Earth Station (Station Series Book 1)

by Martin Schroth

  “ESSI, what can you do to make our take off look spectacular? I want them to really think that they are dealing with extraterrestrials.”

  “I can have MV-1 raise a lot of dust and rise slowly for the first 200 meters and then shoot like a bullet into space. That should be dramatic enough, don’t you think.”

  “Perfect. I’m sure glad to have you along, or part of you anyway.” ESSI was turning out to be a huge asset to Earth Station.

  It took an hour and a half to get ready to leave. The special ops troops were nearly ready to attack. They had moved in some heavy artillery and ESSI detected that there was also a nuclear device in their arsenal. Time to leave.

  “Paul, get us the hell out of here. Things are going to get to exciting for my blood in a few minutes.”

  The lift off went just as ESSI planned it. It was pretty cool. ESSI showed us the inside of their headquarters as we took off. They were scrambling around like chickens with their heads cut off. The MV-1 crew all laughed so much that they nearly fell down. I guess we shouldn’t be laughing. This could be a very serious development, Mike thought to himself.

  MV-1 rocketed into space, out beyond any of their ability to detect; then moved over Earth Station and slowly descended being careful not be detected by any surveillance. They soon landed. Mac and Jake were waiting for them.

  Jake walked over to them. “Little bit of excitement eh. The three of you get something to eat and then meet us in the conference room in a few minutes for a debrief and a strategy session.”

  What a day thought Mike. I don’t think any of us ate anything since yesterday. I’m starving and I hear they are serving pizza. Paul, Barry, Mike and the rest of the crew worked their way up to the cafeteria for a well-deserved meal.

  March 14th, 2112

  The debriefing went as expected. Our crew did a good job. Being the director of Earth Station can be a stressful job sometimes. It’s been two days since they got back and the team is working overtime to figure out a way to get the rest of the gravium out of the ground at the New Mexico site. Our morning meeting today is mostly to make decisions on what we need to do to accomplish that task.

  “What are we hearing from our mites?” I asked Mike.

  “They are trying to keep the whole incident under wraps. They are searching the local area of space around earth for the alien spaceship. Obviously, they are not having any luck,” Mike said with a chuckle.

  “Anything from the mining site?”

  “They are being really careful about digging. They want to make sure they don’t miss something. We’ve got probably two – three weeks to get the rest of the gravium before they find it. Has anyone come up with a way to get at it?”

  Barry answered, “I’ve been working with ESSI and I think we have a plan. We can land a few kilometers from the site and drill at an angle toward the deposit. John has come up with a way to dampen the vibrations of the drill so their seismic detectors can’t ‘hear’ the drilling. We are planning to use one of the smaller cargo vessels that has been outfitted with a smaller drill and all the necessary equipment, we are calling it MV-2. It doesn’t have any of the gravium extraction machinery – that would have taken up too much space, so we are just bringing the ore here to be processed.”

  “I have a proposal for everyone to vote on,” Maggie began. “The computer team and engineers have come up with several robotic devices which can do all the work outside of the cargo vessel. ESSI will control them and they can work faster and more efficiently than a human. Barry and maybe one or two others could make the trip but they wouldn’t have to step outside. We project that we could get the rest of the gravium ore out of the ground in less than twelve hours. It would take twice that long if people were involved in the process. The only problem is that we haven’t tested them in the field. If things go wrong, each robot has a self-destruct module which will totally vaporize the robot, leaving no trace. So, what do you think, do we field test them in a real live mission or do it the way we have been doing it?”

  Obviously, Maggie, Phil and John wanted to use the robots. I looked at Barry, “Barry, what do you think?”

  “I’m always up for doing things easier. We here at Earth Station are all about innovation, so even though I feel a little apprehensive, I’ll go along with using the robots.”

  “Let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of using the robots, raise your hand.” Everyone but Mike and Mac raised their hands. “The motion carries but I want to hear your objections,” I said looking at Mike and Mac.

  “Using the robots puts too many variables into the operation we are not familiar with. Since you guys are going to use the robots, I want to make sure every aspect of this mission is reviewed and practiced before they go,” Mac replied.

  “Okay, you guys have one week to put together the mission and practice all the parameters. If we run into too many glitches, we do it the old way. Agreed?”

  Maggie did the talking for the pro robot crew. “Agreed.”

  “Now on to some other business. I’ve asked Richard Greenfield to join us and give a rundown on our finances, Richard?” I said, drawing attention to him.

  “I’d like to start by telling you that we are doing great financially. We are well into the black and our assets are growing even though we are spending like crazy. We now have five resorts around the world for our people to take their vacations. Our credits are spread out over all the major financial centers of the world. We can absorb a considerable number of hits without affecting our operations. Our gross worth is just over seven trillion credits. I am working on acquiring assets which will give us independence from other countries. Shortly we will be the second richest ‘country’ in the world. I suggest when we come ‘out of the closet’ so to speak, we form our own political entity thus ensuring our sovereignty and independence in our world. I would ask that we get someone who would know how to do that soon. It would be prudent to have all our ducks in a row beforehand.”

