Saucer: The Conquest

'When?' he asked.

'I don't know.'

'What if it isn't a language but computer code?'

'It's not computer code. Computer languages are cake. I had to eliminate that possibility first.'

Today he was examining the design of an interstellar spaceship. It contained a cargo hold for transporting two saucers. The ship reminded him of a giant Ferris wheel, with an outer ring that housed the passengers spinning slowly around an interior axis that held the ship's nuclear engines and fuel. The exterior ring was large enough to hold several hundred people. It also held hydroponic gardens, which were used to grow plants for the humans to consume, and a lab for manufacturing food from recycled organic compounds.

He was tracing the power and life support systems when Rip came into his study.

'Look at this,' Egg said. 'It might be the ship that brought the saucer people to earth.'

Rip stared over his shoulder at the computer screen. 'They assembled it in space.'

'They certainly didn't bring it into the atmosphere,' Egg agreed. 'See the hold for the saucers, which must have shuttled people and cargo up and down to a planet.'

After a bit Rip said, 'If all the people came down to earth, where is the starship?'

'Perhaps some of the crew flew it on to another star. Or if everyone stayed on earth, perhaps they left it in orbit.'

'It's not up there now.'

'No, it wouldn't be. If it were left in low earth orbit, sooner or later it would have fallen into the atmosphere and been destroyed.'

Rip sighed and turned away. He sagged into the only easy chair in the room and stared at his toes.

'You must be patient,' Egg said. 'Life always works out. Give Charley a chance.'

'Umm.'

'Give life a chance, Rip. If you are the man for her, she'll figure that out.'

'I am the one,' Egg's nephew replied. 'How could she not see that? How could she doubt it? She's not blind.'

'She'll have to discover that truth for herself.'

'And if she doesn't?'

Charley Pine awoke from a deep sleep knowing someone was in the room. She lay perfectly still for several seconds, trying to remember precisely where she was. Someone was shaking a person in the next bed. Ah yes, that person was Claudine Courbet, who had gone to bed an hour or so after Charley.

It was a man — Henri Salmon. Now he whispered some-

thing in French. He left the room, and Clandine Courbet bestirred herself. Charley pretended to be asleep.

Courbet dressed in the darkness; then Charley heard the door open and close. She opened her eyes and sat up in bed. There were two other women in the room, both apparently asleep.

Charley sat up, pulled on her flight suit and her boots, then pulled her hair back and put a band on it.

The corridor was lit with red light during the base night hours in an effort to help the humans regulate their internal clocks. And it was empty. She walked carefully along, past the doors to several workshops, toward the steel door that had been locked yesterday. I'm getting accustomed to the moon's gravity, she thought wryly. Afexu more days and I'll look like a native.

She approached the last bend in the corridor with care. Two men were wrestling a dolly loaded with something heavy. The reactor! They punched in the code; then one man held the door while the other maneuvered the dolly through the entrance.

As they disappeared into the space, Charley bounded toward the door — and caught it just before it closed.

She waited several seconds, then pulled it open and followed them through.

* * *

A few feet past the locked door she passed through an air lock, both doors of which stood open. Beyond the air lock the corridor opened into a commodious cavern. The two men with the dolly were off-loading the reactor. Clau-dine Courbet was hovering nearby, apparently supervising. None of the three noticed her.

A control console sat facing a large window. Beyond the window, which appeared to be thick, bulletproof glass or plastic, three large objects were visible.

One of them looked like an optical telescope, a huge one,

at least ten feet tall. The largest machine, if it was that, stood at least twelve feet tall and was covered with opaque plastic. Against the wall was another object, a giant cube about six feet high. Power cables three inches thick ran from it to the machine under the plastic.

Charley recognized the cube — it was a giant capacitor. The solar panels on the surface over their heads would never fully charge it, but the nuclear reactor, if used to generate electricity, certainly could.

Above the machines beyond the glass was a large metal roof, one that apparently consisted of panels that could be moved by a complicated arrangement of hydraulic rams. This roof must be the object she had seen from outside and thought was a skylight.

On this side of the window the control console dominated the room. There were four raised chairs, the usual emergency equipment and, against one wall, hangers that held at least a half dozen space suits and helmets.

The place looked like an observatory. Yet the orientation was wrong. When the roof was opened, the telescope wouldn't be pointed at deep space; it would be pointed toward earth.

Now Claudine saw Charley. She looked startled, then approached her.

'What are you doing here?'

'I heard you leave the dorm and wanted to see you set up the reactor.'

Claudine blinked once. 'Henri gave you the door code?'

'Of course.'

Claudine seemed to accept that. She turned and gestured grandly. 'What do you think?'

'Wow,' Charley Pine said, and meant it.

5

Charley walked to the control console and examined the presentations. Computer screens, track balls for maneuvering cursors, LED readouts, a few analog gauges for voltages…

What is the purpose of this room? What is that large piece of equipment under the plastic cover? Claudine knows, and she expects me to know. An optical telescope, a reactor to generate large amounts of electricity, a giant capacitor, and … ? Is this an observatory? Or a weapons platform in high earth orbit?

'How long will it take to get the system operational?' Charley asked Claudine, trying to sound as matter-of- fact as possible.

'A week or so, I imagine. If we don't have any unforeseen problems.'

'Aren't there always unforeseen problems?' Charley turned so that she could see Courbet's face.

'Let's hope not. We tested the entire system extensively in the laboratory, worked out the bugs, then brought the components here one by one. The testing phase took three months.' Claudine smiled confidently. 'It'll function properly.'

Looking through the glass, Charley carefully examined the metal plates and hydraulic rams that formed the ceiling above the machinery. Then she glanced again at the space suits arranged on hangers against one wall. When the roof opened, this window would be the pressure barrier — hence the space suits. If the glass cracked or air leaked past it, the people in this compartment would need space suits to survive. The air lock in the passageway was designed to prevent a sudden depressurization of the entire lunar base.

Claudine bit her lip, then went over to supervise the technicians unpacking the reactor, which was easy to manhandle in the weak lunar gravity.

A laser? Could it be?