Frontiers 07 - The Expanse

by Ryk Brown

  Cameron remained seated, as usual, as the others cleared the briefing room.

  Nathan looked sternly at her. “I’m not leaving her behind, Commander.”

  “I know, Nathan. Jessica and Sergeant Weatherly are immune.”

  “But the Corinairans and the Takaran on that team are not,” Nathan stated, the guilt evident on his face, “and that’s on me.”

  “Nathan…”

  “I should have thought of that,” he said, cutting her off. “I should have insisted the team be Terrans only. As soon as we ID’d that ship, I should have considered the possibility of it carrying the BD-plague.”

  “It’s a cargo ship, Nathan, a thousand year-old cargo ship that was supposed to be decommissioned. You couldn’t possibly have known that there would still be someone alive on board. I mean, what are the odds that a stasis pod would last that long?”

  “I’m a student of history, Cam. I knew about all the refugees that fled the core to escape the plague. They did so in all manner of ships, legally operated or not. I should have connected the dots.”

  Cameron took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, then rose and left the briefing room without another word. She could tell by the expression on his face that there was nothing more to say.

  Nathan sat there thinking for several minutes. He had made mistakes in the past, ones that had cost hundreds of thousands of lives, maybe even millions. He had let others convince him that, in the end, his actions had saved billions from oppression and suffering, and quite possibly extinction. But this time, his mistake could put billions of people at stake.

  He never did like being captain.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Nathan stood in the corner of the quarantine bay of the Aurora’s medical section, watching as Vladimir and his engineers finished their scans of the three stasis pods brought over from the Jasper. As long as they remained unconnected from their systems, they posed no threat to the ship. The occupants of those pods, however, were another matter. If even one of them was infected, over two hundred of his crew would be at risk.

  The Corinairan and Takaran members of the original boarding party, as well as the shuttle’s crew chief, were all being held in another quarantine bay, awaiting the results of their own blood tests and those of the three survivors of the Jasper currently in stasis.

  The Jasper itself was also an issue. Once they had arrived in orbit and rendezvoused with the old cargo vessel, Vladimir and his few Terran engineers had managed to connect batteries to the Jasper’s comm-systems, allowing them to download the ship’s entire database and comm-logs onto several data pads; this allowed them to view the contents on the portable device back on board the Aurora without further risk to the ship.

  “I find no evidence of infection in any of the pods’ systems,” Vladimir announced as he approached Nathan.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Nyet, there is no way to be sure. But it is of no matter. We simply do not connect them to our systems. Once the occupants are revived, we dispose of the pods. No risk at all.”

  “One of my favorite terms,” Nathan said.

  “You worry too much,” Vladimir told his friend, noticing his expression. “How is Jessica doing with the Jasper’s comm-logs?”

  “They got back about an hour ago. She’s going through the logs now, trying to find out who owned the ship, their mission, their launch date, and so on. It may take some time.”

  “Well, even if she does not learn anything of value, at least there was enough propellant on the Jasper to replace what we used getting to her.”

  “Yeah, that will at least keep Cameron off my back,” Nathan said. “Are we going to be able to use that propellant?”

  “It’s not exactly the same as ours, but the Takarans can use it to synthesize a working substitute.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I do not know,” Vladimir admitted, “but they assure me it is not difficult.”

  “Are we clear to begin our examinations?” Doctor Chen interrupted.

  “Yes, of course, Doctor,” Vladimir answered.

  “Everyone will have to clear the room,” she told them.

  “Why?” Nathan wondered. “We’re all immune, aren’t we?”

  “Rule number one when dealing with virulent pathogens: do not take unnecessary risks. You may watch from outside if you like.”

  “I guess I can’t argue with that logic,” Nathan admitted.

  “No, sir, you cannot,” she said as she motioned for them to exit.

  * * *

  Jessica entered the captain’s ready room without warning, flopping down on the couch as usual.

  “Does anyone realize this is the captain’s office?” Nathan wondered aloud.

  “A moment of your time, sir?” Jessica asked as she relaxed on the couch, her eyes closed.

  “What’s up?” As with Vladimir and Cameron, when they were alone in the room, he preferred to drop the formalities of rank.

  “I thought I’d let you know what we’ve learned so far.”

  Nathan leaned back in his chair. “I’m all ears.”

  Jessica sat up as she began. “The Jasper’s flight logs only go back to 2370. I suspect that’s when she came out of retirement. All her previous logs must have been wiped by the new owner. Best we can tell, her new captain, Alan Dubnyk, was also her new owner. There’s nothing about how much he paid, transfer of title, or new registry.”

  “So he was a rogue operator running an unregistered cargo ship,” Nathan said.

  “He only shows four runs in over eighty years. The first three were all long-haul smuggling stuff, running contraband out to the fringe worlds. His logs show that he and his crew spent most of their time in stasis, coming out occasionally to check on the ship and her course.”

  “What about the fourth one?” Nathan asked, figuring it was the one that had eventually brought the Jasper to BD+25 3252.

