Starborn Odyssey: Voyage of the Lost (The Starborn Odyssey Trilogy Book 3)

by Haines Sigurdsson

  “Gemma, what did you see on the trip through non-space?” asked Kelsan to change the subject, stubbornly refusing to admit he found the jumps as unnerving as the rest of them.

  “As far as I can tell, we ceased to exist; there are no recorded images from that time and no time registered. It seemed either to be instant, or outside of time completely, in which case it could have been billions of years or no time at all,” Gemma informed them.

  “Well that tells us a lot,” Tanya laughed, losing some of the severity created by the stress of the initial launch. “Now I understand exactly how things work.” They all laughed with her, easing the tension on the bridge.

  “Well, let’s see what we can see of this star system while we have the time,” said Elton.

  Less than an hour after leaving Prometheus, they had already begun their examination of three new worlds. They reviewed the scans of the planets one at a time. The first, nearest to them, had eighty moons, and was about two hundred thousand miles in diameter. It was more than a billion miles from its star.

  “What a beast,” Zak commented. “But I think even those moons will be way too cold to inhabit at that distance.”

  “There’s a midsized planet half way round the other side of the sun from the one we’re heading for,” said Gemma, whose hologram had materialized in the control room and was standing, looking over Pixie’s shoulder as the girl controlled the review of the scans on the main view screen. “It’s about twenty thousand miles in diameter and may have too heavy an atmosphere and gravity for us, but it has two large moons that may be workable.” She smiled. “Pixie, hang on for a minute and I’ll bring one up on the screens for you. It has polar ice caps and solar spectrum; a good sign.”

  “Once we’ve inspected the closest planet, we can decide whether it’s worth the trip to check out those moons,” said Shana. “So let’s get as much information about them as we can before we get to Planet One.” Gemma nodded, and they started toward the planet.

  There wasn’t much more analysis of the planets and moons that the crew could do from that distance, so over the next few days, they continued their studies in various subjects that would help ensure they were prepared for any eventuality that arose. Tanya, for example, had the primary medical training on the crew (but a terrible bedside manner, they all agreed). When they weren’t studying or working, they ate together and enjoyed the novelty of living on the Wanderer, doing routine tasks and playing occasional puzzle games.

  They also exercised, although the space limited what they could do. They weren’t able to keep up the running they had become accustomed to when training for the journey, and sparring was out of the question (although this didn’t bother Shana as much as some of the others; she’d never been particularly good at sparring, as Kelsan was always ready to remind her).

  There was not much privacy, but Shana did find herself alone one evening, re-calibrating the status fields in the embryonic suspension chambers and seed storage. The system was not technically due for recalibration for months, and there were sensors to watch the “babies,” as Shana sometimes thought of them, but Shana could not help feeling the need to be extra careful with this precious cargo. It would be critical if they were going to survive as a colony. Shana closed up the control panel, feeling the cold of the ship on the palm of her hand as she did so. Without thinking, she reached up and clutched the asteroid-stone necklace in her hand. The stone felt warm and comforting. She smiled to herself and let it go.

  She stepped into the hall and almost ran into Kelsan. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I thought you were up on the bridge with Elton and Tanya.”

  Kelsan looked down at her, and Shana suddenly realized how small the hallway was, how close they were forced to stand. “I was on the bridge. I had to get something from my bunk.” He didn’t move, though. He just looked at her, almost curiously. She could see the individual flecks of green in his eyes, stubble of red beard along his jaw line.

  “Well, let me get out of your way, then,” Shana said. Kelsan hesitated, and for an alarmed moment, she thought he might try to kiss her. But then he stepped back, pressing against the cold metal wall; she smiled and slipped past him.

  “See you up there,” she said lightly. Kelsan just grunted, and strode back to the bunk area.

  Shana made her way to the bridge, feeling a little bewildered, trying to decide if she was reading something more into Kelsan’s actions than was actually there.

  “You okay?” Elton asked when she stepped into the circular room, drawing his eyebrows together in concern. “You look worried.” Tanya glanced up and gave Shana a hard, appraising look.

