Athena Lee Chronicles 0: The Lost Pilot (6 page)

Any plan that I make is a moot point, until this ship drops out of jump. That will be happening very soon. Engineering tells me that the countdown has already started and it should happen in less than a month. It can't happen soon enough. I am looking forward to communicating with the other four colony ships and our family. Family. The true meaning of that word is something that I have learned on this trip. Family can be the people who choose you, not just those that you are born to. This bridge crew and my shipboard companions are the family that I have chosen. We would die for each other. So many of my friends have been lost over the years.

With a shudder and a shake the ship's jump engines dropped us at the edge of the Botany Bay sector. Our navigator, Charles, quickly brought up the celestial navigation program on the main computer. We were within twelve parsecs of where we were supposed to be. Not bad for that long of a jump! I checked the local radar screens and found no trace of the other four ships. Hopefully, they would also jump in soon.

"Charles, what does the computer say about this system? Tell it to scan the system and report. Do not use the historical files. I want fresh information only, please."

"Yes, Sir." Charles hunched over his navigation station. At one point he rose up and then spun around at a tone from the machine. After a few minutes he gave his report.

"Sir, I believe that we have a problem." I motioned him to continue. " The star is a Red Giant, not a red dwarf as we were expecting."

"Charles, you know that I did not take astrophysics like you did. In practical terms what does that mean?"

"As the star burns hydrogen it gets larger and hotter. Planets, that are less that 7 AU and at a minimum of 9 AU are at risk..."

"Stop! Spit it out. What is it you are dancing around trying to say?"

Charles bowed his head staring at the deck. "This system does not have a viable asteroid belt that we can use, and all but one of the warmer planets close to the star are too hot to support life. We have two choices. There is a planet at 10 AU or one at 15 AU that we can use. The closer one at 10 AU, could be risky in a 100 years or so. The further one has less risk but is an ice planet."

"AU? What does that stand for?"

"Sir, AU is the astronomical unit of measure derived from the distance from Earth to the Sun, about 93 million miles. Our best choice for habitation is the warmer planet, but we run the risk of the star burning off all life on the planet in a few centuries."

"Oh. Is that all? Wonderful. Such a delightful star system that Earth has sent us to."

I for one am not living on an ice planet for most of my long life. We would take the risk and settle on the warmer planet, that is what I explained to the colonist representatives that I met with. Farm equipment would be needed to get crops in as soon as possible. In our computer files we had contingency plans for building the colony on a planet. Much of the orbital mining equipment could be converted to use terrestrially. It was a modular system but we could construct the needed parts in our machine shop.

I studied the screens in my Ready Room. The map of the system did not match the one that we had trained with back on Earth. The coordinates were correct but the planets and star type were different. Did we receive the wrong information on purpose? There were still rebels on Earth when we left. This could have been sabotage. The other question that plagued me was what happened to the other four colony ships? We all left together with, I assumed, the same course information. Why was I here alone? Had their ships been sabotaged or destroyed as well? I shook my head to clear it and resumed my work. Plans needed to be made for landing the ship and building a colony from scratch.

Chapter 10

The Precious Jewel colony ship had ten super lift shuttles and one scout ship on board. The shuttles could carry 300 people at a time or 250 tons of equipment. All of our scientific readings showed that the planet below us was habitable. It had an oxygen-rich atmosphere very close to that of pre-industrial Earth. It was a very pretty world similar to history vid pictures I had seen of Earth before the wars. I chose to take the first team down. Johann was left in command of the ship. As a precaution I locked out the main systems and secured them with a special code. I trusted my team, but did I truly trust them with my ship? Our landing team consisted of scientists, engineers, and a few colonists. Their task was to evaluate the planet, look for a good settlement spot, and see if the local fauna was edible. At the last minute I included a small security team as well. I definitely wanted to come back alive from this little adventure.

The ride down through the atmosphere was bad, the shuttlecraft was tossed around like a 'leaf on the wind' as the high winds threw it from side to side. As we broke through the stratosphere into the troposphere the violent winds subsided and I was able to take my eyes off the controls and check on my team.

"Are you OK back there?"

"Sir, what was that? That was the worst trip ever."

"For some reason the higher air levels are more dense than the stratosphere on this planet. That was a really wild ride! How did everyone do back there?"

"Sir, six of the scientists and four colonists died."

"What? Why? It wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Sir, I am afraid that it was, we don't notice it because of our modifications, but the regular humans took a battering. It seems that the older ones are affected the most."

"Damn, this is going to make bringing down the rest on the colonists a problem. We'll have to figure it out later. Bag the bodies. We will take them back up with us. The others will wish to mourn their dead." I returned the the cockpit and resumed the flight downward.

Landing the shuttle reminded me that we needed to get a piloting school going as soon as possible. The planet was very much like Earth. Large mountains, rivers, lakes, and dense looking forests covered the surface. As the ship landed in a small valley, I could see what appeared to be bird-like creatures and other small jumping creatures.

My on board sensors all had green lights signifying that we could breathe the air without mask on. I clicked the switches that opened the shuttle cargo doors. My security team exited first and set a perimeter. They were followed by the scientific team led by Chief Science Officer Xandrie 001. The colonists were the last to exit. They stayed huddled near the ship as if afraid of the sky. It dawned on me that some of them had never seen the sky before, having been born on the ship.

