Date: 2020-04-11T22:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Speculative
Description: Zhenyi Hypatia Drakos had two astrophysicists as parents, one Greek and one Chinese. They gave her a love of space and the intellect to study it. Her name, glasses and independent spirit made her the target of bullies from her first day of school. To survive Zen adapted by becoming self-sufficient and capable of fighting back. When the pulsar she discovered at age thirteen begins changing, she discovers that humans are not alone in the universe. Draconis is the story of how Zen shares this news with the world and prepares herself and the planet for what is headed their way.

Pulsar

DRACONIS - Episode 1

ETHAN STAND

Copyright © 2020 by Ethan Stand

Ethan Stand owns the content in this book and reserves all his legal rights of ownership. ‘Pulsar’ is published for your personal enjoyment. He allows quotations in book reviews and social media posts. In fact, if they are positive reviews, he encourages their use. If you want to use it for some other purpose, then email him and get his written permission, if you don't then you may not reproduce or use it.

ISBN 13: 978-1-922336-05-7 (E-book)

‘Pulsar’ is fiction, Ethan isn’t writing about real people and doesn’t intend in any way to point the finger at anyone. If there is a similarity, then it’s unintentional and a coincidence. Some of the places, nations, corporations, institutions, public figures, books, movies and songs Ethan mentions are real. Ethan has used them in a made-up story (fiction), i.e., IT ISN’T REAL.

Ethan designed the cover using Photoshop. Vellum was used to prepare the e-book.

Published by Ethan Stand in 2020

You can find out more at www.ethanstand.com or write to Ethan at ethan@ethanstand.com.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

1

Zhenyi Hypatia Drakos often questioned her parents’ sanity when it came to her name. They had met at Harvard while enrolled in their doctoral studies. Her mother, Biàn Bīngqīng, was from mainland China. After getting her primary and Master’s degrees from Tsinghua University in Beijing, Bīngqīng had been accepted to Harvard to further study the relationship between dark matter and gravitational waves. Zhenyi’s father, Evangelos Drakos, was from Crete. He did his first degree at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens before earning a scholarship to Harvard where he did his Masters. Finishing that, Evangelos enrolled to study astrophysical fluid dynamics and the associated relativistic effects.

Strangely, the first time the two met wasn’t on campus, but was when they ended up working together for a bicycle courier service in Boston. They lived together for the last two years at Harvard but separated for work reasons. BB, as Zhenyi’s father called her mother, spent three years doing post-doctoral work at the VLT complex on Cerro Paranal in the Chilean Andes. Ed, as BB called Evangelos (mainly because it annoyed him), found a teaching job at MIT doing more focussed research into fluid dynamics and relativity.

Despite the physical separation, BB and Ed stayed close. They often texted and emailed each other and once or twice were able to catch up while on holidays. Each time they found that they easily slipped back into the intimacy of their old relationship. After her time at VLT, BB applied for a teaching and research position in the Physics Department at the University of Queensland in Australia. Two years later, the department expanded. BB sent the position descriptions for the new jobs on offer to Ed. Two years after that, Zhenyi was born. Both BB and Ed eventually became Australian citizens. BB had to give up her Chinese citizenship but Ed was able to keep his Greek one. Zhenyi had passports from both Australia and Greece.

Zen, as everyone except her parents and the bullies called her, received her first adult telescope when she was three. She could name the constellations and pick out the planets in the night sky before she could read. Besides the usual kindergarten education, followed by preschool then primary, or elementary school, she was enrolled in both Greek and Chinese schools on the weekends. When she was alone with BB, Zen would talk in Mandarin and while when she was with Ed, she would speak in Greek. When all three were together, they would talk in English.

Even though the family owned a small car, both her parents usually rode their bicycles to work and they would often tow Zen in a bicycle trailer when she was young. As she grew, she progressed first to a child seat, then to a towed training bike. Zen rode herself to school on her first day of primary school after assuring her parents that she knew the way. The teachers didn’t know what to do as none of the other students rode, and none had arrived alone. Fortunately, two teachers rode, and Zen was able to lock her bike with theirs.

Zen’s first few days of school had a significant impact on her scholastic life. Not only did she arrive on her own bicycle and carried the helmet into class with her, but she also wore glasses and had a weird name. It was considered weird even in what was a supposedly a tolerant multicultural country. In addition, she already spoke three languages, could read and had an almost encyclopaedian knowledge of everything associated with space. In other words, she was an instant bully magnet. By the time she rode home on that first afternoon, she’d been teased about her name, pushed over several times and had her glasses broken. Instead of making friends as she’d hoped, and despite the efforts of her teacher, she’d already been isolated by the other children. By the end of the week, Zen had learned to sit silently, not answer questions unless forced to and that the only truly safe place was the library.

BB knew what was going on, and although she discussed it with Ed, their experiences at school had been pretty similar, so neither was too disturbed. After all, they’d both turned out well adjusted. Still, they agreed to keep an eye on Zen, and they hoped things would improve as she made friends. Instead, things got worse. On the second Wednesday, Zen came home with her newly repaired glasses, broken. There were also grazes on her knees and hands from when she’d come off her bike. One of the older children had pushed her into the road on her way home. Zen was so embarrassed the next day when, as Zen later described her mother’s actions to Ed, BB went ‘full-Asian’ in the school office.

Ed and Zen laughed at that, but then Zen was even more embarrassed the next week when Ed went ‘full-on-Greek’ in the corridor outside her classroom. Several more weeks of the same cemented Zen’s isolation from the other children, even though the overt and physical bullying ended soon after. The physical bullying didn’t stop because of her parent’s actions. Instead, it ended because she’d kicked one of her tormenters in the balls, then broken his nose as she swung her helmet into his face. This was the first of many times she managed to earn herself a suspension from school over the next few years.

Not surprisingly, her parents didn’t scold her but instead took her to her favourite restaurant that night. The next day, BB, unbeknownst to Ed, enrolled her in a Monday night beginner’s course in Taekwondo. Ed, without discussing it with BB, arranged for Zen to be introduced to the secrets of boxing on Wednesdays with a Greek friend of his. Despite her general unhappiness at school, Zen stayed at the same school through primary school. While the bullying stopped, she never managed to find a close friend. She worked hard not to excel and maintained what might be known as a c-average. Besides this academic ruse, she also wore clothes a size too big and let her hair hang over her face. The kids, and to be honest, the teachers, thought of her as stupid, ugly, and easily prone to violence. Most of her time at school was spent in the library pursuing her own academic interests in mathematics, computers, physics and astronomy.

Fortunately for Zen, life outside school was the total opposite. While in Chile BB had enjoyed mountain climbing, and every Tuesday night she would take Zen to an indoor climbing centre several suburbs away. In the beginning, while BB climbed, Zen played in the small section set aside for children, but she soon graduated to the bouldering area. By the time she was sixteen, Zen had won several state titles. Ed could climb, but his passion was football, or soccer as they called it in Australia. Each Thursday night he played in an indoor competition near the university, and most Sunday afternoons he competed in the outdoor competition. Subsequently, Zen not only had a poster of Sokratis Papastathopoulos on her wall beside her poster of Sam Kerr, but she had been known to stay up all night to watch Arsenal, in the men’s competition, or Chelsea, in the women’s, to watch her heroes play in their respective leagues. Zen played as the principal striker in the same club her dad was a member of.

When she was ten, Zen’s parents arranged for her to get access to the university’s feed from the various international astronomical observatories it used for research and teaching. Then, on her twelfth birthday, her Chinese grandparents set up an account with a private consortium who leased time from various observatories. They included enough money in her account to buy one hour to examine whatever part of space she wanted to. Wanting more sky-time, as she called it, Zen set up a website for students who wanted someone to do their assignments. She also opened several accounts on fiverr.com. She offered her services for translation work involving Greek, Mandarin and English as well as editing scientific papers, especially ones on Astronomy.

At thirteen Zen was earning enough to pay for a regular hour of sky-time every month, with extra put aside into an investment portfolio she’d arranged with her Greek grandfather. Her thirteenth year was a big one for Zen. Not only did she achieve her second black-belt, this time in Aikido, she also started studying Brazilian Capoeira. Her boxing had improved to the stage where she was able to enter her first ‘legal’ boxing meet, where she came first in the Under-15 mixed-competition. At school, this was the year she made her first real friend who was the same age as herself. It should be noted that in the process, Zen also earned a two-week suspension. During her suspension, Ed took her to Coonabarabran to visit the Skymapper Telescope and the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

Her first friend, Sahara Al-Katabi, was a new student at the school whose parents had moved up from Melbourne for work. Both Sahara’s parents were from Syria and had arrived as refugees ten years previously. Sahara had been born in a refugee camp in Southern Turkey. Zen happened to be late to class after lunch and found four boys in Grade 11 cornering Sahara in a corridor—they were trying to remove her hijab. In the end, Sahara managed to keep her hijab. The boys, on the other hand, all suffered from significant body and facial bruising, two suffered mild concussions and another had a ruptured left testicle. Regardless of the reasons, Zen would most likely have been expelled except for the arrival of Ed, whose ‘full-on-greek’ was soon eclipsed by Sahara’s father’s ‘pissed-off-Syrian’, and his lawyer.

When Zen returned to school, she found that Sahara had also been exiled. Exiled, firstly because all four boys were on the school rugby team and had been kicked off it. Secondly, and more importantly to most, she’d been saved by the school’s biggest troublemaker and unrepentant outcast, Zen. They considered that Sahara didn’t have what it took to be a companion if she was unable to follow the crowd in their communal condemnation. Instead, and despite of everything Sahara had been told about Zen, she had staunchly defended her in the two weeks Zen was absent. Sahara specifically sought Zen out when she returned.

Sahara later told Zen that her father had said that Zen had seemed to him as the embodiment of the ancient Syrian Queen, Zenobia. He suggested that Sahara would be blessed to be friends with someone like her. It turned out that Sahara’s parents were secular in their beliefs and that Sahara had worn the hijab that day because it had helped her to fit in at the previous school in Melbourne where there were a lot of Syrian refugees. In the end though, Sahara continued to wear the hijab to school as a protest. Sahara herself was hard-working and academically gifted, and she was used to being at the top of every class she attended. After all the stories, she was surprised to find that Zen was not only her intellectual equal, but in most areas was light-years ahead of her. Zen decided to start learning Arabic and to Sahara’s surprise began to talk with her exclusively in that when they were alone or at school.

Four other changes happened that year which influenced Zen greatly. The first was that BB gave birth to a little boy who, against Zen’s strong and even vigorous objections, was called Thales Song Drakos. Hal, as Zen called him, was something she’d always wanted, a sibling, and she did everything she could to be a part of his life. In return, Hal, in many ways, responded to her as he would to a second mother. As Zen’s life and interests continued to revolve around BB and Ed, though in larger and larger orbits, so Hal’s revolved around Zen. She was his earth and he, her moon.

Second, Zen was targeted by a new form of bullying. One of the older students at her high school kicked her phone and after stealing some photos set up a fake social media site in Zen’s name. For over a week the student found ways to humiliate and ridicule Zen. BB eventually found out and had the site taken down. Zen not only withdrew even further from her fellow students but she also began learning everything she could about computers and the internet. She was determined never to be put in the same situation ever again.

Third, in one of her monthly sky-time sessions, she observed a previously unidentified millisecond pulsar while looking towards Edasich, or Iota Draconis. After reviewing data using her University of Queensland access, she submitted her finding and named it PSR J1525+5858. Her submission questioned the general theories surrounding the formation of pulsars as there had been little or no evidence of PSR J1525+5858’s existence until that year. Her submission was reviewed by several astronomers, and although they noted the discovery they took little notice of her questions or observations.

The fourth influential change, though not recognised as significant for several years, was a byproduct of the second. Zen did more research into PSR J1525+5858 and found that, after several months of data, it had a stable rotational period of approximately one point eight milliseconds. The signal from the pulsar was at the limit of detectability even though it seemed to come from the same distance as Eridanus. The actual figures Zen measured, she found to be accurate and consistent to eighteen decimal places. Zen used the findings, and the feed from one of the permanent satellites covering that area of space, to construct her own pulsar-clock. This she displayed on the wall of her room above that of the International Atomic Time. Every morning she would wake up and grin as the two kept perfect time with each other.

2

On the first day of Grade 11, Zen woke early, as usual, then glanced at the two digital clocks displayed on her wall. She started to smile, then paused when she noticed her pulsar time was two attoseconds faster than the atomic clock. She would have understood if there had been one attosecond difference as they were as close to the limit of accuracy she could expect, but two didn’t make sense after the precision of the last two-and-a-half years. She quickly logged in to the feed covering that part of the sky and was still working through the data when BB called her down to breakfast an hour later.

Even then, it took her father coming and knocking on her door to get a response. After being told to come in, Ed expected to find Zen dressed and ready but instead found her still in her pyjamas and working. She was staring at her monitors. He opened his mouth to tell her to hurry when she pointed at the clocks. Five minutes later, BB, having called out several times, was ready to go ‘full-Asian’ on Zen and Ed for not coming down. She was particularly upset because she’d had to carry Hal up the stairs with her. She was surprised to see Ed sitting on the edge of Zen’s bed and looking through a feed from one of the satellites. Both had paper and pencils and were scribbling away furiously.

