by Ezra E Manes
He pulled up panoramic displays of surrounding star fields and began perusing familiar clusters and stars as he often did to pass time. He focused on the constellation Sagittarius, located some 175 light-years from Earth. It’s your fault I’m here.
Well, it wasn’t the constellation itself but rather the presence there of extraterrestrials detected by Earth in the year 2131 that had stimulated extrasolar exploration. It was scary and very curious how the nonhominid aliens were advancing in space toward Earth. Their propulsion systems technology was far ahead of Earth’s. Thinking about the burst signal coming from Democritus made him uneasy. He had been told the aliens were still a great distance from this region of space. So, who had sent the signal?
“Commander, a video message has arrived from Mission Control.”
Startled out of his reverie, Carlos noticed the message indicator flashing on his console. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another amber light flashing at the communications console. But he could see the comm console was inactive. The flashing light at that console was a reflection of the message indicator off Samuel’s chrome coffee mug.
The New Horizon had an advanced hyperspace-communications capability, or Hycomms as they called it, enabling almost instantaneous communication with Mission Control. However, that did not matter when those on the other end were not available to talk. The protocol for routine mission communications precluded much talk anyway. They prepared messages, sent them via compacted burst transmissions, and then waited for a reply. He didn’t like one aspect of the Hycomms—it gave Earth the means to monitor colony events in near real time.
Focus!
“Play the message, Eve.”
The message was from Mission Coordinator Fremont Jones. Carlos’s burly friend, physicist George Sayer, was visible in the background. George looked like he’d had a rough night, with his shock of dusty-brown hair mussed up and dark-blue eyes peering from under bushy eyebrows.
“Carlos, the burst signal you detected is almost identical to the one detected three years ago by our Moon Research Facility.” Fremont paused and looked back at George. “But since nothing else has been detected by you or by people here, you’re to focus back on the original mission plan. That’ll keep our scientists happy.”
Fremont directed that all sensors capable of detecting communications signals be focused on Democritus when not supporting mission experiments. After a few words of encouragement, the mission coordinator signed off.
“Eve, acknowledge receipt of the coordinator’s message and our compliance.”
Carlos began reviewing the remaining experiments scheduled before close approach to Democritus. His thoughts shifted to the last three experiments scheduled before beginning the orbital survey of Democritus. These experiments dealt with general observations of the third local star, Nepali C. Measurements included accurately determining the distance to the star and its energy spectrum and radiation levels, and verifying orbits of planets in the solar system. He had heard very little about Nepali C until this mission.
“Eve, when and how was Nepali C discovered?”
“Nepali C was discovered as the Messier expedition spaceship first approached the Nepali A system in a slight offset angle from its ecliptic, its planetary orbital plane, to make it easier to analyze and approach planets in the system. Before this, astronomers believed that Nepali A and Nepali B were a binary system located far from any other star. Nepali C was discovered almost in line with its two neighbors, with all three being almost on a line directly out from the sun, the Earth’s star. Nepali A is closest to the sun at a distance of approximately twelve light-years, and Nepali B is only 0.21 light-years beyond Nepali A.
“Nepali C is a sunlike, class G0 V star and is close in astronomical terms at 1.9 light-years beyond Nepali B. It has at least four planets in its system, including one gas giant. However, other than cursory scans of the system for radiation that might indicate the presence of life, the original expedition focused on the destination solar system of Nepali A.”
Eve’s description of the Nepali C solar system and that provided in the introduction to the three experiments struck a familiar chord in Carlos’s memory. Thoughts pressed in of his most recent dream about sirens calling to him from a distant star system.
With growing unease, Carlos said, “Show me the latest images taken of the Nepali C solar system.”
Eve displayed the solar system in high resolution via the control console primary 3D display. It was as in his dream!
Carlos gripped the chair arms, trying to control his racing thoughts.
“Commander, are you all right? Your heart rate has jumped dangerously high.”
Carlos took several deep breaths and slowly relaxed. “I’m OK.”
He got up and stretched, continuing to breathe evenly, fighting to control his anxiety.
He was a couple of steps behind the commander’s chair when he heard another message alert. He looked at the comm console, expecting to see the flashing amber indicator reflected from Samuel’s coffee mug—no reflection was there.
“Damn!”
“Commander, are you addressing me? The incoming message is a minor update to our survey schedule.”
“No, but thanks. I just had a crazy idea come to mind.”
His idea was indeed a bit farfetched, and he had to admit, it was influenced by his dreams about a planet located close to Nepali C. No sense trying to explain that to Mission Control; he would follow his intuition and deal with the consequences later.
“Eve, redirect one comm sensor segment to focus directly on Nepali C. Keep it tuned to a narrow band centered on the frequency of the previously detected burst signal.”
“Commander, doing so is counter to Mission Control direction to keep all sensors focused on Democritus. My mission directives require me to report any such deviations.”
