by David Buck
His wife Cheryl now carefully moved into the lounge room and then navigated around her sons to slowly sit with him on the sofa. Cheryl was getting bigger every day and they were hoping for a daughter this time. She took Troy’s interest in the media report as a good sign, at least it was not the football and he was only into his second beer.
‘Troy, can you believe those are alien ships at Perth airport? And that they are setting up something that allows us to travel to another planet?’
Troy answered his wife with a smile as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
‘It sure is interesting times we live in, and the aliens seem, well so alien, but not hostile at this stage. I just hope our leaders know what they are doing.’
The two boys looked up from the carpet and Simon, the eldest piped up.
‘Dad, can we go and play out the front while you and mum watch the TV?’
Cheryl intercepted the question, and Troy watched on the TV as the Australian and US soldiers walked into the strange oval light between the two Maveen ships.
‘Simon yesterday you pushed your brother off the tray of Dad’s truck. You can either sit here and watch this with us or take your toys to your room.’
The two boys elected to sit in their parents lap and the four of them watched enthralled as the first images of a new world appeared.
***
Gavin Lewis cross checked the equipment on the trooper next to him and paused as the same checks were made on his own kit. He glanced over at Sergeant Tom Evers, a hulking African American in his navy seal combat uniform, and received a polite nod and an ‘all set here’ in reply. A signals trooper stood a few metres from the strange gate off to one side with a broadcast communications array that served the radio, video and data links. A second broadcast communications array was mounted on a trailer behind the lead Bushmaster and as Gavin watched another trooper gave the array a gentle shove to ensure it was tied down correctly. Nearby he could see several unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, mounted on trailers behind other vehicles.
Gavin got a short radio order from the Major located on the perimeter of the airport, and took a deep breath as he led the mixed squad of Australian and US soldiers through the gate. There was a momentary sensation of walking into a fog and being disorientated before he stepped onto a level grassed field. He knew that he was being followed closely by several other soldiers and the bushmasters. So he strolled off to one side and watched the rest of the squad take up positions two hundred meters in front of the oval. He paused for a moment to consider an unknown three meter high black column off to one side, as the signals trooper unhurriedly uncoiled his cable and plugged in the second communications array before also walking to one side.
Gavin also spotted a pair of Maveen probes flying slowly in the far distance. He looked around at the landscape in the area and noted that they must be standing many kilometres inland on a long grassy field surrounded on one side by high hills with taller hills behind them. He panned his helmet camera around at the high hills and paused to zoom in on the tall trees that crowded the hills. Gavin then keyed his microphone and then slowly panned his helmet camera around again, as he took in the decent sized river fringed by tall tress and scrub several kilometres away. He placed a hand over the head camera to protect the unit and then looked skywards for a moment at the gentle midday light coming from a sun-like star overhead. He thought the star of this world might be dimmer than their sun, but not by much, and hopefully the boffins could answer that question very quickly.
‘Major, are you seeing all of this in front of us? We should be able to deploy UAVs and helicopters very quickly.’
‘Gavin, we are seeing all of this on the monitors from the helmet displays. Deploy the UAVs as soon as possible. The choppers are just being wheeled through now.’
The squad had soon moved forward several hundred meters and unshipped their equipment loaded on the other bushmasters. Gavin organised several patrol teams, and they took off in smaller vehicles to patrol the edges of the field as teams of men wheeled through the small helicopters. Gavin looked again around the field and identified the highest point several hundred metres to one side.
‘We will setup up flight control and refuelling for the choppers over there to leave the gateway clear. I want several more teams to come through and we will set up a team to keep the gate clear. Another team is to setup a vehicle marshalling point further down the slope.’
Sergeant Tom Evers carefully dug an arm deep hole into the ground, as another of the Americans did the same and also dug up packed red loam. Tom now looked over at trees lining the edges of the field with his binoculars as Gavin considered his next actions for a moment before the American calmly spoke.
‘Gavin, I learnt a thing or two from my farming grandpa. The soil is good and deep, there is water nearby and the ground has not recently been frozen. The tree line tells me that fire is not common, unlike your own Australian landscape.’
Gavin gave his own agreement of Tom’s comments as he cautiously scanned the nearby bush yet again. Streams of soldiers pushed through helicopters or drove bushmasters through the gate as Gavin keyed access to the first UAV pictures from the video feed in the Bushmaster.
‘Major, I see no signs of an armed force or large animals near our position. Do we know if there are any threats on this world?’
The major delayed response for several moments as he in turn studied the data from the UAV’s, and then he replied.
‘Gavin, we are attempting to establish the risks from the Maveen. They refer to the star as Dalunon and the world as Barede and state that it is a fallow world not populated by a technical race. However I am prepared to bet there would be natural hazards. I am attempting to get a map of the world from them if it is available. Please keep all the teams in sight on the grass for the moment.’
