.....by Jeffrey Katt
Captain Rodney L. Grange couldn’t help but smile as the luxury transport rounded Lake Drive, passed the art museum, and
headed toward his home in suburban Milwaukee. For as many years as he could remember he had always been a student of
history, and now he would forever be a part of the history of mankind.
The weather was cold and crisp, with just a hint of the smell of snow in the air, but it was quite comfortable inside the transport.
He poured himself another drink, suddenly wishing he had someone with him to enjoy the celebration. His thoughts turned to
the history of the Global Service, and to that terrible day five years ago, when in an instant his entire life had changed, and the
events leading up to tonight’s ceremony had begun.
By 2160, most of the major nations of the world had started to join together in a loose union. They kept their separate
governments, and their different cultures, but joined forces economically. This union was so successful that by 2250 almost all
of the world’s nations belonged. In exchange for the economic prosperity that resulted from this partnership, countries were
happy to agree to the terms of the charter, which included disarmament, the introduction of full personal liberties and freedoms
(where they did not already exist), sharing of all resources and technological advancements, and several other terms and
conditions. Over time this resulted in unprecedented technological and social improvements, especially in the areas of medical
technology and space travel. Initially the Global Service was created as a kind of "national armed forces," but by the time Rod’s
father had entered the service the need for a massive military force was essentially gone, and the Global Service had evolved
into the world’s law enforcement presence with respect to regulating space travel and policing off-world situations. The Global
Service owned all spaceships, and they also hired and trained the crews to support them. Additionally, all research related to
space travel and survival away from the protective environment of the planet were also part of the mission of the G.S. His father
had entered the Global Service in 2380, and had received many decorations in his first ten years of service. Rod had always
been close with his father, and the senior Captain Grange’s first priority when off duty was spending time with his son. He
would listen for hours to his father’s stories of space travel. Then when he was fourteen years old, his father was killed while
trying to rescue a small child after a tragic shuttle accident. The loss changed Rod profoundly. He lost himself in his studies, and
eventually reached his goal of becoming an officer in the Global Service, just like his father. He often wondered if his father
would have been proud of him; proud that he had chosen to follow the same path. Deep inside, Rod believed he would have
been very pleased. However, unlike his father, who had been a shuttle pilot, he had always been attracted to a career in
research, specifically theoretical physics.
The transport rocked slightly as it was buffeted by a strong gust of wind off Lake Michigan. He was so deep in thought that he
didn’t notice that half of his drink had spilled onto the floor of the vehicle. Of course, it didn’t help matters that it was his third
(or was it his fourth?) since the ceremony had ended.
All the technological advancements of the past few centuries rolled through his mind, especially those related to space travel, a
constant source of fascination for him. With the combined efforts of all of the world’s best scientists and engineers, the G.S. had
developed a large fleet of reliable, safe spaceships. Colonies had been constructed on the Moon and Mars, and for the past
twenty years there had been a colossal space station equidistant from the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, large enough to house
two thousand people. The colonies and space station served two main purposes. The first was to house researchers, usually on
a rotating six or twelve month schedule, for complex research studies which couldn’t be done on the home world. The other
was to provide a vacation spot for those who had never traveled through space. Technological advancements in propulsion,
including the use of cold fusion for the initial stages of acceleration, combined with ion drive for the later stages, increased
maximum travel speed to approximately one-tenth the speed of light, but no efforts made since that milestone was reached
almost seventy years ago had been able to break that threshold. Sensor technology for deep space scanning was perfected, as
was technology for maintaining health on long space journeys. Mankind was ready to meet and interact with other life forms.
Unfortunately, time and human life span limitations made seeking out extraterrestrial life almost impossible. Most physicists still
considered faster-than-light travel to be impossible. That is, until three years ago.
It had been Rod’s dream since childhood that mankind would find extraterrestrial life, and be able to travel beyond our solar
system to other worlds, and he had therefore chosen the highly theoretical study of faster-than-light travel as his research
interest. After a few short years he was running his own research laboratory, with a staff of over fifty people. He was always
told what "great promise" his research held, but he soon became discouraged with his lack of progress.
