Anomaly (8 page)

“And we're still quite young,” said Bates, picking up where Anderson left off. “From the point of view of an interstellar civilization, we've only just taken baby steps into orbit. We've walked on our moon, but everything else we've done within our solar system has been robotic, carried out at arm's length, at the very limits of our technology.”

“Precisely,” said Teller, excited about how all these points were coming together into a coherent concept. “So the anomaly is trying to figure out exactly how much we know. It wants to know where we are at in terms of progress. It's asking as many questions of us as we are of it.”

“And what happens then?” asked Mason. “What happens when it finds out our limitations?”

There was silence for a few seconds.

“Well, once it knows,” began Teller, thinking about it deeply. “When we get to the point where we can no longer complete elements in the periodic table, it will understand precisely how advanced we are. And it will work with us according to what it thinks we can understand.”

Mason was silent, thinking about what was being said. Anderson and Bates nodded in agreement.

“You've got to remember,” said Teller. “This really is a two-way conversation. As we learn about the anomaly, it also learns about us. This is a meeting of two civilizations separated by tens of thousands, if not millions of years of technological advancement. We just don't have any parallel. It's not like Columbus discovering the American Indians. The inequality between us is such that it would be more like Jane Goodall working with chimpanzees in the wild for the first time, only we're the chimps. I suspect it's learning more about us than we're learning about it.”

And the furrow on his brow showed that concept worried Mason.

“Fuck!” cried Mason. “How the hell did all this fall in my lap?”

He held his hands up to his face, running his fingers over his temples and up through his hair.

“All right,” he began, “this is no longer a scientific investigation. This is now a military operation.”

“What?” cried Anderson.

“You can't do this,” said Bates.

Mason was already on the radio calling for troops to secure the inner area.

“What are you doing?” demanded Anderson, yelling at Mason, the veins in his neck bulging. “This is not right.”

Teller was silent. Susan was scared. She hugged Teller's waist while he ran his hands softly through her hair, trying to reassure her.

Cathy and Finch backed slowly away, trying to be inconspicuous. They weren't trying to run, they just wanted enough distance to be able to talk.

Cathy whispered to Finch. “I thought this already was a military operation.”

“Apparently not,” replied Finch. “I don't like where this is going.”

“Be sure to make copies,” she began, not wanting to say any more and inadvertently tip their hand.

Troops began running in and around the trailer.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Bates. “This is possibly the most significant interaction in the history of mankind and you want to start us off on a war footing.”

“I'm not starting anything,” replied Mason. “But if Teller is right and that thing figures out our weaknesses and exploits them, we will be defenseless. We need to learn more about it before it figures out anything else about us.”

“There's no reason to assume hostile intent,” said Bates.

“You don't get it,” replied Anderson, fuming with anger. “Teller is right. This is not a meeting of equals. This is not some diplomatic mission between different countries or different cultures. The differences between us and them are so vast as to be incalculable. I mean, look at it. The damn thing can defy the laws of gravity. Hell, we don't even know what gravity is.”

Mason looked intently at Anderson, listening carefully to his argument.

Teller tried to make sense out of what was happening. He could see Mason wasn't ignoring the scientific concerns, but his gut instinct clearly told him they'd already gone too far. Mason was, after all, appointed to support a political position, and not scientific inquiry. Mason was throwing the brakes before the train ran off out of control.

“Oh,” Anderson continued, “Newton gave us some vague notions about the strength of gravity being the inverse square of the distance between two masses, but that's like saying two plus two equals four. Einstein took the concept further to suggest gravity is a consequence and not a force. But the reality is, if the universe behaved the way we think it should, according to our understanding of gravity, the damn thing would fly apart. Entire galaxies exist in defiance of what little we know about gravity, and this thing toys with it, the anomaly flaunts its ability to control gravity like it was child's play.”

Anderson was in full flight. Mason was going to hear him out if it was the last thing he did.

“The anomaly has such a mastery of gravity that it can simulate our own gravity within a precisely defined area. Not only that, but it completely negates and defies the normal gravitational attraction of an entire goddamn planet at the same time. That's a double-whammy. That's a level of technological innovation we cannot even dream of attaining. And you think it's a threat? If it was a threat, there's not a damn thing we could do about it. For us, it would be like an Amazonian tribe taking on an aircraft carrier with a bunch of canoes. If it wanted to attack us, to exploit us, it could do so in a heartbeat and there's nothing we could do about it. Not a goddamn thing. You're not thinking this through.”

“He's right,” said Teller, impressed with the argument and having nothing else to add.

Mason turned to a Marine captain who had come up beside him, saying, “No one goes anywhere, does anything or talks to anyone without my express permission. You will provide food and bedding and detain all personnel on-site until I have met with the National Security Council.”

He bent down next to his niece, putting on a fake smile as he said, “Looks like you get to have a sleep-over tonight with the scientists. I'll call your Mom and see if that's all right with her. OK?”

Susan wasn't too sure what to think, but she trusted her uncle so she nodded in reply. Anderson and Bates continued to protest but Mason walked away.

Without saying a word, Mason held out his hand to Finch. Finch popped open the camera and dropped a still-warm recordable HD disc into his hand.

Teller could guess what was going to happen next. Mason was taking this to the President.

The next day, the President of the United States of America sat at the front of the UN General Assembly building with the Vice President on his right and James Mason, the National Security Director on his left. Teller, Bates and Anderson sat to one side at a second table with Robert Gaul, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

From the seating arrangement, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that science was taking a back seat to politics. Teller, Bates and Anderson swapped hand written notes with each other, reflecting on what they thought as they looked out across the sea of delegates from over two hundred member states and territories. Teller felt distinctly out of place, but he had the outermost seat, and figured the pecking order was quite appropriate in his case. If he'd had his way, he'd have watched the whole debate from back at the NASA trailer.

