THE HALLEY OBSERVATORY
There was a remote possibility scientists could prove the existence of aliens and the press swarmed.
Anticipation built for the opening of the Halley Observatory. Automated cars ferried influential media from the newly-minted Interplanetary Press, followed by national broadcasters. With seventeen live-streams and fifteen interplanetary channels, they came to cover the most powerful real-light telescope ever created. The word aliens was in the air. Splitting into groups, on-air personalities recorded intros to run before the scheduled release of the first close-up pictures of exoplanets, worlds orbiting stars suspected of harboring life in a habitable section of the Milky Way. There were scheduled speeches, an offsite dinner for donors, and then the evening’s unveiling.
While the press assembled outside, the top-rated, interplanetary media host, Anisa Valdosta, a cosmically beautiful journalist whose face was recognizable anywhere on Earth, Mars, or the Belt, was inside with exclusive access filming an intro with the lead scientist overseeing the project.
Professor Heda Von Nechtwahl, a severe, Germanic blonde, was adjusting the monitors and setting up the final projections. She moved easily in front of the camera and gave a summary of the history.
“Telescopes are constrained by the size of their aperture. Christiaan Huygens found Saturn’s moon Titan with less than three inches of focal width in the year 1655. From there, we went larger, putting telescopes on mountaintops to have less atmospheric interference, and on islands for less light pollution.”
Anisa said, “Amazing. Tell me what’s special about this specific telescope we are unveiling today.”
“With thirty-meter wide telescopes and space-based telescopes, we have conquered size and atmospheric interference, but still, only incremental gains.” She smiled for the camera as she rounded on her point. “This telescope is a real-light interferometer, using software to combine images from multiple telescopes into one image.”
“Explain that.”
“The width of the aperture can be equal to the distance between the combined telescopes. Combining Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii to the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile allows a virtual aperture of thousands of kilometers. Only after colonizing Mars did we use telescopes across the solar system to check ever more distant exoplanets for life. Halley Observatory will give us real-light imagery of exoplanets for the first time.” She paused. “You know exoplanets, yes?”
Anisa said, “My audience will know. So, with telescopes on different planets, we’ll have a virtual aperture on the order of hundreds of millions of kilometers instead of a few thousand.”
Von Nechtwahl nodded. “Yes. Initially, we spotted exoplanets by looking for flickering in distant stars, as the planet crossed in front, a momentary dimming of the star. With thousands mapped, interferometers promised the first true-color look at the planets themselves, capable of seeing alien civilizations, possibly even alien technology. Disappointments accrued as first Alpha Centauri had no life, then Barnard’s star was empty, and so on.”
A looming, serious man with a shaved head looked on with interest. With an authoritarian bearing and an expensive suit, his attire suggested government, but too buttoned-down to be a scientist, possibly ex-military.
Anisa paused, to set up the next shot, checking her light, and said, “And who is the suit?”
Professor Von Nechtwahl said, “He is from the Bureau of Planetary Affairs?” And to the suit, “You said you were an undersecretary?”
The suit was taking notes with a stylus on a slim tablet and recording voice memos. “I’m an assistant for the Secretary of Defense.”
The Professor looked startled. “I’m sorry, United States military? Not Planetary?”
Anisa signaled to her cameraman to cut. “Seriously? You’ve been assigned to this in case we see aliens? What’s your name?”
Holding up his badge, he said, “I’m Special Agent Corvus Cornicen. There is a strong possibility we will see something new. I’m to report in case anything,” he paused, “is revealed.”
Von Nechtwahl tsked. “Doubtful. Preliminaries saw no methane, no water vapor, and thus no organics. We checked more promising places than these gas giants. We keep thinking we’ll see aliens, or signs of civilization, and then,” she waved an arm, “nothing. The first five systems in this quadrant had methane or water, and we held our breath. When these images are finished, we will see only swirling clouds.”
Anisa looked excited by the presence of a government agent. If there were no aliens, at least there might be some intrigue to report. She said to the Professor, “Do you mind continuing?”
