‘Oh, my God!’ I said as a sudden panic overcame me. I manipulated the right robotic arm and brought the small claw to within thirty centimetres of the object.
‘Touch it not, Eva,’ said Yuri hurriedly, grasping my arm.
‘No. Don’t worry. Checking radiation.’
‘Блядь! Yes. Of course.’ It was rare to hear Yuri emit a Russian profanity.
After a few taps and slides on my computer, we had a reading. Marginally radioactive, but only slightly stronger than the background radiation in this orbit. I reported it over the secure channel.
‘Sorry, you guys. We should have thought of that,’ said Gerald.
‘No harm done. Can’t think of everything,’ I said.
Yuri’s skill with the thrusters gave us the opportunity to circle and film it from all angles. Strange symbols on one side, gave the impression of a name followed by a sequence of dots. The first column of dots was three, followed by seven followed by two. If I’d been a gambler, I’d have said this was number 37’2. Was it to base eight, ten, sixteen or some less predictable sequence? Base nine or ten was hinted at by the central block of dots. Surely no creature
would choose base nine, divisible only by three.
What did the apostrophe represent? Or maybe it wasn’t an apostrophe, but a comma and we were viewing it upside down? 2,73 something?
‘Are you seeing this, Gerald?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’
‘да,’ confirming Roscosmos was still with us.
‘Permission to stop its spin, Gerald?’
‘No, Evelyn. Wait. We have people who want to consider your options and there are more on the way. Presume you’ve people arriving, too, Ivan?’
‘да. Us too,’ confirmed Ivan using English for the benefit of the numerous non-Russian speakers who must be arriving at NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA and Roscosmos. The trivial game of testing the Americans with the use of Russian forgotten in the excitement.
‘Don’t touch it, Evelyn, until we know what we’re dealing with,’ said Gerald.
Off air I said to Yuri, ‘That could be an extremely long time.’
‘Indeed,’ Yuri agreed, with one of his disarming smiles while raising his eyebrows.
I switched communications channel, ‘ISS. SDIV here. You copy us?’
A few seconds passed, and Brian answered, ‘Hi, Eve, copy you.’
‘Could be a while on this one, Brian. Let Mike know we’ll be late back. Difficult spin on it,’ I lied. ‘We’ll have to analyse and recalculate our trajectory.’
‘No problem, Eve. Be careful.’
‘We will,’ I switched back to the secure channel. We were now going to be very isolated. Our orbit and that of the ISS would quickly diverge.
Yuri manoeuvred us, so we were facing directly towards the artefact from the side. The mess of wiring and circuitry was much clearer as we approached to within a metre.
There was no way this was of human manufacture. The wires were multi-coloured but not insulated, almost as if the metal had colour built-in. They entered the components at seemingly random locations. One was broken in half and appeared to be an empty tube. Whatever had been within it was long gone. Although we could see the wires entering the exterior of the tubes, there was no sign of them inside. The inner surface of the broken tube appeared smooth.
‘See wires, Eva? They like hairs growing out of it.’
‘Yes, and they disappear inside.’ I felt a gut-wrenching sickness in my abdomen. ‘Looks hellish advanced,’ I said.
‘What we stumbled across?’
‘Don’t know, Yuri, but I’ve a feeling simply finding it will change our lives.’
‘да.’
I opened the microphone, ‘Gerald, this had a serious impact at some time. Are you seeing these wires and cylinders?’
A different voice replied, ‘Hi Evelyn. Peter Wright here. NASA’s taking over for a while and I’ll be your liaison with target four. Gerald will look after the unscrambled communications. We’re re-designating it AD1 for Alien Device One. Stand by while we assess the video. I take it you’re sure it isn’t a hoax.’
‘Copy that. I’m looking around for the mother ship as we speak!’ I said. I’d met Peter Wright a few times at the Johnson Space Center. He was a very cold individual with apparently no sense of humour.
‘Ha,’ I said in an aside to Yuri, ‘they’re talking about us behind our backs. You got plenty of images?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m still recording continuous eight K video,’ I said. I didn’t want to stop recording in case it reacted to us and I had plenty of memory cards.
‘What is this thing, Eva?’
‘Something more advanced than us. I’m glad we can see inside. At least we know it’s not a bomb.’
‘Our mission parameters will take drastic change of direction, I am thinking.’
‘Yes, no doubt.’
‘It seems only mechanical thing.’
‘Yes, Yuri. No little green men arrived in this.’
‘Evelyn?’ Peter’s voice.
‘Copy.’
‘We’d like you to camp out beside it there. We want some time to discuss this Earth-side. Any problem with that? Resources? Air?’
I looked at Yuri and he shook his head.
‘No problem, Peter,’ I said.
‘Hello, Evelyn, Gerald here, copy?’ came over the insecure channel a few minutes later.
‘Yes, Gerald?’
‘We want to think about whether we want you to nudge this one to burn it up or whether it might be worth cutting off and keeping the array. Are you okay to stay with it until morning?’
‘No problem, Gerald,’ I said, knowing the conversation was for the benefit of the ears of the listening public.
