by IGMS
"A research station," she said. "It houses a small telescope, but has a hookup to the Korolev radio telescope on the far side, as well as a couple of orbiting telescopes. You can get a view in here that you'd never be able to get on earth."
After a moment, the airlock door slid open, spilling light onto the shadows of the crater. "Come on," Audrey said, and I followed her in.
We got out of our surface suits, but the suits were covered in moon dust and that fine dust transferred itself to our clothing.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to strip down," Audrey said arching an eyebrow.
I laughed and joked back, "Okay, but ladies first."
To which Audrey replied by slipping out of her pants and pulling her shirt over her head so that she stood in her underwear. The light was dim but there was enough of it to fill me in on any detail that I might otherwise have missed. I'm normally not an observant person, but in this case --
"Come on, Mr. President, your turn."
I snapped back to attention and hesitated. "I thought you were joking," I said, "Someone might see us."
"Aw, is the President shy?"
"Well, no, but --"
"Look, there's no one here. It's a remote station these days, used to be staffed, but it's cheaper to link up the equipment to the network. They keep it operational for grad students and the occasional observations that have to be made directly. We won't be bothered."
I couldn't argue with logic, so I stripped down to my boxers.
We brushed the remaining dust of one another (which, though flirtatiously pleasant, reminded me of the way chimpanzees groom one another). As I flicked sand from the crater that formed in Audrey's shoulder, I had a thought:
"Why do we have to strip?"
"Lots of sensitive equipment," she said, making a final swipe at my chest. And then as an afterthought, she added, "The dust can cause it to malfunction."
Audrey tapped at the door panel and the door to the station proper slid open and then closed behind us as we moved out of the lock and into the station. There was a musty smell inside, old air, the way that I imagined a cave would smell.
"That's a small telescope?" I said looking at the massive tube that angled up three levels through the dome.
"Small compared to some," she said. It was surrounded by a catwalk structure and at its base was a computer console which I presumed controlled the instruments. "I want to show you something, but it will take a moment to make the adjustments."
Her bare feet slapped across the tiled floor and my eyes followed her to the computer terminal. She tapped in some commands and a moment later, the room was filled with a low hum. I felt slightly disoriented, and then realized that the whole room was moving as Audrey adjusted the direction at which the telescope pointed at the sky.
When the humming stopped, she hopped up from the chair and said, "Follow me," and bounded lightly up the catwalk stairs to the second level of the structure. She led me to what appeared to be a dead-end that was blocked by the telescope itself. But then I saw Audrey lean over and peer into an eyepiece. The room was suddenly quiet. I could see the rise and fall of her chest. I imagined that I could hear her heart beating.
"Okay, take a look," she said. She was smiling as though she knew something I didn't. I smiled back at her, stepped in front of her just close enough to brush up against her, and then bent down to look into the eyepiece.
My entire field of vision was suddenly full of stars. It looked almost three dimensional, and far too many to count. Not only that, but there was what appeared to be a gaseous blur of color, like an explosion frozen in time, just off the center of the image.
"It's over ten-thousand light years away," she said when I looked up at her. "Isn't it beautiful?"
"It sure is," I said, and it was, but I was looking at her.
Audrey's cheeks grew a shade pinker, the first time I'd seen her react that way, and that stirred me to a new level of courage.
"How about some music?" I asked.
"I think that can be arranged," she said.
"Is there an interface on the terminal?"
"Of course."
"Well let me do it then." And I bounded down the catwalk stairs, found the environmental controls and queued up the song that I was looking for. I called up to her, "I think this will be perfect!"
When I reached the top of the catwalk, Audrey was looking into the eyepiece. The music started as my foot touched the top step, the soft background choir fading in. And after a few beats, Bing Crosby crooned, "Far away places . . ." Audrey stood up suddenly and looked at me.
"How do you know this song?" she said.
"I'm a fan of old music."
"I've loved this song ever since I was a little girl."
"Would you care to dance?" But I didn't really give her the chance to answer. I stepped forward and put my arm around her waist and pulled her close to me and for the next two minutes, we danced in the Ocean of Storms.
When the song ended, I said, "Okay, show me more." But Audrey just kissed me and it was quite a while before we got back to the telescope.
We did get back to the telescope though, and though we didn't know it yet, this nearly perfect evening was about to gain an unexpected crowning jewel.
Audrey spent quite some time showing me a variety of astronomical objects: nebula and planets, comets and clusters, all of them far away places.
Noting my enthusiasm, she asked, "Is this the first time you've ever looked through a telescope?"
"Yes," I said, even though that was a little white lie. There had been the time back in high school when I was at my friend Derek's house and we'd pointed his (very small by comparison) telescope at Summer Halfast's window nearly a half a kilometer down the block. But that didn't really count since I wasn't looking at stars.
"Do you want to try controlling it?"
"Sure, what do I have to do?"
Audrey showed me how to manipulate the controls so as to move the telescope (or the observatory as a whole) and I fiddled with them until I had picked out a swath of sky that, from the ground, looked devoid of stars. I leaned down to the eye piece to look at the result.
