Alpha Centauri: First Landing (T-Space: Alpha Centauri Book 1)

by Alastair Mayer

  “That is a moot point now,” Klaar said. “They are in the orbit they’re in. We’ll call them in half an hour and figure out our next move. Meanwhile we can pull our gear out of the wreckage and see what else we can salvage. I have already begun that.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  Twenty minutes later they had their equipment laid out in several piles. There was the must-have gear that they’d take with them if they had to hike; the too-heavy or too-bulky gear which would be useful if they set up camp at the crash site; and the gear which had either been damaged in the crash or was otherwise useless. Tyrell had to rest several times during this process, as his headache came and went, but the intervals were getting shorter and further apart.

  “Centauri Station this is Ulrika Klaar, over.” The aircraft radio had survived, which was a good thing. The Heinlein certainly had instruments capable of picking up transmissions from their personal omnis, but they wouldn’t be using it for that unless and until Tyrell and Klaar had gone a lot longer without checking in. She wasn’t sure when Chandra would be able to report their predicament.

  “Centauri Station, Klaar calling. Anyone there?”

  “Are you sure the radio works?” asked Tyrell.

  “Yes. Well, reasonably sure. They’re just not up over the horizon yet. I don’t know exactly when that will be.” Klaar tried hail again. “Centauri Station, this is Ulrika Klaar, over?”

  “Ulrika, this is Centauri. Your signal is a bit weak. Go ahead.”

  “Good to hear from you. Get a fix on this signal and take a look, we had a forced landing. Over.”

  “Forced landing?” Tyrell snorted. “We crashed.”

  Klaar gave him a dirty look and shushed him.

  “Will do. Chandra said something about a bird strike. Are you both okay?”

  “We are a little bumped around, but yes. We won’t be flying out again though.”

  “Okay, Ulrika, we’ve got a fix and, yes, there you are in the scope. I see what you mean, doesn’t look like there’s much left of the plane.”

  “Should I wave?”

  “Image isn’t that good, you’re not more than a few pixels high. So how are we going to get you out of there?”

  “That is a good question,” she said. “There is not really anywhere to land here. Is there somewhere nearby we can hike to where the other plane could pick us up?”

  “That might be a problem. The other plane was halfway through having floats attached. They didn’t want to continue with that in case you needed a short field pickup, but if there’s a clearer area or a lake, they’ll finish that up. Glad to hear there are no broken bones or serious bleeding.”

  “As are we. So no ride home?”

  “Not immediately, but it could be ready to go by the time you get to where you’re going.”

  “And just where are we going?”

  “Let me confer and get back to you.”

  “Don’t be long, you will be below our horizon again soon.”

  “Roger.”

  Tyrell said to Klaar: “Maybe we should just hike the rest of the way to the Chandra. Or back to Krechet, whichever is closer.” Even though he was suggesting it, he wasn’t particularly happy at the prospect.

  “Are you in any shape to travel at all? Anyway, to the Chandra I think. We need to get there anyway and we’re close to the halfway point.”

  “That figures,” Tyrell said.

  “Ulrika, this is the Heinlein.”

  “Go ahead Heinlein, what do you have?”

  “Okay you’re about halfway between Chandra and Krechet.”

  I told you so, Tyrell mouthed silently.

  “By air you’re actually closer to Krechet but given the terrain it would be quicker to get to Chandra. The route takes you through places that could provide a landing strip for the other plane, if it’s ready to go.”

  “Sounds good, how far are we talking about?”

  “That’s the bad news, it’s roughly a hundred and twenty kilometers. Are you guys up to that kind of hike?”

  Klaar look at Tyrell questioningly. “What do you think?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve done fifty mile – eighty kilometer – hikes in my time. Say we can do fifty kilometers in a day,” he looked at her questioningly. She nodded, she could do that. “Then that’s three days, four days tops. EP01 should be ready long before that. Think of the exploration we can do on the way.”

  Klaar nodded. She keyed the microphone again. “That’s affirmative Heinlein, north to Chandra it is. You will have to reconfigure the radio gear to talk to our omniphones, we can’t take the aircraft radio with us.”

  “Roger that, we’ve already got someone working on it. We’ll download maps to your omnis.”

  “That would be very useful. Why did we not do that before?”

  “Why bother, the plane’s nav system has it all.”

  “Ah, right.”

  “Ulrika, we’re about to go beyond your horizon. We’re going to do an orbit change so we should be back around in eighty five minutes.”

  “I don’t want to sit around that long. We’re going to run out of daylight.”

  “Then don’t. Follow a bearing of three one seven, that looks like a fairly easy hike, mostly clear terrain. We’ll be back in an hour and twenty five.”

  “Heading three one seven. Roger Heinlein, thank you.”

  The radio signal faded out less than a minute later.

  “Are you sure you’re up to traveling?” Klaar asked Tyrell. “If you’ve had a concussion that may not be the best idea.”

  He waved her off. “I’ll be fine. The headache’s mostly gone.” They’d located the first-aid kit while organizing the gear. Fresh bandages, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, and a couple of painkillers later, Tyrell was indeed feeling better. He didn’t know how long that would last though.

