Overture (Earth Song Cycle Book 1)

by Mark Wandrey

  “Maybe it’s another galaxy,” she said, after another lead died. “Or an alternate universe?” She laughed and shook her head. This wasn’t an episode of Fringe.

  On the TV opposite her work station, the talk show host made a joke about a celebrity’s propensity to use various illegal drugs. He was about to deliver the punchline when the broadcast cut.

  “Breaking news alert!” the voice announced, and she glanced over at the screen. “Just in from our London bureau: An amateur astronomer working in her private observatory just outside of Dorchester has made a surprising, and perhaps horrifying, discovery.”

  The TV changed to a picture of Alicia Benjamin standing next to her hand-built observatory. Mindy clapped and whistled. The deed was done!

  It was evening, and the end of her telescope pointed skyward through the open doors. She was looking up at the stars with a worried expression on her face. The announcer continued.

  “Ms. Alicia Benjamin studies comets for a hobby and makes a modest income from allowing public access to her tiny observatory, mostly to students and curious tourists. However, one day several months ago, she was observing an asteroid when she made a startling discovery.” The image cut to Alicia sitting before a bank of monitors filled with astronomical data that Mindy found all too familiar.

  “I was using LM-245 to verify my telescope’s positioning after a repair. That rock is an old friend; I love to look at it. It’s a favorite Earth-crosser of mine.” The image cut to a random scientist for details.

  “An Earth-crossing asteroid is any one that routinely passes the orbit of Earth. There are thousands of them in our solar system, from the size of a grapefruit to hundreds of kilometers in diameter. LM-245 is medium-sized, about as big as Manhattan.” The scene cut back to Alicia.

  “I locked LM-245 in a live view and was about to look for comets again, but when I looked back, it was gone. It disappeared! An asteroid 12 miles long just disappeared! So, I ran back my recording and saw this.”

  The image cut away to show the grainy recording of the distant, bowling pin-shaped asteroid floating in space. It had a slow, almost majestic tumble, like a slow-motion recording of a bowler taking out a 7-10 split.

  Just as Mindy had seen many times now, a sudden flash of blue light on the other side of the asteroid threw it into stark contrast for an instant, enough to make the image blur slightly as the sensitive camera struggled with the rapid change in exposure. When it cleared, the asteroid was moving out of frame.

  “Do you know what caused it?” the reporter asked. They were outside again, with the observatory framed in the background.

  “Of course not,” Alicia admitted. “Took a fair bit ‘o work just to find the ruddy thing again! But whatever did it, made it change course. The results are undeniable.” The image changed to show a screen displaying the orbit of LM-245, and the reporter spoke.

  “The previous orbit of the asteroid never came closer than many hundreds of thousands of miles away,” she explained, “but after the event, things changed.” The new orbit, shown with a red line, directly intersected the Earth. “And in a potentially disastrous way. We contacted NASA for their take on Ms. Benjamin’s assertion.”

  Mindy did a double take when Leo Skinner appeared on the screen.

  “Dr. Skinner is an astronomical expert with NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Skinner, can you confirm there is a risk that LM-245 could hit Earth?”

  “We’re currently evaluating the information,” the balding scientist said with a genial chuckle and a smile. “We admit it appears the event caused a shift in LM-245’s orbit which will bring it closer to Earth, though we don’t believe there is significant risk.”

  The reporter went on to talk with other experts about the potential effect of such an impact. Mindy was already typing an email on the secure computer provided by Skinner.

  “LM-245 is not a significant risk? Leo, we know better than that.” She wasn’t surprised when the reply came in mere seconds.

  “It would be best if you stuck to your task and kept out of this. I want to help you, but not if you don’t help yourself.”

  “I do believe I’ve just been threatened,” she mumbled. On the TV, the special report was over, and the network promised to follow the story for more developments. Mindy chewed her lip and considered the possibilities.

  Even though it was the late news, millions saw it on TV. Within minutes, internet aggregators like Drudge had banners up. “Killer Asteroid Threatens Earth!” A popular religious website read, “God’s Killer Asteroid?” Alex Jones was wondering if this was a plot by the liberal left to destroy religion in America, while Huffpost believed the Republicans had used NASA to make a terror weapon.

  Mark Volant sipped his beer and made a note in his report suggesting that operational security at the dome be moved to stage three.

  Osgood, in his own trailer, considered what this would mean to their research. He’d known Leo Skinner for many years, working together with him at NASA and teaching with him at Caltech. Still, he wondered why the false optimism. He’d seen the reports on LM-245. It was aimed right down their throats. In a few short weeks, every amateur astronomer with a free smart phone app would know it too.

