by A. Omukai
He was right. They had to first know if they could give green light for the colonisation of the planet, before they could attempt to make it accessible to humankind. Just going down there, doing sloppy work, then bringing colonists here would not only be a waste of time and potential money, it was outright reckless.
“So, who’s our pilot?” She asked.
The engineer gestured at the cockpit of the small transport vessel. He was already busy working on the boat again. She looked toward the cockpit and nodded.
The two walked over when the cockpit door opened and a Faerie came down the ramp. He wasn’t even using his wings to fly. What an odd fellow. Another oddity was the colour of several of his features. Faeries normally had either blue or yellow wings. Depending on the court they belonged to, their body was different. The colours of their wings, eyes, and of the hair directly depended on their allegiance. Faeries of the Summer Court radiated heat, Winter Court Faeries cold. This one had no such aura. His wings were green, as was his eye colour. When he almost reached the bottom of the ramp, he took off and flew over to them. He stopped in mid-air in front of them, saluted, and opened his mouth to speak.
“I am First Sergeant Carmag. I will bring you to the surface. However, the technical crew told me we cannot land, so–”
“Yeah, we’ve been told so already.”
Adams’ voice sounded irritated as he interrupted the pilot.
“I’ve never used a parachute. Is it safe?” Deirdre asked.
The Faerie stared at her for a second.
“I’ve never used one either. I guess you will find out.” He grinned.
This was not the proper way for a sergeant to address an officer, but these were not normal circumstances, and he was a Faerie and a strange one at that.
“Maybe get into the boat and bring only gear you will need for sure. This girl here has taken quite a beating, but I will see what I can do to bring you down. The flight will take a while, though, over sixteen hours. The others are already waiting inside.”
Adams didn’t look happy, but it couldn’t be helped now. She would try to carry as much of his equipment as she could. With the transporter being unable to land, things were even more complicated than she had expected.
The station had pumped the atmosphere out of the hangar before the outer doors opened. No sounds were audible from outside now. Only their breaths, and tiny pieces of metal, coming off the damaged transporter, hitting the craft.
Her two bags, and the bunch of luggage from Adams were scattered all over the ground. The bigger pieces had parachutes attached. They were not meant to be carried, especially not on a planet with higher than normal gravity.
They would drop the gear, then look for it later and hope it survived contact with the ground. There was no other way. Their own parachutes had to carry their body weight already, and the load they could add to that was limited.
Three people sat inside already, showing her a salute when she entered. The Fir Bolg stood out immediately, and he took up most of the space. A massive figure, with his over two metre stature in both height and breadth. His protective suit had no rank insignia attached. A civilian?
“Ensign Maon. I’m your physician.” His decided lack of excitement would hopefully not be contagious.
“Sergeant Ailbhe, Marine corps,” a female voice said. The Ghillie Dhu was Deirdre’s size, but looked like a dwarf next to the Fir Bolg. Her eyes glowed in an intense white, and her bark looked like that of a birch. Ghillie Dhu were few in numbers, not many could be found outside the Otherworld.
The human had sat at the other wall when they had entered and gotten up just as quickly. His eyes flickered back and forth between the Aes Sidhe on the other side and Deirdre. He seemed to sweat.
“Corporal Hill, communications specialist.”
She raised an eyebrow. She wouldn’t jump to conclusions yet.
Deirdre gestured for them to sit down and looked for a spot herself.
The boat floated out of the hangar and into space without a sound. Unlike the Tuatha De Danann, the transporter had actual windows. There was no way to tell their position within the Milky Way, though. Gliese 667 wasn’t far enough away from Earth to completely change how outer space looked. Star density, general shape of the galaxy, all these things were almost identical with their perspective. Only experts would notice the slightly wrong constellations. Deirdre was none.
Sixteen hours was a long time. Looking out the window wasn’t very eventful, and the charm of their new environment wore off quickly. Stars Gliese 667 A and B were far away. The distance made them seem small. They were close together, orbiting each other, even though that movement was way too slow to be seen in real-time. Star Gliese 667 C came into sight as they got closer to the planet. Its size didn’t seem to differ so much from Sol, even though it was objectively smaller, but it wasn’t yellow. It glowed in a deep, vibrant orange, and it was way less bright than their sun.
Unlike Earth, planet Gliese 667 Cc wasn’t blue. There were bodies of water down there, but only lakes and rivers, no oceans, and the surface of the planet looked brown.
The closer they came, the more details they could make out from space. Enormous clouds drifted over the sky, covering and revealing features of the landscape like mountain ranges, large rivers, of which there was a vast amount, and large lakes. It was impossible to see details yet.
“Do you think there is life on the planet?” Deirdre asked.
Adams looked up. He had dozed off, but not really fallen asleep.
“Hard to say,” he said.
She looked at him and out the window again.
“There seems to be water down there. I wonder if there are animals, too.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. But I really can’t tell from space. We have to get a lot closer. Even if there is no life, as long as the conditions are right, we can settle on the planet and migrate life forms from home.”
