Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky)

by Bagley, Jeffery

  Someone then had evidently threatened her life if she exposed her relationship with the senator. She had become so paranoid that she would suffer a convenient accident some night to keep her permanently quiet that she had gone to a reporter and told her story. A private detective that had been hired to keep an eye on her reported to his employer that she had made contact with a reporter that was not sympathetic to the Senators campaign. As the woman had feared, an attempt had then been made on both her life and the reporter’s. She had been severely injured in an automobile accident when her brakes had suddenly failed for no obvious reason and the reporter had been shot three times in a supposedly random drive by shooting. The woman ended up in a coma with little hope of recovery. In retaliation, the reporter who had survived the shooting incident, published the whole story.

  Senator Retty’s campaign went down in flames and he was now awaiting trial for accomplice to murder, perjury, and bribery. The other Republican candidates had tried to get back into the campaign but in a massive public backlash, anyone with any ties to a lobbyist did not have a chance. Senator Malcolm Culverson ended up winning with the largest percentage of the vote in United States history and Paula Montgomery had become the first female Vice President. Life was good, she had thought at that point.

  Six days after taking office, President Malcolm Culverson suffered a massive heart attack and died before he could be transported to the hospital. Thus, Paula Montgomery became the first female president in the history of the United States. Becoming president as she had, she felt that she had a mandate that she could actually make a difference and straighten the country out. Now, five months later, she was already sick and tired of those lousy pompous asses that made up the majority of the Senate and House of Representatives. She was beginning to feel the heavy burden of her task and she had started to lose hope and worried that her efforts would be futile. Washington was a beast that fed upon itself and had no desire to change. That was the very reason why she enjoyed meeting and greeting people who were actually trying to make a difference, like the group of Girl Scouts that had just left.

  Elliott Dewey, her Chief of Staff knocked on the door and stuck his head inside. ”We are ready for the meeting with Doctor Honstein, the Director of NASA, Madam President.”

  She sighed and said, “I will be right there Elliott, please give me just a moment.”

  Elliott nodded and shut the door. It was four pm and this meeting had not originally been on the day’s schedule. The President’s science advisor, Donald Masterfield, had convinced Elliott that this meeting was urgent and needed to happen today. So, it was turning out to be a long day. Doctors David Honstein, Mike Banscott, and General Robert Preston, the head of the National Security Agency, were already in the briefing room when she arrived.

  Elliot Dewey opened the door and spoke, “Gentlemen, the President,” as President Montgomery walked into the room. Everyone present stood until she sat at the head of the table. Elliott Dewey then entered with Donald Masterfield, the president’s science advisor, and sat to her right with General Preston. David Honstein and Mike Banscott sat across from them and David Masterfield sat down at the far end of the table beside Mike Banscott.

  David Masterfield spoke, “Madame President, I had requested this urgent meeting because of a discovery that may have a significant impact on the stability of this country, and probably the world at large.”

  “You have my undivided attention then,” said President Montgomery, “please proceed.”

  David Honstein stood and spoke, “Madame President, I would like to introduce Doctor Mike Banscott, he is a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He will be conducting this briefing as he is the most up to date on the findings that we wish to discuss with you.”

  David sat down and Mike stood and cleared his throat. He had never given a presentation to the most arguably powerful person on the planet before. He took a deep breath and began. “Last Friday, an old colleague of mine brought some information to my attention, asking for my advice and opinion. One of his graduate assistants who is working on his thesis at Cal Tech has unknowingly uncovered evidence that a Brown Dwarf Star is approaching our solar system.

  Looking at the intense faces before him, Mike realized he had their full attention, so he hurriedly continued. “To bring every one up to speed, a Brown Dwarf is a star that never really attained enough mass to start the process of hydrogen fusion in its core. It is basically a dud star. They are very faint, hard to detect, and there is still some disagreement whether or not the smaller Brown Dwarfs are really failed stars or just giant planets. Regardless, it seems that we have one quite close to our solar system and it is getting closer.”

  President Montgomery sat in silence so General Preston spoke up. “How is it that we spend billions of dollars on space telescopes, observatories, and space stations, and this thing was found by a college kid? I would think that of all the highly paid scientists floating around someone would have seen this thing before. Hell fire, there are damned amateur astronomers out there watching our supposedly top secret satellites and reporting their positions to the press on a daily basis.”

  Mike could not help but become defensive under the General’s scathing sarcasm. “This college kid happens to be a very bright astrophysics graduate student at one of the best schools in the country. He was using data from one of those billion dollar satellite telescopes you speak of General. The data he was using is actually seven to ten years old and he chanced upon this discovery purely by accident. He was looking at images in a location where no one would really have expected this object to be.”

  The General leaned forward, “You mean this thing has been coming at us for more than ten years and no one knew about it?”

  “Actually General,” replied Mike “This thing, as you call it, has probably been coming at us for thousands of years and nobody knew about it until Friday.” The General sat back in his chair, his face turning red. David kicked Mike under the table.

