by Kumar L
‘Well I am flattered Sir, to be sure and I certainly hope I will not let you down,’ replied Anara and with that the deal was sealed. She was going to be among the first humans to cross the boundaries of the solar system!
‘I am sure you will not, Anara. So shall we move on to actual preparations? You better sit down. This will take time.’
You have of course trained on Akash?’
‘Yes Sir. Two trips to Neptune and beyond but at sub-light speed only. It’s a damn sight faster than anything else we are flying now.’
‘That’s true. Only now we also have another ship on the drawing board - Antariksh and that is even faster than Akash. You will see the schematics soon enough and more importantly as Captain you get to choose your crew. Now I want you to go back to your office, study the plans and come back to me with your recommendations on how we will man this ship. Keep in mind - this is an Indian mission but the Prime Minister is looking forward to an international crew to man it.’
‘Now Anara, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this mission and what it entails for humanity as a whole. For more than a hundred years we have been waiting to contact aliens. SETI / CETI and numerous other programmes have seen the success that we see today. There has been enough speculation about the nature of the beings we will encounter and most of them seem to end in domination or even annihilation of Earth.’
‘Yes, I have read about those Director. It’s in fact a wonder to me that we seem to have found a civilization so near to Earth,’ added Anara.
‘That still remains to be seen and indeed you and your crew will be the first to find that out. But to continue, ISC has determined that it is unlikely that we will find civilization large and advanced enough to mount an inter-planetary war. It is more likely that our protagonists are having a very similar conversation and are reaching out to us with hope rather than fear or aggression.’
The Director continued, ‘Your job is going to be two-fold. One is to guide the spaceship mission through the light years between us and for this you will be supported by the best team you can assemble. The second more important part is that you will be representing humanity in front of an alien civilization. Nothing we can do can help prepare you for that meeting. We just don’t have any information.’
Anara nodded her understanding. She was a good pilot and a decent captain but she had never considered herself as an ambassador.
‘We could send a diplomat with you but the situation may demand fast thinking and action. Also we can’t expose diplomatic personnel with no long range space experience to go on this mission. This contact can always be followed up with more formal relations. I believe you will be the ideal person for this purpose. You have run plenty of missions, have been involved in a few tough situations and have the presence of mind to handle difficult people. Our hopes rest with you.’
This was one of the longest speeches Anara had heard from the Director. The importance of the mission was clearly evident.
‘I understand the responsibility you have placed on me Director. I assure you I won’t let you down,’ she repeated.
‘Good, then you better get to work. Aman will be assisting you on this. Goodbye and best of luck. See you back here soon.’
As Anara left the Director’s office, her mind was already grappling with the planning she had to do. She had enough time on hand if the ship was still being built. She decided to start finding people for her crew, starting with a large pool of possible astronauts and engineers and fine tuning it over a period of extended training and fit-out.
By the time, she reached her own office, the AI had already downloaded layout and other details of Antariksh. She set it up on the holo display and tried getting familiar with the system. She called Aman over after some time to help her as suggested by the Director. She was sure she would get a hang of the new design in a couple of days even though the science would take much longer to understand.
She and Aman then started composing a message to send out asking for volunteers for a classified mission. The applicants would need to be told some parts of the truth and Aman would have to prepare credible stories. She also knew who she wanted as her second in command.
Commander Ryan had worked with her on a number of missions and she admired his strength of character and scientific ability. He was a perfect bulwark - impulsive when she was cautious and he would be a perfect bridge with her crew. She was an inspiring leader but someone needed to dot the i’s and Ryan was a stickler for details wrestling problems to the ground with a blend of logic and science.
As for the rest, she would need a number of specialists including doctors, scientists, engineers and navigators cum pilots. Even with advanced AI’s in use across the world there were somethings which a bundle of algorithms just could not be relied on to solve.
She also needed to get in touch with Doctor Aryan and his team to understand the details of the contact signals. That would be required when she came face to face with the aliens.
With these thoughts, she and Aman sat down to draw up the plans in detail and to set up the meetings and networks. The next 7 years would be tough but she could hardly wait for the work to start in earnest.
18th May 2117
Contact 3.2 LY
The alarms blared loud and insistent. The sound was enough to wake up the dead. In the dome disoriented crew members were staggering out of their capsules. Anara and Ryan were first out of the door racing to the control station, both believing that the ship had crashed into some object during the Jump. They had entered stasis just a few hours back and the ship could not have completed more than half the distance to the terminus.
Manisha was at the control station frantically trying to acknowledge and manage the various alarms around her. She looked up and was relieved to see the Captain and Commander enter the room.
‘What happened, Manisha?’ asked Anara as she moved to her station and called up various displays. Ryan moved to his own station and started barking off orders to various core teams across the ship. The crew was responding well after the initial confusion and their training was kicking in. All stations were manned and secured and the teams waited for further instructions.
