The Darwinian Extension: Completion Read online

  “I must own up, Finn discovered it. I merely analysed it.”

 

  Chapter 4

  The answer from Earth was the one Logan had hoped for, and he was relieved to inform Carvalho of the confirmation. “Do you wish me to convey any agenda upon my return to avoid transmission leaks?”

  Carvalho shook his head. “I think we all know the subject matter thoroughly; it is the consequences which we need to debate.” He had no intention of disclosing his plan of being accompanied by Alex 2 and Fav. Logan said that he would like to spend more time at the Nuclear energy facility to get a better appreciation of the elegance of the design. Apparently there was still some resistance back home to employing an ‘alien’ technology which was not fully understood. Carvalho thought this would be a good way of occupying Logan’s time until the shuttle was cleared for return. He stifled the temptation to suggest the resistance was more to do with financial neutering than any deficit in technical understanding.

  He responded to Alex 2’s meeting request. He had not yet picked up on Nielsen’s jittery body language. “Wait, wait a minute, you are going too quickly for me. Remind me of exactly what the significance of Gravity A waves is.”

  “Sorry,” gestured Alex 2, “Red will explain more.”

  Red started slowly. “All matter known to exist on Earth is considered to be comprised of atoms in which the gravity waves do not extend beyond the atomic perimeter. These you have classified as Gravity B waves. Theoretical ideas have predicted that certain heavy elements could involve Gravity A waves which are able to breach this atomic restriction. The theory goes on to suggest manipulation of this infinitesimal margin – amplification is one such candidate – could allow space/time distortion.”

  Alex 2 took over again. “One of the many difficulties with this notion is the half-life of the proposed elements, all of which are higher in atomic number than 110. They decay in the order of milliseconds or indeed fractions of that measurement. The conditions prevailing at the time of creation of your sun are not thought to favour stable isotopes of such potential. In contrast, larger or binary star systems are anticipated to have achieved this and should be considerably richer in more heavy elements than Earth. In summary this material analysed by Mr. Nielsen is, in the opinion of the Continuance, sourced from outside the solar system. We need to speak to Fav.”

  Carvalho looked confused. “Why?”

  “Because we sometimes overlook the fact that 55 Cancri is a binary system.” When Fav arrived and was apprised of the discovery he did not seem at all perturbed. “Yes we brought this material. We used it for emergency backup to power the screens you found in West Candor chasm. As far as I am aware they have not been required.”

  Alex 2 enquired, “This material occurs naturally on Nexus?”

  “Yes,” admitted Fav, “although strictly speaking there are two materials in a cell. One is a metallic element, the other is the tri-chloride; they produce a ‘super cell’.”

  When Nielsen explained that the find had been via a lava flow and they were particularly interested in the oxy-chloride, Fav said that the lead containment box must have been breached. “We put one cell for each screen into recesses below them, and with automatic routing to the screen, in the event of the normal circuit suffering failure.” A quick contact between Red and Finn confirmed that the borehole where the sample came from was close to screen 2.

  Alex 2 suggested that they prioritised a search for and extraction of the rest. Carvalho interrupted. “I apologise for lagging behind here but what is the eventual significance of all this?” Alex 2 pleaded that the detailed discussion was held over until they had rescued as many lead boxes as possible. “Suffice it to say at this stage that the Axis method of creating a wormhole was the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a cosmic nut. This discovery could prove to be the artist’s palette.”

  ********

  Carvalho, Alex 2, Fav and a very nervous Logan were approaching Earth orbit when the transmission came through from Red – ‘thirty one boxes recovered’. Logan was more concerned about boxes being ticked and his failure to do so. The others were happy to hear Red’s announcement.

  Decontamination and quarantine for the respective species saw them re-united, which was not exactly how the ‘welcoming’ committee saw Logan. Carvalho was astonished to see Karl Koppelt in the background. It had been planned to have the typical Earth ice-breaking dinner before getting down to business. Carvalho met Koppelt’s gaze and went to shake his hand. Karl was shivering with emotion; Carvalho thanked him for making such an onerous trip in poor health. He asked if Koppelt would join him in his quarters before dinner. “I would like to end this indifference of which I have been guilty. I only wish Roberto could have been here to see it.”

