Deep Space - Hidden Terror (The Stasis Stories #6)

by Laurence Dahners

  Rather than trying to radio Rabaq from his cubby, Diddiq ate and waited until he felt fully awake and the monitors said his two main hearts were fully up to speed. Then he got up and headed for the bridge.

  Once the bridge guard had announced him, Diddiq said, “Rabaq, what’s your report?”

  Rabaq looked relieved. He said, “It’s a good thing you decided to measure the mass of the gas giant. It was significantly greater than expected. We sent the scoutship on a shallower trajectory than the computers recommended, but the planet still pulled it deeply enough that it barely survived the measuring pass. It’s going to need significant repairs before it can jump back to Epsilon Eridani. For certainty, if we had sent one of the big ships through on the trajectory the computers originally recommended from their estimations, it would’ve been destroyed.” Rabaq led the bridge crew in a small round of applause.

  This caught Diddiq by surprise since Rabaq had been the one who recommended sending the scoutship past the planet. Is he applauding himself? Making sure I remember his suggestion? Diddiq wondered. He remembered he’d asked Rabaq how to measure the mass of the planet, which had led to Rabaq’s suggestion. Perhaps he thinks I asked the question rhetorically, already knowing the answer? If that was the case, Diddiq decided not to disabuse Rabaq or the crew of the notion. He simply lowered a forearm in acknowledgment and commendation.

  Rabaq continued, “Of interest, the gas giant we’re about to scoop reaction mass from has very prominent rings. They have posed a small problem in planning the best trajectory to avoid them, but will also provide an interesting sight as we go past.”

  Diddiq studied his captain. Despite reporting what seemed to be good news, Rabaq didn’t look happy. “What’s the problem?” With a sinking feeling, Diddiq asked, “Is there something wrong with the oxygen world?”

  Frowning, Rabaq said, “Two things. First, that, as best we can tell from this distance, its atmosphere is quite thin—"

  Diddiq interrupted, “Too thin for genetic adaption?”

  Rabaq lowered his antennae in negation, “No. Not by the numbers the computers are estimating. But there will need to be substantial increases in the size of our respiratory organs. More than our current skeletons will accommodate. This means that, though the next generation can be modified sufficiently to be able to live freely on the planet, we ourselves will have to carry oxygen concentrating equipment.”

  Disappointment came over Diddiq. This system would be a triumph for halaniq, but not for Diddiq or the billions of haliq that would make the trip in an unmodified state. He wanted to ask how burdensome the oxygen equipment would be but didn’t want to admit ignorance. Instead, he said, “I assume you’ve awakened geneticists and asked them to confirm that we ourselves can’t be modified sufficiently?”

  Antennae drooping in disappointment, Rabaq said, “Yes, they’re the ones that pointed out the problem.” He brightened slightly, “Of course, it’s difficult to accurately estimate atmospheric density from a distance greater than 1.4 billion kilometers. Perhaps the atmosphere will turn out to be denser than we expect.”

  Diddiq frowned, “Or, perhaps even thinner?”

  Rabaq raised his antennae affirmatively but didn’t speak.

  Diddiq forced a happy expression, “Cheer up. This is good news. We’ve found another world for halaniq.”

  Rabaq raised his antennae affirmatively, but still looked unhappy, said, “As I mentioned before, there is another problem.”

  Diddiq suddenly remembered Rabaq saying there were two things wrong, but was at a loss to imagine what else besides marginal habitability of the oxygen world could be wrong. He could sense Rabaq’s reluctance to broach the problem but it just made Diddiq impatient to get it over with. “What is it?!” he asked abruptly.

  “The oxygen world. It’s emitting strongly across the radio spectrum.”

  Diddiq frowned, “So? Doesn’t that simply mean it has a magnetic core? Don’t all planets with strong magnetic fields emit a lot of radio?”

