The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  THE PROJECT MANAGER

  Copyright ©2019 Terry Connolly

  All Rights Reserved

  Science Fiction

  “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”

  ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

  Dedicated to Daddy, Mammy, and Bernie

  Special thanks to my nephew J.P. Daly for his feedback and to my friend Colin Day for designing the cover. Thanks to Cleo Davies for endless cups of coffee in Brussels while I was writing it.

  Contents

  Chapter 1 October 2022

  Chapter 2 November 2025

  Chapter 3 2027

  Chapter 4 2028 to 2030

  Chapter 5 2030

  Chapter 6 2031

  Chapter 7 2038

  Chapter 8 2040

  Chapter 9 2040

  Chapter 10 2041

  Chapter 11 2042

  Chapter 12 2043

  Chapter 13 2043

  Chapter 14 2044

  Chapter 15 2046

  Chapter 16 2047

  Chapter 17 2048

  Chapter 18 2053

  Chapter 19 2056

  Chapter 20 2057

  Chapter 21 2059

  Chapter 22 8th of October 2061

  Epilogue 2067

  Chapter 1: October 2022

  We have stared at the stars so long. Since life first had eyes it looked upon the stars, did it wonder what they were? Could it wonder? Regardless that faint light was there, those photons from another time, and they called us out of the sea. Since life first had intelligence we drew pictures in the stars, and called them names. We saw hunters and dragons, bears and swans. We saw gods and goddesses and so we worshiped them. Since we first had tools we built monuments of stone to measure their movements. This wasn’t enough though, so we created lenses to make our eyes stronger. We still couldn’t see enough so we made those lenses bigger to take in more starlight, so strong was our thirst for it. Then we realised our own atmosphere was in the way so we placed these giant lenses on mountain tops and when that wasn’t enough we spent billions firing them into space.

  The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was the latest chalice from which we drank the starlight. And it intoxicated us. In just over one year of observation more and more planets beyond our own solar system had been detected and categorised than all the previous years combined. Most were gas-giants, but this is because they are big, and big things, naturally enough, are must easier to see than small things. This wasn’t what the astronomers on the ground were interested in though, well, not all of them, but for the first few months of the telescope’s operations they had made excellent targets to test the spectrum detection systems. Many gas giants orbit their stars in just a few days. When a planet passes in front of its parent star, to us the stars intensity appears to drop slightly. Someone viewing our sun from another star would see it dim slightly once a year as the Earth passes in front of it; however, they would probably need a James Webb Telescope of their own to see it. As the Earth passes in front of the sun its light passes through the atmosphere, interacts with it, and then continues on. A James Webb telescope pointing at us from another star would, years later, see this light, analyse it using its own spectrometers, and see such life giving ingredients as nitrogen, oxygen and water.

  The gas giants had made good targets, the different spectrometers worked well and so for the last few months the team’s focus had shifted to analysing the atmospheres of the smaller planets which had been previously detected by mountain top telescopes, particularly around Gliese stars, the stars closest to us. There weren’t many surprises to begin with. The first Earth sized planets had been discovered in 2011 so their atmospheres were the first to be measured. We knew they were there, we had a rough idea what they would be like from how close to their star they orbited. The number of Earth sized planets was astonishing. Once our methods became accurate enough to detect them they seemed to be everywhere, and Gliese stars were no different, those stars closest to us, the first places we looked, provided us with a wealth of targets. Enough to keep us busy for several years of data analysis.

  The weeks and months passed and the fourth anniversary of the JWST approached. The telescope had been a huge success. It had taken snapshots of the spectra of hundreds of planets already. Weekly the NASA press office sent out astonishing press releases; ‘Venus like planet discovered’, ‘Is this a possible water-world?’, ‘The bar that never closes- the planet where It rains alcohol’. By October 2022, such discoveries had almost become routine, at least news networks thought so. It is well known that the press has an insatiable appetite for a quick story or a sound bite. Since the invention of twitter a story should preferably be no more than one hundred and forty characters. The retweets, shares and likes had diminished from a flood to a trickle within three months of the first story. But a new deluge was coming.

  Most science fiction movies show such events as a little red light flashing on a panel and then someone, usually a minor character, goes ‘how long has it being doing this?’ Well, in reality, it happened nothing like this. It was early October 2022 and there was no flashing red light. Data arrives from the JWST and a programme analyses it for anything potentially interesting. If it’s interesting then it’s emailed to a postgraduate student, admittedly a minor character in the story, who looks at it as part of their research so they can write their thesis. If it’s not interesting, then it’s sent to a database where some crowd-sourced enthusiasts can access it and look at it when they have free time.

