Second Chances (59 page)

He spotted Janet nearby; she was starting to swell up with her pregnancy. He wasn't so sure about the wisdom of having another child so close to Anne's twins, but apparently the girls had it under control or at least said they did. Janet seemed a bit more emotional when she talked with the kids but seemed on top of that as well. She looked good, not quite glowing but good. She had a completely native made outfit on, a jumper and red turtleneck sweater. She had her short hair up in a small ponytail and had her usual helper Tera in tow. He nodded to both of them in passing and kept going on his way. He had an appointment with Piotr.

------*------

“Not world, worlds plural.
Worlds
,” Mitch said, shaking his head as he related Piotr's discovery to the department heads the next morning. Ducky had dropped in to listen. Jim had been invited. He'd wanted the astronomer to relate his discovery to the others but he'd been bushed. The young man had spent too much time burning the candle at both ends, trying to stay up all night to record the night sky, then by day working on various chores as well as processing the results of his studies. Sasha had forced him to bed with threats. He'd given in with ill grace, but at least he'd finally given in before someone had to sedate him or hit him over the head with a frying pan like Sasha had threatened to do.

He felt a bit like he was stealing the young man's thunder. The announcement probably could have waited a bit, but it dovetailed neatly into the long term projects he wanted to lay the groundwork for with the group. He stepped sideways so they could see the blurry images on the screen behind him. The screen was split into six panels with a bluish world framed in each.

To him the idea was as exciting as it was profound. Not only did they have this world to explore, but now they had multiple others. He laid odds that there were other alien intelligences on each too. Possibly more on this world he thought.

“I'm not following,” Sandra said, breaking him out of his reverie. “I don't think it's the lack of caffeine,” she said.

“The...well, alien robots, for want of a better term,” he bowed slightly to his wife who smiled. “The...Memes, have been programmed to save species endangered of extinction when an ELE is found.”

“Okay, got that part,” she said, fighting to not roll her eyes at him.

“Well, think about it. That's a lot of different species. Thousands, possibly millions. Not just certain worlds either but
any
that have life. Apparently their creators, or they, we're still not sure about the details here, but anyway, deep in the past they terraformed this system. Not just this world but all the worlds in it that were in the Goldilocks zone.”

“Okay...”

“Our resident astronomers have confirmed that there are multiple worlds here. Some on our orbital plane, others further in or out. And multiple worlds on each of those.” He pointed to the images.

“So...” Bob frowned, not sure where that was leading.

“So, we're talking
dozens
of planets in this system
alone
,” Mitch said. The guy's eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah,” Mitch nodded, smiling slightly. “It's like that Whedon show, the one with the space cowboys,” he said.

Sandra snorted.

“So...multiple worlds...”

“In multiple systems Piotr thinks. We're not sure how many. I don't know if they know. Each a dumping ground for more and more species.”

“Okay...”

“From different time periods too.”

“So, that explains the mixed-up time line here. Dinos from different eras mixed with mammoths and aliens,” Ducky said.

“Right. And evolution dictates that some will adapt and thrive while others will die out. So, something that may not have survived on Earth...well, here...”

“Might work out. Gotcha. I'm still not following on the evolution freeze thing,” Bob said.

Ducky frowned thoughtfully.

“Yeah, that's a sticky thing too. I'm not quite following it. I mean, every generation passes on its genes in different ways and sometimes they don't get a chance to. I think Doc here, Ducky and other eggheads will have to look into that later.”

Sandra's eyes twinkled as her lips formed a slight sour frown. “Did you just call me an egghead?”

He just smirked at her. She rolled her eyes at him. “You'll pay for that later,” she murmured.

“Eventually,” he murmured wickedly back. “You've got to catch me first,” he said.

“Knowing you, you'll want to be caught,” she riposted, then had the grace to blush. He waggled his eyebrows at her. She finally looked away, clearing her throat and getting control of herself.

He chuckled silently until she elbowed him, puckering his lips. He oofed as Jim snorted.

“So, setting aside the domestic discipline that will follow,” Bob drawled, “you're telling me there could be other people on other worlds here?”

“No,” Sandra said, settling herself as she shook her head. She ran a hand through her red hair for a moment, finger combing it out. She cocked her head as she combed her hair and smiled at Mitch's expression. He always thought her little habits were endearing. Perhaps she'd tease the shit out of him to get her revenge she thought briefly. “They apparently dump the species from specific planets on one world. But they have a lot of worlds to sample from, and well, not a lot of room to store them in this...” she waved a hand.

“Zoo?” Bob asked, sounding disgusted.

“Wildlife sanctuary,” Mitch supplied. “Reserve,” he shrugged as Bob and Ducky stared at him, either surprised or scandalized by the very idea. “Whatever you want to call it.”

“Okay...”

“And we think there may be intelligent life on some of the other worlds. How techy their civilization is...,” Mitch shrugged.

“I see,” Ducky said. Then he frowned as that last part really caught his imagination. His eyes went wide as he stared at Mitch.

“The good thing is, we can go there,” Mitch said, suddenly grinning.

Sandra paused to stare at him. “Now that would be something else,” she said after a long moment. “Not that we can go in this generation, we're having all we can do to survive here,” she said, indicating the base around them.

“Some of us are doing better than others,” Mitch agreed with a nod. “And we've got to make contact with everyone, get them on the same footing. But not everyone is going to agree with us or our priorities.”

“No yes men out there?”

“No. I did pick up that apparently a couple planes made it through the wormholes too.”

“MH...that one from Malaysia?” Bob asked.

Ducky frowned. “You beat me to it,” he accused. “I think I did read something about the aircraft in the report. My memory fails me though...” he murmured thoughtfully.

Mitch shook his head. “No, that's looking like a legit hijacking of some sort. I'm not sure. I only caught the one tidbit...”

