CHAPTER 4
For all the romantic achievements of the work done by the telescope, it had one enormous disadvantage: the observatory staff were doomed to loneliness. Kate and her colleagues worked alone on alternate shifts, and only rarely worked together. The observatory’s AI coped very well without human intervention, at least as far as routine work was concerned.
The problem could easily be ignored when one was totally immersed in work, but was almost tangible when it came to lunch time. Right now, for example, Kate, feeling her stomach rumble, remembered she was hungry and was sorry she would again have to lunch alone. Loneliness was particularly burdensome to her today, since it was only that morning that Jerome had left.
Sighing sadly, she took her lunch out of the refrigerator and heated it in the microwave. Putting the steaming paella on a plate, she garnished it with fresh sprigs of rosemary and fetched a long-stemmed wine glass that she filled with aromatic ruby-coloured wine. Putting all this on a tray, she carefully went out onto the viewing platform, trying not to spill anything.
When she was out in the open, she looked around her. Yes, she had to lunch alone, but not many people could enjoy such a view, except perhaps for astronauts. She turned her face to the bright rays of the Sun and screwed up her eyes for a few seconds. Here on top of the observatory, it shone in a special way and was reflected in the wine glass, making it glow brightly from inside with a beautiful saturated red colour.
The indescribable aroma of fresh fruits de mer, augmented by the bouquet of spices, rose from the plate and the cold air, along with the sight of the steam rising from the plate, sharpened her appetite. Before getting down to her meal, she did not miss the opportunity of looking down at the valley spread out at her feet. At midday, the clouds covering the foothills of the mountains cleared, revealing a magnificent view of the southeast of the island, which was visible as if on the palm of her hand.
Here, at this altitude, the landscape was decorated with sparse brown bushes, which looked as if they had dried up long ago. It was difficult to imagine that life could be concealed among these thorns that barely differed in colour from the red stones. But further down, patches of green began to appear, and at the foot of the mountain, the whole island was covered in juicy vegetation, with veins of roads carved through it.
Then the coast began. Tenerife was an island of volcanic origin, so the sand was as black as pitch. Some might think the dark strip of the shoreline was exotic, but Kate, who had spent her childhood and youth here, did not share this view. Then there was the sea. And far away on the horizon, the mountains of Gran Canaria could just about be made out.
At this distance, it wasn’t easy to understand just what, but something about this picture, which was so familiar to Kate, was not quite right. Looking carefully, she seemed to see a column of black smoke rising from somewhere beyond the island. Perhaps she was imagining it? Sandstorms from the African continent, which was only a few hundred kilometres to the east of the archipelago, reduced the visibility over such great distances, filling the air with a pale yellow dust.
The route from the viewing platform to the observatory control centre building lay through a small building. Inside it, apart from crates of first-aid medical supplies and other useful odds and ends, there was a pair of binoculars. Leaving her steaming lunch on the table, she tripped lightly down the staircase and quickly found the box she wanted. Punching in the code and opening the lid, she saw a pair of powerful binoculars.
Any doubts she had were set aside as soon as she raised the lenses to her eyes. A thick cloud of black smoke really was rising far off and it quickly became thicker and denser. Now it could be seen without binoculars. Its dark silhouette was clearly visible against the sky. Judging by its size, it must be a huge fire. What was over there that would burn like that?
Abandoning all thoughts of food, Kate turned back to her work station. There were many webcams on the island, she just had to find one with the right view. After looking through several, she stopped on one whose field of vision covered one of the ports of Gran Canaria. The column of smoke was rising slightly to one side of it, from a nearby village. At its foot there were tongues of flame surging upwards. It was probably one of the huge fuel tanks for ships that was burning.
She looked around for the TV control. It wasn’t on her table, so she went to her colleague’s and began rummaging through a pile of papers scattered in creative disorder. Here it was! Switching on the TV and finding it on the sports channel, she smiled wryly. It was obvious what her colleagues did when they were supposed to be working. Quickly pressing the buttons, she stopped on the local news covering events on the Canaries.
The fire on Gran Canaria had made it into the news bulletin by this time and there was a live report from the scene, below which the red information strip carried the following in black:
FIRE AFTER SHOTS AT OIL STORE IN PORT. TROOPS ARE ARRIVING AT THE SCENE. SEA AND AIR TRAFFIC IS BEING REDIRECTED TO NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS.
