T'aafhal Legacy 1: Ghosts of Orion (12 page)

Two robosnakes would be dropped in the planet's seas; three flexibots would be dropped, one each for the three largest continents. In preparation for deployment, the crew were running the robots through their paces.

“And this pile of junk is supposed to explore the mystery planet on its own?” asked a skeptical Hitch.

“It does look like a piece of modern art,” said Kate, who was running diagnostics on the robot from her tablet. The flexibot quivered and deformed, assuming a number of distorted shapes. 

“Yeah, art creeps me out a lot too.”

“It's not as creepy as the robosnakes,” said Matt. “I had to take two of them to the bear quarters and have them swim around in the pool. Umky looked at me like I was crazy.”

“Hey, I've known you were crazy for years.”

“Funny, Stevie. It wasn't me who helped smuggle a live walrus  into the polar bear habitat back on Farside.”

“He did what?” asked Kate, not sure if the two American sailors were joking.

“Never mind, Katrin, Matt has a tendency to embellish the truth. Don't trust anything he says about me. Besides, that was a great day for human polar bear relations.”

“Not so good for the walrus.” 

“You two have been on the Peggy Sue for a long time, haven't you?” said Kate.

“Since the first voyage,” Matt said proudly. “Took a little side trip on the M'tak Ka'fek but Peggy Sue's our ship.”

“She's never let us down,” added Steve.

“Scheisse!” Kate said.

“No, its true,” said Steve, a bit defensively.

“Nein, I was not referring to the ship,” she replied. “One of the cables failed to pass the test, we will have to replace it.”

“I'm half afraid to take it apart,” said Matt. “How can we tell if we put it back together right?”

“The computer will tell us,” said Will, looking up from his own tablet. “You two stop flirting with Ms. Hamm and get back to work. We still need to bake the probes in the sterilization oven for a couple of hours.”

“There's always one guy who spoils the party,” muttered Steve. Kate shot him a sideways glance and then winked, causing his hopes to soar. Matt just shook his head.

Peggy Sue, Orbit around GJ667Cc

It took a half a day to match orbital velocity with 667Cc, which everyone was now just calling “
C
”. The officers and science staff were holding a planning meeting in the main lounge, the only comfortable space that could accommodate the crowd present. Out the large eye-shaped porthole on the starboard side their destination could be seen slowly turning.

It was a mostly dun colored planet, with a number of sizable seas, dark in contrast with the land. Tufts of white cloud dotted both water and land, and an impressive cyclonic storm was moving from the largest visible body of water onto an adjacent continent. The survey probe sent from Earth had been orbiting the planet for almost five months and had fully mapped the surface optically and with ground penetrating radar. Geo-neutrinographic images of the planet's magmatic reservoirs and the deep structure of its mantle showed that this was still a geologically active world. The Peggy Sue downloaded that information as a starting point for its investigation. 

“This place is screwy, I tell you,” proclaimed Joe Rogers, the expedition climatologist. “There doesn't seem to be any biological activity at all yet the atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with about 18% oxygen.” 

“Isn't that about perfect for humans?” asked Beth.

“Yes, but it shouldn't be there!”

“What Dr. Rogers is trying to say is that oxygen is hard to keep around,” said Will Krenshaw, the microbiologist. “It's the third most abundant element in the Universe but it's highly reactive. It will combine with almost every other element on the periodic table.”

“You're saying the planet should not have free oxygen in its atmosphere?” asked Captain Vincent.

“Captain, Earth started out without oxygen in its atmosphere. Something like 2.8 billion years ago cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, evolved and started polluting the air. It took another billion years to change from a mixture poisonous to animal life to the oxygen rich environment we evolved in.”

“Yes,” said Joe, trying to finish his explanation. “Because oxygen is so reactive it should not be present in such quantity without some form of life to free it and replenish the supply. Yet the reports from the survey drone show no signs of life, at all!”

“Maybe it's hiding in the oceans?” offered Sami Hosseini. “It is certain, based on observations from orbit, that a number of the geologic formations show signs of uplifted sedimentary limestones. That is a pretty sure sign of microbial life at some point in the planet's past.”

