Beyond Kuiper: The Galactic Star Alliance

by Matthew Medney

  26 Luukmarm

  Anduuzil word for “feces,” commonly used as an insult.

  27 Article 37

  GSA protocol dictating the termination of any GSA personnel who disobeys a Code 54 communication blackout. Article 37 includes the termination of the offender’s family.

  28 Massacre of Giyan Prime

  5.4 million turns ago, the GSA was monitoring a rare system with two intelligent species evolving concurrently on different planets. When the Gorg, the more developed, went to colonize the other, the Hleesa, the GSA intervened. But when the Hleesa were given Class-S first, the Gorg became resentful. They attacked the Hlessa before their GSA status was finalized by throwing a nuclear arsenal into the atmosphere before GSA forces could stop them. The resulting battle within the system took heavy GSA casualties and ultimately led to the extinction of Hlessa and Gorg. The GSA changed its first contact rules after this event: if there are more than one intelligent species within a system, both must qualify for Class-S before first contact.

  Eleven

  Owl Post

  A light morning wind flicked autumn leaves across campus. Behind older, more traditional buildings, an impressive array of cutting-edge architecture sat in a unique formation. Along the top of the tallest, the evenly spaced windows varied wildly in size and shape. The polarized polyResonate1 plates could expand or contract on command: their fluid geometry directed by magnetic fields. The first of their kind, they were designed by Dr. Lisa J. Hubert, director of MIT Labs.

  Below, a young blonde student led a group of Kepler sixth cycles on tour. “The northwest lab holds the largest concentration of nanotechnology on the planet.”

  There was a question. “Kepler’s nanotechnology lab is pretty extensive; how does that translate into getting accepted here?”

  It was a good question. Kepler funneled over 20% of its best and brightest to MIT. Even more impressive, 40% of that group who graduated MIT went on to work at Outer Limits labs. The relationship between the three institutions was deep and enduring.

  “We suggest a minimum of 4 robotics courses, three independent projects....” Her gaze caught by the appearance of an elegant woman, she stopped mid-sentence. “Dr. Hubert! Wow! How are you?!”

  “Mary, great to see you.” Lisa Hubert was formidable, but her tone was open and friendly. “These our latest Keplers?”

  Pleased to have the director remember her name, Mary beamed. “Yes, they are!”

  Lisa took in the group. “I remember when I was at Kepler. These years of care-free exploration will be the best of your lives. I don’t want to interrupt, but if any of you have questions for me, I’m happy to indulge.”

  A girl’s hand shot up. “I’d like to ask about CERN. What...”

  Dr. Hubert cut her off. “I’ll stop you right there. Every student asks about CERN, so I’ll tell you what I tell them. The explosion was tragic; the lives of many friends and colleagues were lost. As to the cause, the extensive, relentless investigation into my family and friends made it abundantly clear my husband was in no way responsible. Now, I’ll throw in some free advice: learn, create, experiment, innovate. Don’t waste time assigning blame where it doesn’t belong. It fills your head with hate, leaving little room for anything else, and it certainly won’t get us off this planet any faster.”

  She headed off knowing the answer wouldn’t discourage them from pondering the big question: What really happened? She hoped Bernard’s CORE breakthroughs would soon lay waste to the endless suspicion they’d endured. Time would tell.

  Drawing closer to the lab, Lisa noticed a peculiar bird atop the registration building. Given the daylight and the familiar black and gold patches on its feathers, she chuckled at her husband’s nerdiness.

  “Ah, Bernie, you’re back to communicating by owl2.”

  The mall was well-trafficked, but this was MIT, so no one batted an eye when the owl flapped down and spoke to her. “I’ll meet you in your office.”

  Once there, Lisa threw open the window. The owl flew in and perched on the coat rack. Not bothering to face it, she set her things down. “So, what’ve you been up to?”

  It took the feathered friend a while to encode and transmit her words. It must be a new prototype. Bernard’s response came half a minute later.

  “Oh, the usual, making interplanetary travel a reality, saving the world, and so on.” She was stunned. “The Mayflower was a success?! But the reports said...”