  Koppelt’s voice was thin and he seemed to fight for breath with every word. “I’ll be there Daniel, you can be sure of it.” He handed his nurse his walking stick and tried to hug Carvalho. The gesture was devoid of strength but brimming with feeling.

  Carvalho was immediately in demand. A clique of Council members, none of whom he recognised other than by their badges, seemed to surround him. He concluded they were second tier messengers. Boris Givet was first into action. “What do you believe your fellow travellers can contribute to our discussion, or are they here on another topic?”

  “Why don’t you ask them?” Before there was time to respond they were joined by someone Carvalho did recognise – Ayrton de Santos. He had steadily risen through the ranks under Xiang to Senior Scientist in Beijing. “Commander, it’s good to see you again. I need to give you some information which has only been recently finalised but is highly pertinent to the meeting. Could you collect it after dinner?”

  “Certainly. Where do I collect it?”

  “I’ll take you to the technical centre to retrieve it from the safe; it’s rather sensitive.” The fresh faced second tiers dispersed rather than be embarrassed at non-inclusion for this data. Koppelt arrived early. “Daniel, I’ve waited a long time to apologise and I.......”

  Carvalho wanted to spare the old man painful recollections and explanations but realised he really wanted to finally lay to rest what had not been said over the decades. It took Koppelt some time to recover composure to continue. “I know I didn’t stand against the edict of the Confederation as I should have, and as Roberto did. I know that you know I was not present, when the commanding officer authorised his men to take down who they thought to be you and Magnusson. I would never have given such an order. He was not contravening instructions from the top, but was exercising his judgement in a military fashion rather than a security protocol. He was under my command and I spent too much effort and presence at the airport and border security points. I was wrong but I have always hoped you could see it didn’t happen in the way it was portrayed by the media. I’ve regretted it deeply ever since.”

  Carvalho confessed. “I know. I’ve often questioned my own reaction. It may be one of those situations that can only be healed by the passage of a respectful period of time.”

  They talked for over an hour and Koppelt said he would love to continue but he was exhausted. Carvalho nodded and left him with a request. “Please stay in touch…and there is something you can advise me on.” After a brief explanation he got to the point of needing help to ferret out the driving personnel behind the new interest in Scarlet O’Hara. “I know you are retired and all I’m asking is a recommendation from you. There’s no one else I could trust with this request.”

  The old sparkle returned to Koppelt’s eyes. “You shall have it Daniel, and you shall have it now. Xiang had an ally who helped me significantly in the Radmanov affair, hunting down the Russian oligarch who was determined to get the classified composition data of the crystals. This man I recommend is not front line, but is one of the best fixers in the business – nothing gets past him. He has been eternally grateful to Xiang for supporting the case for inclusion of the USAr into the big five. His name is Sadat, you’ll rece
ive a call from him; he is here but it’s better that he calls you, even if he is in the building.”

  “Thank you Karl, I’m indebted to you.” As he left, both Koppelt and Carvalho knew they would never meet again despite the medical advances in recent years. It was however not a sad goodbye.

  ********

  Sevicek had not been asked to justify his request to stay longer on Mars. This did not trouble him but it was unusual. He was disappointed however, that certain avenues in the discussions had to be suspended until the team returned from Earth. They had not been acquainted with the repercussions of Nielsen’s analysis, and Finn had been asked not to discuss the matter. The group continued to probe Jet about the mysterious missing black cube required to complete the production of the vessel at Echus Chasma. They believed he was not holding out on them, so the ideas moved on to how the damage might be avoided if ever it was tried in future. This was awkward for Red. Dan was still in ‘we do not lead’ mode, but Red knew what Dan did not – they were beginning to inadvertently stray on to the territory of Nielsen’s discovery. He decided it was legitimate think-tank methodology. Yamamoto was the catalyst and fastened on to Jet’s assertion that the ‘Master of Fate’ who had championed the design had ignored advice from his alleged replicant, his Consul – who was apparently never seen again. “If this Consul was a true representative of the Continuance and advised against a development he had helped foster, there must have been a branch of possibilities somewhere.”

