The Agathon: Book One (17 page)

“You okay?” he asked

“Eh yes, sorry, that wasn’t what I was expecting, that’s all. I think I need to lie down. With your permission I would like to leave the bridge.”

“Of course, why don’t you see Doctor Brubaker?” Tosh looked
ashen
-faced.

“Yes, I think I’ll do just that.” He rolled towards the back of the bridge and entered the lift. Barrington faced the forward viewer then caught sight on the empty screen on the right.

“Change screen five to forward view, David.”

“Yes, sir,” he replied softly.

“What is the status of the beacon from the Jycorp Orbital?”

“Undetectable at the moment, sir. I don’t think we’ll catch it until we return to normal space, sir,” said Chavel. The captain didn’t like that.

“Any idea if we are on the right heading, Lieutenant?”

“All systems show normal, sir. The target coordinates were locked and it all looks okay this end.” He looked at the viewer and the hazy greys of hyperspace. Not the most exciting thing he thought he would see in a gravitational distortion, but at least they weren’t dead.

Engine Room

Eight hours since departure

12:00 Martian Standard

“Ex
cuse me, can I help you?” said Emerson to the person behind the main stellar cartography array. Eight hours later and not much had changed on board the ship. It had been smooth sailing so far, but Emerson had not left the engineering bay since the jump. He had been taking readings from The Betty when he heard something fall on the other side of the bay. The figure stood up and stared at Emerson.

“I’m sorry, Doctor Tyrell, I didn’t see you come in. Is there something I can help you with?” Emerson had only met the doctor once upon boarding and it was only a brief conversation about his quarantine seals in the lab. Emerson had noted that the doctor was cold and not particularly friendly. He looked at Tyrell, puzzled at what he was doing behind the navigational systems.

“Nothing at all, Mr Emerson, I...” Tyrell paused and looked at his hands. “need a
de
-coupler for my computer systems. One of the CPUs is out of alignment. I was trying to do an analysis of the surrounding star systems to Aristaeus and I didn’t want to disturb you.” Emerson noted that the doctor’s eyes were sharp and quite intense to look into. He didn’t fancy reprimanding him, so tried a polite approach.

“Of course, anything I can do to help. I can send someone up to you right away.”

Tyrell raised a hand. “Not at all, I have what I came for.” Emerson frowned.

“Of course, Doctor. I’m afraid that I have to ask you to clear equipment with me before removing it. I don’t mean to be a stickler here, but this is a delicate journey we’re on and the captain was pretty clear on procedures for personnel entering engineering. I hope you understand.” Tyrell smiled a large smile at Emerson. An almost patronising smile, and began to walk towards him. He placed a hand on Emerson’s shoulder.

“That makes perfect sense,” he said, still smiling. “The captain is very lucky to have you here, Mr Emerson. As are we all. I humbly apologise for not announcing my presence and will endeavour not to do so again.” Tyrell’s grip on Emerson’s shoulder was a little tighter than it needed to be. He tried not to wince as Tyrell released his grip and made his way out of the bay. Emerson watched him go. As he was leaving he gave Emerson a little wave as if to say, ‘Ta...ta’.

“What was that about?” said Llewellyn, who was walking past.

“Not sure,” said Emerson.

“These science types give me the creeps,” she said.

“Hmm,” came his reply. “Do me a favour,” he continued, “check out the navigational array, will you?”

“I ran a diagnostic on it twenty minutes ago, Landon. She’s tiptop,” came Llewellyn’s quick reply. Emerson gave her a look that basically told her he didn’t give a shit and to do it again.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Anything I should be looking for?”

“It’s probably nothing,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said and got to work.

The flickers of lights from The Betty speckled the surrounding workstations with splashes of colour. Emerson had been awake now for
twenty
-six hours and was starting to feel it.

“Emerson to Tosh,” he said, hovering over a comm panel.

“Tosh here.”

“Danny boy, any chance you can take over down here while I catch up on some shuteye?”

“Be delighted to,” came Tosh’s response. “Be there in ten minutes. Tosh out.” Emerson was relieved. He could have easily left Llewellyn in charge, but he wanted Tosh down here in case anything serious happened. He should have been here the whole time and not lounging about on the bridge. Emerson hadn’t eaten in hours and was finally starting to feel a wave of dizziness come over him.

“Emerson to Barrington,” he said

“Go ahead,” came the confident response. Emerson knew that the captain hadn’t left the bridge since the jump and was amazed at how alert he sounded.

“Captain, I would like to leave engineering to get some shuteye. Doctor Tosh is going to keep an eye on things. Unless you have any objections?”

“None. Please let the crew know that Tosh is in charge until your return. Barrington out.”

