Earth Star

4

Fian had obviously recognized the image of Earth on the screen too. His expression reminded me of Issette when she was pulling one of her buggy-eyed, shocked faces. He looked at me, and then we both instinctively and pointlessly looked up at the ceiling. Somewhere up above us, in Earth orbit, was that enigmatic grey alien sphere.

I remembered Doyle’s words from when I was 12. Encountering an advanced alien species would either be the greatest opportunity in history, or the greatest ever threat to the survival of humanity. Most of my head thought about the second half of that sentence, while the rest of it called itself an idiot. I should have realized the alien contact was here the minute they called in an ape like me, let alone when I found out the Military were building a base on Earth, but it had been ingrained in my mind that humanity would encounter aliens during Planet First explorations in the newest sector, Kappa.

Something else occurred to me. They’d given me some special shots during my medical check. What were those for? Potential chemical, radiation or germ warfare attacks? Nuke that!

I heard the door open behind us. A shocked male voice spoke. ‘Nuke that!’

I’d only thought the words, but someone else had actually said them. I turned to identify the guilty party, and saw a dark-haired young man in a Lieutenant’s uniform. His eyes moved from the screen to glance at me; he looked horrified, and hastily saluted.

‘Sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.’

I gave him a rather confused salute, turned back to face the vid screen, and was startled to find half the people in the room had risen to salute me. The civilians were still lounging in seats, their grey uniforms marking them out as ignorant of Military procedures, but the true Military were all on their feet. Even when they’d saluted, they still stood facing me at attention, clearly waiting for something.

I stood there like a nardle. This didn’t make sense. I was only a Captain, and the Military saluting me included several Majors and at least one Commander. I vaguely remembered seeing something in a vid, and gave it a try.

‘As you were.’

They all relaxed and sat down. I pulled a face at Fian, and we found a couple of seats near the front of the room. As we sat down, Fian leaned towards me and whispered in my ear. ‘What was that about?’

I whispered back. ‘I don’t know.’

I looked furtively around. The audience seemed to be split about half-and-half between civilians and Military. The civilians were presumably experts in various fields. I wondered why Fian and I had actually been inducted into the Military, while others were left with civilian status. There was probably some obvious reason, which I was too stupid to figure out, like the reason for the existence of this base.

A woman in Military uniform went to the front of the room, and the audience settled down to pay attention.

‘I’m Major Rayne Tar Cameron, Command Support. Fifty-two hours ago, the Earth Solar Array Meteor Watch detected a sphere approaching Earth. It was 4.71 metres in diameter, and undergoing controlled deceleration. It appeared to originate from a cluster of asteroids in the region of Mars orbit.’

Fian shot me a desperate look.

‘Fourth planet,’ I whispered. ‘Next one out from us.’

The image on the vid screen changed to a sequence showing the trajectory of the alien sphere. The Major let that play through before speaking again.

‘There is no evidence to indicate current or prior existence of an alien species in Earth’s solar system capable of building this. The current theory is the sphere came from outside this solar system, either by portal or conventional means, and stayed in the region of Mars orbit for an indeterminate period of time before approaching Earth.’

The vid screen now started showing what must be genuine vid coverage of the sphere approaching Earth. The images were obviously running at very high speed, but they slowed down twice to allow us to see the sphere making definite course changes as it manoeuvred into Earth orbit.

The Major started speaking again. ‘The sphere is now in geostationary orbit above Earth Africa. As soon as it was observed to be artificial and under power, Alien Contact was activated. We transmitted the standard series of mathematical and other greets which are sent out whenever Planet First teams enter a new star system. There was no response. We followed this with several expanded series of transmissions. Still no response. We have continued communication attempts without success. The sphere has held its position in geostationary orbit without any detectable action.’

A vid ran showing details of the attempts they’d made to communicate with the sphere. They’d done just about everything, including shining lights at it. They hadn’t actually sent someone over to knock on the side of the thing, because that might be construed as a hostile action.

The Major made another speech about attempts to scan the interior of the sphere. It was a very short speech, because none of the scans had worked. All we knew about the thing was its size and shape. Given the size, it was probably an unmanned, automated probe.

At this point, Major Rayne Tar Cameron gathered up the civilian members of the audience and led them off somewhere. All the Military in the room stayed in their seats, apparently expecting something else to happen.

Fian nudged me, and gave me a questioning look, obviously unsure if we should stay or go. A few minutes ago, I’d been wondering why we’d been inducted into the Military while other people were left as civilians, and this could be the answer. Perhaps you had to be a serving member of the Military to hear what was coming next. I stayed in my seat.

