The Eyes of Tandor, page 11
Even though it had made a great show of the need to ferret out opposition within the Community of Keepers as the existence of the original Questioner had suggested, X had not really feared that these flawed individuals could actually pose a threat to its position of authority. However, when it encountered opposition from a species using technological progress to thwart implementation of the Plan, that was another matter entirely. Failure to implement the Plan while leading the merged Conclave could imperil the long-held belief among the population of Tandor that only X had the ability to continue leading the Community and thus continue enjoying its lifestyle of unparalleled luxury.
For the first time in its multimillennial existence, X knew fear. But unlike the guilty enjoyment it felt while indulging in the fear of others, its own fear rose up before it like a black wall that it could not see beyond, bringing a sense of vulnerability it had only experienced when causing it in others during their Examinations.
As its unbidden waves of panic slowly subsided, X began to regain control of its formidable mental powers and decided on a course of action. First, it must determine exactly how the human pushback was accomplished. Then, it must assemble the mental weaponry that would be needed to overcome this upstart species’ opposition. When sufficient forces were gathered, X would lead an invasion so overwhelming in its ferocity and effectiveness that no species in the humonid universe would consider repeating their criminal act of defiance, now or in their shared futures.
When X’s call for Conclave first went out among the Community of Keepers, Sern and its Drifter podmates were engaged in a Conclave of their own. More intimate, more personal, and thus more wholehearted in submersion of the individual into the merged mind, Sern’s Conclave noted and dismissed the order from X to assemble on the plain outside its Domain, considering it to be an external annoyance.
After the refreshment of mutual connection and support, Sern’s new podmates assembled quietly in their hastily built shelter at the base of the Tandoran high country to reflect on what they had learned and what was to come.
Butlr, who had become Sern’s lieutenant despite its advanced age, began the exchange with the mantra that had come to define their new pod. “As we grow in spirit, so do we grow in strength. As we value each other’s view of the world, so do we grow in our own value,” Butlr intoned.
Sern then came forward to address its pod.
“How do you feel we should respond to the call by X for Conclave?” Sern asked.
“We should reject it, of course,” answered Tebla, newly admitted Drifter who was trying to become Awakened instead of Angry. “It is either a false call to further imperil our existence or a call for us to reengage with the Plan, which we no longer support!”
General murmurs of agreement floated about the shelter.
After a time, Sern pushed its podmates to think more deeply about their situation. “If Tebla is correct, and X is hunting us for its own reasons, how long do you think we can remain apart from the rest of Tandor? How long will it be before the Bodywatchers discover us and our purpose?” Sern asked.
“Long enough to gather more members and fight off the Bodywatchers!” declared Tebla. “Long enough to make a plan to protect ourselves and our new way of being!”
Butlr moved to Tebla’s side to engage its podmate directly. “Make a plan, perhaps. But bring that plan to fruition? Most likely not. Sern is wise in raising the question of time. It is the one resource we need and may not have in great quantity if we are to bring about the changes to our world we all seek. It might be satisfying to fight the forces of X before we are ready, but it would not be successful. Too few Tandorans have ever questioned the Plan to feel any connection with those of us who do. Somehow, we must hide from the scrutiny of the Community long enough to grow into a force of our own, one that has a chance of succeeding. Our plan must give us time to open the minds of those who have always done what they were told in the belief that no other way of life could exist. The question now is, how do we continue to hide while being hunted and not fuel the fire that hunts us?”
“By hiding in plain sight,” Sern responded sadly. “It is the most difficult and painful course to take, but it is the only one that will deflect the power that X controls away from our movement long enough for us to gather the strength we need to survive.”
From the puzzled looks it received from its new podmates, Sern decided to explain further. “X believes I am here among you as its Agent seeking out those who would oppose the Plan. It sent me here to identify its enemies and bring them back for further ‘adjustment.’ If I return with a few failed Keepers and declare that they are the only enemies that remain, X will turn its attention back to implementing the Plan.”
“Adjustment,” cried Pelt, a newly Awakened Keeper. “You mean another Examination and perhaps extermination! Who among us would willingly return to undergo such torture? And if any revealed our movement during its next Examination, would not X become aware of what we are doing? It makes no sense!”
“It is a risk,” Sern admitted. “But you forget that I underwent Examination and was able to shield my mind from X beneath a level of anger it could not penetrate. If we have a cycle or two before the Bodywatchers come, I believe I could build such shields within the minds of any who volunteer to return with me.”
“Are you certain that these shields would protect us?” asked Butlr. “Are we not risking everything on the hope that X will be unable to see into the minds of those who return?”
“Yes, we are,” Sern answered. “But I am also certain that if we do not try, X and its Bodywatchers will ultimately sweep us from the world, and the time we do have will have no import for our people or our planet. For me, risking failure is far better than having no chance of success.”
Many more such discussions took place in Sern’s pod before all podmates were convinced that Sern’s plan was the only hope they had to continue their efforts to liberate their world from the Tandoran Plan for Order in All Things.
