The Orthogonal Galaxy

by Michael L. Lewis

  As Zimmer led his trio out of the dorm facility, Joram buttoned up the wind breaker that he put on, due to a morning autumn wind which had deposited a light frost on the ground the night before. Reyd, likewise zipped up his jacket, and Kath embraced herself sporting a jacket and scarf, which was flowing freely in the wind. Zimmer, who was familiar with the weather on the mountain, wore a long sleeve dress shirt and tie.

  As they entered the dimly lit room, the party of four took seats along a conference table closest to the large projected display which was already showing clear images of the Martian horizon. Long shadows filled the breach between night and day, cast by mountains and craters and were replaced by even longer shadows as the frigid surface rotated, groping for sunlight.

  Zimmer dialed on the speaker phone in the center of the room.

  “Dr. Gilroy, this is Professor Zimmer. I have my students with me here at Palomar Mountain.”

  “Thanks for calling in, Professor! We know that your team has been working through some exhausting evenings, and we apologize to bring you back this morning. I have Ravid Avram on the phone in Israel, as well as Camp Mars specialists here at Johnson and Kennedy. The team at the Istanbul University Observatory is also online. We really hope that we can get a visual on the astronauts during this Earthrise and begin to establish a plan for their safety.”

  After a brief pause, a different voice came over the phone. “Dr. Gilroy, do you plan to make an announcement about Ayman Hardy today?”

  “We are not inclined to give up our efforts yet,” Gilroy replied.

  “He has been non-communicant for more than 60 hours now, Doctor.”

  “Yes, but as far as we know, his shuttle is carrying him as safely as ever back to the Moon, even without communication. The shuttle can sustain life for four weeks.”

  “But you have also failed to make visual contact with the shuttle through either visual light or infrared which should detect the heat trail of the shuttle.”

  “Understood,” Gilroy sounded annoyed. “We are guarded in our comments to the press, but we are also conveying realistic scenarios as well. We simply will not give up until the full two weeks have elapsed. If he does not arrive on the Moon in that time frame, then we will announce our fear of the worst.”

  Joram looked across the table at Kath, who was staring down at the floor motionlessly. He returned his gaze to the projected image.

  “Two minutes to visual, Dr. Gilroy,” announced a scientist who was calculating the estimated time of Earthrise on Camp Mars.

  “Doctor, the edge of the crater is in view now,” said another voice that appeared to be in the same room as Gilroy.

  “Thank you, Stan,” replied Gilroy, and then speaking into the phone gave instructions to all who were dialed in. “If you will all fix yourselves on the upper left corner of the horizon, you will see the edge of the crater, distinguished by its opening to the plains surrounding it. We should be able to start to see camp facilities in less than a minute now.”

  Joram leaned forward in his chair. Kath looked up at the crater rim while manicuring the nail of an index finger with her teeth. Reyd straightened his eyeglasses to improve his vision. Professor Zimmer stood, muted the speakerphone, and paced towards the back of the room with hands folded behind his back.

  “What do you expect to see, students?” asked Zimmer with his back to the projection.

  All three turned in their chairs to look at Zimmer, but none gave a response.

  “See for yourselves.” He wheeled around and gestured with his right hand. “This is what we’ve been anxious to see for three days now.”

  The three turned back to the view. The phone was silent of any significant conversation, but indistinguishable mumbling could be heard from a couple of sources.

  “Professor,” Kath was the first to speak. “I—I really don’t recognize anything. Are we too zoomed out to make out any structures?”

  Zimmer shook his head and spoke softly. “There are no structures, Kath.”

  Her eyes grew wide in recognition.

  “Oh no,” gasped Joram as he stood and drew closer to the projected image. “It’s—It’s…”

  “…a pile of rubble!” exclaimed Reyd. Leaping to his feet in horror, Reyd turned to the professor. “Professor Zimmer, what happened? How? How can this happen?”

