In politics, looking at the big picture is the most convenient way to avoid getting bogged down in annoying little details, like the facts. That’s why politicians always talk in generalities, such as “balancing the budget” or “obtaining justice under law” or “maintaining meaningful employment,” when they really mean “massive spending cuts in programs advocated by my opponents,” or “creating a religious loophole for my largest contributor,” or “keeping open a redundant and wasteful government facility in my district.”
Alayna couldn’t help but smile. At the same time, she didn’t want the citation/quotation thing to become one-sided. Then she smiled. She had just the right book from which to send back her own citations … but that would have to wait. She needed to see if what the Solar Institute was doing dovetailed with what she had in mind. If not … there was a block of time, almost an hour, available tomorrow morning where she could insert her own program and follow up on what she’d begun during the last lunar day on Farside. Once she had an observational baseline, then she could use the many small segments of unleased observational time that often occurred, as well as piggyback on observations of the solar latitudes she was studying.
After several minutes of examining the Institute’s program and observations, she shook her head. All the focus there was on the chromosphere, and what she needed were specific spectro-polarimeter studies of the base of the photosphere, where the magnetic flux lines created the solar granulations.
With that, she turned to refining the observational program she had worked out.
At 1223 UTC, she got another message from Lunara, even shorter than the earlier one.
Pack train left with passengers and cargo at 1219.
She sent back a pleasant thank-you and went back to work.
At 1611 UTC, Marcel announced, “The lead roller has entered the supply tunnel. ETA at the supply lock is 1623.”
“Thank you.” Alayna stretched, then made a last survey of all the monitors before rising. She needed to change into an undersuit because she’d have to use the exosuit to unload the supplies, given that the supply tunnel—really just a big covered and radiation-insulated trench—was unpressurized. She voice-locked the control center before heading down to the lower level and the supply lock.
By 1641, all three of her visitors were inside the suit locker room adjoining the supply lock. Alayna was wearing her undersuit, and her suit was hanging before her locker, ready to don, once she finished with her welcoming duties.
She had concentrated when they introduced themselves in order to remember their full names—Antoine Deveau, Geoffrey Hart, and Dominique Perez—because no one had sent her anything on who the inspectors actually were. When she could get away from them gracefully, or maybe after they retired to sleep, she wanted to see if there was any information in the databases.
Alayna offered what she hoped was a warm and welcoming smile. “I’m Dr. Alayna Wong-Grant, the duty astrophysicist and general technician here at COFAR. Once you finish unsuiting, I’ll show you to your quarters, and to the galley, if you’re so inclined. While you’re settling yourselves, I’ll need to unload the pack train. After that we can eat, or I can show you around the station.”
The shorter man frowned. “We’re supposed to…?”
“If you trust my cooking, I can fix something, but I’ll need to unload the train first.” One of the reasons Alayna wanted and needed to do that was because Harris or someone at Lunara usually threw in some fresh vegetables or fruits from the hydroponics and minifarm at the mining facility, but the insulation on that section of the cargo bin wasn’t especially good at keeping things from freezing if they were left too long, and the melons she often received, in particular, were far less edible after being frozen solid.
“It’s a one-person station, Geoffrey,” said Dominque Perez mildly.
“Just be careful with the pressure cooker or the pressure kettle if you want tea.”
“There’s not an autochef?” asked Deveau.
“The center has been maintained, but not updated with anything that draws more power. We still operate off the original solar array. Individual panels and assemblies have been replaced, of course, and the Foundation has upgraded the power storage capabilities.”
Alayna felt like an old-fashioned tour guide as she led the three from the suit locker room. “There aren’t any steps here, just ramps. The idea behind that was to be able to wheel anything anywhere, but the station is fairly well designed, and there’s never been much need to move much of any mass inside. Outside, yes. There are four unoccupied rooms here. Each has two bunks. My room is the end one, closest to the hatch up to the operational levels.”
Hart offered a puzzled expression. “Space for ten people?”
“A larger crew was required to build the facility, and it didn’t take that much more effort to factor in the extra quarters once all the power supplies were in place…” Alayna gestured. “The showers and facilities are across the hall…”
Once she had them on the upper level, she quickly pointed out the laboratory, the technical support space—the workroom, really—and the hatch to the control center. With an apologetic smile, she said, “I’ll leave you to clean up, rest, or whatever. I need to unload the supplies.” She did not quite flee.
She also made certain that she was linked to Marcel before she stepped out of the receiving lock.
More than an hour and a half passed before Alayna finished unloading the supply train and stowing the various items, although she did take the fresh produce off first and lock it into the station. Then came space-polymer-wrapped containers of various sizes and shape. She did note that there were not any large packages, nothing resembling antenna film … and with only two lengths of replacement film left, more would certainly be needed. Although … it might not be required for years … or it could be tomorrow.
