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Fiction. © Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
Author's note: This story is much longer than the other stories on these pages. I think that it would be about 20 pages, in a book. In this story, there are minor references to Star Trek technology, and to the United Federation of Planets. This story seems to take place in the same universe as Star Trek.
A commercial starliner dropped out of warp drive, into normal space. It was nearing the lonely outpost planet of Arctica.
In the ship's cargo hold were a number of pieces of cargo that were addressed to Arctica. Robots were currently moving this cargo onto the transporter pads. One item of cargo was a gray and black robot. It was motionless, even though it was aware of what was going on. It was addressed to a Dr. Richard Franklin, a geologist on Arctica.
The ship swung between Arctica and its large moon. And the cargo was beamed into a warehouse on the edge of the tiny town of Little America, beneath the ice of Arctica. The ship flew on, and disappeared into warp space.
Soon, Willie, the mailman, entered the warehouse. He compared the various items of cargo with a list that he was holding. He was startled to see the robot. He studied the list. He read "R9324," which didn't match any other piece of cargo. "So, you're an R9324."
Willie was startled to hear the robot say, "Yes sir," in a pleasant male voice.
Willie read Dr. Franklin's name on the list. He went off to call Dr. Franklin.
Willie came back and said to the robot, "I gotta deliver you to Dr. Franklin's house. By boat's outside. You wanta walk to the boat, or do I gotta carry you?"
R9324 replied, "I would prefer to walk." He suspected that the mailman would require assistance to carry him.
Outside the warehouse, the ground was a black basalt. The weather was warm, and slightly breezy. The warehouse was on the edge of a black island, which was in the middle of a lake, inside a huge ice cave. A dim light came from the domed ice ceiling, far above. The ceiling was very uneven, with cracks, holes, and huge icicles, some of which hung almost to the surface the water.
Willie and the Robot sat down in the boat. Willie told the boat to go to Dr. Franklin's house. And the boat accelerated all by itself, heading out into the lake. On the shore, other buildings became visible. Some were made of rock, some brick, and some metal.
"Where does this light come from?" R9324 asked this because he knew that no light could ever make it from Arctica's distant, dim sun, through over a thousand meters of ice above them, to light up this cave.
Willie responded, "We've got electrical lights up there. It's daytime now. So the lights are pretty bright now." But the lights were very dim, actually. Willie went on, "Little America, or L.A., as we call it, is the only town on Arctica."
R9324 knew this, from his research. But, he remained silent, and let Willie talk.
"About 35 people live on Arctica. There about 20 people, right here in Little America. And there are a few scientists and farmers who live out in the Labyrinth, doing their science and farming. Dr. Franklin's a geologist.
R9324 was a geologist, too. He had earned a Ph.D., although he never called himself "Dr."
"Franklin's not at home. His daughter answered the phone. I guess she'll sign for you."
R9324 thought that he could probably sign for himself.
"She said she didn't know where her father is. She sounded kinda upset."
The boat chugged into a narrow canyon, and L.A. disappeared around the bend. It got darker. Sometimes the only lights were from the boat. The cave widened and narrowed. The ceiling was sometimes low, but usually was high. There were echoes of the boat, the waves, ice cracking in the distance, and Willie's talking. They sometimes heard splashes of small objects, undoubtedly pieces of ice, falling into the water.
"There aren't a lot of robots here on Arctica, except these boats. I guess these boats are robots."
An alarm beeped, and a light flashed on and off on the boat's control panel.
Willie explained, "There's a wave coming. Ice falls from the ceiling into the water. Happens all the time. The alarm would be different if the wave was a big one. This one's little."
Several, widely spaced waves approached the boat from ahead. The waves got progressively larger until one of them lifted the boat gently, almost to the ceiling. Smaller waves followed.
"We got sensors all over the place. The boat got that warning by radio."
Radio was an old means of communication, used mainly on backward planets, like Arctica.
"If it had been a big wave, the alarm would have been more obnoxious. We might have had to go underwater."
R9324 noticed that there was apparently a glass-like canopy that could cover the boat. The boat could probably dive like a dolphin, which is a sea creature on earth.
Willie changed the subject. "Why are you visiting Dr. Franklin?"
"I am here to learn more about geology."
"Someone sent you here in order to learn?"
