The Lure Part 9

Petrie obliged.

'Now go back to the original trajectories, not the points.

A cl.u.s.ter of parallel lines appeared.

'Now turn them. Look at the lines face-on.

The lines shrank, turned back into points.

'Right. Absolutely straight, no curvature. In that corner, Tom, about twenty metres under the water, we have a dipole magnet that weighs half a ton and gives us forty thousand gauss. If we swam anywhere near it with anything metal wed be pulled under. If the particles were charged their tracks would bend near the magnet.

'And they dont.

'Exactly, so theyre not cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are charged, theyd be deflected. We have half a dozen magnets like that under the water and we can do more checks if you like.

'Okay, Svetlana, if theyre not cosmic rays, what then?

'This time yesterday Id have called them dark matter.

'And today?

'A neutral particle penetrating half a mile of rock? Unknown.

'A vast surge of them, Gibson reminded her. 'Double unknown.

'Unknown to us, Svetlana said.

'Which safely rules out some clown playing games with satellites. Petrie was having trouble holding his head upright.

Freya said, 'The particles could have penetrated the lake from below.

'You mean they came clean through the Earth? Gibson asked.

'Or from some accelerator on the surface of the Earth. Therefore it still might be a trick. Svetlana was saying the words with every sign of disbelieving them.

'Total fantasy, Shtyrkov said. 'A flux of this magnitude is thousands of years in the future even if we were dealing with a known particle type, which were not. He struggled out of his chair. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we can securely eliminate both a natural source and a human one. Tom is right.

'You were right, Vash, said Petrie loyally. 'Your intuition saw this.

Shtyrkov brushed the compliment aside. 'Lunacy has its compensations.

'If that was just their opener, what about the rest of the message? Charlie asked, his voice greedy. 'Whats in it?

Petrie said, 'If I dont get some sleep Ill crack up.

'I dont care. Gibson didnt seem to be joking. He was jiggling around excitedly.

'Ignore him, Tom. Go to bed, Vas.h.i.+slav ordered. 'Well play around with this. And, Tom congratulations.

Unexpectedly, Freya gave Petrie a hug. 'A signal from another world. This is the dream of poets.

Petrie hadnt thought of it that way; but he thought the Norwegian woman had a terrific smile.

Svetlana said, 'Ill make you my great-aunts pyzy when you get up.

'The cleaners! Gibson was suddenly horror-struck. 'They mustnt see this. They come at eight.

'Okay, Charlee, dont panic. Well keep the cleaning ladies out of here. We dont want them to look at the screen and say, "Hey, heres a picture of DNA sent by extraterrestrials."

Petrie was wakened by suns.h.i.+ne in his eyes. His watch said 3.30 p.m. and his bladder was bursting. He relieved himself, stared at the unshaven hobo staring back at him out of the mirror. He ran a shower, shaving in the flow of warm water. Then he dried himself and rummaged in his holdall. He put on jeans and a white T-s.h.i.+rt emblazoned with a picture of pieces on a chessboard; to the cognoscenti, it showed the board at the moment the computer Deep Blue finally crushed Kasparov. When asked, he liked to explain that it symbolised the triumph of the machine over the human spirit; the reaction was always fun.

Svetlana was standing by the stairs on the floor below. She beckoned, and Petrie followed her along the corridor and into the refectory. A single place had been set with what looked like Hapsburg silverware. The pyzy turned out to be small, hot dumplings served with sausages. They were spicy and delicious, and had a warming effect which seemed to go beyond their heat capacity.

'I think Freya has found something, she said.

Petrie washed down the last dumpling with hot tea.

'Come and see. She extended her hand and Petrie took it; it was thin and warm. She led him to the corridor, down the stairs and into the administrators office.

'Ah, the Kraken awakes, Gibson said obscurely. 'Come and see what Freya has found.

Freya was at a terminal. There was an empty chair next to her and she patted it. Gibson breathed garlic over them. Shtyrkov, taking up an armchair, waved at Petrie without looking up from a wodge of papers. Svetlana settled down at a terminal on another desk.

Petrie looked at the screen: there was what seemed to be a white s...o...b..x traversed by parallel red lines. 'Tom, this is near the beginning of the signal.

'Okay.

She tapped at the keyboard. 'And this is a slice near the middle. A set of parallel blue lines appeared. 'And here we have a slice from near the end of the transmission. A third set of lines, in green. Petrie shook his head.

'Look closely.

'I dont see anything.

'Okay. Now let me take the average direction of the red lines, and then the blue ones, finally the green. She tapped on the keyboard.

'Ha! Petrie exclaimed in delight. Three large circles red, blue and green showed on the screen, red to the left and green to the right.

'Exactly. Freya was unable to keep a touch of pride out of her voice. 'The direction of the source changed with time.

'The source was moving?

'No, we were. The lines stayed parallel in s.p.a.ce while the Earth was turning. The rate and direction match the Earths rotation exactly.

Shtyrkov called over from his armchair. 'So, we can rule out a satellite as a source, or anything on the Earth. Whatever the source, its in deep s.p.a.ce.

Freya agreed. 'Deep s.p.a.ce it is.

'And you now have the position of the source in the sky?

