Solar Express (14 page)

More?
Given what the colonel had just said and the views he had shown Tavoian in his initial briefing, how much more data/information was necessary? And what could fusionjet pilots add that unmanned recon probes couldn't do more easily and surreptitiously? Tavoian managed to keep his expression pleasant as a second thought struck him.
Senior commanders never believe they have enough information.
Still … he had his doubts.

By the time the briefing was over, Tavoian had less than an hour before he had duty, but he felt that he really did need to reply to Alayna's latest message. He'd felt that way for days, and the last thing he wanted to do was to push away someone he felt he could actually talk to—or message—as the case might be. He also knew that if he didn't take the opportunity when he had a few moments, something else would come up. It always did. Besides which, the mention of her comet/asteroid was intriguing.

He immediately made his way to his quarters, small as they were, and began to compose his reply, as quickly as he could, but with a certain care.

Alayna—

I owe you an apology for my lack of consideration in not replying sooner, and I appreciate your thoughtfulness in messaging me again. The training here is long, often tedious, and very exacting. I suppose that applies to anything of a highly specialized and technical nature, perhaps even more to what you do than to me … but it is tiring.

I have to say that while it may strike you as almost prosaic, and disappointing, to have discovered a new asteroid, instead of a comet, I happen to think that either one is exciting. You may think that is strange coming from a pilot, but people think of us as “seeing” asteroids and planets. We seldom see anything but planets or moons, and those almost always on screens when we're approaching an orbit installation around them, and only in passing. You probably have already seen far more different images of planets, moons, comets, and asteroids than I ever will.

I'm not an astronomer or an astrophysicist. I've probably said that more than once. From my limited knowledge, I thought that a silver-silicate body of any sort would be rather rare, especially if it initially appeared on a cometary orbit. If it is, wouldn't that sort of rarity help in furthering your career? If I'm mistaken about that, my condolences. It would seem so unfair that a discovery wouldn't provide some benefit. Or is it that there are so few opportunities in your field that only discoveries considered major or important will advance you in the profession?

Somehow that reminds me of the following:

Quantum AI technology allows people to juggle figures and situations beyond their understanding to arrive at results beyond their comprehension. That leads to mistakes beyond their ability to correct, at which point they blame the system or the AI. When scientists attempt to point out that it is a bad idea to blame the tool, rather than the user, both business and government cut their funding for everything else.

I'm certain you know where I found that. I suspect the point also applies to those who review the funding for what astronomers and astrophysicists do, especially in these times. You hinted several months ago that those who fund pure research have very different priorities from those who conduct it. That's true in more than science.

I'd like to say more, but I'm sending this immediately because I have another meeting scheduled, and I don't know when I'll have another chance.

That wasn't true. Tavoian had to report to the operations center as duty officer, but saying that might have triggered the censoring system, and he didn't want to have his belated reply delayed further. Especially when he tended to overfocus on what was happening at Donovan Base.

He sent the message, then rose and headed for the ops center.

 

18

T
HE
T
IMES OF
I
SRAEL

3 O
CTOBER
2114

TAKING THE WRONG ELEVATOR

(S
HIRAZ
) Back off trying to stop India's completion of a full space elevator! It wasn't that direct, but that was the message sent to Sinese Head of State Jiang Qining in a joint communique signed by Iranian President Saam Achmed Narsi, Israeli Prime Minister Merav Meir, and Nigerian First Minister Ngozi Darego. The three acted on behalf of the Unity of African and Allied States, following consultations last week in Johannesburg.

Meir noted that almost half the world's population has no easy access to space, and that the Dyaus space elevator would serve not only India but all the nations of the UAAS under the Memorandum of Understanding between India and the UAAS. “For a power that has always opposed colonialism, the Sinobloc stance of opposing access to space for those victimized most by colonialism reeks of hypocrisy.”

Both Darego and Narsi agreed that the current monopoly on access to the threshold of space—geostationary orbit—by either Noram or the Sinese Federation—places great constraints on the rest of the world …

Predictably, Noram President Yates praised the “spirit of cooperation” behind the Memorandum of Understanding …

 

19

D
AEDALUS
B
ASE

24 S
EPTEMBER
2114

Monday morning after breakfast found Alayna where she was every morning—in the COFAR control center, checking the message queue, where she found nothing of interest, and nothing that required an immediate response. So, as she finished scanning the last of the messages, she asked Marcel, “Where do we stand today with mini-granulation multi-fractals?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she smiled wryly, because there were always mini-granular multi-fractals, and none of the regular granulations ever appeared as fractals.

“There are currently 111 instances of fractal patterns in the instances of mini-granulations in the selected solar latitude image.”

“Display them.” Alayna doubted that they would reveal any more than those she had been studying for the last eight months, but there was always a chance.

Marcel flashed the images before Alayna, the fractal patterns overlaid in green.

There was something about them … something, again, that wasn't there.

She took a deep breath. What else could she do? She'd had Marcel remove everything but the fractal patterns, and that hadn't shown anything. She'd had him put just the fractal patterns in sequential order, and that hadn't revealed anything. She'd even had him attempt to sort through to see if there were matches or near matches in any display. There hadn't been.

She had one more idea. With nearly nine months of observations, piecemeal as they had been, she might have enough data. “Can you match the fractal patterns observed to the same surface area on the sun … with calculation and regression?”

“That will take time.”

“How much?”

“Using available processing time, more than ten years for the full width of those bands.”

