Tavoian doubted that, but the colonel had said “before anything else,” and Riske had been pleasant about it. He picked up his kit and headed for his quarters. He unpacked the few items from his kit, then sat down and accessed his messages. Besides the various news summaries, and two periodicals, there were three personal messages, one notifying him of the change in duty officer watch schedules, one from Kit, and one from Alayna.
The message from Kit was short, but troubling.
Chris—
Haven’t heard from you in days. At first, I thought I’d wait for another message from you. Dad is hiding something. I can’t tell what, and I can’t travel to Utah right now. I’m on call for testimony before the Noram Senate on the North Atlantic fisheries. I know you can’t come Earthside, either. It’s not the wildfires near Brian Head. I checked on that. They’re nowhere close to their place. He says Mom is fine. I have my doubts. Please … if you hear anything, let me know. I’ll do the same for you.
Kit
Tavoian shook his head. What could he do? After several moments, he began to read the message from Alayna, intrigued and concerned when he saw that it had two attachments. He smiled wryly as he read aloud one of the key sentences: “If it does happen to be a technological artifact, then I felt the Space Service should know of it…” So understated. She just might have made the greatest discovery in human history, and she felt the Space Service should know of it?
And so should the colonel. Although Tavoian suspected the colonel already knew, there was no doubt of what he had to do next. With a sigh of resignation, he turned and made his way back to the colonel’s office.
Spacer3 Riske smiled as Tavoian stepped into the outer office. “He said you’d be back. Go on in.”
The colonel smiled, if briefly, after the pressure door closed and Tavoian seated himself. “Yes?”
“I assume that you’ve read the message I received from Dr. Alayna Wong-Grant and just read? If not—”
“I’ve read it. I’m glad it only took you a few minutes to appreciate its import…”
Tavoian managed not to bridle at the not-quite-veiled irony in the colonel’s voice.
“I don’t like the fact that your astronomer or astrophysicist friend has reported this to as many people as she did. On the other hand, since the Sinese are co-discoverers, they may have already come to the same conclusions. She followed procedures. She did think … somewhat. At least, she had enough sense to notify the Space Service. I would have preferred Space Command, but she wouldn’t know the difference. I’m also glad she let you know. She was right about that. I doubt if CinCSpace would have seen that message for another twenty-four hours … if then. He’s thinking it over now. I also appreciate the fact that you immediately came to notify me personally.”
“Might I ask…”
The colonel offered a tired smile. “If she’s right, we have a problem. It’s a problem that has to be addressed on the highest level. I’ve made a recommendation. We’ll see if it’s accepted. Send your friend a polite and thoughtful thank you, and ask her to keep you informed of anything new that she discovers about the object. A very warm thank you.”
“Yes, sir.” Tavoian would have anyway.
“Now go and get some grub and rest.” The colonel gestured toward the pressure door.
“Yes, sir.” Tavoian rose and inclined his head.
Riske actually gave Tavoian a sympathetic smile when he left the colonel’s office the second time.
23
PEOPLE’S DAILY
15 OCTOBER 2114
[BEIJING] “For the past century, the Sinese peoples have made their goals in space open and known to all,” declared Head of State Jiang Qining. “We have been proud of our successes. We have built upon efforts that were less successful, just as we are now with our follow-up mission to the moons of Jupiter. We have nothing to hide. For all that, others have continued to harass and spy upon our peaceful space activities. Less than friendly observation is the first step toward indirect hostilities. Others would be wise not to continue such efforts.”
While Head of State Jiang did not offer names, sources close to him have hinted that the head of state is less than pleased with covert operations by both Noram and India in an effort to obtain Sinese space technology.
Noram officials, predictably, denied any such effort.
“What is most disturbing about the comments attributed to Head of State Jiang,” said Noram Defense Secretary Olassen Trudeau, “is that he is far more moderate than senior officers in the Sinese military.” Trudeau’s remarks were termed “excessive” by party sources because of his long-time critical attitude toward the Federation. Others indicated Trudeau’s words were “worrisome” because they indicated Noram was actively considering efforts to militarize outer space in the solar system.
“If Noram takes such a step, it will be a step it will regret bitterly,” declared Sinese Minister for Space Wong Mengyi.
A spokesman for the Indian government, who declined to be named publicly, stated that observation by itself was harmless and suggested that the Sinese overreaction might indicate that the Federation was the guilty party and already showing “military-like” efforts with its latest Europa mission and the ongoing diversion of an ice asteroid toward the inner solar system.
24
DAEDALUS BASE
15 OCTOBER 2114
Monday morning, after Alayna finished the immediate chores, and of course once more checked the dust prevention system on the main optical mirror, she went to the message queue—and was surprised, almost stunned, to find a reply from Chris. In over a year, he’d never replied so quickly. There has to be a first time.
She opened it quickly, almost holding her breath, and began to read.
