The Arcturus Code

By Randy Kovicak

Like any senior in high school, Alt is trying to figure out what comes next in life. Little does he know things are about to take a turn he never expected. His mother works for Skywatch, a company that searches the galaxy for signs of life, and when he ends up helping her with a new computer program he stumbles across a mysterious code beaming t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors' Tranquility Press
• Release date: Nov 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781957208022

Book preview

ONE

Altair walked out of the shadows of the trees and into a patch of sunlight. He came to a stop, closed his eyes, and tilted his face up towards the sky, soaking up the sun's rays. He wished he could escape planet Earth and disappear into the cosmos, never to return. If only he could teleport to another world and start all over. His mind wandered, imagining the billions of particles coursing through his body as he stood there lost in time for a minute or two.

Alt, wait up. He snapped out his trance.

Altair, who went by Alt for short, peered over his shoulder to see Ohna running to catch up with him. Her long dark hair was up in her trademark ponytails.

Hey, there, stranger. He greeted her with a smile.

Ohna slowed to a walk, huffing as she caught her breath. Yeah, ditto. The sun reflected off her face as her green eyes twinkled at him. She looked cute as always in her jeans, hightop Vans, and a t-shirt with Da Vinci on it.

Remember how we used to walk home all the time together? Alt smiled as he thought about this. They began walking together down the dilapidated sidewalk lined with old elm trees.

It's been a while. Life has become so busy. Senior year is crazy. I've been swamped with homework, and, you know, trying to apply to art school takes up all the rest of my time.

He smiled noncommittally, but his shoulders slumped at the mention of college applications. I figured. I know how badly you want to get into a good art school. What's your number one pick?

He caught a glimpse of his reflection in a car as they walked by. His disheveled hair looked like it usually did. He could have cared less about his appearance, but at least he showered and changed his underwear every day. Lately, his motivation has been at an all-time low.

I have a couple in mind. What about you? She replied.

Alt was afraid she would bring this up. I don't know, he said, shrugging. I may just take a class or two at the community college.

Altair! What do you mean? You're not going to college? She gaped at him. I mean, I knew you have been less enthusiastic about it, but I didn't think you were serious. What's going on?

It had been a while since they had talked about college, and maybe he was subconsciously avoiding his best friend because he was embarrassed about his attitude about the whole thing. I'm just not sure I want to spend the next four to eight years locked up at a university.

Okay, now you're starting to worry me. Um, both your parents went to Stanford, and If my memory serves me correctly, didn't your long-lost grandfather go to CalTech?

Alt stepped over a crest on the sidewalk. The root of a tree had forced it up over the years. The old path was crumbling in places, but its condition showed its perseverance.

Oh God, don't bring him up. He's the last person I want to discuss. As if I would go to school because of him. His grandfather had upped sticks and left the family ten years ago. Why would Alt ever want to follow in his footsteps?

Okay, maybe not the best example to use. Sorry for bringing it up. She hesitated and then asked anyway, I remember you telling me about him a long time ago, but I can't remember anymore. Ohna cast him a sideways glance, but she still seemed curious.

No, why would I have heard from that loser. Alt scrunched up his face. I have no idea what his deal is. I don't know if he's even alive, and it doesn't matter to me anymore. His grandfather would occasionally make contact, just show up out of the blue, then disappear again for a couple of years. Altair had given up trying to figure out what happened that made him leave so many years ago. His mother wouldn't elaborate about what happened, so it left Alt with a cold, detached feeling about his grandfather. It was all a mystery to him.

I get it. You don't want to talk about it, but isn't there a part of you that wants to know what happened? Didn't you say it had something to do with the way your grandma died?

Supposedly, but what does any of this have to do with going to college? Your way off track here. He raised one eyebrow at her.

Well, I just thought since all these people in your family have PhDs that you would follow suit. I get it if you feel all this pressure to go to some prestigious university and don't want to, but you have a gift, Alt, and you know it. She gave him that look that only she could give him, piercing through to his soul and calling him out on the truth. Altair was pegged at an early age with an off-the-charts IQ. He had been poked and prodded ever since experts marveling at his brilliance.

Altair hated that everyone around him felt as though he owed the world something because he was intelligent. He just wanted to be average. He could see little point in wasting away at college, studying day and night to get a degree to get a job, pay bills and be a slave to the system for the rest of his life. No thanks.

"Does it matter?

It doesn't matter to me that you get a bunch of degrees, but don't you want to be happy?

And getting degrees means being happy?

No, but you must realize you have to do something someday. Doesn't something interest you enough to want to learn more about it?

