James Glass - Sedona Conspiracy

The flight profile was a mystery, two columns of six numbers labeled N and t, running from 2 to 15 in N and 1 to 7 in t. No units were given. Brown had been in touch with them by telephone during their reading, but had only deepened the mystery. He did say that t was time in seconds, but N referred to light velocity in the space they were in, and there was a well-defined sequence of spaces and travel times for any particular destination. Dillon had made a crack about ‘Warp Factor Six’ at one point, but Brown either didn’t understand it or find it amusing.

Their job was to initiate the program, and enjoy the ride.

Dillon lifted Sparrow smoothly out of the bay, took her to quarter, half, three-quarter thrust while Eric activated each program panel in turn. Brown was in contact with them moments after liftoff and had assumed flight officer duties this one time, though Hendricks was right beside him.

There was the roar of conventional engines, followed by silence and a feeling of lightness as before, and then they were at full thrust at seventy kilometers altitude and a speed of Mach 13 and Eric threw the switch to activate the one panel they had not used in the cockpit.

For two days and nights Eric had waited for the appearance of the golden man with some new revelation for him, but the only dreams he’d had were about Nataly, and nothing else had come. For the first time since he had begun work on Sparrow, he had no idea what would happen when he toggled a switch.

He tensed, reached out with a finger, and pushed.

A second holoscreen flashed into view in front of them, overlapping the other. There were strange glyphs for icons, but all were labeled in English.

“We have a new display,” said Eric.

“Good,” said Brown. “Now go to ‘Menu’.”

Dillon glanced over at Eric from time to time, but kept Sparrow on a near vertical trajectory at constant velocity.

Eric gestured, and a new column of icons appeared.

“Got it.”

“Go to ‘Define Home’.”

Another gesture, and another icon was just below his finger. “And then ‘enable’?” said Eric.

“No!” shouted Brown, and Eric jumped.

“If you enable at this point, Sparrow will come straight back home from your present position. Go up two icons.”

Yikes. “Ah, ‘Define Program’.”

“Yes, Do it.”

Eric gestured. At each gesture a green light had gone on at the panel by his right knee. Two lights remained unlit. An icon came up that looked like the planet Saturn.

“A new icon, a planet with rings,” said Eric.

“Ordinarily a whole list of programs would come up, but there’s only the one right now. We’ll gradually add to the list over the next few years once we teach you the use of N-space mapping.”

Eric had the impression Brown was now speaking to someone else. “Do I activate the new icon?”

“Yes.”

Gesture. One light unlit.

“And now ‘enable home’?”

“Very good, Doctor Price. Captain Dillon, you may now relax. Sparrow will take you where you’re destined to go.”

A single icon replaced the others, a single circle in red-orange labeled ‘Begin trajectory’.

“You are going on a long journey, gentlemen,” said Brown, “the length of which cannot be defined. We have now come full circle as a people. Congratulations to all of us. You will experience very brief delays in communications, but they should not worry you. Sparrow is in full control. Enjoy the journey, and your star craft will bring you safely home as programmed, in exactly one hour. Begin trajectory, Doctor Price.”

And Eric gestured again.

“Just give me a second to grab onto my ass,” said Dillon, as Eric moved his hand.

The icon disappeared and the overlapping holoscreens dimmed. In those first seconds of their journey there were only the pinpoints of stars and a faint, distant glow showing the boundary of earth’s atmosphere. There was the sensation of floating they had felt before, not weightlessness, for it had been there when they were under thrust. Now the feeling intensified, as if Earth’s gravity were being sucked away beneath them. A high-pitched humming that quickly went beyond their audible range broke the silence, and the fuselage of Sparrow creaked around them, as if under sudden stress. Outside, the stars disappeared, and for the time of two anxious heartbeats there was total darkness. A bright light flashed past their view, then another, and from behind the cockpit a sound like scratching on metal.

“Oh, shit,” said Dillon, and Eric swallowed hard. His hands gripped his knees and he felt like a live mouse was running around inside his stomach. He took a deep breath, and forced it out hard.

“I think now we’re really under power,” he said

Outside Sparrow lights flashed past in a blur of blue, yellow and red, and then there was a continuous smear of something deep violet as there was an audible thud behind them and a strong shock passed beneath their seats. The space outside Sparrow went from a curtain of purple to one of red in exactly seven seconds by Eric’s habitual counting, and stars reappeared, a flood of them stretching in a band across their view. Most of the stars were blue-distant, hot and giant. There was a metallic groan deep within Sparrow’s hull, and suddenly the stars were a deep red and barely visible.

Brown’s voice was a shock to them. “Final stage, gentlemen. You’re nearly there.”

“Yeah, and where’s there ?” asked Dillon, but Brown was gone again.

Eric had counted fifteen seconds when the stars outside turned blue and white again, but they were dimmer than before. A yellow glow began at the right-hand border of the holoscreen, and intensified. A bright disk slid into view, lemon yellow, three black spots arranged near its center, edges tinged red. It was about the size of a quarter held at arm’s length.

“Star,” said Eric softly, “and close to us. Hope the Ariel program knows it’s there, and doesn’t dump us into it.”

“Not likely, Doctor Price,” said Brown, and his voice was again a startling thing. “I must admit that you passed straight through several stars along the way, but there was no time for interactions. The star you see is a special one for my people and myself. In a moment you’ll see why. We call it Elder. It’s hotter than your sun, but not by much, and a bit older.”

“Your home star,” said Eric. “We should be getting pictures of this.”

“And I’d like to know where we are,” said Dillon, and turned to Eric. “If this isn’t some elaborate, phony setup, he’s saying we’ve traveled a lot of light years in a minute or two.”

They waited a few seconds, but there was no reply from Brown.

“Hello?” said Eric.

Again a pause, then, “Ah, yes, the star craft is recording everything. As of now you are also being recorded in local space, and your remarks will certainly be released to the public. Ariel should be coming into view in a moment as your star craft reorients itself for the return home.”

Elder had slid off the left border of the holoscreen, but a new glow was now forming where the star had first appeared. And as they watched in amazement a most beautiful planet came into view. The disk was powder blue, but mottled in green, orange and light brown, landmasses arranged close to the equator and surrounded by seas. Two distinct rings surrounded the planet, white and sparkling, and Sparrow was close enough for them to see wispy, white clouds dotting the surface.

“My family is down there,” said Brown softly. “We call it Ariel.”

Eric suddenly realized he’d been holding his breath, and let it out. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “I could be looking at Earth, except for the rings.”