  The delay somehow resolved. The answer came quickly, “Don’t believe everything you read, love. I am sorry I’ve been away, but I’ll be home this weekend, at last! Isn’t that fantastic? I can even grab you from the airport.” Abruptly, he took on a more serious tone. “I do need a favor. Would you invite Ava and Galena for dinner tomorrow? I have a business proposition for them.”

  To mask her anxiousness, his better half feigned mild amusement. “I don’t hear from you for two weeks, you make a major scientific breakthrough, neither of which is unusual, but your first request is for a business dinner with my best friends? What could possibly be happening in St. Bernard Hubert’s world that he must wine and dine Iron Man’s Maya Hansen and the 21st century Leonard McCoy? Oh, never mind, I’m sure it’s a long story. It can wait until we’re together along with my more personal congratulations.”

  “Sweet Lisa, I commend your wit and thank you for lowering yourself to my level. Oh, I met with Angie and Will. They agree we have...” Suddenly realizing the match he’d lit, his voice trailed off.

  “Talking to Angelika On, are we?” Lisa dropped her sweet tone. “Getting fired and left to the wolves wasn’t a big enough deterrent?”

  The delay returned—conveniently. It was a full, long minute before Bernard spoke through the owl again. “You know what the fusion drive means for the world? For our family? We need Angelika, we need Will, we need Godric, Galena and Ava, too.”

  Looking down at her quantum entanglement papers, she briskly took note of her counterparts’ argument. “I’ll make sure Galena and Ava are there. 19:45?”

  “Perfect. I’ll cook my famous four-cheese serrano alfredo.”

  She laughed genuinely. “Why didn’t you start with that? It’d have made the conversation easier for you.”

  The owl winked and flew off, leaving the MIT lab’s keeper of the keys with a whirlwind of emotion: happy, proud, anxious, sad. She always knew about Bernard’s plan to clear his name and theirs, but the price, a five year space voyage, had just grown much more real making it increasingly hard to swallow.

  Morning blended into afternoon as she reviewed the weekly lab report, answered 237 emails, and texted Isaac. When her watch struck 18:00, she jumped behind the wheel of her Newton 7GRX3—and headed for the New England Intercontinental Airport4.

  The flight to the Carolinas particularly dragged painfully lengthening the hours until she could see her partner and equal. Nibbling an edible to calm her nerves, Lisa nodded off and, thankfully, didn’t come to until the plane touched down in the fading twilight of purple rolling mountains. For a blissful moment, her worries about the months and years to come faded.

  The cylinder seating carriage detached from the fuselage lowering passengers to the wet ground. She stepped out and there he was—her knight—leaning against the car hood cleaning his glasses. The choice to bear the weight of the world had aged him considerably, but he remained as handsome as he was on their wedding day.

  He met her eyes and smiled. “Hey, sweet young lady, I think I used to live here, but it’s been so long I don’t remember.” He pulled a piece of paper tucked in his hat, bowed, and presented it. “Can you decipher this map I wrote for myself? It’s super intuitive.”

  Seeing the blur of vector equations, she returned the smile. “If I recall, kind sir, there’s nothing more stimulating than a woman who’s good at math.”

  With practiced precision, she folded the paper over and over until it became an origami flower. The last corner in place, the compass bearing for their home
became visible in the math. A sucker for their old method of passing notes in Kepler classrooms, she handed the flower back.

  “You seem to be on the right track, sir.”

  Bernard wrapped his arms around her waist and engulfed her in a hug. Thinking this might be the last time things would be so simple, Lisa tried to make it last giving him an extra squeeze before letting go. The warm, secure feeling lasted until they were on their way home.

  With a slight sigh, she said, “Start at the beginning.”

  The recap occupied nearly all the hour and twenty-minute drive and left her agitated. Looking away from her husband with arms crossed, she said, “You couldn’t have updated me on anything? You even went to see Isaac, and he said nothing. His own mother.”

  Bernard pursed his lips. “I’m trying to keep a low profile. We have to assume our communications are still tapped.”

  “Seriously? You hid an entire second fusion drive from your own company, but you’re worried about our phones? This over-compartmentalization is too much, Bernard, even for you.”