A female reporter with a microphone appeared on the scene. Her hair, blown by the wind, was wilder than usual for such reportages, and her frightened eyes were darting from side to side. It seemed she was seriously alarmed and totally unprepared.
Several army trucks and an armoured personnel carrier stood one or two hundred metres behind her. Two military helicopters were also present a little further off. The crowd of gawpers assembled behind the police barrier was animatedly discussing something with the police. Other police were running here and there in confusion, desperately waving their arms, trying to coordinate the chaos.
Eventually the reporter raised her microphone. Kate pressed a button to increase the volume, but the batteries in the remote were almost dead and she had to go close to the screen.
“...after intensive crossfire. According to unconfirmed reports, the fate of at least seventeen company workers is unknown and the injured are continuing to arrive at the nearest hospitals. According to doctors and eyewitnesses, those arriving are mostly suffering from burns. There are now more than fifty of them...”
Kate began to run through in her mind which of her friends or relatives might be caught up in this dangerous situation when the picture suddenly changed. White letters on a black background read:
PROCLAMATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY. STAY INSIDE. DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR TO STRANGERS. AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.
A shiver ran down Kate’s spine. Trying not to let panic take hold of her, she began thinking feverishly what she should do. Leave the observatory and go home? That would probably not be a very good idea. She would have to use the cableway, which ran on mains electricity from the city. If the power were suddenly shut off, she would be stuck at a height of thirty storeys, and who knew how long it would be before anyone came to help her, if anyone ever did?
Furthermore, it would probably be impossible to find anywhere on the whole island more isolated than the observatory. Also, unlike home, it had a strong fence and solid doors, intended to protect valuable equipment from uninvited guests.
The observatory also had its own electricity supply and water pipeline, and there were reserves of food in case of emergencies. Gourmets would hardly be overjoyed by the modest menu, but she could survive. And she would not be at risk of boredom here either.
She stood a little longer in front of the TV, re-reading the state of emergency proclamation, then remembered she had left her lunch on the platform. She now had no appetite, but who knew when she would next get the chance to eat a meal from fresh ingredients?
Kate carried her meal inside (she had lost all desire to eat outside), locked the door behind her and switched on the warning signal system. An automatic check, she was pleased to see, showed that the perimeter was clear. Surprised to find herself so calm, she finished eating the half-cold paella without enthusiasm. It would be interesting to find out if the state of emergency covered just Gran Canaria, or Spain and all its territories.
The best thing she could do now was probably carry on with her n
ormal work. She turned back to the report she had been working on since early morning. It was already finished and she only had to run through it again to check it. Having done so, she attached the document to an email with a multiple list of addressees, composed a short accompanying text and pressed ‘Send’.
The icon next to the email denoting confirmation of arrival from the recipients turned green. Kate sighed with relief. Communication with the outside world was still working. Probably the emergency situation was only local. So much the better, it could be dealt with more quickly...
The indicator reached 40% and stopped. The servers of some recipients had confirmed receipt of the emails, but others were being slow for some reason. The icon froze. Perhaps the observatory’s mail server was at fault?
She went to pour herself a coffee and when she got back, nothing had changed. The majority of the recipients still showed no sign of having received the document she had sent. Then she opened the list of those who had confirmed.
The operators of mains-powered networks and orbital satellites had confirmed. Confirmations from the company’s cell phone service were also not long in arriving. But for some reason there was nothing from the ships. Not one of them had sent an acknowledgement. But surely the servers on all the ships could not have packed up simultaneously? How strange!
She lifted the telephone receiver, picked the first ship on the list and dialled its contact number. She heard the dialling tone and then silence. A few seconds later she heard short beeps. Perhaps the number was out of date? Or incorrect? She dialled the next number on the list. Same result.
Eventually she worked it out. All those who had confirmed were fixed land recipients, connected to the communication networks by cable. But ships afloat used satellite communication, and the satellites in orbit were in a bad way at the present time. It seemed this would continue until the storm died down.
As a critical part of the infrastructure, the observatory was equipped with emergency short wave communication. In this waveband, the electromagnetic waves were reflected from the ionosphere and the Earth’s surface. By repeated reflections, they easily covered intercontinental distances. Now, of course, the magnetic storm had caused a lot of interference on the ether, but it was worth trying.
Kate set the computer to emergency communication and once again tried to call the ship she had selected.