Don’s quick look up confirmed his suspicion. Jack waited though, letting the silence force Don to answer.
“Jack, it’s just that we’re too far out to know for certain.”
“Don, I need to be able to rely on your judgement, so you need to tell me everything. Otherwise, we will have a problem.”
“They’re ruins,” Don blurted out. “At least I’m better than ninety percent sure. I just wanted to be perfectly certain before I publicly announced something like this.”
“Or, before you admitted it to yourself?” Jack asked with a hint of empathy. “Keep in mind, this is what we expected after finding the wreckage in the asteroid belt.”
“I guess I was still hoping. I just don’t understand why it’s like this.”
“That’s part of what we’re here to find out. Think of it, regardless of whether there’s anyone left down there, we’re about to explore an entirely new world, not to mention see the first definitive proof ever that there are other intelligent races out here. This is nothing short of the most amazing thing any of us could ever have dreamt of doing.”
“I know.” Don looked away from him, but then perked up as he quickly added, “Jack, there is one other thing that I noticed.”
“Go on.”
“The more I look at this, the more it looks like a colony.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, we have a single, small city-like structure, but there’s nothing else. No other signs of civilization, nor any signs of less advanced construction. A city should be an amalgam of buildings from different times as the civilization learned and advanced. Look at New York. Even leaving historical buildings out of it, it’s still a mix of structures built at different times over nearly two centuries. This place here looks like it was done in one shot.”
“We still haven’t seen what’s on the other side of the planet,” Jack said, playing devil’s advocate.
“True, but at their apparent level of technology, they should be spread across the globe. There’s something else going on here. I want to know more about them.” Don took a breath and opened his mouth as if to continue, but said nothing.
“You want to go down on this first landing,” Jack said.
“Yes, of course. I thought that went without saying. The truth is, I was a little surprised that you said you were going to go.”
“Captain’s prerogative,” Jack answered with a smile. “I want to speak those words that’ll go down next to Armstrong’s ‘One small step for a man’ line.” He watched Don’s face start showing a hint of disappointment, and said, “But, it would only be logical to take the chief science officer with me. Palmer and Kurt can take care of the IPV while we’re down there.”
Don allowed himself a smile as he asked, “When do we go?”
“As soon as we get the Magellan in a distant stable orbit and we get the IPV back here – probably tomorrow morning. So we’ll need to set aside some time soon to go over your data.”
“I’ll get everything we need together now,” Don answered with a hint of enthusiasm.
“Good, I’ve got a lot of other matters to attend to in the meantime.”
Chapter 11 – July 15, 2124
Jack stood with his back against the wall of the IPV’s small sick bay, and watched as Helena carefully checked the tiny silver sensors on Janet’s forehead. White bandages covered most of her scalp, allowing only a few locks of her short, blond hair to show through. Her face was peaceful, as if asleep, but her pallor said otherwise. Several thin wires emerged from the beige sheet that covered her, and ran up to a monitor. Helena periodically glanced at it, tempting Jack to ask what she was seeing, but he knew better than to interrupt. To distract himself, he studied the computer readout himself; but it told him nothing more than he already knew – her vital signs were stable and she was still in a coma. Frustrated, he pulled his attention away from the display and looked around the bright, beige and white room. It was barely large enough to accommodate three patients and accompanying support equipment, giving it a perpetually crowded feeling: a fact that became apparent again as he stepped aside to let Helena move around and check another monitor. She then used a small, stethoscope to listen to her patient’s chest once more before looking up at Jack. “Well there’s some improvement. She’s still comatose, but her lungs are clearer and her pulse and pressure are staying stable.”
“So what does that really mean?”
“It means that we’re headed in the right direction. The longer she had problems with fluid and her B.P., the more likely we’d have problems bringing her out of the coma. This is going to take time.”
“Have you thought about direct neural stimulus?”
“I’m not comfortable about using that without knowing more about any potential damage to her brain. Letting her come out of this at her own pace is the best way.”