  Rabaq lifted his antennae in affirmation, “That’s true, Expedition Leader.” His antennae drooped back down. “But we’re not talking about random emissions. These are purposefully modulated, often with digital encoding.”

  For a moment Diddiq was confused, then he realized that Rabaq meant the signals were intelligently created rather than natural. “You mean this system has already been populated by haliq from some other system?!” The haliq had been expanding outward for approximately fifty thousand years since they’d first evolved on the legendary primal planet. Perhaps another haliq world had leapfrogged past Epsilon Eridani to populate the Sol system before Diddiq’s own people had been ready to move on? After all, they themselves had skipped over a number of less desirable appearing stars when they decided to try for Sol.

  Diddiq had just begun to wonder whether they might wind up fighting the haliq in this system for the living space they thought belonged to them, when Rabaq lowered his antennae again, “We don’t think they’re haliq, Expedition Leader. They aren’t using haliq systems of communication and—”

  Irritatedly, Diddiq interrupted, “Communication systems change with time! What else could they be?”

  Rabaq shrugged his antennae, “Some other form of being. They can’t be haliq.”

  “Aliens?! How can you be so sure?”

  “Because they’re artificially broadcasting high-powered radio signals in the middle of the low-megahertz radio bands we haliq use to speak. We, of course, avoid artificial transmissions in those bands. There’s so much artificial radio noise coming from this oxygen planet that we don’t think two haliq would be able to understand one another unless they were very close or in a shielded room.”

  “What?! How do they communicate with one another then?”

  Rabaq shrugged again, “We don’t know. Maybe in the kilohertz bands? They’re not emitting as much artificial radiation in those low ranges.”

  Diddiq stared at Rabaq for a few moments then slowly asked, “How advanced are they?”

  Rabaq shrugged his antennae, “Advanced enough to generate artificial radio signals. We think some of the signals come from the oxygen planet’s moon, suggesting they have achieved some space travel. We know nothing of the capabilities of their biological science.”

  Diddiq decided to voice the concern everyone must be feeling but no one had expressed. “What do our geneticists and other bio-scientists think? Will we be able to eradicate them or will they be a threat to halaniq?” From the multiple bursts of alarmed static that emanated from antennae around the bridge, Diddiq realized that many of them hadn’t been concerned about that. They might even have been excited to have found aliens without taking time to think what it would mean. He turned and scanned the bridge with his eyes and, rudely, with his radar. They’re shocked, he thought. “Grow up!” he commanded brusquely. “What did you suppose? Did you imagine they’d welcome us into their system? Give us their world? Or did you think we could just turn around and go home after all that the haliq of our home system have given up to send us here? Did you ponder the meaning of this encounter at all? Did you consider the possibility that, if they’ve already made their way off their home planet that they’d someday be looking to expand outward themselves? That they might covet the Epsilon Eridani system the way we desire the Sol system? You’ve all learned the history of the wars halaniq engaged in when resources became limited on the primal planet. Have you not considered the likelihood of war if we encounter a species of aliens who want the same planets we do?” Diddiq’s gaze swept the room again and he lowered his voice, “Have you not even considered what might happen if other haliq, far removed from our lines by time and artificial evolution, might have skipped ahead of our own expansion to steal this planet we rightfully consider our own? Better we war with aliens than our distant relatives, but make no mistake, war isn’t merely likely, it’s certain. Our job…” he glared around again, “our job, is to make sure we win that war.”

  Diddiq
finally turned his eyes back to Rabaq, “Now, what do our geneticists and other bio-scientists think?”

  Rabaq looked worried. He said, “I’m sorry Expedition Leader. We sent the geneticists back into hibernation and haven’t wakened any bio-scientists. We’ll bring them out at once.”