  Meanwhile, Victor used the remote to shut off the TV and considered the portal to heaven and the angels of God anew. It was all making more sense now. It tied in with revelations and the rapture! Yes, it all tied in very well. But with the government in control, how were the faithful to get to heaven? He’d talk with his disciples in the morning.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Seven

  Intermission

  In a command bunker deep under Tel Aviv, an intelligence analyst for the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, worked furiously. One of his jobs was to monitor world news agencies for stories that could cause security concerns for the Jewish state, both directly and indirectly.

  A few days ago, he’d come across a series of images. They featured glowing sculptures, or statues, that were in many of the countries around the world. He’d filed the images away with a note to follow up with the translators.

  Shortly after watching the U.S. news report on the asteroid, he received a data file. It was from one of their assets in the United States. All the major countries, and many of the minor ones, spied on each other. It usually wasn’t to do harm, but to keep informed of major developments. You could find out your country was a target in many ways, and careful spying was one of them.

  This agent was a government contractor working in particle physics. Much of what he passed along wasn’t considered higher order intel. He had sent a few notes about American lines of research in relation to directed energy weapons to those who handled that sort of thing. And once, he’d found out about a bureaucrat’s affair during a state function.

  When the analyst reviewed the report forwarded to him by his handler, he almost filed it away as misdirected, until he glanced in the encrypted file and found a single low-resolution image. It was of a glowing circular statue.

  Instantly alert, he read the report from the agent and then re-opened his own files on the statues. With a growing feeling of dread, he recalled the news story on the asteroid and placed a phone call to another section of the intelligence office.

  It was six a.m. the next day in Tel Aviv when the news report hit the wire. It took almost an hour to wake up the people he needed to question and another two hours to get the answer he wanted. By lunch, he had a complete briefing ready. He contacted the director of Mossad and scheduled a meeting.

  While he waited for the meeting, he made a map with all the confirmed sightings of the portals. There were none in Israel; the closest was in Egypt. He rubbed his eyes. The day had just begun and already he was tired. By the time the meeting started, he was ready.

  * * *

  At a military command post near the city of Mumbai, a team of military experts, doctors, scientists, and even academics assembled. They had been working around the
clock since their own intelligence operative had forwarded details of the asteroid’s new target, some hours before the story went public.

  Unlike most of the other portals, theirs had arrived in a location under video surveillance. The cameras had recorded the delivery in moderate definition video, including images of the alien being who brought it and at least part of the ship that delivered it.

  They brought people who could best understand this knowledge into the study project, which carefully hid it from the public. In days they knew what the device was capable of, and sent a small team through to explore.

  When the news of the killer asteroid found its way to the team, they quickly began finalizing plans. They weighed equipment down to the gram. The men and women would go through the portal almost staggering under the weight of their gear. It would all happen long before the asteroid arrived to do its evil deed.

  Unfortunately for India, their counter espionage was not as good as their foreign assets. The Pakistani government knew far too much about the portals, and that India had one and Pakistan did not.

  The Pakistani government held briefings. Each briefing spawned another briefing, and that one another one. Every level of communications leaked the news to those outside the intelligence circles. In a shockingly short period of time, the portal’s existence was practically common knowledge in the government. The added fact that they didn’t have one caused fear to feed upon itself.

  * * *

  The existence of the portal in Buenos Aires was one of the better-kept secrets. The country had long been a safe harbor for scientists who wished to work in fields of research other major nations shied away from. The Argentinian government afforded its scientific sector far more autonomy and power than most nations.

  When a police officer found the portal on February 9th, there was no military or secret police to swoop in and take control. Instead they contacted the science ministry which gratefully handed the situation over to those most qualified to understand what it was. An investigation began with no one in the public being made aware of the portal’s existence.

  Argentina’s scientific experts figured it out, far faster than even the Americans. By the time the impending collision with LM-245 was announced, the Argentinian science staff was fully versed in how the portal operated and had 30 colonists already on the other side. They’d explored the area, sent back terabytes of data via laser link, and were already constructing permanent dwellings from local materials.

  Their schedule, well established long before the asteroid was public knowledge, called for all 144 settlers to be across a full two weeks before LM-245 came calling. Everything was well under control.

  * * *

  Millions of miles from Earth, the rock known to humans as LM-245 was swinging back toward the bright blue planet humans called home. The teeming masses hurried about their daily lives, most of them oblivious to what was coming.

  It reached perihelion, and as it did, more and more astronomers watched it with consternation. The untold billions of tons of rock appeared to make a minor course correction.

  The NASA astronomy team tasked with watching the asteroid 24/7 studied these changes. Earth-based and orbital instruments took observations around the asteroid, watching how the light reflected off it and what radiation came from it. They didn’t make the fact that the spectrum of radiation included gamma rays public, nor the fact that its response to the sun’s gravitational influence was not ‘nominal.’

  They informed the public that the change in orbit other astronomers were now talking about was the result of outgassing by the asteroid, one of the side effects from its close approach to the sun months ago. Background noise swallowed up the fact that a myriad of independent astronomers called that conclusion ludicrous. Why would the government lie to its people?

