Emergence Read online

  Jeff shook his head. ‘There’s no trace of them anywhere else either, just these particular chat boards. And we couldn’t find any links between the user names either.’

  ‘No links, my friend? None at all?’ He paused. ‘Nothing except for the fact 34 and 55 are both Fibonacci numbers.’ Jeff looked sheepish and Mike scribbled on his napkin in silence for a few moments and then continued. ‘Adamo and Xeeta are cyphers for the numbers 34 and 55 using a standard Caesar shift.’

  Louise chuckled. ‘You’re the man, Mike! Another lead to chase down. Fibonacci!’ Louise turned to Jeff and raised her eyebrows.

  Jeff gave an amiable half-hearted huff. ‘So what’s Fibonacci then Louise?’

  Louise fixed Jeff with a stare. ‘Special nerd numbers making pretty spiral patterns and running our world.’ Louise paused. ‘And you get them by adding previous two numbers together: zero, one, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, and then twenty-one.’ Louise stuck out her tongue at Jeff who stared intently at his glass.

  Mike smiled. ‘It’s still all conjecture, but there’s a link—Fibonacci and a prickly hedgehog. So, we’re not the first ones to wonder whether there may be something special about certain people in certain situations…‌but just because people have looked doesn’t mean there’s anything there.’

  As their food arrived, Louise fiddled with her phone. ‘I do have a few hits with Fibonacci and Hedgehog, but my phone can’t handle the web pages. I’ll wait until I get home. Eat up, Jeff.’

  Jeff made exaggerated movements of food chewing.

  Mike turned towards Louise. ‘Are you sure you want to progress this? Isn’t this just more unhealthy attention to Jack Bullage?’

  Jeff rolled his eyes.

  Louise shrugged. ‘Seriously, Mike, this is just my reporter’s instincts, it’s not personal. It may be paranormal, but I’d prefer science.’ She stood.

  Mike looked unconvinced. ‘Well, subatomic science, the world of quantum mechanics, does allow for pretty weird behaviours. But at the aggregate level…‌I don’t think so.’

  Jeff chipped in. ‘Some mathematical solutions predict parallel universes and alternative dimensions, but there’s no observational evidence.’

  ‘But, Louise, what about the Record?’

  ‘I’ll have to keep Harry on side.’ Louise collected her hat, gloves, scarf and coat, and signalled to Jeff they needed to make tracks. She was already planning her next bit of investigation. Can I link hedgehogs to Fibonacci…‌and where will it lead?

  Jeff spent most of the drive home begging Louise to slow down. After one particularly desperate bout of pleading Louise turned to Jeff with a smile. ‘Let’s assume in a parallel universe out there, I did slow down, but not here.’

  Back home, Louise made some tea, changed into her comfy clothes and logged on at the kitchen table. Jeff came in a few minutes later, after a much needed puff of unhealthy air in the garden. He gave Louise a quick kiss and took himself through to the sitting room and turned on the television.

  Louise started to search the internet, using the names of the crash survivors, the word hedgehog, and the word Fibonacci. Just as before, the comments from Adamo34 and Xeeta55 came up. Louise gave Jeff a running update. ‘There’s an old message here posted by Adamo34, it says you and the hedgehog and another old one from Xeeta55 says hedgehog luck.’

  Jeff called back from the sitting room. ‘Is there anything else?’

  ‘I’m looking now using the word Fibonacci.’ Louise typed away vigorously. ‘Hold on…‌a link to web-site about a military programme called Project Hedgehog—Gotcha!’

  Jeff came through from the sitting room and looked over Louise’s shoulder. ‘Ah, yeah, you’ve got it! The US government have been breeding hedgehogs and using them as spies, with miniature cameras secreted in between their prickles. This is the lead we’ve been waiting looking. I’ll go to the police station and report Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.’

  Louise threw her elbow backwards, but Jeff evaded it and returned to the sofa in the sitting room. Louise grimaced. ‘Okay, a false alarm, but I think there is something here. There are comments by a person with the username called FibonacciEddie.’

