by Dane Bagley
***
“Danny, what is this mess? It smells awful,” said Mike as he entered the galley.
Danny looked annoyed. He was irritated and embarrassed by Mike’s comment, but mostly he was annoyed by Bob. “This is Bob Merick’s creation,” he said, trying to transfer blame without sounding taken advantage of. Bob had been the ship’s secretary on his past several missions, and was used to doing the cooking. This was Danny’s first mission, and he had made the mistake of asking Bob some questions. Now Bob seemed to feel that it was his right to take over cooking dinner on a whim. Danny may not know all about space travel, but he did take pride in his cooking. “If it is not to your liking, I could heat up something I’m preparing for tomorrow.”
“Nonsense, Mike will love it,” said Bob as he entered the galley.
“I sure hope this is worth waking up for,” noted James as he came in yawning. Danny looked less than convinced, but Bob seemed pleased as can be. “I don’t think it smells too bad.”
“Where’s Captain Jenners?” asked Bob, obviously getting anxious to dive into his dish.
“I called him; he said that he would be here soon.” Danny replied.
Mike sat down at the table and leaned his chair back seemingly very relaxed. James sat down by him a moment later. “You look like you could sleep for another week.”
“I’ll be alright, just stayin’ busy.”
“Any interesting reads?” asked Mike, now sounding like he wanted a more stimulating discussion than small talk would give him.
James gave a grimace, then licked his lips, and then rubbed his eyes. By the time he was finished waking himself up enough to answer the question, Mike wondered if he would even remember the question. James sat back a little, and said contemplatively, “The short answer is no.”
“Is there a long answer?”
“What’s interesting is that I am not finding anything interesting at all.” He paused momentarily. “When you are doing the same thing day in and day out...looking at data, you wonder if you are really finding somethin’ or if you are just wantin’ to find it so bad that you think you are." He paused again, looking out into space, so to speak. "Last mission, I was looking at things that were just...I dunno...uncanny. This area is empty—very few stars that are appropriate to sustain life; really, very few stars in general. But, still, those that are, don’t show anything. The planetary systems are useless—gas giants for the most part, or big chunks of rock that are burning up, or big chunks of ice. No hope. Still, last night we passed by and analyzed two stellar systems that had planets with some potential. Everything was random. If life exists on them, it can’t be advanced intelligent life. No hint of electromagnetic radiation, other than that which would be expected from a similar dead planet.”
“So you’re disappointed; nothing valuable in this area.”
“I’m not disappointed. I feel like I’m not crazy.”
Mike frowned, anticipating some explanation.
“There were a number of stellar systems with appropriate planets on my last mission that I found. Most of these are getting a second look at on this round of missions. Some of them are actually going to be mission destinations; the ones that most appropriately fit our understanding of what would be hospitable for life. It was like a gold mine that I had entered. I got some readings that weren’t random, at least I thought. I spent the last several days looking at that, and I kept thinking, it’s not random, it’s not random. So, headquarters gets all of my data and analysis and I get sent on my next mission to the middle of nowhere. I mean, people can play tricks on their own minds. When you look intently enough for something, you may find it, even if it’s not there. Finding shapes in clouds, or on the ceiling. The patterns are random, but the brain tries to construct meaning out of something that’s meaningless.”
Mike was wondering where this was going, and starting to feel responsible for opening up this meaningless, random discussion. “Yeah, I know what you mean,” he muttered with a tone of disinterest.
“So now I’m looking at it all again, and it’s just random.”
“So you’ve regained your sanity.”
James smiled slightly, realizing how this conversation may be sounding. “I never lost it. What I was observing wasn't random.”
“You really think you found life?” Mike asked, a little surprised by the apparent conclusion of James’ rambling.
“The only way we will find life, is if we go to the planet and look. What I think I saw was evidence of intelligence. I can only imagine intelligence coming from life. It’s one thing to find some watery planet with algae or bacteria, of some sort. But intelligent life, now that’s something.”
Captain Jenners had just entered the galley and had heard the last part of the conversation. “Sounds like you have had some interesting readings, James.”
James sat up and turned around, surprised at the Captain’s voice. “Oh, well, not recently—not on our mission yet, sir.”
Mike took the opportunity to get up and moved over by Bob and Danny. Bob looked pleased, while Danny looked annoyed. Both were busy trying to get the food out as quickly as possible. “Kenny’s got the reins tonight?” Mike interjected. Danny looked up, but did not answer immediately.
Bob kept on with the preparations, and then a moment later said, “Um, yeah, must be Kenny.”
Mike, having worked with Bob before, liked him well enough. He had felt a degree of surprise at Bob’s promotion to Navigator. So far, the promotion was in name only. Bob was acting the part of secretary, and Danny was stuck feeling shoved aside with nowhere to go. “Bob, why don’t you bring Kenny his meal? It’ll be the perfect time to learn some navigation from one of the best. I’ll help Danny get this out to the rest of us.” Mike had no intention of helping Danny with anything, other than by getting Bob out of his way.
He headed up immediately, without much to say. Technically Bob was the third ranking officer, so he certainly didn’t have to obey. He did feel annoyed at this suggestion that he leave and go up to Kenny. But it had more to do with him not being able to survey everyone’s delight in the fine meal he had made. Kenny was good company, though, and he was happy to see how he liked the meal. As far as his being the ship’s navigator, Bob was pleased. He didn’t have any passion for technical work, but he felt good about the promotion. Bob wasn’t worried about learning it anytime soon. He figured that he would get the hang of it, whenever the time came around. As far as Bob could tell, everything was under control on the mission. The only thing that needed help was meals, and he was happy to help there.
Chapter 13