by Russell Fine
Burning Willow Press, LLC
3724 Cowpens Pacolet Rd.
Spartanburg, South Carolina 29307
All rights reserved.
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The persons, places, and events of this novel are works of fiction. Any coincidence with the individual’s past or present is merely that, coincidence.
This Edition published by
Burning Willow Press, Publisher,
Spartanburg, South Carolina 2019
Copyright © Russell Fine, author, 2019
Edited by Donna Marie West, 2019
Cover art design by Mayhem Designs, 2019
Dedication
I want to take this opportunity to thank a few named individuals, for whom this book would have never been completed.
First, my wife Sherry, who spent countless hours listening to me ramble about the next part of the plot.
My son, Randy, for reading this and agreeing that I should keep going.
My friends: Cheryl and Suzanne, for indulging my idea.
Finally, friend and fellow author, B J Gillum, who gave me insight into the process of creating a novel, or three.
This book is dedicated to them.
Table of Contents
Procolt 2
The Journey to Coplent
Coplent
NASA Headquarters
Coplent
NASA Headquarters
Procolt
Coplent Warship
Procolt 2
Coplent Warship
The Return to Procolt 2
Coplent
Torblit
Procolt 2
Earth
NASA Headquarters
The Star Racer
Crosus and Coplent
Procolt Paradise
About the Author
About the Publisher
Procolt 2
September 2120
After leaving Glencet’s ship, Jeffery flew the shuttle to the Star Rover and docked inside the shuttle bay. He closed the outside door and when the pressure was equalized, he left the shuttle and walked inside.
Debbie was patiently waiting for him. She hugged him while saying, “You’re a great negotiator. An hour ago, they wanted to kill us and now they’ve invited us to stay and explore.”
“I’ll accept the credit, but I think it’s the only logical decision they could make. I knew they would want what we had to sell.”
The couple walked to the bridge. When they arrived, Jeffery told Mike to plot a course to Procolt 2 and put the Star Rover in orbit above the equator. Two hours later, the Star Rover was exactly where it was supposed to be. Then he asked Debbie to look for a landing site.
On the second orbital pass, she said, “I think I found the perfect site. It looks like a large meadow near a lake. Scans indicate there are forested low mountains nearby containing a network of caves. It should be a great place to explore.”
“Okay, that sounds good to me. Navigational control, put us in a geosynchronous orbit above the landing site,” Jeffery ordered.
Mike responded, “Aye sir. I’ll put us in a fixed position fifteen hundred miles above the landing site.”
Mike programmed the navigation computer and twenty minutes later, they were in orbit above the landing site Debbie had identified.
“Captain Whitestone, take Dr. Weber, Lt. Parker, Lt. Mason, and two security officers down to the surface. Have Dr. Weber verify conditions are acceptable for us without using spacesuits. I know Garlut told me there were no dangerous animals or plants, but I want Lt. Parker to check out the plants in the area for anything that might be dangerous and Lt. Mason to look for any animals that might be a problem. I don’t want to report that one of our guests was eaten by the local fauna or flora.”
“Yes, Admiral. We should be ready to depart in fifteen minutes.”
“Debbie, don’t leave the shuttle. I want you to stay aboard in case there’s an emergency.”
She nodded. “Understood.”
Twenty minutes later, the shuttle departed the Star Rover. The trip to the surface of Procolt 2 took less than thirty minutes. Dean watched their descent on the scanner until the shuttle entered the atmosphere and was covered by a layer of clouds. He continued to watch using the long-range scanner which clearly showed the shuttle and its position relative to the landing site. As Dean watched, the shuttle approached, circled the area twice, and landed.
The ship’s com unit was monitoring Debbie. They heard her say, “We landed. The temperature is twenty-three degrees Centigrade and there’s a westerly wind blowing at four miles per hour. Our instruments show the atmosphere is almost identical to Earth’s. Dr. Weber is running some tests that will take ten minutes, and if everything checks out, my passengers will begin their assigned tasks. I’ve instructed, for the moment, they must stay in visual range of the shuttle. One of the security people will remain on the ship with me and the other one will go with Dr. Weber.”
“Good. Keep me informed,” Jeffery responded.
Fifteen minutes later, Jeffery received a report from Dr. Weber. “Admiral, all the tests I’ve run for potential pathogens are negative. The only problem I found was excessive amounts of pollen. Since I’m not familiar with the plants here, I don’t know if that will be a problem. I suggest anybody with allergies stop by the medical office for a non-drowsy antihistamine injection before going to the planet’s surface. I’ve tested the water in the lake for dissolved minerals and for the presence of other heavy metals known to be troublesome for us, the results were similar to lakes on Earth, but I would not suggest swimming in it or drinking the water until I can check for any microorganisms that might be present.”
