With map in hand - or, more accurately floating there nearby - and a potential location to get to, Alex and Carbon set out to determine just how far away it was. Working off the assumption the globe they were using was scaled properly, and basing their calculations on the distance from the grove to the alcove with the portal in it, they determined that whatever the green triangle at the top of the world was pointing at was about thirty million kilometers away.
“If this is correct...” Carbon paused, staring at the small tablet in Alex’s hands as she did some quick math. “It’s tiny.”
Alex glanced at her sideways and didn’t make a comment for a long second. “From the point of view of astronomical distances, yes.”
“Yes, obviously. If this is a Kehane shell, and it appears to be, it is not nearly as large as it should be to withstand the output of a star and retain this sort of livable interior. Even a cool one, and certainly not one that is visibly comparable to either of our home stars.”
“Interior diameter is probably, what, thirty-eight million kilometers? I think that’s inside the orbit of Mercury.” He understood she probably wasn’t as well versed on the solar system as he was, but he was mostly talking himself through this. “If it was the size of Sol we’d be eighteen million kilometers away from the chromosphere, which is... uh, that’s way too fucking close for something Earth-like.”
“So it is not a star?”
He resisted the urge to just look up into the sun-like glowing thing in the sky, if it could reasonably be called that. It was still really bright. “No, couldn’t be. Just a big lightbulb.”
Carbon closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. “I do not like that.”
“It’s not actually a lightbulb.”
“I understand you were joking, I just...” She looked up at him with a narrow gaze that didn’t seem aimed at him specifically, “this is too much. This structure is theoretical, the portal technology we have used is not even that. Now there is some sort of not-star directly above our heads that I do not know where to begin to find some sort of comprehension. I hate this.”
Alex eased back as he clicked his tablet back into the cradle on his suit’s thigh, nodding slowly at the vehement tone she grew into as she talked. “Ok, I can understand that.” Only barely, though. He found himself unconcerned with the functional possibility of the technology that surrounded them - he was used to feeling that way about pretty much every advanced piece of technology. This was just a step beyond waverider drives or the matter compiler in a dispenser for him.
She sighed again, stretched her shoulders and shook her hands out. “I am going to take a walk. I need this feeling out of my mind.”
“Do you want company?” He asked even as she turned to leave the clearing, striding off into the trees with purpose.
“No. I will return shortly.” She was already far enough away to be on comms only.
“All right, let me know if you need anything.” Might as well see if there was anything of use on the globe while she took care of that. Alex returned to the pedestal and watched it turn, leaning in to get a closer look. The level of detail was astounding, whatever resolution it used able to produce very realistic looking approximations of the terrain, including the flora.
He reached out and touched the globe, expecting his fingers to dip through the projection, but hopefully allow him to direct it so he could take a closer look without having to wait for something to come back around again. They caught on a particularly interesting mountain range, and the whole thing drew to a stop, firm under the tips of his suit’s glove.
Alex jerked his hand away from the hologram and it began a slow rotation again. He reached out and pushed a finger into a desert plain. The surface resisted and then gave way, a small hexagonal section of the globe sinking in and popping back out. It flexed to reflect the actual curve of the interior wall, growing to the size of a dinner plate as the empty spot refilled behind it.
It worked rather like the tablets he was used to. He could grip the edges and felt resistance and the screen responded to various pokes and prods in a way that was instantly familiar. He double checked that the comm channel was still open, “Hey, come check this out when you’re done. The globe does stuff.”
“I will be there in a moment.” He heard footsteps coming back through the trees, the cadence matching Carbon’s pace as she pulled up next to him, panting softly and sweating despite wearing a climate controlled suit.
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He looked over at her, eyebrows raised. He didn’t even know Tsla’o could sweat. Were they supposed to? “You alright?”
Carbon waved a hand. “I feel much more in control of myself, yes.”
“You’re sweating and out of breath.” He felt like he was pointing out the obvious, but she wasn’t catching his actual concern.
“Ah, the power assist was making walking too easy so I turned it off. The intensity of the effort to continue operating the suit without it was sufficient in getting my mind out of that loop.”