  “Right, let’s get this caravan moved out.” Klaar grabbed up a bag and swung it over her shoulders. Tyrell picked up the other bag a little more slowly, favoring the injured arm and side. She shot him a look and raised an eyebrow.

  “Just a twinge. Let’s go.”

  Klaar looked at her omni, locked around her wrist. “Dammit, it isn’t working properly.”

  “Banged up in the crash?”

  “That must be it, but I though these things were tougher than that. Don’t they have a gazillion little nanocells that reconfigure themselves as needed?”

  “Something like that. Maybe something messed up the software.” Tyrell checked his own. “Mine seems okay.” He turned left and right a little, watching the omni. “Okay, three- one-seven is that way.” He pointed. “Let’s go.”

  “Okay. You’re the one with the compass, you might as well take the lead. And that way I’ll notice if you keel over.”

  “Okay, enough with the wounded Fred jokes.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  They headed northwest, across and down the slope of the hillside where they’d made their forced landing. Down here where they had the time to look, the stones and potholes that had been hidden by vegetation from the air were obvious.

  “Make a note, recommendation for future explorations—put a ground-imaging radar on the damn airplane.” Tyrell recorded the comment on his omni but he was speaking loud enough for Klaar to hear.

  “Good idea,” she said.

  “Actually that was part of the original design. We took it out to save weight for the crew reshuffle. I suppose we might have been able to transplant the one from the drone. On the other hand, we didn’t have much choice on landing area.”

  “How about making the airplane a helicopter, or a quad?” Klaar asked. If they’d been able to hover and land vertically, the boulder-strewn field wouldn’t have been a problem.

  “You’d be in worse trouble if a bird broke the rotor, maybe less so in a quadcopter. But there’d be no wings, where would you put the solar panels?”

  “The rotor blades? No, I guess that wouldn’t work, connecting the power through the hub would be awkwar
d. How about a roll up panel. Fly on batteries and unroll the panel to recharge when you land.”

  “That might work. We’ll have to suggest it when we get back.” Tyrell recorded a reminder in his omni.

  “Do you think we will? Get back, I mean.”

  “Why wouldn’t we? Yeah it’s a three day hike but Heinlein will keep an eye on us.”

  “A three day hike across alien territory with who knows what in the way of dangerous animals, venomous insects, or terrain we can’t cross.”

  Tyrell had been wondering about that himself, not to mention his uncertainty whether he was really fit enough to travel. His head throbbed with every jarring footstep. But this was not the time to bring that up. “No worries, there’s no reason anything should attack us here any more that it would on Earth.” Well, no reason besides the fact that most dangerous-to-human Earth life had been either driven extinct or had learned to avoid humans, adaptations that wouldn’t have happened here.

  “You’re probably right. I don’t think I’m going to sleep well tonight though.”

  “Maybe they’ll be able to fly the other plane by then. If we can’t find a suitable landing area they can at least drop supplies.”

  “I don’t suppose they could drop a cabin with a bed and a hot shower.”

  Tyrell smiled at the thought. “Probably not, no. But you knew the job would be tough when you took it.”

  “I did. Don’t mind me, I’m just complaining to keep busy. And to keep the bears away.”

  “Bears? What bears?”

  “See? It’s working,” Klaar quipped. “No, seriously, on Earth this could be bear country. We would talk and make noise while hiking to alert bears to our presence, so we didn’t startle them. Usually they stayed away. I don’t know if there’s anything like bears here, but the same principle applies.”

  Tyrell decided not to mention his earlier thought about the native life not having learned to avoid humans. It probably wouldn’t make a difference either way if a bear—ursoid?—heard them or not. It would probably smell them, and either approach or leave as its curiosity dictated. Talking wouldn’t make much difference. It would have been nice if the survival kit had included a rifle, or at least sidearms.

  By now they had reached the bottom of the slope, and Tyrell paused while Klaar came up beside him.

  “What now?” she asked.

  He flicked on the compass in his omni again. The valley they were in ran east-west, sloping gently toward the west. The trees were thicker here, and though still sparse, with the trunks widely separated, their branches were close enough that there was no way they could have landed here. Their heading took them diagonally up the side of the next hill, the trees thinning out again.

  “Up the hill,” he pointed, “that a way.”

  They started up.

  Even though the hill was not steep, climbing it was more of a strain than Tyrell had expected. The drag of his heavy pack and the pounding of his feet into the ground with each step made his head throb. He stopped and leaned against a tree trunk to catch his breath.

  “Are you all right?” asked Klaar.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just need to catch my breath for a bit.”

  “We can rest here, or I’ll take some of what’s in your pack.”

  “No, you’re already carrying enough. I can manage.” Could he? A walking stick or staff might help. He looked around at the trees.

  “I could probably use a hiking staff, let’s see what we can find.” His gaze swept the area looking for a suitable branch or sapling.

  “Good idea, I wouldn’t mind one too.”

  “To fight off bears?” Tyrell joked.