‘By the way,’ continued Gerald, ‘We’ve lost your video feed. Can you check out your end?’
‘Copy that, Gerald. I’ll examine the connections. When did it go down?’
‘It was broadcasting fine then suddenly cut. Happened about forty minutes ago.’
‘Copy that. Might be the antenna. I’ll get back to you,’ I said.
The main reason for the security delay was in case we had a catastrophic accident, but it was also useful if we didn’t want the public or media to catch sight of something until we’d examined it, exactly as had happened here. Those who designed the system were thinking “military” not “alien”. Having to conduct some subterfuge was not that unexpected. The nature of our discovery, however, was of Earth-shattering proportions. It had Area 51 written all over it.
‘Early dinner, Eva?’ asked Yuri, unstrapping himself and moving over to the storage lockers.
‘Any roast chicken in those supplies?’
‘да.’
‘Could murder a gin and tonic.’
‘Sorry. Bar’s dry,’ he replied.
We both moved to the back of the craft to eat, floating in mid-air watching an alien artefact from God knows where, rotating before us. One side incredibly alien and the other seriously trashed. What was it and why was it here? The questions were mounting.
After dinner, I reported back to Gerald on the open channel that the video dropout did appear to be a fault with our antenna, so we’d have to replace it when we returned to the ISS. That would explain to the media and public why there was no video feed.
I had come to space to help rid low-Earth orbit of worrying space junk and now I was becoming embroiled in the most incredible adventure. The significance to the world of our discovery of this alien wreck, would be enormous. We finally knew, once and for all, we weren’t alone in the universe.
Our current aspect had the artefact spinning slowly in front of us with the majesty of the rotating Earth beneath it. Earth had been the only place we knew of which supported life. This object proved not only that life existed elsewhere, but much more importantly, intelligent life.
After dinner, Yuri backed us off to
a safe distance, I shut down unnecessary systems and put on my harness. I set the laser rangefinder to ping the object silently once a minute and set off an alarm if the gap opened or closed by more than a metre. I tried to sleep, but with AD1 spinning in front of me I knew sleep wouldn’t come easily. I wished I could tell my dad.
5 Secrecy
Yuri speaking Russian on a secure channel woke me.
It took a moment to become fully alert and check our alien friend hadn’t done anything unexpected.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Yuri in Russian.
Who was he saying “Yes, sir” to? I’d missed the bulk of the conversation. A voice I didn’t recognise sounded from the intercom. It was ending the transmission, thanking “Captain Bulgakov” and telling him Roscosmos would keep him informed. I knew Yuri was still in the Russian military. Were they trying to muscle in on our find?
Yuri thanked the speaker and called him “sir” again. The slight hiss of the encrypted channel faded.
‘Who was that? Didn’t recognise the voice.’
‘He, dear Eva, is President Gorelov.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘No one kids about our glorious leader,’ he said seriously then laughed.
‘I only overheard the end where he said Roscosmos would keep you informed. Are you permitted to tell me the rest of it?’
‘Yes, it okay, Eva. Classified obviously, but Americans want to keep lid on this and …’
‘The Americans?’
‘Yes, it is them who want classified. We, Russians that is, are going along with it for time being. I’ve been ordered to not discuss it with anyone except encrypted space agency connections.’
‘But why was it President Gorelov calling you?’
‘They taking this very serious indeed. Bet you get special call in morning.’
My dashboard indicated four in the morning GMT. Moscow would be getting to work, but not Britain yet.
‘You think they will try stifle this news?’ he asked.
‘Sounds like the sort of thing governments would do.’
‘Area 51? Even Russians heard of it!’
‘Good God! With that thing sitting in front of us, I wonder whether there is something in Area 51. Maybe they really do have an alien spaceship there.’
We exchanged more serious glances. Given the nature of our discovery, the possibility was no longer a joke. No astronauts I knew of believed in UFOs – or so they said. Maybe this wasn’t the first alien object to be found. Had our governments been lying to us all these years? Was this object just one of many, including alien creatures and entire flying saucers?
Still guarding its secrets, revolving silently, it was revealing nothing but its extra-terrestrial innards.
I took a sip of water and slipped out of the harness to brace myself, stretch, and do some exercises.
‘Want a coffee?’
‘Please, Eva.’
We floated over our seats with our hot pouches, observing this piece of alien scrap and wondering how much was already known in the corridors of power about alien devices.
Coffee in the middle of a night period was a soon-regretted idea, but I did manage to slip back into a fitful sleep a while later.
««o»»
My alarm awoke me at seven. It hadn’t been a dream. An alien artefact revolved only a few metres in front of me. I metaphorically pinched myself to be sure it was real.
What about the secrecy? I wished I’d heard Yuri’s full conversation with Gorelov. It seemed weird that the Americans wanted secrecy. I would’ve expected it to be the Russians. Surely with such an international situation, no one could keep a lid on this. All those space agency scientists and communicators in America, Canada, Japan, Europe, and Russia knew about AD1. How could it possibly be hushed up?
I opened the general communication channel.
‘Good morning, ESA, we’re up and about, over.’
