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Post by forthteller on Jul 31, 2023 14:09:12 GMT -6
Kepler II Instigation Hi all. It has been a while since I have posted on here, but I am now well into my latest book and will be able to post a couple of chapters every time I am home from a run. As with all my books, they do not start after the apocalypse but begin before and progress through and into the apocalypse. This time it will be our irresponsibly premature broadcasting of our existence and location to potentially malevolent races or species out in the universe that will be the apocalyptic catalyst. The first ten chapters will introduce the persons involved and their relationships and how we get into the quagmire. Then the dung will hit the fan. Hope you all enjoy.
Forthteller
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Post by forthteller on Jul 31, 2023 14:12:26 GMT -6
Preface
While in the true Kepler mission, the telescope remained within the orbit of our sun, I have modified its path to be into space for the purpose of my fictional extra-terrestrial encounter.
Kepler
Chapter 1
Launch
March 6, 2009, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Excitedly, Mai Lin Xu hurries to her major passion, and fortunately, her job. Today they launch, today the adventure begins, today history will be made. Maybe not history but for Mai Lin; her whole life, her education, her preparation and all her sacrifices have brought her here, and this is her moment.
As the Mission Manager, she would have little to do at launch or even during the initial few circumnavigations of the globe, as Kepler gathers speed. Her job was to organize and co-ordinate the analyzation and compilation of the millions of bits of information Kepler will generate daily.
She and her team will be looking for several things. Proof that stars other than our sun have planets and other bodies orbiting them, evidence of comparable planet bodies within the habitual zone and even other things they may not actually be expecting.
It is the final one that she is the most excited about. Looking for something unexpected, out of the box and not anticipated. The unknown.
With her team of astrophysicists, analysts and computer engineers, she was hopeful. Hopeful that they will discover something totally unexpected.
The mission was designed to last at least 3 1/2 years and reach 500 light years away. Tens of thousands of stars will be examined. Trillions of Transits will be recorded and transmitted back to earth for examination, and everything will work together to tell answer the unknown.
At the gate, the security guard recognizes her and notices her obvious excitement.
"Good evening, Dr. Xu. Ringside seat to the launch?"
"Yes, indeed Sid. I don't have to be there, but I am allowed to sit in and watch. This is the most exciting thing I have ever done."
Sid looks at the diminutive and very young rocket scientist. He is a member of a space watching group and they are anticipating the discovery of extraterrestrials. "Will you be able to share your findings with me?"
"You can be certain I will share anything non classified and because we are not a military sponsored mission, I doubt most findings will be classified. Newsworthy findings will be delayed of course until they have had the chance to release it themselves. I expect lots of that."
"You can proceed mam. Have a good launch."
Mai Lin drives away. She parks at her reserved spot and marvels at the opportunity she has achieved. Having graduated with high honors in Astrophysics from Fudan University in Shanghai, she had been offered a full scholarship at Cal Tec for her doctorate. Completing her PHD at only 23 years old and having published her thesis and several other papers, she was thought of as one of the most promising young astrophysicists on the planet. She had since gone through the immigration process and had become a US citizen. After 5 years with the Kepler program, she had progressed quickly from an intern to a project engineer and just recently to Mission Manager.
Mission Manager! Many believe it was a useless position as most don't expect to find much around the stars. Most believing that the big bang theory creating our planets leaves little room for comparable events creating orbiting planets around other stars. Mai Lin doubts much of the big bang theory but she believes something is out here, we are not unique. She hopes to find out.
Part of her adopted American identity is her car. A 2007 dodge charger with the Hemi motor. It rumbles to a stop, and she hops out. Spring in her step, she rapidly walks to the security entrance. Through security and then she begins her walk through hallways full of offices, to the exit side of the main building and to the shuttle which will take her to the launch control tower. Complete with reinforced visual glass, the tower has the ringside view of the launch.
She boards the shuttle, and it sits idle for a few minutes. The driver is in the building, and it will leave once a few more people are on board. Brimming with excitement, Mai Lin cannot wait to get to mission control.
Within minutes, 2 men climbed on board the shuttle. a project engineer and the project scientist, Stan Shelling.
"Well, if it isn't Miss fantasy herself", comments Stan.
Attempting to Ignore him, Mai Lin cannot help but feel offended. He had made similar comments and made it well known that what she expected to find out there was nothing more than fantasy. In his view, science proves that a single incident in time caused our solar system and that all other celestial bodies may have debris from other solar system collapses but that our system is unique. He was a fan of the Fermi Paradox and in his view, we were the only life as we know it in the entire universe.
"What are we going to find, little green men, silver goblins, how about intelligent slime. Get real, we are going to prove there is nothing out there, nothing more."
Mai Lin bit. "You know I don't believe that. We will find that we are not unique and that other systems have planets orbiting them and I would bet, we will find that some are in the habitual zone and the right size to support life. Nothing fanciful, just science and I thought you were one of those."
"What we are going to find is what we already know from the Hubble telescope observations. That anything orbiting other stars are nothing more than asteroids or other debris pulled into orbit by those stars. There will not be any planets capable of supporting life. And even if we find some, they will not have the building blocks necessary to build upon. What happened in our solar system is a one in a trillion incidence and will not be duplicated, ever. If it was not so, we would already have evidence. Just like I wrote in my paper, Fermi Revisited. If habitual planets existed, then the likelihood of one or more developing life over the billions of years of its existence could be true. And in that time, that life evolving into something intelligent enough to traverse the solar system is possible but doubtful. We know the solar system is billions of years old and no extra-terrestrials, not now, not ever. Big bang or God, we are unique."
"I have never said there is life, I have said that the building blocks to support life as we know it, exist. Stable orbit, size, distance from the sun, an atmosphere, chemicals necessary to create water. As for God, has it ever occurred to you that he only planted the genetic material to create life on one planet in the entire universe and if he did plant the genetic material on other planets, possibly they have evolved differently than us."
The shuttle driver shuts down the conversation by starting the unit with a lurch. Phillip is also a local who has connections with space watchers. He has hopes that this mission will verify what he thinks he knows. That there are other life forms out there and that they either don't care or do not yet have the technology to reach us. He also thinks there are long dead civilizations as he believes we are also headed for extinction.
At the Launch control tower, the three disembark. Without a word, Stan and the engineer march towards the entry. Mai Lin stops for a moment to address Phillip. "Thanks for the ride, I hope you get to see the launch."
"I will from inside the main building. Exciting opportunity. I cannot wait to see what you find up there."
"Thank you but I will only be interpreting what we find. There will still be many who dispute what we claim to see."
"What do you mean, claim to see?"
"The Kepler Telescope will not actually see and report back on visions of planets, it will report on what it does not see. Those lapses of something suggest something is there blocking the light. We can measure it and its distance from its sun as we pass it from the many different captures we get from the object. Heat sensors, colour analysers and other techniques will help us to determine what we find. Even then, there will be doubters attempting to explain away what we find, some of them are actually part of the project."
Noticing that Phillip is not motioning to leave, Mai Lin continues on. "We will be examining two constellations, Cygnus and Lyra. Of the 4.5 million stars in this system, we will be able to view 170,000 to determine if light diminishes as planets cross their path. As we get closer, we will gain additional views of these planets and as we gather more, we will be able to create a visual of what the planets look like and are composed of."
Philip motions that he has to leave but ends the conversation with, "we both know what you are going to find, now we just need proof. Happy hunting."
Mai Lin smiles, turns towards the tower and walks towards the entrance. No security this time but lots of people, mostly men, scurrying around with important duties. This is a monumental task and hundreds of professionals are involved in seeing its completion. Mai Lin’s entire group has declined the opportunity to watch the launch. They are all already working from their own labs setting up the equipment they will use to observe, evaluate and interpret the feed. 170,000 thousand stars and thousands of pictures hourly of all. Nothing can be missed initially as those stars with something in orbit need to be identified early for closer observation as Kepler passes.
The difficulty will be that as Kepler gets further away, it will take longer for communications to get back to earth. At its target of 750 light years, it will take 30 days for the radio communications to get observed information back to earth. That will be a challenge as the distance could also distort the data. Hopefully not.
Into the elevator skips Mai Lin. Another scientist, Richard Paxton, is already in the elevator, having come up from a lower floor. He is obviously pleased to see her and exabits it.
"Good to see you here Mai Lin. We expect to have some data for your group to examine in about a week. I am hoping we find proof of what many of us already know. Okay, believe."
Looking at the aged Science Office Director, Mai Lin smiles. "I am certain we will find evidence. I did my dissertation on Hubble telescope findings showing evidence of light blocking bodies in several systems close to earth. I was able to prove the presence of orbiting bodies, just not the size or distance from their sun. Kepler will provide that opportunity." The elevator is half way to the observation floor.
"I know, I read it. Exactly why I recommended you for the Mission manager position. I know what you are capable of and that you know how to present it. Today we get to watch our little spy head off into the future."
The observation level door opens. May Lin nods and steps off the elevator. Inside the room are another 25 or so individuals. All scientists and engineers on the project and not occupied with duties at the present. Mai Lin is not the only off duty person in the room wanting to see the launch.
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Post by forthteller on Jul 31, 2023 14:14:30 GMT -6
Chapter 2
First proof
April 8, 2009. Alliance Delta II 7925, “Kepler”, exits earth’s orbit and heads off into the orbit of our sun. In an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit it will veer off in 372.2 days to start its deeper space examinations.
After that point, we will begin to see stars from angles different than we have ever seen before. As the gravitational pull of our sun diminishes, Kepler will continue to gather speed. Its trajectory is programmed so that it will continue into space and avoid getting pulled into orbit of the systems it passes on route and can even slingshot some in order to gather even more speed.
In her lab, Mai Lin works with Janet Green, the Schmitt telescope engineer. Their goal was to get the first of 3 and possibly 4 transit detections of planets orbiting distant suns. With them are the two primary radio engineers. Robert Reed who is the X-band radio engineer who will coordinate the twice weekly commands necessary to control the craft, point the telescope and monitor the health of the craft and Barry Dushane, the Ka Band engineer who will coordinate with Roberts team to realign the craft once monthly to transmit the science data accumulated.
Mai Lin addresses her young friend, Barry. "When can we expect our first series of images to begin our research?"
His response is immediate as if he was anticipating the query. "We are receiving the first batch at this moment. 40 of the 42 charge coupled devices are operating and they have sent us pixels from several brighter stars. When we get the data, it will be saturated with pixels from continuous 150,000 main-sequence stars so finding what you are looking for will be a task. I am certain you will."
"I am too. We will be so excited when we are able to prove my thesis. Once we are able to see these suns from different angles, we will be able to measure and determine the makeup of the bodies we already know are there."
