The Starship Unity

[niteowl]

Prologue

Year 2150
Sparta Command Base

Almost time for the evening meal Jack mused. It seemed like only a couple of hours ago that he had breakfast. It was hard for Jack Gordon to keep up with the time. It seemed to move alot faster here than it did back on Earth. Earth, he thought. Seemed like such a distant memory, an etheral image frozen in time. It was over fifty years ago that he last saw his home. Wait, he corrected himself, it was actually closer to ninety. The trip to this God-forsaken planet took nearly forty years. Of course Jack only remembered bits and pieces of the trip. Mainly the cold. The cold of that cryostasis chamber. Just thinking about it gave him chills.

As he made his way down the corridor to the living quarters of his "home," if you could call four rooms in the Sparta Command habitation ring a home, his granddaughter was waiting for him on the couch.

''Grandpa Jack, will you tell me a story?'' the little girl asked.

''What kind of story pumpkin?'' Jack replied.

''Tell me a story about Earth. We were studying history in class today, and Billy Peale said that Earth blew up into a gazillion pieces and that's why we had to come here to this mean old planet.''

''Now don't you pay any attention to such nonsense as that.'' Jack said. ''Billy Peale is just teasing you. But are you sure you want me to tell you about Earth? Part of it can be a little scary, especially for a little girl like you Jenai...''

''I'm not afraid.'' Jenai insisted. ''And I'm not a little girl anymore either. I can even dress myself now.''

''Oh, well in that case, where should I begin? Oh yes, I remember. Once upon a time...........''


[This message has been edited by niteowl (edited February 01, 2001).]

[niteowl]

Chapter 1

Year 2008
SETI monitoring station outside of Reno, NV

This would be her fourth week on the graveyard shift Diane thought. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy her work, it was just that there is only so much you can do at 3 o'clock in the morning out in the middle of the desert. But that was the price she had to pay for being a research scientist working for SETI. The hours were long, but she enjoyed her work and the pay wasn't too baad. She had just made a downpayment on a new house on the east side of Reno and last year she bought her very first new car. Her reasons for buying this particular car at this particular time was kind of silly but she didn't care. She had been saving money for a car for the past five years so she had put away several thousand dollars. She had been a fan of the James Bond movie series since she was a little girl and since the 2007 models rolled out last year, she was going to pay tribute to a great movie series so she bought a "stealth black" Aston Martin DB7 with all of the options you could possibly get on it, except an ejector seat of course. She even had a custom liscence plate issued, BONDGRL.

She was so wrapped up in her day dreaming she almost missed the blip on her computer screen. Immediately she grabbed the phone and called SETI - Hawaii. "Come on, pick up" she said to herself. The phone rang several times before someone finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Mike! Mike is that you?" Diane almost screamed into the phone.

"Diane, what's wrong? You sound upset. What is it?" Mike asked.

"I have an intermitant signal coming in on dish number two from search quandrant alpha-delta-435. Dial it up on your system so we can confirm it's not just random background noise," Diane said.

"Alright, calm down" Mike said. "It will take a minute for the dish to reposition itself. I'm gonna put the phone down for a sec. Why don't you swing dish #2 five degrees left and see if you keep the signal and then five degrees right and do the same, then bring it back to its original position while I'm gone."

Diane went over to the positioning system and typed in the commands. Slowly the dish rotated to the left. Almost immediately, she lost the signal. She then brought it back to its original position. There it was strong as ever. Then she swung the dish to the right. Again, she lost it. Bringing it back to its original position she picked up the signal again. "Mike, are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here. My dish is still trying to get into position. What did you find?"

Diane hesitated because she was unsure what this would mean, "Well, I did what you said, but when I rotated the dish, I lost the signal. When I returned it to it's original position, there it was again. Are you in place yet?"

"Coming around now." Mike said. As the dish at SETI - Hawaii came into position, Mike almost fell out of his chair as the signal Diane had been tracking displayed itself on his monitor as well. Up until this point Mike thought that Diane had just intercepted a random microwave transmission. That was easy enough to do with the number of cell phones in use these days. He didn't think that anymore. "Um, Diane, we better call Dr. Eicklebert. We've just made contact...."



[This message has been edited by niteowl (edited February 02, 2001).]

[niteowl]

Year 2008
Mountain View, CA

Dr. Julius Eicklebert was startled awake by the ringing of his telephone. Groping for the switch on the lamp he wondered who could be calling at 2 o'clock in the morning. He was highly annoyed, and just a little groggy, as he answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Dr. Eicklebert, this is Diane Ellis. I work at the Reno monitoring facility. I apologize for calling you so early in the morning but this can't wait. At 3:12 am local time, I picked up an intermintent signal from search quadrant alpha-delta-435. I immediately called the Hawaii monitoring station and at 3:20am local time I received confirmation of that signal."

Dr. Eicklebert was wide awake now. "How long did the signal last?"

"The signal remained constant for approximately ten minutes, forty-two seconds." Diane replied. "It then dissipated and was not picked up again."

"Very well. How much longer are you going to be there?" he asked.

"My replacement will get here around 5 o'clock. But I can stay if you need me to." Diane said.

"No, that's fine. Go home and get some sleep if you can and meet me there at noon." Dr. Eicklebert said.

"You're coming out here?" Diane asked. She was a little flustered. This must be really big if the director of SETI - North America was coming out to her little hole in the wall.

"Yes. I'll be flying out as soon as I can. I want to take a look at the data myself. This is the first confirmed off-planet transmission we have detected. Good work Ms. Ellis."

