"Report, Nicraan," Capel called. "Readings here show that you're at the epicenter of that temblor."
"There is a lot of tectonic activity here, Commander. Whatever is causing the increased radiation is also causing the temblors and the volcanic activity within this crater. Permission to investigate, Commander," Nicraan finally said. "It's the only way to know for sure what is going on. Since the shuttle is operational it is time for a space --"
"Permission granted," Capel cut the pilot off. The male was right, and there was really no need to have him go on and on with an explanation -- it would have been inappropriate and unprofessional to do otherwise.
CHAPTER FIVE:
The shuttle glided at sublight out of orbit from the unnamed planet that held the Pioneer Pod 4 and the rest of its crew and into open Space. The unfamiliar galaxy was suddenly all there to be charted and rediscovered if possible. Nicraan glanced up at the viewports, taking in the sight of stars, glittering behind swirls of blue and red dust, only long enough to register their beauty before checking his readouts. There was so much data that needed to be collected, yet Nicraan had a specific mission and tuned his senses and the shuttle's controls on it.
"Approaching solar perimeter," Nicraan said, and hidden in his voice was heard an anticipation that matched those below on the planet's surface. On a holoset, a grid of the solar system blinked at him, showing his location on the perimeter. "Slowing to one-quarter sublight." Leaning forward to check a sensor reading, he drew back in surprise. "Computer," he called out to the onboard's pick-up, "give me visual at bearing three-two, by two-seven-one, range thirty-five hundred kilomets."
The display wavered and changed to the requested sector -- more space dust, a few errant asteroids, and the red supergiant. He frowned slightly at the data on the holosets.
"Pioneer, I'm picking up unusually high proton counts now. Setting a new course to those coordinates," Nicraan said, doing so without pausing to think or get confirmation from Capel; the shuttle veered, heading for the center of the disturbance.
Moela's voice crackled over the comm. "Major, in that asteroid belt, you could be looking at chondrite echoes. Be careful -- the radiation levels could increase to a dangerous level."
Nicraan's frown grew deeper as he worked his panel with both hands, checking multiple readouts. "Negative, Pioneer. That asteroid belt is without chondrite deposits. In fact, readings indicate that the majority of the rock composition is almost identical to the data we have on the planet itself. More like satellite rock.”
“A former moon?” Moela theorized.
“Could be as lost moon. That would explain the planet’s unstable rotational wobble; and the erratic meteorological patterns.” The shuttle’s command board signaled for the pilot’s attention; checking a scrolling holomonitor he reported. “The neutrino disturbances and delta emissions are getting stronger as I approach the coordinates.” Checking more readouts, he added, “All abnormal readings are not coming from the asteroid belt; yet, the Class-M star. Whatever it is, it's not affecting the shuttle's systems."
Moela's voice seemed to widen with intensity and scientific awe, "Eland, I'm picking up your sensor readings...all external wave intensities are increasing exponentially!"
Nicraan looked at his sensor board, saying, "Confirmed, Pioneer. It appears that the Class-M star is becoming unstable --"
The shuttle lurched and the readout holoscreens went dark. Instantly, Nicraan began fidgeting with the comm controls. "Sensors aren't functioning."
When there was no reply from the Pioneer, a realization hit him and he whispered with real fear, "I've lost contact with the ship."
At Ops, BeeTee studied its readouts and did its best not to react to the fact that the vessel bearing the pilot of the Pioneer had just gone silent. It seemed as if Space had simply filled with neutrinos, protons, delta rays, everything imaginable and the recon shuttle had sailed right into the maelstrom and been knocked unconscious.
Moela stared up from her station's holosets at the crew that circled her, lips parted, aghast.
"Scanners are reading a major spatial disruption at the Eland's coordinates," BeeTee said bleakly. "I have an energy wave from three-two by two-zero-one degrees --”
"Visual!" Capel ordered.
The nearest holoset flared brightly as an enormous shock front approached the shuttle, carrying with it roiling superheated gases and flaming chunks of debris.
Retho gasped in horror.
Capel crossed to BeeTee's station, bent over its shoulder, and looked at the holoset as if he just might throttle it. "What the Tauron is happening out there?"
"I don't know, Commander," BeeTee seemed to draw a breath, raised its head, and met his gaze head on. "Major Nicraan Matasire is in the middle of some surge ... a tidal wave if you will. We'll have to wait until it passes."
In the trembling shuttle, Nicraan stared down at the dark, useless sensor screens and vainly tried to reactivate the controls. He moved his hands steadily, surely over the navigation panel. The viewports revealed no stars, only a flickering rainbow light show that the pilot would have enjoyed if he had been in another mind-set other than controlled panic.
"Computer," Nicraan called out over the sounds of the ship shuddering, "I need assistance in recalibrating the navigational readings. The ship's trajectory and vector are crazy..."
The shuttle lurched again. Nicraan gritted his teeth and clutched his panel, managing to stay in his seat. The viewport suddenly filled with banks of destructive cloud waves in a great widespread movement from Space.
"Increase shields!" he yelled.
