Keystones: Tau Prime (8 page)

Jonny’s voice came back over the com system. “Congratulations. This just became more important than sleep. We need to know why that probe isn’t working.”

Deklan didn’t mind. The diagnostics showed the first tool that he needed to use—an electrostatic flexer. He’d never even heard of that type of tool before, but it looked cool. It was shaped like a drill, but instead of ending in a cutting bit there was a tripod of short legs. It looked straightforward enough.

He propped the legs atop the specific plate indicated on the schematic, a plate that looked no different than any other, and pulled the trigger. A charge appeared at the tip of each of the tripod’s legs, and the plate flexed like a muscle. It pulled away from the surrounding plates, its edges drawing in and the center bowing out.

Deklan waited until every edge of the plate was clear of the probe and then pulled it out. Beneath the plate was an ordinary access panel with a handle. He snapped the electrostatic flexer into place on the diagnostics cradle and turned again to the hologram for further instructions. He then slipped his fingers around the handle and twisted it ninety degrees. There was a click of release as the panel swung open. A flare of bright yellow light burst out of the probe, blinding him.

Deklan woke to see Jamie Beal holding one of his eyelids open while shining a penlight into his eyes. He recoiled, or tried to, but Jamie had a strong grip on his head.

Her mouth was a dissatisfied moue as she completed her inspection of Deklan. “Do you know how annoying it is,” she said, “to have an immortal patient who collapses for no reason while carrying out a routine diagnostic process?”

Deklan blinked and tried to escape Jamie’s iron grip. It was useless. He felt like a child pawing at an adult. “Do you mind? Something bright flashed in my eyes.”

“Yes.” Jamie sounded tired. “Jonny went over the footage. There was a momentary flare from some circuitry in the probe, and you keeled over.”

Deklan sat up and rubbed at his head and eyes where Jamie had manhandled him. “You have a terrible bedside manner, did you know that? Terrible.”

Jamie nodded, somehow making the acknowledgment sardonic. “Yes, I have a terrible bedside manner. Surely that’s the problem here.” Her tone grew more agitated with every passing word. “Not that you’ve been unconscious for six hours and nothing in the medical bay is giving us a clue why. I liked the idea of having an all-Keystone crew so that we wouldn’t have to deal with another Avery. I even recommended you. Now for a medically inexplicable reason you’ve collapsed. How do I know that you aren’t going to turn into something ugly and eat us all while we’re asleep? How?”

Deklan held up his hands like a shield that could protect him from her torrent of words. “Motion sensors and a buddy system.”

Tension drained from Jamie like water running downhill. “That could work,” she replied.

“Good. Now what do you mean in saying that there’s no explanation for why I collapsed?”

Jamie showed him her tablet. Sure enough, every diagnostics category indicated green.

“Well, okay,” conceded Deklan, “that’s odd, but I’m telling you it was the light.”

“You’re not epileptic or light-sensitive.”

“Not that I’m aware of, no.” A stray detail from Jamie’s tirade drifted to the front of his mind. “Did you say six hours?”

“Yes.”

“So we’re out of the wormhole?”

“Yes. Jonny and Calm are on the bridge.”

Deklan bounced off the table. “I have to go see this. A whole new solar system!”

Jamie looked unimpressed. “There’s not a lot to see that we didn’t already see from the probes.” She stopped to give him a dirty look. “By ‘we’ I mean that Jonny and Calm didn’t see from the probes while I was busy tending to you.”

“Then why aren’t you as excited as I am?”

“I watched the footage from here after I made sure that you were stable.” From Jamie’s tone you would have thought she was sucking on lemons.

Jonny’s voice then came over the com system. “Deklan, so good of you to join us. You both need to see this.”

A dark screen illuminated to show Deklan his first view of the new solar system. A blue sun cast a harsh but beautiful light. Side windows revealed close-up images of the planets. There were seven gaseous giants, each of which dwarfed Jupiter, and another wormhole, giving the system two wormholes in space. But that wasn’t what was most impressive. The feed zoomed in on one image until it filled the entire screen. It was a shiny blue globe.

Jonny sounded triumphant. “We have readings back. The atmosphere is breathable. In fact, it’s almost Earth-normal. People could live there. Deklan, we need you up here.”

