Stolen Worlds

by Bob Blink

  The President glanced over at Dr. Bud Hollister, Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The President wasn't at all comfortable with what was being presented today, and was annoyed at the man for pressuring him into holding the meeting at all. The President was one of those individuals who had always questioned what the need for all the math courses could be, and had always wondered why anyone would bother spending their time involved in something so boring. He had only marginal faith in scientists, and that included all of those in the room today, including the man who ran NASA for his administration.

  In his mind his doubts had been vindicated just last year when in a major scandal, significant flaws were uncovered in the climate science models that for the past decade had been projecting major warming of the Earth due to man-made carbon emissions. The majority of those using the models to make such projections either had no idea how the models were coded and had been simply accepting the outputs, or had quietly buried any conflicting real world data in fear that the large sums of money they were receiving for their research might dry up if they revealed any real data that conflicted with the official mantra.

  When a concerted effort was made to correct the models two very important facts were revealed. First, when the discovered problems with the coding had been repaired the models suddenly were projecting virtually no significant change due to man-made emissions into the atmosphere. The contributions, as huge as they seemed, were simply too insignificant to be drivers in the Earth's overall climate system. More importantly, it was discovered the models couldn't be trusted under any circumstances due to the omission of key contributors to the Earth's climate. There were also major contributors to the models that no one understood how to include in the programming in any systematic or intelligent manner, and without such factors correctly incorporated, the long-term projections of the models were deemed worthless. This was verified by the faulty projections from the programs for the past decade.

  "The orbit of the Earth has been undergoing small, but clearly measureable changes for the past week," Dr. William Gelon said. Dr. Gelon was a world renown astrophysicist, the Head of Cal Tech's astronomy department, and a frequent user of the large telescope at Mount Palomar in California. Now in his seventies, Dr. Gelon had shockingly white hair that matched his bushy beard. He had a rugged outdoorsman countenance that went well with a wiry frame that showed the results of years of playing a very aggressive game of racquetball. Unfortunately, his knees also showed the effects of the sport, and he was now saddled with a cane and a knee that was getting progressively worse.

  Dr. Gelon had been one of a number of scientists around the world that had detected the change almost immediately, and realizing the implications had contacted his friend Bud Hollister so they could inform the government. He knew similar meetings had or would be taking place around the world as scientists struggled to understand this seemingly impossible development. The two other astronomers in the room were as frustrated as Dr. Gelon, but given it was the President of the United States who they were addressing, for the moment they had kept silent. There was no one else in the conference room as NASA's Director had convinced the President he should hear this out before allowing too many others to become aware of the news. He knew what a sieve Washington was and, unlike the President, he could add and subtract and realized how monumental the news Dr. Gelon was revealing really was.

  "I'm not certain how to react to this kind of news. So the orbit changed. How do you know this and what are the impacts?" the President asked.

  "One of the most immediate indicators of something as small as we are seeing comes from our telescopes and satellites," Dr. Gelon explained. "These highly precise devices can point to the smallest minute of arc to allow long-term exposure of distant galaxies and stars. They use the known location of the star and the precise location of the Earth in its orbit to achieve this kind of precision pointing. But starting a few days ago, the stars and galaxies simply weren't in the right places."

  Hoping this was just another over-reaction by eggheads, the President asked, "You said the changes were small. How small?"

  Dr. Gelon sighed, knowing the actual numbers would mean nothing to this man, who simply wished to brush the matter aside.

  "I could give you changes in the major and semi major axes of our orbit, but that wouldn't really be very meaningful to the average layman. I suppose the most meaningful way I can express what we have seen to date in the change is the orbital period. Since last Tuesday, the period of the Earth, basically the length of a year, has decreased by an hour."

  "An hour?" the President said.

  "That's right," Dr. Gelon replied, falsely believing he'd managed to reach the President. Dr. Doug Anders and Dr. Gene Allen, the other two scientists in the room nodded sagely.

  "Out of an entire year? A measly hour. And we're excited about that?"

  "That's the change so far," Dr. Allen couldn't help himself from adding, earning a frown from the President.

  "It's still changing," Dr. Gelon explained, "and since we are unable to determine the source of the change, we have no idea just how much more modification in the orbit is going to take place."

  "I really believe you are overly worried about this," the President said, showing signs he was really to leave and call and end to the discussion.

  "Sir, you really need to hear this out," Bud Hollister urged, seeing the signs of disinterest the man was so well known for displaying. "This is really something important, and could prove catastrophic to the planet."

  "A small change in the length of year," the President chuckled. "I really don't think so. This sounds like the next climate catastrophe."

  "We can't explain why this is happening," Dr. Gelon said, unwilling to hold back.

  "So. You guys can't explain a lot of stuff."