  He reached over and held her hand. “I know. I need help; I admit it. That’s why this time I’m asking for it.”

  Lisa kissed his knuckles. “Bernard William Hubert, I know you better than you do. You’d much rather carry the world by yourself. Your ambition is breathtaking, one of the great things about you. Please be careful that it doesn’t become your undoing.”

  He broke his gaze from the road to look at her. “Undoing? Lisa, we’re already undone. I’m trying to stop the human race from stalling out.”

  “I know, but don’t think seeing the logic makes the conclusion any easier for me. You haven’t shown the slightest regret at the thought of leaving us. It’s hurtful, Bernard.”

  The tires clacked as they crossed a small bridge overhung by tall sycamores. “I’m not lacking in feelings, my sweet; I’m full of purpose. History has scores of couples separated by extraordinary circumstances and a shared duty to better the world. Today, we’re that couple.”

  She let go of his hand. “Yes, but you actually want us to be that couple.”

  “Destiny demands it of us.”

  Oh, she understood; she’d understood completely since that night at Kepler. They were lying beneath the pines, gazing at stars, debating the existence of intelligent alien life when she asked.

  “What if they are out there, but they don’t want to talk to us?”

  The idea upset Bernard deeply. He went on about it for hours lamenting how all the joyful products of humanity might never be shared. He was terrified that our species might remain alone, not for a lack of effort but a lack of worth. The implication was unspoken, but Lisa heard it clearly enough: If humanity wasn’t worthy, how could Bernard Hubert be? He’d vowed to find the answer, and the quest had driven their lives ever since right up to this moment in the car.

  “You’re angry.”

  Sometimes the great genius was adorably clueless, particularly when it came to emotions.

  “You’re perceptive.”

  “We’ve had this conversation, Lis, many times. We’ve agreed.”

  “I still don’t see why I can’t come with you.”

  He gave the standard answer. “Because your abilities cannot be taken out of play on Earth. The world doesn’t need another astrophysicist, but it does need your nanotech expertise.”

  When he tried to clasp her hand and kiss it, she recoiled.

  Bernard looked her dead in the eyes. “And one of us needs to be here for Isaac.”

  She let him think he was being chivalrous but only for a moment. “Your beautiful arguments are utter bullshit. Isaac isn’t a child anymore. You’ve seen him. You know. You also know damn well that five years in space could bring a century’s worth of nanotech discoveries. Will you please finally tell me the real reason?”

  He forced a half-smile. “At least you know it’s not Angelika.”

  In an effort to be witty, he’d skated onto thin ice. Her eyes threw daggers. “Yes, how very reassuring of you not to include her in the crew.”

  Bernard’s surrender came in the form of a long exhale. “All right, all right. We both know there’s a very good chance I won’t be coming back. One of a thousand possible reasons is that the aliens will be hostile. In any case, if I fail, Isaac has to carry on and lead a second expedition. Yes, he’s no child; he’ll thrive on his own, but he is young and losing both of us could set him back. He has to be fully prepared, sooner rather than later, in science, politics, business, and warfare. You have to ensure that happens, Lisa, that he has the discipline to know when to act and the courage to do so properly. Can you see that I can’t possibly trust anyone else to do the job?”

  Lisa smiled at the sincerity and endless trust. Here was the man she loved, following his destiny, convinced he could change things for the better. She believed he could too. Knowing if the roles were reversed, she’d have asked the same; a tear rolled gracefully down her cheek.

  He was tearing up too. “I love you more than you can imagine. I love you more than I can imagine.”

  Eyes ahead, they held hands snug in the conclusive silence until Bernard turned onto their street. Lisa cleared her throat.

  “There’s some good news. Ava’s flight doesn’t get in until tomorrow.”

  Pleased by the dangerous look in her eye, Bernard sped up. That night they made their own universe: exploring its depth and breadth until the sun regretfully rose.

  ---

  Dr. Galena Hunter jogged out of the airport, wheelie in tow, to a familiar shout and a frantic wave. Lisa called from a top-down convertible: “Get in, gal! We’ll be late!”

