Prelude to Extinction

by Andreas Karpf

“So we need to convince them it’s artificial,” Nadya added.

  “Yes,” Kurt answered. “But how?”

  “Prime Numbers,” Jack said.

  “What do mean?” Nadya asked.

  “I read an article about the old SETI programs years ago. One of the premises during the early attempts to detect signals from extra-terrestrial civilizations was that they would want to be found, and thus transmit an obviously non-natural signal.

  “So we should send a pulsed message immediately preceding our real message: Something easy to recognize that couldn’t occur in nature,” Kurt said.

  “Yes,” Jack replied. “We could pulse the laser through the first ten prime numbers. You know, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 and 23.”

  “That makes sense,” Don said softly.

  “Wait, why ten?” Kurt asked.

  “To show them that we’re thinking in a common language,” Don answered. “You know, base ten, our basis of arithmetic. Plus, we’d need to modulate this part even slower, just to be sure it catches their attention. Remember, they won’t be expecting this message to be from us.”

  “How long do you think it’d take to adapt the ship’s laser system for this?” Nadya asked.

  “I could do the whole thing from within the laser assembly itself. All I’d have to do is modulate the power going into the laser to create the signal. To tune it, I’d just need to run some extra current through and adjust an etalon...,” Kurt paused and did a quick calculation. “It’d take about twenty minutes to get it ready.”

  Don didn’t try to hide his excitement as he said, “Excellent.”

  There was a brief silence as Nadya looked at the three of them and added, “Now all we need to do is figure out what to say.”

  “I’ll leave that to the three of you,” Kurt answered. “I’ll just focus on my engineering.” As he turned to leave, Kurt couldn’t help but continue his earlier argument, “I still don’t think any of this will work. I mean seriously, you can’t change what’s already been done.” An awkward silence followed, forcing Kurt to add, “But, I’ll do what I can to help you give it a try.”

  “Kurt,” Don called out. “Let us know as soon as you’re ready.,”

  “OK.” He replied.

  When he reached engineering he said, “Computer.”

  The machine answered promptly, “Yes, Lieutenant Commander.”

  “I’ve got an interesting problem for us to work on. First I’m going to need some help locating the power controller for the IPV’s primary laser system.”

  The machine answered quickly, and Kurt immediately set to work. The main power supply for the laser system was easily accessible near propulsion. It took only a couple of minutes to adjust a voltage limit on the power supply and connect an external trigger. As he closed the supply’s case, he called out, “Computer, turn on the laser and run a ten Hertz square wave modulation in the injection current, then monitor the laser output.”

  After a moment, the machine replied, “System is functioning properly.”

  “Good. Turn it off now.”

  “Power-down complete.”

  He worked his way over to the main laser housing, and turned a few thumbscrews to remove the top panel. After putting on a set of goggles he said, “Computer, set power to thirty-percent. Report the output wavelength after each adjustment I make.” Even though a high-power beam of light worked its way through the optics that lay before him, his goggles cut it down to a dim glow. He carefully reached in and made a small adjustment to the etalon. After each turn the computer analyzed the output and relayed his progress. The work was tedious and couldn’t be rushed. However, in some ways Kurt found it mesmerizing, almost relaxing. It allowed him to clear his mind. The pattern of adjustment followed by computer update continued, until the machine announced, “Pump and primary lasers are now optimized on H-alpha.”

  He replaced the cover panel and made his way back to the bridge. As he entered, Jack saw him first and said with mock impatience, “So what happened? You said it’d be done over ten minutes ago.”

  “Hey, if this actually works it won’t matter anyway, right? We probably won’t even remember any of this.”

  Jack ignored his doubt and asked more seriously, “OK, so how do we do this?”

  “It’s actually quite easy,” Kurt said. Turning to Kate, who was sitting at the communications station, he continued, “I’ve set the interface so that all you need to do is enter the message as you would with any normal transmission. The only difference is that when you’re ready to press ‘send’, you’ll go to a command line and enter ‘LSEND.’ That’ll tell the system to use the modified laser.”

  “That’s it?” Jack said abruptly.

  “Yes. Why did you want something more complex?”

  Jack just smiled in response and said. “Don, are we ready with the message?”

  “Yes, I’ve already sent the text to Kate’s terminal. We’re ready for transmission.”

  “We’re all set here,” Devon interjected. “The ship is aligned properly.”

  “Wait,” Kurt said with some urgency. “What’s actually going to happen to us once we send it?”

  There was a short pause before Don offered an answer, “We’re not really sure.”

  Kurt couldn’t hide his lingering disbelief any longer and continued, “I mean will we be suddenly back at E-Eri? What about Alex?”

  “I don’t know!” Don shouted.

  The ensuing silence told him that his last question struck a nerve. If they didn’t remember any of the last couple of weeks, and had no record of the trip through the device or the planet-wide city on G3-Alpha, did it really happen? The idea scared him more than he thought it should.

  The silence was broken by Jack saying, “Transmit the message.”

  Every muscle in Kurt’s body tensed as he watched Kate enter the command. He had the urge to close his eyes when she hit the last keystroke.

  Kate looked up after a moment and said, “The message is transmitting.”

