Pulsar

by Ethan Stand

  “LIGO?”

  “The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.”

  “Why can’t you access it?”

  “It started playing up three years ago just before I found my pulsar. It started being highly unstable three months ago and supposedly went offline two and a bit weeks ago. If the signal strength of the pulsar is an indication, I suspect the gravitational manipulation will be proportionally increased. My understanding of tectonics or the way animals navigate is limited. Still, I suspect they’ll be affected, as well as hundreds or thousands of other natural processes which link to our gravity.”

  Phil looked over at BB and said, “When she says limited, what does that mean?”

  BB shrugged and said, “She’s competent. In those areas, she’s probably second-year university level.”

  Phil was quiet for a moment then said, “OK, I need to hear the rest before I decide, but if it’s verifiable, then I’ll need to brief my superior and probably the Prime Minister. We actually have a plan for this eventuality, but I’m not current.”

  Ed said, “There’s more.”

  “Oh great, what do you mean by more?”

  “Zen’s has a secondary hypothesis which suggests it isn’t a friendly visit.”

  Ted said, “OK, I’ll bite. Why?”

  Zen looked up and said, “The data suggests the initial readings originate from Edasich, or Iota Draconis. Their clarity suggests this side but in a direct line. Iota Draconis is classified as a K2 III, so it’s run out of hydrogen and is on its last legs. There is a planetary system, but the radiation levels are inimical at best. Radio waves from earth would have arrived around twenty years ago. If, as I suggest they left almost three years ago, then they had about seventeen of our years to prepare. If my gravitational thesis is correct, then it suggests the mass of what they are sending is a third the size of the moon. That’s a big construct, a civilisation-sized construct. They might just want to see if they can rent the moon, but I doubt it. I realise they may be better adapted to Jupiter, but the worst-case is they want what we have.”

  Ted was nodding and said, “If everything else can be validated, I’d agree with that supposition as something to work with.”

  Phil pressed one of the buttons on the console. A moment later, a woman knocked and entered. He said, “We are not to be disturbed. All data from the time we entered until the room is vacated is to be classified Level Eight with a new codename to be determined. Hold all calls and cancel all my appointments. Arrange a meeting with Jillian and with the Prime Minister under the Level Eight Protocols as soon as is feasible after midnight tonight. We need more sandwiches, and please check that the Drakos’ boy is safe and happy then report back.”

  When the woman left Phil turned back to Zen and said, “OK, the floor is yours.”

  Over the next eight hours, with only short breaks for the bathroom and to let BB or Ed deal with Hal, Zen went through a summary of her data to explain why she’d come to the conclusions she had. By the time she was finished, it was almost nine in the evening.

  In the silence, after all the questions were answered, she said, “I’m sorry, but I need sleep, and soon. I’ve been up for two days and have been through this stuff three times. How far away is the hotel?”

  Ed said, “I forgot to book one.”

  Phil said, “I’ll arrange something. I suggest we meet again in the morning. Can you guys stay for a few days in case we have questions?”

  BB replied, “We can, but I’ll need to talk with the university if it is more than one more. I have us on personal leave, but we’ll only have two days without documentation. Zen’s got school but I can write a note.”

  “Don’t worry about all that, I can arrange the leave for you. Let’s get you settled in somewhere, and we’ll talk again in the morning.”

  Half an hour later, the Drakos family were in adjoining suites at the Hyatt with a security officer stationed outside each room. Zen had a shower then fell asleep almost immediately. Hal shared the room with her. Ed and BB talked for several hours in their suite then slept. Neither Phil or Ted found time for anything more than a thirty-minute nap. Instead, they first met with Phil’s boss then together briefed the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence just after four in the morning in a meeting which lasted for three hours. The Prime Minister then cancelled all morning appointments and called an emergency meeting of his senior ministers.

  Zen woke at six feeling refreshed and tried to text her mum to see what time they’d be going to breakfast but found she had no signal. She opened the settings on her phone and checked for wifi, but there was nothing. She’d half expected a warning about saying anything and supposed this was Phil’s way of making sure they didn’t communicate. She had an antenna in her bag that she could have used from the balcony, but suspected they’d have people watching. She tried the TV and when it connected and showed there was access to Foxtel she smiled.

