In addition, one of the scientists was not Starfleet: NessCorp had forced its presence on this mission for reasons that were undoubtedly for the sole benefit of the U.S. based mega-corp, and until Jax knew what it was, he was determined to keep a close eye on the corporate scientist.
The commander could see steam escaping the crater as they approached it. Whatever it was remained warm. Jax was liking this less and less. Miss Reddy, however, was ecstatic. Jax got that; science was her passion, and the idea of leading the team that made the first extraterrestrial encounter would be the Holy Grail of accomplishments for a woman in her profession. For Jax, however, the mission was keeping his people alive, and that included Miss Reddy.
“Amazing,” the science officer gasped as she looked out at the crater. “Do a fly over, Corporal.”
Maggie looked at the commander, awaiting his approval. It was not an unreasonable request, so he nodded. The corporal took the shuttle in, angling it so that they had the best view. The other scientists and marines all craned their necks from their seats to see the object below.
“Hit the floodlights,” Jax ordered.
Maggie turned on the floodlights, illuminating the crater and revealing a large, greenish-gray, egg-shaped mass within.
“It looks … moist,” Reddy observed.
“It’s pulsating as well,” the NessCorp scientist, Doctor Xayasith noted.
“Yes,” Miss Reddy agreed. “We’ve found extraterrestrial life….”
Doctor Hutch Davis nodded. “Temperature is rising slowly, but steadily. This is exciting!”
“What does that mean?” Xayasith asked.
“It means that if it’s an egg,” Miss Reddy declared, “it’s getting ready to hatch.”
Hutch nodded. “But, what kind of creature can hatch and survive in this environment?”
“How’d it get here?” Jax was surprised that nobody had asked that question, so he asked it himself.
“Unknown,” Miss Reddy replied. “It could be some kind of cosmic seeding mechanism, but ….”
The commander wanted to order Corporal Rodas to get them out right away. This thing was huge, and if it was an egg, it either contained something very large, or many of something smaller. Unfortunately, leaving right now would be unreasonable on his part. He just hoped that whatever it was would not hatch while they were physically present.
Jax had Rodas land the shuttle forty meters from the crater. They donned their helmets and did a final check of their suits before exiting the shuttle.
“Corporal Rodas,” Jax ordered, “Stand by until I call you for a pick up. If I tell you to go, then get back to the LZ as fast as possible and let Captain Giffords know there are hostiles.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “Good luck.”
With that, they disembarked and hiked toward the crater’s edge, the ground beneath them crunching under their boots. Jax looked back at the asteroid filled sunset and marveled at its beauty one last time before turning and leading his team toward the crater. Thankfully, the landscape was largely flat, with the edges of the crater the only large rise. With the lack of gravity, they were able to bound along, and reached the crater’s edge very quickly.
Looking into the crater, they saw the giant egg—at least that was how Jax mentally referred to it—pulsating within. It actually came up higher than the crater’s edges, and the fact that it pulsated made Jax nervous.
“There it is,” the commander declared. “What do you make of it?”
Miss Reddy answered by saying, “Deploy the sensor drones.”
Hutch obeyed, removing a small box from his pack, and opening it. Inside were hundreds of tiny drones, which he controlled with the holographic interface of his datapad. In moments, the drones took off like hundreds of tiny insects, landing all over the egg.
The science officer planted a relay into the ground and turned it on. “I’ll let you know when I’ve examined the data, Commander.” She then turned to Xenia and Hutch. “Capture as many images as possible. I’m recording everything with my suit cam too. Let’s make a circuit around the perimeter, and then Commander Jax can take us back to base. We can start reviewing the data from there.”
“Do you want to get a sample?” Doctor Xayasith asked.
“Don’t touch it,” Jax ordered.
“This is science, Commander,” Miss Reddy countered. “Don’t tell us how to do our job and we won’t dictate to you if we end up in a fight.” Then, she turned to Xayasith, and said, “Yes, get a sample. I brought a secure case in my pack.”