Not really. They had made it to Alt's house and were headed out back and above the garage, which he had turned into his hangout room. It had a couple of old worn-out couches, a mini-fridge, a TV, and a laboratory's worth of computers. It was messy but just organized enough for Alt to be in his comfort zone. The clutter never seemed to bother Ohna.

Does this have to do with your cousin? She grabbed flavored water from the fridge. Alt was sitting at one of his computers, looking over a program he had been working on. He divided his attention between Ohna and the screen.

I certainly don't want to talk about that either. Man. Thinking about Trevor brought on a dizzying sensation of loss and helplessness. He quickly pushed those thoughts out of his mind.

Listen, I get it. I know you've been through a lot. More than most people. But you can't just give up on everything.

I'm not giving up, but why do I have to follow the same route everyone else follows? Where are the rules saying I have to go to college like everyone else?

I just worry about you sometimes. She dropped her head. And, maybe I'm just a little jealous of your big brain. She cracked a quick smile at him.

Yeah, okay, because you're not smart? Geez. You're the one with all the talent in the world. The world needs to hear from you. I have nothing to give, and even if I did, I don't want to.

Why not? She was relentless.

I don't know. Sometimes I don't see the point to it all. We could all be dead tomorrow, so why even worry about it?

That's a horrible answer. I don't accept it. She laughed. You have to feel some sense of purpose in life.

Once upon a time maybe, but now I'm just, well, I don't believe in much of anything. He stopped to think about his parents getting a divorce at an early age, then his grandmother dying and grandfather going MIA, and of course, what happened to his cousin. There was little to cheer him up.

You have lost your way. Well, I'm not going to let you off the hook that easily.

She grabbed a pillow and threw it at his face. He ducked and then chucked the pillow back at her. She always had a way of keeping things light when their conversations began to get bogged down. She knew him well.

You wanna start a pillow fight, do ya? He held up another pillow, ready to attack. Why do you care so much anyway?

Why do I care so much about my best friend? She gave him a sarcastic, angry look. There was a moment of silence, and then she decided to finally turn the topic to something she knew he would like. Okay, I'm now on a mission to get you re inspired in life, she said matter-of-factly. What about all those sparkly stars in the night sky? I know you love to ponder what is out there. I've heard you go on too many times about that.

Yes, it's true, maybe the one real love of my life. There was a spark of life in his eyes. He snapped out of his dreariness for a brief moment. He looked over at Ohna and thought she almost looked sad for a second. Alt wasn't sure what that was all about.

What is it about staring out into the galaxy that gets you and your mother all geeked out? she asked.

Where to begin? For one, another life on another planet in another galaxy or even an alternate universe. The thought of some form of life out there that has evolved into somethinganything, better than us, would be in a way reassuring that there is some point to all of this.

I don't think we are all that bad. Yes, there have been a couple of humans or two that have given us a bad rap, but you can't forget about all the good ones that we have produced over the years, she winked at him.

Are you trying to be funny? This world is a freight train running off the tracks, with no hope in sight. He wasn't giving in.

I can see how one could get down on humanity in a hurry, but some of it is your perspective. I look at the amazing artists, philosophers, and scientists throughout time and marvel at some of their accomplishments. You have to admit, there have been some unbelievably talented people to walk this Earth.

I can't argue with that statement, but look around at the world today. Do you see any signs of hope?

Yes, I do. I see hope all around.

Alt usually wasn't this resistant to her optimism, but lately, things were weighing on him more than usual. So you never told me what you are doing next year. What schools are you thinking about? he asked.

I can't figure out if I want to concentrate on sculpting or painting. She darted a glance at him. Well, two of the programs are much further away, and one is much closer. She emphasized the end of this sentence. Alt continued looking at the monitor in front of him.

Well, wherever you go, you will be awesome.

You don't want to get out of this place? Start over somewhere else? She said, her eyes looking for a glimmer of encouragement.

Well, parts of that sound nice, but I am not sure about the school thing. Mostly it's just torture for me to sit through all those classes.

You could probably not go to any of the lectures and then show up and ace the exam at the end. I hate people like you, she joked.

Aren't there a bunch of programs that allow you to study all those galaxies out there just waiting to be discovered? I thought I read something about a new giant telescope that they are going to put up into space that is going to show scientists things they have never seen before.

That's right. I didn't know you were interested in that kind of stuff. Look at you. Altair was impressed by his friend.

Ohna rolled her eyes. When your best friend and his mother talk about it all the time, it starts to seep into your brain a little, that's all. And, I find it very interesting. Who doesn't think it would be amazing to discover some little green people hiding on a planet a hundred light-years away?

