Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores (7 page)

‘These plants and animals are definitely from our world. There are several plant types here that we do not see anymore at home, such as a large flax plant and European buckwheat that appears to be larger and carry more seeds than others I have seen before. Many of the plants are not fire tolerant species, so the landscape is still different to arid Australian bushland.’

Phoebe picked up a handful of dirt and sniffed, before crumpling the dirt in her hands and motioned for an assistant to come closer as she broke apart the soil.

‘The soil would definitely hold crops but we do not know how long for and if anything is lacking in the soil chemistry. Shane, please get full analyses of the soil going immediately.’

Phoebe looked over as two SAS troopers carrying equipment joined her team and one of them called out to her.

‘Miss Roberts, we have brought over a radio link that will allow you to transfer your reports to the command post and then back to Earth. We are doing this as we go for all the science teams.’

The two troopers efficiently set up the link as Phoebe continued to walk around the grass and now viewed the nearby scrub line. She kicked a piece of animal dropping and momentarily recoiled at the smell now rising in the air. Phoebe knelt over the dropping and taking a long spatula from her belt she now broke apart the dropping. Chunks of bones and dark matter were apparent as she commented into the camera.

‘So we have a predator here, the form of the dropping is not unlike a crocodile or Komodo dragon, though the dropping size is way too large for a Komodo. The contents of the droppings seemed to be marsupials given the teeth I can see in one of the skulls.’

Phoebe now looked at a nearby long mark in the ground and again commented as she measured out a sizeable paw imprint.

‘We have a paw print and tail marks from a large lizard here and the size of the animal is anywhere from four to five metres. I think we have found a major predator.’

The Two SAS troopers immediately took note of the information and informed their commander. Across the large field the SAS troopers suddenly went on edge and closed up to guard the civilians as they eyed the surrounding scrub with keen interest.

                                                            ***

Will Ellis watched as the revolution gauges on the drill truck dropped to stationary as another five metre section of drill pipe was feed into the gantry. The new section then was joined to the other end of the drill pipe already in the ground. In moments the fourth section of pipe was secured and the drill proceeded to cut down further into the ground.

After going in another two metres the drill started to grab, and Will slowed the feed and rotation of the drill. The drill still bit and went down into the ground but was a lot slower. Will decided that he had drilled deep enough on his first effort and closed the head of the drill to preserve the core sample. He readied the tray and commented to one of his labourers detaching the top section of the drill.

‘The place is unusual in that the soil is the same over a uniform depth across the whole field. Then it suddenly changes. Also I can see no delivery process for the soil.’

After another half an hour the bottom section of the drill was finally recovered. Will now appraised the altered nature of the drill bit, for fresh scours cut deep grooves into the face of the drill bit. He was still considering the drill bit as the different nature of the last core became obvious to his team. The bottom three metres of the core consisted of a grey porous rocky rubble and fine dust that he had no trouble identifying after spending two years as a geologist on the now abandoned moon base.

‘Well now we have a material very similar to Luna regolith. This place was made some time in the past and is not very old.’

Will looked over the upper sections of the core again to locate any layers present in the core. He felt both a chill at the unknown as well as a real sense of excitement, as he considered the story of the cores laid out in front of him.

                                                            ***

James had just finished setting up his tent as he waited for the local sun to set so he could deploy the large telescope. Already the star was well down to what must be the western horizon though it seemed to be slower to set than the Earth’s sun. The astronomers had been joined by several meteorologists that were in the process of launching weather balloons in the late afternoon breeze. From over near the command post yet another helicopter took of to patrol the low hills behind his location. James turned to the second astronomer that had set up a sun gauge nearby.

‘Michael, do we have a rate of star descent over an arc distance yet?’

Michael looked up from his notes and answered at length as he once again took in the strange place around them.

‘I have a day length of twenty eight hours, accurate now to within nine seconds. I think the rotational inclination is less than that of Earth, something around sixteen degrees from what I can see. I am looking forward to this evening and the first efforts using the big telescope. So now given the similar orbital distance to the Star as Venus in our own system and allowing for a 28 hour day, the year then works out as 231 local days.’

James was looking over the calculations with Michael when a series of yells erupted from up near the drill site manned by the geologists. A couple of sustained bursts of machine gun fire followed then a silent calm followed. The SAS troopers around the astronomers kept a vigilant eye around them as Michael again spoke.

‘Well it looks like Phoebe has found her large lizard, or it found them.’

After several seconds the all clear sounded from the radios of the SAS troopers, and the scientists carefully unhooked the trailer and began deploying the large telescope.

                                                            ***

Phoebe looked down at the massive form of the dead lizard and had no trouble identifying it at all.

‘Megalania, or a giant goanna, and the animal looks more like a large bungarra as opposed to a komodo dragon.’

Phoebe carefully pulled back the large jaw and sniffed carefully.

‘I do not think it is as toxic as the Komodo, but I cannot guarantee that at all. I wonder what other mega fauna are on this world.’

Gavin Lewis stood up after seeing to his men and hearing their account of the attack from his two injured troopers. Both men would live, but they had nasty bites to their legs from the predator’s jaws and would have to return home. Apparently the lizard had raced to attack them from across the field. The giant goanna had not been concerned when they fired their automatic rifles and eventually killed it even as the lizard mauled them.

‘Mega fauna, what is that Phoebe? Do you mean there could be other large life forms out here? So what should we be looking out for when we start moving around?’