The science officer was within her right to make that call, but Jax did not like it. Doctor Xayasith climbed the crater edge, and Donavan readied his weapon. The other marines followed suit.
“Got it,” the NessCorp doctor announced.
Xayasith returned to them and placed the sample into Miss Reddy’s waiting container. The science officer then turned to Jax.
“See, Commander? Nothing popped up to try to kill us. You and your marines can put your toys away.”
“Keep your weapons ready,” Jax said instead. “Make your circuit and get your pictures, Miss Reddy.”
It took roughly an hour for them to fully photograph and make observations about the egg, at which point, they regrouped with Jax. The group hiked back to the shuttle, where Corporal Rodas waited for them. Within moments of the team boarding the shuttle, they were in the air, heading back to the landing zone.
The scientists conversed animatedly about the significance of the find, but Jax and the marines rode in silence. The scientists had poked the egg and taken a sample from it. The commander hoped that their containment equipment was enough to handle the sample of whatever this thing was. The scientists were giddy with excitement, but Jax just knew that this egg was dangerous. He hoped that their readings would reveal otherwise, but Donavan Jax was certain that he hoped in vain.
6
Carol read the commander’s report detailing the science team’s handling of what the commander called “the egg.” The science team followed Starfleet’s procedures, but Jax’s order for them not to touch it should not have been disobeyed. Technically, Miss Reddy had the authority as Science officer to do what she did, but Carol did not like the burgeoning divide between the science team and the ground team.
Though Miss Reddy was technically in the chain of command, she was part of Starfleet’s science and research division, and was not actually military. Jax could order her, and Miss Reddy would be obliged to obey, but she had no loyalty to the military. Millions of miles away from Earth, the science team faced no disciplinary consequences except those that Carol could enforce.
Jax could force the issue with the science officer, but the commander was used to having people obey him, and to being respected by his peers and subordinates. When his orders were summarily dismissed, he could be as mean as any drill sergeant. Carol laughed to herself at the thought of Jax dropping Vanya for pushups, but she doubted Vanya Reddy would respond well to that kind of motivation.
The rest of Jax’s report about the investigation of the egg showed the science team in a favorable light. They were efficient, knew what they were doing, and apart from the sample gathering, took no unnecessary risks. In their defense, gathering the sample was arguably not an unnecessary risk. The commander even spoke favorably about Miss Reddy, apart from his note about earlier tension. Perhaps things would work out between her XO and science officer after all.
Then, there was the matter of Doctor Davis’ requests for the Ursula AI, the construction of four more MEDroids, and the body of Shonda Richardson. The captain signed off on the MEDroids without hesitation, but his request for the Ursula AI gave the captain pause. Hutch’s reasoning seemed sound – with an AI architect aboard and the AI isolated from the Earth’s computers, it could be studied out here without any risks to the systems upon which human society depended – but, something was bothering her about it and Carol could not pin down what it was; which only bothered her more. Fiona and Kendr
ick would certainly object, but realistically, they had no say in what was done with the AI.
That left Carol with the question of Shonda’s body. Davis claimed that he and Xayasith might be able to revive Ms. Richardson. While the captain doubted this, and every fiber of her being told her that she should deny this request, the possibility that the chief engineer might be saved could not be passed up.
In the end, Captain Giffords did what she felt she was obliged to do; she signed the request and gave Davis’s people authority to take the AI from Doctor Royce and to take Shonda Richardson out of stasis. She also sent Fiona and Kendrick an e-mail giving them warning that the AI was to be taken by the science team. Carol considered telling them in person, but she felt like enough of a heel already and was simply not up to facing them. She only hoped that they would forgive her for what she had just done and hoped that she had not just made a disastrous mistake.
