There were so many craters! Just on this side of the planet, he counted twelve. No telling how much debris had fallen into the oceans. There were very little of anything along the coast anywhere on the planet. There must have been many tsunamis which wiped out everything for hundreds of miles inland and washed it all out to sea. Of the twenty-two city-sized domes that were built before departure, only two seemed intact, and there were seven other domes with minor damage which might or might not have life in them.
There were two dozen active volcanoes on this side alone, no doubt due to many meteor strikes. The worst was the Yellowstone supervolcano. The meteor impacts must have hastened the arrival of the catastrophic eruption, not due for another thirty thousand years or so. That harbinger of doom had probably laid waste to much of North America and significantly altered the atmosphere of the globe. The sorties had reported that volcanic ash even now persisted in the air. This ash had deflected sunlight and had made the planet's average temperature cooler. More ice was spread out at the poles than when he had left.
Captain Collier set his jaw and got to work. “Get me a full workup on the status of the planet, now! Home in on those four contacts mentioned earlier. We must let them know we are here.”
The communications officer interrupted him. “Captain, they are aware we are here. The sorties two weeks ago notified anybody who responded that we had returned, and to sit tight until search and rescue arrives.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant, but it is not necessary to remind me. I have already cross-referenced the contacts made previously in the first sorties and have found one of these is a new contact.”
“My apologies, sir.” She felt embarrassed to have forgotten she was talking to an E-Human.
“I think we can let it go this time,” he said with a smile which meant don’t worry about it.
Lieutenant Donaldson was suddenly distracted by something on his board.
“What is it, Donaldson?”
“Sir, a ship is approaching, and it is not ours.” Donaldson sounded confused and worried. “It is approaching from the Moon.”
“Contact that ship and put it through here,” he barked to Lieutenant M’Butu.
“Aye, sir. Putting you through now.”
“This is Captain Collier of the Wanderer. Who am I speaking with?”
“This is Major Rand, second in command of the Tyco mining colony.”
Bill searched the records of the mining colony that his ship's A.I., Moses, had procured for him. “Major, where is Colonel Beals?”
“Captain, Colonel Beals was killed in a quake about six years ago. The other four mining facilities on the dark side of the Moon were destroyed by meteors three years after you left when the neutron star wandered into town. Our facility was near the terminus and somehow spared from outright destruction, but quakes and more impacts made life a little risky out here. When we detected your arrival, I gathered the personnel we had left out of over three thousand and boarded this ship. With your permission, we would like to come aboard.”
“Certainly, Major. How many do you have?”
“Fifty-six, including myself. We couldn’t stay in that death trap one minute longer. I apologize for not waiting.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Major Rand. This is why we’re here. We came back as soon as we could. Forty-two light years is a good stretch, even at ten times the speed of light. Slow to five kilometers per second and our A.I. Moses will guide you in.”
“Copy that, Captain,” the Major acknowledged.
Bill was aware of a knock on his virtual apartment. “Who is it?” he inquired.
“Easy peasy, nice and easy,” Moses said on the other side. It was their personal password.
“Come in, Moses,” he opened the door and gestured him in. “What can I do ya for?”
Moses, an older looking man with a beard and wearing a robe, stepped in and sat down on the couch. “I don’t know if you have realized it yet, but he may not want to be rescued.”
“Nonsense. You heard Rand. He has fifty-six people aboard. They have been stranded for eleven years!”
“He is lying.” Moses played the conversation and highlighted the suspicious parts of the audio. “I have just finished scanning the ship. There is human DNA aboard, but only one of them has a beating heart. There is also a large container in his cargo hold that has traces of radioactive signatures that are not fuel-related.”
“Holy crap, Moses! We will talk about the whys later. We need to get that nut away from us now!”
“I am taking full control of the Major’s ship. Hmm. He has installed some protective software, presumably related to the bomb. Defeating the security now. Stopping the ship at five thousand kilometers. He now has realized the jig is up.”
Bill called out to his communication officer. “Lieutenant, hail the Major, please.”
“Aye, sir. The channel is open.”
“Thank you. Major, what can we really do for you?” Bill kept his voice steady and even.
The Major's reply confirmed what Moses and Bill's enhanced brain had surmised. “Freakin’ A.I.!" Rand's voice rasped. "It was a risk either way. If I declined your offer to have the A.I. guide me in, you would have been suspicious. If I allowed it, you and the A.I. would be alerted. What else could I do?”
“Why, soldier?”
“Because you left us, you asshole! Left us here to die. You wiped your ass with us and flushed us down the toilet! Wasn’t it like that, Captain?” Rand spat out.
To Moses, Bill thought, “What are we going to do? He is a little too close to us in case he somehow lights that firecracker.”
“Keep him busy for just a couple more seconds. I have a plan.”
To Rand he said, “Okay, if you like speaking in metaphors, the suitcase we had could only carry just so much gear. Just so many clothes. Just so many socks.”
