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The surface slightly pitted
a texture like sandpaper. But no big dents or cracks. I can see great circle
lines running to the horizon. It's put together like an orange."
DALTON
"Smooth parking, Paulus like in your own driveway. I guess it's a free ride
home from here."
MISSION CONTROL
"Not all the way home, boys. For God's sake get them persuaded into a high
parking orbit. The
Soviets will announce an inflatable com-sat to coincide with their arrival.
That thing will be like a new star in the sky."
TSERBATSKY
"And supposing it wishes to land, Gentlemen?"
DALTON
"That thing, landing? It would break apart! What does it sit down on?"
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TSERBATSKY
"How about water?"
MISSION CONTROL
"That's true, Tserbatsky. If they plan on landing that thing, we'll have to
scrap the Nevada Desert plan."
TSERBATSKY
"The American lakes are too public. Canada is no use in winter. How about the
Aral Sea in
Kazakhstan?"
DALTON
"Aussieland might be better. One of those lakes in the Outback?"
TSERBATSKY
"They're seasonal lakes. Empty at the moment. And too shallow anyway."
MISSION CONTROL
"Don't you boys worry yourselves about the politics of it, we'll work that one
out down here.
You concentrate on that Globe."
T PLUS DAYS
3
16
HOURS
00
MINUTES
MISSION CONTROL
"Boys, we've reached a compromise on the landing zone if that thing's going to
land. The obvious place is the Pacific. Will you copy the co-ordinates? It's a
lagoon in the Marshall Islands, southeast of
Eniwetok. North seven degrees fifty-two minutes. East one-sixty-eight degrees
twenty minutes. Of course, the Globe is unlikely to land most likely it
carries a scout ship on board. In which case Nevada is the prime choice."
TSERBATSKY
"I request verbal confirmation of the Marshall Islands decision from Dr
Stepanov."
MISSION CONTROL
"Fair enough."
DIMITRI A STEPHANOV UUSR CO ORDINATER HOUSTON TRANSLATEDD FROM RUSSIAN
(
-
, ;
)
"I confirm the Pacific location, Petr Simonovich. But try to keep that thing
in the sky. The Nevada Desert for any scout-ship."
DALTON
"There's a hole opening up in the skin about a hundred metres off."
SHERMAN
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"A cylinder shape is rising out of it. It's about ten metres high by thirty
across. Maybe it's an airlock?"
TSERBATSKY
"A broad opening appearing in the cylinder side."
MISSION CONTROL
"Leapfrog? The landing plan they were broadcasting has stopped. We're
receiving a new diagram now. It shows you on the outside of the Globe with a
dotted line moving from you to the inside of it. They want you to go inside.
Better get suited up, Sherman and Tserbatsky. Dalton will watch the store."
T PLUS DAYS
3
16
HOURS
50
MINUTES
DALTON
"They're getting close to the airlock now. You okay, Paulus?"
SHERMAN
"We're fine. You read us, Houston?"
MISSION CONTROL
"Fine good visuals."
SHERMAN
"The inside of the cylinder is empty. There's a large round chamber. Some sort
of sensors and controls at the rear. We're stepping inside together."
DALTON
"Two great steps for mankind? Hey Houston! The door's closing! That thing's
shutting on them."
TSERBATSKY
"Doors are designed to close, my friend. We're " (
LOSS OF SIGNAL
)
DALTON
"The door's tight shut now. The cylinder is retracting back into the skin. Can
you hear me, Paulus? Paulus!
Houston, the contact's been lost. Can you still hear me, Houston?"
MISSION CONTROL
"We bear you loud and clear, Leapfrog."
DALTON
"Something's blanketing their transmissions then."
T PLUS DAYS
4
06
HOURS
35
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MINUTES
DALTON
"Houston! That cylinder's on the move again. It's coming up . . . The door's
opening . . . There they are in the doorway. Paulus? Tserbatsky? Do you read
me?"
SHERMAN
"Yes Mike, we read you. But we're tired."
TSERBATSKY
"Houston?"
MISSION CONTROL
"Houston to Leapfrog. Sherman. Tser"Houston?" batsky. Welcome back. What
happened?"
SHERMAN
"I guess you could say that the ball's in their court now . . ."
TSERBATSKY
"Paulus have you no sense of destiny! Intelligent beings have crossed the
deeps of space to communicate with us. They open the door to the Universe. Let
us never wittingly let it shut!"
DALTON
"Great speech, Ivan, but what the hell do they look like?"
TSERBATSKY
"Oh that. Appearances. They're bipeds two arms and two legs like
ourselves only they're much taller than us, about three metres tall. They've
got skinny frames, with powdery grey skins. No body hair visible on them. They
have this broad single nostril in the middle of their faces a vast flat saddle
nose like you see in hereditary syphilis. And their eyes these are set further
round the sides of the head than ours. They must see through a hundred and
eighty to two hundred degrees the eyes bulge like the eyes of Pekinese dogs.
Their ears look like crinkly grey paper bags and are continually inflating and
deflating. I could see small cartiliginous teeth in their
mouths and the mouth itself was a bright orange colour, except for the tongue
which was long and dark and red and very supple, like a butterfly's tongue."
SHERMAN
"They analysed our air and fitted out a sort of reception room for us made out
of glass for us to take our helmets off inside of. We gave them the language
videotapes and microfilm. They put them through some machine
decontamination I guess -and huddled round them. They had the language tapes
on a screen within ten minutes.
Two of them scanning fast and listening, ignoring us. Another of them brought
a communication screen we could write on."
TSERBATSKY
"They treated us in a brisk brotherly way. As fellow intelligences. They were
very busy. We were the tourists. They talked with a very wide range of sounds.
Going up very high-pitched sometimes. I heard the top C that shatters Opera
House chandeliers. And a dull low bass at other times. With a very fast
shuttling between the two extremes."
SHERMAN
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"We negotiated with two of them by way of this blackboard screen. We drew with
our fingers and images appeared. It's agreed they're going into parking orbit.
They'll send a small vehicle down to the Nevada site. We asked for and got a
transpolar orbit on the twenty west, one-sixty east longitude. The only land
that passes over is Siberia, Antarctica, Reykjavik in Iceland, and a few bits
and pieces in the Pacific. Okay?"
TSERBATSKY
"Imagine, Gentlemen, we have met our brothers from the stars. And we are going
to hide them away where no one sees! I am still filled with the wonder of it!"
STEPANOV SPEAKING RUSSIAN
(
, A PROVERB WHICH CAN LOOSELY BE TRANSLATED AS
)
"Brothers is, as brothers does, Petr Simonovich!"
SHERMAN
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