There was a pause of two or three minutes, then a woman entered the hall and went to the front. Everyone stood to salute, and she instantly gave a brisk nod, which allowed them to sit down and relax again. I made a mental note of it, in case I ended up in the same weird situation I’d been in earlier, with a room full of Military stuck at attention.

‘I’m Commander Nia Stone, Attack team leader and Colonel Torrek’s deputy,’ she said.

She half turned towards the vid screen, the image zoomed out, and now I saw four sleek, black Military ships at a discreet distance from the sphere. I’d seen pictures of Military dart ships before, but never anything like these.

‘We’re probably looking at an automated, unmanned probe,’ she said. ‘It’s only 4.71 metres in diameter, but this is an alien device with unknown capabilities. Initial assessment by the Science teams, based on its speed, manoeuvrability, and resistance to scans, is that the technology behind it is above the level of our own in some areas. As far as we know, it has done nothing since it entered Earth orbit, but it may be taking actions beyond our ability to detect.’

She paused to give us time to absorb that, and I found myself thinking of the stasis boxes left behind in Earth’s cities when humanity poured off world during Exodus century. When you found one, its protective force field was a strange furry black, hiding its contents. Usually, they held items from the past and farewell messages. If you were lucky, there could be a treasure of historical or scientific data, to help fill in the gaps of the knowledge lost during the chaotic years of Exodus and the Earth data net crash. If you were unlucky, there could be something extremely nasty, because sometimes a stasis field wasn’t used to protect the contents from the world, but to protect the world from the contents.

You had to be a specially trained expert to open stasis boxes. Our pre-history class was fortunate that Lecturer Playdon was Stasis Q. I hoped to qualify myself one day, so I’d been learning what I could from him. Stasis boxes had been found holding radioactive materials, nuclear warheads, and bio-warfare agents, as well as things Playdon wasn’t allowed to talk about. All Stasis Q had to take the Security Oath, because they needed to be warned of every dangerous item that had ever been found in stasis boxes, and some of that information was classified.

The alien sphere was like a stasis box. We had no clue what was inside, whether it was good or bad. I’d often said there was no limit to how dangerous the contents of a stasis box could be, but of course that wasn’t really true. A stasis box could only contain the unpleasant things humanity had invented during its history. The risks posed by the sphere really were unlimited.

The view on the vid screen recaptured my attention by zooming out yet again. Now I could see twelve more ships positioned further from the sphere than the first four. At a much greater distance still, were four circles floating in space. My eyes widened. Those were proper portals, not the ephemeral five-second, drop portals the Military used for Planet First, and they were large enough to send through those Military ships.

Commander Nia Stone started talking again. ‘Threat team initially estimated a 39 per cent chance that the sphere was hostile. I emphasize this is only an estimate. We are dealing with an unknown alien race, their thought processes and logic may be totally different to our own, and we may misinterpret their actions.’

She paused for a second, and I thought of all the different cultures in pre-history. Humans had often struggled to understand each other, so it would be chaos difficult to understand a truly alien species.

‘We would expect a friendly approach to include immediate attempts to communicate,’ Stone continued. ‘As far as we know, the sphere has made no such attempt. There is a small possibility it is talking, but we don’t know how to listen. It could be waiting to catch us off guard by a surprise attack. It could be gathering data to help it either contact or attack us. It could be alien etiquette is to begin a conversation with a polite silence. It’s even possible the sphere isn’t working properly. Threat estimate is now up to 47 per cent and still rising as the sphere does nothing. Our greatest concern is this is an advance guard, gathering information while waiting for reinforcements.’

A hand shot up in the audience.

‘Search team has found nothing in Sol system, and Monitoring team has detected no unknown portal activity,’ said Stone. ‘We’re also running checks on the star systems of our other inhabited worlds. Nothing so far.’

The hand went down again.

‘Our options are to attack or to wait. You all know Premise One of the Alien Contact programme. Conflict should be avoided if possible, since attacking an alien race of inferior technology is unnecessary, while attacking one of superior technology could result in the extinction of the human race. Premise Two tells us if the aliens find us before we find them, we should assume they do have superior technology to us. We must therefore proceed as if the sphere is friendly, while also preparing for the worst-case scenario, where the sphere turns out to be hostile, highly dangerous, and launches a surprise attack.’

There was dead silence in the room as Stone continued. ‘We have fighters in position around the sphere. An inner ring of four, and an outer ring of twelve. Pilots are relieved every four hours, since we don’t want anyone getting tired and careless out there. The inner ring positions are approached at minimum speed. We don’t want a fighter shift change to be misconstrued as an attack.’