Jan 10th, 2010 "It's there, it's there." shouts Mai Lin to anybody within hearing. She has been pouring over data since they found five gas giants on January 6th. These giants were named Kepler-4b, -5b, -6b, -7b and -8b but had surface temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
What she was excited about was the first rocky planet found. To be called Keplar-10 b, it was the first solid evidence of a rocky planet. While it was a “lava world”, orbiting so close to its star that its star-facing side could be an ocean of molten rock, it was the first proof of rocky planets in orbit around stars. Mai Lin begins to produce her first press release.
2 days later in the office of the Science Director, Richard Paxton, a debate is taking place.
Stan Shelling has surveyed the same data Mai Lin has and come up with a different conclusion. "This does not prove anything. So far, we have found evidence of a bunch of debris, so close to their suns that they will be sucked in and burned up by the suns they orbit. Rocky planet? In one thousand years the planet will not even exist."
"Richard, so far we have only received two transit views from this system. There still may be other planets in it and if not, it shows that my thesis is correct. Planets can be found around stars. Stan only wants to prove his thesis that we are Unique."
Richard Paxton sighs and says, "I have to agree with Stan in this instance. A press release or even a paper on what we have found is premature. I think we need to find more than just one-half lava planet to sound the bells. Let’s not make ourselves look like we are over zealous to find what we need to prove what we already believe."
Stan pipes up. "We don't all already believe any such thing. I have had access to the same data she has and my team came up with a different conclusion. There is nothing else out there, no habitual planets, no life and" looking at Mai Lin, "no little green men."
"That’s enough Richard. Your condemnation is not welcome here. We are all scientists who looked at the same data and came up with different conclusions. There is no reason to belittle one another and if you actually read any of her papers you would find that she never once suggested we would find life as we know it out there. As a scientist, you should be more interested in proof then personal opinion."
Looking at Mai Lin, Richard says, "What we all know from the single angle we saw previously, there is definitely something blocking the light on dozens of systems. We now have alternate views of a few systems, and we are beginning to see what is there. Until we know for sure one way or another, we need to stop the infighting."
"Fine, as long as she is willing to concede that there is nothing habitual out there when we prove it to be so."
Mai Lin stands. "Of course, I will, I will even publish it as an addendum to my original papers."
Back in her lab, Mai Lin is attempting to explain to her team that there will be no publication of the latest findings until more is known. Everyone present knows that the next data relay will not be for another 27 days, so they are all resigned to that reality.
Mai Lin continues, "we need to continue to examine and interpret the data we have already received. Next time I am in Richard’s office, I need to have a better case. We know that Stan will dispute anything we put forward."
Janet asks the question all of them have but don't voice. "Why is Stan so adamant that there are no systems out there with planets orbiting around them. I don't get it. He is an incredibly accomplished scientist. Published, accredited and well thought of in the community yet in this case he is unbending. His whole purpose in being involved in this mission is to prove there is nothing else out there."
Manual nods and adds his thoughts. "Even as a Catholic, I do not believe God could not have created or even allowed other solar systems to be similar to ours. There are billions of solar systems out there, probabilities alone suggest there are dozens of comparable systems. His stance does not make sense, even for someone who may believe in the big bang theory."
Mai Lin adds, "he was an adjunct professor at Cal Tec when I was there. I never took any of his classes but all my friends who did felt he was open minded and a great lecturer. He wrote his paper, Fermi Paradox Revisited on the impossibility of life out there because the conditions we have on earth; size, atmosphere, water and temperature, are such a delicate balance and such an impossibility that there cannot possibly be another in existence. His paper was well circulated and received, and to be honest it was very convincing."
Janet responds, "but we are not looking to prove our solar system is not unique. We are looking to find and prove that other close enough systems may exist that we could possibly consider them as a possibility to support life."
Mai Lin answers. "To Stan, proving that there is close enough systems in the small sample we will be surveying may open the door to speculation that in the billions of solar systems there will be a duplicate of the earth and if there is a duplicate, that opens the door to life elsewhere. To him that is a totally unacceptable possibility. The Fermi Paradox, (if there is life out there, where are they?) is everything to him. If the universe is truly billions of years old and there are billions of stars, the possibility that what happened on earth has never been duplicated can mean that only God is the answer. To many that is an impossibility. To them, the belief that the big bang only happened once is much more plausible."
Janet seems confused. "Fermi Paradox and or anti-religious. How can one be a scientist with that kind of prejudice?"
Months tick by. The team searches the data diligently finding nothing of significance. In addition to the primary team, a cadre of astrophysicists, astrologers and 2 PhD candidates are also searching through the data. Mai Lin wants to make the data available for amateurs to search through as well, there is so much available.
Kepler continues into space, gathering speed. Like clockwork, Robert and Barry collaborate on the alignment of the craft and telescope. They continue to gather data from their 42 now fully functional charge coupled devices, each with 2200 x 1024 pixels that are read out every three seconds. The intentionally defocused 10 arc second captures are not pictures, they are images. And once relayed to the labs, they need to be examined individually by expert human eyes. Millions of them.
Tedious, slow progress is being made. With thousands of single transit possibilities identified, the team was feeling like they were making progress. With a second and third transit of the same systems, they will either prove or disprove the existence of orbiting planets around distant suns. Billions of stars, billions of years. It is more likely an event like what happened in our system happened elsewhere. As for life, that depends on an individual’s personal belief.
Being made fun of in the cafeteria and in passing in common areas has become a bane of contention. It has not escaped the attention of Richard Paxton and he is watching those responsible. At 66, he is fighting calls to retire before the anticipated 3 1/2 year plus mission ends but he is determined to be here until Kepler transmits its last data. Even though he is a scientist and is to remain unbiased, Richard is certain they will find full planets, specifically planets in the habitual zone along Kepler’s path.
On the way back from a weekly meeting to go over results, Mai Lin was feeling a little dejected. It had been over a year and a half and all they had proved was the existence of 1 rocky planet which could well have been a massive asteroid sucked into orbit and spinning towards its destruction. She was beginning to doubt her own hypothesis and consider Stan' claim that earth is unique and that the big bang was unique throughout the entire universe. It was at this point where she was mechanically examining the data retrieved and was no longer expecting to find anything when Hajeer contacted her.
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Post by sniper69 on Jul 31, 2023 14:54:32 GMT -6
Thanks for the start of this story. Looking forward to reading more of your fine writings.
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Post by techsar on Jul 31, 2023 16:51:12 GMT -6
"At its target of 3.5 million light years, it will take 30 days for the radio communications to get observed information back..." More like 3.5 million years - unless an alternative to light- or radio-based communication has come into being. Otherwise it'll take an additional 3.5 million years just to request the transfer of data. Still, looks to be an interesting story.
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Post by forthteller on Jul 31, 2023 19:16:01 GMT -6
"At its target of 3.5 million light years, it will take 30 days for the radio communications to get observed information back..." More like 3.5 million years - unless an alternative to light- or radio-based communication has come into being. Otherwise it'll take an additional 3.5 million years just to request the transfer of data. Still, looks to be an interesting story. Thanks techsar. You are correct, I am not sure where I got that distance. 186f is actually 500 light years away from Earth. Forthteller
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Post by feralferret on Aug 1, 2023 1:06:30 GMT -6
In several spots you used the word "habitual", such as "habitual zone". I believe the word you meant to use was "habitable".
Good start to the story. Thank you.
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Post by techsar on Aug 1, 2023 9:50:23 GMT -6
"At its target of 3.5 million light years, it will take 30 days for the radio communications to get observed information back..." More like 3.5 million years - unless an alternative to light- or radio-based communication has come into being. Otherwise it'll take an additional 3.5 million years just to request the transfer of data. Still, looks to be an interesting story. Thanks techsar. You are correct, I am not sure where I got that distance. 186f is actually 500 light years away from Earth. Forthteller No worries...after all this is a fictional story ETA: for 30 days, the mileage would be 486,112,000,000 miles...or over ten times the distance from the sun to Pluto. Definitely "out there." Yes, I got bored LOL
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Post by spazzy on Aug 4, 2023 12:54:43 GMT -6
I like it and demand to see more!
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Post by forthteller on Aug 7, 2023 21:12:59 GMT -6
Chapter 3
2 stars, one planet
A new amateur, from a highly supportive astrological research fellowship is in one of the research labs. Hajeer has been here almost every day since he was accepted into the program, and he is excited to even be a part of the program. This week he was examining recent 2nd transits of a two-star system. They had observed a light blockage in the first transit and were certain there was something other than the two suns in this system, Hajeer was tasked to find out what. What an honor.
One week after his first look, Hajeer needed to bring in others to confirm what he had found. On Sept 11, 2011, Mai Lin and her group confirmed that there was indeed a planet in this solar system. With two stars. Kepler 16b turned out to be twice the size of earth and was possibly a gas giant and not solid at all. Still, it was an exciting find and something they never expected to find.
The news release stoked excitement amongst science fiction fans but the Kepler project leaders were quick to point out that a gas giant was very unlikely to be habitable, regardless what was seen on Star Wars.
After the initial excitement, the entire group, that now numbered 25, lumbered on with their examinations. Once a month, new data arrived and they excitedly scanned it for anything new but not much was found until the End of November feed.
On the first of December, Janet Green, the telescope engineer was also doing data analysis and she could not believe what she was seeing. Calling her findings to the attention of Mai Lin and a few other Astrophysicists, she excitedly continues examining the feed.
By the time all the others are assembled and have an opportunity, Janet has collated the three available transits. What the picture clearly shows is a planet in the habitual zone. Far enough from its sun so that water could pool and roughly twice the size of earth. The others present all agree. They are absolutely looking at a planet in the habitual zone and with the extremely small sample, this proves Mai Lin's hypothesis. With one planet found in a fraction of the unexplored universe, with billions of stars, what more will they found? Excitement abounds.
December 5, 2011
In the office of Richard Paxton, Mai Lin’s senior team members, Stan Shelling and some of his team are discussing the recent find.
Mai Lin had confidently presented Janet's findings. "As you can see, we have three transits and it is unarguable, this is a planet about twice the size of the earth. We will get one more transit before Kepler gets too far away. With that, we will be able to determine more of the makeup of the planet. We have already calculated its distance from its sun and the approximate temperature of that sun. As we already know it is a mature sun and its size is comparable to our sun, we can reasonably speculate that it would be capable of having liquid water pooled on its surface. Unfortunately, we will not be able to confirm that as Kepler will have already passed, and we cannot divert it's trajectory to get a closer look."
Mai Lin looks over at Stan, "we will be calling this one Kepler 22 b as it is one of 2 planets in this system. The other, 22a is too close to its sun to ever support life or even allow water to exist."