How might that work? Bringing plants and animals from Earth would lead to a very similar biosphere, at worst, if they could survive on the planet.
The high gravity worried her. If they had to import life from Earth, it would have to be genetically redesigned to withstand the conditions down there. They would have to land and see.
“I don’t think we will have to bring in flora and fauna here, though. This is an old star system, and looking at the mountains, erosion patterns are telling me that the planet itself is relatively old, too. It looks promising. I can’t tell for sure, but I’d be surprised if there was no life at all here.” The xenobiologist smiled.
Deirdre dozed off several times, too, without noticing. When the message from the pilot’s cockpit came, the planet filled the complete window. It didn’t even appear to be a ball anymore.
“All right, get ready. We will enter the atmosphere now and go down as far as possible. You have about five minutes to prepare yourself.”
A service robot came to life. It moved over the ground quickly, picked up several of the equipment pieces they had connected with parachutes, and transported them to the airlock.
Deirdre and Adams got up and checked each other’s parachutes as well.
“Wanna go first?” Adams asked and smiled.
She shook her head. No, she didn’t want to go first.
But maybe it was best if she did, she might not have the strength to follow him after all.
“No,” she said. “But I will. And if I won’t・ push me out the door.” She smiled a nervous smile and coughed.
“Don’t worry, leave it to me. Pushing girls out the door is my speciality.”
Adams stood up, stretched his body, then checked the equipment and the parachutes. He nodded, satisfied several times, while she dried the sweaty palms of her hands on her suit repeatedly. She hadn’t ever jumped with a parachute while on Earth, and this here was completely unknown territory. An environment with possible life forms that could kill her on contact, if she was unlucky. She might fall into a lake full of acid an
d dissolve within seconds. Anything was possible. Well, maybe not anything, and she was sure the pilot would drop them over an area that looked safe, but still. Gravity would pull her down much faster, too, wouldn’t it? She wasn’t sure. If so, was her parachute designed for this? It would, surely. There was no way they would drop them off on an unknown planet without making sure they would survive the fall. Or would they?
“Don’t be such a drama queen,” she scolded herself.
Adams looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head and smiled.
“Don’t mind me.”
He was already busy with his equipment again, but she caught curious glances from their three team members, who had been keeping to the background so far.
The robot just transported the last piece over to the airlock, then returned to his old position by the wall and deactivated itself.
Static noise, then again the voice of the pilot.
“Looks like you are ready. I will open the outer lock now, get ready to drop the equipment, but be careful to not fall out while doing it. Good luck.”
A metallic clank told her that the outer hatch was now unlocked. Adams looked up, walked over, grabbed the handle and pulled the door open just a little. The slipstream gripped him and pulled at his suit, but safety lines held him in place. He looked at Deirdre.
“Don’t worry. I got this. You stay over there for now. I will tell you when I’m done here.”
Deirdre nodded. She wouldn’t move a centimetre. She’d stay right here and watch.
Piece after piece, the equipment fell down towards the surface of the planet. From her spot at the window, she could see some of them, and their falling speed seemed much, much too high.
Adams looked at her again. “I’m finished. So who’s next?”
Her stomach felt like a clenched fist. Her heart rate went up, and she trembled slightly, but she wouldn’t show him her nervousness.
“I’m ready when you are.”
He smiled, then took one step back, as if to make room for her to pass. She got the hint.
“Just a second, let me make sure everything is alright.”
She knew this was an obvious excuse, a way to buy some time. She also knew that he’d see it for what it was, but she couldn’t help it.
The xenobiologist nodded, as if he understood her feelings. Maybe he actually did. He would jump as well, and even if he didn’t look as bad as she felt, he wouldn’t look forward to it either.
The marine stepped up first. Her slender frame that made her seem to be anything, but a soldier filled the opening of the hatch as she looked down on the planet, then her silhouette vanished.
The Fir Bolg was next. The physician grabbed his bag and stumped to the hatch without so much as a word. He stared out of the opening, as if hesitant, and maybe he was. A few long seconds passed when he eventually took the plunge.
Corporal Hill exhaled audibly. It was more than obvious that the man had felt uncomfortable with the Aes Sidhe around. How could someone like that do his job on board a closed environment with members of the Otherworld? No, she would not make hasty judgement calls. Maybe he had been nervous for other reasons. He stumbled forward and almost fell out of the hatch, but caught his balance before he did. He, too, stared down on the planet for way too long, before he finally let go of his handrail and disappeared below them.
There was no way for her to drag it out much further. She stood up, walked over to the airlock, and the wind grabbed her slender figure. She looked at Adams one last time.
“Please tell me everything’s alright.”
“Everything’s fine. I’m right behind you.”
Deirdre hesitated for a moment and nodded, then disconnected the safety line. The slipstream would have grabbed and thrown out of the airlock immediately, but Adams held her arm.
She was thankful for him stabilising her. She took one step closer to the hatch, then another.
He let go, and she sailed out of the airlock, into the twilight of the early morning, dropping like a rock. Or rather, like a cannonball fired at the planet.