Phoebe considered her answer for a moment and watched as the two injured troopers were loaded into a bushranger and driven to the nearby gate.

‘Everything was brought here Gavin, and not a long time ago either by the way. I estimate that this planet was seeded with flora and fauna from Earth on at least one occasion within the last one hundred thousand years. We may see animals like the marsupial lion, the marsupial tiger and the giant wombat. Now if the Maveen did this in our past then they may have also taken large animals from other Earth continents, I just do not know at this stage which ones we will come across.’

Gavin considered the lizard once again as he spoke for the benefit of the major back on Earth listening in via his helmet camera.

‘So we quite possibly have major predators to consider rather than hostile civilisations? Do you think there are many of these lizards around?’

Phoebe paused as she squatted and lifted a massive front leg from the ground before examining the underneath of the giant lizard.

‘Gavin, I do not think there are that many as they are an apex predator. However we need to establish their numbers by establishing the numbers of intermediate animals living in the surrounding shrub.’

Gavin felt a sense of relief as he watched Phoebe continue to examine the lizard.

‘So you biologists need to be careful and to have guards with you anyway. So what does this do to your research objectives Phoebe?’

Phoebe already knew what she was seeking as she answered.

‘We should set some live traps before it is dark and see what we find in the morning. Also we should set hides up in the larger trees for infra red observations of the surrounding ground. We will be quite safe if we have guards with us as the lizards are too large to easily climb trees.’

Gavin considered the request for a few moments and a brief chatter of radio message from the major indicated agreement as he spoke again.

‘Okay, you will have another SAS team to guard you and your team. You are to be all up in trees overnight or back in a perimeter we are setting up before dark around the gate. We will do the same for the astronomers, but we have to run minimal lights for them so they can best use their telescope.’

                                                            ***

The new arrivals carefully greeted the ancients and probe three that hovered nearby at the Ancients underwater facility. One of the new arrivals handed over a short black column to probe three that the probe verified as being deactivated, before it was placed next to the vacant probe cradle. The sector delegate had earlier quietly come through the initial gate to Earth with two other probes and had asked the lead probe to join them. The probes immediately headed out to sea before completing the stealthy underwater journey to meet the ancients. The sector delegate stopped communicating with probe three after several seconds and now addressed the Ancient queen.

‘The Maveen council thank you for the commendation you supplied on the lead probe. He is now Earth lead probe and he will be assigned duties of higher import when we leave this world. Also probe three has been selected to remain with you for the remainder of your stay on this world. Note that my programs are unchanged and no ancient overrides are or can be activated. We have implemented this change in our systems to optimise our command structure as your race has been absent for such a long time.’

Queen Angwene considered this information and was not unduly concerned by the open nature of the probe’s comments. The sector delegate was using an advanced derivative of the probe system, and obviously the Maveen had come far since she was last in space. She casually asked the probe a question that had been of concern to her.

‘So sector delegate, will you tell your masters exactly what your subordinate probe stated earlier. Namely that the lead probes original mission data will not be provided?’

The sector delegate had no problem answering the Ancient queen and did not try to be diplomatic in his long reply.

‘You have been gone so long that your race name is not used and you are no longer considered our masters. We have functioned autonomously for many millennia and have always held true to our greater mission. Now the dictates of the greater mission tell me not to tell you something I know to be absolutely true to both protect you and our greater mission. You can tear the whole process down by destroying me and having your presence discovered prematurely, or you can accept our reasons and concentrate only on what you have in front of you.’

Angwene seethed for a moment as she considered her response. The other probes had the innate sense to remain silent and her daughters that were present suddenly found other things to do.

‘Sector delegate, while I disprove of your arrogance in how you speak to me, I am heartened immensely by the autonomy you now present on behalf of the Maveen. You now need to reassure me that you are not engaged in some foolish independent action that will draw the malignant attention of the Zronte and Vorinne upon the both of our races. Surely you must know that we are not ready to leave this world for many years, and we could not safely take our full ship bodies though a small surface gateway in any case.’

The Maveen sector delegate reassured the queen that this was in fact the case. He then immediately brought her up to date on another project that he did not mind her being advised about.

‘The beacon you now have is proof we are aware of your constraints. As for your concerns, we had planned a development for another system that had to be cancelled, and now we will later be using the resources in this star system. We considered this as now the humans are nearly a galactic race themselves and have requested assistance. However we will not implement this development until you leave this world. Indeed the event you just asked about but do not know about needs to be completed first.’

Angwene knew with a fair degree of certainty what the long term goals of the Maveen were for this world. She knew that they still had remained unchanged for eons. However the probe was not exactly forthcoming on the intermediate steps she decided, as she now switched to other subjects that she needed advice upon.

‘Sector delegate, before you leave, what do you think of the inventory I have obtained from the Traders recently?’

The senior Maveen probe carefully scanned the large cruiser gun now cradled in a diagnostics bay before making a series of telling observations. In light of what the cruiser gun implied he was looking forward to later debriefing the Dradfer lead probe and the Earth lead probe after they left this world.

                                                            ***

Chapter 4

Ian Ridge looked across the meeting room at the assembled scientists as they viewed the data coming from the off world video feed. Steve had taken Ian and the scientists back to the Aurora Discovery at the end of the day as the Traders continued to repair their ship. Several of the scientists in the mission team looked thoughtful as they perused the notes they had taken from their discussions with the Traders.