Chapter 1 Strange Readings
Ch 1 Strange Readings
Location: in the middle of the North Pacific
Date & Time: November 10th, 2016 10:00 pm local time
A lonely research vessel sailing on a calm sea under a starlit night. Two men stood on guard on the bridge while most of the crew were asleep in their bunks. One of the men on the bridge is a seasoned sailor for being in the United States navy for years before being honorably discharged years ago. His bearded face showing signs of unease despite the calm night. “there's a storm coming, I can just feel it.” he said in weary voice.
“How can you tell? There's nothing on radar.” asked the other man sleeplessly. Both of them have been on duty for hours watching various sensors while the ship continued its course. They were one of seven ships hired to map the ocean floor with so many sensors that they could measure ocean depth, ocean currents size, speed, and direction, marine life, water density, magnetic field fluctuations, radiation, and etc. Anyways all the sensors were reading normal for the area, nothing to indicate a storm is coming. Even the satellite data shows nothing in the lines of a storm for the area.
“Something just doesn’t feel right here.” Said the experienced captain.
“Well I'll check all the other sensors then.” Said the deck hand as he went over to the sensor control station. “Hmm, strange. Hey captain, what do you make of this?” he asked while pointing to the screen.
Walking over to see what his first mate was talking about, the captain said “it's probably just sea life. Nothing to worry about.” looking over the first mate’s shoulder, he saw something peculiar.
“That’s not sea life sir.” Indeed it wasn't sea life for they were getting a message saying several unknown particles detected and overall energy levels rising. “could this be a glitch sir?”
“With how new those sensors are, it could be a glitch. But let's get the scientist up here to check it out anyways.” The captain replied as he walked over to the phone. After picking up the phone and pressing the intercom button, the captain said “May Dr. Johnson and all bridge personnel come to the bridge please.”
That little message was enough to break the quiet ship from its slumber as crew members rushed out of bed to their various stations. The crew knew that when the captain calls for bridge personnel to be on the bridge, trouble was on its way. Just a few minutes later, a weary young lady dressed in a two pajamas set with a lab coat on top and a pair of slippers on her feet walked into the bridge from a side hatch. She was followed by three more crew members, all of whom were in various stages of getting dress but thankfully had shirts and pants on.
“This better be good for I was in the middle of a good dream or I'm throwing you overboard captain.” Said Dr. Johnson with venom in her voice.
“Calm down Doctor. I just want you to make sure our sensors are working.” replied Captain Morgan. “As for the rest of you, please get to your stations.”
“Of course the sensors are working. Why wouldn’t they be working?” asked Dr. Johnson as she walked over to the console. “I help design them.”
“Well, it's better that you see for yourself.” Morgan said as he walked up behind her.
Dr. Johnson looked at the screen with a smirk on her face, which soon became a look of disbelief. On screen was the same message of “Unknown Particles Detected” followed by the stats of the rising ambient energy levels. “Is this a joke? Because if it is, it’s not funny” said Johnson as she sat down in a chair and brought up the diagnostic system. She was sure that it was a joke since she design the system to take nothing less than a well placed explosion to damage it.
“It’s no joke if Captain Morgan called us to stations.” said helmsman Jordan, who served under Captain Morgan back in the navy before being discharge like his captain.
“Thanks Jordan.”the captain said.
The diagnostic system came back negative for any damage or tampering of the system just then, proof that what they were seeing was real. “captain, could you contact our sister ship for conformation with these readings? I believe they're about 50 kilometers away.”
“What are we looking at here, Doctor?” asked the captain.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well OK then.” Said Morgan, turning to his communication officer. “Nick, you heard her. Call the Discovery, see what’s their input.”
“Right away sir.” nick said as he punched in the codes to the Discovery Com system. “Discovery. Come in Discovery.” he paused. “Discovery. Come in Discovery.”
“This is the Discovery. Who is this and state your business?” came from the radio.
“This the Challenger, we need you to confirm something for us.”
“Ok, let’s see what we got here… what's going on here!?!”
“Talk to us, what are your sensors telling you?”
“Are you getting a ‘Unknown Particles Detected’ message too.”
“Yes.”
“Well we're going to stand by for further instructions, over.”
“Copy that,” Said Nick. “Well you heard them Captain. What are your orders?”
