Escaping the Cradle

by Karen Page

Part 26

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Part 26
DATE:FC+119

"This doesn't make sense," sighed Evan. "A new round of understanding alien file formats."

They'd successfully parsed the two Hytuna documents, but this one was different. This was star information and who claimed which one. They'd converted it into human format, but it was still just a file full of text and numbers.

"We don't even know if it's Sol based," said Becky. "It could be centred on any number of stars, including the galaxy centre."

Liam highlighted a section of text. "This looks like a formula. Why would they put a formula in a star map?"

"Because stars move," said Evan, his frown turning into a smile. "That is going to be our key. Stars move relative to each other, so the chart isn't just now, it is long term. And since mathematics is universal, we should be able to use that. We have motion data from the Gaia data sets. We already used that to calculate the actual position of stars rather than where they're appear to be."

"We also have the formula given to us for communicating," said Jessica on the screen. She was in America, but she often joined this type of discussion. "We can strip out the satellite part of the formula, and that will give us the motion of their star."

"They gave us that in Earth notation. The motion and speed were familiar to us. This is all in Hytuna. Light might travel the same speed, but we calculate light years or light seconds. How far light travels in a set period of time. And we measure the distance it travels in human meters."

"That's all in the appendix in the primer, isn't it?" said Becky.

"Yes, but it's all part of the conversion. And their numbers are base-8."

"You're going to want me to create a program for this, aren't you?" smiled Becky.

There was a chorus of agreement that this was the case.

"Before I do anything, I want to walk through one on the board," said Becky.

"Okay," said Evan grabbing one of the marker pens. "Jessica, you should be able to see this using camera 3."

"Got it," she confirmed.

Evan carefully copied the Hytuna formula, and then below converted it gradually from base-8 to base-10. Hytuna symbols to standard human maths symbols.

A knock on her door startled Jessica. It was early for someone else to be in the office. She'd come in especially for this call.

She muted the call and called, "Come in."

A young man entered. He was in his mid-twenties, and looked dishevelled, like he'd slept in his clothes.

"Hi Randal, you're in early."

"I could say the same."

"I've got a conference call," she said, pointing at the large screen on her conference desk. It still had the formula on it.

"Oh, the relative vector of Vega," said Randal, shuffling into the room. "Why are you looking at that?"

Jessica looked across in surprise at the young man. He'd just walked in and instantly understood what it was. "What?!"

"That formula. Ooh, you have Hytuna. What are you working on?" he enquired, always inquisitive and ready to soak in new data. He was one of the first employees hired when the company was founded a few years ago. Randal always seemed to have his head in the clouds, but his work was fantastic.

"Hang on. You come in, and you instantly recognise a formula, and you're only part of the way into the room."

He shrugged. "I enjoyed the book Contact. You know, by Carl Sagan. Anyway, when I was doing my masters, I did some orbital mechanics. I decided it would be fun to see what the path of Vega is in relation to Earth."

"Was that part of your course?" asked Jessica, slightly intrigued.

"No, just for my own fun."

It wasn't what Jessica would have regarded as fun, but she'd done some strange things when she was young. Jessica turned back in her chair and unmuted the call. "Hey. I've just been interrupted by the guy who calculates our orbital insertions. He recognised it as Vega."

She heard Becky's voice. "I've just pulled up the details from the Gaia catalogue and converting it to relative motion."

"How did you remember that was Vega?" asked Liam, wondering what type of person Jessica had working for her.

"Orbital Mechanics is my job," Randal responded immediately.

"Back at university it wasn't," retorted Liam, unsure of this chap.

"It's a passion," Randal admitted at last, sounding almost embarrassed.

"There's nothing wrong with that," said Evan. "Be proud."

"Confirmed," said Becky. "That's Vega."

"Well done, Randal," said Jessica and muted the call. She then gently asked, "So, what are you doing here this early?"

"I wanted to talk with you before the others got in. The satellite we're building. I've done the math, and we won't be able to get it into that orbit with that strength engine."

"But the engine is powerful enough when it's there?"

"Oh sure. It's perfect for that. At Earth-Sun L4 there doesn't need much station keeping. It practically just sits there."

"Great. At the moment, don't worry how it's going to get there. I'll tell you more about that next week. Just make sure everything is calculated and ephemerides computed. That all needs to be completed before it is moved for final fitting. When I finish this call, I'll come down to your office, and you can give me a rundown on things."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Randal, still confused, but left her office, closing the door behind him.

"Sorry about that," said Jessica.

