[For some background on these stories, please see this post [link] over at my blog.]
Prompt: Write a short story illustrating a scientific principle. (Word count: 259)
(A revised (100-word) version of this story appears in the anthology 100 Worlds. )
* * * * *
“Probe AR-50 not responding, sir.” Operations engineer Maxwell pulled up a plot of its descent. “At 5,000 feet, gravity increased exponentially.”
“Impossible. We’ve sent down dozens without incident,” chief engineer Dupree said.
“Sensor malfunction?”
“Ready five more,” Dupree instructed. “Send one down, same coordinates, flightpath as AR-50. The others 1, 2, 4, 8 miles away.”
Probes were launched, telemetry recorded. Maxwell put the results on the viewscreen. The primary probe encountered the same anomaly as AR-50. Probe two, encountered it at 3,500 feet. Probe three at 500. The others made it to the surface of Betelgeuse-4 without any deviation in Newton’s Inverse Square Law.
Maxwell connected the three data points with a light pen.
Dupree took the pen, smoothed the lines into an arc. “A dome. Visual?”
“Scanners negative.”
“Rig a probe with real-time video. Same course as AR-50.”
At 100,000 feet the viewscreen was filled with the desertlike surface common to 90% of the near-waterless planet. 50,000 feet, no change, ditto 20,000, double-ditto 10,000.
Static broke in at 7,000 feet. At 5,500 the screen was awash with “snow.”
“Approaching threshold,” Maxwell stated.
At 5,000 feet the screen flickered. Snow, darkness, whiteout. Snow-darkness-whiteout. Snowdarknesswhiteout. Nothing.
“Playback from 5,100, one-tenth speed.”
Everything appeared as it had “live,” only slower. Then, at 4,850 feet there was one frame—it took Maxwell four tries to isolate it—showing something other than video artifacts. An alien city three miles wide.
“Look at it, Maxwell. First-ever intact alien civilization. Look at it.”
–30–