by Bob Blanton
“I’d rather do this.” Catie strapped herself into a set of straps. There was one at the end of each limb and a belt around her waist with two straps going to the floor. Catie started the exercise routine. It was a modified version of Tai Chi, where she made slow movements against the straps, simulating strikes and blocks.
“You have your favorite source of pain; I have mine,” Liz said.
◆ ◆ ◆
“So, have you thought about our company?” Liz asked Catie as they grabbed a table in the cafeteria. They’d just finished their showers, and after the workout, they were famished.
“Sure,” Catie said. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Yes, how we are going to structure it and how we are going to run it,” Liz said.
“I haven’t thought about much except designing the ship and flying it,” Catie said.
“Well, someone has to find loads to carry, schedule flights, figure out insurance, and things like that.”
“Yuck.”
“It’s not that bad. Finding loads is like what Artie does for his cargo business between Delphi City and Delphi Station.”
“That’s not that difficult. He advertises in the gazette and then waits until he can buy a slot to ship it in. He watches the board like a hawk, picking up late openings real cheap.”
“I’ve seen that,” Liz said. “He’s fast; I almost never beat him to one of those late slots. You remember that he also buys and ships his own stuff that he sells on the station.”
“We could do that,” Catie said.
“It’s speculative. We would have to have a way to know what they need and what they’re willing to pay for it.”
“Sure, when we start dealing with outer systems. But at first, we’ll just be carrying the cargo that MacKenzies wants to move around.”
“I don’t think we have to wait. We can probably make a lot by doing what Artie does. People on that mining station in the asteroid belt are going to be anxious for things from Earth. Things that they’ll start missing after a few months out there.”
“Ohh, like fresh fruit.”
“Right! How long will it take to make the trip?”
“Depends on where it is in its orbit relative to Earth and what kind of acceleration profile we can use,” Catie said. “If we’re lined up and we use a three-G profile, it’s just under four days. If the station’s on the other side of the sun, we’re talking,” Catie's eyes rolled up as she calculated the time in her head, “almost six days. Huh, that’s not as long as I had expected.”
“That constant acceleration really takes out the time in the middle,” Liz said.
“I guess; we more than doubled the distance, but the time only went up by fifty percent.”
“Power of the square root in that formula,” Liz said. “Did you do the calculation, or did you have ADI do it?”
“I did it,” Catie said. “With the time being only four to five days, we can deliver lots of perishable items without having to freeze them.”
“Right, but you have to account for the time it takes to get them to Delphi City where we can lift them.”
“Sure, but if it’s worth it, we could lift them directly from wherever,” Catie added.
“You mean a whole Oryx load?”
“Or a Lynx,” Catie said. “I guess we should buy a few of those.”
“Wait, aren’t you spending a lot of money we don’t have yet?”
“We can wait to buy them,” Catie said. “We have to learn as we go.”
“Smart, now who’s going to run things?”
“We should look for a cargo manager. We could ask Nattie if she knows someone. She was a cargo specialist in the Marines.”
“Okay, I think having a military type in that role will work. What about a finance guy, a CFO?”
“Do you think we need someone as high powered as Jonas?”
“No, but we do want someone with experience.”
“We could pull Daddy’s trick; find some old, retired CFO with Alzheimer’s or other health issues, and offer to fix them up if they take the job.”
“We could, or we could just hire someone. If we pay a good salary and offer a performance bonus, it would be an attractive job. What accountant wouldn’t want to get in on the ground floor of the first interplanetary cargo company? And Delphi City is becoming the place to be right now.”
“That’s true. I could ask Marcie if she’d help with the search,” Catie said.
“That’s a good idea. Maybe Marcie would want to run the company.”
“Umm, I already have her looking into running my other company.”
“What other company?! You holding out on me?” Liz asked.
“It’s small,” Catie said. “I’m going to sell those mini-Comms and that robostep I designed.”
“And you didn’t think I’d want in on that?!”
“Sorry, . . .”
“Hey, I’m just yanking your chain,” Liz said. “But asking Marcie is a good idea. She’ll know how to recruit someone for us.”
“Should we message her now?”
“No hurry. Maybe tomorrow, during the next recharge cycle.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“First Mate, Second Mate, my day cabin,” Blake said when they completed their sixth jump.
“Aye-aye, sir,” came the echoed replies.
“How long will it take us to reach the planet once we get to our system?” Blake asked.
“Six days,” Catie said.
“That long?” Liz asked.
“Yes, just like in Sol’s system. It’s a long way from the fringe to the habitable zone. Plus, we didn’t have any momentum when we started, so we’ve had to start from almost zero velocity. Based on my calculations, the big gas giants are on the other side of the system from our planet, so we’re stuck with only the sun’s gravity,” Catie explained.
“That’s faster than I expected,” Blake said. “What am I missing?”
“Oh, I’ve been saving the velocity from our recharge times,” Catie said. “That means we’ll be entering the system with a higher velocity than originally planned.”
“Explain?”
