The Clones of Mawcett by Thomas DePrima Read Free Book Online Page A

would be underway for four months during this trip to Nordakia, although it could arrive sooner if necessary. Jenetta would learn, in a senior level staff meeting the next day, that the ship's temporal field generator had been modified while the ship was in spacedock at Mars. It was now capable of achieving Light-412, although Light-375 remained the officially listed top speed. At Light-375, it was already one of the two fastest ships in the fleet, and the known galaxy. Only Prometheus' brother ship, the Chiron, would be able to match his speed once the current retrofit work was complete. Most of the engineers at the shipyard didn't yet know that the generator could be enhanced to get ten percent more speed than its rating. All of this was top secret and the officers would be instructed to keep it that way.

The_Clones_of_Mawcett

Chapter Three
~ June 13th, 2269 ~
On Mawcett, the eleven archeologists paralyzed by the beam in the newly discovered underground facility, had fully recovered. Keewatin, the site's chief laborer supervisor, had cautiously entered the facility after a general alarm was raised in the camp by the laborers who'd witnessed the event. He'd found the eleven scientists on the floor, unconscious, in the center of the circular chamber. There was no sign of the reported transparent wall, nor any indication of lingering gas, but the crushed body of the laborer who'd rushed to aid the scientists was there. He'd tried to leap off, back the way he'd come, but the wall rose too swiftly. He was dead.
'Oh-gee' stretchers were sent for, so that the bodies of the comatose victims and the dead laborer could be brought to the surface. The scientists were conveyed to the first aid shelter, where eleven cots had been hastily erected in the too-small space, while the body of the laborer was temporarily interred in a quickly emptied food freezer.
No medical doctors were in residence at the camp, but a woman trained in emergency medical treatment monitored the condition of the scientists carefully. Their vital signs slowly returned to normal. After several hours they simply appeared to be sleeping. One by one, they awoke, claiming to have no memory of the event. By lunchtime all averred to feel fine, with no apparent residual effects from the experience. They were escorted to their usual tables in the mess shelter so their bodies could be provided with the sustenance they had missed while unconscious.
“I have absolutely no memory of being paralyzed, or anything else,” Doctor Peterson announced to the others.
“Nor I,” Doctor Ramilo responded, “but we must accept that it happened, since everyone in the camp was witness to our being removed from the underground complex. I'd remember coming up here if I'd been conscious.”
“It must have happened as Keewatin says,” Doctor Huften said. “We certainly can't deny that one of our laborers was killed trying to help us; poor man. But what was the purpose of the paralyzing beam? And perhaps even more importantly, what was in the gas that reportedly filled the enclosure? Did we inhale it, or was the purpose of the paralyzing beam to insure that we didn't inhale? If so, was it merely intended to coat our bodies?”
“The beam may have been intended to prevent exactly what happened to our laborer,” Doctor Vlashsku said. “By paralyzing victims at the onset, they're prevented from panicking and trying to get out while the wall is rising. It's unfortunate that our man was outside the wall's perimeter when the process began. We must go back down there as soon as possible, but this time we'll avoid the center of the room. We must determine the purpose of the complex, and what has been done to us.”
Mixed feeling regarding a next visit underground kept the scientists on the surface until the following day. They spent most of the afternoon speculating on possibilities, but in the absence of empirical information, no conclusions could be reached.
As before, Doctor Peterson led