7
Data was streaming in from the sensors, and it was amazing. Vanya analyzed the numbers and could hardly believe what they had discovered. The sample was like a lizard’s egg; tough and leathery. But how did it survive the landing? Whatever was inside of it was alive, no question. Moreover, if the data was correct, the object held many eggs, each containing a lifeform. That meant … possibly hundreds of these creatures. What were they, and how did they survive the impact? More importantly, how did it end up here in the first place? This was not a meteorite. Comets were made mostly of ice. Meteors were made mostly of iron. Much as she hated to admit it, Jax was right: this really was an egg, except that it was not one egg, but hundreds of eggs—and eggs do not travel through space.
Jax – he had proven far more reasonable than she had originally expected him to be, and in light of what she was seeing of Doctor Davis and the NessCorp scientist, Xenia Xayasith, she was beginning to think the commander’s concerns were not as unlikely as Vanya had originally thought, especially given what they had just found.
Now that they were back aboard the ship, Miss Reddy was surprised to see that Davis had already moved on the AI request, most likely at the urgings of Doctor Xayasith. Vanya did not trust Xayasith, though with the attempted mutiny of Yeoman Lawson and the two Zduhać scientists, the science officer had all but forgotten all about the NessCorp scientist until now.
How would Doctor Kinsale-Royce react to the taking of the AI? More importantly, would Royce find some way to take it out on Vanya? She did not think so, but it still worried her just the same.
Then, there was the question of what would happen to the creatures if they did hatch? Would they die? And if not, what would they eat? There was no food on Ceres. She caught her own reflection in the screen, and gasped as she realized the terrible truth. Vanya knew the answer and it chilled her to the bone.
Vanya signaled Hutch, sending him a message to come to her cabin. She needed to speak with him immediately. The science officer needed to have a handle on what was happening and if things were going too far, Vanya needed to be able to reel it in before it got out of hand.
Her door chimed a moment later, and Miss Reddy signaled it to open. The door slid to the left into its pocket in the bulkhead, revealing Doctor Hutch Davis.
He stood a little taller, a little straighter than he had before. He had a twinkle in his eye, a change from the dry professor she recalled at the start of the mission. Davis even had a boyish grin on his face.
“Miss Reddy,” he said congenially. Even his voice was different, slightly more animated than before. “You wanted to see me?”
“I did,” she replied. “Come inside so I can close the door.”
He did as she asked, and the door closed behind him. Davis took a seat in one of the small chairs in her cabin and waited expectantly.
“Hutch, why did you requisition the Ursula AI?”
“We have an AI programmer on our team, as well as Doctor Xayasith, a noted AI architect. Nobody has ever fully unraveled what Doctor Conway-Royce built, and now that she’s dead, nobody can ask her. But we have a copy of the Selene AI in Lawson’s server. We can actually study it away from any of Earth’s networks or any human population. This is an opportunity we can’t pass up.”
His logic was sound, but something still bothered Vanya. “Okay, but if this AI gains access to the ship, we could all be in serious trouble. Also, I don’t trust Doctor Xayasith not to transmit a copy back to NessCorp or obtain a copy for herself to bring back at a later date.”
“Xenia assures me that she is one-hundred percent with us, Miss Reddy.” Davis’ reply was somewhat terse, and he looked at Vanya with disapproval.
“I take it the two of you are in agreement on this matter then?”
Davis nodded. “She’s a highly respected scientist, Miss Reddy. Just because she’s corporate doesn’t make her evil.”
Vanya laughed in disbelief. “Hutch, you actually said that corporate science was the cancer of the scientific community and should be banned! Doesn’t that kind of say that they’re all problematic to some degree?”
“I did, and it is,” he agreed. “But I am willing to give the woman a chance. It’s not like we all can just pursue science for its own sake.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that. Just… just be careful, Hutch. Also, I hope you consulted with Doctor Kinsale-Royce about this – if you didn’t, she might not be amenable.”