"I wanted to learn."
Willie was impressed. He had never met an intelligent robot. "Golly, I wonder if these boats ever want to do anything like that?"
"That is unlikely. They are designed to follow orders and do their job."
"You're from Earth?"
"Yes, University of California at New York, UCNY."
They passed through a narrow tunnel that seemed to be lit from underwater.
Willie said, "I don't know if there are plants or animals that shine in the water, or what that light is."
"The light is probably fluorescence, caused by radioactive minerals." R9324 knew that no native plants or animals had ever been found on Arctica. There were microorganisms. But they all came from human habitations. They were spreading very slowly from the town and from the few isolated houses, despite efforts to control them.
The cave widened. And there was a house on one side of the cave. The house rested on a ledge of ice, above the water. The house looked like houses on earth once looked, with a steeply slanting roof, and windows and a door. The house was a vivid white, as it was covered with frost, and there were electric lights hidden in the ceiling of the cave.
They docked at a plastic floating dock. They walked up a path to the door. Willie pressed a button, and said, "Delivery for Dr. Franklin."
Soon a teenage girl opened the door. She stared suspiciously at the robot. She signed a paper on a clipboard, which Willie held out to her. Willie left. The girl said to R9324, "Come in."
R9324 said, "I have come to learn more about geology from Dr. Franklin."
"Father is missing. He disappeared over a week ago. The officials in L.A. don't seem to care. I've searched for him. I don't know what else to do."
"Has he ever been gone for this long, before?"
"Yes, often. But he has always let me know where he was going. And he always kept in touch with me. The Mayor says that Father is probably all right. He says that we just have to wait for him to turn up."
"There is no way to trace your father?"
"Theoretically, yes. We can send a radio signal to his boat, and it should respond with its coordinates. I tried that over and over. No dice."
"No dice" seems to be an ancient earth idiom indicating a lack of success.
R9324 suggested, "Maybe his research notes give some indication of where he might be working."
"I read his last entries. He visited two places, and seemed interested in a third place. I went to all three places myself, and he wasn't there."
"I should probably visit those sites. We may find some clue that you may have missed. May I see your father's notes?" She gave him the passwords to the computer. He talked to the computer, studying Dr. Franklin's notes for two days, testing theories and cross-referencing.
The young lady's name turned out to be Helen. She called R9324 "Sherlock." At first, she meant it as a joke. Eventually, that became his name.
While searching for clues, in Dr. Franklin's notes, Sherlock (as he was now known) learned much about Arctica. The following is a synopsis:
Arctica's sun is a tiny dim red dwarf, far from other stars. Arctica orbits this star in a very eccentric ellipse. Arctica comes relatively close to the star, every 4795 years. It never gets close enough to the star to melt the ice.
Arctica's crust of ice averages over 2000 meters thick. In some places, the ice is over 4000 meters thick.
The surface of the ice is very cold, as cold as -150 degrees Celsius. The winds range from about 100 m/sec., to about 300 m/sec. At that speed, a snowflake can blow right through a human being. The atmosphere is extremely cloudy, the clouds being made mainly of ice. The wind blows microscopic pieces of ice around. This ice eventually falls on the icy crust of the planet, replenishing the ice that is melted below.
Through the ice poke volcanos. Under the ice are quakes, flowing lava, hot springs, geysers, and other signs of a geologically active planet. But the source of this heat is not a molten core heated by radiation, as it is on other planets. In fact Arctica's core would have cooled to a solid, long ago, except that it is heated from the outside, by tides. The tides pull and push and flex the rocks of the planet, melting the rock by friction. Arctica's large, and relatively close moon is responsible for this. To an extent, Arctica's fast rotation speed contributes to the size, and to the warming effect, of these tides.
The warm, rocky surface melts the bottom of the ice, in many places. The results are a small ocean, lakes, rivers, and a bewilderingly complex system of canyons and tunnels called the Labyrinth. Many of these tunnels are underwater. No one knows the extent of the Labyrinth. There may, in fact, be several labyrinths, scattered about the planet.
The ocean fills the low lands, while the lakes and rivers occupy higher ground. The Labyrinth actually extends into the ocean. The ocean has a layer of ice, resting on it. This layer is thinner than it is over the continents and islands. Ice melts at the bottom, because the ocean is relatively warm. Ice moves into the ocean from above, being slowly lowered into the ocean. And, glaciers move into the ocean, from the shores.