‘Good morning, Yuri, Evelyn. What’s the weather like up there?’ came from Gerald.
‘You’re in early, Gerald. Black sky but no rain! Made your minds up about keeping the array from target four yet?’
‘No. I’ll let you know as soon as we can, Eve. Someone’s trying to unearth the spec from the archives. I go off duty at eight.’
‘Copy that.’
‘Hello, NASA secure,’ I said using the encrypted channel.
‘Good morning, Evelyn, Yuri,’ said Roger Watts who was standing in for Peter Wright during the US night period.
‘Any thoughts about how you’re going to get it to Area 51?’ I said glibly.
‘Ha-ha, yes. That would start the tongues wagging, wouldn’t it?’ he said with a Texan drawl.
‘That wasn’t an answer, Roger.’
He ignored my jibe. ‘We’ll get back to you as soon as we can. It’s still the middle of the night down here so the boffins won’t be up and about for several hours.’
‘Okay. We’ll stand by.’
I looked at Yuri and raised my eyebrows.
‘Breakfast, Eva?’
‘Sure. One of those ham and mushroom omelettes, please. They’re delicious.’
‘Coming up,’ he said, removing his harness and gliding to the rear storage area.
Breakfast was consumed while watching AD1’s inscrutability with the night side of the Earth as a backdrop, only our own lights illuminating its iridescent hull.
‘Do you think we’ve been visited by aliens, Yuri?’
‘No idea. Understand why it kept secret to stop panic.’
‘You think ordinary people would panic?’
‘Possibly, Eva. Ignorant majority. A sensational headline could make boil over into panic. Like Orson Welles Martian panic.’
‘What was that, Yuri? Who was he?’
‘Ha. Thought you sci-fi mad. You never heard of?’
‘No. Spill the beans.’
‘In America, hundred years ago, Orson Welles reading War of the Worlds by Jules Verne. Was live radio broadcast. Caused panic as he described destruction by Martians moving across US countryside. People thought real. Surprised you not heard of it.’
‘I’ll do a search. Can’t imagine it causing panic. Didn’t H.G. Wells write that?’
‘Yes, Wells, but caused much panic, Eva.’
‘So they’re keeping a lid on it for that reason?’
‘Probably. You the psychologist. What you think?’
‘I think secrets never come to any good.’
‘Yes. You right, I think also, Eva.’
‘Wonder what it’s made of?’ I mused.
‘Nothing I recognise. Anodised aluminum is similar in appearance.’
‘Aluminium,’ I said, pronouncing every syllable.
‘There no second i in it.’
‘There was. The Americans cut it out for some reason. Why they cut it out of aluminium and not iridium, plutonium or the other ’iums is a mystery.’
‘Alu-min-i-u-m,’ Yuri said slowly as if conjuring a spell with the word.
‘Wonder how old it is?’
‘Metal pristine, even forward-facing gold area. Some pitting on main body though.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘No abrasion at all on the gold nose cone. Must be extremely resistant or new.’
‘Cannot be real gold then. Gold is soft.’
‘Yes. Unless it’s very new.’
‘Hello, Evelyn. Do you copy?’ the ESA secure line cut in.
‘Copy you,’ I replied.
‘Call for you.’
I raised my eyebrows to Yuri.
‘Hello. Doctor Slater?’
‘Yes, it is.’
‘This is Roger Clarke.’ Fuck me, it was the Prime Minister! I wished I’d had more time to think on the psychological aspects of this discovery before such an important call.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I’m calling you over this encrypted channel about the object which has been designated AD1.’
‘We want to learn more about it and are putting the investigation into the hands of NASA at this stage. I’m afraid I need you to consider the whole subject classified.’
‘I understand, sir. Might I enquire for how long it might be classified?’
‘We’re concerned an unprepared announcement could cause panic. It needs to be thought through when we’ve more information.’
‘Sir. Permission to speak freely?’
‘Yes, Evelyn, please do.’
Ha, first name terms now.
‘I was wondering last night about all the conspiracy theories over UFOs, Area 51, and the like. If you slap Secret on this device and the news leaks, it’ll be like a confirmation all the UFO nonsense was true after all. It could be incredibly damaging.’
‘Evelyn, Area 51, flying saucers, and all the other UFO conspiracy rumours really are just that. As far as we’re aware, this is the first alien object ever encountered and we need to be careful how we handle it.’
‘Are you sure, sir? I’m aware of the Official Secrets Act so won’t talk about this or anything else without permission but would hate to later discover I’d been misled and all the UFO stuff was true after all. It would be good to know about it now, sir, if that were the case.’
Yuri’s piercing blue eyes widened at my forthrightness. I could be very opinionated sometimes, but Mr Clarke sounded measured in his response, ‘Evelyn, I understand your concern, but I promise you, as far as I’m aware personally, this is the first alien artefact ever discovered. I promise you. We do, however, need time to consider all the implications of this thing. You do understand that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, sir. Thank you for taking the time to explain, Mr Prime Minister.’ Perhaps it was better than sir.
‘So, you’ll work with NASA on this and keep it classified?’
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