"No, but Jack Ballard is no fool, and neither is Terri Michael. If they say there's a genocide, they have solid evidence for it. The presence of RFG craters would obviously support the idea that this is the same enemy."
"Who the hell are these...people?" Fiona wondered quietly.
"Assuming we're talking about the same culture as Inor, someone we're going to kill," CINC answered, his anger not well disguised.
"Ok, so what do we do?" Fiona asked.
Ron sat back in his chair, looking off into the distance.
"Commander Michael has deployed a drone. I wonder what else she's already done."
"Makes sense - she could get close-up documentation," Cook added.
"The one thing I hate about SLIP - other than how slow it feels - is the low bandwidth. If we want to see her images, she has to bring them here." Ron commented.
Fiona shrugged. "Then we better get them back here."
CINC leaned forward in his chair.
"Is there any guidance we can give her about how to investigate this? Do we have any relevant expertise?"
Ron shook his head.
"Not really, sir. We're working to stand up the Exo-Biology and Exo-Technology groups best we can as we find qualified people we can clear. But they aren't yet operational. I would think we would want an archeologist or anthropologist for this job."
"If it really is genocide, meaning they're all dead, we're looking at something akin to studying a long-dead culture here on Earth. Like the Sumerians or the Mayans or something." PIO Donna Wright offered.
Ron nodded his agreement. CINC looked over at him.
"See who you can find, Ron. Terri Michaels' investigation, however far it goes, will only be the beginning."
"Yes, sir, Exo-Archeology Section. We'll get on it," he responded, one eyebrow raised, as he wondered just how he was going to do that.
Donna smiled. "Now there is a title nobody ever thought they'd have."
There was quiet laughter at that. It did seem a little ridiculous, but the whole idea of a space war like they were in also seemed vaguely ridiculous to most laymen.
"We need more proof that the enemy at Inor also struck Beta Hydri," Fiona said.
"Agreed," CINC replied. "If we can't make that connection then this is a tragedy, but it's not our tragedy, and we can't spend resources on it."
Fiona looked again at the message. "Did anyone else notice the 24-hour night? She's talking about a 48-hour day on this planet. That will play hell with their biorhythms."
"Maybe," Cook responded, "but it also means they have a lot of daylight to work with."
"Ok, so let's think. The message is at local sunset, twenty-hundred UTC on the fourth," Ron started. "If we consider that day one, then sunset on day two is, what, six hours from now?"
"Sounds right," Fiona answered.
"And any message we get to her will be sometime after local noon on day three." Ron continued.
"Yeah, more or less," Fiona answered with a shrug.
"I hope they're managing these days better than I am. Don't forget it's three weeks plus for them to get back here," Patty Cook commented.
"So, on day three we tell them to...what?" CINC asked the group.
"We can't really know how much data they're collecting. They have a couple of drones, and they're pretty competent folks. Let's give them three more days after they get the message and then have them RTB." Ron suggested.
Fiona scribbled on her notepad, then looked up.
"Ok, so, by my rough calculation, that's seven days and eight hours from now, so, call them back as of June 14, 2000, UTC?"
"That will put them back here around July 7 or 8," Ron added.
"I can live with that," Patty Cook said. "They have enough supplies for that, but not much more."
Davenport had heard what he needed to hear.
"Very well, then. Admiral Cook, please order them back as of Ron's date and time." He turned to Ron. "Do we have any guidance for their investigation?"
Ron shook his head. "No sir, I don't. If this is the same enemy, I would caution them to be vigilant. Not much else I can say."
"Agreed. Anything else?" CINC asked.
Chief of Operations Cook had the message out soon after that:
PRIORITY 207906061400 UTC
TO: ANTARES
FROM: FLEETOPS
TOP SECRET
THERE IS AN URGENT NEED HERE TO FURTHER EXPLORE YOUR EVIDENCE
AND DETERMINE NEXT STEPS. THEREFORE ANTARES SHALL RTB EARTH
NLT 207906142000 UTC. EARLIER RETURN AT YOUR DISCRETION.