Holding a finger up in a gesture saying one moment, Captain Morgan began to paced around the room while muttering to himself a few things. “This is not something in my training but the particle could be a couple of possibilities here. The first possible answer would be that this is nothing but background radiation for the area, but that doesn't explain the exponentially rising numbers here. It could also be leftover radiation from Fukushima from a few years ago, but again that doesn't explain the readings.” Morgan said as he check the data again. “Doctor, could you tell me if these particles are harmful to life?”
“No, I can't at this time. I would need to contact some of my colleagues to know for sure. For now I recommend that we turn around to find the edge of the radiation field to start an assessment of a potential danger zone.”
Captain Morgan thought it over for about a minute before saying, “that sounds like an excellent starting point but I recommend that we head for port first to some more supplies and personnel before starting an extensive study at sea. Besides I want an extensive medical examination done on everybody to make sure that we aren't exposed to anything first.”
The ship currently had twenty sailors and one scientist on board with enough supplies for another two weeks at sea. It’ll take five days to reach port from their current location. To truly study and survey the area it’ll be a massive under taking that will require a large fleet of ships and a small nation of people, and currently there are just two ships on a poorly funded survey of the Pacific Ocean.
“Nick, tell Discovery we’re heading back to port and I suggest that they do the same for potential medical reasons. Also allow Dr. Johnson to contact anyone she wants on the subject matter.” said Captain Morgan.
“On it captain.” came a reply as Nick went to work.
“Helmsman Jordan, set a heading for home.”
“Will do.”
“Dr. Johnson, while I do enjoy your time here on the bridge, please return to your work space. Before you complain you will get access to coms, sensor and navigational data there.”
“Captain! Our GPS and navigation computer just went down.” called the helmsman as Dr. Johnson left the bridge.
“For some reason I knew this would happen sooner or later. Thank God that we have those old navigational tools here.” Said Captain Morgan, taking out a sexton, a compass, and a map of the Pacific Ocean and marking down current location. “Make sure the good doctor gets the navigational info every twenty to thirty minutes until the nav computer comes back online.” he ordered.
“Captain, the Discovery has lost their navigational computer as well and are asking for assistance. Apparently none of them know how navigate without help from a computer. What should I tell them?” asked Nick.
“Tell them to stay put and wait for the Coast Guard or the military to come get them. And call the Coast Guard and let them know the situation. Do it quick because I have a feeling we'll lose more systems before we're home.”
“Right away sir.”
…
Location: Seattle Coast Guard station
Date and time: November 11th, 2016 12:00 am Western time
A board officer sat at a desk quietly reading a National Geographic issue waiting for a call or her shift to end whichever came first. Just as she was turning the page the phone rang. “Hello, Coast Guard Seattle Station, how may I help you?” she asked.
“Hello, this is Nick. I'm the Com officer on the survey ship the Challenger.” came a slightly panicking voice through some static on the line. “Our sister ship the Discovery and us have discovered some potentially dangerous radiation just before our systems started shutting down. We need help.” the static was getting worse as time went on.
“What is your locations?” asked the Guard officer. The voice on the line just managed to say location, speed, and direction of travel before the line cut out completely. Deciding time was the essence, she raised the alert status and began relaying information to both Coast Guard and military forces near the last known locations of the two ships.
…
Date & Time: November 11th, 2016 6:00 pm News
“Good evening America, this is Kelly on CNN.” said the anchor woman on TV. “On tonight's agenda We’ll be covering an interesting search and rescue operation that has both the Coast Guard and the Navy baffled as reports of navigational and communication equipment failure have been coming in across the Pacific Ocean that started late last night. What strange is that the first report of equipment failure came from two highly advance research ships whose equipment should have been protected from such failure which the most puzzling and probably the most troubling. In this first report the crew of the Challenger had made an unusual discovery which was then confirm by the crew of its sister ship the Discovery shortly before their equipment began failing.”
“Joining me tonight is Dr. James Brown, a colleague and close friend of Dr. Megan Johnson who is currently on the Challenger at sea.” said Kelly, turning to a man sitting next to her while wearing a lab coat. “Thanks for joining us Dr. Brown and sorry about your friend.”
“Oh it's nothing to worry about. I'm sure that she's fine, besides there is nothing I can do about it. What I'm more worried about is the nature of her discovery.” said Dr. Brown.
“Would you please share some light on this discovery?” asked Kelly.
“Oh sure, but to do that I first have to share some background information on their mission. Currently we know more about space than we do about our oceans. Both the Challenger and the Discovery are survey ships that are on a month long mission to map a small section of the Pacific Ocean as part of a contract with multiple organizations to field test prototype equipment.”