Then, about five years ago, his mother, wife Judy, and daughter Christine took a four-day trip together to the observatory on
the Moon. Christine had never traveled through space and was extremely excited. She couldn’t stop talking about the trip for
weeks beforehand. Unfortunately, there was a terrible accident aboard their shuttle, a "freak accident" it would later be called
(as these things always are), and everyone aboard died within seconds. As far as Rod was concerned, he also died that day.
He withdrew from everything and everybody in his life, and immersed himself, day and night, into his work. For two years he
made little if any progress. He was depressed, loosing weight, not taking care of himself, and obsessed with his work. Then,
while studying the properties of quarks, he made a discovery that physicists had suspected, but been unable to prove, for
centuries: quarks themselves are composed of even smaller particles. Before long he had discovered the two particles of
opposite spin that make up the "bottom" quark, which he named chocolate and vanilla. One night, after collecting and isolating a
large supply of chocolate particles in a magnetic isolation flask, he brought them into his transport in order to take them to a
laboratory across town where he had the proper instrumentation for further analysis. As he turned a corner the transport
swerved violently around a pedestrian that was unexpectedly crossing the road. This knocked the flask off the seat and onto the
floor, disengaging its magnetic lock and spilling the chocolate particles onto the floor of the vehicle. Suddenly, Rod was
shocked to find himself thirty blocks away in someone’s backyard, still moving at about thirty kilometers per hour. He
immediately engaged the brakes, and hit an old fashioned white picket fence before coming to a complete stop. He looked
around in confusion, unable to comprehend what had happened. Later, studies would show no trace of chocolate particles
anywhere in the transport.
After the event, it was only a matter of time before understanding what would come to be called, of all things, the Grange
Chocolate Effect. Whenever chocolate particles were released inside any object that was moving, they would spontaneously
form a field around the outer surface of the object, which would simply disappear. It would then instantaneously reappear at a
fixed distance away. That distance was directly proportional to the speed of the object, increasing exponentially the greater the
speed. When the object reappeared, all traces of the particles would be gone. Soon experiments were done with small probes
in space, and later with rhesus monkeys serving as "astronauts" on miniature spaceships, just as was done in the earliest days of
space travel. Time and time again the effect was reproducible. The process seemed safe enough, the only major concern being
that no one could figure out where the object or ship (or monkey) "goes" when it travels vast distances in an instant. Theories
were numerous.
The transport had made the turn onto his property, and as Rod exited the vehicle he was surprised at how bitter cold the night
had become. He went upstairs and changed into a robe, noting in the mirror how red his usually clear blue eyes looked. He sat
on the bed and contemplated the evening, even now finding it difficult to believe that he had achieved his dream, and been
awarded the Nobel Prize in the process. He lay back on the bed, falling asleep within seconds.
The telephone chime startled him from his reverie (why hadn’t he remembered to turn it off before going to sleep?), announcing
"Call from Linda Goldstein."
Linda was the head of his particle isolation laboratory. They had worked together for six years, and she had been instrumental
in the development of the Grange Chocolate Drive. The G.C.D. had taken almost as much personal time for her as for Rod,
and he had found himself growing increasingly more attracted to her, in spite of her almost obsessive devotion to work. But
who was he to criticize her?
"Accept call," he said.
Linda’s beautiful green eyes and broad smile appeared on the screen, and she was obviously excited about something. "Put on
your flatscreen! Hurry!"
"Okay, okay," he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "What channel?"
"Any channel," she shouted, "The commander-in-chief of the G.S. is talking about us!"
The screen came to life and showed Louis Nigel, the chancellor of the G.S. himself, talking about the Nobel Prize and the
importance of the discovery of faster-than-light travel. Rod could hardly believe his ears as Nigel continued.
"The executive committee of the G.S. convened this morning, and we have made a historic decision." Nigel looked as if he
would explode with pride. "In the interest of furthering humanity, we have planned, and budgeted resources for, a fleet of ten
new spaceships, each to be equipped with the new Grange Chocolate Drive, with the sole purpose of searching for life on other
worlds. Over the next five years all the vast resources of the G.S. will be used not only to construct these ships using the most
advanced engineering available, but also to train their crews. We will assemble teams of anthropologists, sociologists,
psychiatrists, and language specialists to develop protocols for interacting with the intelligent species we hope to encounter.
