The Resolute

by G. Weldon Tucker

  An hour later, after all was cleared by the XO and Captain’s blessings, Ben was suited up, wearing a helmet and a shaded visor, for even this far out, the unfiltered stars could be brutal up topside on Resolute.

  The airlock closest to the radio array was a half mile closer to the nose of the ship. The next was a half mile closer to the aft end. Either way, it was a half mile walk on much stronger magnetic boots. The double Velcro latches and laces were checked and rechecked. The magnets were in place. There would be no stopping to pick him up if he lost his boots.

  Not as slow as on the moon, with that weak gravity, but still not simple. One had to literally force a foot off the titanium steel, stride ahead and plant it. Anything else was a free fall several billion miles to the closest star.

  Ben could hear the air pumped out of the airlock until there was almost a complete vacuum. Then, all was silent but his own breathing. Keeping it slow and steady, he waited for the outer hatch to slide open.

  Shortly, he was looking at the blackness of space. The sun, maybe five times the size of the next nearest star, was almost in line with the back of the ship, yet, was disconcerting, because for all that distance, it still provided a degree of brightness. Enough to see by, but not enough, quite, to blind him.

  So, the front of his space suit was obviously white. His radio array, clipped by a cable to his waist, floated behind him, also shiny white, though its color was really gray.

  It took an hour to get to the old array. Ben was glad to see that the top half was the only part missing. The asteroid, or whatever clipped them had missed the ship by ten feet and the array was cut off at almost a horizontal line. Not so much as a scratch on the ship itself.

  He kept the new one tethered to himself, then used an adjustable, electric wrench to remove the four stout bolts at the base of the old one. It floated free with the easy lift on his part, using a small pry bar and his fat, gloved fingers. He disconnected the signal cable from the base, then clipped the old one to his tie line, next to the new one.

  He wrestled the lightweight, but noticeable mass of the new array in place, bolted it down, then attached the cable. Twenty minutes later, pushing a button on his cuff, he said, into his helmet. “Jake? You read?”

  “Yeah, Ben. Get it in?”

  “Yeah. Got it. I… Wait… Uhhh. HOLY SHIT!”

  “What? Ben, come back.”

  Nothing but silence.

  “What?” he repeated.

  Ben was speechless. There, reflecting a small portion of the weak sunlight, way out here in the middle of nowhere, was a large object! It was hard to see. It looked like a needlepoint nose, a long, sleek body, and maybe some kind of wings?

  Wings were not necessary in space except to hold engines off from the body. But this mostly black thing blocked a hell of a lot of stars… and only the thinnest of light limned the thing. A spacecraft? He still could not close his mouth! Dimly, he heard the rising panic in Jake’s voice!

  “Ben. Answer me!!”

  “I… uhhh, copy, Jake. You are… not gonna believe it!”

  “What, dammit?”

  “What speed are we going?”

  “Hang on.” A few moments of pause, then, “Current velocity is one third light speed, 223 million miles an hour. Why?”

  “Get the bridge notified. We got company, starboard rear quarter. Big fucking ship, but small enough I can make out the entire shadow. I cannot judge distance. It’s just pacing us. My God, it is … something else!”

  Jake was practically beside himself as he made that call to the bridge. The XO caught the call and Jake said, as evenly as he could, “Ma’am, we got company! Put radar behind us, starboard rear. I got a man out fixing the parabolic. He says we are being paced… ma’am!”

  He heard the order relayed and then got the expected reply, “All clear around us, Commander Washington. Nothing there.”

  “Ben, can you take a vid?”

  “I can barely see it. Trying. Wait, something… happening… HOLY SHIT!”

  Well two in a row is not a good sign. Jake called several times until Ben finally answered. “It moved… I mean, it shot off… gone to Resolute’s … uh… starboard… right side, in a blink!”

  Jake relayed the facts. The radar reported nothing. Just empty space.

