“There’s hydroponics, but we can’t land, anyway. No one has shuttles with pontoons.”
He waved a hand. “We could easily adapt the shuttles. But to live on such a world your whole life would be hard.”
Elise placed her elbows on the table and her chin into the palms of her hands. “John’s excited. He wants to create an aquatic human that has gills and webbed feet.” She rolled her eyes.
“Sounds like him.” Carter took another gulp and drained his drink. He twirled the empty glass. “With my humanoid bots and his fish men, humanity may never be the same.”
Her jaw dropped. “Humanoid robots?”
“Ah, a special project for Brad Cameron.”
“You’re kidding.”
“A bit. He has Amanda worried about her job. She’s even opened a coffee shop as a backup in case she’s replaced.”
“By a human-looking robot?” Elise threw her napkin on the table. “He can’t do that.”
Putting a hand out, Carter patted her arm. “Relax. It’s not that easy. The scifi vids on the ship make you think it could happen tomorrow; but we’re still years away. The brain is a complex organism and movement like walking may seem simple, but take it from me, it isn’t.”
“To think she can be replaced by a machine. That’s insufferable.”
“We already are, Elise. Technology runs this ship. Tango sits helm, but most of the piloting is done by computers. It’s true all over the ship. Besides, there are lots of jobs where robots would be very effective. Look at engineering where humans have been spared the dangerous tasks that expose them to radiation. Productivity has taken a huge leap at the farm. Lots of other areas can receive that kind of benefit.”
“What about preserving humanity? Isn’t that the point of this expedition? At the rate you and John are going, no authentic human will survive. We’ll land on our new world with a ship full of clones and robots.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Face it, Elise, we will get old and die. We originals are growing older in spite of nanos. We all will die eventually; no matter what John believes. We have a shelf life.”
She snorted. “I don’t fit well on a shelf.” She wrinkled her nose. “You should know that a man should never say such stuff to a woman, Carter, especially if he wants to be romantic.”
He ginned as he pushed his plate away. “Point taken. You know you’ll never get old as far as I’m concerned. You’ll always be young and beautiful. Besides, John’s nanites will help us age gracefully.”
She smiled. “Don’t try to backpedal now. Let’s talk about something other than dying.”
He rubbed his neck. “Good idea. How about something creative? Or romantic?” He smiled at her.
***
Months passed, and soon more than a year went by. The fleet held its course toward the designated star system, but a fleet-wide swell of discontent developed. A growing faction of the fleet was so tired of space travel that they were willing to land anywhere. Another faction argued that they should only land on a world where survival was ensured while a third faction didn’t want to land at all. They were comfortable and didn’t want to change their current lifestyle.
On her private line, Commander Reardon sighed. “Look, Elise, the only way I see this problem solved, without a resumption of riots, is to reconfigure some shuttles and let those that want to, go ahead.”
“I don’t know. Puts a lot of people at risk, both on the ships and on land or, in this case, water.”
“The majority of captains agree with me.”
“I do have a few on board that I’m ready to shove out the airlock right now, shuttle or no shuttle.”
Reardon laughed. “We all do. The engineers over in Storage Locker are reconfiguring one of their shuttles. Other ships are also doing it.”
Elise sighed. “Carter has already modified one of ours, but he left to go help the other ships.”
“I know. He was overseeing the shuttle modification on Storage Locker. Now he’s on The Valiant to help them automate their ship What happened between you two? Why did you let him leave? I thought he was going to stay there with you.”
The comment frustrated her. “I said nothing! The Valiant requested him, so he went. By the way, how is my male version doing over there? I heard you named him Elija. Seriously?”
“Yes. Raising hell from what they tell me. You’re changing the subject.”
“Commander, I was a well-behaved little girl.”
“John says your clone is already ordering around all the kids in daycare.”
“John says stuff like that. He likes to tweak me.”
“That’s a new terminology for the act.” Reardon chuckled.
“Excuse me, sir.” The man had his nerve. “John and I respect each other. I’ve got to go. Lots to do.” She wasn’t going to stay online and discuss this any further.
“We’re close, Elise. A new star system will be exciting.”
And he was right.
***
First, they passed the heliopause. Elise made sure she was in the captain’s seat when that happened, although the actual boundary was a bit fuzzy. No one drew a line in space, and the sun’s solar winds created a teardrop shape of what they called the heliosphere. They maneuvered the fleet to enter at the leading edge closest to their target planet.
