Blue Planet Rising (Pebbles in the Sky Book 2)

by Jeffery Bagley

  Chapter 58

  August 19th, 2048

  Elpis

  Brianna was so frustrated she was in tears. Those asses back at mission control and in the government were so damn stupid sometimes. The baby was crying, her Barbakath pup was tugging on her leg wanting to be fed, and she just didn’t have time to handle everything at once.

  “Beatrice, can you please come get Freddy and feed her? I have to feed the baby and I can’t hold her while getting food for Freddy,” Brianna called out.

  Beatrice came over from where she had just finished feeding two more of the Barbakath “pups” as they had started calling them. Earth had finally given the approval back in February for Odysseus to re-generate five more of the Barbakath. Beatrice, Sarah, Kristy, Donald, and Albert had all surrogated as a Sabba for the pups. They were shorthanded at the site today because Kristy, Jason, Master Chief and David had taken two large tanks of Horast origin fish larvae to the ocean bay south of them in the alien ship. This was going to be the third load of the larvae that had been released into the sea. Since the high potassium content of the seawater was very similar to the native Horast sea that the fish had originally evolved in, it was hoped that they would survive and multiple. They had not taken their surrogated pups with them and Beatrice and Brianna had discovered that the pups had severe separation anxiety if separated from their “Sabba” they had bonded with for more than an hour or so.

  Sarah came walking into the ‘A’ dome holding her baby. Her pup was tagging along behind her. She had been working in the green houses with Donald and Albert until her own baby had demanded to be fed. She had to laugh at the three of them. “This place is starting to look like a nursery. Full of crying babies, whining pups, and men griping because they can’t sleep at night.”

  Beatrice smiled. “I think it’s sort of nice to have the small ones around.”

  “You don’t have one to feed every couple of hours,” Sarah said. “Back on Earth, you had formula and you could get your man to get up to feed it at night sometimes. Here, well, we’re the only source of formula,” she laughed as she cupped one of her milk heavy breasts.”

  “I guess I only get about six more months of sleep then,” grinned Beatrice.

  It took a moment for that statement to sink into Brianna’s befuddled mind. “Beatrice, are you saying that you’re pregnant?”

  Beatrice grinned and nodded her head.

  Sarah and Brianna rushed over and gave her a hug. “Is it Master Chief’s?” asked Sarah.

  “Well, who else’s would it be?” asked Beatrice. “Donald has no interest in women.”

  “Does he know?” asked Brianna.

  “Not yet. I don’t think he’s going to be very happy about it.” Beatrice said with a frown.

  “Hey, you play, you pay,” grinned Sarah. I figure as soon as I quit nursing this one, I’ll be knocked up again pretty quick.”

  Freddy, the first Barbakath that Odysseus had produced, came running into the dome and started tugging on Brianna’s leg. It had grown to almost the size of a large dog. “Binna, Binna,” it kept saying, as it pulled on her leg.

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked Beatrice.

  All of a sudden the other pups stood still, raised their heads, and swiveled their ears toward the domes open door. Freddy ran outside and the other pups followed as a group. The human women heard the unmistakable sounds of the maneuvering jets on the alien ship. They gathered up the two human infants and started up the hill. They could see the Barbakath ship settling down behind the hill in the base landing zone.

  Albert and Donald met them going up the hill as the two men came up from the greenhouse they had been working in. The boarding ramp was just lowering from the ship as the mixed group of humans and Barbakath pups reached the landing zone. Jason and Master Chief were dragging one of the empty water tanks off the ship that they had transported the fish larvae in.

  Kristy and David were right behind them pulling the other empty tank. Everyone but Sarah, Brianna, and Beatrice helped lift the tanks onto a trailer.

  Kristy gave Beatrice a jab in the ribs as they finished. “Why aren’t you helping lift? Doctors can’t get their hands dirty lifting things?”

  “Not pregnant doctors,” Beatrice said. The whole group stared at her, and then turned to look at Master Chief. He was standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face.

  He pointed his thumb at his chest and asked “Me?”

  Beatrice nodded.

  A big grin appeared on Master Chief’s face. He went over and gave Beatrice a big hug. “I never dreamed that I would be a dad,” he said.

  The women hugged Beatrice while the guys were slapping Master Chief on the back. The Barbakath pups were jumping around in excitement even though they didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on.

  David pulled Jason aside. “Now, might be a good time to talk Kristy into letting us use the replicator in the other small dome. According to Odysseus, it can make just about anything we want providing it has the raw materials and the product will fit out opening in the machine.”

  “How are you going to input directions into it? Odysseus said it wasn’t smart enough to re-program to use English and I can’t for the life of me read all those dots,” Jason said.

  “Odysseus and I’ve been working on an input program for one of our data pads that can translate into the Barbakath machine programing language. I would like to give it a try,” David replied.

  “Let’s talk to Kristy about it after supper,” Jason said.

