The Capsule by Maurice Ellis (crime books to read TXT) 📕

He took a deep breath. “Ladies and Gentlemen, for many years we have been searching our galaxy for signs of intelligent life. I now believe that the search is over. We are not the only ones with this ambition. It looks like other intelligent beings have beaten us to it. And it's possible that they may have been looking for hundreds of years. This is the greatest find ever. The capsule must be sealed and transferred to the UK Space agency immediately for a thorough investigation.” He was obviously very excited. Before switching to archaeology he had been a student of science and physics, so this find was something he welcomed with open arms. Those in the hangar watched, with respect, as this small, slim man, walked away, with a huge a grin upon his face.

Chapter 4 – Deciphering.

The capsule was transferred the next day to a secure hangar at the UK Space Agency. It was put under a twenty-four-hour guard with the help of the British SAS. It would not be long before the world's press would be arriving in their droves. Professor Ian Maynard was about to become world famous. Within three days the hangar was a hive of activity. Professor Maynard had invited a selection of some of the finest brains in the world to participate. There were two astrophysicists, two world-renowned linguists who specialised in forgotten or unknown languages, and several specialists from the European space agency. This was a challenge of immense importance and the world was waiting for answers.

Their first job for the assembled team was to open the other eight containers and see what surprises awaited them. To make their job easier they decided the best thing to do was to cut away the top half of the capsule. It took the engineers almost eight hours to complete the task and one of them climbed inside and set about opening all the compartments. Once they were all open he climbed out and let Professor Maynard get in to inspect the contents.

Each compartment contained two or three engineering drawings, similar to blueprints. The instructions written on them were in the same language as the writing above the first compartment. The drawings were handed out and placed on a table. Underneath each of the drawings was something which looked like a large blue and green crystal which was very warm to the touch. There were five in total each weighing about fifty kilogrammes. These were also placed on the table. The remaining compartments each contained crystals of similar weights, but were of a different colour, mainly black and yellow. These, too, were placed on the table. Now all that remained was to figure out what the documents said and what the crystals were for.

A disused hangar was taken over by Professor Maynard's group and divided into four sections, each dedicated to a specific task., one for studying and translating the documents, a second unit to study the technical drawings and a third for analysing the crystals. The fourth group was tasked to find out whatever they could about the material used to manufacture the capsule. Much time and effort were devoted to their tasks in order to assimilate all the information. Their work would take them into the middle of November, nearly four months. There were armed units of the S.A.S. on duty outside the hanger twenty-four hours a day. No one was getting near that hangar without a very good reason.

Chequers is the UK Prime Minister's country residence, situated about forty miles from central London. It is not just a place for the Prime Minister to relax being frequently used to hold summits and other important meetings. On October 28th.2039 it would host a meeting like no other. The meeting would be chaired by Professor Maynard. Twenty-two people of varying importance were in attendance. At the conference table were the Prime Minister and his deputy, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the heads of MI.5 and MI.6. Also present were high-ranking members of the military and seven of the country's top scientists. The Professor stood at the head of the table. Beside him was a Flip-Chart. He called the meeting to order and everyone sat down. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “I know you will all have many questions about what I am going to tell you, but please wait until I finish before asking them. You all have pen and paper in front of you so write your questions down and I'll do my best to answer them shortly.”

“First of all, here's what we know. Somewhere out there, possibly deep within the Milky Way, is a race of intelligent, beings, more than likely well in advance of humanities' development. We think we can tell their approximate location from the astronomical map we found in the capsule. It's quite possible that the capsule has been travelling for hundreds of years. We can't judge this because we have no idea of its speed.”

“The next question is, do the beings who sent out this capsule still exist or even remember having done so? Perhaps the biggest mystery is how the capsule travelled through space with no means of propulsion. We're theorising the capsule is one of many. We think that a space vehicle was sent towards the solar system and, when it reached maximum velocity, ejected several capsules into different directions. Probably, with the hope that at least one of them would find its way onto an inhabited planet, with intelligent life. Maybe the designers of this mission noted a few possible targets which might be habitable to them. If this was the case then they obviously struck lucky.”

“Now,” he continued, “turning to the documents we found. They contained an outline of their language, instructions for putting together a propulsion unit, which we are still working on, and a general map of where they are situated. Our latest interplanetary space telescope has now found what is believed to be their home planet. What I must point out is that with our current abilities, our fastest space ship is not capable of getting there in our lifetime. So, unless we can increase that speed, it will take over four hundred years to reach them.