Von Nechtwahl inclined her head slightly. “We are creating true-color images, currently aimed at a system of nine exoplanets 386 light years away, in the outer reaches of the Orion Spur, the same spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy as Earth.” She paused for a reaction, but received none, and continued. “The Halley Observatory is the first to coordinate with telescopes on Mars, Ceres, and the moon.”
Anisa said, “Now that Mars is free?”
“Yes. Timing planetary rotations with atomic clocks, our aperture is now as wide as a quarter of the solar system. The inherent problem of interferometers is a lack of light for the image, and for centuries we could only see extremely bright stars. Planets are dark, and thus invisible, but with Mars and Earth being on opposite sides of the sun, we get all the light we need. With enough computing power to process the data, we can finally look directly at other worlds.”
Anisa squealed and clapped.
Von Nechtwahl broke her stern countenance and grinned, finally a reaction.
“The final image concatenates here, digitally assembled at the San Francisco headquarters by a massive server farm.”
An economic downturn caused the former technology hotbed to have computing power and engineers to spare. Von Nechtwahl skipped that part.
She checked the equipment, secure-status of the data feed, and the time to compile the data, and said, “Where did I leave off? Interferometers have never coordinated on separate worlds?”
Anisa said, “Yes, so the software will interpret the image data in precise patterns. Can you explain the interfering part of that? We won’t get glitches, will we?”
“No, no glitches or ghosts in the machine. The software integrates the feeds and discordant interference is removed, leaving behind color photographs.”
Anisa gracefully pivoted to the camera. “Scientific history will be changed today as software-interpreted video will reveal for the first time, distant solar systems hundreds of light years away.”
Watching her remarkable grace, Von Nechtwahl blushed.
She continued, “Although we find no alien life, we can still map systems within our arm of the Galaxy to find habitable destinations for exploration.”
Anisa waved cut to the camera. “Could this project only be accomplished after the Martian wars ended, after we restored diplomatic relations with them and the Belt?”
Von Nechtwahl nodded. “The software was ready, as well as the telescopes well before the war.” She raised an eyebrow. “We just needed the men to stop fighting.”
Agent Cornicen looked amused and baited, said, “Those wars lasted decades and the resulting treaties took years of diplomacy. As did the final efforts in securing trade rights with the Belt. Don’t dismiss it lightly.”
Anisa smirked. “If you hadn’t started the war, you might not have needed so much effort.”
The Professor opened her mouth to interject but thought better of it.
Agent Cornicen said, “The same government that fought those wars, also funded this technology to make these discoveries.”
The Professor bit back her retort, slipped, and said, “Hardly.”
Cornicen turned to argue, but she walked back in front of the camera.
“We calibrated the equipment with radio-spectroscopy to find the five most likely systems for alien life. We were crushed when we saw nothing. Months of guessing, searching, and recalibrating, and no life. We agreed to go public using a nearby system, even if alien life was extremely unlikely.”
Agent Cornicen said, “These photos are only being released as a symbol of government cooperation. There’s no science here beyond testing the government’s latest spying software.”
Anisa perked back up. “Really? I thought these were to be significant?”
Von Nechtwahl said, “It’s quite significant. The software was created for spying, but this is science! We could see alien worlds. We are guaranteed to see something never seen before by man!”
Leveling a hard glance toward the agent, she said, “The first photos to be released for public consumption are a reward to the public. A view of what their government’s money created. Something besides war.”
Anisa said, “Good, I don’t want some bland PR event, or worse, a reveal of some photos. Tell me more science and why this system is significant.”
She turned back to Anisa, excited. “Nine exoplanets! In one system! Five smaller inner rocky planets, with four gas giants, and we’ll see our first video.”
Von Nechwahl could recite the statistics, “The Halley Observatory software coordinates data in real-time, effectively creating the most sensitive light-collecting array ever assembled by mankind.”
“Not too dry, you’ll kill my viewers.”
Agent Cornicen said, “Mention Mars, and the great cooperation between our now sovereign powers.”
“Yes, Mars is involved, with Ceres as well, to transmit the data. With observatories on different moving planets, we are precise to the millisecond across millions of kilometers. Any loss of coordination would break the precise diffraction, blurring the images.”
Anisa clapped, made the ‘rolling’ gesture, and said to the camera, “We’ll be viewing exoplanets in another solar system in exquisite detail.”
