Call of Courage: 7 Novels of the Galactic Frontier

by C. Gockel

  “She had a heart arrhythmia from a mild case of Spindling. It was just worsened with the—” Blick protested.

  “That’s my point. None of us knew about it, though we’ve been through more physicals than anyone else in our generations. How many others will have hidden problems like that? How many are just not going to be able to force themselves to leave the ship? Some people aren’t going to believe us. Some aren’t going to care, they’re going to want to keep going in the Keseburg anyway. And the people that agree to come, they’re going to start dying. From stress, from an inability to raise the crops they need, from diseases we haven’t found yet, from poisonous plants we haven’t indexed yet. And when they start dying, they’re going to blame us and they’ll give up and leave again. This planet is the end of our civilization. Maybe Alice is right. Maybe we should keep it a secret.”

  “You can’t decide that. All those thousands of people are waiting for this. We can’t just decide not to tell them, especially now. Look, you’re right , Rebecca. We’re going to lose some people. Probably people we love. Probably ourselves. But it’s a chance. This planet isn’t our god. It’s just a better ship. Look how we’ve adapted to the Keseburg. You think it looked anything like it does now when it set off from Earth? We made our home in the most hostile environment in the universe. We grew plants and organisms and people. For sixteen hundred years. We’re going to be okay. Maybe not you and me. Maybe not your dad and maybe not my Agatha. But that’s all right too, it really is. We’re part of something bigger now. You and me and everyone aboard the Keseburg, we all die eventually. But we won’t be helpless while the ship falls apart around us. Not anymore. Isn’t having a chance to save ourselves worth the risk?”

  She hadn’t considered it quite that way before.

  “All my life I wanted Earth to come get us. Every morning, I thought, ‘Today’s the day. They’ve come up with some new technology and today they’ll find us and we’ll go zipping off back home.’ But nobody’s coming, Rebecca. If there is anyone even left, they think we’re dead. They can’t rescue us and we have to stop waiting.” Blick squeezed her shoulder. “We have to save ourselves. You get it?”

  Rebecca nodded. She hugged him. “Thanks, Lionel,” she said.

  She climbed the nearby ladder into the ship, Issk’ath clicking along behind her. She secured the last of Spixworth’s samples and her own lab space while the others said goodbye to Spixworth. Issk’ath was strapped into the equipment lock so it wouldn’t hurtle across the Wolfinger during takeoff. Rebecca lingered in the doorway. She didn’t know if it was nervous. Did a sentient robot experience anxiety? She knew she was, and Alice hadn’t spoken to her since she’d returned. The sight of the three empty flight chairs carved an aching hollow in her chest. Spixworth’s the largest absence. She’d liked Stratton and felt pity for Dorothy Hackford, but Nick had been her friend. “I wish I’d made him stay with us in the nest,” she muttered.

  “You mean Nicholas Spixworth?” asked Issk’ath.

  “Yes. He wouldn’t have died if we’d gone together.”

  “I could not have pulled you both up. There would not have been time. If he had not died, it might have been you. Or all three of us might have fallen. It would not have helped. That choice should not cause you distress, Emery.”

  She heard Gang Liu and Captain Al Jahi go through their preflight check. It was time to go home. The engines whirred beneath her and she took a deep breath and walked to her seat, pulling the straps tight around her. Rebecca had trained for months in the shuttle, but the tiny ship was still frightening and fragile next to the Keseburg. She always felt as if it were shaking itself apart. But Liu never seemed to notice, so she assumed it was normal. He flew all the time. He could do it in his sleep, he’d said. They didn’t need the feed to guide them. The planet fell away and Rebecca watched the threads of deep blue water shrink and disappear into a blur of green.

  She watched the faces of the others. Most of them weren’t even looking outside at the planet. Most, like Alice, were staring glumly at their feet, lost in a trance of fatigue and loss. They broke through the last wisp of cloud and headed up into the dark. Once they were in free-float, Rebecca sighed and unbuckled. Captain Al Jahi ordered them into the kitchen, the only other room big enough for a debrief.

