Page 19 of Taurus's Quest
Aries glanced at Aquarius. “How come we knew nothing about this rock?”
“We knew, just didn’t pay it any mind because, as she said, modeling isn’t showing it posing a problem.”
“But computers are reliant on programming,” Zora noted. “Not all that hard for someone to alter the data that feeds those programs.”
“Why would anyone do that?” Circe exclaimed, even as her brain raced to Andreas. He would have had access.
“The reason is simple. So no one tries to stop the asteroid from hitting.”
“Who the fuck would want to annihilate the planet?” barked Leo.
“That is the question,” Aries agreed. “Which leads us to the man who attacked you and Taurus. Before you tell us about that, how long has he been with the observatory?”
“Longer than me. Although not in the same department. He worked in the data management section, whereas I’m more of a modeling expert. I input various scenarios so we can examine outcomes.”
“I assume you ran your theory past other people?” Leo inquired.
“Of course I did. Got laughed at. Andreas especially took delight in tearing my theory down.” Circe grimaced. “He convinced everyone that an ancient device couldn’t be as accurate as our modern tools.”
“A man who then turned around and tried to kill you,” Aries softly stated.
The reminder had Circe rubbing her forehead. “I don’t know what got into him. I mean, it’s not as if anyone even listened to me.”
“But that didn’t deter you from trying to prove your theory,” Sage added. The woman had been sitting there quietly holding a baby.
“No, it didn’t, although part of it is selfish. I’m writing a paper on the Antikythera mechanism and how accurate it’s been plotting the planets and eclipses. For it to suddenly throw out differing information was a big deal. And then when I realized that its deviating output affected the asteroid predictions, I tried to find out why the data differed so much.”
Leo cleared his throat. “I know I’m not the smartest one in the room when it comes to stars and planets and shit, but given the awakening of Ophiuchus was unexpected, how could this device, created well before that event, have predicted and accounted for it?”
A good question that had Circe shrugging. “It shouldn’t.”
“But you believe the data,” Leo insisted.
“I do.” She paused before blowing out a breath. “There’s something about the Antikythera mechanism that leads me to believe whoever designed it was well ahead of their time.”
“Or it could be they weren’t human,” Aquarius stated. “I know a bit about the Antikythera mechanism. The intricacy of it is beyond anything else ever discovered.”
Sage pursed her lips. “Could be whoever devised it saw a future where Ophiuchus awakened.”
“A seer?” Aries questioned.
“Definitely a possibility.” Sage nodded, and no one argued.
A twilight zone moment for Circe, whose first impulse was to snicker at the suggestion that someone had a vision and somehow accounted for a celestial event thousands of years later. Then again, the impossible no longer seemed so far-fetched.
“Which brings us back to the data the observatory is working off of. If Andreas worked in data management, I assume that means he had access to it and could have tampered with the results.” Zora eyed her, and Circe shrugged.
“I guess it’s possible, but I find it hard to believe he’d do such a thing. We’re scientists. Facts are supposed to be sacred. Then again, I never thought he’d tried to kill me.”
“Ever noticed anything odd about Andreas?” Aries questioned.
“Before today? No.”
“Leo said Taurus mentioned his eyes glowed.”
She nodded. “It was the strangest thing. When he barged into my apartment, they were alit.” She then recounted what happened. How Andreas had a knife and wanted to kill her. How Taurus barged in to the rescue. Andreas’ claim that he’d been ordered to murder her, and how, when Taurus asked who’d hired him, Andreas had steamed and glowed head to toe. As for the explosion itself, she’d not seen it since Taurus blocked the blast.
When she was done, silence fell for a moment before Sage murmured, “In all the lore I’ve read, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
