The light pressure and gravity were both inversely proportionate to the square of the Ring’s distance, giving the curved and flush shape of the Ring a peculiar plasticity. Normally, even in such a complicated system, any parts that became concave would remain that way.
“It is probably changing the albedo of the sunlit side of the Ring. It feeds back the intensity of the sunlight. If only the spectrometer on the hound were online,” Per said. “Look at the telemetry readings. Maybe trying to detect proton-antiproton mutual annihilation while blasting it was too simplistic.”
“Everything’s going surprisingly well over here,” Mark stated. “The hound’s slicing along at five hundred meters per second. At this rate, it should reach the southern edge in about a week.”
“The ship is about to approach the edge of the opening. What did you want to see here?” Kindersley asked.
“I would like a close-up look at its repair work, especially now that it is trying to repair a section that was sliced clean through instead of just a… divot,” Per said, sounding a bit unsure of how to describe topography or geomorphometry to the military man.
“There’s no chance that the Ring won’t repair, right?”
“A meteoroid crashing into the Ring and slicing it in two from top to bottom? I am sure the Builders are prepared for that; it is an inevitability. A catastrophic bump by some nickel-iron and ice is what we are replicating,” said Per. “If the Ring cannot survive that, entity or a machine, it would have failed already. Imagine a human being with no immune system—there is no need to try to give it the plague on its thirtieth birthday; it would have died in the cradle.”
“I hate to admit it, but you’re right,” Kindersley said.
“The question is the repair rate. If we attack the Island before it finishes, we might be able to do our job,” said Per.
“Commander, I think we could use the ship’s engines to help the hound cut,” said Mark.
“Good idea. Let’s head to that edge, start working our way from there. That should save us over two days of going around.”
“We’ll cut through from both sides, like building a tunnel. We got enough fuel for the go round?”
“Already checked.”
“We’ll rendezvous with the hound in the middle, then head for the Island.”
“Can we finish our analysis of the severed portion first?” Aki said.
“Get to it!”
ACT X: JANUARY 28, 2022
TWO HOURS AFTER the convergence of probehound and ship, a kilometer-wide gap between the severed edges of the Ring glistened in the sunlight like two giant fluorescent light bulbs standing on end. Since the Ring was no thicker than a sheet of aluminum foil, the bright edgewise shine was proof that some process was under way.
“The edges look lined with fur,” Aki said as she looked at an image capture from the Phalanx’s telescope. What she saw was pure white, reminiscent of a rabbit pelt. A closer look showed a massive number of small fibers growing densely near the severed edges.
“It is some sort of fibrous growth with dense threading.” Per paused, then added, “If we cut the Ring, the material starts to grow. If it comes into contact with something, the fibers expand and grow onto the foreign body. It is like a fungus that thinks, and its capabilities are unaffected by the heat of the engine blast. I would like to move closer if we can.”
“Leave that to me,” Mark responded, carefully lowering the ship toward one of the edges. “We’re at five hundred meters.”
A colony of white fibers began to shimmer just beneath them.
“We’re burning them.”
“No, the engine blast cannot reach from here. The Ring is deflecting the blast by bifurcating it.”
“Then why is the fur wavering so much?” Aki said.
Per thought for a moment and then yelled, “Commander, we need to get out of here. Now. It’s going to spread to the ship.”
“Mark, pull us up,” Kindersley ordered. Without a word, Mark revved the engines to direct the ship away from the Ring. Aki fell backwards from the sudden acceleration as the ship retreated to a distance of ten kilometers.
“Are you sure, Per?” asked the commander.
“That fungus was watching us!”
“Watching us?”
“It is a tropism; the fiber reacts to any heat source other than the sun by pointing toward it and growing fast.”
“How do we check for signs of contamination?”
“The sensors aren’t showing warnings. I’ll run a detailed inspection to be sure,” Mark said.
“We were five hundred meters away. We should be fine, don’t you think?” asked the commander.
“The gap it is trying to bridge between the edges is a full kilometer. I cannot be certain,” Per said.
“Good point. We’ll proceed with caution.”
“Commander, I’m getting abnormal readings from some of the gimbal actuator stress sensors,” Mark announced, his voice going soft.
Aki coughed. “Just a few is normal, right?” There were tens of thousands of sensors. It was not unusual for a few to show abnormal readings at any given time.
“No, this is different. We have a problem,” replied Mark, surprisingly calm now.
“Let’s hold out for a minute, see what happens.”
“If we lose only one actuator, we can still continue. We’ll just balance out a bit more slowly. But if something is hanging on out there,” Mark explained, “if the contamination has reached our backup, it’s game over. Let’s run an inspection to see where we stand. If there’s no infection, we go back. If there’s any contamination at all, then I’ll remove the parts by hand and dispose of them. That would mean working next to the reactors for several hours while the reactors are running. And, of course, it would mean that I wouldn’t come back inside since I would risk bringing the contaminant with me.”
“Wait. Could we eject the engine to solve the problem? We can continue with just one,” Aki protested, her fear hanging in the air.
“Yeah, but if the other engine fails, we’re stranded.”
“But if the only other choice is to leave you to die, I vote that it is worth the risk.”
“Think about that one, Aki,” said Per. “We have two engines, but four people. The math is clear.”
Mark said nothing. An engineer does what his duties require of him whether he likes it or not. Aki remembered Mark’s words, and now it was crystal clear what they meant.
“Out of the cocoons. Everybody to the crew area,” Kindersley said, his voice limned with authority.
MARK WAS SUITING up in front of the airlock. The other two took turns offering farewells. Aki went last.
“Can I finally kiss you?” he asked.
Without speaking, Aki closed her eyes and leaned toward him. She was taken by surprise when she felt his tongue touch hers. Her instinct was to pull back, but she let herself go, giving in to the desire she had felt since the day they met. Mark was the one to finally pull away.
He looked small inside the oversized suit as he finished getting ready for the EVA. He ran a diagnostic, then entered the airlock. Closing the inner door, he gave a thumbs-up through the tiny round window.
Three hours later, Mark completed the mission. He had removed and discarded all of the contaminated parts. All that was left to discard was himself. Aki was unable to speak.
“Looks like you still have some time, Mark. You’re free to do whatever you like,” said Commander Kindersley. Mark mumbled a short prayer to himself, something about how dying was acceptable if his sacrifice led to saving what was left of the world’s population.