In Absentia

by William Bowden

The descent unit appeared to be running slow this morning. It hadn’t even entered the free-fall mode yet, and Confirmer 1st Class Telk Baszir was irritated. He was rarely late for an appointment, let alone an inquiry. Technology so often seemed to fail these days ...

Perhaps it was the oxygen rich atmosphere corroding everything, as the Systemizers claimed, but he suspected there were other issues worthy of investigation. Yes indeed! He made a mental note to put in an Evaluation Request to the Administrator when all this business was behind him.

Finally the unit was underway properly, and in a brief instant he was at surface level. As the doors opened he closed his eyes momentarily to allow the protector to adjust. It was never fast enough, and the sunlight on this world still managed to blaze it’s way through. Damn it, he really should have put in the extra work and got the superior G series optical system. Another thing to look into.

As he made his way across the ‘city’ — as he believed it had been called, he was distracted by the endless excavations. Whilst it was true that the fleet had arrived only 30 orbits after the species had self-terminated, the nature of the catastrophe had left much hidden from view.

He’d rued the day he volunteered for this particular assignment.

“The importance of surface work”, they’d told him!

“The straight line to promotion”, they’d said.

He was severly doubting those words as he baked under the savage onslaught of the sun. Still at least he wasn’t in a ‘wet area’ like his friend Telk Sazuy, the poor bastard!

Then again, this whole expedition hadn’t turned out the way he’d hoped. Of course when they left Prime, the premise had been to find the species still alive. From the propaganda and decoded visual signals that he’d been shown, there was no reason to doubt that they would be.

The plan was to return home a hero. Part of the first expedition ever to achieve communication with another world. He was going to set foot on that world, meet its inhabitants, and maybe even try to learn to communicate with them.

Instead, around the midway point, the signals had died, and since they were so far out, it was decided to turn the expedition into an investigative survey.

Survey. The word itself was inextricably linked with boredom! In fact he now realised how much he truly hated the idea. All those language experts and cultural analysts were having a field day. They thought this was paradise. Some had even ventured the insane opinion that it was good thing that the species was dead!

“It assisted in an uninterrupted and more detailed analysis”, they claimed.

As he made his way closer to the destination he felt a sense of hopelessness wash over him once again. At least if the species had been alive, then things could have been very different. Perhaps as some had suggested they would have been aggresive, adversarial, and he would have become embroiled in a major conflict. In a way he’d hoped the entire crossing that things might have turned ugly, Prime had been at peace for centuries and life there was ... well routine to say the least.

His musings were interrupted by a large mass of material falling onto the path in front of him.

“Are you alright Sir?” shouted a worried voice from above him.

“Yes, Yes...your code?”

“G286354Alpha, it was an accident!”

“Of course. Why did this structure collapse?”

“We detonated a small charge, to clear for further excavation”.

“Who is in charge here?”

“Professor Maxim”.

“Take me to him immediately!”

“Yes. Yes Sir!”

So Maxim was in charge, the very individual he was investigating. This incident could prove useful, it would give him an initial angle. Failure to operate within safety parameters, lack of warning edicts, yes, he could intimidate Maxim from the word go. Excellent.

He felt his mood lifting slightly, especially as they made their way into the disorganised looking dig site where he could see protocol violations occurring everywhere around him. He’d been told that Maxim put science before safety and it seemed those words were true. Even as they approached the Professor himself, large jets of some kind of gas erupted suddenly from the ground to the left of them, throwing equipment high into the air and scattering the staff.

“Professor Maxim?”

“Yes, you’re the Confirmer eh. Sent to shut us down I suppose?”

“I’m merely here to observe your methodology and work practice ...”

“My work practice? Right if it’s my work you want to see then come over here”.

“Very well, but I warn you, I will be conducting a thorough investigation of this operation.”

“I expect no less Confirmer, no less”.

“Do you realise I was nearly buried under an explosion just now”?

“Ah yes, my apologies, we expected you a little earlier ...”

