Planet of the Olympians
By Louis Roquain
General O’Neil and Samantha Carter are the first to step through the stargate onto P-SC-101, so named in honour of Colonel Carter who with painstaking persistence located this seemingly phantom world and determined its coordinates. O’Neil, though not a astronomer by any stretch of the imagination, was yet a serious star gazer and enjoyed spending many an evening peering through the eyepiece of his personal scope, his love of the night sky only second to that of his love for one who had so long gone nameless. So, when Samantha offered the opportunity to visit and take advantage of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, CFHT for short, in Hawaii, O’Neil didn’t need to be asked twice. Besides, one did not get a chance to visit Hawaii every day, either and that with such fine company.
While Jack enjoyed the view, Samantha found herself more intrigued with the Astro-photography. She would be using a rather an old piece of technology called a blink comparator, where nearly identical photographic plates would be viewed through a single eye piece. Although in reality, the photographs were side by side, the comparator would make them appear to lie atop one another, lighting up in sequence. In this way, the observant astronomer could detect slight movements in the heavens indicating perhaps some new object, such as a nova or a comet. With this blinking technic, Samantha would search for anomalies in space. Always the scientist, investigative, one to know the details, like a child with a new toy, Sam could not resist the chance to be closed in that dark room peering over photos hoping her eyes would catch a glimpse of some important object.
As sunrise was approaching and just before the huge observatory doors began to close, O’Neill reluctantly gave up his seat beside the giant scope and began his search for Sam. Dr. Philip Warden, an acquaintance of Samantha and the one responsible for such an unimaginable gift as actual time on the huge scope, was waiting for him at the bottom of the metal staircase and accompanied him along the route to a door over which an illuminated sign read “Research in Progress. Please Use the Intercom.”
“Sam! It’s Phil and General O’Neill. May we come in?”
Carter made no attempt to conceal the excitement in her voice as she activated the remote lock, saying, “You have to see this!” The room was now illuminated in an eerie, red, glow. The overhead lights remained out. Sam had no desire to lose the night vision she had acquired over the evening. Instructing them to focus on the upper left corner of the frame, Carter continued. “Watch that area when I turn out the comparator.” She switched on the machine and each gazed through the eyepiece in turn. Sure enough, there it was for a second and then it was gone. What were they looking at? It was Warden who spoke next.
“Samantha, you must have a good eye. We’ve been studying all the plates you’ve been looking at this evening for about a month now and no one even noticed. Well done. And thank you.”
“What do you think it is Phil?” Sam inquired, knowing that Philip would give her the details and O’Neill would be thinking, “Here we go again.”
Before O’Neill could suggest that it was a scratch on the print, Warden continued with, “I’m not really sure. We’ll have to check for red shift and parallax so we get an indication of its relative distance. That would give us a clue. That area of space is rather stark when it comes to stellar objects. But still, the most obvious is a possible nova, a comet, although again, I have never seen a comet originate from that sector. Occasionally an asteroid shows up on the plates in places that we least expect. It’s too bad that it’s daylight now or we could’ve focused the telescope on that region and had a second look. I have to be honest. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
Sam couldn’t believe her luck. “Did you give me these plates on purpose, Phil?” she questioned.
“Samantha, these aren’t the only plates you looked at. You must have gone through a slew of them. Do you really think I would have called you here to do some useless research? Besides, when you do this work every day, you have a tendency to ignore certain regions of space. When you were doing graduate work, I know you had access to the technology at the university. Did anyone suggest to you that you shouldn’t pay attention to the whole plate?”
“No, not at all. Why?”
“Because students are not experienced enough to know where to look. Some areas of space contain a lot of information. Take our galaxy for example. Most of the stars that one sees at night form a band around the sky. But look away from that band, and the stars begin to thin out. Experienced researchers don’t spend a lot of time in those areas, but focus their attention where it is most likely to yield results. So, to answer your question, no, I did not give you the plates knowing that there was anything in particular on them. However, what I did know is that your birthday was coming up and the facility here was going to be available due to maintenance. I still have my data base of birthdays.”
O’Neill who had been able to patiently sit through the night under the eyepiece of the scope was now feeling the effects of sleep deprivation. Samantha’s enthusiasm had no effect on his present state of awareness. He was a man drugged. Samantha was happy. Jack was content. Slipping into a nearby chair, he was soon asleep.
Colonel Carter couldn’t share with Dr. Warden what was truly on her mind, as she would have been revealing state secrets, but the more she saw of the strange object before her, the more she became obsessed with uncovering its secrets. If it were a star, then it quite possibly had planets and planets sometimes had gates. Warden dug out several older plates of the region of space where Samantha had discovered the anomaly. After several hours of intense searching, neither was able to find the object other than on the most recent plates. Warden assured Samantha that he would not give up now that the object had been spotted. If it turned out to be a comet, and Samantha was the first to locate it, it would be called Comet Carter.
***
O’Neill, unusually quiet, appeared to stare at a can of cola held securely in his hand, deep in thought as Colonel Carter apparently noted their progress out the small window forward of the Hercules’ gleaming wing. “Sam,” Jack broke the silence. “Did you have a good time?”
“Absolutely! What a fantastic opportunity this weekend was! How about you?”
“Yeah, it was great. That scope sure beat my eight inch Cassegrain. So, what do you think of everything?”
“Think? Of what General?” she said, having no idea what was on O’Neill’s mind. She knew that of things military, Jack had to have one of the most intelligent minds in the air force. He knew what had to be done and when, seemed to have a sixth sense when trouble was near, and had an honest, though well concealed affection for those under his command. She trusted him implicitly. But at heart, Samantha was a brilliant scientist. Yes, she had top of the line military training and there were few men that she could not equal, but her major asset was her mind. And use it she did.
“Sam, does it seem normal to you that I should have full access to a world class telescope for five minutes, let alone, an entire night?” Carter knew that O’Neill was right. No astronomer in his or her right mind would have turned over an entire night of viewing to let an amateur, non-scientist, explore the heavens, no matter what their rank in the military. It just wasn’t done.
“No,” she replied. “And why invite me to discover some comet or whatever it was? Why the two of us? They had to know that I would ask you. I mean who else is an amateur astronomer working on the base? I have to admit, I was wondering that myself. Do you have an idea?”
“Not really! It is true about your birthday, though. How close were you two.”
“We were as close as student teacher relationships should be. He was a nice man and really knew his work. I enjoyed his classes very much.”
“Then the birthday thing could be legit? Right?”
“I don’t see why not, but it’s been a long time. Do you have something on your mind?”
“Not yet, but something doesn’t feel right,” was all he said before he clammed up and returned his attention to the cola can.
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