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    Agilka
    Agilka
    Agilka
    Ebook74 pages1 hour

    Agilka

    By Stephen Brown

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The definitive proof - we are not alone. In November 2014 David Hitchins was Chief of Operations for the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission which landed a scientific module on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Twenty-five years in the making, they had great hopes for Rosetta, but it was lost after just two days - power failure after an awkward landing being cited as the reason.
    Eighteen years on and Hitchins is now the Chief Scientific Officer at the ESA, and stands ready to oversee the attempted touch-down of the widely-criticized return mission. As the lander draws nearer to the Agilka plateau, Hitchins has to face the gathering of scientists he has invited to come and witness this momentous event and reveal to them the true nature of this latest mission, along with what really happened to Rosetta nearly two decades ago.
    Is this the most important scientific mission of all time, as Hitchins contends, or is the Shackleton Mission just another white elephant?
    What secrets does the Agilka plateau hold? A novella.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephen Brown
    Release dateApr 27, 2015
    ISBN9781311975010
    Agilka
    Author

    Stephen Brown

    Stephen Brown is Emeritus Professor of Learning Technologies and former Head of the School of Media and Communication at De Montfort University. He has been Senior Technology Adviser at the JISC Technologies Centre, Head of Distance Learning at BT, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Engineering Design, and President of the Association for Learning Technology. He has also been a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an Associate Member of the Institute for Ergonomics and Human Factors. Since 2005, he has been a registered European Commission research expert in the fields of Technology Enhanced Learning, Digital Libraries and Cultural Heritage. He was a member of the AHRC Peer Review College for ten years.

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      Book preview

      Agilka - Stephen Brown

      AGILKA

      By Stephen Brown

      Copyright 2015 Stephen Brown

      Smashwords Edition

      http://www.thestephenbrown.co.uk

      Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      For

      Pamela Curry

      For your name in this,

      and also for Dizzy Lemming

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Contents

      Agilka

      About the Author

      Other Works

      Chosen Charity

      AGILKA

      30th April, 2032

      ESA central building, Darmstadt.

      The years had not been kind to David Hitchins. His face was lined from the terrible secret he had been keeping these last eighteen years and his health had suffered in a number of ways because of it. His heart beat faster than was healthy for him and he was given over to regular bouts of angina and digestive disorders. He also suffered regularly from ulcers and blood pressure problems, all of which he was on medication for.

      His doctors told him it was likely all caused by stress, but he already knew that well enough. There was nothing he could have done any differently though, only to wait; to wait for the laboriously slow processes involved in space missions to run their course until this very day when, finally, maybe he could find some… what exactly - peace?

      Personally he doubted that - a few more answers was all he could hope for. Those answers would only lead to more questions, he knew, and he had already resolved himself that those new questions would not be for him, but for others to deal with, for the next generation; for Pam and the rest. At least he would have helped move things along.

      Standing in the men’s bathroom down the corridor from Mission Control, he looked at himself in the mirror and saw a face lined with the anxieties he had suffered for so long. Could he even remember what life had been like before Rosetta? Since then he had endured eighteen years of tension, eighteen years of worry, eighteen years of holding onto the biggest secret in the history of Mankind...

      That sounded melodramatic, he knew, but Dr David Hitchins was not one given over to melodrama. He was the Chief Scientific Officer at the ESA, the internationally funded European Space Agency based in Darmstadt, Germany, a position he had held controversially since the ill-fated Rosetta mission in 2014.

      No, he knew it was not mere sensationalism to say that this was the most important project Humanity had ever undertaken, but then he had never been able to make the claim out loud anyway. Besides a very small, very select group of people within his team, nobody knew the truth behind the real nature of this mission or what had actually happened to the ill-fated Rosetta almost two decades ago.

      Hitchins took off his glasses and squeezed his eyes closed, splashing his face with water. Using a fresh hand towel to dry himself off, he pulled a small plastic tub from his breast pocket and opened it, shaking a couple of tablets into his hand. Popping them into his mouth, he swallowed them with only the slightest grimace; he was well used their bitter taste by now.

      A three-tone beeping sounded in his earpiece and he recognised Pamela’s signature ring. He took a deep breath. This could only mean one thing, and he replaced his pill-box back in its pocket and put his glasses back on before tapping the sensor pad on his wrist to activate the call.

      Pam? he said to his number two.

      The Americans are here, her voice came through. Dr Pamela Curry was the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at ESA, and Chief of Operations for their current mission - the same position he had held eighteen years before on Rosetta under Dr Reisel, his mentor, so sadly missed… Should we go and meet them? she asked.

      No, no, we can’t afford to show any favouritism, even something as petty as that. We don’t want to put any noses out of joint.

      "And you’re worried about that now? Hitchins heard the surprise in her voice. David, when you tell them what you kept back, when you show them-"

      "I know, I know, but… no. Gideon’s meeting them and bringing them in, just like all the others. How long until Yelcho is released?"

      About one hour twenty, Curry answered him, as you know well enough. Where are you anyway?

      "In the bathroom. And the Shackleton? The satellite’s running on schedule? The orbit is stable?"

      Everything’s fine David, you know it is. Come on, if you’re finished in there. We’ve a lot to get through. Where are you taking everyone?

      I’ve got it all set up in Conference Room One, he sighed. I suppose we might as well get it started. This is going to be a long night.

      #

      29th April, 2032

      News Report from the BBC Evening News

      All eyes will be fixed today on the ESA’s Shackleton satellite as it releases the Yelcho lander in the long-awaited repeat attempt to land a scientific module on the now infamous comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, otherwise known as 67P. It is now eighteen years since their previous Rosetta mission came crashing so ingloriously to an end, and nearly seventeen since the ESA announced they would be sending up another mission to carry on the work that the first had failed to complete.

      This mission, named

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