Attunga - 29. Part 29.

ATTUNGA Part 29.

***

Eyes wide, everyone stared at the display.

“Someone's done this. It couldn't just happen.”

Wirrin agreed with Thom. This great cavern appeared to be an almost perfect sphere seven and a half kilometers in diameter with, in stark contrast to everything they'd seen so far, unnaturally smooth walls. No jutting rocks or mini mountains here, just a disturbingly regular surface curving evenly away.

“Zoom the display on the walls Calen. We might be able to tell if they're artificial. Turaku, have you analysed these walls yet?”

“The whole phenomenon is quite natural, as you'll quickly work out for yourselves.”

“Natural? A globe like this inside the asteroids can't be natural. It's shape is too perfect.”

“I've found something!”

Thom's yell returned everyone's attention to the display as it shifted then zoomed towards the far side of the cavern.

“Dingoes! This is natural too? What's going on?”

Wirrin stared in amazement at a floating ball of rock. Was it rock? It almost looked metallic, and once again a seemingly perfect sphere? There was silence while everyone took it in.

“How big is it?”

Wirrin did his rapid checking.

“It's maximum diameter for any cross-section is 430 meters and its minimum is 425. That's less than a three meter variation from the median. I don't see how it can be natural.”

There was another yell from Thom.

“It's moving! It'll collide with the wall in. ...fourteen minutes.”

“Yes Thom. Now check the density and you'll have enough information to gain understanding.”

Thom would be more interested in the collision then the density but Wirrin was intrigued. The motion and density of the sphere were the factors involved in what they were seeing? No, maybe the imminent collision was also a factor? It was after Thom's call of motion and a collision that Turaku had added the density clue. He thought about it and realised that Turaku's statement also implied the sphere was central to the explanation.

“The sphere has shaped the cavern walls?”

“Yes, but it wasn't a sphere when it was first trapped by the aggregation of the asteroids. Countless collisions over time have smoothed all the surfaces, and the process is continuing.”

Full understanding flared.

“That piece of rock has been bumping around in here for so long it's scraped the walls of the cavern into a globe and itself into a sphere?”

“That's correct, though technically it's one large piece of metallic ore. Rock would have fractured. Thom, I suggest you change position to better observe the moment of collision.”

That was quickly done while everyone watched the display screen. Thom had a great question.

“Why does the ball keep moving? Every collision should slow it down.”

“It doesn't keep moving. The simulation I've just run predicts it will be practically motionless in another seven hundred years. External forces must be affecting the aggregate and re-initiating the process.”

“External? Why would that start the ball moving?”

Thom explained to Calen that if the aggregate moved the motion of the ball was relative.

“So the ball is still and the big asteroids around it are moving?”

“Sort of. That's what relative means.”

“It must be a huge force if it can move a seventy kilometer asteroid.”

“We've discovered a trajectory confluence with one of the major comets some 3,000 years ago as the likely cause of the current motion, but the most usual source will be collisions with other asteroids.”

“A lump of comet bashed into the aggregate? That's amazing.”

The whole thing was amazing as far as Wirrin was concerned and getting more amazing with every new piece of information.

“Five minutes to impact! Just think, it might be a cosmic dragon's egg and this collision is the moment it hatches.”

Thom grinned at his melodramatic and fanciful announcement, but it stirred Wirrin's imagination and somehow seemed to fit the moment.

“A 400 meter egg? I hope we don't meet the parents.”

'I would love to meet a cosmic dragon. Thom's ship would protect us from any danger and Wirrin's solution brain would allow us to communicate.'

“We call him brainiac, Sonic.”

'Brainiac is too mechanical. Wirrin comes to his solutions in a very non-machine way. Look at how he designed our drones. You commented on his unusual approach yourself.'

“Oh, his cheating! Well, brainiac sounds better than solution-brain.”

'Whenever you say brainiac from now on it will have a new meaning.'

Thom went thoughtful.

“Yes, I suppose it will.”

Wirrin made a kind of mental blink to clear his thoughts. In a short space of time they'd gone from Comet collisions, to cosmic dragons, to the weird interaction between Sonic and Thom, and now it was time to watch the great egg scrape against the cavern wall. It was barely even a scrape because the angle of approach was so low, more of a bounce, and from this close you could see the whole thing was rotating.

“Nothing much happened!”

“What did you expect?”

