Brimstone by David Niall Wilson & Patricia Lee Macomber

Author:David Niall Wilson & Patricia Lee Macomber [Wilson, David Niall & Macomber, Patricia Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Crossroad Press & Fandemonium Books
Published: 2011-03-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

Dr. Zelenka leaned over the console, his hands on the desk, gripping it until his knuckles turned white. With a deep breath he punched in the coordinates for Admah and stared at the readout. Everything seemed fine. The circuits were aligned and calibrated — none of the diagnostics showed any anomaly — but he knew in the pit of his stomach it wasn’t going to connect.

There was a hesitation in the system, as if it might actually break through whatever confounded it this time. Then it shifted. The coordinates changed and suddenly they were connected to a different gate on a different planet. There were no symbols in common between the address he’d dialed and the one that connected.

“Damn!” he growled. “I thought I had it that time.”

Commander Woolsey, who’d been watching from a few feet away, pushed in closer. “Did it disconnect? Again?”

“Not this time,” Radeck sighed. “This time, it shifted to another address completely. I have no idea what world these coordinates lead to, but it has an operational gate.”

“Close it down,” Woolsey said. “Could it be the DHD? Is it possible that the error is on our end?”

“I’ve dialed three separate known addresses,” Zelenka replied. “All of them connected without errors. Whatever it is that’s blocking us, it’s only associated with the Admah gate.”

“There’s nothing else you can try?”

“Let me see.” Zelenka turned back to the console. His fingers worked furiously at the keys and he squinted at the console readout. “I keep thinking that maybe with a change in the modulation of the signal I might overcome whatever it is that’s preventing the gate from locking on and opening. It’s as if the dialer connects, and then something shifts the signal just enough to prevent a lock.”

He pushed the symbols for the Admah gate carefully and waited. The wormhole shimmered and began to form. “I’ve got it!” he cried. “I’ve…”

The shimmer faded. Just that quickly, it disconnected again. “For the love of all that’s holy!” Zelenka exclaimed. He ran his hands back through his hair and stared at the console. Halfway back, he gripped tightly in frustration and pulled the hair taut.

“They’re using some sort of phasing signal. When someone dials the coordinates for their gate, it’s detected and a phase shift occurs. I don’t know how but it redirects the signal, reconfigures the address that’s been dialed. The coordinates to the gate change every time somebody tries to access it.”

“But,” Woolsey said, confused, “why would they do that? And why did it connect the first time and allow our team to pass through?” His brow was deeply creased, and he looked for all the world like he’d just bitten into a lemon. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

Zelenka shrugged. “Maybe they don’t want anyone coming through the gate? Perhaps there is a problem on their end and they don’t want to endanger anyone else? I suppose Rodney is capable of creating such a shift…”

“We have to contact them. ” Woolsey began to pace, biting into his lip as he went.

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