Experts will determine where extraterrestrial life is most likely to exist and will develop courses for each of the ten ships. No
effort will be spared as we take this first step for humanity."
"Did you hear all that?" Linda cried, "We did it!"
"And finally," Nigel continued, "In recognition of Captain Grange’s contribution to this historic event, he will be granted
command of the lead ship in the new fleet."
Rod was dumbfounded. His lifelong dream of traveling to the stars was going to become a reality.
Rod was reading the final chapter of Atlas Shrugged (this was the third time had read the twentieth century classic) when
Linda’s voice cut through the silence of his quarters.
"Captain to the bridge!"
It had been six months since the ten new, surprisingly luxurious ships had left Earth and scattered themselves throughout the
galaxy, and so far they had performed spectacularly well. Every month (or more often, if necessary), each ship’s captain would
prepare a full report of the prior month’s activities, and send it via a G.C.D.-equipped probe back to Earth. Then, also on a
monthly basis, the probe would return with the reports of all of the fleet’s captains, so each ship’s commander was kept up to
date on the activities of the entire fleet. So far, there had been no major problems. The ships were designed to be comfortable,
and provide a certain degree of privacy, for a crew of thirty over a four-year period. Unfortunately, in spite of years of
planning, none of the ships had yet encountered any extraterrestrial life; not an insect, not a blade of grass, not even a microbe
or virus. At least mankind’s knowledge of the universe was increasing. Two previously unknown, naturally occurring elements
had been discovered, and star charts were being constantly updated. One ship had even been present at the birth of a black
hole.
As he entered the Magellan’s bridge, Linda turned to him and smiled. She had been eager to be a part of these first missions,
and he had chosen her as his second in command. He had felt that it was the least he could do after her contribution to the
development of the G.C.D., and she was certainly qualified for the position. He frequently told himself that the thought of being
separated from her for four years wasn’t part of his decision, but he was slowly becoming less sure of that conviction.
"We should be entering orbit around planet A357G2 within the hour," she said. "This is the most promising planet yet."
Rod looked at the small, slowly rotating sphere on the screen. He could already see the similarities to Earth, the planet’s blue
oceans clearly visible, and covered with a scattering of high thin clouds. They had been decelerating for almost twelve hours
now, and already the huge "chocolate generators" would be at work in the engine compartment building up and storing enough
particles for the next jump.
"Any readings yet on the planet itself?"
"Yes, sir," Lila Greene answered, the youngest member of the crew. She was a master at interpreting the tremendous inflow of
data to the sensor array. "Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere similar to our own, except with 40 percent oxygen, definitely
breathable. Temperature ranges are all reasonable for human comfort. No life signs so far."
"Okay," Rod responded, "I’ll take an initial team of three down in the lander. If everything checks out then we’ll send larger
teams to several locations over the planet surface."
Three hours later, Rod and two other crewmen exited the lander. The air smelled fresh, but the initial appraisal of the situation
was disappointing. No obvious signs of life were anywhere to be seen; only a rock-covered and forbidding surface was
evident. Soon, four different teams were surveying the planet, including the oceans. They stayed a week and discovered no sign
of any form of life, carbon-based or otherwise.
Rod gave the order to proceed to the next system, which was almost forty light years away. They would need to accelerate to
one-tenth light speed before dispersing the chocolate field, and even then would have to create a full supply of the particles
again and jump a second time to arrive at their destination. The instantaneous jump across space was undetectable, but he
found the mild vertigo caused by the constant acceleration that was required to reach the proper velocity disquieting.
As the ship left orbit, Rod returned to his quarters and started preparing his monthly report. All of the crew had comfortable
quarters, but as captain his was even more luxurious, with separate bedroom, living, and office areas. After a few moments the
door chime rang, and he sighed at the interruption and pressed the release button on the edge of his desk.
"I’m in here," he called from the office.
