Schemes of the Unknown Unknown Ch. 19

Chapter Nineteen
The Moon - 3755 C.E.

"I need to speak to you privately," said Oxana Petrovna Korolyov.

Brigadier Svenssen was understandably alarmed. What could this woman possibly want? Why would a Mission Control scientist need to talk to him? His immediate anxiety was that it might be her way of suggesting that they have sex. There were colonies in the Solar System whose citizens were unnervingly frank about their intentions, but he reflected that it was very unlikely in this case. Oxana came from Saturn. She was slim, very pale-skinned and, like all Saturnians, her head was shaved. And typically of Saturn, she was almost certainly a lesbian. Although the brigadier knew little about women, there was no evidence that she had amorous intentions for him.

"Would you like to speak to me now?" the brigadier asked.

"As soon as we can, sir," Oxana said. "But preferably somewhere secure."

The brigadier and she were striding across the lawns outside Mission Control some several kilometres underground and not many levels above the busy shopping arcades and cultural centres of Lacus Somniorum. "Would here be sufficiently secure?" he asked.

"Only if you're certain that there are no listening devices, sir," said Oxana.

"We can never be completely sure about that," said the brigadier, "but there are none that I've authorised. What do you want me to know? You have my complete attention."

Oxana nodded and looked around the brightly lit paths in the huge cavern in which they stood. On one side was the towering but anonymous building where the Intrepid's Mission Control was based. On the other side, looming over them, were stacked level after level of walkways, tramlines and low-rise settlements. Like everyone else on the Moon, they were both obliged to walk with a comical bounce in their step but they were well accustomed to low gravity by now. Mission Control had been based in the Sinus Roris Tower for over two years now. Security was very tight, principally because the premises were shared with other Interplanetary Union projects related to space exploration. The majority of people who worked on the mission believed they were employed on just another scientific expedition into deep space rather than a secret mission to intercept the Anomaly.

"I need to speak to you privately, sir," said Oxana nervously. "You are involved in the operational aspects of the mission and I have some major concerns."

"Am I really the right person to speak to? I'm a military man. I don't really work with day-to-day operations at all."

"I've raised my concerns at several levels, sir, but I don't believe I've really got anywhere. Security is very tight, as you know. The concerns I've raised are scrutinised by very few people before they get passed onwards to higher levels of command. I just don't believe that they've been treated at all seriously. I would have expected an appropriate response by now and I've received nothing at all."

"Are you saying that the normal chain of escalation isn't working correctly?"

"I think that it's being totally blocked at some level."

"And just what are your concerns, Ms. Korolyov?"

Oxana looked about her nervously. She was clearly worried whether someone might be able to overhear her however unlikely this was, as she and the brigadier strode towards an ornamental lake in the middle of the lawn where their only company were a few ducks flapping over the water and the koi carp that occasionally broke the placid surface.

"I believe that the mission has been critically compromised, sir," said the scientist. "I don't know who by, but whoever it is must possess very advanced technology."

"Advanced technology?"

"One more advanced than any currently known to exist in the Solar System."

"Aliens?" wondered the brigadier. This was a natural conjecture given that the most common speculation regarding the Anomaly was that it might be a manifestation of alien intelligence.

"I can't speculate as to what it might be, sir," said Oxana. "I'm not an exobiologist or otherwise qualified to comment. My expertise is in analysing the events that happened on the Intrepid and most specifically the second attack..."

"The one that breached the hull?"

"Exactly."

"Carry on, Ms. Korolyov. You still have my attention," said the brigadier.

