“How was your trip up here, Adam?” enquired Hartmann with a big grin that told Chesters he was genuinely pleased to see his old, former NASA colleague.
“No complaints Rob. The docs have got it all worked out with their motion sickness meds these days.”
“So why don't we get you out of your flight suit and show you to your quarters in the accommodation module? You’re just here for the one night, right?”
“Yes, sir. So what’s changed up here since I came here last year? Has the food improved any?”
“That’s a negative on the food, my friend, and still no booze allowed. But there’s been a lot of upgrades—enlargement of the Assembly Module, new automated materials receiving dock, a bigger, badder, better 3D printer. And, in WESTFOR’s infinite wisdom, four brand, spanking new battle droids ready to repel boarders, just in time for the thaw with the Russians. Oh, and enhanced armour plating.”
WESTFOR had succeeded the national military structures of the WGA member nations and consisted of three terrestrial branches: army, navy and air force. The fourth was the WGA Space Force. The Space Force consisted of ground and space based anti-satellite and anti-space vehicle weapons systems. On the Alliance Citadel was the kinetic energy weapon – KEW – which was a mass driver capable of accelerating five thousand kilogram projectiles at terrifying speed towards it targets. The damage that had been done in test firings was equivalent to a small strategic nuclear warhead. The differences were that KEW projectiles could not be intercepted using current technology, the ammunition was almost limitless and there would be no radioactive fallout after an attack. Orbital superiority marked the ultimate high ground in any conflict. The other major component of Space Force's presence was the fifty fighter drones housed in launch bay of Citadel’s Space Force Operations module. The multirole drones, coded named Viper, were the size of a small car and worked in either autonomous mode or remotely by Space Force pilots—the so called joystick mode. Auto mode employed state of the art AI and was used as a safe guard against enemy disruption of the comms network during war—a technique both the Russians and Chinese were all too good at. There was another reason for auto mode: human pilots were simply too slow to outfight enemy weapons systems. Though not yet battle tested, the Vipers were intended to be a powerful deterrent and to maintain space superiority for the WGA.
After de-suiting down to his blue coveralls, Chesters followed Hartmann through the hatch into the well-lit central access tube, which ran through the accommodation module.
“Follow me,” said Hartmann, pulling himself through the circular opening, “I’ll re-familiarize you with the station. I know you were here last year, but rules are rules and we need to do the induction. I will try to concentrate on the interesting bits. We have the handover meeting with the key players later so we’ll skip the intros until then. Besides, I think you know most of them already.”
After going through emergency protocol, the tour with Hartmann covered the accommodation, research lab, command centre, Viper launch bay and the materials receiving dock. Next, they entered the Fabrication Plant. A personnel access tube connected each of the Fabrication plant’s two large cylinders to the materials receiving dock and the main part of the Citadel station. One of the Fabrication modules contained the house-sized 3D fabricator. The system took raw feedstock – elements, alloys or polymers – and combined the molecules or atoms into any one of thousands of different materials. Raw elemental materials usually originated from mining bases on the moon or asteroids. Next, the material would be fed into a giant 3D printer and the component built up drop by tiny drop. The integrated laser measuring and finishing process ensured the component was precisely made to design. There was no need for physical testing anymore. The consistency of build was so high that computer modelling of forces, temperature, pressure and myriad other tests were just as good and far quicker. Some components for the probes would need to be shipped from Earth, but not many. The other half of the Fabrication Module housed the construction team and the maintenance shop. Leading on from the Fabricator Module was a large-bore, short tube for getting 3D-printer-made parts into the Assembly Module.
“This is where components fly through to the Assembly Hall,” explained Hartmann. Still smiling, he continued, “They’re pushed through by the small air jets from the 3D printer room. They’re caught on the other side, in the Assembly Hall, by these clever little buggers…”
As the two flew into the cavernous, largely empty Assembly Hall, Chesters spotted some six limbed, insect-like assembly bots. The four man-sized robots sat in a line anchored to the opposite wall, still and lifeless.
“Assembly Bots, my friend; we call them Ants. There’s Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Ant.” Colour blindness had been largely cured in the advanced countries of 2056. “Their last job finished yesterday in preparation for the start of the probe build. They can fly with some precision, but the four hind legs provide a firmer base when handling the larger components with their arms. They work as a team and need no human intervention once the design has been uploaded to the system. That is until they break down—that’s where the two maintenance techs come into play. Dan and Pilu their names, you'll meet them soon. They deal with all the maintenance on the station and are trained for space walks too, but they spend a good bit of time on the Ants,” said Hartmann.
“Looks like this place is easily big enough for assembly of both Santa Maria and Pinta,” said Chesters, more in confirmation of what he already knew.
“With space to spare,” agreed Hartmann. “My understanding from your report is Pinta will be built first. We won’t start until a year-and-a-bit later on the primary, Santa Maria. Plus, we’ve got a three month commissioning and testing programme using Pinta. We’d rather work the lessons from the Pinta build and testing into Santa Maria—mainly the FTL drive function as most of the rest can be reliably modelled. Then it’s launch and two month time-to-target for Santa Maria and show time! What’s the two months all about anyway? I thought the FTL drive was supposed to be instantaneous.”
