The Orthogonal Galaxy (27 page)

“
I am glad to hear it.”
Then changing the subject, Zimmer proceeded, “Why don’t you show us
to the control room, and we’ll let you get back to getting those
astronauts back!” He smiled and gestured that there were no
ill-feelings. Deep down, he did know that NASA was doing everything
they could to return the astronauts to safety.

Stan gestured to the group
to follow him down a long sterile hall awash with bright LED
lighting from two contiguous rows of lights along the ceiling and
another along each of the walls. At the end of the hall, he turned
to his right, and all followed him except for Joram
Anders.

“
Excuse me,” he called
out.

The entire party halted
and turned to Joram.

“
Shouldn’t we be going
that way?” indicating the opposite direction in which Rodgers was
leading them.

Kath looked intently down
Joram’s hall way, and then back to Stan’s chosen hall. “Joram
Anders, why on Earth would you suggest that? These halls look
identical.”

“
It’s just that the Mars
mission control room is down that way,” Joram stated
matter-of-factly.

“
What?” Reyd said rolling
his eyes. In exasperation, he probed, “How would you possibly know
that?”

“
I’ve been on the
observation deck of the control room for the Mars mission.”
Noticing that all were still perplexed, he sighed and continued.
“In high school, my family came to Houston to visit relatives. They
indulged me in a trip to the space center here, where a tour took
us onto the observation deck of the Mars mission control. Perhaps
the control room has moved since then?”

“
No, Joram,” said Stan
with a smile. “The control room is still down there. By the way,
I’m impressed that you remembered that little detail all of these
years. There are no windows in here to retain any sense of
direction.”

“
Yeah… it’s odd that I
remember. I guess I was just so enthralled by the visit that I
still remember it like yesterday.”

“
Wow,” Stan exclaimed with
genuine amazement. “Anyway that control room is devoted to the
current activities of the rescue mission. You will not be going
down there right now. Instead, I’ll be taking you to a different
control room, which is monitoring the remote controlling and data
collection of the unmanned mission to examine the beam.”

“
Once the Unmanned Space
Lab—or USL—left the rescue vehicle, a set of engineers has been
assigned to handling the activities of that mission down here.
Follow me, I won’t lead you astray.”

With a smile, Stan turned
and did not lead them astray, as promised. He opened a door to a
control room, somewhat smaller than the Mars control room that
Joram had visited during his adolescence. There were just two small
rows of consoles on the main floor, and a smaller arena encased
with glass for civilian observation of the control
operations.

Joram was surprised to
notice that the room was fairly full of individuals with visitor’s
badges and laptop computers. As if noticing the question on Joram’s
face, Stan spoke up.

“
As you can see there are
already a fair number of individuals representing the press here,”
Stan pointed out. “We do have four reserved front row seats for
your party, Dr. Zimmer.”

“
Thank you so much for
your generous hospitality, Stan.”

“
Press?” asked Kath. “I’m
actually surprised they are all here instead of monitoring the
rescue mission down Joram’s preferred hall.” She cut Joram a
playful glance, who returned with a feigned smile.

“
Actually, the press will
be thronging the control room down there tomorrow when the rescue
shuttle makes its descent and landing outside of the Camp Mars
crater.”

“
Outside the crater?”
asked Joram. “Why not land in the crater.”

“
Well, the runway is
useless, as it is littered with shards of solar panel debris. The
shuttle will have to make a somewhat risky vertical landing outside
the entrance to the crater and then make their way to the bunker in
the middle of the crater. With the landing in the morning, they
should be able to recover the astronauts sometime by tomorrow
afternoon, assuming they can find a relatively unimpeded entrance
to the bunker.”

“
That should be easy,
shouldn’t it?” asked Kath. “We know that the astronauts had already
surfaced after the disaster.”

