His explanation was cut short. Now it was Kath who had a call on her phone. “Hold that thought… I’ll just be a moment.”
“Hello,” she answered.
Her mouth dropped as she cupped her hand over the microphone. “It’s Professor Zimmer,” she whispered in amazement to Joram, who threw up his hands in amazement and leaned in over the table as if proximity to Kath would help him solve the mystery. He listened intently as the conversation continued.
“Tonight?”
“Wha…? Where?”
“What’s this all about, Professor?”
She stared at Joram intently, searching for him to give her clues about the situation. He could only stare blankly into her eyes while shaking his head.
“Okay… uh… bye then.”
She slowly placed her phone back in her purse.
“Tonight?” Joram inquired on the edge of his seat.
“Uh-huh,” She mouthed back.
“At the Burbank Airport?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The private terminal.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Rendezvous with a helicopter?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Heading to Paris, France?”
“Uh-huh... No, wait.” Kath collected herself. A smile slowly appeared on her face as she admired Joram’s trick to pull her back to reality.
“No, Mount Palomar, silly… the same thing he told you, right?”
“Uh-huh,” Joram playfully mocked Kath with a falsetto voice intended to mimic her responses to him.
“Very funny, Joram Anders.” She looked at her watch. “We have to get going… we don’t have much time to pack before Zimmer meets us at the airport… What do you think this is all about, Joram?”
“I don’t know, but what the heck… a helicopter ride to a mountain observatory for some star-gazing… sounds wonderful to me. Let’s go!”
“Yeah, it sounds rather…” Kath caught herself and blushed slightly as she pulled the word “romantic” off of her lips and responded, “Rather wonderful.”
…
Kath and Joram paused as they entered the helicopter terminal together. Kath pulled a roller bag behind her, while Joram had a duffel bag on his shoulder. They both looked around for Professor Zimmer who was to meet them here.
“I’ll just check at the counter,” Joram said.
With sleepy eyes, Kath watched Joram approach the counter and engage a young man on the other side. The young man motioned to his right and exchanged some words and a smile with Joram, who nodded and turned back towards Kath.
“We need to wait in room 109 right over there,” Joram offered as the two continued towards the meeting room.
As they entered the small, well-lit room, they saw another individual slumped in a seat. As he heard them enter, he stood up and peered at them, straining to identify them as someone he knew. Joram was the first to recognize the individual as the person who entered the planetarium on the first day of class when he was relaxing in his fully-reclined seat.
“You’re in Professor Zimmer’s A21 class, aren’t you?” Joram offered his right hand.
“Yes,” said the young man accepting Joram’s firm handshake. “As I recall, you were the first person in the room on Monday weren’t you?”
Joram blushed, realizing that he had been caught off guard that first day of class as he had expected.
“Yes,” he chuckled. “I suspect you caught me in a rather vulnerable position there didn’t you.”
Kath cocked her head slightly and gave Joram an inquisitive glance.
“I arrived early to class that first day, so that I could acquaint myself with the planetarium. I was experimenting with the controls of the seat, and got a little comfortable when I reclined it all the way.”
At first, Kath snickered, but she quickly regained her control… for just a moment before she had a chance to visualize Joram being caught in that position. The thought, coupled with her fatigue, made her burst into such a fit of laughter that her new companion joined in heartily as well.
Joram rolled his eyes and nodded, blushing even more.
“I’m sorry, Joram,” Kath said. “I know it’s not funny, I just…”
“It’s ok, Kath,” accepted Joram. “Actually, it is pretty funny, so I don’t fault you.”
Kath now turned to her classmate, “I’m Kath Mirabelle.”
“Oh, I’m Reyd Eastman,” their fellow student introduced himself throwing his right hand out in front of him quickly. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”
“Reyd,” Joram grabbed his colleague’s hand and bypassed the chit chat, “do you know why we’re all here?”
“No, I have no idea, Professor Zimmer just said…” Reyd was cut off abruptly.
“I can tell you why we’re here,” announced Professor Zimmer, looking rather haggard from his second flight of the day. “But please follow me to the helicopter first.”
The trio of graduate students retrieved their luggage and obeyed the professor quickly and quietly as they proceeded out of the room and down the hall of the terminal.
For an aging professor, the trio of students was surprised at the quickness of his gait. After briskly catching up to him, Joram’s curiosity won out over discretion. He turned his face towards Zimmer and asked, “Professor, what is this about?”
“I’m not at liberty to say here in the terminal, Joram,” the professor looked straight ahead and continued his rapid pace. “While the situation was declassified just moments before my plane landed, NASA is scheduling a press conference later this evening, and I am not at liberty to speak of the matter here. I’ll tell you everything once we’re aboard the helicopter.”
Joram tried to piece the clues together. Situation? NASA? Press conf… Joram looked at his watch… a press conference later this evening? It was already 11:45 PM. Why would NASA schedule a press conference this late in the evening? Something was obviously very urgent. And then, didn’t the professor say something about a plane landing? But he was just in class with him about 12 hours ago. Where could he have gone—and returned—so suddenly?
