The Beacon: Hard Science Fiction

of the two stars shone.
But the manufacturer had assured him that their programming staff had solved the problem with the update. Peter picked up his smartphone and pressed the button that updated all the programs. Just then, Franziska called out from the kitchen. Shoot, he’d forgotten that she was in a video conference with her students right now. Fortunately, the download bar filled up quickly, and after two minutes his wife stopped complaining. He started the telescope app. Externally, everything looked the same as before.
It was still light outside.
“Alexa, what time does the sun set today?”
“Sunset today is at 5:53 p.m.”
That was more than two hours away. The weather was clear, but it wouldn’t be really dark until 7 pm. The movie for which he had already reserved tickets started an hour later. You had to be there 15 minutes before it started or your tickets could be sold to someone else.
Today was Friday, and the cinema was tiny. Even in a town the size of Passau, there were enough people interested in Latin American films. That meant they needed to allow about 30 minutes, because it would take them 15 minutes to get into town and find a parking space. He had to convince Franziska that they had to be eating dinner by 6 p.m.
“So, are you making any progress with your stars?” Franziska asked as she was smearing a thin layer of margarine on a slice of bread.
She had—surprisingly—been very much in favor of eating by 6 pm. That was said to be much healthier anyway, and he wondered why they couldn’t keep that as their usual dinnertime.
Peter bent down, picked up the stack of papers, and waved them around. “The list is still pretty extensive,” he said.
“Very impressive. What are you trying to prove with that?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Of course, my darling. You’re interested in my watercolors, too, aren’t you?”
Was that meant seriously or cynically? If only he were better at telling the differences in her inflection! But it was true—he was interested in her watercolors. He’d even accompanied her once on a painting trip to Lake Garda.
“The problem is that some stars have disappeared,” he explained.
“Which ones?” asked Franziska.
“Alsafi and Chalawan.”
“I don’t know them, but what beautiful names! It would be a real shame to lose them.”
“Alsafi comes from Arabic, Chalawan from Thai.”
“Interesting. And how did you come up with this? Surely it must be noticeable if stars are missing from the sky?”
“Apparently it’s not noticeable unless someone is looking. I just happened to stumble across Alsafi because the telescope couldn’t find its way to another target. After that, I tracked down Chalawan myself. By using this long list.”
“It sounds like it’s a pretty important discovery.”
“Yes. If I’m right, it would be a sensation. Stars don’t just disappear like that. They may explode, but after that, you see them all the better.”
“Hey, then you’ll be famous.”
Peter laughed. “That’s not my goal.”
That was a lie, and Franziska knew it. Of course, it would be great if he could claim such a discovery for himself.
His wife smiled. “You’re all about the research.”
“Exactly. That’s why I have to go back in a minute...”
He looked at the clock. It was shortly before 7, and 30 minutes should be enough. The telescope was already outside.
Franziska was no longer smiling. “Uh, you want to... Now?”
“Just very briefly. It won’t take thirty minutes. We can leave on time. Look, I’m already changed, too. You still have to get ready anyway.”
She looked at him skeptically.
“I’ll clear the table, too. You take care of your beauty. Not that you need to.”
A compliment never hurt. Clearing the table may cost him five valuable minutes, but if it made his wife feel gracious toward him...
“Yeah, yeah, you suck-up,” Franziska teased. “But, we better not be late for the movie.”
The telescope beeped, then started moving. Peter aimed it for IC 342, ‘The Hidden Galaxy.’ There was no error message. After two minutes, the telescope reached its destination. He convinced himself that a barred spiral galaxy was really visible. The manufacturer had eliminated the error. But what did that mean for Sigma Draconis, which was on the way to IC 342?
He had to check. The list with the coordinates was in the house. Peter snuck into the hallway, but Franziska heard him. “Ah, you’re done,” she said.
“Not quite yet. Just need to check something.”
Before she could answer, he took the list from the shelf and ran outside. He’d already entered the coordinates of Sigma Draconis on the way to the telescope, The device started moving, and a short time later the tracking app reported success. He looked through the eyepiece, but there was nothing there. A few stars twinkled nearby, but there was only darkness in the center of the subject field.
What if he’d somehow misaligned the telescope? He tried 47 Ursae Majoris. The motors of the telescope hummed again.
Franziska shouted something from inside, but he couldn’t understand her.
“Be right there!”
The telescope stopped. He hesitated. Please, show me a star. Any star. Peter sensed it—this was now a defining moment. It would be best if he walked away from the telescope and spent a pleasant evening with Franziska. But he couldn’t. The eyepiece magically attracted him. He had to look through it. What could go wrong? Just one look!
Peter bent down a bit. 47 Ursae Majoris was relatively high in the sky, so the eyepiece had moved down. He tightly closed the eye with which he wanted to look and then opened it again.
47 Ursae Majoris was still missing! It was not an error in the telescope. Then what had the manufacturer corrected? Peter entered IC 342 as the new target, held his hand over the lens, and started tracking. The telescope started moving, and after two minutes it had tracked the galaxy, even though it had only seen the palm of his hand the whole time. The programmers must have just hard-coded the position of IC 342 into the tracking app! As