“That’s a generous offer, Dennis, but Paul fits our needs just fine.”
“Are you sure? Paul hasn’t flown for quite some time. Maria’s up-to-date on our latest tech, and she was one helluva fighter pilot.”
“I’m sure she’s an excellent astronaut, but I’m looking for someone who has Mission Control experience, too,” Amato said.
“Okay, let me see what I can do. I’ll be honest with you, though. From what I heard when I was still at Embry Riddle, Paul kind of got bitter toward the end. He’s apt to take a pass.”
“I understand it’s a long shot. Appreciate anything you can do,” Amato said.
“Sure thing,” Pritchard said. “Hey, switching topics, how’s the SatFleet project coming along?”
“We’re making progress. We’re hung up on a propulsion issue at present, but we’ll sort it out soon. Hopefully, we’ll be in a position for our first space trial in the next month or two.”
“Excellent. Well, keep me in the loop, okay? I’m an advocate of the concept. Always have been,” Pritchard said.
“Will do,” Amato said. “While we’re trading updates, what’s the latest with Juno? I see you got approval to extend its mission.”
“Yep, we freed up funds to extend Juno until 2022,” Pritchard said.
“That’s great news. I’m sure the team is excited, especially Helen Brock,” Amato said. “I know how hard she worked to get Juno launched.”
“Yeah, I’ve got one very happy chief science officer,” Pritchard said.
“What’s the focus of the extended mission?”
“We’re going to take Juno out into a wider orbit. Examine Jupiter’s magnetosphere from farther away. We were really surprised by some of the magnetic field readings from Juno’s earlier orbits. At close range, the field is much more fluid than we thought. The wider orbit will give a chance to see if it evens out,” Pritchard said.
“Sounds interesting,” Amato said. “Can’t wait to read about what the team discovers.”
“Tell you what, I’ll make a deal with you,” Pritchard said. “You let me come down to Mayaguana to observe the launch of your SatFleet space trial, and I’ll get you a sit-down with the Juno team to go through the mission plan, get a sneak peek at their latest data.”
“Deal,” Amato said. “And thanks again for asking around about Paul.”
The door to Amato’s office was closed when Ajay and Kiera arrived. Through the door, Ajay could hear a male voice engrossed in a one-way conversation and assumed Amato was on the phone.
“Should we come back later?” he asked Kiera.
“No, he’s usually very punctual, and he knows I went to pick you up at the airport. We’ll give it a minute or two. If he doesn’t come out, we’ll go back down to my office and I’ll send him an email to let him know you’re ready to meet,” Kiera said.
Ajay nodded and raised his hands to adjust his tie. His hands were shaking as he pulled the tie while gripping its knot. Feat accomplished, he looked down at his suit and cleared a spec of lint from his trousers, then noticed one of his shoes had a scuff mark. He licked his thumb and bent down to polish away the mark while Kiera looked on with an amused expression.
“Don’t worry, Ajay. He’s very nice. There’s no reason to be nervous,” she said.
“I can’t help it. I’ve never met a billionaire before and I want to make a good impression.”
“You’ll do fine,” she said. “Besides, you’ve already made a good impression. He wouldn’t have asked you to meet, otherwise,” Kiera said, patting Ajay’s shoulder. “Just don’t bust out with the 3lr0y schtick and you’ll be fine.”
“I guess,” Ajay said, lowering his head to check his attire once more.
The call from Kiera the day before had blindsided Ajay. He had nearly fainted when she told him of Amato’s desire to meet to discuss his research, as Ajay hadn’t heard from her since their Cocoa Beach lunch a month prior.
He had wanted to believe Kiera’s silence was due to a busy schedule that hadn’t allowed her time to review his research, but it was hard not to consider the possibility she had dismissed his clicks like all the others. On several occasions, late at night, Ajay had drafted email messages asking for an update, but he lacked the courage to send any of them. Given her prickly demeanor, he had been too afraid she might take exception to his prodding and hasten another rejection.