“I don't know. Sparks, or bits of the cavern wall breaking off.”

“Quite a bit happened Thom. There were sparks but they were hidden behind the mass of the ball, parts of the wall did crumble away, the speed decreased by a small amount and the rotation increased slightly, and of course the direction changed. The next collision will occur in just over an hour.”

“It's path is so close to the wall it almost looks like it's rolling.”

'The dragon didn't hatch.'

“It will one day Sonic. Maybe in a thousand years. Will we wait for the next collision or do something else?”

“I've got an interesting idea.”

This was from Calen and his tone sounded like it was something even more dubious than exploring inside an asteroid.

“Go on!”

“We could have a ride on it. That would be a good adventure.”

Even Thom looked nonplussed.

“Calen, there's no gravity. We could land but we'd just float straight off and get left behind.”

'Find some method of attachment. That would make it possible and riding a dragon egg is more memorable than looking at it.'

“Drill into it and use cables.”

“We'd have to design something with the pico-factory. External waldos with special drills on them would work.”

“We can't land on that thing. By the time we organise something it'll be colliding again.”

'Make part of our hull an electromagnet. That would be faster than waldos and drilling. Wirrin will manage that in five minutes.'

“An electromagnet? Because the egg's metallic? Sonic, you're a clever little sardine.”

'Thank you Thom. I accept your offer to take control once we leave the rift.'

Thom snorted. He'd walked into that one.

Wirrin managed the design work in less than five minutes. All it involved was finding the specifications for a team of tech-bots and figuring out how to make the pico-factory build them and the materials needed. The actual construction, on the outside hull of the ship, took longer and by the time it was completed the next collision time was down to forty-three minutes.

“How do I make it work?”

“You'll have to manoeuvre the ship to within seventy centimeters of the surface then switch on the electromagnet. It'll be tricky because you'll have to match the rotation speed.”

“Wirrin, that's not tricky. It's one of the first docking skills you learn before you control any space vessel. I can do it with my eyes closed.”

'Thom is right. This would be easy even for a dolphin.'

“Are you sure Sonic? You haven't familiarised yourself with the ship yet.”

'I believe I have. Wirrin made the drone guidance an extension of ship control and I've had hours of experience with that.'

“Of course you have, but you'd better be quick then because collision time is in forty-one minutes.”

Thom was handing control to Sonic now? After all the threats of having to wait till they were in free space and then only taking over for a couple of minutes? Well that was Thom. Wirrin knew he was doing it because he understood how it would be another special adventure for Sonic.

Apart from showing the curved surface of the egg in the foreground, the display of the cavern was hardly changed till rotation brought the ship close to the cavern wall. Wirrin thought it was too close and liked it better when the spin took them away from the rushing surface. It was totally memorable though, and Sonic kept them in position for two more rotations before timing it perfectly to release the electromagnet and take them away from both the egg and the wall.

'Thank you Thom. It is a wonderful ship. Would you like me to guide us to the next group of caverns? I see the they are only eleven kilometers further into the rift.'

Thom laughed.

“Go on then, but don't make any mistakes. I'm watching like a tiger shark.”

'Your bite is fearful. I will take the greatest care.'

Thom really was feeling generous because he allowed Sonic to fly the ship for nearly two hours, through the rift and exploring the next set of caverns, and giving advice which Sonic ignored because it was a stir. Except for two occasions. Once when he asked for help with a tricky canyon manoeuvre which involved learning how to use the ships lateral thrusters, and once when Thom saw a problem ahead and sounded a defensive warning.

When the ship left the rift Thom took over again and several more hours passed in checking out the other three main asteroid sections.

The trip home was interesting in a different way, as it involved a number of joint activities with the Comet, a mock battle between the two ships which Thom lost but was excited at how much his ship could accomplish, an amazing docking manoeuvre without automatics while both ships were under 18G of thrust, and a surprising exercise where for half an hour Thom used the link between the two ships to control the Comet remotely. As they parted company at the home reach Sonic announced it had been the best adventure ever and he was going to search for other locations which might be as good.

***

Life was definitely exciting but the trio was in total agreement that it was also way too busy.

Thom had the easiest set up with Comet work and special training for the systems on his new ship, while on top of that he was now working to help a team of eleven advanced pilots in the finer points of controlling Comet class ships.

