My NaNoWriMo 2015 Day 9
Chapter 7
Huiling worked tirelessly trying to get a better image of the nearby star and its planets. It was all in vain, though. Two years into her search she had spent most the budget on a better telescope design, but still could not get the image to resolve with enough clarity to make out any of the shapes around the star. She had done everything she could think of to compensate for the atmospheric distortion. On a mountain this high, there was much less atmosphere to distort anyway. Perhaps if she could create a telescope that reached outer space. or better yet, was outside the atmosphere entirely, she had cooked up a method of encoding images in radio waves and then decoding them again on a vacuum filled tube, but all her calculations showed breaking through the planet’s gravitational pull and placing any object in the planet’s orbit would take far more energy than she knew how to generate, and far more than her budget allowed to find a way. Instead, she would have to find a different method.
“I think your radio’s broken,” one of the interns commented, snapping Huiling out of her stewing. “I can’t get anything to come in clearly.” We’re nearly two kilometers above the surface, there’s no way you will be able to get a strong enough signal.” The intern looked disappointed. If it means so much to you find some metal and a wire. You studied engineering, I’m certain you can find a way to boost the signal.” It wasn’t like he was being much help at the moment anyway. with the telescope a bust, there was little use for an engineer until Huiling came up with a new strategy. Besides, some music might help her think.
In the mean time, she returned to the top of the observatory to try and clear her head and brainstorm ideas. There must be another way to look at a star. She looked at the diagrams, the boards and boards of equations and diagrams along the walls. Then grabbing her coat, she opened the observatory as far as the moving roof would allow and just stared up at that winking serpent. For now, both eyes were open, staring at her, mocking her efforts.
She tried to imagine what standing on a world orbiting a single sun would be like. Would nights be longer? That would depend as much on rotation speed as anything else. The habitable zone would be closer to the star, assuming her estimations on the star’s size and heat output were correct. That would make it appear bigger in the sky. There wouldn’t be the dueling spectrums of light that created the mixed tones at dawn and dusk. Perhaps they spent more of their time in the dark? She would love to see it. Observe how a single sun manipulated the tides of their oceans. Did they have moons? That would certainly be a sight. She always found it curious that this planet was the only one in their solar system without a single moon. Hopefully one day she would have these answers.
Soft music drifted in up the stairs from the main floor below. Took him less time than she’d thought. Say what she would about his maturity, he was a competent engineer. She closed her eyes, letting the music wash over her. For a moment she could see her father again. Playing as he always did. Absorbed in the music.
Huiling really should have taken up an instrument. Her father had encouraged her, but had been too busy exploring other avenues. She was sure now that failing to pursue a creative outlet would prove to be a liability. Perhaps this was why she couldn’t come up with another idea. She would eventually, she knew. She came this far.
Slowly, the first sun began peaking out from the horizon. She watch the sky change colors as the rays of blue light refracted through the particles in the atmosphere separating into different frequencies. What would that look like on another world? She imagined a drop of water. The light traveling though and refracting in its distinct pattern. The same sort of effect light might have moving through a planet’s atmosphere as it crossed in front of the sun. Of course! Perhaps she couldn’t see the planet well enough, but she could see the light passing through its atmosphere. And if it’s a similar makeup to their own, then the light would refract the same way it did through their atmosphere. She got to work drawing up equations. She would need to make further modifications to the telescope, but compared to her previous modifications, these would be trivial. Plenty of time for those before the planet passed again.
Music flowed from the speakers of her radio as Huiling waited for the planet to begin passing between the star and her telescope. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. She couldn’t believe after all this time and all her careful planning, she still got nervous when it came time to see if the experiment would work. Her instruments were ready. She needn’t actually watch the planet’s traversal, the instruments would measure the light frequencies picked up by the telescope, but she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t want to miss a thing. One never knew what observation the eye might perceive that instruments could miss. It was going to be a while before the sunlight would refract through the tiny planet’s atmosphere. Still, she watched.
The planet was in position. Just as it crossed the corona of its sun light began to shine through the atmospheric haze surrounding it. There was no doubt now that it was a planet, her new telescope could see it well enough to confirm that. She rolled her chair over to the instruments watching the needles wave back and forth indicating the different frequencies they detected. On the board she had the ranges and what chemicals they likely related to, even though she had memorized the frequencies all by heart. The needles began holding steady. The planet was in optimal position. She couldn’t believe it. She checked the board to be absolutely sure.
She leapt to her feet, knocking her chair backward into the table holding the radio, knocking it over. The room filled with static as the enhanced antenna disconnected. There could be no mistaking her readings. Nitrogen! Then as the planet continued to further move she got more readings. Oxygen, Hydrogen. There was water on this planet! Liquid water! This was a phenomenal discovery. If this didn’t get her into the Society, nothing would! She danced around the room joyously, then cursed as she stubbed her toe on the overturned table.
Hastily she reset it on its legs then picked up the hissing radio and makeshift antenna. She fiddled with it, trying to get it to reconnect. She heard a crackle, then fuzzy music began once again filling the room. This was not music she had ever heard before though. This was in some strange language, with the most unique instrumentation. She looked at the makeshift antenna, then followed it up to see where it was pointing. It was pointing straight out the open slit in the observatory. Pointed directly at the winking eye of the serpent.