A static sound crackled inside her helmet, then a voice. The pilot.
“Your system will give you a notification when you are ready to engage the parachute. Once it comes, you will have thirty seconds to push that button. Don’t wait too long, you don’t want to land at high speed. Stay on the planet for several days without help, while I get back to the ship and have this boat repaired to the point where I can actually land and pick you up again. That means, you will be on your own for several days, and that won’t be fun with broken bones, or worse.”
Well, thanks, much appreciated.
The Faerie wasn’t wrong, but he could have phrased it in a less unsettling way.
Deirdre stared down at the surface of the planet. Did the ground really come closer? There was no way to tell. She had no idea how big things were down there, so the perspectives were very confusing.
The wind outside her helmet was loud enough to suppress the sound of her heartbeat, but she felt it drum inside her chest.
Her system’s interface showed her current altitude. The number shrunk rapidly. Deirdre had nothing to compare it to, no idea whether these were normal values for her velocity. It didn’t matter, anyway. She was in free fall now, no way to turn back. Parachute jumps on high-G planets were not in her contract. She clenched her teeth and swore.
A notification icon appeared on her system’s home screen. It pulsed in dark red, like an error message, but this was not an error. It was the signal for her to push the button and engage the parachute. From one moment to the other, she was completely paralysed. She would have to press now, or she would fall all the way down and smash into the ground, but she couldn’t move a finger. Her heart raced, and sweat ran into her eyes. She had to push it now, but she still couldn’t move her hand in the slightest. She couldn’t move anything.
Static noise again, then Adams’ voice.
“What are you waiting for, Deirdre? Push the button.”
She couldn’t even answer. Her throat was tightened. Not a single word came out.
There was just her now, the sound of the wind and her heart hammering against her throat.
“Deirdre? Relax. Close your eyes. Breathe in, breathe out.”
She barely listened to the content of the words, but the calm voice influenced her. She closed her eyes, breathed in, and counted. One, two, three. She opened her eyes. Then she pushed the button and exhaled.
The jerk was violent, but her parachute unfolded properly, and she drifted towards the surface, slowly now.
“Well done, lieutenant. I was worried for a moment.”
She giggled.
“I might or might not have pissed myself.”
He laughed.
9
Boots on the Ground
Deirdre opened her eyes. The sky above was in flames, the clouds blazing in a bright orange. Was it morning? Or evening? Her head hurt, a dull pain spreading out from the neck. Apart from that, she didn’t feel bad, just so tired. Everything seemed to be made of lead, even her eyelids. A pinging sound caught her attention, and her system’s primary screen opened automatically. Irritated, she thought it away. Damn ads, following you everywhere, even… yeah, where was she? Her headache made thinking difficult. Her concentration was wacky, and her thoughts kept fizzling out.
She lay there, arms and legs stretched out like a Vitruvian Man, gazing up at the sky, with a throbbing head and a leaden body, just drifting, without a sense of time, when she heard the ping again. She growled. Like an alarm clock. What time was it?
The system’s home screen opened and showed her the clock. 16:24. On the left side of the screen, a pulsing notification icon waited for her to be activated, a little 2 attached to it. Two new messages. Messages from who?
The icons wandered into the centre and two lines with text strings popped up:
“Message from 16:18 sent by: Daniel Adams.”
“Message from 1
6:24 sent by: Daniel Adams.”
Daniel Adams?
Her head felt light. Everything danced in a circle, then things moved back into place. Yeah, Adams, that was the name of that biologist, the man… all at once, her memory returned. She lay in an unknown position on a planet called Gliese 667 Cc, and she was still in one piece.
That planet name wouldn’t do, they’d have to find a new one as soon as possible. But first things first.
“Are you okay? I landed, too. First analysis is done. The atmospheric composition is breathable, but I’d not remove my helmet just yet. We don’t know what’s floating around in this air. Please send me a message.”
“Deirdre, are you there? Please get in touch!”
She closed the messages and tried to sit up. Even that much was difficult. Not impossible, but not a trivial feat either. How high was the gravity on this planet?
An info window appeared.
“Gliese 667 Cc, size four times that of Earth, geologic composition unknown, gravity 145% Earth”
The disparity between size and mass was something other people had to deal with. Her job was to connect the planet to Earth’s moon, when and if Adams decided it was a viable place for colonization.
She looked around. What had appeared like a world of brown mud was completely different when viewed from the ground. The ground itself was covered with some sort of moss or lichen. She had no idea. Fungi sprouted everywhere, some as high as a human, with stems that looked robust, and comparatively long, but carried thick caps, like morel mushrooms. She couldn’t see any animals, but that meant little. Gliese 667 C dominated the orange sky, the closest sun, which it orbited. The two suns named A and B looked like mini versions, smaller than the moon had been on Earth, but still clearly visible. They were next to each other, hanging over the horizon. They alone would probably not have supplied enough light to illuminate the area. All three suns together immersed the planet in golden light, not unpleasant to the eyes.