Suddenly, one of the panels on the Major’s navigation boards sparked and smoked. The Wanderer jumped to light speed for two seconds, and Moses put extra power to their deflectors
“Shit! What are you trying to do? You are not getting away that easy.” The Major reached for the switch he had rigged as a fail-safe manual detonation. “Goodbye, Captain Asshole!”
Then a large nuclear ball of energy erupted where the Major’s ship used to be, but the Wanderer was safe. High-energy particles hit the electromagnetic shield protecting the ship, making a pretty aurora around them.
“Good work, Moses.” Bill started to breathe again. “I expected to see destruction and disaster here on Earth, but not this kind of insanity. And that was the most ungrateful thing I've ever seen!”
“You assumed he would be grateful to be rescued. There were many other scenarios you overlooked.”
“Well, that won’t happen again.”
Bill felt something change in him that he did not like. He had always believed there was a way to give someone the benefit of the doubt and protect himself at the same time. It was a skill he was good at. But it had become clear today that sometimes there wasn't a cut and dried solution. Sometimes choices had to be made.
“Lieutenant M’Butu.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Gather data from the armada, and our data of this most recent event. Transmit it to our courier ship and send it to the Atlantis with all haste.”
“Aye, Captain. I’m on it.”
Bill knew Captain Metcalfe had to be going nuts right now.
◆◆◆
Captain Metcalfe had just finished his orange juice on the bridge. He had started his shift fifteen minutes ago. He and Sonny had been monitoring the Wanderer and the armada since they left for Earth. Because they were increasing their distance at faster-than-light speeds, the Wanderer became fuzzy until they slowed down to sub-light speeds. Atlantis knew the Wanderer's trajectory going in, so they did not lose them in blinking from one place to another.
Sonny announced, “One ship going sub-light three thousand kilometers, port side.”
�
�I see it, Sonny.” The helm officer caught it a second later.
“It is one of ours, sir,” added navigation.
“They're hailing us, Captain,” communications chimed in.
With his enhanced brain, Levi could take all this quick information from his bridge crew and reply instantaneously through their boards. Each station blinked twice to alert the occupant that an order from the captain needed to be executed. Each person notified the captain as if he had said it verbally.
“Aye sir,” the helm responded, “slowing, but continuing on the original course.”
“Lieutenant Miller, on screen, sir,” communications officer Zale reported.
“Thank you,” Levi said out loud.
Miller’s troubled face appeared. Levi was confused, and at the same time, a tingling on the back of his neck tried to tell his brain something.
“Captain Metcalfe, I have brought important information and a warning to the Atlantis.”
Levi could measure the stress in the lieutenant’s voice. “Transmit your information while you talk, if time is of the essence.” In situations like these, time really could be interminable.
“Certainly, sir,” the lieutenant replied.
Just then, Atlantis’s sensors, Sonny, and Levi all jumped at once.
"Sonny, play that back and magnify!"
Sonny instantly processed and analyzed the high-energy sensor blip in the neighborhood of Earth and played it back. The screen showed a small ship near the Wanderer. Then, in an instant, the Wanderer blinked out. An immense explosion occurred where the small ship had been. The Wanderer reappeared about two light seconds later, a little distance past lunar orbit.
What the hell!
“Captain! Captain!” Miller tried to plow through the reaction of the bridge crew. “Some nut-job tried to get close enough to the Wanderer to blow her up, but Moses and Captain Collier discovered the ruse in time to escape. This is why I am here! I left moments after the incident, so I could let you know the Wanderer is all right.”
“Why would they do that? We are here to rescue them!”
The lieutenant's voice became calm and professional. “I do not have the intel to answer that question, sir.”
Sonny entered the discussion. “Humans often overlook scenarios which do not fit a certain mindset.”
The machine had Levi’s attention. “Meaning?”
“Meaning there are many factors for the situation to have ended in this result. The most likely reason is animosity amongst the survivors at having been left behind.”
Lieutenant Miller was incredulous. “You mean they’re pissed we did not take them with us?”
“That is another way to say it,” Sonny replied flatly.
“Well.” Levi pondered. “They have had over ten years to simmer about that fact. Anyone still alive would have had to bite and scratch every day for the last ten plus years just to survive. It is natural that at least some of them would carry that hate until we came back, probably hoping they could exact revenge.”
“It’s why I am here,” Miller repeated. “To warn you of the now-obvious danger and to watch your back as you slide into home. I have also brought preliminary information gathered by the armada about possible survivor sites. We are awaiting your instructions on how to proceed, Captain.”
“Stand by,” Levi acknowledged.
Levi had put the ship on yellow alert the moment he became aware of the Wanderer’s incident. This also meant the other half of his bridge commanders were probably startled out of their beds. Taking advantage of this human tendency, he called a meeting of all his commanders and department heads in the briefing room. It only took twelve minutes for all to assemble in the moderately large briefing area. They made good time, even though the ship was over sixty-five miles long.
Levi began. “Thank you for assembling so quickly. Normally I would just communicate with you individually through my connection with the ship. However, we have a little time, and I wanted you all to share your opinions on how to accomplish what we came here to do, given the present circumstances. While you were assembling, I conferred with Sonny and I have his recommendations.”
