The Orthogonal Galaxy
Chapter 6

On his second day of Zimmer’s class, Joram wasworking his Digital Note Tablet much harder than he did on the first day. He was soaking up every word, every thought,which the professor had for the class. Sitting at his left once again, Kath also found herself scribblingfrantically, and enjoying the concepts placed before them.

“Over the next several weeks,” started theprofessor, “we’ll be studying various examples of the different types ofgalaxies. We’ll discuss how and why theyform their characteristic shapes, and compare and contrast these in vastdetails.

“You should know,” attested Zimmer as he paced infront of the class with his wireless lapel microphone broadcasting his lesson clearlyto the entire class, “that there are three major classifications ofgalaxies. These are spiral, elliptical,and irregular.

“Spiral galaxies are perhaps the best known ofthese, and this is certainly because our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is indeed aspiral galaxy. However, the photos thatyou may have seen of spiral galaxies come from those which may be indicative tothe Milky Way, but certainly do not mirror our own galaxy. For obvious reasons, it is rather difficultto acquire a detailed image of our own galaxy, since there are no spacecraftfar enough away which might give us a portrait of our own system. Nevertheless, there are several superbcomputer renderings that depict our galaxy as shown on this slide.”

The professor then gestured behind him, where acomputer-generated image of the Milky Way was depicted for the class.

“As you can notice from this image, there is abar of stars which emanate from either side of the extremely bright galacticcenter of our galaxy. These barseventually give way to several spiral arms. This type of galaxy is called, appropriately enough, a barred-spiralgalaxy. There are others, as the one inthis next image, which do not demonstrate this type of barring effect. In the Hubble Classification, we designate spiralgalaxies with the letter ‘S’, and barred-spiral galaxies with the letters‘SB.’”

At this point, the professor advanced through aseries of slides demonstrating other types of galaxies. The class took fastidious notes as ProfessorZimmer rattled off a quick and elementary overview of galaxies. This was a graduate class, so he would haveto quickly launch into great details about the makeup and classification ofgalaxies, so he was brief in his introduction.

“Now that I have described to you the variousclassifications of galaxies in the known universe,” Professor Zimmer gesturedto a screen where a slide was being projected, “it is prudent for us to beginour study of each type. We will begin,appropriately enough, with our own galaxy, the Milky Way.”

The professor was interrupted here by the openingof door to the back of the planetarium. He looked up to see Dean Scoville enter and assume a standing positionin the same exact place as last time.

Joram whispered to Kath, “That guy is making ahabit out of disrupting the professor right at the end of class.”

“That guy,” breathed Kath lowly, covering hermouth to be less conspicuous, “is Dean Scoville.”

Joram’s head whipped back again to see a ratherurgent look on Scoville’s face. “Helooks—” Trailing off, he recalled theawkward episode that occurred on Monday, and snapped a worried glance up toZimmer. Fortunately, the professor didnot notice the two friends’ discussion, but instead looked intently at the dean. The two seemed to exchange knowing glancesfor a moment before the professor turned back to his class.

“But that discussion,” began the professor, “willbegin on Friday. Also, please take alook at the course website for the first set of selected readings. We will begin discussion on those readingsnext week. Class dismissed.”

Rather than wait at the back of the class thistime, Dean Scoville swept down the stairs and onto the stage to meet up quicklywith Zimmer. Joram watched the pairintently, while the rest of the class turned off their note tablets, andfumbled for their backpacks. There wasno exchange of words as the two met up. Instead, Scoville gave a slight nod and gestured towards the door in theback of the room where the two swiftly disappeared from sight.

“What do you think that was all about?” Joram asked Kath.

“Huh?” Kath asked looking up at Joram as she zipped her pack. “Oh, you mean Scoville and Zimmer? Don’t know… it looked pretty important though.” Then, shrugging off the incident, shecontinued, “Hey, I’m thirsty. Let’s goget something to drink.”

As they left the planetarium, Joram looked backtowards the closed door as if expecting to see it reopen or otherwise gain someknowledge as to the urgent departure of the two professors. Realizing that he would gain no furtherinsight, he shrugged his shoulders and bounded up the stairs to rejoin Kath.

…

At Johnson Space Center, two engineers satquietly in a control room where panels of computer screens monitored activityon Camp Mars. The main screen containedan image of the camp as captured from a digital camera mounted on a satelliteorbiting the planet. Other screenscontained various waveforms and pulses which monitored environmental andmeteorological activity. Side-by-sidescreens titled Boronov and O’Ryan contained the vital signs of the twoastronauts. Another charted the progressof the Shuttle Nevada recently departed from the crater and heading on a directbearing for the Moon.

Staneck Rodgers and Physon Edwards had workedthis station together for years. Theywere intimately familiar with the operations and mission of the astronauts onCamp Mars.

