Starplex

“What do you think the spheres are?” asked Rhombus, while the probe closed toward its target.

Jag moved all four of his shoulders in a Waldahud shrug. “Might be the remnants of a brown dwarf star that recently blew apart. Any fluid will take on a spherical shape in zero-g, of course. The material in between will presumably eventually be swept up by the larger bodies.”

The probe was getting close to the material between the spheres. “The fog seems to consist of gas studded with solid particles averaging about seven millimeters in diameter,” said Rhombus, whose sensor web had partially crawled onto the console in front of him so that he could read the instruments more easily.

“What kind of gas?” Keith asked.

“Its apparent molecular weight suggests a reasonably heavy or complex compound,” replied Jag, now looking at one of his monitors. “However, the absorption spectrum is that of normal space dust—carbon grains, and so on.” A pause. “There’s no discernible magnetic field around the spheres. That’s surprising; I had supposed the gas particles might have been held in place by such fields.”

“Will the probe be damaged by impact with the particles?” asked Keith.

“It pleases me to respond in the negative,” said Rhombus. “I’m slowing the probe down to avoid that.”

Part of the hologram was obscured as the hatch that covered the atmospheric scoop opened up—bad design, that. “Now collecting samples of the material between the spheres,” said Rhombus. A few moments later the view cleared as the hatch closed. “Sample bay one full,” the Ib reported. “Changing course for atmospheric skim.”

The starfield wheeled around as the probe altered its trajectory. One of the circles of blackness was soon in the center of its view. The ebony sphere grew larger and larger until it dominated everything. The probe had headlights, which Rhombus had turned on. They made two murky shafts that penetrated a few meters into the dark, swirling material. A different part of the view was obscured as another sample hatch opened.

“Taking upper-atmosphere samples,” reported the Ib, and then, a moment later, “Sample container full.”

“Adequate,” said Jag. “Now dive down two hundred meters—or however far you can go safely—and get some more sphere material.”

“Doing so, in harmonious peace,” said Rhombus’s clipped tones.

Everything was pitch-black, except for the twin pools of light from the headlight beams. They were now only penetrating a meter or so. For one brief moment, something solid seemed to be in the probe’s path—an ovoid shape the size of a dirigible—but it was gone from view almost at once.

“Depth now ninety-one meters,” said Rhombus. “Surprising. External pressure is very light—far less than I’d have expected.”

“Keep going down, then,” said Jag.

The probe continued to descend. Rhombus’s web flashed in consternation. “The pressure sensor must have been damaged—maybe an impact with a piece of gravel. I’m still reading almost no atmospheric pressure.”

Jag lifted his upper shoulders. “All right. Fill a compartment here, then bring it all home.”

The third hatch did not obscure the camera at all, although its opening probably shook the craft enough that had they been able to see anything the view would have jiggled a bit.

“The internal-pressure gauge inside the sample compartment shows the same almost-zero pressure the external gauge is indicating,” said Rhombus. “Of course, they run through the same microprocessor. Anyway, the compartment should have filled instantly, given that it was a vacuum before the hatch opened.”

Rhombus left the hatch open for a few more seconds, just to be sure, then closed it, and turned the probe around, bringing it back to Starplex.

Once the probe was back in its launching tube, its sample compartments were disengaged and moved by robot arms onto conveyors, which took them down to Jag’s lab. Jag, meanwhile, took an elevator there himself.

The containers plugged into jacks on the walls of the lab.

They didn’t have to be opened; sensors and cameras could look inside through the jacks.

Jag sat down in his chair—a real handcrafted Waldahud seat, not a polychair—and activated the tall, thin monitors in front of him. He then keyed in a sequence of commands that selected a standard barrage of tests, and watched with growing amazement as the results appeared on his screens.

Spectroscopy: negative findings.

Electromagnetic sweep: negative findings.

Beta decay: none.

Gamma-ray emissions: none.

Screen after screen lit up: negative findings; none; negative findings; none.

He tapped a key, and the scale beneath the testing bay read off the mass of the sample container: 12.782 kilograms.

“Central Computer,” called Jag into the air. “Check the spec sheet for this sample container. How much does it mass when empty?”

“The container’s mass is 12.782 kilograms,” barked PHANTOM in Waldahudar.

Jag swore. “The fardint thing is empty.”

“Correct,” said PHANTOM.