Oh of course, like you do. His suit weighed about twenty-five kilos, but it lacked the armor and strength boosts hers had. Probably doubling that weight, easily. “Normal reaction?”
“Yes, I would say so.” She nodded, then shut her shields off with a soft pop, drawing in a tentative breath of unrecycled air. “Oh, I have missed that.”
He was a little surprised at her changing her tune, but she’d been wound up pretty tight since they first spotted the ring. A bit of physical exertion seemed to have helped her quite a bit. “It is good, isn’t it? Now take a look at this, these are solid holograms.”
She stepped closer, arm to arm with him and studying the glowing hexagon of map in his hands “Interesting. I have seen static implementations of similar technology, but nothing this detailed or useful.”
“Really? I’ve never seen it before...” Alex looked at her as he tilted the map piece, scrolling over towards the grassy field they were in. Maybe there would be some other building they couldn’t see nearby or some other hint as to what they were supposed to do.
“It was a technical demonstration.” She waved a hand and squinted up at the sun-analog, the light it was putting out starting to turn amber as though it were late afternoon. “Inefficient in too many ways.”
“I don’t think efficiency is a big concern here.” The big lake appeared on the display, the tiny gray alcove and then the copse of trees they were in. The zoomed-in map was dynamic, grasses waving and the globe lit up, a bright light surrounded by an almost perfect ring of trees. Alex flexed the display down towards the artificial glow of the globe.
“Is that...” She trailed off and looked up again. The black shape next to the pedestal shifted and for a moment Carbon was staring up at Alex through the display. She looked back down just in time to see him squint up into the sun. “It is a live display.”
“You know what? Not that surprised anymore. Really unsettled, though.” He zoomed out and rolled the view slowly over the surrounding area. Acres upon acres of grassy plain, but nothing of note yet.
“Mm. Have you seen anything useful before now?”
He shook his head and pulled the segment in his hands to widen the field of view, then zoomed it out further. Foothills started maybe fifteen kilometers away, and there was a river that ran down to the lake beyond that. “I’ve seen lots of untouched land, but no other structures.”
“If you find anything, let me know. I am going to gather some fruit.” She sounded happy and had that getting-away-with-something smile again.
He could probably listen to her sound happy all damn day. “You’ll be the first to know.”
After two more hours of investigating the shell through the map, night had fallen and Alex still hadn’t found anything aside from a massive building at the north pole. It was far from an exhaustive search, but the fact that nothing else had turned up felt like it answered the question of if there was anything useful for them out there, at least.
“You must come see.” She slipped her arm into his and literally pulled him away from the pedestal without further warning.
“Alright, just let- okay.” He flailed his free arm at the display for a moment, intent lost as he stumbled to keep up with her through the dark of the trees, only now realizing that it was night inside the sphere, where the sun could never actually set. She guided him through this artificial darkness, a light on her shoulder illuminating the trees as his eyes adjusted from the brightness of the hologram globe.
Carbon sat down in the grass, legs folded neatly as she pulled him down next to her. She watched him expectantly, a wry smile on her lips. “Do you see it?”
His eyes darted around for a moment and he felt panic rising. What was he supposed to see? The grass was the same as it had been. There was a little pile of fruit, and she looked the same as she had before. An amber chemstick light marked the location and gave the scene a rustic feel despite both of them wearing space suits. He hesitated before giving up. “No?”
A little mischief worked its way into her eyes and she gave him a shove, laying him out in the grass. Then it made sense. In the darkness a quarter moon shined down, what looked like the milky way spilled out across the sky. Something you wouldn’t see on Earth unless you had sought out a dark sky sanctuary. He relaxed and took it in. “Surprised again. How does that work?”
Carbon laid down next to him, head next to his. “I have a few ideas, but I do not know.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It is.” She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze. They laid there for some time, gazing up into the false sky. Alex disentangled his hand from hers and shut his recording equipment off. He held his wrist monitor up for her to see what he had done and gestured for her to do the same. Carbon looked off for a moment before giving him a nod.
“A while back, you said you didn’t like your job, that you wanted to stop but you felt that you couldn’t. Or wouldn’t be allowed to.” He took a deep breath and ordered his thoughts. “When the timer runs out, if we can leave... Would you like to stay?”