The Battle of Titan

by Sudipto Majumdar

  “Hi Oleg. Are you driving?” Heidi could see the outline of the steering wheel from the dashboard camera, and the car windows in the background.

  “Yeah, but it’s on auto, so it’s cool.” Oleg replied nonchalantly.

  “No it is not safe Oleg, you are supposed to keep a look out on the road. It will definitely not be safe after what I have to show you. I will call you back later when you are off the road.” Heidi gave a tease and a threat. Teaser that she has some very interesting information, and then the threat that it will be withheld till he was driving.

  Oleg was an inveterate rule breaker. Hopefully this will be an incentive for him to pull over and have the conversation. The gambit worked, sort of.

  “Ok… Ok… Carla, here could you please take over for a moment, while I talk to Heidi?” Oleg pushed a large sliding switch in the center of the car’s front panel from the left to the right. That made the steering wheel and all the switches and knobs attached to it slowly withdraw from the front of Oleg, and a similar contraption emerge in front of the passenger seat where Oleg’s wife was sitting.

  Jaguar needed to sell cars all over the world, and the cost of production becomes a lot cheaper if they could make just one single version of the car and sell it anywhere in the world. The problem is that 70% of the world is left hand drive, and the rest is right hand drive. So with one switch you change the car from a left hand drive to a right hand one.

  In the case of Oleg, he has adapted the solution to hand over the driver’s seat to his wife Carla without having to stop or change seats. Never mind that she was now driving a right hand drive car on a road designed for left hand drive cars. Oleg’s reasoning would have been, that she is not driving anyway, the car is driving itself, so how does it matter?

  Oleg loved and respected all the women in his life, but did they have to be such nags, especially about these trivial things like safety? Even a sharp professional like Heidi was not above it. Alright he would comply in his own way. There are some battles you cannot win.

  “Hi Carla, how are you, I couldn’t see you on the screen.” Heidi added in greeting when she realized that Oleg’s wife was also traveling in the car. “Hi Heidi, you don’t look so good, anything wrong honey?” Carla replied leaning a bit towards the dashboard camera to let her face come into the frame. She had noticed the slight puff on Heidi’s face despite her best efforts in the ladies room.

  Women are so perceptive. Oleg would perhaps have noticed nothing even if Heidi was bawling in front of the camera, as long as she talked science. She liked Carla who knew about the history between Heidi and Herman. Scientific community at the top was a small place, everyone knew everyone, and their personal lives, especially romance amongst colleagues.

  “Well since it is so obvious from my face, might as well confess Carla. I just got off the phone with Herman.” Heidi said sheepishly. Carla said nothing initially she simply stretched her hand and touched the screen next to the camera, in a gesture of touching. Then very softly she said “Hang on there sis.”

  That is the reason Heidi liked Carla, she already made Heidi feel better without saying much. There wasn’t much to be said anyway. Oleg on the other hand feared getting cut off from the interesting information that Heidi had teased him with, if these two ladies started girl talk. He knew about Heidi and Herman, but that was none of his business, he wanted the information, so he butted in loudly.

  “Ok Heids, I have done what you asked for. Look mama no hands!” He said raising his hands in front of him. “Now what is this thing you were going to tell me, that is supposed to give me a heart attack?”

  “It is not what I tell, you but what I show you. The line is already in data mode, and I have transferred a file. Please check, I will wait.” Heidi said with a mysterious smile. She wanted to see the change in reaction on Oleg’s face. She had quite enjoyed the transformation on Herman’s face.

  Oleg pulled out the tablet from the dashboard and started studying the data sent. He did not disappoint. His bald head had some hair on the back of his head and behind his ear. Those remaining hair seem to stand up almost comically by the way he skewed his face. It was only beaten by the comically amazed look that Oleg was giving. Heidi allowed herself a broad smile, she was sure that Carla was doing the same, although she could not see her.

  “But… I… Are you sure?” Oleg seem to be at a loss of words. He slowly regained composure and said more calmly. “Has this data been cross verified?”

  “Herman is going to do an independent verification on data taken from other sources, and will independently analyze the same. So we should have a completely independent verification in less than 24 hours, faster if I sensed his enthusiasm. Both Herman and I have also requested priority tracking of the object using the resources at our command, which are not inconsiderable. Within 24 hours we should have enough live data on the subject.

  I have sent a mail to my staff to assemble here at my office within the next hour, to verify the data and analysis by the students who found this originally. This is just a matter of precaution, from what I have reviewed, their analysis seems to be in order. What I called you for Oleg, was to get guidance as to what should be the next steps, if it turns out to be correct.”

  Oleg began to speak but he was at a loss of words, so he stopped. Started again, and stopped. He held his head in one of his hands and rubbed his forehead. “If this turns out to be correct, then it is huge man! I don’t even know where to begin. Ok let’s do it this way. You guys continue with the verification and validation process, and keep sending me data as you get them.

  I will contact Herman and request the same of him as well. I will reach home and start studying all this in detail, and making a list of people that need to be contacted. I have a sinking feeling that a lot of those names on the list are going to be from the government and the administration. However much we scientists hate it, this will involve the government sooner or later… Carla, honey I think we will have to cancel the dinner at the Steinberg’s.”