“But what about...”
Helena cut him off using a gentle tone, “Jack, I know you want to somehow fix this, but there’s nothing you can do right now. And don’t second guess yourself. There was no way to prevent this. You had to approve the maneuver. It saved the ship and who knows how many other injuries and lives. Now let me do my job here, and everything will work out.”
Jack didn’t want her making excuses for him, and simply replied, “How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Maybe a few weeks, maybe longer. I can’t say.”
Devon’s voice came in over the comm., “Captain, we’re at five minutes before orbital insertion.”
“Thank you.” Turning to Helena, he said, “I’ve got to head back to the bridge. Let me know if anything develops.”
“Of course.”
Jack gave himself a good push and glided into the dimly lit hallway. A quick kick against the wall sent him down the narrow passage. Its close dimensions allowed him to grab and push off of either wall without having to zigzag unnecessarily, making it easier to traverse in zero-g than under normal gravity. The only navigational challenge occurred as he passed Maurice Traynor, their computer tech, who was heading toward the stern. Deep in thought, Maurice barely seemed to notice him, and just pushed down to slip by underneath. Jack awkwardly yanked his legs up, barely in time to avoid contact. He turned quickly to make sure Maurice was OK, but the man was already heading out of earshot. Jack just shrugged to himself, turned and headed back toward the nose of the ship. As he reached the corridor’s end, he grabbed onto a ladder leading to the upper deck. There was no need to climb it; the ladder served merely as a convenient hand-hold on which to pull as he launched himself upward. After that, there was only a short, straight passage before he reached the bridge.
The room was lit more by the light from a dozen computer displays and the bright image of Epsilon Eri-D on the main view screen, than by the dim lights lining the ceiling. Jack glanced around and quickly took note of who was present. Devon was seated at the right-side pilot’s station near the front of the room; Palmer, Don, Kurt and Nadya were seated at four of the six workstations that lined its perimeter. Though he hadn’t said anything, Devon seemingly sensed his presence, turned to look back at him, and said, “Everything is go for orbital insertion in three minutes and twenty seconds.”
“Good.” Jack glided over to his command chair, before saying, “Are all data links back to the Magellan in place?”
“Yes sir,” Devon answered. “I also double checked the relays that’ll be sending our signals back to Earth. Everything’s set.”
“Very good.” He looked down at a small hand-sized computer display attached to his armrest. It depicted the IPV’s approach to Epsilon Eri-D via a cryptic schematic. A light blue ellipse encircling a blue globe indicated their target orbit; a yellow line entering from the left, represented their approach.
“Three minutes until orbital insertion,” Devon announced. “Engine burn commencing in ten seconds.” The room stayed silent until Devon spoke again. “Three…two…one, burn commencing.”
A barely audi
ble hum started, and slowly grew until the ship was filled with the drone of high-power transformers feeding the ion engines. Jack was pressed back into his seat by the acceleration.
“Engines are operating nominally,” Devon called out over the din.
Jack looked up at the view screen, which was filled with the northern hemisphere of Epsilon Eri-D. Centered on it was the oblong continent he’d seen earlier. It contained the only signs of civilization they’d uncovered so far. The dusty beige tones of a great desert dominated the western two-thirds of the continent. A line of rugged, dark gray mountains peppered with snowy peaks bordered the arid region, separating it from the plains and tropical coastal regions that lay to the east. Off shore, past the shallow, teal waters, was a swirl of thick, white clouds: a tropical storm system was trying to take form.
