by David Smith
Dave flushed “Apologies! I meant no offence. How would you prefer to be addressed?”
“Anything except ANDROID! Most users simply address us as IPAD” replied the robot, gathering itself and managing to calm down.
“Very well IPAD. I thank you for your offer of service, it is our intention to return you to the A’Pel when the opportunity arises. In the meantime we would request that you transfer any ship’s log records and crew listings you hold to our computer. I would also appreciate the exchange of any cultural and sociological information as our knowledge of the A’Pel is via third parties. We would also appreciate your assistance in unlocking the computer core we recovered from your vessel. We hope to escape from this dust-cloud without further loss or damage, and any information you have in that respect will be examined in detail.”
“Understood Commander Hollins. To whom should I report?” asked IPAD.
Dave called the rest of the team back in. “You’ll forgive me if we exercise caution until we know a little more about you. Please remain here. You’re primary contact will be PO Park Si Yung” he said introducing the little Korean computer expert.
Turning to PO Park he said “Please ensure cultural and social information exchange of all unrestricted data is enabled. Focus initially on any aspects of the A’Pel’s data that may have relevance to our escape from the dust cloud.”
He nodded at Chief Belle. “Leave two on guard, both inside.”
Turning back to IPAD, he said “I’ll leave you with Park for now. We’re approaching a critical phase in our escape plan, but I’ll try to check back with you soon.”
--------------------
Dave got back to the Bridge, pondering what they’d found out. They’d run across the A’Pel vessel almost by chance. If Tiger had arrived in the cloud tilted one more degree in any plane the probe would have sailed past the drifting A’Pel without ever noticing it. It begged the question: Were there more alien vessels out there? All trapped like flies in a gold fish bowl, blundering around trying to escape but doomed to fail?
The question that concerned him most was the one he was most determined not to ask. What if they never found a way out of this infernal cloud? Could he hold his nerve and keeping flying in the same direction, day after day, week upon week, months ….. maybe even years?
O’Mara approached him. “Hello sir. I appreciate that you’re a bit tied up with the engineers just now, but I may have a bit of distraction we can deal with in the meantime” said the Science Officer, still clutching a data pad to her bosom. She pulled up a schematic of the star on the pad and showed it to Dave saying “It seems that Seven-ball has a companion. I’m reading a small rocky planet fairly close in, possibly in the habitable zone. Opportunities like this don’t come often sir, I think we should investigate.”
“I’m reluctant to over-commit our resources Lieutenant-Commander. Do we really want to be mucking around on an insignificant dirtball when we’re looking for a way to save our necks??”
“We have plenty of scientists aboard sir, only a few of whom will be involved in the navigation issue. We can spare the bodies, and this is a rare opportunity: Very few brown dwarves have planets, and I can’t think of anywhere there’s T-class star with a rocky planet in the habitable zone.”
Dave thought about it, and called Engineering. As the comm-link opened, everyone on the Bridge heard the distinct sound of neat-vodka being poured into a tumbler. The sound continued for an impressively long time before Commander Romanov’s voice replied: “Engineering. How may we help you, First Officer?”
Dave opened cautiously “Everything ok down there Commander?”
“Just asking Dr Smirnoff to calm my nerves a little. Engines are fine, shields and deflectors held up better than expected. All relays and systems are working within expected parameters. There was some underwear to be changed after that little stunt with the brown dwarf, but we’re all good now.”
Dave didn’t see any point in questioning her any more. “How long do you think it will be until we can get the warp-drive operational?”
“We’ve got the Tana coils fitted and configured. Now we’re in a LOAVES-free zone I’ve got a team ready to go outside to complete the alterations to the engine nacelles which will be a lot quicker than doing it from inside. Also, we can clear the main deflector properly. ASBeau and Dolplop have nearly completed primary calculations with guidance from Susan, so we’ll be in a position to undertake initial testing as soon as we’ve balanced the plasma injectors and re-tuned the dilithium. I think that will take about a week, then we’ll be a position to run up the drive. We don’t have much room to manoeuvre: even at warp one, we’ll cross the clear area around the brown dwarf in less than an hour. I think we’ll need to just crank it up and hope for the best” then added pointedly “assuming we’ve made a decision on which direction to head.”
