Starplex

“How about a fusion exhaust?” asked Lianne. “Could it be a ship coming out of the shortcut tail first, as if it were decelerating?”

Jag consulted more readouts. “It certainly is a fusion signature,” he said. “But it would have to be a very powerful engine.”

Keith left his console and walked over to stand just behind Rhombus.

“Any chance of contacting that ship?”

One of Rhombus’s manipulatory ropes whipped out to touch a control. “Forgive me, but not on conventional radio. The thing is putting out an enormous amount of EMI. A hyperspace radio link might work, but there’s no way of knowing which quantized level they use for communication.”

“Start at the lowest and work your way up,” Keith said. “Standard prime-number sequences.”

Another flick of a rope. “Transmitting. But it would literally take forever to try every level.”

Keith turned around and faced Rissa. “Looks like you might get your first-contact opportunity after all.” He turned back to look at the shortcut. “Christ, that’s bright.” Every object on the bridge that wasn’t swathed in the hologram was bathed in green light now. Although no shadows fell on the invisible floor, the staff members were all casting harsh ones on the seating gallery behind the workstations.

“It’s even brighter than it looks,” said Jag. “The camera is filtering most of it.”

“What the hell could it be?” Keith asked, looking at Jag.

“Whatever it is,” said Jag, “it’s streaming out a lot of charged particles—could be a particle-beam weapon.” The green circle continued to expand. “Diameter is now one hundred and ten meters,” said Jag. “One fifty.” His barking grew softer, incredulous. “Two fifty. Five hundred. A full kilometer. Two kilometers.”

Keith turned back to the flaring image in the hologram. “Jesus,” he said, bringing an arm up to shield his eyes.

Slapping of ropes from Rhombus—an Ibese scream. “Profuse apologies,” he said a moment later as the display darkened somewhat. “The object is brighter than the automatic compensators are designed to deal with. I shall henceforth monitor the display directly.”

The green circle kept expanding at a great rate. Its edges were coruscating with violet Soderstrom discharges—a pyrotechnical halo around the vast green center. The central area still seemed to be a flat circle.

“Temperature is about twelve thousand Kelvin,” said Jag.

“That’s hot,” said Rissa. “What in God’s name is it?”

An alarm started sounding, warbling high and low.

“Radiation warning!” shouted Lianne. She wheeled to face Keith. “Recommended action: move Starplex.”

“Right,” Keith said, sprinting back to his command station. “Thor, pick up the pace. Put us another fifty thousand klicks from the shortcut.” He glanced at his astrogation readout. “Course two hundred and ten degrees by forty-five degrees. Use thrusters only; I don’t want to drop into hyperspace until we know what that thing is.”

“As you say, boss,” said Thor, hands flying over his instruments.

The apparent growth of the green circle slowed, but it was still getting larger; its expansion rate was exceeding Starplex’s maneuvering speed.

“I didn’t know a shortcut could open that wide,” said Rhombus. “Jag, just what exactly is coming through it?”

Both sets of Jag’s shoulders rose and fell. “Unknown. The spectral analysis is unusual—lots of heavy-element Fraunhofer absorption lines. It matches nothing in our database.” He paused. “If it’s a fusion exhaust, the ship must be gigantic.”

“It looks perfectly flat,” said Rissa. “How can it keep expanding as a circle?”

“The apparent expansion is caused by the opening up of the shortcut aperture,” said Jag. “They open at a finite speed, and, when touched by a flat surface, an aperture will take on a circular shape until the edges are reached.” He used his left eyes to glance at a readout. “The rate at which the aperture is opening is increasing, although at an uneven rate.”

The halo of violet, representing the edges of the portal, was just the faintest border around the vast circle, like a matte line around a spaceship model in an old-fashioned SF movie.

“How big is it now?” Keith asked.

Jag was evidently getting tired of answering that question. He touched keys on his console and a trio of color-coded rulers demarcated in different units formed a glowing three-quarters frame around the green circle. It now measured 450 kilometers in diameter.

“Radiation levels are increasing rapidly,” said Lianne.

“Thor, double our retreat speed,” Keith said. “Can our force screens handle this?”

Lianne was consulting a set of readouts. She shook her head. “Not if it gets much bigger.”

The warbling sound was continuing in the background. “Turn that damned alarm off,” Keith said. He looked at the Waldahud. “Jag?”

“It’s flat,” Jag said. “Like a wall of flame. Diameter is now over a thousand kilometers. Thirteen hundred… Seventeen hundred…”

The emerald light dominated the sky. The humans brought up hands to shield their eyes again.