Agent Cornicen said, “Any expectation of aliens?”
“None, we see no methane, no carbon dioxide, no organics above universal levels.”
Losing enthusiasm, Anisa said, “Are you sure?”
“These planets are too hot, too close to the star in their orbits. We could hope for a moon around one of the gas giants, but it’s unlikely.”
Anisa frowned and Cornicen lost interest, going back to his pad.
“We’ll deliver detailed photographic analysis of the atmospheric storms, showing whether Jupiter and Saturn are typical, proof of concept to search for life elsewhere.”
Low expectations made the initial images more shocking. The first images derailed all expectations.
Security guards were posted throughout the building for the big reveal while parsing finished through the giant servers. Trillions of calculations combined the signals to reveal a single coherent image, rendered as seconds of video. The super computers could render eight seconds of footage at a time and twelve minutes of footage per hour.
The laptop pinged as the first eight-second clip was rendered. Anisa’s head followed the sound to the laptop on the lectern under the hood.
Von Nechtwahl pulled the data to display on the laptop. She typed in passwords and verified clearance. Next, she walked to the controls for the auditorium, lowered the central screen, and checked the connections.
Distracted, she missed the first statements as Anisa argued with Agent Cornicen.
Cornicen said, “Hardly. Are you disputing the outpost housing the telescope on Ceres is the same bunker from the war?”
The Professor grimaced, rounding on him. “Perhaps, we’ve just heard it all before. The military is always pleased that their exorbitant funding can be repurposed later.”
Cornicen closed the distance and Von Nechtwahl raised a finger, “If scientists had your budget, there would be no war.”
“War is a necessary invention. It predates writing.”
Von Nechtwahl’s cool demeanor slipped. “What fools would not have simply granted Mars their independence! Did you not see the parallels with your own American Revolution? They were fighting to govern themselves!”
Cornicen looked uncomfortable, “That ancient history is not applicable. The sunk costs—”
“It is precisely applicable—”
Having crated the distraction, Anisa slipped over to the laptop, lifted the drape, and peeked. The Professor, dressed in a tailored black suit with her styled blonde hair in a French twist, tsked in annoyance at the sacrilege.
Cornicen looked annoyed at the interruption but moved closer to look.
Anisa said, “How do I zoom in?”
The Professor exhaled, checked her suit, and acquiesced. “It’s a standard pinch to zoom. Two finger swipes to pan and scroll.”
Cheekily, she asked, “Do you see the answer for the Drake equation?”
The Drake equation predicted the likelihood of alien life with a dozen different variables expressed as probabilities, including the amount of time a civilization could be expected to last.
“I see an alien spaceship.”
Cornicen uncrossed his arms, losing his tight expression, and hurried toward the reporter. The military was never comfortable with humor.
Clicking the remote to turn on the fifteen-meter display, Von Nechtwahl said, “Nonsense, you can’t see a ship at this scale.”
The display, mutinously, was warming up and crackled static as the speakers hummed into life. Von Nechtwahl would not be playing any sound and opened different menus with the remote to turn these off.
“No, it looks like a ship. You haven’t looked yet, have you?”
“I can’t have looked; this is the initial render.” Von Nechtwahl’s face went back to teaching mode, “The scale of the resolution would have to be off by an order of magnitude to see a ship, and it isn’t.” She added, “I did the math myself.”
Anisa, looking anxious, said, “Come look, tell me this isn’t a ship.”
The cameraman stopped grinning and began to sidle toward the lectern.
Professor Von Nechtwahl, head of the Astrophysical Consortium, in charge of the largest optical interferometer created by man, stalked unhurried over for a look, her heels clacking in the great hall.
Hans Rasmus, the head of software engineering for the project, and here late to coordinate security in the hall, looked over Cornicen’s shoulder and said, “It’s a ship.”
Anisa, backing away, making her rolling gesture, and readying for camera, said, “Ha!”
Professor Von Nechtwahl flipped the controls and the image appeared over three meters tall on the overhead screen and gasped.
She said, “It’s a ship.”
The grin on Hans’ face slackened. “Your calculations must be wrong.”
