Part 3 (2/2)
You've made it very hard for us to get reports, but I understand we successfully placed stuff in Sennech's crust.”
”Yes; causing volcanoes. Our scientists speculated that any kind of matter would do it.”
”That's right. Actually, we were projecting weighed chunks of rock. When one bit of matter, even a single atom, finds itself materializing where another already is, unnatural elements may be formed, most of them unstable. That's what blew holes in your crust and let the magma out.”
Tulan considered the military implications of the weapon for a few moments, then pulled his mind back. ”I see; but what about the radiation? It wasn't more than a trace when I left.”
Kliu looked away for a while before answering. ”When we learned you'd defied your government, our own military got out of hand. They had a couple of days before the sun cut us off completely, and they began throwing stuff as soon as it could be dug and hauled to the projectors.
They used high energies to get it past the sun. As we realize now, a lot of it hit the planet deeper than at first, below the crust. Under such pressure a different set of fissionables was formed. Some of them burst out and poisoned the atmosphere, but most of them are still there.” He leaned forward and eyed Tulan hard. ”We've got to get an expedition out there to study things. Will you help?”
There was another of the palpable silences, and when he spoke Tulan's voice sounded unnatural. ”I--yes; we'll help. Whatever you want. Is ...
Sennech finished?”
Kliu smiled tightly. ”Sennech, for sure; and she may take the rest of us with her. n.o.body conceived what this might come to. A lot of those deep materializations produced pockets of dense fissionables, and they're converging toward the center under their own weight. When they get to a certain point, we'll have a fine monument to Man's ingenuity. A planet-size nova.” He stood up. ”I'll start organizing.”
Tulan existed someway through the preparations, and when they were in s.p.a.ce again the solid familiarity of his s.h.i.+p helped. His staff was carrying on wonderfully; s.h.i.+elding him, he suspected, from considerable hostility. Discipline held up.
A technology that had spanned five orbits and probed beyond was at bay, and the expedition was tremendous. Hardly an art or science was unrepresented. If need be, whole s.h.i.+ps could be built in s.p.a.ce.
A beam from Teyr as they pa.s.sed told of refugees by the hundreds of thousands, dumped in the wilderness with a few s.h.i.+ps still trickling in.
Tulan would have traded everything he could command to hear a word of Jezef or the family, but Teyr wasn't concerned with individuals and he didn't ask.
Sennech was dull gray in the telescopes, showing, as they neared, flecks of fire. They went in fast, using her gravity to help them curve into a forced orbit as they strained to decelerate. Thermocouples gave readings close to the boiling point of water; that, probably, was the temperature of the lower air.
Roboscouts went down first, then, as conditions were ascertained, manned s.h.i.+ps. Tulan took the flags.h.i.+p down once. Her coolers labored and her searchlights were swallowed in murk within a few feet. Sounds carried through the hull; the howl of great winds and the thumps of explosions.
Once a geyser of glowing lava spattered the s.h.i.+p.
Within hours the picture began to form. The surface was a boiling sea broken only by transient mountain peaks which tumbled down in quakes or were washed away by the incessant hot rain. It would have been hard to find a single trace of the civilization that had flourished scant hours before.
The slower job was learning, by countless readings and painful deduction, what was going on inside the planet. Tulan occupied himself with organizational tasks and clung to what dignity he could. After an eternity Kliu had time for him.
”She'll blow, all right,” the scientist said, sinking tiredly into a seat. ”Within half a year. Her year.”
”Twenty thousand hours,” Tulan said automatically. ”How about the other planets?”
”Coar has one chance in a hundred, Teyr possibly one in ten.”
Tulan had to keep talking. ”The outer satellites. We can do a lot in that time.”
Kliu shrugged. ”A few thousand people, and who knows what will happen to them afterward? It's going to be a long time before the System's inhabitable again, if ever.”
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