by James Warner
As we watched, the Hornet just faded out. Gone. I stood there, a little agape. I hadn’t expected that. I thought the Hornet would just leave via one of the tubes like we had entered and exited before.
“I see you have never experienced seeing a starship warp from dock before,” Station 142 commented.
“Yeah, what happened?”
“The new power system had to be tested at maximum load and the only way to do that was to go to star drive instantly from rest. I have been monitoring and there is no problem. The starship will return in a moment. I believe it went back to your home world. Yes, it is returning now.”
I hadn’t recovered from the last gape. As this last was announced the Hornet faded back in, in the same place she was in before. No displacement as far as I could see. Pretty neat. I didn’t know of any Civilization starship that could warp from dry-dock without destroying the dry-dock and everything within a thousand meters around.
“Wow, did you see that Meph? This is incredible.
Sassy, you are fabulous!”
“I just hope my equipment hasn’t been messed up,” Meph mused, worry plain on his alien face.
What did we have here? Twice the power, a little over half the mass, we had created a monster ship. I was grinning from ear to ear. Back to Earth in just a few moments? God this was really exciting! I skipped down the ramp back to my suite, humming a song that was popular back on Hamarabus.
“Your starship has passed all the system evaluations and is ready for occupation,” 142 informed me later in the day.
“All right!”
Meph was calmly reading the gold specification sheets on the power plant. Apparently Station 142 had decided that since he was with Sassy and me, he was an acceptable accessory.
“Come on Meph, shake a tentacle! Let’s go check her out!” I ran from my room down the corridor to the docking bay entrance. Meph bounded behind me.
As I approached the hatch it opened and the lighting dramatically turned on in welcome. Sassy was like a prom queen showing off her new dress to her parents.
I rushed in, touching everything in the airlock and the corridor to the bridge, running my fingers along the walls that were still painted in my atmospheric color scheme.
“Hey, check it out, Meph! The paint job hasn’t been changed. The lighting is still Earth normal. This is really cool!”
I was like a kid coming home after my first year at the Academy. Inside were subtle differences. I might not have noticed them right away, because all the equipment on the bridge was just as I left it – except that anything that was changed was made from the same dark gray Ancient material. It felt like metal, but I wasn’t sure, as the temperature was too warm to be titanium, or any other alloy I knew about. It felt just like the Artifacts I had been collecting. Oh well. Sassy had just aged 40,000 years.
Meph laughed at my enthusiasm then scuttled down the central hall to his quarters and his equipment.
“Hey Sassy, you’re the grand dame of the Scoutship program now. You’ve got 20,000 years seniority!” I said to my ship.
“That’s right, Caryn. And don’t you forget it!” She was obviously as happy with the changes as I was.
Probably more so.
Meph immediately went to his lab to see what had been messed up. He was pretty protective of his “hobby”. I was looking around the bridge when he called me up.
“Captain, this is amazing.”
“What’s amazing, Meph?”
“What they did to my equipment. Everything is still totally intact, only it works faster and I assume better, than before. I’ve been inspecting the insides and it all looks the same.”
“Well Meph, maybe they didn’t touch your gear in here.”
“No way, Captain. It was totally integrated with the equipment on the Hornet’s battle bridge. They had to get into it. But I sure can’t figure out how, or where.”
Well, Sassy seemed to be drastically improved, but the big and small surprises for us were just beginning.
Chapter 9.
“Station 142, what you have done is amazing. I feel a little sad to leave so soon, but we have a mission to complete,” I said to our very hospitable host.
“We understand. You are welcome to return at any time,” the station replied.
My finger was itching to touch the new star drive control button. But Meph and I had to prepare for anything in case this all blew up.
“Meph, put on your EV suit and button up. I’m doing the same.”
“Yes, sir.”
I always enjoyed watching Meph put on anything, but the EV or Extra-Vehicular suit is a particular treat.
“Sassy, no offense, but we have to make sure we survive this first trip.”
The itching feeling I had to try out the Hornet’s new boots made it easier for me to leave 142.
“Sassy, plot a course to the next star system on the Parents’ path of exploration.”
“Aye, aye, my Captain,” she replied.
The button was beckoning. With a flourish and a fanfare from Meph, I activated the star drive button. No complexity, just a button to push. Very simple, very elegant and very different from what I was used to. No figuring, no charting, no power monitoring, no nothing. Probably very boring after a while too, but this was new and exciting this time.
“My navigation and fire control are extremely well integrated into the ship’s infrastructure. I find it quite simple to do the navigation now,” Sassy informed me. She seemed very happy too. I was happy for her.
