They all took a moment or two to consider what she’d just reminded them of. What if there was a life form there on the edge of becoming a space faring nation, and what if they were extremely different from themselves? Who knew if they’d be able to coexist with them? Worse yet, what if the orbits were going to get too close after a few thousand years and cause a collision or near collision between the planets, like on Reesh all those centuries ago?
Zak, who had taken no part in the conversation so far, was the first to speak after a few minutes of silence. “I have a good feeling about this place, even if it can’t be permanent. I agree we should proceed cautiously and finalize our decision after the probe reports back, but in the meantime, building shelters and planting some grass seed won’t endanger our ability to leave if reports are unsatisfying. Just being idle will serve no purpose.” Tanya began to object but Zak held up his hand to address the concern he anticipated was coming. “We won’t begin with livestock and all until the full exploration of all possible hazards have been completed and assessed.”
Shana agreed, and the others expressed consent as well. “All right, we roll on and get comfortable here; I hope it’ll work out that we can stay. I for one want to see how bad the first rain storm, winds and all are—which should be tomorrow. From early indications, these storms shouldn’t be any more violent than on Narcissus. If that’s the case we should be fine. I want to get some grass seed in the ground today; we need to see if they geminate and start growing within the normal time span. So, let’s get to work!”
They set to work loosening a patch of soil on a hundred by a hundred foot square of ground and fertilizing it, mostly with synthetics since they currently had no source of natural fertilizers. They raked in seed and worked up a real sweat. The temperature was near eighty; warmer than they were use to working in.
Meanwhile Gemma and Cap finished the Synth and were producing panels for fabricating a small building for them to live in during their immediate stay. Being busy was the best thing for their morale and they were all ready to eat by mid afternoon.
“I haven’t felt this alive in a long time,” said Shana. “It feels so good to get working on a project that actually means something. Growing crops and building a home and well; doing all of the things that people use to complain about doing,” she laughed. “It’s funny how different things are when you’ve been living in a terrarium all or at least most of your life.”
They had a late lunch and went back to work planting a few trees with a growth accelerator to get things going before they could start raising animals. They were careful not to dig too deep into their supply of seeds and spores, just in case it turned out there was a reason they couldn’t stay. They definitely needed to be sure they had plenty of everything held in reserve.
That night the rain came; not too heavy, but the lightning and thunder were terrifying. It was almost constant and if not for having its own magnetosphere, the Wanderer would have suffered serious damage according to Gemma, who reported it had received a direct hit.
On the plus side, the tree seeds they’d planted were already sprouting thanks to the accelerator. It was two more days before the patch of grass popped up and it was a thrill to see it coming up through the soil all on its own.
On the morning of the fourth day, Shana opened the door of their much larger and improved home and was startled by Gemma, in her Strider body, standing right at the door. “You scared the hell out of me,” she said recovering her composure. Then she noticed the concerned expression on Gemma’s synthetic face. “What’s wrong?”
“We finally got a signal back from the probe,” she answered. She looked far from happy about it. “I considered waking you last night when it was entering the atmosphere of the planet but decided not to disturb your rest. That’s the most difficult part of mine and Cap’s existence; this being conscious all the time. I’m seriously working on a way of giving us rest periods but at the moment we need to be watching out for you round the clock anyway.”
It was disturbing to hear her admit the problem of no down time. Shana had wondered if what seemed to them extraordinary would have a down side, and now she knew it did. “I think that if you need down time, you should try to find a way to implement it as soon as you can. You could always alternate with Cap so we’re covered while you get that break,” Shana suggested.
“It’s not quite that easy,” Gemma informed her. “You see, The Captain and I are sort of integrated into the same circuit, otherwise we’d lose the advantage of internal communication that makes us function with peak efficiency. We’re one entity, even as we are separate—though I realize this isn’t easy for you to understand or identify with. If I shut down, he shuts down; that’s just the way it works. No; we’ll deal with this when our protection round the clock becomes less important to the survival of our mission. I’m sorry to burden you with it; please be sure, it’s nothing.” She smiled a lopsided, robot smile. She actually seemed to feel better just having spoken with Shana, and Shana thought, despite how inhuman she sometimes seemed, the remnants of Gemma’s origins were still evident.
“So what was the news from the probe?” Shana asked, wrapping her arms around herself as a cool, misty morning breeze blew by. The concerned look returned to Gemma’s face.
“I started receiving radio signals of an odd configuration and frequency. I should have picked them up sooner but the broadcast was too far outside of any range I was scanning. In any event, using the probe, I flew in from the northern pole of that planet, toward the equator. At first I saw no signs of life and the temperature at the pole was about twenty below zero. As I traveled south, I got about halfway toward the equator and at about seventy degrees I began to see cities. Not Earth style cities but cities none the less. By the time I reached the Equator the temperature was one hundred twenty five degrees and life was thriving. The life I saw as I got lower appears to be reptilian and they have aircraft, jets even. They’re not, scientifically speaking, far from heading to space and they’re only twenty five million miles away at their closest point. I believe we need to make contact before settling here. There will be no point in staying if we can’t have a peaceful coexistence.”