In a perfect world the command structure of The Agathon would have been strictly under the purview of the Jycorp military, but with command personnel thin on the ground responsibility for ship functions was designated to the most qualified, whether they be military or not. Tosh had not wanted the responsibility of engineering and had recommended Emerson for the role, with a view to maintaining a supervisory consultative presence throughout. Emerson was a natural leader and was the best engineer on the Jycorp Orbital, if not the entire colony. He was also unencumbered by a physical disability and, although it was never mentioned, a physically fit crewmember was essential to running such a dynamic environment. Emerson was hands on and spent most of his time jammed between the crawl spaces of the ship fixing any number of problems. In an emergency, access to these crawl spaces needed to be quick and Tosh simply could not offer the same mobility. A few minutes later in he rolled, still in ‘Terrain mode’.

“You look like shit,” he said to Emerson.

“Thanks, boss,” he said, smiling.

“Keep an eye on the coolant manifolds. They were acting up about an hour ago,” Emerson continued.

“You doing okay, kid?” asked Tosh. Emerson felt burnt out.

“Nothing a few Zs wouldn’t cure, Danny boy.” Llewellyn looked over at the pair.

“Amanda, come say hi to Tosh.” She walked over to them and shook his hand.

“Doctor Tosh, good to see you. I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s great to finally work with you… I’ve a million questions.” She was way too enthusiastic for Emerson, who simply backed off and waved goodbye to a clearly nervous Tosh. He didn’t think he had much experience with women and he found it rather amusing to leave him in the thick of it while he took a nap. As he walked out of the engine room and through the corridors to his quarters, the image of Tyrell at the navigation station was glued to the back of his mind. It was probably nothing. He was tired.

11

24 hours since departure

22:00 Martian Standard

“I
would say congratulations are in order, Mr. Young. I wish the circumstances could have been different but the results are impressive,” Barrington said to Young across the table. It was late and Young had asked Barrington to join him for a drink. Barrington was hesitant at first but had agreed to it. They looked out at the merging greys of hyperspace through the large windows in the conference room, which was one deck below the bridge. It was empty apart from some scattered chairs. A newly opened bottle of scotch and two half full glasses sat crisply on the surface of the table.

Young smiled. “You think I am just a suit, don’t you, John?” The frankness of his question didn’t surprise Barrington and he didn’t hesitate with his answer. Life was growing very short for the usual social graces.

“I think a man with the power that you have,” he paused, “had... could find it difficult to attain were it not thrust upon you.”

“I see,” Young replied. “You think power can only be earned on a battlefield? And you think that battlefields can only be called so, if there are weapons on them?” he continued. “I could have had you replaced on this ship or on the colony is less than ten minutes with one call.”

“Mr Young, if you wanted a pissing contest I wish you would have said so before getting on my ship,” said Barrington. Young raised his hands.

“I’m sorry, John. That wasn’t my intention. My love is of the signal, John. Not power. I left Earth because of the signal. I would have spent my whole life on that little grey rock if I could have figured it out. I was close to something towards the end.”

“That’s why you appointed Clark?” asked Barrington. Young raised his eyebrows.

“I am no leader of planets, Captain. A mathematical genius? Yes. Financier? Yes. Leader of people? No thanks very much.” The man sitting next to him surprised Barrington.

“You know it’s funny,” he continued. “When you grow up seeing your name on practically every single building in the world you have nowhere to hide from it.”

“Makes sense,” said Barrington.

“I was expecting more,” said Young.

“More?” said Barrington.

“Hyperspace. Kinda dull out there. No colour. No
thought
-altering visuals that make you marvel at the complexity of the universe. Fucking grey. Like a rainy day,” he said, sipping his drink.

“I’m just glad we’re still in one piece, Mr. Young.”

“Please call me Jerome. I have a feeling we are about to get to know each other extremely well, John. I won’t stand on ceremony if you don’t.” Barrington nodded. There was an ease creeping into the room as the captain relaxed in Young’s presence. He had to admit he was not what he was expecting. The façade presented to the world when they had met would seem to have been purposefully erected by the leader of Jycorp. Either that or he was a skilled sociopath.

“Do you think she made the right choice? The chancellor,” Barrington asked. Young snorted.

“Ha. That stubborn
self
-righteous woman thinks she owes those people something. Delusions of grandeur. That is commonplace amongst those given authority, present company excluded, of course.” Barrington noticed hurt in the man’s voice.

“I liked her,” he said. He had meant it of course but also had meant it as a test. Young knew it and smiled.

“I liked her too, Captain. She was twice the men we are.”

