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    The Contact Episode One
    The Contact Episode One
    The Contact Episode One
    Ebook89 pages1 hour

    The Contact Episode One

    By Albert Sartison

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The ascendancy of mankind is being decided on Jupiter

    watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/gWYCcvlBD80

    In the 22nd century, mankind assimilated the Solar System within the orbits of the inner planets, and was gradually moving further out, beyond the asteroid belt, onward towards the outer planets.

    The recently discovered technology of remote manipulation gave people the capability of altering the orbit of celestial bodies of planetary size, which laid the foundation of a new era for the human race: the terraforming age. The colonization of space beyond the limits of the Solar System became only a matter of time.

    Soon after the first successful test, changing the orbit of Mercury, a strange object moving from the depths of space towards the centre of the Solar System entered the field of vision of a telescope at an observatory in Chile...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlbert Sartison
    Release dateFeb 9, 2014
    ISBN9781311441751
    The Contact Episode One
    Author

    Albert Sartison

    albertsartison.com Albert Sartison first became acquainted with games theory when he was a student. Since then, he has been fascinated by complex multiple-move strategic games in politics and economics. In such situations, the apparent freedom of action of the parties involved is in fact restricted by the bounds of economic and political feasibility, which at times leads to improbable consequences. The history of modern civilization includes many wars and political and economic crises which began as minor contradictions or local conflicts and escalated into global cataclysms on a planet-wide scale. Man has a highly developed intellect which enables him to assess his actions critically and analyse complex situations. As an individual, he is capable of rational reasoning. Is this applicable to human civilization? albertsartison.com Books by Albert Sartison: --The Contact --Beyond the Event Horizon --Fundamental Force --The Storm --Entangled

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    • 4/5
      (Reviewed by Paul Lappen for the Kindle Book Review)This novella starts the story of Mankind's first contact with an alien civilization.In the 22nd Century, Mankind has started to spread out throughout the solar system. He has also started to fiddle with Mercury's orbit through remote manipulation. Steve is a graduate student in astrophysics at an unnamed university. One day, the computer tracking system tells him of an unknown object coming this way from outside the solar system. Figuring that it's just a comet or meteor, Steve tells the system to keep an eye on it. Within 24 hours, the object has come from outside the solar system, used the planet Saturn as a brake, and put itself into orbit around Jupiter. That requires an insane amount of speed, many times faster than the fastest human ships.Steve calls in Clive, a fellow grad student, to confirm his findings. Steve knows that Clive will find any holes in his theory. Clive is convinced, and the two call in Dr. Shelby, dean of the university. He is convinced that the object is not a comet or meteor, and convenes an international conference of eminent scientists. The public reason for the conference is to discuss future experiments to manipulate Mercury's orbit. When everyone is behind closed doors, Shelby reveals the real reason for the conference.There is much discussion around the question "What do we do now?" Using electronic pulses, does Mankind say "Greetings?" Does Mankind send scientific constants or numbers that will not change, like pi (3.1416)? Will the visitor even respond at all?Think of this as part of a larger novel, and it works really well. It's well written, and it feels scientifically accurate. It stops at the right spot, when Mankind sends its first message to the alien visitor.(The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book in exchange for an independent, fair and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.)

    Book preview

    The Contact Episode One - Albert Sartison

    THE CONTACT

    episode one

    by

    Albert Sartison

    Published by Albert Sartison at Smashwords

    Copyright 2013 Albert Sartison

    1.11

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favourite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

    Contents

    Prologue

    Error

    Something about the stars

    Night

    The Doppler Effect

    What is to be done?

    At the Space Force base

    Project: Dawn

    Contact

    „Our nature consists in movement;

    absolute rest is death."

    Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)

    Prologue

    The spacecraft reaches Mercury at the intended time and begins sending signals to determine the precise orbit of the planet. The experiment begins that evening. A command is sent to increase the speed of Mercury from the Experiment Control Centre at the moon base. Three hours later, the International Space Station, scientists at the moon station and also many other groups of scientists on Earth, register an increase in the diameter of Mercury’s orbit round the Sun by two percent. Once the experiment is over, Mercury’s orbit is slowed down to its previous level.

