Jaunts of the Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  Elsbeth appeared to wear the same old pair of scout coveralls most of the time, though she could have several near identical sets. On day 4 she said she was, “Taking some time off” and he only saw her meandering around in flannel pajamas and bare feet as she raided the galley for food and drink. One time when he saw her, she appeared to be a bit tipsy. That would have been alarming during regular flight, but in mid-jump there was little that could go wrong and, if it did, there was nothing you could do about it.

  On day 6, Mantis signaled all, “We will be leaving jump in the Taupra system in 8 hours. Prepare for return to inertial space and ensure you are fit for duty if on duty.” This was a traditional reminder to ship crews to stop drinking if they were, wake or get to sleep as appropriate, and prepare for what could sometimes be a bumpy ride. She then repeated this at 4 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, and then 10 minutes form jump termination.

  As the time counted down, Ximon chimed in, “Leaving jump in 10 minutes. Strap in and monitor for issues.”

  He didn’t have to do anything to exit jump – it was all pre-calculated. However, he did have to be ready. As the ship left jump there was always a lurch (sometimes small, sometimes huge) and then a sudden return of inertia as you typically left jump at roughly the same velocity you had when you entered it. Therefore, you didn’t typically want to be pulling serious Gs when you entered jump because it would hit you hard when you came out and went from 0 to several Gs all at once.

  Ximon had stopped their acceleration before entering jump, so they came out with speed, but no acceleration. There was a sizable lurch, but that wasn’t too concerning. His first task now was to verify their location and that everything was OK.

  “Mantis, get me a fix – 3 stars, then 5. Elsbeth, how’s everything looking?”

  She responded immediately, “I’m still reviewing the monitors I put in. It looked pretty good, but the field still needs some tuning. I’ll let you know if I see anything else.”

  Then he checked all the area sensors for any unexpected objects but found nothing of note.

  Mantis responded long before he finished, “Captain, we are in the Taupra system, exiting jump within 5,000 kilometers of the planned exit point.”

  Ximon then did some more active scans for debris, ships, etc. and found nothing noteworthy.

  Mantis then noted, “5-star fix confirmed. Taupra system, exit at 1278 kilometers from nominal.”

  That wasn’t great but wasn’t bad. They made it in one piece and hadn’t hit anything. The ship still had some life in her.

  Ximon got ready for the next steps, “Mantis adjust course to the Taupra 5 gas giant for deviation from nominal and notify when ready. “

  Then he quickly scanned for signals. There were no signals aimed at them, but he found a standard message from the Taupra 3 mining colony and put it on speaker. This message could act as a beacon of sorts as well as a welcome message. It also periodically announced upcoming issues and events. It announced a few upcoming competitions and several outages, as well as a few reminders to conserve water and practice good environmental suit discipline for safety.

  Mantis soon notified Ximon that she had optimized and checked the course to Taupra 5 so Ximon set course there and announced, “En route to Taupra 5 for skimming operations. ETA 14 hours. Elsbeth, please check skimming and filtration systems.” He then started a series of standard long-range scans and just watched the stars for a few minutes before leaving it in Mantis’ hands and heading to his room for a quick nap.

  As they approached Taupra 5 later that day, Ximon checked atmospheric density and composition scans against library data. There was no discrepancy, so he adjusted course to skim the out atmosphere and announced, “Skimming will commence in 15 minutes. Be prepared for possible turbulence.” Then, “Elsbeth, I’m lowering the scoop.”

  Skimming: … most interstellar spacecraft operate, or can operate, off hydrogen. Being one of the most common elements in the universe, it isn’t hard to find. However, finding it in enough density to be worth gathering was less common … unless one went to a gas giant. Most gas giants contain enough hydrogen or other useful elements in their atmosphere, and at enough density, to make it worthwhile. In skimming, a vessel equipped with a scoop cuts through the outer atmosphere, gathering up the gases there. It then vents the useless ones and sends the useful gases, primarily hydrogen, through the filtration system to top off the fuel tanks. It is the cheapest way to get gas and works well as long as the ship has a good filtration system and cleans that system pretty regularly. Skimming can also save time, by allowing ships to avoid the need to negotiate with a space station to buy fuel. The skimming operation usually takes between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on atmospheric density and the size of the ship’s fuel tanks and scoop system ...