The view zoomed out once more. Now the sphere and its surrounding fighters looked tiny, dwarfed by vast sweeping silver sails to the left of the image.

‘As you can see,’ said Stone, ‘the sphere is relatively close to the Earth Africa solar power array. Earth Africa power beam is currently off-line in maintenance mode and focused on the sphere. Power is being supplied to Earth Africa by relay from Earth Asia and Earth America.’

She paused. ‘In the event of hostile action from the sphere, fighter waves 1 and 2 get the kill order and attack. If they fail to destroy their target, we engage Earth Africa power beam. If the sphere can survive a planetary power beam at close range and has significant attack capability … well, we’re in trouble. We initiate our contingency plans for emergency evacuation of the civilian population where possible, engage all our forces, and prepare to pull back to Alpha sector if we lose Earth. Any suggestions or questions?’

My mind cringed. The Military were preparing for the worst-case scenario, where the sphere could survive being the focus of one of Earth’s continental power supply beams. They had contingency plans to evacuate the civilian population where possible.

Those two words, ‘where possible’, said it all. Most of the population of Earth were like me, Handicapped, and couldn’t portal off world to safety. If the Military lost Earth, all the Handicapped would be dead. Not just those alive now, but those born in the future as well.

When I was born on a Military base out in Kappa sector, my immune system started to fail, and I was portalled as a medical emergency pre-empt from Kappa sector to a Hospital Earth Infant Crash unit. I survived, but if future Handicapped babies couldn’t reach Earth …

Worst-case scenario, I reminded myself. It was one small grey sphere out there, not some vast alien armada, at least not yet. On the other hand, it was a small grey sphere that could contain technology at a level far beyond our own. What could the legions of ancient Rome have done to ward off an attack by nuclear missile? Absolutely nothing.

I fought back against a wave of pure terror. The Military had to look nightmare in the face and prepare for the worst, but that didn’t mean it was going to happen.

Hands were up to ask questions, and Stone pointed at someone. As he stood, a disembodied, computer-generated voice introduced him. ‘Captain Liam Granger, Medical team.’

‘We could be facing biological warfare. The bio controls in portals have been thoroughly tested in Planet First, and should prevent transfer to other worlds. Are we monitoring Earth for signs of new diseases, or …?’

‘We’re getting detailed data on every patient needing medical attention on Earth,’ said Stone. ‘We’re using Hospital Earth’s research into a cure for the Handicapped immune system problems as a cover story, claiming the massive data collection is needed by their researchers. We’re also collecting information on animal health issues.’

The Captain sat down. Stone picked another person and they stood.

‘Commander Elith Shirinkin, Search team leader,’ said the computer.

‘What is the political situation? We’re not announcing this to the general civilian population?’

Stone shook her head. ‘As laid down in the Alien Contact charter, the members of Joint Sector High Congress Committee were immediately informed. They convened and elected not to make any announcement until we have a clear indication whether the aliens are friendly or hostile. Tactical decisions remain the sole charge of the Military unless overridden by a vote of full Parliament.’

I’d never taken any interest in exo politics. It wasn’t just that Earth didn’t belong to a sector, so had no representatives in Parliament of Planets let alone Sector High Congress. The Handicapped weren’t even allowed a voice in decisions about their own world, because Earth was run by the main board of Hospital Earth. They were relatively well-intentioned and benevolent rulers, but they were all norms appointed by the sectors so it was effectively a dictatorship,

I ignored the whole sore subject of politics because it made me angry to know I’d never be allowed to vote, but this situation was easy to understand. High Congress Committee didn’t want to tell people and risk starting a panic. Full Parliament couldn’t vote on something that Sector High Congress hadn’t told them was happening. This was totally in the hands of the Military.

‘The aliens came to our home world,’ said Commander Shirinkin. ‘Given the number of inhabited worlds we have, that’s quite a threatening message.’

Stone nodded. ‘That’s why the initial threat assessment was so high. If they deliberately chose to come to Earth then they know all about us. They may even know Earth has a population of ideal hostages, who can’t portal off world to escape.’

Commander Shirinkin sat down and I stuck my hand up. I was surprised when Stone looked at me and nodded. I stood up and got another surprise.

‘Captain Jarra Tell Morrath, History team,’ announced the computer voice.

I blinked. I was on a History team? I could think of a good reason the Military would want a History team, but Fian and I were only pre-history students so why …?

‘Earth is in a period of very high solar storm frequency,’ I said. ‘Not only does the interference from a solar storm bring down the portal network, but we can’t keep ships or solar arrays manned because of the radiation hazard in space.’

