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