menu screen up and sat down at the table, awkwardly folding his legs sideways.
‘So these are Iphigenia?’ said Chris, peering at the photos.
78
‘Yes,’ said Martinique, surfacing from his discussion with his assistant. His dark hair was fashionably tinged with grey.
‘Satellite images. Here you can see Aulis Crater, and here, right in the centre of the crater, Artemis Mons. The mountain of Artemis, the Greek goddess whom no man could see unclothed –
on pain of death.’
‘And that’s where we’re going, is it?’ asked Chris.
‘Yes,’ said Zatopek. He looked only a little older than Iaomnet, with striking features and black hair pulled sharply back from his face.
‘The largest crater anywhere in human space,’ said Martinique.
‘Are you sure these are from a satellite? They look like a military fly-by to me,’ said Chris. He tapped a finger on the faint white lines at the very edge of the picture. ‘You always see a scale like this on long-range recon probes.’ He picked up another of the photos. ‘Same again here, and on this one.’
‘Are you the first academic expedition to Iphigenia?’ asked the Doctor, juggling an alarming number of bowls, cartons and cups over to the table.
Martinique gathered up the photos before they could be either further analysed or covered with soup. ‘The significance of these pictures has eluded previous investigators. The crater’s age, for example. Now, it formed during a period when the surface of Iphigenia was not plastic enough for the crater to have formed the way it did. A meteor of that size striking a clump of ice and rock should have shattered it into pieces.’
‘Maybe your estimate of its age is off,’ said Iaomnet.
Martinique waved his hand. ‘There are other, smaller indications. The shape is a little too perfect. Other things.’
‘So if this is military information,’ Iaomnet wanted to know,
‘where’d you guys get it?’
‘I have my sources,’ Zatopek said severely.
‘Tell us about the significance of the pictures, Professor Martinique,’ said the Doctor, kneeling down at the table.
The academic nodded and shuffled through the photos until he found the shot he wanted. He dumped the rest of them into Zatopek’s lap. His assistant raised an eyebrow and started putting them back in order.
79
‘Here,’ said Martinique. He tapped a circled area with the tip of his pen. ‘Do you see anything out of the ordinary?’
‘It looks as though a meteorite strike took a bite out of the mountain,’ said the Doctor.
‘That’s right,’ said Martinique, a little surprised. ‘Revealing a complex substratum.’
The Doctor picked up the photo and held it up to his nose.
After a moment he took out his bifocals and slipped them on.
Chris leant over for a better look, his head almost resting on the Doctor’s shoulder.
Beyond a certain point, he knew, computer image enhancement merged into metaphysics. But the line down the side of Artemis Mons, if it was real and not some binary artefact, could only be artificial.
When the Doctor lowered the photo, everyone was looking at them expectantly. Iaomnet had paused with a forkful of fish halfway to her mouth.
‘Disneyland,’ said the Doctor.
‘Where’s that?’ said Iaomnet.
The Doctor just handed the photo back and picked up a sushi roll in his chopsticks.
‘There’s something artificial under the surface of the mountain,’ said Chris. ‘Some kind of hidden base?’
‘A military listening post?’ said Iaomnet.
‘If it were,’ said Martinique, ‘I’m sure we’d have been refused permission to visit. No, this is something much older. It is not only artificial – it is an artefact .’
‘How old is that thing?’ said Iaomnet.
‘Quite a find,’ said Martinique. ‘Quite a find.’ He beamed at Iaomnet. ‘Material for a remarkable dissertation, wouldn’t you say?’
The internal cabin doors were designed to withstand vacuum.
Chris had to shuffle around with the
‘So these are Iphigenia?’ said Chris, peering at the photos.
78
‘Yes,’ said Martinique, surfacing from his discussion with his assistant. His dark hair was fashionably tinged with grey.
‘Satellite images. Here you can see Aulis Crater, and here, right in the centre of the crater, Artemis Mons. The mountain of Artemis, the Greek goddess whom no man could see unclothed –
on pain of death.’
‘And that’s where we’re going, is it?’ asked Chris.
‘Yes,’ said Zatopek. He looked only a little older than Iaomnet, with striking features and black hair pulled sharply back from his face.
‘The largest crater anywhere in human space,’ said Martinique.
‘Are you sure these are from a satellite? They look like a military fly-by to me,’ said Chris. He tapped a finger on the faint white lines at the very edge of the picture. ‘You always see a scale like this on long-range recon probes.’ He picked up another of the photos. ‘Same again here, and on this one.’
‘Are you the first academic expedition to Iphigenia?’ asked the Doctor, juggling an alarming number of bowls, cartons and cups over to the table.
Martinique gathered up the photos before they could be either further analysed or covered with soup. ‘The significance of these pictures has eluded previous investigators. The crater’s age, for example. Now, it formed during a period when the surface of Iphigenia was not plastic enough for the crater to have formed the way it did. A meteor of that size striking a clump of ice and rock should have shattered it into pieces.’
‘Maybe your estimate of its age is off,’ said Iaomnet.
Martinique waved his hand. ‘There are other, smaller indications. The shape is a little too perfect. Other things.’
‘So if this is military information,’ Iaomnet wanted to know,
‘where’d you guys get it?’
‘I have my sources,’ Zatopek said severely.
‘Tell us about the significance of the pictures, Professor Martinique,’ said the Doctor, kneeling down at the table.
The academic nodded and shuffled through the photos until he found the shot he wanted. He dumped the rest of them into Zatopek’s lap. His assistant raised an eyebrow and started putting them back in order.
79
‘Here,’ said Martinique. He tapped a circled area with the tip of his pen. ‘Do you see anything out of the ordinary?’
‘It looks as though a meteorite strike took a bite out of the mountain,’ said the Doctor.
‘That’s right,’ said Martinique, a little surprised. ‘Revealing a complex substratum.’
The Doctor picked up the photo and held it up to his nose.
After a moment he took out his bifocals and slipped them on.
Chris leant over for a better look, his head almost resting on the Doctor’s shoulder.
Beyond a certain point, he knew, computer image enhancement merged into metaphysics. But the line down the side of Artemis Mons, if it was real and not some binary artefact, could only be artificial.
When the Doctor lowered the photo, everyone was looking at them expectantly. Iaomnet had paused with a forkful of fish halfway to her mouth.
‘Disneyland,’ said the Doctor.
‘Where’s that?’ said Iaomnet.
The Doctor just handed the photo back and picked up a sushi roll in his chopsticks.
‘There’s something artificial under the surface of the mountain,’ said Chris. ‘Some kind of hidden base?’
‘A military listening post?’ said Iaomnet.
‘If it were,’ said Martinique, ‘I’m sure we’d have been refused permission to visit. No, this is something much older. It is not only artificial – it is an artefact .’
‘How old is that thing?’ said Iaomnet.
‘Quite a find,’ said Martinique. ‘Quite a find.’ He beamed at Iaomnet. ‘Material for a remarkable dissertation, wouldn’t you say?’
The internal cabin doors were designed to withstand vacuum.
Chris had to shuffle around with the
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