“Hey, now that Ayman’s up in space, it looks likeeverything is stable here,” announced Rodgers. “I’m going to go use the rest room. Be back in a few minutes.”

“Sure, no problem,” Edwards agreed. “I’ll stand watch. It should be pretty boring for a couple ofdays, while Boronov shows O’Ryan the ropes.”

As the door shut behind Staneck, Physon receiveda communication from Mars: “Boronov toMission Control. The Nevada hassuccessfully taken off and we are heading to fuel tank number one for pressuregauge malfunction assessment and repair.”

Physon leaned back in his chair and cradled hishands behind his head. “Yep... it’sgonna get boring around here until mission operations resume next week.”

After a few minutes of idle daydreaming andcasual monitoring of the data, Physon’s life got less boring very quickly, ashe heard a pulsing beep coincide with an alarm light on control panel in frontof him. He leaned forward to examine thealarm.

“Odd,” he said to himself. “I’ve never seen that alarm malfunctionbefore.”

The alarm read “Satellite Two CommunicationFailure.”

Within moments, another pulsating sound:“Satellite Three Communication Failure.” With this alarm the main screen showing the video image of the Camp Marscrater went blank.

With the blackness of the screen ahead of him, Physonleaned forward in his seat, his mind reeling at this puzzling chain ofevents. He considered the events. “That’s not good… what could cause twosatellite link failures within moments…”

Physon was trained to not panic in thesesituations. False alarms were part ofthe business of inter-galactic communications. Solar events, asteroid eclipses, even the Earth’s own magnetic fieldwould occasionally interrupt the otherwise weak signals emanating from the Marssatellites.

Quickly, however, Physon was required to enter astate of panic, because a litany of alarms went off simultaneously, and all ofthe monitors on the wall went dark. “Satellite One Communication Failure,” “Astronaut One Vitals,”“Astronaut Two Vitals,” “Satellite Array Failure,” “Audio Comm Failure,”“Shuttle Comm Failure.”

The room was awash with flashing lights and beepsand buzzes of various volumes. Physonquickly muted all of the alarm sounds and reached for his two-way radio.

“Stan, do you copy?” Physon voiced eagerly into the radio.

“Yeah, Physon. What’s up?”

“Where are you at? I need you to come quickly.”

“I’m on my way back right now. I just stopped at the break room for a cup ofcoffee. What’s wrong, buddy?”

“We have a massive communication failure withCamp Mars right now. I’ve never seen acomm interruption of this caliber.”

“Be right there.” Physon’s voice and sprintingfootsteps echoed with anticipation, as he returned his radio to his holster andraced back to the control room. Withinmoments, he threw open the door and found Staneck quickly pacing the length ofthe control panel to assess the situation.

“What have we got, Stan?” Physon asked eagerly for a briefing of thesituation.

“Three satellite failure alarms, and a completelink loss to the surface array.”

“So, we are still receiving signals from one ofthe satellites?” queried Physon as he rubbed his forehead with his hand.

“Yeah. SatFour is still online, but we’re only receiving heartbeats, since it’s not inrange of the camp.”

“What’s its orbital ETA to line of sight?”

Physon raced to the other end of the panel,assessed the current orbit of Satellite Four, looked at his watch for thecurrent time, punched a few numbers into the computer, and returned theresults. “Sixteen hours, thirty-threeminutes.” Physon looked up at his colleaguewith concern.

Stan sighed deeply and shook his head yetmaintained a calm voice. “You mean theonly satellite we got yapping right now is on the opposite side of the planet?”

“Pretty much,” confessed Physon bleakly.

Stan ran to the control panel, quickly scannedthe situation and immediately picked up a phone and dialed a four-digitextension.

“Vurim, Edwards here. We have a serious communication failure. You better get in here ASAP.”

Staneck hung up the phone and looked up atPhyson, who appeared sullen. With eyeswide open and perspiration forming around his temples, he raised his eyebrowsat his colleague questioningly.

“I know, buddy,” Physon’s voice trailed off witha hint of concern. “You know, thesethings rarely implicate something catastrophic, but darn it all, if it doesn’tget your heart racing, and turn your hair gray…”

Physon was distracted as his eyes scanned thecontrol room panels. “Stan, come take alook at this.”

Stan started when he turned his head and sawPhyson grow pale, a horror-stricken stare flaring from his wide-open eyes. Stan was at Physon’s side in just a couple ofsteps and looked at the panel that Physon had motioned towards—the panellabeled O’Ryan.

“Had you noticed O’Ryan’s vitals just before thecomm failure?” Physon asked his partner.

