Alpha Centauri: The Return (T-Space Alpha Centauri Book 3)

by Alastair Mayer

  Lee watched carefully as he extended one foot down to the ground, then the other. Might as well try to say something profound, he thought. “For the glory of China and all peace-loving peoples, I am standing on the surface of a new planet.” He took a few steps away from the ship. “I am approaching the edge of our landing burn. The vegetation is green with long thin stems. It looks very much like grass.” He bent down to examine the grass and the ground it grew out of. Several small, insect-like creatures were scurrying about in no obvious pattern. He looked at them closer. Segmented bodies, sideways jaws, antennae, but with them running about it was hard to count the legs. Six? Were those ants? No, they couldn’t be. “There are some tiny creatures on the ground here, like insects. Something new for our scientists to examine.”

  He took a small sample bottle from a pocket, then squatted close and used the lid to scoop up a few of the insects, along with some dirt. He sealed the bottle then put the whole thing into a plastic bag. He peered at the creatures inside. They certainly looked like ants. The scientists were going to go nuts.

  Chapter 6: To Seek Out New Life

  Elsewhere in the Lunar Quarantine Laboratory

  “Doctor Darwin, we’re getting preliminary results from the DNA sequencer now.” It was Suzanne Hayashi, one of the grad student genetics researchers, who had come to give him the news.

  “Excellent!” A properly working DNA sequencer was one of the things Darwin had been looking forward to during the return from Alpha Centauri. The loss of the expedition’s sequencer on the Xīng Huā had been frustrating, with so many of the organisms they’d found seeming to be distant cousins of Earth’s. “And?”

  “Well, we have the sequence of the tissue samples from the runny babbit, as you called it.”

  “Don’t leave me hanging, Hayashi, go on.”

  “Well, it’s not a rabbit.”

  “I already know that, but what is it?”

  “Doesn’t seem to be a rodent or lagomorph, but it does have traits common to both.”

  “I knew that from the anatomy. Come on, the genetics, the biochemistry.”

  She grinned. “Okay, yes, it’s a mammal, as you surmised from the skeletal structure, organs, and so forth. Although perhaps closer to a pika than a rabbit.”

  “Yeah. That’s what Ulrika—Doctor Klaar—said. Guess she was right. But go on.”

  “Ninety-plus percent DNA commonality with Earth mammals, the same as between any two diverse mammal species here.” She glanced at her notepad. “Almost certainly Euarchontoglires, but if it’s a Glires that would be interesting, since they’re believed to have diverged a couple of million years after the end-Cretaceous extinction.”

  Darwin scoffed. They’d been working on the assumption that the terraforming happened much closer to, perhaps even before, the extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. They had no proof of that, though, and this critter might prove just the opposite.

  “Most of the metabolic pathways are similar,” Hayashi continued. “There are obvious differences in genes covering morphology and so on. It will take a while to figure out just where it fits, we should probably compare against other Centauri lifeforms to see what differences from Terrestrial species are common to them and which are species-specific.”

  “It will be interesting to see if there are any Centauri-specific differences,” said Darwin. “I rather suspect there won’t be many, at least in the animals. The plants may have some to better adapt to Alpha Centauri B’s more-orange light.”

  “You don’t think the different gravity and day length would make a difference?”

  “It wasn’t that different. We might see more of that sort of effect on the life of Alpha Centauri A II, the day there is two hours longer.”

  “Was it always? I’ve heard that Earth had a shorter day back in the time of the dinosaurs.”

  “Huh.” There was some truth to that. The tidal drag of the Moon had been slowing Earth’s spin down since it formed, but Darwin couldn’t recall off-hand what the rotation rate was at the end of the Cretaceous. Elizabeth would know, but she was four light years away. “I’d have to look it up. Or ask the planetologists or astrophysicists about how Kakuloa’s moons would affect its spin,” he said. “What about the plants?”

  “We haven’t looked at many of those yet, we thought we’d give your specimen priority. But even at the gross and cellular morphology level there are many likely relatives on Earth, as your team already noticed. The biochemists are eager to see what differences there might be in the chlorophyll, if any.”

  “And the microorganisms?”

  “That’s where we expect the biggest differences. But so far, other than a few protozoa, nothing that doesn’t fit into either the Bacteria or Archaea domains.”

  “Hardly surprising. We didn’t find anything different on Mars, although it probably branched off three billion years ago.”

  “You don’t think it arose separately?”

  “It might have evolved on Mars first then been transferred to Earth, that’s a more likely direction for impact splash. But Earth and Mars have been swapping spit, as it were, since before the Late Heavy Bombardment. No way to tell.

  “In fact,” Darwin continued, “it’s remotely possible that life began at least twice, either on Earth, or Mars, or once each.”

  “What? Seriously?”

