Solar Warden by Jakob Waechter (best authors to read TXT) 📕

v.80

Solar Warden

Origin

August 1992. In a control room somewhere in the US.

“Sir, we have the object on radar, again. It's heading for Alaska,” the radar control officer informed.

“Update our interceptor. This time we have a chance,” the superior ordered.

Near the border of Canada was a TR-3B plane flying in the dark sky.

“You will head to Alaska. Sending you the interception vector now,” came through the radio of the pilot.

“Roger. I'm on my way,” the pilot confirmed. He was altering the course and accelerating fast. With Mach five at high altitude he was approaching his destination. Still it took a bit of time to get there and finally he could spot his target.

“Control, I've got visual. Permission to engage?” the pilot asked.

“Confirm target speed,” the control replied.

“Target is at Mach five point three. I'm in weapons range now,” the pilot informed.

“Eagle One. You are clear to engage,” the control ordered after a short pause.

“Confirm engaging target,” the pilot confirmed and was locking on with the microwave guns.

“Firing,” the pilot informed as he pulled the trigger.

There was some strange sound to hear and nothing to see. But the target seemed to respond. It was decelerating and losing altitude.

“I got a hit response should I fire again to be sure?” the pilot asked.

“Negative, hold the distance and follow it. Our special forces are on their way to secure the area.”

The unidentified object was further decelerating, now below Mach one. It was already close to the ground and seemed not to have control of its flight path anymore. Behind it was the interceptor at a distance of one mile, also decelerating further as the impact was imminent. Below was now a flat snowy terrain. The object with its flat triangular bottom side seemed to have some kind of aerodynamics. It was not truly gliding but the nose was nearly in the horizontal. The falling speed was still high. So it crashed into the snow and slid ahead further, lifting a bit off, then borrowing through the snow. His follower decelerated further and as the crashing object stopped he did the same hovering at a distance of one point five miles. Now as he hovered four red-yellow lights were shining at the bottom of the interceptor. There were three on each corner and one in the middle.

“The object has crashed transferring coordinates,” the pilot radioed.

“Capture and recovery team will arrive in 23 minutes. Guard it till then,” the control replied.

The interceptor was now strafing in a circle around it, to check also the surrounding area.

As informed 23 minutes later three helicopters were landing near the object and squads in full ABC suits were jumping out. Two of them searched for a door to open. Others were securing the area.

The interceptor pilot could not see the details but somehow the two managed to enter the object on the backside.

“We are inside,” came over the radio. Then there was silence again.

Further two helicopters were approaching.

“They are dead. No one survived. We need body bags,” came over radio.

Two on the outside were getting the bags and then entering.

After some time, all four with two filled body bags came out and carried them to a nearby helicopter.

“OK. Crash site secured. We are now preparing the transport,” came over radio.

“Eagle One, affirmative. I will leave now,” the pilot informed all and turned the aircraft then accelerated without noise away.

A transport helicopter was coming in for a possible recovery option.

Present. Samuel Archer was sitting on his computer. There was a riddle picture on it. It was from a web page with a contest of 750000 dollars to solve this. The picture was showing strange symbols. Samuel had studied computer sciences and archeology. As he works for a university he has a lot of time to think. Here at home he developed also for his work a neuronal algorithm to analyze symbols and writing systems. His computer was still calculating on this current problem as suddenly a solution came up. It now looked like a menu for navigation system, where coordinates could be entered. Then another solution came up followed by more. Inspecting all the solutions showed him that they were all the same except the numbers on it. For him it was clear there would be no definitive solution for this. There are just not enough references there to solve it. It was a bit strange to make a contest that had no singular solution. Sure this picture with the symbolic on it looked now like an interface to a computer game or an astronomical program. It made still not much sense but he believed his algorithm and waited till the calculation was finished. Then he submitted the solutions. It was late now so he did not further check it. But tomorrow he will check his software or let it check on some known problems again.

A week later students working with him had verified the algorithm on different known problems. It seemed to work well. So Samuel had not found any error. He was in his office and wanted to finish work early that day.

Then someone was knocking on the door.

“Come in, it's open,” Samuel informed.

The door opened and two men in military uniform came in.

“Hi, I guess you don't want to sign in to one of my courses,” Samuel was wondering.