“What are Sonny’s recommendations, Captain?” Director Lim from Medical and Life Sciences asked.
“If you don’t mind, Captain,” Sonny said, “I can fill everyone in on our discussion.”
“Certainly, Sonny. Proceed.”
“Given the current circumstances, we cannot assume we are going to find grateful and willing human survivors down there. It is possible this one event was one unstable person making his feelings known, or this could be the general feeling of the surviving populace. It would be prudent to take a firm but fair approach when dealing with any survivors, as we did when we left Earth. We had to destroy one ship but we accepted many others seeking asylum. We should rescue only those who want to be rescued.”
Commander Dubois spoke up. “I don’t think we are looking for recruits. We can’t make allegiance a requisite for rescue. I thought we were an apolitical and diverse ship. Couldn’t we just process them, give them a stern warning about making trouble, and take as many as we can?”
Levi was sympathetic. “Yes, actually we can, Commander. However, it must be understood we are primarily responsible for transplanting the human species onto another planet that can be successfully colonized. We must remember we are the flagship and cannot afford to get ourselves blown up or hopelessly disabled. Too many people depend on us. I think the best answer is to take these cases individually and do the best we can for everyone. We will need a processing center set up and more holding cells built to take in the large influx of people. Medical people will have to be ready for anything infectious we may encounter. Cargo and personnel carriers are to be escorted by armed ships. The ground crew will be suited up for protection, and lightly armed.”
He looked around at the nods of assent. At the same time, he mentally went over the transmission data Lieutenant Miller had brought with a fine-tooth comb. He also received messages directly from the Wanderer carrying more information.
“Did I miss anything?” Levi asked when he was done with his multitasking.
No one spoke up.
“We all need to keep in mind we are dealing with people who, for the most part, had been aligned with the Project. Only about a quarter of them were not, and about half of those people were actively trying to sabotage it. They are as crafty and devious as a human can be. Their attitude towards the Atlantis will not have changed. Let us be careful but compassionate, and I think we will send the right message. If there are no more questions…”
“Captain.” It was Commander Lockwood. “Do you think we have enough space for all the survivors?”
“It will depend on what we find. Between the Atlantis and the Wanderer, we can accommodate around one million comfortably and one and a half million uncomfortably. Let us hope that will be enough.”
“Sir, what will happen if the Te’Hat wishes us to leave their world? What will we do with all the excess passengers?”
“That, Commander Lockwood, is a very good question. There are some limited options at this point. The only clear option I can see right now is to produce as many sleepers as we have to and, with the Te’Hat’s permission, leave the extra passengers there on Searth. If they are in the sleepers, they cannot be a real burden to the Te’Hat. I am sure they would agree to that. At some time in the future we may be able to come back for them. It will be better than leaving them on our pummeled home world where life is tenuous at best. I have sent instructions to Sonny to oversee the sleeper manufacturing. In the meantime, let us go see what there is to see, shall we?”
“Aye, sir,” the unison response boomed as the officers stood up in support of the captain.
After the meeting broke up and Levi was taking his place in the command chair again, he spoke privately to Sonny. “How is it that the two of us represent the smartest in the land, and the commander asks a question we had not anticipated?”<
br />
“Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.”
“That smells like a lot of crap. Are you saying it was 'just one of those things'?”
“The probabilities are low. And the probability that the unanswered question represents a significant outcome is even lower. Allow me to show you.” Sonny flashed a mountain of mathematical statistics before him. No one would have understood except an enhanced human.
“Yeah, that’s all fine and dandy, but it still sounds like you are making excuses. Even if they are mathematical ones. This bothers me, Sonny. It is an oversight which should not have happened.”
“I do not know if I can change your outlook on the topic, except to say it is not likely to happen again. So, what is your excuse?”
“I beg your pardon!”
“You are human. You make mistakes. But you are not one hundred percent human. You have access to the same data as I do. Yet, you overlooked this outcome as well. Are you going to excuse yourself from this mistake because you are human?”
Levi was getting warm under the collar. “With or without enhancement, I rely on you to find problems and solutions of all kinds. Finger-pointing is not productive. However, if something like this happens again, I want a level five diagnostic run."
“Agreed,” Sonny acknowledged.
With his attention now fully on the bridge, Levi addressed the crew. “The Wanderer has returned to Earth orbit. The armada has been making a low-level reconnaissance of high-quality targets. We are taking stationary orbit around the Moon. Wanderer says there is at least one contact on the dark side of the Moon. That will be our priority. Lieutenant Zale. Contact the mining colony. Let the colonists know we are here to provide rescue and assistance. Also, contact Lieutenant Miller and let him know I will have a data packet for him to take back to the Wanderer in a moment.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Helm. Give us best speed to the Moon. I want to get there a little sooner than scheduled.”
“Acknowledged. Best speed will get us there about this time tomorrow.”
The Journey of Atlantis: The Children of Earth Page 14