  “I don’t follow your reasoning,” said Jet.

  “I do,” enthused Sevicek, “if the entire research was to lead to a ‘no go’ conclusion the Consul would not have endorsed it in the first place.”

  “Thank you Karel,” said Yamamoto with a broad grin, “there had to be an alternative route to a less controversial design. Is that a reasonable assumption Dan?”

  Dan nodded his head slowly. “It is reasonable if the events actually happened the way we believe they did; that is also an assumption.” Yamamoto would not let go. “I think we should forget the black cube and go right back to detecting and characterising wormhole phenomena. The progress on a suitably advanced interferometer is impacted by the low priority it has been allocated. Let’s get Nielsen in here.”

  “Wait,” said Jet, “we have lots of evidence of failed and aborted attempts to locate other, potentially more controllable portals. I believe you will repeat this frustrating experience with this interference apparatus. We concluded that the creation and collapse of a wormhole entry will always be accompanied by destructive energy.”

  Nielsen came anyway and indirectly backed Jet’s view, relating the results of the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission in the earlier part of the century. “Even with three vessels separated by five million kilometres, triangulating data on gravitational waves, the results were inconclusive.”

  Red wanted to keep the positive momentum of the discussion going and felt he had to be honest. “I would like to support moving the discussion away from actual wormhole detection. I want to be sure you understand and accept what I am about to say. A discovery has been made which will be useful in guiding you to more fruitful areas of cosmology. We can only discuss this with the agreement of those of our colony who are at present on Earth. They would be talking about this now if they had not committed to that trip. It was only a question of timing and proper security. In view of the way the discussion has developed I will transmit a coded request to Alex 2 for agreement to update you and thus refresh the agenda. You must respect the need for discretion on this. Do I have that?” Nielsen squirmed but followed the others in affirming the consensus.

 

  Chapter 5

  When Ayrton de Santos ushered Carvalho to the Technical Centre he appeared a little uneasy. The contents of the dossier explained why. All those years ago when Mike (the replicant of Michael J Park, Beijing geologist) had retrieved all accessible red crystal from selected Earth sites he had asked Xiang for a detector. He had suggested that there must be a way to detect antimony deposits with a device rather than laboriously collect samples and then analyse them. This had not been approved for obvious reasons. This dossier however, described the one which had been recently developed.

  “Ayrton, I must ask who authorised this?” Sheepishly, the Brazilian shrugged his shoulders. “I was given the blueprint with the Council seal and asked to execute the prototype. I don’t know who actually raised the blueprint.”

  Carvalho’s mind raced. “This will, if it goes ahead, compromise the current security of Scarlet. I include Mars in that. Once this exists there will be temptation and bribery to contend with. I’m dismayed, and I would expect you to be.”

  “Indeed I am, Commander. The blueprint already existed, so they could have got many people to fabricate it. I felt it was better that it remained in Beijing for now.”

  “But you told me that it will be openly discussed tomorrow.” De Santos drew a deep breath. “Yes. I have been informed through an unofficial channel that you will be faced with the choice of agreeing to trade crystal or by default be party to the decision to employ this instrument on Earth.”

  Carvalho was not totally surprised by this kind of tactic. Dealing with it would be a different proposition. He was now more concerned than ever about the backlash on Mars. At least he could still rely on Ayrton de Santos when he was back there. He now had the unenviable task of briefing Alex 2 and Fav on yet another layer of human duplicity.

  ********

  In the midst of the briefing he took the call from Sadat. This man prudently saved him from having to explain the request, Koppelt had advised that. He indicated that he was already aware of splintered actions in recent months and was unofficially on the case. All he wanted to know now was how to keep Carvalho up to speed in a secure manner. Carvalho said he would check this out with De Santos. If he was willing, there would be a legitimate need for dialogue between the Brazilian and Mars, the political updates could be buried in technical minutiae. Sadat agreed and would wait for the contact from De Santos.

  Returning to the briefing on the ‘Scarlet-detector’, there were very different reactions. Alex 2 was predictably dismayed and counted this as another entry in the column of an unpromising species. “I cannot envisage my return to this planet; the Continuance needs to concentrate on Martian issues.”