“
You are right, Kath,”
answered Zimmer quickly, “but you’ll also recall that we didn’t get
to see the state of the camp for a couple of weeks. It could be
that the devastation was not a single event, and that obstructions
have since blockaded all entrances. For example, we have not seen
the astronauts wander out since the dust has settled. As you know,
there has been about as much tabloid-generating drama by the media
on both the astronauts and on the beam. These individuals want to
be the first to write up the scoop on the beam. I hope they don’t
engender a sense of panic in their reporting of our experiments. We
certainly don’t need or want mass-scale fear or panic. Riots,
looting, chaos.”

“
Do you think it can get
that bad, Professor?” Kath asked quietly.

“
Not if I have anything to
say about it. I have been trying to allay much of the public
concern, and will continue to do so. Let us not worry about that
now, and take our seats. The show is about to begin,
Team.”

With that ending, Stan
excused himself in order to continue with flight operations for the
rescue mission. Zimmer and students entered into the observation
room and took their seats with great anticipation for what would
soon unfold.

…

Conversation was light
among the trio of research students. The anxiety was apparent. Kath
twirled her hair with her left hand. Reyd nibbled on his
fingernails and cuticles. Joram, already at the edge of his seat,
gazed at the various monitor displays. A main central display
showed a live image of the beam, representing the closest imagery
ever obtained. On the right, there were six smaller displays that
were presently black except for a caption at the bottom of each.
“Paddle one.” “Paddle Two.” And so forth. On the left, a sea of
data indicated the status of the mission. Finally, just below the
central monitor, a thinner display contained a digital map
indicating the locality of the USL with respect to the beam. The
USL was represented as a needle-like projection with twelve red
dots on top of it.

Joram noted that the map
indicated that the USL was beginning to decelerate as it neared the
beam, with reverse thrusters fully engaged. Soon, the USL would
stop and launch its twelve research stations, called paddles,
towards the beam.

“
This is the Public
Affairs Officer of Mission Flashlight,” the students heard a voice
from speakers overhead.

Joram scanned the various
stations of mission control to find the source of the voice. Silver
placards were placed along a counter-top that ran the length of
both rows. In all capital letters, the placards spelled words and
acronyms such as CONTROL, NETWORK, FIDO, GUIDO. Ah, there it was…
PAO. In the middle of the second row of stations, Joram saw the
bald spot on the back of the head of a silver-haired engineer who
sat at the public affairs station. This is the man who would
exclusively communicate all mission activities to the press booth
and anyone listening to the appropriate communication channel
around the country. He was currently engaged in conversation with a
middle-aged woman with short blonde hair sitting in the front row,
at a station labeled FLIGHT. She nodded her head to the PAO, and
then spoke into a headset as she returned her gaze forward, looking
at the data scrolling by.

“
The FLIGHT officer has
noted an ETA of just under 4 minutes, 30 seconds. PAYLOAD is
powering up and confirming the status of each paddle.
Power-on-self-test should complete in approximately 6 minutes. So
far, all systems are a ‘go’ on payload delivery.”

“
Well, team,” Zimmer
whispered as he glanced over at his wide-eyed astronomy students.
“This is where I get off.”

Eyes growing wider, the
Professor explained. “I’ll be spending the rest of the mission down
there.” Zimmer indicated an empty chair at the FLIGHT station, next
to the blonde, who was now standing and relaying instructions to
somebody seated at the NETWORK station at the other end of her row.
“NASA has asked me to provide real-time decisions in light of data
received from the paddles.” He paused briefly and took a deep
breath in realization. “The next time I see you, we’ll have lots to
talk about. Take good notes on every idea that comes to you, and
enjoy the show.”

At that, all three
students watched the professor open the door and leave them for the
more spacious and hectic atmosphere of mission control. Seating
himself quietly, he greeted the engineers around him, promptly put
on a headset, and sat back in his chair, while others around him
maintained their efforts.