  “Do that,” Diddiq said, surprised they weren’t working on it already. After a moment he realized it had to do with the nature of his specialization. He knew he came from a line gifted with leadership skills and that he’d had genes added to help him achieve a broad education and gave him a talent for planning into the future. He’d been training with people like himself his entire life and, though his instructors had explained it, actually grasping how narrowly other haliq specialized and how his broad education was a specialization in its own right was difficult. Rather than considering how to meet the years to come, these people counted on their leaders to plan the future for them. Have haliq always been this way? he wondered. Was adjusting our genes to make so many of us so specialized a good idea? Are we almost all mentally warped somewhat like the computers? Very good at some things and incompetent at everything else?

  And, why didn’t my leadership courses make us more aware of this issue and give us strategies for how to deal with it?

  Diddiq pumped some extra air through his lungs, then said, “Let me make you aware of some of the steps I believe we’re going to need to take to win the forthcoming war. Then those of you with abilities in the areas required can begin to consider how we should take these steps.” He looked around, “Understand?”

  All around the room antennae ascended affirmatively.

  “Okay. First, we must learn more about these… solians. It occurs to me that if they’re radiating their communications so loudly that we can hear them out here, we should be trying to decipher some of those emissions. From those communications, we should try to learn what technologies they’re using. Are they warlike? Do they have weapons that can damage our ships? How far have they traveled within their solar system? Remember that it supposedly only took three millennia for the primal haliq to go from flying in the air of the first planet to their first ventures out into space. Have these solians moved that quickly?

  “Second. We should think of this as not much different from finding a world with an unintelligent biosphere. As usual, our geneticists and bio-scientists will need to develop microorganisms designed to eradicate any parts of the biosphere that are inimical to us. In this case, the eradication will especially need to include these intelligent solians. Yes, their intelligence will likely make them more difficult to exterminate, but unless they are highly advanced in the biological sciences, they shouldn’t be able to resist the pathogens our bio-scientists have at their disposal.”

  One of the bridge officer’s antennae were twitching interrogatively. When Diddiq acknowledged her, she asked, “What if the solians’ biology is completely different? What if they aren’t DNA-based? What if they’re not susceptible to the types of pathogens we’ve used in the past?”

  Happily surprised that the bridge officer would think so innovatively, Diddiq said, “The lifeforms on every planet halaniq has reached so far have all been DNA-based. DNA seems to have spread ubiquitously across the galaxy. Do you have reason to think these solians might be different?”

  The officer tucked her antennae submissively, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  Thinking he should encourage broad thinking, Diddiq said, “Don’t worry. It was a good question. We should ask the bio-scientists if they think it’s possible.”

