He emptied the tumbler in a single gulp and closed his eyes.
“All of that being correct, what I know for sure is that we need to prepare and be ready to adapt quickly. If we are to have a hope of surviving what lies ahead, we must unite as a group, just as humanity must unite as a species.”
Epilogue
New Zealand, 2012
The giant white aircraft almost ran out of runway on touch down at Christchurch International Airport. Planes of this size had landed at the airport before but none looked like this one did. The large lump at the tail end made the fuselage resemble a short snake that swallowed an egg. In the bulge sat the infrared telescope, the reason for the plane’s odd appearance and the reason for its existence. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy was a unique kind of plane and SOFIA’s missions were the pride and joy of the scientific team aboard it.
It wasn’t so much the size of the instrument that warranted a girth of note. The entire refrigerated compartment demanded extra space. If the temperature within the scope could not be controlled as the plane returned to the relative warmth of the ground, moisture would form between the lenses. The end result would render it quite unusable.
Excitement ran high among the scientific team just as it always did at the start of a mission. Only this time, the reason was not the presence of a particular expert on the team, nor was it the nature of the target. Yet both factors would impact all of them during the coming days. No, the excitement was over the high level of secrecy that had been imposed on the new mission.
There would be no pre-flight interviews with media and this was surprising because the publicity-shy scientists were usually pressured to make themselves available to journalists. The publicity brought in much-needed corporate and government funding to finance the awful expense of their equipment.
On the eve of the first scheduled flight, they were handed a cover story. Something they could parrot to the hungry media. So they were told. They were to announce to any curious reporter the plane would fly a route over the Pacific Ocean to observe regions of the Milky Way Galaxy. In particular, an exotic and irregular dwarf spiral galaxy. None of that was true.
Uncluttered skies and clear settled conditions in the Southern Hemisphere during winter was the official reason the project was based in the deep south. The presence of moisture in Earth’s atmosphere acted to block the infrared light emitted by space bodies, and SOFIA provided the solution to the problem. Logically, the plane would fly away from the Pole to avoid the threat of polar stratospheric cloud typically formed under winter conditions.
However, to the surprise of the team, once clear of the New Zealand coastline, they turned due south in the direction of the Pole. The scientists behind their consoles were puzzled. They knew the plane was not heading to the equator as the cover story implied, but the exact opposite direction was unexpected.
Doctor Arnold Klein alone knew the truth about Project Southern Cross. When the plane reached an optimum position, he would tell the team all they needed to know.
Until then, the only clue was found in Arnold’s area of expertise. His field of specialization lay in failed stars. Phenomena that were prime infrared emitters. If nothing else that fact alone made sense to the team.
Doctor Caterina Ferrara held the title of Principal Investigator, but she had seen her role on this mission reduced to one of deputy to Doctor Klein. At least, that was the way she was choosing to interpret her temporary job description.
She was far from comfortable with the change in her status, but politics, or more plainly the demands of those who funded the mysterious project had won the day, and Caterina was certainly not going to say no to a SOFIA mission.
In the dark of the cabin, desk lamps, console lights, computer displays, and rows of tiny flashing red, green, and blue diodes provided the only light.
The initial buzz they all shared had long since been replaced by a sense of irritation and even frustration. Scientists prefer to know exactly what they are about, and these men and women were no exception. They knew the infrared telescope targeted a location near the Sun, beyond its corona. What they really wanted to know was why?
Two hours into the flight and Arnold had his target. At first, he was barely aware of the team’s presence as they crowded around his console. He was surrounded by stunned silence, but it didn’t last long.
The image detail began to resolve as an increasing amount of data flowed in and shock gave way to open disbelief.
Arnold brushed away the quivering finger of a scientist as it settled on the screen.
“It’s amazing!” Exclaimed one voice. “Look—and there’s another!”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a second.
“No one has,” chimed in a third. “You can be sure of that.”
Klein glanced unhappily over his shoulder at the gathering around him. He may as well be in a zoo what with all the pointing and howling, he thought.
“I can’t do my work with everyone standing over me,” he announced in exasperation.
The surrounding commotion grew louder as the scientists realized the impossibility of what they saw.
“It’s—it’s a bloody comet!” Exclaimed a scientist pointing to the tail visible on Arnold’s screen.
“No, no,” tutted yet another. “It’s far too big to be a comet.”
“It’s enormous!” Caterina said scarcely believing her eyes.
“It’s all a bit blurry,” someone complained to Arnold. “Can’t you bring up more detail?”
“Doctor Klein, could you sharpen the image, please?” A voice called from behind his chair.
The excitement was growing like wildfire.
Arnold turned to Caterina in desperation.
“Doctor Ferrara! I cannot do anything with this cacophony!”
“Alright, everyone. Doctor Klein has a procedure to follow just like we all do,” Caterina said.
