The Ouroboros Wave (27 page)

Chaa was a scholar with a deep understanding of humanity’s past. His insights had frequently proven useful. But his example from Japanese history extended back more than two centuries. Shocho’s ancestral ties to Earth had ended a century ago.

“
We
learned from the people who preceded us into space. Are you saying Terrans can’t learn from their own history?”

“It’s not a matter of their capacity to be rational. The problem is simple: they hate us.”

SHANTAK I I
was a self-propelled observation platform nearly three times farther from the Sun than Neptune. The reason for its placement here, half a light-day from the Sun, was to carry out precise observations of the dwarf galaxy Eingana. The Terran research vessel
Discovery
had been deployed opposite
Shantak II
in the same circumsolar orbit. Separated by a full light-day, the two ships would soon begin to share differential data, acting as a titanic laser interferometer.

Dwarf galaxy Eingana was a tiny agglomeration of objects. The Eingana of Australian aboriginal legend was a snake goddess, a creator whose appearance nonetheless often foretold calamity. The dwarf galaxy christened with this name hovered just above the plane of the Milky Way, almost touching it. For its mass, Eingana was inexplicably dark. No existing theory or model fit its observed characteristics, and thus the recently discovered galaxy threatened to upset the prevailing models of stellar and planetary evolution. Astronomers feared and welcomed Eingana as a potential destroyer of paradigms.

Shantak II
was two huge spars, five hundred meters long and fifty meters wide, joined at right angles to form a trussed cross. The spars themselves were capable of acting as a laser gravity-wave interferometer. Trusses seventy meters from the apex formed a platform a hundred meters square. At the center was the main power module—a hybrid fusion reactor with fusion pellets ignited by the heat from proton/antiproton annihilation—and another module containing communications and life-support systems. At the corners of the square, perched on the spars, were habitat modules
and work spaces for the crew.

Shantak II
was a spacecraft, an observatory, and even a factory, as well as being home to fifty AADD crew. Its mission was a joint project with Earth; there were ten Terran scientists aboard. There were no AADD crew on
Discovery,
reflecting the fact that the project wasn’t truly collaborative. AADD didn’t make an issue of this. There was little of interest they could learn from embedding
people on a Terran spacecraft.

At first, the observations went smoothly. But then something happened that changed everything: a man-made communications
blackout.

Even at the speed of light, round-trip communication with the inner solar system took a full day—not ideal for an exchange of urgent messages. Most communication was via laser, complicating line-of-sight transmissions passing close to the Sun. The solution was to route most comm traffic through relay stations on the Trojan asteroids. This was how
Shantak II
and
Discovery
communicated. The Trojans were also the relay for other research installations
throughout the solar system.

The early stages of the project had been marked by tensions between AADD and Earth. But the unprecedented scale and shared scientific promise of the project had gradually dampened any mutual suspicion—not least because as soon as observation commenced it
became clear that Eingana was a scientific enigma.

Until the day when transmissions from the rest of the solar system ceased, Shocho had seen for herself how the project was fostering a sense of solidarity that overcame differences between AADD and Earth. That was why the day when the message arrived remained so clear in her memory. She had been with the project leader, Dr. Atwood, in the central lounge. Atwood had a hard time organizing his theories without someone to act as a sounding board.

“Commander Kanda, do you know what our solar system looks like from a distance?”

“No, I can’t say I do. We’re not far out enough for that.”

“Right. Well, you would think that from a distance any planetary system—not just our own—would appear to have a central star orbited by planetary bodies in empty space. But the truth is rather different. In infrared, clouds of asteroids and minor chunks of matter would shine far more brightly than the planets. The solar system, seen from the proper distance, would appear as a series of brightly shining rings surrounding the Sun, with spaces between the rings swept clean by the planets. The interaction of the star with the dust
that orbits it creates this sort of phenomenon.

“Given its near-total lack of luminosity, our dwarf galaxy could theoretically be a group of brown dwarfs. But in that case we should be seeing circumstellar dust rings emitting in the infrared. We’re already very familiar with this type of star from observations in our own galaxy. Since Eingana is already colliding with our own galaxy, we should be able to confirm the presence of brown dwarfs—if, in
fact, there are any.”

“Maybe there’s no dust?” said Shocho. “That would explain the prevalence of brown dwarfs. Not enough material for bigger stars
to form.”

