Jubilee Year

by Gerard O'Neill

  However, to the surprise of the team, once the plane was clear of the coastline it turned due south. In the direction of the Pole.

  Doctor Arnold Klein alone knew the truth about Project Southern Cross. Once the plane had reached an optimum position, he would tell the team all they needed to know. Until then, the only clue would be found in Arnold’s area of expertise. His field of specialization lay in failed stars. Phenomena that were prime infrared emitters. If nothing else made sense to the team that fact alone did.

  Doctor Caterina Ferrara who usually held the role of Principal Investigator on the SOFIA missions, had been told that for this mission her role would go to Doctor Klein. The intrusion into her workplace annoyed her no end. However, it was the politics, or more plainly, the demands of those who funded the mysterious project that had won the day. Caterina was certainly not about to say no to a SOFIA mission.

  In the dark of the cabin, the only light was provided by computer displays, and rows of tiny flashing red, green, and blue diodes.

  The initial buzz they shared before the flight took-off had long since been replaced by growing irritation and even frustration. Scientists prefer to know exactly what they are about. These men and women were no exception. As the plane reached causing altitude the acting Principal Investigator, Dr. Arnold Klein, announced the infrared telescope was to target a location near the Sun, just beyond its corona. What they wanted to know was why?

  Two hours into the flight and Arnold had found his target. To begin with, he was barely aware of the team’s presence even when they began to crowd his console. At first, he was surrounded by stunned silence, but it didn’t last long. The image grew clearer as the data flowed in from the telescope, and shock among the scientists thronging around Arnold’s chair gave way to open disbelief.

  Arnold brushed away a quivering finger as it settled on the screen.

  “It’s amazing!” The man staring over Arnold’s shoulder exclaimed. “Look—and there’s another!”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a second voice.

  “You can be sure that no one has,” chimed in a third.

  Arnold glanced up at the incredulous expressions around him. He may as well be sitting in the middle of a zoo, what with all the pointing and howling. “I can’t do my work with everyone standing over me,” he announced in exasperation.

  But, the surrounding commotion only grew louder as the scientists realized the impossibility of what they were seeing.

  “It’s—it’s a bloody comet!” Exclaimed one pointing to the tail visible on Arnold’s screen.

  “No, no,” tutted yet another. “It’s far too big.”

  “It’s enormous!” Caterina gasped. She scarcely believed her eyes.

  “It’s all a bit blurry,” someone complained to Arnold. “Can’t you bring up more detail?”

  “Doctor Klein, could you sharpen the image, please?” Insisted another.

  The excitement was growing like a wildfire, and Arnold turned to Caterina in desperation. “Doctor Ferrara! I cannot do anything with this cacophony!”

  “Alright, everyone. Doctor Klein has a procedure to follow just like we all do,” Caterina said, raising her hands to emphasize she was pleading. “Please return to your own stations. I’m afraid we all need to make do with whatever Doctor Klein makes available to us.”

  “But Caterina, this new protocol is quite extraordinary,” complained one of her oldest colleagues. “We cannot work like this. If we are here to observe a red dwarf—”

  “I can still hear you!” Arnold snapped, without bothering to look up from his console. “And, it’s not a red dwarf!”

  Caterina clapped her hands to get their attention. “Everyone back to your workstations, please!” It was good enough. She watched as they hurried off to their displays to analyze whatever data they were going to be fed. She turned back to Arnold. “Doctor Klein, why didn’t we know about the true objective of this mission before the flight?”

  “They didn’t want you to know,” he told her matter-of-factly.

  Caterina took a seat next to Arnold. She would request for his considered opinion. She was hoping he could be flattered, and she was right. “Dr. Klein, the system is so low on the ecliptic plane, it would be quite difficult to see in the Northern Hemisphere. Do you know what is in the center?”

  “Most likely a collapsed star,” he replied.

  “What about that comet-planet?” Caterina did her best to swallow a nervous giggle.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Arnold said. “The collapsed star is the main target of our investigation.”

  “But the planet thing—whatever—it’s huge!” Caterina exclaimed unable to stop herself.

  “It does appear to radiate a little more heat than I expected,” he said with a slight frown.

  “Can’t we get more surface detail than that?” She asked leaning closer to the display.

  “I can’t,” he said quietly.

  “Of course you can! You know the capabilities of the telescope.” Caterina exclaimed in astonishment.

