And upward, toward Beijing 11–11, where Dr. Chen cried out in startlement and grief at what she had seen, and at what she suspected was its meaning.
The only phenomenon that she could think of that would produce so violent a discharge was a nuclear explosion. She knew the design of the EEP as she knew every surface, every weld, every circuit on Beijing 11–11. She knew that Kimana Hasani’s pod carried no fissile material. She inferred what had happened: the atmosphere of Yuggoth was composed of SeeTee matter.
SeeTee. CT. ContraTerrene. Antimatter.
She experienced a flash of recollection, from her school days of a student joke: what do you get if a normal matter boy makes it with an antimatter girl?
Answer: no matter.
No matter. No matter, in truth. Just one hell of a release of pure energy.
Yuggoth was composed of SeeTee matter.
The mountains and plains of Yuggoth, its black, viscid seas, its ebony ice caps, its cyclopean cities with their towering, eye-wrenching structures, its monstrous inhabitants, all were composed of contraterrene matter. Of antimatter.
Chen Jing-kuo returned to the electron telescope. She trained it upon the Yuggothian city directly below the point where Kimana Hasani’s pod and Kimana Hasani himself had been converted to pure energy. The city lay in ruins. Titanic structures had been toppled, crushed to rubble. The inhabitants of the city had died by the millions, their terrible bodies torn and scattered hither and yon.
Shaking her head, Chen Jing- kuo wiped her tears. She turned from the telescope and opened a hyperlightspeed link to Luna. The communications operator who received her call was a onetime classmate, Matyah Melajitm. For a moment Melajitm’s smile filled Dr. Chen’s screen. Then the comm- op saw the expression on Chen Jing-quo’s face.
“What’s the matter? Something’s happened. What is it?”
“Get Dr. Jerom. Kimana is dead. We seem — I think we’ve started a war. The first interplanetary war!”
It seemed to take hours — more likely less than two minutes — for Harleyann Jerom to replace Matyah Melajitm at the Luna comm-link.
“Dr. Chen, tell me.”
Chen Jing-quo gave her a quick summary of the event.
Harleyann Jerom groaned. “All right, Chen. Do nothing now. Better yet, batten down Beijing 11–11. Not that I imagine you can do much to defend the station if the Yuggothi choose to counterattack. They’re likely to interpret the explosion as an attack. They surely will if they’re anything like us.”
“There was no way. I mean, how could Kimana ever imagine. ” Dr. Chen’s voice trailed away.
“Never mind blame,” Jerom responded. “There will be plenty of time for that later on. Or maybe not. But not now, that’s for sure. Keep the link open.”
Chen Jing-quo saw Harleyann Jerom turn away, heard her give instructions to Matyah Melajitm. Chen knew that Jerom was going to talk with Earth, get a quick decision from the politicians who ran planetary affairs.
A quick decision.
Fat chance.
Jerom reappeared on Beijing 11–11’s comm screen. “Chen, was there ever — ever — any indication that the Yuggothi were even aware of Beijing 11–11?”
Chen Jing-quo shook her head. “No. That’s what was so — we tried — we tried to establish communication with them. They ignored us. Or — it wasn’t even that. It was as if they were completely unaware of us. As if were bacteria, viruses, and they were humans. Or mammoths. How many bacteria does such a beast crush with every step? To the Yuggothi we were bacteria or less. They never even noticed us. Until Kimana hit their atmosphere. Then. ” She spread her hands, helpless to continue.
Harleyann Jerom nodded. “An apt simile. They probably won’t be angry with us. A mersa bacterium doesn’t hate its host and a human doesn’t hate a bacterium. They’re just two kinds of organism, and one will kill the other in order to preserve itself and perpetuate its kind. The infection will kill the host or the host will kill the infection.”
“Right.” Chen Jing-kuo reacted with a manic grin.
Jerom’s voice was harsh. “Get a grip!”
“Nothing personal,” Dr. Chen went on.
“I said, get a grip! This is a crisis that could make all the wars in human history look like playground squabbles.”
“I’m sorry,” Chen said. She was calmer now. Her nerves were jumping. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. It must be beating close to two hundred beats a minute. Her breath was coming in desperate gasps.
She recognized the phenomena. Some ancestor was reaching down to her, reaching through the genetic matter that carried ancient reflexes. Her body sensed her desperation, prepared itself for combat or for flight. Appropriate reactions for a Cro-Magnon, for Pithecanthropus Erectus, for an ancestor even more ancient. But hardly apt for Homo Interplanetarius.
She was in control of herself. “What are my instructions, Dr. Jerom?”
“For now, observe and report. What do you see on Yuggoth?”
Chen returned to the telescopes. She activated a third screen, one for an electron image, one for an optical image, one for a superimposed combination.
“It’s daytime down there. You know, it’s always daytime on Yuggoth. The planet rotates but its light comes from its core so it doesn’t really matter. The city that was destroyed by the shock wave — I see Yuggothi arriving from all directions. I suppose they’re rescue crews. The devastation is terrible. The casualties — I can’t even guess at the number. Some of them are still alive, though. I see Yuggothi crawling through the ruins. Some with dreadful injuries. Some are just — just — it looks as if their body parts, when they were ripped off by the shock wave, some of them didn’t die and now they’re flopping around, moving like torn starfish. And — and — I can’t go on, Harleyann. I can’t.”
“That’s all right, Jing-kuo. You’ve done what you can. And we’re getting feeds from Beijing 11–11’s instruments.”
There was a pause, then Harleyann Jerom resumed. “You’re convinced that Kimana Hasani’s EEP set off the explosion on Yuggoth?”
Dr. Chen’s eyes were still focused on the screens showing conditions on the surface of Yuggoth. “I’m certain, Harleyann. The only explanation — I’m convinced it’s the only explanation, the only way that little EEP could cause the devastation — the only explanation is that Yuggoth is composed of antimatter. Once Kimana’s EEP hit the atmosphere, that was all it took. The EEP and Kimana himself were canceled out. Converted to pure energy, along with an equivalent mass of Yuggothi atmosphere. He — ”
Her words were cut off by a gasp from Harleyann Jerom. Then the voice of the woman on Luna said, “They’re here!”
“Who? What are you saying, Harleyann?”
“The Yuggothi.”
“Impossible. I just saw them leave their planet.”
“They’re here. They’re circling overhead. Their ships are unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. They look like — like cyborgs. They’re monsters, something like bats, something like octopuses, something like humans. And machines. They’re machines, too.”
“But — they can’t have traveled that far in a few minutes.”