  The inbox of the postgraduate with whom this story begins belongs to a student named Maria Pereira. She would never be famous for the role she would play, as all noble minor characters are, that honour would go to her supervisor, but one day at least she would write a brilliant thesis and have graduate students of her own. It was 3:14pm, and Maria was on her fourth coffee of the day, trying to beat the food coma that had set in after a very late and very bland tasting lunch of dried up canteen vegetable lasagne followed by an equally tasteless white chocolate mousse. As she yawned a strand of blond hair fell into her mouth. She put up her hand to remove it and while it was there she shoved her glasses up the bridge of her nose a little bit. She was so tired, if only she could lie down, just for five minutes. Spectrum 20221008-010648-2b showed an atmosphere of mainly Nitrogen and methane. Maria dutifully catalogued these findings in the Extrasolar Planetary Database and verified the estimated orbit of this planet as precisely 6,582,000 seconds. This way, if anyone was interested, in about two months they would have the opportunity to observe its transit again. Spectrum 20221008-011856-1h consisted of mainly Carbon dioxide and methane, 20221008-012205-1d water and nitrogen, 20221008-013419-2c oxygen and water. Each one Maria had to write a short report on: what star did the planet orbit, did it correspond with the orbital period of the known planet being studied (there was always the tiny chance that it could be a new one), was this planet within the habitable zone, what did the atmosphere consist of, both main components and detectable minor components, was there a possibility of life. Most days went on and on like this. People always imagine scientific research to be exciting, edge of the seat stuff. It’s not, it’s boring, mind numbingly so, but occasionally there is a reward, a spark of something interesting, something that fires the imagination into overdrive. 20221008-031442-1a did this. Maria looked at it through her heavy post lunch eyes, the cup of coffee delivering its comforting aroma to her satiated olfactory senses. Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, argon, with trace amounts of methane, sulphur dioxide, Neon. Something looked familiar, something reached from the back of Maria’s mind, an internal voice screaming at her
through the haze to remember something. Maria didn’t need coffee to wake her up anymore! She shot up in her chair and moved closer to the screen, as though proximity to the information would make it more true. The software had automatically labelled the peaks in the spectrum, the biggest peak was labelled N2, and then the second biggest was O2, followed by H2O, Ar, CO2. But it was CH4 and the tiny peak labelled NH3 that made Maria stand up, and stare, and open her mouth. She looked around her, her colleague Greg was the only other person in the room, looking just as bored as she had a moment earlier. ‘Greg, can you come here for a minute?’ He looked at her, considered answering, and then saw her face. He stood up and rushed over.

  ‘What is it Maria? Another Venus type? Are you going to beat my record?’

  Greg had discovered two Venus type planets already, ones which had out of control green-house effects, atmospheres of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide with rivers of molten rock and acid rain. Not exactly habitable for life, but interesting since the theory went that if there could be several of them then the probability of a habitable Earth-like planet increased. They were however fascinating in themselves and Greg had already written enough papers to make sure his PhD was in the bag. But this was no Venus type planet.

  ‘Maria, is that methane AND ammonia?’

  ‘I …I think so, and there even seems to be trace amounts of ozone too. Could it be? Hang on I’ll check it against last night’s positioning.’

  Maria opened the list of spectral measurements. She was convinced it must have been a school-child error, somehow an incorrect coordinate or miscalculated position meant it looked homewards. At 3:14 am and 42 seconds the JWST was pointed out of our solar system, at a Gliese star, at a suspected Earth like planet.

  Back in 2016, the Keppler telescope had picked up a dimming event around Gliese 451, about 30 light years away. Since each candidate planet had to pass in front of its parent star for its spectrum to be measured, a list was compiled of when this occurred so they could be measured in order of transit rather than order of discovery. Gilese 451b passed in front of its parent star, between it and Earth, once again on the 8th of October 2022 at 3:14 in the morning. Well, it did that about 30 years earlier, but its light reached us that night, and the next day Maria Pereira processed its spectrum. Logged it with her name at the bottom of the file, and called her supervisor who was at a conference in Hawaii.

  One week later, following as much verification as was possible, though almost another year would be necessary until Gilese 451b passed in front of its star and full verification could be made, NASA issued a historic press statement. Science editors and journalists from all main press associations were gathered together at the Goddard Space Flight centre to see what the fuss was about. They had all received an urgent email the day before giving a tantalising hint that something big was about to happen. By using the words “historic”, “perspective changing”, “momentous” etc. the NASA communications team had guaranteed a packed house that morning. When the Administrator himself walked out to take the stage they really knew this would be big. The infestation of photographers with their whirring, clicking, and flashing cameras lasted a few seconds until he made himself comfortable at the podium.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated. Since you received your invitations to attend you have probably been wondering what in the heavens NASA might have to tell you in this day and age that could possibly justify dragging you all here at such short notice. Cassini, Hubble and the various mars missions piqued your interest but still the glory days of Apollo are long behind us and only a few of those brave men who walked on the moon are still alive. NASA has proudly kept space science and exploration going even when public interest has waned to the point it is at now. Our job here has never been to fill column inches or minutes on the evening news, but despite all the cuts to funding over the years I have enormous pride in my staff for keeping up the high standard of research for which we are known. Today though, my pride pales in comparison to the pride that all American men, women and children are about to have in these dedicated scientists and engineers”.

  “There was much debate among us as to how we should present this information to you, but after asking our animation team to stay up all night, we went with the following, Deborah if you would?” the lights dimmed slightly in the room followed by an uncomfortable silence accompanied by a low whirring sound as the screen descended behind the Administrator. On the screen a star appeared.