But instead of rejection, he found himself whisked from Phoenix to Mayaguana aboard a private jet to discuss his findings with the great Augustus Arturo Amato. Who would have imagined!
Regarded as an aerospace pioneer who turned a small tooling shop into an ever-sprawling empire, Amato was a modern example of the American rags-to-riches dream in Ajay’s eyes. Although his own motivation for coming to America had not been so grand, Ajay found inspiration in Amato’s success story…and in his love of the stars.
As he relived the whirlwind of the past eighteen hours, Ajay thought, “No matter what happens, I will remember this day forever.”
His thoughts were disturbed by a tap on his shoulder. Kiera said, “You ready? Think he’s about to come out.”
Sure enough, the door to Amato’s office swung open and the besuited billionaire stepped forward, his hand extended and a smile upon his face. “Mr. Joshi! A pleasure to meet you.”
Ajay blushed and extended his hand, “The pleasure is mine, Mr. Amato.”
Amato’s grip was firmer than Ajay expected from a seventy-eight-year-old man. The horseshoe of white hair around Amato’s balding head and the deep wrinkles lining his face were also deceiving. For Amato’s presence was vibrant. His voice was clear and deep, his eyes sparkled with energy and there wasn’t a hint of weariness in his posture or movements.
“Come in. We have much to discuss. You too, Kiera,” Amato said, sweeping an arm toward his office.
When Ajay entered, the first thing he noticed was the collection of artwork displayed on the walls. Each depicted Amato’s famed “spacecraft of the future,” The Rorschach Explorer. The paintings showed the ship in various interstellar pursuits. One showed it zooming past Saturn, while in another, the ship was descending to a lunar surface. In a third, astronauts floated alongside with jetpacks as the ship hovered over an asteroid. As he walked up to the Saturn painting, Ajay thought of his father.
“The Rorschach Explorer,” he mumbled. “It’s beautiful.”
“You think so? Well, come with me and take a closer look.” Amato motioned Ajay to follow him to a door at the far end of the office. When he opened it, a blast of cold air rushed into the room. Amato said, “After you.”
Ajay paused in the doorway and gaped at the scene that met his eyes. Kiera came up beside him and whispered, “The catwalk rattles a bit, but don’t worry, it’s completely safe.”
Two stories below him, lit up by floodlights angled to illuminate its distinctive shape, was The Rorschach Explorer. All Ajay could say was, “Oh, my.”
Kiera nudged Ajay onto the catwalk. “All it needs are engines and a crew, and she’s pretty much ready to fly.”
The ship was much larger than Ajay had imagined, having seen photos of the museum replica in the past. With slow steps, he walked to the center of the subterranean hangar. In little more than a whisper, he said, “Amazing.”
“Think so? Well, guess what? You’re staying aboard tonight. Cabin right next to mine,” Kiera said.
“Get out!” Ajay said, turning toward Kiera.
“We’ve even made up a uniform for you. Think you’ll dig the name patch,” she said. She looked over Ajay’s shoulder and saw Amato waving them back. “Come on, I’ll give you a tour later.”
As they returned to the office and sat down at Amato’s meeting table, Ajay shook his head. Is this really happening?
Amato wasted no time getting to the point of the meeting. “Mr. Joshi, I’m very intrigued by your research and impressed by your conviction that these clicks are more than meets the ear. I’m anxious to learn more from you dire
ctly. But, first, I have something more important to discuss with you.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve always favored ideas and people that go against the tide, and I try to surround myself with both. I don’t know what we’ll find when we go to investigate Callisto, but I would be honored if you joined our team for the mission,” Amato said.
Dizziness flashed through Ajay as he replied. “Mission?”
“Yes. I intend to send an armada of small probes to Callisto. It’s a bit of a test-run of some new technology we’ve been working on. We still have some hurdles to overcome before we’re ready to fly, but with luck we’ll be in position to launch within months,” Amato said.
“How exciting,” Ajay said, his heart thumping against his chest. “But, why me? I’m just an accountant.”
