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

by Alastair Mayer

  ∞ ∞ ∞

  “What is Wang Wei’s condition?” Lee asked the medic, Ping, a few hours later.

  “Not good. I have stemmed the bleeding but he has serious tearing of flesh and muscle in his leg, as well as lacerations on his ribs. I gave him antibiotics against possible infection. Even though our initial survey didn’t turn up anything dangerous, who knows what those animals might have in their saliva. For now, I have his leg in a cryo-cuff, but he needs surgery.”

  “Can the leg be saved?”

  “At home, yes. With help here, perhaps. If there’s infection, or we wait too long, then amputation is his best chance.”

  Not what Lee wanted to hear. Prosthetics were amazingly capable these days, but still not the same. “All right, thank you.” He went to see if Shufeng was awake.

  He was. “Doctor Shufeng, I heard that you think that that is actual grass out there.”

  “It is. Several different types. The structure was similar enough. The DNA analysis confirms it. None of it identical to Earth grasses, but all of it too close to be convergent evolution. We found the same with your ants, and the other plants and animals we have had a chance to analyze.”

  “Can you explain that?” Lee asked.

  “Not really. It is possible for primitive organisms to be blown from one star to another if embedded in a rock blown off of Earth by an asteroid impact, although unlikely. But that wouldn’t explain how such organisms evolved to closely resemble higher life-forms currently living on Earth.”

  “Could something else have carried those higher life-forms from Earth to here?”

  “Not recently,” Shufeng said. “Despite the similarities, there is enough genetic drift for fifty to seventy-five million years of separation.”

  “And the geologists say that they can’t get consistent dates on the rocks. None of them seem old enough to account for the complexity of life we have found, but the surface does seem to have experienced many recent impacts.”

  “Perhaps it was terraformed. It is not an appealing hypothesis, but at the moment I can’t think of one that better fits the observations.”

  “Except that we haven’t observed any terraformers.”

  “No. And let us give thanks for that. But this is a strange topic for discussion in the middle of the night.”

  “What better time for ghost stories? But you are right.” Lee got to the real reason he had started the conversation. “Doctor Shufeng, in your opinion is there much to be gained by continuing our stay on the surface?”

  “You want to leave? Is Wang Wei in such bad shape?”

  “He is part of it. But unless there is scientific value to be had by further studies here, I would rather not risk any more of our team to attacks by large animals.”

  “And if we’re done exploring, there’s no point staying.” Shufeng understood what Lee was asking. “Very well, Captain. We have collected enough for considerable further study. As Chief Scientist, I don’t think gathering further data is worth the risk to the crew.”

  “Thank you, Shufeng Bai.”

  Lee made his way to the command console and hit the wake-up alarm. He gave anyone asleep a minute to gather their wits, then announced, “This is Captain Lee. We are cutting the landing phase short. Stow all gear and make preparations for launch. I want to lift as soon as possible after first light. Navigation, coordinate with the Tianlong for orbital and launch parameters. That is all.”

  Chapter 12: Resolution

  Lunar Quarantine Facility, next day

  Drake, along with his counsel, Lieutenant-Commander Coglan and the security officer, Major Keating, were back in the conference room to hear the verdict.

  On screen, the admirals entered and took their seats while Drake stood to attention.

  “Commodore Drake, this court has found the following,” Admiral Carter began. “In the matter of the ship Xīng Huā, you acted within orders and appropriately to the safety of those under your command. The court holds no opinion on the ultimate fate of the Xīng Huā.”

  Well, thought Drake, that was diplomatic.

  “No wrongdoing,” Carter continued.

  Drake felt some relief, but realistically nobody had expected otherwise.

  “In the matter of the ship Krechet, we find that the landing was within the original mission orders, having been originally designated as secondary lander.” That was true, although that landing had been expected to be on Planet Able, and refueled by the pod that had disappeared with the Xīng Huā. “Due precautions were taken to ensure the safe return of her crew, and Captain Tsibliev did make a formal request to land. In our view that request was justified. No wrongdoing.”

