Covert Alliance

by Blair Wylie

  This time Francis whispered to the nearby engineer, “Sergei, what on New Earth is going on around here?”

  Sergei took his headset completely off this time. He looked sad and confused. Then he mumbled, “Something has gone terribly wrong! We did not receive the normal check-in confirmation signal from the probe when line-of-sight was re-established.

  “Instead we received an unusually terse message that the rover had entered the water. Then we received a series of images from orbit showing the fissure closing again. The images all had time-text notes, of course.

  “It looks like the fissure completely closed right after the rover first entered the water! And it almost certainly did not have sufficient time to submerge itself out of harm’s way!”

  “You mean, the rover might have been crushed and destroyed when the fissure in the ice sheet closed?” asked Francis a bit frantically.

  “Yes, that is exactly what it means!” replied Sergei while shaking his head. He now looked to be in a state of shock. Then he said quietly, “Look, I better not say any more to you guys. See why? Some guards are coming this way! I suspect you will now be asked to leave the mission control room, and right away.

  “I’m sorry, I have truly enjoyed your company…” He trailed off with a stifled sob, while lowering his head and covering his face with his hands.

  5

  Prime Minister Phillip Wong was now in his third term of office. The historical precedent established for competent and politically astute New Earth ‘supreme leaders’ was only two terms in office. But there was no actual law preventing a third term, and Wong’s left-of-centre party had been perceived as performing exceptionally well by the electorate.

  But suddenly, Phillip Wong had become very worried about his political future. The dramatic and inexplicable failure of the deep-space probe mission was probably a game-changer. It had consumed a vast amount of resources, and yielded very little in the way of new scientific knowledge. Wong had promised that great discoveries would undoubtedly be made to enhance the all-important Resource Development Plan. And that certainly had not happened.

  It was now approaching ten o’clock in the evening, and Prime Minister Wong was alone in his cavernous government office. He was a morning person, so he was feeling rather tired, and a bit out of sorts. But General Kepler had insisted on the need for an immediate meeting with him to discuss ‘startling new information’. The prime minister had subsequently asked that Science Minister O’Shea and Resource Minister Hernandez sit in on the impromptu meeting as well.

  At precisely ten o’clock, the top general in the world, and the two other inner-cabinet ministers, were ushered in to the prime minister’s office by Janet Osaka. Janet was the prime minister’s personal administrative assistant. She was a morning person too, and she looked visibly angered by having to stay at her post so late into the evening.

  Prime Minister Wong decided to completely ignore the presence of Janet Osaka. He found that was the best way to remind her that her role was completely subservient, and that she was very fortunate to have such a job. He rose from his desk and motioned for everyone else to take a seat in the adjoining lounge area. Then he waited beside his desk without further comment until Janet had stomped out of the room, and loudly closed the door behind her. He sighed, and wondered again if it was time to look for a new assistant.

  The prime minister walked over and took a seat beside the others. Then he asked pleasantly but bluntly, “So, General Kepler, what’s happening?”

  General Jorge Kepler looked even more out of sorts than Phillip Wong was feeling. His face was unusually flushed. There was a pitcher of ice water on the low coffee table in front of him. Kepler reached for the pitcher, then clumsily poured himself a glass of water. His hands were shaking! He took a long drink of water, spilling a few drops from a corner of his mouth. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of his left hand, and awkwardly thumped his water glass back down on the table.

  Then General Kepler took a deep breath, and said in a wavering voice, “Prime Minister, and fellow Ministers, we have just received a message from space. It reached us about twelve hours ago. It did not come from our Adatia moon orbital probe, or from any of our other satellites. It was a digital signal in a radio frequency. It was actually picked up by a radio telescope.

  “The message began with what we have just deciphered as a digital-code translation table. You know, a series of zeroes and ones, that we are now certain correspond to the twenty-six letters in our English alphabet, as well as our ten numerals from zero to nine. The translation table was repeated twice. Then the actual message was delivered, three times in succession.”

  General Kepler deliberately paused for a few moments to let the others consider the implications of this remarkable information. Then he said a little more steadily, “The message came from our moon – Addy! It was clearly in English, and without punctuation. But we think we have managed to properly insert some logical punctuation into it. Now, let me read to you the slightly-edited message.”

  The general then pulled a single piece of neatly folded paper from an inside pocket of his uniform jacket. He carefully unfolded the piece of paper, and slowly read out loud:

  ‘We need to talk. We want a meeting. Three of our emissaries will meet with three of your emissaries. Meet us on your moon, exactly two of your years from now. Come to where the beacon has just been activated. You have proven yourselves to be technologically advanced. But you are also naive. We will explain our views about you in our meeting. Your probe to the ice-covered moon around the fifth planet has been completely destroyed. Do not attempt to send another probe to that moon. Ever. We are the guardians of the lifeforms that are evolving there. And we are far more technologically advanced than you are.’

  No one said anything for a very long moment. The general carefully re-folded the piece of paper he had brought with him and handed it to the prime minister.

  The prime minister looked shaken and totally confused. He just held on to the folded piece of paper, and his eyes darted around to glance at the sombre faces of the other people in the room.

