“Of course, Sir,” Castle said in a tone that contradicted his words.
“How do you propose we proceed, Sir?” Jeff asked.
“First, let’s lay down some ground rules,” Irons said. “I said it once, and I’ll say it again: nobody leaves our quarters without permission. Nobody goes walkabout. Second”—he looked directly at Green—“We keep our combat suits on. Always. Even while sleeping.”
Green dropped his spoon on his plate, aghast. “What the hell for?”
“We have no idea what might happen. We need to be ready for action at all times. Keep your guns on you. Only take off your suits to wash, and then put them straight back on.”
Jeff groaned inwardly. The combat suits weren’t as rigid as the last-generation suits, but wearing them even at night wouldn’t be much fun. Not to mention the inevitable stench after a few days. “Isn’t that a little over-cautious?”
“Better too cautious than dead,” Irons said. “And furthermore: if you notice anything unusual—even if it seems trivial—you must inform me or my XO immediately. Is that clear?”
Joanne and Castle nodded. Green shrugged.
“We also need to guard our quarters at night.”
“Why?” Finni asked.
“The fact that a trolley suddenly appeared in front of our door—it makes me uneasy. Who put it there? I don’t want robots, or drones, or whatever hanging around here at night while we’re sleeping.”
“Don’t you trust the computer?” Joanne asked.
“I repeat: despite the friendly welcome, we have no idea who or what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want to imply that our host has any bad intentions, but I think it makes sense to take precautions. We’ll take turns at night; two hours each.”
“What about exploring our surroundings?” Jeff asked.
Irons nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that. We need to be systematic and gradually expand the radius, and also map the area we explore. We’ll begin tomorrow morning. I propose that two teams of two set off at the same time. The others hold the fort, collect the radio data, and create a map.”
He turned to Owl. “Will we be able to use our radios here?”
The radio operator wavered for a moment, then shook his head. “No. There’s too much metal everywhere. The radios are likely to work only within a very limited radius.”
Irons grunted. “That’s not what I wanted to hear. I want to be able to stay in touch with the reconnaissance teams at all time. If anything happens, we won’t know about it. If we were forced to go looking for a squad, we’d probably never find them in this labyrinth.”
“Perhaps I can help, Sir.”
Jeff turned around in surprise. He wasn’t used to hearing an unsolicited suggestion from Green. On the other hand, the guy was a good engineer.
Irons signaled to Green to continue.
“I can’t make any guarantees, but I have an idea how we could talk to each other without radio.”
“Go ahead.”
The engineer scratched his nose. “We could use the metal walls of the spaceship to relay electrical impulses. I could modify some of the handhelds to do that.”
“A kind of Morse code?” Joanne asked.
Green shook his head. “No, we would actually be able to talk to each other, even if the quality isn’t very good.”
“How long would it take?” Jeff asked.
He shrugged. “A few hours, maybe. But I can’t make any promises. It’ll only work if all the walls are made of the same material.”
“Please start as soon as this meeting is over.”
“Who’ll be in the recon squads?” Joanne asked.
“We’ll take turns,” Irons replied. “But I’ll stay here at all times to coordinate the missions. Lieutenant Green will also stay here in case there are any communication problems. Lieutenant Castle with Private Short, and Captain Austin with Private McGuinness.”
Jeff nodded numbly. He didn’t mind going on a reconnaissance mission, but did it have to be with Mac? The boorish mechanic despised Jeff and only obeyed his orders reluctantly. Irons must have been aware of this, but maybe he thought a joint mission would help them bond. Jeff had his doubts.
“We’ll meet for breakfast tomorrow at 0600,” Irons said. “At 0700 the squads will set off to explore. I would like to gain an overview of our surroundings as soon as possible.”
“How do we handle the ship’s computer?” Joanne asked.
Irons nodded. “That takes me nicely to the next point.” The major smiled. “I want to find out as much as possible about this ship, its computer, and its builders. Of course, that will require close communication with the computer. We don’t know how these aliens tick—but their psychology may be reflected in the behavior of the computer, which would also explain the strange time out it’s taking. So we have to proceed cautiously. To start with, I’ll be the only one to speak with it. Have you all understood? Lieutenant Green! Stop playing around with your handheld and listen!”
Green put his portable computer aside and looked up. “I understand, Sir.”
“I’m not quite convinced. So, if anyone has any questions for the computer, please pass them on to me.”
“Do you think the computer will let us know when it’s contactable again?” Joanne asked. “It’s already been four hours. Those self-tests are pretty drawn out.”
Irons nodded. “Computer!” he spoke loudly.
Jeff cocked his head. He almost expected to see a hovering figure appear in the room. But there was no answer.
Irons sighed again. “All right, let’s go to our rooms. Corporal Owens, please clear the table. Lieutenant Castle, will you take the first watch?”
“Sure. Who should take over from me?”
“You decide.”
Castle turned his head and grinned at Jeff.
Surprise surprise.
4.
“Computer!” Irons shouted, but again there was no answer.
“I don’t get it,” Joanne said. “It’s been almost sixteen hours. Surely it can’t take that long to carry out a self test.”
“Maybe it’s moved on to a different self test,” Finni suggested, taking a can of beer out of the fridge.
“Or the computer has limited multitasking capabilities. Maybe it’s a reflection of how the builders of this thing functioned,” Owl mused.
“Doesn’t sound very logical,” Irons said dryly. “A computer has to be immediately accessible to its users. Perhaps we’ll find out the reason. Lieutenant Green?”
The engineer was still fiddling around with his handheld and looked up. “Sir?”
“How’s our communication device getting on?”
The engineer smiled. “We’ll find out in a minute.” He handed Irons the handheld. Jeff was standing next to the major and could see that Green had plugged some kind of antenna into the front port of the tablet.
“How does it work?” Irons asked, taking the device from Green.
“The antenna has to be touching the wall.”
“What’s the principle behind it?” Jeff asked, thinking it was an intelligent question to ask.
Green turned around and looked at Jeff as if he were a child who had asked a question to which he wouldn’t understand the answer. “The computer picks up the acoustic signals from our speech and the antenna transmits these into the wall using eddy currents.”
“Ah,” Jeff said.
What are eddy currents?
“The counterpart receives the voltage impulses and transforms them back into speech,” Green added.
“If you say so,” Irons said. “Good work, Lieutenant Green. Attach one of the handhelds to the wall here, so that it’s always receiving.”
“Give me yours and I’ll attach an antenna to it,” Green said, and impulsively reached for the major’s belt.