  Ben stood there, his mouth unable to work, realizing he was the first person ever to have seen aliens… and he was alone…

  CHAPTER 15

  As soon as communications were functional, Jake and Ben were ordered to the bridge, where Captain DePaules was in a close huddle with the XO, the Weapons Officers and radar technicians.

  “Ah, Commander Washington. And Lieutenant Commander. Okay, we are here and waiting, all ears. Lieutenant Commander, tell us exactly what you observed,” Captain DePaules said, but gently.

  It was obvious that Ben was still a bit in shock. One can talk about aliens forever, even hope for aliens, but when you see incontrovertible evidence, several billion miles out, well, that was something a hell of a lot different.

  The recordings from the cameras, of which one hundred and four surveyed the skin and the surrounding space around Resolute, were scoured. The sight of Ben, in a space suit, out on his lonely assignment was there, including when he stopped, aimed his arm as if pointing, and started to record the phenomena.

  But, there was no shadow, no hint on that camera. “Had to be high quality stealth, Captain. I know what I saw. It was not natural. A pointed nose means atmospheric travel, as do the very thin, stubby wings. It could have been about a half mile long, as I could see the shadow against the stars, but I have no idea how far away it was... Sir.”

  “I am not doubting you, son. We are in uncharted waters out here. And something like that would be damned hard to imagine in such detail. Any lights at all?”

  “No, Sir. The light that seemed to outline it was not from a star, and not from us. Too far away. Not any light source. Maybe that was their own production. But it showed the craft outline plainly. And when they left, they did it with no visible propulsion… and very fast… Sir.”

  “Your suit recorded stars, briefly, before you lowered your arm. Nothing showed. Did they think you had a weapon?”

  “I think, Sir, they did not even know I was there. Too small in the scheme of things. Too far away. I would be dot on the back of Resolute… Sir!”

  Captain DePaules almost smiled. The Washington gene ran deep. Ben Washington had no fear of command, and yet was perfectly disciplined. And very believable. Aliens… until you see them who the hell believes in aliens?

  “Okay, people, work on the sensitivity of our detection systems. I want passive and active arrays as fine tuned as they can get. Lieutenant Commander, did you see planes and angles, like our Earth based stealth?”

  “No, Sir. It seemed a very uniform, very sleek look, with that needlepoint nose. Maybe, head on, there is no return, but there should have been something when they turned away… Sir.”

  “I have a thought, Captain?” Jake spoke up, unflinching. The other Washington, DePaules reminded himself. The fastest rising Navy Officer in history.

  “What is it, Commander?”

  “If we cannot see them nose on, which might well have been, behind us to starboard, our own engines and stanchions would mask the thing in the clutter. But if they left at blinding speed, our radar signal may simply be in a low, slower band, and had nothing to see. No return off of what it cannot catch.” Jake paused, then, “Uhhh, Sir!”

  DePaules thought about it. “So, frequency band. We have four bands, Commander.”

  “Yes, Sir. Set for Earth and steel. What if we went much, much higher, even above the LIDAR range… Sir.”

  “Jesus, Commander, LIDAR is the speed of light! How the hell could the thing go faster than that at an angle off of us? Fast enough to outrun the beam?”

  Jake was a little over his head, but not by much. The physics of radar are pretty simplistic. LIDAR, light beam radar type is invisible, low frequency li
ght, but many Gigahertz above the radio bands. He forged ahead, “Sir, then the only thing that makes sense is the pulse frequency for LIDAR. If the aliens could read it, they could move out on the declining pulse and be gone even at light speed so that LIDAR never touched them on the next pulse. Makes sense if we increase the pulse frequency, maybe triple it… Sir.”

  Captain DePaules thought about it a minute, silent, processing. The kid made perfect sense. If the aliens could move that fast. Something had. “XO, get Commander Morgan up here out of radar. He is about to adopt a partner.”

  “Yes, Sir,” the XO replied, and turned to relay the order.

  Jake thought that pretty cool. He and Lincoln got along really well. Two Commanders in one department head slot would be interesting, though. Then Captain DePaules dropped the other shoe.