  Minutes later, she’d worked her way through the various permissions and connected to her VPN. From there she sent a text message and an email to Sahara. Extrapolating the secretive and Big-Brother type behaviour, Zen then sent some time-delayed email to Phil via the ASIO public email address. She sent similar time-delayed email to several news agencies and several scientists she respected. Each of these was from a separate and unique email account she created specifically for each email. She double-checked her cloud storage and initiated a double encryption protocol to protect it. By the time she’d done that and checked the incoming data, it was almost seven, and Hal was stirring.

  Zen knocked on the door between the two rooms and waited until her mother appeared. She looked like she’d just woken. Zen hugged her and said, “Sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I was scared.”

  “That’s OK. You did the right thing. Phil is a good guy, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get the ball rolling in the right direction.”

  Zen rolled her eyes and said, “Have you tried texting? It seems like they are already trying to manage us.”

  BB went to get her phone and when she returned she sighed, and said, “It’s par for the course. I’ve consulted for a number of government departments, and they usually take our phones. Don’t let it worry you just yet. Get Hal up, and you guys get dressed. I’ll push your dad out of bed, and we’ll go get breakfast.”

  Ten minutes later, Zen opened the suite door to make her way to the restaurant but was stopped by one of the security people assigned by Phil. He said, “We’ll bring breakfast up. It’s part of the service.”

  “I love hotel buffets. I’d rather get my own.”

  The man tensed then said, “Fair enough. How about you go back inside the room, and we’ll bring the buffet up to you? You can choose your own, and I can still say I did my job.”

  Zen wanted to push the restrictions, but BB stepped in and said, “That will do nicely. I’ll let you know what type of coffee we want in just a second.”

  Back in the suite, Zen and Hal made their way through to her parent’s rooms where her dad said, “Don’t push too hard, Zen. We don’t like it either, but it makes sense. Let them get a handle on things before making any waves because as far as we know, it’ll all be fine after they calm down. It was a pretty major bomb we dropped in their laps.”

  Zen nodded, and in the end, she quite enjoyed having their own private buffet. Soon after they’d finished eating and after everything had been cleared away, one of the security men knocked. He said, “Dr Drakos, Dr Biàn, Dr Jillian Winter, the head of ASIO, has asked that you meet with Director Bateman in half an hour at the facility where you were yesterday. Will that be convenient? We have trained officers who will watch your children.”

  Ed looked toward Zen and opened his mouth, but Zen said, “It’s fine, Dad. Us kids will sit here and chill. Maybe we’ll watch a nice movie. Can we get room service?”

  Ed, who was as big a rebel as Zen, grinned as he quickly answered before BB, who wasn’t thrilled with Zen’s attitude. He said, “
Good idea, Honey. Don’t worry Dr Biàn, I’m sure they’ll be well looked after. Zen, try not to get into too much mischief.”

  BB just shook her head and a few minutes later left with Ed. Zen put a movie on for Hal then reconnected to the internet. She made changes to her investment portfolio based on what she imagined was likely to be happening in the next few weeks and months, then began writing a paper that could be submitted to a journal. Meanwhile, Ed and BB were taken to the same room from the night before. Phil was waiting with a woman who he introduced as Lydia. “BB, Ed, thanks for coming. I hope you guys slept well. Lydia is here to help you. We’d like you to put together a thirty-minute presentation of the main points to present to Prime Minister at about eleven.”

  BB said, “Phil, it’s Zen’s discovery.”

  “I understand that, and I did suggest Zen give the talk but to be honest if you and Ed do the presentation we think it’ll gain more traction. The Prime Minister has already heard your hypothesis and is trying to arrange a meeting with our key allies as soon as possible, hopefully as early as next week. Still, Mr Morris wants his Security Committee to hear it directly from the scientists.”

  Ed said, “That’s Zen.”

