Far Space (2 page)

The deep blue of the Pacific occupied much of the planet surface in view, interrupted by a few dazzling white clouds. Only South America marred the
view as a dark smudge crowding the eastern horizon. Ignoring the continent on the edge of his vision, Ian could almost believe he was rising from a planet covered by a single, uninterrupted ocean. Above the curve of the Earth, stars shown as bright pin pricks, having lost their twinkle as the car climbed above the planet’s atmosphere. He gazed out into the heavens. It was hard to pick out any constellations amid the thousands of bright lights but he was fairly certain the bright star off to the left was Jupiter.

Ian had seen it all before though. The awe lasted a few seconds and when nothing new broke onto the scene, his focus slid back inside the car to the milling passengers. He tugged at his flight suit and took in the usual mix of businessmen and women – no doubt looking to score a deal face-to-face out in the stars. They were absorbed in checking their e-mail or polishing their presentations on datapads. Each looked perfect in their coordinated suits and ties and carefully sculpted hair. Most would be staying on Gateway station or catch a connecting shuttle to some other hab in Earth orbit. He wondered if any would be heading to the Moon to visit one of the heavy industrial or nano-manufacturing plants which had been cropping up in the regolith.

The business types were joined by various other travelers. A knot of techs stood talking in a corner dressed in fresh coveralls. Ian easily picked out the vacationers and retirees. They stuck out as they tried to take in everything at once during their first trip up the space tether. Plus many were dressed as if they had stepped off the fashion train a decade or so ago. A group of young adults sat cross-legged on the floor, staring ahead into their dark VR specs; their gloved fingers twitched nonstop as they interacted on-line. As far as Ian had seen, he was the sole military member on board.

Space veterans like the techs sported not only the right clothes but the right hair; short or close-cropped, like Ian’s. Once a sure indicator of military service, the practical hair style was commonly employed to combat the inconvenience caused by any other style in a zero-gee work environment. Even women were prone to lopping their hair off, especially if it had all the bounce and body which would have made it so attractive back on Earth. Other options included the use of tight braids to constrain long hair or simply live with crazy, swaying locks. Ian ran his hand over the fresh stubble on his head and looked
down at his flight suit. No one was going to confuse him with a businessman, student, or vacationer.

Ian blew out his breath. Bored, bored, bored.

Might as well go down and get out of this flight suit, Ian thought. That should kill a whole five minutes. He could also grab his personal data pad and plug into his downloads instead of being forced to watch the inane babble emanating from the screens spaced around the inside curve of the room. The talking heads on the 24/7 news stations just did not have enough fresh stories to fill the day. He made a mental note to check into re-programming the video circuits –one of those history channels would at least be educational. Ian turned and took a long, low-gee stride toward the ladder-way connecting the decks. He was about to head down to his small cabin on Level Two, or steerage as he had dubbed it, but was forced back from the edge of the vertical passage by the abrupt appearance of a head of dark hair at his feet.

The woman misjudged her step onto the observation deck and all but fell off the ladder into Ian’s arms.

Ian found himself supporting a rather attractive brunette in a tailored, hip-hugging body suit. From her dark hair pulled back into a tight braided pony-tail and the Far-Side patch on her shoulder, Ian assumed she was at least a second term science geek. Probably heading back out to the lunar observatory.

Ian realized he had been holding on much longer than was needed to allow her to catch her balance. He stepped back and held out his hand, “Hi there. First Lieutenant Ian Langdon, Pilot. Just call me Ian.”

“Jennifer,” the brunette said and pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and took the proffered hand. “Just Jennifer Wright, Applied Physicist.”

“Coming up for some company?” Ian asked.

“Actually,” Jennifer said cutting off a smirk and managing to look serious. “I’m here for the view.”

“Of course,” Ian said. “I just happen to have reserved the perfect spot.” He offered his arm and gestured to the still open area in front of the window he had just vacated.

“Wow, a guide to the stars,” Jennifer said. “How can a lady refuse?”

Moving carefully in the reduced gee, Ian led Jennifer to the overlook of the Pacific.