Deklan was amazed by this positive confirmation of an Earth-normal planet. Everyone had believed they existed, but he was one of the first people to see one up close. In response to his summons to the bridge, Deklan asked, “Why?”

“We need to know the laws on planetary annexation.”

When he returned to the bridge, Calm nodded at him. “Ah, Mr. Tobin, glad you’re back up. We have some questions for you.”

Deklan returned Calm’s nod as he approached a vacant console. “Yes,” he said, “planetary annexation. It’s not a specialty of mine. There haven’t been unclaimed planets to annex for over a century now.” Deklan’s hands flew over a keyboard as he consulted
Serenity
’s legal library. “Over a century ago America tried to claim the moon by planting a flag. The United Nations at the time declared it a non-legal action. Since then other and more complex issues have arisen, such as the legal rights of ownership for stable Lagrange points.”

At the mention of Lagrange points, Jonny did a swift double-take before diagrams popped up showing all of the Lagrange points in the system and highlighting the stable ones.

Deklan cleared his throat. “As I was saying, Lagrange points and planets have been claimed on a by-use basis. Otherwise they are owned equally.” Deklan examined the blue globe that Jonny had said was nearly Earth-normal. “Now this might be different. We’ve never had a planet like this to colonize. It might well bring us into the realm of new law.”

“I see,” said Calm in a dubious voice. “And what exactly does that mean?”

Deklan hoped that his next words weren’t going to end his chances of continuing to search for Susan. “It means that there is no clear precedent, but if you can prove that you’re using it before anyone else, you may be able to stake a claim and have it stick.”

Calm shook his head. “I can’t say that I care. I want to explore, not own.”

“You don’t care?” said a slack-jawed Jonny.

“Not about the money, no. But I do want to see what’s on that new planet. Send a probe back down the wormhole announcing the news.” Calm showed the broadest smile that Deklan had seen from him. “We’re about to be the first men to visit an extra-solar planet.”

“Don’t you think that we should go down in a shuttle?” Jonny asked.

Calm barely paid any attention to Jonny as he went through an environmental checklist. The planet now christened “Exo” appeared to be free of environmental hazards that could jeopardize
Serenity
. “No, not really. Why?”

Jonny looked frustrated but controlled. “Because I don’t want to trust a safety list created a century ago by someone who never had to try to land on an unknown Earth-normal planet!” He paused and evaluated Calm’s face before he continued. “If we damage a shuttle, we can maybe come up with a solution. However, if we damage
Serenity
, we’re screwed. There are no safety nets out here. We don’t know the planet’s physical laws.”

Deklan nodded in silent agreement with every point. Jonny was making a good case. Deklan hoped that Calm would concur.

Calm sat with an elbow on the table and his head resting on his fist. “Fine. Prepare
Tempest
, and let’s check our EVA suits.”

Deklan breathed more easily.

“Mr. Day,” said Calm, “you stay up here on
Serenity
. Mr. Tobin, you’re coming with me.”

A rush of emotions flooded Deklan—fear, excitement, surprise, and anxiety. “What?” he exclaimed, with Jonny just a heartbeat behind.

“You said it yourself, Mr. Day. Something could go wrong. Mr. Tobin and I are the closest thing to indestructible that we’ve got. We’ll leave Dr. Beal up here too just in case something goes wrong.”

Jonny’s mouth hung open. Deklan couldn’t blame him. He’d be frustrated too if he’d just talked himself out of being one of the first men to walk on a new planet.

Calm was already leaving the bridge when he said, “Mr. Tobin, let’s check our suits.”

Deklan walked in silence next to Calm for ten or fifteen seconds before speaking. “Do you know what to expect down there? Do you have scans of the surface?”

Calm shook his head as though he was clearing away cobwebs. “Yes, yes, sorry. I was far away. We have scans of the surface. It looks as though it should be safe.
Tempest
is small enough that I should be able to shield most of her hull from any form of damage, especially if I sit in the middle of the shuttle.”

Deklan said nothing, but he didn’t like any plan that relied on a Keystone trait.

Unaware of any reservations on Deklan’s part, Calm continued, “I want to launch in half an hour. You’ve gone over your EVA drills, right?”