The cockpit lights flickered, and then pulsed crimson -- enveloping Nicraan in deep-red illumination making the banks of functional instruments and electronic equipment glow green all around him. The shuttle reeled, lurched, and gyrated both port and starboard. Nicraan braced himself in his chair and knew he had to turn the craft into the wave before the shuttle was totally taken over by the energy front and cartwheeled away with it into deep, uncharted Space. He would be hopelessly lost forever.
Hands moving quickly, Nicraan fired thrusters and turned the battling shuttle into the wave while boosting the craft to a quarter sublight power. The shuttle heaved for an instant, and then the strategy worked. Slowly, easily, the craft righted itself. The klaxons ceased, the scarlet glow faded and was replaced by normal lighting, and holosets flickered, dimmed, and then brightened ... the viewport filled with stars.
For an instant the cockpit fell resoundingly still. Not daring to draw breath, Nicraan waited; the shuttle remained stable. Abruptly, communication chatter resumed.
"Pioneer to Eland, respond," Capel's strained voice came billowing through the cockpit. "Damage report."
Keying the response icon, Nicraan found it odd to speak in a normal tone. "Seem to be in one piece, Commander. I'm checking all systems."
"Don't tell me that was any meteorite shower," Capel said.
"Negative." Nicraan's tone carried a question. "The shock wave originated at bearing three-two, by two-three-two-three, the location of --" he paused as he rechecked the answer, lifting dark brows in puzzlement -- "A remote satellite orbiting this system's Class-M star."
"Any more data?"
The pilot leaned over his station and studied the readout. "I have confirmed the location, sir, however..." His voice trailed off as he blinked, then frowned at the holoset.
"What is it?" Moela demanded.
Nicraan straightened and said, "I cannot confirm the existence of the satellite anymore. My scanners are focused on the correct coordinates."
"Can you relay visual?" Capel asked.
Nicraan Matasire went ahead and complied without a verbal response. Staring at his own holoset, he saw the image waver, then with more fine-tuning for enhancement; it enlarged to reveal only the red supergiant. A scalding hoop of magnetized gas on the stormy star's surface had bolted out into Space, licking 900,000 mets of darkness. It was a spectacular eruption. The onboard comput
er automatically calculated the total reaction of the event would have on the planet where the Pioneer Pod 4 was marooned. There would be a sixteen percent decrease in the world's ozone over its northern pole as a result of the solar turbulence and celestial eruption. It was also calculated that the planet's own sun would have its own solar convulsions because of the reverberating shock waves ringing through the solar group. But, more shocking to the shuttle's pilot was the data reporting on the small planetoid that companioned the red mammoth star. "It's gone. There's nothing left," Nicraan said.
"Yes," came Moela's dire voice, "but what is more frightening is what is in its place. The star is growing!"
"Eland," Capel's voice filled the air with authority. "Return to Pioneer, immediately."
Nicraan remained silent and turned the shuttle so it was oriented back toward the planet. As the small ship sped earthward, its pilot got a full view of the world. Sensor and scanner holosets were filled edge to edge with planetary data. Nicraan made a mental note at one bizarre reading concerning elevated levels of chlorine in the planet's upper atmosphere. The ozone was disappearing in the northern polar colure. Despite the freakish solar storm on the supergiant, the northern pole's stratosphere was losing one percent of its ozone every rotate.
The tectonic activity of the planet's surface had become so violent in certain areas, that even from this distance, Nicraan could see the great rifts in the planet's crust and the glowing fires of its interior. The planet’s star's blue-white disk grew larger as Nicraan watched.
A steady beep from his perimeter sensor array drew Nicraan’s attention away from the marbled planet rotating lazily outside the shuttle’s viewports.
“Now what?” he breathed.
“Eland,” came Moela’s voice as Nicraan squinted at his readouts. “Sensor relay picks up several more anomalous objects heading along your vector.”
“Confirmed, Pioneer Four,” Nicraan replied, tabbing contact points to give clarity as to what was heading toward the descending shuttle. “Hold on while I try to identify.”
A deafening roar, the small craft pitched leeward. Nicraan worked on the controls and the shuttle climbed sharply, evading another brush with space debris. “Pioneer,” he called, “I am encountering more rogue fragments.”
The Major maneuvered the Eland wildly, too erratically for a logical computer to comprehend or predict and managed to evade the bulk of the scrap hailing from Space.
“Nic, evasive maneuvers,” Capel ordered. “We’re picking up an entire cloud of micro-mineral and rock oddments. It’s almost as if a web has surrounded the planet and you’ve got yourself caught in the middle of it all.”
“Preparing to enter the atmosphere,” Nicraan countered. “I’ll use the ionospheric boundary to lose the fragments.”
Abruptly, he piloted the shuttle into a straight dive down into the ionosphere of the planet’s day-time half; on the viewports, the dust clouds and debris of the debris field thinned. The darkness of Space paled, and the yellow-blue atmosphere of the sky below brightened. But the ride was a bumpy one; Nicraan worked furiously to keep the ship from shaking itself apart.
“Scanners off-line,” the onboard computer reported over the din of engines whining and hull-plates renting.
A lightning-brilliant blast thundered in Nicraan’s ears and made the controls beneath his hands tremble. Then came another kettledrum roll. And then another. Another....
