Supernal

Chapter 5

10:30 pm Thursday, 21st June 2029

Secure Briefing Room on the OCF

"I know she annoyed some bears, but if you mean the Goldilocks Planet I'm pretty sure that's been proposed and disproved countless times."

"You're right," Charlie smiled. "I was one of the proposers and, like you, I was ridiculed for a paper I published. It didn't ruin my career, but it set me back a few years, so we have something in common Dr Jardine."

"So do you think the aliens asked for you because of your paper, and they asked for me because of mine?"

"Exactly, I think we both touched on the truth and somehow they know about it. So we are likely to be the two most receptive people on Earth to whatever they're going to tell us."

Toby considered that for a few moments. It was logical.

"You better tell me more about this Goldilocks Planet," he said.

"As you said, the idea of a hidden planet, very similar to Earth, has been around for thousands of years. The first recorded mention of it was by a Greek philosopher called Philolaus in about 400 BC. He theorized that there must be a planet, always hidden from view, on the opposite side of the Sun which exactly balanced out the Earth. He thought that the planets could not be in harmony without a 'counter-earth'.

The same idea has surfaced and been dismissed many times since then, but it was finally disproved when radio astronomy was invented and astronomers realized that if there was a hidden planet its gravity would affect the orbits of other planets."

"It would also affect the trajectories of our space probes," Summers interjected. "It's an effect called perturbation."

"That's correct," Charlie agreed, "but in my paper, I theorized that it could exist if the inhabitants of the planet had developed a method of blocking the gravitational effect. Then it would be invisible to detection."

Toby frowned and shook his head sceptically.

"You're talking about anti-gravity. That would need a negative mass and the laws of physics say that's impossible."

"I'm not talking about anti-gravity, I'm suggesting gravity screening, and there were experiments done in the 1990s that showed that might be possible."

"Go on."

"In the early '90s, a Russian engineer called Eugene Podkletnov constructed experiments using supercooled ceramic discs that he insisted could block gravity. His results did show a reduction in the measurable weight of objects but other scientists claimed his results were flawed and could have been affected by other factors. Just like us, he was vilified for his ideas."

"So what made you believe that all this was a viable theory?"

"I was visiting an archaeological museum in California when I saw an object that struck a chord. It was an ancient artefact called "The Roman Dodecahedron"."

"The dodecahedron on display was roughly spherical and was surrounded by more tiny spheres." Charlie continued. "The information card in the museum guessed at several possible uses for it, but to me, it looked like a model of a planet surrounded by satellites. That gave me the idea that if the counter-earth existed it could have a network of satellites that somehow screened its gravitational effect."

"But why would they go to all that trouble?" Toby wanted to know.

"When I wrote my paper I speculated that the most likely reason was to remain hidden from Earth," Charlie answered with a shrug.

Summers, who had listened intently to Charlie, broke in.

"If I hadn't seen that alien spacecraft for myself, I'd say all this was hogwash. But I have to admit, it is the only reasonable explanation for them asking to meet with you specifically. But why would they want to hide their planet from Earth?"

"I have no idea," she shrugged again. "Possibly because they're frightened of us. We humans don't have a great track record of peace and harmony."

"If you ask me," Rob suggested. "They've been secretly controlling us and they didn't want us to know of their existence. They've been using Earth for their own purposes and we've all been completely oblivious to it."

"Rob is a great conspiracy theorist," Summers apologized before glancing at the digital clock set in the soundproofed bulkhead.

"11 pm. We've got an hour to kill. Rob would you get us some coffee, then we'll hear what Toby is bringing to the party."

Rob Stevens left the room and Toby turned to Summers.

"Can you tell me why Rob has been included in the meetings? He seems a little out of his depth for this sort of responsibility."

"Don't let the wisecracks and wacky opinions fool you. Rob's a rock. He's ex-Air Force and flew on search and rescue missions in Iraq, risked his life several times and got the Air Medal for bravery. I'd trust him with my life, plus he knows our communications systems inside out. In any case, he already knew about the message. His role now is to record the meetings with our visitors. We need to encrypt the recordings and put them on SSD cards to send to the president so she can listen to them personally. He's good with all that high-tech stuff."

Rob returned with a tray of coffee and set it down on the table just as Summers finished speaking.

"I've got witnesses to that last bit, boss. I'll be requesting a pay raise when we get back to normal."

"I said you were good, come see me when you're great."

"You'll regret that the next time you fry your hard drive."

"Oh, in that case, I promise to think about it. Now, shall we let Dr Jardine tell us why he's here?"

"Okay," Toby began. "You've probably heard about my infamous paper on Intelligent Design. I assume you asked about me when you found out I was on my way?"

"I googled both of you as soon as we received the message," Rob answered. "You do know we've got internet access up here? I thought your names might give us a lead to the hackers. That was before I tracked the signal."

"Then Rob filled me in on your backgrounds," Summers added.

"Good, then you'll know that I ruffled a few feathers when I put forward a case for the theory of intelligent intervention in the evolutionary process."

"That must be the understatement of the century," Rob remarked. "I read that you threw Darwin's theories out of the window and pissed off the evolutionists. Then you slam-dunked the creationists by rejecting the hand of God. It sounded like you were metaphorically burned at the stake for heresy."

"That's true. I thought I had some convincing arguments but I soon found out that I'd rocked the boat a few degrees too far. I went down with the ship and still haven't surfaced."

"Well, you've got me interested," Summers admitted. "I'd like to hear some of your arguments."

"No problem. I'll give you the potted version."