By the time the Bodywatchers appeared in the high country, Sern and its small group of volunteers were prepared for capture and return to X’s Domain.
In its absence, Sern appointed Butlr to lead the Awakened pod with orders to implement their plan of recruitment among the Drifters and eventually extend it into normal Tandoran society to seek out any who may never have expressed dissatisfaction with the unyielding order of their lives, but who may be open to considering another way to exist.
16
Alarm Bells
When Ben Fischer programmed his smartphone to play the theme from Star Wars if the diatoms in the Spacer’s network of CubeSats ever started sending back signals that Schumann resonance waves were hitting them from outside Earth’s atmosphere, he didn’t really believe he’d ever get that call. It had been seven months since the excitement had worn off from the successful launch and deployment of their satellite network, long enough for most Spacers to drift back into their former lives, although they did check in with Ben from time to time to verify that the communication protocol he’d set up on an obscure X-band frequency was still working.
Tess went back to polishing the scientific papers scheduled to be presented at an upcoming space weather conference at NASA Goddard.
Stonger spent most of his time in his portable building on the Ames back lot learning everything he could about genetic engineering from Eric Chow.
Helen Miranski finally accepted the fact that ARM was going to cut her loose at the end of the fiscal year and began cleaning out her office.
Mike Murphy decided he would take his newly acknowledged status as “someone who could fix anything” on the road and hired out to oversee maintenance of some 3D printing shops in the area and show customers how to make tools that actually worked.
Anna Tran returned to her small cubicle in the Ames materials lab, unable to share the incredible breakthroughs she had achieved in stealth and radiation detection materials, but more secure in her own capabilities knowing she had the respect of her fellow Spacers. In the continued absence of any new spacecraft missions being planned or funded by Congress, Prasad Shandra focused on his day job of predicting asteroid and comet strikes on the Earth to give the newly established Planetary Protector Division enough time to figure out how to avoid disasters.
NASA Management moved Greg Banyon into quantum computing, an area of research that very few people understood or believed had any chance of success. Although he knew he was being set up to fail, Greg decided to hang on as long as NASA allowed him to draw a paycheck.
Dick Rauch found that his trip to Florida to hand off their CubeSat package to his friend at Kennedy Space Center and go fishing off the Keys was such fun, he decided to invite Chuck Maddock to come back there with him to spend some time exploring the area in a two-man sailing ketch.
And then it happened. With the unmistakable notes of the Star Wars theme music ringing loudly on Ben Fischer’s phone at 4 a.m. PST, the world changed forever, for everyone.
***
“Are you sure?” Tess demanded when she came barreling into Ben’s office at six that morning. “Could it have been a battery failure or somebody just calling you on a strange ring tone?”
“No, no, Tess. I checked it out, honest. The X band on the CubeSat downloaded a boatload of data onto my station in the Hilbert Space. In fact, it’s still coming in. I’ve never seen a dataset like that before, and I don’t think anyone else has, either. It’s almost like a storm!”
“Call everyone back in,” Tess ordered. “We’ve got to get a handle on this fast, while the signals are still new.”
“Way ahead of you. I sent out an all-call right after I called you. It’s going to take Dick and Chuck a day or two to get here, but we can conference them in on their satellite phones. Wow! Until this morning, I’ve got to admit I didn’t think it was real! I mean, I understood it could be, but let’s face it. It sounded more like a sci-fi plot than an actual project, didn’t it? But it’s real, Tess, it’s really real!”
“Calm down, Ben. We’re still under cover, remember? Nobody can know about this yet. Not until we’ve figured out what we’ve got and what we’re going to do with it. Take a breath. Then take another for me. I’m headed over to the Hilbert.”
With that, Tess disappeared into the early morning mist rising above the quiet airfield.
***
By noon, all the Spacers were gathered in the card room, asking what had happened to prompt Ben Fischer to sound the “come–a–running” alarm.
“Okay, people,” said Stonger in a firm tone to the group. “Settle down. Let’s go over it, slowly. Ben, what precisely do we have, and what exactly does it mean?”
“Right,” said Fischer, who’d had a few hours to come to grips with the situation. “Here’s the story. Schumann resonances are supposed to come from the space between Earth and the ionosphere, generated by the electrical imbalances that result in lightning, right?”
Fischer saw nods all around.
“So in theory, our diatom monitors in the CubeSats that are keyed to recognizing and disrupting only Schumann radiation frequencies should never actually encounter any because they are all pointed away from Earth. Also right?”
Again, nods.
“But very early this morning, too early in fact, I got an alert on my cell that our diatoms were all going nuts, all at the same time! When I rushed over here to check my download station, I found terabytes of data streaming in—data that only stopped just now. There’s so much, I haven’t even begun to do a complete analysis. Greg, I’m going to need your help with that, by the way, but what I can tell you is that it looks like wavefront after wavefront tried to enter our atmosphere at the exact resonance we predicted!”
“What was the point of origin?” asked Shandra, obviously skeptical of the young scientist’s claims.
“That’s what I need everyone’s help with,” Ben admitted. “From what I can tell, the wavefronts came from all over, from everywhere, but they were all pointed toward Earth!”