'Two possible positions, depending on whether the signal came down or up through the lake.

'And?

'Give me a chance, Tom, Ive only just discovered this. I need to carry out an error a.n.a.lysis to shrink these big circles to tiny spots. When Ive done that Ill download star charts and catalogues and see what weve got.

'Well, get on with it, Gibson said impatiently.

Freya turned, smiled sweetly at Gibson and said, 'Dra til helvete. Then she returned to the keyboard.

Petrie turned to Gibson. 'Okay. Were all agreed that the signature is extraterrestrial, and the source is intelligent. What now?

Gibson pulled up a chair and picked up papers from a desk. 'Theres an outfit called the Inst.i.tute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and theyve set up a protocol. Vas.h.i.+slavs going through the small print now.

'Lets hear it.

Gibson waved the papers. A slightly pompous tone was creeping into his voice. He read: '"Declaration of principles concerning activities following the detection of ET." Principle number one. "Any individual, public or private research inst.i.tution, or governmental agency that believes it has detected a signal from or other evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence should seek to verify that the most plausible explanation for the evidence is the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence rather than some other natural phenomenon or anthropogenic phenomenon before making any public announcement."

'Thats why Im here, Petrie proposed. 'Okay, so Freya and I have confirmed it.

'And you can exclude any possibility of error? Gibson said in an interrogatory tone. 'With such confidence that you are prepared to face the world and say, "These people have discovered ET"?

'Yes.

'Why "these people"? Why exclude Freya and Tom? Vas.h.i.+slav called over, without looking up from his papers.

Gibson ignored the comment. 'Okay. Proceed to principle number two. "The discoverer should inform his or her relevant national authority."

'Our respective governments. But you must have told HMG already.

'Yes and no. I naturally a.s.sumed Vas.h.i.+slav here was raving. You know, a lifetime of vodka. But yes, I did make a precautionary phone call.

'To?

'The President of the Royal Astronomical Society. I made it clear that it was an extremely long shot, not to be taken too seriously at this stage. My guess is he fired it up to the President of the Royal Society or even the Minister of Science.

'My invitation came from Downing Street, Petrie said. 'Did you ask for me specifically?

'Yes, Tom. As I said, I heard you at Uppsala last year. All that chaos theory and pattern recognition. You were a natural, just the man to check out Vas.h.i.+slavs ravings. Youre a rising star.

'And being junior, Im easily controlled. Less likely to steal the limelight than some big name.

Shtyrkov gave a deep belly laugh. Gibson pouted.

Petrie continued: 'But they didnt route it through GCHQ.

Shtyrkov said, 'The government would bring ridicule on itself if they got caught up in a false alarm.

'Who cares? I asked for you and I got you.

'Then I got this warning at Heathrow.

'I dont understand that, Gibson admitted. 'And I dont like it.

'And Freya? Where does she come into it? Petrie asked.

'We need to know where the signals coming from. Youll find that out for us, wont you, Freya?

The Norwegian girl carried on typing.

Petrie pointed to the paper on Gibsons lap. 'Okay, Charlie, whats next?

'Principle number three. Wait for it, I love this one. "A confirmed detection of ET should be disseminated promptly, openly, and widely through scientific channels and public media. The discoverer should have the privilege of making the first public announcement." Since Im the PI, that means me. Gibson smiled a smile of great happiness.

'Youll be on CNN around the world within hours. I can see the flashbulbs reflecting in your eyes already. Even hors.e.m.e.n in Mongolia will know your name.

Gibson continued to radiate beat.i.tude. 'And thats about it, Tom. The rest is just stuff about protecting signal frequencies and distributing data.

'Okay, Charlie. So the protocols say you first inform HMG and then Joe Public. How? Do you just phone up the Prime Minister?

'Ill feed it through the RAS President like before. Let him handle the problem. What about you, Vash?

'Its not a problem for me. Friends in high places.

'And then we tell Joe Public straight away.

'No, Charlie. Svetlana turned round in her chair. 'Wait until we can name the source of the signal.

'We cant wait for that. We cant risk some civil servant upstaging us. Gibsons face was dark. 'I make the announcement today.

Shtyrkov said, 'Our governments will not make any announcement without thoroughly checking out the story. That will take them days, maybe weeks.

Petrie said, 'Theres a message for humanity in that signal. We dont even know if that DNA is human. Its far more kudos for us if we, rather than some other group, tell the world what the signallers are saying.

The argument had an immediate effect on Gibson. 'You know, Tom, I think youre right. If some other outfit interpreted the message it could draw attention from us.

Petrie drove the point home. 'People would think we just hit it lucky but they were the real gurus. The high priests interpreting the sacred text.

'My G.o.d, yes. Gibson looked as if he had just stepped back from the edge of a chasm. 'What day is this?

'Wednesday afternoon, Freya said. 'I need as much time as you can give me.

Gibson scowled. 'But the longer we delay, the bigger the risk of a leak.

'So how long are you giving me, Charlie? Freya asked.

Gibson counted up to three with his fingers. 'Okay. Theres a balance. The longer HMG has this, the bigger the risk of a leak, but at the very least we need to tell people where the signal came from. However, with or without the source, I go public with this on Monday. We darent delay any longer than that.