“I’m just glad it’s almost over,” Rachel said.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Abel replied. “If this isn’t the one, I mean. We can keep going.”
“Are you volunteering to take over as Captain?”
“Not unless you want to take a stint as chief engineer. This whole ship is held together with duct tape and bailing wire at this point.”
“At least you have something to do. All I do is worry.”
“You’re so good at it, though.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So we’re sticking with the plan?”
“Yes. If this isn’t the one, we open the doors and let the chips fall where they may.”
“Those people are going to be so disappointed when the doors open and all they find is a handful of old codgers trying to keep a three-hundred-year-old spaceship running.”
“People have to give up their illusions eventually. It’s time for the ‘Etruscans’ to grow up.”
Rachel’s console beeped, and a burst of text flooded the screen. She scrolled through the data, picking out the high points, refusing to get her hopes up. She had never gotten even halfway through one of these reports before finding multiple problems.
“Well?” asked Abel. The console in front of him, like most of the electronics on the bridge, no longer functioned.
“Point nine four Earth gravity, but we knew that. Average distance to sun, obliquity to orbit, blah blah… well, the mean temperature looks okay, seventeen degrees Celsius… huh.”
“What? Something wrong?”
“Not yet,” said Rachel. Ugh, why did she put herself through this? Just scroll to the bottom, you sadomasochist. “Plenty of surface water, most of it liquid. Volcanic activity suggests an older planet…. Wow. Looks like plant life, and maybe some primitive rudimentary animal forms. Atmosphere seventy-six percent nitrogen, twenty-three percent oxygen, one percent argon.”
“Sounds like Earth’s twin.”
“Yeah,” said Rachel, absently. Don’t let yourself believe it. Don’t do it.
“Toxins? Radioactivity?”
“Minimal carbon monoxide, some arsenic, but not prohibitive. Radioactivity low.”
“So what’s the problem?”
Rachel stared at the screen. “There… isn’t one.” She took a deep breath and scrolled to the bottom of the report. The last line read:
Probe Finding: Habitable
“My God,” she murmured.
“What? What is it?”
She turned to Abel, her eyes wide. “We’re going home.”
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the assistance of:
My beta readers: Mark Fitzgerald, Pekka Gaiser, Brian Galloway, Mark Leone, Matt McCormick and Paul Alan Piatt;
Hans G. Schantz, who helped with the physics of the phased array antenna and parabolic dish refraction (and whose wonderful books you should absolutely read);
Rory Miller, who helped me get the ancient Latin right (he says I have to tell you the errors are intentional);
And the Legacy of the Iron Dragon Kickstarter supporters, including: Arnie, Rage A, David Božjak, Josh Creed, Kristin Crocker, Rick DeVos, Lauren Nicole Foley, David Hutchins, iworam32, JP, Lowell Jacobson, Christophe Landa, Marvin Langenberg, Eric Martens, Matthew J. McCormick, Dark Memoria, Grant Morath, John W. Nichols, Larry Prince, Bruce Parrello, Kristen Rudd, Sharon Sloan, Christopher Smith, Joel Suovaniemi, John Taloni, Christopher Turner, and John Walker.
Any errors in this book are the fault of the author. I did my best.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
More Books by Robert Kroese
The Saga of the Iron Dragon
The Dream of the Iron Dragon
The Dawn of the Iron Dragon
The Voyage of the Iron Dragon
The Legacy of the Iron Dragon
The Starship Grifters Universe
Out of the Soylent Planet
Starship Grifters
Aye, Robot
The Wrath of Cons
The Mercury Series
Mercury Falls
Mercury Rises
Mercury Rests
Mercury Revolts
Mercury Shrugs
The Land of Dis
Distopia
Disenchanted
Disillusioned
Other Books
The Big Sheep
The Last Iota
Schrödinger’s Gat
City of Sand
The Foreworld Saga: The Outcast
The Force is Middling in This One
The Legacy of the Iron Dragon: An Alternate History Viking Epic Page 41
