Pendulum Swing: Kepler 186

2016 Amy Johnson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/08/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9148-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9147-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-9149-0 (e)

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Contents

Part One Earth

Part Two From Mars to Kepler 186

Part Three Earth – Mars – Kepler: A Journey

About the Book

About the Author

Acknowledgement of painting Colossus by Captain MG MacFarland

Grace, Benjamin, Leon, Emma, Jacqueline, Earl, Guri, Sean, John, Alan, Peter, Robert, Loren, Victor, David, Liz, Richard, Graham, Harpal, Dave, Nigel, Wendy, Bob, Bill, Roshi, Major, Sukh, Atminder, Harry, Richard, James, David, Keira, Omar, Joseph, Yash, Momtaz, Sepi, Kubra, Morag, Dawne, Neil, Tony, Gabor, Hazel, Rock, Gurdeep, Raj, Andy, Sam, Owen, Ken, Rattan, Ranjit, Christopher, Lynne, Fraser, Caroline, Heather, Ruby, Ruth, Roly, Mathew, Adam, Kevin, Denis, Karen, Chris, Andrew, Douglas, Dawn, Michael, Wayne, Amanda, Sukhmani, Gurbani, Karan, Tully, Amrita, Simran, Satbir, Denys, Birrel, Payne, Lessells, Harman, Matt, Dawne, Kubra, Aman, Shavi, Bobby, Bessie, Bharat Pal, Gill, Loughran, Brain, Petros, Nancy, Wallace, Brandon, Adrian, Frost, Taylor, Pickford, McIntyre, Jimmy-r, Tory, and Rory.

Acknowledgement of painting Captain M G MacFarland

Part One

Earth

Magnetosphere

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On 30 June 2035, Moscow escaped destruction by a few hours and a few kilometres – a margin hardly recognized by the measuring scales of the universe. Later, in February 2036, another Russian city had a similar escape when a second meteorite made impact just a few hundred kilometres from Vladivostok. The explosion could have been any uranium bomb dropped during the US-Russian hostilities in 2000s.

NASA scientists had been warning that Earth’s magnetosphere was becoming fragile. There was little humans could do to protect her from this cosmic bombardment, which had scarred the Earth earlier in her formation. The moon, which had never had such protection, was scarred permanently.

The meteorites had begun striking in 2025, but in a mainly uninhabited region. It was not easy to predict where they would strike. Humanity had since spread from pole to pole, and so the results were bound to be disastrous.

At 11:46 GMT on the morning of September 11 in the year 2026, on an exceptionally beautiful spring day, a dazzling meteor entered Earth’s skies. The local inhabitants were the first to watch it, and it was captured by space observers globally.

Within a matter of seconds, it glowed like the sun as it moved from one end of the sky to the other. A silence descended on Earth. Then it exploded, disintegrating violently.

In Switzerland, a series of violent eruptions were heard by millions of residents – the sound was deafening and terrifying. Moving at an astounding speed, the molten fire destroyed the twin Italian cities of Venice and Padua as if they had never existed. Venice – what little was left of it – sank deep under the Adriatic. The landmarks that were left seemed to have been struck as if by a nuclear bomb.

Thousands lost their lives. The damage was beyond estimation – the human race had lost part of its great civilizations. It was a war that was not being fought by humans with killer weapons but by nature. The cosmos had derived great pleasure from causing destruction beyond all computation in a single morning.

After the shockwave settled, mankind woke up and joined forces with a singular determination for the sake of its survival, to defend against the now ever-present threat of extinction.

They knew there would be no second chance given – there would be no next time.

Shepherd and Asteroid Detection

The expedition to Kepler 186 was well underway from Mars. New asteroids were identified daily.

Computers were busy calculating their orbits and had now completed information within their enormous databanks. The next astronaut in line could study it and derive patterns from the statistics to simulate more interesting information. The intellectual import was impressive.

