Expeditions of the Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  Alzroid, “We will continue to monitor this as we approach the gas giant. I believe we can detect if the eruption is imminent, within an hour. If we happen to detect that, I suggest we seek large cover quickly. So, it may be prudent to approach the gas giant in such a way that we could hide in the shadow of one of its moons if necessary.”

  “Ah, I see. I’ll try to keep one of their nearer moons close to our skimming area. Please advise me ASAP if you detect any such thing. Thank you for the warning.”

  Alzroid, “You are welcome, though enlightened self-interest would encourage me to do so. If you don’t object, I will make my way back to our work area to monitor this more closely – I can move through the ship without being negatively affected by the G forces.”

  “Ok, let me know. Mantis, keep an eye on that as well.”

  After he left, Ximon signaled Raiza, “Raiza, could you join me on the bridge if you can safely do so?”

  “Of course, Ximon. As long as we don’t suddenly change thrust vectors, I can safely be there in approximately 90 seconds.”

  She came and sat beside him, which always comforted him.

  Overall, this raised Ximon’s stress level as he approached the gas giant. Luckily the gas giant was sizable and had over 20 moons. Therefore, it wasn’t too difficult to keep moon 3 (a sizable one in an orbit near the gas giant) between the Mantis as the sun as they started skimming. The skimming process typically took just under an hour. Unfortunately, about halfway through, Alzroid signaled.

  Alzroid, “Captain, we are detecting a buildup of solar activity that suggests a potential eruption within 30-90 minutes.”

  Ximon, “Mantis, how long will it take for a wave front from the sun to reach us here?”

  Mantis, “40-50 minutes depending on the location of the eruption within the sun’s corona. I am detecting a similar build-up that would refine my estimate to within hours.”

  Ximon, “So, we’re saying that there’s a high probability that we’ll be hit by the wave front of a major event within 70-140 minutes?”

  Mantis, “Yes. Unless you wish to dismiss the probability, I would recommend we seek protection.”

  “Tell me about the gas giant’s atmosphere. How well would that protect us?”

  “Captain, the atmosphere does not have high concentrations of the elements that would best mitigate the likely solar eruption. To gain sufficient protection from the atmosphere, we would need to dive deeply enough that we would be at risk of substantial hull damage due to overpressure.”

  “Great. If we hide on the lee side of moon 3?”

  Alzroid interjected, “Captain, if we land near the center of the leeward side, the bulk of the moon should shield us effectively. We would still likely experience increased levels of several types of radiation. However, as Mantis noted, landing on the moon is probably our best strategy at this point.”

  Ximon, “Ok, thanks. But we’ll keep skimming for a bit.”

  They skimmed on and neared completion when Alzroid and Mantis, “Detecting a huge buildup of activity on the sun.”

  Ximon made an announcement, “Everyone strap in. You will feel the Gs.”

  Then he pulled Mantis up sharply out of the gas giant’s outer atmosphere and did a max G burn toward moon #3.

  Moments later Mantis chimed in, “I just detected an eruption in the sun’s corona.”

  This immediately followed by a similar message from Alzroid.

  Since they were nearly in its shadow and its orbit close, within 30 minutes they were settling on the leeward side of moon 3. Ximon had Raiza and Peter move to the walk-in refrigerator off the galley, the area of the ship that was probably most protected, and suggested Alzroid and zis team to the same. Ximon then had Mantis retract every antenna they could and turned off almost all external, electric sensors. He also brought the ship’s powerplant to a minimal level. Then they waited.

  A few minutes later the wave blew by on either side of the moon. Mantis was largely shielded by the body of the moon and probably only received 5-10% of the electromagnetic effect. This was still enough to affect the light levels and make Ximon’s hair stand on end. Mantis suggested waiting approximately 3 hours for the wavefront to safely pass, so it was a long time sitting largely ‘in the blind.’ Mantis got some amazing readings from the few sensors safely operating and Ximon assumed Alzroid saw something on some of his as well.