‘Yes major, can you send through the astronomers? They wanted to get a reading of the sunlight and then the night sky as soon as possible. No doubt the other scientists will want to come through as well.’
***
James Tilburn listened to the SAS Major patiently, as the man obviously had a job to do keeping them all safe.
‘Now I repeat that I do not want any civilians wandering off by themselves. Troop Commander Lewis will ensure that you have armed guards protecting you at all times. If you ignore our requests we will send you back home, so no arguments.’
James acknowledged Major Donaldson’s instructions and silently drove his team forward in the four wheel drive. The rear of the vehicle was packed with camping equipment and the trailer held the largest transportable optical telescope they could obtain at short notice. The trip through the gate was an anti climax he thought as there was no star field or sensations of travel, although his ears did pop a little as if he was on a plane.
A heavy set uniformed American motioned the four wheel drive to continue forward and head down a pegged laneway. As they drove along as another civilian four wheel drive appeared through the gate behind them. That would be Phoebe Roberts and her team of biologists he considered as he stopped several meters from the makeshift SAS command post. A tall SAS officer looked him in the eye before he turned to a SAS sergeant a few metres away and looked across to the edge of the large field.
‘Troop Commander Gavin Lewis and you must be James Tilburn. Johnson, select three men and take James and his team to that far edge of the plain as they will not be disturbed over there.’
The sergeant picked three men and they quickly got into a bushranger and led the astronomers over to the edge of the large clearing three minutes away. The SAS troopers filed out and performed a quick patrol of the area before they took up station and eyed the nearby edge of the field. James could see over another section of the central field were Will Ellis and his team of geologists and surveyors were rigging a drill truck.
James and his team left the big optical telescope until the evening and readied a quick series of measurements for the local star. After the
first hour of measurements they had key details worked out as they established the spectral glass and the luminosity of the star. James quickly discussed the findings with his team as they continued to make further measurements.
‘The mass is ten percent less than our own sun and the luminosity is twenty five percent less. I consider that this star is similar to Alpha Centauri B in key characteristics; in namely it is a larger K series star. So the habitable zone we are in must be around the equivalent of an orbital distance for Venus in our own system. The night time observations will sort out the orbital data, for now we need to get the flux rates and establish the age of the star.’
The SAS sergeant was listening avidly and made a quick call back to his commander by radio.
‘Sir, the boffins up here have stated that the local star is less luminous than our own star. This would explain the small shortfall in power from the solar cells.’
***
Phoebe Roberts, a young and capable Australian biology professor, evaluated the field around her with real fervour. She considered that the various grasses would not be out of place in either southern Australian or southern Europe. She bent down and quickly pointed out to the video camera the burrows of either ants or native Australian bees, and she prodded a small beetle not unlike a lawn beetle.
‘These plants and animals are definitely from our world. There are several plant types here that we do not see anymore at home, such as a large flax plant and European buckwheat that appears to be larger and carry more seeds than others I have seen before. Many of the plants are not fire tolerant species, so the landscape is still different to arid Australian bushland.’
Phoebe picked up a handful of dirt and sniffed, before crumpling the dirt in her hands and motioned for an assistant to come closer as she broke apart the soil.
‘The soil would definitely hold crops but we do not know how long for and if anything is lacking in the soil chemistry. Shane, please get full analyses of the soil going immediately.’
Phoebe looked over as two SAS troopers carrying equipment joined her team and one of them called out to her.
‘Miss Roberts, we have brought over a radio link that will allow you to transfer your reports to the command post and then back to Earth. We are doing this as we go for all the science teams.’
The two troopers efficiently set up the link as Phoebe continued to walk around the grass and now viewed the nearby scrub line. She kicked a piece of animal dropping and momentarily recoiled at the smell now rising in the air. Phoebe knelt over the dropping and taking a long spatula from her belt she now broke apart the dropping. Chunks of bones and dark matter were apparent as she commented into the camera.
‘So we have a predator here, the form of the dropping is not unlike a crocodile or Komodo dragon, though the dropping size is way too large for a Komodo. The contents of the droppings seemed to be marsupials given the teeth I can see in one of the skulls.’
Phoebe now looked at a nearby long mark in the ground and again commented as she measured out a sizeable paw imprint.
‘We have a paw print and tail marks from a large lizard here and the size of the animal is anywhere from four to five metres. I think we have found a major predator.’
The Two SAS troopers immediately took note of the information and informed their commander. Across the large field the SAS troopers suddenly went on edge and closed up to guard the civilians as they eyed the surrounding scrub with keen interest.
***
Will Ellis watched as the revolution gauges on the drill truck dropped to stationary as another five metre section of drill pipe was feed into the gantry. The new section then was joined to the other end of the drill pipe already in the ground. In moments the fourth section of pipe was secured and the drill proceeded to cut down further into the ground.
