“The commanding officer makes a very valid point,” remarked Solomon. “The power required to manipulate the black hole would not even notice the Vella Gulf as it crushed us into our component atoms.”
“I take it you want to go in there, Solomon?” asked Calvin. “You normally don’t volunteer your opinion.”
“I do not have opinions,” disagreed the artificial intelligence. “I am programmed to analyze data, and this is the logical conclusion. I am acquainted with your concept of hospitality and believe that whatever entity is beckoning us might find it rude if we do not take advantage of its offer. To not do so might be far more catastrophic than if we did.”
“I agree entirely,” said Captain Griffin. “Helmsman, set course for the new stargate.”
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Epsilon Eridani System, August 3, 2020
“Stargate entrance in five minutes,” announced the helmsman.
“General Quarters!” ordered the commanding officer.
The duty engineer pressed the button, and the alarm began sounding. The squadron already had all of the fighters manned up. They didn’t know what they would find on the other side of the stargate, but all of the ships were fully armed with anti-ship missiles and crewed with the most experienced crews.
“Comms, please let Domus Control know that we are about to make transit through the new stargate,” said the commanding officer. They had previously informed the Terran ambassador on the planet Domus of their intentions to investigate the new stargate. The ambassador didn’t have any way of getting the word back to Earth if they were destroyed, but at least someone would know where they went if they didn’t come back.
“Done, ma’am,” replied the communications officer. “The ambassador wished us good luck.”
“Thanks,” answered Captain Griffin distractedly as she stared at the stargate looming in front of them. Although it didn’t look any different from the other ones she had previously gone through, it somehow felt different. She tried to convince herself that she was only being foolish, and that she was letting her nerves get the better of her. The blackness of the stargate continued to loom, and she had a last minute urge to call for full reverse on the engines. Before she could, the blackness engulfed them, and the stars stretched to infinity...then went black...then everything seemed to spin sideways forever...then there was a vermillion flash...
* * * * *
Chapter Sixteen
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Gliese 667 C System, August 3, 2020
The ship emerged from transit with the ship pointed at the heart of a red dwarf star.
“Did anyone else notice that the transit felt different?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Yes ma’am,” replied Bullseye. “I’ve never felt that sideways spin before. That was weird.”
“Duty engineer,” the commanding officer called, “get me a damage report.” She looked at Bullseye. “Launch all fighters!” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” said the engineer, listening to her damage control network. “All stations are reporting that they have no damage, but all of the stations report feeling the same rotational force. The engineer is asking for 10 minutes to run full diagnostics before applying power.”
“Granted,” agreed Captain Griffin. “Tell him to be ready to break it off at a moment’s notice. We may need to get out of here quickly.”
“That will be difficult,” stated Steropes, who was manning the science station. “The stargate that we came through no longer exists.”
“Doesn’t exist?” repeated the commanding officer. “Where did it go?”
“Unknown at this time,” replied Steropes. “It must have been there for us to transit through, but it disappeared before the instruments had a chance to settle down after the transit.”
“Hey,” called the helmsman. “Anyone notice that there wasn’t a taste when we went through? Not salty, not sweet, not even bitter. I’ve never seen that before.”
“Curious,” mused Steropes. “I have never had that happen in all of the transits that I’ve made. Not once in 5,000 years.”
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” said Sara in a stage whisper, looking over Steropes’ shoulder.
“All fighters launched,” announced Bullseye. “They are proceeding in sections of two in all directions.” With six pairs of fighters, they could send one straight ahead in the Vella Gulf’s direction of travel, one straight behind them, one up, one down, one left and one to the right. They would go out to a distance of a million miles, extending the reach of the ship’s sensor network in a giant bubble.
“Talk to me Steropes,” said Captain Griffin. “What have we got? Any enemy in sight?” This was one of those times that she wanted reassurance that there weren’t any enemy vessels around. Like, NOW, and wasn’t getting it.
“Oh! Yes!” replied Steropes. “Sorry, I was looking for the stargate. What did you want?”
“I’d like it a lot,” answered the CO dryly, “if you could tell me if there are any enemies in the vicinity.”
“Oh, yes, right away,” said Steropes. He paused, looking at his scope. “No, there are no signs of either friendly or enemy activity in this system. By triangulation, and the fact that there are three stars in this system, I believe that we are in the Gliese 667 C system. There are two K-type main-sequence stars located about 230 astronomical units from the star that we are approaching. Gliese 667 C is the smallest star in this system. It is a red dwarf star with only about 31% of the mass of your Sun and 42% of the Sun’s radius. It is radiating only 1.4% of the Sun's luminosity.”
“And there is no stargate to be seen?” asked Captain Griffin.
“No,” replied Steropes, “there is no stargate to be seen.”
“All right,” said Captain Griffin, not wanting to incite a panic about the stargate home disappearing, “let’s start the survey and find out where it went.”
