Chase wound up the conversation as subtly as he could when a notification flashed on his wristband to alert him of an incoming video message from his father Christian. Part of him had wondered why there hadn’t been a message from either Christian or Jillian already, but Chase knew how good Holly was at running a tight ship and could understand why others had to be told before them.
But when the video message began, showing Christian’s face talking animatedly into a camera in his office within Terradox’s Botanical Gardens, Chase was surprised to hear nothing whatsoever about his imminent mission.
Holly’s ship was even tighter than he’d thought, he reflected, as Christian quite clearly still didn’t know.
Rather than the recovery of the probe on asteroid NGB-2, Christian focused instead on some “unexpected but not necessarily alarming readings” he had been alerted to by botanists on Arkadia. Chase sighed in frustration when Christian got to explaining that some plants had seemingly popped up where they shouldn’t have, an issue similar to the one Chase and Rachel had detected on their initial scouting mission a year earlier, despite safeguards that had since been put in place to ensure this wouldn’t happen.
Chase didn’t know exactly what it was the botanists feared about plants ending up in the wrong place — this had never been fully explained to him — and a large part of him thought there was probably nothing to worry about and that the scientists with the most boring jobs on Terradox and Arkadia were naturally prone to seizing excitement whenever they got the faintest sniff of it.
He nevertheless sent a quick text reply to Christian’s message to confirm that he’d do as requested and pass the message on to Robert Harrington. The botanists on Arkadia had apparently found it impossible to reach Robert all day and Christian likewise said that he’d been unable to talk to Holly and Grav, obliviously unaware of the high-level drama that these high-ranking individuals were currently so preoccupied with. Christian explained that he himself had sent a video message to Robert but that it had remained unwatched. He expected that whatever was keeping Robert so busy wouldn’t enable him to ignore a message from a Council member like Chase, and this was why he reached out to his son with such a request.
The issue regarding the plants needed careful monitoring and might soon require romotech interventions that would only be possible with clearance from the Executive Council, Christian said, and Chase promised he’d be right on it.
True to his word, he did forward the message to Robert. It was marked as opened very quickly, but no ‘viewed’ notification appeared even after more than enough time had passed. Chase was set to call Robert directly when he heard the front door opening.
He leapt to his feet, hoping he was right about the only person it could be.
“Don’t say anything,” Nisha said, pleasing him with her presence so much that the angry tone went over his head.
“Are you okay?” Chase asked.
She sighed deeply before eventually nodding and walking towards him, as though her anger had been disarmed by his opening question.
“I heard from Vic that you and Kayla were checking out the physics,” he said after they hugged. There was no gloating in his voice; if anything, it was a tone more resembling contrition.
A slight smile, almost defiant, broke out on Nisha’s face. “Well since you’re stupid enough to go out on a mission like this, someone has to be smart enough to make sure you come back…”
twenty-six
Chase awoke to some news that made him particularly glad Nisha had come home the previous evening: his asteroid-bound Karrier was set for a late-night launch, around twelve hours before he had expected to be the case. Rachel’s Karrier was leaving even earlier, in just a few hours, and suddenly everything felt almost too real.
He knew the plan and trusted that Bo would be on top of his role of navigating the surface of the barely-mapped asteroid, but the pace of the plan’s move from his germ of an idea to the final launch was enough to give anyone a feeling of nausea if they stopped to think about it.
It was perhaps fortunate, then, that Chase’s jam-packed agenda for the day allowed no time to think about anything.
In the few and far between quiet moments that did creep in during the day, Chase tried to quieten his wandering mind with the fact that this would be by far the shortest mission he had ever undertaken.
I left the colony for a year to live inside that damn Isolation Kompound, he reminded himself. I left Nisha for four weeks to fly here with Rachel. I flew from Terradox to the station and back — solo!
Given the impervious mask Chase Jackson wore in public, most would have been greatly surprised to think of him having any doubts about anything. If anyone had harboured any suspicion that he might have been having second thoughts over the mission, however, they would likely have expected him to deal with them just as quietly and decisively as he did.
The one factor that Nisha tried to comfort herself with was that Chase wouldn’t be travelling very far, with his outward trip taking three days at full speed. A desire to allow some breathing space lay behind the expedited launch; by leaving early, the Karrier could begin its journey below full speed and retain the ability to adapt its speed or course in case of any unforeseen complication or change of plan.
Chase, confident that the tireless work of Arkadia’s Shipyard staff would ensure everything he could possibly need would be ready in his Karrier, had no problem with the new launch time. But while Nisha would be sad to say goodbye a night earlier than originally planned, the change had in fact come partially at her suggestion. In her book, anything that increased the chance of a safe arrival and reduced the chance of Chase having to do anything stupid to land on the asteroid at the right time was worth exploring.
One night was one night — what mattered was that he came back.
Chase spent most of his morning at the Shipyard, conversing deeply with Bo and Rachel as well as a handful of core staff. Bradley Reinhart, who would be the primary communications coordinator for the mission’s duration, also sat in on the discussions.