She had sent a message to Foundation Operations about the possible shortage when she had discovered it after the repairs, not in time for replacements likely even to be found or ordered. Before she had sent it, she’d checked the message logs, and her predecessor had made a similar observation over a year ago. That bothered her. Was the Foundation that strapped for funds? Or wasn’t anyone making the antenna film anymore?
When she finally unsuited and returned to the upper level of the station, the three were seated at one of the two tables in the room adjoining the galley.
“Do you need something to eat?” Alayna really didn’t feel like fixing food for others, but she felt that was clearly expected.
“Antoine managed to find some pasta and various other items. We’ve eaten,” said Geoffrey Hart.
Alayna could have added what he hadn’t spoken, something to the effect of “if one can call that eating.”
“What were you doing?” asked Dominque Perez.
“Unloading and storing—roughly—what was on the supply train. It wasn’t quite a full load. Usually, the train arrives a few days before the night line. They didn’t want to send it twice. So they loaded it with what was ready.”
“The timing is designed so that the solar cells can power the train?” Perez’s words were not quite a question.
“It can run on stored power, but it’s more efficient with solar power, and it’s also to make sure that it doesn’t interfere with nighttime observations any more than necessary. Those are usually the most important.” The ones that bring the Foundation the most revenue. Dr. Braun had been most emphatic about that.
Alayna definitely had the feeling that the next few days would be long, and that was all she needed after the sleep she’d lost during the last lunar day, both to the repairs, the subsequent cleanup, and making sure that the station was as clean and in as good a condition as possible for the Noram inspectors.
7
THE TIMES OF INDIA
30 MARCH 2114
(DELHI) “India will not brook interference with its Dyaus Improvement Project.” Those were the key words from Prime Minister
Narahaj Ravindra yesterday, after the Sinese Minister for Space made a statement suggesting that two space elevators were more than sufficient for the world. The Sinese minister had also suggested that greater priority should be placed on regional environmental remediation, especially after the recent tropical cyclone that destroyed another five percent of the coastal lands of Bangladesh.
In response, Ravindra went on to say, “If necessary, India will place its Indra scramjet missiles on immediate alert.”
The Indra has a range of over fifteen thousand kilometers at a speed of between Mach 10 and Mach 16, approximately twenty thousand kph, depending on altitude, and can be programmed to strike within a ten-meter square, allowing a combination of high speed and surgical precision. The Prime Minister’s statement was read by many as a thinly veiled suggestion that India would not hesitate in targeting heads of states if any action was taken against extension of the partial space elevator currently used by India …
Noram President Dyana Yates weighed in on the controversy by stating, “Noram believes that peaceful national economic and technical goals should not be constrained by political or military considerations.” Regretfully, that was one of her more unambiguous statements, even as tensions between the Sinese bloc and the nations of southern Asia have risen in recent months …
8
DAEDALUS BASE
31 MARCH 2114
On Friday evening, after Alayna had eaten, she finished giving the Noram inspectors the internal tour of the station, including the control center, where they questioned Marcel far more than Alayna. The questions she answered were largely about her background and about the staffing of COFAR.
Saturday morning, she did fix breakfast for everyone, hoping to keep the edge out of Geoffrey Hart’s voice and questions. By keeping busy, she also avoided questions. After they finished eating, and she cleaned up, before the “free time” on the solar and optical array, she had the three suit up. Then, once the “free” block began, no longer quite free, because the system was collecting her data and observations, she put the inspectors on the roller with her, Perez beside her, and the other two in the cargo bin, and eased the roller out of the upper service lock and out along one of the rows of antennas.
“There are dipole antennas embedded in the polyimide film. Each fifty meter length of film can be replaced…”
“How often is that required?” asked Hart, his voice still sounding harsh through the double link.
“Whenever there’s damage. I had to replace two lengths about a week ago, during the last lunar night. A micro-meteorite burst damaged both. There have been something like twenty lengths replaced over the last thirty years. It doesn’t happen that often.”
“There’s no atmosphere to shield you,” Deveau said evenly. “That seems like a low number of repairs.”
“That’s true, but the antenna film isn’t that wide, and there’s much more open space between the antenna rows than what the film takes up. Plus, the film is used as a separator and base for the small embedded dipole antennas so that some meteorite strikes may hit the film without causing damage to the antennae. We’re also in a crater, and that stops some of the low angle meteors.”
“How wide is the film? A meter?”
“A hundred and twenty centimeters.”
“Do you have steerable dishes?” asked Deveau.
Did he read any briefing materials? “We only have five. They’re comparatively small. That was because of the weight constraints at the time COFAR was built.” And there was never more funding to add to that array later. “They’re placed in a cross pattern with three kilometers between each.”
“Not linear?”
“There was great discussion about that, I understand. It took place before I was born,” Alayna added dryly.
“Isn’t this the largest radio interferometry array ever developed?” asked Perez.
