Step on the Sun

by Doug Plamping

  Paul leaned forward, “How dangerous?”

  “The same as traveling on your planet without knowing the dangers from people and animals. As a Master of my guild, I can take you on as apprentice Wayfarers, but I must know you better. We will discuss what I’m allowed to tell you, and about your current Earth schools and your education.” Amy, Paul, and Frank had exchanged glances when he’d said, ‘what I’m allowed tell you’.

  Simon continued, “Also, I will ask you to make a decision as to whether you will commit to help us. I have to tell you now that the decision has to be unanimous, or it will be taken as a no.”

  “That’s harsh!” Frank argued.

  “Why must it be unanimous?” asked Amy.

  “It must be unanimous,” he answered, “because there are three of you now, and it must be three who help us. We are an old society and we believe help comes from a Council of Three led by a woman, as it is written in The Book of the One Who Tests, and prophesy. If you are not unanimous, then you will not be three.” Simon waited silently.

  “Why led by a woman?” Amy asked.

  “It is what’s written.”

  “That’s why you asked us on the road if we were three,” stated Paul. “What will you do with us if it’s not unanimous?”

  “I will return you to Earth, collect your staffs, and allow you to go on your way. I will close down the pillar. No one on your planet will be able to make them function. Even if you tell someone about what has happened, there will be no proof, and you will not be believed. I will then ask the One Who Tests to help me find the true three, if I live long enough.”

  “The One Who Tests?” asked Amy.

  “The One Who Tests, the one you call God. Our society accepts the One Who Tests’ role in testing and guiding us. Those of you who go to a Temple on one of our planets will learn more about our beliefs. We don’t impose those beliefs; you are allowed to make your own choices.”

  Amy returned the discussion to the subject, “There’s not much time to make a decision as we go home this weekend.”

  “No there’s not, so let’s get started,” he answered, thinking how true that was. “Our society, and those of other kinds, those you call aliens, was governed by a number of principles, and we apply those principles to our planets. Let me quote them to you.”

  “The Principles given by the One Who Tests are these:

  A guild, planet, community, or person shall serve the good of the One Who Tests, the good of the galaxy, the good of the planet, the good of the community, and the good of others.

  A person shall be responsible for their own actions, and the actions of their children.

  A guild or community shall be responsible for its actions, and the actions of its persons.

  Councilors, anointed by the One Who Tests, and appointed by all, shall serve the good of all, and shall in a Council of Three, judge all in the name of the One Who Tests.

  There shall be no other principles than these.”

  Simon let them think about it for a few seconds. He explained, “These principles were the foundation on which our civilization worked, and will be the basis for how our civilization is to be restored. Examine everything I tell you, and measure it against these principles. There is no human Council of Three in the Isolated Planets now, but we, the Wayfarers on Quenlac Three, know that other kinds have one or more Councils of Three at any time.”

  He felt certain that in time they would come to a conclusion; the Isolated Planets had failed to keep the principles. He wondered what they would do about that.

  “Other kinds, aliens?” asked Frank.

  Simon expected that Frank would ask about that, “Yes, many kinds with their own societies. Kinds, similar to bears and spiders on Earth, have societies within our planets.”

  Simon asked about their universities, and was pleased that they all would be finishing at the same time. He told them, “We have no universities on our planets. I think it is important to demonstrate the value of education to the Isolated Planets, and for that reason I ask you to wait until after your graduation to travel to Quenlac Three.” Amy realized that Simon was assuming that he wouldn’t live that long.

  Then he started to teach them Galactic, the common language of most planets. It was difficult at first not to require repetition and practicing, but with so little time left, he just had to trust their technology to help them later when he was gone.

  * * *

  Colonel Dan Richards looked briefly at the data attached to the email. Three gravitational pulses, but only two good sets of data. Two of the pulses had been too close together again. His staff had updated the map, but as he expected, the two new ovals made little difference in defining the source. The center of the most probable area was definitely Mexico, but they couldn’t narrow it down yet. The new satellite software wasn’t ready, but if there was another set of pulses later tomorrow, they might be able to narrow the area down a little, and the center of the red area became a higher probability. Dan emailed an update to General Hardisty.

  * * *

  Amy listened as Simon went over the list of things he’d discuss with them over the next days. They, especially Frank, stopped him many times to ask questions and the morning had flown by. Simon was resting now, so they'd hiked to the lookout again.

  Amy drank from her water bottle. The planet was hotter in the daytime. Then she realized what she was thinking, ‘this planet’, and giggled. Paul and Frank gave her puzzled looks. “Well, let’s go. We don’t want to leave Simon for too long.”

  The concrete path led across the slope of the hill providing an easy path to the ruins. There wasn’t much to see but Frank and Paul started to explore around the walls. It was a small place, with maybe twenty buildings on three streets. Collapsed walls didn't interest her, and she was looking across the valley trying to see where the lookout was. Frank shouted, calling them to him.

  Paul took a direct line over the broken walls while Amy walked between the buildings. Frank was at the far corner of the ruins standing on a long grey beam.

