“Yes,” Levi said after a quick mind conference with Sonny. “Sonny has already had success in boosting our deflectors; however, he suggests for long-term operations, we add more shielding for our components.”
Jeff nodded to the captain. “Thank you. I will let Construction expand in that area. This is all I have for now.”
Izzy grinned. “That sounds like a segue to Dr. Iverson and the Construction section, when you are ready.”
Dr. Loke Iverson stood to address the group. “Of course, Madame Chairman. As Dr. Daniels mentioned, Searth has a high magnetic field. It may be that it has twice the molten metal core Earth has, which provides the magnetic field for rocky planets in general. This magnetic field has not been a critical problem, but certainly a troublesome one. Thankfully, Sonny is riding herd on our power grid, and minor power surges and fluctuations have been dampened by his efforts. Sonny has been studying the problem, and he thinks he has created a temporary fix. It must be working, because the power fluctuations have all but ceased. However, a higher output of energy is required to maintain this suppression. Sonny is right that we need to build better shielding. To that end, we are focusing our efforts to retrofit the Valiant and the Intrepid with the new shielding Sonny has designed. They are, of course, the priority since they will be staying. The Atlantis and the Wanderer will be outfitted when they return.
“We are also outfitting the Wanderer and the Valiant with upgraded deflectors. It’s a good thing we arrived when we did because the Valiant’s deflectors were showing signs of imminent failure. Their shipboard A.I. compensated until they made orbit. But because of Searth's magnetic field, the Valiant and Wanderer must leave orbit and position themselves outside the magnetosphere while they are being retrofitted. Humans will assist the robot construction crews so we can accomplish this as quickly as possible.
“A similar process is happening down on the planet. Robots have begun construction on the two domes. Humans have been getting materials down to the sites, and the robots have been putting things together. I have allowed for unforeseen weather and other planetary delays and we have not encountered any interference from the life forms on the planet. The timetable currently sits at twenty to twenty-five weeks.
“Already we have set up preliminary mining camps on the two moons. We have three on the larger moon and two on the smaller. Which reminds me, we really should get around to naming the moons! Permanent camps are progressing and should be completed in about five weeks. Resources will be ramped up to the maximum after that.”
Loke sat down and began looking at multiple screens, checking on the progress of various projects.
Izzy thought Loke looked too busy. She would have to see he got a break soon. “I would like to hear from Resources and Dr. Zhubov next. You have the floor, Stan.”
Standing up, Stanislav Zhubov gave Chairman Rocha a small nod. “Madame Chairman, I would like to begin by saying these are exciting times! Exo-geology used to be something like the fairy tales we tell around campfires. Now we are exploring another planet in another system! The ratio of the minerals and elements is different here. Platinum seems plentiful but gold is almost nonexistent. Our section is also assisting Construction in the placement of the buildings and domes, so they could be located in a safe place but also near abundant resources. The domes are located near a river, from which water is shunted to the domes for processing. For food, the domes will have emergency stores that we will leave behind. However, we are assuming we will be using the local plants to supplement the colonists' diet. Preliminary results are encouraging.
“Resource managers are going through Sonny’s grocery list so materials can be provided for the retrofits and upgrades on the Valiant and the Intrepid. The ships are already being prepped to receive the new updates, and Atlantis is handling most of the manufacturing. Until we get larger manufacturing plants in place Atlantis will have to shoulder the load. Part of what we are waiting for is for Atlantis to manufacture the items for the FAB plants themselves. Kind of a chicken-or-the-egg thing.”
“It is a challenge to be producing end-user materials for many areas at once," Levi interjected. "A schedule is in place that should make things run as smoothly as possible given the immediate needs of everyone. We know the FAB plants must be the number two priority, right behind the retrofits, and everyone else will be triaged accordingly. Atlantis looks to make almost everyone’s schedules, but it will be hard work for a while.”
“We know you and Sonny are doing your best, and we all thank you for your efforts,” Zhubov said appreciatively. “We continue to work closely with the other sections to provide information and advice.” He sat back down.
“Excellent,” Izzy said. “And now, Admiral Johnson, it is your turn.”
“Yes, of course, Chairman Rocha.”
Suddenly alarmed, Levi and General Zhou stood up together. “Madame Chairman,” the captain said. “There has been a medical emergency we must attend to. Please continue without us.”
“Uh, yes, of course,” she stammered. “Please give us an update when you are able.”
“Absolutely. General, come with me.”
The captain and the general quick-marched out of the conference room.
The transport system on the Atlantis involved a track system that crisscrossed all through the ship. With a ship sixty-five miles long, it would take twenty minutes to travel the length of the ship. The Council conference room was opposite the command section, at the front of the massive vehicle. Sonny had an auto waiting at the stop fifty yards away. The men both hopped in and sped away. The captain continued to get the particulars from Sonny, as he had before they left. The general was receiving the same briefing on the matter. Both were talking to Sonny briefly but separately for a couple of minutes.