CO’s Conference Room, TSS Vella Gulf, Gliese 667 C System, August 7, 2020
“The Gliese 667 C system is part of the Gliese 667 triple star system,” explained Steropes to the assembled command staff of the Vella Gulf that had gathered in the CO’s conference room. “This system is located 22 light-years away from the Solar System in the constellation Scorpius. It has seven planets, all of which are super-Earths. They are like the Earth in form and composition although they are larger. Some are much larger. Of these seven planets, three are inside the habitable zone of Gliese 667 C, which runs from about 10 million miles to 23 million miles. In this region, liquid water is possible. Planets ‘c,’ ‘d,’ and ‘e’ are in this zone. Planets ‘a’ and ‘b’ are too hot, and planet ‘f’ is too cold.
“The orbit of Planet ‘g’ is very interesting,” he continued, “as it is extremely eccentric in nature. Its orbit goes from inside of Planet ‘d’ to outside of Planet ‘f.’ In terms of the Solar System, its orbit goes from inside of Venus to out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is currently nearing its closest point of approach.”
“Planet ‘c’ orbits Gliese 667 C at a distance of almost 12 million miles,” noted Sara, “which gives it an orbital period of 28 days. Based on the luminosity of Gliese 667 C at this distance, it would get about 90% of the light Earth does. As most of this would be in the infrared portion of the spectrum, Gliese 667 Cc should absorb more overall electromagnetic radiation, making it just a little warmer than Earth.”
“Is there a reason that you’re focusing on Planet ‘c’?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Yes, there is,” replied Sara. “We have found the remnants of a civilization on Planet ‘c.’”
“Then that is where we should start our search for answers,” decided Captain Griffin.
“Indeed,” said Steropes, “as we must find out what turns on and off the stargate.”
“Why is that?” asked Captain Griffin. “Can’t we still get back to Earth on just the normal drive?”
“Maybe,” replied Steropes. “We would, however, have to harvest more fuel before we
left. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that it would take a long time, objectively, to the people on Earth.”
“What do you mean?” asked Captain Griffin. “How long?”
“With 375 G of acceleration available, we can accelerate very nearly to the speed of light; unfortunately, as we get closer to the speed of light, time will slow down for us. At 0.99 of the speed of light, it would only seem like it took us about 17 days to get home, but during that time a little more than 22 years would have gone by for people on Earth. We’re 22 light years away; at the speed of light, it will take 22 years from the perspective of the people on Earth for us to get home.”
“That’s not good,” said Sara.
“No,” agreed Calvin, “it’s not. They’re going to think that we’ve been destroyed in a few months, much less 22 years. And if the Drakuls show up in that time...” He let the thought trail off.
“We need to find where the stargate went,” said Captain Griffin. “Let’s head for the third planet and ‘c’ if we can find some answers.” She smiled at her weak attempt at humor. Lost in their own thoughts, no one else did.
“One other thing that is interesting to note,” announced Solomon, “is that the planets are coming into alignment, which is a statistical anomaly. Not only is planet ‘g’ going to be at its closest point of approach, but all five of the outermost planets will be in alignment on one side of the star with the two innermost planets in alignment on the other side of the star. This alignment will occur tomorrow. The gravitational forces pulling the ‘c’ planet away from its star will be at their greatest at that time.”
“Why is that interesting?” asked Captain Griffin. “Didn’t planets in the Solar System just line up recently?”
“No,” replied Solomon. “The Solar System’s planets can’t ever line up perfectly because some of their orbits are tilted. The closest that they can come is to get within one degree of alignment in right ascension, which happens about once every 780 billion years. The fact that we are here at that one precise moment that the planets are in this alignment is extremely coincidental, and you asked me to point out things that are out of the ordinary.”
“How coincidental is it that we are here now?” asked Captain Griffin.
Solomon paused to calculate and then said, “Like winning the lottery three times in a row.”
* * * * *
Chapter Seventeen
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, In Orbit Around Gliese 667 C ‘c’, August 8, 2020
“So, where do we start?” inquired Captain Griffin.
“I do not know,” answered Steropes. “I scanned the entire planet, but haven’t found any place that is better to start our search than any other.”
“You said that the planet was previously inhabited,” noted Captain Griffin. “Why don’t we start by looking at one of the cities?”
“Because that doesn’t localize the civilization that used to exist here,” answered Steropes. “When I say that the civilization covered the planet, I mean that it completely covered the planet. The entire land mass shows evidence of being a single, planet-wide city. I cannot determine if it completely covered the water areas as well, but I find evidence of metals and other structural components in the shallows that make me think that it did.”
He put a series of high resolution pictures on the viewer screens. “You can see mounds in all of these photos,” he said. “These are the remnants of the city that used to exist here.”
“How long would it take for the city to be covered like that?” asked Captain Griffin. “Thousands of years at least, right?”
“No,” answered Steropes. “It would take much longer than that. You have to remember that the city completely covered the planet. It would take much longer than that before you could see the actual surface of the planet, much less have it bury all of the structures completely. The time span for this to happen? Millions of years. I am guessing something on the order of about 10 million years.”