“Well, since we want gravity when we’ve got that eight-hour recharge wait, you’ve had us accelerate. Instead of flipping halfway and killing our velocity before we jump, I’ve been letting it build. I vector into the next star system so that we cut across its gravity well when we make the next jump. And ta da! We have momentum.”
“That is something I would like to be informed about before you do it,” Blake said in a very stern tone.
“Sorry, I thought you knew,” Catie said. “On every jump we have to compensate for our velocity since we’re never standing still. I just didn’t waste it. If we hadn’t had to stop at Sol’s fringe, we would have had lots of velocity, and the trip in-system would only take five days.”
“Still, changes in our schedule from what we discussed should be reviewed with the captain.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Enough said, let’s move on. I wanted to discuss whether we should pull a page out of your book on the asteroid mission and send a Lynx ahead.”
“That was Nolan,” Catie said. “And sure, we could send a Lynx ahead.”
“What do you want to accomplish?” Liz asked.
“Just to accelerate our mission a little. I don’t see why we should wait eight, now six, days before we begin the planet survey,” Blake said.
“Are they going to land?” Catie asked quietly; she was still smarting from the reprimand and didn’t like the reminder.
“They’ll be there two days before we arrive, right?” Blake asked.
“Close enough,” Catie said.
“Then, no, I don’t think they need to land. They can launch the survey satellites we brought and do close surveys of the landmasses,” Blake said.
“Boring,” Catie said. “Who do you want to punish?”
“It won’t be that boring,” Blake said, “and I should punish y
ou for being a smartass.”
“Better than a dumbass,” Catie replied.
“You really want to go on this mission, don’t you?” Blake threatened.
“You should send at least four people so they can run shifts flying. The Lynxes both have quantum relays, so ADI can fly them, but you’ll want a pilot paying attention so they can adjust based on what’s interesting,” Liz said.
“You two flip a coin,” Blake said. “Winner gets to fly the mission. Pick your crew and be ready to depart when we reach the system.” He got up and left them in his cabin as he made his way back to the bridge.
“Are you okay?” Liz asked Catie.
“I guess. I don’t see why he’s ticked off. I didn’t do anything risky.”
“No, but you can’t know everything the captain is planning or worried about. So you have to keep him informed.”
“I was updating the schedule; all he had to do was look.”
“But he shouldn’t have to, it’s your job to keep him informed,” Liz said. “What if we were meeting someone and being early would be a problem, or worse yet, being late.”
“I guess,” Catie sighed.
“Think about it. Now the mission, do you want it?” Liz asked Catie.
“I don’t know. I guess the winner gets to be the first person to visit a planet in another solar system,” Catie said. “But since they’re not landing, I can go either way.”
“Okay, then Roshambo, since we don’t have a coin.”
“Sure, one . . . two . . . three,” Catie called out. “Paper, rock, you win.”
“Does that mean I can make you fly it?” Liz asked.
“The captain said the winner flies,” Catie said with a laugh. “You’re stuck, have fun.”
“Well, you’re going to have to put up with Blake while you spend six days flying into the system. He’s going to get impatient.”
“Yeah, and he’s mad at me.”
“He’s not mad. He was just making a point. Now, do you want to go work out? We’ve got seven more hours to kill.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Have fun,” Catie messaged Liz as she flew the Lynx out of the Roebuck’s hangar bay.
“Oh, yeah, my idea of fun. Cooped up in a small plane with a couple of yahoos,” Liz said.
“Who are you calling a yahoo?” Gary, the second pilot, demanded.
“You and your buddy,” Liz said. “Now, be quiet!”
“They’re clear, Captain,” Catie reported once Liz had started accelerating away from the Roebuck and toward the planet.
“Then it’s our turn,” Blake said. “Make the announcement.”
“Crew, rig for hyper-acceleration,” Catie announced. “All hands, rig for hyper-acceleration, the axis is horizontal. I repeat the axis is horizontal.”
With the axis horizontal, everyone needed to be sitting or standing against a bulkhead. The acceleration would be along the long axis of the ship, but what was important was that it was perpendicular to the body of someone sitting or standing.
“How come we can take more Gs like this than the pilots can in their jets?” Joey, the helm operator, asked.
“Even though we’re seated like a pilot in a jet, when they experience high Gs, it’s from turning, so most of the force is still directed toward their feet. Here, all of the force is directed toward the rear, so it looks like our feet are slightly elevated, and our heart and brain are on the same plane,” Catie explained. “We’ll be taking a break every four hours to allow everyone to move around.”
“How’s the crew standing midwatch going to get any sleep?”
“We’ve got them rigged with vertical beds,” Catie said. “Twice a day, we’ll drop the acceleration profile to three Gs so people can sleep.”
“Three Gs doesn’t sound too restful.”
“Trust me, it works,” Catie said. “I’ve done two trips this way, and I never had any trouble sleeping.”
◆ ◆ ◆
That night they rotated the ship so that the axis of acceleration was vertical. This allowed most of the crew to get into their bunks and sleep. The watch stations’ chairs extended like lounge chairs, and the consoles rotated, so they were accessible by the crewperson lying on the lounge.