She raised her hands to the gathering to emphasize that she was, in fact, pleading with them.
“Please return to your stations. I’m afraid we all need to make do with whatever Doctor Klein makes available to us.”
She used Arnold’s formal title pointedly. It was her way of ensuring they all would know none of this was her doing.
“But Caterina, this new protocol is quite extraordinary,” whispered one of her oldest colleagues. “We cannot work like this. If we are here to observe a red dwarf—”
“I can still hear you, and it’s not a red dwarf!” Arnold snapped, without bothering to look up from his console.
“Everyone back to your workstations, please!” Caterina clapped her hands together.
It was enough. The scientists hurried off to their displays to capture whatever data were fed down to them.
“Doctor Klein, why didn’t we know about this before the flight?” She asked.
“They didn’t want you to know,” he told her matter-of-factly, just as he might be announcing a coming shower of rain.
Caterina took a seat next to Arnold. She hoped he could be flattered by a request for his considered opinion and she was right.
“The system is so low on the ecliptic plane,” she noted. “It would be quite difficult to see in the Northern Hemisphere. Do you know what is in the center?”
“Most likely a collapsed star,” he replied.
“What about that comet-planet?” Caterina did her best to swallow a nervous giggle.
“Don’t worry about that,” Arnold said. “The collapsed star is the main target of our investigation.”
“But the planet thing—whatever—it’s huge!” Caterina exclaimed unable to stop herself.
“It does appear to radiate a little more heat than I expected,” he said with a slight frown.
“Could you bring us more surface detail, please?” She asked leaning closer to the display.
“I can’t,” he said quietly.
“What do you mean, you can’t?” Caterina stared at him in
astonishment. “Of course you can. You know the capabilities of the telescope.”
“No—I mean I am not supposed to do that…” Arnold’s voice trailed away.
“You mean you won’t allow a close-up? What nonsense. Do it for goodness’ sake!”
Arnold stared up at her. “I’m not allowed.”
“Who told you that?”
“Doctor Ferrara, our mission is run in large part by the military. I am obeying the terms of my contract—my orders. Do I need to remind you of your own? There is the clause that states you are under the direction, supervision, and control of—”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, man! If you don’t allow me to examine the target how do you think I am to help you with the analysis? Do you want my input or not?”
Arnold pushed his glasses further up his thin nose.
“Alright! But cut the feed to their desks first.”
“Do we need to do that?” She asked.
He turned back to the console, ignoring her question.
She tapped the touch screen in front of her. The cries of protest filled the cabin even before she had switched on her mic.
“This is Caterina,” she announced unnecessarily. “I apologize to all of you. I hope to have images back up as soon as possible. In the meantime, please stay seated. You are welcome to rest your eyes for a spell if you prefer. We will be back online in fifteen minutes.”
She turned to Arnold. “Okay. Go on. Let’s do it.”
Arnold made several adjustments to the image then zoomed in on the darkness at the center of the system.
“Here is our target. It has a very dense mass as you would expect of a collapsed star—the Sun’s returning sibling.”
“We have a binary star system after all?” Caterina asked feeling an odd mix of horror and elation.
At last, here was the evidence.
“Precisely!”
“What about the super-sized planet?”
Arnold sighed and switched the camera to the comet-planet.
Caterina gasped. “Just look at those objects orbiting it. Look at that one there! It must be as big as Mars! How many moons are there?”
“Five of significant size.”
“That is not a planet. It can’t be. It must be a dwarf star. Terrestrial planets don’t get that big!”
“Why do you keep saying the same thing? We need to re-assess our understanding of what constitutes a planet, and a star. That is all.”
“How large is it?”
“Taking a conservative guess, I would say four to five times the size of Earth. I would compare it to Uranus or Neptune.”
“How long have the space agencies known about this system?”
“That is our concern! We should only focus on the orbit of the star at the center of this system. How long will it be here? When will it move back out again? What changes will it bring to our own solar system? This is what our mission is all about. Just think of the discoveries we are going to make!”
Caterina saw the smile on Arnold’s face and she swallowed. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. It was not her usual reaction when she discovered something extraordinary through a telescope.
Arnold glanced up at her.
“Tomorrow morning’s debriefing will cover most of your questions.”
He pointed to the figures clicking over in a side panel on the screen.
“It is most interesting that this tiny star appears to have the characteristics of a black hole. Don’t you agree?”
“My God!” She said as she ran her finger down Arnold’s screen and read down the results of the computations. “The mass of the thing is so great it’s gravitational well would suck in the surrounding light.”
Caterina leaned closer to Arnold and lowered her voice to almost a whisper.
“Your model tells us the whole mini-system will go into perihelion around the Sun?”
