โA๏ฌood of thoughts hit me all at the same time: Weโre not alone. This is an alien. That ship is weird, how does the engineering of that work? Do they live here? Is this their star? Am I starting an interplanetary incident byโ
wandering into alien territory?!ย โBreathe,โย I tell myself.
Okay, one thing at a time. What if this is another ship from Earth? One I donโt remember? Heck, it took me a few days to remember my name. Maybe Earth sent multiple ships with di๏ฌerent designs? Like, for redundancy or to increase the odds that at least one of them works. Maybe that ship is theย Praise Allahย or theย Blessings of Vishnuย or something.
I look all around the control room. There are screens and controls for everything, but thereโs nothing for a radio. The EVA panel has some radio controls, but thatโs obviously just for talking to crewmates when theyโre outside.
If theyโd sent multiple ships, surely they would have had some radio system so we could talk to each other.
Also, that shipโฆitโs insane.
I cycle through the navigation console screens until Iย ๏ฌnd the Radar panel. Iโd noticed it earlier, but didnโt think much of it. I assume itโs there so I can get near asteroids or other objects and not collide with them.
After a few halting attempts, I manage to turn it on. It immediately spots the other ship and sounds an alarm. The shrill noise hurts my ears.
โWhoa, whoa, whoa!โย I say. I frantically scan the panel until I see a button labeledย โMute Proximity Alert.โย I press it and the noise stops.
I scan the rest of the screen. Thereโs a lot of data here, all in a window titledย โBLIP-A.โย I guess if there were multiple contacts Iโd get multiple windows. Whatever. Itโs all just raw numbers about the reading. Nothing useful like an isometricย Star Trekย scan or anything.
โVelocityโย is zero. They have matched my velocity exactly. That canโt be a coincidence.
โRangeโย is 217 meters. Iโm assuming thatโs the distance to the closest part of the other ship. Or maybe the average. No, it would be the closest part. The point of this system is probably to avoid collisions.
Speaking of collisionsโ217 meters is a ridiculously small distance compared to the size of a solar system. Thereโs no way this is a coincidence. That ship positioned itself here on purpose because Iโm here.
Another reading,ย โAngular width,โย is 35.44 degrees. Okay, some basic math should handle this.
I bring up the Utility panel on the main screen and launch the calculator app. Something 217 meters away is occupying 35.44 degrees of the view. Presuming the radar can see in all 360 degrees (it would be a pretty cruddy radar if it couldnโt)โฆI type some numbers into the calculator to do an ARCTAN operation, and:
The ship is 139 meters long. Roughly.
I bring the Astrophage panel up on another screen. The little map there shows that theย Hail Maryย is just 47 meters long. So yeah. The alien ship is three times the size of mine. Thereโs just no way Earth sent something that big.
And the shape. What is up with that shape? I turn my attention back to the Petrovascope (which is now just acting as a camera).
The center of the ship is diamond-shapedโa rhombus. Well, I guess itโs an octahedron, really. Looks like it has eight faces, each triangular. That part alone is about the size of my ship.
The diamond is connected by three thick rods (I donโt know what else to call them) to a wide trapezoidal base. That looks like it might be the rear. And in front of the diamond is a narrow stalk (just making up terms at this point) that has fourย ๏ฌat panels attached parallel to the main ship axis. Maybe
solar panels? The stalk continues forward to a pyramid-shaped nose cone. Nose pyramid, I guess.
Every part of the hull isย ๏ฌat. Even theย โrodsโย haveย ๏ฌat faces.
Why would anyone do that? Flat panels are a terrible idea. I donโt know anything about who made this, but presumably they need some kind of atmosphere inside, right? Huge,ย ๏ฌat panels areย awfulย at that.
Maybe this is just aย probeย and not an actual ship. Maybe thereโs no atmosphere inside because thereโs nothing alive inside. I might be looking at an alien artifact instead of a ship.
Still the most exciting moment in human history.
So itโs Astrophage-powered. That was the steady Petrova-frequency glow I saw earlier. Interesting that they have the same propulsion tech as we do. But considering itโs the best energy-storage medium possible, thatโs not a surprise. When European marinersย ๏ฌrst came across Asian mariners, no one was surprised they both used sails.
