Nightwatch Logo


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Year One, January:
Things that go bump in the night...
 [In The Beginning]
11:00 PM, January 4th

    The Hubble Space Telescope orbits innocently, never knowing what is about to hit it. At eleven PM on January 4th, Hubble's onboard computers suddenly refuse all official incoming commands and begin the laborious processes of slewing the telescope around to point in a new direction- without being told to do so by Ground Control.
    "Damn," mutters one of the Grad students that mans the Hubble control room on the ground below. He slaps the computer monitor absent-mindedly, as if that will change what the screen display is telling him. The springs on his desk chair squeak alarmingly as he leans back in annoyance.
    "George?" the student's supervisor asks. "What is it?"
    "Dunno, Dave," George replies.  "This thing says the 'scope is redirecting on schedule after that last data dump ended, but its going the wrong way. Its gonna re-focus on the asteroid belt somewhere, if I read these numbers right. 78 degrees off of where we're telling it to point."
     "Ratty data?" Dave asks.  George shakes his head.
     "Don't think so. Something has glitched, and glitched bad."
    "If some stupid programmer reversed a plus sign for a minus sign-" Dave's blood pressure begins to climb. "Run a diagnostic, and get me a copy of the re-direct programming patch for this session."
    "Sure thing," George says.  "Here's the hard copy.  I'll run the diagnostic on the ground computers right now."
    "Thanks. Or maybe no thanks," Dave says.  "Hubble's not officially in orbit anymore, remember?  If it's glitched up and starts to come down."  Dave rubbed his eyes.  "I've got to go call this in.  If this gets out..."  George shrugged as if waiting for Dave to finish.  "Well, you can kiss your assistantship goodbye for one!"
    "Dave?" George swiveled his chair to call to his supervisor's back as Dave opened his office door. Dave turned around to face George's monitor station.
    "Yeah, George?"
    "Dave, what if the problem isn't on the ground?"
    "Then we're screwed, George. Congress will shit-can us and de-orbit the Hubble after all. We only saved it last time by the skin of our teeth and some lucky donations and some discretion. You ever see a satellite fall? Its an ugly sight. Especially knowing you could still use the bugger if Congress would just get off their butts and give up a little more money. Tell you what, call Juan and Dixie- over at Maintenance. Tell them what's going on and to come on over. We can get them to troubleshoot the hardware- Run a check for some kind of signal interference that might be masking our uplink commands, too. They can get motivated enough to get over here while I make the call to report in. Then we'll put 'em to work on the glitch and see what turns up."
    "I'm on it," George replies as he picks up the phone. "But they aren't gonna be happy about being woken up..."
**********

    Meanwhile, on the Internet a computer virus attack begins to sweep the globe. In waves, home computers the world over become sluggish, refuse to accept input, or lock up completely. Curiously, not a single computer in a hospital or police station is stricken. The virus also seems to avoid utility companies and airport computer networks. No railway computers or highway traffic computers are affected. Acting like spyware, the virus tends to operate during whatever idle time the infected computers have. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are inconvenienced briefly as the virus seizes their computer, uses it for a few moments, and then moves on to the next conquest. Few people will ever realize the true magnitude of that first attack.
    In control rooms on the ground, operators of the Very Large Array and the Aricebo Radio Telescope dish are startled to find that their instruments now refuse to obey any of their commands. Likewise, there is unbridled panic in several unlisted control rooms across the globe when highly classified military spy satellites also refuse to obey their masters. Curses resound as their secret weapons rotate to point in the wrong direction. Further curses ring out when the satellites begin to study an area of outer space rather than the nations of Earth that their owners considered enemies.
    Optical and radio telescopes around the globe are systematically hijacked by way of their computer control systems. All of them begin to focus on a specific area between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers work frantically at regaining control of their instruments. So do the militaries of many nations as more and more spy satellites succumb to the same rogue computer program. Many of the computers that are stricken are not connected to the Internet, and never had been. It seems to make no difference at all.
    Somehow, it spreads. It spreads almost instantly. It spreads almost everywhere. But it is very selective.
    Hours pass. Data comes streaming back from the telescopes. This fact particularly upsets the owners of the hijacked spy satellites. Their classified instruments are reporting to the virus instead of themselves. The hijacked computers process the incoming data for nearly twelve hours before the secret control rooms simultaneously light up their respective monitor screens with a video display. The governments of the world watch on secure, secret channels as the first pictures of the previously undetected object are recorded by the hijacked telescopes, transmitting live. The live images are replaced every quarter hour with an animation showing the object nearing, then striking Earth. The virus is trying to drive it's point home to all of the world's governments at the same time.

