Chapter Twelve
Star system Epsilon Eridiani, the Qu’uda planet
The Qu’uda were an old race, long-lived and patient. Their world consisted mainly of water with five small equatorial continents; each filled to capacity and short of living space. Its astronomers had examined the nearby star systems for habitable planets. They even sought planets that might be modified into livable locations. Though their deep-space observatory was old, its polar orbiting antenna array gathered faint interstellar signals and shunted them down to the ground-based data analysis system.
“Look, this signal cannot be natural. It’s in a digital format and appears at regular intervals. It looks like it might have information content,” said the technician on duty at the deep-space data analysis center.
“What do you think it means?” asked the resident astronomer. He represented the Community of Astronomers who reviewed all astronomical information before it was distributed.
“I don’t know. The same sequence keeps repeating.”
“How do you interpret it?” asked the astronomer.
“It seems artificial.”
“That cannot be.”
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
The astronomer’s head crest flared. “Well, no, but—”
“There is only one explanation.”
“Great Egg, it must come from another star system—”
“I’ve scanned this system on and off for years and I’ve checked the records. This is a new signal. It’s both new and artificial.”
The astronomer looked up. “But, but, that means—”
“There’s nothing else that can explain the digital nature of the signal. It has to be artificial. Our work has finally hatched.” The technician pointed to the graphical representation of the faint radio signal.
The astronomer stared at the peaks of the signal intensity. “Look, it has regular variations.” He used his biocomputer’s communication module to access the massive data files of the orbital observatory to get a summary of the data from the past several days. “See how the signal fades in and out in a sinusoidal fashion? That may mean it’s on a revolving source, perhaps caused by planetary rotation.” The signal stood out clearly like a brilliant gem of radio energy winking in the depths of interstellar space.
“Dare we tell the Prime Communicator of this before we are certain?” The astronomer knew the discovery of an alien life form would bring fame and move them closer toward the center.
Pi’Rup, the Prime Communicator at the center of the community, had thousands of biocomputers that kept him in contact with the members of their society through the universal comm-link. He was the disseminator of information.
“No, by Egg, we’d better start with the Community of Astronomers. Let’s get their opinion and support before we present it to the entire community.”
“Quick. The signal may disappear, and we would only have a recording.” This was an opportunity to gain status. The technician needed a more central position to change gender, into the egg-bearing stage. He stared at the screen for a moment.
“Another intelligent species, and so close.”
The timing could not have been better, coming when the Qu’uda had begun constructing a spacecraft with interstellar capabilities.
But aliens?
The community of Astronomers analyzed the signals intensively and discovered the digital signals showed traces of a square wave function. They considered this further evidence of its artificial character and presented their findings to the Prime Communicator.
A collective call arose to investigate. The spaceship, called the Star-Seeker, would seek out the cause of the strange signal pulsing among the stars. Changing the mission of the Star-Seeker would require alterations. The ship required more fuel.
Additional bulbous fuel tanks, along with a shuttle—the Bird-that-Soars, were strapped to the rear of the Star-Seeker. Though its appearance was ungainly, it was the culmination of their efforts and carried the hopes of their planet.
After several years, their engineers completed the Star-Seeker. The entire planet watched as it accelerated out of the system. Once free of gravitational perturbations, ChaKut DuJutu, astrogator and spokesperson for the crew, estimated the amount of relative star system drift during the voyage and fine-tuned their course. In the depths of space, nothing would affect the vessel during its long coasting phase.
The Star-Seeker reached its terminal velocity—almost one-fourth the speed of light—and the crew entered into the carefully monitored deep-sleep. They lowered their life functions, including their biocomputers, to the barest trace of activity. Now, it was just a matter of time.
The Star-Seeker coasted on; all activity shut down except for a minimal life support system. An ancient solid-state computer patiently watched over the ship, keeping its vigilant eye on the heavens, tracking their position.
Time went by. The computer measured the relative luminosity of their home sun and estimated the distance traveled. At the same time, it measured the distance to the star system they were approaching and decided when it was time to restart the Star-Seeker’s engine.
The ship rotated and pointed its fusion drive towards its destination. A warming sequence in the fuel module started vaporizing deuterium ice into gas, which flowed into the fusion drive reactor along with the helium three. The reserve power system came to life and electricity flowed to the pulsating magnetic containment coils.