"I brought you some coffee and a sandwich from the galley," Linda said, "I know you haven’t eaten yet."
He was surprised that she had noticed. He had become convinced that she had little interest in anything outside her official
duties.
"I thought maybe we could talk," she said. This was the first time he has ever seen her look distracted and awkward.
"Sure. And thank you for the lunch."
They sat on the large overstuffed sofa in the living area of his quarters. Linda sat down, looked like she was going to say
something, and then seemed to think better of it.
"Something on your mind, Linda?" he asked, "We’ve known each other many years now. If you’ve got something to say,
please do so."
"I’m concerned about you," she started, "Every consecutive planetary exploration that ends in failure seems to hit you harder.
I’m concerned that you’re headed from disappointment to depression."
Rod didn’t know if he was more surprised by her concern, or the accuracy with which she had perceived his recent state of
mind.
"I’ve spent my entire life preparing for an expedition like this," Rod said, "And so far we’ve discovered no evidence that any life
exists in the universe. I knew it would take time, but I expected that one of the ships would have found something by now. I
keep thinking about all the years of preparation for this mission, all the men and women who will be away from their families for
four years. What if it’s all for nothing?"
"But we’ve only been searching for six months! You knew it could take years, and maybe even launching the fleet for a second
four-year assignment, before any extraterrestrial life was found. You’re giving in awfully quickly, aren’t you? The universe is a
pretty big place."
"I know," Rod replied, smiling despite himself, "But sometimes I feel as if my entire life depends on the success of this mission.
What else do I have? My family has been dead for years, I’ve isolated myself, concentrated my entire being into my career."
He fought to swallow the lump that was forming in his throat. "I simply can’t fail."
"That’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself," she said, "This is the first mission of it’s kind in all of history, and it never would
have happened at all if it wasn’t for you. Even if no extraterrestrial life is found, the other scientific advances these expeditions
could lead to, just in the areas of mapping the galaxy alone, are incredible! There’s already talk of building a specially designed
ship with an improved particle accumulator for deep space exploration. How much more does one person need to accomplish
in a lifetime?"
"Like I said before," he replied solemnly, "What else do I have?"
Linda hesitated a moment, and then leaned forward quickly and kissed him. It was a long, lingering, passionate kiss, and when
she finally pulled away she looked very embarrassed. She stood up, almost tripping over a small worktable, and started to
leave.
"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…well, I meant to but I…maybe I’d better just go."
"What was that for?" He asked.
"I just wanted to let you know that there’s someone who cares about you, Rod," she replied, "I’ve had feelings for you for a
long time, and if they’re not reciprocated that’s fine. You just seemed like you needed someone at that moment and…"
"Why didn’t you ever say anything?"
"You never really seemed interested in developing any relationships with anyone, and you were always so involved in your
research…" Her voice trailed off.
Rod suddenly realized just how much Linda meant to him, how foolish he had been to push her (and everyone else) away all of
these years, and how complicated this mission had unexpectedly become.
They had just finished making love, and he was thinking about how quickly the years had passed. In two months the expedition
would be over, and he and Linda would be starting a new life together. Not one of the ten ships had encountered even a trace
of extraterrestrial life, and although he was disappointed, Rod no longer ruminated about his failures. He was blissfully happy
with Linda, and they planned to marry when they returned home.
"You better get up," he said, "You’re on duty in fifteen minutes."
"You’re the captain, can’t you assign someone else?" she teased. "I just want to lay here all day."
He kissed her forehead and playfully pulled back the covers, exposing her naked body to the cool air of his quarters. "You
know I can’t do that. Now get going!"
"Okay," she replied, smiling and reluctantly getting out of bed, "I’m going."
At first they had tried to conceal their developing romance from the crew, but keeping a secret with a crew of thirty people was
almost impossible. At first there was some scattered resentment, but as time went on and it became clear that he wasn’t giving
Linda any special consideration, the resentment waned and eventually disappeared. It didn’t hurt that several other relationships
had sprung up among the crew as well.
She was almost in her uniform and Rod had just finished showering when Greene’s voice was heard over the intercom,
"Captain to the bridge immediately please!"
