He Without Sin (7 page)

I’ve had a chance to corner Gleshert when he
wasn’t busy. What a difference—seems like
another guy entirely, not GlassHeart at all. He let
me know the answer to my earlier question. I
appreciate that he didn’t forget me. He says the
additional treatment for deep mission members
slows the metabolism in two stages. One is a light
stage where we can still function and the second is
a more profound depression of functionality for
downtime. I made a simplistic analogy but he’s
says call it what you want, the effect is to keep us
from operating at a high metabolic rate when none
is necessary.

I’m very curious about the return launch system
and Mark seems to know but he put me off for
now. Note to self: Corner him before this is all over.

First Look

“Ok, if you can stay with me here I’ve just got a few points and I need to get through them quickly. My memory’s good, but it’s short.” Groans from the crew. Mark continues, “We’ve gathered all the data we can from up here. You’ve all had a peek out—inviting-looking, isn’t it? There is just the one moon, relatively large compared to planet diameter, similar to home, and no doubt will be an impressive sight from the ground. We’ve dropped several probes after making some initial observations, which I will cover in a minute. The environment is actually perfect. Well, let’s not say perfect, but it’s as good as anywhere I’ve seen and about as good as anyone could hope to expect this far from home.

“First, livability. Atmosphere, clean and rich. Whatever that plant life is, it’s doing its job. No toxins detected at significant levels. It’ll take some getting used to the pressure and density, but I don’t think anyone will have a serious problem. Water, tons of it. This means accessible hydrogen. Lots of water in the atmosphere too. And because it’s a rocky world with a G main sequence star, we have confirmed the overall makeup of the crust is what we expected and closely matches the data from our predecessors’ records. Here’s a treat, we’ve got silicon galore and right on the surface—thank you, water and weather. Metals and other rarer elements will need to be mined and processed. But there is no shortage. None at all. Carbon galore too, in many of the usual natural forms. Easy pickins.

“Gravity. Again nothing dramatic but it will take some getting used to.

“Temperature. Pick your poison. As expected there is a whole range. I think we will primarily all be working in the equatorial regions except when we have to go after some specific resources that are less accessible.

“Next, fauna…”

Brachus interrupts, “Mark, what about processing? Any progress in that area?”

“I’m getting there, I’m getting there. That’s covered in the next round if you can hold out.” Mark’s comments are received with a chuckle by most, but not Brachus.

“What about the processing of special compounds and alloys? Can you report on the availability of resources to make the specials?”

Mark now responds to Brachus without the addition of a humorous affect, “Look, everything we need is here. We will be able to set up a fabrication facility and a processing facility. Your team will have to feed in the resources, I’ll handle the processing.”

“Can we move on please,” David says, indicating that Mark return to his prepared agenda. I notice Carol looking at me. There is no discernible expression on her face. She turns her attention back to the front.

“Sure. Now, where was I? Oh yes, we don’t have good solid indications of land-based life other than plants, but the presence of a large amount of carbonates says that something is going on in the ocean.”

Mark flips through several graphics summarizing the data acquired to date.

“I think I spotted evidence of migratory behavior on land. Not really my field. Our image recognition algorithms flagged one or two areas that look suspicious. Possibly some interesting land-based animal life there and David may have something more to say about that later,” Mark says, pausing, looking at David for feedback. He gets none and continues.

“For sure the environment is suitable for land and sea populations. I may want to stay here myself when this is all over.” Mark briefly puts up a goofy graphic of himself lounging in an exotic location, drink in hand, and a flower in his straw hat. “And last, we find no trace whatsoever of electromagnetic signaling in any part of the spectrum.”

Brachus looks at his genie communicator, gets up and walks out of the meeting without a word. David apparently thinks nothing of it and indicates this is a good time for a short break if anyone needs one. I use these few minutes to lean over to Carol and ask what’s up.

“What do you mean?” she asks back.

“You know, the look you gave me.”

“I gave no ‘look’ but was wondering if you noticed Wesley’s odd questions. As if he wasn’t following Mark at all.”

“He probably wasn’t following. He’s a ground guy; probably can’t wait to get to work,” I say, although I don’t know why I ought to make excuses for him.

“He’s got something up his sleeve. I don’t trust him.”

Mark runs a sequence of surface images while people shuffle about. David signals his desire to get things moving; the members of the crew turn their attention back to the front of the room and Mark starts in again.

“Alright. Here is where we are going to call home for quite a stretch. If you look at this mountainous region,” as he circles an area on the current image, “and we zoom in a bit, you can see this area that is enclosed in sort of a triangle.”

“Huh? Hold up Mark. Triangle?” says David.

“You may have to squint a bit and have a good imagination like me, but if I trace three lines here through these valleys you can see they form a triangle. There are plenty of spots inside here that we can use. First and foremost, we will be exquisitely isolated from whatever populations,” again with a meaningful look at David, “may or may not be down there. Secondly, as you can see if I zoom out a bit, we will have nearby access to practically unlimited water and silicon, not to mention the other mineral resources that will be found in the mountains themselves—several outcroppings have already been identified. There are numerous other sites around the globe to pick up the other needed elements, minerals and compounds.

“David, I will leave it up to you to review possible locations for the bio work; I sent you the obvious potentials. There are any number of options, and we have good ground images to go by. Or I will be happy to go over them with you if you’d prefer.”

“Yes, I want to go over that part together, but not here, not now. We’ll reserve final judgment on those until after on-site inspections. I will get with you separately. But we do need to talk about another issue right now. If there are no questions for Mark…? Thanks Mark.”