  “No—I mean I am not supposed to do that...” Arnold’s voice trailed away.

  “You mean you won’t allow a close-up? What nonsense. Do it for goodness’ sake!”

  Arnold stared up at her. “I’m not allowed.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Doctor Ferrara, our mission is run in large part by the military. I am obeying the terms of my contract—my orders. Do I need to remind you of your own? There is the clause that states you are under the direction, supervision, and control of—”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, man! If you don’t allow me to examine the target how do you think I am to help you with the analysis? Do you want my input or not?”

  Arnold pushed his glasses further up his thin nose. “Okay! But cut the feed to their desks first.”

  “Do we need to do that?” She asked.

  He glared at her.

  “Alright then,” she said, and she tapped the touchscreen to disconnect the team’s feed.

  Cries of protest had filled the cabin even before she had a chance to switch on her mic.

  “This is Caterina,” she announced unnecessarily. “I apologize for the loss of the feed. I hope to have it all back up in a few minutes. In the meantime, please stay seated. Rest your eyes for a spell if you prefer. We will be back online in fifteen minutes.” She turned to Arnold. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  Arnold made several adjustments to the image then zoomed in on the darkness at the center of the system. “Here is our target. It has a very dense mass as you would expect of a collapsed star—the Sun’s returning sibling.”

  “We have a binary star system after all?” Caterina asked feeling an odd mix of horror and elation. At last, here was the evidence.

  “Precisely!”

  “But, what about the super-sized planet—ah—comet thing?”

  Arnold sighed and switched the camera to the comet-planet.

  Caterina gasped. “Look at those objects orbiting it. Just look at that one. It must be as big as Mars! How many moons are there?”

  “Five of significant size.”

  “Well, that can’t be a planet! It must be a dwarf star. Terrestrial planets don’t get that big!”

  “Why do you keep saying the same thing? We need to re-assess our understanding of what constitutes a planet, and a star. That is all.”

  “How large is it?”

  “Taking a conservative guess, I would say four to five times the size of Earth. I would compare it to Uranus or Neptune.”

  “How long have all the space agencies known about this system?”

  “That is our concern! We should only focus on the orbit of the star at the center of this system. How long will it be here? When will it move back out again? What changes will it bring to our own solar system? This is what our mission is all about. Just think of the discoveries we are going to make!”

  Caterina saw the smile on Arnold’s face
and she swallowed. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest. It was not her usual reaction when she discovered something extraordinary through a telescope.

  Arnold glanced up at her. “Tomorrow morning’s debriefing will cover most of your questions.” He pointed to the figures clicking over in a side panel on the screen. “It is most interesting that the tiny star central to this system appears to have the characteristics of a black hole. Don’t you agree?”

  “My God, yes,” Caterina exclaimed, running her finger down the results of the computations on Arnold’s screen. She leaned closer to Arnold and lowered her voice so the others around could not hear her words. “And, your model is telling us this mini-system will go into perihelion around the Sun.”

  Arnold nodded in confirmation. He drew a finger down the column of figures on the display. “It has a long, elliptical orbit.”

  Caterina craned forward. She scarcely believed what she was looking at.

  “The system will pass between Mars and Jupiter, about forty degrees relative to the ecliptic plane. It cuts right through Earth’s orbital path,” Arnold told her. “It may even be visible to the naked eye low on the horizon at its closest point to Earth. I should think those other orbiting bodies will be visible before then... Most certainly this ah—comet-planet will… that’s if…”

  “If what?” Caterina asked.

  She glanced at the rigid silhouette of Arnold’s profile against the brightness of the display.

  “Oh, never mind. What is chance is there that Earth will become just another ball on the big billiard table? I mean once that thing penetrates the ecliptic on its way back out?”

  “My calculations show there’s room to spare, even with all the orbitals. Our own system is very stable.” He paused to clear his throat. “Then again, the route it takes through our solar system is never exactly the same… And with an orbital period close to four thousand years... I suppose we will find out soon enough.”

  He stared up at her with a happy smile.

  “This is such an unbelievable opportunity to learn about an unknown type of star up close, don’t you think?”

  Caterina was surprised when she saw the scientific team were joined at the debriefing by the flight crew. The specifics of their different job detail usually called for separate meetings. Yet, here they all were, together in one room.

