Day of the Dragonstar Read Free

problem, or could become one.
    Labate nodded. “A few things. The object is following a fairly classic cometary, orbital pattern, close to parabolic. Its distance, when sighted, was about eight hundred million kilometers — about the same as Jupiter’s orbit. Spectrographic analysis gave us Fraunhofer absorption lines, which was odd, if it was going to be a comet. We then checked for Doppler shift on the sodium D line, as part of the range-rate measurement. As you know, there’s no absorption to speak of between here and Jupiter’s distance.”
    Sounded right, but Kemp was not totally sure of the implications. His knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics was comprehensive, but only on the survey level. He was about to ask Labate to clarify when the old man began speaking again, this time more excitedly, his hands twitching even more animatedly,
    “So we ran some spectrographic comparisons and found that the orbital spectrum was an exact match of the solar spectrum, slightly shifted by Doppler effect. Do you understand what that means?”
    Kemp, had played along so far, but he was getting weary of this. Phineas Kemp could be as polite as necessary to humor anyone, but he wasn’t by nature a mild man prone to gentleness for its own sake. He knew how to wield both politeness and sternness. Both played a part in leadership, and it was the latter that he began to employ now, with steely efficiency.
    “I’m not sure, I do, Professor. But if this is indeed, as important as you think it is , you had better stop playing teacher and start filling me in with the straight scoop.”
    Blinking and cringing a bit, Labate seemed a little surprised at the rebellion of his temporary student.
    “Well, I’m not sure what it is, mind you. But it appears to be something very large, and with a highly reflecting surface. Smooth enough to produce photometric peaks whenever that smooth surface faces the sun and reflects back the light. Whatever it is, it is probably engaged in some kind of slow, but regular tumbling motion — hence the regularly spaced and timed peak intervals.”
    “I see . . . and this behavior is unnatural for any known solar system bodies?”
    Labate shook his head. “There’s nothing out there that we know about with an all-wavelength better than .99, Colonel. Nothing! And don’t forget those first-look orbital elements. It has come in from a long way out. Maybe as far as Pluto.”
    Kemp looked away from the Professor, glancing absently at the banks of instruments and displays within the Lunar Observatory. Beyond the instruments yawned a large observation bay window which presented a view of the sloping shelf upon which the Observatory rested. Spreading out into the main depression of the crater lay the sprawl of dome-structures which comprised the Lunar Colony. Beyond the Colony, the short horizon of the moon edged out the velvet-black sky. Somewhere out there, thought Kemp, an object was hurtling towards the sun . . . towards mankind.
    “How long before you’ll have some more hard data?” he asked Labate.
    “Not long. Another hour and we will have enough to make some more correlations. If the object has an unpowered orbit, we will have a good lock on it. We will have velocity, period, eccentricity, semi-major axis . . . maybe even its size and mass.”
    “Right,” said Kemp, employing all his authoritative manner. “I’m going ‘to have to put a security blanket on this project. “I’m sure you’re aware of that, aren’t you, Professor?”
    Labate sighed. “I was expecting it. I’d be surprised if you didn’t.”
    “How about Boucher? We can’t let this information slip out. Could get in the wrong hands. Has he been in contact with anyone since the beginning of this business?”
    “Absolutely not. Only me.”
    “Very well. I want you to assume command of this operation. Boucher will be assigned .to you, and will remain here. I’ll have Rheinhardt provide you with meals and some security