  Louise was silent for a quite a long while as she scanned the web for more posts by FibonacciEddie. After a few hours a general theme emerged. ‘Jeff, I’ve got something. This guy has a few posts related to a thing he calls Project Hedgehog, capital p and capital h.’

  Jeff came back into the kitchen and looked over Louise’s shoulder.

  ‘It says 1960s and the UK Ministry of Defence.’

  The telephone rang and Louise got up to answer. It was her sister asking Louise why she was not at the cinema as agreed. Louise swore to herself and rushed for the door.

  Chapter 11

  When Louise arrived at her desk at the Daily Record on Monday morning, the cleaners were still vacuuming. She’d left Jeff fast asleep, although he had been murmuring about a meeting he had with the faculty head later in the day.

  She powered through her inbox, stopping occasionally to say hello to colleagues as the office slowly filled up. At 7.30, Karen came in and went to her place on the politics desk. A comrade. Louise ran over. ‘Karen, really weird one, do you have any record of historic MOD secret projects?’

  ‘Slightly too broad, we have National Archives materials; what are the specifics?’

  ‘Project Hedgehog.’

  ‘Never heard of it. When did it run?’

  ‘Not sure, 1960s?’

  Karen typed away. ‘You’re in a little luck but not much. In 2010, there was a release of a list of top secret project names, but zero details about what they did. There was a Project Hedgehog in the 1960s. I have nothing more, sorry. Did you ask the Military Zak?’ She nodded towards the opposite end of the office.

  ‘Military Zak is part of my non-supporters club.’

  ‘There’s no such thing, Louise. You’re doing this to yourself.’

  I don’t think so.

  ‘Maybe…‌anyway, thanks.’ Louise shrugged and ran back to her desk.

  Not long after eight, Harry Jones stopped by Louise’s desk. ‘Could you please join me in my office for a few minutes?’

  Louise followed Harry to his office. ‘So what’s up, Louise Lane?’

  ‘Louise Harding, thank you very much. And if you’d met my husband you would know your metaphor doesn’t stretch very far.’

  ‘I have met your husband, at the newspaper pub quiz a few years ago. I also remember your competitive instinct forced you to bring that quizzard.’ Harry smiled.

  ‘Ah yes, Mike…‌So what’s new, Harry?’

  Harry puffed out his cheeks and leant back. ‘Not too much. Just reminding you not to investigate Jack Bullage.’

  ‘Why do you think I would?’

  ‘Other than my in-depth judgement of your character based on seven years of close observation and mentoring?’

  Fair point. Louise smiled to herself. ‘Yes…‌other than that?’

  ‘One of the tabloids is running a piece tomorrow on Jack Bullage’s post-crash medical examination. They claim doctors couldn’t find a scratch on him.’ Harry paused. ‘And they may add some sensationalist stuff about medical machines going haywire.’

  Harry passed over a rough copy. There was a picture of Bullage attempting to look innocent and contrite. Louise studied the image. Twat. The words were not much better, sensationalist and vacuous.

  But there was something in the story that, perhaps, she wanted to believe. Did she want to believe that Jack was special? Louise shook her head and passed the paper back to Harry. ‘Pretty weird, but I won’t let it distract me.’

  ‘Good. Our rival newspapers had a field day on your little incident with Bullage. We stood by you, quite rightly, but you are not to touch him.’

  The warning was over and Louise stood. ‘Clearly understood. What else have you got on?’

  Harry stood as well. ‘I have to get on
with my number one priority for this week, which is the most recent discussions about the Scottish parliament demanding the removal of all nuclear weapons from Scottish soil. They’re flexing their muscles and we have a contact at the MOD with General Crowley who has some pretty firm, and totally unprintable, views on impact to the UK’s nuclear deterrent.’

  ‘I’ll do the interview Harry. I realise I usually do investigative pieces, but my reporting skills would benefit from doing some domestic policy work.’

  Harry face brightened. ‘I love your enthusiasm. That is to say, when it isn’t causing you to have restraining orders imposed.’

  Louise smiled. ‘It doesn’t happen every time.’