The next day, Blake had to order the pilots to stop competing on who could stand the acceleration the longest. They were actually lying down with their feet against the bulkhead since the acceleration was horizontal. One of the pilots passed out and wrenched his shoulder when he hit the bulkhead at 9Gs.
“You are a bunch of idiots!” Blake yelled. “Now get him to sickbay. The next person I find playing this game will be cleaning the heads for the rest of the trip.”
Chapter 7
Landfall
“It’s beautiful,” Catie said.
She sat with Blake on the bridge of the Roebuck, watching as they approached the new planet. They could see the two moons above it; the small one was trailing the big one in a higher orbit. It looked like a small dog on a leash trying to check out the trees beside the path.
“It’s very blue.”
“Lots of water.”
“Clouds,” Blake added.
“Probably rains there,” Catie said with a smile.
“Har, har. I don’t remember Liz flying through any rain,” Blake said.
“She’s a good pilot; she probably avoided it.”
“Probably. Helm, put us in orbit two hundred kilometers up,” Blake ordered.
“Sir, that’s a decaying orbit,” Helm replied.
“Use the grav drives to compensate. That should give us about one-quarter of a G.”
“Aye-aye, sir. Two-hundred-kilometer orbit.”
“Nice job,” Catie said. “A smooth transition from our decel into the orbit.”
“Thanks, Ma’am,” Helm replied.
◆ ◆ ◆
“My day cabin,” Blake ordered after Liz returned to the Roebuck.
“Can’t you wait until I’ve had time to get in a run? I’ve been stuck on that Lynx for six days,” Liz said.
“Alright, go ahead and run,” Blake said. “You’ve kept us updated, so I just want to recap and talk about what’s next.”
“Thirty minutes,” Liz said. “Catie, do you want to run with me?”
“Sure, I haven’t run yet,” Catie said. “I’ll just grab my running shoes and meet you in the gym.”
They actually met in the passageway outside their cabins and made their way to the gym together.
“Twenty laps?” A lap on the treadmill was the equivalent to two hundred meters with a few hills thrown in.
“Sure, that leaves us time for a shower,” Catie said as she leaned into the shoulder pads and started running.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Liz, review what we know about the planet,” Blake said. Blake, Catie, Liz, Dr. Qamar, the geologist; Dr. Pramar, the xenobiologist; and Dr. Teltar, the xenozoologist, were meeting in Blake’s day cabin, essentially his office aboard the ship.
“As we all know, the planet has two moons. We haven’t had enough time to observe the effect the second moon has on the tides, but it’s small and in a distant orbit, so the expectation is that its effect will be small,” Liz said.
“There are three separate landmasses, one large one, similar to Asia, and two smaller ones that form a triangle on the east side of the large one. Unlike Earth, there is only the big continent separating the oceans; I don’t know what effect that might have,” Liz continued.
“We need to study the currents before we will know that,” Dr. Qamar said. “It might make for some very big storms.”
“There are ice caps on both poles, no land under them. All three continents have animal life. We’ve recorded images of them. On one, there are large herbivores that are similar to the bison of North America. The largest continent seems to have antelope-like animals of various sizes, predominantly.”
“Where are the six-legged animals?” Catie asked. “The flying dragons and things like that. Thi
s sounds boring.”
“I don’t think we’ll be finding any six-legged animals; insects will have six or eight legs but not reptiles or mammals,” Dr. Teltar said.
“Why not?”
“Evolution will have eliminated any extraneous limbs,” Dr. Teltar explained. “Any limbs over four require unnecessary energy to sustain, that takes a toll on the animal’s chances of survival. The exception is a tail since a tail provides sufficient benefit to offset the added cost of having to supply energy to it. Typically, they are small relative to the size of the other limbs, your kangaroo being a notable exception.”
“Yeah, how did the kangaroo manage to keep such a big tail?” Liz asked. “It makes sense on a fish or an alligator, but a kangaroo?”
“Your scholars speculate that it is due to the significant amount of propulsion that they get from the tail. They are able to reach much higher speeds than they would with a small tail and their legs. It seems they actually use the tail to push off the ground when running, or I guess you would say hopping.”
“Let’s get back to the issue at hand,” Blake said.
“We have not observed any fires except what we’ve been able to trace to lightning strikes,” Liz continued. “So that’s one strike against there being a sentient species here.”
“What are the alpha predators?” Dr. Teltar asked.
“Similar to Earth. We’ve seen large animals like wolves and large cat-like animals. They would be close to Earth’s lions, tigers, and panthers.”
“No bears?” Catie asked with a smirk.
“I believe we’ve seen something you would call a bear,” Liz said, ignoring Catie’s little joke. “In the oceans, we’ve detected shark-like fish and some whales that are probably the alpha predators there.”
“What volcanic activity have you detected?”
“Nothing has erupted since we’ve been here. We do see a few active volcanos, but we don’t see signs of any recent violent eruptions. There is not very much ash in the atmosphere.”
“So, what is our next step?” Blake asked.
“Based on its size and the general diversity of animals, I believe that the large continent is the ground zero of land-based evolution,” Dr. Teltar said. “I suggest we land there and start collecting samples and running a few tests.”
