Discovery (Terran Chronicles)

by Jackson, James

  Cindy examines the data on Andrew’s terminal, then looking at the disparaging planet, sits down in her chair. “This one is not worth our time with a ground survey either, our next target is called HD 85512.”

  Andrew looks at the star chart data before him.

  “You know, whoever plotted this course has sent us crisscrossing all over.”

  Cindy replies in a consoling tone. “The folks back home wanted us to check on Earth’s nearest, and most promising neighbors first.”

  Location:

  Starship Terran

  HD 85512b

  The days crawl by as they head to the next pick by Earth’s scientists. The crew becomes quite restless as the promise of an exciting adventure is turning into a very dull trip. Lights flash throughout the ship indicating yet another course or speed change. An enterprising group sets up a basketball court in the main hangar area. Cindy debates stopping the games, but decides instead that the crew needs a distraction from what has become dreary duty.

  John once again, drops the ship down to sub-light speeds well away from the solar system allowing the ship to recharge while Andrew and Joe examine the incoming data in detail.

  The next day has the bridge crew all staring at a massive planet which easily dwarfs Earth, being even larger than the previous super-planet. The florescent green clouds swirl over the planet revealing motley colored green water below. The planet’s gravity is forty percent more than Earth’s, so manageable. Once again, the Gamin systems report the planet as habitable.

  Cindy looks to her bridge crew for advice. Andrew and Joe nod while John just shrugs his shoulders.

  “Well, we won’t really know sitting here will we? George, you and Olaf are to conduct the initial survey. John, take ‘em down.”

  The deck crew starts to cheer as the three men enter the shuttle. Finally, a planet worthy of surveying. Even as the men prepare to depart, another trio makes their way toward the bridge to confront Cindy.

  The two men flank the shorter woman, who’s shoulder length red hair flows behind her as she hurriedly steps onto the bridge.

  “We should be going on the survey mission,” states the woman defiantly.

  Cindy turns her head in curiosity more than annoyance. Surprised it took them this long to complain.

  “Emma is it? I am Cindy, welcome to the bridge.”

  “Yes my name is Emma, at least you know we exist. Now, you do know what we do? Hmm.”

  “Emma take a look outside, then Joe’s terminal.”

  The two men that are with Emma stay very quiet as the three of them make their way onto the bridge. Emma looks up at the monstrous planet, then at the consoles before her.

  Joe beckons her over. “This symbol tells us that the planet is habitable, but that’s by Gamin standards, not ours.”

  Emma puts her hands on her hips as she turns to Cindy.

  Cindy cuts her off before she can say anything. “Emma, the planet may be dangerous. Why don’t you three stay here and watch for a while. If it’s safe, then you will go.”

  Emma can see that Cindy is not going to budge from her position, thus she and the other two planetologists find seats against a side wall and impatiently await.

  As the shuttle exits the Terran, John hopes that this planet offers some promise. As much as the planet is larger than Earth, so are the clouds, and the winds. He has great difficulty controlling the shuttle as wind gusts far exceeding anything he has ever experienced toss them about. Finally, the shuttle is below the turbulent atmosphere and is skimming across a massive green ocean. John looks down at the small looking waves. Dropping lower he discovers that they are not so small at all. Indeed, the swell is quite deceiving and could easily swallow Earth’s largest ocean going tanker.

  “Everything is larger and bigger on this planet folks, the winds, the waves, everything.”

  George and Olaf have been spending their time holding onto equipment that wants to break free from its ties while desperately holding on themselves.

  Eventually, John spies a land mass ahead and in short order parks the shuttle on a rocky outcropping amongst a sea of tall grasses.

  George and Olaf seal up their suits, then open the ramp. The shuttle fills with air that carries a visible green hue to it. Olaf activates an atmospheric analyzer. It takes the unit a few minutes to process the air sample.

  Beep… Beep… The unit resounds quite quickly.