  Rebecca glided slowly down the corridor, gently pushing herself away from the walls. She looked back at the equipment lock where Issk’ath’s bright casing glittered under the dim lights. It was close to the small porthole, its pale gold eyes fixated on the home it was leaving behind. She paused.

  “Are you— is everything optimal, Issk’ath?” she asked.

  Its head swiveled toward her. “I have never seen it from this distance. The colony finds the openness unsettling. They prefer the closeness of earth and rock.” It pointed to its chassis where lights flickered and slashed in slim lines across it. “They are awake, speaking to one another. Some are frightened. Some are excited.”

  “What about you, Issk’ath? How are you?”

  It considered for a moment. “I am— curious. There is something attractive about new data. It makes the iteration fade.”

  “Good,” she said and turned back toward the kitchen. Blick was already pulling out meal packets in the kitchen. He tossed one to her and she snapped the chemical heater, shaking the foil container. Captain Al Jahi floated at the head of the table, her arms crossed, ready for bad news. “I know we didn’t fill out our schedule, but we have to decide what our recommendation to the Admiral will be. Given the information we do have, is this the planet we’ve been searching for?” she asked.

  Titov sucked on the food packet, his cheeks hollowing. Then he shrugged. “Without Hackford’s tests the data is a little thin, but yeah, so far chemical makeup checks out. We all know it’s a breathable atmosphere. There will need to be a minimal oxygen boost for those less fit, right components for crop growth and most of the valley is in zones five to ten, at least in the initial landing area.” He kept his voice casual, but he had already picked a site for a house and had dreamed of Peter running over the soft leafy vegetation. It was going to make everything, especially Peter, better. He didn’t buy Emery’s pessimism. It had to be better than watching his son deteriorate.

  Blick accessed the wall screen and pulled up video of the sterile room. His face split into a broad grin as the others leaned forward with excited gasps. Curling fronds of green pushed through the small trays of dirt and a glass case of scuttling beetles sat nearby. “As you can see, samples Spixworth and I—” he stuttered to a stop and his grin faded. “Spixworth and I collected are thriving even in the Keseburg dirt and conditions. It’s obviously still early, but so far the climate seems a good match, groundwater seems to be in an adequate range for the season. We won’t know about winter precipitation for a few months, but I presume we will be sending more missions before settlement.”

  “Wait,” said Al Jahi holding up a hand, “We’re already jumping into settlement discussions?”

  Rebecca exchanged a glance with Alice.

  “Why not?” broke in Dr. Cardiff, “isn’t that what we came here for? You’ve just heard the chemistry, climate and biology are all favorable. It’s the logical next step to talk about settlement—”

  “We haven’t heard about the biology. And our geologist and entomologist died . And we’re going to recommend settlement? We need more testing missions,” said Alice.

  “Hackford died because Stratton insisted on outdated isolation techniques that worsened an underlying condition. Given the same extreme stress, it could have happened on the Keseburg as well. And Spixworth was an accident,” said Cardiff.

  “Oxford, Martham, report,” ordered Captain Al Jahi.

  Beatrice Martham shook her head. “It’s going to take months to properly study all of the lifeforms we’ve found, and this is only one small section of the planet. Who knows what’s waiting out there?”

  Al Jahi scrubbed her face with one hand. “Can you at least t
ell me about Hackford? Is there anything immediately threatening to humans in the area?”

  “The tests we ran on Hackford showed no new bacteria or virus, and all of us have since been exposed to the atmosphere with no ill effect,” said Alice reluctantly, “But other than helmets, we’ve all worn gloves and suits. We don’t know if the organisms in the soil and water will be harmful or not. Some of them have familiar structures, but others… this is all entirely new. And if we— if we expose people to it, I’m not sure what will happen.”

  “You’re saying we shouldn’t recommend the planet for settlement?” asked the Captain.