“No, I… I hadn’t,” he confessed. “It shows that his heart and breathing ratesincreased rather abruptly about… oh… 30 seconds before the comm failure. But there’s nothing unusual about Boronov’svitals.”

“Look closely,” Physon rebutted, pointing to theECG waveforms. “Right here, it lookslike Boronov skipped a beat. No racinglike O’Ryan, but it looks like there is a synchronized event… perhaps somethingthat startled the pair.”

“What do you make of it?” asked the junior engineer.

Physon could do little more than shake his headslowly and shrug his shoulders in dismay.

After a brief pause, Stan asked his moreexperienced partner, “Weren’t you in the control room when mission 79 had to beaborted?”

“Yeah,” said Physon breaking into a forcedsmile. “That was a grueling three-dayevent that taught me to keep a level head and a stock of Tums on hand.”

“But those guys were only a hundred thousandmiles from Earth?” pointed out Stan. Ourboys are millions of miles away right now, cut off from all communication,perhaps for quite a few hours.”

“Indeed.” Physon pointed out and reached inside a drawer. Then with a slight smile, he gave one lastword to his younger partner. “Tums?” hereached his hand out to his companion with a tube of the antacid in a subdued,yet calming voice, hoping to alleviate some of the tension. He didn’t like the symptoms he was seeing atall, but he also knew that it was premature to jump to any conclusions, and alsothat there was nothing he could do about it at present.

…

With lengthened stride, Scoville rushed down thecorridor leading away from the planetarium and back to his office.

“What is it, Ballard?” asked Zimmer who waslagging the dean by a couple of steps.

“I’ve got NASA on hold.”

At this, Professor Zimmer stopped dead in histracks. Noticing that the sound of theextra pair of footsteps had ceased, Scoville turned back and looked at Zimmer.

“Are they cutting off the funding, Ballard?”

Ballard lowered his head and took a couple ofsteps back towards Zimmer. “No, no…it’s… it’s something… worse.” With thelast word, his voice trailed off. Heturned again, and restored to his former swift gait. “You’ll be briefed presently.”

They rushed into Scoville’s office and quicklytook seats opposite of each other at a round conference table. A telephone with a blinking red lightinformed Zimmer of the urgent party waiting on the other end.

Taking the phone off of mute, Scoville announcedtheir return. “Vurim, I’m back. I have Professor Zimmer with me. I believe that you two have met.”

“Yes, we have met,” answered Vurimaffirmatively. “Dr. Zimmer, this isVurim Gilroy. I’m the director of theMars Mission here at Johnson Space Center.”

“Ah, yes. Dr. Gilroy. We met a few yearsago at the International Conference on Modern Astrophysics, didn’t we? As I recall, you presented some results andconclusions from your first subterranean drilling explorations of Mars, right?”

“That is correct.”

“What can I do for you? I understand you have a matter of someurgency you wish to discuss with me?”

“Unfortunately, yes we do.” His voice was hushed, and an audibly deepbreath ensued before he began his briefing.

“We are currently studying a set of dataregarding a series of disturbing events which happened a few hours agoregarding our Mars mission. We hope youmay be of assistance in brainstorming possible astronomical phenomena whichmight account for the singularities we have witnessed.”

“Ok,” said Zimmer attentively. “I’ll do what I can to help.” Zimmer’s gaze was fixed on Scoville, as ifsearching his expressing for clues. Scoville’s shrugged his shoulders and shook his head to convey that heknew next to nothing yet himself.

“First of all,” stated Gilroy hesitantly, “we’dlike to request your presence here at Johnson where we are convening a team ofexperts to examine the data first-hand.”

Scoville looked up at Zimmer, twisted his head,threw up his hands, and nodded slowly. “Well, I just began a new term of courses and research here at theuniversity. Any leave would have to beapproved of by Dean Scoville.”

“He has assured us full cooperation in thismatter,” announced Gilroy in a business-like manner.

Zimmer looked at Scoville in a puzzled manner andtapped the mute button. “Ballard?”

“Carlton, we’re treading lightly on the fundingfor your research. We need to bend overbackwards for these guys. I’ll be sureto cover for your class and research teams. It’ll only be for a few days.”

After taking the phone off of mute, Zimmercontinued. “Ok. When do you need me to leave?”

“I have a chartered plane that will be landing inBurbank at 1:20 PM Pacific Time.”

Zimmer looked at his watch, which read 12:17PM. “Why, that’s just an hour away. I’ll need some time to pack and…”

“No packing!” Gilroy interrupted shortly. “We’ll get everything you need here. You can communicate those needs from the airplane once you’re in theair.”

“Ok,” agreed Zimmer in an overwhelmedmanner. “Can I ask what the urgency isall about?”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. We are conversing over an unsecured communicationchannel, and this is a matter that is currently classified as secret… You dostill have a security clearance, Professor?”