  “It’s unlikely, but there is some weirdness in the three main families. Oh, they’re all RNA and DNA based, in fact using the same bases, but the replication and transcription mechanisms are different. Archaea, like what we found on Mars, are primitive like bacteria, with the same single circular chromosome. But there are differences in the cell membranes, the fact that archaea don’t sporulate, detailed biochemical differences, and so on. But in particular, the mechanism by which archaean DNA is transcribed into proteins is completely different from that in bacteria, and yet it is almost identical to that used by eukaryotes, higher single and multi-celled organism. I’m sure you learned in school that it’s likely that both eukaryotes and bacteria evolved separately from a more archaea-like common ancestor.”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “So, tell me why something with a successful DNA-to-protein transcription mechanism would suddenly evolve a completely different one.”

  “Uh, when you put it that way.... But that’s not accepted, is it?”

  “Oh no, of course not. How would you prove something like that? But I’ve had my suspicions ever since finding Mars life in the Archaea domain, but not in the Bacteria. It could just be luck of the draw, of course, and members of Archaea would have an easier time surviving the trip from Earth to Mars on a rock.

  “I think that’s one reason Dr. Wallace was so anxious to get to Enceladus,” Darwin said. It was Wallace’s choice that had put Darwin in line for the mission after Grainger. “The chances of cross-contamination from Earth or Mars is, well, not impossible, but less likely, because Saturn is so much further away. If he has found yet a fourth class of life, that will be something. In some ways, I’m disappointed that we didn’t at Alpha Centauri.”

  “There’s talk of sending the Heinlein to Enceladus to save them time on the return trip. If so, he may join us here at the Quarantine Lab before you leave.”

  “Really? I guess that makes sense,” said Drake. The Heinlein could make the trip to Saturn’s moon in a matter of seconds in warp, plus a few days of maneuvering close to the planet. Far faster than the standard rockets of the original Enceladus mission. The Heinlein could also land there as easily as it had here on Luna.

  “But what you found at Centauri raises some other interesting questions,” Hayashi said. “Such as, just who terraformed the planets in the first place?”

  “There is that.”

  Chapter 7: Inquiry

  Lunar Quarantine Facility

  The pr
e-court-martial inquiry hearing had been two days earlier. Drake wasn’t sure how well it had gone. The admirals’—there’d been three of them—questions had been incisive and on-point. His lawyer assured Drake that that was normal; if there were satisfactory answers to the hard questions, the full court-martial might be considered unnecessary. It had mostly been fact-finding; the whats, not the whys.

  Now the security officer, Keating, had come to see Drake. He wasn’t smiling.

  “Commodore Drake, the recommendations of the investigatory committee have been returned,” Major Keating said.

  “‘Commodore’, so formal? I take it that isn’t good news.” Drake was in his room at the quarantine station.

  “Ah, no, I’m afraid not. They’re recommending going ahead with the court-martial, tentatively set for three days from now.”

  “That seems rushed. But that’s fine with me.”

  “They want to get it over with. That’s barely enough time to get your lawyer here from Earth.”

  “Coglan? He’s coming here?”

  “He insisted. Didn’t want to deal with the communications lag. As for the rush, I’ve heard unofficially it was a close thing. Several of the committee thought you took all the right actions under the circumstances, but there’s a lot of political pressure, especially from our international partners.

  “Let me guess, Russia? Certainly not India.”

  “No, India is actually pretty happy. The Chandrasekhar came back, Captain Patel is a national hero—pilot of the first vehicle to land on an extrasolar planet—and one of their own is still out there exploring.”

  “Jennifer Singh.”

  “Of course. But the Russians aren’t happy with Tsibliev leaving the Krechet out there.”

  “We couldn’t exactly bring it back, there was no way to refuel it. Besides, I thought they were happy there was a Russian ship sitting on an extrasolar planet. Anyway, Tsibliev wanted to make the landing.”

  “And you didn’t stop it. Of course, the Russians are spinning it like you ordered him to make the landing.”

  “That’s preposterous. I gave him permission when he asked.”

  “Sure, but Tsibliev may be throwing you under the bus here. If you didn’t order it, then technically he landed without orders. But it’s not just the Russians. The Chinese raised a stink that you didn’t go back and look for survivors.”

  “Oh for the...Nobody could have survived the explosion we saw, and I thought the consensus agreed that it was faked anyway, so they could sneak back here and reverse engineer the warp drive.”

  “Yeah, but that’s still a confidential assessment. Publicly and officially we’re still mourning the tragic loss of the Xīng Huā and her crew.”

  “What other good news do you have?” The edge of sarcasm in Drakes voice revealed that he knew there wasn’t any.

  “They want to go after Geoff Tracey for abandoning the Anderson.”

  “He didn’t abandon it, he turned over command to acting-Captain Sawyer.”

  “As I said, there’s politics involved.”

  “Anyway, I know Geoff. Nobody who knows him would ever think he would abandon his ship.”

  “Did you order him to turn over command?”

  “I, uh.” Drake thought back. The last few days before the Anderson landed on the planet had been incredibly busy. The decisions fell into place, Tracey had had no desire to remain on planet, he was a pilot, not a scientist, and Sawyer was the logical successor.

