Chapter 7
Jack went next, tapping all the way with his stick. Kris followed, letting her walking stick just slide along ahead of her. Beni and Doc brought up the rear.
''I've got us connected to the Resolute.'' Comm Boss reported from his station at the door.
''We are delighted to see you've gotten this far,'' Captain Drago reported.
''So are we,'' Kris answered. She wanted to trot into the huge void in front of her, but, as she'd been trained, she checked her back door. Comm Boss was standing in the doorway, a long pole reaching to the top of the door, ready to warn if it suddenly decided not to be a way out. The gunner was faced out, toward the rest of town, just the way the Marines trained its back door. Nelly, remind me to look at the résumés for these folks. If they aren't all ex-military, it's only because they are still military.
You may be right, Kris.
Satisfied that her rear was as protected as it could be, Kris turned her attention inward. And found out why the net had been so full of ''wow'' and ''oh my'' and ''this is unbelievable.''
''This place is huge,'' Kris added to the admiring wonder.
Kris shot a laser range-finder out. Almost two thousand meters to the silver metal spire that rose to the roof and beyond. Almost four thousand meters to the far wall.
And it wasn't nearly as dark as it had been.
''Our lights are being reflected back,'' Abby said, walking over to the nearest rib. There was something light beside the rib, and growing brighter as Abby's suit light got closer. ''Our light is being reflected up the light beam, or whatever you want to call this thing.''
''It's being intensified,'' Jack said. ''Any chance it could burn us like moths under a magnifying glass?''
''Oh, you say the most inspiring things,'' Abby said. But Kris noticed that Doc and his sailor sidekick who had headed straight out onto the floor of this huge dome were now trotting for the door.
''The light in here is growing brighter,'' Nelly said. ''However, for it to get truly dangerous to you in your suits would take several hours at this rate.''
Doc and his teammate turned around again.
''Thank you, Nelly. Any other thoughts, girl?''
''I would like to see more of the floor. Also, certain sections of the floor are giving me radio signals I can match against those unidentified sequences from Santa Maria.''
''Think your girl found a one-size-fits-all key?'' Abby asked.
''Only one way to find out. Nelly, point us at one of those sources.'' Nelly led them to a section of floor that didn't look all that different from the rest: speckles of sparkling gold in the dark green stone and some patterns in white and gray several centimeters in size.
''I am sending the signal,'' Nelly said, and suddenly, out of the floor rose a translucent block of… something.
Close to three meters tall, almost two wide, nearly five long, it took on their lights and turned completely clear. The sole exception to that were two light blue, six-bladed propellers that turned lazily inside the near center of the block, one at each long end about ten centimeters in.
''What is it?'' Kris said.
''I have no idea,'' Nelly answered. ''I also am no longer getting any signal from this area of the floor.''
''Speaking of floor,'' Jack said, stooping close and struggling in armor to look up through the block. ''Where's the green floor stuff that was on it?''
''Your guess is as good as mine,'' Nelly said.
''You're getting to like that phrase,'' Kris said.
''It fits too much of this place for my comfort,'' Nelly answered. ''Kris, I agree with Jack, the full examination of this place should be left to a larger, better-equipped team.''
''That was a vote I never expected to get,'' Jack said, standing up. ''Anyone have any idea what this is?'' he asked.
Doc and Chief Beni examined it with their black boxes. Slight shakes of armored helmets told Kris all she was going to get out of them for the time being.
''Well, is it likely to explode?'' she asked.
''Your guess,'' Beni started.
''Is as good as mine,'' Kris ended. ''Yes, I know. But a guess would be appreciated.''
''I'm getting no out-gassing,'' Doc said. ''I've rubbed the surface of the thing and gotten nothing.''
''I've probed it with everything I've got that doesn't involve partial destruction of the sample,'' the chief said. ''And I got squat.''
''It's clear,'' Kris said, tapping her laser range-finder. The pulse she sent bounced off the end of the building and returned that measurement. ''It is totally clear.''
''What's the propeller for? I don't see any beanie,'' Abby said.
''Better question is how can it be turning in what looks like a solid,'' Kris said.
''Is it a solid?'' Doc muttered. ''Or something else we don't even have a word for?''
''I'm kind of getting the feeling of some hunter-gatherer, who's so proud of inventing the throwing spear, coming across a jet engine and not having a clue what it is,'' Jack said.
''Speak for yourself, Marine,'' Beni said. ''I know what it is.''
''What is it?'' Kris said, in chorus with everyone else.
''It's a puzzle,'' the chief said, with a smile that leaked onto the net even if Kris couldn't make it out through his faceplate. ''It's a puzzle we are not going to solve today.''
Abby swung her walking stick at Beni's helmeted head.
''At ease, crew,'' Kris ordered. ''And if anyone else wants to make a joke at all our expense, remember, that poor gunner back with Comm Boss would love to have your slot in here.''
''Not really,'' someone contradicted on net.
Kris ignored the insubordination. Anything that failed to rise to the level of full mutiny struck her as just fun, all things in her past considered. She looked around. ''Any more signals, Nelly?''
''I have identified forty-seven, but there are more that may qualify.''
''Where's the nearest one that takes us closer to the spire?'' Kris asked. And Nelly gave directions to another perfectly normal bit of floor. ''Send the signal,'' Kris ordered.
Nothing happened. ''Nelly?''
''I sent it. Nothing and now the signal is no longer there.''
''Maybe that was one that was dead and didn't know it until it tried to come active,'' Beni guessed.
''Mark the floor with something,'' Kris said. Doc's escort pulled out some tape and marked an X.
Kris checked her readouts. ''I show six more hours of air.''
''Kris, are you having any trouble moving your joints?'' Jack said, rotating both arms of his suit. One moved much slower.
Kris did the same—with the same results. ''One leg is moving a bit stiffer than the other, too,'' she admitted.
''I don't know what's causing it, but shouldn't we be heading out of here?'' Jack said.
Kris ignored him and trotted toward the base of the spire. She ended up kind of limping, but the closer she got to the spire, the more excited she was. Several hundred meters out, she spotted a false ceiling or overhang around it, spreading out. Taken edge on, it was hard to tell how far it went.
A hundred meters out, they came under it.
Initially translucent, the lights from their suits caused specks to appear. ''It is a star chart,'' Nelly whispered. ''Yes, definitely a star chart as seen from here. Look, there's what Chance calls the Wild Horseman. And the Fat Lady Singing.''
''There are lines between the stars,'' Kris pointed out.
''I think those are jump points. At least the basic ones. Chance has three jumps out from it. The system we are in is marked with a point surrounded by a circle. Do you see it?''
''I think so,'' Kris agreed, pointing her range-finder up and clicking it to visible red.
''That's it,'' Nelly said.
''That one next to it also has a circle. Those are the only two,'' Beni said.
''And the line between it is green. The others are kind of yellow gold, but that one is green,'' Jack said.
''Why the difference between two stars?'' Nelly asked.