“The general is making sure the area is secured,” Sonny explained. “I have directed personnel on the ground involved in the incident to perform various emergency tasks, and the situation has been contained. I am interviewing the corporal now. Give me a few moments to complete the interview, and I will impart the details to both you and the general.”
Levi checked to make sure the medical section on board the Atlantis was ready to receive the injured man. He quickly found that Sonny had taken control and alerted everyone handling this emergency, of course including himself and the general. A few minutes passed, then Sonny broke in again and addressed the two leaders.
“I am ready to give you details about the medical emergency.”
“Proceed, Sonny,” Levi prompted.
“Corporal Harris’s duty for the day was to supply security to the perimeter of one of the dome projects. This usually consists of keeping the indigenous life forms from interfering with the project. The corporal became curious about one of the trilobite’s behavior. Harris picked up the animal and turned it over to inspect it. A tentacle or appendage reached out and latched onto Corporal Harris’s helmet. Its grip on the helmet was so powerful that it cracked, then broke his faceplate. He panicked, disconnected his helmet and flung it and the animal away from him. The trilobite scurried away once it landed on the ground; however, Corporal Harris has inhaled the Searth air.
“I was alerted the moment he screamed and his suit lost integrity. I informed the nearest person of the emergency, so they could assist the corporal, and notified other staff to ready one of the containment pods. The team helped the corporal into the containment pod so he could be safely transported to Atlantis. That transport lifted off one minute and thirty-two seconds ago and is proceeding to dock with the ship. Medical personnel have been alerted to meet the ship once it docks and take the decontaminated pod to a containment area where Harris can be evaluated by protected medical staff and automated equipment.”
The captain stopped Sonny. “General Zhou, I suggest we wait at the containment area for the corporal to arrive, since we cannot do much until then.”
The general had a counterproposal. “The best use of our time would be for you to wait fo
r the corporal. I will go down to the incident site and evaluate what we’re dealing with.”
“As you wish, General. I understand you may want to confer with your people. Keep me informed of any actions you may initiate so I can keep my people informed."
“Understood, Captain.”
“Sonny,” Levi said.
“Yes, Captain Metcalfe?”
“Can you accommodate our separate travel plans?”
“Yes. We are approaching the stop where General Zhou will get out and take the auto currently waiting for him at the stop. Your destination, Captain, has been changed to let you out near the medical facility the corporal will be taken to. General, you will meet the cargo transport that will be departing in sixteen minutes. You will be the only human on board. Will this be acceptable, or do you want to wait for a personnel transport?”
“The cargo transport will be fine,” the general acknowledged.
“This is your stop, General,” Sonny said as the auto came to a stop.
“Thank you, Sonny. Keep in touch, Captain.”
“You too, and good luck.” The door shut behind the general, and his auto sped away.
While he waited, Levi checked in with the bridge, the containment area and the officer of the day down on the planet. As he approached his stop, he remembered the journey humanity was on was a dangerous one. This did not help the feeling in the pit of his stomach.
TWO
We Are Not Alone
Corporal Harris was scared clean out of his mind. His heart pounded, his brain raced. Harris had seen enough science fiction movies before they'd left Earth to know that when an alien breaks someone's helmet, it's trying to get at the meat inside! What’s going to happen now!? That thing broke his helmet, and he had to get it off! The next moment he was still alive but breathing the Searth air. People rushed to his aid immediately, but the damage was already done. The team helped him into the containment pod to remove him from the possibly contaminated air and shuttled him back to the Atlantis. Emergency drills were part of their training, but like most people, Harris could never have imagined that he would be the subject of this real emergency.
It was stupid, stupid, stupid to have picked up any life form on the planet without consulting the science department. Harris had been observing them for weeks. He had nothing else to do. The trilobites, or scooters as the ground crew called them, seemed docile and harmless creatures. Maybe he had triggered some self-defense mechanism or something. No matter why it happened, Harris was now in big trouble.
Currently, they were about to dock with Atlantis. The transport had been kind enough to patch communications to his pod. Three people were tending the corporal and monitoring his vitals.
The EMT sergeant was concerned about Harris’s vitals. “Corporal, you really need to try to slow your breathing down,” she urged him.
Harris was practically gulping air. “Yes, ma’am. I’m trying,”
“Well, try a little harder, Corporal! Your pH and electrolytes are sliding. You are going to be sick with acidosis if you don’t slow down! Pick a spot and focus. Take slow, deep breaths. Take it easy and try to relax. You are in good hands. You are still alive, and you are doing well. Breathe a little slower now. That’s it--a little slo-o-o-wer now. Good.” After a few minutes she could see his readings were starting to turn around. “Feeling better, Corporal?”
“Yes, thank you, Sergeant. I do feel better.”