Linda quickly headed to her station as Rod stepped into his uniform. Something was wrong. They had just made the final jump
a few hours ago and were still decelerating. They wouldn’t arrive at the programmed coordinates for almost ten hours. What
could be going on?
As he entered the bridge, Linda directed him over to Greene’s station.
"What is it, Greene?"
"Sensors are showing some strange readings, I’m not sure how to interpret them." Greene’s practiced hands were flying over
her panel, trying to route the data through various algorithms in order to produce something intelligible. There’s a large object
just at the outer range of our sensors. It might be metallic, and it’s roughly symmetrical."
"Natural? Artificial? Is it a meteor?"
"Unknown at this time," Greene replied, "It measures roughly spherical and almost sixty kilometers in diameter. But here’s the
strange part. It seems to be headed straight for us at about one-twentieth C."
"Could it be some sort of ship?"
"A ship sixty kilometers across?" Linda asked.
"Unknown at this time," Greene repeated, "I’ll be able to tell you more once we get closer."
"Keep me posted," Rod said, "I’m going to start a report and have it ready for launch with everything we’ve discovered so far
before that thing arrives."
As the object approached, it became more obvious that it was indeed a ship. The crew of the Magellan would be the first
humans to interact with an alien life form. Now that the moment was here Rod was much more apprehensive (and perhaps a
little frightened?) than he would have anticipated. He transferred his report to the probe, and programmed it to collect data until
the alien ship was 500,000 kilometers away, then launch itself on a direct course to Earth.
The gigantic vessel had been steadily decelerating toward them for hours as they sat motionless in space, waiting. As it
approached, Greene was able to provide progressively more information.
"It’s spherical, approximately fifty-nine kilometers in diameter. External hull is fifty-percent titanium. There is an oxygen-helium
atmosphere inside the sphere, twenty-percent oxygen, temperature twenty-eight degrees centigrade. Propulsion system
unknown, but it seems to be located in the aft section. I don’t detect any type of weapon system, but without understanding
their technology it’s very difficult to tell."
Eventually the alien ship came to a stop about two hundred kilometers away, dwarfing the Magellan in comparison. That was
close enough for Greene’s sensors to detect what they had all been waiting to hear.
"I’m detecting definite life signs!" She shouted, "Approximately ten thousand distinct entities, carbon-based. Biped. That’s all
the detail I’m going to get from here."
Rod turned to Justin Brody, the "Extraterrestrial Liaison" aboard the ship. "Now you finally get to earn your keep, Brody. Let’s
do this exactly according to protocol."
After waiting almost four years for this opportunity, Brody could barely contain his excitement.
"The first step," he started, "Is to wait for a reasonable period of time to see if they contact us first. That would allow us to
determine their means of communication. If they don’t contact us first, then the next step is to use the light panels on the
starboard side of the ship. It was felt that sight would be the most likely sense to be shared by all intelligent life forms."
"How was that conclusion arrived at?" asked Rod, "And what constitutes a reasonable amount of time?’"
"Couldn’t tell you," Brody replied, "This plan is what a team of Earth’s best scientists and linguists came up with. As for how
long to wait, that’s up to the captain."
"Okay," he said, "We wait one hour."
An hour later, neither ship had moved. The alien ship had not made any attempts at communication. Except for the life forms,
which appeared to be moving throughout the ship, the only other thing Greene could detect was a random pulsation of neutrinos
from the surface of the ship, which she attributed to some type of discharge from the alien shielding system.
"Okay," Rod said, "Let’s get going. Rotate the Magellan so the starboard side faces the alien vessel. Retract the light panel
covers, and start the program that operates them."
"Right away," Brody replied.
The computer program began, and the lights flashed in the varying colors and speeds that were carefully designed to be
interpreted as a pattern by other life forms.
As the thirty-minute long program repeated itself for the third time, it became obvious that there was not going to be a response
to this approach.
"Okay, Brody, I’m getting bored," Rod said, "What’s the next step here?"
"Next, we link helm control to a specially designed program that guides the Magellan into various different positions intended
to communicate our peaceful intentions. This is supposed to function as a type of intergalactic hand signal."