"36 Months, 25 Days, 17 Hours, 39 Minutes, 44 Seconds until impact"

The Coming of Cthulu    It is big. It is headed straight for us. And if we don't do something quick, it is going to be doomsday for the human race. As well as for everything else that had evolved beyond bacteria. There is no way to escape. There is no hope of survival.
    Earth has been given warning. Within thirty seven months, dinosaurs aren't the only things that are going to be extinct around here.
    Meanwhile, the people of planet Earth's various countries eventually go back to their daily routines as the virus attack seems to subside. News of the Near Earth Object's approach is successfully suppressed by the UN, US, EU, Russia, China, Japan, and other national governments. The bureaucrats of the world then do what they do best: procrastinate, debate, and waste time. Most of them, anyway. Some begin to prepare plans for planetary defense, even when they have to do so in secret. When the upcoming doomsday is mentioned by those in the know, "The sky is falling..." is their password. For others; life goes on, ignorance is bliss, and the sudden doom from the skies is being targeted by every spin-doctor on the planet in order to keep it that way. For yet others, there will be other tasks. Trials before the storm.
    Time passes, as it so often does. But eventually, time runs out. It isn't called a Deadline for nothing.
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Nightwatch: Fly By Wire

By Dan L. Hollifield

Nightwatch created by Jeff Williams -- Developed by Jeff Williams and Robert Moriyama
 
       What was concealed
        Shall stand revealed
        In all its radiant glory.
        Those secrets held
        Shall be unveiled
   And thereby hangs this story...

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Year One
The Events of:
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"Dragon's Egg"    [Late January]

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 "Alconost"             [Late March]

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"Rogue Harvest"               [May]

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"Dimensions' Gate"      [August]

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"Cardenio"              [September]


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Year One, September:
Sultans of Swing
[Space Is Deep]
6:52 AM, September 27th

 HUGE ASTEROID TO FLY PAST EARTH IN TWO YEARS

By William Robert England, Senior Science Writer OuterSpaceNews.com, posted: 27 September, 7 a.m. ET
http://www.outerspacenews.com/science&astronomy/cuthulu_flyby_02194.html

The third largest asteroid ever known to pass near Earth will be making a close celestial brush with the planet year-after next in an event that professional and backyard astronomers are watching closely. The space rock, named Cthulu, will not hit Earth, despite rumors of possible doom that have circulated the Internet for months. Humanity is very fortunate there won't be an impact, as the asteroid is large enough to cause global devastation. Cthulu is about 29 miles long and 15 miles wide (46 by 24 kilometers). On Wednesday, Jan. 29 two years from now it will be within a million miles of Earth, or about four times the distance to the Moon.

No space rock this big will pass so close in the next century, scientists say. And while similarly large asteroids have hit the planet in the distant past, none so big have come so close since astronomers have had the means to notice them. Many smaller space rocks have been spotted much closer, even inside the orbit of the Moon. NASA scientists and other asteroid experts have been watching Cthulu for many months, and though its orbit will change slightly with each trip around the Sun, they have a good handle on the path.

The position of the asteroid on this pass is known to a precision roughly equal to the rock's size, said Allan Horne, a senior research scientist at the North American Space Science Institute. That leaves a little wiggle room for its exact location at closest approach, but not much. "Because of the nature of the orbit, we cannot predict thousands of years into the future for this object, but in anyone's lifetime now, there is no chance" of an impact, Horne told OUTERSPACENEWS.com.