“That depends on how you define large. It’s the largest permanent and fixed array to date. The Sinese longline space array had a greater linear dimension, but it only lasted eleven years. The COFAR array has been able to discern more about the behavior of active galactic nuclei than was even anticipated … and how AGNs’ reactive measures hold large galaxies together.”
“Of what importance is that research?” asked Hart.
“I couldn’t tell you that right now. Usually scientific importance is realized in hindsight. A number of astronomic observations in the early twentieth century validated the basic aspects of relativity. It’s possible that the observations of galactic internal actions may well lead to a unified theory of quantum mechanics, relativity, and black/strange matter. There have been some observations of changes in galactic dark matter discs that parallel certain shifts in AGN activity.”
“What might that lead to, if anything?” Hart pressed.
“It’s been theorized that it could lead to balance-point energy foci that would permit selective creation of ship-sized Hawking wormholes. Real-time faster than light travel, if you will.” Alayna tried not to snap. “History has shown that the impact of basic research can precede commercial application by more than a century. If there’s no basic research, then eventually commercialization slows or even dries up.”
“I don’t think that—”
“Geoffrey,” interjected Perez smoothly but firmly. “Dr. Wong-Grant is a fairly junior, if accomplished, astrophysicist. You’re asking her to justify the entire field in philosophical terms. We’re here to determine what COFAR does and whether the funding the government supplies is being used effectively. We should keep our questions to those of fact.”
Alayna winced, even as she understood who was in charge among the three.
For several moments, no one spoke.
Then Deveau asked, “What percentage of those dipole antennae in a fifty-meter section can you lose before the loss attenuates the signal? Was that what happened when you had to replace those sections of film?”
“There’s parallel circuitry in each section. So long as that is intact, there’s a minimal difference in the overall signal even if every antenna in a given section fails. The problem in the repairs I had to make was that two sections of antennae were struck by what you might call a micrometeor spray that cut through the continuing circuitry. That’s very rare.”
“How rare?” asked Hart.
“That kind of break has only happened that one time in forty-seven years.” Alayna knew that because she’d had Marcel look it up in the records, just in case someone did ask.
After the brief tour along the antennae rows, Alayna guided the roller back toward the central optical mirror building. “That’s the center of the optical system. The solar telescope in the smaller dome is viewing the sun right now, collecting data on solar granulation.”
From the lack of reaction she received, Alayna might as well have been talking about the granulation of sugar.
After several moments, Perez said, “If the telescope is focused on the sun…”
“There are various filters. We can observe in various wavelengths, depending on the filter … or in visible light with a white light filter.” Alayna didn’t want to get into why the large telescope had a wider range of motion than the solar telescope, but no one asked.
After several more questions, she turned the roller back to the service lock.
Once they were back at the installation, and unsuited, almost an hour later, Perez turned to Alayna. “We do have a few more questions for you, Doctor.”
“Over tea or coffee upstairs?”
“That would be fine.”
Alayna led the way to the galley, where she refilled the pressure kettle, and then turned it on. She and Deveau had tea. Perez had coffee. Hart had water. Then the four settled around the large circular table in the adjoining lounge/dining area.
“If you have any last questions,” announced Perez, “this is the time to ask them.”
“According to the background provided to the Inspector-General,” Hart immediately
began, “the principal values of the COFAR facility lie in the ultra-low frequency radio telescope and in the full-range capabilities of COFAR. What does that mean in simple terms?”
“It means that COFAR’s users can obtain more comprehensive data than from most other facilities. Because of the Earth’s ionosphere, ultra-low frequency radio astronomy isn’t possible on Earth or even in orbit around Earth. Long-baseline antennas aren’t terribly practical in space, even at Lagrange Points, and repair costs here are far less expensive. The failure of the Sinese longline free space array proved that.”
“With a fusionjet, you can put a technician anywhere close to Earth in hours,” Hart pointed out.
“The cost of sending a fusionjet rocket from ONeill Station to the LLOS one time is more than the total cost of maintaining COFAR for a year. A repair mission costs more than that. The Noram government only pays part of COFAR’s operating costs, and none of the Noram support is for equipment or repairs. All equipment and repair costs are paid by the Farside Foundation,” replied Alayna, not that she’d known any of that before studying the briefing materials that Director Braun had sent. “The solar telescope here, and the associated equipment, is the largest in the system and provides an unmatched capability.” Even as she spoke, Alayna wondered what, if anything, the system might have picked up while she had been guiding the inspectors around the facility.
“For all that you say,” said Deveau musingly, “there are many astronomers who feel that off-planet astronomy offers more advantages and can be more cost-effective.”
“There’s an argument for that,” admitted Alayna, “but not from Noram’s point of view. To put a space observatory in place that would exceed COFAR’s existing capabilities would cost far more than the share of upkeep paid by the government. Most of the astronomers who want the free space observatories want governments to pay the majority of the costs.”
“Some of them claim that the Farside Foundation charges too much and wastes money,” stated Hart.
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