I was in my office before dawn and had received an email from Reg in the Cluster which was headed ‘Breakthrough’, I couldn't wait to open and read it.
Several of us had speculated these small cylinders might hold computer data and now the work done by Reg and Hans appeared to confirm it.
I’d read the email three times when there was a knock at my door. Janet popped her head in.
‘You’re in early,’ she said.
‘Had plans but they’ve gone awry. Get Tim to come in the moment he arrives, and a cup of coffee for me, please. When do the hackers usually get in?’
‘Any time after about now,’ she said and closed my door.
It was eight thirty-five.
The email was fascinating. If each of those tubes had that many terabytes of data in them, there was a danger we’d be overwhelmed with the need for storage.
I walked through the communal office and out into the corridor, saying to Janet over my shoulder, ‘I’ll be right back.’
I tapped my code into the computer room door and entered. One tousle-haired young man was leaning back in his chair, his feet on his desk, eating a bacon roll and reading the newspaper. When he saw me, he almost choked on his breakfast and only just managed to save himself falling off his chair.
‘Doctor Slater! Sorry, I usually read the paper for a while before I start work.’
‘Don’t panic, David. It is David, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘How much memory do we have here?’
‘What, in total or free?’
‘Free.’
‘About four exabytes.’
‘What’s that in terabytes?’
The young man was silent while he did a mental calculation and said, ‘Roughly four million terabytes. Why? It should be far more than we’d ever need.’
I felt relieved at the storage available. ‘I hope it will be. Get ready for a lot of work, David. We’re getting data from memory modules in AD1. Tell Doctor Sweet something big is coming soon and I’ll call for him during the morning.’
‘Yes, Doctor Slater, will do.’
‘Now finish your roll and paper, because you won’t see much in the way of coffee breaks once this data arrives.’
I was about to leave but he spoke again. ‘To be honest, Doctor Slater, we’ve all been a little bored. Can’t wait to sink our teeth into this thing.’
I laughed again. ‘Be careful for what you wish, young man.’ I winked and returned to my office.
Coffee arrived with Tim swiftly on its heels. I let him read the email and asked him to read it slowly a second time. I’d found the implications didn’t sink in on the first read.
When he finished, I commented, ‘Polarised electricity. Think about it. This isn’t simply a matter of one or two polarities either, these wires seem to have an almost infinite number. Who can we get to work on it?
‘Make enquiries via NASA as to how we can get a high-speed data transfer from the Cluster. We’re going to need it.
‘Thirdly, the wires themselves. We have no one here who specialises in metallurgy. I want you to speak to our top universities and find out which would have the most relevant experts.
‘What is even more fascinating is the fact these small cylinders or tubes can contain vast amounts of data. The problem is we can’t cut into one now or we might lose crucial information. One door has opened for us, but it’s closed another.’
‘Okay, Eve, I’ll get onto it right now.’ He got up to leave.
‘Be here for my call to Reg,’ I called after him.
‘Will do.’
‘Janet,’ I shouted as he opened the door and she came running in.
‘Can we record my calls to Dr Naughton and the ISS?’
‘I think we already do, but I’ll check,’ she said.
That was a revelation. All my calls were being recorded.
‘Any particular reason?’ she asked.
‘Yes. What we’re working upon will become of great historical interest and we ought to have a true record of it.’
‘Something happened?’ she asked.
‘We’re getting data from the alien craft.’
‘Wow,’ she said, before asking if I needed her for anything else and returning to her work-station. I loved Janet’s simple acceptance of the extraordinary.
I sat back and contemplated the importance of my function. It was going to be mind-boggling in its complexity.
My call to Reg and Hans was not only historic, but technologically important too. The single tube or cylinder had so far transferred 55TB of data and it was still going. He told me they’d checked to be sure it wasn’t the same data transferring over and over again and it wasn’t. It was all unique.
Tim told them NASA was going to dedicate a dish to data transfer and it would come in through one of ours each time the Cluster cleared the horizon in each orbit. Ours was capable of handling 1TB per minute, so even though the data transfer would be spasmodic we should soon catch up with the amount being downloaded from the cylinders.
We talked about the wiring and Reg told us NASA wanted to bring MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on board. I had Tim make a note to liaise direct. I didn’t say it over an open line, but I wanted to be sure America didn’t get all of the new technology from this discovery. I made a note to speak to the Home Secretary about allowing me to discuss this with the Department of Trade and Industry. Would the security hold on this thing much longer? There were too many benefits in the offing. Even the wires were a breakthrough if we were able to manufacture them, and the polarisation of electricity itself had incredible potential to prevent leakage, electrocution and so on. Perhaps it could even be broadcast in its polarised form.
Reg sent us copies of the symbol from each of the spheroids, which we believed to be fuel containers. I understood what he meant when he suggested this was probably a brand rather than a word. I sent it through to the language experts with a note informing them we were starting to get data which might give them more to work with. I hoped it would be the case.
After the call, Tim and I exchanged glances.
‘Phew,’ he said, ‘we’re about to be very busy indeed.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’m going to visit John Sweet and the hackers. How much data do we already have? Any idea?’
‘The first package was one terabyte. It’s on this card, but more’s arriving each orbit. It’ll be about one terabyte per orbit until we get the high-speed connection. I’ll speak to Michael Brown about freeing up a dish shortly,’ he said, handing me the SDXC card.
‘Good. Tell him I’m sorry about our planned meeting and will reschedule,’ I said as I stood.
We both left my office, Tim heading into his, as I made a beeline to the computer room.
The four hackers were sitting around John Sweet’s desk in his office. He stood up to greet me and I waved him down, grabbed a spare chair from behind the door and sat casually with the others.
‘Right. Wonderful news,’ and briefed them over the data collection.
‘When do we get the first packet?’ asked Mary, one of the hackers who was obviously raring to go.
I pulled the SDXC card out of my pocket and handed it to her in its cellophane container.
‘You’ve got one terabyte there, so get started.’
I was almost trampled in the rush as the four of them dashed out to the main terminal, slotted the card into the reader and transferred it to the hard drive. John and I laughed at the enthusiasm. He joined his team and I stood beside the window and watched.
Soon there were screens full of gobbledegook and I watched hands, pens, and notebooks flying into action as they got the first opportunity to examine alien data.
‘John,’ I said.
He’d forgotten I was still in the room.
‘Sorry, yes, Doctor Slater?’
‘If there’s anything like language, even computer language, don’t forget the language boys in the end lab. They might well be useful to you.’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘I’ll leave you to it.’
I was sure the second breakthrough would come from these whiz kids. I wasn’t wrong.