As Jennifer gazed down, absorbed by the earth-scape spread out below, Ian looked sideways at his new companion. The curve of her neck and the loose strands of hair falling down along her cheek were much more interesting than what was outside the window.

Perhaps, Ian thought, these four and a half days might not be so bad after all.

Chinese Space Agency Ganymede Research Station #1

Jupiter Space

Working furiously, Wu flipped through one analysis program after another. He was growing frustrated by his inability to answer one basic question; what was coming toward Ganymede?

“This is most disturbing, Mr. Wu,” Lee said, squaring his shoulders and clasping his hands behind his back. “As Officer of the Watch, it is your duty to execute these sorts of tasks on a routine basis.”

“Of course, sir,” Wu replied, managing to not grind his teeth. “I apologize, it’s just…”

“Do not apologize, Mr. Wu,” Lee interrupted, “perform as expected.” He had to step over cable trays as he paced. “I must know the nature of this attack at once.”

Wu paused in his second check of the catalog of natural bodies orbiting Jupiter and turned to follow his superior’s movement.

“Attack? Sir, the readings only indicate…”

“Attend to your duties, Mr. Wu,” Lee said sternly. “Tell me who is out there, if you can. Until I have verification they are not hostile, I cannot assume otherwise.”

Wu stared at Lee’s back, his mouth hanging open. Wu slowly turned to his monitors but was at a loss for what to do. The gravitational anomalies had ceased but in their place six unidentified objects had appeared. They were now accelerating on a trajectory which would take them directly over the Research Station. In his experience, the computers, even with their eccentric faults, should be able to identify any object among the fifty-three moons and lesser debris orbiting Jupiter. The programs and databases at his command were also reasonably good at tracking and plotting all the man-made probes, transports, and other items including two mysterious Chinese derelicts.

The objects Wu had on his scopes seemed to be something entirely new.

Any other time, Wu would be smiling. He had stumbled across what appeared to be real-life unidentified flying objects. He glanced back at Lee’s station and had the sobering thought – Lee was treating the appearance of the
UFOs as an enemy action. The Administrator was absorbed with his computer console and did not look up as Wu stared at him for several long moments.

Something inside Wu clicked. He took a memory stick from his jacket and inserted it into the side of his computer, taking care to conceal the small device with a few loose sheets of paper. No matter what happened, the data he was analyzing would be saved. The thought of the unnamed derelicts drifting in their highly elliptical orbits around the gas giant haunted him for some reason. No records of those ghost ships existed as far as he could tell. What had happened to the crews? What had been their mission? His nation had been up to something with these spacecraft, failed, and then covered the whole thing up. Wu did not want his discovery to be deliberately lost in a dark vault in Beijing.

Red lights lit suddenly, accompanied by a piercing alarm.

Wu looked up, afraid his surreptitious actions had been discovered.

Lee was still tapping on his keyboard as if nothing was wrong. Wu studied a monitor mounted above his station forgetting the anomalies for a moment. It showed the status of the base’s various systems; air quality, power usage, pressure, temperature - everything seemed within limits. Tapping the screen, Wu called up more data on each of the primary base sections.

“Sir, this must be a false alarm, all systems are reading nominal,” Wu reported.

“I have armed the station’s defensive systems,” Lee noted calmly, still tapping on his keyboard. “I am sending a Priority Message to Earth, alerting them of our situation.”

Wu stopped his check of the station’s systems. The fool had sounded the alarm. He brought up a sub-window to display the feed from a camera mounted on a habitat module on the southwest side of the base. At first, all that was visible were two non-descript cargo containers, marked with the ever-present ‘COSCO’ markings. The China Overseas Shipping Company had made its way into space and saw no need to change its highly recognizable logo or name.

As Wu watched, the top of the containers split in two. The halves popped up in the light gravity, and folded sideways. As the top sections came to rest along the sides of the container, the contents of the module rose, revealed for the first time. Wu had never been inside the containers. Access to the weapons
they contained was tightly controlled by Lee and the small contingent of People’s Liberation Army Strategic Weapons Specialists. Never-the-less, he was familiar enough with the tools of the PLA to recognize the mass accelerators, or rail guns, as Americans and Europeans called them. Capable of slinging solid chunks of metal at deadly speeds, the rail guns could easily tear through any opponent.