"You’ve got to be kidding," he said, "What about just trying radio contact?"
"That’s about eighth on the list," Brody replied, "It was felt to be unlikely that two civilizations that evolved separately would
both develop communication by radio waves."
"Okay," Rod replied, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice, "Go ahead with the ‘hand signals.’" He looked over at Linda,
who smiled back, knowing full well how frustrated he was becoming. This moment had been anticipated for so many years, and
now they were having no success at all in contacting their newly discovered neighbors.
Four hours later, the crew nearing exhaustion, nothing had worked. Rod decided to try standard radio contact, using the same
transmitter the Magellan used to communicate with the fleet’s other ships when they were in close proximity to each other.
"According to the protocol, there are still two other steps before trying a radio transmission," Brody reminded the captain, but
he sounded a bit frustrated with their lack of progress as well.
"The hell with protocol," Rod replied, "Open a channel. Broadcast on all frequencies simultaneously."
"Ready," Greene replied.
"This is Captain Rodney Grange. We are from the planet Earth. We are explorers looking to contact other life forms in this
galaxy. Do you understand?" He turned to Greene. "Okay, Greene, broadcast that in a repeating loop and let’s see if it gets any
response."
After ten tense minutes, Greene said, "Wait, something’s happening. I’m detecting all sorts of power fluctuations throughout
their ship…There! There’s a huge surge of power near what I think is their bridge, off the scale! I’ve never…wait, now it’s
gone. Now their engines are powering up!"
"Any signs of anything that could be indicative of a weapon?"
"No," Greene replied, "But… their internal atmospheric temperature has dropped five degrees, and the oxygen level has
decreased by thirty percent! My best guess is that their life support system is down. What the …"
"What is it?" Rod asked.
"Those random neutrino emissions we’ve detected all along. Now a massive beam of neutrinos is escaping from the aft section
of the ship, directed away from us. It also contains random fluctuations but…Captain! There have been several explosions
aboard the alien vessel. And there’s some type of progressive power build up in their engine area. If I had to guess, I’d say
we’re looking at a critical multisystem failure!"
"Captain!" This time it was Linda’s frantic voice, "All the data in our computer systems are being downloaded."
"By that ship? How? We’re supposed to have protections against any computer infiltration."
"I don’t know how," Linda replied, "But it’s happening."
"Captain!" It was Greene again. "I can only guess, but I think their engines are undergoing some type of critical overload. If that
occurs, the explosion could destroy everything within a huge radius of the ship"
"How huge?"
"I have no idea."
Rod opened the intercom to the entire ship. "This is Captain Grange! Engine room, we need maximum acceleration now!
Everyone brace for maximum acceleration and possible impact from an explosion!" He shut the intercom and turned to Linda.
"Any heading! Maximum acceleration and don’t let up until I say so."
Linda followed his commands with practiced speed, and said, "We can’t just leave them here to be destroyed!"
"What else can we do? We can’t even communicate with them! I have to protect the ship and the crew. We’ll come back and
help, if possible."
The Magellan rotated away from the alien vessel, and Rod could feel the cold fusion drive engage. He knew they were moving
rapidly away, but on the screen the distance between the two ships appeared to increase very slowly. As their ship gradually
grew smaller on the screen, he could see dozens of small explosions scattered over its surface.
"Are we going to be far enough away if it explodes?" Rod asked.
"No way to tell, but I don’t think so," Greene replied.
The alien ship was clearly in serious trouble. Increasingly more frequent explosions were seen on its surface, and it was venting
atmosphere into space in several locations. The huge ship started to slowly list to its port side.
"Engine room!" Rod cried, "We need absolute maximum acceleration, and all crew members strap themselves into their
g-seats!" The g-seats had not yet been used on this voyage since maximum acceleration was not necessary under ordinary
circumstances; but these were definitely not ordinary circumstances.