Dear Alayna—
You’ll likely be shocked to receive such a rapid reply from me. It’s not in character, I know, but I just received your message after I returned. Yes, I’m still piloting, if less frequently and on a far less regular schedule. One of the reasons I replied so soon was that I’ve often been remiss, partly because the training here has been intense, and partly because I have the bad habit of not getting back to things for a time if I put them off. I’ll try to be better.
Alayna paused. One of the reasons? There are two, and he’s just getting started, it sounds like. Another thought crossed her mind. Chris was an experienced pilot. Yet he was still piloting and undergoing intense training. What exactly was he doing? Could there be some truth in the rumors that Noram, the Sinese, and the Indians were militarizing space? Was Chris part of that? She forced her eyes back to the message.
No matter what you said, I know you had to be initially disappointed when you thought your comet was only an asteroid. From your reports, it’s pretty clear you discovered something a great deal more exciting. As you requested, I immediately met with my superior, and he forwarded your report to the head of the Space Service. He didn’t say it exactly, but I think he either talked to him or to someone near the top. I’m not anywhere close to an astrophysicist, as you know, but your discovery is special one way or another. If you could keep me posted on anything else you find out about it, he and I would be most grateful.
He and I? Alayna swallowed. But Chris was saying to keep him posted. Why him and not the head of the Space Service? Or even Chris’s superior? That seemed strange … unless … Unless it was less likely to come to anyone else’s attention when a report was just part of a message from a junior astrophysicist in a one-off position to her male friend that she’d been messaging for months? But why keep it secret in such a roundabout way, unless they really thought it could be an alien object or artifact?
I don’t know about you, but I’m worried about all the angry words and charges flying back and forth between the Indians and Sinese. Now even the Noram Defense Minister is getting into the act, and President Yates hasn’t said a word. I don’t see the Indians as the troublemakers here, but that may not matter if the Sinese insist.
He’s not tal
king about what Noram is doing … or what he’s doing. It was clear to Alayna that Chris knew a great deal more than he was saying, but what, she could only speculate.
How is your other project going, the solar research? You haven’t said much in your last few messages. A while ago, you said that what you were trying to find was a long shot. All I can say is that you’re quite a lady, and that long shots are hard work, but sometimes they pay off far more than conventional projects. Keep at it, and you might have a chance for two long shots to pay off. That doesn’t happen often.
As I’ve written too often, most of the time here is training and routine … and late night supervisory duties. Every Noram off-planet installation requires round-the-clock monitoring, and tomorrow, probably actually after you read this, I’ll be up at 0400 UTC, bleary-eyed and looking at screens.
I keep meaning to mention it, but my sister Kit—Katherine, officially—is a marine biologist with the Noram Department of Environmental Affairs. She’s in Ottawa now, trying to explain to the politicians why the collapse of the Gulf Stream current can’t be reversed. Not anytime soon, that is. They want to think that just slowing the rise in atmospheric CO2 will solve everything, including warming the British Isles. They also don’t understand that North Atlantic fisheries won’t recover completely, maybe ever. They say a little knowledge is dangerous. That’s especially true with politicians. We’ve seen it with DOEA, and I can’t imagine it would be much different in your field if we faced some possible great change in astronomy and astrophysics.
Alayna smiled. She had at least one answer as to why Chris wanted her to send copies of reports to him, and she couldn’t fault it. She paused and then checked the rest of the message queue. There wasn’t a reply from either the IAU or from the Foundation. She wouldn’t have expected a quick reply, or any immediate reply from the IAU. In a way, the lack of immediate response from her own organization validated Chris’s concerns—although she suspected the concerns were as much his superior’s as his own.
Was she being fair about the Farside Foundation? Still, it had been twenty-four hours since she’d sent off the report …
Then she shook her head. No one was working. She’d sent the report early on Sunday, and it was still early on Monday, well before anyone came to work, since Daedalus was on UTC, and the Foundation on Eastern WestHem time, some five hours later. Of course, they hadn’t replied. Now … if there’s no response by this afternoon or tomorrow …
She returned her attention to the rest of the message.
I can’t resist calling your attention to another passage from Observations on Politics.
Liberals always want to save the world on principle and worry about the costs later. Conservatives worry about the cost-accounting so much that they can never decide whether anything’s worth saving, except for every single worthless project in their own district, including, especially, the bases and weapons the military says it doesn’t need.
I wonder what Exton Land was like. There’s very little about him, except he was a political appointee in the old U.S. government, and later a consultant of some sort. Gently cynical, and sometimes not even gentle. But what he wrote is as true today as it was then. People don’t change, I guess.
Oh … you owe me a quote. Now, I need to close and get a good night’s sleep. Until later.
Chris
Owe you a quote? Then she realized that she’d been so concerned about the possible alien artifact that, for the first time in months, she had not included a quote in her last message.
Alayna couldn’t help but smile, if momentarily, as she closed his message, thinking over the implications and meanings semihidden within his words. She quickly ran through the rest of the message queue. Once she made sure there was nothing else urgent, she settled herself to reply to Chris, at least as indirectly as he had messaged her.