  Shana smiled and shook her head. “No, no, I was just distracted. Everything’s fine!”

  Elton watched her for another moment, then, apparently satisfied, nodded and said, “Okay, good.” He was working on calculations, free-hand for some reason, and humming to himself. Tanya glanced up at him, annoyed by the humming, but with the sigh of a martyr, said nothing. Shana grinned and sat next to Tanya, working on their endless project of analyzing all the data ever collected on crystal propulsion. It was frustrating and possibly futile, but it passed the time. After a while, Shana found herself humming along with Elton and when she realized it, she looked up at him. He gave her a smile and a nod. She smiled back. Kelsan and Tanya, absorbed in their work (and Tanya now wearing ear plugs) did not seem to notice the exchange.

  After a long while, when the shift was close to over, Elton put down his stylus and leaned back, rubbing his face with his hands. “I can’t look at it anymore,” he announced. Kelsan and Shana both looked up. Tanya was still deep in the middle of her work.

  Shana nodded, fiddling with the Prometheus stone hanging around her neck. “We could all use a break. Maybe some music?”

  “Or exercise,” Kelsan said, stretching.

  Elton stretched, too, but didn’t respond immediately. Then he leaned forward. “Do you guys miss Prometheus?”

  Shana glanced at her hand, and dropped her necklace; the stone fell back to her chest, where it was now at home.

  “Of course,” she said lightly. Kelsan grunted.

  “I do,” Elton said. “I miss everyone, even people I didn’t spend much time with. It’s so strange; I didn’t think I would.”

  Shana nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  “I wonder what they’re doing back on the ‘Roid ship,” Elton continued.

  Shana smiled, “They’re probably wondering what we’re doing,” she countered.

  “Or whether we still exist,” Kelsan interjected curtly.

  “I wish there was some way to let them know,” Shana frowned at this. She had a momentary pang of homesickness.

  They were all silent for a long moment, and Shana jumped, startled, when Tanya spoke up next to her.

  “Of course we miss them. I even miss the stupid rock. But, as we discussed so often before we left, we have to keep ourselves from dwelling on such depressing contemplations. A melancholy crew will never make it.”

  The practicality of this was undeniable.

  Elton suddenly grinned. “Tanya, you’re exactly right. Next time I talk like that, feel free to throw something at me.” He raised an eyebrow, as if immediately reevaluating the wisdom of his statement. “I mean, nothing too hard. You are pretty strong.”

  Tanya laughed. “I promise it won’t hurt much. I’m a doctor.”

  Kelsan and Shana both snorted at that, and then they all laughed.

  Pixie and Zak wandered in at that moment.

  “What’s so funny?” Pixie asked.

  “We were just discussing that we missed Prometheus,” Shana said, with another laugh.

  Pixie scrunched up her nose in confusion. “I don’t understand—why is that funny?”

  Shana shook her head. “Perhaps just the absurdity of our situation,” she suggested. “Being unable to communicate with them, being stranded who knows where; it’s surreal.”

  “Not much we can do
about it now,” Zak shrugged, coming to sit in his usual chair, seeming unconcerned. “We could be a billion years out of sync with Prometheus at this point for all we know. All the signals we keep sending, they may never cross space in time to reach them.”

  “It is strange to realize just how permanent things are,” injected Tanya. “No matter how much we knew before we left I don’t think I could really perceive just how isolated we would be. But now I have to admit that it scares me!”

  Shana smiled at this. “Scared” was not a state generally associated with Tanya.

  “I think the sooner we find a place to live, the better we’ll all feel,” said Elton. “I enjoy the exploration, but I don’t like sitting out here in an empty star system where life may be—or at least seems—a billion years away; it’s so . . . lonely.” He looked up, a little embarrassed, but no one gave him a hard time.

  Kelsan grunted in agreement. “You said it,” he added.

  Shana appreciated what she saw as Kelsan’s attempt to connect with Elton. The two had never been very close. She didn’t love Kelsan romantically, but she did like him very much, and smiled at him. He looked up and caught her smiling, but quickly looked away.

