Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance Page 13

  Jessica was swept up not only by Sted’s physical presence but also by his entire history. When she first met him, she had to be very careful not to reveal how she was truly feeling. That is, until she blushed after seeing his enthralled smile back in the corridor outside of the AMC offices. Unbeknownst to her, that smile and her blush had sealed their fate.

  Chapter 39 – The Esss Arrival at Sol

  There was no way to slow down their scouting party without alerting the natives of the system, but the Esss did not care. They could not conceive that life limited to one star system could be any threat to them. They were already within the outermost part of the star system when the master chronicler thrummed its orders to its shipmates to start the deceleration process. Every Esss aboard entered their acceleration chambers before the engine pods were reversed and thrust was applied. Their initial destination would be the largest of the gas giant planets.

  Chapter 40 – Lockdown in the Belt

  Sted was in the process of collecting his few belongings from around the AMC suite when the video message alert came. It was Cam, and he did not look happy. From their orbital position and that of Earth and Luna, it took almost fifty minutes for light to travel the gap. This meant that any message was recorded and sent, and the sender could not expect a reply for at least a couple of hours.

  Sted used his thumbprint to authorize the AMC video terminal and sat back to hear what Cam had to say. He recognized the background as Cam’s office on Luna. The man appeared more than a bit frazzled and also a bit tired. Whatever this was about, it was bound to be important.

  “Hello, Sted. I’m sorry I have to disturb you while you’re getting ready to return back to Luna on the new shuttle, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to cancel that trip. Something important has come up.

  “We have just sent out immediate orders to all of our facilities in the belt to go dark. As of, and including, this message, all communications are to be by point-to-point laser only. No radio frequency broadcasting will be allowed from any facilities in the belt. This is by direct order of the Admiralty.

  “All of this is related to the breaking news of what appears to be an inbound spacecraft from the outer part of the galaxy. Astronomers have reported a new light source in the constellation Orion with a measurable motion with respect to the background stars. The signature of the light indicates hydrogen/methane combustion, and the object, while moving very fast, appears to be decelerating.

  “As a matter of security, the Navy wants to mask the existence of any facilities in the belt for their own protection. That means we need to get all of our assay and mining craft into secure locations near the closest asteroid. The assay ships are being ordered to dock with the closest mining platform to minimize the need for resupply. We are also sending multiple resupply capsules to each mining platform to allow for six to twelve months without any further shipments.

  “As for the Rickover shipyard, the Navy is going to tow it close to 16 Psyche, where they will attempt to interpose the asteroid between the shipyard and the light source. We obviously have a great deal of our human spacefaring talent at the shipyard right now, and that talent cannot be put into jeopardy.

  “Your orders are a bit more complicated. The Navy is postponing the return trip of the Endeavour, and Vice Admiral Bunting just messaged me that your services may soon be required at Rickover. What that means, exactly, I’m not sure. Just don’t be surprised if you hear directly from Admiral Bain that your services are needed and that you are, therefore, reinstated.

  “We are shelving plans for the new Epsilon class assay ships. Our small shipbuilding facility on Luna may be co-opted by the Navy for building small specialty ships based upon our new drive technology. Vice Admiral Bunting has also shown some interest in the double hull design on the small frame.

  “I want you to start thinking again about adding offensive weapons capability to the smaller frame ships as well as upgrading the offensive and defensive control panels to current Navy standards. It appears we may become the experts on small ship development, leaving the larger ships to Lockheed and UTC.

  A chime sounded and Cam looked across his office, momentarily distracted from his video recording to Sted.

  As he turned back he said “That’s all from this end for now. I’m not expecting a response from you. The point laser communication channels are going to become very busy going forward. If you have any ideas or thoughts on refitting our Deltas with more offensive capabilities, let Admiral Bain know. He obviously has the talent and materials at the shipyard to accomplish any upgrades. Just keep me informed so I can direct any of the Deltas to Rickover. I’m going to offer half of the Deltas to the Navy on an as-needed basis. We will reserve the remainder to cover any sudden increase in the need for specialty metals.”

  Sted saved the message on his personal com and then sat for a while thinking about what the Navy might require of him. Obviously, nothing yet was known of the intentions of these “visitors” to the solar system, but the Navy was preparing for the worst. He wondered how much time they had until contact might be made and who would be tasked with making that contact. He ruled himself out immediately. Perhaps he might be tasked with transporting the appropriate person to a meeting with these visitors. He could only guess. He knew he would not be put back in charge of one of the Navy destroyer class vessels. That would mean displacing a healthier captain for one with artificial legs. Because he was not at the helm of a ship, no immediate decisions were necessary to guard the safety of his crew or his ship. So what should he be doing next?