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Then you have time to review the data from Exo. We’ll christen it once we get down there.”

Deklan hazarded a question but kept his voice non-confrontational. He still didn’t have a good read on Calm. “Isn’t this a bit hasty? Shouldn’t we study the planet for just a little while?”

Calm stopped walking. “History is not made by timid men, Mr. Tobin. None of the great explorers had the advantages that you and I do. Do you want to go down in some dusty tome as the man who was almost famous, or do you want to be remembered for time immemorial as a bold adventurer?”

Deklan had no desire to be remembered in history at all. If simple reasoning wasn’t going to work with Calm, Deklan had to go along for the ride. “Put like that,” he replied, “I think it’s time to see what this planet has to offer.”

Deklan pressurized the seal on his EVA suit. Made of a tough white fabric, the suit fitted over him like a second skin, allowing for nearly perfect freedom of movement. It was a little stiffer in the neck area but made up for it with a wide-open faceplate that could be reflective or transparent.

Calm had finished his preparation minutes earlier, a silent and effective testimony to his level of comfort with the gear. He waited for Deklan aboard
Tempest
.

Deklan wondered how searching for Susan had resulted in his being one of the first to explore an alien world. He pushed his thoughts aside as he walked to
Tempest
. There was nothing he could do to change things for now.

Tempest
was a small craft, about ten meters long, which was ample space for a two-man crew. She was designed with sleek aerodynamic lines and large fusion engines for use in an atmosphere. There were side hatches on the port and starboard sides, but only the port hatch was open. Deklan could see Calm sitting in the pilot’s seat. Although his faceplate was opaque. he yet somehow still looked impatient.

The port hatch started to close before Deklan had finished walking through it. Calm was obviously eager to depart. Deklan took a moment to look at the interior design. A series of indentations in the floor indicated that the craft had been outfitted with more seats until recently. Calm probably had them removed because they were only a four-man crew aboard
Serenity
. Despite
Tempest
’s small size the cockpit and passenger area were separated, but the door to the cockpit was open.

Deklan hurried to his seat and strapped himself in. The view from the cockpit was exciting. It was only of
Serenity
’s shuttle bay, yet Deklan knew that he was about to see so much more. Suddenly he was caught up in Calm’s excitement. They were about to explore a new world.

“
Serenity
,” said Calm, “we are go for launch. Repeat. We are go for launch.”

Jonny’s face filled a screen, jealousy written large on his features. “Shuttle bay interior doors sealed. Doppler Bubble Drive disengaged. Opening bay exterior doors.”

The doors from the shuttle bay to space opened, sliding into recessed pockets. The doors were large and thick, with heavy interlocking teeth that meshed when closed.

“
Tempest
, you are go for launch,” confirmed Jonny.

Calm’s hands were steady as he placed them on the controls. “This is it, Mr. Tobin.”

The shuttle came alive. Deklan could feel the muted vibrations of the engine as they lifted off from the bay floor and left
Serenity
.

Stars spread out before them, the wormholes but purple pinpricks in the distance. Calm took them out past
Serenity
and then just hung in the vacuum over the blue planet. Both land and sea areas on the orb were brilliant shades of aqua.

Calm’s voice no longer that of an excited schoolboy but held wonder all the same. “I hope that you have probes recording all this, Mr. Day,” he said. With that Calm shifted to full manual control and put the shuttle into a deep dive.

They hadn’t discussed where they were going on the planet, but Deklan could see from the diagrams on the flight plan that they were aimed at a large island high in the northern hemisphere.

Tempest
shuddered as she encountered the planet’s atmosphere. Deklan was reminded of his disastrous first trip with Jamie and clenched his hands. Adding to the sensation of mayhem was the laughter coming from Calm.

Powerful winds buffeted the small craft. Calm’s angle of descent was almost perpendicular to the ground. Deklan tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the terror from his voice when he said, “Calm, could we go down at a less suicidal angle?”

“Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been cooped up for months. This is the first real fun I’ve had in ages.”

Deklan held on to his seat and watched the numbers on the altimeter tick down. His already racing heart increased its pace when their elevation stopped being measured in kilometers and changed to meters. As they approached five hundred meters, Calm showed no sign of moderating their descent. All that kept Deklan silent was the lack of warnings or alerts.