Infinity Beach - Jack McDevitt [126]
The Hammersmith leaped forward.
“How long until we can make the jump?” asked Solly.
“Twenty-one minutes, ten seconds. Object is still closing.”
Estimated time to intercept blinked in the right-hand corner: 17:40. “We can’t do it,” she said. “We might as well turn around and try to talk to them.”
“Talk to a torpedo?”
She tried to think. “Don’t we have any defensive systems at all?”
“We could go outside and hit it with a stick.” Solly looked unhappy. “I wish it were burning fuel.”
“Why?”
“It’s small. It would run out quickly. What kind of power plant does it have?”
“I can speculate,” said Kim.
“Go ahead.”
“Magnetic force lines is one possibility. Antimatter’s another. Maybe quantum cells.”
“How do they move without thrusters?”
“Maybe they’re using the same kind of technology we use to produce artificial gravity. Except in their case, the field forms outside the vehicle. In whatever direction they want it to go. So they just fall into it.”
“In either event,” said Solly, “they’re going to have long-range capability.”
“Oh yes,” she said. “Certainly. But they might not be able to keep up with us. Keep pouring on the coal.”
“You’re more optimistic than I am. The damn thing’s at seven hundred kay, currently closing at forty-eight per minute. That closure rate’s been a constant regardless of our acceleration.”
“How about maneuvering?”
“We can try that when it gets closer.”
The object was close enough now to have acquired definition. It had hyperbolic lines. In fact, it looked like a flying saddle. It even had a horn and side panels that resembled stirrups. Ham drew bar scales to show its size: thirty centimeters long, half as wide. Four centimeters thick. It was smaller than a saddle. The exterior was a smooth gray shell, save for a row of black lenses set along the side of the seat. It was white, and she could detect no markings. “It doesn’t look like a bomb,” she said.
“Glad to hear it.”
“Can we make a run for the rings? Maybe hide behind something?”
“We’re too far away. But I’ll tell you what we can do.”
“Yes?”
“Send a subspace transmission to St. Johns. Copy to Matt. Tell them what we found and what’s happening.”
“I’m not sure I want to tell the world what we’re doing.”
“Why?”
“Because we lose control of the discovery if we do that.”
Solly looked at her. “I’m beginning to understand what might have happened to the Hunter.”
“If we get chased off, go back with nothing, somebody else will be out very quick. I’ll tell you what, Solly. Let’s prepare the package, compress it, and have it ready to go. If it looks as if the worst is going to happen, we’ll send it. Okay?”
He agreed and she instructed Ham what was to be done, what the message would say. It was to include a description of everything they’d done so far, especially the discovery of Emily’s body, and would recommend that anyone else coming to Alnitak be equipped with defensive systems.
When she’d finished, Solly attached visuals of the object and Ham squeezed everything into a hypercomm transmission that would require less than a second to go out.
Kim had meanwhile been watching the images on the navigation screen. The object continued to close.
“Five minutes to intercept,” said Ham.
“Maybe it’s a heatseeker,” she said. “How about cutting the engines?”
He shook his head. “Our first sighting was at nine hundred kilometers. That’s too far out for a heatseeker. Anyway that would be pretty primitive stuff for somebody who doesn’t need reaction mass. No, this thing has a visual lock on us. Best we keep running.”
They had two clocks posted, one keeping track of time to intercept, and the other, about three minutes behind, the time till jump capability came on line.
“We could try the lander,” she said.
“Abandon ship?” He looked at her. “If we do that, the best we can hope for is to spend the rest of our lives here.”
“Why in God’s name,” demanded Kim, “would they do this? The damned thing can’t be all that dumb.”
“Don’t know,” said Solly. “I’m not up on my celestial psychology.”
Time to intercept clicked inside two minutes.