  After waiting a bit longer, Ximon made an announcement, “All clear. Everyone, please check your systems and report.”

  Then he called Raiza, “Dear, how are you?”

  Raiza, “Ximon, that was a most uncomfortable experience. My cognition was impaired during the event. I need to take some time to do a complete integrity check.”

  “Take all the time you need. Do you want to go lay down or would you like to come sit here?”

  “I’ll lay down if you don’t mind. The more of my processing that can be dedicated to this task the better.”

  “Ok, feel better soon and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  “Yes, love.”

  Ximon, “Mantis, how are you feeling? Please report your status.”

  “Captain, I am well. My core is sufficiently shielded that it suffered no major effects. However, some of my secondary systems were affected. I am testing things now and will report any anomalies. I am also conducting full diagnostics on sensors. I recommend waiting until that is complete before we activate them.”

  Ximon, “Elsbeth, talk to me. How are things looking down there?”

  Elsbeth, “They’re looking fine, but I’m running a lot of diagnostics. Just sit tight and don’t turn anything back on.”

  Alzroid contacted him, “Captain, I am calling to report my status. I personally appear fine, but I’m doing some background checks to be sure. ASORs D and G appear fine, but ASOR K has suffered some ill effects. We’re diagnosing now. We’ll also be conducting a full test of all our systems and will inform you of status when complete. That being said, it appears that we got some solar flare activity data that will be extremely useful in validating and refining our model.”

  “Glad to hear it, let me know if you need any help.”

  “Thank you, captain. One other note – as you’re probably aware, solar events like this one frequently occur in waves so follow-up events are possible. Those could occur in hours or weeks. We may be able to tell you more once our systems are all back to full operation.”

  “It would be great if you can.”

  Mantis then said, “Captain, I was just about to make the same note. Once we’re safely operational, I recommend departing the system as soon as possible.”

  “That’s certainly my plan.”

  It took a few hours to diagnose and get almost everything online. Mantis and Elsbeth both noted that some sensors would need to be retuned – a process that would take several hours but which could safely wait until they were in jump.

  Raiza sent him a short unsolicited note a few hours later, “Continuing integrity checks. I hope to be complete within a few hours. Thank you for your patience my dear.”

  Alzroid reported that zis systems all checked out OK, but they were working on ASOR-K.

  Both Ze and Mantis reported that they saw no solar activity that suggested an imminent second wave.

  Ximon announced, “OK, we’re going to take off and head to a jump point at moderate G. This is one place I’ll be happy to see in the rearview mirror.”

  … and a couple hours later they jumped away.

  During the jump, they repaired everything that needed to be repaired. Raiza was OK but had to restore a few corrupted records from Mantis’ backups. Raiza assured him that no actual data was lost and that should could never forget him under any circumstances. Ximon conducted his own personal tests with Raiza and she performed splendidly. These, of course, had to be done with her nearly naked so he could get the best possible data.

  Alzroid’s team got ASOR-K working well and reported that they had fine
-tuned their solar activity analysis algorithms. Alzroid had also prepared a complete report on the activity that ze asked Ximon to submit as soon as they could transmit it to Republic communications.

  Luckily the jump to Alfozar, the refueling, the survey, and the departure were all uneventful. They gathered data that would be interest to the KSF, but nothing that was particularly interesting to the crew.

  Irmarsa-1 was also largely uneventful, though they encountered a large merchant vessel at moderate range.

  Ximon hailed them and sent video, “Greetings, UI vessel, this is the KSS Mantis on a survey mission. May we ask for your name and destination.”

  They immediately responded. When their video came on it was a semi-humanoid aquatic creature in an underwater bridge – a ceta -- a semi-aquatic mammals created in ancient times by enhancing intelligent sea mammals. When the captain spoke, his voice was deep and sonorous, but his standard was impeccable.