Sure enough, there were hundreds of stars that simply could not be seen with the naked eye. One star in particular shone strongly as a small pinpoint of very red light. "What's the red one?" I asked Audrey.
She stepped up to the eye piece and took a long look. When she stood up straight, she had a puzzled look on her face.
"So what is it?"
"I don't know," she said furrowing her brow.
"Well, it doesn't surprise me," I said. "With umpty-ump billion stars out there, you couldn't possibly know all of them."
Audrey grunted, but still looked puzzled. Then she snapped her fingers. "These stations do regular sky surveys as part of providing data to astronomers and scientists across the network. Let's go pull up the most recent one and find out what it is."
"It's not really not that important. I was just wondering."
"Science is all about answering questions," she said seriously. Then her face twitched and she smirked, "Unlike politics, which is all about avoiding answers." And before I could grab her and repay her for her denigration of my life's work, she bounced down the stairs to the main terminal.
By the time I'd caught up with her she'd already pulled the image onto one of the plasma screens. "That was fast," I said.
"Oh, that's just the image on the telescope right now. I'm going to have the computer pull up an image of the same section of sky from the last survey and then we'll see what our little friend is." She tapped away and in a moment, the same image appeared on a second plasma screen.
Audrey zoomed into the first image and highlighted a section of space that contained the red pinpoint star. She tapped some more keys and the second image zoomed in as well.
"It's not there!" we said at the same time.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"It means that you, Mr. President, may
very well be the discoverer of a new star." She paused. "Hmm? The survey image was taken only a few weeks ago, so this must be a really new star."
"Do I get to name it or something?"
Audrey rolled her eyes, "Going to your head already, huh? Let's find out about this little guy so we can submit the necessary records for independent confirmation." Audrey tapped in more commands and the image of the star on the first screen was replaced with data. I tried to skim through it but it might as well have been Martian for all I could make of it.
"This can't be right," Audrey said. She issued some more commands and a moment later, said, "Same thing, but it can't be right."
"What can't be right?"
"The light from the star runs very close to infrared, still visible, but that's why it appears as red, which isn't too unusual. But I also ran an analysis of its spectrum and it's completely missing any hydrogen lines."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Hydrogen is the primary fuel of the stars. They burn it and convert it to helium and other elements. But there's no such thing as star without hydrogen. And that, Mr. President, can only mean one thing?"
I stared at her blankly.
"What you discovered is no star," she said, and though it was not cold, I shivered.
"Then what is it?"
Audrey seemed lost in thought. "I should run this by Nate," she said.
"Who's Nate?" I asked.
"Professor Nathan Cauldwell. He was my thesis advisor," she was tapping away at the telelink as she spoke. A moment later, a fatigued-looking, middle-aged man appeared on the screen. "Nate, it's Audrey. Did I wake you?" The fact that she was in her underwear didn't seem to faze her in the least.
There was a delay of about two seconds before a smile of recognition appeared on the professor's face. "Audrey, my dear. How are you?"
"Perplexed. I'm up here at the outpost observatory in the Ocean of Storms, and I've got something I can't identify. I was wondering if you could confirm it for me and tell us what it is." She explained what I had found, pointing out that the object was not in the last sky survey. "You can find it here," she said, feeding him the coordinates.
While this conversation took place, I could not help but feel a little jealous. After all, here was another man who seemed interested in Audrey and I wanted her all to myself. But the romance of the evening had already dissolved into mystery and so I tried to go with it as gracefully as I could manage.
Several minutes later, "Nate" turned back to face the video screen. "I can confirm it, Audrey. The object is there. And it is missing the hydrogen lines in its spectrum. How is it you came to find this thing in the first place? That section of sky wasn't scheduled for another survey for two weeks?"
"I didn't discover it. My friend Danny here did." I smiled at the screen, giving the professor on awkward wave. "So what is it, Nate? It's got me puzzled. What kind of natural phenomenon would appear as a star but be completely lacking in hydrogen?"
"Who said it had to be natural? There is another possible explanation for this."
"Aliens?" Audrey asked. That got my attention. "Intelligent life? An artifact of some kind?"
"Let's not get head of ourselves. We need to broaden the investigation, get some others involved." Audrey looked as though she were about to protest, but the professor waved her off. "Don't worry, you and your friend Danny will get priority, whatever this turns out to be. Get back to Conrad and get in touch with Jordan Duvall there. She can help. In the meantime, I'll get the ball rolling on this end."
What started off as a pleasant evening with interesting possibilities had turned into what would become an historic night of incredible improbability.
We were back out on the Ocean of Storms, heading toward Conrad. Audrey wanted to get there as soon as possible so she could make contact with Jordan Duvall and turn additional resources to the mysterious object.
I, however, wanted to see the Intrepid.
"You can see it anytime," Audrey said as we bounded across the surface. "But it's not everyday that you discover an alien artifact in the universe."
"You don't know for sure it's alien," I replied. "Even if it is, it's not going anywhere. And besides, we're a kazillion light years from that thing and we're only half a kilometer from the Intrepid."
