The Solar Sea

by David Lee Summers

The captain stopped walking and was nearly pushed off the treadmill as the belt kept rolling. He hopped off. “Are you sure?"

  Natalie stopped pedaling and climbed off the bike. She led him over to the computer that was controlling the music that played over the gym speakers. Opening a window, she brought up the file she'd found about the Quinn family. “This is a photo of Jerome Quinn, his wife, and two sons.” She zoomed in on the photo. The lanky young man closest to Jerome in height had the same wiry hair, the same angular features, and the same thoughtful eyes as Thomas Alonzo.

  Jefferson shook his head. After a moment, he stepped back to the treadmill. He turned up the speed and began a brisk walk.

  Natalie folded her arms and watched the captain from her seat at the computer console. “What's your assessment of the situation, Captain?"

  "All we've learned is that he's about six years younger than we thought.” Holding onto the treadmill's handle with one hand, he pointed to his gray hair with the other. “From my perspective, that's not much difference. He's a young pup no matter how you cut it.” He indicated the ship around them. “Pilot may be a young man, but he's proven his abilities."

  Natalie cleared the photo from the computer console, stood, and returned to the stationary bike. “Those six years can make a big difference in maturity, Captain."

  Jefferson nodded. “What would you have me do? Order him to turn the ship around?"

  Freeman shook her head as she resumed pedaling. “What good would that do at this stage? But we need to watch him ... maybe guide him a little more."

  "He's a strong-willed young man,” said Jefferson. “He probably won't take to being ‘guided.’”

  "But...."

  Jefferson turned off the treadmill and held up his hands. “I hear what you're saying and I share your concern. I'll keep my eyes open and do what I can.” He stepped off the treadmill and poured some water from a dispenser in the wall. “In some ways, he already did what was necessary. He put you and I in command of this ship. That shows a maturity I've seen lacking in some much older people."

  Freeman thought about that as she continued pedaling. “Why do you think he's using an alias?"

  Jefferson shrugged as he sat on a bench and picked up two dumbbells. “The very existence of this mission concerned the president. What do you think would have happened if the president knew that Quinn's own son was leading the expedition?"

  Freeman stopped pedaling. “He would have looked much harder at the expedition and probed much more thoroughly into its purpose."

  Jefferson nodded. “Rather than simply send you aboard, he might have found a way to stop it.” He lifted the dumbbells. “Do you regret coming along?"

  "No.” Freeman stepped off the bike. “I wouldn't trade it for the world."

  * * * *

  The Aristarchus continued through the asteroid belt without incident. However, Pilot kept feeling like something had changed in the ship's behavior. “I can't quite put my finger on it,” he said to Daryl LaRue. “It's like there's a slight wobble or vibration that wasn't there before."

  The tech manager shook his head. “I don't feel anything, sir."

  "Still, I'd feel better if you did a complete system's check."

  "Right away.” Daryl ordered the mechanics through the ship to visually inspect the masts, bearings, and motors. Using telescopes mounted in the steerage rooms, they were able to inspect the sails themselves. The crew also went through and checked all of the thruster components to make sure the thrusters weren't somehow leaking fuel, adding to the ship's natural motion.

  "Well, the only thing we can see is some pitting of the aluminum on the sails. That shouldn't cause any vibration, though,” reported LaRue. “That is if there is any vibration at all. We're not measuring any."

  "And we've not slowed down,” said Pilot. “That's the only thing I really feared about losing some of the aluminum. Apparently, it's not enough to slow us given the amount of sunlight we're getting out here."

  "I'm guessing the vibration is just your imagination, sir."

  "You're probably right.” Pilot sighed. “I'm probably just feeling nervous."

  "Nothing to worry about, sir,” said LaRue. “We just need to sit back and drift into Jupiter's orbit."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter 16

  Alien Data

  Natalie Freeman knocked on Neb O'Connell's door. His mouth dropped open when he saw her, but he quickly closed it and smiled nervously, asking her to come in. “Congratulations on your engagement,” she said, her tone conversational.