Initially, there had been some resistance to meeting in the General Assembly building as the top corner at the rear was missing, dragged off into a slow orbit by the anomaly. The actual segment wasn't that large, only about thirty feet or so in length and less than fifteen feet wide, but it kept the anomaly rooted firmly in the minds of the delegates.

Structurally, the building was sound, but the sight of the sun streaming in through a hole torn in the side of the assembly hall was unnerving. Once a day, when the anomaly aligned, the corner looked almost normal, but most of the time the wind swirled through the gap, defeating the air conditioning.

Several diplomatic representatives initially refused to attend the assembly, notably the Chinese and the Germans, but after a flurry of late night phone calls from the State Department, everyone was in attendance.

Dr Yani-Villiers, the Secretary-General for the United Nations addressed the audience.

“The events of the past few days are unprecedented in human history. For the first time, we have verifiable evidence that we are not alone in this vast universe. That the creation we call our own is shared with other sentient, intelligent beings.”

“The appearance of the anomaly has confirmed our greatest hopes while unmasking some of our deepest fears. Our world will never be the same again. We have awakened, as if from a deep slumber, one in which we only ever focused on ourselves, to find ourselves as part of a greater universal calling, one in which intelligence reaches out to find companions. There are many questions, few answers. Today, we have not arrived at a destination, we are undertaking the first steps of an epic journey. And it must be one of peace and understanding.”

Teller was genuinely surprised by the depth of the Secretary-General's comments. They captured his hopes, his dreams. But he wasn't naive to the reality of international politics and knew there would be competing agendas muddying the waters.

The Secretary-General rounded out his comments and introduced the President of the United States.

“My friends,” the President began. “We are living through the most profound of historic events. The significance of contact with an alien intelligence is singularly unique and without parallel in human history. It represents a profound turning point for Homo sapiens as a species. We are no longer the only known sentient species. There is much we can learn, much we want to learn, but through all of this, we stand to learn the most about ourselves.”

It was a good point, thought Teller, and one he hoped was not lost on the audience.

“Already, the interest in the anomaly is overwhelming. We are working to provide scientists around the world with a raw, unfiltered, transparent access to the results of our scientific investigation.”

And that was as far as the President got through what was supposed to be a carefully crafted, twenty minute speech. The floor of the General Assembly erupted in protest with delegates from all quarters crying out to be heard. The Secretary-General called for order. As the unrest abated, the Secretary-General addressed the US President.

“You can appreciate, Mr President, that the very nature of publishing results itself implies a degree of processing and filtering already. Your results are, by definition, yours, not ours.”

The President replied calmly.

“Dr Mason has personally overseen the research team and can describe the protocols that are in place. Dr Mason?”

From the look on his face, Mason hadn't expected to be thrown to the wolves quite this early. He cleared his throat, and started off-the-cuff.

“We are broadcasting both raw metrics and internal discussion points directly to CERN in Switzerland to ensure neutrality and accessibility to the scientific community.”

Again there was a flurry of protests from the floor. The Secretary-General calmed the delegates before settling on a question from the German representatives.

“We don't want access to the data, we want access to the anomaly itself.”

“In time,” Mason replied, before being swiftly cut off.

“Your time table does not interest us, Dr Mason. We want access now, just as you have.”

“You have to understand,” added Mason, determined to have his say. “This is a discovery we are sharing with the world. By virtue of the fact that we are providing transparency to all, we cannot allow exclusivity to a few as that would be prejudicial to everyone else. The United States is determined to share the anomaly research fully and equally with all member states and that necessitates avoiding partiality, even to close allies.”

“But you have the privilege of direct access,” replied the German diplomatic representative. “Why should you be afforded that opportunity and not others?”

“We can guarantee our own transparency. We cannot guarantee the transparency of others,” replied Mason bluntly. “We have accepted offers from ESA and several other national space agencies to form a scientific review board. Most of these foreign scientists will have on-site access to the anomaly, but they will be using our systems, reporting in accordance with our protocols and answerable to our authority.”

“Why should we trust you?” snapped the Russian ambassador. “America has a reputation of being transparent only as far as it serves her own national interests. What transparency was there over your illegal activities in Cambodia during the 60s? What insights did you share with the world during the Iranian crisis in the 70s? What visibility was there into the War on Terror? Why should we trust you now, when the stakes are so high? When there is the possibility of harvesting radically advanced alien technology.”

The Russian ambassador stood up, addressing his comments to the assembly at large. “This is the country that champions freedom and justice but will not ratify its membership to the International Criminal Court. And why? Because it fears its own illegal activities will be exposed. Because it protects its citizens from the illegal actions they undertake in the name of the United States. My fellow ambassadors, we cannot trust those that do not trust in the transparency of international justice.”

A wave of murmurs arose through the audience as the translation teams passed on the message to the various representatives through their earpieces.

“That is not true,” snapped Mason, losing his cool.

“Oh, but it is true,” replied the Russian coldly. “The only American ever convicted of a war crime was Lieutenant William Calley for the massacre of five hundred civilians at My Lai, and your President Nixon ensured he only ever served one day behind bars as a convicted felon. Ha! You talk about freedom and justice, but only ever as it suits you.

“And what about President Bush condoning torture following September 11th? What about when Private Bradley Manning held incommunicado for over a year in defiance of international human rights? Held simply because he aired your dirty laundry? You make a mockery of justice. You will not ratify the most basic provision of international law and yet we are to believe you will somehow honor us with unfettered access to the anomaly. What do you take us for, Dr Mason? Fools?”