“That’s good news, Doctor. You and the captain should return to the ship so you can continue your testing. Captain Whitestone can bring the temporary housing unit and the maintenance crew down to the surface for set up.”
“We can leave in a few minutes.”
Jeffery called Chief Engineer Ron Rice and said, “Lt. Rice, have two of your staff bring the portable habitat to the shuttle bay. Captain Whitestone will take them to the landing site where they can assemble it.”
“My guys will be there within half an hour, sir. Is that okay?”
“Yes, they can take an hour because she’s still on the planet. She’ll be leaving shortly.”
“Great, an hour it is. Rice out”
The habitat was made up of very light, but strong, plastic panels. When fully assembled it had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen, a dining area, and a central-living area. It took four or five hours to assemble. It was waterproof and could withstand winds up to one hundred twenty miles per hour. Automatic climate control would maintain a constant temperature of twenty-one degrees Celsius as long as the outside temperature was between negative thirty-two and positive fifty-seven. All the furniture and the plumbing fixtures were part of the structure, but the cushions and mattresses had to be inflated.
The building had a five-hundred-gallon water supply, but for this mission they would use water from the lake. Dr. Weber was still testing the water. In the event his tests determined the
water to be unusable, a filtration system would be installed to resolve the problem.
Debbie left to go back to the surface a few minutes after she arrived. She took the maintenance crew and the habitat to the surface and immediately returned to the ship.
By the time she returned, Dr. Weber had already given his approval of the water for swimming but cautioned against swallowing any. During their initial study of the animals and plants, Thomas and Shelia reported they had found nothing they would consider dangerous.
Jeffery announced that in thirty minutes the shuttle would depart for the planet’s surface again. They would take fifteen of the guests aboard to the surface on this trip. They should decide among themselves who would go on the first trip. The remainder would go four hours later. There was eight hours of daylight left and he didn’t want any of the guests on the surface of the planet the first night. Only crewmembers were to stay on the planet’s surface.
Four people stayed in the habitat the first night on Procolt 2. There was one person from the security staff, Sheila, Thomas, and Daryl. There were no problems except a few howling animals. The next morning just after dawn, it started to rain very hard, at a rate of three inches per hour, but after a half hour the rain abruptly stopped, the clouds dissipated, and the day became sunny and warm once more.
After the rain stopped, the Star Rover sent the shuttle down to the surface on the first of two trips. The first trip had fifteen of the guests, Dr. Weber, and Jeffery. The second trip would have the remaining guests and Beatrice Woods, the mission videographer.
Each scientific crewmember had been given assignments while on the surface. Thomas Mason, the exobiologist, and Beatrice were assigned to find the indigenous animals and take imagery of them. Sheila Nelson, a second exobiologist, was assigned to inspect the plants in the area and note if any them were harmful. She would take samples to bring back to the ship for analysis. Ensign Daryl Cohen, a geologist, volunteered to take a few of the guests with him as he explored some of the caves in the area.
Jeffery relaxed by the lake where he was joined by Dr. Weber. The water was crystal clear and there was an obvious abundance of fish swimming under the glassy surface. “You know what, Frank?” he said. “I think this would be a great spot for a vacation home. Debbie and I could live in the habitat, build a small boat, and go fishing every day.”
“This seems like the perfect spot for that, Jeffery. It makes me wonder why this planet is uninhabited. Perhaps people from other planets don’t like to relax the way we do?”
“I suppose that’s possible. But I’d be happy to trade several cases of chocolate for the rights to this place.”
“You’re talking like you’re ready to retire.”
“No, I don’t want to retire. I just want a place to go where nobody can disturb me.”
Before Dr. Weber could respond, Jeffery got a call on his com unit. After he answered, Daryl said, “Sir, I need you and Dr. Weber here immediately! We found something you have to see.”
“What is it?” Jeffery asked.
“A body . . . well, more of a skeleton. I think it’s human.”
“Dr. Weber is with me. We’ll be there as soon as possible. Leave your com unit open so we can find you.”
“Yes sir. Cohen out.”
Jeffery turned toward Frank and asked, “Did you hear that?”
“Yes, I did. But I don’t think it’s human. I’m certain we’re the first humans to visit this planet.”
“I guess we’ll know shortly.”
Jeffery and Dr. Weber followed the signal from Daryl’s com unit to the entrance of a cave. A woman Jeffery recognized as one of the ship’s guests was waiting for them. As they approached, she said, “Doctor. Admiral. We have to go two hundred feet into the cave.”
She was holding a bright, lantern-shaped light. Jeffery and Dr. Weber followed her into the cave. A few minutes later, they reached the spot where Daryl and the others were standing. They moved away from the skeleton so the doctor and Jeffery could inspect the remains.
They saw a skeleton that had shreds of clothing around it. Around its neck was a metal tag on a chain. Jeffery took one look at the metal tag and gasped. “It’s definitely human. Frank, he’s wearing an old military dog tag!”