  "Thanks. I'm kind of nervous but kind of looking forward to the wedding all at the same time."

  "I think that's the way it's supposed to be.” Natalie sighed, briefly remembering a couple of her own boyfriends from the past. None had ever been serious about marriage.

  Neb stepped over to a chair and sat down, indicating Natalie should take the other. “Have you ever been married, Captain Freeman?"

  She smiled wistfully and sat back. “They say a captain's married to her ship. I suppose I've felt like that at times, especially with the Daniel B. Sherman."

  "What about the Aristarchus?"

  "It's not quite the same.” She reached out, touched the wall, and frowned thoughtfully. Clearing her throat, she faced Neb again. “Aristarchus is Jefferson's ship, not mine. In many ways, it's even more Pilot's ship than either of ours. He oversaw construction. It's his baby. I'm just along for the ride."

  Neb inclined his head. “Is that the only reason you're aboard the ship?"

  "Well.... “Natalie remembered her childhood, remembered playing with cardboard boxes and wearing coveralls that really weren't very different from the ones she currently wore. “I always wanted to be an astronaut. In some ways, this mission was my one opportunity to fulfill the dream."

  "Yeah, I had the same dream. My parents had DVDs of all the great science fiction shows from the twentieth century. I used to watch them all the time and pretend I was aboard a ship exploring strange new worlds.” His eyes took on a faraway look.

  "And here you are.” Though she'd first seen Neb as awkward and a little strange, she wondered if he were, in fact, something of a kindred spirit.

  "Say,” he said, “can I get you some coffee or tea? Something to drink?"

  Natalie held up her hand. “No thanks. Really, I only came by because I had a couple of quick astronomy questions. I was wondering if you could help me with them."

  Neb smiled sheepishly. “Dr. Nagamine might be the better person to talk to. I'm only a telescope operator. He's the full-time astronomer."

  "Actually, the questions relate more to your observing experience than to the greater world of astronomy.” She paused, thinking how best to phrase her question. “As I understand, you worked at the Very Large Array. They mostly do solar system work these days, don't they?"

  "Mostly.” The corners of Neb's mouth turned down. “It's a real shame. The telescope's capable of a whole lot more."

  She nodded, sympathetically. “That's what I understand. What I was wondering is whether you ever observed anything unusual about the Saturn system, particularly something where Saturn and our Moon might have something in common."

  He shook his head. “Nothing like that. I can't think of anything that the Moon and Saturn have in common at radio frequencies, except for the fact that the Moon and Saturn's rings are both fairly radio quiet. Heck, Saturn's moons and our Moon don't even have that much in common.” He sat back, brow creased. “However, I did have one really unusual observation of Saturn's moon Titan. I was observing for our boss, Thomas Alonzo, and the moon was flaring in one particular radio frequency. It almost looked like an exploding star."

  "What exactly was the frequency?” asked Natalie.

  "I don't remember precisely.” He stood and retrieved a pad of paper and a pen from the desk drawer. Sitting down again, he wrote a number. “It was something in that range.” He handed the paper to Natalie. “The funny thing i
s Pilot called me to ask about joining this mission only a few days after I made that observation. I've wondered if there was a connection, but Pilot's never talked about it."

  She took the paper, folded it up, and put it in her pocket. “You must have impressed the powers that be at Quinn Corp, somehow.” She stood and moved toward the door. Just before she left, she turned. “Thanks much. Sometime you, Lisa, and I should get together and talk about those old science fiction TV shows."

  "I'd like that,” said Neb.

  * * * *

  During the months traversing the asteroid belt, Myra Lee and Lisa Henry devoted a large fraction of their duty time to working on the information Pilot provided them from the data disk found on Mars. Lisa, working with a computer tech named Jenna Reynolds, came up with a program that compared the binary code from the whale songs of Earth to the binary code on the disk. They found a match for every word of the whale message somewhere on the disk.