And as I turned to Meph to tell him all this, how I felt, we were out of hyperspace or hyperfold, or whatever it was called and approaching a planetary system at sub light. Incredible!
“Captain, I am scanning many traces and pockets of gold on the second, third and fourth planets – also several asteroids where the seventh planet should be.”
“You realize this star system is very much like my home system, Meph?”
“Yes sir, my scanners reveal it. I did a system search, which by the way was nearly instantaneous and found that this star system matches exactly 30 previously explored star systems in the galaxy regarding human habitation specifications.”
I was getting a good feeling about this stop already.
The planet closest to the star was more like a small moon.
“There are a lot of heavy elements in the first planet. I would say current Admiralty mining technology could make it fruitful for robotic mining of radioactives,” Meph commented. I noticed there was no atmosphere.
“Too hot to live on for very long though, just like
Mercury back home.”
“The star seems to have baked the second planet as well, Captain. But there is a gaseous atmosphere – though not very hospitable.”
“Right. And the third one could almost be a copy of
Venus back home – lots of toxic atmosphere. Probably another good place for robotic mining.”
“Yes sir.”
But the fourth and fifth planets, oh my! They were both in the Goldie-Locks zone.
“I’m picking up a lot of life forms on planet 4, Meph. What do your sensors say about the apparent archeological remains?”
“Nothing like my home world, sir. But look at those ruins! Huge stone block construction, not much metal. Must have been some kind of Stone Age civilization that got destroyed. But there is indication of a Library.”
I was getting more and more excited and the exploration itch was making it hard for me to stay in my command seat. I began pacing around the bridge, staring in excitement at every new revelation on the screens. The planet was a bit warm and mostly desert around the equator with large temperate zones in the northern and southern hemispheres and very small polar ice caps. Most of the planet beyond the equatorial desert zone was tropical.
“Exploration’s going to be tough there, Captain.
Lots of jungle to cut through.”
“It’ll be worth it, Meph.”
“Captain, we are ap
proaching the fifth planet. It seems to be in the throes of a permanent ice age. Do you want to go closer?” Sassy said.
“Absolutely. Look at those remnants of construction near the equatorial area where the ice peters out. This one was also inhabited. Meph, what do your sensors find?” This was incredible to me. In short, there were two very habitable planets here!
“I found a lot of gold on planet 4 and some here too. But the main thing I’m seeing is a planet rich in mining potential for all the elements used by our civilization. The destroyed cities hardly made a dent in their resources. There are also some caves, Captain,” he added, tantalizing me further.
“Meph, did you check out the lander? I didn’t see if it was repaired.”
“No, Captain. Let’s go see what’s back there in the bay.”
“Sassy, you did check to see if we have a lander…?”
“Um, yes, we do, Captain.”
“All right. Sassy, take us back to planet 4.”
We hurried back to the docking bay to see how we were going to visit the surface. I felt negligent of my duties. As the captain I’m supposed to be aware of my ship’s capabilities at all times.
When we got to the docking/cargo bay, the lander was not there. Instead was a big dark gray egg, about the size of the lander but taller. It was completely alien to me and its purpose was inscrutable. It sat on the deck on four short thin legs with round pads.
“Sassy, what are we supposed to do with this egg?
Where is our lander?”
“That is a replacement lander, Captain. Our old lander was too damaged to be repaired, as 142 had no parts that would fit. So we were provided with a lander from the Battle Cruiser in storage. Approaching this lander will activate the door. It has been keyed to you.”
Well, this should prove interesting. Meph and I walked up to the pod and a door appeared in the smooth side, with steps down to the floor of the bay.
So being explorers, naturally we entered.
The lights went on inside. They were orange/red in color, not too bright, not too dim. There were various colored buttons on what was apparently the control console. From the instructions in “Parent writing” by the controls I could tell that this was actually a multi-purpose craft, designed for hostile environments as well as normal travel between the big ship and a base. 142 obviously had my recent exploits in mind when placing this egg here.
There were several controls for weapons and shields which I had no interest in ever using if I could help it.
“Look Captain, 142 brought our old lander seats here for us,” Meph said.
I noticed the leather was in pretty good shape still. No apparent battle damage to it or the seat supports. Now that was a very nice touch!
I pushed on a button on the control podium that activated the view screen and the walls became transparent everywhere but directly down, beneath the command center.
“What the hell? Meph, this gives me the willies!”
