Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

After weeks of work, we were finally ready to test our second prototype. Both Hadley and I were confident that, this time, the bubble would hold. Like before, we had scheduled the trial during the staff meeting, and everyone gathered in the observation deck. I sat next to Naomi, who took my hand in hers. The heat of her hand infused me with warmth and a sense of well-being. Hadley and Andrea were sitting directly behind us. All eyes were on Diana, who was seated on a stool in front of the big screen.

“Okay, we’re ready for version two. Let’s see what happens,” she said, nodding at me.

The prototype was in place five kilometers from the station, with the usual array of sensors. I touched my computer tablet to start the countdown, then stared at my computer screen: five – four – three – two – one. The data started flowing in. There it was, the warp field, with its unique energy signature. I held my breath and counted.

When thirty seconds passed, I released my breath and glanced back at Hadley. Her eyes were dancing. “Thirty seconds,” I mouthed. She gave me a thumbs up. I studied the video feeds projected onto the big screen—from the outside the prototype looked slightly distorted. Could that be the effect of the warp bubble? The videos from within the prototype had gone black, as before, but according to the data, the warp bubble was there. We sat in silence as the minutes ticked by. Two minutes, then it was four, five …

I looked at my screen. The warp bubble was stable! After ten minutes, the bubble collapsed, as we had programmed it to do, and the test was over. I scanned the data—

there was a lot to analyze, but we had done it!

Everyone started whooping and clapping.

“We did it, Calli!” Hadley shouted over the din, patting me on the back, as Naomi gave me an affectionate hug.

Diana stood up, and everyone turned to look at her expectantly, faces open and trusting. She had such presence, a natural leader. Diana was beaming.

“Congratulations!” Hadley and I exchanged smiles. “This is a monumental moment in the history of physics. What you two have achieved today is truly admirable. Sir Isaac Newton, in all modesty, said of his discoveries that he was like a boy playing on the seashore, who occasionally found a prettier shell than the ordinary, while a great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before him. And now, my dear friends, we can see further into that deep, fathomless ocean—the waters are a little clearer. This is bigger than Newton could have dreamed of, or even Einstein. I am so proud, and so honored to be standing here before you both. Thanks to your work, the Universe has revealed another of its beautiful secrets.”

Once again, balls of champagne were passed around. This time, we stayed for the party.

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◆◆◆

Over the next few weeks, Hadley and I worked closely with the engineering team, designing the official probe, which we named CHARM, for the letters of each of our first names: Calli, Hadley, Andrea, Rika, and Marta. She was our good luck charm, born out of cooperation and hard work. It was a proud moment for all of us.

We launched the probe on July ninth. It was an engineering marvel: the same size and general shape as the original prototype, but with several added features to allow it to gather data from its destinations. We could have waited for a staff meeting, but the probe was ready, and the next meeting was a week and a half away. Even though we didn’t have our usual cheering crowd, the engineering team, Elena, Diana, and Hadley and I were all present for the event in the observation deck. My eyes were glued to my computer tablet, which monitored the warp field and the creation of the bubble.

Charm was fully automated, like the test prototype had been. She would complete her first exploration in ten days, and would bring back a wealth of data about specific regions of space chosen by Elena, who had around twenty target areas she was interested in studying. For this first foray, Charm would visit each area, jumping from region to region using the warp bubble.

I had never seen Elena so excited. She was like a little girl, looking over our shoulders at the field data, staring out the window of the observation deck (though the only visible object was the lunar surface), barely able to contain her enthusiasm. It seemed as though she was making a tremendous effort not to jump for joy, since the result would be crashing into the ceiling. I shared her excitement. It would be a long ten days before Charm returned.

Once the probe was gone, Diana started to shake Hadley’s hand, then changed her mind and pulled her into a hug, then she hugged me tightly. “I’m so thrilled about this,”

she said, a huge smile on her face.

◆◆◆

That night, I ate dinner with Elena. We hadn’t spent much time together, occasionally at the socials, or sometimes at lunch or dinner in the company of other women, but she was the demure crewmate, the quiet observer, and I didn’t really know her. We had entered the dining room at the same time, and so, after filling our bowls, we sat together at one of the empty tables. I could tell she was still thinking about the launch earlier that day, her face was glowing.

“I’m excited about the probe,” Elena said.

“Me too. I’m looking forward to our first batch of data.”

She fidgeted in her chair, her eyes gleaming. “I wrote a computer program that will perform the preliminary analysis. When we get the data, I’ll start running it straight away.” Elena had also written the program to gather the data, as I recalled. She had 155

worked closely with Rika, and Kamana from station ops, on the protocols and the sensors.

“So, what are you searching for?”

Her face broke into a smile, and she straightened in her seat. A kindred spirit. We both adored our work. But then again, everyone at the Foundation felt the same way.

“Goldilocks planets.”

I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head. “Goldilocks?”

She laughed. “You know that old fairy tale? Goldilocks and the Three Bears?”

“Sure, but I don’t know what it has to do with extrasolar planets.”

“It’s like in the story, what we want in an extrasolar planet: not too hot, not too cold, just right.”

“Goldilocks.” I laughed. “That’s funny. Though it didn’t turn out so well for her in the end, did it?”

Elena laughed, too. “Depends on which version you read.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“I’m looking for planets in the habitable zone, neither too close nor too far from their parent sun, where liquid water can exist, like our Earth. Astronomers have identified thousands of earthlike planets over the years, but now I’ll be able to gather real-time data, and with much greater detail. Oh, and a magnetic field is a must, to protect the planet from ionizing radiation from its star, or stars, in the case of binaries.”

“Sure, makes sense.”

Elena rubbed her chin with her fingers. “It’s possible to create an artificial magnetic field by using a magnetic-field generator located off-planet, but there are so many planets to choose from, I’m focusing on those with their own internal magnetic fields.”

“Although that would be a fun project for our engineering team,” I said.

“Yes! Our team here would love the challenge.” Elena looked across the room, where Marta and Rika were sitting with their heads close together, talking intently. “I suppose it all depends on what you want in an extrasolar planet. For colonization it might be better to find a young planet orbiting a stable star, with liquid water, but with no life, so we could terraform from scratch. But it would be really exciting to find a planet with a rudimentary ecosystem, especially if life evolved in such a way as to produce a breathable atmosphere, breathable for humans, that is.”

“Is that your focus, habitable