  “Charlie, could you begin the search for our political guru? Try to find someone who will be comfortable with our way of doing things. In other words, I don’t want a typical politician or bureaucrat. Do you think such a person exits?”

  “I believe I know a few individuals who would fit the bill. I’ll put out some feelers and see what happens.”

  “We have a lot of work to do, so if there is nothing else, I suggest we get to it.” I looked around and they all were itching to go. “Meeting adjourned.”

  ….

  The next week was a blur. Finally, the day came to make our attempt at getting the remaining gravium out of the New Mexico site. Besides Barry, Mike stepped up to go on this mission because he has had previous experience and handled the last fiasco with great success. Besides, we may need the services of our extra-terrestrial again, I thought with a grin.

  They took off early in the morning and were at the drill site within an hour. Intel was monitoring the ‘earthlings’ to see if they spotted us. All clear so far. The drilling began and through some magic that the intel and computer geeks accomplished, we were able to tap into the seismic station they set up that caught us last time. Not a peep. John’s dampening seemed to be working as designed.

  The drill reached the remaining gravium in a couple of hours and was withdrawn from the hole. The attending robots scurried down the hole, which could barely fit a human being, and started extracting the gravium ore. Most of the rest of the ore was extracted when Intel detected a commotion going on at the command base. It seems the seismic station detected our robot’s activity, but barely. The drill had been dampened but not the smaller equipment the robots were using or the robots themselves.

  ESSI came up on the wall monitor. “They have cranked up the sensitivity of the detectors. They are getting a lot of false positives from both natural and local activity. To their credit though, they are sending troops out to check every occurrence. How much longer before you guys are done?”

  “Looks like about fifteen more minute
s and we will be done extracting the ore, then another half hour to collect our robots and fill the hole,” Barry said.

  Time went by slowly. “Oh shit!” came out of Barry’s mouth. “A small cave in has disabled two of our robots. We won’t be able to get them out in the time we have left. In two minutes, we will have all the ore out. ESSI can you send a destruct signal to the disabled robots?”

  “That won’t be a problem. Just say the word and it will be done,” ESSI came back.

  “I’ll let you know when the other robots are on board.”

  “The troops will be here within the next fifteen minutes.”

  “We can get our robots out but we will not be able to refill the entire shaft. A third of it will still be open. It doesn’t matter at this point. Even if the go all the way down, they won’t find anything. In two minutes from my mark, send the destruct signal.” Barry looked over and saw that there was only one robot left for retrieval. “Mark”.

  After two minutes, exactly, ESSI sent the destruct signal. As advertised, the robots vaporized completely, leaving only a gaseous residue which will dissipate within a few minutes.

  The troops had not made it to the site by the time MV-2 took off. Since they hadn’t actually seen us, the takeoff was not as spectacular as the ‘alien’ MV-1 takeoff. The cloak did its job, and MV-2 left without being detected. When the troops got there, they found a meter-wide hole and that’s all they found.

  MV-2 made it back to Earth Station with its precious cargo.

  Maggie and I were waiting when MV-2 landed. “Even though we did have some excitement, everything went as planned. I can just see them now standing above the hole scratching their heads. Maggie, could you get with John and see if we can improve on our dampening? It seems they are not standing still and are working overtime to figure out what they are dealing with.”

  “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We didn’t anticipate their improvements on the seismic station sensitivity, but it is really nothing that we can’t solve.”

  “So, is it pizza for dinner?” Barry asked.

  “Of course. It seems that has become the meal of choice when our missions return,” I said as we all headed down to the mess hall. We are calling it that now since ‘cafeteria’ doesn’t sound as cool.

  April 1st, 2112

  Dr. Skrimov gave me a call this morning. He seemed pretty excited to show me something. I’ll be heading down that way as soon as I finish some of this damn paperwork. The last mining operation went without incident. The deposit was in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia just north of the little town of Pilaya. There was close to three tons of gravium extracted. Earth Station now has all the gravium there is on the planet earth. The total amounts to almost eighteen tons. That ought to last us many years, even if we decide to share.

  Dr. Skrimov is a peculiar kind of guy. He insists on being called Dr. Skrimov. Nobody calls him Vlad. When I got to his lab, he was hunched over a table messing with a box that had one side open. “So what’s up Dr. Skrimov?”

  “I’ve finally finished the FTL quantum communication device. Besides communications being instantaneous, they are impossible to detect or intercept. There is a drawback however. Each device can only communicate with its quantumly entangled partner. I’ve managed to overcome that limitation by having all communications pass through this station. If for instance I want to speak to someone that does not have the paired device, I send the signal here and it transfers to the device which is paired to the recipient and the signal is sent. This cause a slight delay – on the order of a few hundredths of a second. That’s not significant enough to be noticeable.”

  “How big are these things?”

