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

by Haines Sigurdsson

  “These lizard creatures have aircraft,” Kelsan said, interrupting her reverie. “And,” he gave an astonished bark of a laugh, “they appear to be attempting to sneak up on us.”

  “This high?” asked Elton.

  Kelsan nodded. “They’ve got three craft less than a hundred miles from us, and they’re going at least thirty five hundred MPH in atmosphere. Pretty impressive. Should we try to make contact?”

  Zak shook his head. “I’d like to make contact as much as the rest of you, but I don’t savor being blown out of the sky, and landing doesn’t seem smart. Even if the swamp didn’t impede our ability to take off again, a bomb would quite likely put us out of commission. I think our best option is to take a quick stop at that rogue moon, and perhaps replenish our mass supplies again. I don’t think they can get there fast enough to do us any harm. This system’s obviously too well occupied to do us any good, but just in case we don’t find another spot to refuel in the next jump or two I think we’d best risk it.”

  “Well, those aircraft are getting too close for comfort, especially if they have rocket bombs that could get here ahead of them,” warned Shana. “Let’s get to that moon and reload and get the hell away from this war. I don’t feel safe here, and since they’re not humanoid, I don’t think we have an obligation to intercede, even if we decide the non-contact regulations don’t apply.”

  “Course set and engaging drive now,” said Gemma. They felt the acceleration just as a projectile weapon exploded less than a hundred feet away.

  “That was too close,” said a stunned Pixie. “How did they sneak that one up on us?”

  “They apparently have developed a form of stealth technology; our sensors picked up no trace of that shot,” admitted Gemma. “If we hadn’t seen the ships themselves, we never would have moved out of the way in time. That could have ended our trip in a heartbeat. We’d best load up on the moon quickly.”

  Kelsan finished her thought, “and then get the hell out of here without a backward glance.”

  Nobody disagreed. They had escaped danger without damage, but it was through pure luck, and they were all feeling foolhardy at their arrogance. “Let’s make sure we’re keeping a visual check as well as the radar and electronic scans while we’re reloading. I don’t want either party altering the course of some space craft out here and catching us by surprise on the moon.”

  “Are you sure we need to refuel here?” Pixie asked anxiously.

  Gemma nodded. “We need those reserves in case there’s nothing available in our next jump or two. We have no idea where our next jumps will take us, or how long before we find another fuel source.”

  “Every single jump has been close to a star system, with some sort of planets or moons available,” protested Zak.

  “True,” said Shana, “but who know how long that luck will last? Our next dozen jumps could be too far from anything to help us—or, we could wind up facing a hostile race technologically superior to us. We don’t want to get caught in that situation either.”

  “These two worlds alone have disillusioned you so much already?” Elton asked.

  Shana shook her head. “I’m just trying to be sensible. And so far the only life we’ve discovered has been entirely absorbed in killing other life forms. So, I suppose I am a bit disillusioned.”

  “Fair enough,” Tanya said, ending the discussion. “Let’s get on the far side of that moon where we won’t be an easy target.”

  Two hours later they were taking on mass, using all the mining robots at once for speed. They kept very careful watch, everyone too nervous to eat or sleep until well away from those warring worlds. Within two more hours they were fully loaded and lifted off to make their next jump. Once again they experienced the sudden pain and the feeling of being turned inside out and then it was over again.

  Pixie

  The next jump brought them to a system with just one huge gas giant that circled its sun in less than three days and they immediately jumped again. The next four jumps brought them to systems with dead rocks orbiting the stars; planets that had either died long ago or were yet to develop. One planet exhibited a tremendous amount of volcanic activity, suggesting that it was definitely yet to develop, but the billion or so years left for it to become livable was, as all agreed, a little excessive for them to wait out.

  After a total of thirty two jumps, with several days break from time to time to recover from the discomfort, and to refuel, frustration began to set in. One morning Shana found Pixie hiding away in one of the ship’s storage lockers crying.

  “What’s wrong Pix? We’ll find someplace suitable eventually, and we’ve got great company on the journey. We’re doing okay,” Shana put her arm around her friend in attempted support.

  “It isn’t that,” said Pixie, and began to sob harder. Shana hugged her but was baffled.

  “Then what is it?”

  “I’m pregnant,” Pixie sobbed. “I thought we’d have a place to raise my baby by now. How is it that traveling by the ‘Roid ship we hit only two system and found livable worlds in each, but here we’ve seen dozens with no luck?”

  Shana tried to hide her astonishment, addressing the question as opposed to the news of the baby. “You have to remember that on those trips we were able to target where we went, and we had a fair amount of information about the systems we went to. It wasn’t pure guess work. Now, our jumps are simply a matter of chance,” said Shana. She was trying hard to sound positive even though she was concerned about their failure to find a suitable world herself. “Don’t worry; we’ll hit something we can survive on before long. Besides, we have all we need to raise a child in the meantime,” she assured soothingly.