Xandrie was an anomaly among the ships officers. She was a woman. The Program had very few successes with women. Most did not survive the tanks. Her whole life was dedicated to science. On the ship she kept to herself and studied terrestrial biology and herbology. She was our expert on all things planetary. I had not been happy about bringing her along, though. She was very distracted all the time and had a tendency to ignore her surroundings when concentrating. I assigned her a permanent security guard before setting her loose.

So far everything was looking pretty good to me. The soil samples all checked out and the area where I landed looked to be a good spot to set up the colony. Hearing a roar in the distance, I spun around. Grabbing my binoculars I began to scan the forest. I could see the trees moving as if an enormous animal was pushing through them. I yelled at the security team to get back to the ship!

"Commander! Get your men back in the ship. We don't know what we are dealing with here." The civilians didn't have to be forced back inside. Anything having to do with nature freaked them out. The security team took up positions around the shuttle. The Commander broke out the heavier weapons and distributed them to his men.

"Did we get a head count? Are all the teams back yet?" We could not afford to lose anymore scientists.

"Sir, Xandrie and her escort have not reported in yet!"

Damn it to hell! I pulled out my communication device. "Xandrie! Xandrie drop what you are doing and return to the shuttle, NOW! That is a direct order!" Silence. I just knew bringing that woman along was a bad idea!

Another roar, this one a lot closer echoed across the small valley. A large reptile burst from the trees in pursuit of a smaller long necked creature. Dinosaurs! This planet had dinosaurs on it! Wonderful. Directly in front of us the very large shuttle sized creature attacked the smaller one, tearing off large chunks of its hide, and began to feed. My radio crackled, I pulled it out and tried contacting Xandrie again. "Xandrie? Get back to base now!"

"Sir, I read you we are on our way back now."

"Be advised that there is a large predatory dinosaur 50 yards from the ship, so be very careful."

"Dinosaur's really? I need to see that specimen."

"Xandrie, wait ..." As I watched Xandrie and her escort exited the forest just to the right of the feeding predator. I watched in near horror as our chief scientist actually approached the creature.

____

Xandrie ignored the danger in front of her. Cretaceous period planets were very rare. Only one had ever been found before by scout ships. Her fingers just itched to get a first-hand look at that creature. There was so much that could be learned. She felt a hand grab her arm. She turned to her guard and scowled at him. "Let. Go. Of . Me!" She turned back to watch as the creature in front of her ate. She reached into her knapsack and withdrew both her tablet and her cameras. She switched on the record function and began making verbal notes. Her camera drone made soft clicks as it took pictures from multiple angles. Xandrie was ecstatic! This was an entirely new species, and she got to name it! Wonderful. The large reptile looked up from it's meal as a small shiny bug circled it's head. From the corner of it's eye it saw two bipedal creatures that it had never seen before in its life.

From the turret on top of the shuttle I watched as Xandrie's guard tried to remove her and she brushed him off. She walked even closer to that thing and began to record it. It boggled the mind that she would be this stupid! Suddenly the large predator looked up and stared directly at Xandrie. I began yelling into my radio. "Get out of there! Xandrie, get out of there now!" The security officer began to run toward the ship. The large creature seeing fleeing prey attacked with lightening speed and smashed him to the ground. A quick bite and the man was gone. Xandrie looked frozen in place by his sudden death. She had no time to run as the creature turned and ate her too. Man was apparently tasty to these creatures.

Seeing the death of his man and Xandrie, the security commander opened fire. Explosive projectile weapons made short work of the large reptile. At least we knew that this planet was habitable. But we would need armed troops to fight off the 'natives.' I made a note to start training a Militia force.

Chapter 11

Setting up a starter base and prepping for the colonists to land took several months. We built armed outposts on the edges of the valley leading toward the new colony. So far the native animals have learned to fear us, but that could change. It took time, but we intended to make the valley as safe as possible for the civilians. Using the modified mining equipment we had dug out a colony that we could be proud of. The surrounding mountain range contained rich veins of metals and silicone, they would be excellent resources for the colony. The good news is that the stored seeds from the ship were viable and would grow on this planet. Feeding the people would not be the looming catastrophe that I had worried about. No, what I had to deal with was much, much worse.

I met with the new colonial leadership council in my Ready Room. The five older colonists glared at me from across the table. They did not like me in the least. In their eyes, I was the one that had killed their loved one and had presided over the trials of many others. I was the enemy. And now I had to tell them about the future. Some of it was really good, the rest really bad. I was about to give them more ammunition for the We Hate Sam Club.

Normally the Captain of a Colony ship would have kept the colonists informed of the status of the colony site as it was readied so they could prepare as much as possible prior to landing. In this case, such preparation might have included some weapons training. Given all the problems I'd had with security, I'd decided all that could wait in hopes of putting off any reckoning until after they were all off my ship for good.

I leaned forward and met all of their eyes. "The colony is almost complete and will be ready for occupation soon. We have explored the planet and have found lots of large predators and prey animals. No other people or any sign of other ships. The other four colony ships that jumped with us have not shown up in this system." The councilors all looked at each other and began to talk.