  The both look in alarm at the readings. George hollers into his intercom.

  “John get us off this planet, and step on it. The air is corrosive.” George shuts the ramp and purges the atmosphere from the shuttle’s interior.

  In the cockpit John had been settling in for the long haul, and is caught quite off guard. He falters for a moment then learns forward and activates the launch sequence. As the shuttle takes off, he notices a green smear building up on the windows. Feeling a little nervous, he pushes the craft upward at a break neck speed. Just as before, the winds gusts are so strong as to belie the shuttle’s dampeners, tossing equipment and crew about.

  As the shuttle leaves the planet behind and enters space John can’t help but notice that the green smudges turn brown, then flake off as they approach their ship. “Terran, come in.”

  Cindy is very surprised at the speedy communication. “Terran here, that was quick.”

  “No time to explain, the planet’s atmosphere is corrosive. I want a HAZMAT crew ready to decon the shuttle ASAP.”

  “Understood.” Cindy glances at the planetologists, sending them a curt ‘told you so’ look before she arranges a decontamination crew.

  The shuttle that enters the Terran does not look at all like the one that left. This one is covered in scaly grey patches. Inside the shuttle, Olaf and George have been very busy cleaning each other’s suits. All of the equipment they took with them is heavily corroded.

  John considers the wisdom of landing on the hangar deck, but feels he has little choice. All of their concerns are alleviated as the shuttle gets cleaned off. The Gamin materials, though becoming discolored, seem to have suffered no ill effects. Earth made components have not fared so well. Everything metallic is reduced to junk in no time at all. With the risk of cross contamination being too high, they decide to eject all the corroded equipment. George, though tethered to the ship makes a perilous walk down the open ramp. He struggles with the navigational shields but is finally able to shove all of the contaminated objects through it and into space.

  On the bridge Cindy is their tapping her fingers on the chair’s armrest. If all three of them had perished, the impact to the mission would have been incalculable. She taps a symbol on her chair.

  “George, Olaf,” her voice reverberates throughout the ship’s speakers, “I want everything in the hangar bay area cleaned of anything that came up from the planet. I don’t care how long it takes, I don’t want a single microbe present.”

  George puzzles for a moment then smiles at himself as an easy test comes to mind. He and Olaf roll a number of steel drums over to the shuttle and wait to see if they become effected. Olaf offers to observe, allowing George to head toward the bridge.

  Arriving on the bridge George flips open his now clean visor, revealing his wolfish grin.

  “Now that got the ol’ adrenalin going.”

  Cindy tilts her head at him questioningly, to which he responds quickly.

  “Ohh it’s all safe, the Gamin stuff is anyway, everything else we took down with us is toast.”

  Joe is quite perplexed and voices his concerns.

  “How come this panel says its habitable when the atmosphere is corrosive?”

  “The air is only corrosive to some metals. I didn’t think to breathe it though.” George shrugs his shoulders, as if he has let folks down by not trying it.

  Cindy stands, then walks slowly to Joe’s terminal.

  “I am glad you didn’t sample the air. Anyway, that was the last planet on our ‘must do’ list. Now we can pick and choose how we see fit.
Joe, Andrew, find us a good one, please.”

  Everyone is quite happy to leave the planet behind. The next few days see the crew of the Terran falling back into the same boring routine of waiting. Cindy encourages the crew to participate in the basketball games in the hangar area.

  Deep Space

  Location:

  Starship Terran

  Uncharted Territories

  The days drag on as the Terran travels from system to system, spending scant time at each as they search for a planet worthy of closer examination. For an entire month the ship travels, ever outward in its quest.

  “Cindy to the bridge, Cindy come in.” The voice sounds very excited.

  She opens her eyes and puts a hand to her head as she sits up. Why is it that things always happen when I am sleeping! She fumbles next to her bed and activates the view screen by mistake.

  Joe is staring back at her. “Cindy you.. Uh, oh… um.” He looks away, blushing.

