Overture (Earth Song) (13 page)

Alicia
waited and crossed her fingers. Her screen did not go blank, there was no message informing her that she had been cut off. Her friend had done a good job. “I would rather not be silenced at this time,” she typed triumphantly, “My name is Alicia Benjamin, and what I have to say needs to be heard regardless of what the Association thinks.”

“
Ah, our defrocked member who sees things that aren’t there, come back to wreak havoc at this meeting as your pitiful revenge?”

“
If that is how you want to remember me, that is your choice. But I’m not here for revenge. Although I suspect there will be a certain amount of vindication in my data.”

“
Has your mysterious asteroid disappeared again?”

“
No, it’s still there. And soon everyone will know it’s there, because it’s coming for a visit!” There was no reply for a long moment and she began to wonder if they had cut her off after all. Alicia was sure they were working furiously to cut her out of the network. She'd been assured that the only way they would succeed was to bring down the entire chat and restart it, something they would probably only do as a last resort. Her main job now was to keep the moderator talking while the curiosity of the many members listening in took effect.

“
Your asteroid appeared right on time, right where it should have been.”

“
I have to admit, that mystified me in the beginning. But I’ve spent so many hours looking at LM-245; I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. So I kept looking until it came to me. As some of you are no doubt learning by looking at the data on that URL I gave you a few minutes ago, LM-245 made several changes as it passed behind the sun. Whatever event I witnessed pushed the asteroid into a much shallower orbit.

“
This new orbit grazed the sun’s photosphere. Whatever pushed it into that new orbit took extreme measures to conceal the effects. Half the asteroid’s surface was melted, erasing all of its once familiar impact marks. The rotation was almost eliminated as well. It took five days for me to see the changes.”

“
Fascinating. So someone, or something, I would guess you are saying, altered the orbit of LM-245 in such a way that it dove through the highest levels of the sun’s atmosphere and emerged right where it should have been, based on our observations, but much closer to Earth's orbit. And why, if I might ask, would some other worldly power go to this effort?”

“
To kill us,” was her simple reply. “Look at the data and judge for yourself. On May 21st LM-245 will impact the Earth and we’ll all have our answers.” At that point whoever was operating the chat program gave up trying to silence Alicia and shut down the chat program.

Alicia
’s IM beeped. “Damn fine job!” was Mindy’s message to her.

“
Well played,” chimed in a friend at SETI.

“
I guess we’ll see what happens,” Alicia replied.

“
There is always a member or two of the press watching these monthly meetings,” Mindy told her. “I’m certain curiosity will get the better of them. At least because of the drama factor.”

“
I pray you’re right,” Alicia typed. Nearby lay piles of printed charts and calculations. Over and over again she'd run the numbers and printed out her conclusions. LM-245 was now a deadly weapon aimed at their planet. She cursed herself for not having the skill to complete the details sooner. Her incompetence had cost the planet precious days. “I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

The
others said their good byes and Alicia went to get a cup of tea. When she returned she found an e-mail waiting. It was from the science and technology editor of the BBC, and he had some serious questions to ask. “Thank God,” she said and picked up the phone.

Thousands of miles from where Alicia worked frantically to get her dire news to an utterly unprepared world, Mindy leaned back in her chair and heaved a great sigh. It was not her own vindication or revenge, but she and her friends at SETI had been instrumental in Alicia's success.

“
Mindy, are you in there?” asked a voice nearby. Mindy turned around and looked at the voice in confusion. “I said you’ve got a call on line five.”

She
shook her head to clear the cobwebs and reached for the phone. She'd stayed up all night finishing the groundwork for Alicia’s surprise party. Yawning, Mindy picked up the phone and stabbed the flashing light. “SETI, Mindy speaking.”

“
I figured I’d find you there,” said a voice that took her breath away in a gasp. “Weren’t expecting to hear from me, were you?”

“
No Jake, I have to say I’m surprised you found me.”

“
You weren’t exactly hiding.”

“
Pretty obvious, huh?”

“
Yeah.” The line was silent for many seconds before her ex-fiancé spoke again. “I miss you.”

“
I miss you too, but you have to realize I had to come back.”

“
I do, but I can’t understand why it had to be without me.”

“
I don’t expect you to, that’s why I left you my share of our joint account.”

“
You didn’t have to do that, but I appreciate it. Even Charlie misses you.”

“
Is there another reason you called?” she asked quickly, a catch in her voice. “Besides missing me, of course,” she added to take the harshness from her question.

“
I had a call for you. Well, I’ve had a lot of calls for you. Took a while for me to explain to the boss where you had disappeared to and why. They’ve given you an indefinite leave of absence.” She said she hadn’t known but was grateful, which she really wasn’t. “But when I got to work this morning there was a call from someone named Skinner.”

“
Leo Skinner, Doctor Leo Skinner of NASA?”

“
Yeah, that’s him. He said he needed to talk to you right away. I said you’d left and didn’t know where you’d gone. He was quite adamant that he needed to speak to you and when I refused to give a number, he begged me, actually begged me, to give you this message.”

“
Thanks for calling; I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”

“
You’re right. But it’s good to hear your voice again.”

“
You too,” and that wasn’t a lie. “Take care,” she finished and hung up.

“
Miss your man?” asked the technician.

“
In some ways,” she admitted. Then she looked around at all the equipment and busy astronomers and a smile lit her face. “I’ve got another call to make,” she said.