Wirrin's study load was still overloaded with InfoSystem, K74, and Rogue related studies. He'd adapted to the long hours and the challenge and sense of achievement helped him keep going. The Representative work with Freedom still continued but was cut back to one very busy day of visits and meetings every two or three weeks. A big change was approaching with the easing of K74 and Rogue work, and the learning about AIs would take over approximately one third of his effort.

Calen's calendar was beyond belief and the likelihood of Sonic going on any adventures in the near future was almost non-existent.

“How's he going to do all this stuff? It looks like you're squeezing over two months of activities into just one.”

Calen nearly nodded his head off.

“I know. Just this coming week we've got the new Attunga reaches coming online and four of the enhanced dolphin pods moving over there, two visits to the Freedom dolphins because he hasn't seen them for a month, practice work for at least two afternoons with the doctor's wife for her dolphin music Festival, plus his normal study time with Pirramar. The week after that he's talking with the people from the Cadre ships for at least three days, as well as the music practice, and getting ready for a four-day conference with scientists from the three Habitats.”

“Three days with the Cadre ship people? What's that about?”

“I'll find out more next week but it's important to him because he's already spoken to some of them and he's been studying stuff about K74.”

“Extra study? On top of what he does with Pirramar and me?”

“Yes, he's been using his InfoSystem at the dolphinarium more than usual. If he didn't have so many other things happening I think it would be a full project for him.”

“He hasn't had one of his projects for ages.”

“Yes he has. It just doesn't seem like it because he can't do them the full on the way he used to.”

“Them? He's done more than one?”

“Thom, don't be a dingo-brain. In the last twelve months he's learnt his InfoSystem, he's practiced flying the Comet till he's better than most of the other pilots, he understands two of Freedom's traditional languages, and that's only some of his efforts.”

“Whoo! I am a dingo brain. He's done all that music stuff with Miah and the medical work with the doctor too. You get so used to him doing everything it doesn't have the same project feel about it.”

“Are the dolphin pods all keen to get to the new reaches on Attunga? I bet Turaku's pleased to have dolphins of his own again.”

“That's complicated. They want to see their new homes but the Enhanced dolphins have been together as one group ever since the project started all those years ago, and splitting is really hard for them. It's just as hard for the ones staying on Warrakan too and Sonic was talking to Yajala and Turaku about getting a special ferry so they can visit each other whenever they want.”

“I can take them on the Comet. They don't need a ferry.”

“If you end up making five or six trips a day you'll soon get sick of it.”

“What about the Earth dolphins? How many of them are transferring?”

“Not a single one. They've settled into their new reaches on Warrakan so well they don't want to leave.”

Wirrin knew from Sonic and Calen that the Earth dolphins were happy and thriving, but this was startling news.

“Wombats! What's going to happen? There can't be dolphin reaches on Attunga without dolphins in them.”

“We don't know. Some of the rangers have been pushing for us to make another trip to Earth.”

“Hey! That's a great idea. If we could get three or four thousand new dolphins it would set Attunga up perfectly.”

“It wouldn't be like last time Thom. The dolphins there aren't under threat any more, and it would be another setback for all the marine centers which had to start their research and care programs all over with new dolphins.”

“So why are some of the rangers suggesting it then?”

“They've been in contact with the Earth centers they came from and told them our dolphin program is really special and there are marine scientists who've been asking for their dolphins to become involved with us.”

“They've been talking about our Enhanced dolphins? That's under strong security.”

“Not about the Enhanced side of things. More the resources and help that we have for dolphins in general. The doctor's team has been spreading new health information and other research and our dolphinariums have become recognised as some of the most advanced marine centers in the Solar System, especially for anything related to dolphins. Gelar and Martin have been working with Yajala and they've looked at nearly thirty requests for some type of involvement.”

“Thirty? If they each brought a pod with them that would be over four hundred dolphins. That's totally worth a trip.”

“Not really. Most of them are interested scientists or rangers without any primary responsibility for a pod.”

“That doesn't sound so good. It's probably less than two hundred dolphins.”

“From what Gelar has found out it's actually about a hundred and forty.”

“Is that enough to make a trip?”

“Probably no.”

Calen grinned and continued.

“But Sonic likes the idea so probably yes.”

“Well that's it. It will definitely happen.”

Thom looked delighted but then his expression changed.

“But not for ages, from the sound of all the things you've got going with him.”

Wirrin's tingle of anticipation was tempered by the same thought.

***