by Dennis Young
Ndashimye continued. “It appears the planet has a very low population. No more than ten to twenty million, concentrated in the habitable band.”
“But they’re pretty much like us in environmental requirements,” said Reid.
Ndashimye shook her head. “Only in the most basic of ways. These creatures, with minimal intelligence and no real technology, have likely evolved to the point they are now over a very long period. Whether they were semi-intelligent before the builders disappeared isn’t known.”
Haversen sipped coffee and ruminated. “Let me get this straight. The planet shows signs of high technology, enough to build a massive underground heating system to warm the planet, build cities, cultivate wide expanses of land, and there is no sign of the people who did it? Only… these?” He motioned to the screen.
Somura spoke. “Yes, sir. They average about a meter and a half tall, about forty kilos, intelligence is roughly Earth Neanderthal. They are tribal, territorial, and vicious in a fight.” The scene changed to an obvious skirmish between several dozen creatures. They used sharpened sticks, rocks tied to poles, and slings. All appeared to be lethal.
“Looks like a cross between a kangaroo and a river rat.” Simmons blinked as everyone on the Bridge turned to him. “Pardon me, sir, but they do.”
Chuckles made their way through the crowd. Haversen looked to Somura and grinned. The Science Officer only rolled her dark eyes and shook her head.
“Can we communicate with them?” Haversen asked at last. “Your report said they have language. What does Intel think?”
“They communicate, yes, sir, but only in rudimentary ways.” Somura was obviously glad to return to the subject. “They have gestures, even other vocalizations that convey basic information, but language… I don’t think they’ve advanced that far yet.”
“Can they learn?” asked Reid from the Con. “Even dogs and some of the ape family can understand human words.”
“Unknown,” replied Ndashimye. “And as the planet will reach the Interdiction Zone in less than six days, we don’t have time to teach them.”
Somura touched the controls and a picture of several creatures appeared. “In summary, sir, I recommend that if you decide to send a survey team, they should take maximum precautions.”
Her tone and words got everyone’s attention. Low conversations circled the Bridge as Haversen looked between the XO and Somura. At last he held a hand for quiet. “Your recommendations, XO? If we send a team, what might we learn?”
Ndashimye paused before answering. “Sir, we will learn little in the time available. But what little we learn may lead us to discover what happened on this planet and where the advanced peoples went. Assuming they went anywhere.”
“Is it worth the risk, in your opinion?”
“If we go, it must be for a purpose, not just a… ‘look-see’”.
“Mr. Reid, where is that largest concentration of ruins, did you say?”
“I have the coordinates here, Captain.” Reid looked to Haversen. “Shall I post them to Sciences?”
Haversen nodded. “Commander Somura, prepare a team and the portable E-lab. No more than six, and a security detail of six more. Get with Lieutenant Grayson for his recommendations on security. Everyone will carry sidearms at all times. You will not approach or engage the natives under any circumstances. Your job is to learn what you can regarding the previous civilization and what might have happened to them.”
The captain looked to the Nav station. “Mr. Reid, you will be second in command on the landing team. I expect you to learn a bit about archeology and forensic sciences on this brief assignment.”
Reid looked to Somura who gave him a hard look.
The Science Officer turned again to Haversen. “When shall we leave, sir?”
“Two duty cycles. Select your team, get the details worked out with your staff and security, then take some rest before you go.”
Somura nodded again. “Yes, sir. Permission to leave the Bridge and begin.”
“Of course. Well done, both of you. Dismissed.”
Haversen caught the questioning look in Ndashimye eye as Somura headed for the lift. “XO, I want you on station at Sciences and the Sensornet. You’ll monitor the team, so choose your seconds as well.”
“Very well, sir.”
Haversen glanced to the screen, now showing the planet again. “I have a feeling this won’t go as smoothly as we would like.” He looked back at Ndashimye. “We may need you here more than on the planet. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t imagine the Jen’riss sitting still while we crack open a celestial mystery.”
* * *
The survey party took a shuttle to the outskirts of the
largest city on the main continent. They spent half the day setting up the E-lab outside the ruins and camouflaging it to appear as nothing more than another vegetation-covered mass. Somura had insisted everyone touching and carrying foliage or other native items wear full environmental gear, and for good reason. They found in the initial exams a few of the plants held toxins of unknown type that registered red in their scans.
Ruben O’Malley had been assigned as lead of security and chose his team for experience in planetary missions, nothing else. Somura picked an archeologist, herself as exo-bioligist, an S-tech as lab assistant, an exo-botanist, a forensics intern… and Reid, at the captain’s instance.
The first evening was spent inside the lab. It was crowded, but held twelve partitioned private areas, the main lab and analysis room, a small kitchen area consisting of not much more than a portable autochef and table, and a secure communications rig in a corner. The lab itself was double-walled, held semi-rigid by positive air pressure, with an airlock that could be secured from the inside in case of emergency.
Somura spoke with her charges as they unpacked their gear. “We have about five days to learn what we can about the inhabitants who built this place. We’ve got coffee, tea, and stims if you need them. It’s going to be long hours for everyone, but this is a chance we’ll likely never see again. An entire civilization disappeared, seemingly overnight, leaving this free-floating planet to the creatures we’ve discovered through our shipboard investigations.”