"You need to learn to lock your door," said Becky good naturedly so not to upset Jessica, "but it saved several hours work. So, take him out for a beer. He deserves it. Send his details across, we can have security check him. If he's cleared, we might ask if he can be used to calculate other things like that for us. He seems to enjoy that. In the meantime, don't tell him more than he already knows."

"Will do. Do you want me on the call on Friday?"

"Yes. Hopefully, it will go to plan, but you know more about satellites than we do. This company seemed more than happy to do what we asked."

"Now we just have to work out the conversion for speed. It shouldn't be too bad. We know which star, so we can use that information to correlate."

A ping on Becky's phone startled her. She glanced at the notification then sighed in frustration.

The discussion regarding the star map conversion paused, and their attention shifted to Becky, who appeared noticeably paler.

"What's up?" asked Evan, concerned at his friend's sudden mood change.

Becky opened the email and scanned it. "I've just been told there is a cancellation on Friday for my referral at Milton Keynes. I've put off seeing doctors for years, and now I decide to go forward things happen at really bad times."

"Go. Henry and Liam are off to Manchester. I'm going to be here. What time is the appointment?"

"Ten."

"Perfect. We aren't launching until two in the afternoon. James and Sam are around, see if they can drop you off at a nearby airport. You can be back in time. I'm sure there's an airport near Milton Keynes."

Becky stood there, shocked by Evan's response. "That feels wrong," Becky said at last.

"Why?"

"It isn't going to cost much. Perhaps an airport parking fee."

"Cranfield Airport is the closest," said Jessica, still on the call. "It's linked to a university. I'm sure they'd love to see it. If not, they could drop you off and collect you when you get back there."

Becky didn't know what to think. This was happening too quickly. She wanted her final operation, but she thought the steps to get there were going to take time. They had, but now things were speeding up and that two-month comfort window had gone.

"Hey," said Ashleigh coming into the room. Jessica had sent a quick message, saying that Becky might need her. Seeing Becky in distress sent a shiver up her spine, and she rushed across. "What's wrong?"

"Becky got an email about a cancellation appointment in Milton Keynes. It's Friday morning," explained Liam.

"And I think we might have come on a bit strong," admitted Evan. "Sorry."

"Becky," said Ashleigh, putting herself in front of her girlfriend. "Look. It's your transition and you do it your way. Your transition, your rules."

"It's just a shock," said Becky. "I thought I had longer."

Ashleigh had a look at the email, which was still open on Becky's phone. "Your appointment in two months still stands. You don't have to take the cancellation. It is your choice. Don't forget you'll also have a wait to see a surgeon. I hear that can take a while. And they are only going to talk with you. It doesn't matter if it is two days or two months. I don't think you're going to be any different."

"True. It's been suggested we take one of the ships. Well, get James to drop us off. I really need to learn how to fly them. I could be back for the test."

"And what if they decide to give you a double session, like what happened in Cheltenham?" asked Ashleigh.

Becky thought it through. "We'd still be back."

"I'm sure nobody was pressuring you. It might have felt like it, but I'm sure they were just giving you a scenario showing it could work. At the end of the day, it's your transition. Your rules. You are the only one who can decide if you take the earlier appointment. If you do, I'll arrange everything. If you decide on two months, that's just as valid."

"And in two months we might be even busier," thought Becky aloud.

Ashleigh didn't say anything but just cuddled Becky. After a few seconds basking in Ashleigh's love, Becky leaned across, gave her a gentle kiss, and they disentangled. "Can you check with James and Sam?"

"Will do," she said, giving Becky another hug. "Even if they can't, accept the appointment and we will drive there, or get a helicopter from Staverton."

Staverton was the location of a small airport between Gloucester and Cheltenham. Officially known as Gloucestershire Airport, the locals still called it Staverton. They'd tried to grow, but they could never make it work. Too much competition with Bristol, Birmingham and Cardiff airports not being too far away. London was only a few hours."

Becky gave a small giggle knowing that James would never allow that. She sent the acceptance of the appointment change before she could change her mind. With that done, she felt better; the weight of conflict gone.

"I better go and see what Randal really wants," said Jessica. "Catch you all again."

She disconnected from the meeting, leaving just the team at The Anchor.

"That Randal person seems... I don't know," said Liam. "Something felt off."

Becky pulled up an image from the meeting, but nobody saw an issue. "Ashleigh, you should be getting a request from Jessica to have security check him. If you've not got it, you should have the information from their files."

"I'll send it to Laura's guy and get on with James and Cranfield. I never thought I'd be involved with getting people investigated. What a world I now work in!"

