Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (9 page)

              General Preston laughed, “Why that is shirt sleeve weather, and you’re telling us that this is a star?”

Mike shook his head, “No, General, this is a failed star.  It is not supporting a nuclear fusion process.  This heat is just heat that is still retained internally and is being radiated out into space.  The atmosphere of a Brown Dwarf is thought to be one swirling continuous storm the likes of which you have never seen.  A hurricane here on Earth, or the giant storms on Jupiter, would not even come close.  We are talking continuous winds several times the speed of sound.  If you could look at a Brown Dwarf from orbit around it, it would appear to be giving off a faint magenta glow.   Most of the light it emits is in the infrared spectrum.  And that General, and Madam President, is why we can barely see it.  We do not have a powerful infrared scope in space at this moment.  The scopes here on Earth get too much interference from the Earth’s atmosphere to make it out yet.  It was discovered using old images from the now defunct Spitzer Infrared Space telescope.”

“So, we have no way of studying this thing then?” asked the President.

“At the moment we have very little way of doing so, that is correct” said Mike.  “We have faintly made it out with the Hubble Space Telescope.  “Earthbound scopes cannot see it yet, although that will change soon.  The new James Webb Infrared Scope would be our best instrument but it is still not ready for deployment.  It will be at least a
year before it can be launched.  That is why we requested this urgent meeting.  We really need to learn a little more about our interstellar guest that is coming before it is discovered by others and the general public becomes aware of it.  We feel that the press would run wild with the announcement and the end of the world nuts would work the public into frenzy.  There could be mass chaos.”

“Let me see if I understand,” said the President.  “We have this Brown Dwarf that is going to pass close to our solar system.  You need to study it more to show that it is no cause for the public to be alarmed.  If you can get more data, then you can release the information yourself before some other crazy astronomer does.”

“That pretty much sums it up Madam President,” said Mike.

“Doctor Banscott,” asked General Preston, “just for curiosities sake, how close is this Brown Dwarf going to pass our solar system?”  Mike looked over at David Honstein and hesitated.

The President leaned forward and locked her eyes on Mike.  “Doctor Banscott, how close?” 

Mike swallowed hard.  “We think very close
, Madam President.  Very close indeed.”

President Montgomery paled visibly.  “Gentlemen, are you telling me this thing may hit Earth?”  David stood up and motioned for Mike to sit down.  “Madam President,” he said. “With what little data we have right this moment, all we can predict is that it will pass very closely to our solar system.  It would be extremely unlikely for it to actually hit Earth.  However, that does not mean it cannot pose some risk to our planet.  Even if it passes outside the orbit of the Oort cloud, outside the orbit of Pluto, it can cause drastic changes to the thousands of comets and asteroids that orbit way out there.  Some of those objects could have their orbits changed so that they would venture into the inner realms of our solar system.  Some of those objects are also quite large.  I think we all know what is believed to have happened to the dinosaurs. One such object turned them all into fossils and caused their extinction.  Therefore, it is very important to determine the exact trajectory, speed, and distance of this object.  Not only do we need to prevent mass panic, but we might need to prepare a way to protect ourselves from any smaller objects that may be thrown our way from its passing.  Remember this; it may only be the size of Jupiter, but it has around twenty times the mass.  It will have a gravitation field that is magnitudes greater than that of Jupiter.  That field will raise hell with any planetary objects that are nearby as it passes.”

“So what do you need to determine its trajectory?” asked the President.

David looked at General Prescott and said.  “General, NASA assisted with the design of a satellite about seven or eight years ago that had a very sensitive infrared imager.  It was a very compact design and meant to be launched on short notice.  The project was supposedly killed due to lack of funding.  There are rumors however, that it was completed using funding from black accounts and given the acronym of RLARIRS.  It is rumored to be under the control of the NSA.  That, General, is why we asked that you be here today.  That satellite, if it does exist, could possibly be used to get some real time data on our interstellar visitor.”

President Montgomery looked at the General.  “General, does this spy satellite really exist?”

General Preston deferred by saying, “Madam President, Not everyone in this room has the security clearance to discuss such matters, even if such a satellite did exist.” 

“General Preston, as your commander in chief, and due to the severity of this issue, and never mind the fact they already know what it is called and what it does, please answer my question.  Does this RLARIRS satellite exist?”

General Preston took a deep breath and spoke. “The RLARIS does exist.  We have two of them as a matter of fact.  The acronym stands for Rapid Launch and Recovery Infrared Reconnaissance Satellite. They were originally developed to be launched by a Delta Four Rocket and then recovered by a space shuttle.  When the Space shuttle program was to be shut down they were made more compact and can now be launched and deployed on the Air Force X-37B space plane.

They were actually designed to be able to track nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines by detecting the waste heat from the sub’s nuclear cooling systems in the submarine’s wake.  They are able to do this by having one of the most sensitive infrared sensors ever launched into space.  The only down side to them is that due to the limited payload of the X-37B, only about a three to four  weeks supply of cryogenic coolant can be carried for their sensors.  After exhausting their coolant, they then have to be brought back down to Earth for servicing.  They have about a five week minimum turnaround time once recovered here on the ground.”

President Montgomery spoke up, “How soon before these satellites could be launched?”

“Usually within forty-eight hours Madam President, although I am not sure what type of adjustments would have to be made to their programming software for this purpose.  They are designed for looking down at the oceans of the world, not out into space.  I believe that it can probably be done, although I would have to confer with the system engineers in that project to verify that.”