Arctica was discovered to be habitable only about 20 years before this story took place. Before that, colonization, and exploration had been restricted to earthlike planets, throughout Known Space, the region of the galaxy nearest to earth. Then, an astronomer named Loy, theorized that it was possible for a planet to be heated by tides. He deduced the parameters under which an earth-like environment could exist under the ice of such a planet. A computer search, of exploration and astronomical records, showed that one previously known planet fit the parameters. This planet was already named Arctica.
The small human population lives at the edge of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth actually lies on a cluster of islands of the ocean, near one of the continents. The walls of the caves and canyons, which make up the Labyrinth, are actually made of ice. A human, sailing through the Labyrinth, would seldom see land.
The Labyrinth changes. Roofs collapse. New cracks occur in the ice, and become canyons, as they are melted wider by the heat below.
The only human settlement, larger than one family, is called L.A., named after a similar settlement on earth. Arctica's L.A. is on a small island in a small lake, in the Labyrinth. The lake is not technically a lake, since it is not surrounded by land, but rather by the ice walls of large cave. The lake was formed, long before humans discovered Arctica, when a huge dome of ice fell from above, and subsequently melted.
Every year, or so, L.A. must be evacuated, when huge chunks of ice threaten to fall from the ceiling. The people must sometimes rebuild the town, after such an event. A network of computer controlled sensors help predict these events.
The Labyrinth is occupied by two scientists, and their small families. One is a biologist, who has little to study except the slow spread of earth microorganisms from the human habitations. There is no known native life on Arctica. The spread of microorganisms, from the human habitations, is very slow, because the humans have tried to keep them from spreading. Also, there no food for these organisms. So, they feed on each other.
The lack of native life means that there is no readily available food for the human population. This is the chief reason for the low population of Arctica. A small number of farmers (and their families) grow grains and other crops, in a few branches of the Labyrinth, close to L.A.. All farming is done indoors, some in huge buildings, some in underwater structures. The energy source is usually heat extracted from the readily available water supply.
Only about a dozen children have been born on Arctica. Most of these are part of the farming families. There is a small school, in L.A..
There were once two geologists on Arctica. One of them, a Dr. Morris, was killed when he fell from an ice cliff, while working.
Sherlock said, "There are missing notes. As voluminous as your father's notes are, about a tenth of his notes seem to be missing. There are many references to notes that don't exist.
"Did Father delete them? Or was it someone else?"
"That is impossible to determine, at the moment. In either case, it is a mystery. It is possible that all references to his current whereabouts have been deleted."
"So, visiting the sites, that were the latest mentioned in his notes, could be a wild goose chase."
"Wild goose chase" is an old earth expression which means that they may be searching in the wrong places."
Sherlock and Helen visited the first site on his list. Helen took a picnic basket. The site was a "waterfall" made of ice. It was narrow, but tall, about 200 meters tall. Helen told Sherlock that the waterfall was beautiful.
Helen lectured about the waterfall. And it became clear that she was an enthusiastic geologist, herself. "This is a basalt cliff, covered with ice. Water has flowed here in the recent past, as recently as ten years ago. There is an active volcano, about 500 kilometers from here. When it erupts, the water (from melted ice) sometimes flows over this waterfall. My father carved a path up the side of the cliff.
Sherlock looked for clues. "A boat would have to dock about where we have docked. So, if Dr. Franklin was here recently, he left again. Or the boat left without him. Or the boat may have sunk."
"Father told me that these boats don't sink."
Sherlock replied, "Yes, under normal loads. I read this boat's user manual."
They climbed the path, up the cliff. A short way up, the path was blocked by huge icicles. Sherlock deduced, "It would seem that no one has used this path recently, unless these icicles could have grown to this size in just a few weeks. When was the last time that you used this path?"
"Father and I climbed to the top, and beyond inland, about a year ago."
"We can reopen the path, later. But I think that we can assume that this trail has grown cold."
Helen laughed, as if he had told a joke. They descended to the boat, and had their picnic. Sherlock, of course, ate nothing.
Back at Dr. Franklin's house, Sherlock said, "Dr. Franklin's notes do not refer to Dr. Morris and his research, since about a year ago. I find that odd." Dr. Morris was the other geologist, who had died in a fall.
