Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 Read Free Page B

hours
wouldn ’ t have been so long if
he didn ’ t secretly already
know the truth. His battery of sensors told him the real story.
Something amazing was happening in the core of Mass 17. What had
been a hard blip deep inside the structure was now a ball, a
diffuse and growing ball. From this range and with the electrically
charged ropes of gas and dust between them, there were as many
questions as answers but one thing was clear; the nanobots
didn ’ t just eat a hole in
Martin ’ s suit, and they
didn ’ t just eat everything in
the sphere. The cloud itself was being consumed, transformed into
something new. The acidic ball in his gut reassured him that some
small part of that something new was made from the remains of
Martin, Pakerson, and Jinx.
    “So how long are we
without contact?” Captain Pilton
asked.
    “Seventeen hours and twelve
minutes.”
    Alder gritted his teeth.
No not three years, not even eighteen hours yet. He hated himself.
Eighteen hours was the Oxygen capacity left in Pakerson and
Jinx ’ suits when contact was
lost. He hated himself because he was waiting for the others to
realize that in twenty-eight minutes they could all
relax.
    “And
we ’ re sure they never
reboarded the Lance?” Pilton had lost crew before. If this was
hitting him as hard as it was hitting Alder, he
wasn ’ t going to show it
here.
    “No.” Com Tech. Reilly,
who had been asked to join the meeting answered. “ We ’ re not sure. The last data that the Duster transmitted
indicated that it was still in contact with
Pakerson ’ s suit. She was
about twenty meters from the ship at that time...” Her voice
drifted off. She and Pakerson were good friends who had served
together for many years on research teams.
    “And she was still alive
and moving toward the ship? ”
    “We
can ’ t tell if she was moving,
but yes you can hear her...respiring...on the recording.” She didn ’ t
mention that the breathing she heard was the ragged gasps of her
good friend, half mad with terror fleeing for her life.
    “Where was
Jinx? ”
    “He was still in the area around
Martin. We lost contact with him about three minutes before last
transmission.” Reilly paused again.
    Lieutenant Commander
Mbaka, Alder ’ s equivalent
from engineering picked up. “ The information we got from his suit is consistent with
catastrophic decompression. ”
    The inside of
Alder ’ s head felt fluttery
like there was a small bird flying around in it. ‘ Catastrophic
decompression? ’ How was that
better than saying ‘ eaten
alive through a thousand pinholes in your
spacesuit? ’
    Pilton eyed Mass 17
through the viewing plate as if the last eighteen...seventeen hours
and thirteen minutes hadn ’ t
happened. “ So, at last
contact we have one survivor within twenty meters of safety, but no
contact since. ”
    No one answered.
    “Let ’ s go get
her.” Pilton went on. “ I want both remaining scouts
deployed in the cloud with any instruments that might be able to
detect Lance One. Let ’ s
commit the radar probes and the passive electronics. I want
Guadalupe Gibson to pilot one of the scouts. She did the
modifications of the passive gear. Also... ”
    “She ’ s not
there.” Alder grumbled at the table top.
No one heard him.
    “Get Vorhees out of the
lab. I want him on the other scout.
He ’ s piloted in adverse
conditions before. ”
    “She ’ s not
there. ”
    “I want preprogrammed
paths for all the probes. I don ’ t want our scouts to get in there and then waste a lot of
time looking for... ”
    “She ’ s not in
there! ” Alder shouted,
banging both fists on the table.
    Everyone jumped.
    “Why do you say
that?” Security chief Tallen asked, his
already dour face pinched with anger.
    “She
can ’ t be.” Alder explained, aware of
Reilly ’ s eyes on him. “ Look. We
don ’ t know who programmed the
nanobots or why. But we do know
they ’ re self-replicating and
we know that they... ”
    “How do we know