Stone nodded. ‘We’ll have to pull out our personnel during a major solar storm. Since Planet First selects colony worlds with low solar storm frequency, Earth is our only inhabited planet with this problem. Threat team are considering the possibility the aliens have chosen to come here for this reason, and are planning to attack during the next major solar storm when we’re at our weakest. Portals won’t be able to transmit from Sol system during a storm, but we can still portal in fighters and crew for the Earth Africa array from Alpha sector. Equipment will be affected by the solar storm, and shields will only protect our people against the radiation for a few hours, so we’ll have to deal with the sphere rapidly.’

She paused. ‘When the situation is stable, we will portal in lifeboats from Alpha to pick up our people and land them on Earth.’

‘Lifeboats?’

Stone smiled. ‘After the Solar 5 incident, we modified some spaceships to be able to enter planetary atmospheres in an emergency and land safely rather than depending on portalling to their destination.’

I sat down. The next question was from a nervous, sandy-haired lad in Lieutenant’s uniform, who gazed frantically up at the ceiling when the computer announced his name and team assignment.

‘If this base is destroyed do we have an Echo base?’

Stone nodded. ‘We are being echoed by bases on Adonis in Alpha sector, and Zeus in Beta sector. They have continuous data feeds, and Echo base Adonis is standing by to take over command, cascading to Echo base Zeus if necessary.’

I’d thought losing Earth was bad enough for a worst-case scenario, but the Military had contingency plans if we lost Alpha sector as well. Where would that leave us tactically? I frantically pictured the three concentric spheres of humanity, all centred on Earth. The innermost sphere was Alpha sector. Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors clustered around it to make up the middle sphere. Of the many sectors in the outermost frontier sphere, we’d only begun to settle Epsilon and Kappa sectors.

I grimaced. If we lost Alpha sector, the heart of humanity’s space, all three of Beta, Gamma and Delta sectors would be exposed on a warfront. What chance would we stand after that? The Military would try, but …

It wouldn’t be my problem. I’d go down with Earth, like all the rest of the Handicapped. Fian might make it out alive, and the rest of our class back at Eden Dig Site, but …

Eden! I madly stuck my hand up again. I shouldn’t have asked about how they’d cope during a solar storm. The Military would obviously have thought of that, but they wouldn’t have thought of this. How could they? Sector and Military schools focused on modern history. I might not be given a chance to ask a second question, but chaos take Military protocol. If necessary, I’d stand up unasked and yell.

Nia Stone must have noticed the frantic urgency in my face, because she gave me a puzzled look and a nod. I shot to my feet and the computer announced me again.

‘In the event of an attack,’ I said, ‘the Handicapped can’t portal off world, but have you considered using Ark?’

She frowned. ‘Can you explain what Ark is for us, Captain?’

I gabbled a hasty explanation based on the official Ark tour information. ‘In the twenty-third century, they had portal technology, but didn’t believe it could ever reach across interstellar distances. They started three ambitious projects to build new habitats for humanity on Earth itself. Eden was a super-city built from scratch in Earth Africa. Atlantis was underwater off the coast of Earth America. Ark was underground in Earth Australia.’

‘Underground,’ Stone repeated. I could tell I had her full attention now. ‘Details, please.’

‘Both Atlantis and Ark were intended to be closed, self-sufficient habitats. Arcologies protected from pollution and climate issues. Ark would be underground, carved out of solid rock, accessible only by portal, with its own recycled air and water. It would grow its own food and manufacture everything it needed. They built Eden, they got as far as carving out the caverns for Ark and shipping the rock out by portal to form the Atlantis reef system, then we got interstellar portals so the whole thing was abandoned in 2310.’

‘That was over four and a half centuries ago,’ Stone said. ‘Ark still exists?’

I nodded. ‘I’ve been on an Ark tour myself. It’s just endless bare granitoid caverns. They built the air purification system as they went along digging the caverns because they needed to breathe, but nothing else was ever installed. Ark was intended to house over a billion people. If we were to use it as a refuge for the Handicapped, they’d have to take lights with them, but the rest … In the twentieth century, there was the Berlin airlift. For about a year, they used aircraft to fly in all the supplies for an entire city. Surely we could do something similar and portal everything in from Alpha sector worlds?’

‘Who has full information on Ark?’ asked Stone.

‘University Earth Australia maintains the air purifiers and takes people on tours.’

‘Right.’ Stone glanced around the hall. ‘If there are no other urgent suggestions, I have to get this moving.’

She was out of the door within seconds.