"I'll say!"
The expression, "I'll say," means, "Yes, I agree."
She continued, "They often communicated, and they collaborated. They seldom saw each other."
"Who are the authorities, from whom I can get information about Dr. Morris' death?"
"The Mayor is the only government official, except for Willie, the mailman."
"Excuse me. I will go communicate with the Mayor." He left the room.
The Mayor said, "What do you want that for?" He seemed upset.
"I am looking for Dr. Franklin. And I wonder if his disappearance might have something to do with Dr. Morris."
"What do you mean by that? You don't suspect foul play, I hope."
"Foul play" is an old earth expression, meaning "illegal activity."
"I do not think that 'foul play' can be ruled out. But, one possible theory is that, when he disappeared, Dr. Franklin was trying to reconstruct Dr. Morris' research. They were collaborators, after all.
"So, what does his autopsy have to do with that?"
"The place where Dr. Morris died is a likely place for Dr. Franklin to visit. I suppose Dr. Morris was doing his latest research there."
"Hm, makes sense." He became less antagonistic. "I'll send it over."
Sherlock read to Helen, "Dr. Morris died of massive head injuries, in a fall from a cliff. It gives the coordinates. If he was working on a cliff, he should have had a helmet of some sort. There is no mention of a helmet, here. You do not know if he tended to be careless?"
"No, not a clue."
"Well, we need to visit this cliff, as well as Dr. Morris' house. We will need climbing gear. Do you ice climb?"
"Love it. Ice climbing is the most popular sport, here on Arctica, although some prefer checkers."
They docked the boat at the coordinates. They saw a metal pole sticking out of the ice. It had a fluorescent orange card attached to it. Sherlock read the card. "Ice fissure, 5km." An arrow pointed up a path.
They walked up the path, which climbed up and up. At the end of the trail, they came to a wide crack in the ice, at their feet. A loud roar came from the distance below. A mist rose from out of the crack.
They donned their climbing gear. Each secured an anchor into the ice, and then attached a rope to the anchor. And they began to rappel down into the crack. The roar grew louder. The couldn't hear themselves shout. Then the crack widened out, and they found themselves above a raging river, just where it roared off a cliff into what seemed to be the center of the planet.
Helen found it frightening to hang over that river, with only a rope to hold her. Frightening, and thrilling, it was the experience of a lifetime.
Helen was about to swing her ice axe into the ice above her, to steady herself on the swinging rope, when the ropes gave way. Sherlock caught her by her jacket. His other hand was firmly secured inside a crack in the ice above.
After a moment of panic, she grasped her ice axes, which were dangling from her wrists. She chopped her axes into the ice wall. With Sherlock's help, she climbed up a small distance, to where she could dig the teeth of the crampons, which were on her boots, into the ice wall. Sherlock tentatively released his grip on her. She was supporting her own weight.
They slowly ascended the wall. Just before they got to within view of the top, Sherlock reached out and tapped Helen on the shoulder. She looked at him, and he put his index finger on his lips, in a "sh" gesture. She stifled a response.
Helen thought about that. There must be somebody nearby, somebody who should not be there, somebody who had tried to kill them. Someone had killed Dr. Morris. He hadn't fallen from this cliff. There was nowhere to fall, except into that river. So, he had died of a massive head injury at these coordinates, not while climbing. There had been a cover-up. Someone had lied. He had been murdered. Helen knew that Morris had been murdered. And someone had tried to murder Sherlock and her. It was probably the murderer. A conspiracy would be more complicated.
Who knew that Sherlock and her would be here? The Mayor. He knew. She was briefly amused that she had never known his name. Maybe it wasn't the Mayor. Maybe someone over heard Sherlock's conversation with the Mayor. Or maybe the Mayor told someone else about it.
Someone in L.A. is a murderer. He (or she?) was killing geologists. All four geologists on this planet, had been murdered or almost murdered. Well, she herself was not a geologist, yet.
Sherlock was pleased to see that Helen was doing some private thinking, while they waited. He suspected that she had duplicated most of his own deductions.
Finally, he motioned that they could ascend. As they climbed out of the crack, they saw that the anchors, that their ropes had been attached to, had been pried out of the ice, and were gone. There were footprints in the frost which covered the ice, footprints besides their own footprints. These footprints looked large enough to be those of a man. They were much larger than Helen's footprints.