“Good guess, but that doesn’t get us off the hook. Eingana’s interstellar material is emitting photons in response to light coming from our galaxy. There does, in fact, seem to be a fair amount of such material present. But our theories of star formation suggest that there’s more than enough material for the formation of larger,
brighter stars. Our simulations point to the same conclusion.”

“Then maybe you don’t have brown dwarfs after all. Something smaller?” Shocho was speaking from intuition now. “Black holes or something else that can’t easily be observed. If you’re seeing X-rays
as well as gravity waves, that would clinch it.”

“We
are
seeing X-rays. You’re right. Our observations are preliminary, but taking the data at face value, Eingana doesn’t contain a single star. It’s composed entirely of black holes with stellar masses.”

Shocho was no astronomer, but she did have a general knowledge of the subject, and she knew that what Atwood was proposing flew in the face of established theory. No galaxy like the one he was describing had ever been observed.

“A galaxy of black holes?”

“It’s the best-fit conclusion for the data. Hard to believe, though.”

Just then the message came through, addressed to Atwood and Shocho as the senior AADD crewmembers aboard
Shantak II:

In view of possible armed conflict with Earth, further comm traffic will be restricted to scientific data, effective immediately.

With this, transmissions to
Shantak II
from other parts of the solar system ceased completely. The Trojan relay stations ignored Shocho’s requests for confirmation.

It was unsettling. The message was properly formatted and looked genuine. It was sent by the Guardian steering committee, but sending it only to Atwood and Shocho was unusual. A message like this would normally have been copied to all AADD personnel. Shocho had to retransmit the message to the rest of the crew herself.

Even more unsettling, the ten Terran crewmembers did not receive a similar message from Earth. This left them even more anxious than the rest. What would their status be if war broke out?

The Terrans quickly split into two factions. The moderates centered around Dr. Whitley, their African Japanese senior representative. His deputy, Japanese American Maria Teranishi, was the leader of the hard-liners: “AADD must immediately disclose all information in its possession. As U.S. representative on
Shantak II,
I demand an explanation!”

In fact, Shocho had received nothing more than the one short message from the Guardians. But the Terrans were not convinced.

THE DAYS PASSED
and the blackout continued. Oddly,
Shantak II
continued receiving routine observational data from
Discovery.
In other words, the relay stations were functioning. The blackout
wasn’t due to some technical issue.

Of course, the AADD crew didn’t simply wait passively for matters to be resolved. Using the backup comm system, they attempted to contact both Mars and the Chandrasekhar Space Station in orbit around Uranus in case something was amiss with their main system. The position of the planets in their orbits put Uranus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter in the same relatively narrow angle, making direct transmission possible. But the result was the same for each planet—no response. As might have been expected, the Terran crew had insisted on bringing along their own comm system but were unable to establish contact with Earth, which seemed to baffle them.
Apparently the blackout extended throughout solar system.

Dr. Whitley and the other moderates did their best to restrain the hard-liners, but they possessed no inside information to help them make their case. And Dr. Whitley didn’t have the influence of Teranishi, who was also the U.S. representative aboard
Shantak II.
As time went on, her influence only seemed to grow stronger.

Moderate/hard-line conflicts were not confined to the Terran crew. Opinion was split among the AADD crew for the same reason—the lack of further situation updates. Even the Guardians responsible for shipboard security were divided. The AADD hardline faction was also gradually gaining influence. Still, however much the hard-line factions on both sides might want to take action, they had no concrete ideas about what sort of action to take. Isolated as they were from the rest of the solar system, there was nothing they could do except continue their observations. This only aggravated
their frustrations.

The only person aboard
Shantak II
who seemed unconcerned was Dr. Atwood, the project leader. Atwood was also the youngest crewmember and one of AADD’s group of emerging stars. Though barely out of his teens, he was a genius. His generation knew of the solar system only as a wealthy place. Partially due to this, his sunny outlook didn’t have much impact on the older people around him.

The atmosphere aboard ship was beginning to resemble the twentieth century’s Cold War—all because of one cryptic transmission.

“
THERE’S NO SIGN
the system has been tampered with. We ought to get back,” said Chaa, without much expectation that Shocho would agree. But she had no objection. If the system hadn’t been tampered with there was no reason for them to be out here.