  "I think we should send some of these data segments back to Earth and see if Cristof and Harmer can make anything of them,” said Myra. She carefully composed an email message, explaining the discovery of the Martian disk, taking care to emphasize that they were still not certain whether the disk came from an Earth spaceship or was alien in origin. “All the same,” she wrote, “we feel there are enough data segments in common between the disk and the language used by the whales that you should have a look.” After attaching the data segments to the message, she sent it away.

  Meanwhile, Pilot worked on another segment of the disk. He asked Jenna to come up to the Ares bay and take a look at some data he'd downloaded onto his laptop computer. She stared at the binary data for some time, then looked up at Pilot. “This almost looks like a binary encoded image to me, or a sequence of images."

  "Is there any way to decode the image?” asked Pilot.

  Jenna nodded. “Assuming the people who dropped this disk use pixel encoded data like we do, there are only so many ways an image can be coded, presuming there's not some kind of encryption on the disk. Are you plugged into the ship's network up here?"

  Pilot nodded.

  "Send me that image sequence and I'll see what I can do with it. I've got a few image decoding algorithms. It may do no good, but it might still be fun to try them out on this sequence and see what I come up with."

  The next day, Myra received an email back from Joyce Harmer. In the message, Joyce wrote:

  "The data segments look very interesting. They do, in fact, appear to be related to the language the whales were using. We're working through it now. With a little time, we might be able to add more words to the translation program."

  * * * *

  Natalie Freeman watched as Pilot left his quarters and climbed the ladder toward the ship's central hub. Once he was out of sight, she stepped into his quarters and located the report she'd seen before. She opened the report to the table of contents and found an entry labeled, “Detection of chronotons using radio frequencies.” Opening the report to the indicated page, she ran her finger down the paper until she came to a number. Holding her finger on the number, she retrieved the paper John O'Connell had given her. The number in the report was right in the middle of the frequency range for the detection of the mysterious chronotons.

  She flipped back to the beginning of the report and read the abstract at the top of the first page. It told her scientists had discovered some rather unusual particles on the Moon. Upon study, it was determined the particles could jump into the fourth physical dimension, speculated by some to be the dimension of time. At the end, the abstract speculated that if a sufficient quantity of chronotons were located, they could have many applications including the construction of a time machine, a weapon, and more.

  Natalie let out a long, low whistle. Now she knew what Thomas Quinn was after at Saturn and why.

  * * * *

  Jenna Reynolds called Pilot and Lisa Henry on the intercom and asked them to meet her in command and control. Fifteen minutes later, they all converged at the biosciences station.

  "What's going on?” asked Captain Jefferson from the command console.

  "Pilot found a string of images on that disk you recovered on Mars,” said Jenna breathlessly. “There's something on it I think you need to see."

  Jefferson looked to Neb O'Connell and both of them stepped up behind the biosciences console. Myra stood up, letting Jenna sit in her place. She typed in some commands and an image appeared on the primary display.

  "It's Olympus Mons,” declared Jefferson. “Not far from our landing site."

  Jenna brought up three more images. All were views around the caldera. Then she brought up a fourth image. It showed a silver, egg-shaped craft sitting on the ground on three thin landing legs. Symbols, similar to those on the disk, were on the craft.

  "That's like no Earth vessel I've ever seen.” Jefferson shook his head. Daryl LaRue and Vanda Berko, who had been working at the thruster control station, grew curious about the images and stepped up. “Look familiar to either of you?” They shook their heads.

  "You ain't seen nothin’ yet,” said Reynolds. She pushed the button.

  The next frame that appeared on the screen showed a creature apparently seated inside the spacecraft from the previous image. The creature was vaguely humanoid in appearance. Its head looked a little like a soft, overripe orange. Set into the head were two black, bulbous eyes. Underneath a long, thin nose was a thick, purple mustache. No mouth was visible under the mustache. The creature wore a long, flowing black robe. Its hand rested atop the ship's console. Myra counted six fingers in all and noted that the fingers on either side of the hand were jointed as though they were both thumbs. Dr. Garcia stood up at the life sciences console to get a better view. Everyone was silent for the better part of a minute as the realization that they were seeing intelligent extraterrestrials for the first time sank in.