The professor continued his pace with the students following along with him silently all the way to the tarmac where a helicopter’s blades were already whirring overhead. A pair of airport personnel rushed out to meet the party and assist the group and their luggage into the helicopter. A pilot assisted Kath into the cockpit first and then helped Joram, Reyd, and lastly the professor. Each seat had a headset on it, and each member placed it on their heads. After the pilot gave some brief instructions, all of the passengers were harnessed into their seat and clearance was granted from air traffic controllers for departure.
The helicopter lifted slowly off the ground, and the three students gazed out of their windows to see the lights of Southern California stretch to the horizon in nearly all directions. A smattering of lights could also be seen in the mountains to the north of the city. They watched until the ground disappeared under a dense marine layer and soon all that could be seen was the flashing lights of the helicopter itself and the moonless sky filled with a vast array of stars of various brightness and color. Joram admired the scene overhead. He had only been in Southern California for a week, and he was already missing the expansive, star-filled sky over his home in Kansas.
Joram looked back over at the professor who was studying the contents of a manila folder intently. After a moment he looked up at the pilot, who was engaged with final departure communication from the airport. The pilot looked back at Zimmer and nodded.
Reaching for a button on his headset, he engaged his microphone. Looking at his perplexed trio, he spoke, “Can you all hear me okay?” They each nodded and leaned towards the professor with intent curiosity, as if by proximity they would be able to hear him through the noise of the helicopter better.
“You’ll recall that Dean Scoville came into my classroom today as lecture was finishing up. He led me to his office, where I was given a very urgent assign
ment from NASA. I have been to Johnson Space Center, where they have briefed me on a situation of utmost concern.” He paused, not sure how to continue. “It is our lot to solve a rather perplexing astronomical puzzle as quickly as possible, which is why I have summoned the three of you to travel with me to Palomar tonight.”
He caught himself with that statement, “By the way, I have failed to thank you for your willingness to do this without sufficient preparation or explanation. My apologies for not being clearer… I had to be brief on the phone because this situation was classified when I spoke to you.”
Another longer pause ensued, as he was not sure he wanted to precede his briefing with the following introduction. “There are at least three astronauts whose lives could be in jeopardy at this very moment.”
At that, Kath gave a start, and covered her gasping mouth with her hands. Joram leaned back in his seat, horrified at the implication. Reyd dropped his head in realization of the seriousness of the situation.
Zimmer gave his students the details as they had been conveyed to him by Gilroy’s task force.
“Now, we had hoped to have a visual on the camp by now, seeing how the lone communicating satellite is directly overhead. However, a severe dust storm has completely obscured visibility of 60% of the surface of the planet. Even so, the satellite should be able to communicate with equipment at the camp, but…” with this Zimmer lowered his head, “… but, I’m afraid that there is no signal. Now, the timing is not as desirable as we’d like,” Zimmer began to wrap up his briefing. “At this late hour, we will only have a few good hours to collect data.”
With an introduction to the situation out of the way, Professor Zimmer instructed his graduate students in the plans which he had devised on the plane trip back from Houston. “Joram, you will accompany Reyd, who has familiarity with the setup at Palomar. Reyd received his bachelor’s degree last Spring in Computer Science with a minor in Astronomy. He will be able to work the system to process the data in any manner we need. Kath, as the only meteorologist currently in the program, I have called on you to study the dynamics of the dust storm. This is not a storm of any typical nature that has ever been observed occurring on our neighbor. I, in the meantime, will control the telescope to collect what I believe will be the most useful set of data for us to process. For the time being, I advise you to get what little rest you can before we land at Palomar. If you have any questions, just press the red button on your headset right here.”
Kath was the first to deploy her microphone. “Professor, you are correct that I have studied meteorology, but only as it pertains to Earth. I have no notion of the atmospheric dynamics on Mars to be able to adequately perform this study.”
“I suspect that you will learn quickly, Miss Mirabelle,” began Zimmer, “As soon as we touch down, you will have complete access to a team of Martian meteorologists in Israel. They are prepared to teleconference with you and have been given express instructions to give you full access to their knowledge. Ask them any question that you need. Call upon them for any report of data that may help. Your job is to communicate to the team assembled at Palomar any and all details as they unravel from the team in Israel.”
Kath nodded her head. She did not feel adequate to the task, but also did not want to let the professor down, and she certainly did not want to let down the three astronauts whose lives could depend on the teamwork of everybody involved on their behalf.
“Any more questions?” probed the professor.
Joram had many, but he knew that he could defer many of them to Reyd once they were on the ground, so as to not distract the professor from any data processing or theorizing on the matter for the remainder of the flight.
After a moment of silence, the professor returned to his seat, reclined the seat back slightly, and rested his head, heaving a burdened sigh as he closed his eyes.
Kath, who sat next to Joram took off her headset and spoke above the noisy helicopter into Joram’s ear. “How exactly are we supposed to rest with this racket?”
Joram reached under his seat and pulled out a pair of objects from his duffel bag. “You said that you were wanting to try these, and well… I thought they might come in handy for you on the flight.”