“Warning,” the onboard computer intoned, “Sensors detect a shower of micro-mineral gravel deposits within the upper atmosphere accompanying the Eland’s descent.”
“Doesn’t sound like gravel to me,” Nicraan snarled. “More like boulder-sized particles.”
Above his head, a conduit spewed green-tinged coolant gas; while still working the flight controls, Nicraan half-rose and worked to stop it. The shuttle began to rock from side to side – gently at first, then harder, until Nicraan was forced to leave the conduit repair and return fully to his piloting chair. There he clung to the console with one hand and manipulated the flight controls with the other.
“Warning,” came the onboard again, “inertial suppression and concussion dampeners are exceeding tolerance.”
“Evasive action, Nicraan ... evasive action!” Capel’s voice grated over the concealed speakers inside the Eland’s pilot section.
Nicraan wished he were giving them out instead of receiving them. He was young and he didn’t want to die yet. His hands moved dexterously over the control panel in front of him. Lights and numbers flashed wildly up on the holosets and flat screens of the shuttle. He swallowed, trying to control his feeling. He tried to remember his training and tried to lose himself in his work. The onboard computer worked calmly and logically aiding him at his task. The shuttle’s engines revved, and its body bucked and heaved as it underwent evasive contortions.
“Come on, Nicraan! Come on!” Capel’s voice crackled distantly to him across the distance between land and air. Base to shuttle.
“Nic... Nic...” Retho whispered to him, sobbing gently. His voice sounded loud, as though in the shuttle command section.
Nicraan clenched his jaw and muttered to himself, “I’ll have to keep trying.”
Even as the Aidennian pilot re-routed systems to give him more control of the damaged Eland, through the viewports, he could see the planet surface spiraling dizzily toward him. Nicraan’s heart banged heavily, and his body shook visibly with the shock.
“Warning,” the onboard computer calmly intoned. “Impact with planetary surface in sixty micronodes.”
The Major’s thoughts pounded into action as his mind instinctively snapped into action. He was a physically big male and his mind was far from weak, but he had gone through enough lately to test his powers of piloting to the limit. He had trained as a space pilot in the early moments of the Miran IV Project before the Saarien had launched and then been blasted by the invading Taurons. He had been one of the first astronauts to sign up and test to fly the siress-ship beyond the Frontier, and now he felt strongly for the terrors he was facing.
“Computer,” Nicraan commanded, “re-route secondary power to inertial suppressors.”
“Dampening sequencer damaged by debris impact.”
“Transferring control to manual,” Nicraan punched the command panel furiously while the computer went on to remind him:
“Warning. Impact with planetary surface in thirty micronodes.”
Nicraan finished the transfer just as the concerned voice of his commander echoed hollowly over the screaming din inside the Eland, “Nicraan, report your situation!”
The pilot ignored the order for the moment and earnestly punched at the control membrane and watched readout holosets and dials. He smiled as the onboard computer reported, “Dampening field established.”
“Computer, maximum power! Now!” Nicraan cried out with joy.
The shuttle responded once again to the controls; Nicraan pressed hard on the flight contact points as if his will alone were enough to create a cushion between him and death. The Eland went into a hard arc parallel to the planet’s surface, only a dozen or so retems away before soaring to a respectable distance.
“Shuttle Eland!” Capel’s urgent call came again. “Report! Nicraan, what is happening?”
As he tabbed the communication transmitter, suddenly Nicraan realized that he and his comrades were living on a large bomb. And at the rate things were going...
CHAPTER SIX:
With the Eland back in commission, it was quickly sent to work. Taking it on a trek across the crash site’s immediate vicinity, it was set down on the dusty surface of the shrinking desertscape and with some of the Pioneer 4 crew began drilling, excavating, stamping, sorting, conveying. A portable nuclear reactor power generator switched on, and fuel rods moved into position. The shuttle’s payload bay opened, and automaton mechanisms spidered out onto the surface and anchored themselves to the irregular planes of sand and rock. Tunnelers bored in. Dust flew off into the air
and fell back down against the dunes. The robotic landers extended pipes and tubes into each other. The planet’s bedrock was a good percentage of water ice that shot through it in veins and bubbles. The linked collection of worksite landers began to produce a variety of carbon-based materials and some composites. Heavy water, one part in every six thousand of the water ices in the planet’s crust, was separated out. Deuterium was made from the heavy water. Parts were made from the carbon composites, and other parts, brought along in another payload, were brought together with the new ones in Pioneer 4’s laboratory and Engineering sections.
New robots appeared, made mostly of the planet’s ore itself. And so the number of automated machines grew, as computers on the Eland and Pioneer 4 directed the creation of an entire industrial operation. After that the process was quite simple, for many weeks.
Lunon's Ka, if it still roamed the decks and compartments of the Pioneer Four, might well have raised a chiseled eyebrow at how well his family was getting along after his untimely death over a cycle ago. A week of data examination intermixed with Kwanzaa celebration hadn’t caused the morale to dampen since the latest spatial occurrence nor it’s affects on the planet, nor the thought of doom both might have on the crew of Pod Four.
Sidereal Quest Page 6