“Yeah, even though the transit is instantaneous, the two months is basically because of in-system manoeuvring. There’s an inherent inaccuracy in where the probe will end up in the other star system. But, hey, let’s go through that in my handover briefing after the meet and greet,” said Chesters.
He found the scale of the cylindrical Assembly Hall – the size of a football pitch – quite an achievement for a space based structure. It was by far the largest single module ever produced. Future plans were for armoured drone carrier ships, but they were a good decade from making their way from the drawing board. Chesters felt more at home now he had a refreshed mental model of the Citadel and was ready to meet the rest of her crew.
He floated on the spot in the small, multifunctional lounge area. The other six people on board arrived within a few minutes of each other following a PA system call from Hartmann. What made the limited number of crew possible was that the station could be run almost entirely remotely from the ground and with AI. Still, there was bed space for four dozen souls when hot bedding. This seemingly excess capacity was due to the station’s emergency shelter function as well as its future as an embarkation point for manned deep space and military missions. Although a multi-government installation, the volume of space tourists and orbital passenger flights – and the levy paid by tour operators for the privilege – justified the large accommodation all by itself.
Chesters was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces amongst the four men and women who had just entered the room. The four by four by six metres, largely white space only had portholes on one of its six sides. The row of circular windows gave a series of fleeting glimpses of swirling white weather systems over the familiar shapes of continents and oceans 380 km below. The glow of Earth’s atmospheric blanket caught his eye and temporarily mesmerized Chesters as it faded into the airless blackness of space. Somewhere up there is another world, potentially with an intelligent civilisation, thoug
ht Chesters, in awe of nature’s wonders.
Greetings were exchanged as the crew members arrived—first Construction Operations Engineer, Catarina Alves. The petite, thirty-something native of Lisbon, Portugal was a new recruit from Boeing Space where she’d been overseeing the design and operation of cutting edge 3D fabricators. Having her expertise was appreciated by Hartmann as was having a fun, younger, although platonic colleague, which complemented his energy and youthfulness well. Reporting directly to Hartmann, Chesters could see there was camaraderie between the two. Cat shook Chesters’ hand lightly. Her hands were small and dry—probably from having been in the dry air of the space station for these past few weeks. Catarina was preparing the 3D fabricator and working with the maintenance techs to ensure a flawless start to the probe-building programme. Chesters, although married, felt faintly attracted to Catarina – who wouldn't be; she was attractive and personable – but he soon dismissed the thought. Too many things on his mind. And I’m married with two kids, he thought to himself. In a different life, maybe…
Next, the two Maintenance Techs flew into the room. The middle-aged Indian from Pune was Chesters’ old workmate from his time spent working under Chesters in the design team. Pilu Raje was an old school gentleman. He shook hands with Chesters, clasping his hand between both of his in an extended greeting. “And tell me, Adam, how are Sheryl and the kids these days? Are they all well?” Raje enquired, showing genuine interest. Although Raje could have taken promotion many times in his career he’d always preferred to stay an engineer and do real engineering. No, Raje loved tinkering with tech and modelling machines. He often lamented that nobody built physical models much anymore—he was more suited to an age where advanced computer modelling had not supplanted them.
Following right after Raje was his colleague Danny Warner—the other Maintenance Tech on board. Englishman Warner was understudy to Raje. Chesters had not met him before; he found Warner quiet and introverted, seemingly too shy to make eye contact.
“Hello, I’m Aidan Lemaie. Nice to meet you,” said Dr Lemaie, co-discoverer of Avendano-185f, extending his hand in greeting.
“It’s an honour to meet you, Dr Lemaie. You’re a celebrity now,” Chesters replied with a smile that mirrored Lemaie’s.
“Well, I don't know about that, Adam. Let’s just say I’m on the public’s radar screen now. Not sure if it’s a good thing or not. I’m avoiding doing interviews for the moment—too busy following up on our find. Still, I suppose Public Affairs will want me to do the science-educational-inspiration bit sooner or later, which I don't mind.”
“I hear ya,” said Chesters.
“Well, I’ve got to shoot back up to the lab, but if you have some time later I’ll let you have a look-see at the latest Avendano images. The Helios telescope array is trained on the planet 24/7 until at least the end of the month.”
“Hey, that’d be great, Aidan, thank you,” replied Chesters with a smile, pleased he’d have the chance to see the distant star system. It was a view he would never get tired of.
“I’m afraid the other two crew members cannot leave their stations at the moment,” explained Hartmann. “But just so you’re aware, there’s also Captain Dietrich Smit and Space Force drone tech, Sonia Winters. They’re preparing for a training exercise next week.”
Chesters had not heard of the Space Force Captain and tech, but it didn't matter, the probe build was not immediately relevant to their jobs.