But theย โwhy.โย Thatโs what gets me. Some entity aboard (either a computer or a crew) decided to come to my ship. How did they even know I was here?
Same way I saw them, I guess. The massive IR light coming o๏ฌย my engines. And since the rear of my ship was pointed at Tau Ceti, that means I was shining a 540-trillion-wattย ๏ฌashlight in their direction. Depending on where they were at the time, I might have appeared even brighter than Tau Ceti itself. At least, in the Petrova frequency.
So they can see the Petrova frequency. And so can I.
Iย ๏ฌip through the Spin Drive console screens until Iย ๏ฌnd one labeledย โManual Control.โย When I select it, a warning dialog pops up:
MANUAL CONTROL IS RECOMMENDED ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO ENTER MANUAL CONTROL MODE?
I tapย โYes.โ
It brings up another dialog.
SECOND CONFIRMATION: TYPEย โY-E-Sโย TO ENTER MANUAL CONTROL MODE.
I groan and type Y-E-S.
The panelย ๏ฌnally takes me to the Manual Control screen. Itโs a bit scary.
Not because itโs complex, but because itโs so simple.
There are three sliders labeledย โDrive 1,โ โDrive 2,โย andย โDrive 3,โย each presently at zero. The top of each slider is labeledย โ107ย N.โย The N must meanย โNewtonsโโa unit of force. I guess if I threw all three drives to maximum, it would give me 30 million Newtons. Thatโs about sixty times the thrust a jumbo jetโs engines produce during takeo๏ฌ.
Science teachers know a lot of random facts.
There are a bunch more little sliders. In groups labeledย โYaw,โ โPitch,โย andย โRoll.โย There must be little spin drives on the sides of the ship to adjust its orientation. I can de๏ฌnitely see why itโs a bad idea to mess with this panel. One screw-up and Iโll put the ship into a spin that tears it apart.
But at least they thought of that. Thereโs a button in the middle of the screen labeledย โZero All Rotation.โย Good.
I check the Petrovascope again. Blip-A hasnโt moved. Itโs on my port side, and slightly forward.
Iย ๏ฌick the Petrovascope back to Petrova-frequency mode, and the screen turns mostly black. As before, I can see the Petrova line in the background, occluded by Blip-A.
โLetโs see if you have anything to sayโฆโย I mumble. Spin drive 2 is in the center of the ship. Its thrust will be along my central axis and hopefully wonโt introduce attitude change. Weโll see.
I set it to 0.1% power for one second, then back to 0.
Even with just one engine, at one one-thousandth power, for one second, the ship drifts a bit. Theย โVelocityโย value for Blip-A on the Radar panel shows 0.086 m/s. That tiny thrust set my ship moving about 8 centimeters per second.
But I donโt care about that. I care about the other ship.
I watch the Petrovascope. A bead of sweat separates from my forehead andย ๏ฌoats away. I feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest.
Then, the rear of the ship lights up in the Petrova frequency for one second. Just like I did.
โWow!โ
Iย ๏ฌick the drive on and o๏ฌย several times: three short bursts, a long one, and one more short one. Thereโs no message there. I just want to see what they do with it.
They were more prepared this time. Within seconds, the other ship repeats the pattern.
I gasp. And I smile. Then I wince. Then I smile again. This is a lot to take
in.
That was too fast for any probe to respond. If it had remote control or
something, the controllers would have to be at least a few light-minutes away
โthereโs just nothing around here that could be housing them.
There is an intelligent life-form aboard that ship. I am about 200 meters away from an honest-to-God alien!
I meanโฆmy ship is powered by aliens. But this new one is intelligent!
Oh my gosh! This is it! First Contact! Iโm the guy! Iโm the guy who meets aliens for theย ๏ฌrst time!
Theย Blip-Aย (thatโs what Iโm calling their ship for now)ย ๏ฌres up its engines again brie๏ฌy. I watch closely to memorize the sequence, but itโs just a single low-intensity light. Theyโre not signaling. Theyโre maneuvering.
I check the Radar panel. Sure enough, theย Blip-Aย brings itself alongside theย Hail Maryย and holds position at 217 meters.