GIVEN THIS DISCOVERY MANY HERE SUSPECT ENEMY PRESENCE SO
CONTINUED CAUTION ADVISED.
TO KEEP LOW PROFILE WE ARE NOT SENDING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES.
REPORT IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL FINDINGS OR REQUESTS
COOK
END
Antares
Beta Hydri (d) 'Big Blue'
Wednesday, June 8, 2078, 0225 UTC
The Comm watch supervisor brought the message from Fleet Operations to the Conn officer. Miho Ito read the message and then picked up the phone and called the Captain. Miho remembered Admiral Cook as a friendly but demanding instructor at the University, with a sizeable collection of pithy Fleet stories and a hard-nosed teaching manner that brought out the best in most students. It could bring out tears in others, but Miho always figured that was part of the plan. The Captain's arrival at her position brought her back out of her memories of University. Terri Michael read the dispatch twice, making sure she hadn't missed anything. She looked at Ito.
"OK, Lieutenant, what's your interpretation?"
Miho thought for a few seconds before responding.
"They're giving us time to complete the initial assessment, then we gotta get the data back home for the experts to interpret."
"That's pretty close "
"Too bad SLIP bandwidth is so low...if we were using regular radio, even, we could transmit most of this in a few minutes."
Michael smiled. "But we aren't, so, we'll just have to carry the data back ourselves."
"Understood, Captain."
"Frankly, I share your frustration, but since we're sending messages at many times the speed of light it's hard to complain, right?"
Miho nodded. The Comm watch supervisor, a young tech, joined the conversation.
"Do you want to send a response, Captain?" he asked.
"No, I don't think so. We'll call home after we're on our way a couple days."
"Yes, ma'am."
Terri waited a bit, looking around the Bridge. During the last daylight period in the cities, the drone had circled Capital City, collecting stereo images in visual and IR for later study. They had sent the small exploration drone - the Peeper - to explore one of the smaller towns - suburbs they were calling them - and had returned a remarkable image of what looked like a photograph of one of the inhabitants. Seen through a window of what was presumably a small residence, it was a breathtaking image of an animal that looked like a cross between a chimp or monkey and some kind of feline. It had patterned fur that was white and brown with areas of black, but the blue-and-green multi-colored human-looking eyes looked out from the image with obvious intelligence.
If she could send but one image by SLIP, she thought, that would be the one.
But here they were, past noon of Sol 3 on Big Blue. She was disappointed that Operations had provided tactical instruction and guidance but nothing scientific or archeological. For that, they were apparently on their own. She counted heavily on her medical officer Marcia Soto and her young officer cadre: Hansen, Alex Williams, Jack Ballard, and Ryan Lewis. They pulled in Warrant Officer Denise Long from Reactor Ops as well, her physics degree adding to their collective expertise.
Terri wanted to do as complete a reconnaissance as they could, bringing back as much data and materials as possible. But she was an engineer and ship commander, not a scientist. From Cook's order, they had until after sunset on Sol 6, which was really a pretty decen
t amount of time. The brain trust had already figured out a tolerable work schedule that managed the two-days-per-Sol diurnal difference between Earth and Big Blue. They would wake up the drone around local sunrise and give it a flight plan. The techs and additional volunteer staff would work two twelve-hour shifts managing the images as well as analyzing the data from their own sensors. Ballard would supervise the first twelve hours of daylight and Hansen would pick up the next twelve. Once sunset hit she would be off ten hours, then split the next 16 hours between a shift at the Conn and analysis and planning. Then she would be off another ten hours until sunrise and another 12 hours in Intel. Each of the four worked a variation of that basic pattern, and each set aside time for their 'day jobs' as well as making sure they got enough rest. Terri Michael and XO James George were also splitting a much simpler twelve-on-twelve-off schedule on the Bridge.