“Back to worlds and visiting them, I'm all geeked out with the trek thing. But what about, well, you know, hostile species? Speaking to them? Viruses and you know, stuff?” Bob asked.

“Yeah, that's something we'll have to figure out.”

“Cross that bridge when we come to it?” Bob asked, now amused. “It's not always a good idea to jump right in and not have a plan you know. Sometimes there are sharks,” he warned.

“We'll figure it out,” Ducky said.

“Or our kids will,” Sandra said, flipping her hair back to smile at her husband. “We've got enough on our plate just keeping our people alive,” she said with a bit of a bite of challenge to her tone. He cocked his head then nodded reluctantly.

“But that does bring me up to another point; I want to expand trade as well as explore our new home. And to do both we need to get a better map going. So, we need to get a world view,” Mitch said, pointing straight up.

“You aren't serious,” Bob said.

“Are you telling me you want to what, build a rocket?” Jim Evall asked slowly, staring intently at Mitch. “I mean it's possible in theory but to get out of the stratosphere with this tech...” he shook his head slowly.

“One step at a time,” Mitch said. “Don't rule anything out. We can accomplish anything with the right people, skills, materials, and time. We've got all four right here.”

“Yes but to build a rocket...chemical I think,” Jim said looking doubtful. “That's a major engineering endeavor.”

“Oh, we'll start small. And I don't just want rockets, I want space planes. It just so happens that I've got the blueprints to a few in the archives. With composite materials like the carbon fiber the Lings are churning out...I don't think it will be a problem.”

“You have no idea what you are getting us into,” Jim said.

“Oh I think I have some idea. I invested in several aerospace industries before the aliens came and upset the apple cart,” Mitch said. “But the first thing? Oh, we'll go old school.” He turned to Candy who had been sitting there staring at them. “Think plastics can turn out some weather balloons?” he asked mischievously.

“Weather balloons? What for Piotr? He was after me about them,” Candy said rubbing the tip of her nose intently to prevent a sneeze.

Jim snorted explosively, then started chuckling as Candy flinched in surprise. “Sorry. I know where this is going now,” he said grinning slightly as he looked at Mitch. “Clever if it works,” he said.

“Recovery will be an issue,” Mitch admitted. “But we've got plenty of hydrogen or helium,” he said shrugging. “I'm not thrilled about losing a computer and camera set up, but if it is replaceable...” he shrugged again.

“Okay for the non-techies among us?” Sandra asked patiently.

“He's talking about hooking up a camera and computer to a balloon and letting it go,” Jim explained, turning to the medic. “It'll go up into the stratosphere if it's set up right, taking pictures and what,” he turned to Mitch. “Taking sensor readings? Air samples?” he asked.

Mitch waved a hand. “Whatever we can manage. The biggest bang for our buck as long as it doesn't compromise the recovery,” he said.

Jim nodded. “Right. With a camera we can get a good series of images of the continent we're on plus the curvature of the planet. Maybe a lot more depending on how high the balloon goes before it pops.”

“And then it falls? How does the camera survive lad?” Ducky asked.

“Parachute. The balloon will pop and stream out like a chute for a few minutes. That's where the computer comes in. When it senses the fall it allows the fall to go on for a time until the altimeter reaches a set altitude then it pops the parachute to slow the fall into a controlled decent. Then it does its best to guide the package by following a radio beam to a landing crew.”

“Ah,” Ducky said nodding. “Ingenious.”

“Well, we've got to get it to work first,” Jim laughed. “It's much easier said than done. A lot could go wrong. Probably will go wrong. You are right; we'll need replaceable parts and testing. A lot of testing,” he said looking at Mitch.

Mitch nodded. “Your project. Work with Lisa, Brian and the factory folks,” he said nodding to Candy. She nodded back.

“Okay, this is all fun and all, but I've got other things I need to be doing,” Anne said, getting to her feet. She looked over to Doc. “I'll bring the twins by for their checkup in a couple hours,” she said. “Ester has them now,” she reported.

“When they are awake,” Doc said with a smile. “No hurry.”

“Fine then,” Anne said. “Mitch, work on the base. I've got a lot of people asking for quarters outside these caves,” she said, indicating the walls.

“I doubt it will happen this year,” Mitch said shaking his head. “Maybe next but I'm not keen about it. We'll see. If they don't like it here, they can always go to the Mountain Village or one of the other communities,” he said.

“There's a thought,” the chief said. “Speaking of which, we need to go over the planning for that...”

------*------

“So, are you leaving or not?” the chief asked, grunting as he lifted the barbell. They tried to schedule a workout together at least twice a week and a sparring match in the middle. The chief tried to do as much cardio as he could with the exercise machines and jogging in the base but it was hard.

“You are getting soft squid,” the Marine teased, playing spotter. “You are already shaking,” he observed. “Don't strain yourself.”

“Pain is weakness leaving the body,” the SEAL said under the strain.

“Want me to add more?”

“Not unless you do it too,” the SEAL growled, not quite ready to take the challenge but ready to turn it around if needed.

“Soft,” the gunny teased.

“It's ‘cause I haven't done this in a while,” the SEAL retorted, grunting with the effort of lifting three hundred pounds. The usually made a circuit around the gym on their workouts but for two hours they only did lifting once a week. “Yeah, a little soft. I can still kick your ass,” he said. “Anytime, anyplace,” he grunted, doing another rep. Sweat stained his tank top. He finished the set and then racked the barbell with the gunny's help.

He sat up, flexing a bit to work out the aches and kinks. “I'm not sure to be honest,” the chief said. “On the one hand, I like the idea of scouting and seeing the mountains. It might be safer than down here in the lowlands. But then again, I'm kind of getting used to having civilization around again.”