by Paul Carlson
Serendipity
by Paul Carlson
Copyright 2014 by Paul Carlson
ISBN: 9781310302794
Original cover image by Wikimedia user John Jason Junior, modified by Paul Carlson
Leonardo Watson looked around the bistro, comfortable with its familiar details. The place was quiet, no surprise as it wasn't due to open for several hours. Narrow red-curtained windows cast a wan light into a room full of wooden tables, cozy and round with white linen. Taking advantage of the early hour, the owner's cat Schrödinger relaxed atop an empty table, sated with kitchen scraps from the previous evening.
Leo pouted. "I wanted to make this meeting into a field trip. Go see the mission control room." He liked impressive technological arrays, and his own climatology lab had few equals on Earth.
Three members of the Ancient Secrets Klub occupied their favorite table, in a corner near the kitchen door. On this special occasion, one young guest graced them with her presence.
Rabbi Naomi Rosenblum was in charge for this meeting; as much, under ASK's arcane traditions, as anyone might claim such a definitive role.
"You understand our ways," Rabbi Rosenblum told Leo, with good humor that belied her stern wording. She pointed to the floor, where an Ethernet cable snaked across the carpet from their breakfast table to the manager's office. "With data encryption, and our guest's peculiar situation, our usual meeting spot is sufficient."
Jessica Palomino, the guest in question, smiled with gratitude. "I've hardly budged from my console at mission control in weeks, and I'm glad to get away. I know that setting up this meeting so quickly was a hassle, and the rover team really appreciates your club's willingness to examine the unexpected."
With this striking young Zuni Indian woman beside him, Leo just couldn't gripe any more. "Ms. Palomino, I've been following your project in the news. Not only has your team won the Lunar Farside Challenge, you guys put three minisats in orbit around the moon, and landed a base station with a sophisticated rover." He felt hungrier for information than for the bistro's excellent menu. "I gather there is more to the story?"
Rosenblum cleared her throat. "Leo, perhaps our guest has distracted you? Let us begin."
"Oops, sorry. Of course." Leo retrieved the club's ceremonial trowel from his briefcase, and held it overhead. "No secret will remain buried forever."
"That's better." Dr. Nancy Kung winked at Palomino, then brought out the club's antique magnifying glass. "Leo here is quite the brash young fellow."
Though weary from a long shift at a hospital nearby, Kung grinned. "After the intensity of our recent meetings, I congratulate each of you for attending today." She raised their glass implement and intoned, "The truth shall out."
Rosenblum said, "Welcome to the 161st meeting of the Ancient Secrets Klub. Ms. Palomino, we're glad you could join us today."
"I'm glad Dr. Kung invited me." With a hopeful look, Palomino nodded toward the obstetrician. "You folks prefer to work in the background, and you're just the eclectic sort who might solve such an unprecedented puzzle."
Leo glowed at this implicit flattery. Kung, he figured, must have described some of the club's earlier exploits to their lovely guest. Few people might imagine how much could happen at an ordinary restaurant table.
Ben Buridan, the bistro's most efficient waiter, brought their meals. "The cook groused a little about coming in at this hour," the young man reported, "but as you can see, his omelets are excellent." A physics major at Tech, a burgeoning university downtown, Ben sometimes helped ASK tackle difficult conundrums. "He went out, so we've got the place to ourselves for a couple of hours."
"Good," said Palomino, with a trace of apprehension.
The club members ate quickly, as did their guest. Soon enough, the cat was daintily examining their leftovers.
With no other customers to serve, Ben gathered the dishes, then took off his apron and pulled up a high-backed wooden chair. "Today's dessert will be intellectual. I'll serve the sugary kind later, if anyone wants."
"Can I show you now?" Palomino opened her laptop computer. The others followed suit, linking their screens to hers. "I have our rover data from the past two days, since its successful deployment on the surface. We landed in a region thought to have a variety of exposed strata." A worried expression crossed her angular Native American features. "If word of our discovery gets out, people might think my team is a bunch of kooks."