  Then Minister Abdul O’Shea simply mumbled, “Wow.” He was clearly reeling from the news as well.

  Minister Patricia Hernandez regained her composure first, and she said quietly, “Okay, wow as well, no doubt. Now, is there anything else you can tell us, General?”

  “Ah, yes, sorry,” Kepler mumbled. He reached into another inside pocket of his uniform jacket, and pulled out another precisely-folded piece of paper. He gently unfolded the sheet of paper and smoothed it out on the table in front of him. The others leaned closer to be able to look at the document.

  The letter-sized page was completely filled with a high-resolution image of the near side of New Earth’s moon, Addy.

  General Kepler pointed at a small red dot on the surface of the moon and said, “The, ah, beacon, is right here. Three-dimensional, or I guess four-dimensional, triangulation also places the origin of the radio message we just received in exactly the same place. It is a steep-sided, small circular crater, about sixty metres across. It is probably the collapsed roof of a lava tube. It appears black in visible light, so it must be pretty deep.”

  “A lava tube?” asked the prime minister slowly. He still seemed a bit dazed. Then he shook his head, and added, “Is that significant, General, somehow?”

  “Ah, yes, possibly,” replied Minister O’Shea. He looked at General Kepler, and the general nodded back at his friend with a weak smile to suggest he should continue. So O’Shea said, “The discovery of lava tubes on Earth’s moon led to the planning and development of cost-effective subsurface bases. The tubes provide natural radiation shielding and protection from meteor strikes. And they can be sealed airtight to make effective shelters for human habitation. They also provide a really effective and secure way to hide a moon base, I suppose.

  “We think our moon is similar to Earth’s moon in many respects, except it is smaller, and it may be riche
r in valuable metallic elements, like iron and nickel. Addy must have been there a long time, because it is has synchronous rotation through tidal locking, like Earth’s moon. That means we always see the same side of Addy from our vantage point on the surface of New Earth.”

  There was another long pause, then Minister Hernandez asked bluntly, “So, now what, guys?”

  “Yes, now what, of course,” mused Prime Minister Wong out loud. Then he said, “Ah, sorry! Definitely as an aside, and for your ears only, this obviously startling development may just have saved my political career. I mean, the great expense of the probe mission has now been completely justified!

  “But that is not really that important right now, is it, considering the far greater implications and ramifications?

  “The answer to Minister Hernandez’s excellent question is obvious to me. Now we must figure out a way to show up on time for our meeting, of course! I don’t mean ‘us’ specifically, but rather the three completely trustworthy, extremely fit and highly competent people that we will send to Addy to represent us.”

  “I completely agree with you from a security perspective, Prime Minister,” said General Kepler immediately. He looked to be more in control of his emotions. Then he added calmly, “We are likely dealing with aliens that possess highly superior technology, and probably by extension, more advanced weaponry. So, we absolutely need to determine right away if they are friends or foes! We frankly have no way to know right now what kind of a threat they are to us. So, we definitely have to establish the threat level we could be up against, whatever the cost!”

  “Yes, well, the cost will of course be astronomical, General,” mumbled Minister Hernandez, who was also the guardian of the overarching Resource Allocation Plan.

  “Okay, but is this meet-and-greet mission to Addy something we can actually do?” asked the prime minister a bit frantically.

  “Yes, thankfully it is, Prime Minister,” replied Minister O’Shea with confidence. Then he smiled and said, “You see, we have proven designs for moon landers and chemical-rocket boosters in our archives. An uncertain, up-front research and development phase is therefore not required. But two years is still a very short timeframe for building the right space craft and a suitable launch vehicle for it. And selecting and training a suitable crew will also be a significant challenge for us.”

  “So, obviously, we will just have to begin immediately, that’s clear!” said the prime minister emphatically. Then he added in the same loud voice, “And how do we do that? Do we go public with this, and right away? That would no doubt make our citizenry as frightened and anxious as we are right now, but that also might help get them onside quickly?”

  “Okay, that germ of an idea might have some merit, Prime Minister,” replied Minister Hernandez slowly. Then she sighed, and said, “But, I think we should put some very careful thought into how exactly we go public! I’m just thinking out loud, but in this case a simple press statement will almost certainly not be good enough. I think we’ll have to follow up with well-planned public consultations. This news will stress a lot of people out, like it has us.”

  “That is exactly why we cannot ‘go public’ with any of this, damn it!” growled Kepler abruptly. When he saw the others recoil in reaction to his stern words, he looked a bit sheepish and explained, “Sorry about that, guys. Look, only a few radio astronomers heard this message in its raw, cryptic form. We know exactly who these astronomers are, and they know that we know. They have all just been ordered into secrecy, and all of their raw data recordings have been confiscated. We can definitely keep a completely sealed lid on this!

  “So far, only a few security-force code experts have deciphered the message. And those guys all have top-level security clearances, and therefore are sworn to secrecy.”