  Elton said with sudden energy, breaking the mood, “I’m going to go get my guitar. We need a music break.”

  “Oh good!” Pixie said cheerfully. “And maybe Tanya will cook something?”

  Shana sat back and watched her friends, feeling a warm glow of affection for each of them, in that moment.

  When, after three days of travel, they finally arrived at the planet that had appeared to be near Earth-type, they discovered very low oxygen levels and temperatures mostly below freezing, with only about five percent of the planet above water.

  “It’s kind of like Earth a billion years ago,” said Gemma. “There’s something—an extremely primitive organism I think, just starting to manufacture oxygen and probably feeding on the excessive methane in the atmosphere. The computer calculates less than a five percent chance of a colony surviving long enough to bring this planet up to acceptable levels. I recommend another jump, the sooner the better, to preserve our supplies of food and convertible material for the synthesizer.”

  Pixie groaned. “Not another jump so soon!”

  Zak interjected, “What about those two moons we were going to inspect? Have you any further readings on them?”

  “Yes,” replied Gemma. “They don’t give back very good readings in spite of the ice caps. I don’t believe they’re worth going to, though of course the choice is yours.” She crossed her arms in a very human manner and waited for them to decide.

  “What about that other planet on the further side of the star?” Zak persisted.

  “On further review, it has an orbit far too elliptical to be practical for habitation, and may in fact be a danger to any other planet in the system. Kind of like what happened to Reesh,” was Gemma’s response.

  “Well, that seems to settle the matter,” Elton said, trying to sound upbeat. “We’ll have to try again at the next stop.”

  Pixie bit her lip, clearly disappointed.

  Shana, as eager as Gemma to be on their way, squeezed Pixie’s shoulder. “Cheer up, Pix. We’ll have a few more hours here, anyway; we need to restock the ship before taking another crystal jump. And then I’m sure the next system will be more promising!”

  They prepared to replenish their stock of rock and dust or dirt for the synthesizer and fuel, including their Matter Compression System, or MCS, from the nearest moon. Since the moon had little gravity it wouldn’t deplete their fuel supply for the auxiliary thrusters, which got most of their fuel from the synthesizers as well, so it was a good option. They immediately set a course for the closest moon, only a few hours away.

  The moon was almost a twin to Earth’s Luna, with very low gravity and no air, perfect for their robots to load mass. The high amounts of helium three meant that they needed very little energy consumption to convert it to a usable fuel for the thrusters. Shana felt this was a good sign of successes to come. They had already decided not to synthesize food until it was a matter of necessity because it used a lot of energy to convert matter in that fashion, although the waste was still usable for thrust mass.

  It took less than four hours to reload mass and take off. No one left the ship, since there was clearly nothing to gain risking their lives on a dead world, so they just monitored the spider-like mining robots until they finally completed their task, then lifted off.

  They prepared for another jump, and when they were ready, Gemma engaged the crystal drive. After a brief readjustment, they regained their wits, and Gemma informed them that they were a hundred million miles from a blue star, with no planets detected. She gave them a video display of the system and it was agreed, miserably, that there was no choice but to jump again.

  When they came out of their next jump they were in a system with two gas giants orbiting close to a red giant star. It was a spectacular sight.

  “This is like a system detected from Earth, according to ancient records in the computer,” said Gemma, sounding a bit awed.

  “So we can maybe figure out where we are?” Pixie asked, excitedly.

  Gemma’s hologram frowned, as if thinking, but Shana knew she was reviewing all the data in the computer’s records. “No, unfortunately; and nothing else seems to match up or be remotely familiar either. I recommend another jump.”

  Kelsan interjected. “Before we do that, are you learning anything about how this drive works? Do we know any better than before we left how the navigation happens, how we might control it?”

  “Not yet, but I’m recording everything. Eventually we’ll have enough data to start making conclusions. I’ll be happy to make the data available for your review at any time.” Shana thought Gemma sounded curt, but when she looked at her, the hologram looked calm and composed.