  Zimmer shook his head slowly. “I do not know, Mr. Eastman. It is an unspeakable tragedy. We have lost three astronauts.”

  “Three, professor?” asked Kath in surprise. “Are you sure that the shuttle was destroyed also?”

  “Ms. Mirabelle,” answered the professor carefully. “Whatever leveled Camp Mars also took out three of the four satellites. It also sent a flurry of unidentifiable radiation to our very own planet and caused a sudden flare of brightness on the Sun. Whatever force we are dealing with here, it is very powerful. That shuttle didn’t stand a chance.”

  “But one satellite survived, Professor. Couldn’t the shuttle be safe as well?”

  “That satellite survived, Kath, because it was sheltered from the destructive path that has left an indelible mark on our inner Solar System. However, the trajectory of the shuttle was not in the shadow.”

  Kath did not understand. “In what shadow, Professor?”

  “In the shadow of the yellow beam, Ms. Mirabelle. Mars protected that remaining satellite, as it sat in the shadow during that one fateful, destructive moment.”

  The three students gasped.

  “Professor?” Joram asked quietly. Deliberately, he phrased his questions. “Are you suggesting that the yellow beam is the source of the radiation?”

  “Yes, Mr. Anders, I believe that is exactly the case.”

  “Then, you know what this yellow beam is, then, right?”

  Zimmer sighed heavily. “I have no clue, Mr. Anders. But you three are going to help me find out. Consider yourselves assigned to your graduate research here at CalTech.”

  Chapter

  11

  Paol Joonter broke an awkward silence in an attempt to calm his nerves. “It seems just like yesterday,” he said as much to himself as to those around him. He was staring out of a window in a very familiar hallway of the courthouse. The last time he was here, he was awaiting a verdict in his murder trial. Now, he waited to hear his sentencing.

  “What seems like yesterday, Paol?” His lawyer accepted the prompt, knowing that it would help pass the time, if not the stress.

  The client turned to his council as he answered the question. “It’s just that I remember sitting in that bench over there for two days—or was it eternity—waiting to hear the verdict. Now, here I am again waiting to hear another jury decide my fate.”

  “How do you feel this time, Paol?” continued Warron.

  “Frankly, I’m still disturbed, but I’m not as nervous. I think I’m beyond that now. I’m hardened, calloused inside. Maybe it’s numbness and the whole thing hasn’t really settled in yet.” Turning back to the window, he paused for a moment. “At least this time, it’s a beautiful day out there. The sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky. Maybe that’s a good omen. But how good can it possibly be?”

  “Paol, remember what I’ve told you. We will appeal, and we will win. You will not have to spend any time in jail. Since this is a first-time offense, I should have no problem getting bail during the appellate process, especially because it’s a first offense, and nobody is considering you to be dangerous.”

  “Yes,” countered the frustrated businessman, whose optimism had given way to cynicism in recent weeks. “You also pointed out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill were encouraging federal courts to wield harsher sentences on white-collar criminals these days.”

  “True,” admitted Warron. “I did warn you that things could be different, but typically, those new laws are because white-collar crime continues to grow at alarming rates. Tax evasion, fraud, money laundering, and embezzling were wreaking havoc on the national economy. The intent of Congress was to increase penalties on t
hese monetary types of crimes that have been impacting our economy for years.” While Warron believed that this was the case, he was also concerned about how these laws might be interpreted by federal judges and juries, particularly in the case of his client.

  Paol Joonter retreated from the window and returned to the bench to sit beside Warron. Staring at the tile floor, he refused to continue to distract himself with the beautiful autumn day that was occurring outside. It was too painful for him to think that he may never be able to see a beautiful sunny day in a downtown park setting ever again.

  “The way I see it, Warron, it’s either life in prison with parole in no fewer than 20 years or the death penalty. Right?”

  “Wrong!” Warron refused to look at the glass half empty. “It’s neither of those scenarios… it’s appeal, Paol. Appeal and acquit.”

