11
Outside on the observatory balcony, Diana leaned against the wrought-iron fencing and gazed out at the twinkling lights of campus and the beautiful skyline at dawn. All those students and professors going about their mid-week activities. Life went on, despite knowing that the world had just changed. Everything they had been taught, or had been teaching, could be completely off base. With the introduction of psychics — a true supernatural element — the pivotal factors of history would have to be re-evaluated, if indeed the masses believed what they were being told by the media.
Latest polls were revealing outright denial in most circles, with many clinging to theories that secret technology had to be in use to give such results — much the same way TV psychic charlatans worked their ‘wonders’ of insight into other realms and hidden truths. This just couldn’t be, and if it wasn’t an outright lie at least it was a clever diversion and a taxpayer waste of money. It had been done before, journalists were telling us. In the 70s and 80s, during the Cold War. Millions spent on ESP research, trying to get the ultimate spy, an edge over the Communists who were attempting their own thing. A psychic arms race.
With the observatory’s dome to her back, the old telescope in need of renovation — along with the whole facility after a legendary past replete with major astronomical triumphs recorded here over the years — she breathed in the crisp air, pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders, and turned to Nevin.
“So we’re here, presumably free of listening devices and cameras and other snooping.”
“At least of the technological kind.”
Diana glanced back to the distant clock tower, prominent among the historic backdrop. “But I’d like to think, reassuringly, that those who might snoop through other means have all been locked up.”
“Your friends.”
“Yes. My friends.” She sighed. “Now, what can we do? Why did I sign that bullshit?”
“Other than to get us out of that box?”
“Right, there’s that. But still, too easy. They either don’t care about us and they have what they want, or…”
“Or they let us out to see what we’d do.”
“So we are being followed.”
“For sure.” He glanced down, then around the park-like area below, all the way to the paths and street beyond. Any number of cars, or pedestrians could be watching them. “It doesn’t matter though.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got the data we need.” He tapped his jacket pocket. “Thumb drive with all the images we could capture from your discovery up there.”
“Okay.” Her pulse quickened. “That’s something at least. Caleb Crowe and I were making some headway on it, but I’m not sure what else we can do.”
“Where did you leave it?”
“Well…” She hesitated. Could she trust Nevin, her boss? They had let them go, true, but maybe the reason was he had a side deal with them. Maybe he was in on it. High level NASA employee, why not? She had never been quite sure about him, although he definitely had her back more times than not. To be fair though, this was the first time they had discovered something of this magnitude.
It was Nevin, however, who had supported including Diana in their team meetings on the comet mission. He had known of her involvement with Stargate and could have kept her out of it if he didn’t want the psychic element, which said…he did. Maybe that was part of it?
Jesus, this conspiracy shit is getting to me too. So complex. Everyone and everything is a threat, the more unlikely the better.
She shook her head. She’d have to trust him, at least in this. It didn’t matter, anyway. Everyone else was in custody.
“I really need to talk to Senator Calderon,” Diana said. “About what we found.”
“I’ll work at finding out where he is.” He turned his back to the world and leaned against the fence. “So what was Caleb’s thought?”
All right, Diana thought, I’ll tell him some of it. “That it was crazy impossible, but there were symbols — mirror images of Egyptian hieroglyphic scenes. Funeral arrangement art, these pylons…”
Nevin perked up. “Interesting…”
Tell him about Tesla? Diana hesitated. Maybe later. “We didn’t get too far after that,” she said. “Caleb started theorizing about the ancient priesthood, how they may have remote-viewed the comet after seeing it in the sky, and received these images which they incorporated into religious and funereal ceremonies.”
“Hmm, I wonder if…”
“If what?”
“There may have been another reason for the emphasis on those elements.”
“You mean, more than discovering an alien presence on an orbiting comet?”
“I mean, maybe in all the excitement, we’re looking at the wrong thing.”
“What wrong thing?”
“The symbols, the artifact itself.” Nevin frowned. “Maybe that’s all secondary, and only can be understood if you first understand the bigger question — of setting.”
Diana nodded slowly. “Why there? If they had this ability to go anywhere and hell, land on a comet and leave something there we could only discover ages later…”
“Why that comet?”
Diana looked up at the sky, lightening now, like clarifying lenses were slid over the vast view-piece of the night. “What other data do you have there?”
“Whatever we had on Icarus.”
“Including the images, I know, but what about the other characteristics? Its make-up, its orbital path, where it’s been…”
Nevin’s eyes lit up. “And where it’s going?”
Inside, they had set up their laptops in the space around the historic telescope. Nevin raided the vending machines downstairs and returned with an assortment of chips, chocolate and gummy products, and with Diet Cokes.
“What are we looking at?” Nevin asked, ripping open a bag of Cheez-its. In the presence of the great scope, his question had obvious multiple meanings, but for now the only observations taking place were theoretical ones in the predictive NASA software suite Diana had loaded on the enhanced computer.
“This is the current model of Icarus’s orbital history.” The screen displayed a three-dimensional model of the solar system, with different colored paths for all the inner planets. A long, obtuse elliptical route, traced in red and extending out far beyond the orbit of Mars, but still within Jupiter’s range, marked the journey of comet Encke, which led the Taurid stream.
“And here,” she said, pointing to another dot along that crimson trail, “is what we’ve got for Icarus.”
Nevin crunched into a snack. He offered her the bag, but Diana didn’t turn around. She hunched over closer, studying the numbers, spatial coordinates and variables streaming by on the right side of the screen, along with tables and assumptions.
“Physics was always my second favorite hobby.” Her lips tugged into a nostalgic smile. “Right after climbing, exploring with my dad.” Her voice trailed off and her eyes took on a view of something even farther away that the sights represented on the screen.
“So, do we have the physics wrong or something?”
Her eyes blinked and she returned her focus to the screen, and the keyboard. She advanced the program, watching the consistent path of Icarus and how the Earth intersected its trail twice a year. “See that? The same elliptical track plan, over and over. We clash into this trail twice a year, and most everyone gets to see the beautiful shooting star display in our skies. All nice and neat. Uniformitarians would be proud that everything’s working as it should.”