  “In 2454, he took on an unsanctioned colony mission. He picked up the job in Mu Herculis, one of the fringe systems about twenty-seven light years from Earth. A full load of refugees, with all the equipment and supplies they needed to start a new colony.”

  “How many refugees?”

  “Five hundred and eight.”

  “Did he have a manifest or a passenger list?”

  “Not exactly. It was more like a list of what order he was to deliver the cargo containers in once they reached their target world.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Like what?” Jessica asked, closing her eyes and leaning back again.

  “Like why only half his cargo containers were unloaded, or why three hundred refugees never made it down to the surface.”

  “We’ve only just started. I’m sure there will be something explaining all of that in the ship’s log.”

  “Not much to go on,” Nathan said with a slight frown.

  “Actually, it’s more than you realize. Think about it, Nathan. Mu Herculis was a fringe world. The fringe worlds were the last to become infected. The first reported case of the bio-digital plague on Earth was in 2435. A year later, the digital version showed up, and they locked down the Data Ark. The Jasper’s last mission was only eight years later. Considering the distance between Mu Herculis and Earth, and the fact that the fringe worlds didn’t have regular transport or comm-runs, the plague might not have even reached them by 2454. Those people might have left just in time. That ship might be clean.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Nathan said, “but we’ll continue to play it safe just the same.”

  “Can I at least tell the guys still in quarantine?” Jessica asked. “They’re going nuts down there. A little hope might go a long way.”

  “Go ahead, but don’t lay it on too thick. Sometimes false hope is worse than no hope at all.”

  “Jesus, Nathan, you sound like my father.”

  “There’s still one other question,” Nathan said. “Where are the other two hundred refugees?”

  * * *


  “All their blood work came back clean,” Doctor Chen reported.

  “So no signs of the plague?” Nathan asked as he stared at the three stasis pods.

  “None at all, Captain.”

  “What about the away team?”

  “They’re clean as well. We even used the Corinairan diagnostic scanners on them which, as you know, are far superior to our own. However, the three people in those pods do have some problems. They’ve been in stasis for a very long time. Those systems were designed to maintain the human body in stasis for decades, maybe even a century or two, but not for a millennium.”

  “Why not?” Nathan wondered. He knew very little about stasis technology other than the fact that it was widely used during interstellar travel before the bio-digital plague struck.

  “Most people think stasis is the same thing as suspended animation, a complete suspension of cellular activity. It’s not; it’s just an extreme decline in the level of activity. The body still ages, just at a greatly reduced rate. Gases are still exchanged, waste is still generated and eliminated. There were even different levels of stasis, primarily long and short term.”

  “I read those files as well, Doctor. I’m pretty sure these are long-term stasis pods.”

  “They are, but again, they were not designed to last a thousand years.”

  “Cut to the chase, Doctor,” Nathan said. “What’s wrong with them?”

  “Two of them are suffering from severe muscular atrophy. I believe the muscle stimulation systems in their pods stopped working long ago.”

  “So that would make them weak, right?”

  “Very. Their hearts may not be strong enough to support a body running at normal metabolic rates. They will probably find it difficult to breathe as well. We’ll have to keep them in a reduced gravity environment until they become stronger. That could take months.”

  “What about the Corinairans? Could they use their nanites?”

  “We’ve discussed that option, and they would definitely help if they survive the revival process.”

  “So if we wake them, they could die, and if we don’t they will definitely die, only later.” Nathan sighed. “What are the odds that they’ll lead normal, healthy lives if we revive them now?”

  “Better than if they are revived later,” Doctor Chen told him.

  “You said two of them are weak,” Nathan realized. “What about the third one?”

  “He has some atrophy as well, but his pod was in much better shape than the others. According to Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy, his pod was of a much better design, with multiple redundancies. He has the best chance of surviving out of the three of them.”

  Again, Nathan sighed. He shook his head from side to side. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up to an entirely new galaxy—everything they knew, every person they knew, all gone.” Nathan stared at the pods for a few seconds, then turned back to Doctor Chen. “You know, they came here to start a new colony. They brought equipment, supplies, everything they needed to give them a fighting chance. Something must have gone wrong.”

  “Have you learned what it was?” Doctor Chen asked.

  “Jessica is still studying the Jasper’s logs. They must have gone down to the surface. Where else could they have gone?”

  “Has anyone checked?” Doctor Chen asked. “The surface, I mean.”

  “We’ve been scanning it for hours but haven’t found anything yet.”

  “So, what do you want me to do?” Doctor Chen asked.

  “This isn’t a medical decision?” he asked, hoping to pass the decision off on her.

  “I’m afraid not. Even in their current state, as long as their pods keep working, they might survive longer than any of us.”

  “Well we can’t leave them behind,” Nathan said. “Their ship is full of holes, and their reactor core is nearly depleted. We also can’t leave them sitting in thousand year-old stasis pods that were only designed to last a century or two. For all we know, those things could stop working at any moment.” Nathan looked at Doctor Chen, hoping for some advice.