The mixture of deuterium and helium three, compressed into a standing shock wave, flowed into the reactor in harmonic pulses generated by the magnetic constrictions. An energetic laser flared and joined the beat of the system. The deuterium and helium three fused together amid the release of prodigious amounts of energy.
The drive lit. Its thrust slowed the Star-Seeker as it plummeted down into the star system where a powerful radio source still flashed its blatant signal.
The solid-state computer went about its tasks, monitoring the Star-Seeker’s course toward the planet emitting the pulsating signal. At the same time, the computer slowly brought the ship back to life. The temperature in the living-quarters rose to a temperature more typical of their watery home world.
ChaKut DuJutu felt paralyzed. Even though the hibernation quarters rotated to maintain gravity, his muscles felt weak. The solid-state computer activated his biocomputer, which took over the rehabilitation of his atrophied muscles. It was painful, but the combination of stimulants, muscle relaxants, and pain deadeners, along with nerve excitation, got him moving.
The Star-Seeker continued to shed speed as it approached the inner cometary belt of the star system, having already lost most of its deep-space velocity. The solid-state computer continued to operate the ship, watching for stray comets and asteroids.
“Computer, scan and obtain the plane of the comets. Bring the Star-Seeker onto a parallel approach,” ChaKut DuJutu said.
They would drop into the star system in such a fashion as to resemble a natural object. As the crew gained mobility, they gathered data on the system. The inner asteroid belt was densely populated and adjacent to the planet that was the source of the powerful radio signal. There were other radio emissions—faint and indecipherable—the planet was definitely inhabited.
“Set the Star-Seeker on a course to take us by the planet and around its sun. Set the out course for the gas giant planet so we can gather fuel for our return,” said ChaKut DuJutu.
“I must gather more information before I dare contact the inhabitants of the planet,” MingLik TuKan said. He was their planetary analyst and had been trained by the Defenders. He also provided security for the ship.
“Prepare a message drone to send back to Qu’uda, but do not launch yet. Feed all of the sensors into the message pod’s records. Set it to launch automatically should anything untoward happen.”
“The Defenders would approve of your plan,” MingLik said.
The Star-Seeker reduced power and moved into position for the fly-by course. Its speed had dropped to that of a comet on a rare trip to the inner orbit of the planetary system. The Star-Seeker descended, stern-first, multiple recorders storing every detail. The system had a vast number of asteroids.
MingLik and ChaKut studied the source of the radio signals from the planet. In addition, spectroscopy revealed its atmosphere was breathable. However, it seemed to have little life. The planet had a single continent spanning a portion of the equator like a belt fragment. It appeared to be very dry, in spite of the huge area of the polar oceans. It was very different from the watery world of Qu’uda. They puzzled and wondered whether they were mistaken in their earlier conclusion the radio signals were proof of intelligent life. They continued to drop sunward.
A new radio signal, a short chittering squeal, burst from the radio. After a brief pause, it repeated the sequence exactly. It came from the vicinity of the planet, perhaps from an orbiting satellite. Then the signal ceased. Time passed, more than enough time for the signal to transit. Again, the chittering squeal of pulses started, and this time, more powerful than before. The pauses between the sequences grew longer.
“Are they trying to signal us?” MingLik asked.
“Do you think they know we’re a spaceship?” ChaKut DuJutu asked. “Maybe we should replay their signal.”
“Perhaps.” MingLik took his responsibilities seriously.
“The analysis shows binary data. Mathematically, it doesn’t mean anything.” He manipulated the data.
“What if the signal is a greeting? If we don’t answer, they might think we’re hostile?” MingLik asked.
“We cannot reveal ourselves prematurely. We will stay silent, for we look like a comet. It would take a very close examination to prove otherwise.”
“How about releasing the message drone?” MingLik said. “Let it drift along behind us, at a distance, ready to return to Qu’uda?”
“Very well, I’ll do that. If something should happen, it will inform the Defenders.”
They filled the message drone’s fuel tanks and updated its navigation module. The small fusion-powered vehicle had only one purpose: to accelerate to a tremendous speed on a course toward Qu’uda until its fuel was exhausted. When it reached the Qu’uda system, it would broadcast its message as it flew by on a never-ending voyage through the universe.