“What is happening with the probe now?” asked Shana, dreading the answer she knew was coming.
“Ahh. It ran out of fuel and was picked up by an alien and carried off by their military organization. At least they seem to be military since they appeared to be in some sort of uniform. They have a humanoid appearance at a distance, but not so much so at close range. You’ll see the vid back at the ship; we’ll have some decisions to make.”
“We’d best tell the others so they can have a look at the same time,” Shana sighed.
“There’s still more bad news,” said Gemma. “I lost the signal as they were beginning to cut the probe opened. They may be advanced enough to have the technology to reverse engineer the drive system on the probe, which means we probably only have a few years at the most before they come visiting.”
The others had been gathering behind Shana during the discussion with Gemma, so the questions and discussion began immediately. Shana suggested that Gemma and Cap complete the mini craft and go visit and try to establish contact, through their holograms, so they couldn’t be injured and so that the reptile-men (as Shana thought of them) would know what Shana and her crew looked like.
Gemma had picked up samples of the reptile speech from the probe, but could make very little of it. It consisted mostly of hissing sounds with some clucking noises mixed in; there was nothing like a language that a human could speak or for that matter even decipher. It seemed much more elaborate than the Untran language, and there were certain variations in the hisses that a different type of ear and perception might hear differently. It was a near impossible situation.
They spent most of the next two weeks working on two smaller saucer ships for Gemma and Cap to take exploring: one, with a crystal-drive, to map non-space, and a second to visit and make con
tact with the reptile-men. In two and a half weeks they were both ready to launch. A new copy of Gemma and Cap, with all of their knowledge from the Wanderer’s travels, was programmed into the crystal-drive saucer. Both ships had two mining robots, but only the crystal-drive saucer had the modified robots that Gemma and Cap could move into and control as an extension of themselves.
The morning came for launching the crystal-drive saucer and the conventional drive ship on the same morning. They didn’t dare risk giving the reptiles the crystal drive technology. Though there were light rain showers, they were able to launch during a brief break in the cloud cover. They all watched as the little ships sailed up and out of sight, then returned to the work at hand, trying not to think about the possibility that they might yet again have to leave a potential home behind. Both ships had their missions but the conventional ship was the one of immediate concern for time being.
The original Gemma and Cap programs piloted the ship heading toward the reptile planet, connected to that vessel through a long-range Link. The ship had an auto meltdown circuit built in to avoid the reptilians from being able to reverse engineer its design in case the ship was captured. No point in bringing them into space by short cut until they knew more about them.
In the last few weeks the Wanderer’s crew had become comfortable with their new surroundings; it had become quickly familiar. There wasn’t much in the way of wildlife, but there was a small variety of flying insects; very small and apparently harmless to them. They hadn’t been able to determine what the bugs fed on yet, but so far it didn’t seem to include them. They’d already released earthworms into the grassy area and near the trees, which were already a foot tall. The worms would be important for aerating the soil on the whole planet.
With the construction of their homes on temporary hold, the crew took the opportunity to explore far afield, taking samples and mapping the terrain. It was early on the third day that they made a major discovery. It was an unmanned mechanical rover, the kind designed to explore a planet. It had various instruments on it to measure soil and air and take pictures. It was inoperable, but obviously built by the people of the neighboring planet. Their technology was even further along than Gemma had estimated. The rover was almost identical to those built in Earth’s early days of planetary exploration, with half track propulsion and a solar type battery for power. From its condition it couldn’t have been there more than ten years.
The tracks of its travel had been washed away with wind and rain but it had been around for a while, and certainly had revealed to its handlers that the planet was one that they could survive on, at least here near the equator. The only safe conclusion was that the reptiles would be working on a craft to bring their own explorers here. The Starborn would have very little time to establish a colony here large enough to defend itself against an onslaught of settlers from so close nearby. Then again, perhaps they could live together. Not every race was hostile. Right? Well, they needed to see what type of reception Gemma got when the saucer landed on their neighbors’ world.
Later that same day they received a message from Gemma as she explored the reptile planet. “The southern hemisphere seems to be in the middle of a massive war. There’s a large volume of projectile weapons exploding, and much destruction in evidence. They’ve fired missiles at us which we were able to avoid without difficulty but landing there was out of the question. We’re going to land in a less populated area of the northern half and reload with fuel but it doesn’t look like a people I would trust as neighbors.”
The mini saucer landed and loaded with material for fuel as quickly as they could. Several of the lizard people watched from behind some rocks as the mining robots scuttled rock into the ship, but they were definitely afraid to come out and make contact. They were probably farmers since the area was surrounded by fields of some sort of crops growing. Gemma and Cap made several attempts to lure them into the open to try and communicate, but were unsuccessful. The decision was made not to try landing in a more populated area since it was highly unlikely they’d be able to communicate sufficiently to make our intentions known.
