Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

T. E. Greene lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children. "Actually, a half-empty nest with frequent visits" He holds a masters degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a teaching certification from Eastern Connecticut State University and a bachelors degree in mathematics and general science from Barrington College. He teaches math, science and computer programming at a local high school. He enjoys music, travel and research "in just about anything" Current projects: fractal-based structures and a computer-generated timeline.

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Worlds Spinning Round

AuthorHouse

Contents

1. Underground.................................12. None of the Above...........................323. Crisis of Response..........................394. Tangled Webs................................855. Declarations................................1176. Treks.......................................1357. Crack in the Sky............................1658. Shell Air...................................1919. Wolves among Sheep..........................2170. Generations.................................22411. Regeneration...............................26612. Nevertheless, It Moves.....................29113. Inside Loop................................33114. Slingshot..................................36415. Contract...................................38216. Bumps in the Night.........................41317. Teamwork...................................42318. Punching the Envelope......................46119. Through the Wall...........................48220. Bringers of Colds..........................52621. What Is Good...............................54022. Shadows....................................55823. Coverage...................................57324. Responsibilities...........................58925. Sheep among Wolves.........................61026. Sacrilege..................................61627. Justice....................................65428. Balance of Forces..........................67929. Extended Forecast..........................69830. Out of the Frying Pan......................70931. Times Together.............................735

Chapter One

Mike Wallingford stood balanced in his armored pressure suit on an insulated pad fitted into what was currently the bottom of a heavy-walled, steel alloy chamber. He was sealed in as not even the most paranoid coffin-nightmare victim had envisioned. Beneath ninety-two atmospheres of toxic pressure, an undetermined depth of Venusian soil, glowing orange at five hundred Celsius, lay above him. He could not see the glow, except what showed around the edge of the cover that protected the three small viewports overhead. Two ports at his waist level, one before and one behind him, had been used originally to allow a medical scanner to examine a native patient, but for this mission had been covered with heavy alloy plate and welded shut against abrasion and the reversed, outside-in pressure. Around him, the invisible soil Mike could hear scraping slowly by the chamber would have held the shell-like cover plates shut firmly enough to keep him from ever getting out had they not already been sealed and bolted from the outside. Somewhere nearby, he hoped, his construction supervisor and friend Anton Petrov rode in an identical vessel. The objective of this madness was an underground visit of Anton and Mike to the Tunnel of Meeting of the Venusian Clan Mizhban.

The plan had called for testing the pressure chambers three times before the actual descent, the first two unmanned. The first required native diggers to tow the chambers in a horizontal direction just beneath the surface of the ground, the second, a vertical run to the Tunnel of Meeting itself in order to confirm that the pressure chambers could be made to reach their destination and return while preserving the Earth-normal environment within against the weight and heat of the soil overhead. Translated, Mike thought nervously, an occupant would have survived. The third experiment was set up as a manned repetition of the first, horizontal test.

The sand squall had changed all that. The third test had been canceled when conditions on the surface became too dangerous for humans to remain outside the two fortress-like crawlers assigned to support the mission. Despite successful completion of the first two test runs with the living-space environments monitored by an unoccupied pressure suit inside each chamber, uncertainties remained. Human-excavated tunnels aside, this was the first time humans had descended beneath the surface of the planet Venus.

If only that were the sole matter occupying his mind. Ellen McFarland, the woman to whom he had proposed marriage not a week ago, had held back and seemingly distanced herself from him, because, rumor had it, of attraction to another man, the expedition doctor, Ed Shigamatsu. Not even a triangle, the relationship had become more like a sandwich with Ellen both positioned and caught between levels of age and of education. A clear enough choice, to his tortured mind. Nevertheless, Mike preferred being in his own dangerous condition, totally helpless, rather than in Ellen's apparent dilemma.

At the moment, Mike's suit was running slightly but measurably warmer than the values recorded by the unmanned suits. The change in operating level did not appear to pose an immediate threat, but any anomaly bore watching. One could get very and quickly dead down here.

He would have to watch whether the rate of consumption by his suit's fuel cells increased appreciably as the suit worked harder to maintain its original temperature setting, since fuel supply was the limiting factor to the time of the visit. His suit bore two high-pressure, liquefied-gas tanks, one filled with hydrogen for the fuel cell, the other with oxygen shared between the fuel cell and his need to breathe. There were six spare oxygen tanks racked along the sides of the pressure chamber's interior, enough, counting the one he was already using, to last about a week with active filtering. There were only two hydrogen spares. The suits were not expected to exert themselves much while underground, except for refrigeration.

Well, let's see, what's different from the unmanned tests? Himself, for one. He gave off heat. The test suits had been empty. So, how much of an effect could his body temperature have? Would it be enough to affect the air temperature in the chamber outside his suit? Mike checked the readout. Warmer than the inside of his suit, but no less livable than a hot summer day. He called up, on his suit's computer, the profiles of the unmanned tests in order to see a side-by-side comparison of temperature over time and got an unpleasant surprise. There was no data for chamber temperature.

Of all the things to leave out, he grumbled. Then he remembered. The unmanned tests had been made with vacuum in the chambers to increase the pressure difference with the outside, a safety factor before committing people to the mission. There were no readouts because vacuum has no temperature, just like space.

That could account for the temperature difference. Vacuum is also an insulator. Air conducts heat, not as quickly as metal, certainly, but a factor to deal with nonetheless.

It seemed, then, that since the air surrounding his suit was warmer than the air surrounding him, the majority of the extra heat was being conducted to the suit from the soil outside by the air in the pressure chamber and by any contact he made with the insulated walls of the chamber itself. He could increase chamber cooling, but that would use more fuel. Mike became very careful not to touch any of the ceramic-fiber-covered metal with anything but his armored and over-gloved fingertips, and then only for balance on his insulated boots as the pressure chamber scraped and shifted and sank deeper.

Mike could only guess at the temperature outside. Attempts had been made to mount external thermocouples that would be not only sensitive to changes in soil temperature...