I don't think they will be green or little, but that's a whole other conversation.

What do you think they will look like?

I am not sure what they will look like, but I am fairly certain they will be way more advanced than us. Maybe they won't even take on a physical shape that we would understand. They could be completely beyond our recognition or even reside in a completely different dimension we haven't even discovered yet.

You have to go to college and discover these aliens. I'm not sure anyone else on our planet could.

Altair suddenly realized that maybe part of her was right. Searching for what lies beyond our current boundaries did seem exciting to him. He almost thought about sharing that he had looked at one particular Stanford program. Sadly, it also just occurred to him that he would be missing these wonderful conversations with his best friend after she left for college.

TWO

Alicia squinted at the monitor as if that would make the answer pop up out of nowhere. Just another frustrating day in the life of a scientist searching for signs of life in our universe. I just feel like we are so, ugh. She turned to her boss, Gregory, to vent her feelings. Do you sense the same thing? Something is missing. I'm not exactly sure where it is, but we are so close. The light from the window shone down across her desk. Her office was sleeker, as far as offices go. She kept her area clean, and the glass desk's crisp lines gave the setup a modern feel.

Don't beat yourself up too much. It's not like we haven't been doing this forever and coming up empty-handed. His nonchalant manner was beginning to irritate her more and more. Yes, the result was the same at this point for every scientist searching for life out there, but their equipment and methods improved each day, increasing the odds. But what were those odds? If there was no life out there, anywhere, then they were ultimately zero, which meant this was all a big waste of time and money, which they seemed to be constantly running out of. She sensed that this was why her boss was here to talk to her.

So what brings you over here to my part of the building today?

Oh, not much. I thought I would review our monthly budget with you. Gregory tried to sound upbeat, but it wasn't working.

Let me guess, if we don't get a new source of funding, we may have to make some cuts? I'm getting pretty good at guessing how these little chats end up, aren't I?

Yes, I know I keep having to meet with you about this, but this time, it's for real. If we don't figure something out soon, we may have to turn out the lights. He crossed his arms and had difficulty looking her straight in the eyes. Gregory was good-looking but had an awkward way about him. It just seemed like he was always trying too hard. Too much grease in his slicked-back hair, and he always wore last year's trends.

Real funny. You can't just turn out the lights, Alicia put her hands in the air. Doesn't the government have something to say about this? I'm sure they don't want us to stop our work altogether.

It's the same old story. We need results, or they will begin to limit their funding. Of course, they're not going to turn any of the telescopes off, but if groups are not showing any signs of progress, then they will be making some tough decisions about who will and will not get funding.

Alicia had felt the pressure and was working late, a common practice in her field, trying to find a breakthrough to this program they had come up with for sifting through the data. She worked for a private company called Skywatch that searched not only our galaxy but nearby galaxies for any sign of, well, anything. Who knows what to look for when searching for life out there? Is it a signal in sound, light, math, or another dimension they had not discovered yet? You have to think like an alien to know what to look for, but, of course, they didn't know any yet, so they couldn't exactly ask them for a hint. A scientist has to use science and math and hopes that these so-called universal languages hold true in the rest of the universe.

Can't you talk to them and let them know that this new program may be the answer? It's a completely new approach to the way we have been analyzing this data. You know how excited we are about this around here. And, now that we are getting all this new information back from the Allen telescope, data we have never seen before, it has to mean something. She was exasperated. How could they get this close only to be told, sorry, too bad, time to shut it down?

I know, and you know, but they want results. They want a sign that we are getting somewhere. How close are you?

I feel like we're on the brink.

Yeah, but when you say, 'I feel,' it usually doesn't mean anything to them. It was the truth. They all knew that the people in charge of the money didn't care if a scientist had a gut feeling about their information. They needed something tangible. This was the reason many scientists had turned towards more realistic projects, like looking at places in our solar system that seemed more approachable—and closer. It was easier to search for water or life on Mars or Titan than to listen for a signal from a galaxy 500,000 light-years away.

Alicia was on the verge of tears. Gregory could see her fighting them back. They had worked together for years now, but lately, Gregory lost that spark. Alicia had seen this before when her husband—well, ex-husband, had quit the field because he felt like he was wasting his life. It's a fool's errand, he said. Alicia loved to hunt aliens with him but had turned to a more practical profession: selling drugs--pharmaceuticals, that was. He spent more and more time at his new job, and he and Alicia eventually grew apart. Truthfully, he spent more time with his new career because of his now second wife.

