DUALITY: The World of Lies by Paul Barufaldi

some
materia well beyond mnemtechian technological capacity to
fabricate. A cursory spectroscopic scan identifies it as partially
metallic, but we will need to wait until rendezvous to conduct a
meaningful analysis.”
    “What's going with its
transmissions?”
    “If I may speculate, Captain?”
    “By all means.”
    “Observation of transmission relay further
validates your theory, Captain. The four perpendicular cylinders
operate at a high rate of rotation, 18 revolutions per minute. They
function as both transmitters and receivers depending on their
alignment to the vector of orbit, in the aft position receiver, the
fore position transmitter. That transmission is being relayed to
the next satellite in the ring, and its markers precisely match the
signal we observed yesterday in terms of composition,
quantum-forwarding velocity, and amplitude.”
    No surprise there. What struck Mei more than
anything though was the diminutive size of the object. A
transcoronal broadcast would require a massive
transmitter.
    “This object is only 23 meters in diameter. As
we can see the axis is aligned perpendicular to the solar
surface...” She started into her observation and was
uncharacteristically interrupted by System.
    “Yes, Commander, the outward tip of the axis
is currently receiving a weak transmission, amplifying and
quantum-forwarding it along the satellite ring. That signal source
is likely beyond the corona and is angling its beam in conjunction
with this satellite's movement.”
    “The White Stone!” she declared. Wordlessly,
System brought the now familiar orbital diagram of the Stones
orbits and that of the satellite ring into perspective. The current
incoming transcoronal beam was highlighted with the White Stone as
its origin, indeed angling the communication beam ever so slightly
to track this satellite's orbit.
    “Speed it up, Kinny -the whole
network.”
    The holographic diagram burst into 100x speed.
The White Stone’s beam tracked the aligned but much faster orbiting
satellite until it moved out of range. The signal then reset
itself, angling back along the ring to the next satellite coming
into range, and so on.
    “So where is the return signal to The White
Stone?”
    “There is none, Commander. It is a one-way
transmission.”
    That again brought up the vexing question of
why data would be beamed into a star and not out of it. But that
assumed that all the satellite stations on the ring were identical.
Perhaps there was a larger transmitter somewhere in the chain, but
Mei doubted that because it would have to be so massive as to be
visually detectable from a great distance.
    “And the inward end of the axial column,
pointing toward the solar surface? What is its
function?”
    “Unknown,” answered System, “but as you can
see, Commander, that bulbous tip is much larger than the outward
tip. It's impossible to know what components lay beneath the
shielding, but I would speculate that it is an inactive
transmitter.”
    Assuming all this was correct, an elegant and
very hopeful picture formed. They could extrapolate every link in
the satellite chain with complete accuracy. They knew it was
receiving from, but not transmitting to, The White Stone. Probes
were on route to the nearest satellite in perihelion with The Black
Stone on the opposite of side of Rubeli, but it would take a
several more hours to collect that data. Mei reasoned they would
see the same thing there, an incoming transmission.
    Just as The Stones in their far extra-coronal
orbit angled communication beams at the nearest satellite to them
in the ring, so too must the ring be transmitting to an object here
in the lower orbit when they crossed paths. She glanced at Aru who
glanced back with a look that told her their brains were already
synched into the same parallel line of reasoning.
    “This is just a matter of observing a
satellite with its downward axis transmitter enabled and
broadcasting...” she began.
    “Then we track the angle