Arnold nodded his head and placed a finger on the figures down the side of the screen. “It has a long, elliptical orbit. You see?”
Caterina craned forward. Not because her eyes were failing her, but simply because she could scarcely believe what they saw.
“This whole system will pass between Mars and Jupiter about forty degrees relative to the ecliptic plane. It will cut right through Earth’s orbital path,” Arnold told her. “It might be visible to the naked eye low on the horizon at its closest point to Earth. I should think those other orbiting bodies will be visible before then… Most certainly this ah—comet-planet will be.”
He paused to clear his throat.
“What are the odds Earth becomes another ball on a giant billiard table when it pierces the ecliptic on its departure?” Caterina asked.
“My calculations show there will be room to spare in the case of all orbitals going in and coming out. Our own system is very stable. Then again—because the route through our solar system is never exactly the same... And with an orbital period of close to four thousand years… We will find out soon enough.”
He stared up at her and grinned with delight.
“Isn’t this just the most fantastic opportunity to learn about an unknown type of star—up close?”
Caterina was surprised to see the flight crew and the scientific team together at the same debriefing. The specifics of their different job detail usually called for separate meetings. Yet here they all were together in the same room.
Doctor Eric Clarkson, a young man from Atlanta City sat across from her. He scribbled a note on a piece of paper, folding it into a neat square before he passed it across to her at knee level.
She liked Clarkson. Not because he was good at his job. Everyone on the team was good at their job. She liked him because he was always able to lighten the most heated moments.
She opened the paper expecting to find a hilariously rude joke and gazed instead at a single question.
‘Do you still think they are going to mothball the telescope after this mission is over?’
“All that talk about a budget blowout was BS,” she whispered. “I think the discovery of this mini-system, the tiny star, and the comet-planet is the real reason for the flying telescope.”
“Comet-planet? What a name for it! That makes it sound like something from the pages of a goddamned comic.”
“And what do you call that thing?” She asked.
“A god awful nightmare!” He replied.
“Yes. So do I.”
The hum in the room died down as three men strode to the front. One was a three-star general, and close behind him walked a man in a white coat, but it was the third man who received the most attention. He had the coloring of a Swede or a Dane but it was his height that amazed them. The collective stared in silent fascination.
Caterina sat in her seat, stunned at what she saw. The man was a goliath! He had to be all of seven feet. Yet the way he carried himself. Without a shred of self-consciousness. His head might be a little larger than usual, and yet he was otherwise perfectly proportioned! Perhaps he was a genetic mutation, or perhaps he was part of a hybrid program within the military?
The man in the white coat was the first to speak. Tony Buchanan introduced himself as a head scientist at NASA. His department was one Caterina was sure she had never heard of before. He introduced Admiral Grant Fieldman from the Pentagon, then he introduced the giant, Martyn Beenine from Washington D.C.
Caterina frowned. Beenine didn’t sound like a Scandinavian name at all. Perhaps he wasn’t. As the debriefing continued, Caterina realized with surprise it did not have the form of any other she had experienced. For one thing, there would be no discussion.
When Buchanan finished with his list of technical details, he made as if to move aside for the general. He hesitated and turned back to the audience.
“Ah, excuse me, everybody. One more thing. We will not be taking any questions!”
The general stared at them with an expressionless face. He remained silent until the last whisper ceased.
“Le
t’s cut straight to the chase,” the general began. “We have known about the incoming intruder star and mini-system in tow for some time. I don’t need to tell you what a threat it represents to all life in our solar system!”
There was barely a rustle from the gathering as the import of the general’s words sank in.
“We have no military means at our disposal to fight this intruder. The scale is far larger than human capabilities can handle—too large for any being to handle in fact! Man or God. It is truly our nemesis and for this reason, we do not make an announcement. And this will be the way things remain until we know the time is right. I can assure all of you, we are making the proper preparations, and we have been doing so for quite some time.”
His chin jutted as his eyes swept the room. His voice reduced to almost a whisper, so that they had to turn their best ear to catch his words.
“Your work on this project is to remain classified at the highest level. You will not disclose any of it to your family, friends, the media, or any entity. You will not disclose even to your pet poodle. Do I make myself clear? Is this understood?”
He looked around the assembled scientists and flight crew.
“Good.”
He glanced at Martyn Beenine and the Swede stared back unblinking, and gave a single nod of his head. The general coughed and stepped down from the podium. The debriefing was over.
Caterina kept her head down as she walked out with the others. All she wanted to do was to get back to her room. Her stomach was tight and her mouth dry. What she really needed was a Vermouth, or two, or possibly even four. She might not stop until she was good and drunk.
Tomorrow would not be a day like any other. Nothing would ever be the same again. She knew this with absolute certainty.
Jubilee Year: A Science Fiction Thriller (Erelong Book 1) Page 30