  Drake let out a breath. He supposed that might still leave Tsibliev on the hook with the Russians, privately at least. In public they were already putting a positive spin on it.

  “Regarding the destruction of the Krechet’s Interstellar Propulsion Module, we find that you acted according to orders. The charge of destruction of government property is dismissed.”

  Again, not unexpected. Now came the big one.

  “With respect to the disposition of the USS Anderson, and the crew assigned to the landing, this court finds that the open questions raised by the landings on Planet Baker justified the landing on Planet Able, as a reasonable extension to the original mission parameters. We further find that the landing crew did, in fact, all volunteer, knowing beforehand the risks involved, including the risk of being unable to return.”

  That was good, but Drake wasn’t sure he liked the implications of that last bit.

  “The court further finds that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the Anderson and her crew will be considered on an extended mission. Therefore, each of the crew will continue on the rolls to earn mission pay, until such time as they are retrieved or the date of their death is confirmed.”

  The cynic in Drake wondered if that was easier than the political ramifications of just declaring them dead now, which they might as well have done if no return mission was planned.

  “Given these findings,” the admiral continued, “the Anderson is not considered lost, and therefore Commodore Drake has nothing to answer for in that regard. However,” and here Carter paused and looked directly at the camera, thus seeming to look directly at Drake, “by the evidence and witness statements, the Anderson is currently unable to return to space, and thus at least temporarily out of commission. Since you, Commodore, had reason to believe that situation would last only until the Heinlein returned with the backup refueling pod, this court does not find fault with you on that matter.”

  That surprised Drake. He had expected at least some negative repercussion from the Anderson landing. But the admiral wasn’t done yet.

  “And finally, regarding the Anderson’s warp-collar, or Interstellar Propulsion Module. Commodore Drake, you had standing orders to destroy any IPM left behind in the system. By your own admission, you disobeyed that order, and this court has no choice but to find you guilty. However,” the admiral continued before anyone could react, “given the mitigating circumstances, that it would be needed if and when the Anderson returned to space, and that you had it put to use in service of the landing team, this court limits the penalty to the following. First, while you will be permitted to retain your rank of Commodore, you will be passed over for further promotion, regardless of merit, for at least one cycle. Second, if you choose, you retain command of the USS Heinlein, but you yourself are restricted from traveling outside this solar system until further notice.”

  Drake, still at attention, was both relieved and saddened. The rank he didn’t care about, he had expected that or worse. Being restricted to the solar system meant he wouldn’t be on any mission to retrieve Sawyer and the rest of her crew. In which case, he didn’t really see the point of retaining command of the Heinlein.
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  “Commodore Drake, did you hear and understand this verdict as I have read it to you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Very well. Subject to the conditions listed therein, you are free to go.”

  On screen the admirals and court personnel all rose to stand. Beside Drake, Keating and Coglan stood too, and remained at attention while the admirals left.

  Drake still stood, a little shocked, absorbing what had just transpired. Keating turned to him and offered his hand to shake.

  “Congratulations, and, uh, condolences I guess. At least that’s over with,” Keating said.

  “Uh, thanks. It could have gone worse.”

  Coglan turned to him. “It should have gone better. That last bit about the Anderson’s IPM was bogus. You didn’t abandon it, it’s still in use. They threw that at you to make some politicians and foreign diplomats happy.”

  “I know, I know. It’s better than I expected, actually. I just really wanted that return mission. Now I can’t even leave the system.”

  “They didn’t want you to go flying off on your own with the Heinlein, and they couldn’t really justify taking her away from you.”

  “Yeah, that’s about what I figured. So now what?”

  Neither Keating nor Coglan had a good answer.