While this was happening, staff in Arkadia’s Societal Administration division were hard at work ensuring that the general population would see the mission primarily as an exciting opportunity rather than as a hugely risky undertaking for its crew. Viola Ospanov was the unsung hero of the hour, having taken only a few hours of rest the previous night before rallying the necessary troops from one side of Arkadia to the other and doing all she could to make sure the day went as smoothly as possible.
Her father Robert, although nowhere to be seen at the Shipyard or in any other obviously relevant area, was fulfilling his duties by overseeing the beginning of a long-scheduled event that had momentarily slipped even Viola’s mind until he mentioned it.
With the population now somewhat settled after several nights on Arkadia, today was the beginning of a full-scale medical census. The undertaking was publicly described as a medical census, in any case, but in reality its purpose was to stress-test both Arkadian transport infrastructure and the Biomedical Centre’s ability to cope with a large and consistent influx of patients. The patients in question were expected and would each leave shortly after arriving, of course, but short of a real emergency this was the truest test the BMC and its staff could face. There was deliberately little room in the day’s schedule and bottlenecks would occur at certain times, attempting to catch off-guard and push to the limit the staff even though they knew about the census in general. Tomorrow would make today look like a gentle walk in the park, but the staff didn’t need to know that.
Robert’s mind was a million miles from the BMC as he superficially checked that everything was in order and greeted the day’s earliest arrivals. He knew that the next day would prove to be the BMC’s real test, but he also knew that even then there would be no real stakes. Unlike the imminent launches from the Shipyard, the medical census was a controlled test designed to expose weaknesses and highlight areas for improvement. No lives were
on the line, and for that reason he didn’t want to think about any of it at least until the two Karriers currently waiting to depart Arkadia were well on their way towards their rendezvous with asteroid NGB-2.
Christian Jackson, via Chase, had presented yet another unwelcome distraction with the news that potentially allergenic plants had been detected in areas where they were quite simply not supposed to be, suggesting that measures put in place to avoid just that issue had evidently failed. There should be nothing to worry about in the short-term, Christian insisted, since very few people were susceptible to allergic reactions and since such reactions would be mild to moderate at worst.
Christian's primary fear was that this minor issue suggested a weakness somewhere in Arkadia’s chain which could cause far bigger problems in the future if it went unchecked and something more serious arose. He speculated that there might be a soil issue; specifically that some genetically modified plant species could react in unexpected ways to non-engineered soil that wasn’t designed to house them. This had never been an issue on Terradox, he explained, because the nature of that romosphere’s zonal divisions ensured that nothing could accidentally cross from one zone to the other when restrictions were in place. On Arkadia, however, where modifiable microspheres separated areas with differing ground conditions, those divisions did not run to the romosphere’s core and thus could theoretically allow root systems to establish deep underground and spread to unintended locations.
The tone in Christian’s voice when he shared this far-out sounding idea concerned Robert more than the words themselves, as did Christian’s ready admission that he had only considered the issue now. He maintained that it was a huge long-shot but urged Robert to bear it in mind, and Robert was sure to do just that — as soon as the launches to NGB-2 were taken care of.
Robert insisted that the Arkadian public were told no lies about the launches and the mission as a whole, although he certainly supported Viola’s unilateral recruitment of the Societal Administration team to make it all sound as palatable and positive as possible. He was tremendously glad to have Viola around, but was yet to extend an olive branch to Peter following the previous day’s bust-up. He knew Peter well enough to know that nothing would be coming in the other direction anytime soon — Peter had learned plenty of habits from his mentor Grav, and they weren’t all good — but he also knew they were both professional enough to get on with business in the meantime.
An hour was all the time Robert could handle in the BMC when so much had to be done elsewhere, so he said his polite goodbyes after an exhausting statesmanlike performance spent shaking hands and sometimes literally kissing babies. He left oversight in the hands of Pavel Mak, an excellent security officer and personal friend. Pavel, having risked life and limb alongside Grav in years gone by and having defied painful interrogation to protect his brethren more than once, had earned a complete trust that neither Grav nor Peter extended to many.
Robert arrived at the Shipyard to find members of the Events Management division in frantic communication with other staff regarding precise timings and optimal camera angles. It only took a few questions for him to get to the bottom of everything and learn that the same area which had hosted the anchor-raising ceremony just a day early would be packed with spectators once again before the current day was out. The grandstands were being readied for spectators at that very moment; the idea of a starlit launch party to maintain morale was just one more thing set in motion by Viola.
The mood among the Events staff was surprisingly upbeat; when Robert asked one young man if he actually understood what was happening, the warm reply came that the whole of Arkadia was eagerly awaiting Chase’s departure for the asteroid. Or, as the man put it, “the whole community is buzzing!”
Robert played it cool and hoped the man was right. He liked the use of the word ‘community’ to describe Arkadia’s recently thrown-together population, as that was exactly the kind of feeling he wanted to see develop under his leadership, but the suggestion that everyone was excited seemed like too much of a stretch.
