"Maybe that's just an artifact of whatever process they used to draw this design," said Methol. "The compass point," she laughed suddenly. "We're wasting our time here. Let's go back to the ship and break out the whole barrage of instruments." She and Krzakwa turned and started for Polaris, accompanied by Hu, who had been following them silently about, wrapped in whatever web of thoughts her mind was spinning.
Sealock stood for a while longer, staring down at the white spot. He leaned forward and put his thumb over it, then straightened up. The little world about him remained inert. He muttered something, then put his foot over the mark and turned the sole's friction coefficient to maximum. He could feel his boot seem to cement itself to the surface of the Artifact. When he removed it again, the circular dot looked the same. Nothing happened. He thought he felt a slight current being applied to his skin, perhaps imagination and nothing more. Then he shouted.
The others turned at the sound of his voice, which would have been deafening had the corn-circuits not compensated swiftly, and saw the blue disk being swiftly filled by a spreading pool of black. The edge of the hole seemed paper thin, adding to the impression of two-dimensionality. But there was certainly a third dimension here—Sealock hung poised in space for a moment, then, clasping his knees to his chest, he began to fall down into the darkness, drifting slowly in Aello's weak grasp. In a moment he was gone. They rushed wildly back to the edge of the portal and stood looking down into the nothingness below.
"Brendan?"
"I'm still here, Tem." His voice was crisp in their heads. "I'm standing on some kind of surface about four meters below you. I can see you outlined against the stars." He paused and they could sense his excitement through the telemetry circuits. "There's something very strange going on here."
"What is it?"
"Well . . . jump down and see. It might be best for you to experience it first hand. Just don't alter your optical settings."
Krzakwaglanced at Methol and Hu, then shrugged and stepped over the edge. He fell very slowly, taking a long time to drop the four meters. As the darkness engulfed him, he said, "What am I supposed to be expecting?"
"You'll see."
"Should I try to land flat-footed?"
"That'd be a good idea. Flex your knees a little."
"Flex my ... In this gravity? Why?"
"You'll see."
Krzakwawas silent then, meditative, and prudently fell with his knees flexed. Suddenly his legs straightened out, as if something had grabbed him by the ankles and pulled. There was an instant of sudden acceleration and then his feet hammered into the floor. "What the fuck?" he muttered. Sealock laughed. "Pretty weird, huh? Now try lifting your foot up." The Selenite experimentally hefted his right leg. It came up hard, as if he were standing in a quite respectable inertial field, the closest thing to high gravity in his personal experience. Whatever was holding him abruptly let go, and his knee popped up with released muscular tension. He teetered, almost losing his balance. When he put his foot down the floor grabbed it again. "That's really odd. Some sort of em-field?"
"I don't think so. I was playing some little games while I waited . . . there's a pretty strong gradient down here—like a gravitational field. I guess the region right against the floor has something like a 2-g density."
"What're you telling me? You think the floor is coated with a monoparticular layer of neutronium ?" Sealock made his suit generate an image of Krzakwa against the darkness. "Some kind of neutron paint? No, I'm not saying anything. Just an observation."
"How about another observation: why are we standing around in the dark? These suits have optical-scale enhancers...."
Sealock grinned. "Turn yours on if you want. Maybe you should, so at least one of us can see. . . . But this ship is still turned on and its crew had to see by something. Odds are it was electromagnetic radiation."
Krzakwakicked up the gain on his optical system until he could see by ambient light. "Almost useless. There's nothing in here." He looked around. "Quite a few dark spots on the walls. A few on the floor."
"Airlock controls?"
"Probably." He walked over to the wall, taking high steps the way he would in a shallow pool of water, and reached out.
When his hand neared the wall the force grabbed it. " Hm. Interesting." He pulled one foot clear and stuck it on the wall, then followed it with the other. Suddenly his orientation was changed by ninety degrees. "That's a Useful trait for a spaceship to have."
"Better than low-differential em."
Krzakwasnickered. "Sure." He looked up at the still gaping door through the ceiling. Methol and Hu were bright mannequins to his enhanced vision. "I guess it's safe for us all to be in here at the same time. Come on." The two women came floating down. Ariane deliberately came down like a falling cat, landing full length on the floor and immersing herself in the field.
"Oof," she grunted, "this is worse than Earth. Without the worksuit I'd be stuck here permanently." She found that she had to increase the power of her exoskeleton in order to get up again. Sealock started walking blindly toward where he knew Methol was, stubbornly waiting for the ship to sense their presence and turn on a light. He was not long disappointed.
"Hey, look out," shouted Tem, distracted from his thoughts, "you're about to step on a— ghaah!" He squeezed his eyes shut as a harsh, actinic violet light suddenly flared, quickly dimmed by the suit's internal protections. He turned down his scale enhancers and opened his eyes again. The chamber was flooded with a soft, blue-green light, like an undersea scene.
"I guess I was right," said Sealock.
"It's not coming from anywhere, Bren ," said Ariane.
"Uh-huh. It just is, like the sticking field."
Krzakwa'seyes still felt grainy. "Yeah. Well, I hate to say it, but so far these buttons, despite their apparently random distribution, are producing completely human results. It's a strong argument that form follows function. So far we have an airlock with a door button and a light switch." Hu came up to them now and, for the first time since the disruption of Aello, she spoke. "Since we've come this far, there's no point in being timid." She reached out and punched a gloved hand into one of the dark spots.
"Hey!" said Krzakwa , but nothing happened. Hu punched the next spot in the row and the ceiling door suddenly irised shut and vanished without a trace.
"Uh-oh." That was from Sealock. Hu snorted and hit the third spot. Again nothing happened. Methol stepped forward in alarm and said, "Really, Jana. I don't think you should be . . ." Hu punched the fourth spot and a section of floor under her feet vanished. She dropped through under what looked like a fairly high acceleration and was gone, her brief, chopped-off scream echoing in their heads.