“Picked up the habit from Marcus. Sometimes, something cold and fizzy is a nice change.”
There was a ding reminiscent of a microwave, and the phrase ‘Scans Complete’ popped up on the monitor. We all quickly stood and hurried over to examine the results.
The next few seconds resembled what you get with any gaggle of scientists trying to out shout each other, but we eventually distilled some useful information. I stared at the hologram of a native. It was more like an Other than a Pav, in that it didn't closely correspond to any Terran lifeform that I could think of.
Will examined it, head cocked to the side, and declared “There's a bit of otter in there, I think”.
“A flying otter,” Garfield blinked. “Or flying squirrel?”
“Uh, a flying otter is reasonable if you ignore the head,” Will added. “Or maybe giant beaver? Look at the tail, that thing looks like it fans out.”
We stared for a few more moments. To me, it looked like a 4-foot-tall fat otter, but with a flap of skin around the forearms that could open or close. And a snout that was almost a beak but with teeth, like something between a platypus and a were-duck. The tail did seem to be able to fan out, or flex flat, or something, going from a roundish appendage to something more beaver-like. The creature was covered with fur, which tended toward a rich chestnut brown.
“Snarks,” Garfield said. If we have Boogens, we need Snarks to make them.”
I held up a hand. “Sure, but only until we find out their name for themselves.”
“Assuming we can pronounce it.”
“It's aquatic,” Bill said after some more silence. “The forearm things and the tail are for pushing through the water.”
“That explains the river,” Will added, and we all nodded. One of the many interesting aspects of the design was that a river ran the entire length of the section we’d scanned, and that was more than 100,000 miles. Or rivers depending on how you counted. It branched and merged constantly. It was possible that the river system ran the entire length of the topopolis.
“Interestingly,” Will continued, “the way the river loops and splits and meanders, no part of the inner surface seems to be very far from water.”
“Given the natives’ biology,” Bill replied, “it was probably a design requirement.”
We gazed in awe at the pictures and schematics. Then Garfield said, “Where would you get all the water? The overall structure is literally a billion miles long.”
Bill froze for a moment, then turned to Garfield. “Earth has, or had, anyway, about 330 million cubic miles of water. The river in the topopolis averages may be a half-mile wide and one tenth of a mile deep. So if it was straight, you'd probably only need about 50 billion cubic miles to fill it. Soil can also be up to 25% water, so depending on how deep they've layered real soil over the shells inner surface, maybe you had another 100 million cubic miles. It's still less than what Earth had. And there's always the Oort cloud if you needed more.”
Garfield bobbed his head a few times as he absorbed that. “And the materials to build it?”
The Earth contains about 90 billion cubic miles of iron. To build this, based on the cross section we see, you’d only need 20 billion cubic miles. Although of course, you couldn’t use steel, not nearly enough tensile strength. Most of this structure is constructed of some kind of ceramic reinforced by a 3-D carbon fiber lattice, similar to what we use for ship hulls, so even that estimate is probably way high. But the point,” Will added, “is that you can get all the material you need by taking apart one Earth-sized planet.”
“Which probably explains the orbital gap between planet two and three,” I finished.
“Hmph,” said Garfield. “So, what now?”
“Well, we have well-established and tested procedures for picking up culture and language surreptitiously, thanks to Jacques” I said. “Although he had physical access to bookstores and libraries on Pav. I'd like to move things along as fast as possible, but without direct access we’re going to be at a disadvantage.”
Bill frowned. “We’re going to have to send in spy drones.”
I nodded he had hit the nail right on the thumb. “Yeah, and that's not going to be a trivial undertaking. Then we have to wait until we've absorbed the language and culture before we can go in.”
“Is there an alternative? What about just using spy drones? I mean, for the search for Bender, not just for the cultural absorption.”
Will shook his head. “I can't see that working. They either fly around a lot where they can be seen, which is bad, or they stay in hiding and don't get around much, which is bad. Plus it becomes very difficult to ask questions of the locals.”
“Excuse me sir or madam,” Garfield said, “I am not alien spy device. Despite appearances could you please direct me to the nuclear wessels?”
We all laughed. Garfield's Chekhov impersonation was spot on.
After a moment, I nodded to Will. “Alright. I accept it. I know this will sound odd after Bill's comments about keeping a low profile, but I've been talking to some people over at the Singularity Project”
“You're talking to the Skippies?” Garfield asked.
“Yeah, they don't have an AI yet, but they do have a generalized self-programming expert system with enormous processing power. I wanted to be ready to fast-track the language translation and android design work.”
“Wait, androids? You’re thinking way ahead on this,” Garfield said.
Bill looked at me with a rueful smile. “You're looking for some help from them on that, too”
I gave him a tight-lipped smile and replied, “They think they can pick up a lot from SUDDAR scans, including possibly sound-”
“What?? How?”
“It's the same principle as bouncing the laser off a window to pick up vibrations from sounds inside the target building. You demodulate the reflection-”
“SUDDAR doesn't work that way.”
“No, but the Skippies
