Blurb:
Jamie Hawkins was living on an
obscure planet in the twenty third-century when on one fateful night—his life
changed forever. His heroic effort to save the lives of innocent women and
children, caught in the cross-fire of war, placed him squarely in the
crosshairs of avenging soldiers.
A former marine, Hawkins was
stunned when his rescue effort was seen as treachery. Unfairly convicted of
treason by a corrupt judge, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor
on an infamous penal colony.
Once in prison, Hawkins was
mistreated by a paranoid warden, but his courage and perseverance won him the
admiration and trust of his fellow convicts. While he was plotting his escape,
an enemy attacked the planet—giving this daring warrior his chance. Together
with his fellow prisoners, he launched a bold assault and high-jacked an enemy
warship.
From then on, the exploits of
Captain Jamie Hawkins became legendary.
Excerpt:
“Sir, I was working with the data
techs trying to analyze the communication patterns of the enemy fleet,” said
Joshua, licking his dry lips, excitedly. “And I’ve came across a very unusual
signal.”
Hawkins gave him an encouraging
nod.
“It was a burst of radio signals
from deep space. I traced it to either a 4 billion-year-old star in a
constellation 44.4 light years away, or to another star in that same
constellation, but much farther away. That means that the radio waves have been
travelling to us for at least forty-four point four years.”
Hawkins said, “Deep space radio
signals have many plausible explanations, such as radio interference from
planets, or rogue signals caused by local planet microwave devices.
“That’s true, Captain. It could
be just the effect of a natural space object like a pulsating quasar, but it’s
also possible . . . I think maybe . . . it could be a message from another
civilization.”
Now smiling broadly, Hawkins
said, “Given the unlikeness of that, why are you concerned?”
“Because it was not a one-off
event,” said Joshua excitedly and then pausing to catch his breath. “I’ve
recorded a half dozen repeating signals from the exact same source.”
Nodding, Hawkins said, “That’s a
little more interesting, but there are explanations for that too.”
“But Captain, the implications
could be mind-blowing. Imagine, what if it was an alien civilization, and they
were far more advanced than us, and they were trying to make contact? After
centuries of fruitlessly scanning the stars and finding no evidence that anyone
else is out there, this could be . . .
could be . . .”
Joshua became paralyzed by his
own imagination.
“Joshua, even if this signal were
not natural, it might still be the product of one of Earth’s colonies—not
aliens.”
“No sir, I’ve checked. There were
no Earth colonies in the vicinity of the signal’s star cluster when we last had
contact with Earth, fifty years ago,” said Joshua.
Joshua wanted to argue further,
but couldn’t offer any additional proof for his cause.
Hawkins said, “I agree, we should
continue to monitor this frequency, but for now, it’ll have to remain a
mystery.”
It was only a few days later that
Joshua returned to argue, “I’ve been working to decrypt the deep space signal
using our AI computer with the help of a data tech.”
Hawkins was surprised, but also
impressed with Joshua’s initiative.
“What does a deep space signal
have to do with our enemy’s Top Secrets communication network?”
“Everything.”
“You’ll have to explain that.”
“Let me give you a metaphor for
how I solved this puzzle, because it is a puzzle.”
“Go on.”
“Think of a portrait of a woman,
say the Mona Lisa. Now consider a jigsaw puzzle of the Mona Lisa—a picture of a
woman cut into a thousand irregularly sized pieces and spread out for someone
to reassemble.”
“A kid’s game.”
“Yes, sir.”
Author Bio and Links:
Thank you for hosting.
ReplyDelete