“Yes, yes. I’ll depart for the airport immediately.”

“Thank you for your understanding andsupport. We’ll talk in a few hours.”

The phone went dead.

“Ballard, what is going on?”

“I don’t know anymore than you, Carlton. But, my hunch tells me that something hasgone wrong on Mars. NASA doesn’t operatelike this unless there is genuine concern for the well-being of theirastronauts.”

“But, why me? I’m an astrophysicist, not an aerospace engineer. If there’s a problem millions of miles away,what possible help will I be?”

“I don’t have answers for you, Carlton. But, once you replace out what is going on, I’dappreciate hearing from you. I’ll needto know what arrangements need to be made here in the department during yourabsence.”

“Will do, Ballard.” Zimmer stood up and bid farewell to thedean. He disappeared through the officedoor and rushed down the corridor for his rendezvous with the jet that had beenarranged to pick him up a couple of hours before he himself knew of it. Like Scoville, Zimmer was beginning to fearthe worst. NASA was too eager, tooquick, too quiet to not cause these two CalTech astronomers significantconcern.

…

Professor Zimmer landed in Houston at 6:15PM. Dr. Gilroy had a car waiting for himto quickly usher him to Johnson Space Center. Gilroy was waiting on the curb for the astronomer when he arrived. He opened the door for Zimmer and shook hishand warmly and gratefully.

Zimmer noticed that he showed signs of fatigueand stress. His complexion was pale, andhis eyes deeply red. As they shookhands, the professor could note that Gilroy’s hand was tremulous andsweaty.

With a subdued voice, he said, “Thank you forcoming, professor. I will escort youthrough security and into a conference room, where we have compiled a set ofdata that we hope you can decipher for us.”

“I certainly hope that I may be of assistance toyou, Doctor,” started Zimmer.

The conference room was ample and bright. Entering through a glass door, the professornoted an open feel to the room, because of the windows which wrapped aroundthree sides of the conference room. Along the far wall, which contained no windows, a long counter containedcoffee pots, cups, napkins, and a water dispenser. In the center of the room, a long, ellipticaltable had seating for 12 people, and every seat except for two wasoccupied. Gilroy offered the professor aseat at the end of the table, and took the seat immediately to his right.

“Professor Zimmer,” announced Gilroy, “I’d liketo introduce you to a few members of our team. “Starting to your left, we have Staneck Rodgers, Physon Edwards, KinnetBrothers, and Christian Popolous. Thesemen are mission control specialists for the Mars Mission. Following is our team of engineers. Lawton Jacobsen is our leadtelecommunications hardware engineer. Then we have two of our top aerospace engineers, Sharli Cartwright andCordic Huford, both from Kennedy. Ourmaterials scientist, Lane Wells, is from Ames. And I believe you may know our Martian experts, Draven Sillieu, andMarselline Jones.”

“Stan, would you please explain to the team the reasonwhy we have convened this meeting?”

“Certainly,” stated Stan with a deep sigh. He slowly lifted himself out of his seat andprogressed towards the end of the room opposite of where he unrolled a largemap depicting Earth and Mars. Severalpost-it notes of different color were placed around the map, but Zimmer couldnot read the writing on any of them.

“At 07:22 this morning local time, an alarm wentoff indicating that one of the four Martian communication satellite linksdemonstrated a failure here.” Rodgersgestured with a laser pointer to one of the post-it notes on the map. “In three seconds, we lost comm with anothersatellite here, and this one stopped communicating about two secondslater. For some reason, satellite numberfour, which was right here at the time of the failures, has continued totransmit, and is currently located here. At first, we assumed that there was an electromagnetic incident whichtook the satellites offline, but typically, interference lasts a fewminutes.” Stan paused to look around theroom to see how this information was being received.

“Have you calculated a correlation with thetiming of the loss of failure?” asked Zimmer.

“Yes,” answered Rodgers. “And what we found was that all threesatellites failed at exactly the same moment in time. The fact that we observed the alarms atdifferent times is due to the differences in the distance of each satellitefrom the Earth as well as the latency of the various signals traveling overthose distances. Satellite Two wasclosest to the earth, while Satellite One was the farthest. As a result, we received these just momentsapart due to the extra distance required to reach the Earth.”

“I trust they all operate off of the samesoftware code base?” Zimmer quizzed suggestively.

“Yes that is true,” Stan’s gaze met the floorwhile his voice tapered off.

Physon stood quickly to relieve his partner. “Professor, we have eliminated thepossibility of a software bug causing the failure at the same exact clockcycle.”

Zimmer’s forehead wrinkled as he gestured for themission specialist to continue with the details.