The President thought for a moment. “How many other people know about this Brown Dwarf?” she asked.

David Honstein answered, “Besides the people in this room, two people at Cal Tech and the mission control crew at the Hubble Control Center, so probably a total of twenty people.”

General Preston winced, “Then it is only a short while before someone slips up and the word gets out.”

David interjected, “The JPL and NASA people have been warned and precautions taken to keep the young grad student that made the discovery busy so that he does not leak the data.  The real risk is that we only have weeks at most before the Brown Dwarf is spotted by someone else with a good telescope here on Earth.”

“Well then,” said the President as she stood.  The others jumped to their feet also. “I want some answers before someone else spots this thing.  I want those satellites modified and launched and I want answers as soon as possible.  I would like another briefing in one week.”  The most unlikely president in history left the room feeling like she was becoming the most unlucky president in history.

Chapter 9

March 15
th
, 2016

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

Dr.  Alec Souse came in and sat down in the meeting room at Merck Incorporated Headquarters located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.  With him were Dr. John Knowles, Director of Advanced Research at Merck, Larry Niles, Chairman of the Board of Merck, and another gentleman dressed in an expensive Armani suit that he did not know.  It aroused his curiosity that the third person attending this briefing did not introduce himself and neither of the other attendees made any attempt to introduce him either.

Dr. Knowles spoke up as soon as Alec was seated. “All right, now that we are all here, I would like Alec to give his briefing on the breakthrough that has occurred at one of the research teams that Merck sponsors.”

Alec stood and nodded to the others
. Using the remote he picked up from the table, he dimmed the lights and turned on the wall projector.  “As you are all aware, our company, in addition to having numerous research projects running in house, makes grants for research teams that have shown promise of making significant advances in medical technology, pharmaceutical compounds, and even basic biological research. This briefing is in regards to a husband and wife research team that we have been sponsoring while they have been doing some biogenetic research.  This was a joint grant that was also awarded by the National Institute of Health.  Doctors Brett and Jessica Driskall are the two researchers that have performed this work.  Their original grant was to take work that had previously been done on mapping RNA and DNA and developing a method of rapidly identifying, mapping, and storing the RNA code of existing and newly mutated or emerging viruses.  The purpose of this project was to allow pharmaceutical companies like ours to rapidly study and effectively develop new vaccines and medications for treatment of these diseases.  Remarkably, their work has been very successful, or even amazing I would say.”

“They have developed a very rapid process using gel electrophoresis and restriction enzymes to break down a source of RNA or DNA from a viral or plasmid source, analyze the makeup and bonding patterns, and then store the entire molecular map into a computer database.  What used to take months or years to do, they can now
accomplish in weeks. The real limiting factor is the amount of processing power that is available in their lab computer.  Right now, they are using a small lab server to do the processing and sorting that is required to completely analyze and make a digital copy of the RNA or DNA molecule in question.”

Alec was interrupted at this point by the fourth member of the meeting whom he was not familiar with.  “Excuse me,” the gentleman said
. “I do not have a background in either biology or genetics so your explanation, although easily understood by your colleagues here, is still a little above my head.  Could you please explain about the mapping and digital copy procedure?”

“I am sorry sir. I really do not know you, so I had assumed that you were a researcher here at Merck.  May I inquire as to your name and what your role is here?”

  The unnamed man in the Armani suit shook his head.  “It is not really important who I am, nor what my role is.  The fact that I am here with permission of the company CEO should suffice as to my need to have this information.  Please expound on your explanation a little more.”

Alec was a little taken aback by the refusal of the man to introduce himself, but Larry Niles motioned it was ok, and to continue.

“Well,” said Alec, “I will be a little more basic. DNA is a nucleic acid, which is the part of the cell that contains molecules that store information. DNA is made of a pattern of four different nucleotides, which are bound on one end to a phosphate group and on the other to a nitrogenous base. The nitrogenous base can be one of four types: adenine, cytosine, guanine or thymine. The nucleotides are joined in long strings to make up DNA and these two strands twist together to create DNA’s characteristic double helix. DNA stores the information that determines how an organism is basically what it is.  It has all the information that allows that organism to eat, reproduce, and grow teeth, eyes or cilia depending on how complex it is.”

“RNA is a little different. DNA is defined as a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. RNA molecules are involved in protein synthesis and sometimes in the transmission of genetic information. The main job of RNA is to transfer the genetic code needed for the creation of proteins from the nucleus to the ribosome. This process prevents the DNA from having to leave the nucleus. This keeps the DNA and genetic code protected from damage. Without RNA,
proteins could never be made.  A virus is made of either RNA or DNA.  It is basically just a RNA molecule with a protein shell around it.  It injects itself into a host cell, makes that host reproduce hundreds of copies of itself and thus just keeps on keeping on.  The act of reproducing the new viruses usually kills the host cell. A lot of people really do not consider a virus as a living thing.  It just sits around doing nothing but preying on other cells and making them produce new copies of the virus.”

The man in the suit just grunted and said, “Your basic explanation is still gibberish to me, but your explanation of a virus would describe about half the population in the world.  They just sit around living off others efforts and making little copies of them-selves that will grow up and do the same exact thing.  They contribute noting to society and just use up valuable resources.  I think I understand that you are saying that your researchers have come up with a faster way to figure out what these DNA and RNA molecules are made of.”