  "That's not what I mean. The orbits of the Earth and other planets have been carefully measured for a long time. It takes something to perturb those orbits. A force. A mass out there to provide the acceleration. Something! Nothing on Earth could do this. No nation, no power, nothing in our most advanced technology has the ability to make this kind of change to the Earth's orbit. That means the cause has to be external. Yet we can find nothing of the size that could do this. We have looked. Astronomers all over the world have engaged in a coordinated effort to find the source of this perturbation. Nothing!"

  "Maybe it's dark matter," the President said, recalling a term he'd heard in a scifi movie a while back. "You wouldn't be able to see that, would you?"

  "I'm not explaining this very well," Dr. Gelon said, used to a classroom filled with the best quality brains in the country. "The Earth's orbit is changing. The orbits of the rest of the planets in the solar system have not changed at all. Only the Earth is being affected."

  "It can't work that way," Dr. Anders added. "Any natural phenomena would have to be affecting everything in the solar system, even if we couldn't see it. Gravity is a very straightforward force to predict, and anything that could cause such an effect on our planet would have moved the other planets as well."

  Dr. Allen spoke up with his contribution. "What we are seeing would seem to be a natural effect, but it can't be given that the effect is focused locally."

  "So someone has to be doing this," the President concluded. "I thought you said mankind doesn't have that capability."

  "That is certainly true," Dr. Gelon agreed.

  "Then how can this be happening?" the President asked.

  "That's the question, isn't it?" Dr. Gelon said softly.

  "Not to mention what we are going to do about it," Dr. Allen whispered barely loud enough for Dr. Anders to hear.

  "Do we need some kind of a new probe?" the President asked. "Is that what this is about? You want money for a new program?"

  "No. No, that's not the point," Dr. Gelon said, trying to make the man see. "We, and the other nations need to identify the cause, and find some means of stopping this relatively soon. If
it continues, the whole world is at risk."

  "I'll tell you what," the President said. "I want you in charge. Put together whatever team you require, and find some of these answers. Bud here will see that you are funded. Report back to me in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to know just what the consequences are should this be something we have to expect from this point forward. It would also be great if your team could make suggestions as to how we might go about terminating this problem. Once we know what to do, we can have a look at what it might cost and decide whether we want to go forward on it."

  With that the President stood. "That's all the time I can spare on this today. I appreciate your coming, and see if we can get something more specific soon."

  He walked out of the briefing room, followed by his Secret Service escort and headed down the hall, a bounce in his step signifying his pleasure at having managed to escape the time wasting scientists.

  "The man's an idiot," Dr. Allen said softly.

  "I suggest we work around him," Bud Hollister said. "The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense might be a better way to go on this. It was essential that we bring this before the President first, if only so you could become aware of the problem trying to work through him, and so that if he learns of our efforts to work through these other people in his administration, he will not be offended, but be pleased that he doesn't have to participate."

  "It's scary to have someone like him making such vital judgments," Dr. Gelon said. "Some of what he asked me to do is possible, but far too much we simply don't have any answers for."

  "Do what you can," Hollister recommended. "I'll get something set up with the people I mentioned."

  Chapter 3

  Pasadena, California

  Cal Tech

  One Week Later

  "It stopped, didn't it?" Anthony Symmes asked when he dropped in on Dr. Gelon at the data lab. The astronomy department labs were all located in the large basement level of Cahill Hall. Currently there was no one else present, so they could talk openly.

  Cahill Hall, or Cahill Center, as it was more often called, was opened in 2009 to provide a central location for all of Cal Tech's nearly thirty astrophysicists as well as all other astronomy personnel and students. Built across California Boulevard from the main part of the campus, it was an extremely odd looking building, appearing to some as if it were split and about to come apart. In truth, the facility was carefully thought out, down to the smallest detail. Even its address, 1216 California Boulevard represented the wavelength of the ultraviolet light from a hydrogen atom. The campus-based observatory was on the roof. The structure was energy efficient, using almost entirely natural lighting in the daytime. Offices were situated on the second and third floors, with the administration area in room 229, and Dr. Gelon's large office directly across the hall.

  Looking tired, and more than a bit grumpy today after a long, fruitless week, Dr. Gelon looked at his favorite graduate student and nodded. "You were right. The orbit is staying steady now."

  They had a lot of means of checking the change. Observatories around the world had linked together to share data, and numerous in-orbit satellites with star trackers were also down-linking data to show the rate of change of the star positions which could be processed to get the rate of change of their orbital period. Many of the satellites had required reprogramming to keep up with the changing orbit. Some even would require hardware changes. They'd learned that certain of the country's weapon systems would no longer function properly without a similar upgrade.

  "It was sudden, or a gradual slow down?" Tony asked.

  "Abrupt. Very strange," Dr. Gelon replied.

  "What's that going to mean when you fly back to Washington tomorrow?"

  The old astronomer grimaced.