“You see, less than thirty minutes before theincident, there was a shift change. Anastronaut departed Camp Mars in a shuttle, and we also lost communication withhim as well.”

Zimmer leaned forward in his seat as if to bettercomprehend this last statement.

“Communication loss with the shuttle is alsocalculated to be synchronized to the same exact moment in time.” Physon paused to compose his words precisely. “The clock in the shuttle is not synchronizedprecisely to the satellite array… and the shuttle software team was completelyisolated from the satellite software team. In other words, the software code is entirely different for theshuttle. The probability of asynchronized bug between two entirely different pieces of complicated softwarecode… well, it’s just not practical to suggest such a correlation.”

Zimmer stood on his feet and turned away from thetable. Stroking his forehead and cheek,it was clear that his mind was working feverishly. He wheeled around quickly. “A visual… we must get a visual. Surely we can see the satellites and shuttlefrom a terrestrial-based observatory. It’s not all that far to Mars.”

Vurim chimed in from his seat. “Madrid has been working on that for the lastseveral hours, but they have not been able to identify a visual on anysatellite or on the shuttle.”

“Well, their results are bogus! You have told me that there is still onesatellite which is communicating. Theysimply must get a visual on that one.”

“At present, it is too close to the horizon ofMars to pick up a visual on it,” clarified Vurim. “But we should be able to do so in about twohours.” He looked at his watch. “Maybe a bit less than that.”

“Madrid should send us their data… we need anextra pair of eyes on it,” suggested Zimmer.

“We’ve got a team of astronomers assembledupstairs… they’re looking at the data right now,” claimed Vurim.

Zimmer took a new line of suggestive datacollection. “Any clues from the data ofthe remaining satellite? I trust that itis able to communicate with the camp? Can it give us a visual of Mars?” Zimmer brainstormed.

“We’ve been looking at images of the planet, butnothing looks out of the ordinary… Well, there is a slight dust storm thatwe’re noticing, but that is not unusual. What we’re waiting for right now is for Number Four to get into range ofCamp Mars. Presently, the Camp is on theopposite side of Mars. Earthrise on CampMars won’t be for another seven hours, but Satellite Four will have a visuallock in about five hours… we should have at least visual data of the Camparound midnight in order to check on the status of the astronauts there.”

“You’ve been thorough in your analysis, Doctor Vurim,”Zimmer admitted. “I’m not sure how I canbe of help.”

Vurim pleaded with Zimmer, “We need theories,Professor… astronomical, physical theories on what could have caused an eventlike this to occur. We’re at an absoluteloss to explain this anomaly.”

“I think we’re going to need more data,”announced Zimmer. “I’d like to take alook at the Madrid data, while we are waiting for Sat Four to get inrange. Then, I will want to do some studymyself this evening at Palomar. Butfirst, I have a few phone calls to make.”

…

Joram Anders rushed up the steps of the apartmentcomplex, bypassing every other step with great strides. At the third floor, he rapped on the doorintently. Kath opened the door slowlyand playfully.

“Who is it?” she said with a cheerful voice.

Joram gasped for breath. “Ah, Kath… it’s me, Joram.”

“Joram? I’m sorry, Joram who?” She triedto be coy, but gave herself away with a snicker as she completed the inquiry.

“Ok, Kath,” Joram shook his head. “You win… I owe you an apology.” Then with a deep breath, he let out, “I’msorry.”

The door opened wide revealing a very lightapartment. Joram’s shaded his eyes for amoment in part to get used to the light, but mainly to get a less blindingvisual on his new friend, who he admitted to himself appeared more and moreattractive each time he saw her. Thistime was no different. Kath looked asbeautiful as ever, and he wondered if his tardiness didn’t allow her more timeto prepare herself for perfection.

Shyly, he looked down at the floor. “I’m really sorry, Kath.” Then looking up to meet her eyes, headmitted, “I got so caught up in reviewing my notes from the day that Icompletely lost track of time.”

“Why didn’t you answer your cell phone?” sheasked.

“I had my Ear Cups on,” he explained.

“Oooh,” Kath took a step back. “You have a pairof Ear Cups? I’m starting to see moreand more of those, but I’m not sure if I like them.”

“Why not?” asked Joram.

“They’re so… so…, “Kath strained for the rightword, “unfashionable.”

Joram laughed. “They’re not supposed to be fashionable…they’re supposed to be functional. My parents got me a pair for my graduationthis year. I was so surprised, becausethey are really not very technical people… I didn’t even know they knew aboutthem, since they’re so new! They’re muchmore comfortable that head phones or ear buds because they just cup right overyour ear, and the slight suction effect keeps them on snug. The sound quality is amazing, and I’msurprised at how well they cancel the surrounding noise… which is the reasonwhy my parents got them for me. Theywere all, ‘You know it’s gonna be noisy around that college. You should have something to help you studywithout all of the distractions.’”