Frank bent down closer to the remains and looked at the dog tag. The information on the tag was written in English. The name on the tag was Gordon Brown, he had O negative blood, and he was Catholic. It also had a social security number, so he was from the United States.
“How could Mr. Brown possibly have gotten here?” Dr. Weber asked excitedly.
Jeffery had a perplexed look on his face. He thought about the situation for a few seconds and replied angrily, “I have no idea, but I do know who to ask. The next time I see Garlut it will be my first question. How long has he been here, any clue, Doctor?”
Dr, Weber knelt down and began a cursory examination of the remains. A few minutes later, when he was finished, he stood up and said, “That’s a very difficult question to answer. We really don’t know very much about the environment here. It does appear small animals were eating the body because there are obvious gnaw marks on the bones. But the lack of decay in the bones would seem to indicate he hasn’t been dead very long. Perhaps less than a year to two, but I’m not sure. Do you think we could find out more about him since we have his name and identification numbers?”
“We could if we were back on Earth. However, after the North American Union was formed the Social Security system was replaced with the Resident Identification System, and the RIS numbers are not in the same format. Mr. Brown had to have arrived on this planet at the minimum of 100 years ago. The military stopped using Social Security Numbers back in the early twenty-first century and went to a different numbering system approved by the old Department of Defense. Can you get any information by analyzing the remains?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t have the equipment to do carbon dating, but I can do a genetic analysis. It may show any diseases he’d been exposed to during his lifetime which could give us an approximate age.”
Then Daryl said, “There’s something else over here you need to see, Admiral. Doctor.”
Jeffery and the doctor walked to where he was. There was evidence of a fire; there was a knife with a blade - six inches long, a metal water canteen, and small bones were scattered around the area.
Jeffery thought the knife was the type members of the military were given a long time ago and the metal canteen was something he had only seen in museums. Jeffery began to think perhaps Mr. Brown was much older than they thought.
Jeffery made arrangements for the skeleton to be taken back to the ship. Dr. Weber would accompany it and begin his analysis immediately. Jeffery also began to wonder if there were any other humans on the planet, so he contacted Debbie and asked her to scan for any animal larger than fifty pounds. Garlut had told him the largest animals on the planet were the size of small dogs. However, Garlut had also told him there was a substantial insect population on the planet and he had seen only a few. Now he had more questions for Garlut.
Daryl asked, “Sir. May we continue to explore the cave?”
“Yes, but inform me immediately if you find anything unusual.”
“Yes, sir.”
During that first full day on Procolt 2, there were a few other surprises. During the search for indigenous animals, Thomas and Beatrice discovered most of the animals they saw would be considered rodents on Earth. Perhaps the most unusual was an animal that looked like a giant squirrel. They had the same basic body shape and a long furry tail, but when they sat on their hind legs, they were thirty inches tall and looked like they weighed at least twenty-five pounds. Additionally, instead of claws they had small hands with four fingers and opposable thumbs.
The team was also surprised by the fact there were very few birds. Most of the things that flew were medium-sized insects similar to grasshoppers and some smaller ones that looked like flies. They didn’t see any primat
es, but they were only looking in a small area. However, they still managed to gain images and video of over forty different animal species.
Sheila’s search for plants yielded better results. She found eighty-one different plant species in the first few hours of her search. None of them were unusual and they looked similar to Earth’s plants. She planned to widen her search area the following day.
Daryl continued the search through the cave and found no other indications of human habitation. All of the rocks in the cave walls were common on Earth.
Dr. Weber spent hours running tests on the skeletal remains of Gordon Brown but found nothing that could help him determine age.
After spending several more hours relaxing by the lake, Jeffery decided he had to return to the ship. The next shuttle was scheduled to be back to the Star Rover in twenty minutes. He walked to the shuttle and took a seat inside. A few minutes later, Thomas and Beatrice came aboard.
Beatrice sat next to Jeffery and offered to show him the videos she had taken of the animals.
They spent the next twenty minutes looking at videos of the animals. When the video of the giant squirrel played, Jeffery stared at it and then asked Beatrice to play it again. As he watched the video the second time he said to Thomas, “This animal appears to me to be very intelligent. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it almost looks like it’s posing for the camera.”
“I’m glad you said that because I thought the same thing. Tomorrow I’m going to follow one around for a while to see how it spends the day. If it really is intelligent, we should know by the end of the day.”
“That’s a good idea. Let me know what you find out.”
“Yes sir, I will do that.”
After the shuttle landed on the Star Rover, Jeffery immediately went to the bridge. Ensign Anne Perkins, communications officer, was seated at the communications console and Jeffery said, “I believe the trade group communication system Garlut installed is going to be more useful than I thought. Ensign, please contact Glencet.”