***
“Right, we’ve got the videocon established in five, four, three, two, one seconds... There she is,” said Catarina Alves. The large view screen at one end of the lounge changed to a picture of Hartmann’s Construction Operations team and Chester’s Engineering Design Team. Both teams sat in neat rows in a meeting room in the Seattle HQ.
“Well, let’s get right into it. We’ve got a lot to handover to you guys today. I’ll be referring to the detailed handover report during the session, which I assume you have all read.” He looked at Hartmann who nodded in confirmation and Chesters began the four-hour session in earnest.
In Hartmann’s view, unlike most four-hour meetings, this was actually interesting—cutting edge science and tech and a highly motivated team. The world would be watching and they had to get it right.
“Here’s the 3D rendering of the probe. Santa Maria and her backup, Pinta, are identical in design,” started Chesters. “She’s approximately eight metres long and a little over three metres high and wide and 2,150 kg in mass.”
After the overview, he went on to explain the three propulsion systems: the manoeuvring jets, the chemical rockets and the revolutionary FTL-drive. The manoeuvring jets were for close control at low speeds—procedures like moving out of the Assembly Hall and finely adjusting direction. They also doubled as retro-thrusters for braking during the planned descent onto Avendano-185f. The plan was for the probe to transit using the FTL-drive to the Avendano system close to the planet. Next, it would move into orbit, finally land, and dispatch drones. There was some uncertainty in where the probe would end up relative to the planet after transit. The planet’s position was not known as precisely as they would have liked and there was still some variance in the FTL drive’s terminal coordinates. The reason was still unknown. There was also the matter of wanting to go in stealthily before switching on active sensors and transmitting the first contact package to whatever was out there. The scientists were increasingly confident of the industrial pollutant observation and felt that seeing the potential aliens first would be wise. A survey of the planet would be made from orbit. All going well, Santa Maria would descend into the Avendano-185f atmosphere and land with the aid of parachutes, retro-thrusters and airbags. Three solar-powered flying drones would then be dispatched and follow their AI routines seeking out areas of interest.
Since the target system was fifteen light years away, normal electromagnetic comms would be far too slow. The probe system would be fully autonomous, utilising the latest in AI programming. The probe would carry five messenger nano-probes, which could be transmitted back to Sol using the probe’s FTL-drive. These would be used to send back data at salient points in the mission. The drive would create a tunnel in space-time and a directed blast from the probe’s manoeuvring jets would nudge the microprobe through the tunnel.
The primary energy source was to be a miniaturised fusion reactor. The decades old Cold War II was thawing and, in the spirit of cooperation, the reactor would be built by the Russians then shipped to the Citadel by Angara rocket. Russia’s smaller fusion reactors were slightly better than those produced by Western contractors with a higher power-to-mass ratio. This would offset some of the Russian funding. The Chinese would contribute only financially.
“So, anything you don’t understand? Questions? Anything we’ve not covered well enough?” asked Chesters to the room and the video screen.
“Yes, Adam,” called out a young, preppy looking man sitting in the Seattle HQ, raising his hand as if he were still in school. “You didn’t say much about the stealth capabilities of the probe—shouldn't we cover that here too?”
“Yes, you’re right, I didn’t, and there’s a reason for that.” At least they were listening thought Chesters—although he never doubted otherwise with this keen bunch.
Chesters explained, “This is not conventional stealth we’re talking about here. It’s from a classified project that generates a cloaking field. When active, the probe should be invisible to just about every EM wavelength that would conceivably be used for detection including radio waves, light and IR. The unit will be shipped from an undisclosed location up to Citadel and only a limited team will be working with it. I can’t say more than that. So, sorry to shut you down, but no more questions on that please.”
“What’s the Russians' involvement in providing the fusion power plant? I mean will they be up here installing it?” asked Pilu Raje, the Maintenance Tech on board.
“No, they won’t,” Chesters said. “The Russians have agreed
to have our technical staff present at their plant. They’ll share the details of their reactor to allow us to install and run it. It’s plug and play as far as possible.”
It was WGA Space culture to stick to time on meetings. Beside, Chesters felt that he’d said enough and the questions were becoming fewer and more trivial.
After some catching up and chitchat over dinner, Chesters sought out Dr Lemaie to take him up on his earlier offer to see the latest Avendano pics.
“So now we think we can see artificial light. But it’s difficult to confirm and the community’s split on what we’re actually seeing,” said Dr Lemaie to a spellbound Adam Chesters, as they studied the live feed from the Helios telescope array. Chesters could not see anything like that, but this was not his field of expertise. The more he found out about the enigmatic planet, though, the more he felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. After all, it was he and his team’s design that would deliver the goods with any luck. He was satisfied with the probe design he’d handed over for construction, but there was always some unease remaining—some unknown and unknowable risks that could scupper his career and reputation. He valued these almost as much as his family. It had been a long day and Chesters turned in shortly afterwards. He breathed a sigh of tired relief. He had a Skylift shuttle to catch in the morning. Some well-earned vacation time with his family awaited him.
The First Exoplanet Page 3