However, this is the most surprising fact about their language. There is one language outlined in the documents which we can’t yet decipher and another which we can. The second language tells us that their planet is called Tellius. Tellus is a Latin word meaning "Earth" In ancient Roman religion and myth, Terra Mater or "Mother Earth" is a goddess of the earth. The rest of the language is written in old Norse once spoken in Scandinavia and a few other countries. Which poses the question how is it possible that an alien people, light years from Earth, have a language based on old Norse?”

“The crystal-like substance we found in the capsule seems to be some kind of super-fuel. We are currently undertaking experiments with it at our laboratories on the Moon. We're testing it there, so as not to violate the current, nuclear treaty agreement, and in case of any hazardous reaction such as radiation. We don't want to kill off the remaining population on earth. We've already lost four billion people in the last ten years because of our severe pollution and climate change.” The meeting lasted for about five hours. Many questions were asked and lots of theories put forward. Decisions were made and several plans put into place.

Chapter 5 – The Test Flight

It was October 14th. 2041. The past two years had been a whirlwind of intense study, experimentation and testing. The documents had all been deciphered and Professor Maynard had instructed a group of astronauts in the old Norse language found on the documents. Being ever the optimist Maynard felt that one day they might meet the people from Tellus. A rocket was standing outside the space laboratory on the surface of the moon. Its engine was to be powered by a small amount of the crystal that had arrived inside the capsule. It transpired that the crystals had similar properties to that of fuel used in a nuclear reactor. When used in conjunction with electro-magnetic fusion, about half a kilogram would produce enough thrust to accelerate the rocket to speeds far in excess of even the earth's escape velocity. They were about to find out just how fast.

A spectra-analysis had been carried out on the crystals and all but one of the elements had been identified. Despite its similarity to nuclear fuel it gave out no radiation signature. As far as they were concerned there was no way of recreating the crystals unless they could figure out where the mysterious ingredient had come from. One of the main advantages of this fuel was that it meant huge savings in weight and volume. Liquid fuel was heavy and all rockets needed a large supply of it. This required a large container, and the fuel had to accelerate its own mass as well as the payload. The current travel time to Mars was four months. The scientists hoped the very large weight reduction would reduce that time significantly, so the rocket was programmed to make the voyage to Mars and then enter into orbit around it.

* * * * *

At 10.30 that morning the rocket took off on its pre-programmed trajectory to Mars. It was to fly at high speed and continuously accelerate until halfway and then turn around to face back towards the moon. The thrust of the engine would now decelerate rocket. They hoped to put it into orbit around Mars then bring it home. They had chosen this day to launch because Mars would be at its closest, which only occurred about every two hundred and twenty five days. This meant a round trip of about eighty million miles. However, not knowing how fast the rocket could go, details about transit time and so forth would not be known for some time yet.

Back on Earth professor Maynard and his team were in the operations room of the UK Space Agency. They all stared at the screens as the countdown began. A powerful telescope, on the Moon, was trained on the rocket and would automatically follow its path. The firing button was pressed and the rocket engine came to life. It ignited and, after three seconds, took off. Unlike Rockets sent from earth there was no tremendous roar or clouds of smoke from the fuel. It was silent on the moon's airless surface, but the method of propulsion made no sound anyway. Rapidly accelerating, the experimental spacecraft was out of sight in less than a minute.

All eyes were fixed on the TV monitors as the telescopes and radar tracked the rocket. It was accelerating away at a tremendous velocity. The engineers had programmed it to go into a wide orbit around Mars while they collated telemetry transmitted on arrival. After processing, they would know whether adjustments to the return flight plan were required. After arriving back at the moon they hoped to be able to bring the rocket down safely onto the surface.

The tracking station on the Moon was fully automated and required very little attention now the computers were in control of the rocket. Only two engineers remained in the control room while the others returned to other duties in the main living area. Back on Earth professor Maynard and his crew turned their attention to further investigation of the crystals and documents.

Chapter 6 – The Return

Professor Colin Maynard had just finished his usual Sunday breakfast of four rashers of bacon, two fried eggs and fried tomatoes. He was scrutinising one of the alien charts when his phone rang. The call was from the head of the UK Space Agency. To everyone's amazement the rocket was back and currently