She touched the viewer controls on the table and a picture of a creature filled the screen. “Once again, these things are dangerous. No one outside without sidearms, travel only in pairs. One researcher, one security guard. Don’t get separated. Don’t shoot anything unless it’s threatening you directly. Use only stun setting.” She looked sternly to O’Malley who nodded. “Keep your comm channel open at all times. Report in every hour, position, observations, whatever you think is important.” She nodded to Reid. “Lieutenant Reid will handle the data base and coordinate information as it comes in. Rest when necessary, but don’t for any reason fall asleep out of the E-lab. As I said, we’ve got stims; use them. We can sleep when we get back to Bellerophon.”
“What about collecting artifacts?” asked Doctor Margaret Haley, the archeologist and a middle-aged woman with an impressive record of off-world studies.
“Good question. We’ll take it on a case-by-case basis. I’ll defer to your judgement and the captain’s decisions. Remember, we can always take 3-V impressions and do virtual reconstructions on the ship.”
“No plants,” said Joseph Martinez, the exo-botanist. “Some of the vegetation is plain nasty. Very acidic. We’ll do full cultures, so we can sample anything we deem worthy of further study.”
Everyone nodded agreement.
“Remember,” continued Somura. “Our goal is to find out what we can about what happened here. Whether they all died of some world-wide plague, or took off in starships, somewhere there must be a record. That, and how this planet came to be a rogue.”
“Excuse me, Commander.” Reid almost raised his hand, then dropped it to his side. “Theories I’ve read say rogues were created out of the left-over stuff when galaxies were formed. I guess I don’t understand your point.”
Doctors Harley and Martinez were both nodding with Somura as she continued. “It’s my opinion this planet didn’t start out as a free-floater. How would life have evolved on a frozen world, or plants come into existence? For whatever reason, I think this planet left the sun it once revolved around, whether by accident or on purpose. Whoever built this civilization once had a home.” She looked Reid in the eye. “You’re our top navigator on Bellerophon. Maybe you can backtrack their course and find out where it was. And why they left.”
* * *
The first day went smoothly, with hyper-awareness and over-compensation for safety protocols in everyone’s minds.
On the second day, Somura led Haley and the S-tech on a search into the ruins, finding little but moldering buildings, wreckage, and an occasional bit of bone or piece of technology. Haley took scans of the bone, bagged two small rust-ridden objects for further study, and as they returned to the E-lab, asked permission to investigate a small depression possibly leading to a cave.
“Underground there may be clues protected better from the environment.”
Somura checked in with Reid, found all other parties had returned, and, with a bit of trepidation, nodded assent. “Ensign Parker and I will wait outside the entrance. If this turns out to be nothing more than a hole in the ground, don’t waste time. No tricks, no fancy digging. We’ve been out almost ten hours and we need to correlate our daily findings.”
“Give me half an hour, no more,” replied Haley. She motioned her security escort to follow and disappeared into the gloom.
“Lights on max,” said Somura to Parker, and the ensign increased his searchlight brightness.
They had all worn light E-suits, made of tough, slick material, with built-in gloves, close-fitting helmets, and breathing apparatus. The suits were temperature-regulated and coated with a substance that resisted clinging to just about anything. Reid had called them “slimy-suits” because to the touch, they felt as if they were coated with light oil. They were engineered to breathe, allow perspiration to pass, and collect bodily discharge as necessary. They were recyclable, the party donning new suits each day.
Somura and Parker stayed alert, both having taken the recommended stim dosage for a twelve-hour shift. Though the temperature was cool, the close-fitting suits caused them to sweat, and they drank from their fluid spigots often.
Nothing moved in the murky light. There was little wind and virtually no weather on this rogue planet. The incredible heating mechanism below ground brought enough warmth to the crust that clouds and light rain formed as the heated air rose, shrouding the sky and hiding most of the stars. The only sounds were the soft rustling of plants in the minimal breezes.
“Commander, I have something I think you should see.” Haley’s voice was casual and professional on the intercom, but Somura knew the scientist would not ask her presence unless the findings were important.
“Follow me in, Ensign, cover our backs.” Somura bent low to enter the depression opening and Parker backed in carefully, keeping his searchlight and weapon moving side to side. They came into an opening, a room of some sort originally, and stared into a vertical shaft leading down into the darkness.
“You called me in to look at an elevator shaft?” Somura traded looks with Haley, and the archeologist motioned to a nearby table. Arranged on it were plates, nearly metallic in look, but thin, almost flexible, and covered in symbols and glyphs.
“Writing,” breathed Somura, and Haley nodded.
There were dozens, perhaps as many as a hundred, and all were arrayed neatly on a low platform. Somura walked slowly by the plates, her hand drifting on them gently. “About the right height for the current inhabitants, yes?”
Haley nodded. “My thought as well, but they can’t have been the originators of these records. First of all, my scans don’t even register an age, they’re in pristine condition, and the creatures we’ve seen don’t have the intelligence or the facilities to do this. Even if they had written language, the equipment necessary to fabricate these must have been extremely high-tech.”