"It isn't that different from your previous company," Becky laughed, beginning to feel better. "You still keep a group of scientists from overworking."

"I've not had to do much in that line recently. Now you've done the complex bit, you've all been a lot more relaxed."

"We know the limits," said Liam. "We've experienced what it is like to overdo it. I wouldn't want to feel like that again."

"And Jenny was so upset and frightened," added Evan. "I would do a lot to not see her like that."

"Okay, it's time we got back to this conversion," said Becky, break time over.

"Time!" said Liam. "That's what's wrong. Can you pull up the picture of Randal?"

Becky did as she'd been asked. "There," crowed Liam. "That watch, it's a Rolex. He's dressed so poorly, but his watch is worth thousands."

"It could be a replica or an heirloom."

"It could be," agreed Liam, "But at least I now know what made me feel like something was wrong. Anyway, let's work on the speed value."

Ashleigh gave a small wave and went back upstairs to her work leaving the scientists to work on their problem in peace. They worked for an hour but made little progress. It didn't make sense. Nothing they tried converted to the value they had from Gaia.

"How about we find the next two stars. Hopefully, they will be in Gaia and then we can see how the speeds look. We can then see if something isn't backwards. Ours is in meters per second. Perhaps theirs is in time per distance or something else. We need a copy of their science books. Get a better understanding of their metrics."

"Is there no appendix in the Hytuna intermediate level document?" asked Evan, pondering where else they might get the information.

"Yes, but it didn't cover that," responded Becky, thinking back to her quick review of it. "Perhaps we need their advanced level."

"Okay, moving on, we have a starting position, but no epoch or starting time. Perhaps that is second nature to them, and they didn't include it."

"We can work it out," said Liam. "We can take the starting position of Vega, its speed and its vector and we can work forward until we reach where it is now. We'll then know the starting time."

"Let's hope it's consistent for all stars," mused Becky.

"It's another thing we should be able to verify when we have some more matches," said Evan.

"Okay, so it's all dependent on me writing a program, and matching to the converted Gaia database," said Becky. "Okay, leave it with me. I have some routines already written, so hopefully it will be the running that takes time, not the writing. The conversions aren't going to be the issue; it's the matching that'll take time."

Becky got to work using the lab, so Evan and Liam could continue discussions without interrupting her. She did a single pass over the Gaia data for everything within two hundred parsecs. That would give a good working amount of data to convert to the format she needed for comparison. After that, she set a background task to run it for the whole dataset. Just in case. The furthest they'd gone was 150 light years, but Aurora and Eos theoretically could travel much further.

Then she coded the analysis of the alien star data. This was a lot larger than she'd expected. She set it converting and matching against the converted Gaia database.

Needing the toilet, she rushed out of the lab into the discussion area. There was Jenny and Kelly, having a lesson with Evan. She closed her eyes in horror. She'd done it again.

"Hey Ma," called Jenny.

"Hi," responded Becky, neither of the two girls seeming concerned that Becky hadn't collected them. "Who collected you?"

"Mum. She said you were busy."

"Yes. Sorry for disturbing your lesson," she said, giving her daughter a quick hug before rushing to the toilet.

When Becky returned, Kelly's dad, Clive, was pulling into the car park. She went to the front door to let him in.

"Clive," she said, shaking his hand. "Good to see you."

When she removed it, she felt a slip of paper tucked inside. She kept her face neutral, though the move seemed strangely clandestine. Why the performance when it was just the two of them? Then again, Clive's GCHQ instincts might explain it. She longed to read it immediately but steadied herself. If he was breaking his usual pattern, it had to matter.

"How's Kelly doing?" he asked.

"She's lapping it up. She really seems to enjoy the extra lessons."

"Yes, it seems the school has noticed her improvement. The head phoned earlier concerned if she was feeling bored."

"It's great they're keeping an eye on the situation,"

When Clive had left with Kelly, Becky looked at the slip of paper. It said, 'NSA concerned about your satellite company in USA. Be careful.'

Becky's first thought was Randal. Was he an NSA agent? She knew that their factory had attracted attention of agencies, but ever since the blunder by UK Military Intelligence, things had been quiet. It probably wouldn't stay that way.

She thought about ringing Jessica, but if the NSA were interested, would their conversations be intercepted? This was beyond her experience. She thought about ringing Laura but decided on a different course of action.

She went upstairs and found Ashleigh. Passing Clive's note to her, Becky asked, "Do you know if Tina is contactable?"