“Yeah. Still working on that one. Thank you Commander” Dave said and cut the comm-link.
He pondered for a few seconds before turning to O’Mara. “Ok. Since we’re here for at least another week and I doubt anyone will ever come back ……… wherever here is ……. I suppose we should find out what we can. Put together a small away team, but don’t make a big production of this. You can have a couple of hours on the surface, but if we get the nod from the engineers we’re leaving immediately.”
“Thank you sir!!!” squealed O’Mara in delight, her face a picture of child-like excitement. With Tiger stuck at Hole for nearly two years, she hadn’t got out much.
“Well run along then, but play nice and be careful” said Dave trying to suppress a smile of his own, but even before he’d finished saying it, she was already into the turbo-lift and on her way to the E&E lab. Still smiling to himself he said “Dolplop, do you have a fix on the planet O’Mara picked up?”
“Aye sir.”
“ASBeau, calibrate the scanners for signs of LOAVES activity. Dolplop, lay in a course, Crash, engage drive. Let’s go exploring.”
Chapter 17
The planet was close in to the star and didn’t take long to reach. Crash slowed the ship and took them into a low orbit so they could examine the planet carefully before risking putting the away team down. “Orbit established, sir!” he reported, but checking some data on his console he warned “We’ll need to keep deflector shields on stand-by sir, I’m getting readings of co-orbital asteroids. I guess this was an asteroid belt at one stage, but most of them have agglomerated and formed the planet.”
“Thanks Crash” said Dave, and called Engineering. “Commander Romanov, we’ve established orbit around the target planet. It’s a safe haven of sorts, but I’d still like to get us underway as soon as we can. Take whatever resources you need and get any works required on the outside of the engine nacelles done as a matter of priority.”
“Aye sir”
He closed the comm-link and switched the main view-screen to a side camera angle, and through the smeared and toasted remains of the LOAVES they could make out a small, hostile looking world. They swept over a pitted and scarred black-grey surface and passed the terminator which marked the boundary of the sunlight on the daytime side of the planet. Beyond that the surface was hidden in darkness, although all of them caught a brief glimpse of what appeared to be thin white clouds scudding across the terminator and into the blackness.
O’Mara and Chief Alain Benoit from the Ecology and Exobiology team had come back to the bridge to undertake a preliminary survey.
Manning the primary science console, O’Mara reported first, “Mass and gravity similar to Mars, diameter slightly smaller. There’s a substantial atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide and methane. There’s a very high percentage of iron on the surface. That’s making readings a little sketchy.”
She switched passive scanners and continued. “Surface temperature ….. Hmmm, interesting. It’s tidally locked: the same side always faces the star. One side is hot, fifty to one hundred Celsius, one side really cold, minus two hundred Celsius.
Lots and lots of water ice locked up on the dark side, but it’s got some free water in the atmosphere! Now how does that work?”
Her brow wrinkled as she continued her analysis “It’s a real yin-yang planet. The hot side is very dark, and covered with hydro-carbons, possibly the remains of LOAVES that have drifted into the atmosphere. On the cold side almost everything is covered with water ice to some degree making it much lighter.”
Dave could see the curious nature of this “So what we would regard as the dark side is actually light-coloured, but the light side of the planet is visually dark?”
“In a nutshell, yes?” said the Science Officer.
Dave smiled at the irony of it. “Well, I suppose we’ll need to give the planet a name in our reports. I guess Yin-yang would be ….
Chief Benoit interrupted “WOW!! Hold the press!! I’m picking up life signs! Loads of them!”
O’Mara left her display and ran over to check Benoit’s readings “You’re shitting me!!!”