“That is what our experience on Earth and Mars indicates,” said Gerard Leclerc, a chemist. “Perhaps there is some new geophysical process at work here.” 

“No way to tell until we can get to the surface and examine the strata more closely,” said Sami. 

“And take some soil samples,” added Joe.

“I wonder,” said Ahnah, the only bear in attendance. “If life used to be present, as indicated by the oxygen rich atmosphere, what happened to it? The probe data indicates nothing—no forests, no ground cover, no organisms in the sea—it is like the planet has been sterilized.” 

“Multispectral scans by the survey drone even revealed a number of sites that could be long abandoned settlements,” Mizuki added. 

“Not to be a buzz kill here,” said Bobby, “but we know there are aliens who take a dim view of our kind of life.”

“We cannot know if the Dark Lords or their minions caused this anomaly until we send out probes to the surface or, even better, travel to the surface our selves,” Mizuki replied. She was well aware of how much Bobby loved a good alien conspiracy.

“I'm just throwing it out as something to keep in mind,” he said.

“Bobby has a good point,” said Beth. “Though I'm sure finding natural causes for the state of the planet would be more interesting scientifically, we do have incontrovertible evidence that aliens have meddled with the environments of several planets.” 

“More than that,” added the Captain, “we have no idea what we might find down there so we are going to take it slow.”

This remark caused looks of disappointment among the science staff, who were champing at the bit to study the planet up close. Fortunately for all involved, Billy Ray had learned to be careful on previous voyages.

“We will launch probes to survey both land and sea. If they turn up nothing dangerous, we will then send a shuttle to the surface. Those on the shuttle will be in suits—armored suits—just in case.” 

“Armor! What's going to attack us on a lifeless planet?” said Joe.

“I don't know, Dr. Rogers, but the first surface expedition will be armed and armored,” the Captain said. “'The universe is relentlessly, catastrophically dangerous, on scales that menace not just communities, but civilizations and our species as well'.”

“Hai, Captain,” said Mizuki. Then, turning to her staff, “I believe we all have tasks to accomplish.”

Joe and Sami looked like they wished to continue the argument but Mizuki's tone made it clear that the discussion was over. As the meeting broke up Beth privately asked her husband, “who were you quoting about the dangerous Universe?” 

“John Tooby, an American anthropologist,” he replied. “I have read things other than Chaucer, Shakespeare and the literary canon of dead white men.” 

“I thought it summed the situation up nicely, love.”

Captain's Sea Cabin, Two Days Later

“So the survey results turned up no sign of life?” Billy Ray asked his science officer. 

“The surveybots found nothing, Captain, in the seas or on land,” said Mizuki. “The place is a desert, except that even deserts harbor life.”

“It seems like a real mystery, Captain,” Bobby chimed in, “an otherwise livable planet with no life to be found.” 

“There are some patches that look like they might be ruins, particularly off the coasts,” said Beth.

“Maybe they were an aquatic race?” suggested Billy Ray. “We have encountered aquatic creatures before.”

Beth shook her head. “Probing with terahertz radar shows similar, but smaller areas inland.”

“Dr. Rogers speculates that the planet's climate has changed in the recent past, melting much of its polar ice caps. This would cause the sea levels to rise, drowning any coastal cities.” Mizuki's tone indicated less than enthusiastic agreement with that hypothesis. 

“That would explain why the largest ruins seem to be offshore,” Bobby agreed.

“What's with this Rogers character?” asked Billy Ray. “He seems to have a chip on his shoulder about something.”

“Dr. Rogers used to be a prominent advocate for anthropogenic global warming, Captain,” said Mizuki. “After the alien bombardment any chance of proving that theory correct was lost.”

“You don't believe in AGW, Mizuki?”

“Science is not about belief, it is about observation and evidence. I did not find the evidence behind the AGW theory compelling.”

“Earth's temperature had been going up,” said Beth.

“Climate scientists had too short a view of the subject. A century of data is insufficient to predict a planet's climate—a complex system that operates over thousands and millions of years. The temperature variation measured was well within historical norms, and any signal caused by human activity was lost in the noise of that natural variation.”