Like most officers at Mission Control, Brigadier Svenssen found the second assault far more worrying and problematical than the first. There was an altogether different order of magnitude between an assault by thousands of woefully ill-equipped religious fanatics and the truly overwhelming bombardment that erupted from the asteroid that housed the formidable arsenal. Of course, it wasn't until two months after the event that Mission Control was aware the attack had even taken place, as this was the time it took for data transmitted by the Intrepid to reach the Moon. The news immediately resulted in frenetic activity at Mission Control involving all senior officers. When Brigadier Svenssen was notified, he was in mid-session with three well-muscled civilians he'd met in a bar. The call to arms could hardly have been more poorly timed. His cock was in one arse, his fist in another and he was being buggered by a huge cock from behind. Even though the delay between the actual bombardment and its announcement was so great, everyone had to take emergency action as if it had only just happened. Frustratingly, it would be another three months until any response to Mission Control's enquiries would be received by the far distant space ship.

It didn't take long to identify the provenance of the military arsenal or its owner. It wasn't too surprising that the perpetrator was Alexander Iliescu, one of the wealthiest people in the Solar System. Only a fabulously wealthy individual would have the means to launch such a phonomenally expensive assault. Even less surprising was that the criminal mastermind had already escaped any likelihood of capture. Given what the brigadier now knew about his recent culpability, his death almost certainly had to have been self-inflicted, although the news accounts about his death suggested that it was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.

Alexander Iliescu had left no family, no children and no independent trace of his criminal activities. When his luxurious colony, Almond Grove, was boarded for investigation all that could be found was a large harem of women sex-workers and computer records that had been comprehensively gutted of any useful information. The evidence of his crime could only be obtained by clandestine means.

What was most puzzling, of course, was why such a phenomenally rich man should invest such a substantial proportion of his wealth in the destruction of the space ship Intrepid. Alexander Iliescu wasn't known to hold extreme or radical religious views. In fact, he was known rather more for his liberal opinions and generous philanthropy. But the reason for this bizarre behaviour became just one of a large number of mysteries surrounding the man as the Interplanetary Union's investigations into his life became more extensive. The vast sum of money expended on the purchase of the arsenal couldn't be traced at all. It was as if he'd made a separate fortune even larger than his fabulously vast legitimate one and then spent all of it on a single ultimately pointless project. The man's birth and childhood on the Shikasta colony in the Asteroid Belt was shrouded in mystery. This was partly because the colony had been a collateral casualty of the nuclear war between Pallas and Ceres and any material evidence of his early years was now obliterated into tiny radioactive particles. There was also a surprising lack of supporting evidence from anywhere else in the Solar System. Even the means by which Alexander Iliescu had made his trillions were poorly documented. The more the intelligence officers tried to find out about the man, the less they seemed to know for sure.

The man was a mystery, but his role in the attempted destruction of the Intrepid was incontrovertible. It was he who'd owned the arsenal. It could only have been him who'd authorised its use. The evidence relating to Ellis Gidding was verifiable and unambiguous.

Another question that troubled the investigators was how Alexander Iliescu had even known about the mission. His first recorded interest in acquiring the arsenal wasn't long after the initial plans had been proposed. This implied that there was a mole in the security services at the very highest level. If the hidden source wasn't in the security services, then who, of the very few people involved in the project at that early stage, would have broken confidence? Why would the saboteur be a trillionaire whose public interests were arts, medicine and philanthropy and whose most prominent private passion was to make love to skilled and glamorous sex-workers? How could and why would a man like him assemble a spy network that could penetrate the murkiest depths of interplanetary security.

Brigadier Svenssen was aware that there were many unanswered questions relating to the assault and he assumed that this was what troubled Oxana. Was it possible, for instance, that she'd discovered that a former employee of the master criminal was amongst those on board the Intrepid and might still offer a potential threat? Was there more weaponry that the man had acquired that could yet be employed to sabotage the mission?

"My concerns aren't so much with the attack on the ship, sir, about which there has been so much debate," said Oxana. "My concerns relate to the space ship's defence capability."

"The Intrepid did a splendid job," said the brigadier who felt almost affronted by the suggestion that it had done anything else.

"It did a rather better job than it was actually able to do, sir. There is a mismatch between the ship's defensive capability and the size of the force it managed to fend off."