  “This ladies and gentlemen is Gliese 451 in the constellation Ursa Major. It is about 30 light years away. Keep that distance in mind, you will need it later. As we zoom in closer you notice it dim slightly. Something is passing in front of this star. By now most of you are probably aware that this has something to do with the James Webb Space Telescope. We only call you in for unusual announcements any more, two months ago only ten journalists showed up for the announcement of another Venus like planet, so surely that can’t be the reason behind our last minute press conference can it? Let’s zoom in a little closer and see”. The Administrator gave a wry smile as he left these words hanging in the air. He’d watched that press conference two months ago from the back of the room and remarked then on the fickleness of journalists. They had column inches to fill he supposed, though how many great discoveries of history had gone unnoticed because someone didn’t think it was more interesting than the latest celebrity break up, or reality TV blunder.

  Once the image had zoomed in he continued: “As you know we can now tell the make-up of the atmospheres of the planets we find so we can have a good idea as to what they might look like, hence this visual representation. A hot Venus type would usually be represented by a muddy orange planet or for a Jupiter type our animation team would give it a little colour and some planet sized storms. As you can see here, this one appears to be blue, but not just blue, there are white patches, and yes, that is green you see.” At this point some of the more frequently attending journalists began to murmur and lean forward in their seats barely able to contain themselves, yet still too unsure to let the excitement out.

  The Administrator pressed a button on the remote for the projector. “As you can see in this image, it’s the spectral analysis of the planet, we can be confident of the blue colour in our animation. There’s quite a bit of oxygen present in the atmosphere, however it’s these smaller peaks that make all the difference. Ladies and gentlemen, we believe we have discovered an inhabitable Earth sized planet that appears to have oxygen producing life”.

  Both hands and voices arose immediately as each reporter scrambled to be the one to get the sound bite of the decade. Not that the Administrator was famous for his sound bites, but they would try all the same.

  “Sam Thomson from Associated Press; how sure are you of this? One hundred percent?”

  “Thanks Sam, that’s a fair question. We’re not one hundred percent sure; we will have to wait another eleven months for that level of confidence. Its orbit appears slightly shorter than ours though it’s pretty comparable; we have calculated it by its transit time for which we have three accurate measurements. In testing the JWST has proven accurate, though naturally this accuracy decreases with distance, still, as this planet is only thirty light years away, we can assume the measurement we have is good, though when it orbits again we can get this confirmed to a greater degree of accuracy. From previous observations we are one hundred percent sure the planet is there, and we are sure of its distance from its parent star, any uncertainty comes from the spectral analysis of the atmosphere, we need another transit event for that. At the moment we can say we are about ninety five percent sure. Next question.”

  “Erika Shultz, CNN; You mentioned thirty light years as being important, can you elaborate?”

  “Good, I’m glad you asked that Erika. Thirty light years is significant for two reasons. The first is, as I mentioned to Sam, at thirty light years we can assume the measurements we have taken are pretty reliable. I mean we were even able to show
that it has trace amounts of methane, like our own atmosphere, indicating that life may be present. The second reason though, is something at least I find exciting. Thirty light years is pretty damn close. I mean in galactic terms it’s not our next door neighbour, but it’s at least walking distance to borrow a cup of sugar. Since most of us were young we have watched Star Trek, or at least an Alien movie, and wondered if that could really be so.”

  “Are you saying we could go to another planet?” interrupted Erika from CNN.

  “Unfortunately we don’t have warp drive or hyperspace so we are stuck with the limits imposed on us by the speed of light. Even with those limits, well, this distance is just within the realms of possibility. In my opinion we’ve found a destination, now we just need the will to go there. Next question please.”

  “Hans Forber from Reuters here; you mentioned the presence of methane suggesting life. Is this proof of life on another planet? What is its significance?”

  “Well Hans, (he sucked air loudly through his teeth), if it was methane on its own we wouldn’t be here, lots of planets have methane, it is a simple molecule that exists in abundance. What’s significant is the oxygen and carbon dioxide ratio that goes with it. All these elements are pretty common in the atmospheres we study. Most places we have studied have so much methane and carbon dioxide that nothing could live there, at least not life as we know it. Other planets we have found are often quite oxygen rich, but again this indicates it is probably too cold for life as the carbon dioxide would be frozen out of the atmosphere. What we have here is something akin to Earth and from that we can make a lot of projections. The oxygen presence along with a strong water signal, likely from water vapour tells us the air is humid but not too humid. The ratio of CO2 to O2 tells us that perhaps there is vegetation; forests which have persisted for a long time, at least long enough to create equilibrium in the atmospheric chemistry of the planet. We initially wondered if algae presence alone could have done this, but if so the atmosphere would probably be somewhat oxygen richer than it is. Either way, photosynthesis and respiration may be under way. It’s the methane that is the clincher, it indicates decayed organic mass, and perhaps enough decayed organic mass that we may be looking at a significant amount of vegetation present. It looks like a pretty pleasant place to live, at least atmosphere wise. Next.”