  Commander Lincoln Morgan is going to be Senior Commander on this gig, but you had the brains to figure this out. You good with that, Commander?”

  “Yes, Sir!”

  A knock at the door. The radar room was only four decks below the bridge and took up a good space of the bow, but had ready access to the bridge. Besides, the first elevator was running the deck ten up and ten down, now, and life was much easier for reporting in.

  Lincoln, a solid, six foot, well toned light haired man with gray eyes, Morgan genes and good ones, stood at rigid attention, seeing a lot of brass, Commanders, XO, the Captain… and all were looking right at him. His salute was crisp, right up until the XO put him at ease.

  DePaules explained the suggestions from Jake. Lincoln, a family addition to the Geek Club, knew that Jake was the radio guru and understood signal bouncing frequency shifting as well as he, himself.

  “You are promoted a half step, Senior Commander. You are making sure Commander Washington does not break anything. But see if you two can find a way to make radar more functional in space.”

  “Yes, Sir!”

  “Both of you dismissed. Get to it!”

  The both snapped to, saluted turned crisply and moved quickly off the bridge.

  The two said nothing until they got on the elevator.

  “Cool, man, Senior Commander. You outran me!” Jake said, grinning.

  “Only by default, cuz. They need a serious radio techie and a radar expert. Looks pretty good to me, and, until recently, I was just as bored as you. Any excitement in the radio room?”

  “No, not anymore. The packets are so far apart, now, that a monkey could do that job.”

  “But, a hell of a deal coming up with a report mechanism and making it work. Now, you gotta do the salute and ‘Sr. Commander’ bit in public, but not in our suites or when alone. Can you do that?”

  “Like I have a choice? Maybe I should hold you down and give you a nougie!”

  They laughed together easily, then high fived each other as the door opened onto the highly technical radar room. Twelve monitors were attended by very careful watchers, who, like in the radio room, had little to do, for so long, until the anomaly. But they’d heard the news, and hunted futilely, and knew they had missed something.

  But, what…?

  CHAPTER 16

  Lincoln and Jake soon had the club into it. Working on pulse frequency, power, reception, and of course, the million lines of code to make it work, Dyna’s contribution. Like many brilliant programmers, she had ten thousand snippets of code in her library, and the skill to work them in using already stored calls and links. What seemed impossible for everyone else was merely difficult for Dyna. Just another fun challenge!

  Even Kelly got into it, making sure the team ate properly, had plenty of water, and acting a bit like a mother hen when they had been at it for nine hours with hardly a break.

  “Hey, all of us. How about we hit the track and work out? You are all going to have kids with no legs needed at all, just a big butt!”

  Everyone laughed, but they knew, too, in a way, she was right. Work it or lose it. Tone it down or watch it swell right up.

  As a group, dressed in standard workout items, t-shirts and cut off sweats, but in running shoes with Velcro and magnetic inserts, they followed the walkways and the deck stairwells down to the civilian workout level.

  On the big wheel, which turned fast enough to give them Earth gravity, they raced in formation, two across three and more back, as others joined the play. They were holding a steady six mile per hour jog.

  Though some grew more tired then others, it was as if they were all determined not to fall out and be embarrassed. And the one who outran them all was Kelly. Even Dyna had to admit the girl had stamina.

  But then, the men seemed to be right behind her, all of them focused. Dyna smiled. The girl had a fine ass, no doubt at all. How Jake had gotten such a find… Unless she was targeting him. A civilian looking for a military fast riser? Maybe. Her looks, she could probably corral the Governor.

  Governor was a new title recently proposed by the operations committee. The ship was huge, the numbers of people staggering, and growing. Something had to be done to provide other than martial law. They were running full out, now ninety six percent of light speed.

  No idea where we are going, but making damned good time.

  Jake realized he was salivating. That nice butt was sweating, her back was wet, she was a running wet dream, so to speak. And she still had not let him close enough to bed her.