  Cindy looks down and shakes her head, “Sheesh, it’s a nighty, will you relax.” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Anyway, what’s so important that you…” her voice trails off as the view screen changes.

  Joe’s voice comes through again, he is speaking very fast and hard to understand. “I thought it quicker just to show you.”

  Cindy stares, dumfounded at the massive planet that dominates her rooms wall screen. The blue waters, white clouds, and green landscape before her look just like home. The only discernable differences between this behemoth and Earth being the locations of the massive oceans and landmasses.

  “On my way, assemble everyone.” She states, getting quite thrilled herself.

  Arriving at the bridge, she can see her crew all brimming with excitement.

  Cindy sits down in her chair as she stares at the beautiful planet before them.

  “Ok, from the top. Where are we? And what do we know?”

  John turns to her with pride. “We’re a little over six hundred light years from home. We may have nudged the speed over five a little bit here and there.” He glances at Joe.

  “Well,” says Joe in response, “we’re in the system called…”

  Cindy interrupts Joe midsentence. “I don’t care what the folks back home call it. We shall rename this planet, assuming it’s as good as it looks anyway.”

  Joe puts his notes down as he relays the planets promising specifications.

  “The planet is obviously huge, around twice the size of Earth, but with a gravity that’s only twenty percent heavier. The planet takes three hundred and twelve days to orbit its sun and has a twenty-seven hour day-night cycle. All in all, not bad at all. Oh yeah, its got roughly eighty percent water coverage and is, by our standards, mostly tropical with relatively small polar ice packs.”

  Cindy is impressed. “You got all that from up here?”

  Joe beams. “We’re slowly figuring all this stuff out.” He waves his hand over the alien console.

  Cindy chews on her lower lip as she weighs the risks.

  “John, take the three planetologists with you in the cockpit. George, you and Olaf with do the initial tests. If it’s safe let them out. I have a good feeling about this planet.”

  John turns to her a little confused. “There are only two seats in the cockpit area.”

  Cindy grins, yeah. But there is also space for two Gamin suits. If those three want to go so badly, then they can ‘rough it’, can’t they.”

  Everyone on the bridge grins, they all know who will be sitting and who will be relegated to the suit storage area.

  Piloting the shuttle away from the Terran, John looks over at Emma and smiles. Was a safe bet that’s for sure. “After we land and perform the initial analysis, your team will be free to do whatever tests you want. If you need to go to other locations on the planet we can do that too.” John gives her an accommodating smile.

  For her part, she is quite awed at the experience of visiting a new world. “Sounds good,” is all she can venture as she stares ahead. Breaking through the clouds, John makes for one of the equatorial land masses. He spends scant time in the atmosphere as he wants the initial testing to be done quickly. The last planet they landed on is still vividly clear in his mind.

  The minutes pass slowly on the bridge as everyone awaits word. Finally the speakers crackle to life.

  “The planet is safe, a little hotter than we expected, very tropical. Emma wants to examine the small polar ice caps then visit the main landmass.” John’s report carries with it his exuberance.

  Emma’s team steps out onto the alien planet, they breathe in the warm air and can’t help but notice the lush green colored vegetation that’s all around them. John managed to find what looks to be the only rocky outcropping to land on. Walking to the nearby raised edge, the team gawks in awe at the spectacle before them. The trees have very thick trunks, and are quite tall by Earth’s standards, even in the heavier gravity. This planet does not feel that heavy to them as its only just a little more than the ship’s internal gravity. Pretty much everyone takes the fifteen percent extra for granted now.

  ‘Chirrruppp.’ They all freeze at the foreign sound.

  George tries to locate the source while Emma’s team retreats into the shuttle. She peers out wide eyed, glancing left and right in quick jerky motions.

  Movement from a nearby grove of trees catches their attention. ‘Chirrruppp.’ The sound is much closer, and carries with it an ominous tone.

