Science had found no proof of gods or angels, and so most who believed truly in the superiority of intellect and reason had drifted away from belief in a supreme deity who created the universe. We believed—for I was certainly among that group—that with time and sufficient knowledge human beings could eventually unlock all the secrets of the universe, from the smallest components of fermions and bosons to the vastness of the universe itself.
Yet… after all the reports I had read… I had the feeling that Danann would not yield its secrets easily, and a part of me wondered if we ever would understand what lay there, let alone be able to replicate it
54
Chang
By sevenday, after almost three months in orbit, I was dog-tired. Forced myself to concentrate as I brought shuttle two down toward landing zone beta. At least the lake bottom under the ice there hadn’t been heating up. Could be that Henjsen’s precautions had worked. No equipment anywhere on the lake. No power, no fusactors.
Energy emissions noted, EDI traces two eight seven. The alerts were from the system.
Frig! Had Morgan’s predictions come true? Switched concentration to the scanners. Emissions were from a lake to the west-northwest of the landing zone. Scanners reported two sets. One looked to be something like a fusac-tor. The other was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Once shuttle two was on the ground, and the locks were open, with unloading proceeding, I went to the links. Danann Base, this is Sherpa Tigress, reporting energy emanations approximately two hundred twenty kays from you at two eight seven, local north.
Say again, Sherpa Tigress.
Repressed a snort of exasperation and repeated my report, adding, Interrogative any local observations in that area.
We have your report, Sherpa Tigress. Wait one.
Someone should have known. If they didn’t know… Didn’t want to think about that.
“We’re off-loaded, sir. Ready for passengers up, if we have any.”
“Thanks, chief. I’ll check.” Shuttle two was only configured at present for two passengers. Usually there weren’t any because shuttle two runs were later in the day—unless Henjsen or one of the long-timers wanted to go up and then catch shuttle one when it returned the next day—if it was on a day when a run was scheduled.
Danann Base, Sherpa Tigress, unloading complete, interrogative return cargo or passengers.
Tigress, understand three crates for return. They should be there now.
“Chief… they say there are three crates.”
“There’s a slider coming. I’ll let you know when they’re on board and secured.”
Danann Base, slider with crates in view. Interrogative emanations.
Sherpa Tigress, Danann Base, emanations at two eight seven are from multiteam project.
Interrogative second emissions.
Wait one.
A long silence followed. Finally, another “voice” came through the links. Recognized Henjsen. The second set is from the lake heating up. There’s something there that recognizes fusactors. We haven’t located or determined what it is or what the mechanism might be.
What’s the lake project? Looking for that mechanism?
Another silence.
Finally, Henjsen spoke again. / suppose it won’t matter. Cleon’s sent a report. Some of your cargo has samples for analysis. We’ve found traces of another landing, not one of ours.
Another landing? Had the CWs or the Middle Kingdom been here already? Interrogative informing the operations officer.
The laugh over the link came as rueful. Operations knows. We haven’t dated it yet, but it’s anything but recent. Cleon thinks it’s over a million years.
The aliens came back?
We don’t think so. We had a team looking into the towers there. Some of the doors had been battered open, a long time back. Preliminary measurements show that some of the ice on the lake there melted and refmze. We’ve found traces of materials in the ice, and a few scraps of metal and polymers… a few small items. We ‘II know more after the analysis of your cargo. I’d appreciate your keeping that to you and Operations until we know more.
Will do.
Someone—something—had landed on Danann in the past, maybe millions of years ago.
To do that, they’d needed technology like ours. Where had they come from? Where had they gone?
“Sir, we’re loading the crates now.”
“Thanks, chief.”
I’d keep my mouth shut—except to Morgan—but I didn’t see how news like that wouldn’t spread through the Magellan like air pouring from a holed needle.
55
Barna
I’d spent another three days on Danann and returned the day after Henjsen’s team discovered the traces of the aliens—the second aliens. I got more images, including a few of one of the doors that the second aliens had forced and a ramp cut or melted into the ice— wider and shallower than our ramps, but not much different otherwise. I had a few more ideas to go with the images. I still hadn’t found the elusive “something” that I knew was down there. What I had seen fueled ideas for another round of work.
One of the pieces I tried was another interpretation— of what that ancient past might have been. From Fernard and Marsalis and some of the others, I’d picked up what they had learned about Danann. So I’d shown the sky as a deep blue, because they’d said that the atmosphere had been thicker, and a sun that tended slightly to the orange. The setting was two towers above one of the canal boulevards, set just at sunrise, with the sun halfway out of the water of the canal, and nothing around. One of the tower doors was half-open, with the hint of a shadowed figure.
I stood back, looking at it and wondering if I should have made the indistinct shadow taller and not quite so dark.
“You probably can’t show that one as purely representative or historical.” Elysen carried a mug of tea as she slipped into my work space.
“No… but it might be easier to sell.”
“I suppose it might. It’s a touch less alien,” Elysen eased herself into the good chair, slowly. “You’re good enough that you don’t have to be blatantly commercial, Chendor.”
“Tell that to Aeryana.”
“You make her sound so greedy. You couldn’t love her as you do if she were.”
“She’s not. She is more practical than I’ve been.” I set down the lightbrush. “She’s seen what happens when an artist suddenly becomes unpopular. Her cousin lost everything, then jumped off the Palisades.”
“I imagine he was trying to find a commercial niche. You don’t need that. Paint your best, and success will find you.” She smiled. “It already has. You both find that hard to accept, don’t you?”
“Probably.” I didn’t want to talk about it. There wasn’t anything I could do about it on the Magellan. “What do you think about the other aliens? The ones that landed only a million years ago.”