"Are you saying it was equipped rather too well?"

"No, sir," said Oxana. "There is no way that its military defences were sufficient to ward off the attack. There is no scenario that we can model of the incident in which the space ship can survive given the measurable size of the offensive arsenal and that of the Intrepid's defences. Every scenario results in exactly the same outcome. The Intrepid simply shouldn't have survived."

"With all due respect, Ms Korolyov," said the brigadier carefully, "it must be the model that is at fault. The Intrepid obviously did escape almost entirely intact. The breach in the hull was unfortunate but easily mended. I'm not a scientist but my understanding of any theory is that it needs revising when the evidence invalidates it."

"I'm not sure, sir, that one event in deep space can really refute arithmetic equations that have been sround for thousands of years before space travel even existed," said Oxana. "When a smaller force is set against a larger force, the chances of the smaller force prevailing become progressively smaller the greater the disparity. In this case, the margin is at least ten to one."

"Those are impressive figures, Ms Korolyov, but there has already been a thorough analysis of the records transmitted to us by the Intrepid. Every hostile projectile that was launched has been accounted for. Each one was intercepted and neutralised. The evidence is incontrovertible."

"And so it is, sir," said Oxana, "if that is the only evidence you examine. However, we can also view the events through telescopes in the ecliptic and we can also examine the records of the entire inventory of the arsenal. There are two things that become apparent. The number of missiles launched from the asteroid vastly exceeds the number recorded by the Intrepid. At least twenty times as many were launched than can be accounted for by the Intrepid's systems. This number matches very well the actual inventory of lethal forces that we know was stored in the asteroid. The upshot is that the systems on the Intrepid don't appear to have sent us an accurate record of events."

"Why would that be, Ms Korolyov? What possible reason could there be for the ship's captain to downplay the scale of the Intrepid's success in countering such an onslaught?"

"There is an unusually long gap between the visual evidence of the assault as received by telescopes in the Solar System and the signals relayed from the Intrepid although both are supposed to have been sent at the same time and both travel at the same speed of light. It's very nearly a two second gap, sir."

"What's the significance of that, Ms Korolyov? What are we supposed to deduce from the combination of a gap in transmission and a space ship that has performed better than expected?"

"I would suggest, sir," continued Oxana in the face of the brigadier's evident scepticism, "that there has been some tampering with the data that's been transmitted from the Intrepid. I would further suggest that the data has been tampered at source and not by Mission Control. And I would also suggest that it's been tampered specifically to disguise the presence of a defensive force that didn't come from the space ship Intrepid."

"Are you saying that there has been an upgrade of the Intrepid's defence systems by aliens?" asked the brigadier. "And that these aliens are so modest that they want to hide from us the wonderful things they've done to our technology."

"I have no conclusions, sir," said Oxana. "I only have some very real concerns. And there are other questions I find difficult to answer. There was a change in the character of the daily logs sent by Captain Kerensky to Mission Control dating from several months before the attack. As you know, she broadcasts two logs. One is for the benefit of the crew and passengers of the Intrepid. The other, of which even her Chief Petty Officer is unaware, is broadcast specifically for Mission Control. This is a standard precaution on sensitive missions to keep us informed about concerns and worries the captain might have that she doesn't want to share with her senior officers..."

"And why is that? What secrets can a captain have from her Chief Petty Officer?"

"There's always the risk of mutiny, sir. If the captain suspects this might happen, she should inform Mission Control rather than the people who might be organising the mutiny."

"Hmmm..." said the brigadier who didn't like this type of disloyal speculation. "And what differences in character have you observed in our good captain?"