  She brightened, but Diddiq’s thoughts and gaze had moved on. “To learn about their biosphere,” he glanced back at the officer who’d had the question, “and to be sure they’re DNA-based, we’ll need to capture specimens. This means we need an observation program to watch for any ships they may have traveling to their moon or even from one planet to another. We must determine whether we can intercept such a ship and obtain our specimens from it. We’ve got to seek bioscience advice on how to prevent the solians we capture from spreading diseases to us. We also must…”

  ~~~

  Rabaq listened in awe as Diddiq continued in this vein for another twenty minutes. As captain of the ship, Rabaq thought of himself as a leader but could see he wasn’t in Diddiq’s league. He did think to assign one of the junior officers to make a list of the projects spewing from Diddiq’s antennae. He further assigned the officer to send the list out and ask that those with expertise or ideas in the areas addressed take on those particular projects. Also, for fields where no one awake had the necessary expertise, to find an appropriate hibernator and awaken him or her.

  No wonder they chose Diddiq as Expedition Leader despite his youth, Rabaq thought. Someday, I’ll be proud to have served under him.

  ***

  Phoenix had started sending out an encrypted feed when it neared Saturn and Kaem had sent Lee the key. The entire crew of the SC Maui had been destazed—they didn’t have enough supplies for everyone to stay awake the entire time—and they’d gathered in the biggest space on board, a kind of meeting/dining-room next to the kitchen and the small bridge. Though SC Phoenix hadn’t reached Saturn yet, it was approaching on a vector that looked down from above the planet’s north pole so it could observe the alien ships’ encounter with the giant planet.

  The aliens hadn’t slowed as expected by the presumption they were going to go into orbit around Saturn. Several weeks ago it’d become obvious that, barring high-acceleration maneuvers, they wouldn’t go into orbit around the ringed planet. Instead, looked as if they were on a hyperbolic trajectory that would pass the gas giant and plunge on into the inner system.

  Yesterday, the Phoenix’s better estimation of their course suggested they were going to pass so closely that it seemed likely they would pass through some of Saturn’s atmosphere.

  Debate had arisen regarding whether the aliens had poor control of their course.

  Or whether Phoenix’s projections of their trajectories were just wrong.

  Or whether they might be using the planet’s atmosphere to provide aero-braking so they could stop there.

  Though many were looking forward to meeting aliens, as it became more and more evident that the ships were going to go through Saturn’s atmosphere, there’d been hopeful discussion of whether such a pass might doom the aliens, thus solving the multitude of problems the ETs posed.

  Seven hours ago, the smaller ship that’d been leading the three behemoths—the one estimated to be similar in size to the human Island-class ships—had indeed passed through Saturn’s atmosphere. It’d gone deep enough that they’d all thought surely it would burn up, but it had come out the other side suggesting it’d been built with exotic materials and making everyone wonder whether they had Stade technology. However, the alien ships couldn’t be covered with Stade since the radar cross-section of their hulls was far less than would be expected even from metals. Stade, of course, completely reflected radar like it reflected everything else. Someone had proposed their hulls might be made of some of the carbon allotropes which had high strength and heat tolerance but low radar reflectivity.

  Since then, the big ships had altered course so they’d make shallower passes through Saturn’s atmosphere. Then, like the little ship, they’d shut off their drives and flipped so they’d make their passes through Saturn’s atmosphere nose-first.

  Lee realized everyone else was leaning closer to the screen, like she was, all hoping to see more detail of the alien ships now that the exhaust of their drives didn’t obscure the view. She wanted to ask Phoenix to zoom in, but any message they sent wouldn’t reach Phoenix for minutes and would likely be too late. Besides, Phoenix wasn’t using its huge drogue/solar-sail/concave-reflector as a telescope. The massive dish was pointing the wrong way since they were decelerating toward the aliens. The images they were getting were probably at the limits of resolution for the small reflector telescope they would’ve unshipped from the hull.

  Ray J
ones, the first officer said, “The dark spots on the protrusions sticking out just in front of the ship’s stern… could they be scoops? Is that what they’re doing, scooping up some of Saturn’s atmosphere?”

  “Yes!” Lee exclaimed with sudden realization. “They’re refueling! Remember? Their rocket exhaust’s mostly hydrogen with a little helium. I’m pretty sure that’s typical for gas giant atmospheres. The thinking is that they’re powered by gaseous-core fission-reactor rocket engines. Fission reactors supply plenty of heat but they have to have reaction mass to heat and expel through their rocket nozzles. The lower the molecular weight of the reaction mass, the higher the exhaust velocity they achieve and therefore the greater the thrust they produce. Hydrogen, having the lowest molecular weight, is the best possible reaction mass so gas giants’ atmospheres are almost perfect sources.”

  ***

  Diddiq was in a meeting with the bioscience team. They were very excited to have an intelligent alien race to study. It was a constant struggle to get them to focus back on how to eradicate the intelligent beings from the system. They and the specialized bioscience computers they used when working with DNA, kept derailing into arguments regarding the nature of the Sol system’s biology.

  Sibiq, the chief bioscientist, had just trotted out his contention that since halaniq hadn’t encountered an intelligent DNA race other than themselves, that such a race couldn’t exist. Which could mean that their DNA techniques wouldn’t be successful.

  “Why not?” Diddiq asked with some frustration. “We haliq are DNA-based and intelligent, aren’t we?”