Stan responds with a sigh. "I have to give it to her. We have also examined all her data and we concur. This planet is in the habitual zone. I would mention however that it is twice the size of the earth, meaning that it's gravity would be much higher than the earth unless it is less dense. We won't know for sure until someone in government authorizes another mission. I would not object to publishing our findings on this one."
Mai Lin thinks to herself, "Publishing our findings. Is he taking credit for it?"
Richard looks over at Mai Lin, "I would like you to co-ordinate the press release and you can publish our findings. Those paying the tab for this project are desperate for some results."
On the way out, Stan expresses a congratulation on the finding. "You must feel pretty good, only halfway in and your thesis has already been proven. I have to admit, I doubted it but now we have proof. Let’s see what else we find."
Not the response she was expecting. Mai Lin replies, "thanks. To be honest, I was beginning to doubt my own thesis. This is a huge relief. I just hope it does not take us as long to find anything else." Once into the privacy of his own office, Stan makes a phone call to a contact from a major manufacturing company. He reports the latest findings and what resources they likely contain. After listening, Daniel Storing reminds Stan, “Keep us up to date. Our engineers think we will be capable of extracting resources from these planets before 2030. The fact that Keppler has made it that far and is continuing on is proof enough for me to get continued funding for research and development.” Months roll by. They examine feed from January, February and March. Dozens of planets are identified and numbered. None are in the habitual zone but the fact that they are exoplanets orbiting suns is never questioned anymore. The entire team falls into its routine. Barry Dushane, the Ka Band engineer re aligns Kepler for their once-a-month science data downlink. The data was now taking about a week to get back from the earth so timing was becoming more crucial.
April feed on the way, now 8.6 days to receive, eagerly awaited. The team knows for certain second transit views of several top prospects are in that feed, but they are all still surveying the data already received. Hard to concentrate on what is in front of them when they believe something better is on the way.
By April 15th, two of the groups’ Astrophysicists have found what they believe to be earth sized planets in the habitual zones. 33e and 33f in the same system share their star with 8 other planets and these two are both in the habitual zone. 32e closer and obviously hotter than 33f, both are in the zone that could allow water to form. In another system, 35c is also similar in size to earth and close enough to its sun to allow pooling water. It too orbits its sun with other planets, all in balance.
While more than half the team continues to examine the April feed, several members are focussing on the previous feed, anticipating missed data. Now knowing that some of the systems have multiple planets in orbit, they believe they may have missed other planets that possibly were on the other side of their sun and as Kepler sped forward, much of its data and images were still being captured from systems it had passed.
Over the next year, planet after planet is discovered. Solar systems with more planets than ours are found, some stars have none. Is has become factual knowledge that in our universe there are more planets than stars, opening up new and massive speculations. These discoveries become the norm as visuals from the three and now four transit views continue to pour in.
The research team, now numbering 31 with some having moved over from other departments continues to research and examine the data now coming in 31 days after it is collected. Robert Read is now sending commands 30 days ahead and his response is another 30 days on top of that. Working with Barry, he co-ordinates the turning of Kepler to send out the April data. This is crucial as the commands and responses are now 30 plus days each way and Kepler has now reached its original goal of 3 1/2 years. Everything after this is just the cherry on top but it is possible to go on for a considerable time, in the belief of both men.
63 days later, data comes pouring in. Excited researchers pounce on it the moment it begins arriving. Knowing how many planets are out there, everyone is confident there are earth like planets just waiting to be found.
"Bingo," says Hajer to no one in particular but as he is in a lab with another 5 researchers. Several heard him and snapped to attention. "Got three transits and a fourth one coming in of a system with 11 planets and two of them are in the habitual zone." Excitement overflows. He continues to expound on what he is seeing. "And they are solid and about the size of the earth. I can also see what looks to be bodies of water on them both!" Back to their consoles, all the others rush to pull up the data he is examining from star 62.
To be called Kepler 62e and 62f, the findings made a minor splash in the scientific community as it was definitive proof that small planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars exist beyond our solar system. Barely a ripple in the media and almost nobody outside the Astro physical world heard about it. It seemed that in 2013, nobody cared about space anymore. So much so that funding was getting sparse and staff cuts were on the horizon.
Kepler’s discovery of a new planetary systems brings into view three “super Earth” size worlds in the habitable zones of their parent stars — Kepler-62e and -62f, as well as Kepler-69c*. The discoveries prove that small planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars exist beyond our solar system.
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Post by forthteller on Aug 7, 2023 22:05:07 GMT -6
Chapter 4
Kepler suffers a setback.
By the end of April Robert knew something was wrong. At this point he was sending commands to the telescope and capsule more than a month in advance. He had sent his twice weekly request for command, health and status and his instructions to turn, in preparation for the science data downlink but had not received a reply.
For the entire month of May there was still no response and the entire dejected team now accepted that the mission had probably reached its conclusion. They were more than 4 years into a mission that was hoped to last 3 1/2 so they had already overachieved the expected duration.
Over the next two months, the entire team continued to pour over the data they had received. More planets were discovered and several were also in the habitual zone. Towards the end of that two months, funding dried up and most of the paid staff went on to other projects, telescopes and some, Richard Paxton, into retirement. The mission’s success had set them all up for disappointment in the end, as they all expected it to continue for a few more years at least.
The two men tasked with controlling and communicating with the craft never gave up. Even with the long delay in communication, they were able to identify the problem and had gone to Evan Franks the Nasa Chief Engineer for help.
Evan Franks and his team poured over the available data and craft telemetry. They were able to determine that Kepler had lost its second reaction wheel and that brought an end to science observations in the mission’s original mode of operation. The engineering team continued to search for another way to operate the telescope in order to restart science observations.
Meanwhile, the telescope itself was continuing to record data from the direction it was pointed in. Nobody knew, as they had no way yet of rotating the capsule in order to relay that data back to earth. Most importantly, nobody yet knew the capsule had actually stopped moving altogether.
Mai Lin and her colleagues continued their examination and research while preparing final reports on the project. She also added a massive addendum to her original thesis that this is not speculation but verifiable facts. There are literally thousands and thousands of stars with planets revolving around them within reach of the earth. There are more planets than stars in our universe and without doubt, some will be in a comparable habitual zone, will have similar size and will have the makeup to be able to have an atmosphere and pooling water. The small sample they actually surveyed is barely a fraction of the solar systems they now know are out there. What will we find if we just set our resources to look?
We may never know because in 2013, the world was looking inward with its own problems and space is nowhere near the top of the budget pyramid.
In August of 2013, data began arriving from the telescope. It was at that point that Manual Havier the Trajectory engineer realized Kepler had actually stopped. He rechecked his information and calculations and yes indeed, it was not moving. Reluctantly he took the data and calculations he had to Evan Franks and his engineering team.
"No way a moving capsule and telescope of that size and moving at more than light speed just stops. Your Data must be wrong."
Manual shrugs and says, "Look for yourself, you can do all the calculations yourself, it is not moving. It has stopped."
Evan paces back and forth. "I am not saying your calculations are wrong, it has to be something distorted in the data stream you received. That or the data is being sent in a different direction and got bounced back to us. I am telling you; it is impossible to stop anything that large, moving at that speed in any distance shorter that a light year. In fact, if the thing had hit a small planet or another obstruction out there, it would have left a crater the size of Manhattan and been destroyed itself."
Manual shrugs again, "I am not a mechanical or aeronautical engineer but my data and calculations tell me the thing is not moving. I have data from a two-week span and It is stationary, I would stake my career on that." He walks out of the lab, slamming the door behind him.
In the science lab, Evan faces his team. "Ok guys, we don't have much time left with the funding available but I want to know if this thing did stop and even more importantly, if it did stop, how? The entire re engaged group of men and 1 woman rush back to their stations. Some to double check the data to determine Kepler’s currant velocity. Some to get data prior to it stopping to determine how quickly it stopped. The entire lab is now alive with activity.
Back in the Mission Labs, Mai Lin’s group are discussing the situation. Barry and Robert, who are now working for reduced salaries, are adamant that they can get the telescope up and moving again using the pressure of sunlight to help stabilize the telescopes pointing. "From this location we can rotate the telescope 360 degrees and get data from everything within its reach."
Mai Lin was waiting for this type of positivity because she had some good news of her own. "Some good news to go with the good news Barry and Robert just gave us. Stan is on the board of Legos Aviation. They are connected to someone in the auto industry who hopes to remain anonymous but is very interested in space exploration. This individual has massive resources and is willing to financially support us in our research for as long as we are able to continue receiving data from Kepler. Still a tight budget but full salaries for everyone left on board and labs to work in."
Robert pops up. "I for one want to find out what happened. I know it is not moving but how? Literally an impossibility but finding out how may be a bigger reward than all the planets we have found."
Manual, silent to this point interjects. "I have feed from 2 more months. Keppler is definitely stationary. The fact that you have been getting data tells me that it is pointed towards earth and everything it records is between it and the earth. Nothing is there but the systems it negotiated through to get where it is now. It hit nothing. The engineering team believes they can get it moving using the same technique the telescope team did. It will be slow at first but as long as its solar panel’s function, it will accelerate. They are of the optimistic opinion that we may get several more years out of Kepler."
Barry says, "I am getting data feed continuously now as Robert has not yet rotated the telescope. Perhaps examining the feed will give us a clue how it happened."
"If we are agreed, I will attempt to rotate the satellite tomorrow. It will be about 31 days before Kepler receives the instructions and another 31 days before we know if it worked."
Mai Lin looks around. "Anyone have any concerns or anything else to add"
Janet, who had been quiet this whole time responds. "I don't see what we have to lose. If we rotate it where it sits, we will get more data for what we already know. Possibly another transit on some systems but nothing of significance. Basically, without rotating it, the mission is over. If they can get it moving, even better but I am not going to count on that."
"So, we are agreed." Looking at Robert, send the instructions in the morning. We will eagerly await the data to come."
Manual was in his lab working on zero gravity situations where a moving object can be completely stopped without damage. Every hypothesis he and Robert came up with was tested and found to be inadequate. They were certain that it was impossible with the technology available.
At 64 days, they had not received anything from Kepler for over a month. That fact alone suggested the telescope had received the instructions and had moved. The problem is, they would not know what it was doing until it rotated past the point where it could send data to earth again. If it was successful, the data should have arrived by now.
Mai Lin’s team was still examining and researching the data they had received and they had made several more significant findings. Solar systems with up to 14 planets, planets with moons and planets with what could be an atmosphere. The new investor was pleased with their progress and he had spent some time in the labs watching them work. Mai Lin was surprised that someone with his wealth and fame would be remotely interested but he was, greatly, so it seamed.
It was on day 65 that someone on Mai Lin’s team came across a startling set of data. A planet, earth sized, the correct distance to its sun and rocky. Evidence of what appeared to be water and an atmosphere. The planet was in a solar system of 9 planets, several with moons. Kepler 186f was the closest to the planet earth so far and as it was in the solar system where it stopped, they had gotten several more transits from it as Kepler sat idle.