This is as good a time as any for me to ask, “David if I may just ask the group…” and I get a nod to go ahead. “Thanks. Most of you have already responded to my comms link request and to those who have—thank you. I’ve returned a verification packet to each of you just before we sat down here. However, there are a couple null responses that need to be cleared up before any landing.”

“Who?” asks David.

“There’s Grigor, for one…”

“Check again, mate. You’ll find you’re wrong about that,”

interjects Grigor, without any hesitation and bristling slightly, looking at me, then David.

I do a quick refresh on my communicator and confirm his statement. “Ok, you are right—thanks. Verification on its way.”

“No worries, J-man.”

“Then, there are a couple from the ground team that I have not heard from,” I continue, nodding towards both Tracy and Lester. Brachus has still not returned to the meeting, and I see Tracy making a few short keystrokes.

David again chimes in, “How many and who? You mean the whole team?”

“No, just the three. I mean, both Lester and Tracy, along with Wesley. They were included on the general request, but nothing yet. I’m sure there are a lot of preparations before landing, but this is one thing that’s got to be done.”

Tracy says, to David, “I can’t speak for the others, but I’m not sure I received any link or login request. Jason said it was coming, but I haven’t seen it.” David nods and looks at me but does not speak. I see his mouth working, repeating the same movements over and over. “And I think Wes has some reservations about having to link anyway,” she adds.

“The request and instructions went out to everyone at the same time,” I counter, adding, “but I will be happy to re-send to you three.” I resist the temptation to add anything else. I know damn well everyone received my verbal and my electronic requests. The instructions are crystal clear and in any case, mission directives make compliance a requirement.

David begins to speak just as Brachus returns to the meeting, sitting again next to his two teammates. “Wes, do you have any issues with Jason’s request for his communication data linkup? He’s still looking for a few responses.”

“Not at all,” he responds. “Is this a mandatory hookup?”

“Yes,” I say.

“Why do you ask? Is there a problem?” asks David.

“Not at all. There’s a lot to do and the window for preparation is now short, that’s all,” Brachus responds as he grins genially.

David accepts this and closes the discussion by saying, “Ok, I will leave it to you to look into it and make it happen.”

“Most certainly,” agrees Brachus. His interest is now on another topic, judging from his expression. I look at him for any sort of connection or closure, maybe just a smile or nod, but get nothing.

David finishes up with a few more comments—nothing major. He says all hands must appear at a follow-up meeting, time TBA shortly.

Push the damn button you ape. Wait, I can’t let this
clown get to me. Requests re-sent. If no response,
bingo—it’s David’s problem.

Ha, the above comment I added via hand-held
during the last part of the meeting, but it
accurately reflects my mood at the time. No
response yet, from any of the delinquents, and I am
not surprised.

I took some time to go over my responsibility
checklist and reviewed each item one at a time
carefully. I don’t want to find out later, and
especially not in a meeting, that I have failed to do
my part.

I enjoyed Mark’s presentation, even the corny stuff. At least he has a personality. I’ve seen way too
many presenters that don’t have a clue about how
to hold an audience’s interest. For my part, some
research is in order about the “expected” distribution, as he called it, of elements in a
planetary system around this type of star and at
this distance from it. He’s right of course but a
refresher won’t hurt.

My thoughts have been turning more and more to
the near future and what it will hold. Carol has
given me some scope time and the view is just
spectacular. It’s a new world all right—bright and shiny. Crust tectonics are at work and the
atmosphere supports some very active weather
both of which explain the bewildering variety of
landforms.

At the next meeting there is again nothing on the
agenda for me to present—nice!

Findings

David stands up and addresses the group first by looking around the meeting room until there is silence, then by saying, “I have reviewed the image recognition hits gathered during the surface scan Mark alluded to earlier.”

Again, he slowly examines our faces before continuing. “There is without question at least one intelligent population down there.”

There are more than a few sideways glances during David’s pause. Mark on the other hand is smiling a little and slightly nodding to no one in particular. He knew it already.

“There are small but clear patterns in the images, widely scattered in the more temperate zones. Obviously, at this stage, we don’t have an idea of the total population or even the number and distribution of intelligent species, but the evidence we see is convincing. We are quite sure their development is primitive and limited.”

“David, what is the evidence? Can we have a look?” asks Dylan.

“Sure. Mark, do we have those images right now to show?”

Mark answers, “Not immediately, but I can make them ready if you want to wait. Better would be to come and see me individually or have a quick follow-up meeting later when I’ve had a chance to prepare.”

“Right, ok. Later then. Don’t worry about it now Mark,” says David.

“I can tell you the image recognition software looks for patterns based on previous experience, and it’s very reliable,” David continues. “For example, we have three strong indicators in one small area that’s located pretty close to the base site Mark pointed out earlier. First, we have images of some sort of structures laid out in loose geometrical patterns. At the scale of these images, when you start to see regular geometry, something’s up. The structures themselves are small but we can make out that their shapes are sometimes geometric – rectangular and circular. Hard by these images we see what look to be signs of primitive agriculture including what are almost positively small sets of irrigation ditches. Last, there are more than one of these ‘settlements’—let’s call them settlements for now—and between them are what may be trails or primitive roads. Taken all together, the conclusion is clear; although I have to emphasize that nothing is certain from up here.

“As I started to say before, until we know more, we cannot predict exactly what we’ll find, but our best guess right now is that there is or recently was some form of intelligent life at an apparently low population density living quite near our projected base camp. ImRec also picked up a handful other potential sites scattered across the globe.”