Brian Lane - Mind Games with a Serial Killer

Kandyce was just sitting back in Ross’ chair when Balth entered. She turned to glance over her shoulder at him and smiled. “Just like a Sunday ride in the park, huh?” Balth smiled back at her and moved to his navigation section. Sitting in his chair, at his station, he suddenly felt better. This was his domain, his expertise. He was comfortable here. He began working his panel, activating the relays that would complete the connections between the observatory and his station. Kandyce arose from where she was sitting and stood behind Balth as he hit the contact points that activated the screen the relays were connected to. Instantly the screen lit up to show the sun that was sitting before them.

“Evidently one of the ’scopes has been damaged. I could only activate three of them.” Balth was explaining when Ross came back to the cabin. “The first three ’scopes are set for the sun as you can see right now.” He hit a contact and then two more as he continued talking. “A planet that looks quite a distance away and the asteroid. The fourth ’scope is out, so I figure it may have been damaged along with whatever happened to the tail section.” He turned in his seat, saw Ross and spoke directly to him. “Captain, I’d like to EVA as soon as possible with Doc so I can assess the damage we’ve sustained and see if any repair work is feasible.”

Ross closed his eyes and nodded. “I was going to mention that when Phall and Doc got up here. I want them to know what’s going on also. And then I want the report on our passengers and cargo at the same time. How about some printouts on this system, huh?”

Balth turned back to his console and started hitting other contact points and a small printer to his left came to life. It continued printing for a few seconds, and when it stopped he tore off the data sheet, then he hit the contacts again making the printer start up.

Ross scanned the sheet, smiled and started talking. “The sun is much like the sun at Rigel and Earth, but larger and hotter. I’d hate to get too close to it.” Balth handed him the next sheet and he paused to scan it. “The planet the second telescope is aimed at looks inviting. Oxygen-Nitrogen based atmosphere, oceans, lots of land to crash on.” He chuckled a little. “On the whole, it looks a lot like Earth, a little like Saturnia, but not as much water. There’s plenty of clouds, so it looks like there’s rainfall. And, unless I’m reading these figures wrong, there seems to be a hurricane in the northwestern hemisphere.”

Balth hit another contact and the screen produced the planet they had been talking about. He hit yet another one and the image doubled in size. Reaching forward, he tapped the screen with his forefinger. “There’s your hurricane, captain. Looks like it just made landfall, too.” He touched contacts again and this time the asteroid appeared on the screen. “There’s the little item that almost cut our trip short. I’m glad we missed it.”

Kandyce gave a little gasp. “That thing’s a lot bigger than I thought it was.”

Balth handed Ross the sheet that was just printed up. “That thing’s almost a planet. It’s 207,000 miles long and 93,000 miles at its widest point. It’s even got a bit of an atmosphere. I don’t know what those two gases are. The computer can’t make heads or tails of them. But the asteroid itself is pretty interesting. Gold tops the list, with silver, nickel and gallium close behind. There’s minor traces of iron ore and some carbon in it. And with its orbit, I’d be willing to bet that some of that carbon has formed into diamonds. That asteroid is a miner’s dream.” He gave a slight laugh. “I’d like to get my hands on a large chunk of it myself.”

Kandyce smiled at Ross and then to Balth she said, “What about the other three planets and that asteroid belt?”

Balth starting touching contacts again and the screen changed back to the planet they had been studying before. “You can see some of the asteroid belt here.” He began tapping a contact point and the view on the screen began tracking to the right. “Okay, here’s some more of the belt. It looks pretty extensive. I shouldn’t be surprised that we’ll find it describes its own orbit around the sun. The way the asteroids are spread out, and the number of asteroids, not to mention the size of some of the individual pieces, I would guess it was at one time a planet that broke up. As you know, that’s the case with the belt of asteroids in our own solar system between Mars and Jupiter. In the survey of ’96 they found that the asteroids were at one time a planet. The scientists discovered that there were other asteroids that didn’t match, different from the majority of the asteroids. The supposition was that a rogue planetoid entered the system eons ago and collided with the planet, thereby breaking up both spatial bodies and forming the asteroid belt. Over the many years between the time of the collision and when mankind started to look further into space, the pull of the different gravitational bodies spread the asteroids across space in the orbit around the sun. I think this is going to be the case here.”

Ross was absorbing everything Balth was saying. Finally, “Balth, focus in tight on that extra large mass of asteroids and give me a printout.” Balth followed the instructions and the screen showed the result. On the screen, a large body of asteroids leapt into their view, then doubled in size, then doubled again. The printer chattered briefly and then went silent. While Ross read the printout, Balth was at work again. He swung the telescope forward from the asteroid they had narrowly missed; forward to the asteroid belt and focused it on the same section of asteroids they had been looking at before. This telescope was able to get a much closer view of them though. Balth touched the contacts that brought the view in closer. The screen showed the asteroids speed in to a very closeup look. A couple more seconds and they were looking at individual asteroids. He then started tapping the contact point again and the scene on the screen slowly panned to the right. The asteroids slowly drifted from the right to the left. Suddenly, Ross spoke up again, “Hold right there a moment, Balth. This printout says that there are artificial, or man-made, items out there. Can you bring that view any closer?” Balth’s fingers flew across his panel and the view on the screen instantly changed to a very craggy, torn section of an asteroid. As Balth started tapping once again, the asteroid slid off the screen to the left. This continued for a short while. Then suddenly, as the screen showed an asteroid slowly spinning, passing to the left, an object, or piece of an object, appeared from behind the asteroid. “Balth, run a tape!” Ross spoke fast, but quietly. “I want to be able to review this later!”

Balth smiled and said “Already rolling, captain. I anticipated this.”

Kandyce leaned forward to look at the screen closer. “It’s artificial, but I can’t make out what it is. Can we get a printout on this?” In answer to her question the printer came alive again.

Ross quietly looked over the printout when Balth handed it to him. He shook his head and spoke: “It’s a form of metal, but it’s got a base the computer doesn’t recognize. I’ll bet that whatever it is, we’ll find the same substance laced through the asteroids themselves. All right. We can come back to this later. Let’s see the next planet.”

Balth switched telescopes and panned to the right while a planet appeared on the screen. It was small and speeding along in its orbit. He activated the printer again. After he gave the printout to Ross, and, receiving a nod, he panned the telescope to the right again. Suddenly, two planets appeared on the screen, one behind the other. Kandyce gasped “It’s beautiful. It’s even more beautiful than any other planet I’ve seen. It looks like it’s mostly water.” Ross read the printout Balth handed him, smiling while Kandyce kept going on about the planet. “Is that moon circling this planet or is it part of that planet in the background? With that planet in the background, I’ll bet the evenings are simply spectacular.”