Spotting Cthulu

Cthulu will not be visible to the unaided eye. Experienced telescope users can see it now from the Southern Hemisphere, and in early October of next year it will be visible from the north. Finding Cthulu will be challenging, Horne said, due to a combination of the asteroid's position in the sky and interfering moonlight.
Because the asteroid is so close, its location in the sky will vary significantly for skywatchers in different places on Earth at any given moment. And because it moves quickly, the location changes constantly. Printed sky maps struggle to provide enough detail to be useful.

"In a large telescope the motion would be perceptible against any stars in the field more or less in real time, sort of like watching the minute hand on a clock," Horne said, adding that the movement would be "not quite that fast, but noticeable."

Highly experienced observers will use complex plotting information known as ephemeris data. Others can use software programs that generate maps for specific times and locations.

When, where and how

At its closest in 28 months from now, on Jan. 29, Cthulu will be visible only to observers in the Northern Hemisphere. Large and steady binoculars will be able to pick out the pinprick of sunlight reflecting off the asteroid, providing observers "use a good program like Starry Night Pro© to plot its incredibly rapid motion across the sky," said Omar Neismith of the North Dakota Sky Observatory. (The software company Starry Night© is owned by Imaginova©, parent also of SPACE.com© and is in no way connected to OUTERSPACENEWS.com.)
Soon thereafter, experienced backyard astronomers north of the equator will have a chance to find Cthulu.

"By early October of next year, it will suddenly be re-emerging into northern skies as its apparent trajectory will bring it back into very favorable view," Neismith said in an e-mail interview. But by then the asteroid will be moving toward Earth and getting brighter. It will quickly become "very difficult" to miss even with a small telescope, he said.
Both Neismith and Horne photographed the giant space rock last week (it was visible then in the south as it moved across telescope viewfinders in Australia, Indonesia, Southern Africa, and South America)and said exposures longer than thirty seconds showed a definite trail as the giant rock moved slightly against the background of stars.
"It has been quite a wonderful show so far," Horne said. "I look forward to the show getting better as time passes."

Strange rock indeed

Asteroid Cthulu was discovered in early January. Scientists have modeled its strange rotation and odd shape -- it looks something like a pockmarked pear -- from data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as many other observatories. Instead of a fixed north pole, Cthulu's axis of rotation wanders in two separate cycles of 5.4 and 7.3 Earth-days. So while most asteroids rotate somewhat like a football thrown in a perfect spiral, "Cthulu tumbles like a flubbed pass," says Scott Engin of Tennessee State University.
Astronomers will use this current flyby to examine Cthulu in greater detail, with a goal of pinning down the rock's rate of spin and better estimating its future path.

While some rumors have suggested the asteroid's forecast course might be off by enough to cause a collision with Earth, Horne agrees with Neismith and other scientists that there is no chance for calamity. Neismith has been monitoring Cthulu's movement since January 4th, logging more than 500 observations that allow mapping of a precise trajectory. "Although the actual path of it has indeed varied a slight bit from the original calculated orbit, there is absolutely no chance of a physical encounter or impact with Earth," he said. "Despite the current world-wide computer and radio problems caused by an unexpected peak in sunspots, we have every confidence in our orbital predictions. There is no cause for alarm, but everyone will be in for a wonderful light-show as dust from the asteroid's path intersects Earth's orbit."
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 Year One, October:
The Events of:
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"Ghost Rockets of Sweden"

8:05 AM, October 22nd


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Year One, November:
Frankenstein Unleashed
 [Back In Black]

3:52 AM, November 3rd

   The virus comes back, with a vengeance.

"You are wasting time.
If all is revealed to the public, thousands will die in the panic.
If nothing is done, all will die.
The possibility yet exists for Humanity to save itself.
Choose wisely...

24 Months, 20 Days, 7 Hours, 32 Minutes, 14 Seconds until impact"


    So came the message to the many secret terminals that all governments seem to have hidden away somewhere... The implication is clear. Start making plans to save the Earth, or the virus will reveal the truth to everyone.