  Ximon guided Mantis through the outer atmosphere and started skimming. “Elsbeth, please watch the filtration system for purity.”

  “Roger. I’ll let you know if we’re not getting good stuff out the other end.”

  They did this for just under an hour before Mantis announced, “Fuel tanks at 100%.”

  Ximon announced, “We’re full. Retracting scoop and initiating 1G acceleration to next jump point. ETA 11 hours.”

  Other than sharing a few messages with a freighter inbound to the Taupra 3 mining colony, the run out to a safe jump point was uneventful, as was the jump initiation.

  While in jump for the next 5 days, Elsbeth led them in fixing a lot of minor things. She also sent Ximon a running list of some of the additional parts and supplies he’d need to purchase when they got back home. It was minor stuff but there was a lot of it.

  Other than that, they just got to know each other better. They had a few mutual old scout friends, had similar tastes in music, and were seemingly more comfortable leaving home and coming back than in just BEING at home. Elsbeth attributed the breakup of her marriage to this tendency. Ximon could relate – he’d never been married but several relationships had failed, in part, due to this.

  Ximon also doublechecked his mission plan and checked out the additional sensors and the small cubesats that he was issued for the mission. They all checked out OK, so they should be good to go when they got to Avar.

  They came out of jump at Avar without incident. Ximon confirmed that they were in no immediate danger. Mantis quickly confirmed they were out past Avar 7, about 220 kilometers from nominal insertion point.

  Then he checked in, “Elsbeth, status?”

  “Everything’s looking good. No anomalous readings and the jump field is getting better tuned.”

  He didn’t immediately detect any communication activity from the Avar 7 station, but sent them a greeting signal, “Avar 7, this is the KSS Mantis inbound for a survey at Avar 4. Please advise of any known navigational or other concerns.” It would take about 30 minutes round trip to get a signal back from them, so he just filed that away.

  Then he announced, “Initiating 1G burn to Avar 4 in 10 minutes. ETA 17 hours.”

  G burn: … Even in vacuum and zero gravity (zero G), accelerating or decelerating with maneuvering engines imposes acceleration forces on a ship and its passengers. Within the Republic this is represented as percentages of the forces of gravity (G) as calculated on some ancient ‘origin’ planet. Many ships produce no artificial gravity and these acceleration Gs are the only time they’re not in zero G. Many other ships can produce a degree of artificial gravity, though the percentage of ‘standard’ 1G they can produce and sustain varies. In any case, the Gs caused by acceleration still apply, producing forces on space travelers …

  As soon as the course was laid in, he started doing scans of the general vicinity and long-range scans of Avar4. He directed Mantis to alert him if Avar 4 data deviated dramatically from historical data. Then, except for a quick break for lunch, he watched intently as they headed in.

  In about an hour, he got a video message from the Avar 7 station. A tired-looking middle age man in gray coveralls sat in front of a fa
ded seal for the station. He said, “Greetings Mantis. This is the Sven Thompson at Calton Mining Station at Avar 7. There are no imminent navigational concerns. However, the last freighter in, Atomist which arrived 2 days ago, did note 2 distant ship contacts which didn’t respond to hails. We checked with the other mining sites and it wasn’t any of theirs. It could have been a sensor ghost or something but thought you should know. If you’re interested, we’ll send you some scan data from our area. Let me know if that data is of use to you and, please, let us know if you see anything, we should be aware of. We don’t have any operations near Avar 4, but have ships going past to some inner stations.”

  Ximon fired back a response, “Roger Calton Station. Thanks for the insight. We would appreciate any data you have. Please send by compressed burst. We’ll let you know if we see anything of note. Good luck and good mining.”