"Standard analyses are carried out routinely on a captain's logs," said Oxana. "They're done to determine whether she's under stress or is in any other way likely to act in a way that could interfere with her ability to carry out the mission. It's very rarely of much use, of course, because most changes of character fall within the expected range of tolerance. On a mission that has so far involved two major life-threatening incidents and where there is no actual guarantee that the space ship will ever return to the ecliptic, it is only natural to expect that the captain should display a greater than usual shift in her character. What has been observed is that Captain Kerensky has lost much of her sense of humour and has become significantly more guarded in what she chooses to say and how she expresses it. There is also evidence of some peculiar behavioural traits for which there is no previous history in her character."

"Such as...?"

"There is an observable twitch she suffers from when certain aspects of the space ship's operations are mentioned. It appears to be relatively painful. These occur mostly when she discusses any aspect of the ship's command or security. This trait and the captain's newfound caution are consistent with patterns of behaviour observed when people are under unnatural duress. It is commonly employed to make all appear well when it quite simply isn't. There is nothing, however, that definitively falls outside of the normal range, but I still find it rather suspicious."

"So, you believe that the Intrepid has been apprehended by aliens on the basis of a few twitches and a mismatch between events observed through telescopes and the data transmitted by the Intrepid?"

"Something is definitely wrong, sir," said Oxana. "It is consistent with a hypothesis which postulates that the ship's functions have been subverted by an unknown intelligence whose priorities are to ensure that the Intrepid reaches its destination."

"As a risk, something that ensures the success of the mission doesn't sound much like something we should be too worried about."

"That's only if that's what this intelligence is trying to achieve, sir. There is no conclusive evidence that it will always be a benign force."

"Do you think all this might have something to do with the peculiar nature of the Anomaly?"

"If the Anomaly is, as we believe, the source of all the Apparitions that have been observed, measured and analysed throughout the Solar System, who knows how else it might manifest itself."

"Too true," said Brigadier Svenssen. "Is it possible that the Anomaly is the source of all this strangeness?"

"As I say," Oxana said carefully, "all we know from the evidence is that there are some measurable inconsistencies. It may have nothing to do with the Anomaly."

"So, your view is that the Intrepid's mission has been compromised by contact with an alien intelligence which we don't understand and which may be totally independent of the Anomaly?"

"Yes, sir," said Oxana.

"Unfortunately as a military man there's not much I can do with your suppositions," said the brigadier thoughtfully. "My military forces are based on the Intrepid and I can't brief them without doing so through the space ship's communication systems. I also have no idea what advice I'm supposed to give them. None of them have expressed anxiety about the ship being hi-jacked by aliens."

"I see, sir."

"I can also understand why there may be less enthusiasm than you perhaps appreciate for investigating a phenomenon that doesn't appear to have damaged the Intrepid's operational efficiency," said the brigadier. "But, on the other hand, I must admit there is something very strange given what you've said. Essentially, there is a disparity between the accounts we have from sources other than the Intrepid. Combined with the captain's mysterious change of character, this makes you suspect that the mission is no longer being run from Mission Control. I suggest that you continue to keep me informed of anything else that you notice."

"Thank you, sir," said Oxana who left Brigadier Svenssen clearly disappointed that he hadn't embraced her concerns with quite the enthusiasm she'd hoped.

The brigadier walked on towards the furthest perimeter of the Sinus Roris Tower gardens deep in thought. What troubled him wasn't just Oxana's speculation about aliens taking over the Intrepid, but a whole host of other issues that also persuaded him that the Intrepid's mission was fatally compromised.

He wondered, for instance, why space had been found on board the ship for Paul Morris and his new wife. Even reasons of political expediency didn't fully explain why someone of no apparent use to the mission should be transported at immense cost from the Kuiper Belt and then beyond the Heliopause to the very limits of the Sun's gravitational influence. And who was this woman so enamoured of a man who the brigadier would rather kick out of his bed than have the dubious pleasure of fucking?

The brigadier also wondered about Colonel Vashti, his onetime lover. He was certain that she wasn't quite a normal person. Not only did she have a peculiar body, her historical records were just as odd and incomplete as those for Alexander Iliescu. Was she and the trillionaire in some way connected?