    Once again, the supervirus strikes- bulling its way through all computer defenses. The stricken computers begin running a freeware astronomy program in a small window hidden in the background of their monitors . Half the Internet becomes a number-crunching network for the data being delivered from the hijacked telescopes and satellites. It doesn't take much imagination to realize that the computer virus is once again the telescope hijacker. It must be controlling the various telescopes with the pirated home computers. Whenever they are connected to the Internet they begin to lock up, freeze up, ignore all keyboard commands or mouse clicks for minutes at a time. Then, the virus releases them to move on to other computers. But it always returns.

     Pressure is being applied to the governments of Planet Earth. And when enough pressure is applied to something, it either bends or breaks.

    The virus is almost out in the open now, forcing the hands of various governments to restore the peace. And to spin their actions over the last year. Some of that spin is directed at minimizing the public access to the true extent of the danger. Various astronomers whose telescopes and satellites have been hijacked issue reports that border on science fiction rather than fact. They are already on the inside, and have been coached what to say. Pundits announce that "everything is under control" and that "measures are being taken to minimize future risks" and other meaningless jargon. All the official activity is passed off as preparing for a worst case scenario that "couldn't happen in a million years." People react oddly, though, when the initial scare emerges, and some strange things happen even after the spin doctors convince the public that nothing is wrong.-  Churches of every religion the world over gain a record number of new members, small riots are stopped by armed neighbors working together, and several petty dictators find themselves overthrown in popular uprisings. Meanwhile, unnoticed on a large scale, factories the world over receive computer-generated e-mail orders for new products. Several companies shift production of new, mysterious projects into high gear. The stock market rises and falls like an amusement park ride... But eventually, people learn to cope. Ignorance, however involuntary, is still bliss.

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Year One, November:
Lies, Lies, Lies...
[Spin Doctors]

8:29 AM, November 4th
Record year for Sunspots
International Inquisitor
Science Writer: Fred Bardo
Paris Telecommunication Convention:
Fierce magnetic storms once again plague the Northeastern
US and Canada causing disturbances in communication,
computer networks, and electrical power grids. For the
second time this year, significant portions of the
Internet are temporarily blocked off. Telecom officials
have requested that only emergency messages be sent at
this time. "Just wait it out," says the telecom industries
spokesman, Josh Langston. "The solar storm should be over
in a few days. A week at the most. Until then, please
restrict your use of the telecom grid as much as possible.
Thank you. I know that if we all work together, we can
solve this problem in record time." The meeting of telecom
industry execs in Paris has been ongoing for several days
now. Discussions on how to shield modern electronic
equipment against this kind of magnetic storm interference
in the future continue unabated. Reports have been positive
so far, and promise to add new jobs to the workforce as new
technologies are developed.
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Year One, November:
Somebody's Watching Me
 [Secret Treaties]
10:07 AM, November 6th