“Well, I’ll just have to try them for myselfsometime,” Kath conceded. “But you stillwon’t catch me with them at the gym.”

“No,” Joram chuckled. “I guess I wouldn’t.”

“Well, let me just grab my purse and we’ll be onour way then.”

Joram waited outside the open door, but hestudied the apartment, looking for clues about Kath’s interests andtastes. It was sparsely decorated, acommon practice among all college students, but it looked comfortablenevertheless.

“So, I hear Louie’s makes the best pizza,” Joramoffered as they strode together down the stairs.

“It’s really, really good,” Kath admitted. “I’m sure I must be in there once aweek. Goodness, I’m starving justthinking about it.”

“Well, you wouldn’t be if your dinner partnerwould’ve been on time.”

Kath touched him lightly on the forearm. “It’s ok, Joram, really. I understand.”

At Louie’s, Joram was in heaven. The pizza was indeed delicious and Kath’scompany was simply delightful. Hecouldn’t help feel a little jealous for all of the guys at the place thatseemed to know her. He had thought abouthow his life had changed so quickly. Why, just a week ago, he was still on his rural farm outside of Wichita,Kansas helping himself to a hearty plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes beforeheading out to admire the stars in the night sky. Now here he was in bustling Pasadena,California, enjoying the company of a lovely young lady in a very active andtrendy restaurant. He snapped himselfout of the daydream.

“So there I was,” Kath continued in the middle ofan animated story. “drenching wet, andthe police officer asks me, ‘is that what you normally go swimming in?’”

Joram forced a laugh, wishing he had actually paidmore attention to what must have been a fascinating tale. Just as Kath’s raucous laughter began tosubside, Joram’s cell phone rang. He pulledit out of his pants pocket and looked at the caller ID.

“Oh sure,” Kath tilted her head slyly and alloweda wisp of hair to cover her winking eye. “In your quiet apartment you can’t hear my phone call, and now in one ofthe most noisy restaurants in Pasadena, you can hear it just fine.”

Joram smiled with feigned irritation. “I don’t know who it is… it’s a localcall. I wonder who it could be.”

“Well, the best way to replace out is to answer it,”Kath allowed the distraction.

“Hello,” Joram answered jovially. The smile eroded from his face, and he satupright in his chair.

“Um, yes, professor, right… um… hello… how areyou on this fine evening?” He winced inembarrassment while hearing how lamely he had greeted the caller.

His grew quiet and pale.

“I’m sorry… it’s a little noisy here.” He covered one ear as if to hear better. “Did you say tonight?”

He looked at his watch and appeared ready torebut, but thought better of it. “Where? But, I don’t understand… Well,okay, I’ll see you then. Good Bye.”

After a moment of tense silence, Kath attemptedto ease any discomfort that Joram may have been feeling. “You know if you’re going to hold your mouthopen like that, you might as well start on another piece of pizza.”

He decided to use his mouth in a different way—byexplaining to Kath the mysterious nature of the phone call.

“That was Professor Zimmer!” He said in confused excitement. “He said that I need to…”

His explanation was cut short. Now it was Kath who had a call on herphone. “Hold that thought… I’ll just bea moment.”

“Hello,” she answered.

Her mouth dropped as she cupped her hand over themicrophone. “It’s Professor Zimmer,” shewhispered in amazement to Joram, who threw up his hands in amazement and leanedin over the table as if proximity to Kath would help him solve themystery. He listened intently as theconversation continued.

“Tonight?”

“Wha…? Where?”

“What’s this all about, Professor?”

She stared at Joram intently, searching for himto give her clues about the situation. He could only stare blankly into her eyes while shaking his head.

“Okay… uh… bye then.”

She slowly placed her phone back in her purse.

“Tonight?” Joram inquired on the edge of his seat.

“Uh-huh,” She mouthed back.

“At the Burbank Airport?”

“Uh-huh.”

“The private terminal.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Rendezvous with a helicopter?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Heading to Paris, France?”

“Uh-huh... No, wait.” Kath collected herself. A smile slowly appeared on her face as sheadmired Joram’s trick to pull her back to reality.

“No, Mount Palomar, silly… the same thing he toldyou, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Joram playfully mocked Kath with afalsetto voice intended to mimic her responses to him.

“Very funny, Joram Anders.” She looked at her watch. “We have to get going… we don’t have muchtime to pack before Zimmer meets us at the airport… What do you think this is all about, Joram?”

“I don’t know, but what the heck… a helicopterride to a mountain observatory for some star-gazing… sounds wonderful tome. Let’s go!”

“Yeah, it sounds rather…” Kath caught herself andblushed slightly as she pulled the word “romantic” off of her lips andresponded, “Rather wonderful.”