Iย ๏ฌick through the Scienti๏ฌc panel to bring the normal telescopic cameras back up. The Petrovascopeโs normal-light camera is just to orient things for the main scope itself. The telescope has much better resolution and clarity. I guess Iโm too excited to think clearly because it took me until now to think of it.
The image is far clearer through the main telescope. I guess itโs just an insanely high-resolution camera, because I can still zoom in and out with no loss of clarity. I have a very good view of theย Blip-Aย now.
The shipโs hull is a mottled gray and tan. The pattern seems random and smooth, like someone started mixing paint but stopped way too early.
I spot motion in the corner of the screen. An irregular-shaped object slides along a track in the hull. Itโs a stalk sticking up withย ๏ฌve articulatedย โarmsโ
coming out of the top. Each arm has a clamp-likeย โhandโย on the end. Itโs only now that I notice a network of the tracks all along the hull.
Itโs a robot. Something controlled from the inside. At least, I assume it is. It doesnโt look like a little green man, and it certainly doesnโt look like an alien EVA suit.
Not that I have any idea what either of those things would look like.
Yeah, Iโm pretty sure thatโs a hull-mounted robot. Space stations back at Earth have them. Theyโre a nice way to do stu๏ฌย outside your ship without having to suit up.
The robot works its way along the hull until it reaches the spot closest to theย Hail Mary. One of its little clamp hands holds a cylindrical object. I donโt really have a sense of scale, but the robot is tiny compared to the ship. I feel like itโs about my size or maybe smaller, but thatโs a wild guess.
The robot stops, reaches toward my ship, and gently releases the cylinder into space.
The cylinder moves slowly toward me. It has a slight rotation, end-over- end. Not perfect, but still a very smooth release.
I check the Radar panel. Theย Blip-Aย is at velocity zero. And thereโs aย โBlip-Bโย screen now. It shows the much smaller cylinder approaching at 8.6 centimeters per second.
Interesting. Thatโs theย exactย same velocity I moved theย Hail Maryย a moment ago whileย ๏ฌashing the engine to say hi. That canโt be a coincidence. They want me to have that cylinder, and they want to deliver it to me at a velocity they know Iโm comfortable working with.
โVery considerate of youโฆโย I say. These are smart aliens.
I have to assume friendly intent at this point. I mean, theyโre going out of their way to say hi and be accommodating. Besides, if there is hostile intent, what would I do about it? Die. Thatโs what Iโd do. Iโm a scientist, not Buck Rogers.
Well, I mean, I guess I could point the spin drives at their ship,ย ๏ฌre them up to full, which would vaporizeโyou know what? Iโm just not going to think along those lines right now.
Some quick math tells me the cylinder will take over forty minutes to reach me. I have that long to get in an EVA suit, go outside, and position myself on the hull for humanityโsย ๏ฌrst touchdown-pass reception with an alien quarterback.
I learned a lot about the airlock when I was giving my crewmates a burial in space andโ
Ilyukhina would have loved this moment. She would have been absolutely bouncing around the cabin with excitement. Yรกo would have been stoic and steady, but he would have cracked a smile when he thought we werenโt looking.
The tears ruin my vision. Lacking gravity, they coat my eyes. Itโs like trying to see underwater. I wipe them o๏ฌย andย ๏ฌing them across the control room. They splatter onto the opposite wall. I donโt have time for this. I have an alien thingy to catch.
I unhook the belt on the chair andย ๏ฌoat over to the airlock. My mind is awhirl with ideas and questions. And Iโm jumping to wild, unfounded conclusions left and right. Maybe this intelligent alien species invented Astrophage. Maybe they genetically engineered it speci๏ฌcally toย โgrowโย spaceship fuel. The ultimate in solar power. Maybe once I explain whatโs happening to Earth, theyโll have a solution.
Or maybe theyโll board my ship and lay eggs in my brain. You can never be sure.
I open the inner airlock door and pull out the EVA suit. So, do I have any idea how to get into this thing? Or how to safely use it?
I disable the chrysalis-lock of the Orlan-MKS2 EVA suit and open the rear hatch. I activate main power byย ๏ฌicking a switch on the belt. The suit boots up almost immediately and the status panel attached to the chest component readsย โwhat the heck? I know everything thatโs going on in here.