By April 2014, most of the team were thoroughly dejected as the immobile telescope was now unable to rotate. It had presumably accepted the commands to rotate but not rotated back into communication position, no new data had come in.
On April 21st, new data started streaming in. Streaming in indeed. Startling data. New systems, new planets and new transits of the old. Evidence that Kepler was actually moving and moving fast. Possibly as fast as it was before it came to a sudden stop.
This data poured in for 7 days and abruptly stopped. The commands entered a year ago were now being followed as Kepler rotated to examine the systems as it passed. It also continued to gain speed and the communication would take longer as it sped away from the Earth.
The new and completely unexpected mission was named Kepler II and it would continue until Kepler ran out of fuel several years later. Evan Franks and his team worked tirelessly to find out what had stopped the Satellite and now they were faced with an even more difficult task, how did it restart?
Mai Lin’s team were overjoyed. New data from previously unavailable transits gave them more data to map out previous finds and even some new images of planets not yet mapped. Mai Lin was still researching 186f and its solar system and she had found something she had hoped to find, something unexpected.
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Post by feralferret on Aug 8, 2023 0:40:36 GMT -6
Forthteller, thank you for the new chapters. It looks like something or someone is messing with the probe. Looking forward to finding out.
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Post by CountryGuy on Aug 10, 2023 18:46:00 GMT -6
Rich car guy interested in space... hmmm wonder who that represents...lol
Great chapters, please keep them coming.
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Post by forthteller on Aug 23, 2023 23:49:51 GMT -6
Chapter 5
The cloud
Unexpected! Mai Lin could not believe what she was seeing. A cloud, a galactic cloud in orbit around 186f. In the multiple shots she was examining, it was flickering and as impossible as it was to believe, moving. Getting thicker and denser as she viewed it.
Kepler was observing star 186 and its planets, and in the habitual zone was this planet. The cloud was evenly distributed around the planet at first view but as the Satellite recorded it, the cloud moved. It became thicker on one side as Kepler approached the system, in fact, on the side Kepler was going to pass. In the last transit Kepler recorded before rotating, the cloud had actually moved away from its planets orbit and appeared to be headed into the pathway of Kepler. Unbelievable!
With no more views of the planet or the cloud, Mai Lin could only speculate how far and how fast it would have had to move in order to make it into the pathway of Kepler which would pass their system approximately 40 light minutes away.
Mai Lin could not believe what she was seeing so she kept it to herself for two whole days. As she continued to examine the feed that contained what she could easily tell was a moving cloud, she knew that this data was prior to Kepler coming to a stop. She could not tell from any data what the cloud was made of and she also could not tell if it had any pattern or use. She did know that in the data, thousands of images from the CCDs were still unexamined. As she examined them, one by one, she noted that as Kepler approached, the cloud appeared to move towards its trajectory and thicken as it did.
Reluctantly, Mai Lin contacts Richard Paxton. She needed an unbiased opinion of her findings and of her preliminary conclusions. She also knew that she would need more help examining the millions of 10 arc second images. In her scientific opinion, the cloud was definitely forming up and moving into the pathway of Kepler.
Two questions entertained her optimism. Did Kepler catch another view of the cloud before it stopped and is that data in the feed they had already gotten?
Professor Paxton listened to her intently asking a few questions along the way. When she was done, he only asked one question, "when can I see your findings and the data you examined to make them?"
Mai Lin excitedly responds, "I can send you the data online or you could come here as a guest and look at it from here yourself. I would rather you looked at the raw data instead of looking at what I concluded from that data."
Richard says, “have you brought your findings to the attention of the rest of your team?”
“No. Not yet. I was hoping to get confirmation from another source before I sound like an idiot. If I do bring it to attention of the group, Stan and his group will get word and immediately start looking for ways to discredit the findings. I was hoping to have definitive proof either way before I put the data forward.”
On the other end of the phone, Richard Paxton quietly sighs. He had experienced plenty of opposition in his years doing astronomical research. In the beginning, most were viewed as little more than astrologers, watching the stars for signs of things to come. As they had developed bigger and better telescopes, from the Hubble in 1990, to the Kleck I and Kleck II, to the SALT telescope in South Africa: observations and knowledge of what lay in the stars had made the scientific discipline more notable.
“I think you can trust your team and your instincts. If you think you have found something unexpected, I say explore that and with as many sets of eyes as you can get. Even the naysayers have value as they allow us to check our desire to find something with a dose of reality. In looking to answer those who would dispute our findings, we tend to look at it with fresh eyes to truly discover the truth. True science always answers opposing views and never censors or ignores it.”
Mai Lin considers his response. “Okay, I will bring my findings to my team and also make sure Stan and his team also get in on it.”
“Excellent Mai Lin. I will be in tomorrow morning to look at your findings.”
The next day, Mai Lin’s entire team was now aware of the findings, and more than half were examining every pixel of feed provided by Kepler. Excitement abounded, so much so that no one noticed when Stan and one of his senior Astrophysicists enter Mai Lin’s lab.
“Two days you had this information and I find out about it this morning. Richard is on his way up to look at what you found, and you told him before you told me, the Acting project Director?”
Mai Lin turns from the screens, “I wanted to be sure I actually found something before I passed the information on to you.”
“Or you wanted to be sure your façade was complete before you let me see it. We have all the same data you received, undoctored, so we will know if you were trying to prove something that isn’t. In the future, every time you find something we don’t already know, I am the first to get that information, not some retired has been.”
Standing behind him is Dr. Richard Paxton. “Retired has been?”
Turning, red faced but still contentious, “ok, the has been comment was out of line, but you are retired and not even allowed to be in this facility.”
“I have permission from our benefactor to be here as the outgoing Project Director. You may want to check on that.”
“You can bet I will. I don’t want you here supporting her fanciful desire to find life out there and attempting to discredit my thesis.”
“She is doing no such thing and you know it. You are so frightened that we may find something out there that you are doing everything you can to discourage others from even looking. I might remind you; the Universe contains at least 2 trillion galaxies and we have only scratched a miniscule portion of our own. We have already found not only evidence of planets in orbit around other stars but some with many in orbit. And more remarkably, in our limited explorations, planets in the habitual zone and similar in size to the earth.”
Mai Lin listening in interrupts, “excuse me Richard but I can speak for myself. Stan, if you are so sure we did not find anything and made it up, I suggest your team spend some time researching what we have found and help us explain the phenomenon. Exploration for future mineral extraction is of extreme value but we could use the help identifying the cloud.”
At the door, following Patrice, Stan pauses. “You can bet we will, but I might remind you, our benefactor is also interested in the long-term financial opportunities the project may uncover.” With that he is out the door as it closes on self closing hinges.
Richard clears his throat and looks respectfully at the diminutive yet fiery young Astrophysicist. “Ok Dr. Xu, lets see what you found so far and if we can get anything else of interest.”
As Richard begins to examine the images Mai Lin had extracted, he let out a series of ahas and ahs. Mai Lin went to another station and once again began to look at previously unexamined data. This was from the next rotation of Kepler and would hopefully inform her if the cloud had indeed made it into its pathway. Several others were examining the same feed only different 10 arc second images of which they have thousands.
Hajer, over in the south station lets out a whoop. “Image 23033 in transit 4 of 186, the cloud made it. Kepler was headed straight for it. The thing had to have been travelling at more than the speed of light to make it that far in the amount of time it took Kepler to get to that point. Absolutely incredible. And look at it. Thicker and denser than it ever was around the planet.” Several others in the room pulled up the image and then the images after it. Until Kepler was no longer pointing at the cloud.
Mai Lin and Richard were amongst those examining the latest data. Silence as nobody wanted to discuss what they were seeing. The cloud had gone from equally encircling a planet to forming up, gaining speed and getting into the pathway of Kepler. Intelligence, unknowable but definitely with some form of guidance. How and why?
Over in Stans labs, his researchers had also found the data showing the images of the cloud moving and getting into the pathway of Kepler. They were not nearly as excited as Mai Lin’s team, however.
Paul Rogan, an astrophysicist PHD candidate on Stans team, turns after looking at the last of the thousand or so images he had surveyed over the last 2 hours. “She is right, the thing looks to have noticed Kepler’s approach, formed up and gathered enough speed to get into it’s trajectory. I can only tell you what I see. It appears to have some sort of purpose and in my experience, only instinct or intelligence can provide a purpose for anything to respond to any stimulus.”
Stan is troubled. “Instinct or intelligence? Seriously, how could a cloud have instinct or intelligence. Keep looking, we are missing something here. Look at the images before we got close to star 186, is there anything? Look at the images coming in after it stopped. The information is there, we just have to find it.”
Paul heads back to his station thinking, “intelligence, but there is no way he is ever going to acknowledge it. If I can find out the why, possibly he will see the facts for what they are. The thing recognized our approach and took measures to intercept it. Facts never lie.”
Over in the lab where Evan Franks’ team was still trying to come to terms with the sudden stop of Kepler, team members were also looking at the images. One of the researchers was wondering how dense the cloud may have gotten and if it was somehow able to stop Kepler. She was examining the images together to determine the density and was certain it could never have stopped it and could not even slow it down. She was convinced it had no mass. Possibly just light.
Renata Barron spoke up to those in the lab, “not a chance the cloud stopped the capsule or the telescope. It has no mass at all.”
“Are you certain. It looks extremely dense in my images” says another engineer.
Renata, who is an Astronautical engineer says. “My calculations are pretty extensive, you can check them yourself, no mass. It has to be light only.
“Ok, assuming you are right. No mass, how and why did it form up and get into the path of Kepler? And if it did not stop it, what did?”
“I cannot tell you something I cannot see; I can only say that the cloud has no mass and could not possibly stop a solid object.”
“How about gravitational?”
“I have no way of knowing that, but it is doubtful an object with no mass has much gravitational pull at all. We do know that light has energy, and that energy is equivalent to mass. How much, a small amount. In order to have sufficient gravity to stop an object at the speed and mass of Kepler, I would have to do the calculations, but you already know what it would take. I would estimate that the object would need to have at least half the mass of the earth in order to develop enough gravitational pull to actually stop Kepler, but it would never be as instantaneous as we believe Kepler stopped.”
The other engineer replies, “light is extremely inefficient at bending space/time, I agree. The calculations as you already know is E=mc2 and E=hc/lambda where lambda is the wavelength of light.”
“I know, 400nm for blue light and 700mn for red. The cloud is yellow light so it would be even less, around 300nm. There is no way the cloud could come close to the gravitational pull needed to slow the capsule down let alone stop it.”