  Another quick scan proved that there were no other planets of interest in the system. There was no point in delaying it, so it was off again. It didn’t seem to matter how many jumps they made, each one was just as painful as the last, although there didn’t seem to be any lingering pain once the launch was over. Shana wondered if there was a limit to how many jumps you could make before it killed you. It couldn’t possibly be healthy to keep doing this to your body.

  That was her last thought before the jump and she was glad she still felt like herself when she came back to full awareness.

  “We’ve arrived in a system with a G-type star and twelve planets that I can see. The forth planet has a very high oxygen reading,” said Gemma, clearly pleased. “Do you want to set a course for it?”

  “Most definitely, unless you see another good prospect closer to us,” Shana said, assuming nobody would object. She was right. The news seemed to bolster everyone’s spirits. Pixie even clapped.

  “It’s two weeks away,” said Gemma. “We came out really far out from the star, further than in past jumps, which seems strange, but I have no explanation as to why. The planet is about ninety million miles out from the star and has two moons. The closer of the two is almost two thousand miles in diameter and the farther one almost twice that,” she informed them.

  They settled in for another slow week of maintaining equipment, studying, and goofing off. Pixie and Zak disappeared on their own for long stretches of time. After all, they were newlyweds. “Who gets a honeymoon like this?” Pixie beamed, making the rest of them groan in mock annoyance.

  The fact that there was a potentially habitable planet nearby helped to decrease the stress level considerably. Playing cards didn’t hurt, either. Tanya was winning, which put her in a particularly relaxed and cheerful state. “Here we are, definitely ‘where no one has gone before.’” She beamed.

  “You just love quoting bad old sci-fi, don’t you,” Kelsan said with a shake of his head.

  “Hey, it’s not bad old sci-fi, it’s good old sci-fi,” Elton argued. Among the generations of colonists whose sole home had been on P
rometheus were musicians and poets, painters and sculptors; but they had not created much new in the way of film. It simply wasn’t an artistic medium that compelled them to create, they way they were compelled to write music, for example. This led the crew to indulging in antique films and theatre for occasional entertainment; most favorites were from before films became virtual-reality based, when dialogue and character were more important that special effects.

  Kelsan scrunched up his nose in distaste. “I don’t know how you can watch any of those old Earth films. They’re so dated!”

  “They’re funny,” Tanya said, and kicked him with the toe of her boot, playfully. Kelsan glanced up at Shana at this bit of flirting, perhaps to gauge her reaction. She wondered if he was taunting her as he had that day in the Hydrop, seeing if she would “fight” for him. She chose to ignore him.

  “I can’t believe it’s only been about ten days since we left home,” said Pixie. “It seems so much longer!”

  “Really? I feel like we just left,” answered Elton. “But maybe time moves differently for pixies,” he added teasingly.

  Pixie crossed her arms. “Hey, I’m a very serious scientist. Just because my name is Pixie doesn’t mean I am one.” She was trying very hard to look serious, and Shana burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of her attempt.

  “You are no good at looking angry,” Shana told her friend. “You have to face it, you’re going to be called a pixie even in this side of the galaxy.”

  “You better be careful or I’ll go back to calling you Pinky,” Pixie said with a laugh, giving Shana’s pink hair a playful tug, reminding her of her childhood nickname. “Besides, I think you’re all just jealous of my pointed ears.”

  “I’m not,” Kelsan interjected, looking so truly grumpy that for a moment they all thought he was serious. Then he grinned and they all broke into laughter. It felt good to laugh, and they felt like a real team, they way they had in training.

  It wasn’t all fun and games, though. They also spent time studying the images of the planet toward which they were headed, though the images didn’t show much visually. It seemed to be shrouded in a thick bluish-green haze. The sensors suggested life in abundance, though the level and type of life was uncertain from this distance. They made minor adjustments to their equipment. They pulled out and set up the collapsible, portable halftrack, in case they could use it on the planet. It would only carry two people, but it had a small trailer with detachable seats for the rest of the crew. Basically, they did everything they could to be fully prepared for visiting a new world.