Kath smiled in amazement. In the little time that Joram had to pack for the trip, he was thoughtful enough to remember his Ear Cups… for her!
She placed them over her ears, and was quite shocked to discover that they worked amazingly well. She could hear almost nothing. In his ear, she said, “You’re wonderful, Joram Anders,” and proceeded to kiss him on the cheek.
The two exchanged a warm smile with each other before Kath got comfortable, resting her head on Joram’s broad shoulder. In an instant, she was asleep as if resting in her own bed, and not on a noisy helicopter bound for a mountain observatory 100 miles away.
Chapter
7
With a commanding presence, Warron slid his seat back deliberately, causing a slight squeak as it rubbed on the tile floor. He stood erect and turned to face the jury. Beginning at the lower left of the jury box, Warron ensured that he had the attention of each juror. Scanning the last juror seated in the upper right corner, a young male college student, he felt confident on whom he should focus to provide the desired results.
Obviously, he needed all twelve to be able to acquit his client, and that was the ultimate goal. However, success could also be measured with a single “not guilty” verdict, since a hung jury would reset the entire legal cycle, which favored his client in two ways. First, it gave Warron even more time to build a better case through the learning he had acquired during the first trial. Second, lengthy legal proceedings would stretch the resources of the district attorney’s office, causing the state-appointed counsel to weary of the case.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” he began. “You will recall that when you were selected a little over two weeks ago, Judge Etherton shared with you some instructions that you must apply during your tenure as a juror in this court. First, he mentioned that the defendent must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. As you look over at Mr. Joonter, I trust that none of you have looked at him as a guilty man during the course of this trial. When you walk into your room to deliberate, you must then decide whether there is ample evidence to convict this man of the serious crimes with which he is charged. Because my client is innocent of any wrong-doing, you hold the fate of his future in your hand.
“Second,” the lawyer started pacing slowly along the jury in order to make direct eye contact with each of its fourteen members, “the judge instructed that you do not need to determine his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt, but instead, you must determine whether there is ‘reasonable doubt’ in the evidence presented to you by the prosecution. With that said, it is my duty to convince you that there is most certainly reasonable doubt in this case. In talking with my client, in reviewing the details of this case, in hearing the arguments put forward by the district attorney, I can certainly assure you of that fact.
“Take a look at the character of Mr. Joonter. He was born into the most unfortunate of circumstances. His parents, murdered by a carjacker, left him orphaned at the age of two. A kind couple adopted him and gave him a chance to succeed in life. As an adolescent, he admits that he was grateful to his adoptive family, and yet always felt that he didn’t quite fit in, being the only athlete in a family of cultured artists and intellects. We have learned how devastated he was when his athletic ambitions ended prematurely from an unfortunate injury that he incurred while playing freshman football. And even in that time of tremendous depression and soul searching, he was reached out to and befriended by his football coach, who saw great potential in him. Stunned that his coach would take such a personal interest in the life of a youngster who could no longer play for him, Paol grew curious about the life of this good man. Finding out that he was a devout Christian, he sought religion in his life, and has become an admired member in his congregation today.
�
�I have brought before you many of the acquaintances of this fine man: neighbors, fellow parishioners, co-workers. All have vouched for his character. All have confirmed that the crimes committed are not only inconsistent with his character, they are simply inconceivable. Consider that while this business deal turned out very unprofitable for his high-tech company, we have shown convincingly that there have been other deals which he has championed that have even gone worse. Yet, nobody associated with that deal mentioned that it angered or embittered him to any degree. He simply learned from his experience, and capitalized on his mistakes to improve the quality of business.
“Now let’s review some of the details of the case. The district attorney has reminded us that fingerprints leapt off of the gun, yet surveillance video shows that he wore latex gloves during the incident. Why would my client buy a gun, smear his fingerprints all over it, and then wear gloves during the shooting?
“And what of the discovery of the murder weapon? It was found in a dumpster of the Atlanta Airport, where four different eye-witnesses claimed they saw Mr. Joonter in the airport terminal in the late night hours of the 28th of March. Yet, his itinerary showed that his flight was not until the 30th, because he had yet another day of meetings on the 29th. Why, then, would he go through the trouble of driving to the airport just so he could discard the weapon there, and then show his face in such a crowded public location, only to drive back to his hotel and surrender to local authorities in his hotel room?
“But then we must ask ourselves, what of the audio and video? As for video, we know that it is too easy these days to create very realistic masks of anybody. Halloween shops are able to receive portrait and profile photos of an individual and create a very personalized mask that will fit a specific person used to masquerade as somebody else. Several suspects have been acquitted in other cases where this technology was utilized in order to frame the suspect of a crime he or she did not commit.
“As for the audio, experts have said that—and I quote—‘the quality of the speech waveforms implicated Mr. Joonter, although they did not match his voice perfectly.’ Under oath, they pointed out that the voice was slightly deeper than that of my client, even though the shape of the waveforms were sufficient to give ‘a high degree of confidence’ that the voice recorded at the scene of the crime was that of Mr. Joonter.
The Orthogonal Galaxy Page 8
