The Cloud - 3. Chapter 3

World News Network

Pacific Bureau

Sydney, Australia

Kelly Simmons, the Pacific Bureau’s science correspondent, had five minutes’ notice that there would be a full staff meeting in the Bureau Chief’s conference room. Everyone who wasn’t in the field or on the air was supposed to be there.

Something very odd was going on even in her little niche of the kingdom. Scientists loved to talk about their work. Many of them saw outreach and education as a vital part of their job. They loved to tell you all about their newest micro-chips or pulsars. Public or private sector, they all wanted publicity for their work.

Something had changed over the weekend. Most of her contacts at universities and research institutions were suddenly unavailable. Even good old Jack Willoby of the Australian National Observatory was unavailable and not answering his private cell phone. Their staffs said that they were either on leave or at a conference. She was getting stonewalled by people that she usually couldn’t get to shut up.

The staff hurried into the big conference room on the first floor. She took the seat behind Liam Ross of the political desk. She said, “Liam, you have any idea what this is about?”

He replied, “No, but it’s making me nervous. The Yanks, NATO and the Aussie military just announced a massive joint forces military readiness exercise and are calling up their reserves. That’s just not done. Those sorts of exercises are announced months ahead of time.”

Quinton Bagley of the International desk said, “That’s not even the best of it. Yesterday the Yanks had a closed joint session of Congress and our Parliament is doing the same. Something serious is afoot.”

Drew Collins, Bagley’s second, asked, “China? North Korea?”

Bagley shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. They haven’t even been rattling their sabers. My guess is Iran. Maybe they tested a nuke or something.”

The Bureau Chief Ian McAlister entered the room and had a quiet word with a technician. There was a brief discussion and Ian motioned to his staff for quiet. The monitors around the room came to life as the teleconference connection was established. Soon all the networks major Bureaus were online: New York, London, Washington, Montreal, Los Angeles, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo.

McAlister stepped up to the podium and began, “Good day, mates. I am Ian McAlister: Chief of the Sydney Bureau. For the last few days, us Bureau Chiefs have been talking. We have all seen a number of strange things happening with no explanation at all. At first, we wrote it off as the usual stuff that happens over a weekend. It’s now Monday afternoon, and we still have no answers. We arranged this teleconference to see if we can figure things out.”

“Brian Barnes: Washington Bureau. Before dawn this morning, the President’s press secretary faxed everyone on his list that the President and Vice President’s schedule had been canceled through Wednesday. There is a closed Joint Session of Congress. The Pentagon announced a surprise Joint Forces Readiness Exercise and has called up the National Guard and Reserves.”

“Richard Holmes: London Bureau. The situation here is similar to that in Washington. The Joint Forces Readiness Exercise was announced by NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Forces in Brussels. Downing Street and Parliament have been quiet. All the European Union’s militaries, including France, are calling up their reserves. All the naval vessels that are ready have put to sea and the rest are making ready.”

“Gregori Petrovich: Moscow Bureau. We are seeing the same military activity that you describe. Our sources tell us that NATO and Chinese officers have been seen inside the Kremlin and that Strategic Rocket Forces are on high alert.”

“Walter Neville: Beijing Bureau. We have been asked by the Peoples Republic to suspend operations until Wednesday. Before we were shut down, we too received reports of a massive military mobilization and the Peoples Republic Civil Defense has been activated. I get the impression that we are under martial law without actually declaring it.”

“Takeo Kurita: Tokyo Bureau. There has been a call-up of the Self Defense Forces. We have confirmed that Japanese, South Korean and Chinese naval vessels have joined an American carrier battle group and are operating under a unified command in the East China Sea.”

McAlister spoke: “I have spoken to our correspondents in Cairo and Tel Aviv. The Middle East has been quiet for months. North Korea has been quiet as their new Great Leader consolidates his power. I just don’t understand it. A mobilization of this size and traditional adversaries appear to be working together? What are we missing?”

Someone from the New York Bureau said, “If it’s not a big, ugly war brewing, the implications are frightening. Has there been an outbreak of some sort of disease? We’ve been hearing about bird flu and drug resistant pathogens for years.”

The London Bureau answered, “We have rock solid sources at the World Health Organization. There are no reports of any unusual or particularly dangerous outbreaks.”

“Paul Kincaid: Los Angeles Bureau. We have reports of numerous scientists on University campuses being approached by men in suits and driving away in SUVs. I thought it was just crazy conspiracy talk, but the reports are adding up. Faulk and Conners from UCLA, Jenkins from USC and a handful of guys from Stanford and Caltech: all well-known and famous in their fields.”

Petrovich of the Moscow Bureau said, “We have seen this too. Many Academicians have been suddenly called to a conference at Novosibirsk.”

McAlister asked, “What scientific disciplines do the scientists represent?”

Kincaid replied, “Faulk is a physicist, Conners is a biologist and Jenkins is an astrophysicist. The guys from Stanford are all either in the biosciences or the physical sciences.”

Petrovich said, “It is the same is Russia.”

McAlister sighed and said, “Does anybody have anything that might shed any more light on this?”

Kelly said, “Sir, late last week I saw something odd that I wanted to follow up today, but none of my contacts are available. I get a copy of the email list serve that the big observatories in the Southern Hemisphere use to coordinate their activities. Friday night there was a lot of traffic between the Australian National Observatory, the Keck in Hawaii and the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Dr. Willoby of the ANO found something and wanted the other observatories to confirm his findings, as it was near dawn in Australia. Keck and the ESO apparently did follow up, as did the JPL and the Gemini. That’s when everything stopped. The mailing list went dead and there hasn’t been a peep out of them since.”

Shocked silence followed.

Someone said, “Oh my God. They found something out there.”

Kelly said, “It doesn’t make sense. ANO was doing a survey of Wolf-Rayet stars in the Southern Hemisphere. The VLTA in Chile was looking at the most distant galaxies visible, and the Keck was looking at star forming regions in the nearby galaxies. Those are all deep space objects. I can’t imagine what they might have seen that would have caused such a panic.”

McAlister said, “It’s a lead and right now, it’s the only lead that we have. Kelly, do you remember that retired chap who discovered the comet last summer?”

“Yes- that’s Mr. Chambers. He built an observatory for himself out near Coolgardie in Western Australia when he retired in 2005. Since then, he’s discovered a comet and a handful of asteroids.”

McAlister said, “I need you on a plane for Coolgardie in a half hour. Pick up a remote crew from our local affiliate. Take the information you got from the email conversation and see what Mr. Chambers can find. We need to see what they’ve found out there.”

“Everybody else: I don’t care what you have to do. Beg, borrow, bribe, or abduct your sources. Get us something we can use!”