  President Montgomery, growing tired of the bickering that reminded her too much of senate debates spoke up. ” Doctor Banscott, please educate me a little more. Explain to me what a Brown Dwarf is.”

  Mike turned on the wall projector and started the slide show he had prepared. “A Brown Dwarf is, as I said, a star that wasn’t. Looking at this diagram you can see that the smallest and dimmest object that we presently classify a star is an M class star. It barely has enough mass to obtain the pressure and density at its core to maintain a hydrogen fusion process. Below this critical mass, we have what is called a Brown Dwarf. They have insufficient mass for hydrogen fusion although they may for a short period of time have a fusion process that involves Deuterium or Lithium. These processes quickly exhaust their fuel supply so that even the largest Brown Dwarf will not continue a fusion process for much more than a few million years. Brown Dwarves are classified as an L class, T class, or Y class. The L is almost but not quite an M class star and the Y class can be as small as a giant gas planet. Basically we consider any thing that is at least sixteen times the mass of Jupiter, the largest gas planet in our solar system, as a Brown Dwarf. We have classified this object as a potential smaller Y class. It is probably in the neighborhood of twenty to twenty-two times the mass of Jupiter.”

  “Doctor Banscott,” said the President. “I have to side with General Preston here. How come no one has seen something twenty times the size of Jupiter? I can look out my window at night and see Jupiter with my un-aided eyes. Surely with the huge telescopes we have, it could be seen.”

  “Let me continue, if I may Madam President,” Mike said. “We believe this Brown Dwarf to be about twenty times the mass of Jupiter, not twenty times as large. As a matter of fact, it is believed that all Brown Dwarves are about the same size of Jupiter. It is the mass that differentiates them. For example, our own planet Saturn is nearly the size of Jupiter but it has only thirty percent of Jupiter’s mass. This is why Jupiter is almost like a solar sy
stem of its own. If it was a star, then all of its moons would be its planets.”

  “But I thought Jupiter and Saturn do not give off heat or light,” interjected the president.

  “They don’t give off very much, but both of them in fact do give off more heat than they receive from the sun. This is mostly due to convective processes and some minor gravitation stresses from their moons. This Y class Brown Dwarf is very similar. It is roughly the size of Jupiter, but has twenty times the mass or so. It is also giving off a little more heat. If it was possible to stick a thermometer into its atmosphere it would probably read about eighty degrees Fahrenheit.”

  General Preston laughed, “Why that is shirt sleeve weather, and you’re telling us that this is a star?”

  Mike shook his head, “No, General, this is a failed star. It is not supporting a nuclear fusion process. This heat is just heat that is still retained internally and is being radiated out into space. The atmosphere of a Brown Dwarf is thought to be one swirling continuous storm the likes of which you have never seen. A hurricane here on Earth, or the giant storms on Jupiter, would not even come close. We are talking continuous winds several times the speed of sound. If you could look at a Brown Dwarf from orbit around it, it would appear to be giving off a faint magenta glow. Most of the light it emits is in the infrared spectrum. And that General, and Madam President, is why we can barely see it. We do not have a powerful infrared scope in space at this moment. The scopes here on Earth get too much interference from the Earth’s atmosphere to make it out yet. It was discovered using old images from the now defunct Spitzer Infrared Space telescope.”

  “So, we have no way of studying this thing then?” asked the President.

  “At the moment we have very little way of doing so, that is correct” said Mike. “We have faintly made it out with the Hubble Space Telescope. “Earthbound scopes cannot see it yet, although that will change soon. The new James Webb Infrared Scope would be our best instrument but it is still not ready for deployment. It will be at least a year before it can be launched. That is why we requested this urgent meeting. We really need to learn a little more about our interstellar guest that is coming before it is discovered by others and the general public becomes aware of it. We feel that the press would run wild with the announcement and the end of the world nuts would work the public into frenzy. There could be mass chaos.”

  “Let me see if I understand,” said the President. “We have this Brown Dwarf that is going to pass close to our solar system. You need to study it more to show that it is no cause for the public to be alarmed. If you can get more data, then you can release the information yourself before some other crazy astronomer does.”

  “That pretty much sums it up Madam President,” said Mike.

  “Doctor Banscott,” asked General Preston, “just for curiosities sake, how close is this Brown Dwarf going to pass our solar system?” Mike looked over at David Honstein and hesitated.

  The President leaned forward and locked her eyes on Mike. “Doctor Banscott, how close?”

  Mike swallowed hard. “We think very close, Madam President. Very close indeed.”

  President Montgomery paled visibly. “Gentlemen, are you telling me this thing may hit Earth?” David stood up and motioned for Mike to sit down. “Madam President,” he said. “With what little data we have right this moment, all we can predict is that it will pass very closely to our solar system. It would be extremely unlikely for it to actually hit Earth. However, that does not mean it cannot pose some risk to our planet. Even if it passes outside the orbit of the Oort cloud, outside the orbit of Pluto, it can cause drastic changes to the thousands of comets and asteroids that orbit way out there. Some of those objects could have their orbits changed so that they would venture into the inner realms of our solar system. Some of those objects are also quite large. I think we all know what is believed to have happened to the dinosaurs. One such object turned them all into fossils and caused their extinction. Therefore, it is very important to determine the exact trajectory, speed, and distance of this object. Not only do we need to prevent mass panic, but we might need to prepare a way to protect ourselves from any smaller objects that may be thrown our way from its passing. Remember this; it may only be the size of Jupiter, but it has around twenty times the mass. It will have a gravitation field that is magnitudes greater than that of Jupiter. That field will raise hell with any planetary objects that are nearby as it passes.”