  Dr. Skrimov pulled out a small device the size of a pack of cards and handed it to me. “Here is your personal communication device. It is quantumly paired with this receiver.” He pointed to a rectangular box about 2 meters wide and long and 1 meter high. “This receiver contains one hundred quantum connections and has room for about two hundred more. When a signal comes in, it has a header which contains the ID of the communicator that you wish to connect to and the receiver automatically switches the signal to the part of the receiver that is entangled with the recipient’s device.”

  “Who else has one of these communicators?”

  “All the space vehicles in ESSC have had the communicators installed. You are the first individual that has a device. Who else would you like to have one?”

  “I think all the members of the executive team should have one and then we can decide, as needed, for any others.”

  “I believe there are nine members of the executive team including yourself. Here is a box with eight more devices, which you can pass out to them.”

  “The FTL speed of these devices won’t be significant until we get out into space. It only takes about one tenth of a second for a signal to travel halfway around the earth, so there is no advantage as far as speed but the fact that it is impossible to intercept the communication makes it invaluable for security. I’m going to recommend any communication beyond the boundaries of Earth Station be made using these devices. Is it possible to connect to conventional com devices?”

  “Each FTL radio also contains a standard communication feature which allows it to be used as a conventional com device.”

  “This is awesome. That’s some great work Dr. Skrimov. What’s next?”

  “Watch this.” Dr. Skrimov took a small marble and rolled it into the box he was hunched over when I came in. “Go over to that table,” pointing to a table on the far side of the lab.

  I walked over to the table which had an identical box.

  “Open the far side of the box.”

  As I did so, the marble came rolling out. I looked confused.

  “The two boxes have a ring of quantumly entangled atoms which creates a rift in the quantum foam. This allows objects traveling through the ring to instantly appear at the ring of paired atoms, wherever they may be. It only works for small objects – smaller than 1 cm across. My team is in the process of trying to enlarge the opening but we haven’t had any success yet. I am confident, though, that it is only a matter of time before we figure it out. Distance between the paired atoms is not relevant, they can be millions of kilometers apart and the transfer will still be instantaneous.”

  I shook my head. “This is unbelievable. It’s like something out of a sci-fi movie. Great work Doc.”

  “It’s Dr. Skrimov,” He said in a stern voice.

  “Sorry Dr. Skrimov. Your work is just amazing. Keep me updated on your progress. Thanks for the communicators. I’ll get them distributed right away.” I gave him the thumbs up and walked back to the elevators. We are coming up with unbelievable advances here. With all that we have done, we are like an advanced alien race. Mike was not far off when he pretended to be a space alien, I thought with a smile.

  ….

  I worked my way up to ESSC to talk with Paul. He had something to show me also. It will be a tough act to follow after Dr. Skrimov.

  “Hey Paul, what’s up? I come bearing gifts.”

  “I need you to see what Heinrich is doing. Gifts, huh? What have you got?”

  I handed him one of the FTL radios. “This is an FTL radio and it is impossible, even for us, to intercept a communication sent with this device. Did you know that all the space vehicles have one of these installed?”

  “I saw some of Dr. Skrimov’s geeks up here, the other day, crawling around the guts of our shuttles, cargo and mining vessels. They told me they were doing upgrades. They don’t talk much, so I really don’t know what they did. FTL communicators, well that’s a hoot.”

  “Now we don’t have to use the ultra-low frequencies to communicate. There is always a chance that they could be compromised. This is some great news.”

  “There is nothing special about using these devices. They work pretty much like the older ones. Only the executive team will get one of these devices for personal use for now. Dr. Skrimov has sever
al more which we can handout as needed. So, show me what Heinrich has up his sleeve.”

  Paul and I walked over to a large platform with a model of some kind of structure floating above. Heinrich was busy making adjustments to the model. As we approached, he looked up and smiled. “So what do you think of our space station?”

  I was looking at a large sphere with a solid middle section. The top eighth and bottom eighth of the sphere was a geodesic dome. “Tell me about it.”

  “The top and bottom parts are transparent and allow sunlight to enter. The center of the sphere contains a gravity generator simulating the gravity on earth – everything pulls to the center.”

  “How big will that station be?”

  “At present, I’ve designed it to be about 10 km across. The top and bottom portion are basically like being outside here on earth. They will contain parks and recreational facilities. The middle section of the sphere will contain housing, administration, research, and anything else we need. This model is actually functional. It will allow us to modify and test different ideas before and during construction of the actual space station. I am getting together with Barry to see what we can do to get this project off the ground.”

  “Paul, get a summary of this thing to me for the next executive meeting. We are going to want to make some decisions on what, when and where. We are coming up with lots of exciting advances. Get together with John and Maggie to brainstorm about this station.” Things are happening so fast, it’s hard to wrap my head around it all.

  “It seems we are getting to the point where we need to protect our assets. If word gets out about any of the advances we have made, there will be plenty of parties that will want to take it away from us. I know we have developed several defensive weapons; but we are going to need a much larger security force with weapons that can defeat anyone out there,” I said, raising my hand and looking outward in no particular direction.