  “Captain, it seems to me that we only know two things about these people: they wanted to escape the plague, and they only intended to remain in these pods until they reached their destination. They certainly didn’t intend to remain in them indefinitely.”

  “Good point,” Nathan admitted. He suddenly felt much better. “Wake them up.”

  “Yes, sir,” Doctor Chen said, turning back toward the pods.

  “Doc,” Nathan called after her. Doctor Chen turned back around to face the captain. “Thanks.”

  * * *

  Nathan sat in his command chair on the bridge, waiting. It had been several hours since he had ordered Doctor Chen to revive the three survivors from the Jasper, yet there had been no word from medical about their disposition. He knew that, even if they did survive, it might be some time before any of them would be able to speak, let alone answer questions. Nathan had read everything he could find in the Aurora’s database about stasis technology from the twenty-fourth century. The longer the subject was in stasis, the longer it took for them to become fully functional. Most interstellar crews were revived on a monthly basis during their journey in order to maintain their ship and reduce the recovery time needed at the end of their voyage when they were to off-load their cargo and take on the new. In such cases, it took no more than a few hours to recover. The longest stasis period on record was ten years, and that had been an accident. The occupant had required months of rehabilitation to become normal. He had even suffered some degradation in his motor skills that had taken years to regain. There was just no telling how long the survivors of the Jasper might take to recover, if ever.

  While in orbit, there was little for him to do on the bridge. He sometimes grew tired of sitting in his ready room reading reports and operational manuals. Even after being captain for months, there was still so much about his ship and his command that he did not know. He often wondered why he even bothered to learn everything. In just over a week, they would be home, and his command would finally be over. He wondered how he would be judged by Fleet Command. Would action be taken against him? Would his father end up intervening yet again?

  His father. By now the elections were over. If he had won, he would be the leader of the entire American continent and would be on the fast track to being appointed leader of the United Earth government when the current leader resigned. If he had won, his position alone might offer Nathan some consideration in judgment of his actions. He did, after all, complete his mission and get the Aurora back home safely. He even improved her and brought allies.

  The more he thought about it, the more he was sure Fleet Command would approve of his performance as the de facto captain of the Aurora. He doubted he would be welcomed as a hero, and there would certainly be no parade, especially not if his father had been elected. Senator Scott’s opinions of the fleet were quite clear.

  “Captain,” Jessica called as she entered the bridge, “I know where the other two hundred refugees are.” She moved to the tactical station, pushing Mister Randeen aside.

  “Care to enlighten us?” Nathan asked.

  “Just as we thought, they went to the surface to start the new colony,” she explained as she punched coordinates into the tactical systems targeting scanners. “They went down in small groups, establishing a base camp and expanding the settlement a little at a time so as not to overwhelm themselves.”

  “What are you doing?” Nathan wondered.

  “I’m using the optical targeting sensors to find them,” she explained. “I’ll put it up on the main viewer.”

  A moment later, the image popped up on the forward section of the spherical view screen that wrapped around the front half of the bridge. The image slowly zoomed in, giving the impression that they were falling from the sky toward the planet below. It finally stopped about one hundred meters above the ground.

  “There!” Jessica exclaimed, pointing at t
he view screen.

  “Where?”

  “Right there, to the right of the ice shelf.”

  “All I see is ice,” Nathan said, squinting. “Ice and snow.”

  “Look at the shape of that snow hill just below the ice shelf. It’s rectangular.”

  “She’s right,” Mister Randeen agreed. “There are several more as well,” he added, “to the right and above.”

  “Mister Navashee, scan that area for any signs of life. Thermal, electrical, fusion signatures, anything that would indicate someone is down there.”

  “Scanning now, Captain,” Mister Navashee acknowledged from his station.

  “Why didn’t we find this before?” Nathan wondered.

  “We were looking in the temperate areas closer to the equator,” Mister Randeen explained. “We never thought to look in the frigid areas.”

  “Why would they set up their colony in such extreme conditions,” Nathan wondered, “especially when they have habitable temperate zones available nearer the equator?”

  “Maybe it’s too hot in the lower latitudes?” Jessica said. “Or maybe the cold weather is seasonal?”

  “I don’t think that is seasonal, sir,” Mister Navashee reported. “That snow is fifty meters thick in some places, and I’m pretty sure the edge of the polar ice sheet is only one hundred kilometers north of them.”

  “Anything?” Nathan asked.

  “No, sir. No electrical, radiological, electromagnetic, or fusion signatures. And if there’s anything warm under there, all that snow is masking it. They may have been there once, but I don’t think anyone is there now.”

  Nathan thought for a moment. “It will take a few more hours to finish off-loading the propellant from the Jasper. Since we have the time, the only ethical thing to do is to check for survivors.” He turned toward Jessica at the tactical station. “Put together a landing party, cold weather gear and full arms. Go down there and check out that site. I doubt there are any survivors, but maybe we’ll at least learn what happened to them.”