  …

  That night they had a supper of fresh vegetables and some protein bars from their slowly dwindling supply of rations that they had brought with them from Earth. David brought the subject of the replicator machine up. “Kristy, I think that Odysseus and I have perfected that interface program for the replicator in the ‘B’ dome. I would like to use some scrap metal off the old robot landers and try out a simple pattern that I made up.”

  “What kind of pattern?” Kristy asked. “Earth is reluctant for us to mess with the replicator until they can have some manufacturing engineers build another one from the plans that Odysseus gave them. Some of the special alloys that it can use they haven’t been able to re-produce yet.

  “Odysseus assures me that even if my plan doesn’t work that it won’t hurt the machine. The machine has built in safety features that prevent accidental programming damage.

  David pulled out his data pad and showed it to Kristy. She looked at it and then back up at him. What type of materials is it going to take?

  “Some scrap aluminum and scrap steel from one of the robot landers. Add to that some water, plant waste from the green houses and sand,” David told her. “If we make the solar cells and battery it will take a small amount of the alloy ingots that the Barbakath left stored in the dome.”

  Kristy raised her wrist and spoke into her PA. “Odysseus, are you sure that this won’t hurt the replicator?”

  “The replicators are very ruggedly built, Kristy. There is a ninety nine point seven percent chance that the end product will be as desired,” Odysseus answered.

  “What the hell, I guess we can give it a try when you get the raw materials together. Do the others know what you’re planning?” she asked.

  “Only Jason, I wanted to surprise the girls,” David said.

  “Ok, go ahead and make one with all the bells and whistles. Let’s see how much materials it really takes and then we’ll go from there,” Kristy directed.

  Chapter 59

  August 20th, 2048

  Elpis

  David and Jason labored all day in the small ‘B’ dome as the rest of the crew went about their daily tasks. Life had taken on an almost ‘old frontier’ like aspect. About half of everyone’s days were spent working the fields and greenhouses. Those chores were spaced out with feeding the human babies, Brett and Tawana. Brianna had named her child after her father. Sarah named her daughter after her great grandmother. After lunch, everyone w
orked on individual projects once the Barbakath pups had been fed.

  Brianna was studying a catalogue of different specimens of stored Horast life form DNA and comparing them to Earth’s life forms that filled similar niches in the ecosystem. Other than the marine life that was adapted to the high potassium content of the sea and the few plants that were a staple source of food for the Barbakath pups, they had been forbidden to re-generate any other Horast life forms. Instead, a growing number of Terran life forms had been created in Odysseus’s re-generation tanks from DNA data that had been sent from the DNA Ark Project.

  The main artifact site was starting to resemble a barnyard in the middle of a large farm. They now had larger tracts of wheat and corn growing around the site. There were about two dozen types of tree seedlings that were being grown in small fertile tracts of soil beside the greenhouses. The crew had started to enjoy honey on homemade bread a couple of weeks ago and they were ecstatic with the sweet syrup the honey bees were producing. Even the pups liked the sweet nectar. The minnow population in the small pond they had built had exploded with no predation and they were soon going to replicate some larger fish that would feed on the minnows. Plans for a second pond were in the works and a small bucket of minnows had been let loose in the small stream that they had planted the Horast tubers in as an experiment.

  By mid-afternoon, Jason and David had begun laying sheets of a curious looking material they were producing onto the trailer of the heavy transport that they had pulled up in front of the ‘B’ dome. They refused to answer any questions about what they were making in the replicator or what the purpose of the parts was. By supper time, they were done making their materials. While everyone else settled down for a well-earned rest for the remainder of the evening, Jason and David ate their supper on the run and then took their trailer of materials to the far side of the main dome and worked by the headlights on the transport. The rest of the crew was not allowed to come near the work area.

  Late into the night, Jason slid into his sleeping bag beside Brianna. She was nursing little Brett. “We’re all done. We have a surprise for you and Sarah in the morning.”

  “That’s nice,” whispered Brianna sleepily. She kissed him, and after Brett finished nursing, she laid him on his sleeping pad. Little Alpha, Beatrice’s surrogated Barbakath pup, moved over and cuddled up to the baby. Brianna smiled and drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning, everyone was up early. After the babies and Barbakath pups were fed, Jason and David proudly led everyone to see their project. On the far side of the main dome there were now two small buildings. Flat at the bottom and ends, they were curved on top and resembled half cylinders. The upper portion of the curved tops were covered with the Barbakath solar cells. Each building had the Barbakath styled subdued lighting and a small Barbakath storage battery. The buildings had a single door on one end and a window on the other end.

  “We copied the design from a hut that they used to build back on Earth over a hundred years ago. They were called ‘Quonset huts’,” David said. The entire building is made of a type of silicate plastic compound that the Barbakath frequently used in light duty buildings. The solar cells and battery of course use the rare metals that were stored in the ‘B’ dome. Each building has its own lighting system.”

  “These first two are for the women with babies. We have plenty of materials to make more of them for anyone that wants one. Now, a crying baby won’t keep everybody awake all night and people can have a little privacy. I was also thinking we could make one for the latrine so we don’t have to go out in the rain,” Jason bragged.