We were probably trained on this thing extensively. I know it the same way I know physics. Itโs there in my mind, but I donโt remember learning it.
The Russian-made suit is a single-pressure vessel. Unlike American models where you put the top and bottom on, then a bunch of complex stu๏ฌย for the helmet and gloves, the Orlan series is basically a onesie with a hatch in
the back. You step into it, close the hatch, and youโre done. Itโs like an insect molting in reverse.
I open the back and wriggle into the suit. Zero g is a real boon here. I donโt have toย ๏ฌght with the suit nearly as much as I normally would. Weird. I know this is easier than other times Iโve done it, but donโt remember any other times Iโve done it. I think I have brain damage from that coma.
Iโm functional enough for now. I press on.
I get my arms and legs into their respective holes. The jumpsuit is uncomfortable in the Orlan. Iโm supposed to be wearing a special undergarment. I even know what it looks like, but itโs just for temperature regulation and bio-monitoring. I donโt have time toย ๏ฌnd it in the storage area. I have a date with a cylinder.
Now in the suit, I push steadily against the airlock wall with my legs to push the open rearย ๏ฌap to the wall. Once it gets to within a few inches (centimeters, I should say. This is Russian-made after all), a light turns green on the chest-mounted status panel. I reach up to the panel with my thickly gloved hand and press the Autoseal button.
The suit ratchets the opening closed with a series of loud clicks. With aย ๏ฌnalย โclunkโย the outer seal locks into place. My status board reads green and I have seven hours of life support available. Internal pressure is 400 hectopascalsโabout 40 percent of Earthโs atmosphere at sea level. Thatโs normal for spacesuits.
The whole process took onlyย ๏ฌve minutes. Iโm ready to go outside.
Interesting. I didnโt have to go through a decompression step. On space stations back home, astronauts have to spend hours in an airlock slowly acclimating to the low pressure needed for the EVA suit before they can go out. I donโt have that problem. Apparently, the entireย Hail Maryย is at that 40 percent pressure.
Good design. The only reason space stations around Earth have a full atmosphere of pressure is in case the astronauts have to abort and return to Earth in a hurry. But for theย Hail Maryย crewโฆwhere would we go? May as well use the low pressure all the time. Makes things easier on the hull and lets you do rapid EVAs.
I take a deep breath and let it out. A soft whir comes from somewhere behind me and cool airย ๏ฌows along my back and shoulders. Air conditioning. It feels nice.
I grab a handhold and spin myself around. I pull the inner airlock door closed and then rotate the primary lever to begin the cycling sequence. A pumpย ๏ฌres up. Itโs louder than I would have thought. It sounds like an idling motorcycle. I keep my hand on the lever. Pushing it back to the original position will cancel the cycle and repressurize. If I see even aย hintย of a red light on my suit panel, Iโm going to throw that lever so fast itโll make my head spin.
After a minute, the pump grows quieter. Then quieter still. Itโs probably as loud as it ever was. But with the air leaving the chamber, thereโs no way for the noise to get to me other than through my feet touching the Velcro pads on theย ๏ฌoor.
Finally, the pump stops. Iโm in total silence aside from the fans inside the suit. The airlock controls show that the pressure inside is zero, and a yellow light turns green. Iโm clear to open the outer door.
I grab the hatch crank, then hesitate.ย โWhat am I doing?โย I say.
Is this really a good idea? I want that cylinder so badly Iโm just plowing ahead without any sort of plan. Is this worth risking my life over?
Yes. Unequivocally.
Okay, but is it worth risking the lives of everyone on Earth over? Because if I mess up and die out there, then the whole Hail Mary Project will have been in vain.
Hmm.
Yes. Itโs still worth it. I donโt know what these aliens are like, what they want, or what theyโre planning to say. But they will have information. Any information, even stu๏ฌย Iโd rather not know, is better than none.
I spin the handle and open the door. The empty blackness of space lies beyond. The light of Tau Ceti glistens o๏ฌย the door. I peek my head out and see Tau Ceti with my own eyes. At this distance, itโs a little less bright than the sun as seen from Earth.