  Carla must have nodded, she did not say anything, so Heidi said. “That seems like a good enough plan. I will be in touch with you and keep you fed with all data I get. Bye for now Oleg. Bye Carla”

  Next 24 hours went in a blur. Heidi, Jorge, Ramesh and a bunch of Astronomers from the department spent most of their time in office, slept fitfully on couches, and occasionally mailed data to Oleg. Heidi had pulled out most of the tasks assigned to the various telescopes under her administrative control and assigned them with two tasks.

  First was to observe the anomalous object in every possible manner possible through every spectrum of light and electromagnetic wave.

  The other task was to observe along the line of approach of the object (she still refused to call it a space ship, it would be harmful to her reputation as a serious astronomer). This was tricky business, painstaking and time consuming with no guarantees of quick success or any success for that matter.

  They were not looking at the object head on, although from such a huge distance, it appeared so. The ship was not aimed at the earth exactly at this point in time. More likely it was aimed at the sun or some random point in the solar system. So they were looking at it from a very small angle away from its line of approach. However this small angle of variation would mean huge amount of space to scan, as you traced it back through the light years.

  At the end of the designated 24 hours, they all came to Heidi’s office, to join conference call organized by Oleg, who was at his desk in his office on a Sunday as Heidi could see. So he had taken this seriously. The conference was also joined by Herman and his team from Chile who were on a spit window.

  “Ladies and gentleman, it seems that time is short, so I shall get along without much of a preamble. I am sure that the last 24 hours have been hectic for all of us so let’s get this over with. I have the reports from both the Hawaii and the Chile team. I am not sure if I am happy or scared about this, but both your independent data and analysis are in a
greement.

  I congratulate Heid’s team especially young Georgie, and Rams” there goes Oleg again mangling names Heidi thought “for this momentous discovery. This unfortunately goes beyond the realms of just Astronomy and Science in general. It is our duty to involve the administration in particular and the government in general.

  Just like you I have also been busy. As you may well imagine, it is not easy to convince a government official to take you very seriously when you approach them telling that a bunch of astronomers have detected a UFO.” There were good natured laughs from both the teams, but Heidi could detect and undercurrent of nervousness in those laughs.

  “I would like to introduce you all to Mr. Wally Robinson.” A slim average height, slightly balding but handsome black man walked into the frame. “Wally and I go back a long way, until Wally lost his way into the government.” Oleg gave him a smile, while Wally gave him a mock frown of anger, but smiled.

  “Wally is a member of PCAST. For those of you who are lucky enough to not have to deal with the bureaucracy or beg the government for grants, PCAST is the presidential advisory council on Science and Technology. They have the president’s ear on all things Science. Wally here has been kind enough to make a nonstop flight all the way from East Coast.

  I have taken the liberty of feeding him our preliminary data continuously over the last 24 hours, as well as sharing our final report as it became available in the last few hours. He is fully in the loop and aware of the situation. Wally would now like to make the official position known to us. Over to you Wally.”

  Wally came to the center and addressed them all. “Ladies & gentlemen, I congratulate you all on this spectacular discovery. I admit that we laughed initially when Oleg came to us with a story that sounded like one about a UFO, but I can assure you that we stopped laughing very soon, when we could see the UFO for ourselves.

  We have gotten these calculation and observations independently validated from teams here at JPL in Pasadena, as well as on the east coast by NASA. The evidence and the conclusions are undeniable.

  I would like to let you know that the machinery of our government is getting into high gear on this even as we speak. I have a request for all of you. I know that none of you are government employees, and most of you at Chile are not even US citizens, but this is not about our country but about humanity at large.

  I would request you to keep this information confidential, till we can formulate an adequate response and figure out how to disseminate this information to the public at large.

  I know that many of you may be rolling your eyes thinking ‘here we go again with government secrecy’, but think to yourselves how the world would react if we told them that an alien starship is approaching earth at high speed. From law and order to the stock markets, think of how much damage would be caused, when this news morphs into wild unsubstantiated rumors.

  I can assure you that we do not plan to keep it a secret. We cannot keep it a secret. We will need to mobilize a huge amount of resources for a response. This would mean budgetary provisions, briefings to all government agencies and private contractors. We just want to do it in an orderly fashion.”

  Wally now addressed Herman directly. “Dr. Heinz, I know that you administer your facility under an international consortium and hence have the duty to report this through the formal process set up by the consortium. I am not asking you violate this process, just delay it for a few days. The primary sponsors of this consortium are the US, EU and India. You are working closely on the ESA-ISRO Kuiper belt project any way, and are in direct touch with the board members.”

  Wally was referring to the European Space Agency and Indian Space Research Organization’s joint project for sending long range probes to explore objects in the Kuiper belt, most important amongst them being Ceres and Sedna which is also known as the impossible planetoid, due its seemingly impossible orbit.

  Herman was the chief astronomer for the project. The project was so expensive, that both the agencies had had to pool in their respective budgets to get it done.