Harris heard the unmistakable noises of the transport docking with Atlantis. The next leg of the corporal's journey was about to start. Harris’s brain was racing faster than his heart now. He guessed that was a plus. His three chaperones collected their gear and moved Harris to the ship’s loading gate. Some more loud clanking and the gate opened, and his entourage became bigger. Harris could not see, but he could hear from his external microphone.
“How long was he exposed to the atmosphere?”
“Download his current vitals.”
“Does he have any injuries?”
“The corporal’s pod was decontaminated before loading aboard the transport, right?”
“Let’s get him to the containment area.”
It took about fifteen minutes for them to arrive at the containment area. Harris heard someone talking to the captain. Great! He had heard Captain Metcalfe was a fair-minded individual who did not tolerate stupidity very well. He also sounded like the kind of man who did not tolerate excuses. So, Harris knew he had better be straight with him, and whatever punishment levied by his superiors would be tempered with the captain’s assessment. Where were his superiors, anyway?
His handlers wheeled him into a large room, and the pod tilted. Harris could at least see out now. A person followed him into the room wearing an environmental suit very like the ones the ground crew used. Thank goodness, he was going to be let out! It had been an effort to keep down the claustrophobia. The person twiddled with the settings and WHOOSH! After some equalizing of pressure, his keeper motioned to step out of his coffin.
“Corporal, please disrobe and put these pajamas on,” said his nameless assistant.
As he took off his suit and then his underclothes, Harris looked at his surroundings. Except for the diagnostic equipment in one corner of the chamber the room looked otherwise comfortable, with a bed and nightstand. Across from the bed stood a nice wooden table with two chairs. Hmm, two chairs. It looked like he would have visitors. He scanned the windowless room. Surely there had to be monitoring equipment embedded somewhere.
The pajamas, if you could call them that, only vaguely resembled that attire. Although a seam traced the front of the shirt, the pants had a seam running down both sides of the legs. Harris quizzed his assistant. “Hey, what’s up with the pants?”
“It’s so in an emergency we can get your shirt and pants off in a hurry.”
Harris’s eyebrows peaked. “Let’s hope we don’t need to do that!”
“He’s ready,” the assistant said to the air. “I hope everything turns out all right, Corporal.”
“Me too,” Harris said, feeling the full weight of that sentence.
After his assistant walked out, the door seemed to disappear. One side of the wall became transparent. The captain, along with medical personnel and a major, was staring at him. Of course! The wall had to be transparent aluminum with a piezo-optic sandwich. The wall, several times stronger than steel, could be transparent like glass, or with a little voltage applied, opaque.
“Corporal Harris,” Captain Metcalfe began. Harris snapped to attention and saluted. “At ease, Corporal. For expediency’s sake, we will be interviewing you all together. We have agreed that the medical people will talk to you first, followed by the rest of us.”
“I will do what I can to help.” Harris steeled himself for the interrogation. Someone moved to the front of the group and spoke.
“Hello, Corporal, my name is Dr. Lim. Please grab a chair and be comfortable. This is going to take a while. We have been monitoring your vitals since the incident. Aside from some stress-induced acidosis, you seem to be in good shape.”
Harris grabbed a chair and sat in front of the now-transparent wall. “Yes, I feel fine. Nervous, but fine.”
“How long would you say you were exposed to the atmosphere?” asked Dr. Lim.
“I wouldn’t be a good judge of that, sir. I'd had the crap scared out of me. Time does funny things when in fight-or-flight mode. Of course, it seemed like forever, but more likely between ten and fifteen minutes. The emergency team took some minutes to get the pod and set it up.”
“What did the air smell like?”
“What did it smell like?” Harris repeated. “Well, I haven’t had a chance to think about it much. Now that you mention it, the air was fragrant and flowery. However, it didn’t smell like any flowers I know.”
“That’s fine for now. Did the odor come from the plant life, or do you think it came from the trilobite?”
“I don’t know. I don’t believe the scent ca
me from near the trilobite. I continued to smell it after I flung my helmet and the trilobite away.”
“Do you think the trilobite touched you?”
“No. I did not give it a chance. My helmet cracked, and I could hear my air escaping and the suit integrity alarms going off. I did not hesitate to take my helmet off to remove the threat from my proximity.”
“Good. Thank you.”
After a few more minutes Dr. Lim had finished with the first round of questions. The major stepped forward and introduced himself.
“I am Major Patel.” Harris snapped up from his chair and stood at attention. “At ease, soldier. I can’t speak for the captain here, but this is an informal interview. You will submit to a very uncomfortable medical exam from stem to stern. After the first round of tests are complete, we will no doubt have more questions. More exams, then more questions, etcetera, etcetera. If you have any requests that will make yourself comfortable here, let us know. As you have surmised, this will be your home for the foreseeable future. Do you understand, Corporal?”
The Journey of Atlantis: The Children of Earth Page 3