“There is no other explanation so we should be focusing on the how. We know it was around the planet, evenly spaced. Densified and somehow gained enough velocity to intersect the trajectory of Kepler, question we need to answer is how.”
Renata responds, “if we can answer the why, possibly the how will become clear.”
“I think the why is obvious, stop Kepler.”
“Actually, that is the action. The why is the purpose of stopping Kepler and that would require some form of intelligence.”
“Intelligence, way beyond the scope of what we are trying to determine. If we find out how, perhaps the why will become apparent.”
Data continued to flow in as Kepler had been stationary and pointed in earths direction for long enough to empty its data. That data was collected over several weeks prior to it actually rotating towards earth to send its feed. Several rotations of feed and when they get it, feed after the capsule stopped.
Unknown to all, Keppler was once again moving and more importantly, moving at the same speed it was when it neared 186.
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Post by feralferret on Aug 24, 2023 0:07:52 GMT -6
Thank you, forthteller!
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Post by forthteller on Aug 24, 2023 17:25:07 GMT -6
Chapter 6
Kepler is moving again!
On June 09, 2014, data began pouring in again. Everyone believed Kepler had accepted the last set of instructions and had rotated back into communication with the earth. 7 days of feed should be coming in and it would be about 33 days old. Possibly more information on what stopped Keppler.
The first images to come in were transits from other systems as Kepler was still pointed away from the cloud but most looking at the feed were shocked. Kepler was actually further away from the systems it had already passed. Everyone was redoing their calculations and they all came to the same conclusion. Kepler was moving, and moving at a greater velocity than it had been only months earlier. long before it came to a full stop while passing 186f.
Also, in the feed being examined, not a single image contained any of the cloud. As the cloud was in the 186 system and Kepler was now past it, a view of the anomaly should be there. Many views in fact.
All three labs were voraciously waiting on this new feed and if anything, it created a lot more questions than the answers it provided.
In the engineering labs, Renata was also examining those same images. She was as shocked as everyone to see that it was moving again and at the speed it was moving at. Having not yet answered the question of how it stopped, they were now tasked with the question of how did it restart? And now that Kepler had passed the anomaly, where did it go?
Because the feed had stopped when Kepler came to a full stop and never captured any transits of the cloud, they were unable to determine how long it was stopped for. At its currant speed, they were able to determine that it had most likely restarted 27 days before it rotated back into communication with earth. Unless it had started slowly and gathered speed in which case it was now travelling at a much greater velocity than previous to nearing the 186 system. The other question she had was, what happened to the previous 26 days of feed.
On the sixth day of the new feed, Robert came to Mai Lin’s office and presented her with another quandary. “It is not following the commands I gave it. 55 days ago, I instructed it to rotate back to earth and it should have been 22 days ago when it began transmitting to us. That means that what we are receiving now should not be here for another week. What that means is that it rotated prior to my commands being given and began transmitting data prior to my instructions. I also never gave it instructions to even begin moving as I believed it was incapable of flight.”
“So, it is operating on its own without your input?”
“Hard to say, I did give the commands. If it is the distance we believe it is from earth, it executed those commands prior to them actually arriving. Because of that, we do not have any forward views of where we think the cloud was as it was still pointed away and had not yet rotated to capture it. I actually think it started moving before it was even pointed in the right direction, which we both think is not even possible.”
“Think? Or you know and don’t want to acknowledge it?”
“I know. And yes, I am having trouble believing what we are seeing. It is going to be even tougher to convince others who will not even have the opportunity to see what we are looking at.”
“I know that all too well. Stans group is still doubting what we have found and he has forbidden any public announcements about it. He has actually threatened to shut us down if we continue to push this finding."
"That makes no sense. He was ready to accept and even publicise our findings of planets in the habitual zone. Once he took over as Director, he was on board looking for more habitual planets as well. His currant rejection of the obvious proof of some kind of anomaly is out of sync with that support."
Mai Lin plops down on an already lowered lab stool. "He knows that I believe we have found intelligence outside our soler system. Evidence it is life’. Doubtful, at least not life as we understand it. The other concern I have is this, did it stop Kepler to examine it and why did it release it and send it on its way. Why and how did it prevent us from capturing images while Kepler should have been turned in its direction?”
Robert asks a question that he already suspects the answer for. "Has Dr. Paxton seen our latest data?"
"I am afraid not. He has been ordered off the project and relieved of his access credentials. I will update him when I get home from the facility today but I cannot even pass any of our data to him."
Outraged and even a little unbelieving. Robert says, "Professor Paxton, one of the true pioneers? He was doing astronomical research before any of us were even born. Before any of the massive telescopes we now enjoy were activated. He was one of the few who brought true legitimacy to our profession. Why is he cut out and does the investor know about it?"
Mai Lin does not even know who the investor is and says, "it was the investor who required his retirement as a condition of taking over funding the project. Dr Paxton and Stan were in disagreement over Kepler’s mission now that we have eclipsed the initial 3 1/2 years of the project funded by Nasa and my bringing him in to look at the cloud possibly cost him his credentials."
"Do we even know what the new mission is?"
"I don't have it in writing but it is definitely for monetary gain. It looks like they want to find planets with rare minerals for extraction. We are likely only 10 years away from being able to send robotic capsules that will be capable of doing that. What we send back would have to be of significant enough value to offset the costs of extracting it."
"What could possibly have that much value that a fiscal case could be made to send a space capsule to collect and bring the goods back?"
"Rhodium, Jadeite, Osmium, Painite and Palladium are all minerals we believe were on Kepler 10b. That and other minerals we do not even know exist yet. The lava planet may have easily accessible minerals due to it's still molten side. Much like what we believe is inside our Earth's Mantle but is largely inaccessible, the core of other planets most likely have a greater quantity of denser materials as well. If we had of continued with Kepler getting continuous data from transits taken from where it stopped, we would have been able to more thoroughly survey planets closer to earth. As for planets further out, it would be impractical to do the same, at least with currant technology. In addition, the investor gets to keep the scientific community thinking we are still doing scientific research. I doubt he wants competition for the resources."
Confusion would be the primary emotion washing over Robert. That and the sudden realization that why else would a private investor put so much money into something he is getting no credit for. "It makes sense. Nobody has told you this?"
"Nope. It is purely speculation. Without evidence it is actually considered a conspiracy theory. I cannot see any other reason why they got involved and we don't even know who they are."
"Interesting. The government pulls out of space exploration and private enterprise steps in. I guess they want to own whatever we find. How does one own a planet anyways?"
"Oh, I could see private entities owning planets or the mineral rights at least. If we believe it is possible in the future to colonize distant planets, why would corporate interests not think the same."
Robert, still perplexed, asks a rhetorical question. "That leaves the question, why are they attempting to silence our possible finding of extra-terrestrial intelligence?"
Knowing it was rhetorical but believing she has the answer, "intelligence and or life as we never expected would get the government and the international space community back on board and I believe this company wants a bigger head start on competitive interests."
Robert excuses himself and heads out the lab. He will continue to examine the feed and with his partner, Havier, hopefully regain control of Kepler.
Out in her car, Mai Lin relaxes for a moment as she listens to the steady rumble of the hemi powered car. As it warmed, she had to move the seat up. Going through her morning arrival trying to recollect if she had moved it, she concluded with certainty that she had not moved it back for any reason. If it had been moved, someone else had been in her car.
How and why? She nervously looked around to see if anything else was out of place. Nothing obvious. She got out and as nonchalantly as possible, looked around at her surroundings. She then glanced around to see if she was being watched. Maybe she will ask at the gate. Probably, she was just being overly suspicious. Maybe her read on the investor’s motives were also wrong. "Damm" she thought.
At the gate she was about to ask the guard if he saw anything, but she did not recognize him. In fact, the security previously was part of NASA and they had uniforms with that insignia. This guy had a private security uniform on with no NASA insignia at all and he was fully armed. He waved her out and she did exactly that. On to the highway she drove and as she went, she made the decision to go directly to Richards's home. Turning south on Wexford St. and not realizing she was being followed, Mai Lin hurried on."
In front of Richards home, she parked behind a moving van. Men were inside, packing stuff and another was just coming out of the house with a hand truck, stacked with neat boxes. She got out of the car and headed over to the front sidewalk but was headed off by one of the workmen.
He said to her, "excuse me mam, this is a work site, only authorized people are allowed inside or around the truck."
"I am looking for Dr. Paxton. Is he about?"
"No mam, nobody's here. I have a work order from Starex and they gave us the keys. I have no idea who Dr. Paxton is."
Back in her car, Mai Lin attempts to call Richard on her phone. No answer and the answering machine is already full.
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Post by sniper69 on Aug 24, 2023 19:05:37 GMT -6
oh it is getting even more interesting. May Mai Lin be safe. Thanks for the new chapter.
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Post by forthteller on Aug 24, 2023 19:15:43 GMT -6
oh it is getting even more interesting. May Mai Lin be safe. Thanks for the new chapter. She is the star of my book, at least until chapter 18 but I have not written rough draft of anything after that.
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Post by forthteller on Sept 7, 2023 22:57:46 GMT -6
A couple more chapters to set the scene. Action starts once the cloud gets here.
Chapter 7
Changeover
Mai Lin calls Richard several times on the way to her apartment. No answer. She calls several times more that evening, still no answer. Falling asleep on the couch around midnight, she dreams or did she have a nightmare?
In the dream, she was watching the cloud as it continued to move and adapt, showing activity that could only suggest intelligence within or control from elsewhere. It was defiantly not reacting to its environment because of gravitational pull from other bodies and it was not moving naturally.
Just before 5:45 the dream evolved and the cloud she was currently viewing came alive and encircled the earth. It began to crush the earth and despite all the efforts of mankind, the crushing continued.
Waking with a start, Mai Lin shook it off. Knowing that it was only a bad dream, she decided to get to the lab before her regular 7:30 AM start time. She hopped off the couch and padded into her bedroom.
Still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, she quickly grabs a shower and dresses in fresh clothes. A clean lab coat over everything and out the door she goes. Phone in hand, calling Richard, still no answer and no message taken either. Damm. She decides to go in and see Stan first before even going to her lab.
At the gate she stops and presents her credentials to yet another security guard she does not recognize. He was also in a private security company uniform and was fully armed. Another guard was in the booth watching.
He looks at the ID and says, "we cannot let you in by yourself mam. I will get an escort from headquarters for you."
"I have never needed an escort in the 4 years I have been here. I know where I am going."
"Policy Mam. You do not have an unescorted pass so I must ask you to park over there and go with the person they send."
"What do you mean? Policy. I have been on this project for 4 years; I am the Mission Manager."
"I can only allow those with currant official credentials in without an escort. Yours is no longer valid. All holders of the old credentials are only permitted in with an escort. I must ask again, please park over there and wait for your escort."
