The messenger (5) Playing Catch-up (AB)

Andy and Beatrice are sitting in the control room. It’s not a large space. There are 3 seats in front of a console. Andy is sitting in one of these seats and is looking intently at a monitor screen ahead of the console. It shows what appears to be a stationary star-field.

A short distance behind Andy there is a group of 4 more seats. 3 of these are facing inwards towards the centre-line of the control room. Beatrice is occupying the fourth seat. She has swivelled it round and is looking intently at a smaller monitor screen on a panel in front of her.

A: “How’s it going?”

B: “I was almost expecting you to ask – are we there yet?” She smiled. “It’s coming. It will be long-side of us in about 45 minutes.”

A: “I hope I didn’t sound like I was nagging. I want to see this thing in the flesh, or ice or iron or whatever-the-heck it is.”

B: “It’s alright. I really do understand. If we are wasting our time then I would like to know as soon as possible, so that we can get back to the daily grind. If it’s a money-making opportunity then I would like to be doing something about it too.”

A: “And if it’s little green men?” (with a smile)

B: “You and your little green men. If it’s little green men, or even something which hints at little green men, then I want to know yesterday! If it’s that, then doesn’t matter what else, we’re famous. But of course it’s not. How can it be? There are plenty of strange things out here, without them being caused by aliens. You know. We’ve seen enough of them together.”

A: “Well, what does it look like then?”

B: “If I’m going to be honest, and I should be. I’m still not sure. Whatever it is, it doesn’t play too nicely with our various sensors at this range. I can tell you that it’s about one-point-two kilometres long. It’s about 100 metres wide. It seems to be a very regular long shape. I can tell you its mass within a few 100 kgs. That was actually the first thing we knew with any accuracy. As for density, it’s too dense for a typical snowball, more like solid water ice, but certainly not dense enough for solid metal.”

A: “But have you any idea what it looks like?”

B: “No. And in a way that is the puzzling bit. I can tell that it is rotating. It’s not tumbling mind you. It’s rotating about its longitudinal axis. It certainly isn’t tumbling. But for some reason the Doppler isn’t giving a clear estimate of the rate of rotation. That might be because it has a bright albedo, or to put it another way, it’s rather shiny.”

A: “Shiny, as in – like a lump of ice?”

B: “Exactly. That’s what I was thinking too. If it is, then it’s a really funny lump of ice!”

A: “Anyway, when to we get to see this marvel?”

B: “It will be clearly visible in about half an hour and then be alongside us about 15 minutes after that. It will seem to be overtaking us, pull alongside and then come to a halt. It’s all to do with the relative velocities, but it always strikes me as a bit strange. Should I call the others? I don’t suppose they want to miss the big event of the trip.”

The door at the back of the control room opens. Beatrice turns to one side and Andy turns round in his seat.

A: “Hello there. We were just talking about you both. Beatrice says that the show is about to start. Pull up a chair and make yourselves at home.”

Charlotte and Dave take the front seats in the group of four and turn towards the front viewing screen.