The Messenger (0) – Prologue (1) - Shift Change (A-B)

The Messenger (0) – Prologue

You cannot imagine the cold; cold so intense that it numbs all the senses. You cannot imagine the darkness; darkness pierced only by starlight or completely impenetrable. You cannot sympathise with the solitude. To be alone for so long that even the measurement of time has been adjusted to make its passing more bearable.

You are not aware there is anything here. You are being observed: slowly, impassively and efficiently.

You are on your way. Interaction is inevitable. All probable variations have been assessed and factored into the tactical plans.

You will not deviate from your current course. You are not aware of my presence. I am coming.

The messenger (1) Shift Change 1 (A - B)

Andy placed a mug of black coffee on the mess-room table and then returned to the galley to pick up his own mug of Earl Grey. He placed his mug on the table, sat, leaned back in his chair, took the slate from the pocket on his right thigh and began to swipe listlessly through the pages. Satisfied with what he saw, he put the slate down on the table, picked up his tea, took a small sip and breathed out slowly.

The door slid open and Beatrice rushed into the room. She brushed her hair from her eyes and sat down with a bump opposite Andy.

B: “Sorry I’m late. I over-slept. Thanks for the coffee.” She took a deep swig from the mug.

B: “Nice! Is it real java?” She asked with a wink, taking out her own slate and laying it on the table in front of her.

A: “Naturally! It’s real, synthetic java. The menu item even describes it as “java-style”. I thought you would enjoy it. Shall we get down to it?” He said, picking up his slate.

For the next 5 minutes Beatrice and Andy worked their way through reports on the slates. Andy led the way, indicating that most things were within the prescribed limits, pointing out the few where some value had drifted into “the amber zone” and indicating some values where a trend might be developing. It was all very calm, matter-of-fact and business-like.

A: “That’s it really.” concluded Andy. “It was another uneventful watch. Except that I’ve kept back two potentially interesting bits till the end.”

B: “Oo! Do tell!” said Beatrice, looking down at her slate again.

A: Andy swiped his slated with a finger and nodded to Beatrice to look down. “Here they are. There are two unrelated things for you to look into. One’s internal, and one’s external”.

Beatrice nodded.

A: “I’ll start with the internal. At least I suppose it’s internal. You can see it here.” Andy jabbed at the screen on his slate. “One of the monitoring programs has spotted this disturbance in the sensor arrays. There are repeated pulses of what you might describe as ‘white noise’ or interference. Each one is very short duration and they don’t cause any problems but they’re very regular.”

B: Beatrice nodded again. “I can see what you mean. Fraction-of-a second pulse, happens every 5 to 6 minutes. What’s causing it?”

A: “That’s the point Beattie. I have no idea what might be causing it. The standard monitoring programs drew it to my attention but I didn’t get round to running more detailed diagnostics. What is striking is how regular the pulses are. Peak to peak they are every 5 minutes 32 seconds and they have been since they first appeared about 48 hours ago. The only thing that has changed over that period is the intensity of the spikes. They’re slowly getting stronger and the duration of the pulses is getting slightly longer.”

B: “I see. The increasing intensity explains why you’re the first to have noticed them. They were below the alert threshold for most of that time. It’s only recently that the systems have drawn them to your attention. The regularity suggests something in one of the systems may have a problem and the increasing intensity suggest that, whatever it is, it is getting worse. I shall set something to look into that. We want to nip it in the bud if we can. What’s the external nugget?”

A: “Here it is. Look we have a visitor.”

B: “Oo! That is nice. Any problems?”

A: “Not that I can see. The systems spotted it towards the beginning of my shift. It’s too early to tell much about it, except that it is coming in at a fair lick. It crosses our track ahead of us here, ”  he jabbed the screen. “and the projections show there’s no risk of it hitting anything further in. At the moment we can’t estimate: mass, shape, composition or anything much at all really, except that it’s travelling pretty fast. At the moment it’s simply a point and a vector. The first real information will become available on your watch.”

B: “Hmm. I see. So you don’t know if there’s anything in it for us?”

A: “Not a clue. Like I said, at the moment it’s just a point and a vector, nothing else. There hasn’t been anything worthwhile for ages. Knowing our luck, that will continue and it’s just another boring dirty snowball from the outskirts.”

B: “Could we intercept it?”

A: “Ever the optimist, aren’t you? Me too. I got navigation to put in some check-points. You can see them on the chart. If we put in a course correction here (that would be on Davey’s watch) we could catch up and be running parallel with it about here, when I’m back in charge, without expending too many resources. To do that sensibly, we should really make the decision about here, on Charlie’s trick.”

B: “So it’s down to me then. I might make us ri   ch. I’ll give it my attention but I’ll look into the ‘white noise’ as well. We don’t want that getting out of hand. Is that it?”

A: “Yes. That’s it. You have control” He pressed his thumb onto the screen of his slate.

B: Beatrice copied the gesture on her tablet. “I have control.”

A: “I’m off to bed. Have quiet shift, sort out the ‘white noise’ and find us a nickel-iron asteroid with a good dose of precious metals, a smidgen of transuranics and a sprinkling of diamonds. Make us rich. No pressure.” Andy pushed his empty mug into the centre of the table, put his slate back into its pocket and pushed back his chair.

B: “No. No pressure at all. We do miracles while you wait, just another day at the office. Have a good night.

A: As he reached the door, Andy turned back “Are you planning to go to the pub night at the end of the week? Do you know what the menu is?”

B: Beatrice looked up from her slate and looked back towards him. “Yes. I thought I might. I haven’t got anything else on.” She winked. “I think it’s wine this time round. Charlie’s making the arrangements. It’s something to look forward to.”

A: “OK. See you there, if not before. Have a good one”