The noise from the engines subsided, and the feeling of weightlessness returned. “Burn concluded,” Devon said in a normal tone. “We are now in a synchronous orbit over the continent.” Devon continued his announcement by reading off their longitude, latitude and other relevant data, but Jack’s attention was still fixated on the planet in front of them. The world was as close to a carbon copy of Earth as they would ever find. It was ninety-five percent of Earth’s size. Though it was a full one-quarter closer to Epsilon Eri than the Earth was to the Sun, this was balanced by the fact that Epsilon Eri was a cooler star. Jack marveled at this coincidence, since it resulted in Epsilon Eri-D having nearly the exact same climate as back home. In fact, Don’s preliminary data showed the planet’s average temperature to be eighteen degrees Celsius, just two degrees warmer than Earth. Its surface was even mostly covered with water. The only real difference was its age. Epsilon Eri and its planetary system were three and a half billion years younger than the Earth.
Jack’s train of thought was interrupted as Devon said, “All systems are stable.” And then in a lower tone, “Will you be prepping the shuttle for immediate departure?”
Jack smiled at Devon’s unsuccessful attempt to hide his disappointment at being excluded from the first landing party. Unfortunately, the small runabouts that passed for shuttles on the IPV held only three people. He answered calmly, “Yes, I’ll be heading down to the shuttle bay in a minute.” Turning to Kurt, Jack continued, “I’d like you to get the mapping and communications satellites deployed as soon as possible. Let’s see about getting a good overall picture of this place. Once that’s done, we can start thinking about plans to land the IPV.”
“I should be able to have it done within the hour,” Kurt answered.
“Good,” Jack replied. He went over to Don and said, “Helena wants us to stop by sick bay for the gear before we go down.”
“OK. I’m ready when you are.”
Turning to Palmer, who was now standing by his side, Jack said, “Palmer, the ship’s yours.”
Palmer replied with his standard, “Yes sir.”
Jack quickly headed off the bridge with Don following close behind. When they reached sick bay, Helena was standing in the doorway talking with Alex Gilmartin, the exobiologist that would be accompanying them on the landing. Seeing them, she turned and said, “Good, you’re here already. I won’t have to go over this twice.”
“Why, what’s going on?” Don asked.
“Nothing big Don, I just want to go over the bio-contamination protocol and talk about the modifications that I’ve made to the suits. Since you’ll be landing in a tropical climate, you won’t need the insulating and climate control layers. Basically, all you’ll be wearing is the equivalent of a biohazard suit. The outer layer has the new coatings we came up with. Basically, they’re so frictionless that even pollen and dust’ll slide off of them. But despite that, I still want you to take the same precautions you would have with the old suits: decontaminate in the airlock, and seal the suits in there before returning back here. The only things from that planet I want coming back on this ship are your sealed samples so I can prep the necessary serums.”
Jack took a neatly folded, olive-green suit from her. It shimmered in the light and felt slippery to the touch, even more so than silk. He then picked up a flexible helmet, which on closer inspection looked more like a hood than anything else. It had a clear, plastic face plate in front, and translucent green sides. A small camera and light assembly, no larger than a half-dollar, sat just above the face plate.
“No hoses or air supply?” Don asked.
“No,” Helena answered, “Since the atmosphere checked out so well, I decided to go with a five-angstrom molecular filter on the hood. The sides and rear of the hood are actually a nano-mesh that won’t let anything through larger than Oxygen and Nitrogen molecules.”
“So we’ll get to breathe fresh air,” Jack said, emphasizing the “we.”
“Don’t push it,” Helena shot back. “I could still change my mind and make you breath the bottled stuff. Anyway, before I let you go, I want you to pay particular attention to the neck seal around the hood.” She took the one from Jack’s hands and flipped it over. “You’ll need to make sure it fits tightly against the plastic neck ring on the suit. The suit’s fabric has embedded electronic sensors and transducers to ensure a perfect seal, as long as there are no large folds or gaps. So check each other to make sure that there aren’t any.”
“Understood,” Jack said as he took the hood back.
“And one more thing, get samples of everything. The audio and video recorders will be running the whole time, so make sure that when you get a sample, I can see the bottle or bag number before you put it away. I’ll need to correlate them with the images of the environment that you took them from.”