‘We encountered an object in the direct flight path Captain and the ship has gone into emergency full stop mode. We have zero velocity and are holding position 3.2 LY from Earth,’ answered Manisha.
‘Narada, bring up the obstacle on holo,’ Anara instructed the AI as alarms continued to blare and red lights continued to flash around the room. ‘And Manisha, please acknowledge and turn off the alarms.’
The room grew suddenly silent as Manisha turned off the audio alarms but the lights kept flashing.
As the holo stabilized Anara was intrigued by what she saw. ‘What information do we have Manisha?’ she asked while a steady stream of data flowed in front of her.
‘Captain, it’s approximately a hundred meters in length composed of metals and unknown composites. It’s…,’ her voice trailed off as the holo became clear. ‘It’s a spaceship,’ she finally managed to finish.
The ship was a million kilometers in front of them. The shape was strange unlike anything the crew had seen earlier. It had a bulbous middle with various appendages and protrusions along every side. Even here in deep space the entire structure glowed as if lit by an inner glow and the effect was quite mesmerizing. It seemed to be holding position.
“Captain, Antariksh’s autopilot has responded as programmed and stopped the ship mid-flight. This has strained the major systems but they are coming back to full power now,’ reported Ryan.
‘Thanks Ryan. Narada, where the hell did this come from and why did we not detect it sooner?’
‘Captain, I have checked all logs and data and this is likely to be the object we were tracking M2575. The radar readings are being collated but it seems it changed course suddenly in the last hour and has moved to deliberately intercept us.’
‘Any chance it is of Earth origin as well?’
‘Doesn’t seem likely Captain. I have never seen this configuration before,’ answered Ryan.
‘Manisha, get Madhavan and Rawat here on the double. I want them to look at it. Also get Dr. Lian in. We may need her. Hold your position till we can determine what this thing is. Ryan please start scanning using all systems. Narada, plot a course at sub-light to M2575. Keep the course keyed in if we decide to move in towards M2575.’ That designation will have to do till such time they could determine the nature of the alien ship.
The rest of her team entered the room one by one to find a large holo being displayed in the centre of the room and the data captured from the scanners floating alongside it. They all took their respective positions and started working to carry out their own analysis.
‘I can’t identify the material of construction Captain. In fact, except for the shape I am unable to get any more details. It’s too far away for our scanners to be effective and there does seem to be some sort of absorbance or reflective field in place which prevents our beams from penetrating,’ reported Ryan.
‘I concur Captain,’ added Madhavan. ‘I have never seen this design in my time with ISC, not even in concept stage.’ The rest of the crew nodded in agreement.
‘Captain, I suggest we bring our security protocols online. This is an unknown situation and we may need to act in haste,’ said Rawat.
‘I agree Major. Get the protocols activated and the security teams on standby.’ The ship was carrying six members of the army specially trained to provide security to the ship and the crew.
Major Rawat sent off a message to his security team and came and stood next to Anara.
‘Yes Major? Is there anything else?’ she enquired.
‘Yes Captain. We need to get the weapons online as well. The protocols are very clear on this point.’
‘Is that so? The you had better go ahead Major.’
Rawat went off to activate the four laser cannons, two each mounted on the bow and stern of the ship. Similar to the shield lasers, their power output was larger but they were designed to track and engage at a lesser range. The power banks were charged and each placed at his personal command but not released from their mounts. The four weapons were mostly for show as the laser had limited range. He had something else on hand but he thought this was not the time to show his full hand even to the Captain. The Defence Minister had been emphatic on this point.
A couple of hours passed while neither ship made any movement. Anara was wondering what her options were. Her briefing had mostly concentrated on what was to be done once they reached the destination. There was not much on what to do if intercepted mid-way by an alien ship.
Data continued to flow across the screens but it was now getting repetitious as the instruments could not gain any new information. Spectroscopic analysis seemed to reveal a few new elements but there was nothing to compare the readings with. Anara decided to gather the data so far and send of a transmission back to Earth.
‘Commander, team, I am open to suggestions.’
‘I think we can close the gap Captain. That may give us a bit more data on the ship,’ said Ryan.
‘If they wanted us to come closer, wouldn’t they have given us some indication, Ryan? Since they have reached out to us and I am assuming they have been aware of our approach for quite some time it may be prudent to have a wait and watch attitude,’ replied Anara.
‘I say we go ahead as the Commander is suggesting. We need to show that we are not afraid,’ said Rawat. ‘We should show our aggression.’
‘Major, I hear what you are saying but I am not going to be the person responsible for the first interstellar war. We have time on our side. We will wait. Let them make the first move.’
The Major nodded his acquiescence while inwardly he was glad he had not revealed all his cards to the Captain. Didn’t she understand that negotiations were carried out from a position of strength? He was a soldier and his first priority was to defend the people he was responsible for. He had never failed in this and he would not fail now.