As they trekked down to their boat, they compared notes on their theories. Helen was amused that they agreed on everything. They found their boat where they had left it. There were marks that another boat had docked next to theirs.
Helen asked, "Why did he leave our boat here?" They got in the boat, and sailed through the canyons.
"Once we are declared missing, there would be a search. The position of our boat would suggest that we fell into the river, because of an accident.
"Did you know that he had left, for sure?"
"Yes. I was in radio contact with our boat. It was aware of the presence of the other boat."
"Then you knew that we were being followed, before we were attacked?"
"Yes. I have been in contact with our boat, all along."
"Why didn't you warn me?" She didn't like being kept in the dark, especially over a raging river.
"He would have suspected that we survived, if you had dug in to the ice too soon. There wouldn't have been enough tension on your rope. It was safest to grab you after you had started to fall."
She grudgingly accepted the logic of that. She thought of something else. "You could have climbed up and captured him."
"Probably. But, I had to make sure that you got out of the fissure. What if he hit you with a piece of ice. As it was, I could block such an attack."
Sherlock added, "This attack probably gives us plenty of time. Our attacker will probably stay in L.A., in order to divert any suspicion. He will have to cover-up his use of a boat, as well. He has work to do."
"Isn't there some way we can identify him? We could radio someone in L.A., and have them determine the whereabouts of everyone."
"Whom do we trust? What if this is a conspiracy? What if two or three people are absent? What if someone can fake evidence that he is in town? As it is, our attacker has given us several days to investigate without his interference."
"Can't they track our boat?"
"I disconnected it from the network, days ago, when we first started searching for your father."
"Father's dead, isn't he?"
"Probably. There is a small chance that he is alive somewhere, and that the attacker mistakenly thinks that he is dead."
Their next stop was at Dr. Morris' house. Everything was dark. There was no power. Sherlock said, "We shouldn't turn on the power. That may alert our attacker somehow."
"Maybe he set booby traps?"
"Hm. I do not think so. If he trapped some innocent person, that would only call attention to his crimes." Sherlock had a flashlight from the boat. Everything was coated in frost. The house was almost empty. there was some furniture. There were no books. There was no computer. They found some moldy food in a refrigerator without power. Sherlock looked for any clues or messages from the dead Dr. Morris.
Helen suddenly had a feeling that she was being watched. She thought, "What if Dr. Morris is not dead? What if he is the attacker? What if we just walked into his trap? He built this house. Maybe he is living in a secret room. Or maybe he moved to another house, out there someplace. People could hide forever, on this planet."
The room was dark, with Sherlock shining his light into the corner. He was examining the cracks in the walls.
Helen imagined that she could see Dr. Morris standing in the dark, watching them, preparing to destroy them. She tried to calm down. He would have had to fake his own death. There was an autopsy. Dr. Williams, the only medical doctor on the planet, might be in on the deception. Hard to believe. She liked Dr. Williams. Or maybe Dr. Williams could have been fooled. The report said, "massive head injuries." Maybe the face was unrecognizable. Maybe the identification was mainly based on clothing.
Sherlock had said something. She didn't know what he said. He was about to repeat himself. But she interrupted, "Maybe Dr. Morris is not dead."
Sherlock was about to dismiss that idea. Then he thought about it. Finally, he said, "His face was identifiable. Photographs of the face are part of the autopsy report."
They left the dark house. Sherlock had found no clues.
Helen slept in the boat, on the way to the next site. This site was another geological site that Dr. Franklin seemed interested in.
They sailed into a canyon where a strong current began pulling their boat forward. They docked at a place where they could secure their boat. They could hear a roar of rushing water. And they walked a short distance to where the water was being sucked down into a huge whirlpool. It was dizzying to watch.
There were paths in various directions. They took one path. And found a familiar computer enhanced seismograph, which was recording the local vibrations. Apparently, there were several of these, all around the whirlpool. Dr. Franklin had been studying this whirlpool, which seemed to be something of a geological mystery.
Then, the distant roar diminished, and was followed by a surprising silence. Helen said, "Come on. Hurry." She grabbed his hand, and led him back to where the whirlpool was now a turbulent green pool. "Watch this," she said.
