Camouflage by Joe Haldeman Read Free Book Online
Authors: Joe Haldeman
capable of moving thousands of tons.
But when this heavy thing—more massive than a Nautilus submarine, but smaller than a delivery van—when it came to the shoreline and dug into the sand...
Archive footage of the cable accident.
MALLORY (VO, CONT.)
it had met its match. One man was almost killed when the cable broke.
They had to find a way to move it the last hundred yards, to the concrete pad that would become the floor of their laboratory.
Screen fades to a live image of the thing with its rocket attached.
MALLORY (VO, CONT.)
This is a self-contained Chinese booster rocket, normally used in the Glorious Wonder series, to carry up to a ton into low Earth orbit. It's not going quite so far today.
Interior view: an improvised bunker a couple of hundred yards from the thing. You can see the artifact through a thick window. Mallory is sitting with two men, drinking coffee at a table made of a plank on stacked boxes.
MALLORY
We're going to watch this with Jack Halliburton and Russell Sutton, joint directors of Atlantis Associates.
I suppose this is going to be the shortest rocket trip in history.
JACK
There were some last century that only got an inch off the pad.
RUSS
This one's reliable as a Ford truck, though. Except...
MALLORY
What could go wrong?
JACK
We're not worried about the rocket. Just its attachment to the artifact.
RUSS
It's the irresistible force versus the immovable object.
JACK
We know the thing's mass; we know the properties of the sand it's resting on. The rocket generates plenty enough thrust to do the job.
RUSS
The only problem is the attachment between the rocket and the artifact. If the collar that connects them breaks ... we'll need another approach.
MALLORY
And the rocket goes screaming into the center of town there?
Telephoto zoom from the rocket's POV: straight into Aggie Grey's.
JACK
No, there's an automatic shutoff if the rocket suddenly feels no resistance. It might go fifty or a hundred feet.
MALLORY
But if it doesn't work?
JACK
Glorious Wonder carries a lot of insurance.
RUSS
A lot of people in Apia are off visiting relatives in the country. I think I would be, too.
A loud whistle blows.
JACK
That's the ten-minute warning. You might want your cameraman out of there.
Mallory stands up and looks through the glass.
MALLORY
They're gone. Just the camera attached to the booster.
RUSS
I hope it doesn't give you anything too interesting.
MALLORY
Have to agree, for once.... So this has to be some artifact from outer space.
RUSS
Well, you know as much about that as we do. It could possibly be the result of some natural process we've never encountered before.
JACK
Though its density makes that unlikely.Or inexplicable.
MALLORY
It's very ancient.
RUSS
The coral it was embedded in was old before there were any primates resembling humans.
MALLORY
So you don't think much of the "lost weapon" theory?
JACK
Bullshit.
RUSS
You do have to wonder how it got there, if it's an old Soviet or American device. If we'd just found it lying someplace, sure, that would be the first assumption. But it was below million-year-old coral.
MALLORY
So maybe they hid it there?
RUSS
You'd have to ask why. I'd want to hide it in my own country.
MALLORY
Have the Russians or Americans contacted you?
JACK
Sure.
RUSS
We don't want to talk about that. Yet.
Screen changes to an aerial view with countdown superimposed. A 360-degree pan shows all the military helicopters watching. At ten seconds, it zooms in on the artifact. A laconic voice offscreen counts down.
VOICE (OFF)
Ten.
JACK
(rising)
About time.
The three of them move to the window to watch. A split screen adds an aerial view. The voice counts down to zero.
The Chinese rocket ignites, its exhaust churning billows of steam in the sea behind it. For long seconds, as the noise increases to a banshee scream, it doesn't move. Then the artifact lurches and moves slowly,
But when this heavy thing—more massive than a Nautilus submarine, but smaller than a delivery van—when it came to the shoreline and dug into the sand...
Archive footage of the cable accident.
MALLORY (VO, CONT.)
it had met its match. One man was almost killed when the cable broke.
They had to find a way to move it the last hundred yards, to the concrete pad that would become the floor of their laboratory.
Screen fades to a live image of the thing with its rocket attached.
MALLORY (VO, CONT.)
This is a self-contained Chinese booster rocket, normally used in the Glorious Wonder series, to carry up to a ton into low Earth orbit. It's not going quite so far today.
Interior view: an improvised bunker a couple of hundred yards from the thing. You can see the artifact through a thick window. Mallory is sitting with two men, drinking coffee at a table made of a plank on stacked boxes.
MALLORY
We're going to watch this with Jack Halliburton and Russell Sutton, joint directors of Atlantis Associates.
I suppose this is going to be the shortest rocket trip in history.
JACK
There were some last century that only got an inch off the pad.
RUSS
This one's reliable as a Ford truck, though. Except...
MALLORY
What could go wrong?
JACK
We're not worried about the rocket. Just its attachment to the artifact.
RUSS
It's the irresistible force versus the immovable object.
JACK
We know the thing's mass; we know the properties of the sand it's resting on. The rocket generates plenty enough thrust to do the job.
RUSS
The only problem is the attachment between the rocket and the artifact. If the collar that connects them breaks ... we'll need another approach.
MALLORY
And the rocket goes screaming into the center of town there?
Telephoto zoom from the rocket's POV: straight into Aggie Grey's.
JACK
No, there's an automatic shutoff if the rocket suddenly feels no resistance. It might go fifty or a hundred feet.
MALLORY
But if it doesn't work?
JACK
Glorious Wonder carries a lot of insurance.
RUSS
A lot of people in Apia are off visiting relatives in the country. I think I would be, too.
A loud whistle blows.
JACK
That's the ten-minute warning. You might want your cameraman out of there.
Mallory stands up and looks through the glass.
MALLORY
They're gone. Just the camera attached to the booster.
RUSS
I hope it doesn't give you anything too interesting.
MALLORY
Have to agree, for once.... So this has to be some artifact from outer space.
RUSS
Well, you know as much about that as we do. It could possibly be the result of some natural process we've never encountered before.
JACK
Though its density makes that unlikely.Or inexplicable.
MALLORY
It's very ancient.
RUSS
The coral it was embedded in was old before there were any primates resembling humans.
MALLORY
So you don't think much of the "lost weapon" theory?
JACK
Bullshit.
RUSS
You do have to wonder how it got there, if it's an old Soviet or American device. If we'd just found it lying someplace, sure, that would be the first assumption. But it was below million-year-old coral.
MALLORY
So maybe they hid it there?
RUSS
You'd have to ask why. I'd want to hide it in my own country.
MALLORY
Have the Russians or Americans contacted you?
JACK
Sure.
RUSS
We don't want to talk about that. Yet.
Screen changes to an aerial view with countdown superimposed. A 360-degree pan shows all the military helicopters watching. At ten seconds, it zooms in on the artifact. A laconic voice offscreen counts down.
VOICE (OFF)
Ten.
JACK
(rising)
About time.
The three of them move to the window to watch. A split screen adds an aerial view. The voice counts down to zero.
The Chinese rocket ignites, its exhaust churning billows of steam in the sea behind it. For long seconds, as the noise increases to a banshee scream, it doesn't move. Then the artifact lurches and moves slowly,
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