  Just then, the door chime rang and announced that Jessica was outside awaiting admittance. Sted voiced the “admit” command, and the door slid open. Jessica stepped into the room and crossed the short space to where Sted was rising from his chair.

  “You must have heard the news,” Jessica said, looking up into his eyes.

  “Yes.” Sted held her by the shoulders at arm’s length and looking directly back into her beautiful hazel eyes. “I just got a brief message from Cam on Luna. My trip back is cancelled, and I may hear from the Navy shortly about some kind of reinstatement. I was just trying to process all of this when you magically appeared at my door. Your timing couldn’t have been better.”

  Jessica threw her arms around him, laid her head on his shoulder, and hugged him tightly. When she spoke, her voice was muffled. “I was just coming to terms with your heading back in system and not seeing you for some time. Now I don’t know what to think or what to expect! Just hold me for a little so I can calm down these crazy emotions.”

  Sted held Jessica and stared off into space over the top of her head. He might not want to admit it, but he was just as much in need of her comforting as she was of his.

  Chapter 41 – The Newsies

  The people of New York City were blissfully unaware of the approaching alien ship. News suppression from the mainstream media outlets was complete. The North American Union was afraid the masses would react hysterically with a mixture of fear, euphoria, mass suicides, hoarding of food, economic collapse, runs on banks, or any number of other negative reactions.

  “The Insider” had prepared Richard and the New York Rag specifically for this moment. Since the electronic media could not be trusted to get this extremely important story out to the people, he would make sure the real story was published on paper that could be handed from person to person with the government completely out of the picture.

  The story was short, because there were not many facts to be reported:

  Lunar astronomers have discovered evidence of an alien spacecraft inbound to the solar system. The light from the decelerating craft appeared suddenly in the constellation Orion. Analysis of the spectrum of light indicates that the spacecraft uses a combination of hydrogen and methane for fuel and that the deceleration far exceeds what could be tolerated by a human body.

  Preliminary calculations give a rough estimate of two months before the craft arrives in the inner part of t
he solar system near the planet Jupiter.

  There have been no detectable transmissions from the inbound craft from which we might gather additional information. The intentions of the visitors are unknown at this time, and speculation would be just that, speculation.

  When this news article arrived on the iBlog server, Richard was skeptical. How could the media suppress such a big story, and how could he verify the few facts being presented?

  Richard decided to request specific coordinates from “The Insider.” When they were received, he passed them to his boyhood friend Ken, who was an amateur astronomer with his own half-meter telescope. Because of the weather, the viewing up in the Catskill Mountains wasn’t always the best, but it was definitely clear enough over the next few days that Ken would be able to locate this new light source.

  Ken contacted Richard in the early hours of the next morning, and the excitement in his voice was unmistakable. “There is definitely a new and bright light source at those coordinates! Did you say your source identifies this as an inbound alien ship?”

  “Definitely,” Richard replied. “Can you verify that the source comes from methane and hydrogen combustion?”

  “Sorry, Richard, I don’t have that kind of spectrographic equipment. Given a few days, I could tell you if the light source is moving with respect to the background stars, but I have no reason to doubt the story you received. Light sources like this do not appear overnight.”

  “Thanks, Ken. I really appreciate your input. I’m going to go with the story today in a special addition of the Rag, and I would like to mention your confirmation, if you don’t mind.”

  “No problem. I hate when the government suppresses stories like this, and they won’t be able to deny the story when anyone like me can just point their telescope in the right direction and see the damn thing. What are they going to do to me? You’re the one who has to worry. They’ll be coming at you looking for your source.”

  There was no way Richard was going back to sleep after that video chat, so he got dressed and headed upstairs to the office to begin the work on this very special edition of the Rag.

  Two days later, most of the people of New York City were too busy to notice or react to the announcement running around the news ticker at One Times Square that said, “THE ALIENS ARE COMING!” Their lives were too hectic, or too important, or too overwhelming. But that was the majority. Several pockets of activity were related directly to this momentous news. Already, several groups had gotten permits to set up forums throughout the city to espouse their beliefs on what was coming.

  At the corner of Broadway and 42nd street, just below the ticker, a group of saffron-robed monks was handing out pamphlets announcing the arrival of God Incarnate and warning people to get their lives in order for the final hour of judgment.

  In Central Park, an evangelical church group had set up a stage where gospel singers were raising their voices in praise to the Lord. Just to the left of the stage was a large tent where a long line of people was working its way into a temporary sanctuary to be baptized in an above ground pool that had been set up for that purpose.