Alayna swallowed, then realized. She shouldn't have been surprised, given the number of mini-granulations, and the fact that the sun's photosphere rotated at differing speeds according to latitude. Marcel would have to calculate the movements by fractions of a degree of latitude, and with granulations lasting only eight to ten minutes, and multi-fractal mini-granulations averaging close to five minutes, the number of mini-granulations …

She shook her head. “Limit the area to one small enough that you can do the calculations in a month. Include those cases where you find close similarities as well.”

“That is a very small area, Dr. Wong-Grant. That may be too small to show results of statistical significance.”

“I know. Do what you can under those constraints.” Alayna had to leave the dimensions up to Marcel. Roughly speaking each square of one degree would contain, on average, roughly sixteen “normal” granules and a larger number of mini-granules at any one time … but averages were only approximations, and approximations wouldn't give her anything close to even a hint of something new. And given the variables, she'd have spent hours, if not years that she didn't have … and wouldn't have done as good a job as Marcel. “Only work on this when it will not interfere with anything else.”

“Beginning processing.”

Most likely yet another idea that will turn out to be nonsense, showing nothing … the man or the data that wasn't there—again.
She'd be fortunate if what Marcel could do would provide a hint of what she felt was there—some sort of underlying order rather than elaborate plasma convection.

She felt, just felt, that she was on the edge of something, and yet, she couldn't even define it. Was that perseverance … or just self-delusion?

A faint buzz intruded on her thoughts. When she did not respond immediately, Marcel spoke. “Dr. Wong-Grant, there is a malfunction in the electrostatic dust prevention system for the main optical mirror.”

Alayna sighed. “Diagnostics, please. With image.”

“The malfunction appears to be in the waveguide controller,” offered Marcel.

She could see that, but she refrained from saying so. The dust prevention systems for all the optical mirrors and lenses were based on long-tested electrostatic traveling wave technology, since actual cleaning would only degrade the surfaces. While she
might
be able to repair the controller, given the relatively sophisticated technical shop and Marcel's expertise, the first thing to do was to remove the existing controller and replace it with a functioning one, and then bring the malfunctioning unit back to the shop, for repair, if possible, and, one way or another, notify Farside Foundation operations.

“Is there a spare in inventory?”

“According to the records, there are three spares. The same controller is used with the lens cleaning system for the solar mirror.”

“When was the controller for the main mirror last replaced?”

“Eleven years ago. There was a previous replacement the year after the present main mirror and system was installed.”

“Do you have a location for the spare units?”

“Echo Charlie one three.”

“Echo Charlie one three.” Alayna repeated the location to herself, then rose from the console and headed for the lower level and the higher tech equipment supply room.

Finding Echo Charlie one three took several minutes longer than Alayna had anticipated, partly because it was at the end of the second row in the dimness away from any direct illumination and the bin was at ankle level. The plastfilm that covered the topmost of the three small oblong controllers bore a thin layer of dust. So did the covering of the other two. Alayna took the top one and made her way back to the suit locker room, where she began her preparations for the replacement, beginning with swathing the controller in an insulating wrap that would allow it to cool slowly once it left the warmth and pressure of the station. Then she began suiting up.

More than thirty minutes passed before she eased the roller out of the lock and toward the main optical array. After all the effort it had taken to repair the radio telescope antenna film, she had no anticipation that the replacement of a controller, simple as it had looked on the schematic, would be easy. Necessary, yes, because despite the lack of a lunar atmosphere, the dust was electrically charged and, over time, had a tendency to film over anything, and even the finest coating of dust over a telescope lens was definitely not something for which the Farside Foundation clients were paying.

Alayna eased the roller toward the main mirror structure, covering the last hundred meters at a pace little more than a crawl, trying to keep from raising any unnecessary dust, a particularly important aspect of the repair when the dust-prevention system was either malfunctioning or not functioning at all. She gently slowed the roller to a complete stop just short of the door to the support systems module. Since it was lunar day on Farside, she was feeling somewhat warm as she stepped off the roller.

According to the schematic, the electrostatic dust prevention system was on the upper level of the module in the middle, and accessed by a ladder up to a horizontal catwalk. In theory, all she had to do was open the access door, climb the ladder, move a few steps to her right, remove two slip brackets, and unplug the malfunctioning waveguide controller, withdraw it, and then insert the replacement.

She twisted the clip releases on the top of the access door, and then turned the handle. It moved easily enough, but when she tried to pull the door open, it didn't budge. She pulled harder. Nothing happened.

She studied where the edge of the door flanges met the metal of the module wall. Near the bottom of the door, from where it began some ten centimeters above the regolith and extending for almost a meter, it appeared to be sealed with lunar dust. She tried to rub it away with her gauntlets, but could only remove the outer layer of the dust.

She tried to open the door again. While she thought she felt some give, she decided that brute force wasn't the answer, especially since, if she damaged the access door, she'd have an even bigger repair and maintenance problem on her hands.

She pulsed Marcel.

“Yes, Dr. Wong-Grant?”

“The access door won't open. It's almost like the dust has formed an electrostatic weld. Is there any record of something like that?”

“There is no record of any problem like that.”

“All right. I'm going to see if one of the screwdrivers in the tool kit has a sharp enough edge that I can cut through the packed or welded dust. Let me know if the system does something while I'm working on this.”

“I will do that, Dr. Wong-Grant.”

Alayna stepped back onto the roller and searched through the tool locker until she found the thinnest-bladed screwdriver. Then she climbed down and returned to the access door, where she began to scrape, gently, starting at the top of the packed or semi-welded dust. After more than ten minutes she had only cleared a little more than thirty centimeters. She was sweating, and her faceplate was beginning to fog over. She straightened and stopped working, to see if the exosuit's system could clear away some of the moisture.