The PAO announced the next
milestone in the mission. “FLIGHT informs me that the lab has
obtained resting velocity and has turned over main mission
operation to PAYLOAD. Payload chamber doors are sequencing. NETWORK
is providing real-time imagery of the hatch for mechanical
observation.”

The main monitor no longer
showed the growing brightness of the yellow beam, but instead
changed its view to a camera looking straight down on top of the
USL. A long rectangular chamber was coming to view as curved doors
slid underneath the cylindrical body of the vehicle. Within
moments, the doors were fully open, and the inside of the chamber
depicted its payload of a dozen three-foot round iridescent objects
each sitting at a 45-degree angle with the doors of the
chamber.

These paddles were loaded
with observational and telecommunication equipment. Cameras,
sensors, and on-board laboratory equipment would be able to
instantly detect, measure and determine the impact of material and
radiation. Tens of thousands of sensors made up the array of each
paddle, which would be able to communicate the pattern of any
material being emitted by the beam.

“
Launching paddle number
one.”

The forward-most paddle
began to lift seamlessly from the chamber. Once the round disk had
emerged, a long shaft used for steering and guiding the paddle
indicated exactly why the term ‘paddle’ had been used for the
objects. It resembled a holographic video disk on a silver Popsicle
stick. The paddle cleared the payload bay, rotated, and
straightened, yielding a burst of color reflected from the
Sun.

“
Paddle one is heading for
rendezvous on the far side of the beam as paddle two begins
launch.”

One at a time, the first
six paddles were each successively launched in this manner, and the
trajectories, marked by six red dots on the map display, began
their journey towards the beam. Monitors for paddles one through
six also began to convey statistics and images from each of the
paddles. They approached the beam in a precalculated manner, such
that all six pointed directly towards the beam in sixty degree
intervals, thus allowing a full study of the beam on all of its
sides.

Complete silence from
inside the observation deck as well as from the PAO indicated
growing tension and curiosity. Activity from the control floor
bustled as a flurry of directions were passed back and forth from
CONTROL, NETWORK, and PAYLOAD. Zimmer—still reclined in his
seat—appeared to be the only relaxed individual in the front row,
but Joram could see enough of his face to note that he was
devotedly attentive to the data as it came across the various
monitors and displays.

The paddles all appeared
to be in position, and after a nearly unbearable silence, the team
began to wonder why the mission seemed to be on pause. The PAO
appeased their doubts, “Paddles are now in position for deployment
into the beam, but FLIGHT has recommended a delay for delivery of
sensory data. Deployment into beam is estimated at fourteen
minutes.”

While the students felt
that they couldn’t bare another moment of anticipation, the
more-experienced Zimmer knew that patience and data collection was
needed at the moment. It would be inexcusable to compromise the
mission after millions of dollars had been spent on it should a
hasty judgment jeopardize the entire effort. Further, Zimmer knew
that the world had already waited for weeks to obtain answers.
Another fourteen minutes would not break the bank.

In silence, the students
waited anxiously. Kath had to place a steadying hand on Joram’s
knee to remind him to relax once and then twice. On the third
attempt, Joram turned and whispered, “Sorry, Kath, but the suspense
is killing me. What are they waiting for?”

Kath only shrugged, but
Reyd, seated on the other side of her leaned across her and
breathed an explanation. “Zimmer is a very deliberate person. He
never makes hasty decisions, but weighs all of the data first. You
won’t have to work with him too long to realize this.”

“
The NETWORK officer
advises the team that the paddles are all in good health, and that
no extraordinary sensory information has been obtained by any of
them. FLIGHT advises that the mission proceed ahead. The mission
has calculated that the paddles are presently located 25 kilometers
or 15 miles away from visible extent of the beam, and that the
minimum diameter of the beam is calculated at about 12000
kilometers or a little less than 7,500 miles. CONTROL is advised to
begin coordinated acceleration of the paddles up to 1 kilometer per
minute, which is a little over 35 miles per hour.”