“It’s not her decision,” Davis replied. “Not only that, she is a phenomenon that needs to be studied. I already have blood samples taken by Doctor Biggs – he practically begged me to take them. I’ve commissioned four MEDroids and obtained a cadaver for ….”
“A cadaver?” Vanya’s eyes widened at this and her voice was raised nearly to shouting. “The only cadaver on this ship is Ms. Richardson!”
“In space, one makes do with what one has available,” he said, confirming her fears. “We need to see how the nanotech interacts with human cells and to do that, I needed a cadaver. Hers was the only one available. Giffords must agree; she signed off on it.”
“She what?” Vanya could hardly believe it. “This is the kind of shit people like Jax get pissed off about, Hutch! Richardson was a fucking Starfleet officer, for crying out loud! You’re talking about doing medical experimentation of the body of a deceased crewmember! We’d need written consent for that!”
“We have it,” Davis said smugly. “It’s given by every member of Starfleet when they join – that whole ‘we own you’ part of joining the military. They sign a waiver.”
“That is unethical as hell and you know it! That woman has family! And you’re a leading scientist, not some fucking jarhead!”
“Science cannot afford sentimentality,” Davis countered. “I have the captain’s signature on this, and I will move forward with this, with or without your participation.”
So that was what it had come to – Davis was forging ahead, damn the torpedoes, with Xayasith cozying up to him all the while.
“You know that I can shut this down, Doctor Davis.” Vanya was done with the familiarity of first names.
“I have the captain’s permission,” he reminded her.
“Fine. Do what you want. But just remember; the moment you take that AI from the Med-Bay, Fiona will be your enemy. If she’s your enemy, then Royce is your enemy. If he’s your enemy, Jax will be too within five minutes.”
“Jax is not the captain.” He smiled smugly like he had just gotten one over on her.
“No, he’s not,” Vanya conceded. “Jax will tow her line – but Royce won’t. Neither will Fiona. He owns this ship, Doctor Davis, and she is this ship.”
“I hope to be able to disassociate the two,” Davis declared.
“This conversation is finished. You are dismissed.”
He looked at her with puzzlement. It was as though he had no idea just how much he was pissing her off.
“Well then… I will see you tomorrow?”
“Unfortunately.”
He abruptly left Vanya’s cabin in a huff, leaving her to fume
over what was happening. Part of her hoped that Royce would just deck the man. She shook her head. Nothing had turned out as it was supposed to, and things just kept getting worse. Vanya hoped that maybe they had hit the bottom and things would turn around. If not, she did not even want to think about that.
Of course, once the argument began, she completely forgot to tell him that the only source of food on Ceres for these creatures was the Starfleet crew and the science team. She sighed. She could tell him tomorrow. Right now, Vanya could not stomach another second speaking to Doctor Davis.
8
“You cannot do this,” Fiona exclaimed.
The two research assistants seemed unconcerned with Fiona’s protests, though the crewmen who accompanied them seemed to find the situation awkward.
“We’re under orders,” one of the crewmen – Miss Carson - noted.
“From whom?”
The other crewman looked pleadingly at Fiona. She recognized the crewmen as one of the ones who had helped unpack the MEDroids. The young man – James Gilroy, still looked at Fiona with puppy dog eyes, but now, those eyes were sad. The young crewman carried a crush on the doctor, and now, he was about to disappoint her.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Gilroy pled. “I really am. If I had a choice, but ….”
“But Doctor Davis has requested the AI for study,” one of the research assistants finished rather haughtily. “He has the authority and he….”
Before he could finish the sentence, Fiona had moved with preternatural speed to within centimeters of the assistant.
“Do not test my patience, and do not attempt to utilize another’s rank. This is my Med-Bay, and I have a say in what comes in and what goes out.”
Then she turned to one of the MEDroids. “Would you not agree?”
The MEDroid designated G1 nodded. “I do, Doctor Royce.”
The Silver Liner: Sails to the Edge! Page 3