“Respectfully sir, how can you be sure we are under attack?” The sound of the compartment hatch opening drew Wu’s attention from the monitors, now showing the launchers pivoting and elevating away from their stowed position. .

Lee ignored Wu’s question and remained silent as Major Sheng Jing-Wei entered through the main hatch, followed by two PLA soldiers.

“Please relinquish your station and vacate the control center, Mr. Wu,” Lee said.

It took a few moments for Wu to grasp the order. Wu looked from Lee to Sheng. By the hard look in both men’s eyes, he knew there would be no arguing the directive.

Major Sheng was an enigma among the station personnel. He kept solely with the other PLA soldiers and, on the rare occasion Wu had witnessed an encounter with regular base personnel, Sheng often knew more of the topic of discussion than the poor technician he was grilling. The joke was the lead PLA officer read tech orders describing the operations and maintenance of each piece of equipment assigned to the Research Station instead of the readily available, if less tasteful, reading material favored by other crew members alone and far from home.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Wu?” Lee asked.

Wu turned to face his screens one last time. The unidentified vessels would be passing close to their location on Ganymede within minutes. He stood on wobbly legs and reached for the papers on his desk.

Major Sheng stepped close to Wu’s station and put a hand over the documents and binders cluttering Wu’s workstation. “We will attend to these, Mr. Wu.”

Wu could not meet the Major’s stare. He gave a quick nod, stood, and made his way to the compartment hatch. He had to squeeze past the PLA soldiers
who had taken up position next to Lee’s station. The men were armed with assault rifles, weapons Wu had not seen outside of the armory in all his time on the Jovian moon, in addition to their usual side-arms. One of them held the hatch open for Wu. As soon Wu was outside, the soldier pulled the door shut.

Wu started down the connecting tunnel toward the common area. His steps were wooden, making his stride even more awkward under the influence of the moon’s reduced gravity.

Wu was sure Lee and Sheng intended to destroy the mysterious objects before they even knew where they came from or discerned their intent. He looked down at his hand and opened it slowly, revealing a sweating palm cradling the small black memory stick he had managed to snatch before Sheng took over his station. Wu was brought up short by a call from the command section hatch.

“Mr. Wu,” Lee called.

Wu turned; his hands tightening around the data stick tucked at the small of his back. “Sir?” Wu asked, managing to keep his voice steady.

“Please ensure we are not disturbed.”

Wu simply lowered his eyes and nodded, not trusting himself to speak. When he looked up, Lee was already closing the hatch. The locking bolts slid into place with a ring of finality.

Wu tucked the data stick into a deep hip pocket and patted it through the cloth of his jumpsuit. He knew Lee would have all data secured and classified before he got back to his station. He doubted Lee was smart enough to wipe computer memories, but he had no doubt this was a task Major Sheng was capable of carrying out.

Wu picked up his pace with new purpose. No matter what happened in the next few minutes, the stolen data had to survive.

Ballard Space Elevator

Earth Space

Ian was pleased to find he and Jennifer hit it off so well. She was indeed a member of the Far Side Lunar Observatory team and was returning after a visit with her family living in Colorado. Although not an astronomer, she was using her degree in applied physics working on applications for quantum interaction phenomenon. Her small group needed the near vacuum environment, lower gravity and isolation from the electromagnetic chaos pouring from earth and near Earth orbit for their experiments. Ian had only an inkling of what she was talking about but he liked the intensity of her passion and the way her eyes sparkled when she was making a point.

Jennifer was trying to explain the basics of quantum interaction to Ian; how it was theoretically possible to sync up two particles and move one away from the other, to an infinite distance. Even with the entirety of the universe between the two particles, any change in state in one was instantaneously reflected by the second particle. Her eyes were wide and brilliant as she finished, “Now tell me that can’t be used for communications!?”