Communion of Dreams, page 2
“That’s a good idea,” Jon said. He looked to Seth. “Put together a preliminary list of possible disciplines. There should be some guidelines available on the subject in the old NASA files.”
Seth nodded. “I’ll get started on it.”
“Anything else before we go in?” Jon asked Magurshak.
“No. Let’s get this started.” Magurshak opened the door to the conference room, and went in.
Jon followed, looked around the room as he entered it. Only enough chairs for the half-dozen people attending the meeting, arranged in a small circle. After he settled in, a word to Seth allowed him to see the other experts for the rest of the staff just behind and to the side of their respective chairs.
Most of the people he knew well. Magurshak, of course. And not surprisingly, Jen Grant, Secretary of the National Security Apparatus. Owen Roberts, the USSA Spaceflight Operations Administrator. Don Bradsen, the USSA Research Coordinator. And sitting next to Don a man who looked vaguely familiar, someone he felt that he should know. A moment later it came to him: Robert Gish. It made sense in a weird sort of way.
Ted Magurshak looked around the room, then started the meeting. "Karen couldn't be here. She is en route to Mars, a courtesy call to her Japanese counterpart. I’ll get her up to speed later.
“Well, as you all know, we got a bit of rather unexpected news today. A gel prospector on Titan found something on the edge of his station. Something artificial, and not something that we put there." He looked first at Jon, then to Don Bradsen, the USSA Research Coordinator. "Jon had the bad luck to be on vacation when the news came in, so I asked Don to handle the initial report. Don, I'd appreciate it if you could tell us what we know at this point.”
Don Bradsen was tall, thin, with a short mop of blond hair and very pale skin. He was in his late 30's, but could be mistaken for being ten years older. A geophysicist by training, he was responsible for USSA research efforts, with a primary focus on locating other habitable planets in nearby solar systems. He looked from Magurshak to the rest of the room, then said, "We don’t know much, to be honest. On the first of the month one of the solo prospectors on Titan, name of Darnell Sidwell, found something. Or rather, his micros did. He had them working in a ridge of tholin, looking for a vein of gel. They ran into some difficulty with the vein, couldn't find it even though resonance showed that it was there somewhere.”
Bradsen continued, “Sidwell noticed the difficulty, and investigated. He found the artifact, half a dozen meters under the surface, just above a burl of gel." Bradsen played his fingers over the back of his hand, and a holo image appeared in the center of the room.
"This isn't it. It seems that we can't get a picture of it, nor really tell that it is there with any of the equipment available on Titan.”
“So what are we seeing?” asked Jen Grant, the severe Chief of the NSA.
“This is just a mock up, sent down with the rest of the report from Susan Jakobs. It is even difficult to look at, they say. Height almost a meter, and about a meter across the roughly hexagonal face. The edges are fuzzy, indistinct. A deep grey color, somewhat mottled. No protrusions, inscriptions, or obvious way to open it, if it can be opened.”
Bradsen touched the back of his hand, and the holo seemed to retreat, becoming smaller. From this vantage it could be seen hovering above a dull silver-grey burl of gel. “It doesn’t seem to be doing anything, just floats a little over a meter above the burl. Sidwell left it where he uncovered it, and the burl as well.”
He allowed the image to hang there, rotating slowly so that everyone could see it. For a long minute there was silence, and he continued. "Sidwell didn't tell anyone about the discovery for ten days, said he wanted a chance to figure it out before we got involved.”
Jon spoke. "That’s typical. Sidwell is a bit of an old coot. He's about 80, close as anyone can get him to admit. He has been at the forefront of exploration all along, having started with the Israeli colonies on the Moon, and was one of the first prospectors to establish himself on Titan."
Bradsen nodded. "Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to have done it any damage, nor it him. He left it where he found it, but put up a temporary shelter, complete with airlock and security, though he says he never got out of his environment suit when he was inside the shelter. Eventually, he did contact Titan Prime. Just walked into the Administrator's office yesterday afternoon, shut the door, and told her to turn on her security screen.