“Pah,” Amato said. “You’re an explorer and the discoverer of this phenomenon, whatever it might be. You detected the signals and deduced their point of origin. You rightly identified them as more than interference, or so it seems, and you were the first to perceive the potential implications. I’d say you’re a lot more than an accountant, young man.”
“I…I don’t know what to say to such words,” Ajay said, his mouth dry and lips numb.
“Say yes.” Amato smiled.
Of all the potential scenarios he’d imagined on the way to Mayaguana, Ajay hadn’t allowed one of this magnitude to creep into his thoughts. Ajay looked to Kiera, whose red face was frozen with a stunned expression.
“How soon?” he asked.
“Right away. Today,” Amato said. He handed over a thick envelope. “Here is the offer and some other documents for you to review and sign. I think you will find the compensation and benefits to your liking, and a challenge that will surpass any you might encounter as an accountant.”
Ajay’s hands trembled as he took the envelope from Amato. He placed it on the table in front of him and said, “I’m very flattered, Mr. Amato. Truly, I am. It sounds like an amazing opportunity.”
“It’s the kind of opportunity that comes along only once in life,” Amato said.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s true,” Ajay said. “But it’s also very unexpected. May I have some time to think it over?”
“Of course,” Amato said. “Now, tell me all about your discovery.”
“Uh, okay,” Ajay said. “Where should I start?”
“Where one should always start…at the beginning.”
An hour later, Kiera handed Ajay off to a mission control specialist for a tour of the Mayaguana complex and then joined Dante in Amato’s office.
Kiera had been stunned by Amato’s offer to Ajay. She could understand why Amato had wanted to pick Ajay’s brain about the clicks, but she hadn’t imagined it would lead him to offer Ajay a position on the team. When she thought of the years of agony she’d endured working under the thumb of Helen Brock at JPL just to get an opportunity like this with Amato’s company, it burned Kiera to watch Amato capriciously hand out a coveted position. What could Ajay possibly bring to the table besides alien conspiracy theories? He wasn’t qualified to do jack-squat!
But she was more floored by Amato’s announcement of Callisto as their mission objective. While he had seemed interested in the clicks at first, his reaction to her lost-probe theory had left her with the impression he was unsettled by the idea of Callisto as a destination. Peering up at Amato as he began to speak, Kiera wondered what had changed his mind.
“I’ve come to a decision,” Amato said to Dante. “I’ve already mentioned it to Kiera. We will fly to Callisto and investigate the unusual radio signals.”
Dante nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. I was hoping you’d be intrigued by the idea. It will be an excellent test for the SatFleet on a number of fronts.”
“Agreed,” Amato said. “So, we need to escalate the testing schedule for Kiera’s engine and radiation shield, see if they can coexist without affecting comms. I don’t care how much it costs or how many people we have to throw at it. I want our testing done and a mission launched in three months or less.”
“Uh…I thought we weren’t launching for at least six months,” Dante said. “We still have bugs to work out in the fleet command programming and, as you know, we’ve barely started on instrumentation.”
“I have confidence in the two of you to make it happen,” Amato said.
“I don’t understand, Mr. Amato. Why the push in timeline?” Kiera asked.
“Because I want to get to Callisto before NASA or anyone else picks up the signals,” Amato said.
“Why?” Dante asked. “Even if NASA gets hip to the clicks, they couldn’t beat us there if we stuck with a six-month target for launch. The only mission they have in the works with Callisto as an objective is JUICE, and as we discussed yesterday, it won’t get to Callisto until the 2031 time frame.”
“You’re forgetting Juno,” Amato said. “It’s orbiting Jupiter as we speak and its mission has just been extended. I spoke to Dennis Pritchard not more than two hours ago. He said Juno will be placed into a wider orbit to study Jupiter’s magnetosphere from afar. Which means Juno will be closer to Callisto than it is now, and the probe has the equipment on board to detect Ajay’s clicks.”
“You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that,” Dante said. “But isn’t it reckless to accelerate our timeline just so we can stake a claim before NASA does?”