  Doctor Eric Clarkson, a young man from Atlanta City sat across from her. He scribbled a note on a piece of paper, folding it into a neat square before he passed it across to her at knee level.

  She liked Clarkson. Not because he was good at his job. Everyone on the team was good at their job. She liked him because he was always able to lighten the most heated moments.

  She opened the paper expecting to find a hilariously rude joke and gazed instead at a single question. ‘Do you still think they are going to mothball the telescope after this mission is over?’ “All that talk about a budget blowout was BS,” she whispered to him. “I think the discovery of this mini-system, the tiny star, and the comet-planet is the real reason for the flying telescope.”

  “Comet-planet you calling it?” He asked and gave a dry laugh. “That makes it sound like something from the pages of a comic.”

  “What would you call it?” She asked him.

  “A god-awful nightmare!” He replied.

  “Yes,” she replied, nodding her head. “That is more fitting.”

  The hum in the room died down as three men strode to the front of the room. The first was a scientist, the second a three-star general, but it was the third man they found themselves staring at. He had the coloring of a Swede and the stature of a giant.

  Caterina sat rigid in her seat, stunned at what she saw. The man was a Goliath! He had to be all of seven feet. Yet the way he carried himself. Without a shred of self-consciousness. His head might be a little larger than usual, but otherwise he was perfectly proportioned! The thought crossed her mind that she was looking at a genetic mutation, or perhaps a product of the secretive hybrid program within the military.

  The man in the white coat was the first to speak. Tony Buchanan introduced himself as a head scientist at NASA. His department was one Caterina was sure she had never heard of before. He introduced Admiral Grant Fieldman from the Pentagon, then he introduced the giant, Martyn Beenine from Washington DC.

  Caterina frowned. Beenine didn’t sound like a Scandinavian name at all. Perhaps he wasn’t. As the debriefing continued, Caterina realized with surprise it did not have the form of any other she had experienced. For one thing, there would be no discussion.

  When Buchanan finished with his list of technical details, he made as if to move aside for the general. He hesitated and turned back to the audience. “Ah, excuse me, everybody. One more thing. We will not be taking any questions!”

  The general stared at them with an expressionless face. He remained silent until the last whisper ceased. “Let’s cut straight to the chase,” the general began. “We have known about the incoming intruder star and mini-system in tow for some time. I don’t need to tell you what a threat it represents to all life in our solar system!”

  There was barely a rustle from the gathering as the import of the general’s words sank in.

  “We have no military means at our disposal to fight this intruder. The scale is far larger than human capabilities can handle—too large for any being to handle in fact! Man or God. It is truly our nemesis and for this reason, we do not make an announcement. And this will be the way things remain until we know the time is right. I can assure all of you, we are making the proper preparations, and we have been doing so for quite some time.”

  His chin jutted out as his eyes swept the room, but his voice was a whisper. They had to turn their best ear to him to catch his words.

  “Your work on this project remains classified at the highest level. You will not disclose any of it to your family, friends, the media, or any other entity. You will not disclose it with your pet poodle. Do I make myself clear?” He looked around the assembled scientists and the flight crew and saw them nod their heads. “Good.”

  When the general turned to Martyn Beenine to see if the Swede had anything to say, he found himself staring into the giants unblinking eyes. The general coughed and quickly stepped down from the podium.

  The debriefing was over.

  Caterina kept her head down as she walked out of the debriefing room with the others. She wanted to be alone. Her stomach was tight and her mouth dry. What she really needed was a Vermouth, or two, or possibly even four. She might not stop until she was good and drunk.

  Tomorrow would not be a day like any other. Nothing would ever be the same again. She knew this with absolute certainty.

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  About the Author

  GERARD O’NEILL was born and raised in New Zealand, and now lives across the great ditch in Sydney, Australia. He writes science thrillers, but more recently has dived into science fiction for the teens and young adult audience. The second book in the Atoma and the Blockchain Game series will be out late February 2019.

  Gerard is the author of four novels: Atoma and the Blockchain Game (Book I), Jubilee Year (The Erelong Trilogy, Book I), May Day (The Erelong Trilogy, Book II), and The Girl With Two Names.

  He hasn’t forgotten about The Erelong Trilogy. The always difficult book three is scheduled for release late in 2019/2020. A dramatic suspense filled novel that will tie up all those loose ends.

  Copyright © 2015 by Gerard O’Neill

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover art design by Matthew Watts

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9943654-3-9