  Paol smiled weakly. “Thanks, Warron. With your confidence, I am hopeful that you will find a way to restore justice to the system.”

  Warron stood erect with the sound of echoing footsteps. “That would be Monay.”

  Paol heaved a sigh of concern. “Here we go again.”

  Chapter

  12

  “Hello, Reyd,” said Kath cheerfully as she leaped through the door of the common room.

  Reyd Eastman gave a start. “Kath. Joram. Glad you could finally make it.” He frowned while looking at his watch. “Zimmer’s been asking for you guys for a while now.”

  Joram’s eyes widened in concern. “What did he say, Reyd?”

  “Something about finding some more reliable grad students to make history by studying one of the most bizarre astronomical phenomena to occur in the last century.” Reyd’s smirk gave away his practical joke.

  Kath, who by now had approached to within arms distance, slugged Reyd in the shoulder. “You need to practice your poker face! By the way, why didn’t you ride down with us?”

  “Oh, I have an aunt who lives in Lake Elsinore, so I stayed at her place last night. It breaks up the drive nicely.”

  The trio turned towards the door as they heard it fly open. Professor Zimmer marched briskly into the room. “Ah, Joram. Kath… Glad you could finally make it. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to find some more reliable graduate students to make history by studying one of the most bizarre astronomical phenomena to occur in the last century.”

  With jaws dropped, Kath and Joram turned quickly to Reyd, who could only shrug his shoulders with as much surprise as they. Did Zimmer overhear their conversation?

  “Just kidding, you two,” smiled the professor.

  “Professor, you seem rather chipper this evening,” Kath observed.

  “Ah, that’s because I have just heard some great news, Kath!”

  “What’s that?”

  “I received a call from Dr. Gilroy at Johnson. An observatory has yielded an encouraging piece of evidence. It appears that our Martian astronauts are…” Zimmer paused for effect and then lowered his voice to a whisper, which was betrayed by the twinkle in his eye, “…alive!”

  Kath let out a screech, Reyd sighed with much relief, and Joram applauded.

  “How did they discover that, Professor?” asked Joram eagerly.

  “Turns out that they left a message with some of the rubbish: S.O.S, it spells. They were able to trace two sets of footprints leading to the opening where they were able to lay out the letters with a series of beams to make the three block letters needed.”

  “Professor, I saw the destruction,” pointed out Reyd. “There was nothing left standing. How could they survive that?”

  “Apparently, the last communication that we had with the astronauts occurred while they were in the bunker—deep under ground. They were supposed to be on their way to a maintenance task, but they had forgotten a set of tools in the bunker.”

  Kath breathed deeply. “What a stroke of luck… what a miracle!”

  Changing conversation abruptly, Zimmer announced, “Now, I must inform you that I will not be able to assist your efforts in the observatory tonight. I must attend a meeting of some urgency. You three will have to proceed on your own. You have the information from our meeting on campus earlier this week, correct?”

  The three nodded their heads as Zimmer eyed his three students for their affirmative response. “Good!” he said clapping his hands. “You may proceed to the observatory to begin your preparations for the evening.”

  Zimmer left the room, closing the door behind him with a pace that was quicker than his entrance.

  “I wonder what that was all about,” Kath mused with her hands on her hips.

  “Dunno. But let’s go make history!” Joram directed with excitement. This was the team’s first trip back to Palomar, and he had been eager to continue exploring ever since they returned back to the university.

  …

  The trio of graduate students huddled around the main control panel of the observatory. For the first couple of hours, the team organized themselves as best as they could without their mentor. They poured over the data that had been collected from the resident astronomers, as well as that of other observatories around the globe.