“At first Susan Jakobs thought that he was nuts, since as you know there is a bit of a problem with the prospectors ‘seeing things’. He agreed to a full medical and psychological work-up. No deviation from any of his baseline stats. Susan sent a team consisting of some of the research science personnel back to his base with him to check out his story, see if they had better luck in getting an image of it than he did.”
“Evidently not,” said Grant.
“They don’t really have the appropriate equipment for this sort of problem. Using what they have, they couldn’t get an image of it on any wavelength, can't measure anything radiating from it, and it just seems to absorb any scanning energy. They were reduced to taking measurements of it with rulers, making visual observations, then sketching this mockup. Sidwell told them that he had tried to touch the thing, but got no sensation, just a 'thickness' at the end of his fingers through his suit, like he was pushing into some type of gelatinous mass. They decided to not repeat the experiment, nor to try and move it, until they got in contact with us. That is pretty much what we know so far."
Magurshak looked around the room. "Or at least as of about seven hours ago. As soon as I digested Susan's message, I sent back a reply. Communication lag is about ninety minutes each way; unless there is an emergency, her next report should come in about 11 tonight. I figured that would give us time to assess the situation, and her to implement my preliminary instructions.
"I told her to put a quarantine on it. Keep her team watching it, in pairs, with a remote team watching them. Do nothing else to change the situation until we had a chance to figure out where to go from here. Comments?"
Jen Grant spoke, a quiet, low voice, one which was used to commanding attention. "This whole matter needs to be treated with the utmost caution and secrecy. 'Need to know' only. The impact that this will have on the country is unclear, though my expert," she absent-mindedly gestured to the semi-solid ghost standing behind her, "says that there's a high probability that at least some fringe groups which have been more active recently could erupt into violence, which could cascade. We need to know what we have, so far as we can, before we start the process of telling people anything about it. The President agrees completely. I'll have my expert communicate with each of yours the protocols for keeping security."
Silence followed the sound of her voice. After a moment Magurshak looked around the room and said, “OK, people. What are your preliminary thoughts?”
Don Bradsen spoke again, “Well, first we need solid scientific data. Get a crew up there ASAP with appropriate equipment, find out what the thing is.”
The man sitting next to him got up, stepped up to the holo of the artifact still rotating there in the center. Robert Gish was a little unkempt, his beard untrimmed, his dark hair matted. He was out of shape, almost flabby in appearance. His scientific reputation was as unconventional as his looks. More so. He had been responsible for the radical change in long-range sensing which led to the development of the Advanced Survey Array. Nobel Prize stuff. A true genius, not just brilliant but able and willing to make leaps that took others years to understand. Which was why Bradsen had him here: Gish had been saying for decades that there was other intelligent life among the stars. Saying it so loud and so often that he was considered a crank, since he had no proof and couldn’t even really explain why he believed it to be so, at least in a way that others could accept.
Reaching out as though he was going to touch the object, he said quietly “We know what it is. It is a crack in our shell.”
Hand still hanging there on the apparent surface of the artifact, he lifted his eyes, and spoke up, as though he wasn’t aware that he had previously said anything aloud. “We must be careful. Whoever left this didn’t expect us to find it, and may not much like that we did.”
Don Bradsen looked skeptical. “The thing was under a layer of tholin that has taken thousands of years to precipitate out of Titan’s atmosphere. Sidwell reported that there was no evidence of the artifact having been buried by artificial means. It was evidently parked there, and the tholin deposited around it over a prolonged period of time. I doubt if it is much of a threat.”
Jen Grant glanced at Gish, said, “We still need to take steps to secure the artifact, no matter what. It isn’t an unreasonable precaution to position some defensive capability near the site, or in orbit above it.”