  “See this?” said Frank, pointing to the beam, “Some sort of monorail. There’s a metal guide on both sides, mostly corroded away. It goes up the valley. There must be something at the other end.”

  Amy could see that Frank was anxious to follow the monorail to see what was at the other end. She asked, “How far away would the next station be?”

  Frank thought for a few seconds, “Well, if it was close you wouldn’t need to use a monorail. The next station must be miles away.” Frank looked at Amy, realizing what she was thinking. “Too far to go this time.”

  * * *

  Amy, Paul, and Frank spent that afternoon learning Galactic. Simon would show them a word in his book, have them pronounce it once or twice, and then move on to a new word or tense. They finished at dusk, now able to say brief sentences. They had supper with Simon, using a lantern they’d brought to light the table.

  Over supper Simon told them about some of the social rules in the Isolated Planets, including, “Conversation on our planets is very formal, and you would say excessively polite. There is no informality between people in public, and informal conversation only happens behind closed doors when alone. When you introduce yourselves or start a conversation you need to start by giving your full names followed by a compliment. The compliment can be something as simple as thanking them for speaking to you.”

  Amy thought as she absorbed that, so much for a vacation! She'd never studied so hard. Her brain was fried, with galactic words bouncing around in her head.

  Simon had one more piece of information for them before they left. “There were eight books made at the time of the invasion to assist the next human Council of Three in their work if there were no surviving Council of Three members to train them. We don’t know what the books contain, but we hope they contain knowledge that has been lost to us. Each book has gold covers and silver pages. Our records do say that to decode the books you will need all eight o
f them. I know of the planets where three books exist; one is rumored to be here on Earth but who has it we don’t know, and the other two are held by human authorities on the planets Pastureday Two and Fertile One. You must find these three books, and the other five, if you are to succeed.”

  * * *

  Later, when they were ready to return to Mexico, Frank set up his camcorder on his tripod next to the pillar stone to record Paul tapping the sequence and the dome; he wanted to get a record of the yellow flash.

  When they arrived in Mexico it was quiet, as Paul had reported, with no people about. They were silent as they walked down the path and along the dirt road through the village, each one of them thinking over what they’d been told, and too tired to talk. Amy was using her staff to walk as if she'd always had it. As they reached the resort lobby Amy stopped and asked, “How do we explain the staffs? Should we hide them in the jungle?”

  Paul looked at his, “We need to keep them safe. Let’s just say that we made them as we needed them for some of the rougher trails. It’s close to the truth.”

  Amy agreed, and so did Frank, but she found herself uncomfortable with more half-truths, this was getting to be a bad habit.

  Paul must have seen her expression. “Maybe they won’t even ask.”

  * * *

  General Hardisty had been notified that three pulses had been monitored by the satellite after it had received the new software. He appeared in Dan’s office 15 minutes later. Dan had moved the General to the situation room, and the satellite data and maps were being projected. A blank world map and a map of the Caribbean with the current probable area were shown on different screens.

  The screen with the data was the one that Colonel Dan Richards was focused on. Analysis on the second set of data finished and the computer started on the third set. “General, the computer’s working on the third set of data now; we should have our new probable area in five minutes.”

  Hardisty didn’t react except to say, “Tell me again why we need more than one group of pulses to narrow this down?”

  Dan decided to try a military example, “Sir, it’s like triangulating an enemy’s position from their radio transmissions. To get the best triangulation we need the location of the detection equipment at 90 degrees to each other. With the short time delay between pulses in each group the satellite doesn’t move enough in its orbit to give us that triangulation. With a typical group of pulses the simulation showed us a probable area that’s 100 miles long and six miles wide. If the satellite is in a different part of its orbit tomorrow morning, and we get a group of pulses as we expect, we could narrow down the probable area to a 5 mile circle. More groups of pulses will make the circle smaller, but the best we can get will be 3 miles.”

  General Hardisty nodded, “That’s the physical limitation of the sensors in the satellite?”

  Dan was pleased that the General was now getting it, “Yes Sir. The only way we can narrow down the area further is with the portable detectors we proposed. Unfortunately we don’t have the budget for them.”

  “I’m pleased you’re coming up with options, in the past you have not taken this threat to our national security seriously enough. You need to think like a military man, not like some scientist or politician!” General Hardisty suddenly changed the topic, as if he had just come to a decision. “How long to build the detectors if you get the go ahead?”

  Dan wasn’t going to respond to the comment about a threat, or about thinking like a scientist, that wouldn’t get him anywhere with the General. Dan had stated many times before that while this type of pulse was unknown, it was not the type produced by nuclear explosions or other weapons. The General had taken a different view in that anything unknown was a threat to the USA, and every military man, including Dan, had better respond appropriately to that threat. “General Hardisty, we can cut down the time from the original estimate. If we utilize the two prototype sensors from the satellite development tests we can produce both portable detectors in 7 days. It would take another day to test them and move them closer to the probable area.”

  “How portable?”