Eve paused after stating the obvious, then said, “Commander, do you want me to redirect the sensor and report this action to Mission Control?”
Carlos sat stunned for a moment. Was the EVECI unit actually hinting at a way around its mission directives?
“Redirect the sensor segment and don’t report it to Mission Control.”
“As you wish, Commander.”
It would not take long for Mission Control to discover the change in sensor configuration. Carlos laughed. It would take them much longer to figure out why Eve would do something counter to its prime directives.
Carlos told Samuel at shift change about having Eve reconfigured systems to directly monitor the Nepali C solar system.
“Hmmm, intriguing thought,” said Samuel. “You think the burst signal coming from Democritus might be a reflection of a signal emanating from the vicinity of Nepali C?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned to the comm console and pulled up an integrated, 3-D model of the three Nepali solar systems.
“I’ll do some simulations taking into consideration that Democritus is a spherical reflector, with one side smooth and the other side very rough terrain. That might explain why reflections are detected at some times and not others.”
The communications expert was soon deep into simulations of possible emitted and reflected signal scenarios. He looked up once and shook his head negatively, then immersed himself again in the simulations.
Carlos was not encouraged by Samuel’s demeanor and was further disappointed when monitoring efforts detected no signals before the next experiment was initiated. He had been up longer than usual monitoring activities; it was time to get some sleep. Eve would continue monitoring the Nepali C system between other experiments.
Sleep came quickly, this time a deep sleep without stimulating dreams. Several hours later someone began calling to him, but it was not the enticing siren’s song. The voice barely penetrated the fog of deep sleep.
“Commander, ship sensors have detected a coherent signal coming from the direction of Nepali C,” Eve repeated matter-of-factly, until Carlos was awake and responding.
&nbs
p; “What do you mean, ‘coherent’? Switch to NI communication mode and give me specifics.”
He rolled out of bed as Eve began the data download. With his implanted neural interface, or NI, information download occurred via the wideband signal permeating the New Horizon’s interior. This wideband network was Eve’s primary way of monitoring and communicating with the crew, although Carlos was the only one who had an implant. He already regretted the NI functioned only in the receive mode.
The X-band signal was at 6.1 gigahertz with complex modulation structure, exactly like the burst signal detected earlier. It was very weak at first, but increased in signal strength. Some signal channels appeared to use a form of digital circuit multiplication equipment encoding, or DCME. The signal characteristics indicated beyond any doubt an advanced intelligence was behind them. Carlos was up to date on the signal intercept by the time he reached the control center.
“Eve is correct,” said an excited Samuel as he looked up from the comm console. “Some channels in the signal are using a form of DCME. I’ll do my best to decode them.”
“The signal peaked in strength soon after you woke and is now fading,” Eve interjected. “There will be less than twenty-seven minutes of recognizable signal. More may be recovered through correlation processing of sensor data.”
“Continue recording,” Carlos replied, “and enhance the data as much as possible. Open a priority Hycomms link to Mission Control.”
A surprised Fremont Jones appeared on the display, showing a face more serious looking than normal.
“What’s going on, Carlos?” he asked bluntly. It was easy to see Fremont was upset. You didn’t go through astronaut training under Lead Instructor Jones and not get to know his moods.
“Sir, before you cycle up, please hear me out. We detected a coherent X-band signal coming from the Nepali C system. I’ll send you data at the end of our discussion. I recommend scientists at our Moon Research Facility take another look at that star system.”
Fremont stood for a moment, mouth open, and then responded brusquely. “Who gave you authority to redirect your sensor assets? Is this some kind of joke about signals coming from Nepali C?”
“It’s no joke, sir. Maybe I should send you the collected signal data so you can see for yourself.” He ignored the question about redirecting assets.
“Please do so,” Fremont said dryly.
It took Eve about ninety seconds to transmit the signal data in compressed mode. Carlos could see Fremont and others gathered around a communications terminal viewing characteristics of the intercepted signal. An animated discussion ensued among the group.
“This is remarkable, if it really is what it appears to be,” Fremont said as he turned back around. “Keep monitoring Nepali C until told otherwise. Place the other experiments on hold, and focus as many assets on Nepali C as possible. I’ll mobilize everyone here who needs to get involved. It appears we have neighbors, though for the life of me, I don’t see how they went undetected for so long. Keep this comm link open.”
Samuel was waiting to talk to Carlos. “Most of the signal channels are indeed multiplexed using an advanced form of DCME. This is common in communications satellites having several transponders onboard, such as our geostationary satellites orbiting Hope. Could Earth have sent another expedition there without our knowing about it?”
“They could’ve, but I doubt it considering the cost of transports being sent to the Messier Colony. The only other major expedition outside Earth’s solar system I’m aware of is the Cheng Ho expedition, which went to another distant star.”
“I was able to break down some of the signal channels,” Samuel said, as if decoding the channels was no great challenge. “There are several voice and data channels and two video channels. I’m unable to synchronize the video, but I’ve pulled out audio from one of the channels.”