  “I understand, Ed, but it’s out of my hands. Dr Winter signed off on it as did our communications advisors.”

  BB smirked and said, “Communications advisers?”

  “Yeah, it’s the new name for our PR specialists. They know how to get a message across. A message that we need to ensure is actually heard. When you have the presentation prepared, then Lydia will get our ‘communications advisor’ to sit down and walk through it with you.”

  Ed said, “Zen has all the data. It was on her storage drive. That’s back at the hotel.”

  Lydia said, “No problem. We copied the drive yesterday when it was connected. All the information is here. We also have a clear record of what happened during the meeting. The communications advisors have already looked over it and have highlighted the areas that were confusing.”

  BB said, “I don’t like this, Ed.”

  Ed was grinning, but his voice sounded thoughtful. He said, “Neither do I, but let’s play the hand we’re dealt. Let’s begin. Lydia, can you pull up the files Zen started with yesterday? The data explaining her pulsar.”

  As Lydia started looking at the screen in front of her and as reached for the mouse, she said, “We’d like you to refer to it as ‘Jay fifteen twenty five’. The consensus is this will resonate better with the target group more than calling it Zen’s Pulsar or any of the other ways you referenced it yesterday.”

  Ed smirked as he said, “Fine. No problem. J1525 it is.”

  The room went silent as they waited and finally, Lydia said, “I do apologise. It looks like our download was corrupted. I can’t seem to open any of the files.”

  Ed said, “Um, maybe we need to have Zen here after all?”

  BB glared at him, but Lydia didn’t notice his sarcasm as she responded, “No, that will not be necessary. We’ve got access to her storage on the cloud. Let me open that.”

  Ed just shook his head at what he thought was a foolish decision, but BB said, “That’s illegal.”

  Phil responded, “Sorry, BB, but it isn’t. We have a court order which gives us access to all of her files. We have permission to isolate and remove them if it is in the national interest. We have the same for your files and for Ed’s. You had to expect something like that.”

  “Why? Zen’s been completely upfront, and she’s been open about what she found. She wouldn’t even tell me. Why piss her off?”

  “It’s out of my hands.”

  BB glared, but Ed was watching as Lydia suddenly sat up straighter then started typing furiously. Suddenly, a skull appeared on the monitors, and an evil voice came out of the speakers, “The wages of sin is death. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

  Moments later the skull disappeared in a blaze of cgi fire, and the screen went dead, as did the console Lydia was using. Ed said, “Hey Phil, if I remember rightly, cybersecurity was your thing. What do you think happened?”

  Phil ignored the comment except for a brief glance at Ed’s smiling face, then stepped out of the room. Ten minutes later he returned, both agitated and thoughtful. “The server is fried. Fortunately, this entire room is isolated but it seems we’ve lost everything from last night as well as the data we copied. I’m not sure how she actually managed to have every sector designated as corrupted, but it was very effective. All we get is an empty screen with a single small white smiley face and a loop of evil laughter. I suppose we’ll need to ask for her files again.”

  BB looked up and said, “Yeah, good luck with that?”

  6

  Zen had been editing a paper for a doctoral candidate from Athens when she’d been alerted of the attempt to access her files. She watched what was happening in real-time and chose the megadeath option before closing down her access and going to watch the end of Toy Story with Hal. Fifteen minutes later, one of the security men said, “Excuse me, Miss Drakos, apparently the Director would like you to join them. A car will be here in ten minutes.”

  “Sorry, but my parents left me here to look after Hal. I can’t leave him alone, and I will need their OK before we leave the room. It’s a dangerous world, and they’ve taught me to be cautious. Besides, you didn’t use our ‘safe’ word.”

  The man took out his phone, and after waiting for a few seconds apparently was connected to Phil as he relayed Zen’s comments. He then handed the phone to Zen. Phil was on the other end, and he said, “Good morning Zen. How are you this morning?”

  “I’m still a bit tired. I can’t complain though because that’s the wages you earn for working both ends of the candle.”