  “The sensors themselves are 3 feet long and weigh over 100 pounds, but the detector can be run from a battery, and be transported by truck. They have the same accuracy as the sensor in the satellite; the key will be getting them closer to the source of the pulses.”

  “That’s portable enough; we’ll have no problem moving something that size.”

  The conversation was interrupted as the maps on the wall changed. Three new narrow ovals were drawn crossing each other offset at about five degrees each, centered over the west coast of Mexico. Then a red probable area was drawn by the computer over the ovals. As Dan expected, it was an oval 100 miles long by 6 miles wide in the center. “Sir, the new software worked as expected. This significantly narrows down the area.”

  General Hardisty walked in front of the map, “Enlarge the center of the oval, I want to see what’s there.”

  Dan zoomed in on the center of the red oval using the Caribbean map; there were no major cities, only one town in the area, San Crecerlan. It looked like an agricultural area, some jungle, a few small villages, and a resort on the coast. Dan waited for the General to comment.

  “If you get a good triangulation, what are the chances that the 5 and 3 mile diameter areas will be within this area shown on the screen?”

  “At least 95 percent, Sir”

  “Good, that’s better than most intelligence estimates. We can work with that.” The General was silent for a few seconds, “Colonel Richards, get ready to build those detectors as soon as you get the funding. I’m going to the Pentagon with this tomorrow morning. Have a complete funding request on my desk by 8:00 am, and send me an updated report including tomorrow mornings pulses as fast as you can. I’ll allocate an Army Intelligence team to start investigating this area; give them a full briefing, and I want them in this area without delay. My office will notify the Mexican authorities, and then pass you the contact information.” With that statement General Hardisty gave him a salute, Dan stood to return it, and the General left.

  Dan sighed quietly; he had a long night ahead of him if the funding request was to be ready on time, but first he’d better warn his staff, get the intelligence briefing ready, and arrange transport to Mexico for the intelligence team.

  Chapter 6 – Commitment

  Amy was waiting in the lobby, ready for their sunrise hike to the pillar.

  “Where’s Frank?” Paul asked as he arrived.

  “He hasn’t come down yet,” she answered. “Give him a few minutes.” She didn't want to wake someone by ringing his phone at this hour; the walls between the rooms were not soundproof. They chose the softer chairs in the lobby.

  Amy and Paul, while they waited, listened to a couple checking in at the reception desk, the only thing happening at 5 am. The guy said they were driving down the coast. They had decided that this was far enough, and they wanted to book into the resort for a few days. Amy saw that they were dressed in heavier clothes than you would expect to see in Mexico, even for before dawn, so they might have driven straight down from a cooler part of the USA. They both looked fit and had dark tans, along with hair cut really short, giving them a military look. While the man worked through the paperwork with the desk clerk, the woman looked at the lobby, and the part of the resort she could see. The woman glance at the two of them, but apart from a smile to Amy that suggested that she was impressed with their initiative at getting up so early; the woman paid no further attention to them.

  “Sorry guys,” said Frank as he entered the lobby. “I forgot to download the video from the camcorder last night.”

  “No problem, we have time to get to the top of the hill by sunrise,” said Amy, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the lobby. She led them out after picking up her backpack and staff.

  Once out of the hearing of anyone in the lobby, Frank showed them the video frames of the yellow flash. It was diffic
ult to tell, but it was all yellow, a room with some semi-circular shapes. Another mystery!

  * * *

  When they arrived they found that Simon was awake, lying in the lounger. Amy was careful that they took a break for lunch, and stopped whenever Simon was looking tired. The lessons and discussions filled up the balance of the day.

  During that day Simon discussed the use of archways. It seemed that the normal yellow archways were easy; you just walked into them and arrived at your destination. Opening other types of archways was riskier, the staff had to remain in the archway until everyone and all their goods were through. When the staff was withdrawn, the archway would close and anything in the archway would be cut in two. Simon also said something about tapping the side of the archway, but cautioned that it didn’t work if the archway was not working properly. Amy wasn’t sure how they could tell that an archway wasn’t working properly, but she didn’t want to push Simon too hard.

  By the end of the day Simon looked drained, announcing, “I’m going to lie down as soon as you leave.”

  Amy took that as a hint, with just a quick goodbye to Simon as they left. Amy was brain dead, this was hard work, and didn’t want to talk. She silently followed Paul and Frank through the ferns to the pillar.

  Paul said, “I’ll go first and check that everything is OK at the other end. If it’s OK, I’ll be back rapidamente.” Amy and Frank were too tired to tease him about slipping into Italian.

  “What if you can’t come back?” asked Amy. She hadn’t asked this before, had thought it a few times, but was too tired to care this time.

  “Wait at least a couple of hours before anyone tries it again, but it should be OK.” Paul stood on the pillar, tapped the sequence, and was gone.

  Amy and Frank waited, sitting on the ground, leaning against the ferns. Amy startled from her catnap, realized that Paul should have been back a few minutes ago! “What’s wrong?” she asked Frank.

  “No idea,” stated Frank, shrugging his shoulders, “we’ll just have to wait.”