“Great work. Play it.”
The voices spoke a language neither they nor Eve could understand. It was pleasant and musical sounding but with strange accentuations. Carlos thought of the siren’s song in his dreams. Had the bewitching siren been singing in the same language? He thought so, and this possibility gave him the first goose bumps since the mission started.
“Eve, forward this channel information to Mission Control.”
He put the audio signal on loop replay. Samuel just looked at him curiously, then turned back to the comm console.
Carlos found the language of other sentient beings residing close by in space very alluring. It didn’t matter that the signals had originated a little over two years earlier and were only now reaching the New Horizon. He was having the experience of a lifetime!
George Sayer’s voice boomed over the Hycomms link, interrupting his thoughts.
“Thanks for getting me out of a butt chewing in the director’s office, Carlos,” George said dryly. “He wanted to know why I overlooked the unauthorized changes in your sensor configuration. Your call came just in time because he was really wound up!”
Fremont took over before George could say anything else. “The Moon Research Facility is unable to detect the X-band signal you received. But they’ve detected other weak signals coming from the Nepali C system, mostly in the S-band and low X-band. The signals are so weak it’s doubtful they would have noticed them unless directed to look for them. Can you improve the monitoring for signals in those bands? They’re likely surface to satellite communications and could contain valuable information about whoever is out there.”
“Commander, the monitoring systems gain can be improved by going to more complex digital filters, but it will be very compute intensive to do so,” the Eve unit injected. “This will slow down the effective scan rate through the frequency bands of interest. An alternative is to relay select sensor data to the Moon Research Facility without processing, while concentrating here on the remaining signal bands of interest.”
“Do so,” Carlos directed. Fremont and George were monitoring the discussion and knew Eve would coordinate with the Mission Control systems to set up the necessary links.
“We’re laying out a new mission plan,” Fremont said. “It will maximize the amount of data we can obtain during the remainder of your flight. We’ll take into consideration the information Eve just provided. Consider the remaining en route experiments canceled, except the three directed at Nepali C. We will add other observation tasks to help us better understand the star and its planetary system. You’ll still conduct the Democritus orbital survey.”
“That’s the good news,” George interjected. “The bad news is you still get to sleep all the way back.”
Fremont frowned at George. “George is right. We think it’s important to complete the shakedown voyage of the New Horizon as planned. We have lots of unanswered questions about Democritus. You and Samuel are to enter the hibernation cells as you leave the vicinity of Democritus. The EVECI will monitor your status during the two-month trip back home, and can handle the other monitoring activities we plan during the return trip.”
It was a logical plan, but it was irritating to think he would not be awake as information continued to unfold about whoever, or whatever, had originated the intercepted signals.
Samuel was pacing back and forth in the small compartment. He had not interrupted but clearly had something on his mind.
“What is it, Samuel?”
Samuel stopped pacing. “It’s interesting how the signal started out weak, then quickly grew in strength to peak, then decreased in strength rapidly until fading away. It’s as if the New Horizon passed through a focused communications beam.”
He went on to explain that a geostationary satellite orbited at a velocity that kept it directly over the same spot on the surface, completing its orbit in one rotation of the planet. A sustained comm link to the satellite from the surface was a focused beam propagating into space. It swept through an arc of 360 degrees, once for every rotation of the planet. They had passed through such a communication beam sweeping through
space.
“We should detect the signal again after a period proportional to the planet’s rotation cycle,” Samuel said. “Hmmm, unless we’ve traveled to a point outside the arch of the beam.”
“Eve, continue monitoring with all available sensors.” Carlos said. “I bet we detect it again.”
“Commander, Mission Control has pulled signals out of the data we sent, though they are very weak. We have detected no additional signals here because of New Horizon processing limitations.”
The Eve unit paused, and then asked, “What do you bet?”
Oops, he had confused the machine. “Ignore my comment about betting.”
They detected the transient signal again. After significant curvilinear wave-front corrections were applied, it was found to peak in strength 25.92 hours after the peak of the first signal intercept. This confirmed Samuel’s speculation. They had detected a beacon, whether being sent for that purpose or not, and it defined the rotation period of the planet of origin.
Those building the satellite system surely knew the signal beam projected on out into space. Would they have thought about who might intercept it, and what the consequences might be?
TWO
ZILIA REVEALED
Anchora Puchovi smiled wryly as he entered the sanctuary of his executive office, still chafing from the testy UN Executive Council meeting. They had wanted to seed self-sufficient extrasolar colonies. Well, the Messier Colony was certainly demonstrating its growing independence.
The North America Union was responsible for coordinating and supporting activities at the distant Messier Colony. The full burden of this rested on his shoulders as NAU president. It was more than just an embarrassment to learn that the colony had launched a survey mission to the planetoid Democritus without consulting Earth. Then to have the colony detect and publicly acknowledge the Zilan civilization further complicated matters.