‘I want to set up non-stop monitoring in the control station with me or Commander Ryan physically present. The rest of you will also break into shifts. Manisha, you and Madhavan will continue to scan the ship and gather whatever information we can.’
The team settled down for a possible long haul as neither ship had made any moves in the last several hours.
Leaving Commander Ryan in the hot seat, Anara walked off to the cafeteria. As she gazed out the porthole towards the spaceship, she remained worried about what the Major had said. If indeed the status quo deteriorated all she had was four measly laser cannons. They might as well throw peanuts at the ship in front of them. She still believed that any alien culture trying to make interstellar contact would be largely peaceful but looking back at the history of her own planet she knew bigotry was not dead and fear would play a big role in what was to come. She needed to talk to someone to share her misgivings and build up her confidence but her mentor was billions of miles away and she was all alone. She had chosen to be a commander on a deep space mission but it had never felt lonelier.
‘May I join you Captain?’ Dr. Khan interrupted her train of thoughts as she sat down to eat.
‘Of course, Rafiq. What’s on your mind?’ she said as she put a couple of bites into her mouth.
‘This may not be the best time to bring this up Captain. I hope things are under control?’
‘There’s been no change in status, Rafiq.’
‘Oh okay. Then this is as good a time as any other. I wanted to brief you on the radiation tests Captain. The first results are in on the test subjects. The exposure readings have been rising steadily since we left dock. They are still under the threshold and we should be safe for a few more weeks. But I am worried the radiation shields are not being as effective as designed.’
‘Go on,’ she said chewing thoughtfully - this was not coming at a good time. She needed to focus on the aliens but her own ship seemed to be determined to let her down.
‘You see these graphs Captain,’ said Dr. Khan, as he gestured for a screen and showed her the numbers for the crew members under his study. ‘This column shows the baseline readings we took before we started from Earth. Technically, based on the many years of data we have collected and the hundreds of astronauts who travelled across the solar system, these current readings should have not changed by more than 5%. But I can see changes 5 times that.’
‘Did you check for the type and source of the radiation?’
‘That’s another thing Captain, I don’t think this is normal galactic background or solar radiation. My instruments show this to be particle radiation consisting gamma, alpha and neutrons. That is not possible unless we are near a radioactive source.’
‘Do you think we have a leak in our power plant? Did you check with Madhavan?’
‘No Captain. It’s not from the power plant. Madhavan has confirmed that. I have checked the ship with detectors. There is background radiation throughout the ship. It’s not localised in any given area but there has to be source. Only I have been unable to find it so far’
‘Are my people in any danger?’
‘Like I said, we are still quite some time away from dangerous exposure levels. In fact the radiation level is extremely low - just above detection limits. I’m just worried that it is there at all. Certainly these will not result in fatal exposure anytime. I don’t believe we missed any critical elements in our deep space studies but there is always that small chance. With your permission, I would like to send the readings back to Earth and also extend my studies to more crew members.’
‘That makes sense. I’ll approve the request. Keep Ryan informed so he can schedule the crew roster and also keep him briefed about your findings. You know, this adds a fourth element to our set of mysteries on the ship.’
As the Doctor left her, Anara sighed inwardly, a few hours back she was asleep in her capsule and now she had multiple problems on
hand. She straightened her back and decided to focus on the most pressing problem at hand - what should be her next step in making contact with the alien ship?
8th Feb 2111
The team
Anara and Aman had been poring over the hundreds of applications they’d received over the last few months from astronauts and technical experts wanting to be part of the deep space flight. The announcement of India’s proposal to send a manned mission to the nearest star had been greeted with enthusiasm. However as decided by the ‘8’ the actual nature of the mission had been placed under wraps till such time the vessel was ready for launch.
Anara had continued to press for Ryan to be her second-in-command and with the support of Director Srinivas, the PM had agreed to get Ryan transferred to ISC. Ryan was finally on his way to join the mission. His wife and daughter would also be settling in India for the duration of the mission. His wife would also be working in the signals and comm division of ISC.
Next on Anara’s wish list of command crew were a chief engineer, a medical doctor, a chief scientist among others. She had been informed that Major Rawat would be joining them as a security specialist along with his team of elite soldiers. They were currently under training in a separate facility under the defence ministry.
It had been planned that the security team would be independent and would only nominally work with the Captain. Anara had been furious when she heard this and had threatened to withdraw from the whole exercise. She was clear - the ship and everyone on it were her responsibility and had to be under her direct authority without exception. It had taken intense lobbying by the minister for space and Director Srinivas to the PM to convince the defence minister. The military had agreed reluctantly to the proposal.
A number of junior positions were being filled from her old team at ISC, VSSC. Other engineering firms had come on board with their technical personnel as well. No one was going to miss a chance to participate in this mission.