Rosenblum said, "You can be confident in our discretion."
Solomon or Maimonides couldn't have brought more solemn assurance to their words, and Palomino relaxed. She glanced at the older woman, rueful over her expression of mistrust. "Our team checked up on you guys, not that there's much on the record to check. I wanted to be sure, myself."
"No problem," said Leo. He wasn't quite smitten, but the young MIT student possessed every feature, visible and internal, he found attractive in a woman.
Their laptops displayed a stark landscape of rock and shadow, reminding Leo of the Apollo lunar landings, which had taken place years before he was born. Prominent was a vertical rock face, with a cave near the middle. The cave had an odd half-circle of an entrance, bringing to mind a cartoon mouse hole.
"The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter didn't image this region very well," the budding selenologist explained. "You can see there is a slight overhang in the cliff face. We spotted the cave almost immediately, and decided to make it our primary target for exploration."
"You needed to send back a certain quantity of data, correct?" asked Kung. "For the Farside Challenge's prize qualification?"
"Yes, and we did. That took less than an hour." Palomino brought up some detailed images of lunar rocks, and of gritty soil, technically known as 'regolith.'
"We analyzed the immediate landing area, dug a few centimeters down, and did a layer-by-layer comparison." Palomino's excitement grew as she leaned forward, almost on her feet. "We found some really odd particles, and that's when we started thinking this wasn't like the regions explored previously. See? Those soft bits, that look crumbled."
"Have other lunar scientists commented?" asked Dr. Kung.
"Not yet!" said Palomino. "Not from outside our primary mission team, anyway. Quite the contrary, it's a good thing our minisats and ground stations use strong encryption."
"Are all the Farside Challenge teams so, uh, cautious?" asked Leo. He didn't mind challenging a genius like Palomino. "In my field, discoveries about the climate are freely shared."
"There's a fifty million dollar prize at stake," Palomino responded. "All the teams are very cautious. Besides, our sponsor is rather quirky, and I did not object to the use of encryption."
"You explored the cave," Ben prompted. When the club got into Q&A mode, their initial formalities grew relaxed. "Using the base station as a relay." Easy enough to personalize the actions of the distant lunar rover.
"Remember, this video is from our second entry, twelve hours ago." Palomino looked split between pride and utter frustration. "Mr. Auslander was generous, and we added every type of instrumentation possible. There really is such a thing as too much information, and without a working theory to tie our findings together, we are baffled."
On screen, the rover rolled into the cave entrance. "Having secured the prize, we cut off our public releases, and leaked rumors we might have found valuable ore."
Grayish rock narrowed the view as mounted spotlights came on. The passage, Leo noted, was about one meter high. He'd have to bend over, or with a spacesuit on, crawl.
On impulse, Leo Watson called up a schematic of the rover. Its scoop extended toward the rear, while in front, dual round spotlights perched above forward stereo cameras. Below the two cameras, an imaging radar system was hous
ed within a protective cone. Leo chuckled. The rover resembled a mouse.
Palomino glanced his way, then on-screen she enlarged part of the wall. "These cut marks indicate this passage is artificial." Data scrolled below the image. "The rate of dust accumulation, along with isotopic dating of the outermost exposed surface, show the place is at least half a million years old."
The rover moved again. About twenty meters in, the passage widened. What came next left Leo stunned. His first thought was 'hoax,' but the second became, 'intriguing mystery.' Several other Lunar Farside Challenge teams had rovers in operation, and three were still in flight. He figured that independent verification was needed, and might not be long in coming.
As for the images before him, disbelieving Palomino herself was so far down Leo's list of emotional preferences that contrary facts would have to thrash him awfully hard.
As if she'd read his mind, Palomino said, "I checked the raw telemetry myself, from two separate ground stations. I also sent the rover a few test commands, late last night, without telling anyone else. Whatever you choose to make of it, this is genuine data, from a quarter-million miles away."
Unless, Leo realized, the whole scene had been prepared in advance. But, he argued with himself, who would bother spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fool a brilliant young selenologist? Who could accomplish