  Fav was new to the ‘Medusa’ nature of human politics. He therefore looked at this purely as a problem to be solved. “I have heard that any remaining crystal on Earth would probably be difficult to access, is that correct?” When this was confirmed he asked, “Is your main concern that which remains on Mars?”

  “Yes,” said Carvalho, “and the possible corruption of humans on Mars to look for it.”

  Fav continued, “Why don’t we put it in orbit? The Axis and Symbiants can do this without any human other than you having knowledge of it. We can construct a small craft at Echus Chasma as part of propulsion research and use it as a delivery vehicle before returning to base.”

  Carvalho and Alex 2 looked at each other and nodded. They knew it was still possible to find small quantities on Earth but the new detector was only capable of giving a clue via antimony presence. Such a search would take a lot of effort and money. This would give breathing space prior to the anticipated demand for the Martian source. By this point it would be claimed that it had been consumed, and there would be no problem in openly accepting an inspection committee to verify this.

  The transmission from Red had come through and he made the point that if Fav had readily acknowledged the Axis possession of the new material identified by Nielsen, then it was likely to be common knowledge in their ranks. If this was so, it would be unfair to hold back the discussion on Mars with the others; they should be encouraged to go ahead, albeit with appropriate security arrangements. After all they were scheduled to discuss it upon the return of the trio currently on Earth. He was given the green light.

  ********

  There were three
hospitals on Mars; one at each of the main ‘urban’ areas of Valles Marineris, Utopia Planitia and Echus Chasma. They were virtually exclusively used by humans but the staff included Symbiants and Axis personnel. The Axis ‘patients’ did have wards but they resembled auto repair shops more than medical facilities. They were for minor problems, with the main care centre remaining at the sphere unit in Echus Chasma.

  Although Pascal 2 was nominally the overall director of medical practice, the hospitals operated under the management structure headed by Stella Aragones. When Carvalho returned one of his first scheduled duties was to officially open the newest facility in Echus Chasma. The hospitals had a different emphasis on disciplines in which they specialised. This one housed the most controversial one of artificial organ transplant and synthesis. It had been chosen because of its proximity to the sphere centre and the expertise of the Axis robotics and micro-engineering skills, including nanotechnology.

  Carvalho was sensitive to the increase in acceptance of synthetic organs, especially in assisting difficult brain surgery of the biological one while the function was maintained by the manufactured one. The sensitivity was there because the Martian capability far outstripped that on Earth. Requests were sometimes made for treatment of Earth dignitaries and yet the science was transferable but not taken up. This was a worrisome trend.

  Dr. Aragones was thirty-five and had volunteered for Mars migration because she could not obtain a satisfactory separation from her husband. When she had interned in Madrid she had stood out academically as well as being swept off her feet by the leading neurosurgeon in Spain. Although there was eighteen years between them they married after a short engagement. The relationship blossomed then began to drift. Carlos travelled and lectured around Europe, while Stella remained in Madrid. It soon became evident that despite earlier declarations, he did not want children, he was happy with a trophy wife. After two years the physical side of the marriage had all but petered out. He maintained that he was always too tired or too tense after operational procedures. He then complained that she was too demanding. When he returned one day from Geneva she asked him if he minded her going out with a friend, for dinner and a show. He had no problem even though she was honest, and said it was with a man. This became a common occurrence, and she asked if he no longer cared, or did he have another woman? He didn’t have any interest in other women and he cared deeply for her. He blamed the conflicting demands of his career and his wife for his declining interest in sex. The casual relationship she enjoyed became physical, and for a while things were better, especially when Carlos genuinely expressed happiness that she could keep the marriage stable by having affairs. She felt she had the best of both worlds and the affairs almost reached double figures when a problem emerged. She had been offered a top job in Lisbon and he didn’t want her to accept it. When she recalled what she had done for his career this broke the trust. He would not accept a divorce with attendant publicity. They agreed a financial split and a rather belated post-nuptial agreement, which was then backdated. She had always been adventurous and decided to apply for the senior Martian post knowing that Carlos would never come after her. She was happy and independent again. She was well respected on Mars and thrived on the responsibility.