"Mai Lin glances over her shoulder and notices that Janet’s car was parked in the small lot he had motioned her to. She backs up, turns towards it and parks beside Janet’s car."
Waiting for her escort, Mai Lin goes through the Last 48 hours. Realizing that she had made an error in judgement and should have expected this after Richard was exiled, she was now frightened. Now she could not even get back into the lab to get any of her research and evidence of the cloud. Without the evidence, there would only be her word and that of her co-workers of its existence and its behavior.
A marked security patrol car arrives at her rear bumper. Mai Lin gets out, closes and locks her door. She hesitantly walks towards the security vehicle and looks at the driver who makes absolutely no acknowledgement of her presence. When she gets to the passenger side, the window rolls down. "Mai Lin Xu?"
"I am."
"Back seat please."
Mai Lin opens the rear door and gets in. Instantly regretting it after she closes the door because there is no handle or window controls to exit; her fears escalate.
Without warning, the car moves forward and swings into the compound. Past the first few buildings and then past the building she usually entered and west. Coming to a stop in front of a smaller administration building, the car parks. Not a word has been spoken during the short trip.
The driver sits at the wheel making no motion whatever. Mai Lin leans forward, "I cannot get out. The door is locked."
"Someone will be out to retrieve you, mam. We are instructed to wait here."
Anger begins to displace the fear. Mai Lin has had enough. "I am Dr. Xu to you and locking me in this car is kidnapping. I have my rights as a US citizen. I demand that you let me out."
"Mam, this is private property and if you want to see the administrator, you will continue to wait. Otherwise, I can drive you off the property and you can leave."
Mai Lin replies, "Administrator? Who is the Administrator?"
"Mam, I am only doing my job, I do not have any information for you". Exasperated now. Mai Lin is getting angrier by the moment. Her project has been hijacked by a commercial concern and now she is being held hostage just to get to see someone who is going to stonewall her. This is a Nasa facility, a government owned facility, not a private one. She decides to wait and simmers as she does so.
20 minutes later a woman exits the building and heads towards the patrol car. She opens the rear door and beckons Mai Lin out. "Pleased to meet you Dr. Xu. I am sorry for the delay. Lots of changes happening all at once and we are a little overwhelmed. I am Elaine Maxwell, the Project Coordinator." She extends her hand after she closes the car door.
Mai Lin takes the proffered hand. She turns and glances at the patrol car as it quickly speeds away. Elaine looks too and says, "they are a little on edge still, things will sort themselves out. This way please."
Mai Lin is thinking more like rude and abrupt but keeps the comment to herself. She walks along side Elaine about half a step behind, looking around as she went. Busy? Hardly any vehicles, no one to be seen and they are going to a building that was not used by anyone on the Kepler project.
Into the building they head, and the first thing Mai Lin sees is a security post manned by two obviously armed security guards. Several Video displays that she cannot see are being watched by one and the other examines them as they enter. With obvious recognition he waves Elaine and watches as the two pass towards the elevators. Elaine pushes the up button, and they wait for the car to arrive.
The door swishes open and Elaine motions for Mai Lin to go first. Mai Lin does, followed by Elaine. The doors swish closed and Mai Lin watches as Elaine slides a card into the control panel. The car launches to whatever preprogramed floor was on the card and seemingly, instantly comes to a stop. Mai Lin has no idea what floor they are on as the control panel does not indicate it, but she does know it went up. 2 or 3 floors possibly.
The doors open and Elaine says, "go ahead to the left."
Mai Lin exits, turns left and within seconds Elaine is at her left side. The two walk down the empty hallway and pass a few offices.
"Elaine says, the one at the end of the hall is Victor’s office." She stops at the door and opens it. On outer office is staffed by a middle-aged man in glasses. He is obviously immersed in a major project as he has dozens of documents and ledgers all over the desk. Also, dozens of images that will have come from Kepler captures. He stands as they approach and beckons them towards the office. "They are waiting for you, Dr. Xu."
Elaine opens the door and the conversation withing comes to an abrupt stop. She beckons Mai Lin in. "After you."
Mai Lin, extremely confused at this point, enters the massive office. Windows darkened out so she could not tell how high up they were, a wall full of mostly off video screens and lots of comfortable looking chairs and seats placed about threw her off. A large conference table surrounded by eight chairs on the right side and no office desk also struck Mai Lin and curious.
Inside the room are several men, some she recognized but most she had never seen. They were all sitting at the conference table with files and folders in front of them and it appeared that they had been immersed in some sort of planning. The table had two empty chairs. Elaine motions to Mai Lin, this spot is for you.
Mai Lin takes the proffered chair and looks across the board room table at Stan Shelling. He is sitting to the left of an older man at the head of the table. The older man, in his 60's or early 70's stands and addresses Mai Lin, "pleased to finally meet you Dr. Xu."
"I am Daniel Storing, the CEO and founder of Truesco Corp. I have read everything you have written and I am truly impressed. Planets, thousands of them and some in the habitual zone, exactly as you postulated. Some of them close enough to earth that we will be capable of putting stations on them within the next 10 years. You were a significant part of that discovery."
Listening and also thinking to herself, “I am so confused.” The way she was treated by security and now the respect she is being shown in this room. Mai Lin thinks to herself, “this does not make sense. Was that whole charade to put me off balance? Why?"
The room is silent, waiting for her response. Mai Lin utters, "thank you."
Daniel responds to her weak reply. "There is no need to be so apprehensive, we are not here to intimidate you. Your original thesis and the findings your group have made have us all excited. It is my hope that you decide to stay on and continue with your research."
“What will I be researching? Every system we find now will be so far away we will never be able to access it in our generation.”
“True, but we have enough information on closer systems and accessible planets to achieve our corporate objectives. We would like you to continue mapping out systems that contain planets in the habitual zone and you would of course be the one who decides what gets reported and how.”
“And my team?”
“Any that wish to stay on will get full credit for their work and full pay and others have moved on to other projects. We will provide you any other expertise you need, just let us know.”
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Post by forthteller on Sept 7, 2023 23:01:58 GMT -6
Chapter 8
Silenced
June 22, 2014
On the way home from the meeting with the new project team, Mai Lin reflected on the offer she had been made. Her team would continue to examine and evaluate the data they had already received from systems closer to our system and they would be permitted to continue receiving and translating data from Kepler as long as it continued on. That was a big plus.
The negative was that everything released to the public and or published would be screened by Daniel Storing himself and even though they had assured her it would be her decision, if they found life again would they now change the policy? In addition, everything related to the cloud and its behaviour is not to be made public, ever.
She would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and so would the entire team. In addition, she had not yet talked to any of her team, and she still did not know why her friend and mentor, Richard left without a word.
She decided to call Janet and get her perspective. Picking up her cell phone, she glanced at it and was immediately suspicious. Is it bugged. If it is, can she talk to Janet without saying anything that would bring negative consequences on her? She dialled; Janet picks up on the second ring.
"Hello, Jan here."
"Hi Janet, Mai Lin here. Have you got a moment to talk?"
"Sure. Where are you at?"
"In my car, on the way home. I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes, see how you are doing and find out what you are going to do career wise."
"I am in a whirl. They offered me a position with the new project management firm. I said no so they escorted me to the lab and office facilities to collect my stuff, then escorted me off the property. They gave me a pretty good severance package though so I can help my family out as they are going though a rough stretch.”
"What are you going to do now?"
“I was offered a position at the new LSST in Chilli a while back, but I had put it aside. Now, with the way things have unfolded here, I contacted them and the offer still stood so I have decided to take it. As an engineer, it will be nice to be able to work with a telescope I can actually see with my own eyes and touch with my own hands. I will be leaving next week."
"I am going to miss you. Did you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement?"
"I did. Not a big deal though."
Mai Lin does not want to say anything that could get her or Janet in trouble, just in case, so she let it drop. "Can we get together for dinner before you leave? To say goodbye."
Janet thinks to herself. They really don't want the cloud stuff to get out, Mai Lin will want to press her for corroboration but I better not get involved. "Let me look at my schedule, I have a lot of packing and planning to do. Plane tickets, visa and finding somewhere in Chile to stay. I will let you know."
Mai Lin knows that is a no and she suspects it is because of the cloud. Shame because without physical evidence and eye witness accounts, nobody will ever believe her. "Ok, let me know. I gotta go, traffic up ahead."
Into her parking spot she pulls. Out of her car, she locks the door and nonchalantly looks around to see if she is being followed. Mai Lin says to nobody, "stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Nobody cares about me; nobody is watching me. They have my data, they have the silence of at least one of my witnesses and even if I choose to reject the offer, they will have won. Maybe if I continue examining incoming data, I will find something else unexpected. Maybe it won't be so unexpected because I already know there could be something else out there."
Talking to herself as she heads up the walkway, the man watching her thinks she must be talking on her phone, but he cannot see it. Mai Lin checks her mail in the lobby, nothing. Once in the elevator she sighs. Thinking to herself, perhaps she should take the job. If she did, she could possibly find evidence of the cloud and somehow spirit it out of the facility. In the meantime, she could continue the original mission, looking for earth sized habitual zone planets. The monetary increase will certainly be welcome.
At the same time as Mai Lin was reflecting on the job offer, three concerned people are discussing her in Victor Banning’s office.
Victor makes his initial observation. "I think she is going to take the job but I am certain she will attempt to re acquire the data and somehow get it out of the facility. Is it worth the risk?"
Daniel storing, standing at the front of the desk, is adamant. "No. No publicity can even leak out about what was found on 186f. In fact, unsupported claims of something out there will still attract the wrong kind of attention. We must have 4 to 6 years lead on everyone else. The only way we keep her silent is to keep her busy and make sure she does not get anything supportive out of the facility."
Daniel continues, "the mineral recovery opportunities are immense but not so much if several other investment groups deplete it. Even an unsubstantiated suggestion from someone with the right credentials will get others looking at my involvement."
Elaine Maxwell has been listening in but she has a major concern. "Dr. Paxton is extremely respected in the scientific community. Surely he saw enough and will make some statements that will invite further investigation."
Daniel states suggestively, "Dr. Paxton will not be making any 186f claims."
Elaine was about to ask why but she stopped herself, not wanting to know the answer. "So, my job is to befriend Mai Lin and make sure she does not get anything out of the lab. I don't even know how to tell if she has anything substantive."
Victor replies, "we have 2 astrophysicists who will be working for her and they will keep you informed. You just need to gain her trust and make sure she does not get anything out."
Elaine once again was troubled. If she did catch Mai Lin getting something out, what was she going to do about it. She certainly could not physically take it so she would need to report it to Victor. And if she reported the indiscretion, what would happen to Mai Lin?