I double-check my tether to make darn sure Iโm attached, then I step out into space.
โ
Iโm good at this.
I must have practiced a lot. Maybe in a neutral-buoyancy tank or something. But it comes as second nature to me.
I exit the airlock and clamp one of my tethers to a rail on the outside hull. Always have two tethers. And always have at least one attached. That way youโre never at risk ofย ๏ฌoating away from the ship. The Orlan-MKS2 is possibly the best EVA suit ever made, but it doesnโt have a SAFER unit like NASAโs EMU suit. At least with a SAFER unit you have minimal thrust capability to return to the ship if you fall adrift.
All that informationย ๏ฌoods into my mind at once. I guess Iโve put a lot of time and thought into spacesuits. Maybe Iโm our crewโs EVA specialist? I donโt know.
Iย ๏ฌip up the sun visor and peer toward theย Blip-A. I wish I could glean some special insight by seeing it in person, but itโs pretty far away. Theย Hail Maryโs telescope gave me a much better view. Still, thereโs somethingโฆย unique about staring directly at an alien spacecraft.
I catch a glint of the cylinder. Every now and then theย ๏ฌat ends of the gently tumbling cylinder re๏ฌect Taulight.
Iโve decidedย โTaulightโย is a word, by the way. Light from Tau Ceti. Itโs notย โsunlight.โย Tau Ceti isnโt the sun. SoโฆTaulight.
I still have a good twenty minutes before the cylinder reaches the ship. I watch it for a while to guess where itโll hit. Itโd be nice to have a crewmate inside at the radar station.
Itโd be nice to have a crewmate at all.
Afterย ๏ฌve minutes, I have a good bead on the cylinder. Itโs headed for roughly the center of the ship. Itโs as good a place as any for aliens to aim for. I make my way across the hull. Theย Hail Maryย is pretty big. My little
pressurized area is only half its length and the back halfย ๏ฌares out to be three
times as wide. Most of that will be empty now, I guess. It used to be full of Astrophage for my one-way trip here.
The hull is crisscrossed with rails and latch points for EVA tethering.
Tether by tether, rail by rail, I make my way toward the center of the ship.
I have to step over a thick ring. It circles the crew compartment area of the ship. Itโs a good 2 feet thick. I donโt know what it is, but it must be pretty heavy. Mass is everything when it comes to spaceship design, so it must be important. Iโll speculate about that later.
I continue along, one hull latch point at a time, until Iโm roughly in the center of the hull. The cylinder creeps closer. I adjust my position a tad to keep up with it. After an excruciatingly long wait, itโs almost within reach.
I wait. No need to get greedy. If I paw at it too early, I might knock it o๏ฌย course and into space. Iโd have no way of recovering it. I donโt want to look dumb in front of the aliens.
Because theyโre surely watching me right now. Probably counting my limbs, noting my size,ย ๏ฌguring out what part they should eatย ๏ฌrst, whatever.
I let the cylinder get closer and closer. Itโs moving less than 1 mile per hour. Not exactly a bullet pass.
Now that itโs so close, I can estimate its size. Itโs not big at all. About the size and shape of a co๏ฌee can. Itโs a dull gray color with splotches of slightly darker gray randomly here and there. Similar to theย Blip-Aโs hull, kind of. Di๏ฌerent color but same blotchiness. Maybe itโs a stylistic thing. Random splotches areย โinโย this season or something.
The cylinderย ๏ฌoats into my arms and I grab it with both hands.
It has less mass than I expected. Itโs probably hollow. Itโs a container.
Thereโs something inside they want me to see.
I hold the cylinder under one arm and use the other to deal with tethers. I hurry back to the airlock. Itโs a stupid thing to do. Thereโs no reason to hurry and it literally endangers my life. One slip-up and Iโd be o๏ฌย in space. But I just canโt wait.
I get back into the ship, cycle the airlock, andย ๏ฌoat into the control room with my prize in hand. I open the Orlan suit, already thinking about what tests Iโll run on the cylinder. I have a whole lab to work with!
The smell hits me immediately. I gasp and cough. The cylinder is bad!
No, not bad. But itย smellsย bad. I can barely breathe. The chemical smell is familiar. What is it? Cat pee?