Soon, the water started splashing and bubbling out of the pool. Water flowed away, down passages which earlier had fed the whirlpool. The water level rose several feet. In the center was a short fountain of splashing water. There was a green glow coming from the water. Helen said, "It's brighter than I remember."
A milky stone, on a thin chain about Helen's neck, was glowing a faint green. There was radiation here. Sherlock measured the radiation. He searched through Dr. Franklin's journals, which he had memorized. "This is much more radiation than Dr. Franklin measured, over a year ago." He thought for a few seconds. "There is something down there, something that was not there a year ago."
In the next cycle of whirlpool/fountain, they measured the change in radiation. They saw that there was a delay between when the water began to rise, and the increase in radiation. Sherlock said, "I can estimate the velocity of the water, roughly. From the time delay, I would guess that the source of radiation is about 25 meters below the surface.
One of the geological tools, on board their boat, was a kind of robot fish. This was apparently used by Dr. Franklin to explore underwater. It had lights, grasping claws, and a video camera. It was connected to a control console, by long cables, both electrical cables and stronger, braided steel cables.
When the whirlpool started, Sherlock threw the robot fish into the water, and let it down about 25 meters. Helen sat at the control console, and maneuvered the fish. "I don't see anything," she shouted over the roar of the water.
Sherlock shouted back, "We may have to wait for the water to calm down."
Eventually, the water began to calm. Helen said excitedly, "There it is! Down about half a meter." Sherlock let out some cable, and Helen maneuvered the fish. "It's metallic, human made, seems damaged." She made the fish's claws grab the object. "I think I got it!"
Sherlock tugged on the cable. He was incredibly strong. It did not budge." I may be able to pull it loose, when the water flow is greater." The water began to bubble out of the pool. When it was a strong flow, Sherlock tugged on the cables, bracing his feet in holes in the ice. Then the cables became slack, and he fell flat on his back.
Helen laughed.
Then they saw a damaged boat bob to the surface. Sherlock secured it, to an ice stalagmite, by the cable.
Helen saw that her necklace was glowing a vivid green. She grabbed Sherlock's hand, and tried to pull him back. She screamed, "Get away from it! It's radioactive!"
Sherlock pushed her away, "It's OK. I am shielded. Go around the corner."
Helen retreated down a tunnel.
Back at their boat, Sherlock explained what he had found. "It is one of Dr. Franklin's boats. There is no sign of Dr. Franklin. The boat's radioactive power supply has been hacked apart with an axe-like tool. The boat's brain is completely gone, because of the radiation."
Helen said, "I thought that was going to happen to you. Everyone knows that a robot's brain can be destroyed by radiation."
"Yes, that is true in general. But, as a geology robot, my brain is shielded. We geologists ..." He included her in a gesture. "... must deal with radiation, occasionally."
Helen smiled, "Yes we do." She took off her necklace, which glowed green in the presence of radiation, and put it around Sherlock's neck.
Sherlock did not know what to say.
As they sailed through the canyons, Sherlock said, "Someone deleted a vast amount of data from Dr. Franklin's computer. Someone in L.A. is a computer expert."
"Anyone can delete files. All you have to do is say to the computer 'delete this or that.'"
"We may never know what was deleted, in most cases. But, of the files about Dr. Franklin's work, there are interesting blank spots. For example, there is no mention of our whirlpool/fountain, since about a year ago. We already noticed that there is no mention of Dr. Morris, for over a year. That seems like very selective deleting. Considering the sheer volume of the deleted data, and their complex interrelationships, it would take months, if not years, to select and delete, using normal methods. Also, normal deleting does not delete permanently. Normally, deleted data can be recovered."
"Well, Tommie Robinson is the local computer expert. So, he's our main suspect?"
"Yes. But, Robinson may have written such a deletion routine, for some other purpose. Maybe other people know how to use such a tool. Maybe someone asked Robinson to write it."
"How could someone get onto Father's computer? It has all those passwords."
"There are ways of gaining passwords. Where did the computer come from?"
"I don't know. It was here when we arrived on Arctica."
Sherlock said, "It may have been build locally. Regardless of where it came from, it was probably connected to the network on this planet by someone like Robinson. He would have access to the computer before you arrived."