“I’ll drink to that,” said Barrington, clinking his glass to Young’s. “Tell me about the signal,” he asked Young.

“What would you like to know?” Young replied.

“There was nothing decoded? Nothing? It’s hard to believe that with our technology and with your expertise we still know nothing.” Young smiled again at the captain’s light baiting of the subject. He took a breath.

“We know that the civilisation is highly intelligent and technologically advanced. We know the Monolith is, or rather was, thousands of years ahead of us. We know that the mathematical constants that were sent were basic, but the ternary syntax algorithm which accompanied it was not. When the signal was first detected, nearly one hundred years ago, we flattered ourselves with the knowledge that the human race had become important enough to contact. Then we soon figured out that it made little or no difference, as we couldn’t find the primer key to respond to the signal or alter its pathways from the Monolith. All we could do was triangulate its location and send our own subspace pulses in the hope of getting their attention. The truth is that I don’t think the signal was meant for us.” Barrington was listening intently.

“In all our time on Phobos there wasn’t one scrap of evidence to suggest the signal was meant for life forms of our evolutionary stage. It was far too complex. The signal had been relayed to the Monolith, not to Earth. We assumed the Monolith was relaying the signal as some sort of booster, but we have no evidence of that. We had a network of computers that could have run the planet working on this stream of data, but to no avail. Any why was the Monolith placed on Phobos and not Earth’s moon?

“What happened to the Martian surface hundreds of millions of years ago that left it without an atmosphere, and one incredibly pissed off organism that consumes human flesh and every other fucking thing it comes in contact with? Not to mention the new findings on it which may suggest some form of sentience.” Young reached into a side pocket in the informal blazer he was wearing. He took out a clear, flat data disk and tapped a command into the integrated computer interface in the desk.

“Let me show you something,” he said. “For the last few months we have been downloading as much of the data as possible, collected from the signal over the last one hundred years. I know Tyrell has been working on this, but here is the data fragment from the last few days before the Gamma pulse.” He laid the disk flat on the surface of the desk. It flickered to life, laying out a network of directory options across the table. He tapped one that said DNA, and then requested a holographic interface from one of the sub menus.

From the base of the table grew flickers of structured imagery. Like a scaffold of blues and greens and reds, the
three
-dimensional image twisted into view between the two men. It hovered between them.

“Okay. Looks like DNA?” Barrington said.

“Right,” Young said.

“I don’t get it,” Barrington said. Young took a breath. “Just before the signal changed to the pulse, a single piece of data was sent through. Encoded in simple binary. That,” he said, pointing to the floating DNA.

“Is what they sent through?” The little hairs on Barrington’s neck began to stand. “Meaning?” he asked quietly.

“The DNA looks similar to ours, but the base pairs are way off. We have just over three billion, but this thing has nearly five hundred billion.”

“That’s all they sent?” asked Barrington.

“Apart from an energy wave that destroyed our planet, yes,” Young said.

“So what’s the point?”

“Could be anything. Could be a piece of fruit on their home world as some sort of sick joke. Or maybe they grew a conscience and wanted us to see the face of our destroyers.”

“Give it to Chase Meridian. See what she can get from it,” said Barrington.

“I don’t think I’ve met Doctor Meridian. This is not something I think should get around the ship, Captain?” Barrington thought about it for a moment.

“We’re such a small family, Jerome. No use in secrets anymore. Give it to Chase.” Barrington stood. “I need to check on the engine room. Would you and Doctor Tosh care to join me for dinner later?”

“Sounds good, John.” Young stood and shook the captain’s hand. He turned the data disk off and removed it from the table. Barrington left and Young took a seat again. He poured himself another drink and looked out into hyperspace.

Tyrell’s Lab

22:55 Martian Standard

“Carrie, help me with this, will you?” Tyrell said to her as he tried to position the large processor under an alcove in the main lab. It was a heavy rectangular box, and awkward to move about. Carrie moved swiftly over to the doctor and helped him place it correctly.

“Thank you. So what have you found?” he asked.

“The planet’s core density still doesn’t make any sense, Doctor.” Tyrell had decided to have Carrie analyse their target star system and report findings. She had been at it now for close to twelve hours.

“Aristaeus Three has virtually no core? That has to be a sensor malfunction.”

Tyrell sighed. “It’s the same reading I got from the array orbiting Mars.”

“You didn’t tell me that?” said Carrie, a little more defiantly than she usually would have spoken to him. He smiled.

“You’re right, I didn’t. I apologise, Carrie, but other more grave matters seemed to have taken over my attention.” Carrie backed off, realising her reaction.

“So what kind of planet has no core?” he asked her, as he continued to install the equipment.