  "I think maybe you should be thinking about another university to complete your degree. I'm guessing there won't be a lot of grants for our research come next year. The President doesn't strike me as one of those people who will overlook the failure to provide satisfactory answers to questions he has raised, even if those questions are unanswerable."

  "Come on," Tony protested. "This is one of the best schools in the world, and it's not like the rest of the scientific community hasn't backed up your findings."

  Tony considered himself fortunate indeed to be one of the two graduate students Dr. Gelon had taken under his wing. The man was brilliant, and Tony hoped to become half as insightful as the white-haired old scholar by the time he earned his doctorate.

  "The universe doesn't work that way," Dr. Gelon protested. "It works more slowly, and effects build up, and then die away. They don't switch on, and then switch off again like someone turning on a light. What could do this?"

  "Well, you said the President claimed we didn't understand everything. That's true enough. Perhaps it was a local phenomena, something we passed into and out of, that was so localized that it wasn't able to affect the planets farther away,"

  "Something we don't understand?" Dr. Gelon asked, peering at his grad student. "A new phenomena that heretofore we haven't seen?"

  "Something new," Tony agreed eagerly, but somehow he didn't believe what he was suggesting.

  "Somehow I don't think so," Gelon said, pushing aside Tony's wishful thinking.

  "Do you think it will return next year?" Tony asked.

  "I'm guessing there will be a lot of speculation about that, but I would really doubt it. Even if your somewhat unbelievable theory about some kind of new, very localized effect is valid, there is no reason to expect it to recur again."

  "Since just because it's next year doesn't put us back in the same place," Tony said understanding the Professor's meaning.

  "The same reason the government's plan to send a probe back to the place in our orbit where this started is misinformed," Dr. Gelon noted, referring to something Bud Hollister had called him about the other day. Apparently someone had managed to convince the thick-headed chief executive that this was something that needed to be understood. A further result of whatever had happened back east in Washington was the assignment of the Vice President to their effort, which wasn't bad. Presenting to the President directly was pretty much a waste of time, but from what Dr. Gelon had read, the VP, a former tech industry businessman, was much better informed and would potentially be an asset to their efforts.

  "We are in orbit around the sun, but just because we go to the same relative position around the orbit, we aren't in the same spot in space. The solar system and the galaxy it's in is blasting through space at incredible speeds. That spot will be impossibly far away and out of reach by the time we could try and get something there."

  "So, what do we do?"

  "Beyond hoping we don't see the like of this again, I think we go back through all our data, make the most careful measurements of our new orbit, and verify the orbits of the other planets are indeed unchanged, not just minute changes which we hadn't noticed. I almost hope it's the latter. That would make this more acceptable in my mind."

  "And if the President asks?"

  "We tell him the truth. We still have no idea what happened. Nobody does. I've spoken with pretty much every major astronomer in the world in the past week, and all are as baffled as I. No one has any meaningful ideas, unless someone has been holding back something they have discovered from the community for some unfathomable reason."

  "So you don't think it will come back next year?"

  "No, I don't."

  After leaving the Professor and heading across campus toward his apartment on the far side, Tony stopped at the student center and picked up a large cup of Starbuck's coffee for a bit of a caffeine boost. He took his large, veinte was the appropriate term he chided himself, brew and sat at a table toward the back of the room. He was partly through both the coffee and an article he was reading for a report when someone sat down at his small table opposite him. He looked up, surprised to note a very attractive blond woman had joined him. With shoulder length l
ocks, deep blue eyes, and a pert figure, she was a bit of a knockout, even if she was a bit older than himself. He wasn't used to this kind of thing happening, but somehow she looked vaguely familiar, even though he couldn't imagine having run into her before.

  "Excuse me?" he asked. "Do you need something?"

  "Anthony Symmes, right?" the woman asked. Her voice was as pleasant as her appearance.

  "Yeah, but . . ."

  "Patricia Orwell," she said as if that explained everything.

  "Ah, Patricia, I don't think . . ."

  "Patty to my friends," she said, "and no we haven't met. I'm a reporter. Channel six news."

  A light dawned. He had seen her on television. He didn't watch TV much, but sometimes Gwen would want to see the news, or one of her artsy shows, and he was dragged into watching.

  He nodded his recognition, and Patty smiled.

  "Can I ask you a few questions?"

  "I suppose, but I can't imagine what I would know that would be newsworthy."

  "What was Dr. Gelon meeting with the President about?"

  The question caught him off guard. No one in the department had said anything about the recent discovery and what they should or shouldn't say, but he had the instinctive feeling that the Professor would rather it wasn't talked about just yet, especially the potential implications if it hadn't stopped. In a while, if the strange unexplained acceleration never returned, it would be the subject of speculation and numerous articles, but for now, maybe the less said the better.

  "I didn't know that the Professor met with the President," he replied awkwardly.