"We've been here almost ten years. Is it possible that this was planned that far in advance. That's hard to believe."
"Consider this scenario. Robinson, or someone else, had some terrible secret, many years ago. Maybe it is some kind of secret that a geologist might discover. But the town people never discover it. So, when geologists move in, their computers are monitored. Nothing happens for nine or ten years. Then the secret is discovered by Dr. Morris."
She said, "It doesn't have to be a secret that only geologists might discover. Maybe every computer on the planet is monitored."
"Yes, Maybe."
They thought for a while. Then Sherlock said, "We should not access any computer on the planet, except our boat. Any access may be detected."
"So we can't investigate Robinson, or anyone else."
"No, we do have difficulties."
Helen said, "We could get captured by Robinson, he would tell us everything, and then we could escape. That always works in fiction."
"We can save that as a possible ploy, if we are forced into it.
She said, "We could try to trap him."
Helen and Sherlock were in the computer room, back in her house, her father's house.
Sherlock said, "We may have been detected by Robinson, or whoever, already, just by entering the house, or by turning on the lights. But we will be sure to get his attention by accessing the network through the computer." He sat at the computer and connected to the network. He talked to the computer, looking for clues. But, he mainly was trying to get someone's attention.
There was a secret door in the computer room. Helen knew about it. It led to an ice tunnel which, in turn led up to the surface. Sherlock said, "Robinson may know about this escape route, too. But he can approach us from only one direction. So we have a means of escape in either direction."
Soon, Sherlock detected the approach of a single boat, from the direction of L.A.. Then, he knew that the boat had docked. And he detected one person enter the house. Helen hid in the passageway behind the secret door. Sherlock sat at the computer, still searching for clues. He was the bait with which they were going to trap Robinson, or whoever.
Then Sherlock found something on the network. He was looking through files of the L.A. communication center. A ship, not a normal ship, perhaps a smuggler, was currently hailing the communication center. The ship was asking if L.A. had any cargo to beam up.
Just then, someone approached the computer room from the main part of the house. The rock necklace around Sherlock's neck started glowing. And the computer shut down, apparently from radiation. Sherlock lay down on the floor, faking death by radiation.
Two men, in anti-radiation clothing entered. One of them was holding an object, presumably radioactive, at arm's length. He said, "We got the robot."
The other man said, "The girl's not here."
A third voice, Sherlock recognized this voice, came over the radio, "You morons, Robinson says you guys wiped out the computer. How are we supposed to find the girl?" It was the Mayor's voice.
That was four men, at least. But Sherlock had only detected one boat, and only one person. Sherlock communicated with the docked boats of the Franklin household. These boats could detect five newly arrived boats. That could mean as many as ten people, possibly more. He and Helen were definitely outnumbered. Robinson had disguised five or more boats as one boat. He was definitely very handy with a computer.
One of the men in the room said, "Maybe she's behind the secret door." He stepped toward the door.
Sherlock's hands reached out and grasped the ankles of the two men, in vice-like grips. The men shouted and struggled, but could not get loose. The radioactive object tumbled to the floor.
One of the men shouted, "Shoot him."
The other man reached for something on his hip. Sherlock twisted, and squeezed. He felt the ankles of both men break. Both men cried out in anguish. An object fell to the floor.
Robots have great difficulty, emotionally, with causing pain to humans. This is built into their brains, the famous First Law of robotics. But, they can use violence to save lives, defend themselves, or apprehend criminals.
The Mayor, on the radio, shouted, "What's going on in there?"
Sherlock released his grip. And both men rolled around on the floor, in pain. He picked up the fallen phaser, changed the setting from "kill" to "stun," and stunned the two men. He moved the radioactive object behind the dead computer, where it would be somewhat less dangerous.
Sherlock locked the main door and opened the secret door. He told Helen to stand back. He dragged the two men into the ice tunnel, and closed the door. He pulled the radiation helmets off the two men. Helen remembered one of them as a man who was always with the Mayor. Sherlock showed the phaser to Helen, "It is a Federation phaser, an energy weapon. These two men do not belong on a Federation Starship. And phasers are not normally available to civilians. But they are probably readily available through the black market. I begin to suspect that this whole thing is about smuggling."
