Victor was irksomely familiar with the scene, crisis management, or more often damage assessment and limitation. It was going to be a long afternoon for the SETI office, and an even longer night.
It said a lot for Julia’s management that when something as outré as a search of Jupiter did spring up out of the blue, she could simply plug the appropriate division into the top of the company’s command structure and get results. He was even mildly surprised at the way Rick had coped with the unexpected burden. Give the man his due, he hadn’t started swaggering round like a mini-Napoleon.
Rick was sitting at his desk, jacket draped over the back of his chair, its collar getting more crumpled every time he leaned back. Both his terminal cubes were alive with whirling graphics. Every now and then he would nod encouragingly at them.
“What happens to the radio telescope data after you receive it?” Victor asked.
Rick looked up. “It’s squirted direct into one of the Institute’s lightware crunchers. We’ve been sponsoring university groups to write signal analysis programs in preparation for Steropes. All we have to do is pull them from our memory core, load them into the cruncher, and run the raw signal data through them. Of course, establishing their integrity in the lightware cruncher is going to take time; but my people are on top of it. We should be ready to start in a couple of hours.”
“And the optical data?”
“Standard image comparison technique. Take two pictures of the same patch of sky a week apart, and see what’s changed, if there’s anything new appeared. We’re in luck there. Aldrin did its last Jupiter survey five years ago, and it’s all on file in the Institute’s library. Galileo mission control is going to repeat that survey for me, starting in three and a half hours. So if your alien has arrived in the last five years, we should be able to spot it-providing it’s larger than a hundred metres in diameter.”
“How long is the comparison going to take?”
“Virtually instantaneous, given the processing power we’ve got available these days.” He held up a hand, palm outward. “But the survey itself will take a couple of days.”
Victor didn’t say anything. He’d been expecting the whole process to take at least a week. Astronomy had always seemed a glacial science to him; impressive incomprehensible machinery focusing on remote segments of the sky, providing building blocks for abstruse papers on cosmology. Arguments about how the universe was put together invariably went way over his head, but Julia thought it was important enough to finance to the tune of fifty million New Sterling each year.
“They were none too happy about that,” Rick said.
Victor roused himself. “Who?”
“Galileo mission control. I’ve screwed up their observation schedule good and proper. There are items that were requested five years ago on that schedule.”
“Tough. We all work for the same lady, pure science departments are no different to anyone else. It’s her telescope, it looks at whatever she wants.”
Rick clasped his hands together, grinning. “Lord save us from these heathen hordes.”
Victor sat in front of the desk, staring up at the big hologram of Steropes. “Is the data from the radio telescopes coming through all right? Requisitioning astronomical signals isn’t exactly a familiar field for my people.”
“Yes, quite all right.” He put the cubes on hold and bent down to open a desk drawer. “You want a beer?”
“No, thanks.”
Rick produced a can of Ruddles bitter. “That Julia Evans, she’s quite something.”
“Yes.”
“I mean, not just smart, attractive with it.” He tugged the can’s tab back.
“Yes.”
He swallowed some beer and looked thoughtful. “Do you think Royan is still alive?”
“He was a week ago.”
“Right.” Rick took another swallow. “I want to ask you something. I meant to ask Julia Evans, but, well… I didn’t know quite where I stood with her. The thing is, I suppose she’s assembling some sort of team to contact this alien when we find it.”
“I’ve no idea; but put like that, somebody will have to meet it.”
“I want in,” Rick said quickly. He bent forwards over the desk, knuckles whitening as he gripped the Ruddles tightly. “Damn it, I’m loyal, I’ll even keep quiet about it afterwards if that’s what’s needed. But I want to be there.”
“I’ll tell her. I should think she would’ve included you anyway. Who else has spent a lifetime thinking about aliens?” He wondered if it had come out sarcastically; he hadn’t intended it to.
Rick searched his face intently for a moment, then sat back. “Thanks.”
Julia Evans Access Request, Victor’s processor node told him.
Expedite Channel.
Hello, Victor, how’s it going? Julia asked.
Surprisingly well. The astronomy department won’t be asking you to their Christmas party, their schedules have been shot to pieces; but the radio signal data is beginning to come in. Rick and his team are preparing to shove it through some kind of specialist analysis program. The optical review is going to take longer, couple of days, Rick says.
OK, fine, first the good news. Royan’s Kiley probe is back, and it brought some microbes.
How did you find that out?
Your idea. There was a personality package waiting in bay F37’s memory core.
One of Royan’s?
Yes.
What did he say?
That he was going to modity the microbes into something useful. A more advanced form of bio ware. And that he wasn’t totally confident about the outcome, which is why he left the package, so that if anything goes wrong we’ll be able to understand the problem.
There are more packages?
Yes, but he didn’t say where. Have you tracked down that spaceplane crew?
No, I’ve been organizing security for the SETI office, but I’ll get on to it. Did Royan say if there was a starship orbiting Jupiter?
No, but the Kiley’s sensors probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway, they were attuned to the micro, not the macro. My NN cores are reviewing the star tracker memories. I don’t hold out much hope.
This isn’t making a lot of sense yet. At what point did Royan make contact with the starship aliens?
No idea, but we might find out soon. I’ve located Jason Whitehurst, and he’s agreed to meet Greg and Suzi. Get this, they can put in a bid for Charlotte Fielder.
A bid?
Yes. Jason was preparing to sell her to the highest bidder. Fortunately the auction hasn’t started.
Ye gods. Anything else?
Leol Reiger is being paid by Clifford Jepson. And I think there’s a connection between the alien and atomic structuring. it’s too much of a coincidence having them both turn up at the same time, virtually the same day.
I can buy that. So we’re in a race?
Beginning to look that way.
OK, Julia, I’ll find that spaceplane crew, and your NN cores can access every memox core they ever plugged into.
Right. Let me know when you’ve got them.
Straight away, count on it.
I always do, Victor.
Cancel Channel to Julia Evans.
Rick was crumpling up his Ruddles can, head cocked to one side, giving Victor a shrewd stare.
Victor got up and went to stand by the window, looking down on Building One’s assembly hall. “Which is bay F37?” he asked.
The can landed in the bin. “That one.” Rick pointed.
“Fine. Do you know the members of the assembly crew that put Kiley together?”