“I was delayed by another matter.”

“Right, well, we had lookouts for you, and in any case you were within a safe radius were you not?”

“Perhaps ... What is this work you wish to show me?”

“Down here, that blast has probably revealed more of it this time.”

“What was that gas we just saw?”

“Possibly ruptures in the cooling system, we’re ripping it apart you know. If only we understood it better, we could preserve more.”

Maxim then led him down a poorly lit staircase into a small chamber. It was lined with pipes and filled with somewhat alien looking equipment. He removed his protectors as the lighting here was tolerable.

“What is this place, what was its purpose?”

“You mean what IS its purpose?”

“IS ... you mean this equipment is still functioning?”

“Yes some of it, look.” With that the Professor pressed a button on a nearby console and a series of lights came on.

“How is that possible? I thought the species ...!”

“The species yes, but the technology no. Some of it was quite well designed and has outlived its creators”.

“But the power source?”

“This installation derives its power from below crust of the planet! So you see incidents on the surface have no effect, it keeps going! They used a system of modulated electrons, it’s quite fascinating.”

“So what’s it all for? You mentioned a cooling device”.

“A system, yes, a small system ...”

“Professor! Professor!” came a shouting voice.

“Yes over here, what is it Gahn?”

“The last explosion Professor, it’s revealed an uncompromised unit!”

“Let’s go Confirmer, now you’ll see what we really do here!”

The Professor set off after Gahn and Baszir followed in their wake. Modulated electron power source, he said to himself. He wondered if the Professor had announced that particular find yet. Baszir hadn’t kept up with all the developments, there were too many, but the discovery of the power system was of prime importance. The last he’d heard, it wasn’t fully understood by anyone. He could possibly get the Professor on a With-hold if he acted swiftly ... And no other scientist had figured it out yet. Still, he was here to observe after all, and there were no-doubt other infractions in store. He would be patient, yes, he’d see the day out and then begin his report.

After a short distance they emerged into a small cavern. Baszir could hear a low hum permeating the air around him and it was cold. Mist could be seen rising off pipes, and indicator lights flickered eerily on panels. Maxim was heading over to a large cylindrical object in the centre of the chamber and Baszir followed slowly.

“It’s completely intact Professor, no seal breaches whatsoever” Gahn was saying.

“Yes Gahn, but errr ... Look here, this refrigeration pipe is leaking slightly”.

“Will we have to go to stage two then Professor?”

“Looks like it, yes, I think it’s inevitable — if we leave it now it’ll end up like the others.”

“Others?” Baszir interjected, “What is this thing anyway?”

“It’s a cryogenic storage tank”.

“Containing what?”

“Show him Gahn.”

Baszir was handed a yellow envelope by the assistant. It looked old and faded, and was covered with peeling labels and strange hieroglyphs.

“What’s this, I can’t read their language ...”

“Open the flap at the end”, said the Professor still examining the machinery at the base of the tank.

Inside the envelope was a small pictorial representation. It showed a member of the species encased inside what appeared to be a block of ice whilst another stood nearby. Baszir began to sense the meaning immediately.

“Do you mean to tell me that one of the creatures is frozen inside that container!”

“Yes.”

“Still alive?”

“Possibly.”

“And you intend to revive it?”

“Why not, the cooling system is damaged, if it is alive it won’t survive a system failure”.

“I don’t think this is an advisable course of action for you to take alone. I understand you only have two medical researchers on your team, Dr Wassen is the acknowledged expert in ...”

Baszir was interrupted as a loud whining sound filled the air. All around lights were flashing. Maxim said quickly:

“I’ve no time for a debate Confirmer, the process is beginning by itself anyway, we can’t stop it now.”

And with that Maxim was by the tank, pouring over dials and controls whilst issuing hurried instructions to his aides.

“Don’t worry”, said Gahn “The Professor is a genius, if we can save the creature we will.”

“I’m not worried about the creature dying, I’m worried it may survive.”