  Emma quietly speaks, “Ohh no! We must leave this rocky outcropping immediately.”

  John responds. “Sure, but why?”

  Emma ventures a thin smile. “This odd colored rock may actually be a den or a nest, just look at it.”

  The slightly lipped edges show no sign of water erosion, indeed the whole area no longer has a natural look about it at all. The ground also has a number of curved depressions, as though something large has lain there.

  A very loud ‘Chirrruppp.’ encourages them to load their equipment very quickly. They leave without catching even a fleeting glimpse of whatever was making all the racket.

  Next, John lands the team on the northern ice pack, then the southern ice pack. They follow this up with landings on two more landmasses which are covered with lush vegetation. Finally John reports that the shuttle needs to have its energy cell recharged, thus they all reluctantly leave the amazing planet behind. The rear of the shuttle is jam packed with soil and ice samples, foliage samples, and even a few large bright red berries.

  Back onboard the Terran, the planetologists get to work putting their samples through a barrage of tests. Though signs of animal life were found, not a single creature was observed. The soil yields a number of surprises, virtually identical to Earth’s with a few minor differences only. The plant life also uses photosynthesis just as Earth’s plants do. One of the soil samples contains a crawling bug, its many legs passing it off as a basic centipede.

  Later that night Cindy can’t help but think this planet is just too good to be true. She almost expects to be woken in the middle of the night. The next morning she is in the mess hall with a number of people all talking excitedly about the planet they are orbiting.

  “Medical team to the lab area, medical team to the lab.”

  Cindy’s blood chills as she stands up. Damn it, we need a quarantine procedure, but how? Everything has to come through the shuttle area. She sighs. We are the guinea pigs I suppose. Arriving at the planetologist’s laboratory she finds Henry kneeling over one of the men. It seems he has fallen to the ground.

  Henry spots Cindy and waves her over. “Don’t worry, he is not going to explode or turn into some alien. He was bitten by something though, and is reacting to it as one does when allergic to a bee or wasp sting. I am treating him as such, and will monitor all of them carefully. We simply have no immunity to anything not of Earth.” He shrugs his shoulders in mild defeat.

  Cindy purses her lips as she understands. We either adapt or die. “Keep me appraised.” She head
s to the bridge, the one thing that bothers her the most is that she can’t recall the sick man’s name.

  The next few days are tense as stories ranging from creatures rampaging through the ship to the crew being coerced by some unseen aliens fill the halls. Finally Henry reports the sick man fully recovered, though he needs rest. Cindy shakes her head philosophically at the news. Probably anemic from all the blood samples Henry took. She has spent these last few days mulling over their next step. Seated in her chair she looks at the bridge crew.

  “Time for a decision. Do we go down to the planet again, or look for another?” She gazes around the bridge seeking input.

  Most of the crew look to each other in silence as they ponder the question. Peter speaks up though. “Shouldn’t that be Emma’s call? She is the lead planetologist.”

  Cindy smiles at Peter’s simple, yet overlooked solution. She taps her console.

  “Emma, report to the bridge please.” Taking her finger of the symbol, she looks at her crew again. “Before she gets here, I want your thoughts though.”

  John speaks up first. “We flew all over it and have a lot of samples.”

  Andrew looks to Joe briefly then speaks for them both. “We can’t learn anything new by staying.”

  Cindy turns to look at Peter. “Your thoughts.”

  Peter takes a deep breath as he considers his answer. “If we conduct additional ground surveys we will undoubtedly learn more about the planet and its potential life forms. But I say let’s move on, this is but the first decent planet we have discovered. If we find no more then we can always come back.”

  While the bridge crew quietly considers the pros and cons, Emma arrives. Though she normally does not like being summoned, she arrives in good spirits.

  Cindy greets her with a smile. “I do understand that if we stayed, you and your team could be kept busy for a long time studying this planet. And though I feel we have made a great discovery, I wish to keep looking for more. Your thoughts Emma?”