  “Greetings, Mantis. I am Captain Ligurian of the Arching Abyss, an independent vessel of the of the Beaconde Depths Clan. We are heading to Edorener and then deeper into Kremniy Republic space on a trade mission.”

  “It is an honor to meet you and we wish you safe travels. Captain, if you path takes you through 535-336, we would exercise caution. We came from there recently and the solar activity was severe. In fact, if you’d be so kind, we have a report on it that we’d ask that you transmit when you get to Republic space.”

  “Luckily our path takes us past 535-336. We will be happy to transmit the report if you send it to us.”

  “Very well, you should have it momentarily. I thank you for your assistance – the system may be somewhat hazardous for some time yet.”

  “It is the duty of all to warn others of trouble.”

  “Well said, captain. Safe journeys.”

  “To you as well.”

  Ximon told Raiza, who was sitting nearby, “Wow, that’s the first Cetan I’ve seen in person. Very interesting.”

  Raiza said, “They are, indeed, interesting and fairly unique in that they are one of few species that create and underwater environment on their ships instead of land-based one.

  Then they jumped to Zased.

  They came out in Zased not too far from the largest gas giant and headed there to refuel before surveying the system. Raiza sat on Ximon’s lap as they headed in.

  While skimming, Mantis noted, “Captain, there are sizable dense shapes within the upper atmosphere.”

  “What are they? Ice fragments or something?”

  “Unclear, captain. The atmosphere is quite dense and somewhat disruptive to sensors.”

  Ximon, “Alzroid Prime, are your sensors seeing anything in the atmosphere?”

  Alzroid, “None of our sensors are particularly optimized for that environment, but we’ll see if we can adjust to do so.”

  A few minutes later Mantis noted, “Still little on these dense objects, but they vary in size and are not all moving at a uniform velocity.”

  Ximon, “Elsbeth, would you mind coming up here. I’d like to get your thoughts on this.”

  Elsbeth, “Sure. On my way. I’ll change out of my bunny slippers.”

  Raiza moved back to the sensor operator seat, knowing that Ximon didn’t like to be seen with Raiza on his lap on the bridge.

  Elsbeth arrived a couple minutes later and sat in the co-pilot seat, “What do we got?”

  Mantis answered, “There are sizable dense shapes in the upper atmosphere of varying sizes and moving at varying velocities.”

  Elsbeth started intently at the screen, “Huh.”

  Mantis then added, “Captain, the shapes do not appear to be moving in straight lines – their headings change occasionally.”

  Ximon, “What the hell?”

  Just then something hit the ship with some force, and they were all knocked about. A large, dark, rounded shape scraped along Mantis’ hull as it went up past them and then went back down below them. They definitely saw some portions of the thing moving as it went past them.

  Alzroid, “Captain, we’ve just received some interesting readings. May I join you on the bridge?”

  “Please, do.”

  Elsbeth, “What the hell was that?”

  Ximon, “Good dang question. Mantis, any thoughts?”

  Mantis, “Captain, the object might be considered a vessel or a creature based on its change of direction and moving body parts. In any case, it was approximately 20 meters long with a displacement of approximately 30 tons.”

  Ximon, “Try to hail it. All frequencies.”

  Alzroid appeared a few moments later, “Captain, did you get a visual on the object?”

  “Yes, it’s big, apparently moving of its own volition and possibly alive.”

  Alzroid, “Precisely, captain. We were able to construct some radar-like returns on unique wavelengths. We definitely noted, a variety of headings and what could only be considered repeated changes of direction. Whatever it is, has some mechanism for propulsion or, at least, turning. We’re trying to compose an image from our data now.”

  As they watched, another of the creatures crested above them on the port side. If anything, it was larger than the first. This was followed by another, smaller one.

  Mantis reported, “25 meters, 35 tons. The second 10 meters, 11 tons.”

  They got a better look at the small one, it definitely had some form of moving wings or fins and otherwise had a fairly large, fat body.

  Elsbeth said, “Well, unless they’ve got ships having baby ships, I’m voting that those things are alive.”