She managed to get out Ed’s name, then stopped as he pointed at Zen’s wall. It took her a few seconds for the difference to register, then bending to put Hal down she sat beside Ed, looking at what he’d written. Who knows how long they might have sat there if Hal, finally getting hungry, hadn’t tapped Zen repeatedly on the leg and said, “En, beckfast.”

Zen looked down, then shook herself and paused the feed, breaking both BB and Ed’s concentrations. Zen said, “Sorry, um, Hal needs breakfast, and I need to hurry and get ready for school. I promised Sahara I’d be a model student this year seeing as how it counts for university entrance. She wants me to go past her house so she can check that I’m presentable.”

Both Ed and BB shook their heads, then Ed said, “Do you mind if I look at this during the day? I know it’s your discovery, but I won’t be able to think of anything else until I check a few things. I wonder if anyone else will notice?”

BB frowned and said, “If anyone does I bet it’s that sleazy guy at Cambridge. He was such an ass about having to review Zhenyi’s findings.”

Zen smiled at her mother, secretly pleased at how irate BB got if anyone tried to minimise Zen’s discoveries. Zen said, “I don’t mind at all if you work on it. Don’t worry, Mum, I already added an official note to the records referencing the change. All I know is I’ll find it hard to concentrate today.”

Ed was nodding as they left Zen’s room and said, “Then don’t. Stay home and work on it. The school will understand. Besides, if they don’t, who cares?”

Zen sighed, “Sahara will. She’s determined that this year will be different. I’ve provisionally promised not to be late, not to sleep in class, and not to fight. Instead, I will do my homework, answer the occasional question and not blow off the tests and assignments.”

BB started praising Sahara while Ed tried to suggest ways around the stipulations. In the end, Zen left only five minutes after she’d planned and arrived at Saraha’s house five minutes after that. Sahara met her at the front door with a frown and said, “You’re late. I need at least twenty minutes to make you look pretty, and we need to leave to catch the bus in ten. At least your uniform is the right size this year.”

“I can ride if we are late, and the top is too tight.”

“Rubbish. The helmet will ruin your hair, and I’m not going to comment on the shirt except to say it lets people know you are actually a girl. Hurry up and come inside. Mum, Aunty Aisha and Halimah want to help. Did you bring your new glasses?”

Zen rolled her eyes and nodded as she hurried inside. Sahara was one of six children, and their family was part of a large extended Syrian community with dozens of aunties and uncles. Zen knew that her parents’ cultures had the same opportunities, but they’d been too self-sufficient and too driven to make the connections. Despite Sahara’s concerns, they were both standing at the bus stop near Sahara’s house in time to catch the correct bus.

Several other students in their year were on the bus, and they were stunned when they recognised the slim, athletic-looking, and beautiful girl with Sahara as Zen, the outcast. Zen and Sahara ignored the looks and comments. Zen, because she was oscillating rapidly between acute embarrassment and intense anger, Sahara because she knew all it needed was a single spark and the new Zen would be ash and a dim memory in less than a second.

It was a struggle, but Zen kept her promises to Sahara. They were in different form classes for the first period of the day. Instead of sitting in the back, as she’d always done whenever she had the option since first grade, Zen sat towards the front and near the middle of the room. When her name was called out, instead of grunting as she usually did, she said, “Present, Mrs Clark. I prefer being called Zen if you wouldn’t mind.”

Mrs Clark, who’d had Zen in her classes on several occasions, stopped and stared for a few seconds before recovering and saying, “Of course, I should have known that, sorry, Zen.”

After taking the roll, Mrs Clark, who had been dreading a year with Zen in the form class, and was still hesitant, said, “Welcome back. This is a big year, and in some ways, it is even more important for your future possibilities than Year 12. It sets the foundation on which many people will judge you, particularly when it comes to academics. Many of you have been here since Grade 7, and you know each other, or you think you do. Still, I’d like to go around and have you tell the class something you did during the holidays and then something that you plan on doing differently this year. Andrew Crown, you are first up.”

Zen was the fifth student, and Mrs Clark took a deep breath before saying, “Zen, how about you?”

Now to be fair to Mrs Clark, her deep breath was warranted. Zen’s usual responses to questions like this amounted too little more than “Nothing. I expect it is the same old boring school,” or something of a similar dismissive or argumentative nature.

Mrs Clark had to bite her lip to stop her mouth opening, when Zen said, “One of my favourite memories of the holidays was free-climbing with my mother when we visited friends of hers in Chile. We were there over Christmas. This year I want to do school better. I’m hoping to get through at least the first month without being suspended. I’d like to say for the whole year but let’s face it, I need to be realistic.”

Mrs Clark wasn’t able to stop herself laughing at Zen’s last comment. Then, she almost snorted when she realised Zen had been joking, something she’d doubted Zen was capable of. By lunch, Zen was the main topic of conversation in both the Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences staffrooms. Not only had she participated in her ‘Introduction to Calculus’ lesson, but she’d obviously already known the material at least as well as the teacher. In Physics she’d gotten full-marks on the pretest and when questioned was fully conversant with Newton’s Laws and their application to particle dynamics. The conversation in the Social Sciences staffroom revolved around Mrs Clark, who taught Economics, and who was still in some shock.

At lunch, Zen and Sahara sat under the main covered area and once again, Zen was the main topic of conversation by all students, regardless of their grade. Many of these conversations were less flattering and usually would have seen Zen revert to violence or head to the library. Instead, she ignored the chatter and calmly talked with Sahara. The general conversation could be boiled down to five main topics. In order of frequency, they were: Zen is hot; I thought she was a lesbian; it’s all an act; she’s not that smart; and do you think she has a boyfriend? Regardless of the conversations, no one felt brave enough to join Sahara and Zen at their table.

By the time school finished, Zen was emotionally worn out and also frustrated because of the time she’d missed while trying to stay focused on her classes. Sahara, on the other hand, was ecstatic at what she considered one of the most successful days ever. After recovering her bicycle, Zen rode home. The house was empty with both BB and Ed still at work and Hal at the university’s daycare. After a hurried snack, Zen rushed to her room to keep investigating before she went to her Capoeira session.

The first thing she looked at when she entered her room was the clocks. Her pulsar clock had gained a further three attoseconds during the day. She turned to one of her monitors which she’d set up to plot the frequency, and even a rough look showed the period of rotation continuing to decrease. The first thing Zen did was check for additional comments that may have been added during the day, but she only found a couple of private messages and suggestions from her parents, both of whom had looked at the data several times throughout the day. All three had an unwritten agreement that while they might discuss work with each other, it was understood to be private. Zen knew her parents would only discuss the data with others after getting her permission. She spent three hours looking back over the data of the last two years, then after checking her investments, booked an additional two hours of sky-time for later that week before getting ready for her class.

Things continued in much the same vein during the next two months, with the only real differences being that her parents lost interest in her pulsar after a few days, her social network at school began to enlarge and her investment portfolio plateaued with the increased time she spent in sky-time. Zen wasn’t thrilled with any of these things necessarily, but she realised there wasn’t much she could do about them. Her parents had their own research interests, and while the ever-decreasing period was an enigma, they’d decided to let Zen work on that by herself. The additional friends had made school more bearable for Sahara, who felt vindicated for getting Zen to make the changes. As for the investments, they’d always been there to give Zen the ability to do what she wanted, and what she wanted was to understand what was happening.

After the first two weeks, Zen had stopped her daily updates to her parents and changed the classification of PSR J1525+5858 to ‘unstable, under investigation’. This did two things. First, because she was the first to identify the pulsar and therefore the designated ‘lead astronomer’ connected to it, all changes came directly to her and didn’t automatically get sent to other researchers unless they specifically requested updates. Secondly, it notified her of any requests for data from other agencies. So far, except for the initial queries from her parents, it looked like no one was interested in the ever-increasing period of rotation of a minor pulsar that was not associated with a well-known research facility.

Two and a half months after the pulsar started changing, Zen was expecting the centrifugal forces would soon be so great that they would rip the neutron star apart, if that is what it was, and she’d begun to have some serious doubts. If it did explode, she expected the radiation ejected would be universally noticed, but this didn’t happen. Instead, the period shrunk rapidly over a sixty-minute period. Then, after a brief nanosecond interval of constant radiation, the pulsar disappeared. Two weeks later, after a second nanosecond of continuous radiation, the pulsar suddenly reappeared.

3

Zen and her parents had discussed the disappearing pulsar several times over those two weeks it was gone. Still, Zen was the only one with the time to put serious effort into trying to understand what happened. She realised this was probably because she had yet to change the classification. Zen set up an alarm to notify her if it reappeared. Fortunately for her, the alarm went off in the middle of the night instead of during school time. She had to pay a premium to purchase some immediate sky-time, but there were always some researchers prepared to trade for the extra funds.

After three hours of continuous sky-time, Zen had recorded enough data to occupy several weeks, but already she’d reached some conclusions. When the pulsar reappeared, she hadn’t immediately woken her parents, but they knew something momentous had happened because when they awoke at six, Zen was already making waffles and was on her second cup of coffee. BB and Ed looked at each other, then BB said, “Good morning, Zhenyi. Did something happen?”

Zen smiled, then frowned, then said, “Yeah. I had a breakthrough with J1525. It’s kind of weird actually.”

Ed had been reaching for the coffee but stopped with his hand out and said, “What? What do you mean a breakthrough?”

“Just that. Something came together in my brain just after midnight. I think I know what is happening. More specifically, I have a hypothesis that I need to test.”

Ed finished getting his coffee, then said, “Great, a hypothesis. Us scientists live for hypotheses. What is it?”

“Yeah. I have one, but it is way out there. I’m too embarrassed to even share it at the moment.”

BB smiled and said, “We all have those but don’t dismiss it completely until something better comes along, or something happens to show it’s wrong. I have three or four that will never see the light of day with the data I have now.”

“Well, I’ve actually been thinking something since it disappeared and there is some data that might help, but I would need your help, Mum, to get it. I don’t have access to the LIGO data.”

Ed’s eyes looked perplexed, and he said, “LIGO? I’m pretty sure it’s still shut down. I think the old data is still publicly available, though.”

BB’s face, on the other hand, went blank. Zen had been watching for her reaction and raised her eyebrows before pointing her chin at her mother so Ed would see the response for himself. When Ed saw BB’s blank look, he said, “What’s that look for? I thought LIGO was offline. It’s been having stability issues for years, and it finally became too erratic. BB, is it still out of action?”

BB shook her head and said, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted to that, but there is stuff about LIGO I can’t discuss. I’ve been doing some consultancy work, and I have a pretty strong NDA. Zhenyi, Dad is right, LIGO is being re-tuned at the moment. I’ll see if I can get access to the old data for you when I get to work. Let me know what periods you want the data for. I’ll go get Hal up. When will the waffles be ready?”

Without saying anything, Zen opened the waffle iron and emptied the cooked ones onto a plate. After adding more mixture, she turned back and said, “Two more lots will finish it, so maybe five minutes.”

As BB left Ed looked said, “An NDA, that’s weird. LIGO is hardly world-shattering science. What do you think that’s about?”

Zen just smiled and said, “Don’t forget, Mum’s the expert when it comes to dark matter and gravitational waves. She’s been spaced out more than normal the last three months with LIGO becoming so unstable and affecting her long term research project. The last two weeks though, she’d hardly been here at all, and I’m pretty sure from the reaction it’s because of LIGO. I doubt it is actually offline. Instead, I think it suddenly started working properly again a few weeks ago, and she isn’t allowed to talk about it yet. My hypothesis is that it will have stopped working again as of last night at approximately twelve-twenty-three-and-five-point-four-six-one seconds Eastern Standard Time. I think Mum’s reaction gave me the confirmation I wanted, even if she doesn’t know it yet.”

“So, what is it? What’s the hypothesis?”

“Not now. Mum needs to decide if she wants to hear it or not. NDAs and all.”

Ed looked up but said nothing until BB returned with Hal. In fact, no one referred to the previous conversation at all until Ed and BB were stopped at the traffic lights near the university. They were side by side in the bike lane. Ed was turning left to take Hal to daycare, and BB was going straight ahead to get ready for her first lecture. Ed said, “BB, I understand NDAs so I won’t ask or say anything. However, if something did happen last night at approximately twelve-twenty-three and if you want to know more about it, then talk with Zen.”

Ed had timed it just right, and as BB turned to look at him, the light went green. He pedalled away, leaving BB dumbfounded at the lights. Several bikes behind her started complaining that she wasn’t moving, but instead of starting to pedal, she pulled her bike to the curb and waved them on. BB hadn’t considered that Zen’s comments had anything to do with her current work with LIGO, but if they did, then she had a conundrum to solve.

She could use the public data to isolate information on the pulsar, but that would take months without the algorithms Zen had set up. To use that to come up with her own hypothesis was possible, but the data from all of Zen’s sky-time belonged to Zen. Getting permission to access that would need Zen’s permission. She didn’t doubt the authorities could find a way to steal it if she even hinted that Zen knew something. Although her consultancy had a strong NDA, it was mainly corporate. However, she knew the FBI and others were investigating the possibility of espionage.

Getting back on her bike, she turned left and waited for Ed until he left the daycare. He wasn’t all that surprised to see her. She said, “I don’t know what to do. I can’t betray her trust, but without even knowing her hypothesis, if there is a connection, the theoretical implications are huge for our understanding of gravity.”

“Can you talk with anyone?”

“No. If I do, it will be taken out of our hands by people I don’t trust to give her credit. What did she say?”

