On the way back to the Johnson Space Centre Kallandra was not surprised to learn that all the spheres had left simultaneously. But her eyebrows rose when Derek, back at Johnson, told her on the radio that after they’d reached fifteen-hundred kilometres directly above their takeoff points, they veered to park in a geosynchronous orbit 42,000 kilometres above the equator.
“That’s where most of the communications and geostationary satellites are, isn’t it, honey?” She had the Learjet on auto while speaking into her headset. Claude caught up on sleep on the bed in the passenger section.
“Yes. Full marks,” Derek said. “How about getting NOAA to steer some so as to keep a camera eye on them.”
“Not easy, they are designed to grab weather images of Earth, not snoop on enigmatic travellers in the same orbit. Maybe the military have—”
“Hang on, Kal, more data…. I’ll get back to you.”
“Derek? Keep the line open, oh, he’s gone.” Cursing, she wondered whether to wake Claude. He required more sleep than the five hours she enjoyed most nights, but even so, he’d want to know, and she needed to share thoughts.
She double-checked the auto and then pinched Claude’s toes sticking out from under the blanket. The thought he’d wake from the leg upwards tickled her.
“Merde!”
“Oops, sorry Claude, I must have squeezed too hard. Anyway, you need to be awake. The spheres have gone into a geosynchronous orbit.”
He rubbed his eyes, and pointed at the galley while he yawned something unintelligible. Kallandra poured herself a coffee, too, and took them back, swaying as turbulence rocked the plane.
“Should we take these into the cockpit?” said Claude, glancing at the dark spots of coffee on the red carpet.
Her inclination was to let the plane look after itself but knew Claude would rather be in the driving seat when there was the slightest trouble. She needed to talk about the spheres latest gymnastics without him being distracted, so she followed him in while licking spilt coffee from her hand.
Claude played with the controls for a minute before sipping the bitter Columbian coffee. “Maybe they’re grouping before departing.”
“It must be strange for them to be saying ‘hi’ to each other after two billion years.”
“Do not make the error of assigning human attributes to these machines, Kal.”
She felt piqued that he’d believe she would be so naïve, but played along. “Many animals seem pleased enough to find each other. Of course, the spheres are robotic.”
The plane lurched again, falling several metres. Kallandra thanked the previous CAT event or she and Claude might not have been strapped in their seats, even though the remains of their coffee found ways to decorate the cabin.
“Shit, just look at the altimeter,” said Kallandra.
“Have we lost much height?” he said, tapping his duplicate co-pilot’s instrument.
“Yes, but I meant the coffee splatters. Just as well, I take it without sugar. Hey, Claude, you don’t suppose the turbulence is not from turbulence, do you?”
“I was thinking the same. Now the spheres are further away maybe the decoherences will worsen, and—”
Kallandra interrupted. “We have a message coming in from Elaine Stringer, relaying data from NORAD.”
“I don’t know her, do I?”
“You’re joking. Blonde, an inch shorter than me, but packed with sex appeal.”
“Like you?” Claude winked at her.
“Maybe—ask Derek. Elaine’s hair is shoulder-length, while mine has been savaged in readiness for our aborted Mars mission. Apparently over ten gallons of water and a hundred kilowatts of heat energy would have been saved by my having short hair. Elaine is my usual link comms person at Mission Control on my shuttle flights.”
“I am far too overwhelmed with the sea of unknown faces when I go through the Mission Control room. I can’t say I remember this mademoiselle. Anyway, Kal, I think the Mars Mission should have gone ahead.”
“It was the top brass at NASA who pulled the mission after the appearance of the spheres created so much uncertainty. I was gutted too. And we might need another home if these time fractures don’t settle down.”
“Kal, suppose there are decoherences on Mars. Mon Dieu, maybe they are the norm throughout the universe except where the spheres have evened time out.”
“Possibly, let’s consider that for all human history we’ve been used to a continuous linear timeline, so of course it was normal for us. If it is usual for time to be more jerky, perhaps we would have got used to it. Just a minute….”
Kallandra listened to Elaine’s message, then reached for her iPaq to check the data sent through.
“I’m copying to your iPaq, Claude. Oh my God. Apparently there’s an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. No images for another hour, but NORAD’s radar asteroid detection net reckons its mass is sufficient to take out a Houston-size city. There’s no impact-destination co-ordinates yet. As if we haven’t enough problems.”