The most frightening aspect of it all, she realized, although the tenseness within her had meant her subconscious had already made that conclusion, was the possibility that she had in fact discovered—or co-discovered—an alien artifact … and that the Sinese likely knew that it could be an artifact as well. And with the spectre of the possible militarization of space …
25
DONOVAN BASE
16 OCTOBER 2114
Tavoian was still considering the possible implications of Alayna’s discovery when he settled into a seat at the officers’ mess on Tuesday morning and took a slow sip of tea through the wide nipplestraw, necessary on a station where gravity was provided by rotation, a variety of tea that passed, if poorly, for English Breakfast. He especially wondered where it would all lead after the veiled references to his surveillance mission had turned up in most of the major news summaries. He carefully squirted syrup over the French toast and the protein strips that passed for bacon. He took one bite, and then another.
Moments later, Liendra Duvall sat down across from him. “You have a very serious expression for so early in the morning, Chris.”
Tavoian managed a rueful smile at the other captain, who had roughly the same seniority as he did, and who was always pleasantly low-key. She also tended to be almost shy, or at least retiring, which made her comment slightly surprising. “Just thinking. I probably shouldn’t start before I have something to eat.”
“You were the one, weren’t you?”
“The one what?”
“The one that the Sinese are making a fuss about. Every single pilot in … advanced training was here on Saturday and Sunday. Except you. Who else could it have been?”
“I’m certain I haven’t been the first. Last week … you were gone. I doubt it was a transport run.”
“Behind that casual façade, you don’t miss much.”
Tavoian grinned at her nonadmission admission in response to his ambiguous acquiescence to her assumption. “Nor you. What do you think of the current situation between us, the Indians, and the Sinese?”
Her amused smile vanished. “Tense … and getting tenser. The Sinese won’t back down. The Indians certainly won’t, and they’ve got enough Indra scramjets to take out most of the Sinese government.”
“The government won’t be where the scramjets can reach them.”
“Unless the Indians strike first. Both of them know that.”
“Know what?” asked Major Martinez as he sat down beside Duvall.
“That the Indians have to strike first if their scramjets are to be effective,” replied Tavoian.
“Everyone has to strike first.” Martinez sipped his coffee, strong enough that Tavoian could smell it from across the table. “That’s the problem. We’re at a time in history and weapons when offense beats defense. It’ll change. It always does.”
“Provided we all survive long enough for that to happen,” Duvall pointed out.
“We’ve done it before. The early atomic age and the Cold War.”
“That was different,” Tavoian said. “There were only two contending forces. Now there are three, and three’s not a stable number in great power confrontations.”
“You’ve definitely got a pessimistic streak there, Chris,” replied Martinez. “It’s not as though we can do anything about it.”
“Except show force to match force and hope that no one presses the issue,” said Duvall quietly.
“Isn’t that what we’ve had to do for generations?” Martinez set his mug on the table, and began to eat the French toast, without syrup.
“Every advance in weapons technology raises the costs if someone makes a mistake.” Tavoian took another long sip of tea, then added, “Or just believes that God is on their side. Like the Taliban in Pakistan seventy years ago.”
“They deserved what they got,” Martinez said.
“They may have, but what about the Afghans, those few who survived? Or the Indians in Kashmir.” Or the coast and the marshlands bordering the Arabian Sea. Tavoian didn’t voice the last because he doubted the others would know or care about the immense damage to the marine ecosystem t
here, not that the pollution from the Indus hadn’t already created havoc before that.
“There are always casualties. All we can do is make sure the other side takes them.”
“Which other side?” asked Duvall. “Is either trustworthy? Do we want to pick sides?”
“If we don’t they will, and it might be us against both of them.”
“That seems unlikely.”
“How likely did it seem that the Iranians and the Israelis ended up on the same side in the Middle East Meltdown?” Martinez smiled sardonically. “You can’t count anything out.”
Even the possibility of an alien artifact? Tavoian mused. With the remnants of technology … or would that be expecting far too much? Far too much, he decided. That was definitely wistful thinking.
Martinez said something, but Tavoian didn’t really hear it. “I’m sorry. I was thinking about the next simulator session.”
“It wasn’t important. I just wanted to know what you thought about the President.”
Tavoian wasn’t about to offer an opinion there. “She’s the commander-in-chief. What else should I think?”
“Anything but nothing.” Martinez shook his head. “You’re too junior to talk like the political officers.”
“I’m too junior not to,” countered Tavoian. Especially when every word is heard by someone you don’t know.
“Playing it safe is the most dangerous course, you know.”
“You’re suggesting that playing it dangerous is the safest course. I’m not sure about that logic.” Tavoian caught the glint in Duvall’s eyes and the hint of amusement, as if she were watching two big-horned sheep position themselves. He immediately laughed self-deprecatingly and added, “I’m not sure about most logic. Could be because strong logic is necessary to overcome poor assumptions or insufficient facts, and insufficient facts are usually all the facts that junior officers have access to.” He smiled, then eased his chair back. “I need to do some prep.”
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