“Good God,” whispered Helen who was still in the dusty jeans and work shirt she’d worn to pack up her office that morning.
“Indeed,” replied Stonger, softly.
“Wait a minute,” said Eric Chow, who had arrived with Stonger.
“Are you saying that the someone or something we think has been messing with our DNA is from outside our solar system?”
As the Spacers looked to each other for confirmation of this unimaginable possibility, Shandra offered an even more frightening thought. “Or perhaps from outside our universe,” he offered.
“What do you mean, Prasad?” asked Ernie Scott. “There is nothing outside our universe, at least nothing that we can interact with.” He paused, sure of himself, but only at first. “Is there?”
Shandra turned to Greg Banyon, who had been unusually quiet during the entire exchange. “Tell them, Greg. Explain quantum realities, if you can.”
Banyon looked around the room at his colleagues, trying to collect the thoughts that had been racing around in his head. After all, quantum theory was just that—a theory, something for mathematicians and physicists to kick around. Could this really be experimental proof of a theory that even his supercomputers were having trouble tackling? With all eyes turned toward him, Banyon offered an explanation of events that even he had difficulty grasping.
“Quantum theory allows for the possibility of many realities to exist at the same time, sort of like parallel universes, with each reality having its own timeline and following its own physical laws. You’ve got to be able to wrap your head around the concept of infinity to get a sense of how vast and complex this theory can be. But for now, let’s just say that if the point of origin of these wavefronts is threehundred-and-sixty degrees around Earth, they may be coming from a quantum reality that is either very close to our own or inhabiting the same relative space we do. Either way, it’s the only thing I can think of that might explain these results.”
“If that’s the case,” said Dick Rauch over his satellite phone hookup, “do you think it might be an accident? Could we be getting radiation backwash from something going on in some other universe?” “No,” Eric declared. “Whatever else they might be, these wavefronts are no accident. The genetic effects are too specific and the outcomes of exposure too predictable for it to be a random act of space weather!”
“I agree with Eric,” said Tess, stepping forward. “This seems like more than just another space-based occurrence we can’t explain yet. And if it is something more, something intentional meant to change how things play out here in our little universe, then we aren’t just gathering experimental data on a physics phenomenon, we’re looking at proof of an actual invasion.”
“Whoa! Hold on there, folks,” hollered Chuck over the long-distance hookup. “You’re saying we’re being invaded by aliens to change the way we think about things? To change the way we do things?”
“Yes, Chuck,” said Tess. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Well that’s just plain crazy,” said Maddock. “Why would anyone do that? It doesn’t make sense!”
“To make us say ‘yes’ to some things and ‘no’ to others,” said Tess. “Look, quantum mechanics, X bands and wavelengths aside, we’re all agreed that too many of the people in power these days— whether it’s in this country or some other country—are saying ‘no’ to ideas for innovative technologies that could solve a lot of our problems and help us get out there among the stars, while saying ‘yes’ to things that distract and divide us.”
“Such as?” challenged Ernie.
“Such as Richard’s last pitch to the Sand Hill venture capitalists for an energy-generating system based on chemical phase change that would be inexpensive, nonpolluting, and triple the conversion rates of solar or wind power,” said Tess. “And that’s just the latest one. Over the past ten years, I’ve brought half a dozen great ideas for technologies that could really make a difference to the powers that be at NASA and in the business world. But for some reason, they’re more interested in making addicting toys than tackling real world needs.”
“Maybe they’re just more interested in making a quick buck,” Maddock suggested over the static of his conference feed. “Not everyone is out to save the planet, Tess. Me included. Hell, I only signed on to this party because we were building something that could fly, and the concepts were cool, and I had nothing to lose but my time. But I didn’t sign on to become the next nutcase spouting UFO and alien invasion theories!”
“Nutcase?” yelled Eric. “How do you explain these data then, Chuck? It’s clear the wavefronts are coming from outside of our world. Doesn’t that mean there is an extraterrestrial link somewhere?”
“Clear to whom?” pressed Ernie Scott, quietly. “I have to agree with Chuck on this. It’s been satisfying to get back into the business of launching spacecraft just to see if we could still do it. But I cannot be a party to taking this thing any further, data or no data.”
“What are you afraid of, Ernie?” asked Stonger. “What’s really bothering you here?”
Turning to Stonger, Scott replied. “I’m afraid that my position at NASA will be compromised if these results are ever published or leak out with my name attached to them. Like I told you all in the beginning, I have a family and an uncertain financial future to consider. At my age, this will likely be the last job I’ll ever have, so I need to hold onto it.”
With that, Ernie Scott turned to address the group at large. “As of right now, please remove all references to me or my contribution to this project from any written or digital record you have. For my part, I give you all my personal pledge that I will never reveal the details of how we put Small Slam up in space or why we put it there. I’m sorry, guys. I just can’t be part of this anymore.”
In the space of time that followed Ernie’s departure from the club, the remaining Spacers began to think, perhaps for the first time, about what it all might mean to each of them going forward.