  Chapter 13: Departure

  Epsilon Eridani II

  “Xinglong to Tianlong. All systems are nominal. Confirm time check for launch.” Lee wanted to rendezvous as soon as the Xinglong reached orbit, not spend a day chasing the other ship down. This gave them a narrow launch window. The leaden overcast sky wouldn’t hinder their launch. The winds were acceptable, there were no storm clouds. A thin cloud layer wouldn’t matter.

  “Xinglong, launch window opens at exactly twelve minutes from mark, in ten seconds.” The speaker paused, then. “Five seconds. Three. Two. One. Mark.”

  “Confirm mark. Clock is now T-minus eleven minutes, fifty-four seconds.”

  The whine of the compressor turbines lowered in pitch and volume as they slowed to a stop. The fuel tanks were at capacity.

  “Close valves, commence pressurization.” Lee ordered. The cryogenic propellants were being allowed to boil off slightly to raise the tank pressure.

  The countdown continued. Although largely automatic, the crew watched it closely. Launching from the surface on a planet with chemical engines was like riding a slowly exploding bomb. Everything had to go right. That humans had had over a century’s experience doing it didn’t make the moments before launch any less tense. Sometimes things still went horribly wrong, and plenty had already gone wrong on this mission.

  “T-minus two minutes. Tanks to pressure. Commencing pre-chill.”

  At this point the propellants would be dribbled through the plumbing, pumps, and engines to cool the lines, to avoid sudden thermal shock when the thousands of liters per second started flowing through them at launch. Rocket engines, like most other kinds of combustion engine, had two happy states. Off, and fully running. Transitioning from one to the other was much less happy, and much of the history of rocket engineering had been about making it go as smoothly as possible. In rockets, a “hard start” was usually promptly followed by a rapid unplanned disassembly, rocketry jargon for a massive explosion.

  “T-minus thirty seconds. Rendezvous radar is on. Guidance is go. Systems are go.”

  “Tianlong Huā, Xinglong is go at T-minus twenty-two seconds.”

  “We copy. Zhù nǐ hǎo yùn.” Good luck.

  “T-minus ten. Systems are go.” Lee felt a tightening in his gut, and reflexively took a deep breath.

  “Six. Five.” Lee heard the whine of electric pumps spinning up. With plenty of electrical power, there was no need for the complication of chemically fueled turbopumps. “Two.” The roar of the engine ignition came then, rising in volume as the thrust stabilized. The engines settled into their other happy state, the sound drowning out the countdown. Lee saw the clock tick over to zero and almost instantly felt the ship surge, pushing him back into his seat. They had liftoff.

  Chapter 14: Decision Against Return

  Lunar Quarantine Facility

  Drake tried again for a priority mission by the Heinlein, with someone else commanding it if that’s how it had to be. Even if the backup refueling module couldn’t be completed in reasonable time, they could drop a simple landing craft with additional supplies for the Anderson crew, and give them a status report.

  He had managed to get another call through to an admiral at the Office of Deep Space Exploration on a secure link, but it was Admiral Berkley, not Howard. The response to his suggestions hadn’t been quite what he expected.

  “I’m sorry, Commodore Drake, that’s the decision of the committee. Launching a crash return mission without sufficient preparation, well, the risk outweighs the benefits. We don’t want to throw away another ship and its crew just on the chance that Sawyer’s team needs a rescue. We have a very high confidence that they can live off the land, as it were, on planet Able. Between the samples you brought back from planet Baker, ah, Kakuloa, and that team’s own reports just after landing, the native life is compatible with Earth life. They have equipment to process the local vegetation into something edible. It may not be tasty, but they won’t starve.

  “On the other hand, to relaunch the Heinlein without a refit is risky. The warp drives need to be overhauled and inspected. They were in proximity to both warp boundary radiation and emissions from the fusion reactor. We have some research data from tests here, and on the Nessus, and that’s enough to show a concern.”

  “Concern?” Drake wondered. “Have any of the warp modules failed in service?”

  “Well, no, but there is evidence of wear. And we don’t know for sure what happened to the Xīng Huā.”