Magurshak said, “But let’s keep some perspective on this. It’s been there at least as long as we have, and hasn’t taken any hostile action against us. The fact that nothing happened to Sidwell as he excavated it tells us a lot.”
Grant nodded. “True, but even so, we may need to protect it from others. This is an incredible discovery, and we may have to defend our interests from whatever possible threat.”
Magurshak considered this for a moment, but said nothing in response. Instead, he looked to Jon. "Anything you can tell us about the situation on Titan? How easy will it be for us to get a team up there to investigate this thing without alerting anyone who doesn't need to know?"
"It's doable, though we should keep our numbers down. Titan Prime is compartmentalized enough that if we're careful, few people will need to know what our team is up to."
Magurshak looked around the room. “Right. Jon is going to head the overall mission. Don will be in charge of field research. Take whoever you think you should have, but keep the number down as much as possible. Any thoughts on mission personnel?"
Bradsen went first. "We've already got some fine minds available on Titan Prime, thanks to the ASA research facility, and can tap them for some of what we need. That'll disrupt the scheduled research, but I think this takes precedence. In addition, I want a high-energy plasma person. I'd like to have Soukup, who’s in the area on the Hawking project, trying to get the Apparent Gravity drive to behave. Also, a particle person. And Gish, of course. Maybe also someone from the biological sciences, perhaps a good bio-chemist.”
Magurshak nodded. “Jon, who else do you want to bring in on this?”
Jon sat for a moment, looking at the holo in the middle. He didn’t respond directly to Magurshak, instead looked to Jen Grant, "Secretary Grant, can we have someone who has practical experience with evidence collection and crime scene protocol from your department?"
"Certainly. I’ll make sure you get someone who has those skills. But do you think that it will matter? Sounds like this prospector has pretty well ruined any chance of getting information from the surrounding environment."
"It might matter. I don't know. But it couldn't hurt.” Jon paused, and considered a file Seth had downloaded for him, then went on, “I’ve had my expert do a preliminary search through the old NASA archives. I recalled that they had protocols for dealing with such possible situations, and I doubt that anyone else has really thought much about it since the turn of the century.
“In addition to Don’s field team, the preliminary search suggests that another component should be theoretical, a mix of disciplines so that we can get as broad a spectrum of experience and mind-set as possible. Probably we should have an expert in computer technology. A cultural anthropologist. Someone with a background in game theory and communication strategy. An artist or two. We'll see if a more thorough survey of the NASA material has any good suggestions beyond that. I’ll get to work identifying appropriate individuals.”
Magurshak nodded. "Good. Owen, how's transportation look?"
Owen Roberts, the head of the USSA Spaceflight Operations, was almost the same age as Magurshak. He was of a stocky build, medium height. His dark face was broken by a brilliant white smile. He was well known for that smile, an excellent administrator who could also talk practical engineering and spaceflight with his staff. He himself had been directly instrumental in getting the Fusion-Plasma drive translated from theory into functionality over a dozen years ago.
“We have a couple of ships available and ready. Change a few schedules, delay some routine re-supply to make room for the other equipment we’ll need . . . no one will really notice. We can be ready to leave in a couple of days.”
“What’s flight time look like?”
“Depending on the amount of mass from the research equipment, and the number of people . . . well, if we split it into two ships, they should be able to get to Titan Prime in eight to ten days.”
“Right. Well, let’s leave it there for now. I think everyone has an idea what they need to do next. Coordinate with Jon, he’ll keep me informed. Meet back here in three hours if you want to hear Susan’s next report.” Magurshak touched the back of his hand, and the holo disappeared.
Jon sat in his chair as the others filed out of the room, waiting to talk with Magurshak. When the room was empty, he asked, “So, how did Susan sound in her report?”
The older man leaned back in his chair, stretched, shook his head a little as though to try and clear it. “Well, check it for yourself, but I think she was somewhat stunned.”
“That’s not hard to believe. I think this is going to have us all a little rattled for a while.”