We were still inside the Hornet and I could see everything. It was a very disconcerting feeling, like being in a glass cage, or a very clear soap bubble. Well, that was the way it was, so I had to get used to it if I was going down to the planet.
“Let’s go to the surface, shall we?” I said more to myself than anyone else. The view outside slowly dissolved into a view of a few hundred meters above the surface of the planet. Wow! This thing has been programmed to understand English!
“Sassy are you hooked in here?”
“Yes Captain. I hear and see you quite well, but no one named Willy.”
I stood up and walked around the largish control podium and looked outside, surveying the terrain where we were.
“I’d like to go over to portside near those ruins, about a thousand meters away.” No sooner had I said it than we were skimming the surface of the planet at a height of about a hundred meters. There was no internal feeling of motion. It was like watching a surround-screen holo, except the resolution was much finer. I held onto the back of my seat for support. I hoped I’d get used to traveling in a soap bubble.
In a matter of moments we were hovering over what had once been some sort of town or village. There were tumbled-down stone buildings and jungle growth everywhere. “Scout around for a flat location to land.” I commanded. This was really fun! Just like the Hornet, but more intimate (and less “sassy”). Meph was just looking all around, enjoying the show. The pod started moving in a standard search pattern. We got a good view of the place, the broken columns, the twisted metal fences and gates; the larger dilapidated stone structures. The stones looked a light brown like they were cut from sandstone. Meph noticed what might be the entrance to the underground.
“Hold it, Captain. Look over there. I see a ‘rabbit hole’,” he said, pointing with a tentacle to a jumble of rectangular rocks partially covering a flat stone pad with what looked like a rectangular hole in the middle, visible through the rubble.
“Okay Meph, let’s check it out.”
“Cancel the search pattern and lower us near that structure off the starboard bow so we can explore,” I said to the pod. Immediately we zoomed over the pile of rocks and started to descend. In a moment we were over a grassy strip next to the rocks, a half meter off the ground, from the view outside.
“Meph, is the air, temperature and so forth okay?”
“Sure Captain. Here’s the readout,” he answered, pointing to a screen on the console that I hadn’t studied yet.
“Great. Let’s go,” I said, waving toward the rocks clearly seen outside. The view gradually became much darker, except for floodlights that illuminated the site from outside the pod.
What’s this – I thought… “Sassy, have we been
looking at a computer enhanced view?”
“Of course, Captain. I can control the view from the pod to appear as any time of day or night. What you see now is the sunset, illuminated by the pod’s floodlights, as it actually is,” Sassy replied.
“Oh. Hmmm. Okay, let’s go see anyway, Meph.”
“Right, Captain. I’m right behind you.” We went out of the pod with our flashlights so we could explore the cavern, or whatever it was. Behind us came a spindly bipedal ‘droid with a floodlight.
“What’s this thing, Sassy?” I asked.
“In a potentially hostile environment the Captain shall not be allowed to explore unprotected,” Sassy quoted from the Admiralty exploration manual. I couldn’t believe this pod. It left nothing to chance. Well, of course, that would be expected of a military vehicle. But still, for me it was surprising to be followed by a ‘droid without having to ask for one.
“All right, all right. Did you send it?”
“No Captain, the pod did this on its own.”
I just didn’t know what sorts of surprises were still awaiting my unwitting discovery. I guess that sort of unnerved me a little.
“Meph, what do you smell?” I asked. I still didn’t know very much about his home world.
“I smell flowers and other green plants. It’s much like the indoor botanical gardens I visited in Boulder, sir.”
“Does it smell good to you?”
“Yes. Very relaxing. Like a florist’s shop.”
With each step I was feeling better and better. I was really growing to like this planet.
The ‘rabbit hole’ turned out to be a stairway leading down into the planet. We went down perhaps forty steps carved from the solid granite of this hill with rest platforms every ten steps and faced a solid door. In the light of our electric torches I couldn’t make out anything but gray. I had told the ‘droid to precede us, in case there were traps. It seemed to know what to do and from time to time sensors would stick out from its body and wiggle around, doing something. The thing was actually quite cute, if you like a dark gray contraption that looked like a four-foot long praying mantis.
“Sassy, does this ‘droid have a name or anything?”
“Yes, it is called TD12. It has the intelligence of an avera
ge drunk biped from Earth. It recognizes its name in the Parents’ language and has been wondering if you like it.”
“That’s enough. Thanks.”
“TD12, my friend tells me that is your name. You are doing a very good job and I think you’re cute. Please continue,” I said in the Parents’ language to the ‘droid.