  The few newsstands around the city were doing a brisk business for a change. Most had been driven out of business in the past few decades as the majority of people got their news and entertainment from a multitude of online venues. The few that had survived tended to sell only tabloids that appealed to the lowest members of society with stories that seemed too fantastic to be true but always had a thread of verifiable truth to make you wonder. Now, the tabloids could not print enough copies to keep up with demand. Today’s edition of The Flash declared, “Aliens to Harvest Humans” with the accompanying speculative story by Hannibal Burns that “The Overseers of the Universe” had recognized that the ever-growing population of Earth was ruining the planet, and something had to be done to save Earth from the “human infestation.”

  Of course, the government-run television news channels gave the news only a few brief minutes of coverage with warnings to ignore all of the crazy stories going around. The government had everything well in hand and would give out regular reports on developments as they happened. This would suffice for the moment, because nobody knew anything at this point. All that was really known was that a spacecraft of unknown origin with unknown intentions was entering the solar system.

  Meanwhile, Richard and the New York Rag were strangely silent on the subject of the aliens. The big splash caused by their special edition had started the ball rolling, and Richard wanted more information to enhance his increased circulation numbers.

  When he questioned “The Insider,” he received a short note back telling him to hang on until the Navy had more facts. It was much too early to speculate on the nature or intentions of the aliens and their ship heading in from the outer part of the galaxy, but he promised a story about the Navy shutting down facilities in the belt to hide them from detection by the visitors.

  Chapter 42 – The Esss Arrival Preparations

  As they decelerated toward the inner system, the master chronicler tried to make sense of the cacophony of electromagnetic noise washing over them. The origin appeared to be coming from the third planet out from the star and from its moon. The logical conclusion from this observation was that the native population must have at least some sort of spacefaring capability. But the variety of frequencies and the density of the content of all of the signals being generated indicated a lack of the discipline and order, which came so naturally to the Esss. These inhabitants must be very strange. How could they possibly be crossing from the planet to the moon and back without basic societal controls? It was a mystery that needed to be solved and recorded.

  The master chronicler thrummed an order for the scout team to join it in the bridge meeting tank. There, the most sensitive assignments were issued in detail that could not be duplicated outside the sacred waters. The three Esss scout pilots had been raised for their duties and were all well trained, but the master chronicler needed to taste their essences in the tank to know which individual to assign as leader.

  After a brief exchange of essence between the four Esss, the master made the obvious selection and dismissed the two remaining pilots. They would receive their orders from the newly assigned leader during the scouting mission into the core of the system.

  The master watched the rapid change in the demeanor of the new scout leader as the trance-inducing chemicals released into the tank took effect. The new scout leader relaxed into a state where it was receptive to the detailed briefing to come. With a combination of sound waves and chemical effusions, the master was able to transmit specific orders and guidelines to the scout leader and to bind those orders chemically into its brain. In this way, the scout leader became an extension of the master chronicler while the scouting party was out of direct contact.

  At that moment, the leader of the scout team knew just how important this very promising planet-moon combination was to the Esss. It grasped that the master chronicler intended to make it the next forward base of operations.

  The orders also included instructions for the scout team to ignore the locals unless threatened. Understanding the local inhabitants was a critical part of the mission, and the local reaction to the Esss arrival was often more instructive if the locals were not provoked. This approach had been the way of the Esss from the beginning of the time of chronicles.

  The specific instructions for intelligence gathering followed. Detailed recordings were needed of the planet’s surface features. Also, samples of the atmosphere and all large bodies of water were needed for analysis. The results of this analysis would tell the master engineer how to program the planetary re-engineering modules. The recordings of the surface would also allow the master chronicler to calculate where each of the modules needed to be placed to be most effective.

  After the long session with the new scout leader, the master dismissed it so that it could begin preparing the team members for their assignments. By the time the Esss establi
shed their orbit around the gas giant, the scout ships would be ready.

  This would be their furthest incursion into this galaxy. Each day, the master chronicler added new and encouraging information to its report to be sent back to their forward operating base. The nursery there was developing systematically when this scouting mission had been dispatched. There would be more than enough time to get a new nursery established in this system before their current base ran low on resources.

  Interlude 6 – 2 Billion Years Ago

  It was time for the next step. The ocean seeding had stabilized with the simple non-nucleic single-celled life. There were enough proteins in this primordial soup to introduce single and multi-celled nucleic life forms. The Nu had brought the RNA code with them to allow for the appropriate reproduction and differentiation necessary to develop higher life forms. They introduced small amounts of RNA into specific environments, where it had the greatest chance of taking hold. They also seeded the same areas with enough of the simple ribose sugars for the RNA to have a sufficient quantity for easier reproduction.