Well, folks, he began, heres the deal. I cant explain everything, but Ill try to tell you what weve been able to recover. We launched two Voyagers in 77. Both are still in service and our stations are still getting their signals. The crafts are performing better than we could have even imagined. They completed their mission years ago and are now moving away from the solar system by inertia, as we call it. The project was not without difficulties. On the approach to Uranus, Voyager 2 had an emergency situation. The signal was lost, and we thought wed lost it. But then the signal came back.
No signal? Can you explain? someone at the table asked.
I have many versions of this incident, and the official NASA position is one of the memory clusters was damaged. Thats right, the device was damaged, but how it happened we cant explain. The fact is that according to the data we were able to reconstruct, it turns out that the device was not moving in space for about 36 minutes.
Charley, didnt move in space? Jean-Jacques Dordain clarified.
Yes, Charles Bolden swiped his face, it stopped.
People in the hall began to look at each other and murmured.
Have I got that right? looking around the hall, Mr. Dordain said. Voyager 2 stopped for 36 minutes on approach to Uranus? You mean stopped at all?
We have the trajectory reports, the mission correction due to the 36 minute gap, and the program to exclude the damaged cluster from the transmission, Charles Bolden pulled the documents out of a folder.
But Voyager 2 has continued on its way, right? Its in communication. asked a representative of the Chinese agency.
Yes, Mr. Bolden turned around, thats right. The spacecraft has got back up to speed without any action on our part. Until this week, NASA believed that the discrepancy was tentative due to the desynchronization of the spacecraft with the control center.
There was a pause in the room. Then the hubbub and commotion began to grow. Jean-Jacques Dordain collapsed in his seat. One of the American generals turned on his microphone:
This information is raw, Mr. Bolden just wanted to say his voice drowned in the noise of the crowd.
After a moment, everyones confusion turned into a thirst for information.
All right, Mr. Dordain turned on his microphone, all right, you have spatial telemetry. According to this data, Voyager hasnt moved for 36 minutes, and you have a damaged memory sector on your device. Dont you think thats a transmission error.
Thats exactly what we told everyone, Charles Bolden replied. Corrected the course and continued the mission.
And now we have a recording from this device broadcasted somewhere in the Himalayas? said the Indian general.
Gentlemen, the Russian general interrupted them, in a couple of hours the Nepalese army together with our scientists will survey the square. Lets not go crazy. It is not a fact that these things are related.
Charles Bolden turned to his colleague from the European Space Agency and held his hands apart. Jean-Jacques Dordain silently said, Wow! and looked around the room, where a hundred adults were fiercely arguing with each other and trying to prove something. Some people tried to call the head of NASA or someone in his entourage to account, but Charles Bolden only shook his head in frustration as a sign that he had said enough.
Part 2 Chapter 17
Yulia and Dr Capri starred in different directions, looking at the mountains that surrounded their helicopter on all sides. They were tense and quiet. The two pilots sat in the front, and the radio technician sat across from the doctor and Yulia. Yulia kept adjusting the huge headphones, which were supposed to muffle the whistle of the propeller, but only irritated her.
How much longer is the flight? Yulia asked the doctor in English.
Tulu-Manchi turned to the officer of communications and pointed to his watch.
Thirty minutes to the point, the officer said in Nepali.
He was holding a device that looked like a notebook computer and a sonar at the same time, and he tried to stare at it steadily.
Half an hour, the doctor repeated in English to Yulia.
She looked at the mountains overhanging to the left of the helicopter. These ridges had no edge. Only the haze blurred their disordered rows into the horizon. Those that were closer seemed like black ruins, and behind them stuck out snow-covered peaks.
The communications officer knocked on the device.
What happened? Dr Capri turned to him again.
The unit is malfunctioning, the officer replied.
Whats going on? the second pilot asked over the intercom.
The electronics are going crazy, said the captain. We have to shut down all our systems. Contact the base.
The aide began to press some switches and speak loudly into the radio. Yulia looked at the movements going on around her and wondered why she had agreed to this adventure, and why she hadnt refused to her boss when he asked to go with the military. Yulia, we have agreed with the Nepalese government that you can fly with the squad, we need to understand whats going on there, the bosss words came to mind. She shifted her gaze from the frowning communications officer to the co-pilot. He jogged his hand over all the toggle switches on the panel and deactivated them. The helicopter stopped rocking from side to side. Yulia exhaled. Thats enough. Enough! she repeated.
Dr Capri listened intently to the crews conversations. He was trying to figure out if the chatter was related to the signal or if it was just a helicopter malfunction. The pilots were talking to the base.
We have some kind of electronics malfunction, the co-pilot said the last phrase.
The captain joined in the conversation:
Do we continue to fly to the designated target? he waited tensely for an answer.
Yes, continue flight, subject to crew safety, the base reported.
Understood, the captain replied and turned on the intercom. Is the equipment operational? he turned to the communication officer.
Captain, the equipment is out of order, the officer replied with a show of hands.
Get a map of the area and mark the last position on it, the captain said with determination to carry out the order.
Yes, the co-pilot responded.
Yulia tugged at Dr Capris sleeve and looked at him with an expression of bewilderment. Dr Capri began to explain the militarys conversation:
The electronics are out of order. But were going to try to find the source on the regular map. We seem to have been close by.
Yulia shook her head and, pressing her lips together, turned to the window. She felt fear creeping up and imagined she was talking to her mother on the phone and describing her condition, Mom, everything burns inside. Its like a mixture of despair, misunderstanding, resentment, and fear. The cocktail was clearly not to Yulias taste. She looked at the mountains around her and thought that this would never happen to her in Moscow. And I dont really need it!
Dr Capri fatherly put his hand on her shoulder.
Yulia, he began to say in his usual calm and judicious voice, please dont despair.
He, also, looked at the mountains and nodded a little understandingly.
Soon it will be over. Im sure well find someones portable player lying on a hiking trail and go back, he smiled, following Yulia. And then Ill show you Pashupatinath. Its an amazing place. The biggest Shiva temple in the world. Ill take you to the lake called Rani Pokhari. You will like it.
Yulia wiped her tears and patted Tulu-Manchis hand to show that she agreed. He smiled and pointed to the mountain ahead. It was Kanchenjunga. Yulia flicked her nose and with a sense of the universality of this mountain exhaled loudly and long with a Ho sound.