Jack pulled the suit on over his clothes, tucked the hood under his arm, and asked, “Are there any questions?” Alex and Don just shook their heads. Shrugging his shoulders, he looked back to Helena and said, “OK, I think we’re set. We’ll see you in a few hours.”
The airlock to the shuttle was only a few meters down the hall. Jack led the way in silence, looking back only as he climbed into the small vehicle. It seemed that they were all completely engrossed in their own thoughts. The cabin was cramped to begin with, and most of what little space it did have was consumed by stacks of sample cases. He pushed himself toward the front of the craft to make room for the others, but found that it was easiest just to immediately climb into the pilot’s chair. As Don glided into the seat next to him, Jack turned around and said, “Alex, you want to seal that...” but stopped as he saw that Alex was already locking down the inner shuttle door.
The scientist finished what he was doing and answered, “What? You think I want to waste any more time up here?”
“I should’ve known better. Computer, are all systems ready?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Depressurize the shuttle bay and open the outer doors.”
There was the tell-tale rush of air being pumped out, followed by the computer announcing, “Bay doors are open sir.” Jack’s view out the cockpit window, however, told him nothing. The shuttles were docked nose-first to the IPV, and launched by backing out of either a port or starboard hatch near the rear of the vehicle. As a result, all he saw through the cockpit was an inner corner of the shuttle bay. “Rear view,” he said.
The cockpit window darkened quickly as an embedded LCD matrix charged. A second later he had a clear view from the aft camera: A line of ivory clouds drifting over a deep blue ocean below was framed by the open shuttle bay door. Jack took the control stick in his hand and gently pulled back. The shuttle bay disappeared and the curved edge of the globe set against the black backdrop of space came into view. Sunlight glistened off of the inviting alien ocean. Hanging peacefully above the deep blue water were the bright white wisps of a distant cloud formation. They broadened and curved southwards, making up a storm system on some frontal boundary. Jack stayed focused, though, and said, “Front view.” The image disappeared as the window became transparent again. The delta-shaped IPV lay in front of them, its bright spotlig
hts emanating from the open, starboard bay door. The craft grew smaller as they slowly drifted away, becoming little more than a triangular toy floating in a black sea. He pushed left and forward on the stick, and the shuttle turned quickly toward the planet, beginning its descent.
At first it felt as if they were stationary, suspended high above the ocean below. The engines rumbled but they made no apparent headway. Jack glanced to his right and saw Don staring silently out the window. No one said a word, as they watched in anticipation. The amber hologram of the ship’s instruments floating to his left gave the only indication that they were on course. Their altitude was dropping and had just passed the 4,000 kilometer mark. Their speed was now under twelve-thousand kilometers per hour. The deep blue of open ocean, leading up to the northern continent’s arid western landscape dominated his field of view. As the minutes passed, their downward progress became visible. The curve of the planet’s surface flattened, and the blue haze of an earth-like sky began to surround them. He had to look nearly straight up to still see the blackness of space. The computer adjusted the shuttle’s attitude, pitching its nose upward in anticipation of the scathing heat that its underbelly would soon absorb. His only view now was out the side window, where he saw the western coast of the continent pass beneath them; its great desert stretching out ahead. They were low enough now that the approaching snowcapped mountains appeared as more than just rough patches on some detailed map. Jack tried focusing on them, but the air was growing thick, and an iridescent orange glow began to obscure his view. Equipment rattled as they plowed into pockets of thicker and thicker air; yellow-orange flames from the super-heated gasses outside illuminated the cockpit in an eerie glow. His weight quickly returned and passed his normal ninety kilograms. Within a minute, two and a half g’s of deceleration pressed him deep into his seat. Breathing required a conscious effort. As the ionized cloud surrounding them intensified, the windows turned opaque and Jack was forced to watch their progress on the instruments projected onto the now dark surface in front of him. They were at fifty kilometers and traveling just under eight-thousand kilometers per hour. Another two minutes and they’d be through the rough part.
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