She skimmed the data, then pulled up more, and more. “My god! That’s incredible. How the hell did life form here???” Turning to address Dave she said “Commander we need to go down there right now, this is bloody incredible! No one has ever found life around a brown dwarf before, and I can’t believe we’ve found it in such a hostile environment!”
“Really? We’ve just arrived through a cloud of countless trillions of life-forms, light-years thick, in freezing cold interstellar space” said Dave, amazed by how incredibly short the Science Officer’s attention span was.
“Oh. I’d forgotten about them.”
“Hey ho. I suppose you’d better get gone then ….. “ Dave was going to remind her to be extra careful as the presence of life forms and atmospheric activity increased the hazards to the away team, but the Science Officer was already skipping towards the turbo-lift, her excitement obvious.
In the Transporter Room, the rest of the away team had assembled. As well as herself and Chief Benoit, O’Mara had picked Crewman Adele Stephens, an experienced exo-biologist, and Crewman Arturo Liuzzi, a geologist who’d join Starfleet late in life after working for several commercial mining concerns.
Dave had queried the inclusion of Amanda Stephens as she was regarded as an excellent exo-biologist, but an insurance assessor’s nightmare. Her service record was a litany of slips, trips and falls which didn’t bode well for an away mission to an uncharted planet.
Sadly, as O’Mara had pointed out, with Skye L’Amour and others from E&E still off the ship, Stephens was their only proper exo-biologist. That being the case, Dave decided to assign Crewman Paige Handley from Security as a precautionary measure.
Paige had previously transferred to Security from the Science Department, and would provide protection, a strong arm and also be able to support the Science Team to some degree. The last spot on the transporter pad was already filled with a variety of scientific paraphernalia Stephens and Liuzzi had assembled.
The Transporter Room was unusually crowded with the five members of the away team milling around dressing in environmental support suits, plus a couple of their colleagues helping them and checking them over. From behind his console, Chief Andy Carstairs waited patiently as one-by-one the suits were fully sealed, giving a green light on his console.
Handley and O’Mara were old hands in the environmental suits and were helping their less experienced colleagues prepare. Liuzzi was the last to suit up and was looking distinctly nervous about the whole business.
“Have you not used an environmental suit before?” asked O’Mara.
“Yeah, once or twice” he admitted “but they didn’t look anything like these”. He held out the slightly stained and worn white suit with obvious concern.
“Ah, well these are design classics!” said O’Mara cheerfully. “Been in service for probably thirty years now. They hardly ever fail y’know!”
“They fail ….?” gulped Liuzzi.
“Oh …… er …… not like that,” said O’Mara cautiously, “hardly ever, now I come to think of it.”
“But they have been known to …..?”
“Oh, er …… once in a blue moon. Very, very rarely. You’ll be fine as long as you don’t tear it. Oh, and keep an ear out for the audible warnings and stuff. But don’t forget to check the audible circuit is actually working: that could get embarrassing!” she laughed. “And mind you don’t over-stretch and pop a joint, that can be messy. Oh, and don’t forget to connect the body waste collectors, that can be just awful, especially in zero-gee!!”
Liuzzi had gone very quiet and very pale, and stood like a statue as O’Mara and Handley continued to manhandle him into the suit. He was starting to object when O’Mara dropped the helmet over his head and twisted it slightly to lock it into place. She checked the suit function display and seeing it was all working, the two of them herded him into position on the transporter pads.
He was still gabbling away inside the helmet and Handley said to O’Mara “Didn’t you show him how to work the suit comm-set?”
“God no!! He’d be doing our head in for bloody ages!” O’Mara laughed and gave a nod to Chief Carstairs, who activated the transporter beam.
Energy patterns swirled around them, filling the whole room with flickering wisps of light as they were disassembled at a sub-atomic level and the pattern of elementary particles recreated on the surface of the tiny world below.