She set a team meeting for 0800 the next morning, a time when they would all be awake. She would inform them then of the timeline and try to enable them to plan for the best use of the time remaining.
Antares
Big Blue (Beta Hydri D)
Thursday, June 9, 2078, 0800 UTC
They gathered in the Intel workroom since breakfast occupied the wardroom. Jack Ballard put up a slide show of images from the Sol before, the most striking of which was the portrait, seen through a window of what was presumably a small residence. The most engaging aspect of it was the intense, blue-and-green multi-colored human-looking eyes. Carol half-expected the picture to speak to them.
"Heterochromic? Amazing!" Terri said quietly.
"So beautiful," Carol agreed.
"Jack, is that a photograph or a painting? Can you tell?" Terri asked.
Ballard looked at the image.
"We think it's a photograph, ma'am, but it's hard to tell for sure looking through the window."
Other shots revealed that there had been an RFG attack here as well, concentrated in the cities. Many of the larger buildings showed signs of fires, although it was difficult to know from a distance whether these were because of the attack or just happened later after they were abandoned. There were skeletons in the streets there, too. They watched in silence for a few minutes before Terri got the conversation moving.
"We have been ordered to RTB by twenty-hundred on the fifteenth."
Ballard eyes widened with surprise. "Wow, that's more time than I expected them to give us."
Terri nodded. "Yes, it's after sunset on Sol 6. I wonder if they actually took time to do the math, but it works for us. So, what are our priorities?"
Jack looked at his NetComp.
"We need two more Sols to finish a good photo-survey of the ground, including out to the farms. So, figure that's the rest of Sol 3 and all of Sol 4."
"Can the Peeper be working at the same time?"
"Some, yes, but it has to get back up to the Snooper to get recharged."
"Should we launch another drone to support the lower-level work?" Hansen asked.
"We could," Ballard answered, "but we only have two aboard. That would leave us with nothing."
Hansen looked across at the Captain.
"I don't know what we would be holding them back for, ma'am. If we can dedicate the second Snooper to lower level work, it would really augment the amount of data we can get."
Michael looked up at James George, leaning on the wall by the door. He gave a slight nod.
"OK," she said, "I see the value in that, but what about processing? Do we have the personnel to support a second vehicle?"
Ballard nodded. "Yes, Captain, I think so. Most of what we're doing is monitoring the image collection and looking at the occasional interesting shot. We're not managing the drone on a continual basis. We can handle another one."
Terri looked over at Carol who indicated her agreement.
"Ok, anything else we need to do?"
Carol looked at Jack, who shrugged. The next move was up to her.
"I think we need to bring back some bones--".
Marcia Soto sat upright and leaned forward. "I don't think I can permit that," she said firmly.
"--and some dirt." Carol finished.
"Like I said," Marcia let her objection fade out.
Terri looked from one roommate to the other, slightly amused at this disagreement. She adopted a conciliatory tone and demurred on reminding them that she was the one in command.
"OK, well, I can see the intelligence value of both. That's obvious, I think. So, Doctor Soto, what specifically are your objections?"
"That's equally obvious - contamination of us and the ship with unknown, alien, organisms."
Jack Ballard picked up the discussion.
"But we have sealed sample containers, Doctor, which we would then run through the regular decontamination process. Isn't that enough?"
"Did you read The Andromeda Strain, Lieutenant? You're assuming that our regular process will kill any alien organism. I think that's likely, but it is not by any means a certainty."
"So, what about the drones? They're contaminated now, right?" Ryan Lewis asked.
"I was going to get to that. We can't bring them back aboard."
Terri Michael put on her best 'time to get real' face and laid out the situation for all of them.
"First, let's remind ourselves that there is a war on here. Second, we never planned for surface exploration. Frankly, we were lucky the drones were even aboard. Third, there is no doubt that there will be follow-on missions to this planet. They've already ordered us home to look at our data. Clearly, they plan to review it and then come back with better resources for a more detailed examination. If we can provide bacteriological samples, even do a little of the research ourselves, then we advance that process by at least days and maybe weeks."