  “Hah. No, if it comes to that, I will use it to hit you over the head and leave you for the bear while I escape.”

  “Nice.” He strolled over to a tree that had a dead limb projecting at head height. “This looks like it might do,” he said, reaching up to grab the branch with both hands. He pulled hard on it, and it bent a little but didn’t break. He moved his grip further out on the branch for more leverage. “Ulrika, give me a hand here.”

  “Of course.” Together they reached up and pulled on the branch, which creaked under their combined weight and the broke with a crack. They staggered to recover their balance as the branch came down.

  “This will do.” Tyrell began stripping the smaller branches and twigs from it.

  “Okay. I don’t want to hold us up, I’ll keep an eye out for another one as we hike. Are you ready to continue?”

  Tyrell took several experimental steps with his improvised staff. Being able to take some of the weight off his feet helped. His head still throbbed but it wasn’t worth holding up the hike for, they had a lot of ground to cover. “Yes, this will work. Let’s go.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  They stopped again an hour later. Tyrell unshouldered his pack and swung it to the ground, then sat down heavily beside it.

  “Okay,” he panted, “break time.” The throbbing in his head was getting worse again.

  “You should drink. Dehydration will only make you feel worse.” Klaar set down her pack and squatted beside it. She checked the pockets then unzipped one and pulled out a water bottle from it. She loosened the cap and handed the bottle to him. “Here, take this.”

  “Thanks.” He took a sip, then chugged nearly half the bottle. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was. “How much water do we have?” They’d inventoried it back at the plane but he couldn’t remember, he’d been a little fuzzy.

  “Four liters, less what you just drank. We’ll need to find a water source by tomorrow.”

  “We’ll ask the Heinlein. Speaking of which,” Tyrell looked at his omniphone to check the time, “they should be in radio range in just a few minutes.”

  Klaar pulled out another water bottle and took a long drink. “How far do you think we’ve come?”

  “Good question.” He fiddled with his omni for a bit. “Damn, I forgot to set the origin when we left the plane. This thing has no idea where we are.”

  “I don’t think that would have made much difference. We’ve been moving too slowly and irregularly, the accelerometers would have accumulated a lot of error.”

  “It’s supposed to average out, but you may be right. On Earth I just always used GPS for hikes, I never bothered with the built-in inertial navigation.”

  “We never used it for exploring caves, either, we always brought along special purpose inertial navs.”

  “You’re a caver?”

  “Not any more. I did a lot in college, and my master’s thesis was on the genetic changes in blind cave animals. I crawled around many caves doing field work.”

  “Huh. I had you figured as more the sun and surf beach type, not crawling around in dark damp holes.”

  “The North Sea hasn’t warmed up that much,” she said.

  Before Tyrell could reply, his omni chimed.

  “Tyrell or Klaar, this is the Heinlein calling. Are you receiving?”

  “Affirmative Heinlein, this is Tyrell. Go ahead.”

  “Ah, there you are. Okay we have a fix on your signal.”

  “How are we doing?”

  “You’re only about three kilometers from the plane wreck. You might want to step up the pace a bit.”

  “Okay, we’ll keep that in mind. Heinlein, what’s ahead of us in the way of water sources? We’ve got perhaps a day’s worth.”

  “There should be small streams in the area you’re in, we can’t say for sure through the trees. Twenty-five kilometers ahead there’s a small lake, and a river that you’ll have to cross about forty kilometers from you.”

  “How wide is this river that we’ll have to cross? You didn’t say anything about it before.”

  “It’s small, it’s really more of a wide creek than a river. Fifteen meters across, maybe. Shallow, too. When you get closer we can guide you to a likely crossing spot.”

  “Thanks Heinlein.”

  “Okay, we’re going to lose the s
ignal soon. Anything else, how are you holding up?”

  “So far so good. Any word on the other plane?”

  “Still waiting on that. The weather at the landing site—” The transmission faded out.

  “Dang, lost them.” Tyrell checked the time. “Okay, we can talk again in about two hours. It will be getting dark by then.” He heaved himself to his feet. “Let’s push on.”

  “Think we’ll make the lake by then?”

  “Fifteen kilometers? That’s a pretty good hiking pace.” Tyrell considered. The rest and the water had helped considerably, his head no longer pounded. “Let’s give it a shot.”

  “Okay. But don’t overdo it, if you need to rest just say so.”

  “Yes, mother,” he said. The words came out with a more sarcastic tone than he’d intended.

  “Oh. I am sorry.” Klaar took a step back. “I don’t mean to nag.”

  “No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped. I really do appreciate your concern, I’m just frustrated with the whole situation.” He looked at her and forced a smile. She smiled back, although a bit tentatively. It’s not her fault, dang it. “Anyway, let’s just get moving.”

  “After you,” Klaar gave a half bow and swept out her arm in an openhanded gesture.

  Chapter 20: Weather Forecast

  Centauri Station, in orbit

  “Commodore Drake, sir?” Drake heard a note of concern in the voice.

  “Drake here, what is it?”