Victor, who is a PhD in astrophysics says, "we are certain there is nothing left in the data banks and Kepler is so far away, there will be no more new images to support any suggestion whatever that this cloud exists."
Elaine was wondering if anyone else had some curiosity what the cloud actually was but she kept silent about it. What would she do if Mai Lin wanted to talk about it?
Noticing the quiet, Daniel says, it's agreed then. "We do what is necessary to keep this under wraps and we get the job done. I have a meeting with the group who will be putting together the program to build and launch recovery vehicles so we can begin harvesting the riches out there. I am expecting concrete results before 2022."
Meanwhile, in Ft. Lauderdale, Richard Paxton is on his way home from the grocery store. He had accepted the generous severance, sold his home and relocated to what he believed would be an excellent retirement area and was expecting to quietly retreat into his surroundings.
The trouble was, he was feeling guilty. Guilty for abandoning an impressive young astrophysicist who had found evidence of intelligence in another solar system. And guilty that the whole world was unaware of life, nothing like we ever expected, out in the universe.
The intelligence was unlike anything he ever imagined could exist yet it was indisputable. The cloud of matter had intentionally collated, moved into position and arrested the progression of Keppler. It kept Kepler static for several days and then released it at the same speed it was travelling, prior to contact. It had also somehow wiped Kepler’s feed that would have captured it up close and everything that Kepler had found about the planet and its makeup.
What concerned him most was that it either did it of its own volition or it was controlled by something else. And even more troubling, why did it release Kepler as if nothing had happened. Why not destroy it?
Richard had called a good friend of his and had shared a brief explanation of what he had seen and what he suspected. They had agreed to meet later this week and discuss it. He had also attempted to contact Mai Lin to invite her as well but she did not answer when he called. He will call again when he gets home.
At the crosswalk on Bent Street, Richard stops. Looking both ways, he sees no traffic coming either way, which was not surprising at 7:45 PM. He starts across the 4-lane road but as he crosses the centerline, a nondescript sedan comes careening around the corner and turns into the intersection he is in. With no time to respond, the now stationary man is struck by the speeding car. Over the roof he fly’s, landing on the road behind the car that had hit him. Several people saw what had just happened and they begin to converge on the scene. The sedan calmly drives away, turning at the first corner and disappearing into the city.
20 minutes later, the ambulance attendant declares Dr Paxton dead. At the same time, Daniel Storing receives a phone call, “the job is complete. Their will be no evidence left behind.”
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Post by sniper69 on Sept 7, 2023 23:29:17 GMT -6
Wow! An interesting twist. Thank you for the new chapters.
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Post by forthteller on Sept 8, 2023 11:09:08 GMT -6
Wow! An interesting twist. Thank you for the new chapters. As with all my books, it is always human greed, mismanagement and division that leaves us in a pickle and unable to deal the consequences with it when it comes. This greedy, selfish company will not only fail to get what they were after, they will bring about worldwide disaster and their own ruin. Makes for good fiction. Wait until you see what the cloud actually is. I have already completed rough draft of chapter 18 and this one twists and turns as my crazy brain syndrome has been working overtime. Forthteller
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Post by forthteller on Sept 14, 2023 23:04:05 GMT -6
Chapter 9
Stalled
Months tick by, Kepler continues on its mission. Of Mai Lins previous team, only Manual Havier the Trajectory engineer and Robert Reed, X-band radio engineer, 2 Astrophysicists, one Computer Software Engineer remain on the team. None of the volunteers were invited either. Every other member had been bought out or as Mai Lin now suspects, been silenced, and Mai Lin had not heard from any of them.
2 computer analysts and one new Astrophysicist are now on the team and they have done absolutely nothing to blend in and Elaine Maxwell has become a regular at the lab. Despite having no astrological training at all, she seemed to have a genuine interest in what was going on in the lab and was even doing some visual screening as well. She and Mai Lin had become friends and were now occasionally spending time outside of work together.
Communication is now taking longer and longer and what is left of the team settles in for the long run. By June 2015, they had found several more solar systems, 2 with planets in the habitual zone. Nothing too promising but it seems this is perfectly ok with the new management.
After another routine Friday at the end of August 2015, Mai Lin rumbles home in her Dodge Charger. As she gets out of her car, a middle-aged woman approaches. She closes and locks the door; slight apprehension encompasses her. As she turns, the woman says, "excuse me, are you Mai Lin Xu?"
Apprehension subsiding, Mai Lin looks at the woman. "I am. Can I help you with something?"
"I hope you can. I am Charlene Paxton-Gallant. I believe you worked with my father, Richard."
"I did. For several years but the project was restructured, and he left. I called him several times but he has never answered. Last time I called him, his number was disconnected. I really don't understand though. He sold his house and left without saying goodbye. I thought we were friends."
"You were. He talked about you a lot."
"So why did he never say goodbye or even answer my calls?"
"He couldn't. My brother was in the hospital for cancer treatment and the company who took over your project offered to pay all the bills in exchange for my dad leaving the project altogether and having no contact whatever with you."
"Seriously. I knew he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye without a very good reason. And I know he intended to settle and retire in this community. So why the contact now."
"My brother died, even with the treatments. A week later, my dad was killed by a hit and run driver. The police called it an accident but I believe my dad found something on the Kepler project that someone wanted to keep quiet and that he was killed when they couldn't keep him quiet anymore."
Mai Lin is suddenly frightened. She had suspected the payoffs, but murder? Several of the members of her team had left and none, not one, had stayed in contact with her. Looking around her, she was suddenly worried about being watched. She hopes to whisk Charlene into her apartment without being seen. "Let’s go inside, we can talk in private." She ushers Charlene towards the entrance of her apartment building. Walking silently beside her, Mai Lin begins to formulate what she could tell her but would not put her in danger.
Inside the elevator, Charlene says, "you seem worried. I should not have come."
Mai Lin says to Charlene. "I have been suspicious since the changeover but I was hoping to get back to normal once we were working again. I can see that that is not going to happen now."
Outside, in the parking lot, across from Mai Lins apartment, Elaine Maxwell is on the phone. "Yes, the woman was waiting for her to get home. Pause. No, I don't believe she was expecting her. She seemed genuinely surprised, pause. They went into the building, pause. Late 40's, Average height, slightly overweight, light brown shoulder length hair. Glasses. Pictures sent already."
Mai Lin heads down the hallway. Inserting her keys into the lock, she thinks it likely her place was bugged, especially if they were as serious about a leak as she now believed. Perhaps she was overreacting. Best to be safe. She had decided to tell Charlene nothing that could put her or Mai Lin in danger.
Into the apartment she goes. "Can I get you something, a drink or something to eat?"
"No. Nothing. I was just wondering if you knew anything that would cause someone to want to kill my father."
"Nope. What we were doing was not classified. We published our findings, so it is already public knowledge. I cannot see anything we did that would cause that kind of response. I do not even understand the reason for the buyouts."
Cheryl looks at Mai Lin, she cannot tell whether she is lying or not. And if she is lying, is it because she is frightened or is it because she is implicated? Either way, she did not believe she was going to get answers from Mai Lin. "Okay, I don't think you can help me so I will be on my way."
Mai Lin opens the door and decides to escort her out. In the elevator, both are silent. Outside both remain silent, as if they had reached a consensus. Mai Lin says "goodbye, I am sorry I cannot help you. Richard was an incredible person and a valuable mentor for me. I hope you get the answers you are looking for."
Sadly, Cheryl responds, "I don't think I will. You were my last chance. I will probably never know." With that, she turns and walks away.
Guilt washes over Mai Lin. Guilt and fear. Murder or an unfortunate accident with conspicuous timing? As a scientist, Mai Lin has little faith in coincidences. She believes her friend was murdered. Then she considers, what of the other workers who left the project and know about the cloud?
In her car across the street, Elaine says on the phone. "She is leaving already. She is getting into a silver sedan, New Jersy plate, number Db8 653."
Inside her apartment, Mai Lin slumps into her comfy armchair. She closes her eyes and tries to think. What is she going to do. If they are willing to kill to keep a lid on the cloud data, how is she safe. Also, if she goes to anyone with her suspicions, does that put them in danger as well. She falls asleep.
Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. Mai Lin comes awake. Jumping from the chair, she answers the intercom. "Hello. Can I help you".
"It's Elaine, I was wondering if you wanted to go out for a drink."
Mai Lin is taken aback, "what time is it?"
"It's almost 8 o’clock."
Thinking quickly, Mai Lin decides to act as if nothing is going on. "Come on up, I should throw some better clothes on, I am still in my lab stuff." Buzz.
Elaine raps on the door and Mai Lin opens it after a quick peek in the eye hole. Mai Lin now has to wonder whether being befriended by the Project Coordinator was just to make sure she did not disclose any information about the cloud. She had not found any evidence of it in all the saved data and there has been no new sightings or evidence of it in anything they have received. Now it would be her word and reputation at stake.
Elaine comes in. Dressed in a slinky dress and high heels, she looks like she is ready for a night out on the town. Since it was Friday and there was no work tomorrow, Mai Lin thought she was hoping to go out for more than a drink. "Boy, you are dressed for battle."
"You know it. I was hoping you would join me. There has to be some available men in this deadwood town."
"To be honest, I have never bothered to look. I am kind of a homebody."
"Well, isn't it time you stepped out and took a chance. You may actually like it."
"Ok. But this is not something I do a lot. Let me get changed, I doubt I can match what you look like."
"Mai Lin, you are an extremely pretty young lady. You could easily get lots of attention from most guys, even if this backwoods town."
Mai Lin goes into her bedroom and puts some effort into transforming from a scientist into a woman that looks available. She does not want to actually attract anyone, but she does not want Elaine to become suspicious of her concerns just in case she is part of the charade.
After a few minutes, Mai Lin exits the room and heads into the living room where Elaine is sitting. Elaine stands and appraises the results. "Nice transition but a little makeup would make a bigger difference."
"No makeup Elaine. I don't wear it because I do not like it. I don't even know how to put it on."
Holding open her purse which is bursting with cosmetics. "I can help you; I have plenty of variety in here."
"No thanks. If I was to meet someone and they only liked me for who I was after all that, I doubt I would even want to spend any time with them. I would prefer to present the real me and if I meet someone who can appreciate that, they may be worth a look."
Thinking about it, Elaine decides to let it drop. She needs to get a few drinks into Mai Lin and find out what the woman she now knows to be Richard Paxton’s daughter told Mai Lin. "Ok, let’s go, I was thinking Bronco Billys, the western bar might be a good place to try out."
"I would rather not. I don't like western music. I like pop and classic rock. Any places where they play that?"
"Let me check," Elaine starts to tap buttons on her iPhone. "Sure, here is a great one. Walking distance, Classic rock, house band and they serve food. I am starved, what about you?"