  After a long pause to think, Prime Minister Wong said quietly, “Right, if we do not go public with the full truth, then we will need a plausible cover story. Maybe we could release something, without fanfare of course, about a subtle message that we think may have been detected during the probe mission that seems to suggest we should visit our own moon, Addy?

  “Furthermore, we could say we all believe it is high-time we started exploring for the valuable resources we think probably exist on our moon? And, maybe we should add that we plan in time to establish a small human-occupied base on Addy, and make it into something like a highly useful communication satellite?

  “Folks, for your benefit only, as I have yet to reveal this publicly, I’ve got another three years left in this term of office, and I have literally just decided not to run again.

  “I think I can withstand the political fallout from the failed probe mission to remain in office if I can somehow positively link it to an exciting new manned mission to Addy. And it will help, no doubt, if I can also stress this is just the start of an exciting manned space program that will have both a strategic and commercial upside.

  “Sorry, I have been having a bit of a discussion with myself, out loud! But, the more I think about it, that last point may be the one to stress with the citizenry.

  “The probe mission got us back into the space business, that’s all! We are finally ready to take the obvious, next bold step. And there may indeed be great riches on Addy!

  “So, I’ll start working right away with the Parliamentary Press Secretary, and proceed right away with that line of public communication.”

  Then after a longish pause, Prime Minister Wong said informally and in a friendly manner, “Patricia and Abdul, after this Addy mission is announced publically, I want you both to work with your respective ministries to jointly come up with a detailed plan for this new mission, and how we will resource it. Let me know when you have something ready for me to look at. I think we’ll let the general manage the construction and operational phases. This will also require very high security, and that’s the general’s business, too.

  “Now, is there anything else we should talk about before we break up for tonight?”

  “Ah, yes, there is something else I believe, Prime Minister,” replied Minister O’Shea slowly. Then he explained, “We need to watch the sky around us very carefully, and far more carefully than we have been doing. You see, I don’t think the three visiting emissaries are actually on our moon, I mean right now.

  “Rather, I think they will have to travel there from somewhere else, just like we will have to do. If we detect their spacecraft early enough, we might be able to determine its point of origin. I think the obviously intelligent beings that sent us this message, and who admit to destroying our deep-space probe, are probably living somewhere in our Sol-system. But we might have to wait until our meeting with them for verification. That is, if they should decide to tell us where they live.”

  The prime minister looked confused again, and very tired. Then he said quietly, “Okay, Abdul, and Patricia, include a more comprehensive space-monitoring proposal in your detailed plan as well. But please, avoid saying too much, if anything, about why this add-on is suddenly deemed necessary.

  “All of this prep-work has to be kept top secret, of course. Now, is there anything else, folks? No? Okay, then let’s break it off now, and try to get some rest. That may prove to be futile, I know, tonight anyway.

  “But we’re about to get a lot busier, and we’ll all need to find ways to get proper rest between many spurts of high activity if we are going to pull off this moon-mission successfully!”

  Prime Minister Wong then abruptly stood up, and the others followed suit. Then he shook everyone’s hand, and escorted them to his office door. When they had left, he returned to sit down behind his cluttered desk.

  He knew he could not hope to fall asleep after such an intensely disturbing discussion. However, he wondered if a bit more work might distract him enough for a bit of successful meditation before daybreak. But then he suspected he was only fooling himself.

  6

  Assistant Professor Francis Maldonado arrived early for the mysterious meeting
at Government House. She had received a letter from something called the Privy Council telling her exactly where she was to go, and exactly when she was to arrive.

  But she had not been told what the meeting would be about, or who else would be in attendance.

  Francis had never heard of the Privy Council, so she did a word search to find out about it via the internet. Apparently, it was a rather secretive group of retired ex-Cabinet Ministers who provided advice directly to the prime minister. It was not commonly known who was on the Council at any given time. And the word search did not reveal if the advice was proactively offered, or only provided upon the request of the prime minister.

  Francis always arrived early for meetings, and she decided this one would be no different. She strongly believed arriving late for any meeting demonstrated either an anti-social lack of consideration for others, or brazen rudeness. And trying to arrive exactly on time, well, that just increased the risk of arriving late through unforeseen circumstances.

  As a result, she found herself sitting alone in a richly-furnished meeting room deep within an administrative wing of the federal parliament building. An immaculately uniformed guard had carefully checked her credentials, and then he had escorted her into the meeting room.

  The guard was both friendly and grandfatherly. At a side counter in the large room, he had poured her a big mug full of steaming, highly-aromatic coffee. It tasted as rich and fine as it smelled. Francis wondered if this might be one of the many perquisites enjoyed within inner-government circles.

  When the guard had left the room, Francis sat down on a plush leather chair near the end of a twelve-seat, highly-polished, wooden table. She used the quiet time to reflect a bit on the previous couple of weeks.

  The Dean of Anthropology had insisted that her annual medical check-up had to be greatly expanded to include a week-long series of elaborate physical, behavioural and mental-aptitude tests. When asked for an explanation, the Dean had simply shrugged in a cavalier manner and said, ‘Francis, apparently it stems from a new government edict that now applies to everyone in positions like ours. We just have to accept these things when they happen.’