Pawn’s Gambit Read Free Page A

furiously. “Get me all the information we have on this region of space. Our own sensor work, Farseer charts and data—everything. There has to be another way.”
    The group sitting around the table was small, highly select, and very powerful. And, Carey thought as he finished his explanation, considerably shaken. Executor Nordli took over even as the general was sitting down. “Obviously, our first order of business is to find out why our visitor is planning to dive into the sun. Suggestions?”
    â€œMr. Executor, I believe I have a logical explanation,” an older man sitting next to Du Bellay spoke up. Dr. Horan Roth, Carey remembered: chief astrophysicist at the Chiron Institute.
    â€œGo ahead, Dr. Roth,” Nordli said.
    Roth steepled his fingers. “The speed of a ramjet is limited not by relativity, but by friction with the interstellar medium. The mathematics are trivial; the bottom line is that the limiting speed is just that of the ship’s exhaust. Now, if you use a magnetic scoop to take in hydrogen, fuse it to helium, and use the energy liberated to send this helium out your exhaust, it turns out that your velocity is only twelve percent lightspeed.”
    â€œBut the Intruder’s moving considerably faster than that,” Assembly-­Prime Wu-sin objected.
    â€œExactly,” Roth nodded. “They’re apparently using an after-accelerator­ of some sort to boost their exhaust speed. But this takes energy, requiring extra fuel.”
    â€œI see,” Nordli rumbled. “They have to carry extra hydrogen which can’t be replaced in the interstellar medium. So they periodically dive into a star to replenish their tanks?”
    â€œIt would seem so.”
    â€œDr. Du Bellay, you’re an expert on alien cultures, correct?” Nordli asked.
    â€œTo some extent, sir,” Du Bellay said, “bearing in mind we’ve so far studied only dead civilizations, and only a handful of those.”
    â€œYes. In your opinion, what are the chances of communicating with these aliens? And what are the chances that would make any difference in their actions?”
    Du Bellay frowned. “I’m afraid the answer to both questions is very poor,” he said slowly. “It’s true that various scientists have developed so-called ‘first-contact primers’ in case we ever came across a living intelligent species. But it’s also true that teaching any of our language to an alien would take considerable time, and we haven’t got that time. No ship ever built could match speeds with the Intruder, so we would have to give everything to them in short, high-density data bursts. And even assuming they were equipped to receive whichever wavelengths we use, they have only seven or eight hours—in their time frame—to decipher it.”
    â€œI have to concur with Dr. Du Bellay,” Carey spoke up. “As a matter of fact, we’ve already sent out a series of tachships to try precisely what he suggested, but we don’t expect anything to come of it.”
    â€œPerhaps we could signal our existence some other way,” Evelyn Woodcock, Nordli’s assistant, suggested. “Say, a fusion drive pointed at them, blinking off and on. They couldn’t miss that.”
    â€œAnd then what?” Carey asked.
    â€œWhy—surely they’d change course.”
    â€œWith their own mission at stake? If it’s a colony ship of some kind, its supplies are likely very tightly figured. If they change course, they may die. At the speed they’re making we sure as hell can’t offer to refuel them.”
    â€œThere’s an even more disturbing possibility,” Nordli said quietly. “This refueling technique may be deliberately designed to sterilize the system for future colonization.”
    â€œI think it’s unfair to ascribe motives like that to them without proof,” Du Bellay said. The words,