“Second day here and we find a history book?” Somura shook her head. “And on the outskirts of a major city? Why weren’t they put someplace better protected?”
“Maybe they are protected.”
Somura looked to the doctor. “By whom or what? The creatures?”
“Yes, otherwise this place would be as ransacked as everywhere else we’ve seen.” She waved her hand around the room. “It’s clean, devoid of vegetation, little settled dust, and this table is in good condition. Someone has set these either an explanation for us… or a trap.”
Somura’s head came up quickly. “Everyone out, now!”
They exited, nothing seen around the entrance as they regained the surface, no waiting circle of creatures, no crude explosive devices, nothing. They looked at each other, chagrin on their faces.
“Please, Doctor, we’re all on edge enough. No more theatrics.”
Haley nearly smiled. “Sorry, but I needed to get everyone out before we did something stupid.”
“You mean like poking around, disturbing the evidence, and maybe carrying some of these back to the lab?”
“Exactly.”
Somura nodded. “Let’s set a blinker and come back tomorrow better prepared to investigate. In the meantime, we’ll call it a day. We need rest and food, then we’ll see what everyone else has found. Ensign Parker, break out a blinker and plant it close by, but not right at the entrance.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Parker slid a slender rod from his backpack, extended it to three-meter length, stabbed the null-end into the soil, and hit the switch. The blinker lit with a strobing white light.
Somura motioned to the path. “Parker lead, Ensign Pakash, take up the rear. Don’t let anything sneak up on us.”
They headed back, knowing the trek would take the better part of an hour. No one saw the bright eyes that watched from the dense vegetation as they marched away from the cavern.
Four
Decisions
“Duty Log, Captain William Haversen, 160728.6. Much has changed since the landing team set down. Reports of findings have Commander Ndashimye and the scientists are still on board working overtime. A steady stream of holos, vids, and text information continues to eminate from the E-lab, and some of our off-duty personnel have offered assistance to the Science staff.
Regarding the Jen’riss, they’ve made no hostile moves, but have repositioned themselves along the projected track of the planet, as it nears the I-Zone. While I doubt they would attack our landing party, I won’t put anything past them, and I’ve ordered Tactical to keep a close eye on their movements.”
* * *
Days three and four on the planet were filled with investigations, examinations, and more questions than answers. By the end of the fourth day, Somura knew they would need months, if not years, to begin to understand the language on the plates, even with the help of Bellerophon’s linguistics computer and Intel’s resources that weren’t already being used for shipboard activities. She called a halt to activity early in the ship’s evening duty cycle and asked the captain for a vid conference on a secure line.
They gathered for a video conference with notebooks, diagrams, charts, graphs, and the only three plates Somura had allowed into the E-lab, fully sealed and with security tags firmly in place. For two hours they conversed, theorized, argued, discussed, and simply guessed, until at last Haversen held his hand for quiet.
“Commander, what I’m hearing from you is, you stumbled upon what appears to be a setup. That is, something specifically put in a fairly easy-to-find location with information that, as far as we can tell, says this planet once revolved around a sun and was set out of its orbit due to stellar issues. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir. Between our further study for the last couple of days, the library computer work done by Commander Ndashimye, and the Intel section, this planet left its orbit… well, we really don’t know how long ago, but c
ertainly within our original estimate of a million years. The star around which the planet and seven others revolved, began expanding into the red giant stage. Before this planet could fully leave its home system, the star had devoured the two inner planets and made this one barely habitable.”
Somura nodded to Haley who brought a graph up on a split-screen and spoke. “Captain, this world was moved at least twice before it became a free-floater. The first time out to the orbit of the fifth planet, and finally beyond the seventh. By that time, the underground heating system was nearly complete, and the planet escaped the gravitational well of the system.
“How was this achieved?” asked Ndashimye.
Haley shook her head slowly. “We don’t know. We have yet to find any record of the mechanisms used, the technology required, or how long it took. Again, the planet has been rogue for approximately a million years. But where it came from and how it got here, there are no clues.”
“I have a bit of information on that,” said Reid. Haversen on the screen nodded him to continue. “I’ve backtracked about one hundred thousand years into this planet’s travels using computer modeling and best-guesses. It will take Fleet facilities to do any better than what I have, but at least it’s a start. Based on its current speed and stellar maps, the planet must have come from somewhere at least ten thousand light years away and likely closer to the core of our galaxy.”
The room was silent for moments as the information sank in.
“That would be fifty years travel at 200c,” said Ndashimye.
“Yes, Commander. Quite a journey, even at that speed.”
Haversen contemplated quietly for a moment. “What else, Commander?”
“That’s about it, sir. We’ve dug through everything in the cavern, even descended into the rooms below via the elevator shaft. The only things of value are these plates, and they were definitely set up for someone to find.”
“But set up by whom?” asked Ndashimye. “The creatures inhabiting the planet now are not intelligent beyond your previous estimates, impossible that they set the findings. Why would they leave the findings alone should they have encountered them? Therefore, our analysis of the event is still incomplete.”