After going in another two metres the drill started to grab, and Will slowed the feed and rotation of the drill. The drill still bit and went down into the ground but was a lot slower. Will decided that he had drilled deep enough on his first effort and closed the head of the drill to preserve the core sample. He readied the tray and commented to one of his labourers detaching the top section of the drill.
‘The place is unusual in that the soil is the same over a uniform depth across the whole field. Then it suddenly changes. Also I can see no delivery process for the soil.’
After another half an hour the bottom section of the drill was finally recovered. Will now appraised the altered nature of the drill bit, for fresh scours cut deep grooves into the face of the drill bit. He was still considering the drill bit as the different nature of the last core became obvious to his team. The bottom three metres of the core consisted of a grey porous rocky rubble and fine dust that he had no trouble identifying after spending two years as a geologist on the now abandoned moon base.
‘Well now we have a material very similar to Luna regolith. This place was made some time in the past and is not very old.’
Will looked over the upper sections of the core again to locate any layers present in the core. He felt both a chill at the unknown as well as a real sense of excitement, as he considered the story of the cores laid out in front of him.
***
James had just finished setting up his tent as he waited for the local sun to set so he could deploy the large telescope. Already the star was well down to what must be the western horizon though it seemed to be slower to set than the Earth’s sun. The astronomers had been joined by several meteorologists that were in the process of launching weather balloons in the late afternoon breeze. From over near the command post yet another helicopter took of to patrol the low hills behind his location. James turned to the second astronomer that had set up a sun gauge nearby.
‘Michael, do we have a rate of star descent over an arc distance yet?’
Michael looked up from his notes and answered at length as he once again took in the strange place around them.
‘I have a day length of twenty eight hours, accurate now to within nine seconds. I think the rotational inclination is less than that of Earth, something around sixteen degrees from what I can see. I am looking forward to this evening and the first efforts using the big telescope. So now given the similar orbital distance to the Star as Venus in our own system and allowing for a 28 hour day, the year then works out as 231 local days.’
James was looking over the calculations with Michael when a series of yells erupted from up near the drill site manned by the geologists. A couple of sustained bursts of machine gun fire followed then a silent calm followed. The SAS troopers around the astronomers kept a vigilant eye around them as Michael again spoke.
‘Well it looks like Phoebe has found her large lizard, or it found them.’
After several seconds the all clear sounded from the radios of the SAS troopers, and the scientists carefully unhooked the trailer and began deploying the large telescope.
***
Phoebe looked down at the massive form of the dead lizard and had no trouble identifying it at all.
‘Megalania, or a giant goanna, and the animal looks more like a large bungarra as opposed to a komodo dragon.’
Phoebe carefully pulled back the large jaw and sniffed carefully.
‘I do not think it is as toxic as the Komodo, but I cannot guarantee that at all. I wonder what other mega fauna are on this world.’
Gavin Lewis stood up after seeing to his men and hearing their account of the attack from his two injured troopers. Both men would live, but they had nasty bites to their legs from the predator’s jaws and would have to return home. Apparently the lizard had raced to attack them from across the field. The giant goanna had not been concerned when they fired their automatic rifles and eventually killed it even as the lizard mauled them.
‘Mega fauna, what is that Phoebe? Do you mean there could be other large life forms out here? So what should we be looking out for when we start moving around?’
Phoebe considered her answer for a moment and wa
tched as the two injured troopers were loaded into a bushranger and driven to the nearby gate.
‘Everything was brought here Gavin, and not a long time ago either by the way. I estimate that this planet was seeded with flora and fauna from Earth on at least one occasion within the last one hundred thousand years. We may see animals like the marsupial lion, the marsupial tiger and the giant wombat. Now if the Maveen did this in our past then they may have also taken large animals from other Earth continents, I just do not know at this stage which ones we will come across.’
Gavin considered the lizard once again as he spoke for the benefit of the major back on Earth listening in via his helmet camera.
‘So we quite possibly have major predators to consider rather than hostile civilisations? Do you think there are many of these lizards around?’
Phoebe paused as she squatted and lifted a massive front leg from the ground before examining the underneath of the giant lizard.
‘Gavin, I do not think there are that many as they are an apex predator. However we need to establish their numbers by establishing the numbers of intermediate animals living in the surrounding shrub.’
Gavin felt a sense of relief as he watched Phoebe continue to examine the lizard.
‘So you biologists need to be careful and to have guards with you anyway. So what does this do to your research objectives Phoebe?’
Phoebe already knew what she was seeking as she answered.
‘We should set some live traps before it is dark and see what we find in the morning. Also we should set hides up in the larger trees for infra red observations of the surrounding ground. We will be quite safe if we have guards with us as the lizards are too large to easily climb trees.’