*click*

[niteowl]

Year 2008
SETI Monitoring station outside of Reno, NV

Dr. Eicklebert arrived at the station right at noon. Diane pulled into the parking lot right after he did.

"Ms Ellis, I presume." He said.

"Please, call me Diane." She replied.

"Very well, Diane. Lets have a look at your data, shall we."

Dr. Eicklebert walked in ahead of Diane. He seemed to be a nice enough sort, she thought. Late 50's, probably never married, most scientists live very lonely lives she thought wryly, reflecting on her own string of relationships - or lack thereof. Oh well at least she had her James Bond movies and her two best friends, Ben and Jerry, to escape to. Dr. Eicklebert was handsome enough, in that stuffy professor sort of way. Who knows, if she was ten or fifteen years older, there may have been something between them.

As they finished the climb up to the second story Diane indicated that her office was the second one on the right. She had locked all of her findings in her filing cabinet before she left earlier this morning. "Just let me unlock this." She said.

"No hurry." Dr. Eicklebert replied. "So did you get any sleep?"

"Not a bit." Diane answered. "You?"

"About a half hours worth on the flight over. But not much more than that. Okay. Show me what you've got."

"Take a look at this." She began. "I had dish #2 scanning quadrant alpha-delta-435 on standard wavelengths. At approximately 3:00am local time I picked up a low-level intermittent signal from that sector. I immediately called the Hawaii monitoring station to confirm the signal. At approximately 3:20am, Mike in Hawaii confirmed the signal. The signal remained constant for another ten minutes or so before dropping off the monitor."

"Did you try to pick up the signal again?" He asked.

"Yes. I tried alternate bandwidths as well as rotating the dish to "tune it in" so to speak. But I was unable to reestablish contact." Diane replied.

"What about since you left? Has there been a similar signal picked up?" Dr. Eicklebert asked.

"I don't know." Diane replied. "I just got here as you pulled up. Let me ask Nikki."

Diane went over to her desk and picked up the phone. She dialed the extension of the monitoring room. "Nikki, its Diane. Did you pickup anything since I left this morning on that signal I told you about? No, okay thanks. When you get a second, come up here. I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Eicklebert. Yes, that Dr. Eicklebert. Okay. Bye."

"No, there was nothing else detected since last night." Diane said.

"Fine. Fine." He said. "I need to get this information to Washington. Make me a copy of everything you've got, and make a backup for yourself and put it somewhere safe. Give my apologies to…What was her name? Nikki? Yes, Nikki. I apologies but, I really must go. The jet I chartered to get me here is still waiting for me on the tarmac to go to D.C. I will be in touch as soon as I learn anything. If you find anything else call me as soon as possible. And make sure none of this gets out until we make a formal announcement. We would want the planet to go into a panic. Good work here Diane. Although, you may want to go buy a new suit."

"A new suit?" She asked totally confused. "What ever for?"

Dr. Eicklebert looked at her with a big grin. "Because, you'll be the guest speaker at the next symposium once this gets out."

All of a sudden a look a sheer terror crossed Diane's face. She hated giving speeches. Oh well, she thought, it would be months before anything like this would be made public, if at all. She took some comfort in that as she sat on her cramped little couch and drifted off to sleep.

[This message has been edited by niteowl (edited February 09, 2001).]

[niteowl]

Chapter 2

Year 2012
Pentagon, Washington, DC

Colonel Daniel Bozeman was tired. He was tired of all the boring politics that had been going on for the last 20 years he had been stationed at the Pentagon. He thought back to the "good ol' days" when he was just a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. At least there he had some action. He was reviewing the morning security reports when his assistant walked in.

"Morning Colonel. Catch the game this weekend?" Staff Sergeant Paul Santiago asked. He was referring to the Georgetown / LSU game. Col. Bozeman was a graduate of Georgetown as well as their star fullback his senior year and he rarely missed a home game.

"No Paul, I missed this one. Ginny and I went to visit her parents down in Raleigh. Had Ralph tape it for me though. I'll watch it tonight when I get home. How was your weekend?"

"Not bad, sir. Met this pretty hot girl from Miami at Dino's on Saturday. She's going to school here at Georgetown. She's going for a degree in history of all things. We talked for hours about famous military battles; you know stuff like Little Bighorn, The Gulf War, even Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun. I was amazed she was into that sort of thing."

Sgt. Santiago continued talking for a few more minutes but Col. Bozeman was just barely paying attention. He had drifted off into something of a dazed state. He would have stayed there too if the phone hadn't rang. Paul picked up the receiver.

"Col. Bozeman's office, Sgt. Santiago speaking.

"The Colonel? Who's calling please? Just a moment." He put the caller on hold. "Colonel, there is a Mr. Anderson on the line for you."

He nodded and indicated that Paul should leave the room. Once he heard the door click, he picked up the phone. "This is Col. Bozeman."

"Col. Bozeman, this is…Mr. Anderson. We need to meet. It appears that your dog has runaway and is about to bury his bone in my garden. I will meet you at my house this evening at 6 o'clock."

As he hung up the phone, Col. Bozeman was stunned. He could only imagine what the implications of this call might mean. It was a code that his team used back when he was working with the Agency several years back. The enigmatic Mr. Anderson was a fictitious person created to represent a certain area of the country or even the Nation itself. A runaway dog is an enemy force of some sort. My house is CIA headquarters at Langley. And if the dog is about to bury his bone in my garden, that means he is coming this way.


[This message has been edited by niteowl (edited February 09, 2001).]