  The International Space Station, ISS, web site went dark. NASA’s web site explained that the ISS was undergoing much needed repairs. Then NASA launched a series of its new Orion heavy lift rockets, one after another. Only conspiracy sites carried the news in any detail. The world orbited toward LM-245’s path.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Eight

  April 22

  Volant woke up to a buzzing from his phone. He rolled over and grabbed it, checking the caller ID. “Director” was all it said. Instantly awake, he slid his finger over the green handset icon.

  “Volant,” he said.

  “That was some special news story last night, wasn’t it?” As always, electronic masking slightly distorted the man’s voice. Volant had never met the man in person. His section director was unknown to anyone under him. It was one way the NSA maintained compartmentalization at his level. They were effectively off the books.

  “Yeah,” Volant agreed. Of course, the director expected Volant to know about it. He doubted he’d be where he was if he hadn’t known. Minutes after the story aired, three of his assistants emailed him with details of the story. Volant stayed wired into these sorts of things; it was his job to know before most other people did. “So that thing’s going to hit, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” the voice said. The monosyllable reply to a world-altering event turned his bowels to water. “Puts that portal thing you have there in a whole new light. I don’t want any more soldiers going through.”

  “That’s going to be a problem,” Volant said.

  “Why is that?”

  “There are only four soldiers over there now, and those dinosaurs are a serious threat. They’re expending ammo at a furious pace. There are several attacks per day, at unpredictable intervals. They’ll get tired quickly, and then someone will fuck up.” The director grunted on the other end.

  “So, what do you recommend?” the director asked after a short pause.

  “Send over the rest of the team, let them secure a beach head. They’re loyal soldiers, special forces. They’re a good choice, regardless of the game plan.”

  “Okay. There’s more?”

  “Yes, I’d go with Osgood’s suggestion of sending a couple of scientists after the soldiers. We must get a handle on how to live on the other side. We don’t want to get over there and not be able to grow anything, or get killed by some bug.”

  “You’re assuming you are going then?”

  “Yes, I am,” Volant said without hesitation.

  “You’ve done a good job so far. If you don’t fuck this up, you get a ticket. There are only 144 seats on this bus, Volant. It’s rarefied air you’re breathing.”

  “I’m sure I’ll get to meet you in person when we’re all done.” Volant said. There was a chuckle from the other end.

  “Send a couple of scientists. Make sure they’re redundant, I don’t want to send a crowd of people we’ll have issues with later. Get me?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Any clue where this planet is?”

  “Osgood says he’s working on it.”

  “Okay,” the director said and ended the call.

  * * *

  Mindy arrived at the SETI offices on time and was just pouring her first cup of coffee when Harold burst into the break room.

  “Two of the redundant processors went down last night!” he said, cursing and kicking the waste paper basket. “We lost about 8 hours of processing time.” Mindy didn’t look up from stirring non-dairy creamer into her coffee, certain her fair complexion would give her away. Guilt was far too easy to read on a redhead’s face.

  “Breaker trip or something?” she asked, careful to make her voice neutral.

  “Programmer’s sure,” he said. She suppressed a sigh of relief. “I think we’ve been over taxing them. Any luck with those donors?”

  One of her jobs was to put a pretty young face on their fundraising efforts. Regular donations kept the doors open and coffee pots brewing, but to increase processing power took regular infusions of capital which were often hard to come by. It was almost as hard as getting radio telescope time.

  “I have some leads. Look, Harold, why don’t we sp
end a little less time on the alien signal? I mean, it’s using up most of the supercomputer as it is. Sure, the benefactors like that stuff, but the public is put off by it. Working on the fake ET signal?”

  “No way,” he said. “We’re getting close, I know it. Besides, it isn’t fake, and you know it.”

  The only problem was, they weren’t close. Decoding the signal was like chasing your tail. It was complicated, and there seemed to be no way to decipher it. There was no Rosetta Stone, as it were, and there just wasn’t enough of it to work with. Mindy was beginning to think they could let all the supercomputers in the world work on the signal until the end of time, and they’d still get nothing back.

  She also knew he was being stubborn for her sake. She’d been the one to find the signal, and it had all but destroyed her career. The decision had been hers, but he’d stood behind her. She knew why, of course. Most girls learned to recognize a guy who had a crush on them early on.

  “I’ll keep at it,” Mindy said, and Harold left. She turned back to her computer and vowed to be more careful about how much processor time she used from then on.

  She spent a few hours going over fundraising meetings and an internet advertising campaign before she became bored and began surfing the net.

  Mindy was thirsty for more information on the portals and quickly found additional proof that there were several more, maybe many more. Using search engine tools, she found additional images of the alien artifacts in Japan, Russia, China, and elsewhere. The images were older now; few were recent. The world’s governments realized the portals were something important and had begun to clamp down on published images.

  Then she found an unexpected website in her search results.