  Wally continued. “I would suggest that you inform the ESA and ISRO board members in private and leave it at that. You know all of them personally and I am sure you can brief them privately. I am sure they will understand, because our government is in touch with both of these organizations and the nations. As you know US has friendly relations with all of them. I know that I may be putting you in a difficult situation, but it is my duty to ask.

  It may seem that we are playing petty politics in the face of such momentous events affecting all humanity, and I would personally agree with you somewhat if you were to come to that conclusion. However we have no way of knowing or controlling how the Chinese for example will respond. So we want it under wraps until we can ourselves get a handle on this.

  Thank you all for your patient hearing. There will be a briefing to the president in less than an hour which we would be attending from here. I would request Drs. Heinz and Bernstein to please be on standby for the same.” With that he Wally finished what he had to say, and Oleg quickly brought the conference to a close, requesting Heidi and Herman to hook up again on the conference in about 40 minutes.

  Everybody in both Hawaii and Chile were in somber mood at politics rearing its ugly head again. ‘Well what would one expect when you involve the government’, was the common refrain amongst the scientists. It brought everybody back to earth and the petty bickering of humanity from the lofty heights of potentially finding an alien spacecraft.

  Chapter 4

  The Spy

  Biyu Lam aka Cherry liked this place. She liked Calcutta. Most of her colleagues in the agency would consider this city a punishment posting. They consider India itself a punishment posting, not as glamorous as being posted in Washington or London. To Biyu Lam, known to all her new friends simply as Cherry, this place had a charm of its own. It almost felt like home in many ways.

  Not all the traitors to the revolution of communism had fled the long march to Taiwan or the US. As the great leader Mao was sweeping through the heartlands of China rooting out the oppressive feudalists and capitalists, some of them fled to their southwestern neighbor India.

  Calcutta already had a small China town 90 years ago during those times of the great revolution. It catered to the Chinese traders and merchants visiting, what in those days was a major trading port. This is where the refugees came and settled creating the largest concentration of Chinese in India. She could not hold a grudge against the descendants of those traitors and oppressors. They were all long dead and gone.

  These people were amazing. They had harmoniously and comfortably assimilated into the fabric of India, and yet kept their Chinese identity, the customs, culture and the food intact. She did not actually live inside China town, but close to it. She didn’t miss home much with a little of China so close to her.

  She had been in India for nearly two years, and had another two to go before her time in this station came to an end. At her age of 25, she had a fairly easy cover to go by. Daughter of a rich businessman from Guangzhou, who wanted to do something different in life and had decided to become a student of Indian history, arts and culture.

  That is what her visa application and the carefully built profile suggested. This gave her the leeway to travel in all the usual places of interest in India without anyone thinking about it twice. She was enrolled in Delhi’s JNU University, where academic standards are lax by international standards, and students are free to pursue any other hobby or passion they have, without having to attend lectures much or meet their guides.

  She would have had problems approaching militarily sensitive areas, but that was not her specialty or her area of responsibility. Her specialty was civilian intelligence, and more specifically government and bureaucracy. She had to spend a good amount of time in New Delhi, being the capital of India, but she liked to spend as much time as possible in Calcutta, which she liked to think of as home.

  It was evening, and s
he was contemplating her time in India, when she got a coded message. It beeped on her wrist, and from the keywords in the seemingly innocent text message, she knew it was coded. She went to a coffee table in her small study and flicked it to life. She selected an option and then pressed her palm on the surface of the table and let it scan her palm.

  Once that was done, the message decoded into a short cryptic message. It told Cherry to be at meeting point 1673 at 10 am tomorrow morning. Cherry didn’t need to look up where meeting point 1673 was as she sighed, it was in New Delhi. She started packing.

  At 9.40 am she was in one of the largest Buddhist temples in New Delhi. It was as usual slightly crowed at this time of the day. It was built and maintained by the Japanese, and as such had a fair number of Japanese inside. Indians it seemed, could not distinguish between the Chinese and the Japanese, so her being there was considered normal and no one gave her a second glance.

  The message had been signed by the name of Peach, which means she should be expecting an embassy staff named Jinjing. Jinjing arrived shortly and they exchanged pleasantries as two old friends would. Most Indians couldn’t make out the difference between Japanese and Mandarin either, so they freely spoke in their own language.

  “There has been a hornet’s nest that seems to have been disturbed in the South Block yesterday, and it seems to have spread to the entire government.” Jinjing started, referring to the location of the Indian Foreign Ministry.

  “The entire bureaucracy as well as the executive seems to have dropped everything else they were doing, which is usually political bickering and sniping. They all seem to have gone into a huddle, with highest level meetings going on hours at ends. They even have the opposition leaders in those meetings, which they only do in times of crisis or war.

  We know of no crisis or war that is imminent here. I have received message from colleagues in Brussels and Washington, those governments have also gotten into similar mode. These are allied powers, and if they have started something in secret worthy of war level meetings in the government, it could be ominous to us. We need to know what they are discussing.” Jinjing paused to ensure that Cherry was following.