…

Kath and Joram paused as they entered thehelicopter terminal together. Kathpulled a roller bag behind her, while Joram had a duffel bag on hisshoulder. They both looked around forProfessor Zimmer who was to meet them here.

“I’ll just check at the counter,” Joramsaid.

With sleepy eyes, Kath watched Joram approach thecounter and engage a young man on the other side. The young man motioned to his right andexchanged some words and a smile with Joram, who nodded and turned back towardsKath.

“We need to wait in room 109 right over there,”Joram offered as the two continued towards the meeting room.

As they entered the small, well-lit room, theysaw another individual slumped in a seat. As he heard them enter, he stood up and peered at them, straining toidentify them as someone he knew. Joramwas the first to recognize the individual as the person who entered theplanetarium on the first day of class when he was relaxing in hisfully-reclined seat.

“You’re in Professor Zimmer’s A21 class, aren’tyou?” Joram offered his right hand.

“Yes,” said the young man accepting Joram’s firmhandshake. “As I recall, you were thefirst person in the room on Monday weren’t you?”

Joram blushed, realizing that he had been caughtoff guard that first day of class as he had expected.

“Yes,” he chuckled. “I suspect you caught me in a rathervulnerable position there didn’t you.”

Kath cocked her head slightly and gave Joram aninquisitive glance.

“I arrived early to class that first day, so thatI could acquaint myself with the planetarium. I was experimenting with the controls of the seat, and got a littlecomfortable when I reclined it all the way.”

At first, Kath snickered, but she quicklyregained her control… for just a moment before she had a chance to visualizeJoram being caught in that position. Thethought, coupled with her fatigue, made her burst into such a fit of laughterthat her new companion joined in heartily as well.

Joram rolled his eyes and nodded, blushing evenmore.

“I’m sorry, Joram,” Kath said. “I know it’s not funny, I just…”

“It’s ok, Kath,” accepted Joram. “Actually, it is pretty funny, so I don’tfault you.”

Kath now turned to her classmate, “I’m KathMirabelle.”

“Oh, I’m Reyd Eastman,” their fellow studentintroduced himself throwing his right hand out in front of him quickly. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”

“Reyd,” Joram grabbed his colleague’s hand andbypassed the chit chat, “do you know why we’re all here?”

“No, I have no idea, Professor Zimmer just said…”Reyd was cut off abruptly.

“I can tell you why we’re here,” announcedProfessor Zimmer, looking rather haggard from his second flight of theday. “But please follow me to thehelicopter first.”

The trio of graduate students retrieved theirluggage and obeyed the professor quickly and quietly as they proceeded out ofthe room and down the hall of the terminal.

For an aging professor, the trio of students wassurprised at the quickness of his gait. After briskly catching up to him, Joram’s curiosity won out overdiscretion. He turned his face towardsZimmer and asked, “Professor, what is this about?”

“I’m not at liberty to say here in the terminal,Joram,” the professor looked straight ahead and continued his rapid pace. “While the situation was declassified justmoments before my plane landed, NASA is scheduling a press conference laterthis evening, and I am not at liberty to speak of the matter here. I’ll tell you everything once we’re aboardthe helicopter.”

Joram tried to piece the clues together. Situation? NASA? Press conf… Joram looked athis watch… a press conference later this evening? It was already 11:45 PM. Why would NASA schedule a press conferencethis late in the evening? Something wasobviously very urgent. And then, didn’tthe professor say something about a plane landing? But he was just in class with him about 12hours ago. Where could he have gone—andreturned—so suddenly?

The professor continued his pace with thestudents following along with him silently all the way to the tarmac where ahelicopter’s blades were already whirring overhead. A pair of airport personnel rushed out tomeet the party and assist the group and their luggage into the helicopter. A pilot assisted Kath into the cockpit firstand then helped Joram, Reyd, and lastly the professor. Each seat had a headset on it, and eachmember placed it on their heads. Afterthe pilot gave some brief instructions, all of the passengers were harnessedinto their seat and clearance was granted from air traffic controllers fordeparture.

The helicopter lifted slowly off the ground, andthe three students gazed out of their windows to see the lights of SouthernCalifornia stretch to the horizon in nearly all directions. A smattering of lights could also be seen inthe mountains to the north of the city. They watched until the ground disappeared under a dense marine layer andsoon all that could be seen was the flashing lights of the helicopter itselfand the moonless sky filled with a vast array of stars of various brightnessand color. Joram admired the sceneoverhead. He had only been in SouthernCalifornia for a week, and he was already missing the expansive, star-filledsky over his home in Kansas.