  Pixie sniffled, and wiped her eyes. “Really, you think so?”

  “Yes. In fact, I think we should have a celebration of the first child to join our small colony; this is a real reason to celebrate and I think we should share it immediately!” Shana hugged Pixie and then took her face in her hands, smiling broadly. “This is the most exciting news we’ve had in days!” Pixie seemed to perk up a bit at this, and Shana felt slightly guilty, as her own emotions on the matter were far from settled.

  “Besides,” she lied, with what she hoped was a convincing air of confidence, “I have a feeling that the next jump will be the lucky one.”

  This seemed to lift Pixie’s spirits, and she promised to tell the whole crew just as soon as she told Zak.

  Shana took that time to talk to Gemma in private. “How could you not tell me Pixie was pregnant? Why didn’t you make sure she was keeping up with her shots?” Shana asked, probably harsher than necessary.

  Gemma sighed. “I don’t monitor all that you do, despite what you and your brother both seem to think,” she said. “I am as surprised as you are.”

  Shana bit her lip. “Are you worried?”

  Gemma paused and then said, “No, Shana, it’ll be alright. Worry doesn’t do any good anyway.”

  Shana nodded. “And yet, I still do it,” she said with a small smile.

  “I know,” said Gemma. Shana wished she could give her a hug, but made do with a small wave, and returned to the control room. Pixie and Zak were already there, and Zak looked elated.

  “My friends,” Zak said, too loud. Everyone looked up. Kelsan, who was working on navigation computations, looked annoyed, but Zak didn’t notice, or care. “My friends, Pixie and I are going to have a baby! We’re getting this colony started out good and early!” Pixie looked shy; then Elton gave a whoop and cheer.

  “Alright! Congratulations!” Everyone laughed, and they took turns congratulating the couple. “I’ll finally get to test out my midwife skills,” Tanya said, a little too eagerly. Kelsan, standing behind her, gave Pixie a horrified grimace at this, which made Pixie snort with laughter.

  Kelsan used up some of their mass stores to synthesize some Champagne, which he handed out in their standard mess cups, and toasted to the new baby.

  Shana sat back and watched her crew en
joying themselves. Elton moved to stand by her, watching with her. She glanced over at him, but he was looking at their friends, not making eye contact. She could see how blue his eyes were, with long dark lashes. She’d never noticed before. “This is going to be a turning point in our trip,” Elton said quietly. “A good one, I mean.”

  “Mm-hmm,” Shana agreed, suddenly not wanting to speak. Elton too was silent. He let the back of his hand graze hers, just slightly, and a tingle of warmth spread up Shana’s arm to her neck. Neither said anything, and after a moment, Elton joined the rest of the team to get a cup of Champagne. Shana, trying to decipher the strange emotion she was feeling, followed suit.

  The celebration cheered everyone, leaving them all in high spirits. It was just as well that Gemma turned off the view screen, which had been displaying the dismal rocks and the lifeless blue sun, which signified that their journey was not yet at an end.

  They caught a few hours sleep, then took the next jump, in spite of a few hangovers, and much to everyone’s surprise the jump seemed less painful in that state.

  “This could lead to bad habits!” Kelsan announced, to laughter.

  “So much for better luck on this jump,” said Pixie, looking at the view plate where a white star seemed to mope in the sky, attended by only one visible planet, far too small and too close to be of any use to humans. The radiation counts were off the charts. The surface temps were close to two hundred degrees at the equator and had no ice at its poles; it also had no moon to keep it in balance.

  Tanya and Gemma scanned Pixie to make sure the jump had not injured the baby—it hadn’t— and then, with disappointment abounding, they took the next jump. On arrival they found something much more interesting compared with most of what they’d seen so far.

  “I count eight planets,” informed Gemma. “Two ice worlds not worthy of review, two gas giants with ring systems. Interestingly, one lies on its side with the rings vertical to its solar orbit, something we’ve never seen before, according to all our data.” She showed the gas giant on the view screen as she spoke.

  “Look at the color!” Pixie exclaimed. “It’s almost green like my jewel planet, although more turbulent.”

  Gemma nodded. “It has huge amounts of copper in its spectrum.” She continued, “The inner four planets look a lot like things in the sol star system— Earth’s system. The forth one looks pretty dead and is reddish in color, comparable to Mars. Two of the three planets closer in show some promise if they’re not occupied. They’re both Earth size, which is to say the farthest, number three, is seven thousand miles diameter, at one hundred sixty million miles distance from the star. Number two is ninety million miles distance and ninety five hundred miles in diameter. Two and Three both appear to have oceans and land but until we get closer we can’t tell if they’re occupied. They also have oxygen, though I can’t quantify yet, and it appears that they are tectonically active; Two is more so and seems to be most compatible to carbon-based life. The smallest planet, about sixty thousand miles from the star, is just rock as far as I can detect, with almost zero atmosphere and temperatures on the star side about two thousand degrees. Unlike many of that type of planet it rotates about every fifty or so hours; most uncommon.”