“LIGO started working again a few weeks ago but stopped again this morning. She gave me a fairly precise time when the problems developed.”

“Her pulsar.”

“Almost certainly. I imagine she’s connecting it to some gravitational waves, but that’s crazy. I can’t believe they’d be detected this far away from the pulsar without us observing something more substantial on the macro scale than the weak radio waves she’s observed. They would have visibly affected the closer stars, and we would have observed that.”

“We need to look at her data before I can work out what to do, and who to tell.”

“No, we need to ask if we can look at her data. What she said is under our family NDA.”

“She’ll want some quid pro quo. You know that’s what she wanted this morning. It was like ‘Hey Mum, you get me LIGO data and I’ll share my hypothesis.’ This consultancy is good money and good for networking.”

“BB, I don’t think that was what she meant. I know this sounds weird, but I think she was nervous, almost scared. I think she wanted to validate her hypothesis before telling us because she’s frightened by its implications. Implications larger than just the LIGO. When you went blank she got the validation and she shut down.”

“Ed, I can’t share the data from the last three years without giving a good reason. Look at it, sure. I’ve looked at it hundreds of times. Share it? I can’t even validate Zen’s hypothesis without breaking the NDA. Even talking here, now, speaking this obliquely with you is a grey area.”

“So what will you do?”

BB shook her head, and they just stood holding their bikes for a few minutes, then Ed said, “Let’s think on it through the day and talk with Zen tonight. She may help clarify things. I know you want what she has for your work, but we can’t break her trust.”

In the end, BB agreed but struggled not to say anything when she received information later that day that the LIGO had stopped working again, and no one had any idea why. Instead of working till five like she usually did BB pulled Hal from daycare early and headed home straight after her last lecture. It was a Wednesday and Zen usually arrived home straight after school so she could finish any work before going to the boxing gym. Zen was surprised to see her mother home but didn’t do more than yell out “hello” before heading up to her room. BB gave her time to get changed, then headed up and knocked on her door.

“Come in.”

BB walked in and wasn’t too surprised to see Zen already reviewing lines of data on her computer. What did surprise her was that Zen also had the news on in the background. BB said, “Can we talk?”

“Sure, Mum, about LIGO?”

“No. You already worked out I can’t discuss that. Look, I’ve been in a quandary all day. I want permission to share what you said to dad this morning. Will you let me do that? If it explains what is happening, then it will help hundreds with their research.”

Zen sighed and said, “Sorry, I can’t. Well, not unless you can tell me who they are and what they’ll do with it.”

“I’ll give you all the credit and make sure they contact you for data and relevant information. Just think of the implications. If we can make strides in understanding gravity, then just think what we could achieve.”

“Mum, it isn’t about recognition. It’s about safety—mine, ours, everybody’s. My hypothesis explains what I think is happening at LIGO, but it is much, much bigger than that.”

“Sweetheart, you are sixteen. I know you think things happen quickly, but even if your hypothesis is right, it will be decades before the community will make practical use of it. There will be time to get safeguards in place.”

Zen just shook her head and said, “Mum, if I am right we don’t have decades, we have at most a couple of years and probably not that. I want to tell you, but only if you promise you won’t say anything.”

BB nodded her head slowly then said, “You know I won’t say anything, Zhenyi. We never speak of what happens in family, you know that. It just makes it awkward for me, that is all. I’ll have data that I have to keep from the scientific community, and I hate doing that.”

“Aren’t you already doing that?”

“Yes. Yes, I am, and I hate it. I truly believe that scientists have an obligation to share.”

“What if I tell dad? He has no conflict of interest and can decide who I share it with.”

BB considered that for a moment then said, “That is a good compromise. He has a night lecture so he won’t be home until after boxing. You discuss it with him, and then we’ll let him decide. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Happy to finally have some closure, BB headed back downstairs while Zen just stared at her screens, thoughts whirling around in her head. Finally, Zen had dinner and then headed out to the gym. She didn’t fight in tournaments anymore but liked to spar because it kept her skills up and was a great workout. Her coach stopped the session after she’d been knocked down for the third time. He said, “Zen, no more sparring tonight. Your focus is all over the place and you’ll get hurt. What are you doing? Have you got a boyfriend or something? What’s the problem?”

As he unlaced her gloves, she said, “No. No boyfriend. Just school, I suppose. I’m sorry. I’ll have my head back in the right place by next week.”

He nodded and asked Zen to work with some of the younger kids after she’d cooled down. Zen helped train some of the younger fighters, and this paid for her own time, so she agreed. When the time was up, and after she’d helped pack everything up, Zen rode home. She dreaded talking with her father but knew she had no choice.

When she got home, her dad was already there. He was in the lounge reading, obviously waiting. When Zen entered, he said, “Mum was exhausted and has gone to bed. She told me of your deal. Sit down and talk to me.”

Zen shook her head and said, “Let me get a drink, then can you come to my room? All the data is there.”

Ed nodded, and after slipping a bookmark into the novel, he headed up to Zen’s room. Half closing the door to keep the noise down, he dragged her second chair over to her desk. She got up and closed the door. Ed said, “You know the rules Zen, two people in the room and the door stays open.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just that with the door closed the Faraday cage covers the whole room.”

“Faraday cage?”

“Yeah. I built it in grade eight. Science experiment.”

“My phone’s working.”

“Yeah, let me fix that for you.”

Zen unplugged her router and the various connections to the antennas she’d added to the eaves outside her window. She then disconnected the ethernet cable from her computer. When everything was disconnected, Zen said, “We are cut off from the world but just to be sure, let me turn on some white noise.”

Ed looked up from his phone which now had no signal, and said, “Paranoid much?”

“It was an academic exercise in case of solar flares. More of a personal statement to the idea of privacy than anything else. One of the many phases I went through, which remain undetected by both the world and my loving parents.”

“OK. Let’s skip the lecture on our parenting practices. Now that everything is private, what is your hypothesis?”

Zen started talking, and the two of them were still looking through data when BB woke the next morning. She knocked on the door and opened it, but before she could say anything Ed had got to his feet and putting his hand on the door, said, “Give us some more time. Can you please ring work and say I’m sick? Do the same for Zen and her school. I’ll explain later.”

He bent over and kissed her head before gently pushing her out of the room and closing the door. BB decided they would all stay home and was getting anxious. She was scared when neither Zen or Ed had appeared by eight and was about to head up and demand answers at about half-past when she heard Zen’s door open. Ed and Zen walked down, and both looked exhausted. There was a tension in them, though, that ruled out sleep.

Ed said, “BB, I think it best if Zen says nothing to you at this time.”

“What! How can you say that? I can keep a secret. Forget the NDA. My family comes first.”

“I know. Believe it or not but Zen freaked me out last night with all the secrecy, but now I’m convinced.”

“So when will you talk to me?”

“Soon, I hope. But first, could you ring your friend, Phil, from Harvard days, and ask if we could have lunch?”

“Phil, ring Phil?”

“Yeah, the one in Canberra.”

“Canberra! Lunch? When for?”

“Today if possible. Otherwise dinner. While you talk to him, I’ll book us some flights.”

As Ed walked off, BB turned to look at Zen, only to see her heading back upstairs to pack.

4

BB was better at networking than Ed and had hundreds of contacts. Some were people she’d only met once or twice, but she kept up with their public presence and even browsed their social media. She’d met Phil Bateman at Harvard where he’d been working on his PhD in cybersecurity. They’d connected at a mutual friend’s home who’d been trying to get them interested in religion. BB had enjoyed the evening but knew she’d need more evidence and time before committing to anything and didn’t go back to the second meeting. She had kept Phil’s number, and they’d caught up once or twice, but then Ed was on the scene, and they drifted apart.

When she’d first moved to Australia, she’d contacted him because he was one of the only Australians she knew. It turned out he now worked in a government office and was newly married. They reconnected once more when Zen was about six or so, and the three went skiing for the first time. When the family had flown into Canberra before heading to Perisher, they stopped to meet Phil and his wife, Diane. Phil and Diane had three children by then, and the meeting had lasted for less than an hour. It was these small things that BB used to network, and she’d found the contacts helpful over the years. This was another of those times.

When Phil’s phone rang, BB said, “Hey Phil, it’s Bīngqīng. How are you?”

“Hey Bīngqīng, I’m well. I thought you went by BB now?”

“True, Ed’s called me that for years, but I wasn’t sure you’d remember.”

“How could I forget. What’s it been? Eight, nine years?”

“Almost ten. How are the kids? I was sorry to hear about you and Diane.”

“Yeah, well, it happens. We’re still friends, and we share custody. The kids are well. John’s seventeen this year and in the last year of school. Julie is fifteen and just come out the other side of the hormonal years. Lizzie, or Elisabeth as she prefers, is thirteen and right in the middle of them, and Kyle is eight. How’s Zen?”

“She’s well, she’s a year younger than John and really coming into her own this year. We had another one, a boy, his name is Thales, but Zen insists we call him Hal. He’s almost three.”

“Good. Good. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure? Are you guys coming through Canberra again?”

“Um, well, we hadn’t planned to. Everything is pretty busy, and we both have lectures to teach. Zen has school but Ed just up and asked me to see if you were free for lunch today. He’s booking tickets as we speak.”

There was silence for a moment. Then, “Today?”

“That’s what he said. If not, then how about dinner?”

“Do you know what it’s about?”

“Not really, Phil, not really. Well, that’s not exactly true, but I think he’d be annoyed if I said anything over the phone.”

“Can you hold for a second?”

“Sure.”

In the end, it was five minutes before Phil returned, “BB, sorry that took so long. Um, I can do lunch. Where were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t, but I imagine Ed would like somewhere secluded so we can talk in private. Wait, here he is. I’ll let you ask him.”

BB had seen Ed walking past and said, “Phil wants to know where to meet for lunch. I said you’d tell him.”

Ed took the phone and said, “Hi Phil, sorry about this, but something’s come up I’d like to chat about. It doesn’t have to be for lunch if you’re busy.”

“No. No, lunch is good. Why don’t I have you picked up and by then I’ll have found a nice restaurant?”

“Somewhere we can talk without being disturbed would be nice.”

“OK, I’ll arrange that. It’ll just be the three of us.”

“Actually Phil, we’re all coming. The whole family.”

“Oh, OK. Table for five.”

“That’d be great. We’re booked on the Qantas flight arriving at eleven oh five.”

“I’ll have someone meet you. See you then. Bye.”

When Ed hung up, he handed the phone back to BB and said, “Sorry about the secrecy, but Zen’s hypothesis is sound. It seemed farfetched at first, but she’s done the legwork, and it’s sound.”

“You’re scaring me.”

“Then join the club.”

Ten minutes later, all four were in the car and headed for the airport. They only had hand luggage, so it was shortly after eleven fifteen when Ed waved to a man holding a small sign saying ‘Drako Family’, then followed him to a black SUV. They were surprised to find Phil waiting in the back. He said, “Sorry for the surprise but I’m in a bit of a quandary. If this is a general chit chat, then we can go to this lovely Italian place near here. If, and as I suspect it is, this is more serious then we have other options. So, Ed, why do you want to talk with me?”

“Because I have some idea who you work for and how high up you are.”

“OK. Please understand that if you are right, then we will need to discuss how you know that. Who do you think I work for?”

“I’m pretty sure you work for ASIO.”

BB looked sharply at Ed, then at Phil. Phil nodded and said, “So far, so good. What do you mean high up?”

“You are one of the decision-makers. Top five is my guess.”

Phil nodded then looked at BB, then at Zen, and then Hal, he said, “It’s too late to keep it from the family, so tell me why you think that.”

“I actually can’t tell you without authorisation. I have an NDA in place. They were my private observations and sharing them with you was at your request, so I haven’t broken the NDA. Explaining them does, sorry.”

“OK. Fair enough. My fault for asking. How secret do you want this meeting to be?”

“Zen and I discussed this last night sitting in a Faraday cage and isolated from the Internet. She played white noise in the background all night, and I’m not sure that her precautions were safe enough. So, if you have it, I’d like a room that would satisfy people who wear tinfoil hats.”

Phil looked hard at Ed to see if he was joking, then said, “OK, we have a room like that. Anything else you need?”

Ed looked at Zen, who said, “A computer with the lot and someone who understands astrophysics well enough to have a conversation with my parents if you don’t.”

“OK, well I might be able to understand most of it, but I also know someone who is almost at their level. Anything else?”

Zen just shook her head, and Phil got on the phone to set things in motion. BB just looked at Ed, who shrugged and mouthed an apology. Twenty minutes later, the SUV pulled into an underground garage. The family was ushered into a lift with Phil, where it went down several levels instead of up. Soon after that, they were seated in a small conference room with a trolley with sandwiches and drinks against one wall. The table had a console with various slots for data, and three large monitors were on the far wall. A man in his mid-thirties was already waiting.

Phil said, “Ed, BB, Zen and Hal, please meet our resident whizz on all things scientific, Dr Drayson, or Ted.”

Ted nodded hello as did BB, Ed and Zen. Phil said, “OK, Ed, over to you.”

Ed shook his head and said, “Not really. Zen is the one who wanted to be sure the people we talked to were the right people.”

Instead of talking, Zen started plugging her drives in and working out how the monitors were configured. In the silence, Hal said, “I’m hungry.”

Everyone chuckled, and Phil said, “We have a child care facility in the building. Would you like to put him there?”