Does this mean I need to change my focus and search for things more visibly evident? I don't want to find a new moon of Neptune. She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. There are fewer and fewer of us out here. How can we expect to find answers if our workforce is getting smaller? We need more people searching, not fewer.

I don't know. I wish I had the answers. Gregory said, trying to calm her down. There are so many big problems in our world as it is. Most people think that what we are doing is a waste of time. They believe we should spend the millions of dollars we spend listening to static on any other issues our country faces. And it is difficult to argue with that.

Well, then we need to make a breakthrough—and fast. How much time do we have? Alicia looked him straight in the face.

Well, I will be meeting with someone from the Office of Space Affairs soon, so maybe I can get an answer to your question. I hope it will buy us some time, but I have a bad feeling.

I have been spending all my extra time on this program, and I think it is missing an equation or something. It's so frustrating. I don't know where to look, Alicia said, her distress visible at this point. I have been searching these different spectrum frequencies, and I see a pattern in most of the data, but then it's gone. I've been trying to come up with a different algorithm, but nothing works. There were various ways to listen to space, but recently, she concentrated heavily on multiple frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.

I am not an expert in this particular field, but what you are telling me makes sense. Yet, thinking, like an advanced life form and how they would try to communicate, is beyond me. That's why we have people like you here, to figure that stuff out. He paused for a moment and tried to sound more hopeful. I mean, you have to know I am on your side, and no one wants you to be successful more than me.

That's nice to hear, but I have to say it usually doesn't feel that way. She wanted to believe he was truthful, but she had a nagging feeling his intentions were compromised. We've been listening to our universe for years now with not much but a blip here or there. Maybe we're going about it all wrong. It could be that the aliens are so advanced that we've not yet created the technology to hear them yet. Or maybe, we're not smart enough to interpret it. They worked on a computer program that would listen for them and search through all the data and find patterns or signs that they could interpret as a message.

We are certainly not smart enough, Gregory started. Although it could be that their form of communication is completely different than ours. How would we know? Maybe this alien life form evolved over millions of years, and they do not have eyes or ears as we do. Or they have some other body part that we don't even know could exist. The possibilities are endless. I could see how someone, and I'm looking at you, he took two fingers and pointed from his eyes to hers, could spend their entire life sitting here trying to figure it out.

I know, it is the most frustrating and, somehow, the most exhilarating job in the world. Alicia refused to admit defeat despite her feeling that the world was pitted against her.

I'm glad you get excited about it, Alicia, because 99% of the world does not. I mean, I think 100% of the population would be very interested once we did find something, but until then, they have better things to do.

I get it. It's not for everyone. But, just imagine that day when we do discover life out there. What will the world do then? She seemed to be asking no one in particular. In the end, I don't care what the rest of the world thinks—if they think I am wasting my life sitting here listening to an infinite void of nothing. I, for one, believe. Because deep inside, I know someone is out there, waiting for us to find them. It just can't be any other way.

THREE

Something has to change; that's all I know, Alicia said to herself. She was considering a short vacation despite the urgency of her work. There was an internal struggle with what to do next. Maybe it was time to take a different Skywatch position for a short stint. Look for water on a nearby moon or planet, she thought sarcastically. Something that could bide her some time until they secured more funding. Something to take the immediate stress off from her.

She had been neglecting Alt lately, so she decided to head up above the garage to see what he was doing. On her way, she went out to grab the mail. As she began to sort through the various junk mail and random flyers, she noticed a letter for Alt. That was weird; he hardly ever got mail. Anyway, she continued up the stairs into his room to find him sitting at his computer, working away at something.

Hey, kiddo, what have you been up to?

Oh, hey, mom, not much. Just some new program. Alt stopped and took a break to talk with her.

What kind of new program? Anything I might be interested in? she walked over and stood behind his computer.

Probably not.

So, it's not a college application then?

Oh, no, not you too, he sighed heavily.

Me too? Why do you have a second mother somewhere trying to get you to go to college?

No, it's just Ohna. She's been on my case lately about what I'm doing with my future.

Well, I wouldn't get offended by all these people who care about you so much and want you to be happy. Does she know what she is doing next year?

She is definitely going to an art school somewhere. She is so uber-talented. I can see her living in New York or Paris someday and having her work in some big-time museum.

That's wonderful. What do you see yourself doing someday?

Who knows? He spun his chair around at his desk. I don't know what I want to do. College sounds like a big waste of time and money.

"You could do anything. You just have to decide what it is you want to do. Do you think about physics