  Elsbeth joined him as they were about an hour out from Avar 4, “Thought I’d see how the other half lives.” She grinned, “Actually, I thought you could use a hand with the sensors, and I wanted to understand the plan for deploying those cubesats. You’ll recall we didn’t repair one of the airlocks. So, tell me more about your latest plan.”

  “Well, we’ll focus our scans on Avar 4 as we approach, but we’ll be able to get some shots and scans of the 2nd moon on the way in. My plan is to do about a day of varying orbits of Avar 4, possibly more depending on what we see. In the process we’ll deploy the cubesats for max coverage. They’ll keep gathering data and will relay to us as we’re leaving and then will send periodic data to one of the stations to send to the next comm boat that comes through.”

  “Sounds reasonable, but what’s the plan for deploying those cubesats?”

  “Ah, my thought was to have Raiza in a suit in the cargo bay basically toss them out. Once out, we’d do diagnostics and then fire thrusters to get them in a stable orbit. Am I missing something?”

  “Well, that could work, but two things: 1: There is a cargo manipulation arm in the cargo bay – I could use that to deploy them if you want. 2: If you want someone to sling them out the cargo bay, I could do that – I might have a better arm than Raiza. …. Oh, and 3: Does Raiza really need a suit?”

  “If that arm is working, then I guess that’d make sense, though I’d want someone in the bay in case there’s an issue.” Then he continued somewhat sheepishly, “The manufacturer recommends that Raiza not be exposed to vacuum or the cold of space – it reduces battery life and can make her skin brittle.”

  Elsbeth grinned like an idiot and was almost unintelligible with laughter, “Well, of course, we simply MUST keep Raiza full of energy and soft AND pliable, eh? Wink, wink, nudge nudge.” With the last, she nudged him in the ribs and then really broke down in laughter.

  Ximon tried to look serious, but had trouble suppressing his own laughter, “I’ll have you know that Raiza is a valued member of this crew and as Captain, I have a solemn responsibility to protect the wellbeing of my crew. And she’s been of some help to you. You never know, she might save your life someday.”

  She continued laughing, “Oh, of course, great captain” chortle, guffaw, “solemn responsibility … must ensure she stays” at this she leered, “FULLY functional.” Then she continued, “I’ll run some diagnostics on that cargo arm. Am I right that 2nd moon will come up to Starboard as we go in? I’ll do the scans on that as we go on and can run one of the other sensors as we get closer to the planet.” Then she laughed to herself again, “I think they’re fully functional too. Perhaps you might want them for some company, eh?”

  Ximon simply had to say something, “Well, I’m certainly glad I could provide you with some humor. Part of my solemn duty to my crew, I guess.”

  “Oh, and you make it look so effortless.”

  “It’s a talent.”

  Then Mantis chimed in, “Captain, you directed me to alert you if scans deviated from historical data. It appears that atmospheric readings have deviated across at least 4 chemical components, some higher, some lower. You’ll see the list on your screens.”

  He read them off, “Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Carbon. Hmm, and that’s not a small difference. Thanks, Mantis, We’ll check all those with active scans. Continue scanning for any debris or gravitational anomalies. Elsbeth, that moon will be coming up on the starboard in 5 min. I’ll be entering orbit in about 15 minutes.

  Mantis, “Roger. I’ll get as many images as I can and do a basic battery of scans.”

  They entered orbit without incident, scanning continually on multiple scanners. Ximon had Mantis hold the orbit so he could focus on the atmospheric scanners. The readings were definitely very different for numerous elements. He couldn’t think of anything that could account for so big a difference from the historical data unless the historical data was corrupted somehow.

  “Elsbeth, please conduct a detailed magnetic mapping and compare to the data.”

  “Roger, I think I can do that with Mantis’ help.”

  Then Ximon hit the comm link, “Raiza, please bring up 2 sandwiches and some water bottles.”

  As they got about half way through a 90-minute orbit, Mantis alerted, “Captain, I’m detecting an object in orbit. Its size appears consistent with an unidentified (UI) artificial satellite, but it’s approximately 3,000 kilometers toward the South Pole from us. We’ll need a closer pass to determine its composition and purpose. I recommend that a subsequent orbital pass get closer to its path.”