Soto nodded, surrendering.
"I understand our situation, Captain, but I also take my responsibility for the health of the crew very seriously."
"Indeed, you do, and everyone appreciates that, especially me. Were we not in a conflict right now I would agree with you, and we would leave everything behind. As it is, I have to accept some small risks to gain significant intelligence."
"Yes, ma'am."
"That said, can you work with Lieutenant Ballard to devise a decontamination process that will minimize our risk? We'll do the regular routine, but what else might we do that would lower our risk?"
"I can work with him. We'll figure something out."
"Can we do any work on the dirt on the way back? Cultures or whatever?" Carol asked.
She was inviting Marcia to re-engage, to step back from her initial objections to even bringing the stuff aboard, and actually participate in its analysis. She was the obvious choice for that, but Carol wanted to give her a chance to do it on her own terms.
"In the isolation area, we probably could. I will have to do some literature research on environmental studies, but I believe we have such references available aboard."
"We should...I think we have most of the Library of Congress in there somewhere..." XO George added.
"OK so, Sol 5?" Michael asked.
"I'd like to take the Snooper and one Peeper and get some detailed images of Capital City - up and down as many streets as we can in as much detail as we can."
Michael looked over at Ryan Lewis.
"Mister Lewis you're as close to a weatherman as we have on board. What are you seeing?"
"Well, ma'am, we can see a front coming in from the west. We don't have any history with what that will do when it hits the land or the mountains to the east, but I would bet that we're going to see some wind and rain in the overnight from Sol 3 to 4. It may linger, but as I say, I don't really know."
"Understood. Lieutenant Hansen, what do you want to do on Sol 5?"
"If we get the second Snooper down there, I would like to get out to the farms — or what we're calling farms — and see if we can tell what they were growing and what tech they might have been using."
"And Sol 6?"
Jack answered for the team.
"Contingencies, Captain. We'll need a few hours to get the drones back by shuttle. Also, if we're going to do a sample return, it should probably be on Sol 4 or 5, so we can manage any issues and not get caught by the deadline."
"But that means an extra shuttle trip, right?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am, it does," he responded, not trying to conceal his smile.
"How soon can you get the sample return kit on the Peeper in the hangar?" XO George asked.
Carol turned her head to look at him.
"I asked Chief Guzman about that, and he says a couple hours. He's got the Peeper off, and the kit unpacked already, I just need to tell him to go ahead."
"Ok, so we'll install the sample kit and launch the second Snooper today, hopefully before sunset but that's not critical. We'll use Snooper Two to get low-level images from the area we've already started to explore. Carol, sample return is now your problem. I think we should get a water sample from the ocean as well if that's possible."
Carol nodded her understanding.
"Then we'll work this plan over Sols 4 and 5 and keep 6 for contingencies and retrieval, as Lieutenant Ballard has suggested. Any objections?"
There were none.
"OK, let's get it done."
They rose, the respectful quiet vanishing in a chaos of conversations, as each went to their task.
Antares
Beta Hydri 'Big Blue'
Tuesday, June 14, 2078, 1955 UTC
Terri Michael looked around the hangar where almost the entire crew had gathered. They were a determined bunch, she thought. There were Inor survivors, Antares plank-owners, new kids, and some solid contributors from elsewhere in the Fleet. She stood on a work table to get a little more height and they gathered in a large circle around her.
"Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, we're done with Big Blue for now. You've all done wonderfully well during this phase of the investigation, and I know that Fleet Intel will be chewing on those results for some time once we get back. Someone will be coming back here, there can be no question about that. Whether that someone is us, we will just have to see. I know all of you are invested in this place, as am I, and I will surely make the case that we are the best crew for any follow-up."
Silver Enigma Page 27