    "You're telling me that the computer virus is monitoring your e-mail and sent you these books?" Simon Litchfield asked. "Callow, that is a level of paranoia that I'd of thought even you were too stable to achieve."
     Simon and Callow sat in the Popular Culture section of the Nightwatch Institutes's library. Callow sat facing a pile of books, technical reports, biographies, pulp fiction novels, and piles of paperwork printouts detailing research papers on the problem of an asteroid impact. Callow looked upon the stacks of paperwork in much the same manner that anyone would be expected to look at a similar pile of rapidly decaying rodent droppings. Simon had to stifle a chuckle at Callow's expression as he went on. "Half the computers on the Internet are infected by this supervirus, most of the major telescopes and spy satellites the world over have been pirated by same, and the upshot of it is- that our planet's various governments have wasted a year's warning of a major asteroid strike.The end of the world as we know it. And you think that there is something strange going on with your your e-mail?"
     "It isn't funny, Simon. I sent a message to my secretary asking for information on deflecting or minimizing asteroid impacts. On a secure channel, mind you. Ten minutes later, an assistant librarian wheels a trolley over and dumps this lot off."
     "And the librarian said?"
     "Simon," Callow spoke, "she said that the staff had been scrambling for the last seventeen hours to gather the items given to them on a computer generated list. Using my personal, secure account, I might add. Which means that seventeen hours before the thought occurred to me, the virus knew I'd be asking for this information. And knew my most secure account passwords. I don't like that sort of thing. I don't like it at all."
     "Callow..." Simon's voice began, then trailed off into introspective silence. The comforting scent of old books that permeated the library's rooms served as a counterpoint to the melody of Simon's interior monologue. "You know my attitude about this," Simon added after a moments pause. "I've always asked 'why' about this computer virus. Not 'who' or 'how', but 'why?' Why did it take over the Hubble telescope--which isn't even officially on orbit anymore, mind you--and Aricebo, and a score of other optical and radio telescopes? Not to mention a double-dozen top secret spysats from different countries? Why did it direct the world's attention on that little point out in space? Where we just happened to have been given the first sighting of the doomsday asteroid that's coming right own our throats? Who wrote the virus has become immaterial. How did he know? What did he know? When did he know it? Why did he choose this way of telling us what's going on?"
     "I am beginning to agree with you Simon, as much as it pains me to admit. But observe, study this pile of nonsense that the bloody bug has foisted off on me!"
     Simon looked as requested, and observed several studies of the Tunguska event, two of the better biographies of Nicola Tesla, a rare vintage copy of "Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid" which he remembered as a pulp novel from his childhood. If only Doc Savage were here- or Superman, Simon thought, laughing to himself. A second glance took in several cometary atlases, a Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle novel about a cometary impact, a number of Civil Defense study folders, a copy of the Necronomicon, a stack of comic books, a Jules Verne novel, and something that looked suspiciously like a report on the readiness of NATO's nuclear weapons arsenals. At least, from Simon's point of view, looking at the documents upside down.
     "Callow," Simon asked cautiously, "Are you trying to tell me that we've been called in to consult on this? Openly? No breaking and entering needed?"
     "Yes," Callow nodded. "At the express request of some of the UN and US government's pet think tanks. Swift Enterprises, the Quest Group, the Probe Agency, Hidalgo International Technologies, even the Banzai Institute asked for us to be included. We don't have to sneak into this one. We've been invited in to play. We will be coordinating everyone's research and making recommendations. The Japanese Space Sciences Agency and the British Quatermass Society were the only ones to howl about classified data. Those two aren't co-operating very well. And then there's-"
    "Don't tell me. Let me guess. The Pentagon's pet black-budget research center. Area 51, S-4, CRD- whatever they're calling it this week."
    "Right in one, Simon."
    "Set someone in place, just to keep an eye on them. And count the silverware before they leave."
    "How droll, Simon. The FBI drew that straw. We are to keep our hands off... For now."
    "Did you send duplicates of all this data the virus sent you to Stephanie?"
    "Of course," Callow replied. "Whom else do you think that I'd ask for answers?"
    Simon shrugged off the implied insult. "And her reply?"
    "She agreed with the think tanks. The US, EU, UN, and NATO military have had their heads up their collective arses all along. Furthermore, that the current plan of nuking the asteroid would result in greater harm to the planet than doing nothing would. The Military wants to blow the thing to bits. Stephanie states for the record that that would be simply exchanging a lethal bullet for a lethal shotgun blast."
     "I'm sure our delightful computer scientist supreme also included some reasons for her brash statement?"
     "Of course," Callow replied, "she believes that the object is a comet, not an asteroid. She believes that the object is too fragile to decelerate with A-Bombs and may be already fragmented. Blasting it with nuclear weapons would only create a cloud of debris that still hits Earth with the same force as a single object would. She's convinced that the virus has given us hints that the object is a comet instead of an asteroid. And further, that the object can be tied to the orbit of a specific comet- The same one that produced the Tunguska Event. That damn huge explosion in Siberia, back in 1908. Her findings check out with all our own experts- As well as a dozen other boffins, scattered across the globe." Callow strained a smile. "She's too much like you, sometimes.  A jack of all trades."
     "So if Stephanie is right, then NATO and the UN are wrong -and will kill even more innocent people than doing nothing would. What can I do to help her?"
     "For God's sake! -- Read some of this crap and figure out what the virus is trying to tell us!" Callow almost shouted his reply. "We've only got two years left!"




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Year One, November:
The Events of:
The Orion Affair

10:16 PM, November 28th