Mai Lin realizes she has not yet had dinner, "yeah, I could eat. What type of food do they have?"
"It does not say on the small ad I got here. The band is a Led Zepplin tribute band so it might be interesting. Pretty hard to dance to that music though."
Mai Lin responds as she heads for the door, "I am not much of a dancer anyways."
Out on the street, Elaine leads the way. They get to the entrance of the club and for a Friday, it is not that busy. Not a very good sign. Inside, there are several unoccupied tables so Elaine motions them to one away from the dance floor. They walk over to the half booth with 2 extra chairs.
Sitting down, Elaine in the booth with her back to the wall, Mai Lin on one of the loose chairs, they pick up the menus. The music playing in the background is piped in. The band is currently not on stage. Nobody is on the dance floor and the place is predominantly men. Both women feel a little out of place.
A few minutes later, a waitress comes by, "hello there, what are we drinking?"
Elaine asks for a Gin and Tonic while Mai Lin asks for a white wine cooler. Elaine feels a little dejected. Not too likely to get her drunk this evening. Maybe she can get her to talk without getting her drunk.
The waitress says, "alrighty then, do you need more time to look at the menus?"
Elaine asks, "what is the soup of the day?"
"Two actually. Cream of Broccoli and New England Clam Chowder. And we also have fresh Prawns today as well. I am going to grab your drinks and give you a couple more minutes to decide." With that, she is off towards the bar.
Elaine starts the conversation. "Any plans this weekend?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary, at least for me. I am going to go to the lake tomorrow and do some painting. I plan on doing a series on a magnificent grove of hardwoods as they progress from the summer colours, fruits and seeds to the fall colours and then to the winter with bare dead looking things. Then in the spring I want to paint them once again coming to life."
Elaine maintains eye contact with Mai Lin as she tells her this. The enthusiasm and joy obvious in her face. She did not know Mai Lin painted and she had in fact never seen a painting on Mai Lins wall or her office wall. "You paint, I never knew. You have never told me."
"I don't tell anyone; I don't quite know why I told you now. When people find out I paint, they want to see my work. I do it for me, not for anyone else."
"So, you won't show me?"
"No. Not right now at least. I have only known you a short time and my art is very personal. I keep it at my studio and the paintings are like a photo essay of my life. I can walk through the memories and relive the ones I want and ignore the ones I don't want."
Elaine is very interested. Is it possible she did paintings of the cloud and its activities? She needed to find out. In fact, nobody at Kepler mission control even knew she had a studio. She now wondered where the studio was as those who were tailing her had never reported it. The other concern for her was that she was actually getting to really like Mai Lin and was truly enjoying their time together.
"How long have you been painting?"
"My whole life. I got so much pressure from my family and friends to put my work on the market that I stopped showing people. I wanted to be an astrophysicist, not an artist. I do art because I enjoy it and it releases me to explore what I cannot empirically prove. I do science to explore what I can prove, to share my findings and to make a living. The two things do not intersect."
"What can you not prove?"
"The existence of God, natures desire for survival, mankind’s basic inclination to evil."
Elaine was intrigued. "I would say that many would argue that all those things can be proven by evaluating the results."
The waitress arrives with the drinks. "Here we go. Are we ready to order."
Elaine orders the clam chowder and the prawns. Mai Lin orders a clubhouse and the cream of broccoli soup. The waitress doesn't write it down but instead relies on her memory.
After the waitress leaves, silence ensues for a few minutes as both take a few sips from their drinks and look around appraising the surroundings and those occupying it.
Mai Lin thinks to herself how she has been so focused on her career and her hypothesis that she had missed out on life. Having never dated and in fact, having never had a close relationship with anyone, was she missing out? Probably, but how could she change that now?
Across from her, sits Elaine who was also thinking about some of the choices she had made in her career. A master's in financial management, several years rising in the corporate office and now here she is, the project coordinator in title. What she really was, a spy. Making sure this woman does not get any evidence for and or let out information that will bring any unwanted attention to the project. She had reported seeing the woman interacting with Mai Lin and she knows the apartment is bugged. Anything said will be known but it is doubtful they will tell her. In fact, Elaine did not even know Dr. Paxton was dead and how he died.
Mai Lin opens up a little after the second drink and some of her meal. "This soup is quite good, especially for a place like this. I don't go out often and most of what I eat comes out of the microwave."
"Seriously? You are so fit, how?"
"When I was in Fudan university I started running and it turned into a time when I was able sort out what I was thinking and feeling. Kinda like meditating. I still run several times a week and it makes it, so I do not pay a heavy penalty for my poor diet."
Elane surveys Mai Lin. "Where do you run?"
Mai Lin answers, "if it is daytime, in the park near Lear Lake but if it is not, on the treadmill in the complex's gym."
"Wow. By yourself?"
"Always."
“That is so cool. I am a distance runner too. I compete at least once and sometimes twice a month. Mostly 10 k’s and 5 milers but occasionally half marathons or 5 k’s.”
“I have never competed, for me it is very personal.”
Elaine finishes her chowder. "This was okay but nothing special. I go out a lot because I cannot get into a routine of doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen after I cook so I eat out or order in."
Mai Lin decides to expand the conversation. "So, what else do you do for a hobby or to occupy your non-working time?"
Elaine stops and thinks about it. "Nothing really. I watch TV, movies and read. I also go on the internet and look at news and events. Kind of a boring life really."
Realizing there is no way to move the conversation to the woman from this afternoon without arousing suspicion, Elaine decides to allow the conversation to flow wherever it went. The band was now playing and the music was quite good but it did inhibit conversation markedly.
Around 10, 2 men approach the table and ask the ladies to dance. Mai Lin looks at the dance floor which was surprisingly quite crowded now and she says yes. Both ladies standing now, they head to the dance floor while Spacewalk continues playing.
A few dances later they return to the table. Elaine takes both drinks and heads to the bar. When she returns with fresh drinks and puts them down, Mai Lin looked at her quizzically.
"You never know if someone slipped by and put something in them while we were not looking. Better to be safe than sorry."
Mai Lin was relieved. "Thank you so much. I never even considered that but I have heard terrible stories in the news of exactly that happening." Looking across the bar, Mai Lin says, "those two men are heading over here right now. What do we do?"
Elaine responds, "I don't know. They seem nice and not too hard to look at. How about we just talk with them. See where it goes."
Mai Lin is nervous, but she has never had a female friend who was willing to help her with the relationship stuff. "Okay but I am not making any promises."
The two men introduce themselves and ask if they can join the Ladies. Elaine waves at the seats and says, "you can but don't get any ideas."
Peter and Zac, local millworkers at a ship building plant, are out for the night for a few beers and some pool. They Take a seat. Peter sits next to Mai Lin in the booth but not too close which makes her feel a little more comfortable. Mai Lin takes a sip of her drink.
"I am Elaine, and this is Mai Lin."
"Pleased to meet you. I don't recall seeing either of you before. Are you new to town or just visiting?"
Elaine responds, "It is a good-sized city, possibly we never crossed paths before."
Peter chuckles. "I have lived here my whole life, If I had seen one of you ladies previously, I would remember."
Mai Lin replies. "I have lived here for several years but I rarely ever go out and never to a bar before."
"I have only been here about a year and I don't get out much either. That would be it."
Zac wants to get this bumbling conversation on to a better pathway. Looking at Elaine, he asks, "what do you like to do in your spare time?"
Elaine feels a little more at ease. "I am a distance runner and I run and train with Central Wind runners. I am actually driving out tomorrow to run in a state qualifying 10 k this Sunday."
Zac chuckles. "That would explain why I may have never met you. The only time I run is if I am about to miss closing time at the Beer store Saturday evening. Sunday football is not the same without a six pack."
Peter says, "same for me, I spend most of my weekends watching others participate in sports, as you may well notice from my growing midsection. Much respect for your activities. I do play on a fastball team in the summer and a little hockey in the winter but running, my knees would quit on me. What do you ladies do for a living?"
"We work over at the Nasa Launch facilities."
Peter looks at Elaine, "It is a rocket launch facility, but I have not seen or heard of anything launched from there for years. Most in town think the place is mostly shut down."
"It is but we still observe and communicate with satellites and telescopes that were launched in the past."
Peter makes a realization. "Kepler. I bet that is it. Am I right."
Elaine starts getting uncomfortable, "we were, but we now monitor dozens of satellites."
"Thats cool. We were watching the news on Kepler and it just kind of stopped. I guess it got so far away you could not communicate with it anymore, is that it?"
Elaine realizes that this was a conversation that was not going to end well. So far, no confidential information had been divulged but it was likely they would continue to prod or at the very least become suspicious with her not offering up more information. She needed to get out of here before they ask too many more questions. "Mai Lin, we have to go. My dog is probably barking his head off and my neighbors will be calling the landlord by now. And I need to start getting my stuff ready for Sunday."
Mai Lin knows that Elaine does not have a dog. Once she realizes Elaine is using that as an excuse to get out of this situation, she decides to assist. "We were only getting something to eat, and I had not planned on staying out too late either. I have to get up early tomorrow so I should be getting home as well."
Peter felt the sudden change in the atmosphere, and he decided to end things amicably in case he ran into Mai Lin again. "Ok ladies we will be off. I hope we see you again." He slides off the booth and sits on a chair beside the table.
Elaine and Mai Lin both get up and say their goodbyes. Both mentioning they hope they meet again. They silently walk out the door.
"What the hell?" Exclaims Zac.
Peter looks at his friend. "My thoughts exactly. Did you see how everything changed when we asked her about Kepler?"
"I did. You know there is an amateur astrological research fellowship right here in town. I wonder if they know anything about this Kepler stuff. Might be worth a lark to check it out."
Peter looks over at his friend, amused. "Lookie at the giant words you are using. You don't know anything about this stuff so why even get involved?"
"True, I think there is more than research going on here. News about this Kepler just ended, almost as if it never existed. I would be interested in knowing why. My curious mind thinks they found something."
"You and your conspiracies. Ok, let’s check it out so you can see for yourself it is all about our broke government cutting off the money. How do you know about this amateur group anyways."
"Right here on google. They were posting stuff until June then nothing. Nothing at all. They still show a website and an address. I want to know what happened."
Peter chuckles and makes another snide remark, "another conspiracy theory, let's put this one to rest so it does not keep you up all night from here on out. Are there any contacts on the site we can talk to?"
"The site lists several people but one guy lives near here in Cocoa West. His number is on the site. Let’s call him and go find out what they have to say about Kepler after June."
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Post by feralferret on Sept 14, 2023 23:59:11 GMT -6
Forthteller, thank you for this fine chapter.
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Post by sniper69 on Sept 15, 2023 5:08:10 GMT -6
oh, the mystery deepens. Thank you for another great chapter.
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