by Bob Blanton
“I need you to prep one of the stellar probes,” Catie said. “Actually, go ahead and prep two.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the chief said. “Can you tell me what this is about?”
“I have to wait until I’ve informed the captain first,” Catie said. “I think he’ll want those probes ready as soon as I tell him.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
“ADI, tell Liz to contact me as soon as she’s available,” Catie said. “And put a message on the captain’s Comm telling him about the starship.”
“Yes, Cer Catie.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“What’s up, Girl?” Liz asked. It had taken about ten minutes for her to finish her meeting.
“We’ve got company heading this way,” Catie said.
“Huh? Did you invite someone to dine with us?”
“No. There’s a starship heading toward this system.”
“Ohh, that kind of company! How far away are they?” Liz asked.
“Four tenths of a light-year. So we’ve got lots of time, but we should come up with a plan so we can be ready when they arrive.”
“Have you told Blake yet?”
“He’s napping. I had ADI leave a message on his Comm.”
“Well, you should get up here, so we can meet when he wakes up,” Liz said.
“Okay, on my way,” Catie said. “Fox two, can you land? I need a ride to the Roebuck.”
“Yes, ma’am. Fox two, requesting permission to land.”
◆ ◆ ◆
By the time Catie made it to the Roebuck, Blake was awake, and he and Liz were waiting for her in his day cabin.
“Okay, I guess this is semi-urgent,” Blake said, “but what can we do now?”
“We can send a probe out to check on it,” Catie said.
“Won’t we risk exposing ourselves and the fact that we have a jumpdrive if we do?” Liz asked.
“If we jump in and then jump right out, I don’t think they’ll be able to detect it. And if they do, they’ll just assume it’s an anomaly or something like that.”
“Will we get enough information if we’re there for that short a time?” Blake asked.
“We’ll get some. Once we analyze it, we’ll know enough to decide if we want to send a second probe out. We’ll know if they’re making active sweeps of the space around them. With that information, we can decide where we should place the second probe if we decide to send one out. That one can drop a passive drone to record for a longer period. Then we’ll send another probe out to collect the drone when we want it back. Since we’ll be using quantum relays for communication, we can do passive scans, and they’ll never realize we’re there gathering all that information.”
“How long will it take the probes to get back here?” Liz asked. “There’s not going to be enough gravity to power the jumpdrive for a regular jump out by that ship.”
“I know; we’ll have to make a bunch of mini jumps to get back to this system. That means it will take about two days to get back to us. Then it will be three days for the Fox to bring it back from the fringe.”
“Then we should be able to get them back before we need to leave. Let’s go ahead and get them prepped,” Blake said.
“They’re already prepped and waiting for your orders,” Catie replied.
“I should take more naps,” Blake said. “Go ahead and send one. I assume that you have enough quantum relays to make it work.”
“Yep.”
◆ ◆ ◆
They mounted the probes on a Fox, then set the Fox blasting for the fringe of the solar system. Without a pilot, it was able to do 30Gs by using its grav drives and its space engines to accelerate. Catie had it overshoot the fringe; it dropped the probe at 60AUs, then continued the process of decelerating so it could turn back toward the fringe. Then she had it take a more normal profile back to 60AUs to set up for launching the second probe.
The probe winked into space about two light-seconds in front of the approaching starship, then it jumped a light month away from the starship, along a cross vector to its course. That put the probe out of the path of the starship, and hopefully away from where they could be analyzing the space.
“Okay, here we have it,” Catie said as the sensor data came in from the probe.
They put it up on the display in Blake’s day cabin.
“It looks to be about twice as big as the Roebuck,” Catie said.
“How can you tell the size?” Liz asked.
“These little ruler marks there,” Catie said, pointing to the edge of the display. “The probe calibrated the distance, so we can extrapolate the size.”
“I know that, I just didn’t see the rulers,” Liz said as she punched Catie on the shoulder.
“Ouch, I’m reporting you to the captain for abusive behavior.”
“I’m going to punch both of you if you don’t stop horsing around and get back to this,” Blake said.
“Sorry. We don’t have a long enough feed to tell its speed, but we can do that with the next probe. It looks like it’s just the one ship — nothing special to note, except that its shape is more like a cylinder. I wonder if they’re spinning it to give them gravity.”
“Obviously they didn’t care about aerodynamics,” Blake said, “so, it’s probably not capable of atmospheric flight. It doesn’t look like there’s any active propulsion right now.”
“I agree,” Liz said. “That means they’re at their cruising speed. I wonder how many years they have been traveling and where they’re coming from?”
“I’m not sure we can figure that out. We do have some communication chatter from them. ADI will analyze that, but she’ll probably need more before she can make sense of it.”
“That is if it’s not encrypted,” Blake said. “Okay, what do we want to do with the second probe?”
“I was thinking that we should drop the passive drone so that it is paralleling the ship’s course and about ten light-minutes ahead of it,” Catie said.
“A, how? And B, why?” Blake asked.