  “How long will the full transmission take?” Jack quickly asked.

  Don answered, “It’ll broadcast and repeat the prime number sequence for one minute, and then send and repeat the main message itself for another two minutes. After that it will repeat the pattern for three more hours.”

  The room remained silent until the computer announced, “Prime number header complete. Commencing with main message.”

  Kurt glanced from person to person around the room. Each was dealing with the wait differently. Don was staring at his terminal. Jack and Nadya had their gazes fixed on the main view screen. Kate typed something into her console, but said nothing. The silence felt like it would drag on without end. Kurt wanted to do something, but of course, there was nothing to do. The computer’s ever calm voice broke the stillness, “Starting iteration number two.”

  A feeling of disappointment permeated the room as it became apparent nothing had changed. No one said anything. Kurt still wasn’t sure whether it was disappointment or relief that he was feeling.

  Don spoke up, “We should review the results in three hours after all the iterations have completed.”

  “Good,” Jack said. “In the meantime, I think it would be wise for us to return to our regular tasks. We’ll discuss this more later.”

  Kurt watched Nadya’s face for some indication of her thoughts, but was unable to discern anything. As she moved towards him, he asked, “What does this mean? I mean everything being unchanged.”

  “I’m not sure. There’re so many unknowns.” She drew a deep breath and continued, “We probably shouldn’t expect anything to happen right away. Our main theory had been that we needed to complete the act of transmitting the message. However, we’ve only sent it once so far. What if they don’t see or recognize that it’s a message until the twentieth or fiftieth repetition?”

  “So you’re saying that maybe in an hour or two, reality will suddenly change.”

  “That’s one possi
bility,” she answered, though there was no longer any confidence in her voice.

  “And if we didn’t move back far enough in time?”

  “Then nothing will happen. Earth will just get a very confusing message.” Some agitation crept into her voice as she continued, “But listen, we can second guess ourselves all day long. It’s not going to do one bit of good. Why don’t we just wait for the three-hour cycle to complete before talking about this any further?”

  “OK,” Kurt answered apologetically. As he followed her off the bridge, he had an insatiable desire to keep looking over his shoulder to see if anything had changed.

  Chapter 20 – July 25, 2124; 11:35:00

  Jack sat at his desk, paging through the supply report and grimaced: over a third of their expendables were gone and they had nothing to show for it. Even with the harsh rationing, it meant they had less than two weeks left. He pushed the display aside in disgust, but knew well that his frustration wasn’t due to the details of a simple report. Alex’s death had already cast a pall over the crew. The apparent failure of their message to Earth only darkened things further. Add to that the fatigue and discomfort caused by the rationing, and Jack knew he had to do something. The problem was, there was no obvious solution.

  The knock at his office door brought a welcome distraction. “Enter,” he called out.

  Palmer leaned in and said, “We need to talk, sir.”

  “Fine,” Jack replied. “Take a seat.”

  Palmer did as instructed and waited until Jack said, “Proceed.”

  “Sir, we’ve got a problem with the science crew.”

  “Explain,” Jack said without hiding his impatience; he had no interest in dealing with personnel issues right now.

  “They’re idle. Half of them are just sitting around doing nothing – just dwelling on our situation and Alex’s death.”

  Jack just sat there and studied the man. It wasn’t like him to care that much about people’s moods. He took a breath and said, “Don’t beat around the bush; what’s the real problem?”

  “It’s Dr. Martinez.”

  “What’s Don done now?”

  “He’s aggravating the situation.”

  “Explain,” Jack said tersely.

  “He’s blaming you for Alex’s death.”

  “Palmer, he died under my watch. It’s as simple as that. So if he wants to say it was my responsibility, I really can’t argue with him.”

  “That’s not the point, sir…”

  “But it is,” Jack shot back. “Anyway, everyone knows how it happened; so, Don’s not going to be able to do much more than whine about it.”

  “But he is doing more. He’s accusing you of recklessness – that you should have foreseen the risk and had everyone stand upwind of the blast. Plus, he’s blaming you for taking us through that alien device in the first place – as if it was another risk you should have avoided. If he gets them to start doubting you and the chain of command…”

  “Thank you, Palmer,” Jack said calmly without breaking eye contact. He had the urge to tell the man to just calm down, but he couldn’t outright ignore his first officer’s concerns. The last thing he needed was a complete breakdown in discipline. He took a deep breath and then said, “Get him in here.”

  “Yes sir,” Palmer replied. “If you don’t mind my asking, what are you planning to do?”

  “You are right about this being a problem. However, our options are limited. We can’t take any disciplinary action at this point. And, threats won’t work with him, they’ll only make things worse. We’re going to address the root cause of this.”

  “Sir?”

  “Like you said, they’re idle; and idle minds have too much time to speculate and jump to conclusions. I’m going to put more of the responsibility on their shoulders and get them all back to work. It’ll be Don’s responsibility to manage them and show some results.”

  Palmer smiled, and Jack continued, “The bio and chem. groups are going to be tasked with finding out how to neutralize that gas.”

  “I thought it wasn’t possible?” Palmer asked.