  Mantis reported, “No detectable response to hails, but there is some form of activity in low frequency ranges.”

  Alzroid said, “Captain, if you look at screen 2, Mantis will display an image we created of one of the shapes.”

  The image resembled nothing so much as a very fat whale, with short fins along the sides and at the back. It was clearly using these to maneuver sluggishly. They saw no discernable eyes, but it appeared to be skimming the atmosphere like they were.

  Ximon, “Thanks Alzroid. Mantis, anything on those low frequencies?”

  “Nothing discernable.”

  “Send some standard mathematical sequences there and see if their pattern changes.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  Ximon, “So, do they appear to be a threat?”

  Alzroid, “I’m noting nothing threatening in their behavior.”

  Elsbeth, “But if they ram us a few times, I won’t guarantee the hull.”

  Raiza spoke up, “Might it be useful to try signaling with Mantis’ external lights?”

  Ximon, “I don’t see any ‘eyes’ but it can’t hurt. Mantis send similar patterns with the external light arrays.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  Another of the shapes was cresting nearby on the starboard when the light patterns started. The lights clearly scared it and it turned rapidly away. Alzroid’s radar showed several others move rapidly away as well.

  Ximon, “Well, that got their attention, but they don’t like it. Mantis, cease with the lights.”

  The lights, however, had given them a good view of the creature nearest. It did, indeed, look something like a fat whale. In fact, it looked a bit like a blimp with fins and a mouth.

  Mantis said, “Captain, their propulsion system is most fascinating. It would appear they’re venting gas for some form or thrust and using their fins as control surfaces.”

  “Well, get all the data we can from any source and continue trying different frequencies. This’ll be another nice report to file if they don’t ram us.”

  The creatures got closer again after a few minutes and the crew gathered data with every sensor they could.

  After a few moments Mantis reported, “Captain, the low frequency noise is irregular and variable. I can state with moderate confidence that it’s not naturally occurring. It appears that those creatures are making those sounds.”

  “Great. Keep collecting all you ca
n and see if you can make anything of it.”

  Shortly thereafter a couple more of the creatures thumped into them and then rubbed along the port side.

  Elsbeth said, “That’s cute and all, Ximon, but they could damage the hull or rip off some antennae.”

  “Quite true. We’re about full, so we’ll pull up. We’ll be scanning here more in the next few days and then you, Alzroid, have all the time in the world to study them from afar.”

  Alzroid, “I welcome the opportunity.”

  Ximon, carefully and somewhat reluctantly, pulled out of the atmosphere a bit later. Over the next several days they did thorough scans of every primary planet in the system, including some additional scans of the gas giant, though they didn’t note any creatures. Along the way, they deployed two comm relays and launched a probe in a long, elliptical path through the planets.

  Finally, they settled into orbit around Zased Trey, the primary planet, which appeared to have a semi-habitable atmosphere. They took extensive scans of the planet and of its two moons.

  Ximon and Alzroid compared all the data gathered to the mission parameters and agreed that the larger, outer moon was the best location for Alzroid’s automated station. Mantis deployed another comm relay and two sensor satellites in orbit around the planet, one monitoring the planet, the other monitoring space away from the planet.

  Then they landed on the moon at coordinates that Alzroid directed, almost near one of the moon’s poles.

  Alzroid explained, “From this location, we will be able to have sensors on several faces of the moon and we’ll regularly get to view both toward the planet and out toward the other planets. We will also be able to position solar arrays so that we get some sun almost all the time.”

  Here they all suited up to repeat the process they’d done with Vir’s station at Zanerus, but the process was much more efficient. Much of the time, Ximon felt like he and his crew were almost in the way, though Alzroid repeatedly expressed appreciation for their assistance. Alzroid and zis team were simply too efficient. They already had every step meticulously planned.

  The setup went quickly, and nothing was missed in the testing. Within 18 hours (with no rest) Alzroid declared the station fully functional and stated that they had begun scans.