  “So what do you need to determine its trajectory?” asked the President.

  David looked at General Prescott and said. “General, NASA assisted with the design of a satellite about seven or eight years ago that had a very sensitive infrared imager. It was a very compact design and meant to be launched on short notice. The project was supposedly killed due to lack of funding. There are rumors however, that it was completed using funding from black accounts and given the acronym of RLARIRS. It is rumored to be under the control of the NSA. That, General, is why we asked that you be here today. That satellite, if it does exist, could possibly be used to get some real time data on our interstellar visitor.”

  President Montgomery looked at the General. “General, does this spy satellite really exist?”

  General Preston deferred by saying, “Madam President, Not everyone in this room has the security clearance to discuss such matters, even if such a satellite did exist.”

  “General Preston, as your commander in chief, and due to the severity of this issue, and never mind the fact they already know what it is called and what it does, please answer my question. Does this RLARIRS satellite exist?”

  General Preston took a deep breath and spoke. “The RLARIS does exist. We have two of them as a matter of fact. The acronym stands for Rapid Launch and Recovery Infrared Reconnaissance Satellite. They were originally developed to be launched by a Delta Four Rocket and then recovered by a space shuttle. When the Space shuttle program was to be shut down they were made more compact and can now be launched and deployed on the Air Force X-37B space plane.

  They were actually designed to be able to track nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines by detecting the waste heat from the sub’s nuclear cooling systems in the submarine’s wake. They are able to do this by having one of the most sensitive infrared sensors ever launched into space. The only down side to them is that due to the limited payload of the X-37B, only about a three to four weeks supply of cryogenic coolant can be carried for their sensors. After exhausting their coolant, they then have to be brought back down to Earth for servicing. They have about a five week minimum turnaround time once recovered here on the ground.”

  President Montgomery spoke up, “How soon before these satellites could be launched?”

  “Usually within forty-eight hours Madam President, although I am not sure what type of adjustments would have to be made to their programming software for this purpose. They are designed for looking down at the oceans of the world, not out into space. I believe that it can probably be done, although I would have to confer with the system engineers in that project to verify that.”

  The President thought for a moment. “How many other people know about this Brown Dwarf?” she asked.

  David Honstein answered, “Besides the people in this room, two people at Cal Tech and the mission control crew at the Hubble Control Center, so probably a total of twenty people.”

  General Preston winced, “Then it is only a short while before someone slips up and the word gets out.”

  David interjected, “The JPL and NASA people have been warned and precautions taken to keep the young grad student that made the discovery busy so that he does not leak the data. The real risk is that we only have weeks at most before the Brown Dwarf is spotted by someone else with a good telescope here on Earth.”

  “Well then,” said the President as she stood. The others jumped to their feet also. “I want some answers before someone else spots this thing. I want those satellites modified and launched and I want answe
rs as soon as possible. I would like another briefing in one week.” The most unlikely president in history left the room feeling like she was becoming the most unlucky president in history.

  Chapter 9

  March 15th, 2016

  Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

  Dr. Alec Souse came in and sat down in the meeting room at Merck Incorporated Headquarters located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. With him were Dr. John Knowles, Director of Advanced Research at Merck, Larry Niles, Chairman of the Board of Merck, and another gentleman dressed in an expensive Armani suit that he did not know. It aroused his curiosity that the third person attending this briefing did not introduce himself and neither of the other attendees made any attempt to introduce him either.

  Dr. Knowles spoke up as soon as Alec was seated. “All right, now that we are all here, I would like Alec to give his briefing on the breakthrough that has occurred at one of the research teams that Merck sponsors.”

  Alec stood and nodded to the others. Using the remote he picked up from the table, he dimmed the lights and turned on the wall projector. “As you are all aware, our company, in addition to having numerous research projects running in house, makes grants for research teams that have shown promise of making significant advances in medical technology, pharmaceutical compounds, and even basic biological research. This briefing is in regards to a husband and wife research team that we have been sponsoring while they have been doing some biogenetic research. This was a joint grant that was also awarded by the National Institute of Health. Doctors Brett and Jessica Driskall are the two researchers that have performed this work. Their original grant was to take work that had previously been done on mapping RNA and DNA and developing a method of rapidly identifying, mapping, and storing the RNA code of existing and newly mutated or emerging viruses. The purpose of this project was to allow pharmaceutical companies like ours to rapidly study and effectively develop new vaccines and medications for treatment of these diseases. Remarkably, their work has been very successful, or even amazing I would say.”