Ammonia. Itโs ammonia.
โOkay,โย I wheeze.ย โOkay. Think.โ
My gut instinct is to close the suit again. But that would just trap me in a small volume with the ammonia thatโs already in here. Better to let the cylinder air out in the larger volume of the ship.
Ammonia isnโt toxicโat least, not in small quantities. And the fact that I can still breathe at all tells me itโs a small quantity. If it werenโt, my lungs would have caustic burns and Iโd be unconscious or dead now.
As it is, thereโs just a bad smell. I can handle a bad smell.
I climb out the back of the suit while the cylinderย ๏ฌoats in the middle of the console room. Now that itโs not a shock anymore, I can handle the ammonia. Itโs no worse than using a bunch of Windex in a small room. Unpleasant but not dangerous.
I grab the cylinderโand itโs hot as heck!
I yelp and pull my hands away. I blow on them for a moment and check for burns. It wasnโt too bad. Not stovetop hot. But hot.
Grabbing it with my bare hands was stupid. Flawed logic. I assumed that since Iโd been holding it earlier it was okay to do now. But earlier I had very thick spacesuit gloves protecting my hands.
โYouโve been a bad alien cylinder,โย I say to it.ย โYou need a time-out.โ
I pull my arm into my sleeve and wrap my hand in the cu๏ฌ. I use my now- protected knuckles to nudge the cylinder into the airlock. Once itโs in, I close the door.
Iโll let it be for now. Itโll cool down to ambient air temperature eventually. And while it does, I donโt want itย ๏ฌoating randomly around my ship. I donโt think thereโs anything in the airlock that can get hurt by some heat.
How hot was it?
Well, I had both hands on it (like an idiot) for a fraction of a second. My own reaction time was enough to keep me from getting burned. So itโs probably less than 100 degrees Celsius.
I open and close my hands a few times. They donโt hurt anymore, but the memory of the pain lingers.
โWhereโd the heat come from?โย I mumbled.
The cylinder was out in space for a good forty minutes. Over that time it should have radiated heat via blackbody radiation. It should beย cold, not hot. Iโm about 1 AU from Tau Ceti, and Tau Ceti has half the luminosity of the sun. So I donโt think the Taulight could have heated the cylinder up much. De๏ฌnitely not more than blackbody radiation would cool it down.
So either it has a heater inside or it was extremely hot when it started its trip. I guess Iโllย ๏ฌnd out soon enough. Itโs not very heavy, so itโs probably thin. If thereโs no internal heat source, itโll cool o๏ฌย very fast in the air here.
The room still smells like ammonia. Yuck.
Iย ๏ฌoat down to the lab. I donโt know where to begin. So many things I want to do. Maybe I should start by just identifying the material the cylinder is made of? Something harmless to theย Blip-Aโs crew might be incredibly toxic to me and neither of us would know it.
Maybe I should check for radiation.
I drift down to the lab table and put out a hand to steady myself. Iโm getting better at the zero-g thing. I think I remember seeing an astronaut documentary saying some people handle itย ๏ฌne, while others really struggle. Looks like Iโm one of the lucky ones.
Iโm usingย โluckyโย loosely here. Iโm on a suicide mission. Soโฆyeah.
The lab is a mystery. It has been for a while. Itโs clearly set up with the idea that thereโll be gravity. It has tables, chairs, test-tube trays, et cetera. Thereโs none of the usual stu๏ฌย you would expect to see in a weightless environment. No Velcro on the walls, no computer screens at all angles. No e๏ฌcient use of space. Everything assumes there will be aย โ๏ฌoor.โ
The ship can accelerate justย ๏ฌne. For a good long time too. It had me at
1.5 gโs for probably a few years. But they canโt expect me to just leave the engines on andย ๏ฌy in circles to keep gravity in the lab, right?
I look around at each piece of lab equipment and try to relax my mind. There has to be a reason for this. And itโs in my memory somewhere. The trick is to think about what I want to know, but not stress about it too much. Itโs like falling asleep. You canโt really do it if you concentrate on it too hard.
So many top-of-the-line pieces of equipment. I let my mind wander as I scan across them allโฆ.