As the Magellan’s speed increased, the alien ship slowly shrank to a small shiny speck on the screen. Then there was a
massive, cataclysmic explosion, which lit up the entire screen in a ball of fire. Five minutes later the Magellan was rocked by
the shock wave, but, except for a rough ride, no significant damage was done. Rod immediately ordered the ship turned
around, but when they arrived at their original position nothing was left of the alien vessel except for tiny bits of debris. Nothing
could be detected on the sensors at any range. Ten thousand lives were lost, Rod lamented, and they had never even gotten a
chance to say "hello."
The despair among the crew was palpable. "What happened?" he asked.
"Unknown," said Greene, "but I have all of the data recorded. It will probably take weeks to sort it all out."
"What do we do now?" Linda asked.
Rod looked at her and sighed. "We go home."
Two weeks had gone by since the tragedy with the alien vessel, and even Linda was having trouble bringing Rod out of his
depression. They were about halfway home. It was clear that he felt the outcome of the mission was worse than a failure, and
that he was responsible for the disaster that had occurred. Most of the details of what had actually happened were still a
mystery. He and Linda were having dinner in the galley when Greene wandered over to their table.
"I think we’d better talk," she said, sitting down.
"Go ahead," Rod said, "But I’m only accepting good news today."
"Then you’re going to be very disappointed. I’ve finished going over all the data from the encounter. There have been some
disturbing developments."
Rod felt a burning pain developing in the pit of his stomach. "What developments?"
"Those random neutrino fluctuations that radiated from the ship’s surface? The computer doesn’t think they’re random at all. It
may have been an attempt at communication, although the computer has been unable to translate the message, if there was one.
Then, remember that powerful neutrino beam emanating from the ship’s aft section that was present until the time of the
explosion? It had the same type of fluctuations. It could have been a message directed from the ship back to its home world,
there’s no way to tell for sure."
"You can’t be serious? They were communicating with neutrinos and we didn’t even know it? Can you pinpoint where that
neutrino beam was directed?"
"No, there isn’t enough data to extrapolate more than a general area of the galaxy without knowing how far away the target is.
But it gets worse."
"Worse?" he asked, "What can be worse than the destruction of their vessel?"
"I think that our radio transmission triggered the explosion."
"WHAT!?"
"After reviewing the records, the power fluctuations that preceded the engine failure started right after we started transmitting. It
is possible that their technology was not compatible with electromagnetic waves. Our transmission may have infected their
systems like a virus, or disrupted the function of several critical subsystems, or who knows what?"
"But, " Rod replied, "Space is filled with electromagnetic radiation!"
"Maybe it was one of the specific frequencies we used."
"My God, " said Linda, "If they think we were trying to attack them, and they were able to transmit our downloaded files
before we were destroyed…"
"Then," he finished for her, "We have a serious problem.
Later, when they returned to his quarters, Rod was overcome with grief.
"You’re not responsible, honey," Linda said, "There’s no way you could have known."
"I know," he replied, "But how could a mission with such a noble purpose have gone so wrong?"
"That was always the risk we were taking. We could only guess how to take the first steps at communicating with alien life
forms. It’s never been done before, you know." She looked lovingly at Rod, her eyes clearly expressing her concern. "What
are you going to do now?"
"The entire fleet will return over the next month. We’ll have to come up with multiple contingency plans. There’s always the
chance that what happened will be interpreted as an unprovoked attack. We may even have to arm the fleet, and build more
ships for defensive purposes. And we have to work on determining if those neutrino emissions were an attempt at
communication, and if so, what was the message? But first," he said, smiling in spite of his mood, "We’re going to get married."
"Rod, are your sure? I thought after everything that’s happened your mind would be…"
"I love you more than I can even express with words. These past few years with you have been the best years of my life, and I
want to make it ‘official’ as soon as possible. Nothing is more important to me."
Linda cried as they embraced.
Rod had insisted on the Magellan, with the same crew, for this mission. He and Linda had worked day and night over the past
year. The neutrino patterns had been deciphered and were found to be a method of communication after all. It had been
impossible to translate the entire message, but bits and pieces, including "We are on a mission of exploration from…" and
"What is your nature and condition?" were translated. The majority of the message remained a mystery. Further studies had
also left no doubt that the attempted radio communication was the cause of the catastrophic failure aboard their vessel.