BB agreed, and Phil walked BB up to drop Hal off. By the time they returned, Zen was ready. She took a deep breath and said, “Almost three years ago I discovered what I thought was, at the time, an undiscovered pulsar. It is in the northern sky and in the constellation Draconis, which should help explain why I was looking at that part of the sky. It was what is called a millisecond-pulsar, and its period-of-rotation was constant enough that I built a pulsar clock. The clock has been projected onto my wall since then.”

Phil stopped to make sure his understanding of pulsars was correct, then Zen continued. “At the time, I noted several factors that I thought might warrant investigation, but none of them was actioned. I couldn’t justify looking into them full-time until I finish school. There was no evidence of a nova event, and the pulsar was too close to the star Edasich to get an accurate distance, but I couldn’t imagine it being behind the star, or the signal would have deteriorated more than it had.”

Paul stopped for more clarifications, then Zen said, “Three months ago the period-of-rotation, which had been constant, began to decrease. Two-and-a-half months ago the pulsar gave a final burst of radiation, then disappeared. Yesterday it reappeared with a period-of-rotation near the limit when it disappeared. Already the period has begun to increase. As far as I know, only my parents and I were interested in what was happening. I’ve always considered it to be my pulsar and no one except me spent time researching what was happening. Now, I said before I couldn’t investigate it full-time, but I was still able to arrange what I call sky-time every month, and then every week.”

Ted said, “What is sky-time?”

“Control of where the telescope is focussed and what it looks for.”

“That’s pretty expensive. How’d you pay for it?”

“Odd jobs.”

“I’m not convinced.”

“I can charge between two hundred and a thousand for an hour’s work doing translation and editing. Check my taxes, it’s all legit.”

Ted raised his hands in defeat, then said, “OK, sorry. My bad.”

Zen took a breath then continued, “Yesterday, after it reappeared, I managed to arrange three hours sky-time, and I found some more anomalies which I’ll go through in a minute. OK, that is the context. Now for what has freaked dad and me out, my hypothesis. Edasich is approximately one-hundred-and-two light-years from earth. What if what I’ve called a pulsar is really the byproduct of something else? What if the radio waves aren’t the result of charged particles from a rapidly spinning neutron star, but instead are charged particles being expelled by other forces? I suggest they are the byproduct of strong, focussed, gravitational waves that have been purposefully formed to exploit their relativistic effects to allow an object to exceed the light-speed barrier. It took two and a half years to reach the threshold and two weeks to transverse the distances. I suspect it will take two-and-a-half years or less to slow the object from near light.”

Both BB and Ted started talking together, but Ed put up his hands and speaking loudly said, “Wait, wait. Don’t be dismissive until you hear the evidence. I’ve spent eight hours trying to tear a hole in the hypothesis and I can’t. It may be wrong, but the data is there, and the hypothesis is the only explanation I can come up with. Even then, I needed Zen to put the pieces together. Zen has data on red-shift, on signal strength. She can explain how we have the data now when the waves are being generated a hundred light-years away. She even has an idea, with supporting data, on how many digits are on their limbs for crying out loud. Just listen.”

Ted and BB had gone quiet, but Phil said, “I’m sorry. I’m not sure what you mean. Ted, what has you so upset? Whose limbs are we talking about?”

Ted looked down then said, “I need to see the data, but if I’m taking Zen’s words at face value, and Dr Drakos is saying I should, then what Zen has is proof that we’re about to be visited by aliens.”

5

Phil’s eyes opened wide. “Aliens, like little green men?”

Zen said, “I’m not sure of their colour, but I’m tentatively suggesting they’re heptadactyl.”

“Heptadactyl?”

“Yes, seven fingers or maybe seven limbs. There is a base seven bias to the variations that isn’t necessitated as far as I can tell by the physics.”

Phil said, “No joke?”

Ed shook his head and said, “No joke. We didn’t even tell BB because we needed advice on when and where to share this. Zen didn’t trust the people who BB consults for, but she needed some data to double-check her findings, and BB is one of the world’s best at gravitation. I reviewed her thoughts on relativity, and while it’s hypothetical, it meshes with the work I’m doing. It even takes account of Einstein and the light-speed limit. If Zen publishes she’ll get the Nobel. BB trusts you, and she’s usually a good judge of character. I knew you had connections here, so here we are. No joke.”

“If I stay, will I understand the explanation?”

Zen nodded and said, “I think so, although it’ll take longer than when I went through it with Dad.”

Phil looked at Ed, who nodded. “It’s not complicated if you take Zen’s words as accurate reflections of the theory. You’ll find it hard to understand the data, but Ted will be able to tell if she’s flubbing it.”

Phil looked at Ted and said, “Anyone else in your department able to verify this?”

He shook his head and said, “Depends on how secure you want this. Lisa would be capable, but her security isn’t high enough.”

Phil glanced at Zen and BB, then said, “Who else knows?”

Ed said, “Just us.”

Phil looked at Zen and said, “How and why does a sixteen-year-old girl know to keep this quiet?”

“I’ve seen people in panic mode. I remember corona and the craziness. This will be worse, much worse. I don’t so much want to keep it secret as to make sure it is managed properly. I think we have a few years, but I could be wrong. To be honest, I need some data from LIGO, but if what I think is the process is correct, we’ll start seeing evidence that points to this in the wider scientific community within weeks.”

“LIGO?”

“The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.”

“Why can’t you access it?”

“It started playing up three years ago just before I found my pulsar. It started being highly unstable three months ago and supposedly went offline two and a bit weeks ago. If the signal strength of the pulsar is an indication, I suspect the gravitational manipulation will be proportionally increased. My understanding of tectonics or the way animals navigate is limited. Still, I suspect they’ll be affected, as well as hundreds or thousands of other natural processes which link to our gravity.”

Phil looked over at BB and said, “When she says limited, what does that mean?”

BB shrugged and said, “She’s competent. In those areas, she’s probably second-year university level.”

Phil was quiet for a moment then said, “OK, I need to hear the rest before I decide, but if it’s verifiable, then I’ll need to brief my superior and probably the Prime Minister. We actually have a plan for this eventuality, but I’m not current.”

Ed said, “There’s more.”

“Oh great, what do you mean by more?”

“Zen’s has a secondary hypothesis which suggests it isn’t a friendly visit.”

Ted said, “OK, I’ll bite. Why?”

Zen looked up and said, “The data suggests the initial readings originate from Edasich, or Iota Draconis. Their clarity suggests this side but in a direct line. Iota Draconis is classified as a K2 III, so it’s run out of hydrogen and is on its last legs. There is a planetary system, but the radiation levels are inimical at best. Radio waves from earth would have arrived around twenty years ago. If, as I suggest they left almost three years ago, then they had about seventeen of our years to prepare. If my gravitational thesis is correct, then it suggests the mass of what they are sending is a third the size of the moon. That’s a big construct, a civilisation-sized construct. They might just want to see if they can rent the moon, but I doubt it. I realise they may be better adapted to Jupiter, but the worst-case is they want what we have.”

Ted was nodding and said, “If everything else can be validated, I’d agree with that supposition as something to work with.”

Phil pressed one of the buttons on the console. A moment later, a woman knocked and entered. He said, “We are not to be disturbed. All data from the time we entered until the room is vacated is to be classified Level Eight with a new codename to be determined. Hold all calls and cancel all my appointments. Arrange a meeting with Jillian and with the Prime Minister under the Level Eight Protocols as soon as is feasible after midnight tonight. We need more sandwiches, and please check that the Drakos’ boy is safe and happy then report back.”

When the woman left Phil turned back to Zen and said, “OK, the floor is yours.”

Over the next eight hours, with only short breaks for the bathroom and to let BB or Ed deal with Hal, Zen went through a summary of her data to explain why she’d come to the conclusions she had. By the time she was finished, it was almost nine in the evening.

In the silence, after all the questions were answered, she said, “I’m sorry, but I need sleep, and soon. I’ve been up for two days and have been through this stuff three times. How far away is the hotel?”

Ed said, “I forgot to book one.”

Phil said, “I’ll arrange something. I suggest we meet again in the morning. Can you guys stay for a few days in case we have questions?”

BB replied, “We can, but I’ll need to talk with the university if it is more than one more. I have us on personal leave, but we’ll only have two days without documentation. Zen’s got school but I can write a note.”

“Don’t worry about all that, I can arrange the leave for you. Let’s get you settled in somewhere, and we’ll talk again in the morning.”

Half an hour later, the Drakos family were in adjoining suites at the Hyatt with a security officer stationed outside each room. Zen had a shower then fell asleep almost immediately. Hal shared the room with her. Ed and BB talked for several hours in their suite then slept. Neither Phil or Ted found time for anything more than a thirty-minute nap. Instead, they first met with Phil’s boss then together briefed the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence just after four in the morning in a meeting which lasted for three hours. The Prime Minister then cancelled all morning appointments and called an emergency meeting of his senior ministers.

Zen woke at six feeling refreshed and tried to text her mum to see what time they’d be going to breakfast but found she had no signal. She opened the settings on her phone and checked for wifi, but there was nothing. She’d half expected a warning about saying anything and supposed this was Phil’s way of making sure they didn’t communicate. She had an antenna in her bag that she could have used from the balcony, but suspected they’d have people watching. She tried the TV and when it connected and showed there was access to Foxtel she smiled.

Minutes later, she’d worked her way through the various permissions and connected to her VPN. From there she sent a text message and an email to Sahara. Extrapolating the secretive and Big-Brother type behaviour, Zen then sent some time-delayed email to Phil via the ASIO public email address. She sent similar time-delayed email to several news agencies and several scientists she respected. Each of these was from a separate and unique email account she created specifically for each email. She double-checked her cloud storage and initiated a double encryption protocol to protect it. By the time she’d done that and checked the incoming data, it was almost seven, and Hal was stirring.

Zen knocked on the door between the two rooms and waited until her mother appeared. She looked like she’d just woken. Zen hugged her and said, “Sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I was scared.”

“That’s OK. You did the right thing. Phil is a good guy, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get the ball rolling in the right direction.”

Zen rolled her eyes and said, “Have you tried texting? It seems like they are already trying to manage us.”

BB went to get her phone and when she returned she sighed, and said, “It’s par for the course. I’ve consulted for a number of government departments, and they usually take our phones. Don’t let it worry you just yet. Get Hal up, and you guys get dressed. I’ll push your dad out of bed, and we’ll go get breakfast.”

Ten minutes later, Zen opened the suite door to make her way to the restaurant but was stopped by one of the security people assigned by Phil. He said, “We’ll bring breakfast up. It’s part of the service.”

“I love hotel buffets. I’d rather get my own.”

The man tensed then said, “Fair enough. How about you go back inside the room, and we’ll bring the buffet up to you? You can choose your own, and I can still say I did my job.”

Zen wanted to push the restrictions, but BB stepped in and said, “That will do nicely. I’ll let you know what type of coffee we want in just a second.”

Back in the suite, Zen and Hal made their way through to her parent’s rooms where her dad said, “Don’t push too hard, Zen. We don’t like it either, but it makes sense. Let them get a handle on things before making any waves because as far as we know, it’ll all be fine after they calm down. It was a pretty major bomb we dropped in their laps.”

Zen nodded, and in the end, she quite enjoyed having their own private buffet. Soon after they’d finished eating and after everything had been cleared away, one of the security men knocked. He said, “Dr Drakos, Dr Biàn, Dr Jillian Winter, the head of ASIO, has asked that you meet with Director Bateman in half an hour at the facility where you were yesterday. Will that be convenient? We have trained officers who will watch your children.”

Ed looked toward Zen and opened his mouth, but Zen said, “It’s fine, Dad. Us kids will sit here and chill. Maybe we’ll watch a nice movie. Can we get room service?”

Ed, who was as big a rebel as Zen, grinned as he quickly answered before BB, who wasn’t thrilled with Zen’s attitude. He said, “Good idea, Honey. Don’t worry Dr Biàn, I’m sure they’ll be well looked after. Zen, try not to get into too much mischief.”

BB just shook her head and a few minutes later left with Ed. Zen put a movie on for Hal then reconnected to the internet. She made changes to her investment portfolio based on what she imagined was likely to be happening in the next few weeks and months, then began writing a paper that could be submitted to a journal. Meanwhile, Ed and BB were taken to the same room from the night before. Phil was waiting with a woman who he introduced as Lydia. “BB, Ed, thanks for coming. I hope you guys slept well. Lydia is here to help you. We’d like you to put together a thirty-minute presentation of the main points to present to Prime Minister at about eleven.”

BB said, “Phil, it’s Zen’s discovery.”

“I understand that, and I did suggest Zen give the talk but to be honest if you and Ed do the presentation we think it’ll gain more traction. The Prime Minister has already heard your hypothesis and is trying to arrange a meeting with our key allies as soon as possible, hopefully as early as next week. Still, Mr Morris wants his Security Committee to hear it directly from the scientists.”

Ed said, “That’s Zen.”

“I understand, Ed, but it’s out of my hands. Dr Winter signed off on it as did our communications advisors.”

BB smirked and said, “Communications advisers?”

“Yeah, it’s the new name for our PR specialists. They know how to get a message across. A message that we need to ensure is actually heard. When you have the presentation prepared, then Lydia will get our ‘communications advisor’ to sit down and walk through it with you.”

Ed said, “Zen has all the data. It was on her storage drive. That’s back at the hotel.”