“Hi, I'm Major Thomas Ryan and this is my assistant Lieutenant John Caine. You won our contest. So I have a paper for you to sign, then you will get the offered prize,” Ryan a man about 30 introduced.

Ryan had a medium size. He was older then Caine and seemed to be good trained. Even with the uniform it was clear not to rifle with him. With his shiny blue eyes, he looked handsome which gave him a charismatic aura.

Caine instead seemed to be young, similar like Samuel. He was a bit taller than Ryan and also as strong if not more. His face and mimic let him look more like a police officer you don’t want to upset.

“You mean the contest with close to Mesopotamian symbols and more than one solutions?” Samuel asked while Ryan came up with a paper.

“Well, it should be not an easy one. This contest existed for years and you are the first submitting the fitting solutions. There is also an additional offer, but first you only need to sign this. Then the money will be transferred to your bank account at top or you just correct it to a different one if you want.” Ryan handed the paper to Samuel which looked at the account and then the number of 750000 dollars.

“Well, was nice to make business with you. I guess this will make my retirement an easy effort,” Samuel replied and signed without changing the account. Then continued. “I guess you don't tell me why the military does such contests.”

“Actually I will, it's to find people with outstanding and needed skills. So I have an offer for that you have to sign this confidential disclosure agreement.” Ryan gave him another papers.

Samuel read the papers then replied. “Why should I do this without reason.”

“Well, there is a job offer I can't talk about the details. But here is the first page of it.” Ryan gave it to Samuel which checked it.

“I have a job. This payment is much better but it does not tell what I have to do.”

“Yes, for that you have to sign the other papers then you get more to read. I don’t know if you are the type who likes adventures and getting secret knowledge.” Ryan wants to lure him.

“Well, that sound interesting, but for the military? I'm not a soldier and didn't had the need for weapons,” Samuel replied.

“You won't be a soldier just a scientist and adviser to take care of the thinking. Your status can be still civilian as you don't have any military training. The only thing here is as you can guess. We want our secrecy for our projects we do. You still can deny the offer. But to know more you just have to sign the agreement,” Ryan declared.

Samuel signed it and gave it to Ryan.

“Good,” Ryan replied and gave him more papers.

It took Samuel a while to get through them.

“So this means I can die while doing my work?” Samuel asked then.

“Depending what you are choosing to do. You see this passage is for field missions. In the lab with computers it's very unlikely. But there might be field missions you choose to do. Then there are the risks you will be told. Sure you will be protected by the best we have to offer. But it won't be like here on this job. By the way doing archeology in certain countries without military protection is much more dangerous,” Ryan explained.

“Well, it is enough for me that I can decide to work in the lab or let's say choosing the risk I want to take,” Samuel replied.

“That's no problem,” Ryan assured.

“OK. With the secrecy I have no problem. I accept. Still I have not seen much secrets.” Samuel decided and signed for five years.

“Fine. Then you can get your stuff. Everything is arranged. If you want you can have a vacation till the end of this month or drive tomorrow with us to your new workplace,” Ryan informed.

“Well, I don't need much. My software stuff fits on a simple stick and the other stuff fits in a trunk. I just have to say goodbye to some of my colleagues here. So I come with you tomorrow.” Samuel was thinking if he did not forget something.

“Alright, we pick you up tomorrow at eleven at your home. We have an SUV so the important stuff should have a place. If you need to store other stuff that does not fit in or want to transfer it, we can arrange that. You will have a flat near your workplace,” Caine told.

“Well I thought not about it yet. The flat here I won’t need for a while. So I don't know yet what to do.”

“No problem, we see to it tomorrow,” Ryan meant confident.

“Then till eleven. Have a nice afternoon.” Samuel reached his hand then all shook.

“Till tomorrow,” Ryan replied. Then he and Caine left.

It was a sunny afternoon as they arrived at a nearby air force base. They drove into a transport plane.

“This will be a short flight to our operation base. It's also, as already mention, an air force base with flat's in the secure area. After showing you your new home we go to the lab where you meet the others you will work with. So in which team you will end up, we will see later,” Ryan explained.

“Is there something I need to know about the possible teams?” Samuel asked.

“Well, no. Except there are the operation teams which I lead one and the research teams that work in the lab only. That will be the risk level you decide later on in a month or more. For now, most teams are here training and doing research,” Ryan explained.

The plane started to