    Soon after, a Chilean observatory observes a space object moving from outer space which could potentially collide with Earth. Precise calculations of its flight trajectory are not yet possible because it is so far away, and the orbital telescopes, even those in orbit round the gas giants, are currently being used in support of an experiment testing remote manipulation technology. In view of the low speed of the object, the time for it to reach the Earth’s orbit is estimated as hundreds of years, so a low priority is given to clarifying its trajectory. Nevertheless, the instruction is entered into the central computer for a second observation of the object a week later, to confirm the low priority status.

    At the next observation session, the object is not detected. The telescope control system probes the space sectors in the region of the assumed location. The unidentified space body is eventually detected, but its actual position differs greatly from that initially assumed. Following its programmed instructions, the telescope computer corrects the calculation data and raises the priority for finally calculating the trajectory. The third observation session is appointed for 24 hours later.

    The third observation session reveals an even greater calculation error. The Chilean telescope’s automatic control system has to notify the scientific personnel...

    Error

    With his dirty trainers up on the table, Steve, a final year astrophysics student working as a junior scientific assistant at the observatory in his spare time, was fast asleep. A relay suddenly clicked, switching on the display of the main monitor, shining a broad ray of bright light oppressively on the sleeping Steve. He half-opened one eye and sleepily looked at the message:

    UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT FOUND.

    MAY COLLIDE WITH INNER PLANETS.

    IMPOSSIBLE TO CALCULATE ITS TRAJECTORY.

    In a hoarse voice (due to an excess of cold beer and loud serenades last night), Steve commanded:

    Give additional information.

    Columns of figures floated onto the screen. His head was working slowly, but his gaze automatically picked up the main information: the size of the object, the parameters of its motion, its brightness...

    So what’s the problem? thought Steve.

    He got up and went to pour himself a coffee. Opening the kitchen cupboard door, he discovered, with astonishment, that there was an amulet on his right wrist. It took a full minute for him to recall what had happened after he left the student pub Minus Alpha with his friends. They had been to a party there, nothing had come of it. He scratched the back of his neck, fetched a mug, filled it from the percolator and went back to his place.

    The main screen was still filled with information about the strange object from the depths of the Universe. Steve sat down, took a gulp of coffee and grimaced, pushing the mug away, and began quickly leafing through the contents of the log file.

    First observation more than a week ago. Trajectory... Speed... Direction... Second observation. Trajectory... Speed... Direction... Error correction... Speed correction factor twenty three and five? Somewhat high. Third observation, error correction factor seventy eight?

    Well, that's way too much, Steve thought.

    He reached out for the mug, picked it up, but remembering how vile the contents had tasted, put it back. He had finally woken up.

    Speed estimate error of seventy-eight-fold, why so great? The telescope had never made an error before at distances like that. When they measured Mercury’s orbit a fortnight ago, it was accurate to within one hundredth of a permille. But here... Yes, the object was at the edge of the Solar System, but...

    Steve started the orbit simulator. The simulation program opened where it had ended last time – on advanced collision model. Steve, sitting at the computer, rolled up his eyes and sighed. ‘ADVANCED COLLISION MODEL’, what sort of an idiot would call his degree thesis that? The ACM was the brainchild of Clive, one of his fellow students on the same course, and probably the most famous nerd in the whole space science faculty. Steve remembered him from his very first days at the university. The first-year students, still wet behind the ears, gathered in the lecture hall and were given instructions by the entire teaching staff, including the Dean of the faculty. The Dean’s speech was interrupted by Clive raising his hand. The Dean, Mr. Shelby, well respected by the students for his informal and honest manner, broke off his speech, smiled and asked Clive what he wanted to know. Clive stood up, coughed, quoted a passage from the work of some theoretical astrophysicist and asked Shelby what he thought of it. The grey-haired old man looked round the new students and his colleagues, and then turned back to Clive, who was waiting in silence.

    Very interesting work, replied Shelby, still smiling. One of our research groups is studying this question. Ask Dr. Kubinski, he will be glad to answer all your questions.

    Clive, as cool as a cucumber, wrote down the group leader’s name, thanked Shelby and sat down.

    Steve, observing from the sidelines, thought Clive’s behaviour was contrived. He thought at that time that he was just showing off to an audience. But over the past

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