accelerando
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When the general entered the room, all of the soldiers stood and saluted. The scientists, on the other hand, did not. They were too engrossed in their work, and most probably did not even notice the large man entering. It was not until he cleared his throat that they took notice.
“Oh, uh, General Adams, sir.” One of the scientists said. He was a lanky fellow whose name tag bore the name Dr. Walter Heathrow. The general doubted the man’s doctorate was in medicine.
“Why did you call me?” Adams said before anyone could say anything. He was an important man, even if he had not been doing anything important when he had been called.
“Well, it’s about Object Z-19.”
“Oh. That.” General Adams said. He had little interest in that subject, but his fellow generals had shoved it on him. As far as he was concerned, it was just a big lump of rock and metal headed in a vaguely Earth-bound direction. Most of the people in the room even thought it was going to miss Earth by a good thousand miles. “What about it?”
“Two things, sir. The first is that it’s accelerating.” Dr. Heathrow said. Adams motioned for him to continue. “It started going at around one kilometer, oh, uh sorry, half a mile an hour. When we called you here, it’s going one mile an hour. Now it’s going two.”
“And?”
“And, it has no visible method of propulsion. Simply put, nothing we can see is moving it. If it was behaving normally, it would take years, maybe even centuries to get anywhere near Earth. Now we’re not sure. Because…” He quickly checked a computer screen, “It’s now moving five miles an hour. It’s getting faster. It might not seem like much to you, but that is alarming.”
“Okay. So something bumped into it and made it move faster. What else?”
“Well, we’re not sure there was an impact, but the second thing is that it’s not silent.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s giving off some kind of signal. We believe it’s a form of music, but since it’s like nothing we’ve ever heard, we can’t be sure. Here, listen for yourself.”
One of the other scientists typed out a quick command on her console and something began to play. It was like a single instrument make five different notes at once. It was jarring and offensive to the ears, but it had the distinct rhythmic quality of music. What could make such a sound was beyond Adams’ comprehension.
“Turn that racket off.” He said loudly. When the music stopped, he continued. “Now, what makes you think this is coming from Z-19 and not some teenager with a well made synthesizer?”
“Well, for one, it’s a type of signal we’ve never seen before. And for another, it’s being received by the antennae assigned to monitor Z-19. Plus…” Dr. Heathrow shifted in his seat.
“What else Doctor?”
“The music is also accelerating, sir. At the same rate as the object itself. At exactly the same rate.”
“And why does that matter?”
The doctor sighed. “In a word? Distance. Object Z-19 is beyond the orbit of Mars. It should take hours, or even days, for a signal to reach us. But the accelerations are perfectly synchronized. That leads to three possibilities. The first is just as you probably suspect. An elaborate prank. This might be the simplest, but given the evidence, it’s also the least likely. The second is that the signal was preplanned and sent ahead of time, so that it reaches us to give the illusion of synchronicity. The third is that somehow this data is being sent to us at faster than light speeds.”
Even General Adams knew that was not something that should be possible. He looked at the image of the massive space rock.
“What does it mean, Doctor?”
The thin man took a deep breath and firmed his posture as much as he could. “It means we’re currently operating under the assumption that Object Z-19 is not an asteroid. It means, General, that we need to be ready for first contact.”
General Adams was silent. He looked at the man for any hint of a joke. There was none. Nor was there any levity on the faces of any of the others in that room. The soldiers were the only exception. They scoffed and chuckled at the idea of aliens. But the men and women actually making the claim were stern faced and serious.
“How soon?”
“I don’t know, General. As it is now, years. But who knows how fast it could get? For all we know, it could be here in ten years, or tomorrow.”
“I see. Write up a report containing everything you know about Object Z-19, and what you suspect might be headed our way. I’ll see that it gets send to the people who need to see it.”
“Of course, General.”
General Adams nodded to the scientists, then turned. He gave a quick salute to his men, who returned the gesture. Then he left the room, thoughts churning through his mind. This post had just become a lot more interesting.
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Just a nice little pre-sci-fi story. Is that a thing, or is this just normal sci-fi? I mean, there's technically no aliens in it. Hm...I wonder.
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