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Eyewash

      A crackle emanated from the intercom, John Atkins
checked his co-ordinates from the transparent display on his
visor. Outside of the podule the sun blazed blindingly and
encompassed the field of view entirely. This was to be the
ultimate geological research survey, no-one had ever ventured
this close to the sun, the extreme temperatures made it
necessary for the pod to be encapsulated in a powerful
magnetic field, which in conjunction with the photon adaption
field prevented instant incineration.
     Yet there were objects orbiting at this distance,
spiralling ever closer to the parent, the father and mother that
created them. John felt grateful that tucked away as he was, he
couldn't sense or know the inferno which raged around him.
The strings of figures that scrolled gently along his visor
checked and analysed the solar flares, which if not observed
and avoided would mean instant death for the mission, the pod
and it's occupant. The never ending figures were giving John
a headache.
     "You are nearing the object now. Prepare to close in
and conjugate."
     "Alright, I'm bringing up visuals now."
     The graphics of the solar surface had been shaded a
soothing blue, the asteroid a lush green. He swivelled the pod
around and prepared for conjugation. It was crazy really, he
wasn't certain whether psychologically altering the displays to
cool shades did calm his nerves, but he felt that there must
have been more worthwhile procedures that could have been
worked on.
     A chime indicated that velocity and orbit had been
matched. With a tap of keys he negotiated through the steps
that he knew backwards by now.
     "Asteroid has been secured. Beginning internal
survey."
     The chemical make-up of the rock was carefully
scanned. Small samples were drilled and analysed by the
onboard instrumentation. NMR, Mass Spec. IR, capillary
electrophoresis of solubles were all carried out automatically
and the results beamed directly to the research station. There
was a intake of breath through the intercom.
     "I don't know what you've found, but do you think
you could bring it back?"
     John checked the Mass and fuel levels, oxygen supply
and then confirmed that he could.

     In his personal luggage John kept an assortment of
lucky charms that he had accumulated during his career as a
podule pilot. Initial surveys had been carried out by unmanned
probes but there was a certain amount of delicacy and human
instinct needed. The scientists didn't like to admit it, but they
did pay well. John tossed aside his lucky St. Christopher, and
found what he was looking for beneath his electric foot
massager. The streams and streams of data that had flowed
past his eyes for the past three hours had made them itch, he
poured the eyewash from a small blue bottle into a handy little
eye bath. He tipped his head back and washed each in turn,
feeling very much relieved.
     One of the technical crew handed him a water pouch,
which he drank from gratefully.
     "They've got the lump of rock you brought back in the
observation chamber, seems that there was carbon in the
centre of it, probably diamond."
     "Diamond? Why did they get me to bring that back in?
It's not as though it'll be worth anything these days. By the
way, who programmed for the sun to be blue on my visor
display?"
     "Oh, that was probably Dave. He's the most artistically
minded I reckon."
     "Well, tell him cheers."
     "Oaky-dokey. Do you want to come and see them slice
open the asteroid you brought back, there's nothing much else
to do."
     "I'll be along in a minute, when I've finished with my
eyes."

     The observation chamber was spherical and bubble-like.
 Not being in the centrifugal area of the space station it
had magnetic walls and required special shoes to be worn
inside. Small supports extended from the wallfloor to hold the
object being observed in place. The chamber was able to
expand or contract in order to hold a variety of objects with
the minimum of fuss. Robotic arms could be used to drill or
saw through samples in isolation, a throwback to the age old
fears about space viruses or nuclear contamination.
     The asteroid that John had brought back to the station
appeared wholly unremarkable. A ten foot tall oval of charcoal
black material, it was hard to believe that it was man-made (or
so the reports that the labs had beamed back were suggesting).
     Initial scans had identified a peculiarly clear outline of
what appeared to be diamond, encased in a strange 21st
century amalgam. As John peered through one of the windows
at the black lump he wondered whether this stuff was really
worth the time and effort that was being spent. Just as he was
about to head towards the canteen there came an
announcement that the drilling was about to precede. They
were about to open it up. A hand tapped on his shoulder,
     "They say," said Dave, "that there's something
peculiar in there."
     "It'll probably be something which the Geologists will
find peculiar," he replied, staring at the tiny robotic arms as
they made small incisions at carefully calculated points on the
rock. "there'll be twenty four layers of black rock, but because
they haven't seen it before it will be hailed as a breakthrough.
Not that I'm complaining, it's hard to find people who'll pay
this well these days."
     "No, I've got this feeling, that something odd is buried
in that thing."
     The tap of tiny drills was pattering through the
corridors as a map of fault lines were etched in the rock.
     "You see," Dave continued, "this isn't really their field.
They were out here looking at what effect proximity to the
sun has had on the various samples we've found out here. The
truth is that up until now the results have been quite
disappointing. Just hunks of Iron mainly, with no idea of
whether they were formed here or just fell here. But this is
different. They're convinced that it's man-made."
     "So what? It's a man made hunk of diamond? I
suppose in academic circles it would group it into
archeology."
     "NO!" he broke into a wild grin, "It means there might
be something inside there. . ."