Joram looked back over at the professor who wasstudying the contents of a manila folder intently. After a moment he looked up at the pilot, whowas engaged with final departure communication from the airport. The pilot looked back at Zimmer and nodded.

Reaching for a button on his headset, he engagedhis microphone. Looking at his perplexedtrio, he spoke, “Can you all hear me okay?” They each nodded and leaned towards the professor with intent curiosity,as if by proximity they would be able to hear him through the noise of thehelicopter better.

“You’ll recall that Dean Scoville came into myclassroom today as lecture was finishing up. He led me to his office, where I was given a very urgent assignment fromNASA. I have been to Johnson SpaceCenter, where they have briefed me on a situation of utmost concern.” He paused, not sure how to continue. “It is our lot to solve a rather perplexingastronomical puzzle as quickly as possible, which is why I have summoned thethree of you to travel with me to Palomar tonight.”

He caught himself with that statement, “By theway, I have failed to thank you for your willingness to do this withoutsufficient preparation or explanation. My apologies for not being clearer… I had to be brief on the phonebecause this situation was classified when I spoke to you.”

Another longer pause ensued, as he was not surehe wanted to precede his briefing with the following introduction. “There are at least three astronauts whoselives could be in jeopardy at this very moment.”

At that, Kath gave a start, and covered hergasping mouth with her hands. Joramleaned back in his seat, horrified at the implication. Reyd dropped his head in realization of theseriousness of the situation.

Zimmer gave his students the details as they hadbeen conveyed to him by Gilroy’s task force.

“Now, we had hoped to have a visual on the campby now, seeing how the lone communicating satellite is directly overhead. However, a severe dust storm has completelyobscured visibility of 60% of the surface of the planet. Even so, the satellite should be able to communicatewith equipment at the camp, but…” with this Zimmer lowered his head, “… but,I’m afraid that there is no signal. Now,the timing is not as desirable as we’d like,” Zimmer began to wrap up hisbriefing. “At this late hour, we willonly have a few good hours to collect data.”

With an introduction to the situation out of theway, Professor Zimmer instructed his graduate students in the plans which he haddevised on the plane trip back from Houston. “Joram, you will accompany Reyd, who has familiarity with the setup atPalomar. Reyd received his bachelor’sdegree last Spring in Computer Science with a minor in Astronomy. He will be able to work the system to processthe data in any manner we need. Kath, asthe only meteorologist currently in the program, I have called on you to studythe dynamics of the dust storm. This is nota storm of any typical nature that has ever been observed occurring on ourneighbor. I, in the meantime, willcontrol the telescope to collect what I believe will be the most useful set ofdata for us to process. For the timebeing, I advise you to get what little rest you can before we land atPalomar. If you have any questions, justpress the red button on your headset right here.”

Kath was the first to deploy her microphone. “Professor, you are correct that I havestudied meteorology, but only as it pertains to Earth. I have no notion of the atmospheric dynamicson Mars to be able to adequately perform this study.”

“I suspect that you will learn quickly, MissMirabelle,” began Zimmer, “As soon as we touch down, you will have completeaccess to a team of Martian meteorologists in Israel. They are prepared to teleconference with youand have been given express instructions to give you full access to theirknowledge. Ask them any question thatyou need. Call upon them for any reportof data that may help. Your job is tocommunicate to the team assembled at Palomar any and all details as theyunravel from the team in Israel.”

Kath nodded her head. She did not feel adequate to the task, butalso did not want to let the professor down, and she certainly did not want tolet down the three astronauts whose lives could depend on the teamwork ofeverybody involved on their behalf.

“Any more questions?” probed the professor.

Joram had many, but he knew that he could defermany of them to Reyd once they were on the ground, so as to not distract theprofessor from any data processing or theorizing on the matter for theremainder of the flight.

After a moment of silence, the professor returnedto his seat, reclined the seat back slightly, and rested his head, heaving aburdened sigh as he closed his eyes.

Kath, who sat next to Joram took off her headsetand spoke above the noisy helicopter into Joram’s ear. “How exactly are we supposed to rest withthis racket?”

Joram reached under his seat and pulled out apair of objects from his duffel bag. “You said that you were wanting to try these, and well… I thought theymight come in handy for you on the flight.”

Kath smiled in amazement. In the little time that Joram had to pack forthe trip, he was thoughtful enough to remember his Ear Cups… for her!

She placed them over her ears, and was quiteshocked to discover that they worked amazingly well. She could hear almost nothing. In his ear, she said, “You’re wonderful,Joram Anders,” and proceeded to kiss him on the cheek.

The two exchanged a warm smile with each otherbefore Kath got comfortable, resting her head on Joram’s broad shoulder. In an instant, she was asleep as if restingin her own bed, and not on a noisy helicopter bound for a mountain observatory100 miles away.