  Sarah and Brianna were overjoyed. The rest of the crew was already pleading for their own hut. They all looked at Kristy and she nodded. “Go ahead and make them, including the latrine. I think we’ll need to help them by pitching in and helping strip scrap metal off the old supply ships for the metal. Albert, I would like you to talk to Odysseus. I know you have identified some mineral deposits on your geological surveys. Find out what Odysseus would need to use those for raw materials. There are some other things that we can probably make that would be beneficial. If we could make enough pipe to reach from here to the water source we use ,that would be a hell of a lot easier than taking the tank every day and filling it.”

  “This project does not override your primary duties though. So everybody get to work,” Kristy said, as she shooed them toward the green houses.

  Chapter 60

  June 1st, 2049

  Low Earth Orbit

  Admiral Ellis picked his way down the passage way behind Captain Hopper. They were midway through a tour of Space Station Beta. Construction on the new low orbit replacement station for Space Station Alpha was running several months behind. Many of the originally planned support systems had been ripped out and replaced by those using new technology obtained from the alien site on Elpis.

  The new station would have a fusion power core instead of the originally planned fission power plant. The construction of circular crew habitats that could be spun for centrifugal gravity was no longer required. The new gravity plates were being installed in all crew areas. Specific parts and materials were all now being made in orbit using different sized models of the parts replicator that had been found at the alien site. For the same size station, they would now have twice the room by using the new technologies they had gained.

  Before his tour of the new station, Admiral Ellis had toured the construction site of the newest Space Force Ship that was being assembled at Space Station Alpha. She was a totally different design from her predecessors, the old Mars Transfer ships. Gone were the rotating crew habitats and giant trusses for holding cargo pods. The new ship would be fusion powered, have artificial gravity, and carry almost fifty percent more cargo as the older ships she was replacing. The first ship of her class, Olympus, was due to be completed in just over a year. It had been decided that the new class ship would have a captain from one of the United States new allies. Captain LeFontain, her commanding officer, was from the new French Colonies in North Africa.

  Captain Hopper led Admiral Ellis to the control center of the new station. There were cables and wires strung everywhere and there were at least a dozen technicians at work in various panels of electronics. Admiral Ellis shook his head. “How in the world do they keep track of all this while assembling it?”

  “It’s beyond me,” Captain Hopper replied. “You can ask any of them though, and they can tell you what just about any cable in here goes too.”

  “Everything’s looking good, Captain,” Admiral Ellis said. “I understand now why you insisted that the power plant and gravity plates be put on line first. Working under a normal Earth Gravity is much more efficient than trying to manhandle stuff in zero-G. The gravity plates have changed the way we do lots of things. I’m glad that they didn’t shoot that NASA engineer that released the specifications of the plates over the internet. I know that the technology would have given us an immense military edge, but the new Russian Republic really has nothing we need. There’s no need for wars. There’s very little use for the oil they have left in their territory in the Middle East. We now have the new fusion technology, solar cells, and the Barbakath energy storage devices. Energy is cheap and getting cheaper. The few civilian uses of the gravity plates are just novelty things at the moment. In another five years, there is no telling what the different companies will come up with.

  Admiral Ellis stepped up to a panel that had a display screen and shifted the view to that of a truss holding a space ship at the old Space Station Alpha. The older station that was being sold to a private corporation was about a hundred kilometers away. He shook his head in disapproval. “Why in the world are those nuts going ahead and building that ship with all that old technology?” He motioned toward the colony ship that was being assembled by the New World Industries Corporation. “That old eccentric fool Benjamin Greco has actually talked one hundred perfectly sane people on riding that thing to Elpis and then landing in shu
ttles to colonize the “new world” as they are calling it.”

  Captain Hopper laughed. “The crazy thing is, Admiral, there are probably hundreds of thousands of more people who would give everything they had to be on that ship when it leaves. You have to admit, life on Earth isn’t what it used to be. Elpis is being viewed as the Garden of Eden right now.”

  Admiral Ellis switched the display to show the Earth orbiting below them. He pressed a control to zoom the display out to show a view from a high orbiting satellite. It was easy to see that large portions of the northern hemisphere were now covered by snow and ice. Europe was passing below them at the moment. The continent was white halfway down the Italian Peninsula and only the lower half of Spain was free of snow and ice.

  The Admiral sighed. “It’s quite a different view from when I was boy. I grew up in Michigan. Summers there used to be glorious. We would fish and sail on the Great Lakes all summer long. Now, Michigan is under the ice year round and the Great Lakes are frozen over. It’s quite depressing if you take the time to think about it.” He switched the monitor display off.

  “Captain, I’m on my way to Farside Base. Some scientists there have come up with a proposal for putting gravity plates and a generator on some of the larger asteroids. They theorize that if we could neutralize even a portion of the Sun’s gravity on an asteroid, then that would grossly alter their orbits without having to use some of the less efficient methods we have now. Between you and me, I have no idea where all this will pan out as we incorporate the advanced alien technologies.”