  ‘Noted. Okay then Ms Lane—spend a little time with Karen on the politics desk to get the angles we want to explore. It probably won’t come as a shock to you we want to play the angle it would be a terrible thing for the UK, including Scotland.’

  Harry reached out and gently took Louise by the arm. ‘We don’t want anything interesting in this report. We have given General Crowley a nod and a wink that it will basically be a puff piece for him.’

  Louise acknowledged Harry with a smile and a nod, and then she walked quickly back to her desk. First off Project Hedgehog, and maybe just a little look at Jack Bullage.

  Louise logged on to the Daily Record news archive and typed in various search options to see if they had any record of Project Hedgehog from the 1960s. The only information returned was to confirm what Karen had said. There was a Project Hedgehog in the 1960s. However, there was no accompanying information. Louise got herself a coffee and went over to Karen to get briefed on the impact on the UK’s nuclear deterrent if the Scottish parliament were to get their way.

  Later in the morning, Louise called Jeff’s mobile, but it switched straight to voicemail. So, on a not so uneducated whim, she called on the home landline.

  The phone was answered. ‘Hello?’

  Louise rolled her eyes (only for the benefit of herself). ‘So, Jeff, slow start today?’

  ‘My lectures were cancelled and so I thought I would get some critical research done at home.’

  ‘And the meeting with the faculty head? No, don’t bother…‌Okay, so what have you found out about Project Hedgehog?’

  There was silence.

  ‘Okay, so what have you found out about Jack Bullage?’

  There was silence.

  ‘Okay, then. I will be home at 7ish. Love you.’

  Louise massaged her temples with her fingertips. Well, let’s see how I can get General Crowley to help me out.

  Chapter 12

  On the Gadium mission ship, a warning message flashed across the living quarters.

  Potential Alpha Identification

  Cross Reference Qualification Required

  Aytch hurried from his cabin to the crew room. ‘Commander, it looks like your intuition was right. That was very valuable.’

  Justio looked up from his work. ‘I appreciate the gesture but there’s no need to perform for the voice recorders.’ Justio paused while he worked on his tablet for a few moments. ‘Note the word potential before you get all worked up.’

  The information was displayed on the wall.

  England (London) - 15th October 2015 22:05 GMT

  Automotive crash involving multiple vehicles

  One 4 vehicle group contained 12 fatalities and 1 lone survivor

  Survivor name is Jack Bullage (10th May 1971)

  Two other recorded incidents for Jack Bullage 10051971

  Justio continued to type and read. ‘No video footage of the actual accident. However, the computer seems to have correlated two other events for the same individual.’

  Justio continued to search through the background data the computer had used to raise the alert. ‘Jack Bullage has another news story with a tag line miracle escape from 2010 and a separate item with the tag narrowly avoided death from 2011.’

  ‘Do we have the background for these other events?’

  Justio sat down slowly onto the central bench. ‘I will take a look; we’re bound to find something.’

  Aytch took his own communications tablet and started accessing the historical records. ‘If he’s really had three near death escapes then there’s a chance he may have spontaneously converted to a Triple Alpha.’

  Justio looked unconvinced. ‘A very slim chance, but possible…‌given he may have been involved in three separate escapes. This could indicate a higher proportion of Alphas than we thought.’ Justio paused, apparently finished, but then added a post script. ‘A spontaneous conversion to Triple Alpha would be serious, but quite easy to validate and take control.’

  Aytch called up the sections of the Gadium manual to check Alpha population probability projections and Triple Alpha conversions. ‘If we find a Triple Alpha then we may have to decide quickly about intervention.’

  ‘If he’s a Triple then we’ll intervene.’ Justio looked directly at Aytch. ‘What’s your current view on preferred intervention?’

  It was not often that Justio asked his opinion straight out in this way. Aytch looked around the room quickly. They’re recording. He took a few deep breaths. This is exactly the type conversation that would be replayed when they returned home. First contact intuition. ‘My preference is to rehouse him on Earth and stall the Emergence.’

  Justio nodded and appeared to make a note on his communications tablet. ‘The alternative is we take him out and trigger the Full Emergence.’ Justio paused. ‘You could get a field promotion if we manage it smoothly.’