  Everyone silently stared at Alice. She met Rebecca’s gaze. “I think we should consider bypassing this planet, yes. At the very least, we’d have to do more tests and synthesize antibiotics before we introduce settlers into the equation. Even then— the native bacteria and viruses will mutate once we interact with them. There will be die-offs, not just of us, but of any animals and some plants we bring to the planet. Some of the native species may suffer from exposure to us. It could be disastrous on a planetary scale—”

  “That would happen anywhere—” protested Dr. Cardiff.

  “Which is why we should be careful,” said Rebecca. “If we waltz back onto the Keseburg shouting about a viable planet, everyone is going to get overexcited and rush. And more people will die.” She looked over at Blick. “If we want to make the best use of this chance, we’ve got to be cautious and go slow.”

  “Hackford didn’t die from the planet—” yelled Cardiff.

  “She did ,” said Alice. “You think she’s the only one who’s going to freak out with a severe case of agoraphobia once we land? Look at us. We’re trained and it took every ounce of our willpower to get us out there. The people on the Keseburg— they don’t know what they’re getting into. Not at all.”

  “You think we should wait to tell them? Wait for what?”

  “You’re asking my opinion?” Alice snapped, “I think we should wait forever. We don’t belong here.”

  “We should at least consider the risks we’re going to face—” started Rebecca.

  Martham tried to throw her foil food packet onto the table but it just floated gently away. “You’ve decided you have the authority to keep the knowledge that we’ve found the first habitable planet from everyone? That we’re the first generation to contribute to the survival of our species—”

  Titov snorted. “Really? You fall for that tripe? You think this is the first livable planet we’ve found in a millennium? You’re blind. Emery is just following a long tradition of cover-ups that have been used to keep the Keseburg safe.”

  “Oh shut up, Andrei, I’m so sick of your conspiracy theories. We trained our entire lives to find a planet. We did it. We won. And now—”

  “And nobody told us what to do once we found it,” interrupted Rebecca. “Maybe we should stop and think about it before we go getting people overexcited.”

  Dr. Cardiff shook her head. “You can’t seriously be considering this, Captain.”

  Captain Al Jahi frowned. “Emery has some good points. So does everyone else. I have to consider it.”

  “This is mass hysteria. You are all just unnerved by your experiences. Once we get back to the Keseburg and you’ve had time to process what you’ve been through, you’ll change your minds. Besides, there’s no way we could keep a secret this big from the others. Not with all the samples and that— that thing in the equipment lock.”

  “We’ll have to, if that’s what’s necessary,” said Alice.

  “And who determines that?” asked Martham, “You? You’re no expert. I’ll tell whoever will listen—”

  “Enough!” cried Al Jahi. “You swore an oath of loyalty to the Keseburg. That includes following the chain of command, which is me . Nobody is going to say a word to anyone until I talk to the Admiral in private. He’ll decide what’s to be done. That’s an order. In the meantime, I want a debrief from each of you before we arrive home. You have eight hours to compile preliminary reports and get them back to me before we hit the Keseburg’s docks. There will be no discussion of the mission unless and until I give the okay. Issk’ath is to remain aboard the Wolfinger with Emery until we can figure this out. No one boards the Wolfinger and no one accesses the data unless it’s the Admiral himself. You keep your mouths shut. Is that understood?”

  They nodded one by one, silently. The others began drifting away, headed for the lab or their bunks. Their voices dwindled and Rebecca turned back to the table. Might as well do her report here. She sucked the last of the hot tomato soy goop from her packet and slid her seat over to the small console. Most of her notes were up to date, the photos of the nest were already cataloged. She saw that Issk’ath had added some along with notations. At least it was trying to help. Rebecca put in some supplementary field notes to Alice’s report on the nest and left a tentative note for her friend in the private data stream before closing out her own report. She hoped they could heal whatever strangeness was between them. There was nothing left to do but wait to get back to the Keseburg. She was profoundly lonely. Alice wasn’t speaking to her and Spixworth was— her brain blanked for a moment, not accepting the thought. Spixworth was gone , she insisted to herself. If she could just be back in her own apartment, just be around a crowd of people, even strangers. Rebecca missed her cat, she hoped her sister had been taking good care of him. The planet had been incredible, but Keseburg was still home. She was one of only a handful of people in the past sixteen hundred years that could claim homesickness. She looked forward to the noise and the pressure and heat of the people in the market and the easy motion of her own limbs in the lesser gravity of the ship. She was more real there, more human.