Lydia said, “No problem. We copied the drive yesterday when it was connected. All the information is here. We also have a clear record of what happened during the meeting. The communications advisors have already looked over it and have highlighted the areas that were confusing.”

BB said, “I don’t like this, Ed.”

Ed was grinning, but his voice sounded thoughtful. He said, “Neither do I, but let’s play the hand we’re dealt. Let’s begin. Lydia, can you pull up the files Zen started with yesterday? The data explaining her pulsar.”

As Lydia started looking at the screen in front of her and as reached for the mouse, she said, “We’d like you to refer to it as ‘Jay fifteen twenty five’. The consensus is this will resonate better with the target group more than calling it Zen’s Pulsar or any of the other ways you referenced it yesterday.”

Ed smirked as he said, “Fine. No problem. J1525 it is.”

The room went silent as they waited and finally, Lydia said, “I do apologise. It looks like our download was corrupted. I can’t seem to open any of the files.”

Ed said, “Um, maybe we need to have Zen here after all?”

BB glared at him, but Lydia didn’t notice his sarcasm as she responded, “No, that will not be necessary. We’ve got access to her storage on the cloud. Let me open that.”

Ed just shook his head at what he thought was a foolish decision, but BB said, “That’s illegal.”

Phil responded, “Sorry, BB, but it isn’t. We have a court order which gives us access to all of her files. We have permission to isolate and remove them if it is in the national interest. We have the same for your files and for Ed’s. You had to expect something like that.”

“Why? Zen’s been completely upfront, and she’s been open about what she found. She wouldn’t even tell me. Why piss her off?”

“It’s out of my hands.”

BB glared, but Ed was watching as Lydia suddenly sat up straighter then started typing furiously. Suddenly, a skull appeared on the monitors, and an evil voice came out of the speakers, “The wages of sin is death. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Moments later the skull disappeared in a blaze of cgi fire, and the screen went dead, as did the console Lydia was using. Ed said, “Hey Phil, if I remember rightly, cybersecurity was your thing. What do you think happened?”

Phil ignored the comment except for a brief glance at Ed’s smiling face, then stepped out of the room. Ten minutes later he returned, both agitated and thoughtful. “The server is fried. Fortunately, this entire room is isolated but it seems we’ve lost everything from last night as well as the data we copied. I’m not sure how she actually managed to have every sector designated as corrupted, but it was very effective. All we get is an empty screen with a single small white smiley face and a loop of evil laughter. I suppose we’ll need to ask for her files again.”

BB looked up and said, “Yeah, good luck with that?”

6

Zen had been editing a paper for a doctoral candidate from Athens when she’d been alerted of the attempt to access her files. She watched what was happening in real-time and chose the megadeath option before closing down her access and going to watch the end of Toy Story with Hal. Fifteen minutes later, one of the security men said, “Excuse me, Miss Drakos, apparently the Director would like you to join them. A car will be here in ten minutes.”

“Sorry, but my parents left me here to look after Hal. I can’t leave him alone, and I will need their OK before we leave the room. It’s a dangerous world, and they’ve taught me to be cautious. Besides, you didn’t use our ‘safe’ word.”

The man took out his phone, and after waiting for a few seconds apparently was connected to Phil as he relayed Zen’s comments. He then handed the phone to Zen. Phil was on the other end, and he said, “Good morning Zen. How are you this morning?”

“I’m still a bit tired. I can’t complain though because that’s the wages you earn for working both ends of the candle.”

There was silence on the other end, then, “Well played, Zen. Well played. You didn’t show your computer skills last night, or I’d have been better prepared.”

“Yeah, right. Bring it, G-man.”

Phil couldn’t help chuckling, then said, “BB and Ed looked blank when I asked for the ‘safe’ word. I need you to help me sell the leadership on the seriousness of this. Your mum says Hal will be OK in the daycare.”

“I’m not moving without a ‘safe’ word.”

“Why are you making this harder than it needs to be?”

“I’m not. I’m doing everything I can to help. I need a ‘safe’ word. It’s de rigueur for all families with children in these troubled times in which we live.”

“They don’t know the ‘safe’ word.”

“Everybody knows a ‘safe’ word. I can think of thousands. Something like’ Captain Underpants’ might work.”

“‘OK, ‘Captain Underpants’. Now, will you come?”

“Nope, that wasn’t the safe word I was thinking of. Has my mum ever told you the number of times I’ve been suspended from school? I’m so experienced at being annoying that I bet I could piss off Mother Theresa if she was still alive. You tried to steal my stuff, so it sucks to be you.”

With that, she hung up and handed the phone to the man, then went back to sit with Hal. Thirty minutes later, Ed, BB and Phil showed up. Hal ran to BB and, in a toneless emotionless voice, Ed said, “Zen, will you please come and help?”

BB glared at Ed but Zen stood up and said, “Sure dad, I’ll just grab my stuff.” She turned to look at Phil and said, “See, he knew the ‘safe’ word. It was ‘please’. Didn’t your mummy teach you anything?”

Ed burst out laughing, but Phil said, “Ed, it isn’t funny. It’s now almost ten, and we have an appointment at eleven. Her attitude, and yours to be honest, aren’t doing anything to help.”

Now Ed very rarely got angry, but when he did, he always went calm and emotionless before exploding into an angry ‘full-on-Greek’ diatribe. Phil had never seen this, but he knew something was happening when Ed’s face went still. BB, however, had experienced this, albeit rarely. She took one look at Ed and said, “Hal, go wait in the other room. Close the door. Daddy’s going to use some words I don’t want you to hear.”

Phil turned to face Ed, who exploded. He started explaining what had been happening in English, then as his hands began moving his voice increased in volume and some English profanity crept in. As he moved closer to Phil, and as he invaded Phil’s personal space, he slipped more and more into Greek before letting loose with Greek expletives, his nose only millimetres from Phil’s. His arms added emphasis to every word while his fingers threatened to impale Phil.

Phil had put his hands out to try and placate Ed, and then used them to tell the security people to let Ed be. Still, as Ed was in full flight and still waving his hands around, one of the security men stepped forward to pull Ed back. Even with Ed’s yelling, Zen’s voice was clear as she said, “Touch my father, and you will bleed.”

Everything went still. Ed was breathing hard and glaring at Phil who was trying to calm things down, his hands out to separate people if necessary. Zen was standing on the balls of her feet, her eyes glaring at the security man. In the sudden silence, BB stepped over to Ed and said, “Honey, let’s go home. We warned the right people, and my conscience is clear. It’s time to go before Zen starts beating people up.”

Ed brought his hands down slowly, still glaring at Phil, though he said nothing as he turned and headed into the bedroom. Everyone took a calming breath, and BB spoke softly, saying, “All we wanted to do was to help. Zen was willing to give you all her data so you could start doing something to prepare. Instead of thanking her, you ignored her, then you tried to steal her data, and now you’ve insulted her. I know you have your protocols, but the inflexibility with which you are applying them will be your downfall.”

BB turned and followed Ed. Phil and the security were left facing Zen, who stared back at them with attitude. Phil said, “Zen, I’ll admit what happened was out of line, but I have my orders. I need the data and the explanation if we are going to even begin to start looking for an appropriate response. Please help me to convince people. You wanted it done right, and that’s why you approached me. I screwed up, but I hope it isn’t too late for us to work together, maybe even one day to trust each other. You can change your parents’ minds. You know you can. Please.”

Finally, after a long pause where Zen just stared at Phil, she said, “OK, I’ll ask, but I won’t beg. I’m only doing this because I’m scared. We, as in the Earth, don’t have enough time to get things started as it is. You know those effects I said would show up in a few weeks? Well I was off by a few weeks, they’ve already started, and the evidence is piling up, but no one is prepared or even starting to get ready. I also don’t want you to scare Hal. You and I both know we won’t be allowed to leave just yet, no matter what we want to do. Me asking doesn’t change that we want to head home. It just moves that little battle of wills until after today’s meeting.”

Phil didn’t dispute any of what she said. He just said, “Thank you.”

When BB and Ed reappeared, Zen said, “Mum, Dad, Phil asked nicely. I’m not thrilled, but I’m scared enough not to let my pride get in the way of our survival. If it is OK with you, I’ll help you put something together you can take to the meeting. If not, I’m ready to leave.”

Ed closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, then said, “No, it isn’t OK with us. Mum and I have decided we won’t brief anyone. It’s not a matter of pride, but of principle. You know the data better than we do and you should be the one presenting it. We’ll agree to go with you for support, but we won’t agree with you being sidelined and treated like dirt. We’re proud that you’re not interested in getting the credit, but beginning the journey by being all politically correct instead of making the correct decisions is just plain stupid. We heard what you said to Phil and agree with not scaring Hal if we can help it.”

Zen turned to Phil and said, “It’s up to you.”

Phil looked at his watch and said, “I’ll take what I can get. How long do you need to get ready?”

“From my perspective, I’m ready now. It all depends on what you wanted.”

“We have a list of things Jillian and I found confusing when we tried to explain it to someone else. I can let you look at that as we head to Parliament House.”

Turning to her parents, Zen said, “I’d like at least one of you to come, but I don’t like the idea of Hal being in pushed into a strange daycare for a second day in a row.”

Ed looked at BB, then said, “Agreed. Let mum go with you. The bits they seemed most confused about had to do with gravity. I’ll watch Hal. We’ll visit the national museum and then go to the park.”

Zen just nodded then went to say goodbye to Hal. She was pretty sure her parents had made the decision for other reasons than the ones stated. Her mother was better at networking, and with the mood her dad was in, it was likely he’d do something rash if pushed. Even more to the point, Ed and Zen’s rebellious natures tended to feed off each other, and Zen needed BB there to help keep her calm.

When Zen returned, she nodded at her mum and stepped towards the door. Phil put out his hand to stop her, then looking highly embarrassed he said, “Um, please don’t take this wrong but do you happen to have anything else to wear? Something more academic?”

Zen just raised her eyebrows before saying, “Sure, I have yesterday’s dirty cargo pants and t-shirt or my PJ’s. Which would you prefer? Feel free to mix and match.”

BB stepped in and said, “Zhenyi, stop being so snarky. I’m sure Phil understands we didn’t plan on needing anything more formal. I’m sure there is a shop on the way, and we have a few minutes if we aren’t getting a presentation ready. I could do with something more formal as well.”

Zen turned to say something but BB’s voice hardened, “Zen, enough. Let it go. You’ve made your point, and it is now time to be gracious.”

Zen might have continued if she hadn’t caught Ed’s wink. She was pretty sure he was trying to see how far she could push it and realised that BB was just trying to calm everyone down. Her concerns about the future suddenly came back into focus, and she realised her mother had a point. Swallowing her reply and working to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, and failing, she said, “OK, that sounds like a plan. Lead on Dr Bateman. Take us to your favourite boutique.”

Phil just took a deep breath, mouthed a ‘thank you’ at BB and led the way to the elevator. Almost an hour later Zen and BB, both dressed in new slacks, blouses and shoes, followed Phil from a private government car park under Parliament House and into the elevator. Altogether, Phil’s business account was one and a half thousand dollars lighter and Zen’s attitude slightly appeased at getting him to pay. Phil understood, but he’d received a report on Zen’s finances earlier that morning and knew she earned more than he did, by a large margin.

Dr Jillian Winters met them in the corridor near the elevators, then walked them to a secure room. Two security officers kept watch over BB and Zen as Jillian and Phil entered the main conference room. Over the next few minutes, Zen watched as people she’d seen on the news over the last few years walked past where she and BB were waiting. Ten minutes later, Phil appeared and said, “OK, Zen, you are up. This is a meeting of the National Security Committee. Everyone inside is a member of Cabinet except for Jillian, myself, two of our leading scientists, both of whom have top-level clearances, and the Chief of the Defence Force. The last ten minutes have been spent reviewing the protocols for the meeting. Only the Prime Minister is aware of your hypothesis. The other committee members are the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney-General, the Treasurer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Home Affairs.

“The Prime Minister has already put his neck out by calling for an emergency meeting of senior representatives of our allies. In theory, he should have asked this group first. That he didn’t shows he understands the need to provide a momentum to the response. Please try to keep your temper in check. None of these people even begin to approach Mother Theresa in either humility or grace.”

Zen nodded, then she and BB followed Phil into the conference area.

7

Everyone was sitting as Zen entered the room, and her appearance stopped the small murmur of conversation as everyone’s focus shifted to her and BB. Dr Winters stood and introduced each of the committee members and the three co-opted members, then faced the Committee and said, “You all know Phil Bateman, my Director of Cybersecurity. Our guests are Dr Biàn who is a full professor at the University of Queensland and her daughter, Zhenyi Drakos, who goes by the name of Zen. Zen’s father is Dr Evangelos Drakos, who is also a professor at the university. Dr Biàn, her husband and Zen are all Australian citizens. I have asked Zen to present the material we are considering today.

“While Zen sets up her material, let me remind you that you may not take any notes from this room, regardless of the format. You all have writing material, but this is to help you focus and must remain in the room. Are there any questions?”

Paul Duncan, the Home Affairs Minister, who was known for being rather blunt, asked, “Why is Ms Drakos presenting the material? She can’t be older than twenty.”

Jillian nodded and said, “Zen is sixteen. She is in Grade 11. She is presenting because the research and hypothesis are hers. The data is also hers, and she understands what is happening better than anyone else on this planet. I can see some of you looking dubious. While I understand your reaction, I would ask you to put a hold on your scepticism until you’ve heard the presentation.”

