‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Don’t be. I was having nightmares because we couldn’t portal the Handicapped off world. In the event of hostilities, they wouldn’t just be vulnerable to alien attack, but there could be casualties from our own weapons’ fire. Ark has its own self-contained atmosphere and a shield of solid rock. If you have any more bright ideas, I want to hear them.’
He paused. ‘What’s your situation analysis, Jarra?’
I was grazzed by the question, and needed a moment to organize my thoughts. ‘In theory, Earth is the best defended of all our planets, because it has five solar power arrays instead of the usual one. If the sphere’s hostile and came here deliberately, it must have defences that can stand up to planetary power beams.’
He nodded.
‘It may not be hostile though,’ I continued. ‘The sphere could be a random exploration probe. Perhaps it isn’t trying to communicate because the aliens don’t expect there to be other intelligent life in the universe.’
Colonel Torrek leaned forward in his chair. ‘No one has suggested that before. Is it credible? Surely if they’re exploring space they’d realize there’s at least a possibility of meeting another civilization.’
I shook my head. ‘Not necessarily. During most of pre-history, humanity believed it was totally alone in the universe. Once we had drop portals, we discovered hundreds of thousands of worlds with varying forms of life, only a small percentage of which were suitable for human colonization. Our mathematicians decided centuries ago that intelligent aliens had to exist, and we’ve already discovered two planets with neo-intelligent life forms.’
I shrugged. ‘We’re naturally prepared to meet intelligent aliens, but aliens will have a different historical perspective. They could have developed technology far in advance of ours, without stumbling across the key to basic portal travel, let alone drop portals. If they’ve been limited to conventional space travel, they may have very little information on other worlds.’
‘We’re naturally considering the possibility they don’t have interstellar portals,’ said Colonel Torrek, ‘but to actually believe they’re the only intelligent life in the universe …’
He glanced across at Mason Leveque, who nodded and spoke in a deep, relaxed voice. ‘Minimal effect on our current numbers, sir, but still worth incorporating into the probability analysis. At any moment, we may have new information that radically changes the weighting factors of the zonal nets.’
I didn’t understand a word of that. There was a moment of silence, so I risked speaking again.
‘Since you’re recruiting a History team, sir, it’s obvious you’ve already thought of another possibility. Aliens could have visited here before, at a time when humanity only lived on Earth, and they’ve simply come back to the same place to see how we’re progressing.’
The Colonel smiled. ‘You’re absolutely right, Jarra.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Fian, hesitantly. ‘You say you’re considering the possibility the aliens don’t have interstellar portal travel?’
Colonel Torrek turned to him. ‘Yes, we don’t know if the sphere portalled into Sol system or travelled here conventionally. Monitoring team are watching for the energy bursts of drop portals now, but we don’t know what we missed earlier.’
‘But …’ Fian shook his head. ‘Physical laws limit the size of portals. We’ve only managed to create them 4 metres in diameter so far, and 4.4 metres is possible, but the sphere is 4.71 metres. That’s over the maximum limit. The sphere definitely didn’t portal here. That must mean the aliens didn’t have drop portal technology when it was launched, or they’d have made their sphere a bit smaller and used a drop portal to send it at least part of the way here.’
Mason Leveque raised an eyebrow. ‘Captain Eklund, are you by any chance related to the Jorgen Eklund who wrote “Physical Constraints on Portal Development”?’
‘He was my great-grandfather,’ said Fian, looking surprisingly defensive about the admission.
‘Interesting,’ said Leveque. ‘Our Physics team seems to have rejected his work in favour of the more recent Devon theory which would allow portals to reach in excess of 16 metres. Possibly they’re swayed by the fact Gaius Devon is on the Physics team and has a forceful personality.’
Fian shrugged. ‘Gaius Adem Devon the third … Well, if you think it’s good science to introduce a constant from nowhere just to make your equations add up … My uncle says it shouldn’t be called the Gaius constant, but the garbage constant.’
Since I’d always struggled with science at school and given up studying it as soon as possible, I didn’t know about any of this, but I was naturally on Fian’s side against the unknown Devon.
‘I must admit to being intrigued, Captain Eklund,’ said Leveque. ‘Why is a descendant of Jorgen Eklund studying history? Please don’t tell me you’re working on time travel. I’ve always been deeply grateful that it’s supposed to be impossible.’
Fian flushed, with either embarrassment or annoyance, possibly both. ‘My great-grandfather may have been a brilliant physicist, but I’m not, and I happen to like history.’
He paused and his chin developed a familiar stubborn tilt. I watched anxiously as he continued speaking in a determined voice.
‘I understand the Military like the idea of bigger portals, so you could have battleships rather than just fighters, but it isn’t possible. That’s very important right now, because if that sphere came to Earth conventionally, it took a long time to do it. I assume you’re already double-checking the star systems closest to Earth for signs of intelligent alien life?’
Leveque nodded, his eyes studying Fian’s face. ‘We’re gradually working our way out from Earth, checking every star system in Alpha sector. Humanity could conceivably have overlooked something among the vast numbers of systems without Earth type worlds, especially in the first chaos of Exodus century. So far we’ve found no possible origin world for the sphere.’
‘Then it came a very long way and took a very long time to get here,’ said Fian. ‘Hundreds or even thousands of years. You mustn’t make the mistake of assuming it represents the aliens’ current level of technology. They could have made huge progress since they launched that sphere. Just compare the weapons we have now to the ones humanity had a thousand years ago in 1789.’
He was speaking with passionate urgency now. ‘The aliens didn’t have portal technology when that sphere was launched, but they could have discovered it by now. That means more spheres might appear at any moment. Smaller ones, that can fit through the maximum possible size of a portal, and are far more advanced. I know you don’t want to hear that, because it’s unpleasant, but it’s the truth.’
‘I assure you, Captain Eklund, that a Threat team leader is always interested in hearing every possible theory,’ said Leveque. ‘Particularly the unpleasant ones.’
Fian was obviously disconcerted by Leveque’s calm reply. There was an awkward silence which was broken by Nia Stone.
‘I suggest we all eat now, Riak, and then you should go to bed.’
‘Seconded,’ said Mason Leveque. ‘You’ve had no rest since the sphere was first detected, Riak. We’ve taken the base off alert status so people can sleep and that includes you. If the sphere does something, or a whole armada of smaller spheres portal in, the last thing we need is a commanding officer who’s half dead from fatigue.’
I blinked with surprise as they calmly ordered the Colonel around. This was obviously an informal meeting, but even so …
‘You’re right, both of you. We eat.’ Colonel Torrek stood up with an obvious effort.
Everyone else hastily stood up as well, and formed an orderly queue behind him for food and drinks. There was wine, there were some fancy drinks I didn’t recognize, and there was frujit. I played safe and stuck to frujit.
The food was real food, rather than reconstituted, so I piled my plate high. There were some tempting desserts too, but I might not get a chance at those. If the Colonel went to bed, Fian and I couldn’t hang around in his dining room stuffing our faces.
We all sat down again, and concentrated on eating for a few minutes. I glanced across at Fian. Having said what he wanted to say, he seemed to have calmed down a bit.
Colonel Torrek’s forearm lookup gave a chime to indicate an emergency message, and I stopped eating and waited tensely. Had the alien sphere responded to our signals, or done something hostile, or …
‘I thought I was a patient man,’ said the Colonel, ‘but I’ve just about hit my limit here. Don’t these people