“Well. The iron could have been bound into silicate mineral crystals, if formed from a fully oxidised water rich mineral. This, theoretically, can only occur in planets much more distant from its host star than Aristaeus Three though.”

“Very good, Carrie,” said Tyrell.

“Any analysis would be inconclusive until we are in orbit,” she said. Tyrell laughed.

“I don’t know either, Carrie. It’s okay.” He stood up and made his way over to a diagnostic station and sat. “Look at us, Carrie. We’re on a ship. Traveling faster than the speed of light towards an alien civilisation that we know nothing about. Hell of a time to be alive. Eh, kiddo?” Carrie was confused by his childish enthusiasm. Little insects. The thought of the black monster from her dreams flashed in her mind.

“You look tense. You have a constant look of worry on your face. You really are too young to be so serious,” he said, turning to a screen with star charts displayed on it.

“You’re right, Doctor,” she said. “It’s quite incredible what we have achieved. I have a great curiosity as to what we will find out here.” She sensed the doctor didn’t quite believe her, but he played it down. The door chimed.

“Enter,” Tyrell said, still looking oddly at Carrie.

“Doctor Meridian, how nice of you to drop by.” Chase Meridian entered and nodded.

“Tyrone, your sincerity is
heart
-warming as always.” Carrie loved how blunt Meridian was. She was the one person in the world who really didn’t care about expertise or knowledge. She didn’t like Tyrell and didn’t hide her feelings about it from anyone. Tyrell put his feet up on the console.

“What can we do for you on this fine day?” he said, raising both eyebrows and smiling.

“Actually I’m here to pick Carrie’s brain not yours, if you don’t mind. Can I borrow her for a few hours?” Tyrell looked annoyed but tried to hide it.
You can’t hide from me, Doctor,
Carrie thought.

“She’s all yours. Enjoy your girly night out. I’ll need you first thing in the morning, Carrie. We need to analyse a ton of other potential habitable star systems.”

“Of course, Doctor. I’ll see you then.” She nodded and the pair left. Meridian put her arm around Carrie.

“Wait till you see this, Dice. Tyrell will go crazy when he finds out I showed you first, but fucking see how I care.”

“What is it?” Carrie asked.

“You’ll see.” They moved along the corridors of the ship, talking about this and that, when they rounded a bend and literally knocked into David Chavel. Carrie caught her breath as the lieutenant put a hand on her arm.

“Sorry about that, Ms Barrington.” Her cheeks flushed.

“Not at all, Lieutenant.” He nodded to Meridian.

“Doctor,” he said before moving off. Meridian looked at Carrie.

“Okay, now I know it’s official,” she said.

“What’s official?” Carrie asked, her face still red.

“When did you start sleeping together?”

Carrie burst into laughter. It felt good. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Doctor Meridian.”

“I see,” Meridian said.

“Well, if you don’t mind then, maybe I’ll take a pot shot at the young lieutenant. Looks like he works out.”

Carrie shrugged playfully. “If you like, it’s a free ship,” she said.

“Ah ha!” said Meridian. “Now I DO know you’re sleeping together. Well good for you. Your father must be proud.” Meridian stopped. “Actually, scratch that. Poor guy is fucked.” They both laughed and continued on towards the lift.

M
eridians Lab Deck 11

“Well, what do you think of that puppy?” said Meridian.

“It’s a DNA fragment,” said Carrie raising her eyebrow.

“No shit, Carrie. Come on, look deeper,” Meridian pressed.

“It’s not human,” Carrie said. The DNA fragment hovered on the data visualiser.

“There’s a huge number of base pairs denoting a highly complex organism.” She enhanced the image and got in closer to the polynucleotide strands, which curved in on each other in a beautiful double helix.

“And?” Meridian pushed.

“There seems to be gaps in the sequence,” she added.

“Very good,” she said.

“Where did this come from? What is this?” asked Carrie.

“That is a good question. Our esteemed former leader of the world, Mr Jerome Young, just presented this to your father. It was sent in the last data transmission from the fuckers who blew up our planet. Pardon my French.”

Carrie looked at the DNA fragment. “What do you think?” she asked.

“Beats me, Dice. Without an actual living sample we can’t even begin to imagine what it is we’re looking at.”

“So why send it?” Carrie looked on at the rotating collection of genetic coding.

“They want us to know who it was,” she said.

“Bit of a strange way to do it, no? Why not just send a picture?” said Meridian. The door hissed open. Kyle McDonnell strolled in.

“A lab full of ladies. That’s what a man wants to wake up to,” he said, mock saluting. Meridian sighed and looked at Carrie. She would not have let on that she knew they were married. She also knew Meridian wanted it kept to themselves and so she respected that.