  “Could it really be that there’ll be something habitable here not already occupied by predators or warlords?” queried Shana hopefully as they all began reviewing their scans, although Gemma had already given them data that would have taken them days to gather on their own. “Maybe even two such planets?”

  “It’s possible,” Elton said.

  “Question,” Shana addressed this to Gemma, “Can you tell if the two good planets have moons?”

  “Yes,” answered Gemma. “One moon around the Two and three around Three, but it’s too early to tell what effects these moons have on the tides or tectonics on either world.”

  It took two weeks to pass the orbits of the gas giants, and start to get better and more exacting readings from the second and third planets. The initial consensus was that Two was their primary goal, with Three as a secondary option.

  When they passed Three, Gemma did a high level scan and reported back to them.

  “The atmosphere appears to have oxygen readings at about sixty percent what we’d consider norm,” replied Gemma, “which means it would be breathable with a tank to assist. Atmospheric pressure is sufficient that no pressure suits would be necessary. Based solely on my preliminary findings, it could be made perfect for humans in less than a hundred years.”

  “What kind of life do we think is there?”

  Gemma said, “the shore of the ocean looks to be lined with clusters of stomatolites, or something very much like them, but I don’t see any signs of trees or large plants, nothing more than grass or small brush.”

  “So nothing big enough to hide large monsters,” Pixie observed wryly.

  “We know from experience that things don’t have to be large to kill you,” said Kelsan, who could always see hazard in anything, and was all too frequently right.

  “I see some volcanic activity,” said Gemma. “At least there’s no doubt about geological activity in the region. There would be soil fit for growing things.”

  “So other than the oxygen level, this is a pretty good match,” Shana said.

  Elton suggested, “I say we stay long enough to plant some seeds from our suspended stock, and see if they will survive on their own—give the oxygen a boost.”

  “We shouldn’t do that unless we first review the existing rudimentary ecosystem,” Gemma said, “to confirm our plants won’t do major harm to the native systems. We will have to land.”

  Zak was already thinking further ahead. “Even if we decide to stay on Two, developing this planet is a good idea. Imagine, in the future, having to only go next door to colonize if our world becomes too small!”

  Kelsan shook his head. “Let’s not waste any of our seed pods or spores here until we’ve made the trip to Two, to see whether that’s a better option for us.”

  Shana nodded. “I agree. We should check out our primary planet first; we can always return and begin terraforming once we’ve established whether Two is habitable.”

  After further discussion, they all agreed, buoyed by the double hopefulness of this system. They had now identified one world they believed they could make habitable in a short period of time, with another potential ahead of them, and good planets were hard to find.

  Within half an hour they’d finished reloading mass on one of the moons and were headed into space toward the second planet. It still had fairly large ice caps north and south, and oceans, with at least six continents. It was still too far to see any actual surface features with the equipment on board but there were definite green regions on four of the continents, indicative of some forms of life. Shana silently chanted a mantra, “please let it be home,” hoping fervently that there would be none of the (she realized that the thought was ungenerous of her) nightmare creatures they’d seen on some of the other worlds.

  During the five day trip between planets, Tanya took the opportunity to give them all medical scans, to try to measure the effect, if any, the non-space jumps might be having on their bodies. They all checked out healthy, with no obvious signs of damage or duress. Gemma spent the time analyzing the data they had collected thus far.

  “This may not mean too much at the moment,” announced Gemma, “but I can tell you where we are, and where we were a couple of jumps back.”

  Everyone sat up.

  “What? How?” asked Shana. It sounded too good to be true.

  “You may recall that I thought I could identify the Eagle and Horse Head nebulae; well now I can say it for sure and I know approximately where we are in relation to where we started, and where we were the last time I saw them after a jump,” said Gemma. She sounded excited—almost as if she was capable of some sort of digital adrenaline rush in her electronic neural net.

  “That’s fantastic!” Elton exclaimed.

>   “What this means is that it is probably possible to map the system and power levels required for navigation and at some point we should even be able to choose our direction; it’d take a lot of jumps to be sure but I now believe it’s possible. Cap is working on it every moment, and I’ve sent messages out in all directions for Prometheus, just in case Petya is also working on it, although I don’t really expect them to get the messages.”

  “How many jumps do you think it would take to get it down to a usable state?” asked Shana.

  “Between a hundred thousand and a million jumps to get it down to an exact science, that’s my best guess; perhaps as few as a thousand but that’s a bit optimistic,” Gemma said cheerfully.

  Shana’s heart fell. “I thought you had something practical,” she said, disappointed. “We couldn’t do that many jumps in a hundred years.”

  “That’s true for you,” Gemma said thoughtfully, “but the Captain and I could do it in as little as ten years or so; maybe a little longer if it actually takes a million jumps.” Gemma still sounded optimistic. “It’s something to think about once we have a colony settled,” she concluded.