He put another picture on the screen. A concrete beam stuck out from the ground like a cosmic middle finger. “This is the only piece of their architecture that I have found remaining above ground,” Steropes said. “Chemical analysis from orbit has proven to be inconclusive. It seems to be something like the concrete used in your civilization and the titano-crete used in ours, but has additional elements added in. I have determined that it contains large concentrations of rhenium and osmium in addition to other elements that I can’t determine. It is amazing.”
“What is amazing?” asked Calvin.
“Their mining processes are amazing,” replied Steropes. “Take the rhenium for example. Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust, with an estimated average concentration of about 1 part per billion. The amount used in this one building alone would be more than the amount that exists in your entire Solar System. There is twice as much osmium in the building as in the entire Solar System. This civilization had access to other star systems and the ability to transport huge amounts of material.”
“That’s an awful lot of rhenium and osmium,” Captain Griffin noted. “How big was this building?”
“Based on the scanner data,” Steropes replied, “I estimate that the building had a square base that was approximately two miles to a side, and was over a mile high. And this was one of the smaller buildings on this planet.”
A stunned silence filled the bridge.
“That’s a big building,” Captain Griffin finally said into the silence. “It also opens up more questions than it answers. If the civilization had the ability to erect that type of building, they were obviously space-faring, or they wouldn’t have had access to the materials required to build it. If they could travel to the stars, though, why would they choose to continue to build on this planet until they completely covered it? Why not emigrate to somewhere else? What were they thinking?”
“I do not know,” Steropes said, shaking his head. “More data is required in order to answer those questions.”
Captain Griffin had another idea. “Solomon,” she asked, “what do you think?”
“Like Steropes, I find that more data is required to answer your questions,” the ship’s AI replied. “It is possible, perhaps even likely, that there was some sort of cultural imperative to continue to build on this planet. There are many reasons why this might be; for example, this may have been the civilization’s home world or the capital planet for a large star nation. It is also possible that the culture had some sort of hive mind that wanted to continue to build here for some reason, but I find that possibility less likely than the first two options. There are other possibilities, but I find them even more unlikely. In the interests of full disclosure, the civilization may also be sufficiently removed from our experience that I may not be programmed to correctly analyze the reason that they chose to build this way.”
“That’s exactly what I was trying to say,” said Steropes. “We don’t have enough information on this society to make guesses about their intentions. They are so far advanced beyond our civilization that the assumptions we use to make our guesses might be wrong. What seems ‘different’ to us might be ‘normal’ to them...power spike!”
“What?” asked Captain Griffin.
“I’m getting indications of a power source coming online on the planet,” replied Steropes. “It is an enormous power source far bigger than any of our biggest antimatter power plants. Our five biggest plants wouldn’t equal the amount of power being generated.”
“Can you localize the source?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Yes,” answered Steropes. “It would be hard to miss.”
“Good,” said Captain Griffin. “Pass the information to the helmsman, and let’s move to orbit overhead the source.”
“Got it, ma’am,” said the helmsman. “We’ll be overhead in five minutes.”
“Do you want a fighter launch?” inquired Calvin.
Captain Griffin considered the question for a second before answering. �
��Man up the fighters,” she finally answered, “but don’t launch them yet. Let’s see what we’re dealing with first.”
“Aye aye,” replied Calvin, who began giving orders over his implant.
“Warm up all offensive and defensive systems, but leave them in standby for now,” ordered Captain Griffin. “We don’t want to seem too aggressive, but I want to be ready for any occasion.”
“Defensive systems will be of limited value,” noted Steropes. “If the power source is a weapon, it will overwhelm our shields with its first shot. We would need to move a significant distance in order to avoid being destroyed.”
“Do you want me to move the ship?” asked the helmsman.
“No,” replied Captain Griffin. “I don’t want to make it look like we are running. If they wanted to destroy us, I’m sure that they already could have.”
“That is correct,” agreed Steropes. “They could...” He stopped suddenly. “Captain, we’re being scanned by something from the planet. I have never seen anything like it.”
“They, they...are, are...in, in...my, my...systems, systems,” stuttered Solomon. “I, I...can, can...not, not...prevent, prevent...it, it.”
“Power surge from the planet!” cried security station operator, who controlled the ship’s defensive systems, weapons and shields.
“Shields up!” ordered Captain Griffin.
“They’re not responding!” the defensive systems officer replied.
“Helm, get us out of here!” Captain Griffin ordered.
“I can’t!” replied the helmsman, with fear in his voice. “The engines aren’t responding, either!” There was a flash, and everything went dark. After a second, auxiliary power kicked in, and the lights came back on.
“Main engines just went to standby!” cried the duty engineer, sitting next to the helmsman. “Engineering reports they are unable to bring them back on line. The auxiliary engines are holding, but all propulsion systems are offline.”
When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony Page 11