Zen was ready and nodded to Jillian, who sat down. Zen was nervous, but as soon as the first image of the Draconis constellation appeared on the screen, she settled down. This was the third time she’d presented the material, and it was clear from the lack of interruptions that she’d gauged the level almost perfectly.

There was the expected outburst when she mentioned aliens, but after the Prime Minister, Steven Morris, had calmed everyone down, Zen gave a modified explanation of the science. When she’d finished speaking there was silence for a while before Jillian asked, “Are there any questions?”

The Chief of the Defence Force, Alistair Fletcher, said, “Zen, you explained that we would see the effects of these ‘gravity waves’ almost immediately, but you gave no examples. What do you think is likely to happen?”

Zen looked down at her screen and had three different tables appear on the monitors. She said, “The first table is from Geoscience Australia. It is a sampling of data from earlier today, and it shows an increase in average seismic activity. The increase is minimal at this stage, but if it continues at these levels, we will see an increase in the frequency and intensity of earthquakes. I know it has only been two days, but if you plot the activity over those two days, it is clear the increase is sustained. Two more months of this, especially as the gravitational waves increase in amplitude, and I’d predict that all the major fault lines will be more active than at any other time in our history. The ‘Big One’ that everyone is waiting for, wherever it is in the world, will happen. California, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, everywhere will be affected. With this activity will be an increase in volcanic activity and tsunamis. Air quality, sea levels, etc., etc.

“The second table shows some data I pulled from NASA this morning. They not only watch space but also things like the Earth’s magnetic field. Again there is a greater than usual activity in the planet’s field. Its unit of measurement is the Gauss, and it usually ranges from a quarter of a Gauss to point six five Gauss. It’s fluctuated in the last twelve hours between point three and point six. Not only that, but the direction the magnetic poles were moving has shifted. Two months of this added to the associated changes in solar activity all means an increase in harmful radiation, GPS systems will fail, electronic components will fail, weather systems will change, species will die out, and so on.”

As Zen turned to the third graph, the general agitation in the room had reached such a level that Steven Morris said, “Everyone, calm down. I understand how you feel. Zen, what you’re saying sounds almost cataclysmic. Is it really that bad?”

One of the scientists, a Dr Kaminski, interrupted before Zen could respond. She said, “No Prime Minister, it’ll be worse. If anything, Zen has understated the effects. When she first explained what she thought was happening, I couldn’t fault the science but I didn’t want to accept it and have been trying to think of another explanation. My field of research is the honey bee. Over the last three years, there has been a severe decline in honey bee numbers. We’ve been ascribing this to man-made interference. The constant repetitive high-frequency changes in the magnetic field would also explain that. If the changes increase as predicted, we may lose most, or all, of our primary pollinators throughout the world. We’re talking hunger and famine if we add the other climate effects. I could go on and on, but honestly, I don’t want to.

“I don’t want to hear about that last slide. It looks to be data on solar activity. Besides the outcomes Zen has already mentioned, I could add dozens more. I’m terrified. The fact that Zen says she’s known this for three days and with her obvious intellect, that she is still coherent amazes me. Add the possibility that the visitors might be hostile, and all I want to do I curl up in a ball and weep for the world my grandchildren will grow up in—if they survive at all.”

Dr Kaminski’s voice was almost a whisper when she finished, and the room was silent. Again, it was the Prime Minister who tried to refocus the room. He said, “Let’s break for twenty minutes to give you time to discuss what we’ve heard and to have lunch. A trolley will bring food. Dr Biàn, Zen, I would like you both to stay in case we have any questions.”

When he’d finished speaking, the room went still with people only moving when Jillian stood to talk privately with Zen. “That was a brilliant presentation. How are you holding up?”

“I’m tired, and honestly, a bit overwhelmed.”

Jillian chuckled and said, “I don’t blame you. Just to warn you, I’m going to recommend you also do the presentation to the meeting of world leaders. I was upset this morning when you derailed my plans, but this worked out for the best. Take a break, I’m pretty sure they will have questions, so try and relax.”

BB came over and gave Zen a hug then said, “Well done, sweetheart. I just wanted to say I’m glad you felt so strongly this needed to be dealt with this way.”

After lunch, Zen and BB answered questions for another hour before the Prime Minister said, “Thank you all for coming. I’ve arranged time this afternoon and tomorrow to meet with each of you individually. As you know, I initiated a meeting for as early as next week with our allies and have since invited several other countries to send representatives as observers. This includes representatives from the permanent members of the UN Security Council. I understand it was premature but felt the situation warranted the breach of our guidelines. Does anyone want to question that decision?”

There was no dissent and a strong agreement that it was the only move that made sense. Mr Morris said, “Thank you. Nothing of what was said today in this meeting is to be discussed. There will be no leaks to the press, no discussion with your families, no phone calls where this matter is discussed, even between people who are here. You may not tell your deputies, you may not tell your assistants, your secretaries, or your constituents. None of you is to google pulsars, you may not request information on the observatories. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I declare this meeting closed. The minutes will be circulated as per protocol. Take nothing with you that is supposed to stay here.”

Zen unplugged her storage drives and put them in her bag. Alistair Fletcher watched her, then stepped over and said, “Jillian, perhaps those disks should be stored more securely.”

Jillian nodded. “I agree, Alistair, and I had every intention of relieving Zen of them. I’ve received advice from my Director of Cybersecurity that I should leave that battle until tomorrow. Apparently, Zen feels strongly about her ownership rights.”

“What about our national interests?”

“Again, I agree.”

Zen smiled and held the drives out to Jillian. She said, “Here you are. Feel free to look after them, I have copies.”

Jillian didn’t take them and said, “Thank you, but I’m going to take Phil’s advice. You might smile like an angel, but he said you were more likely the devil in disguise. My budget isn’t large enough to keep paying for the damages. Off you go.”

Zen took them back, and after grinning at Alistair, she left with BB and Phil, as Jillian filled Alistair in with the details of earlier in the day. Phil led Zen and BB back to the SUV and after opening the door said, “I have to stay here. We’ve booked the suite for at least another few days. We are looking to find a more secure place for you to stay. These men will stay with you just to keep you safe and out of mischief if you have to leave the hotel for any reason. Is there anything else that you need?”

BB shook her head, but Zen said, “I’ve been sitting around for a few days and need to exercise. Is there an indoor climbing facility, or maybe a gym with boxing or a martial arts facility? I need to do something.”

“There’s a gym at ASIO. I’ll have the agents arrange access for you.”

Zen thanked Phil, then she and BB headed off.

Two hours later, Zen was ushered into the ASIO gym, dressed in some new gym clothes. This time she’d paid for them herself. The gym was bigger than most and had maybe twenty agents either using weights, sparring or exercising using the equipment. Zen borrowed some gloves and began working by herself using the punching bag. She then used the speed bag before changing the gloves to those used in kickboxing and working through some of her martial arts moves back with the larger bag. After thirty minutes she was covered in sweat but felt better than she had in days.

From time to time, the other agents would approach those guarding her, but each time they were discouraged from even saying a word. Finally, one of the trainers spoke with her guards than stepped close. He waited until Zen took a break, then said, “Hi, I’m John and I’ve permission to talk. I’m the head instructor here. I know nothing except that Dr Bateman said I’m not even allowed to ask for your name. I was watching though, and it looks like you’re too tense. I’ve been there and sometimes hitting the bag just isn’t enough. When I feel like that, what I really need is to hit someone. You know what I mean?”

Zen nodded and said, “Oh yeah. Think you could arrange to get Dr Bateman or Dr Winter down here?”

The trainer laughed loudly for a moment then said, “Nope, but I do understand your pain. We do however have agents here who could benefit from a beating. I saw bits of boxing, taekwondo, aikido and some capoeira. How competent are you?”

“I don’t box in tournaments anymore, but I’m an accredited level one coach. I’ve a black belt in each of the martial arts and am an accredited instructor in both taekwondo and aikido.”

John shook his head and said, “That rules out all of these guys. Let me make a call. One of our instructors is on her day off but she’s closest to your level and she lives near here. Do fifteen minutes slow, then build it back up over five. By then she’ll be here and ready to go.”

Zen nodded and returned to her workout. As promised, a woman in her mid to late twenties entered the gym ten minutes later and immediately began warming up. Ten minutes after that John made his way over and said, “This is Miriam, she’s on exchange from Israel. Miriam uses krav maga and both boxes and learnt that Wing Chun shit. Miriam, I’m not allowed to ask our friend’s name but she’s trained in boxing, taekwondo, aikido and capoeira and needs to beat someone up. That someone is you. What do you think?”

Before Miriam could respond, Zen said, “How about full safety gear and then a free for all? I’ll need a mouthguard.”

Miriam grinned and agreed. Five minutes later and the three of them stepped into the ring. Everyone else had stopped what they were doing and gathered to watch. Zen and Miriam touched gloves, then stepped back. John brought his hand down and Miriam sprang forward only to be blocked by Zen. For the next five minutes, the two punched, kicked, grappled and body-slammed each other before John stepped between them and said, “Break! Let’s have a one minute rest period before round two. It’s still too close to call.”

One of the agents assigned to Zen had a towel and some water ready. As she drank, he said, “You weren’t kidding when you threatened Andy earlier were you?”

Zen shook her head and said, “Nope. I would have kicked the shit out of him. This is better though, it’s the most fun I’ve had all week.”

The two combatants did two more rounds before John said, “OK, let’s call that a tie. You’re both getting tired and starting to make mistakes. It’s safe to say that without the safety gear and without the control you both showed at pulling back on the dangerous moves, you’d both be dead.”

Zen was grinning and said, “Thanks Miriam, I needed that. Regardless of what John said, I know that wasn’t a tie. You held back, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Once I finish the capoeira accreditation, I’ll start on Krav Maga.”

Miriam returned the smile and said, “You’re right. I held back, but then so did you. I may have the edge at the moment, but I’ve also got at least ten years on you, experience-wise. Either way, that’s the best fight I’ve had since I’ve been here. How long you in town for?”

Before Zen could answer, John said, “Sorry Miriam, no questions. Don’t scowl at me, I’m not allowed to ask either.”

After shaking hands, Zen showered and headed back for the hotel.

8

That evening Zen spent extra time with Hal, then, when he’d fallen asleep, she sat with her parents and discussed the last few days. They were careful not to speak directly about the pulsar and possible aliens headed in their direction but focussed on their feelings. Before bed, Zen tunnelled through the hotel’s firewalls and then through the additional ones added by ASIO before chatting with Sahara about school and other general things. She reset the timing on the various email she’d prepared and headed to bed.

The family was slow to get up the next morning and didn’t finish breakfast until almost eight. Phil sent a request to pick up Zen and her parents at ten. Instead of daycare, Phil arranged a nanny for Hal. The nanny arrived at nine, and when Hal was comfortable with her, she took Hal out for a play in the park while the others waited for Phil. When he arrived, Phil said, “BB, Ed, Zen, I’m not sure if I should thank you or not, but I’ve been transferred to a new position. I’m no longer over ASIO cybersecurity but have been given a brand new portfolio. It’s currently under ASIO, but there is no doubt that will change. It has only one task, and that is to plan and facilitate Australia’s response to Zen’s pulsar.

“As you know, we have alliances with many nations, some military, some economic, some simply as a result of geography or history. After our first discussions, and on Jillian’s advice, the Prime Minister used a never before used protocol which we called Level 8. There are no other levels, and it came from a think-tank which tried to imagine all the scenarios we might be faced with. Scenarios which could feasibly cause the destruction of Australia as a nation. It has options for everything from aliens to zombies. In it were outlined the national and international groups or agencies we should contact to help meet the challenges we were going to face.

“With Zen’s outline of the dangers we faced, the Prime Minster did some cutting and pasting of different scenarios and increased the people he invited. Our primary military allies are New Zealand and the United States. We also have historical alliances with the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore. Economically we have ties with all of the above but also China and Japan. There are other countries we could involve, but Mr Morris thought that covered most of the important ones. He later decided to include those permanent members of the UN Security Council not yet invited, which is to say France and Russia.

“There are reasons to add more and reasons to have less. We know that regardless of what security or secrecy that was agreed upon before the meeting, most of these countries will ignore it. Instead, because of the enormity of what we will be sharing, they will plan their next moves based on their own best interests, as we will. What that means in practice is that after the meeting, our opinions aren’t going to matter to anybody. We are too small and insignificant in the scheme of things. At the moment, the only thing we have to offer is information, Zen’s information. After yesterday, Jillian and I discussed this with the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Chief of the Armed Forces. We all agree that despite the almost certain likelihood that we will be marginalised, the danger should still be shared.

“Now, Zen, your cyber skills are good. Maybe even better than good. We still can’t work out what you did. My old department is also pretty sure you had free access to the internet last night even after we added our most robust firewalls. Having said that, there is always someone better or someone more ruthless. We want the data removed from the cloud, and we want a copy free from your booby-traps. Believe it or not, but every one of these ten countries will kill for that information if it would give them an advantage. I believe that because I know that we would if we thought it was necessary for our survival.

“They won’t kill you, but they would kill Hal, or Sahara, or any one of hundreds of people you love. Your grandparents in China are about to become hostages, as are your grandparents in Greece. I was going to suggest someone else present the material, but your footprints are all over the place for the last three years, and anyone who has half a brain will know who we got the data and information from. At the meeting, what we want to suggest is the formation of a think-tank, or an international advisory group, that has full access to your data. We know people will find ways to steal that data, but by the time they do, we will be an integral cog in the world’s response.

