can handle anything it has to dish out," Iain said. "Hell, it's nothing more than a super computer."

"More than that," Vinn said. "It's a self-repairing, self-perpetuating artificial intelligence. The best estimates of the destruction of the Dead Worlds now range into the millions of years. We're dealing with something that's older than our civilization, older even than man on Earth."

"I'll go with you, boss," Iain said.

"And I," said Kara.

"Vinn?" Pete asked. "I'd feel better if you were along. You're the computer man, after all."

Vinn nodded. "I'll have to admit that I'm more than curious."

"We'll take the two atmoflyers," Iain said.

The atmoflyers were two-place vehicles powered by small flux engines and armed with both sappers and laser cannon.

"At least one person stays on board," Iain said. He took Kara's hand.

"I'm afraid it'll have to be you, love, because if something goes wrong down there, I want someone on the ship who knows all of her systems."

"Yes," Sarah said. "I want to go. I want to see this thing. I want to understand why it killed all of my family."

Neither Pete nor Sarah were proficient in the operation of scout-type atmoflyers. It was decided that Pete would ride with Iain, leaving Sarah with Vinn. The two vehicles dropped away from the Crimson Rose, engaged flux engines to drive them into the thin atmosphere, dropped to hover over the circular opening. The cavernous room below was brightly lit. The metal walls and floor were devoid of markings or features. Iain's flyer settled to rest first. Vinn put his vehicle down nearby. He had the flyer's weapons ready. The iris of the hatch closed quickly over them.

"You will find the air to be to your needs," the Watcher said to them. "I will signal you when the pressure has been brought up to Earth normal.

You may then remove your E.V.A. gear so that you can be comfortable."

"I think not," Vinn said.

"As you will."

Vinn didn't wait for the Watcher's signal that pressure had been raised in the chamber. He cracked the hatch of the flyer and let the vehicle's instruments test the air. It was pure, and rich in oxygen.

At the end of the chamber an irised opening appeared. "Come, please," the Watcher said.