  “I don’t think we actually went through the formalities. I put the situation to him, and he agreed.”

  “If there’s no written or logged order, then technically he did abandon command.”

  “But there is something. Sawyer would have formally relieved him when she took over. That would be logged, and recorded on by the ship’s interior cameras.”

  “And those logs and recordings would be where, exactly?”

  “Crap. In the Anderson’s computers. Four light years away.”

  Chapter 8: Mission Delayed

  Lunar Quarantine Facility, next day

  “I don’t understand, what is the hold up with a return mission?” Drake demanded. Major Keating had just reported a further delay.

  “You mean aside from not having a ship? And you’re grounded until after the court-martial, remember.”

  “What’s wrong with the Heinlein? Oh, I know I can’t command it, I didn’t expect otherwise. What about Geoff Tracey?”

  The major was silent for a moment, looking awkward. “Tracey has been grounded too. Questions about the Anderson.”

  Drake swore. There are other capable captains. And Greg Vukovich would make a fine first officer.”

  “But The Heinlein can’t land on the planet, you know that.”

  “She could bring a refueling pod. The Anderson should just need fuel to return to orbit. She hasn’t been on the surface any longer than Chandrasekhar was.”

  “Not yet, anyway. But the point is moot. I already asked about that. There is no spare refueling pod.”

  “Why the hell not? What happened to the backup unit?”

  “It’s incomplete. Construction was put on hold after your expedition left, there was no immediate need for it.”

  “Oh hold?” Drake shook his head. No doubt some budgetary penny-pinching, or some competing program looked more attractive. “How long would it take to complete it?”

  “I don’t know all the details. The long pole is the reactor. Most of the parts have been fabricated but assembly is incomplete. The fuel pellets also need to be fabricated.”

  “I thought there was a full supply in reserve?”

  “There was. It got re-purposed.”

  “Re-purposed? For what?” As far as Drake knew, there was no other demand for fuel pellets meeting the specifications of a space-qualified reactor.

  “Officially, I don’t know,” Keating said, but his grin invited the next question.

  “And unofficially?” As a security officer, Keating had a rather more valuable network of contacts than most of his rank.

  “Algernon Brenke had some additional ideas about warp that he wanted to experiment with. Obviously, he couldn’t do that on Earth—”

  “Obviously. You don’t want to activate a warp bubble in atmosphere.”

  “—so he had a ship outfitted with his experimental setup. The reactor was to power it. The Chinese wouldn’t sell us another compact tokamak without us answering more questions than we wanted to.”

  “Ah. That’s why he needed a fission reactor, like the Nessus probe. That sounds a bit risky.” The confines of a warp bubble would put the occupants uncomfortably close to the radiation from the reactor, something a robot probe wouldn’t care about.

  “He was only operating the warp for a few seconds at a time, the reactor was on a boom that extended and retracted. It charged up a capacitor bank.”

  “Okay, so the reactor needs fresh fuel. Has Brenke come up with anything?”

  There were a few moments before Keating answered.

  “If he did, it’s highly classified. But it would seem so. I don’t know all the details. There was an accident.”

  This brought Drake up sharply. “I hadn’t heard. I only knew the man by reputation, although I did have the honor of meeting him once. What happened?”

  “As I said, the details are classified. Rumor has it that there were some unexpected side effects of an experiment with warp field resonance. All I know is that the funeral was closed-casket.”

  Drake sighed. “At least there was enough for a funeral.” It was more than too many space pioneers got, although Brenke was more of a cross between Albert Einstein and Werner von Braun, or perhaps Sergei Korolev. It was unfortunate that he had insisted on testing the thing himself.

  “Alright. What are we looking at in terms of how long it will
take to get the refueling pod finished and ready to go? Do you know?”

  “Realistically?” Keating paused. “From what I’ve heard, a year.”

  “What!?”

  “If they crash expedited it, maybe nine months, but—”

  “I’ve got eight people four light years from here waiting for a ride home. Nine months?”

  “Sorry, Commodore, I’m just relaying the information I have. I’m not officially in the loop on that project.”

  “Who is?”

  “That would be Admiral Howard, Office of Deep Space Exploration.”

  Drake nodded. “I know the admiral. Maybe I’ll give him a call.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  When Drake finally got through to Admiral Howard, most of what Keating had already told him was confirmed. The round-trip communication delay only added to Drake’s frustration.

  “That’s correct, Drake, nine months to a year for the refueling pod. That’s best case. Then we have to get it to orbit, which means scheduling a heavy lift. I don’t know what’s in the pipeline. It could be a year or more out.”

  The refueling system, designed to land as a separate unit, was too big and heavy to fit the payload bay of the SSTOs used for most space transportation. It would require a heavy lift vehicle like some of the monsters used earlier in the space age, the Saturn Vs and Falcon Heavies and New Glenns. And those had a lead time. Even though the stages were largely reusable, they had to be inspected, stacked, and prepped, unlike the fuel-and-go SSTOs. And large, heavy payloads inevitably involved custom mounts, shrouds, and the like.