“A, if we send the probe to this star behind the ship, we can dive into the gravity well for half a day. Then we can accelerate out of it and make the jump. If we throw lots of reaction mass, we can match the ship’s velocity before the jump.”
“Okay, that’s how, but now why?”
“Then we can watch it for a longer time,” Catie said.
“I knew that, but I also know you have another reason,” Blake said.
“We can fake communication.”
“Fake?”
“Yes, we can start sending light-speed communication toward the ship. That will make it look like we spotted it four or five months ago. If they reply, we’ll know what they say right away, and we might be able to hear what they say about our communication on some other channel.”
“To do that, we would need to have a probe behind it,” Blake said. “I would assume they’ll direct any communication to their homeworld with a narrow-beam.”
“That makes sense,” Catie said. “That means we should drop another passive drone behind them on a matching vector.”
“I assume both probes are carrying one,” Blake said.
“Yes, they are.”
“Then take care of it. Have ADI keep us apprised of what we learn. Until we know more, we should all get back to work,” Blake said.
“Yes, sir.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It took four days to get both probes in place. During that time, the team focused on completing the second base camp. Blake had allowed Chief Bayless to do the hunting since he said he was an old desert rat. The chief was especially proud that he’d bagged a big cat, it was more like a bobcat, Blake thought.
Once they had both probes in place, Blake had called a meeting to discuss options.
“Hey, Bro,” Blake said as Marc joined their conference.
“Hello, Blake,” Marc said. “Hi, Catie, Liz.”
“Hi, Daddy. Hi, Sam.”
“Marc,
I assume you’ve read the report about our impending visitors,” Blake said.
“Of course,” Marc said. “It’s an interesting situation we find ourselves in.”
“To say the least. Now, let’s discuss our options,” Blake said. “We’ve been able to pick up some communication chatter that is not encrypted, ADI believes it’s entertainment.”
“I am very confident it is entertainment,” ADI said. “It appears to be something like the radio and television shows you have on Earth.”
“Why would they be broadcasting that?” Catie asked.
“It is a weak signal, so I would surmise they are broadcasting it within the ship for the crew to listen to or watch on their HUDs,” ADI explained.
“Have you been able to learn their language?” Marc asked.
“Not yet,” ADI said. “It will take approximately twelve more hours of analysis. I have ANDI working on it.”
“You’re not doing it yourself?”
“ANDI is perfectly capable of doing this, and I am busy,” ADI said. “I have him devoting ninety percent of his capacity to it. Being the DI of the Sakira is not taking very much of his bandwidth since she is only orbiting Earth at this time.”
“Okay, so twelve hours. Where are you on decoding their encrypted communication?”
“I don’t believe it will be possible to decode it,” ADI said. “It is very sophisticated.”
“But you decoded the U.S. encryption,” Catie said.
“I did not, I broke into their communication network behind their encryption,” ADI said.
“Oh, right.”
“Enough. Let’s talk options,” Blake said. “Catie suggested that we send a signal to them to tell them that we’re aware of their approach. By using the probe, we can make it look like we sent that signal four months ago.”
“What good will that do?” Samantha asked.
“If they respond, we’ll also have a four-month lead time on that,” Catie said.
“Oh, that could be useful,” Samantha said. “Although a four-month delay will make for an awkward conversation.”
“But we’ll be able to see what their answers are before they know it. Then we could send another message, pretending not to know what they replied, but tailor it based on what we learn,” Catie said.
“That makes sense,” Samantha said. “But we should at least wait until ANDI has learned the language. We also might learn more about their culture from the shows or whatever they are broadcasting.”
“I agree, patience is what we need,” Marc said. “We don’t have a time constraint on our side. With the probes in place, we can execute our plan even after you return to Earth.”
◆ ◆ ◆
Dr. Qamar rushed up to Blake as he prepared to head back to the Roebuck after an inspection tour. It was the fastest that Blake had ever seen the Paraxean move.
“Captain, I have some news,” Dr. Qamar gushed.
“Relax,” Blake said. “I’m sure it can wait until you catch your breath.” They were still in shipsuits with helmets since Dr. Magor had not blessed the planet’s atmosphere yet.
“Of course, but I wanted to deliver it in person,” Dr. Qamar said. “This is so exciting; I wanted to see your reaction.”
“Okay,” Blake waved Catie over. She was scheduled to fly him back in the Lynx and was waiting for him at the landing strip. “Let’s wait for Catie, that’ll let you catch your breath.”
“What’s up?” Catie asked as she jogged over to them.
“Dr. Qamar has some exciting news.”
Catie turned to Dr. Qamar, crossed her arms, and stood waiting. Her body conveying the ‘well spit it out’ message that she didn’t want to verbalize.
“I’m sure you are aware that earlier I reported that this planet seemed to be rich in metals.”
“I do remember that,” Blake said, trying to be encouraging.
“Well, after further analysis, I find that it is extremely rich in the platinum group metals. It is quite unusual for any planet to be so rich.”