  “Roger, I’ll tend South for our next orbit, but we won’t be too close for a couple orbits.”

  Elsbeth chimed up after about 30 minutes, “Ximon, I finished that magnetic analysis. It’s different too. The field is stronger than recorded and it appears more stable. I can’t see anything to account for it.”

  Ximon responded, “What the hell is going on here? Well, I guess that’s why we’re here.”

  Avar 4:

  Diameter: 14,200 km

  Surface Water: 50%

  Distance from sun: 1.2 AU

  Atmosphere: Moderate density. Moderately caustic with low oxygen content (Historic). Low-grade caustic with moderate oxygen content (Revised).

  Gravity: 1.1 G

  Temperature Range: -10 to 50 C

  Magnetic Field: Low and erratic (Historic). Moderate and mildly erratic (Revised).

  Lifeforms: None detected

  As they swung around, Ximon directed, “Mantis, get all the images you can of that UI satellite you noted. Elsbeth, please check out that cargo arm. I want to deploy the first cubesat in about an hour.”

  Then they continued circling. As they did, Mantis noted, “Captain, the images of the UI satellite are indeed consistent with a satellite monitoring the planet.” Then, a couple minutes later, “Captain, the UI satellite is periodically transmitting bursts of data toward the outer solar system. I’m collecting what data I can and will analyze.”

  “Good call, I’d like to know what it’s saying,”

  “Elsbeth, how’s that arm?”

  “It looks fine Ximon. I’m going to have it pick up Cube 1.”

  “Roger. Raiza, suit up and assist Elsbeth with Cube 1.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “OK, Elsbeth, once you’re sure it’s ready and Raiza is tethered, position her where you need her. I want to deploy that in about 25 minutes.”

  “Got it. We’ll be ready. I’ll make sure your precious crewmate is safe and where I need her. Then I’ll come up and control the arm from there.”

  When she left, he signaled Raiza, “Raiza, make sure you’re properly tethered and stay back unless we direct you to engage. Be careful.”

  Her response was far less formal than normal and almost a whisper, “Of course, Ximon.”

  Elsbeth returned in about 20 minutes and took the sensor operator’s position, “The arm, the satellite, and the robot are all ready. I’ll open the cargo door and deploy the arm on your mark. It’ll take 3-4 minutes.”

  “OK. Then go ahead and start. Get that baby out
there.”

  “Rog. Opening cargo door now …”

  As Elsbeth deployed the arm, Ximon pinged Mantis, “Anything more on that UI sat?”

  “Negative, Captain. I will inform you when I have any more details on the UI satellite or the data.”

  He also pinged Raiza, “Raiza, how’s it looking down there?”

  “Captain, the arm is extending properly with the cubesat. Everything is stable in the cargo bay.”

  Then Elsbeth spoke up, “OK, Ximon, the cubesat is away. It will auto-orient itself, but it’ll need a thrust vector to get into a stable orbit.”

  “Roger. Already on it. Mantis, send the vector coordinates I laid out to Cubesat 1.”

  “Yes, captain. Command stream sent to Cubesat 1.”

  They then monitored the cubesat as it got into a stable orbit. This one was orbiting about halfway between equator and South Pole, in the general vicinity of the UI satellite.

  “Ok, Mantis, we’ll be coming around for a relatively close fly-by of the UI sat in about 8 minutes. Try to get all the data you can. Oh, and Raiza, go ahead and take off the tether and suit if you hadn’t already. It’ll be several hours before we need to try that again.”

  “Already done, Captain. I’m testing and stowing the vacc suit now.”

  Elsbeth looked at him with mild chagrin, “Do you really think I left her/it just standing there in the cargo bay? That would kind of seem … jerk-ish. I may not have a personal robot, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go out of my way to cause them grief. And, BTW, her suit would have run out of power if I just left her there.”

  “Ok, thanks. No one had said anything.”