“Don’t assume NASA may be the only one interested in the clicks. Given what Ajay told me earlier about his efforts to get someone to pay attention to him, there may be others,” Amato said.
“Be that as it may, rushing a mission endangers its success. The original time frame was already very aggressive. Cutting it in half is insanity,” Dante said.
“I agree,” Kiera fumed. “And for what? A PR stunt?”
“This isn’t about a PR stunt. It’s about something much more important,” Amato said.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Kiera asked.
Amato ignored the abrasive tone of Kiera’s challenge. “It means I have a strong suspicion of what’s broadcasting those signals, and if I’m right, and NASA gets there before us, they will never reveal what they discover. In fact, I believe they would be pressured to remove or destroy what they find. The only chance of preserving the wreckage is to get there before anyone else.”
For much of the briefing, Pritchard had stared out his office window at the building across the street from NASA’s headquarters. While his deputy administrator, Elizabeth Stewart, led the discussion with the visitors from Goddard, Pritchard had fumbled with his eyeglasses and ruminated about the call with Amato and his interest in retired Colonel Paul Morgan.
Amato had said he wanted the former astronaut’s input on modifications to The Rorschach Explorer. Did that mean Amato was closing in on creating a viable spacecraft? The concept-ship had long been a mainstay of Amato’s ambitions, but even with his announcement of the gravity-assist feature, Pritchard still considered Rorschach the stuff of fantasy.
Imagined as a deep space vehicle, one that could transport a crew of astronauts to distant galaxies, Rorschach had been Amato’s first volley across the bow of the space exploration establishment. After years of privately railing at the modest ambitions of NASA’s manned space program, Amato had gone rogue the day the last Space Shuttle landed.
Pritchard still remembered the most famous quip from the July 21, 2011, press conference where Amato announced his multibillion-dollar commitment to develop the first privately funded manned spacecraft.
“Forty-two years ago today, man set foot on the Moon for the first time. Since then, we’ve done little more than circle the Earth and take pretty pictures,” Amato had said.
It was an unfair comment, minimizing the scientific accomplishments of thousands of dedicated people over the five-decade period since the first manned spaceflight. It also ignored the ambitious plans NASA had been formulating for a Mars mission, as well as competing private efforts under way to create c
oncept spacecraft.
When questioned how his endeavor would be any different from those of fellow billionaires already engaged in private space ventures, Amato had proclaimed, “Pah! They do it for ego and dreams of profit. They are not explorers...they are preening ponies!”
Amato had delivered several other quote-worthy barbs during the session, but the “pretty pictures” one had most bothered Pritchard. For above all else, Amato knew it wasn’t true. He was privy to the primary reason behind NASA’s hesitance to pursue more ambitious manned missions. Pritchard remembered thinking, “You should know better, Augie. You were there. You know what happened.”
Matter of fact, Pritchard now thought, so does Paul Morgan.
He felt a tap on the shoulder and turned to see Stewart standing beside him and the Goddard team gathering their materials. Stewart said, “We’re about to jump on the call with Houston, are you going to join us?”
“Uh…no. I’ve got something else to take care of,” Pritchard said, rising to bid farewell to his guests. He pulled Stewart aside as the others left the room. “Sorry I zoned out. My mind’s a million miles away this morning.”
“No problem. If you change your mind about the call we’ll be in my office,” Stewart said.
After Stewart left, Pritchard closed the door and paced the blue-carpeted office. Hands clasped behind his back and head lowered, he dodged around the leather chairs bordering the office’s sitting area and pondered whether to put Amato in touch with Morgan without first alerting the Pentagon to the request.
It had been twenty-three years since the UMO-Cetus Prime fiasco, but it remained the most closely guarded military secret in the country’s history. That it had remained a secret for so long was a testament to the integrity of the men and women involved in the mission. But every time one of the ISS cameras caught a glimpse of the fast-moving lights, à la the Destiny incident earlier in the week, Pritchard shuddered, expecting someone to step forward.
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