Her jaw flexed for a moment, running the math, and she said, “I’m not wrong. The ship is bigger than our moon.”
Agent Cornicen was already in front of the laptop, anxiously calling with his phone and clacking on some other device.
Professor Von Nechtwahl pushed in front of the controls and continued clicking around the laptop without looking up.
Her head turned slightly as she raised a single eyebrow and pulled her phone from her jacket, murmuring a command, and then announcing, “There’s been an electrical short in the building and a small fire. We’ll have to postpone the public unveiling at least a few hours. Maybe even a day. Yes, tell the press to go home.” She paused and looked over her shoulder.
The agent nodded to her and she said, “I think tomorrow at the earliest.”
Agent Cornicen was hanging up his phone and nodded. “We’ll need a team in here to analyze. Professor, who is your best? Maybe a small team, people you trust with your life.”
“Why, if this gets out, you’ll kill me?”
The joke fell flat. Cornicen didn’t smile, and Heda Von Nechtwahl suddenly thought of the last uprising in her homeland.
Anisa said, “Nonsense! This is news!” Her cameraman looked resolute and glanced around for the exits.
Cornicen said, “Cover and record all you want. We’ll have to declassify this eventually, so be ready.”
A very junior-looking agent entered the auditorium with two uniformed military personnel, guns across their chests and stern expressions on their faces, stayed outside to guard the door. The agent locked the doors behind them.
Anisa and Von Nechtwahl watched the main monitor with rapt attention, watching as an alien invasion of another world silently played out in amazing color. The carnage flashed by in cruel and excruciating detail. The immense ships scattered the defensive forces like fleas as they began to take stationary orbit around the planets, systematically extinguishing the lights below in a steady procession of death.
As another series of lights extinguished, probably forever, Anisa said, “Holy shit! I’m not covering this up.”
Von Nechtwahl said, “You’re not. I have the President of the University on my phone. Who’s the most important person you have? Head of the European Union?”
Agent Cornicen said, “I’ve already informed the proper authorities. The Secretary of Defense is going to brief the President.”
Anisa said, “For the United States? I have a Red City liaison for Mars, and the German Chancellor on Ceres.”
Von Nechtwahl’s eyebrows raised. “Start calling people and working your way up. We might need to warn the governments. The people might panic.”
The agents, looking startled, did not back down. Cornicen turned on a jamming signal from his pad. “No phone calls.”
Anisa usually fought the government to get out of a story, but censorship of this seemed insane. One civilization was clearly wiping out another. In hindsight, why weren’t more government people here? What if they did see aliens? It was all up to this one agent and his team?
Anisa screamed at the stupidity. “Can’t we help them? They’re being slaughtered!”
Cornicen shook his head. “We don’t have anything a tenth of that size.”
Von Nechtwahl said, “It’s 382 light years away, which means this happened over 300 years ago. I’m not sure who to even consult on the science side. Is that guy from NASA here? Maybe he has a contingency plan for hostile alien contact.”
The agents stopped short of force to contain the story. This had never happened before, a scientist discovering aliens or aliens discovered as hostile, and there were no protocols. After a terse discussion with Cornicen, Von Nechtwahl snapped her fingers. “Hans, get the NASA guy from the reception area.”
“NASA? That’ll bring the Americans in first. Is that a good idea?”
“Can they panic more than the Europeans?”
It turned out they could.
The Americans were quick to classify and militarize the whole operation, sending the reporters home without any cover story whatsoever. The government said they would explain, but after four days of continued silence, reporters noted heads of state cancelling all publicly scheduled appearances. The silence led to speculation, and then the information was out as the other telescopes in the multi-planet array processed each other’s information and leaked to their governments. It took a week longer with less centralized computing power, but now Mars, Ceres, and the Lunar Colony joined the debate.
Anisa exploded the story across Earth and Mars.
Aliens had been discovered. Vicious, murdering aliens, much larger than their foes with no qualms about extinguishing the light of other sentient civilizations. The truth came with a countdown, timing humanity’s response. The marauders had obviously continued forward since their cowardly attack and were heading toward Earth. Their direction was clear. They had four hundred years to respond, less, depending on the speed of the alien ships. The clock was ticking.