  First looking at optical data collected from their very own 26” telescope, they were able to conclude that the brightness of the yellow beam was growing steadily in intensity. In the past week, the apparent magnitude of the beam had gone from a barely visible 6.3 when it was first detected to its present 1.3, making it as bright as some of the brightest stars in the sky. They had been able to calculate that the beam was about 120 miles wide and passed by Mars at a minimum distance of 12,500 miles—a near miss in astronomical terms—and that the line was perfectly parallel to the plane of the Milky Way. This was a significant contribution, and allayed much of the tension and concern surrounding the beam.

  There were still many lay people who were swayed by the media to conclude that it had to be an alien spaceship, but the scientific community had concluded convincingly that this was very likely a galactic phenomenon, because of its orientation to the plane. Nevertheless, in the back of everyone’s mind was the fact that some radiation event began exactly in the direction of the beam, and that it was detectable from Earth, from the Sun, and on Mars around the same point in time—evidence, say the visionaries that it must have been a space craft emitting the radiation as it passed by at very high speeds—perhaps even nearing the speed of light—and that the trail left behind was simply the exhaust of the passing UFO.

  Reyd was the first to broach the subject. “You know what the media is saying don’t you?”

  Kath shivered at the allusion. “It’s easy for them to spew off irrelevant theories. It’s harder for me to scientifically study this phenomenon with the thought that just maybe I don’t want to discover what the source of it is.”

  “Oh, Kath,” rebutted Reyd. “It would be a marvelous discovery to learn of extra-terrestrial intelligence. You know Zimmer has been eager in this subject for some time.”

  “What, the parallel earth?”

  “Sure, I mean, what comes with a parallel earth?” Reyd paused too short for either of his peers to craft an answer. “Parallel beings! That’s what comes from a parallel earth!”

  “But if that was a spaceship, then we have no parallel. And if the conspiracy theorists are right, our solar system just got buzzed by some alien ship scouting out our neighborhood. And look at the damage which that one ship caused on Camp Mars. Now that the scout has buzzed us, the rest of the troops will move in and take over. It could be the end of us, Reyd. I don’t want to discover our Armageddon.”

  “Kath, you worry too much.” Changing subjects Reyd asked her, “So what is your theory, then? What is that thing?” Reyd pointed to the screen where some of the latest images of the beam twinkled mysteriously.

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “Jor. What do you think?” Reyd turned to his other colleague.

  “Wha? Huh?” Joram had completely missed the conversation as he scoured the data.r />
  “Could this be a UFO, Joram?”

  “UFO? C’mon, Reyd,” Joram snorted. “You need to pay more attention to the data, and less attention to the media.”

  Quickly changing the subject back to their research, Joram announced, “There is no telling how long this thing is. I mean, it could be several light-years long.”

  “What?” Reyd and Kath synchronized their stunned response.

  “Why is that so surprising?” Joram turned away from the monitor to look at his colleagues. “Just because we’ve only seen measurable effects from our inner Solar System… don’t think that the thing is local to us. Where does the beam begin? And where does it end?”

  After a pause, Reyd said, “Why don’t you tell us, Joram? You seem to be the authority on the subject.”

  “No,” Joram tried to avoid a confrontation. “I’m just like you two… trying to learn what the heck this is.”

  “Sorry, Joram,” Reyd reined in his aggressiveness. “So tell us. Why do you think it is so sizable?”

  “Visual clues indicate that for at least 7000 Astronomical Units in both directions, the beam has at least the same absolute magnitude. Thus, I wonder how much farther the beam extends in both directions before it fades? But more importantly, what the heck is causing such a phenomenon? It is so strange.”

  “It must be some jet of radiation, and if we can figure out which way it is coming from, we can go back and find the star that is giving it off,” suggested Reyd.

  “Which way do we go? We don’t really know which way it originated? Nor do we really know its heading. We only know how far it is from Mars,” Joram responded.

  “Well, we can figure out its heading if we get one or two more location points. Can we measure it against any other planets?” Kath asked. “If we can get some triangulated data, we should be able to calculate its distance to other planets via parallax.”