“What is the nature of these prototypes Dr. Brown?”
“The prototype is a new sensor module that is designed to measure and detect almost anything. This module then connects to two separate computers on board the ship or vehicle making a nearly complete map of its surroundings that is saved on a 500 terabyte hard drive.”
“How accurate is this module?”
“Initially we were expecting an accuracy of 20 feet but we ended up with something that’s a lot more accurate than expected. Somehow we ended up with something that could measure within the thickness of a human hair, that's a huge difference we’re talking about here.”
“Now that's accurate, but we're getting a little sidetrack here. What is the discovery that has you worry?”
“What's got me worried is that this module has detected something that is normally detected by very large particle accelerators. An unknown particle was detected that has many strange properties that doesn't fit into the standard model many scientists follow.”
“Are these particles what's causing the equipment failure that so many ships and aircraft are experiencing?”
“Yes, but it's not as straightforward as that. When we first calculated its properties from the data we received from the Challenger, these particles should not be the source of interference that we're getting here.”
“Thanks, but I have last question for you. Is these particles or this radiation dangerous to human life?”
“The answer to that question is simply that we don't know. We got to assume that it is dangerous until we proved otherwise, but we just don't have enough data right now.”
“Thank you for taking the time to join us tonight Dr. Brown. Our associated is at the Pentagon waiting for news as to what is going in the North Pacific Ocean. We are over to you Nelson.”
“Thanks Kelly and the Pentagon is in chaos as the Navy has lost contact with several of its ships including an entire carrier group. Currently the Pentagon has no idea what is going on in the Pacific but there are some rumors of possibly some sort of armed conflict there as many nations have claim to have ships or aircraft in the area. Oh this just in that the Pentagon are now in agreement with many of our allies to block off a large portion of the Pacific something that has never been done before.”
“How large of a portion are we talking about here?”
“The total area that will be blocked off is about the size of Australia and New Zealand combine which is where most if not all the Ships and aircraft were experiencing equipment failure.”
“And has this equipment failure cost any lives to justify such a response from the military?”
“The answer is currently unknown according to military officials. But never before has such an area has provided such consistent equipment failure and the military doesn't want to risk it.”
“Thanks Nelson, keep us informed. Up next another of our associates Pete Martin is at LA International airport where some planes had just touch down after flying through what is now being called the Great Pacific Anomaly. Over to you Pete.”
“Thanks Kelly, I'm here at the scene of what seems to be a massive project as you can see behind me. The passenger and crew of these flights are being completely examined by medical personnel who somehow gotten a hold of one of those prototype sensors you were speaking of earlier while technicians go through the planes to see just went wrong with the on board computers. Both the craft and whoever was on board have trace amounts of this radiation detected on them but so far there are no lasting health concerns to those involved. Some individuals seem to have higher levels than others but we're not sure what this could mean.”
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So glad you finally got this up! I must say it's so far we'll written.
I look forward to more!!!
As requested, here is my feedback; the story reads too childish (not quite the right word, but the best I could come up with), with too many words for what is being described, and delivery more in line with a report than a description of events as they occur written in past tense. If you would like further feedback as well as examples from the first couple paragraphs I read, please PM me.
In my experience, they'd be more likely to use "instruments". The word "sensors" is limited to either sci-fi or devices not expected to operate with scientific precision, like the modules you'd plug into your home security system.
You can only get away with this kind of certainty in sci-fi.
In a contemporary setting, the designers of the system wouldn't want anyone to jump to conclusions in the vein of "U.F.O. means aliens", so they'd use phrasing that assumes a problem in the sensors, rather than never-before-seen phenomena.
Something like "CALIBRATION WARNING: Particle classification faliure rate exceeds noise threshold. Please follow troubleshooting procedure E-17."
sextant
and marking down their current location.
Again, you'd never seen a contemporary scientist or engineer talking like this because they'll be in the habit of not jumping the gun.
A better phrasing would be "We are currently at a loss to explain the readings gathered by the module's particle detectors and it has been suggested that our model of physics may need to be revised."
the size of Australia and New Zealand combined,
8807375
To be truthful I was going for a slight sci-fi twist in order to make magic detectable to human technology. I will edit this when I'm not in bed for the night or when I don't have work during the day. I would like to thank you for pointing out some flaws, I am trying to improve my craft. Keep up the good work.