Shepherd – Orbit

By the year 2080 of departing for Kepler 186, he had tracked down half a million asteroids. There were swarms of them. Some were large, and the giants were named with grandiose names. They revolved in orbits beyond Mars. A few ventured towards Earth and could become problems.

The space stations monitored them closely; however, they rarely if ever passed within a million kilometres of Earth. Jupiter was surrounded by such objects. Many of the asteroids went far beyond Saturn before turning back towards the Sun. Uranus stood aloof, as though unaffected by Aphrodite as it travelled around the planet. From the strength of their echoes, Shepherd could deduce from his calculations that occasionally a giant had been discovered.

Shepherd constantly calculated the orbit of key asteroids which were not travelling on a normal asteroid path. Sometimes they travelled along an ellipse, which he traced precisely, and had a cycle – they would move swiftly and cause aberrations in the gravitational fields in the solar system. These rapid ones whizzed past the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn and finally disappeared, never to be seen again.

The interstellar vagabonds made computers flash every now and then, and names were quickly assigned to them. Their unusual orbit size and radar signature made them easy to detect.

Month by month they appeared, till a rendezvous with Shepherd was inevitable.

The astronauts had a problem – some asteroids showed no curve on the radar.

Shepherd – Flight Planning among Asteroids

Shepherd knew an asteroid when he saw one. This latest one was very interesting. It plunged around the solar system and orbiting stations, and they continued to gather more information daily. Time was never on their side, but an opportunity would present itself sooner than later when good photographs could be taken. It would be a task to catch such an asteroid on film – the cost to get close was very high risk. Giants were hurtling across the orbital planes at a good hundred thousand kilometres an hour. Moreover, the astronauts had to make sure Earth was safe before departing for Kepler 186.

The excitement grew as more puzzles rose to the surface. Since space exploration began, it had been well established that asteroids had irregular shapes and spins. Their reflecting surfaces seemed to wax and wane as they hurtled along orbits at amazing speeds – hence the way their brilliance changed intermittently.

However Aphrodite 812/1560 showed no changes. The only theories were that it was stationary or moving without a spin – or somehow it had surfaces which, when it spun, caught the sun’s rays in an identical manner. There was no theory or evidence at present to settle the matter. For the moment, this quest was put aside.

Shepherd, however, collected the data and began to understand what it meant. Was it possible that the sunlight reflected from the asteroid was not absolutely constant in its intensity? It might be that it was spinning, and fast. It was an asteroid that was collecting no moss and was a new formation. Its rotation was peculiar, unlike other asteroids. It was a novelty. It fitted into the same phenotype as a collapsed star – perhaps a dead sun – weighing billions of tons, spinning while still in its neutronium. Outer space was a dangerous place. Earth had to be protected from rogue asteroids and collapsed stars like never before. So far they had been very successful.

But again, how did this one find its way into their solar system? The observatory might have been right after all. Perhaps across centuries in our time, it had lost its way. If that was the case, it was potentially lethal. It could, if it collided with Earth, kill by heat or by its sheer gravity and radiation.

An interstellar mass had intruded into the solar system and could potentially distort the orbits of all its planets. If it flipped only a few kilometres toward the sun, the delicate balance of the Earth could be completely destroyed.

Shepherd did not shrug off the idea. This was nonsense – the meteor could not be composed of sheer condensed matter. It was utterly impossible for it to come so deep into the solar system unobserved. They began to get the defences activated. Soon the mass would be detonated by their supreme defence systems. Of this were there was no doubt; they could take no chances.

Sigourney and Shepherd – Laughter

Sigourney laughed aloud. Shepherd was going to leave her again on a confidential mission from Mars to Kepler 186 – a planet much like Earth. But before he left, he had to take care of a meteor looming too close for comfort.

She stood on her apartment floor and looked at the oceans around her. She picked up her history book and read some more: ‘The explosion only blocks away, in the year 2001, had frozen in New Yorkers’ minds like motionless water.’ A great-uncle from her father’s side had been responsible for much of the recovery programme and rebuilding of a Monolithic