The decision was also made that the Starborn couldn’t stay.
Gemma’s voice came on over the communicator. “This is Gemma, transmitting from the saucer. Cap and I have decided to bring this ship back so it can be partially disassembled and packed away for use in another system.”
“Agreed,” said Shana with a nod.
Gemma and Cap kept up a continuous monitor for communications being sent from the crystal mini saucer when it passed through non-space, to see if a compressed message could be sent or received while in flux. Hopes were riding on that as a way to contact Prometheus. So far they had heard nothing.
The little saucer arrived back from its exploration of the lizard planet within a day and a half.
“So, now I guess we prepare to leave, again,” said Pixie, in a mournful voice.
“The trees and grass, we’ll leave as a gift for those reptilians. I hope they’ll appreciate them,” said Shana as they were loading what they could and preparing to leave.
They would have less room than ever in the Wanderer, having disassembled the larger Synth machine and exploration saucer for future use on another world and system, and packed it into the Wanderer. The Synth took up most of the exercise room and part of a hallway, blocking access points for several conduits. They simply hoped they wouldn’t need them.
“I think we should leave the one residential structure we built for the lizards when they get here. It should be a mystery for them and at least they’ll know that there are others living in the universe,” said Shana.
“I can’t see where it will hurt anything,” agreed Zak. “They might even connect the UFO sightings they’d had a few years before and realize they’d missed a chance to have neighbors.”
“The sad thing to me is that we were never able to communicate with them, their language being so completely different,” said Pixie.
Pixie was right. They hadn’t considered that there would be races that they could never have a relationship with; but now they’d met two.
As they boarded their ship, they each in turn looked back at the world they’d thought to make home and the disappointment washed over them in a tide of sadness.
“There’ll be another world for us,” said Elton in an attempt to lift their spirits. “Who knows, maybe on the very next jump?”
They lifted off a half hour later.
It had been several hours since the mini ship had returned from its mission, and as Shana was securing the final items in the cargo hold before their jump, Gemma’s hologram appeared on the deck, grinning ecstatically. Despite the overall somber mood, Shana couldn’t help but grin back. “What is it?” she asked. Elton and the others also looked up, curious.
“I received a message from myself!” Gemma announced, almost giddy.
“From the ship?” Elton leapt up and pumped his fist in the air. “All right!”
Kelsan whooped. “Yea!” Zak and Tanya shouted at the same time. Pixie jumped up and down, clapping.
“What did you say?” Shana asked, feeling the sudden overwhelming urge to laugh hysterically at the silliness of the question.
“They’ve made a dozen jumps, and sent messages every time, while in non-space. Each message has the coordinates they’ve immediately left, and the number of the jump. I didn’t get the others, but I got number 12.”
“Did you reply?” Elton wanted to know.
“Yes,” Gemma nodded eagerly. “I sent a message acknowledging having received it, but haven’t received a response. I’m going to send it again once we’re in non-space ourselves. The saucer is transmitting messages in broadband, too, compressed, so hopefully Prometheus will receive one, through Gemma there.”
“Oh, how awesome it would be to get an acknowledgement that that message had made its way through!” Tanya said.
“Maybe someday,” Gemma said, with hope. “Now, take your seats;
we’re going to jump.”
Home, Elusive Home
Thirty nine jumps later and they hadn’t found even one suitable place to settle, nor had they received another message from the mini saucer. Less than half of the locations they reached even had a planet to land on, and they had to get their fuel supply from some pretty inhospitable places. Mostly chunks of rock in orbit around gas giants and once even a chunk of rock floating more the three billion miles from the nearest star, which happed to be a white dwarf.
Now they found themselves in the middle of an asteroid field, but there were four planets closer to the sun, which was a G-type star, and two of the planets were in the green zone. They headed toward the third planet because it was ninety five million miles from its star and had only one moon. The planet was huge, nearly fifteen thousand miles diameter with its moon in a somewhat elliptical orbit, in nearly the perfect position to prevent a lot of planet wobble, making stability just right for a carbon-based life form. They launched one-way probes toward the other three planets just in case. They’d never retrieve those unless they went and picked them up.
They were two weeks away from the third planet when Pixie began complaining of abdominal pain. Tanya took Pixie back to her bunk to run some scans. When Shana heard Pixie’s wail of sorrow, she knew what it meant. She rushed to her friend, followed by Zak, who looked pale.
Tanya looked miserable, standing next to Pixie, who was curled in a ball and sobbing pitifully.
“The baby?” Shana asked, stupidly.
Tanya shook her head. “He’s dead.”
There was a lump in Shana’s throat that almost made it impossible to talk. “Was it the jumps?”
“I don’t know. Gemma doesn’t know either. She may have had difficulty even under normal conditions; or it may have been the Untran bacteria; or the jumps. There’s no way to tell.”
Starborn Odyssey: Voyage of the Lost (The Starborn Odyssey Trilogy Book 3) Page 14