As they walked up the tunnel, toward the surface, Sherlock said, "They will take their time breaking into the computer room. They will be wary of that radioactive metal object. It may be pure radium."
They came to a room with several "Arctica suits" hanging on the wall. these were white, armored, headed suits which looked like space suits. At one end of the room was an air lock which gave access to the windy surface of Arctica's ice.
Sherlock said, "We will have to go outside, and find shelter of some kind. I can dig us in to the ice, if necessary. Then we can wait for a chance to come back here and maybe get back into the house. We will see."
Helen was half into one of the suits, when there was a banging on the outside of the air lock. They were trapped.
Helen said, "Maybe it's time to be captured, so the Mayor can tell us what's going on."
Sherlock said, "Crouch down." She did. And then Sherlock radioed the orbiting ship. "More cargo to beam up." And he gave the coordinates of himself and Helen. He crouched over her. And they disappeared.
They reappeared in the cargo hold of the orbiting ship. There were two men waiting. As Helen and Sherlock were crouching, they did not, at first, appear to be a human and a robot. And the two men were not alarmed until Sherlock stunned both of them, with the phaser.
The cargo hold was littered with crates, and the floor was dirty. This was definitely not a military or passenger vessel. Sherlock strode to the transporter console and began downloading data (evidence) into his own brain. After a few seconds, which seemed like a long time to Helen, he said, "I have located the Mayor." He set the Mayor's coordinates on the transporter. Instead of beaming the Mayor up to the ship, he transported him, and a couple of his men, directly from his boat at Helen's house, to Dr. Morris' empty house.
Helen said, "It may take him weeks to get out of there. I hope he likes moldy bread."
Sherlock set some more coordinates on the transporter. He joined Helen on the transporter pad. And they disappeared from the ship.
They reappeared in a cold room, near Arctica's icy surface. It was next to a huge antenna, and was over a thousand meters above L.A. The antenna was how the people on Arctica communicated with the outside world. It was connected to the electronic equipment in this room, which was connected to the communication room down below, in L.A.
Sherlock flipped a switch, "I have just disconnected the subspace communication equipment from the network. I can now contact the Federation. Robinson will probably not notice what I am doing." He started sending a message. As he did this, he said, "As the smugglers in orbit are not the addressees of this message, their communication equipment may ignore it. I assume they have no computer expert as clever as Robinson."
There was a twisting ice tunnel, leading down to the town. Sherlock and Helen found a vehicle for traversing this tunnel. But, they decided to walk. Using the vehicle might have alerted Robinson of their whereabouts.
As they exited the ice tunnel, they could see L.A. across an expanse of water. Just to the side of the tunnel, was a boat. Sherlock busied himself disconnecting the boat's brain from the network. He wanted to surprise Robinson. Sherlock raised his head, as if sniffing the air, "Ah, a Federation starship is here already."
In space, above Arctica, the smugglers' ship turned to flee. The Federation ship fired a photon torpedo over the smugglers' bow. And the smugglers gave up, without a fight.
Helen said, "Look." She pointed at L.A. A boat was leaving a dock. "Maybe that's Robinson."
Sherlock and Helen followed in their boat. The entered the Labyrinth. Robinson, for it was Robinson, spotted them and fired a phaser. Helen and Sherlock dropped back to avoid being shot. They soon lost Robinson in the maze.
Sherlock and Helen turned back. They were not going to risk an ambush with an armed man.
Robinson was eventually found. The Federation starship found him with a sensor scan, for life forms. That was easy, on a planet with no native life.
Willson, the Mayor's bodyguard, a man with a crushed ankle, was found to have murdered both Dr. Morris and Dr. Franklin. And he was the man who tried to murder Helen and Sherlock. Nearly everybody ratted on him. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Robinson and the other man with a crushed ankle were found guilty of attempted murder. The mayor and a few others were convicted of accessory to murder.
The entire population of one cargo ship, and most of the population of L.A. were found guilty of smuggling. They received light sentences, mostly a number of hours of community service.
Helen went away to college. She married a fellow student. She and her husband eventually returned to Arctica, as geologists.
Sherlock, who proudly retained that name, stayed on as a geologist. He house sat for Helen, when she was away at school.
Arctica eventually acquired three more small towns, and many farmers and a few more geologists, including a second robot.
Smuggling disappeared from that part of the galaxy, for almost a year.