  She crumpled the foil packet and pressed it into the incinerator, then went to see if she could talk to Alice. She saw Martham and Blick typing away in their small green lab filled with tanks. Alice shared the medical lab with Leroux and Titov. They bustled around each other easily.

  “At least engineering will be happy, even if we don’t settle,” Titov was saying, “The few samples Hackford managed to test before… show abundant element mining possibilities. Sam keeps telling me how low we are every time I complain that the printers put restrictions on orders. Even with the recycling crackdown, we definitely need a mining mission.”

  “We need a planet,” muttered Leroux as she checked a labeled sample against her packing list. “It’s not just the ship that’s in bad shape. Did you see the new exercise regimen? The truth is, even that isn’t enough to keep up with the bone degeneration. Not for the new gens.” They were silent for a moment. “Did you see the new immunology report?”

  Titov nodded. “We’re running out of time either way,” he muttered. “The next bad flu that sweeps the ship might be even worse than risking the planet’s new diseases. We’re going to lose people whatever is decided.”

  Alice frowned. “At least we know how to prevent the diseases on the Keseburg. The planet is a whole new ecosystem. Death there could be far worse than Spindling. And what we bring with us could wipe out what’s already there. It could decimate the existing life, wipe out something we desperately need to survive.”

  Leroux shook her head. “I suppose we’re getting ahead of ourselves. No good borrowing worry, my mom always said. Plenty enough without that. Best get home first and figure it out once that robot thing is dealt with.”

  Issk’ath was a problem for Alice. After Rebecca had contacted the Wolfinger, she’d tried several tactics to dissuade the others from letting it aboard, even considered trying to plead her case with the machine itself. But her crewmates were convinced they were safer with it on the Wolfinger than waiting for it to destroy them when it was left behind. And Issk’ath did not share her fears for the planet. Its programming was to protect the colony, it had said, not the planet. The humans’ fate was in their own hands. It refused to be left behind, even if it meant eventually returning with the Keseburg anyhow. It was an o
pportunity for massive amounts of data and Alice had nothing to offer that was greater than that. She would have to find a way to get it off the ship before they returned. Or get rid of the Wolfinger itself. She could see now, Titov, Al Jahi, and Cardiff would be immovable. They’d never agree to abandon the planet. Hackford’s death had been attributed to personal weakness and Stratton’s and Spixworth’s to fatal accidents. Issk’ath’s refusal to kill Stratton in the equipment lock had been enough to convince most of them that it had not killed him later.

  She’d have to take care of any of the others who wouldn’t agree to keep the planet secret. Those that remained would be able to help her get the robot off the ship. They just had to get it to the door. The emergency decontamination process would do the rest. It would be difficult to convince Rebecca that it was necessary, especially now that she’d developed some strange fascination with Issk’ath, but Alice had known her for years. Alice had underestimated Issk’ath’s hold over her friend at the nest, but surely, if she called on old affections, Alice would win in the end. She hadn’t quite written off Martham either. The woman was obsessive about her work. If she made a strong enough scientific case for abandoning the planet, Martham would come around. The others, Blick, Leroux, and Liu were unknowns. None of them had kids. She needed Liu, if any of them expected to return to the Keseburg. The Wolfinger’s autopilot could only get them so far.

  “Are you alright Alice? I’m so sorry about Nick.” Rebecca wrung her hands beside Alice, blinking more tears away. Alice felt a pang of guilt at that. What had she done? What was she preparing to do? She shut her eyes. It’s an entire planet. They died to save a whole world. If the others have to be sacrificed too, so be it.

  “I’m sorry about Nick too,” was all she said.