  “Coming!”

  She tossed her bag in the trunk. “I was half-out the door when a student group returned from Africa claiming they’d been exposed to Ebola. If you’re going to make yourself sick to skip school, at least do the research. I actually had to remind them that if you’re not vomiting and shitting blood after twenty-four days, it’s not Ebola; it’s dysentery. Go drink some fluids and stop wasting my time. Anyway, the initial tests were negative, and there’s nooooo protocol dictating a full quarantine, so here I am.”

  Galena hopped in, hugged Lisa, and buckled up. “Amateurs. At that age, I was selling four-hour flus out of my Hubble5 dorm good enough to fool Kepler nurses.

  Lisa gave her a look. “Oh?”

  “Oh, right. You’re a Kepler, aren’t you?”

  “Loud and proud. Loud aaaaaaaand proud,” Lisa said. “Well, I may not have been able to fool your test.”

  “Hey, I’m sorry you weren’t there so I could buy your flu.”

  Laughing, they drove off amidst fiery, autumnal colors; yellow-leaved tulips, orange hornbeam, shining red dogwood, and oak. Forests stretched all around, their isoprene giving the Blue Ridge Mountains their name. Boston’s industrial smell was one of the few things Lisa didn’t like about MIT. Here, the fresh air whipping by was intoxicating. By the time they reached the Hubert homestead, they were in a perfect mood for a jovial dinner and meeting of minds.

  Galena stared. No matter how many times she visited, she couldn’t get over the design. It was straight from Kepler’s campus. The sixty-meter house had no corner or end. Glass from floor to ceiling, its two levels, linked by sweeping staircases, flowed and warped around one another forming an infinity symbol. Despite the edgy design, it had a cozy, inviting air.

  “Bernie, we’re home!”

  “In here, darling. Ah, Galena, excellent! Ava and I were just getting into the uses of nanobots in microbiology. Oh well... to be continued.”

  The renowned biologist, who was also a maid of honor at their wedding, had been chatting with her husband in the study. The half-empty glasses of ‘44 Malbec from Buenos Aires had no doubt put some of the gleam in their smiles. Bernie raised his to their guests.

  “I appreciate you both being here, especially on such short notice.”

  Ava snickered. “Thankfully, travel and meetings involving Lisa Huber
t can be expensed as research. Perks of being an O.L. contractor.”

  “Some of us didn’t go to Kepler,” Galena said making it clear she’d paid for her trip.

  “Right, Hubblepuff.”

  Lisa snorted at the old school rivalry. Bernard moved quickly to restore the peace with wine. “Malbec or Pinot, my dear?”

  “Pinot, please.”

  “I’ll have the Malbec,” Galena said while removing her travel boots. “Thanks.”

  Bernard met them in the foyer where he exchanged freshly poured glasses for their bags and waved them into the study. As they sat, he disappeared into the kitchen to retrieve appetizers.

  The instant he was gone, Ava cornered Lisa. “Is it true?”

  “Is what true?”

  Galena rounded on her. “Stop it. You know exactly what.” Lisa put her nose in the air. “I’m sure I’ve no idea.”

  “Drop the act, Lis.”

  “Tell us now, or we’re leaving.”

  Begrudgingly, she gave in. “Of course, it’s true. Why else would he be making the alfredo? You’re here because he has a business proposition for you.”

  As if she’d won an award for guessing, Ava exclaimed. “I freaking knew it!” “Interesting,” said Galena. “So, are you going?”

  Lisa started at the question. She despised having to answer, but her friends were keenly waiting.

  “One of us needs to stay… for Isaac,” she said, in a tone that dared them to challenge her motherly instincts.

  Oblivious, Bernard reentered with pigs in blankets, caprese salad, and his famous portobello french fries.

  “We have much to discuss.” He looked around to be sure everyone understood the gravity, then added, “And none of it should be done on an empty stomach.”

  Wasting no time, he grabbed a handful of the finger foods and stuffed it in his mouth. Appropriately amused, the others joined in. After making short work of the appetizers, they took their glasses to the dining room.