  There was silence on the other end, then, “Well played, Zen. Well played. You didn’t show your computer skills last night, or I’d have been better prepared.”

  “Yeah, right. Bring it, G-man.”

  Phil couldn’t help chuckling, then said, “BB and Ed looked blank when I asked for the ‘safe’ word. I need you to help me sell the leadership on the seriousness of this. Your mum says Hal will be OK in the daycare.”

  “I’m not moving without a ‘safe’ word.”

  “Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?”

  “I’m not. I’m doing everything I can to help. I need a ‘safe’ word. It’s de rigueur for all families with children in these troubled times in which we live.”

  “They don’t know the ‘safe’ word.”

  “Everybody knows a ‘safe’ word. I can think of thousands. Something like’ Captain Underpants’ might work.”

  “‘OK, ‘Captain Underpants’. Now, will you come?”

  “Nope, that wasn’t the safe word I was thinking of. Has my mum ever told you the number of times I’ve been suspended from school? I’m so experienced at being annoying that I bet I could piss off Mother Theresa if she was still alive. You tried to steal my stuff, so it sucks to be you.”

  With that, she hung up and handed the phone to the man, then went back to sit with Hal. Thirty minutes later, Ed, BB and Phil showed up. Hal ran to BB and, in a toneless emotionless voice, Ed said, “Zen, will you please come and help?”

  BB glared at Ed but Zen stood up and said, “Sure dad, I’ll just grab my stuff.” She turned to look at Phil and said, “See, he knew the ‘safe’ word. It was ‘please’. Didn’t your mummy teach you anything?”

  Ed burst out laughing, but Phil said, “Ed, it isn’t funny. It’s now almost ten, and we have an appointment at eleven. Her attitude, and yours to be honest, aren’t doing anything to help.”

  Now Ed very rarely got angry, but when he did, he always went calm and emotionless before exploding into an angry ‘full-on-Greek’ diatribe. Phil had never seen this, but he knew something was happening when Ed’s face went still. BB, however, had experienced this, albeit rarely. She took one look at Ed and said, “Hal, go wait in the other room. Close the door. Daddy’s going to use some wor
ds I don’t want you to hear.”

  Phil turned to face Ed, who exploded. He started explaining what had been happening in English, then as his hands began moving his voice increased in volume and some English profanity crept in. As he moved closer to Phil, and as he invaded Phil’s personal space, he slipped more and more into Greek before letting loose with Greek expletives, his nose only millimetres from Phil’s. His arms added emphasis to every word while his fingers threatened to impale Phil.

  Phil had put his hands out to try and placate Ed, and then used them to tell the security people to let Ed be. Still, as Ed was in full flight and still waving his hands around, one of the security men stepped forward to pull Ed back. Even with Ed’s yelling, Zen’s voice was clear as she said, “Touch my father, and you will bleed.”

  Everything went still. Ed was breathing hard and glaring at Phil who was trying to calm things down, his hands out to separate people if necessary. Zen was standing on the balls of her feet, her eyes glaring at the security man. In the sudden silence, BB stepped over to Ed and said, “Honey, let’s go home. We warned the right people, and my conscience is clear. It’s time to go before Zen starts beating people up.”

  Ed brought his hands down slowly, still glaring at Phil, though he said nothing as he turned and headed into the bedroom. Everyone took a calming breath, and BB spoke softly, saying, “All we wanted to do was to help. Zen was willing to give you all her data so you could start doing something to prepare. Instead of thanking her, you ignored her, then you tried to steal her data, and now you’ve insulted her. I know you have your protocols, but the inflexibility with which you are applying them will be your downfall.”

  BB turned and followed Ed. Phil and the security were left facing Zen, who stared back at them with attitude. Phil said, “Zen, I’ll admit what happened was out of line, but I have my orders. I need the data and the explanation if we are going to even begin to start looking for an appropriate response. Please help me to convince people. You wanted it done right, and that’s why you approached me. I screwed up, but I hope it isn’t too late for us to work together, maybe even one day to trust each other. You can change your parents’ minds. You know you can. Please.”