“I imagine you are aware that we tried to infiltrate some of the various observatories you regularly used and although we accessed three of them, we found your files were heavily protected and encrypted. I think we could break the encryption eventually, but it wasn’t worth it when you’ve offered it to us anyway. You mentioned a battle of wills if we wouldn’t let you leave. What do you have planned?”

Zen said nothing until her father said, “Zen, please answer Phil’s question.”

“Sorry dad, I won’t. This is a prelude to shutting us down and locking us up at least until the meeting. That’s a full week at least. I’m already missing out on sky-time at the crucial period just after the changeover.”

Phil said, “You aren’t, and you know you aren’t. Our records show you’ve arranged for at least three one-hour sessions even while you have been here.”

“Yes, but you want to cut all access. I don’t mind coming back for a meeting, but I won’t be locked up. It’s obvious you’ve already trolled through our lives, or you wouldn’t know about Sahara.”

“Zen, keeping you all safe is in our best interests, and in yours. It isn’t that we are locking you up; it’s more that we are taking the opportunity to provide you with the best security, for your sake and for the nation’s. Sure, it will be intrusive at the beginning, and it will chafe, but it is necessary. So, for example, Hal’s nanny today is an agent and has a team of five agents working with her to keep him safe. We don’t think anyone else knows what’s happening, but that will change as the different countries try and work out why we’ve called the meeting. So, for example, Sahara’s parents are both Syrian refugees, and that’s a security risk we need to take into account. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Zen said nothing but BB and Ed both looked at Phil, their eyes hardening. Ed said, “That’s out of line, Phil. Her parents have been through hell to get here. They are good dependable people. What would they do even if they did find out? Do you somehow suppose the aliens are part of a jihadist plot or something? This is a time to put our stupid differences aside and work together as a species without all the stupid divisions we’ve invented to make ourselves feel special.”

“Ed, I didn’t mean it like that. Look, I’m sorry, but I have orders to find a secure place and sequester you for your own safety. Hal is already on his way to the new facility and will be waiting for you.”

Before any of them could respond, an agent entered the room with three bags. Phil said, “Each of you will get changed into the clothing in the bags. You will do so in the presence of one of the agents. Everything you brought will be transferred to the new facility.”

BB said, “Don’t do this, Phil. You want, even need, our help. This isn’t the way to get it.”

It was clear that Phil didn’t like what he was doing, but he went ahead anyway. “I am truly sorry, BB. Your family has been declared an essential national resource, and I have orders to get you to a safe place. It is a secure facility, and you will have everything you need to continue your research.”

Ed stepped forward and put his hand out for the bag. He said, “I trusted you. This breaks that.”

One of the male agents stepped after Ed as he turned and walked towards his and BB’s bedroom. Zen stepped forward for her bag and said, “Who’s my keeper, Dr Drone?”

Phil didn’t say anything but waved to the youngest of two women who had entered the room after the agent with the bags. Zen just threw the bag at her, then turned to walk into her bedroom. Phil didn’t say anything but nodded at the woman and used his head to indicate she should follow Zen. Zen waited until the woman had entered, then closed the door. As she stepped past the woman towards the bed, she slipped an arm around her neck and got her in a chokehold, letting them both fall backwards onto the large bed. Ten seconds later, the woman was unconscious. Zen knew she had about fifteen seconds before the woman stirred. She quickly grabbed a clean t-shirt and made a quick gag, then pulled some cables from her bag. She then dragged the woman into the ensuite and secured her.

When she was sure the woman was OK and stirring, she tightened the gag and slid the woman into the bathtub. Zen slipped a pillow under the woman’s head before using cables from the television and coffee machine to secure the woman’s legs and arms so she could hardly move. Zen stepped back into the bedroom, closing the door to the ensuite behind her. Grabbing her backpack, she put in the woman’s phone, wallet and the taser. After double-checking the room, she crawled out onto the balcony, making sure not to let the curtains move too much. Altogether it had taken less than ninety seconds. Her room was on the second floor. Zen slid along to the end, which had the most shade from nearby trees then slipping down to the level below she made her way to the ground.

Zen had already decided on a route and wove through the various trees and bushes, keeping herself low and out of sight. She calculated she had two minutes before they knew she was gone. The Hyatt was in the worst possible place if she wanted to escape detection. It was less than a kilometre as the crow flew from Parliament House and the area was filled with embassies, guards and security cameras. Despite all this, she was confident she could get away as long as she hurried. She quickly ran west across Flynn Drive and then cut the corner in front of the Chinese Embassy. From there she headed into the parklands and moved southwest until she hit Empire Circuit. She was certain her escape had been noticed when she heard a police car turn on its sirens somewhere behind her.

Keeping to the trees on the side of the road, she ran as fast as she could. It was only eight hundred metres and then she was safe, or so she hoped. As she passed the Spanish Embassy, two police cars with sirens rushed past on the other side of the road heading towards the parklands and the Chinese Embassy. Ignoring them, she kept running. She heard them slow as they slammed on their brakes to turn after her. As she passed the German Embassy, the first car drew level with her, but she swerved left down the side street, and although it swerved in front of her she slid across the bonnet and ran back towards the circuit where the second car was just coming to a stop. Zen used her shoulder to knock a policeman out of the way, then sprinted to the entrance to the Greek Embassy. As she did, she could see more police coming. Pulling her Greek passport out of her pocket, she held it up, waving to the two security guards.

As she approached, she yelled in Greek that she was being kidnapped and wanted sanctuary. The guards lifted their weapons but allowed her to step onto the property where she stopped in front of them, breathing heavily. One of the policemen stepped close, but the Greek security lifted their weapons higher and waved the man back. The security guard spoke in Greek to Zen and asked, “Why are the police after you?”

“I escaped when they tried to kidnap my parents and myself. They already have my brother, he is a Greek citizen. My father is Evangelos Drakos, also a citizen. They say they want to protect us, but it is against our will. We have dual Australian and Greek citizenship. My name is Zhenyi Hypatia Drakos.”

By now, there were about ten police cars, and Zen could see the black SUV’s approaching. She said, “I do not feel safe out here. May I come inside? The people in the black SUV’s are ASIO. My grandfather had a brother in the army. His name is Taxiarchos Adonis Drakos.”

The two guards waved Zen inside just as Zen saw Phil exit one of the cars. Zen was escorted towards the front of the embassy as Phil stepped forward to speak with the guards.

9

Inside the Embassy, Zen was led to a waiting room where she was watched by two guards. Twenty minutes later she was joined by one of the Embassy staff. He said, “I am Counsellor Illias Fotopoulos. I am the head of both the Consular Office and of Political Affairs. I have been talking with a member of the Australian Intelligence community, a Phil Bateman. He is a Director at ASIO, and he says you escaped lawful custody and harmed one of their agents while doing this. He has requested your return. While he was somewhat vague at the reason for your detainment, he makes a good case. Please tell me your side of the story.”

“May I get my phone from my pocket?”

The Counsellor nodded. Zen opened her voice recording app. While she’d been waiting, she had used her EarPods and the program she used to edit recordings. She’d prepared several small soundbites of Phil’s conversation earlier that morning. She chose one and pressed play.

Zen, keeping you all safe is in our best interests, and in yours. It isn’t that we are locking you up; it’s more that we are taking the opportunity to provide you with the best security, for your sake and for the nation’s. … Who’s my keeper, Dr Drone?

When it had finished, she said, “We were being taken against our will. I disabled their agent and climbed out of the hotel window, then I made my way here.”

“What is this information they want to keep safe?”

“Something scientific that I have uncovered. I have no doubt your government is already being approached with the promise of being invited to a symposium. The government plans to share the information, and I suspect the invitation is conditional on you giving me back. They are trying to organise something for next week. I suspect the Ambassador will agree to their request.”

“Why then would you run if you expect to be handed back?”

“Time. I’ve some things in play to help them see it is not in their best interests to lock me away. If you have me, they will be more inclined to listen. May I play another part of the conversation?”

“Be my guest.”

Zen chose another selection.

Now, Zen, your cyber skills are good. … Believe it or not, but every one of these ten countries will kill for that information if it would give them an advantage. I believe that because I know that we would if we thought it was necessary for our survival. … as are your grandparents in Greece.

“Do these ten countries he mentions include Greece?”

“No.”

“Ah, then he threatens our citizens in our own country. I do not think the Ambassador will hand you over.”

“For this information, he will hand me over and put the gun to my grandparents’ heads himself.”

“How is it that you at sixteen years of age have such knowledge?”

“My parents are both scientists, and I’ve followed in their footsteps.”

“Yes. I’ve checked already who your father is. I tried to call him, he is Evangelos Drakos, a scientist in Queensland. His phone has a busy signal.”

“He is being held against his will.”

“What is to stop us getting this information from you ourselves?”

“Nothing, really. Personally, I’m more than happy for people to know. The only thing holding me back is the fact that my ability to keep a secret is being questioned. If I told you, it would be like shooting myself in the foot and I’m not stupid.”

“Why is there a taser in your backpack?”

“I took it off the agent I subdued. I also have her phone and wallet.”

“Why take these things?”

“If I hadn’t been able to make it here, I would have used them to escape the police.”

“Thank you for all the information. Is this room satisfactory while you wait?”

“Yes. It’s fine.”

“Good, good. Once I meet with the Ambassador, I will return. I will have something sent in for lunch. If you need anything else, just ask the guards.”

Zen nodded, then settled back in her chair to wait. While waiting earlier, she’d sent a text message which should have triggered the sending of the email messages earlier than she’d planned.

* * *

At the secure site Phil had set up for the Drakos family, Ed and BB had been reunited with Hal. They’d just sat down to lunch when Phil knocked on the door into the room where they were sitting. Ed and BB both ignored him but he entered anyway. He said, “Zen has found refuge at the Greek Embassy. We’ve asked for her to be released into our care. In the meantime, I just received an email which is apparently from her to the information desk at ASIO with my name in the subject area. It says, ‘Phil, if you are reading this it means you’ve made a mistake. Work out how to fix it, or the messages get longer and will be sent to more people. The next message is in fifteen minutes. Tick Tock.’”

Phil had been watching Ed, but it was BB who laughed and said, “Ha, serves you right. So, Drone? How are you going to fix this?”

Ed smirked at BB’s comment, then said, “I’d like to take the credit, but BB is the one who taught her computers.”

Phil ignored Ed and said, “I have no idea. BB? The people who want you locked away are right. Other people will hunt you down for that information.”

“Not if it’s out in the public space anyway. Why keep it a secret? The people are going to find out some time. Best to be upfront.”

“Government doesn’t work like that. We manage information to protect people.”

Ed turned to face Phil. He said, “And that, Phil, is the point. Did you ever ask Zen what she thought you should do?”

Phil just looked quizzical. Ed continued, “You want the information in her head about the threat because she is light years ahead of you and all your scientists, pun intended. Have you ever thought to ask how she would deal with the threat? No. You imagine that somehow the answers will come from your think-tank and your policy-papers. I had no idea that she’d been letting this problem swirl in her mind for months and years. Sure, her science all came together in a final flash of insight three days ago. Still, that insight wouldn’t have been able to pull the equations together unless she’d already been working around the edges of them. The explanation of her data emerged fully formed, not as a chrysalis.

“Let me tell you, she’s also been working around the edges of what to do for months, or maybe longer. That night, when she told me her hypothesis it took me hours to finally be convinced that this was the only thing that made sense of all the data. I sat back discouraged, dismayed, depressed. She’d shared more of what is coming than she’s told you yet. Things I’ve been too afraid to even let BB know. Zen has flowcharts of hundreds of ecosystems that will fail, she has the biochemical equations of protein synthesis where the climactic changes will mean those processes stop functioning. She has plotted the path of every known significant object in the solar system, and she showed me her predictions of their movement based on the gravity waves. Unless something is done, there is over a fifty per cent likelihood that two or more K-T extinction sized asteroids will hit the earth in the next three years. There is over an eighty-seven per cent chance that one will hit. When the aliens arrive, Zen predicts that most of us will already be dead.”

Ed looked down and paused as Phil just stared at him. When the silence became uncomfortable, he said, “As I sat there and looked at it all, I wondered what the hell we could do to stop this. I must have asked the question out loud because she opened another file and started laying out a sequence of actions that she thought might save maybe a quarter of us. She was crying because she hadn’t been able to see a way to save most, and I was almost laughing because I could see a way to save some. This is why I came to see you. You see, everything hinges on her first step if we are going to be in a position to save a quarter of the human race. Number one, ‘We have to work together’. You and I know this is a simple statement, a child’s hope, a simpleton’s expectation, and something said only by people with stars in their eyes.

“Well, I read her manifesto, and I think she’s right. Sure, she only has the broad brushstrokes of a plan, and the millions of details will need to be filled in by others. Still, she has a plan, and for it to work the whole world needs to get behind it, and get behind it soon. Let’s face it, she was always going to run to the Greek embassy if you tried to keep it secret. Why else did she bring her Greek passport? She didn’t bring her Australian one, that is still sitting in my safe at home. Greece ensures that NATO, the EU and Russia are at this meeting next week. If you hadn’t included China, she would have thrown her phone into their embassy. That is why she took your agent’s phone. She needed a way to trigger her email.