It quickly became clear to Robert that the Events staff who were setting up for the launch were in fact following the blueprint they had planned to use for the launch of the asteroid probe, which was originally set for the same final launch window as Chase’s own gutsy launch. Because the probe’s launch had been expedited, the carefully designed plans for the viewing party had never been put into place. Robert could understand why the staff who had expected to be preparing for that launch were now happy to be preparing for this one, but he still didn’t believe that their positivity would prove universal.
It went without saying that the stakes were infinitely higher now than at the time of the probe’s launch, both in terms of risk and reward.
The risks had naturally been underplayed when the announcement had been made mere hours ago, but given that the majority of the Arkadian adult population had academic or professional backgrounds in one science or another, Robert expected that the only onlookers who would be giddily excited by the launch rather than wary about its outcome would be the children who knew too little to understand how much danger Chase and Bo were placing themselves in.
Rachel’s earlier launch passed with far less fanfare and indeed no major public announcement. Her goodbyes were equally low-key, just as she liked them, and she calmly insisted to her staff that she would see them again soon.
More emotionally, she also promised Nisha and Viola that she would do whatever was humanly possible to make sure Chase and Bo returned home safely. “They’re setting out to recover that probe no matter what,” she said. “My job is to make sure they come back — no matter what.”
Chase and Bo were standing at Rachel’s side when she said this, but both knew better than to reaffirm the order of their mission priorities.
Not one part of Viola wished she was going along for the ride with Rachel, despite her having been part of every major mission and incident since her group’s discovery of Terradox more than a decade earlier. On the face of it, even the dangerous landing faced by Bo and Chase didn’t sound all that more inherently risky than the one she’d participated in on the surface of Netherdox, but motherhood had changed Viola’s perspective on elective risk absolutely. Katie was the most important thing in her life now, and being there to take care of her was all that mattered.
In the hours between the two launches, the enormity of the probe’s apparent discovery began to sink in across Arkadia. Attention had initially been focused on the drama of Chase’s daring attempt to recover the probe, but the reason for that recovery became a more prominent focus as the day wore on. Word naturally spread to the citizens of Earth, the occupants of the Venus station and the colonists of Terradox, all of whom were equally awed by the prospect of life being detected on an asteroid and of decisive confirmation being just a few days away.
The timing of the launch ensured that no Arkadians would miss out due to the scheduling of their medical census checks, with the stress-testing not extending into night hours for a variety of operational and procedural reasons. Robert was beginning to think that everything might end up working out okay, with Bo’s utter lack of fear playing a big part in this.
What Robert didn’t know was that Bo wasn’t nearly so confident of making it home as he was of recovering the probe and proving one way or the other whether it had indeed detected verifiable signs of life. Bo and Chase shared a truly discovery-driven personality type so rare that most people couldn’t even get their heads around their priorities, let alone share them.
Peter and Robert, their hatchet evidently set to one side if not quite buried, agreed to attend the launch party a good distance from the Shipyard while Viola and Katie remained there to see Bo off in person.
Romesh Kohli ventured to the launch party too, but not before pulling Chase to the side for a few moments to shake his hand and wish him well.
“I know you stuck up for me when Robert was saying some things,” Chase said
appreciatively. “I respect that, and I want you to know there are no hard feelings about anything on my end.”
“Those were things Nisha didn’t need to hear yesterday,” Romesh said.
Chase nodded.
“And don’t worry about Nisha when you’re gone,” Romesh said with a warm smile. “I’ve been looking after her for 27 years, so I’m sure I’ll manage a few more days until you get back, cowboy.”
Nisha liked to see them laughing together, but this lifted her spirits for all of the few moments it took Chase to walk back over.
Bo’s goodbyes to Viola and Katie were as short as most of his others — it was more that he couldn’t take his time to say farewell than he wouldn’t — but Chase’s farewell to Nisha pushed the limit of the highly precise launch time until Viola had to reluctantly step in to pass on the urgent wishes of the Shipyard staff who didn’t want to be the ones to interrupt.
Viola then held Katie tightly over her shoulder with one hand and grasped Nisha’s trembling hand with her other as the Karrier’s ignition kicked in. The launch was happening in the Shipyard rather than at Arkadia Central Station purely because the specialist equipment and cargo needed for this most unconventional of all missions had been loaded on-site, with the final preparations being completed quite literally just in time for the launch.
“Be safe,” Nisha prayed through heavy breaths and slow tears.
Viola looked skyward at the slowly disappearing Karrier and thought of the launch party so many miles away on another part of the vast Arkadian landscape, where thousands of spectators would right then be cheering and toasting Chase and Bo’s safe departure. She didn’t resent anyone’s happiness over what was happening, but nor did she understand it.
They had indeed set off in search of a prize greater than any other she could think of — proof of life on an extra-planetary body — but she already wanted nothing more than for their Karrier to turn around and land back on Arkadia.
Terradox Quadrilogy Page 104