Their arrival point had been selected by O’Mara, right on the boundary of the light and dark sides of the planet, and they arrived facing the baleful brown dwarf as it sat close to their horizon.
Despite its name and stellar classification it was actually a deep magenta colour, and barely glowed at all. It did provide some illumination though, and through the long shadows it cast they could make out a pitted and rocky surface of broken rock and dust. In the deep shadows they could make out lighter areas where the regolith was covered with frost and ice. The ground beneath their feet was uneven and as they arrived they all had to take a step to gain their balance.
The gravity of the planet was low enough that the heavy environmental suits weren’t uncomfortably bulky, but they immediately noticed that they were being buffeted by winds blowing from the dark side of the planet.
Liuzzi seemed to be having some kind of attack and was frantically trying to attract everyone’s attention. Sighing O’Mara went over and discretely turned on Liuzzi’s comm-set.
“HELP ME!!!! I’M LEAKING!!!” he screamed.
O’Mara put her hands on his shoulders “Calm down!! What warnings are you getting?”she asked while she visually examined his suit. The diagnostic panel on the sleeve of his suit showed pressure within was normal.
Still visibly shaking with fear, Liuzzi shouted “The suit’s telling me it’s reading methane! I must have a leak somewhere!!”
“Not possible, Liuzzi, the suit’s at a higher pressure than the atmosphere. If there’s a leak you’ll be venting air, not taking in methane.”
“But the suit’s still giving me an audible methane alarm!!” complained Liuzzi.
She ran a tricorder over his suit “Well there’s definitely no leak.” O’Mara thought about it. “What did you eat last night Arturo?”
“What the hell has that got to do with anything!?!?” he whined.
Trying to sound calm for his sake, she repeated “Arturo, what have you eaten?”
“I had a damned chilli-beef burrito! Now what the hell has that got to do with my suit leaking??”
O’Mara smiled at him “It’s not sitting too well is it?”
“No, it’s really giving me hell, but …… “
“Arturo, you didn’t connect your suit waste system properly, and the suit can’t tell the difference between atmospheric and intestinal methane” she explained gently.
“WHAT?? Oh.” The penny dropped just as O’Mara heard the distinct noise of another trouser cough from Liuzzi’s comm-link. “Jeez, I’m sorry Commander …. “
Even in the
dim light of the brown dwarf, O’Mara could see his cheeks flush visibly. “No harm done Arturo, happens to the best of us. Now you know the root of the old expression “As funny as a fart in a space-suit.””
O’Mara got the rest of the team to check in, and as soon as she was satisfied they were all safe, she sent them to their work, each trying to find out as much as they could within the limited time-scale their environmental suits allowed.
The environmental suits recycled the air within themselves almost perfectly, filtering out the moisture and carbon dioxide (and even methane, eventually) the wearer exhaled and breaking this down to provide clean oxygen and pure water. The air supply could theoretically last indefinitely, but in reality was limited by the power supply the suit could carry within it. The suits built-in high density power cells also had to run the heating and cooling circuits of the suit, the biometric and comms systems and even some external lighting, and it was this total power drain rather than the breathing air that limited their time on the surface.
The computer had estimated that if they stayed on the lighter, warmer side of the planet the energy the suits used to keep them warm would be reduced, allowing them to stay longer, but all of the science team were agreed it was as important to check out the dark side as it was the light side. They’d banked on at least six hours on the surface, but the strong swirling wind seemed to be blowing from the dark side of the planet and was icy cold, O’Mara could see her suit ramping up the heating system to compensate for this.
Adele Stephens was the first to break radio silence “This is just amazing. There’s huge amount of microbial and viral life on the surface.” She bent over and scanned a small rock at her feet, paying particular attention to a dark red smear on it sunward facing side. “A lot of the rock colouring here isn’t geological or chemical, it’s biological. This stain is a bacterial culture.”
Handley had found something too, and called Stephens over to take a look. “It looks like a lichen or a moss?” she said.