  Aytch’s eyes widened for a brief second. ‘I don’t think Earth’s ready. Standing orders are safety first.’

  Justio nodded. ‘Firstly, I will dig into the data of the other two events to ascertain if they really were life threatening escapes. Secondly, surveillance for Jack Bullage. Finally, we should start planning for some type of action in the case Jack Bullage is a Triple. As you say—safety first—we cannot risk a Despot situation.’

  ‘I’m going to review some relevant materials on interventions.’ Aytch stood up.

  ‘Sit down, Commander. We’ll do this together. Put it up.’ Justio pointed at the wall.

  Aytch engaged the computer.

  Chapter 2.3.A—Emergence Pitfalls

  Overview

  Once a Full Emergence is underway (10 - 20% Population are Alphas) then stalling back into a Partial Emergence is very unlikely. The key jobs of the Gadium mission are: to remove any randomly occurring Triple Alphas, to stop major conflicts, and to prepare communications. Noting actual communications cannot occur until the 99% threshold is passed. It is critical Gadium presence remains a secret.

  Once a Full Emergence is achieved (>99% Populations are Alphas) then Gadium must engage with the host population to initiate the conversions.

  The main risks to Gadium intervention are:

  1. Local oppressive regime does not engage with Gadium; typically this will be a regime with access to Triple Alphas

  2. Conscious inequality conflict where major sections of the populations feel unfairly treated; known as ‘Grapes and Peanuts’

  3. Loss of reason from the host population due to inability to grasp the situation, or (more seriously) with links to the Parallels doctrine

  Once the narration had completed Justio turned to Aytch. ‘At the moment it’s all about Triple Alpha suppression.’

  ‘Which one of the risks is the worst?’

  ‘Any hint of us aliens before the 99% limit is reached usually spells disaster for the host civilisation. The Gadium process demands a quarantine. Generally, a hundred generations, suppressing Beta to Alpha transitions by doping a few Triples into their population.’

  Aytch thought for a while. Anonymity was very much under their control. That risk was not a big one. ‘It doesn’t feel too serious, we just put them on hold.’

  Justio looked Aytch in the eye, holding his gaze
for a good few seconds. ‘Billions of them die an early death. Billions who would have flourished if they had converted to Triple Alphas.’

  ‘Understood, but what about actual peer to peer conflict within the host civilisation?’

  ‘Once the majority have converted to Triples, the third one can get pretty bad. Any population that doesn’t have a constant consistent view of the Triple powers in terms of SISR is susceptible to severe wanton destruction.’

  Aytch thought about it for a while. The powers he got when he was converted during his juvenile years to a fully-fledged Triple Alpha were pretty amazing. But the Gadium society did not understand the underlying science; there was only one legal interpretation SISR—Single Instance State Reduction. The alternative was The Parallels. The Parallels had been declared an anathema and denounced by the GEC over eight hundred thousand years earlier. Any teaching that gave credibility to The Parallels was punishable by death.

  Aytch turned his attention back to his communications tablet. ‘Okay, so for now we’ll just investigate Jack Bullage. Then, we watch and wait to see if Alpha rates increase.’

  ‘Just standard procedure.’

  Aytch nodded. ‘Okay, let’s send in the mini-bots. Agreed?’

  Aytch paused while Justio was unresponsive.

  ‘I acknowledge the computer flagged it as a potential Alpha event, but I believe we now consider it a potential Triple Alpha event. So we need formally logged approvals.’

  Justio sighed. ‘Surveillance agreed.’

  ‘Okay, for Jack Bullage—let’s send Jeremy Benedict. Hold on, I’ll bring up the records.’ Aytch typed for a few moments and a new screen displayed on the wall. ‘We’ve got about 30 mini-bots either on Jeremy Benedict or at his offices.’

  Justio brought up a map of the south east of the UK. The map showed where all the active mini-bots were located. There were well over three hundred little pinpoints of red denoting active mini-bot surveillance. ‘Let’s send him on another infidelity stakeout.’