A decision was made to send the Magellan, without weapons, toward the site of the disaster. This would hopefully be seen as
less threatening, if, of course, they were able to locate the alien beings at all. A neutrino emitter programmed with several
different patterns that were hoped to convey the message "We are peaceful beings and mean no harm. Our encounter with your
first ship was an accident. We are very sorry," or something similar, was installed on the Magellan. Unfortunately, their method
of communication was not understood well enough to allow for a more complex or detailed message. Since no one could agree
on exactly how to configure even this simple message, multiple versions were programmed into the system in the hopes that at
least one would make sense. It was also anticipated that the aliens might try to download the ship’s stored computer files again,
and references to the disaster, and how and why it occurred, were placed in multiple files and in multiple computer subsystems.
As Rod thought back on the intensity of the past year he wondered if he could have survived it without Linda at his side.
He smiled at his wife as she announced that they had completed the second jump. They were headed toward the general area
of space where they had first encountered the alien vessel.
"I’m detecting something at the very edge of the sensors’ capabilities," Greene said two days later, "I’m not sure what it is yet
but it’s incredibly large, and has the same neutrino emissions as the last alien ship we encountered."
Rod could hear his heart pounding in his ears as his mouth went dry. Had they found them so soon? They hadn’t even made it
to the point of initial contact yet.
"Captain," said Greene, "They’re coming in fast. If I project their course from their current trajectory they’re headed directly
toward Earth."
"Start maximum deceleration, I want full stop as soon as possible!" Rod ordered.
Eight hours later there was no doubt that these were the same alien beings. Twenty-one ships, all identical to the original except
for multiple large openings in the front of each ship that Greene readily identified as weapons, were headed toward them. The
diameter of the opening for one of their weapons was three times the length of the Magellan. Each ship also had a large
dish-shaped object attached to its forward section. After multiple scans Greene theorized that these were for reflecting or
repelling electromagnetic waves.
Now one tiny ship from the planet Earth and a huge battalion of over two hundred thousand alien beings faced each other.
Brody ran the neutrino communication program three times, but there was no response. Then Greene detected what seemed to
be smaller, weaker neutrino beams between the alien ships, as if they might be communicating with each other.
"They’re downloading all our files again," Linda said, "But I still can’t tell you exactly how they’re doing it."
Suddenly, all of the ships except for the one directly in front of the Magellan turned and headed back the way they came.
"Captain," Brody said, "A large data file has just appeared in our computer’s memory core. It’s approximately 350 gigabytes
and I can only assume it came from their ship. And there’s a message; an audio message."
"Play it," he said.
The message originated on the alien vessel, but it was recited by the automated voice of the Magellan’s computer system. "We
understand. Please study the information about us that we have formatted to be compatible with your systems, and we will
study the information we have obtained from your ship. We will meet you again at these coordinates in three rotations of your
world around its star. Perhaps then we will have learned enough about each other to interact safely. If you understand, send
three neutrino pulses of 120 milliseconds, each three seconds apart." The message repeated itself.
Rod turned to Linda and smiled. "Brody," he said, "can you send the response as directed?"
"Sending now, Captain" he replied.
Five minutes later, the huge alien ship turned and began to accelerate in the same direction that the other ships had gone earlier.
Soon it could no longer be seen on the screen.
"Let’s head home," Rod said, and he gave the order for acceleration to begin.
Later, in his quarters, he and Linda reflected on the history-making events of the day.
"Do you think they really would have tried to attack the Earth?" she asked.
"I don’t know, but it sure looked that way, didn’t it?" After thinking silently for a moment, he said, "I think we need to spend
some time alone together when we get back home, just the two of us."
"That sounds great," she said, "We haven’t had very much time to just enjoy each other and be married, have we?"
"No," he replied, "But I’ve loved every minute of it anyway. I think my life would be pretty dull without you."
"I don’t think we’ll be alone for long," she said, "I’m two months pregnant."
A wide grin spread over Rod’s face. "Leave it to you to top the biggest day in the history of mankind!" he said, as he took her
in his arms and pondered what adventures the future would hold for their children.