  Teasing, Dyna had told him. “She is teasing you. What you can’t have, you want all the more. If that is what you really want, go for it. But, somehow, I sense something very different in her. Something very… deliberate, yet I cannot put my finger on it.”

  Well, he was a young man, with a young man’s sole focus, and though he might be a geek, he knew a high quality girl when he saw one. Ben had landed Dyna. She was not bad at all. And seemed good for him. Surely, Kelly could do the same for me!

  When they finally returned to their room, with the two girls and Ben in tow, the place was crowded. They took turns in the shower, though, somehow, in an effort to save water, Ben explained, he and Dyna showered together. Everybody remarked and giggled, but nobody interrupted.

  Jake and Kelly glanced at each other, turned pink, each, but did not shower together. Not yet.

  -----

  Jake spoke up, after doing some doodling on an electronic tablet. “Even if the aliens absorb the radar, unless they were perfect at it, some small amount must return. When we turn up the gain, we get noise. If we separate the emitters and the collectors far enough, we would have a quiet background to draw from.”

  Dyna agreed. “I can code the LIDAR to any frequency, higher light, or pulse. But we have limits, there, too. If it cannot cool down, the emitter element might burn out.”

  Jake shrugged it off. “Hell, it has what, a microsecond to cool, now?”

  Bryce answered it with, “Half of that. But it is important. It is like taking one of our one hundred watt light bulbs and running it at about fifty watts. The filaments will last a long, long time, but, as we know, they do burn out.

  “We have already had to replace some of the emitter heads in the few months we’ve been out. We can make more, that is easy. But we do not want to be doing it every few days.”

  Ben added, “Or in the middle of a damned dogfight out here.”

  “If we double the pulse frequency and yet keep the light frequency, only those things quick enough to outrun light will be missed. But if they move in anywhere around us, the high level energy has to bounce. At least part of it.” Jake knew he was on to the right answer. They just had to prove it.

  The geeks put their minds to it, from design to construction. From that to implementation, starting with a test unit above the middle of Resolute, about where Ben had been standing.

  Ben’s contribution was more low tech. “We have single bidirectional static cameras surveying from a hundred and twenty points on Resolute. We should put three, and make two of them dynamic, controlled by a joystick. Ancient technology, but if I could see it, so could a camera. We have lo
ts of those and the ability to turn out hundreds more. What do you think of that?”

  “I like it,” Lincoln said, his hand to his chin. “Between LIDAR and cameras, not much would get past us.”

  “Or near us for long. But what if we saw something. Then what?”

  “Well, then the shit hits the fan,” Kelly said, brightly. The group burst out laughing.

  But it was true; they all knew it…

  CHAPTER 17

  It was another six months, almost to the day, before the Commander Geek Club got everything they wanted. As always, the reward for innovation and intelligence was promotions, and they occurred across the board.

  New cameras, as designed and mounted by the Geeks, were in place and functioning. The new LIDAR had two modes, the old one and the new, thus saving wear and tear on the emitter heads. In random sequences, some pulses were a new double pulse shot, so if any alien was trying to time them, it could not be done without discovery. And the emitter heads, out there in near absolute zero, stayed cool, as hoped.

  Power to the unit was tripled, but again, only in random sequence. Dyna had coded limits, so no random pulses could occur too close together, nor too far apart. The Resolute was far more vigilant than ever. And the new Commanders were very pleased.

  Yet, they discovered nothing new…

  -----

  Well, that was not true for Jake. He discovered Kelly when, one night, after walking her to his door, she gripped his tie and pulled him close for a kiss that curled his toes. Everything lit up or stood up and he was stunned. She pulled him easily inside. “I have waited long enough, Jake!”

  He almost panicked. “What about… roommates?”

  “At my request, we have privacy, Sailor. Like I said, I am tired of waiting for you. You are waiting for us to get together by osmosis, or what?” As she talked, she was stripping him of his uniform blouse and tie, then started on his pants. He was so shocked he was speechless.

  Then, with him sans most everything, she came into his arms, kissing him as a woman will, when she wants something, and no man ever misses that invitation.