“As it has clearly rattled the NSA,” said Magurshak, shaking his head a bit. “But, how’re you doing?”
“Well, surprised by the news, of course. Can’t say that I ever expected to be dealing with something like this.”
Magurshak nodded. “Sorry to pull you off vacation.”
Jon smiled slightly. “I wouldn’t want to miss this. No sweat. But you owe me the time off when I get back.”
“You got it.”
“Look, I need to go and start considering the rest of the team, see who is available on such short notice.”
“OK, see you at 11.”
* * *
For the first hour Jon reviewed the initial report from Susan Jakobs, went through the attached files on Darnell Sidwell (including the medical and psychological profiles, before and after his discovery of the artifact), as he had Seth scouring the NASA files and anything else he could think of for suggestions on how to deal with the discovery of an alien artifact. Magurshak had been right; Susan sounded a little unsure, almost a little in awe.
Seth compiled a report on the information he found after searching through millions of documents buried in the NASA archives. Jon also had him do a review of film and literature from the previous century, since scenarios of alien contact had been a popular mainstay of the culture. Even though much of the material would be complete trash, Jon hoped that his expert would be able to find a few helpful ideas on how to handle the situation they found themselves in. He and Jon went through the report, started outlining potential candidates for each of the positions Jon wanted to fill. Just as Seth was making the connection to the first of these, Owen Roberts called and then came into Jon’s office.
“How’s it going?” he asked as he helped himself to a seat.
Jon set down the notepad he was using, looked up. Jon tapped his pad with a finger. “Seth went through all the old NASA files, also all the scientific and popular literature up until the fire-flu. The scientific stuff, like the NASA documents, had some good things to say. But almost all the popular literature had such a discovery being the prelude to some great invasion or calamity. Everyone involved is supposed to get eaten, or taken over by the aliens, or something equally horrendous. And since I have to select the team to go out there, and lead it myself . . . ”
Roberts chuckled slightly. “I see the problem.”
“Yeah, I guess I better inform my family not to expect me back from Titan. I’m sure they’ll take it well; my room has been one of the most coveted in the compound.”
Still chuckling, the engineer said, “I wanted to confirm what you thought you might need in terms of transportation. As I said, we have two ships ready, the da Vinci and the Planck. But I can bring in another ship from Europa ahead of schedule if you think you’ll need the tonnage.”
Jon looked down at his pad, the notes he had made there. “It depends on how much equipment Bradsen needs to bring, but I think those two ships should be sufficient. I think we’ll have about a dozen people, and all the gear.”
“I’ll check with Don, then. Space for the people won’t be a problem; each of those ships can easily handle more than that number in addition to crew without crowding. Any other special needs you’ll have?”
“Well, Grant made it pretty clear that we’ll need arrangements for security. She’ll probably want to send a small contingent of marines, but I’ll convince her to keep it to a minimum. And probably a fusion weapon or two. But those things aren’t very big, nor carry a lot of mass. Shouldn’t present any difficulties.” He paused, considered. “There is one other thing: I want to take Seth with me.”
At this point Seth flicked back into view, and both men glanced at him. “Are you sure about that, Jon?” he asked.
“Yes. I realize what it means for you, to be nonfunctional for the duration of the trip out, but I may need you there.”
Roberts narrowed his eyes a little. “There’s also a risk just in transporting him. That matrix, even in lockdown mode, doesn’t respond well to changing inertial fields.”
“Yes, I know. But there’s only one gel-based expert out at Titan Prime, and he is busy helping Jakobs administer the station. Seth will be a real asset. It’s worth the minimal risk. Do you agree, Seth?”
There was the briefest of pauses, and Jon didn’t think that it was only for effect. Seth answered, “I concur. I can take additional precautions to download memory files and personality profile data into more stable storage, and we can have that as a backup in case something does get a little out of adjustment during transport. And I believe that I can be of help to you on site.”