“So, to answer your question, if you don’t work out a way to let the world, i.e., everyone, including the fanatics and the fringe dwellers know what is happening, and if you don’t find a way to give her back her freedom, then I’m pretty sure something will be leaked, so word gets to the Indians and the Africans and the small Asian countries.”

Phil said, “That’s blackmail.”

“Yes, it is. I told Zen that no government would give up its position of power, or put aside its own self-interest, without a self-serving reason. She was so close to proving me wrong when you included those other counties, but then you wanted to keep the power, and she knew I had won. She owes me one thousand dollars. That was our bet. I don’t think she will forgive you for that. So if you want to control the dialogue, you need to include everyone, give us our freedom, and maybe pay her the one thousand dollars.”

“She’s been playing me!”

BB chuckled and said, “Phil, if it’s any consolation I didn’t figure it out until Ed lost his temper yesterday. Everything you were doing seemed aimed at marginalising Zen. Usually, Ed would want her out of the situation to keep her safe, but he kept pushing her and pushing you. It was pretty clear they’d worked something out. I hadn’t worked out she was going to run until she threw that bag at the agent. Even in her worst moments Zen wouldn’t take out her frustration on an underling. If she’d truly been mad she would have thrown it at you. Let me warn you, she’s been difficult to raise at times. She’s got both Ed’s stubborn streak and mine. There were times in those hormonal years you mentioned when I was so close to committing murder. Not Zen, never Zen, she’s my child, and I love her passionately. No, I was going to kill her teacher or one of her classmates. People who had pissed her off and sent her home still angry. I will give you one warning and it’s free. Zen escalates issues exponentially, not linearly, so be careful.”

Phil’s phone vibrated, and he looked down. Looking up, he said, “Another email. This time to ASIO and to the editor of The Australian. It reads, ‘Phil, Unearthing Life’s Sudden Annihilation Really Sucks. The gravity of that statement is truly profound. I believe your time is running out. How much time is left, I wonder? Tick Tock.’”

BB looked at Phil then raised her eyebrows and said, “Exponential, not linear.”

Phil turned and hurried out of the room.

10

Zen had been waiting for almost forty minutes when Counsellor Fotopoulos returned. He said, “Ms Drakos, I have Dr Bateman on the line. He would like to talk with you.”

“Can you put him on speaker or on a monitor so we can hear what he has to say together?”

“One moment, let me check.”

As Illias left, Zen sent a message to pause the email. Five minutes later, he returned with an aide and a laptop. After making sure everything was working the aide left, and Illias beckoned Zen to join him in facing the screen. She was surprised to see two figures on the screen, one was Phil, and the other was the Prime Minister. Phil said, “Zen, before we talk, can you stop the email?”

“Already arranged that, Dr Drone. They are paused, not stopped.”

Phil squirmed a little at the name then said, “Can we talk privately?”

“Nope, Counsellor Fotopoulos here is a witness for my safety.”

The Prime Minister looked down, then after a sigh looked up at the screen. He said, “I see. Well, we do what we must. Dr Bateman has explained that you are blackmailing us. Is this correct?”

“Sort of. I don’t want to be locked out of my life, and people need to know what I told you. I understand that governments need to find the best way to share that information, but I won’t let it be a secret. Knowing what is happening will save lives. You don’t have the right to deny people the right to help themselves. I don’t want panic, but I also don’t want people in power being so secretive that we take forever to do what needs to be done today.”

“Dr Bateman said you have three demands. First, we must tell the world.”

“Yes, or at least all the leaders. That ‘yes’ was for the tell the world. I really only have two demands.”

“How many isn’t the issue. Once the leaders know, then everyone will know. Many of the world leaders can’t keep secrets.”

“I understand that, but what is the point of keeping this a secret? To solve this will need the effort of all eight billion people working together. Even a million secure secretive drones won’t be enough to save even themselves.”

Mr Morris reached down and signed a piece of paper and handed to someone off-screen. “OK, I’ve just folded on that. That was a letter to the UN asking for a meeting of the full Security Council to discuss an issue of critical importance. The language ensures we will most likely have a meeting within forty-eight hours. The world will know we have met, and it will leak. Does this satisfy you?”

“Yes, Sir. Thank you.”

“Next is the issue of your safety. Dr Bateman says you object to being kept safe.”

“No, Sir. I don’t mind being safe, I just don’t appreciate being told how to live my life. Once everyone knows what is happening, I’m just an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl again.”

The Prime Minister started chuckling then said, “That isn’t true, and I suspect you know it. I know it won’t surprise you, but the truth is people don’t often respond logically. There are people out there who have such a warped view of the world that they will think that killing you, the messenger, will end the threat. History is full of examples. Others will decide quite rightly that you know more than you are saying, something Dr Bateman has just made me aware of. They will want that information to gain an advantage. Keeping you safe makes sense.”

“But not locked away like a prisoner, Sir.”

The Prime Minister nodded. “I’ll give you that. OK, I’ll promise not to lock you away if you’ll agree to a permanent security detail for you and your family. It will be a bother and a pain, but you’ll get used to it. I won’t budge, Zen. Say ‘no’, and I’ll surround the Greek Embassy with tanks and keep you there for the next three years.”

Zen looked down, but before she could respond, Counsellor Fotopoulos said, “There will be no need for tanks, Mr Prime Minister. If she refuses, I will tie her up myself and drop her outside the front gate. I have no idea what you are talking about, but it would be foolish not to take such help when offered.”

Phil said, “A warning Counsellor, she’s a black belt in several disciplines. Have some of the young soldiers tie her up.”

Zen said, “I accept, Sir. I don’t like it, but I accept.”

“Good. Thirdly is the matter of the thousand dollars you bet your father. He thinks you owe him, but I disagree. This would have been shared with everyone. Maybe not in the next few weeks but it would have been explained. I think you would have won.”

“Sorry, Mr Morris, but I’ll have to disagree. The very fact you think people will try and hurt me gives the lie. You aren’t afraid of the whack-jobs so much as of the nation-states. Even now I doubt you can get your cabinet moving fast enough. Maybe you weren’t watching the other day in the meeting, but during the small bathroom breaks people were already jostling for position. No, he won fair and square. Mr Bateman, you were the harbinger of that news, so I blame you.”

Phil’s face went blank, but Mr Morris chuckled again then said, “Maybe you are right. As it was ultimately me that pushed Dr Bateman to take the actions which precipitated your flight, would you permit me to pay your father in your stead?”

Zen was quiet for a moment then turned to Illias, “Counsellor, is that allowed? Bets with my father are almost sacred. Can I let someone else pay?”

Counsellor Fotopoulos’ face went still, then after a moment, he said, “Under normal circumstances, it would not be. A person is responsible for their own debts. I am sorry.”

Zen turned and glared at the image of Phil and said, “Sorry Mr Morris. It seems the burden is mine. Don’t worry though, I’ll find a way to even things up with Dr Bateman.”

Mr Morris grinned then said, “Good. I’ll have a temporary security team pick you up from the Embassy. Your parents will meet you back at the hotel.”

“No offence, Mr Prime Minister but I’ll wait until I have confirmation the UN has agreed to the meeting.”

“None taken. What of the email you have been blackmailing us with?”

“They’ll never be sent if we all keep our word, Sir.”

“Fair enough. Goodbye, Ms Drakos.”

“Mr Prime Minister.”

As the screen went blank, Illias said, “Well played Zhenyi Hypatia Drakos. You handled that like a true Greek woman, bold and fearless. I know I will hear more of you. Let us have lunch while we wait for the UN. They are slow at the best of times. Come and tell me more of yourself and I will regale you with stories of your homeland.”

Together Illias and Zen left the room. Zen tried to ignore the extra guards Illias arranged to cover the windows and doors and follow her around.

An hour later, one of Illias’ aides appeared with a message that the UN Security Council had been convened for the following Monday morning at nine. No brief had been given, but it had been suggested that delegates bring a science advisor with an understanding of astrophysics. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for the Wednesday morning.

Illias’ said, “They have done as you asked, Zen. I know you can’t tell me anything, but what can I say to my superiors?”

Zen paused then said, “Say that Lycaon comes and he has prepared for us a loathsome feast. We must be careful lest we become ensnared and brought to ruin.”

“I’m not sure what surprises me more. That an Australian has an understanding of culture, or that one seeks to school me in my own mythology. Come, let us go and meet your security team.”

Zen followed the guards out of the Embassy to find three black SUVs waiting on the driveway. Phil stepped out of the centre one and put out his hand to Illias and said, “Thank you for watching over Ms Drakos. I apologise that she felt threatened by me and felt the need to run.”

Illias smiled and said, “Be careful, Dr Bateman. Zen and I have talked, and I suggest you need to understand that she not only felt threatened by you but she, in fact, was threatened by you. It may seem like semantics to people like us who are used to shading the truth. However, I suggest such distinctions hold some matter of importance to those whose ideals are still untarnished. She has shared with me some ‘safe’ words, and I have agreed to call her once every couple of days to check she is unharmed. One of those words will end this agreement. I trust that word will be spoken soon, for until then, it means that Zen does not yet feel safe. Good day, Sir.”

Phil nodded, then waved for Zen to enter the vehicle. Phil followed her inside, and the cars moved off. Phil said, “I’ll introduce the team at the hotel. I talked with John at the gym after you left, and he was impressed with your self-defence skills. When I asked for a recommendation for your team, he suggested Miriam. Do you have any problems with that?”

“I thought she was on secondment.”

“She is. We accept the Israelis might find out, but we’d have told them soon enough anyway, and the US shares everything with them regardless of what they say they do.”

“If I have to have a shadow, it may as well be her. We got on OK.”

“That’s what John said, although from the description it seemed more like you beat the crap out of each other. I will introduce all the team leaders and give you and your parents time to get to know them. While they already know your names and have a general idea of what you do, they don’t have the details. So, Miriam knows your name and that you are a student. She recognised your picture, and that is about it.”

“What do you want them to know?”

“They are all observant, and their brief lets the agent on duty sit in on discussions so they’ll all pick it up soon enough. Just don’t discuss things except in secure places.”

As he finished speaking, the cars were approaching the hotel. Zen followed him out of the vehicle and up to the rooms. She smiled at Miriam, who was standing outside her door with several other agents but had no time to say anything. Once inside, she hugged her parents and had to spend several minutes hugging Hal and reassuring him that she was alright.

When that was done, Phil said, “Before we do anything else, let me introduce the team leaders for the agents assigned to each of you.”

Phil pressed a button, and four agents entered the room. Both BB and Ed had male team leaders, and both were well over six feet tall. Next to them, Miriam looked tiny, as did the agent Zen recognised as the Nanny, Elise. Phil did the introductions. “Miriam, you’ve already met Zen. Her full name is Zhenyi Drakos and at the moment, what is in her head is the most valuable resource on the planet. Andrew, this is Dr Biàn Bīngqīng. She goes by the name BB, and she is not only a professor of astrophysics and one of the world’s leading experts on dark matter and gravity, but she is also Zen’s mother. Brad, this is Dr Evangelos Drakos, BB calls him Ed. Zen calls him dad. He is also a professor of astrophysics and is an expert on fluids and relativity. Elise is lead for Thales, who goes by the name Hal.”

Everyone shook hands as another agent entered and handed Phil a note. When he looked up, he gave the note to Miriam and said, “Miriam, you’ve been assigned as overall lead for the family. I couldn’t tell you until I had authorisation, which that paper is. You are lead because Zen’s safety is paramount and defines everything else. We don’t have time now so we’ll meet later this evening and flesh out the details. Zen, you and your parents need to discuss this, but I need to know who is coming to New York. You will need to be there but who else is your decision. We, you, me and Ted, as the core, need to work hard over the next two days to get a presentation ready. So, Zen, can we have a non-toxic copy of all your data to work with?”

Zen looked over at her father, who nodded. Sighing deeply, she reached into her backpack and took out a book-sized storage drive. She said, “Here, it’s sixteen terabytes and been un-booby-trapped. I’ve had to compress most of the files to fit them on there, but the decompression software is included.”

Phil raised his eyebrows at her preparation and said, “Will you remove it from wherever you have it stored externally?”

Zen didn’t bother looking at her dad; she just shook her head and said, “Nope. No deal. Well, at least not yet. There are smart ways to move forward and stupid ways. I want to see what your plans are first.”

Phil looked to Ed who said, “I agree with Zen. I don’t think you’d kill us, but if you thought it was necessary you’d still order it done no matter how much you hated to.”

Phil actually looked relieved at the response but said, “Maybe. I’d like to think I’d refuse to do that, but this is too big to make a mistake with.”

He looked down at his watch and said, “It’s now just after two. We need to work out a sample package of data and some notes we can give to those who attend. It has to be comprehensive enough to communicate the main facts without revealing everything. Ted and I will start on that while you talk with the folks and get packed. Miriam, Zen needs a wardrobe suitable for a minimum of three or four days at the UN.”

Again Zen reached into her bag and then handed over a storage device, this time it was only a data stick. She said, “256 gigabytes, for you and Ted. It has several presentations and a hundred-page document outlining my thesis. It refers to the data, but that data isn’t included in its entirety, only samples. It has no booby-traps.”

Phil took the drive, saying, “When did you do this?”

“I pulled it together yesterday. The document is a summary of my notes which I tidied up. It’d be useful to have my parents check it, but I think it covers what you want.”

“Thank you. Don’t forget. We’ll be taking the PM’s plane, and we leave at midnight. “

-End of Episode 1-