"First of all, how do you know it's not going anywhere? It wasn't there a few weeks ago, and it could disappear just as quickly as it appeared. And secondly, it's about 300 light years away, based on my initial estimate, not a kazillion. Come on, Danny, the Intrepid has been sitting out there for nearly 300 years and we know that it's not going anywhere. But this discovery of yours, it's -- amazing."
Audrey was right, of course, but all of this was over my head. There was a reason, after all, that I'd chosen political science. Still, at this point I would do anything just to be around her, so I begrudgingly agreed to return to Conrad.
We proceeded back to the city, and while I tried to cheer myself up by cracking jokes, Audrey was unusually quiet. Inside the lock, we went through the ritual of unsuiting, and cleaning off the dust (this time using a water vapor rinse), then we headed into the city proper.
"Uh-oh," Audrey said as soon as the lock doors slid shut behind us.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Permit check," she whispered to me.
I was about to ask what that meant, when a city official with a round face and bright blue eyes, said, "Next!"
Audrey stepped forward and handed the official her permit. She looked back at me nervously.
"Next!"
I stepped forward, still uncertain of what was going on.
"Permit," the blue-eyed official said.
"Uh, I don't have one." I looked over at Audrey and she shifted uneasily and then stared at the ground.
"You don't have one?" the official echoed.
"No, sir."
"But you were out on the surface?"
"Yes, sir."
"And do you know that surface visits without a permit are illegal?"
"Well, sir, I'm new here, it's my first visit and --"
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," he said.
I knew the law very well. I also knew forced bureaucracy when I saw it.
"Identification," he said. I handed him my ID card and he scanned it through his computer. "Well, Mr. Duncan, what were you doing out on the surface without a permit?"
"As I already pointed out, sir, I didn't realize I needed one.
"What were you doing out there?" he snapped.
"There's no need to be rude," I said. I glanced at Audrey whose pitiful eyes pleaded with me. "I was just sightseeing. I've always wanted to visit the Intrepid."
"Did your friend there know that you lacked a permit?"
"No."
"I see. Well, Mr. Duncan, you're going to have to come with me. We have to process the infraction and you will need to wait in a cell until we've done so. Also, there's the matter of the fine to be paid. Shall we notify your parents?"
I knew that I didn't have the money to pay the fine, so I really didn't have a choice.
The official turned to Audrey. "You're free to go ma'am," he said sweetly.
Audrey looked at me and then looked toward the city proper. Finally she said, "I've got to go, Danny. I've got to get this information to the right people. If I can confirm our theory, your discovery will be huge!"
"So go then," I said coldly.
"I'll be as quick as I can and meet you as soon as I'm done."
"What are you waiting for?"
She stepped forward and put her arms around me, but I just stood there. Then she whispered into my ear: "You don't understand Danny, what you found just may very well answer the question that people have been asking ever since they first looked up at the stars. You asked me why we haven't found evidence of intelligent alien life in the universe. Maybe now we have."
"Come on, Mr. Duncan," the official said.
Audrey released me and stepped back. "I'll go as quick
ly as I can," she repeated. And then she turned and headed off into the city while I was dragged off to jail.
One might suppose there is no better way to clarify one's true feelings for a woman then to spend three days in jail because of her. But then one has not suffered the agonizing humiliation of having to explain to your parents just why you are in jail in the first place. The truth is, I felt somewhat betrayed by Audrey. It was the second time she had lured me into trouble.
And yet, in neither case did Audrey hold a gun to my head. It was I who decided to follow her into the docking room on the shuttle, and it was I who decided to follow her onto the Ocean of Storms, knowing full well that I lacked a permit.
I thought about the Ocean of Storms, and our dance inside the observatory and what followed, and although I was still angry and distressed, I realized that I was just as much at fault as she. What really bothered me was that the entire time I was in jail, I didn't hear from her. Not once.
I did make a friend, however. Kind of. His name was Brahm and he was the official who stopped me when I tried to reenter Conrad without a permit. He was not so bad after all. He explained to me that life on the moon was different, and related a number of gruesome tales of surface accidents that led to the establishment of the permits in the first place. In turn, I described to him how Audrey and I met, our adventures on the shuttle, and our excursion to the observatory. On the third day, still uncertain of how I felt about Audrey or about what I should do, I posed the question to my new friend.
"Do you love her?" Brahm asked me. He had come to sit in the cell with me to keep me company for a while and was propped up against the opposite wall.
"Yes, " I said. "No. I don't know. To be honest, I'm pretty ticked off. She hasn't even come to see me."
"You've know each other, what, five or six days? That's nothing. You've barely scratched the surface. If you really like her, you've got to give her a chance. Really get to know one another."
"I do like her," I said, and as soon as I said it, despite all of her mischief, I knew it was true. "But I'm still pretty mad."
"You're locked up in a jail cell, of course your mad. Ask yourself, Danny, are you angry enough not to give this a shot? Years from now, will you regret not taking a chance?"