  “Oh, I think we do,” Drake said.

  “Be that as it may, there is no point in sending a return mission until we have the ships ready, and I mean all the necessary ships, really ready, to go.”

  “And when will that be?”

  “Well, that I’m afraid is a difficult question to answer,” Berkley said. “With the Chinese limiting our access to compact tokamak fusion reactors, we’ve had to take a different approach. The good news is that the monolithic nanocircuitry used to construct the warp engines turns out to be useful in a new design of fusor.”

  “What? How?”

  “Think of it as a hybrid of hot and cold fusion.”

  That surprised Drake. “I though cold fusion was bunk.”

  “Mostly, but not completely. It turns out to be much more difficult than expected, and without a huge power payout. It’ll make things hot, but it’s not optimum for power generation. As it was described to me, the new technique compares to the turn-of-the-century cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction, experiments the way integrated circuits compare to the old cat’s whisker radios using a chunk of galena as a semiconductor. Yes,” the admiral went on, “it was a semiconductor, and if you found the right spot on the crystal it would act as a diode, but that’s a far cry from putting a million transistors on a chip a fraction of the size of those crystals.”

  “And how soon will these integrated circuit fusion reactors, or whatever you’re calling them, be ready?” While a small part of Drake was fascinated by the technical details, his overriding concern was to make sure his people got rescued.

  “That’s the rub. We, and I mean that in a generic sense, not this office, learned a lot about making this kind of machinery with the warp drive, and the techniques carry over. But we also need to incorporate some quite different materials, as well as fabricate the nanochannels to feed in the hydrogen and bleed off the reaction products. It’s been demonstrated at medium scale, but not at the level you’ll need to power a warp drive.”

  “That’s interesting, but what does it mean for a return miss
ion?”

  The admiral didn’t answer right away. He harrumphed, then said “It means that it has been decided that the Heinlein and Anderson class starships are already obsolete. We can do better with the next generation of the technology, so there is already a new project to design and build that next generation. They’ll be faster, with more space, and, ah, some interesting modifications that will make it more comfortable while in warp.”

  “But better is the enemy of good enough. The Heinlein is good enough to return to Alpha Centauri and at the very least drop a supply pod and more equipment, sir.”

  “Except that mission would divert resources from the new ships. We have limited facilities and skilled manpower to overhaul or build new warp units, and not enough of either to do both. I’m afraid that’s just the way it is.”

  “Just one mission, sir. Let them know we’re working the problem.”

  “I’m sorry, Commodore, it’s out of my hands.”

  Drake took the hint from the admiral’s tone. “Understood, sir, thank you.” Without waiting for a response, Drake broke the connection before he said something he might have cause to regret. Polite words failed him. As he strode down the hall, he realized he hadn’t asked, and the admiral hadn’t said, how long it would take the new ships to be built. Whatever it was, Drake worried that it would be too late.

  Chapter 15: An Unpleasant Surprise

  Aboard Xinglong Huā, orbiting Epsilon Eridani II

  Lee’s heart lifted when they reached orbit. He was glad to leave that damned planet behind. Wang Wei would almost certainly lose the leg; it was horribly mangled. They had put it in a cryo-cuff as soon as they’d whisked him into sickbay. The medic had immediately recognized that the damage was too much for her to do anything about. The cryo-cuff acted as a tourniquet, preventing further blood loss, and bathed the lower part of the limb in a cool oxygen-rich perfusion fluid, supplanting it with a glycol antifreeze as the temperature was lowered to cryogenic values. The tricky part was the interface between the still healthy, warm living tissue above the cuff and the near-frozen block of meat below it. No blood passed the cuff, but sheer thermal conduction meant the leg above it was constantly cooling, and below it, warming. Eventually the tissue at the cuff would give up the fight and die. Amputation would be inevitable with no hope of reattachment. In the meantime, there was still some hope of a clean cut and splice, if the lower leg could be repaired.