Mindy
found the number in her Blackberry and quickly dialed it. A receptionist answered the line. “NASA, Dr. Skinner’s office.”

“
I need to speak to Dr. Skinner please, this is Mindy Patoy.”

“
Certainly, Ms. Patoy, he’s expecting your call.” There was a short pause and the line clicked.

“
Mindy! I was certain your fiancé knew how to get in touch with you.”

“
Yeah, but he’s not my fiancé anymore.”

“
Oh, damn, sorry to hear that.”

“
Don’t be. What can I do for you?”

“
I was wondering if you still practice one of your favorite hobbies. What did you call it? ‘Varying Perspective Astronomy?’”

Mindy
laughed and shook her head. Dr. Skinner was one of her professors while at Princeton. Early in her career she had taken to studying the constellations and how the view would shift as you moved away from Earth. She’d called it Varying Perspective Astronomy and wrote a paper on it, much to the chagrin of her professors. While technically interesting brain food, it was mostly mental masturbation that stemmed from her inability to avoid nitpicking sci-fi films.

“
It’s still a hobby.”

“
Have you ever tried it in any practical exercises?”

“
How could I? I’ve never been to another planet.”

“
Would you like to have a go at it?” She sat there and stared at the phone in shock. Leo was about the most heavily grounded scientist she'd ever known. To hear him say such a thing was profoundly disturbing. “At a loss for words? Look, I’m sorry to ambush you, but I need your help. If you agree, I need you to go to the Seattle federal building, 18
th
floor FBI offices, ask for agent Smith, tell them who you are. We’ll talk more later.”

She
opened her mouth to speak but a click told her the line was dead. “Shit,” she said and hung up.

“
Bad news?” asked the technician.

“
Brian, isn’t it? Don’t you have something else to do?” The man looked sideways at her and left. Mindy left the equipment room and went to the radio astronomy operations center. Calling any part of their building in suburban Seattle an operations center was an injustice. What was once a two-story warehouse was saved from the wrecking ball and rehabilitated into a serviceable office. The neighborhood was less than friendly, requiring almost daily removal of graffiti from the walls outside. A sign over the doorway reminded employees and guests; “Did you lock your car?” Inside the astronomy center she found one of her oldest and dearest friends, the voice behind many IM conversations, Harold Binder.

“
Hey, Harold, how goes the decoding?”

“
I think we’re so close I’m getting a hard-on!”

“
Don’t point that crusty old thing at me, it might go off!” The tall, lanky astronomer smiled behind his flowing, gray beard. “I have to run into town for a few minutes,” she told him.

“
Not going back to Jerry are you?”

“
Jake, and no, I’m not going back to him. I just need to talk to someone.”

“
No problem, babe. I’m not expecting things to really heat up for a few hours. It’ll take that long for the press to finish chewing over what Alicia dumped in their laps.”

“
Cool, see you in a couple hours.”

As
she drove toward downtown Seattle, a small smile crossed her face. The kick they gave the powers that be in the WAA would no doubt cause some chaos. It was also effective in leading toward her own vindication. She wasn’t the first astronomer to be ruined by the good old boys who ran the Association, but thanks to their efforts, Alicia Benjamin might well be the last.

The
road from the office to I-5 then headed north into Seattle proper. As the freeway hugged a hill to the southeast of the city, she passed the old Boeing field and the city came into view. Mindy was suddenly confronted with a strong sense of loss. If what they had discovered was true, and she had every reason to believe in Alicia’s calculations, then this could all be gone in a few months. Shortly behind the feeling of loss was one of regret. Had they done the right thing in letting the information out like that? Wouldn’t it have been better to tell the government? Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been as satisfying, that’s for sure.

A
few miles from downtown on the crowded interstate brought her the best view of the famous Space Needle. Built over fifty years ago it was still the most recognizable West Coast icon right behind the Golden Gate Bridge. She consulted her memory for the proper exit and took it. A few blocks down the city’s terraced streets, the bay now in view far below, she finally reached the federal building. Luck was with her and she found a rare street level parking space only a block away. After feeding a handful of change into the meter, she was walking toward her destination.

The
stroll was enjoyable, owing to the temperate climate. It was an average April afternoon and the temperature was teasing sixty degrees with only a light haze of clouds. A rainstorm threatened for the afternoon but that was par for the course in Seattle. Many natives of the Pacific Northwest loved to joke that they were born with webbed feet. The spring was particularly onerous with sometimes a straight month of rain. She made note of a coffee cart vendor a short distance from the federal building and decided to get a cappuccino after her meeting.

Inside
the building she went through the tight security and signed the log before proceeding to the elevator. The eighteenth floor was a short ride and before she knew it she was stepping out in front of the FBI logo on a glass door. She knew she had been under surveillance since she entered the building and took it in stride. Pushing the door open she walked up to the handsome and undoubtedly armed man behind the desk and smiled.

“
Welcome to the Seattle office of the FBI, I am Special Agent Whitehead, how can I help you?”

“
I’m here to see Agent Smith,” she said. He cocked his head in confusion. “I’m sorry ma’am; we don’t have an Agent Smith in this bureau. Can I look for this agent in the national index for you?”

“
Tell Agent Smith that Mindy Patoy is here to see him,” she insisted. Instantly his demeanor changed and he stood calmly.