  "Is that what the whales were talking to?” asked Pilot, quietly, almost reverently.

  Myra's hand was up to her mouth. “Your guess is as good as mine.” Her voice caught in her throat.

  "There's one more frame that I was able to interpret,” said Jenna. She brought it up on the screen. It showed an animal of some kind with its mouth open, revealing razor sharp fangs. However, the creature itself appeared to be covered in soft, smooth fur. Above its muzzle, it had two small, black button-like eyes. Two small round ears sat atop its head.

  "It's like a teddy bear,” said Neb, chuckling nervously.

  "More like a teddy bear from hell,” said Lisa with a wry grin. “Look at those teeth."

  "The people who dropped that disk must be explorers,” declared Myra. She moved from one foot to another in a motion that would be excited pacing, except everyone on deck crowded in to get a better look. “What order are the pictures in?"

  Jenna shrugged. “I'm pretty sure it's chronological, but it's hard to tell whether it's forward or backward."

  "Let's assume they dropped the disk after taking that picture of Olympus Mons,” said Myra. “That would imply that we just saw the sequence in reverse order. I'd assume that the creature we saw at the end was some animal they encountered on their journey. Presumably before they went to Mars."

  "I just hope we don't have to meet it.” Dr. Garcia had crowded in with the others. “It's hard to tell how big it is, but even a small creature like that could tear a pretty good hole in someone."

  "Well, we've learned one thing for sure,” said Pilot. “That disk is definitely alien in origin and it contains data. Whether it will help us as we continue in our journey is hard to say, but it's certainly quite an artifact."

  Myra spun around and looked at Pilot. “We've discovered life,” she said. “There's life out here and we might just be able to talk to it!” She turned to Lisa. “We've got to get a message out to Harmer and Cristof right away—getting more words for our translation program's top priority!"

  Jenna hopped out of the seat and joined in the excited murmurings behind the bio
sciences station as Lisa Henry sat. Captain Jefferson did his best to usher people back to their stations. As he did, he realized more people began to drift into the C-and-C from other parts of the ship, to see the images on the screen. “We've got a ship to run, people.” Jefferson tried to force a note of authority into his voice in spite of the excitement. “Quick look and back to work. We'll get the images on the ship-wide network, so you can look at them later."

  * * * *

  Natalie Freeman composed a secure message to President Oscar Van der Wald. She opened her message with an announcement that the artifact found on Mars was definitely extraterrestrial and there was a good chance the whales of Earth were speaking the language used by the disk's creators. “In my estimate,” she wrote, "it's possible that we will meet this extraterrestrial life before the mission is over. If so, I will do my best to represent the United States adequately. Please send any special instructions."

  She then reported she had searched Thomas Alonzo's quarters and found nothing more than a few textbooks and some memos on Quinn Corp letterhead that discussed the building of the Aristarchus but did not give any details as to the purpose of the mission other than Quinn Corp's interest in exploration. She sent the message. As she did, her stomach knotted and churned. She hated to lie in an official report. It went against everything she'd been taught in the military. However, her instincts told her telling the United States government about the possible existence of particles that could be used to manipulate time itself could be the biggest mistake she could possibly make.

  She thought about Captain Jefferson's words regarding Pilot's true identity. Aboard the Aristarchus, she was in a position to watch him and even influence his actions. She wanted to see what Quinn was actually going to do with the time particles before she alerted the entire world to their existence. She also suspected the extraterrestrial life they discovered might somehow be connected to the time particles. If true, diplomacy may ultimately prove the most important skill needed on the mission.

  Looking at the timestamp on the computer display, she realized it was only a few days before Christmas. Angus was preparing another one of his parties. With a sigh, she put aside her keypad, and realized this was a time to be with friends. She called C-and-C to see if Lisa and Neb would like to join her for some good old twentieth century television.