  “We assumed it isn’t, but that’s irrelevant. They’re going to put all of their time into it as if their survival depends on it. I’m going to let them know just how desperate things really are.”

  “And the others?” Palmer asked.

  “They’ll join the rest of Don’s group working on understanding exactly what the hell those devices are out there.”

  “Understood,” Palmer said.

  As he turned to leave, Jack said, “Better yet, I want you to tell him the new assignments for the science staff. Then bring him back so he can update me.”

  Palmer nodded as he said, “Yes sir,” and left the room.

  Jack leaned back in his chair and let his mind drift through their problems. There were just too many of them and no obvious solutions. The irony was, their long-shot message to Earth had grown to be their only real hope. The problem was, it was two days later and nothing changed. Some had made a vain attempt to deny that the message was a complete loss by suggesting they’d have to wait the complete three-hundred-thirty-year travel time for the signal to get to Earth before anything would change. Of course that was long enough for them to be dead for centuries; but they reasoned, or more accurately rationalized, that at that point they’d suddenly be alive again in their regular time-line. Kurt’s assertion that it was all completely ridiculous now made the most sense. It didn’t matter anymore. At this point, their only choice was to try to find a way to survive. His thought of Kurt’s argument reminded him that Don wasn’t the only one slacking off in his duties; Kurt owed him an update on his shuttle analysis as well. He impatiently tapped his comm. button and said, “Kurt respond please.”

  To his relief, Kurt responded almost immediately, “Here Jack.”

  “Report to my office, we need to go over your analysis of shuttle two.”

  “On my way.”

  Palmer returned with Don and they took their seats without a word.

  Jack looked to Don, who refused to make eye contact, and said, “Don, you were supposed to give me a report earlier today about your research into those alien devices. Let’s just review your findings now.”

  The chief scientist glanced at each of them before finally saying, “There’s nothing new to report. We’ve continued a detailed study of both devices near this planet, now designated G3-alpha. However, we haven’t been able to obtain any deeper understanding of what we’re dealing with. Our best bet is that the rotating central cylinder could be related to a Kerr black hole, and that it may be key to supporting some sort of wormhole. But this is really just complete speculation: these objects don’t have the density to create a singularity. Hell, normally, I wouldn’t even bring up such an insane idea. However, there is the obvious fact that we are three-hundred-thirty-five light years from home and have no explanation for how we got here.”

  Jack gave the man a second to be sure he was done speaking before saying, “Do you have anything else?”

  “We’ve decided to call them Artificial Gravitational Conduits –- AGCs for short.”

  “Something useful?” Jack asked sharply.

  Don glared back before answering, “I don’t know what to say. We’ve haven’t got a clue. The tough part is the fact that the objects are inactive when nothing’s in close proximity to them. So there’s obviously something else going on, but we can’t see it. From what we’ve seen with Palmer’s shuttle and the IPV, the AGC on the other side became active once we were within a few kilometers of the center of the outer ring. But aside from observing a large energy burst, and our obvious position, we’ve learned nothing. If we had the facilities here that we had on the Magellan, I’d suggest we build a small probe and send it through to see what happens. But we don’t have that here.”

  A knock on his door broke the momentary silence. “Enter,” Jack said.

  Kurt came in, and quickly said, “Sorry, I should’ve sent you my r
eport earlier.”

  Jack just waved off his comment and said, “We’re just covering our status. Don, were you at least able to tell which one got us here?”

  Don answered softly, “Unfortunately, we’ve haven’t made any progress on that front.”

  Jack didn’t want to hear the word “unfortunately” one more time. Nor did he need to hear repetitive reports about them not knowing what was going on. “Damn it! It’s been over a week since we got here. We need something!”

  There was no response. Rather than say anything, he just looked back at his computer screen and mulled the situation over. He was well aware that it wasn’t Palmer’s fault; or Don’s, or Kurt’s or anyone else’s for that matter. They just didn’t have the luxury of sitting around and waiting for answers to present themselves. The urge to apologize for his outburst crept into his mind, but decided against it. It wouldn’t hurt for them to be reminded of the pressure they were under. He finally looked over to Kurt and said, “OK, what’s the status of your group?”

  Kurt replied hesitantly. “I do have some new material to go over with you. We’ve completed our review of the damage that shuttle-two sustained, and have a plan on how to keep it from happening again.”

  “Go on.”

  “Assuming that this is indeed a wormhole, we believe that there a significant amount of electric charge may have collected just outside the surface of its event horizon. So, when a ship passes through this region, some of the charge would then flow onto its hull. The resulting current likely caused the power surge that knocked out the ship’s systems.

  “If we were to install a set of surge protectors and breakers on all of the IPV’s main circuits, thereby isolating their grounding with the ship’s hull, and cut all power just before entry, we may be able to completely protect most systems from damage.”

  “But we’d still have to do a cold restart once we reached the other side, right?” Jack asked.

  “True, but restarting after a controlled shut-down takes a quarter of the time. Plus, I can program a trigger into an isolated computer. That way it will automatically initiate the restart sequence as soon as we’re through. So even if we’re ... unconscious again, and assuming that computer doesn’t shut down during the transit, everything should be up and running by the time we come to.”