“When it comes to backing a theory with hard evidence, Mizuki is a real stickler,” Bobby said, “I can't convince her that aliens helped build the pyramids either.” 

Beth raised a single eyebrow and Billy Ray suppressed a grin, both imagining private arguments between the strictly rational astrophysicist and the ardent conspiracy theorist. How they fell in love was hard to fathom, but then, love has very little to do with logic.

“All right then, we are agreed that the next step is to visit the surface?” said Billy Ray, changing the subject away from global warming and alien pyramid builders. 

“Hai, the entire science staff cannot wait to visit the surface, Captain.”

“And I guess that you two,” He nodded in the direction of Beth and Bobby, “will be wanting to go as well?”

“It would seem a proper duty for the ship's first officer.”

“And I have the most experience in piloting a shuttle,” added Bobby.

“Now I know how Captain Jack used to feel, always having to stay with the ship.”

“Just part of the burden of command, love,” said his wife and first officer. 

“Fine. As I said, I want everyone in armor, with no exceptions.”

“The science staff will not like that,” said Mizuki.

“Part of the burden of exploration,” replied the Captain. “And take the Marines with you, in heavy armor. It will be good exercise for them. Besides, you never know what you might run into.”

“Shuttle One?” asked Bobby.

“Yup, no sense in half measures.”

Shuttle One was a large armored assault craft, capable of carrying a whole platoon of Marines in heavy armor. It also mounted exterior armaments—rail guns and X-ray lasers, as well as stouter shielding. The Captain hoped these would prove apotropaic. 

“The local day is just under 37 hours in length,” said Mizuki. “If we choose a site where we can arrive just after sunrise we will have 16 or more hours on the surface before returning.”

“You don't want to stay the night on the surface?”

“I do not think my colleagues are quite up to sleeping in their suits on their first outing.”

“They could take their suits off inside the shuttle,” Beth pointed out.

“No. We should risk no chance of contamination, of ourselves or the planet, until we know more. We will vent the shuttle cabin to space before descent and again after we climb back to orbit.”

“Full UV decontamination as well?” asked Bobby. “Your colleagues are going to think you're a hypochondriac, or xenophobic at a microscopic level.”

Mizuki smiled and said, “I'm just going to blame the Captain for all the precautions.”

“May as well,” Billy Ray said, “they already think I'm totally paranoid. Anything else?”

The other three shook their heads.

“Alright, let's get this little tourist junket underway.”

Chapter 8

Shuttle One, Descending

Bobby was at the controls of the large armored shuttle designated Shuttle One. In the copilot's seat was First Officer Melaku. In the passenger compartment, nearest the aft ramp, all five Marines stood stoically in heavy space armor—they would be the first off after landing. Equipped with railguns of various calibers, the small squad was more than a match for anything short of a tank battalion.

Also along was the entire science section, led by Dr. Ogawa. Aside from Mizuki, the others were having trouble getting comfortable in the standard armor the Captain insisted they wear. First among the complainers was Joe Rogers, the American climatologist.

“Damn this suit! It's like clomping around in a deep-sea diving outfit on dry land. Why is the Captain so paranoid?”

“Because we have had people wearing only pressure suits get holes burned right through their bodies by plasma cannon, and others killed by giant crickets with spears,” replied Mizuki quietly.

“Really?” said Gerard. “Suddenly the armor does not weigh so much.”

“Get with the program, Joe,” added Will, the microbiologist. “The Captain knows what he's doing.”

The climatologist stopped complaining but, from the look on his face, remained far from convinced of the Captain's wisdom. As the shuttle descended into the planet's atmosphere, thicker and denser than Earth's, display screens along the sides of the cabin showed a view of the approaching surface. The geologist, Sami, began pointing out features of interest as mountain ranges and river valleys slid past beneath the shuttle. On the flight deck, Beth and Bobby discussed where to land. 

“To start out I think we should land far inland,” said Bobby. “We've had some nasty surprises from things coming out of the water on other worlds.”