     Two thicker and altogether bulkier arms extended and
drilled into the outside of the asteroid. There was now a barely
visible network of channels carved into the exterior of the
rock. As John gazed he called to mind the library pictures of
Egyptian hieroglyphics. There was a hush and then a crack as
the rock was carefully pulled apart.
     To begin with there was merely a pool of darkness in
the recesses of the opening, then as the halves were shifted
and pulled apart the asteroid opened like a book. There was a
six foot flawless diamond encased within, as the observation
floodlights caught the facets there was an explosion of
refracted light within the chamber.
     "It's beautiful!" gasped Dave, open mouthed.
     John shaded his eyes with his hand,
     "It's a man!" He yelped.

     No-one could explain how he'd got there, but there
was little doubt, the diamond within the asteroid was a man.
He stood six foot tall, like a life size Oscar award in diamond.
One theory had it that the carbon in his body had turned into
diamond in the extremes of heat and pressure near the sun.
Another theory was that he had been cursed (like Icarus) by
forces he couldn't explain, for flying too close to the sun.
There was even a suggestion (by the lunatic conspiracy
theorists) that it was a marker left by aliens, who would now
make themselves known for humankind had shown it was
sufficiently advanced.
     But John had another theory, which approached the
matter from a point of view totally foreign to everyone else on
board.
     "It doesn't MATTER!" he tried to explain, once again,
to Dave, "Whoever he is, however he got there, doesn't
matter. We should cast him back out into space and have
respect for the dead. It just feels wrong for us to be poking
and testing him."
     "I don't think he minds."
     John sighed and sipped his coffee. The canteen was
buzzing, everyone had their own theory and there was a mood
of great discovery around the station. John felt that there must
have been a similar feeling in the camp of the archeologists
who opened up the pyramids.
     The man-diamond had been removed from the shell of
asteroid and was being examined by whole teams of geologists
overnight, before the historians got wind of the discovery.
     "Do you think that there are many more of them out
there?" asked John, quietly.
     "No, I reckon this is definitely a one-off. We've been
out here months, hauling bit after bit of Iron and crud back.
Now we come across this, well, the mission will go down in
history. We were there when they found the dia-man-d!"
     "Still, it makes you wonder." he tipped his coffee away
and then went away to rest.

     Six days later, the news had got out. Journalists were
plying there way onwards towards the station, with teams of
historians and archeologists. Soon there would be hundreds of
tourists all paying to see the man (and to finance more
geological surveys around the sun). It was late in the night/day
cycle of the station (necessary to prevent the occupants from
losing their minds over their long stays aboard). The station
was quiet and John was gazing through the observation
window into the chamber, there was no-one else around. The
controls for the chamber were in a small room through a
security door, but since the discovery discipline on the station
was lax and there was no guard. The door wasn't even locked,
so John slipped inside. A series of programs  dealt with the
evacuation of the chamber and ejection of it's contents into
space. John tapped a pad and the evacuation procedure began.
     There was a sudden wail of sirens and John ran into
the corridor, his magnetic shoes thumping on the floor. The
station stirred sleepily and security teams grumbled as they ran
towards the security breach. The pull of the magnets on his
feet seemed to drag him back. The utter futility of running
pervaded his body and he waited to be arrested.

                * * * * *

     John sat down in the shuttle back to Earth, and felt his
eyes itch again. The station crew had found the whole incident
very amusing. Security was lax on the station because there
was no possible way that the chamber could've been emptied
without the proper clearance. He'd had his hands slapped like
a naughty child and been sent home. The irony of the situation
was that he was going back on the same shuttle as the dia-man-d.
     He sifted through his bag for his bottle of eyewash and
prepared himself for the long trip home.

©1998 Mark Sexton