“I guess that’s good news?” Blake said. “It will certainly help the colony if it can start exporting those metals.”
“Wait! Would you be able to detect how rich the planet is from a few light-years away?” Catie asked.
“I don’t think so,” Dr. Qamar said. “But if the planet is this rich, the asteroid belt is likely to be rich as well. If it is, that might be detectable.”
“I assume you want to send a Fox out there to find out,” Blake said.
“I think we should. ADI can fly it. It’ll take three days to fly there and run some tests. Then we’ll know if our alien friends out there might already know how rich the system is.”
“ADI.”
“I will be happy to fly the Fox,” ADI said. “It would be interesting to determine how one could detect the presence of platinum group metals from such a distance. Our sensors have to be relatively close to detect them.”
“I’ll do some research on that,” Dr. Qamar said. “If the metal is exposed, then it is likely that spectrography would detect it. If the asteroids are as rich as the planet, it is also likely that they have exposed seams of the metals.”
“Please do that,” Blake said. “We’ll be on the Roebuck if you need us.”
“Yes, Captain. I’ll start working on it right away,” Dr. Qamar said. He turned and started back toward his lab, muttering to himself.
“What makes you think our new friends might know how rich the system is?” Blake asked.
“It seems like too much of a coincidence. They must be from a very long distance away, and they’re only sending one ship.”
“We only sent one ship.”
“But we would have made it here in two weeks. With the quantum relays, we have plenty of time to decide what we want to do with this system. They’re still at least a year away, and who knows how long they’ve been journeying.”
“That all makes sense. I’m sure it will affect any discussions we have with them, and it will definitely impact how willing they might be to fight for this place.”
“Since they’re not coming to colonize with that ship, are they an advance party for a colonization fleet, or are they coming to do some prospecting?”
“Hmm, we’ll have to see.”
◆ ◆ ◆
They had just finished the fencing and the main building for the third compound. It was farther north, so was cooler than the second one, since it was winter in the northern hemisphere. The Paraxeans had selected a location about eighty kilometers inland from the sea, wanting to make sure that they were above sea level should they decide to add a lot of water. For the same reason, they were about ten kilometers from the river.
Everyone was a bit tired and shooting the Paraxeans dirty looks. They all wanted to get out of their suits and enjoy some breeze, but the Paraxeans were holding steadfast to their timetable.
Catie was laying out the sites for the greenhouses when Liz showed up.
“Hey, Girl.”
“Oh, hi, Liz,” Catie replied.
“Where’s your security detail?”
Catie pointed at the jeep. “They’re sitting in the shade, relying on the drone to let them know if anything approaches. There aren’t any trees close by and the grass is short.”
“So why did the Paraxeans pick this location?”
“They always focus on grain production,” Catie said. “This is nice and flat, no trees to dig out when they put the field in. The river is close enough to pump water, but far enough that they don’t have to worry about floods.”
“Do you think it floods?”
“Maybe, those mountains look like they have snow on them,” Catie said, pointing to the mountain range off to the west.
“I guess they do. “When are they letting us out of these suits?”
“It’ll be a while; five days last I heard.”
“Ouch. Well, I’m heading back to the Roebuck; I’ll see you when you come back tonight.”
/> Chapter 15
Pass the SALT
“You and the Russian president must have really hit it off,” Samantha said after entering Marc’s office.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because they just agreed in principle to the SALT III treaty.” Samantha used air quotes around ‘in principle.’
“That is good,” Marc said. He sat back in his chair and removed his specs. “Very good.”
“It is. You’ve been playing these cards close to your chest for the last three years; I think it’s time that you put some of them on the table.”
“What cards?”
“You know what I mean. How do you envision all this playing out? Are we going to have world peace?”
“That seems unlikely,” Marc said. “But if you look at where the risks of major conflicts are, this certainly helps.”
“How?”
“Currently there are three areas of potential conflict that could erupt into a widespread war,” Marc said. “Russia’s attempt to regain parts of the Soviet Union, China’s pressure on asserting control over resources in Africa and East Asia, and the Middle East.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because after the Korean unification, those are the only areas with sufficient concentrations of arms and wealth to drag the rest of the world into war. With Russia accepting the SALT III agreements, that takes the pressure off China. They’ve already tacitly agreed to rely on economic competition when they agreed to the fusion power plants and the beginnings of nuclear disarmament. With their power needs resolved, and with the greenhouses and meat-growing technology we’ve introduced, they are able to support their population with internal resources; at least enough that they don’t feel threatened by a cut-off of trade.”
“But what about all the machinations that they’re pulling in Africa?”
“Scurrying for control over resources. Fred’s little play in the platinum group metals coupled with the upcoming announcement that we are mining in the asteroid belt will make it clear that we’re not limited by Earth-side resources.”
“But that won’t stop the competition,” Samantha said.
“Of course not. But it should take enough pressure off that it’s unlikely to erupt into a global war.”