Ahead, Jensen pointed out a cluster of asteroids and general space debris. The fleet spread out, but the distances were so vast between the large rocks that the danger of collision was almost nonexistent.
Jensen grinned at Elise. “We’re in now, but it will still be another year, at this speed, before we get there.”
Eventually, she brought her daughter, onto the bridge.
Almost eight now, Lisi stared wide-eyed at Jensen’s monitor. “Those planets don’t look so big.”
“That’s because they’re really far away. The first planet we pass will be so cold that methane freezes on the mountaintops.”
“What’s methane?”
“It’s a colorless, odorless gas found on Earth that freezes at minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit. In Earth’s solar system, one of Saturn’s moon, Titan, has lakes that have clumps of frozen methane floating in them.”
“Cool.”
“No, really, really cold. And, the ice planets in this part of the system have lots of dents and cracks caused by asteroids hitting them.”
“Wow. What about the other planets we’ll see?”
He pointed to a different one farther in. “This one will be big with colored rings and ten moons.”
“Ten!”
“At least.”
“What does the world look like that we might land on?” Lisi peered into the screen that showed the new system they were entering.
“It’s warmer than the others with lots of oceans and lots of clouds.”
Lisi squirmed in her seat. “How old will I be when we get there?”
Jensen raised his face and rubbed a hand through his blond hair. “Depends on if we slow down to pick up water off an asteroid field. We’ll need to resupply soon. If we do that, you’ll be nine, maybe ten years old, when we arrive.”
“That’s too old. I can’t wait that long.” She fidgeted in her chair.
“You’re not the only one who feels that way.”
Chapter 34
Water World
Commander Reardon gazed at his holographic table, noting the aging faces. Captain Bailey sprouted gray in his hair and Sam Spenser had accumulated more wrinkles. That man needed to stop frowning so much. Naomi wasn’t the young hot captain, but a matured adult, same as Elise. However, both were still attractive for their age, and he wasn’t too old not to notice.
“All right.” He clapped his hands together as he took count. Seven empty slots. “Where’s Deiter Schmitt?” he grumbled, upset at the six vacant seats that denoted destroyed ships and lost lives.
“Captain Schmitt should be linking in at any moment.” Tate glanced over his shoulder and waved frantically with a
hand. Captain Schmitt’s face popped in, and the commander fell back with a glare.
“Apologies, Commander.” Deiter nodded.
Shifting in his seat, Reardon consulted his Etab and cleared his throat. “Within a couple of days, we should arrive at the world we named Poseidon. It’s a water world, but that doesn’t deter certain people. The plan is to provide a lottery of fifty people per ship. With thirty-four ships, that gives us one thousand and seven hundred colonists. Far too little, but we can’t spare any more. Ships can trade tickets if they find an imbalance, but I don’t want to release any additional shuttles. Without land, the shuttles can’t take off and return this high up. Once the colonists arrive, they’re down. No one can change their mind and come back. Make that crystal clear. After they get settled, the fleet plans to leave. Each captain is to report the number of interested colonists and his or her shuttle count by the start of next shift.”
Leaning forward, Captain Longstaff asked, “Has anyone found more dry land?”
“Deiter?”
“That’s why I was late, sir. I wanted to see if there were more updates. So far, we’ve found only the one large island, but that’s all. With no moon, there aren’t strong tides, and the oceans are comparatively shallow. That means there might be land; we just haven’t found it. Also, shallow oceans may keep native lifeforms smaller than found in Earth’s deeper oceans. So, that’s a plus.”
“That’s good news,” Charles Dane enthused.
Elise glanced at Charles. She hadn’t talked to Charles in ages. He looked good. She missed her old friend and wished to see him again. She’d heard that his girlfriend, Emily, had gotten out of cryo and married him. She, Em, John and Charles had been quite the team back in the good old days of NASA training. But now life was different, this wasn’t training…it was the real deal.
Commander Reardon broke into her thoughts. “If you have questions, contact Tate’s staff. Departure is in two shifts. Get everyone ready. Adjourned.”
***
She recruited Chay T’Sang to set up a ship-wide video network so everyone could listen to her address from their personal units. This was her best tactic to reduce the chance of riots. She’d already experienced that, thank you very much, and didn’t want a repeat.
She sat in her captain’s seat and smiled at the camera. “Greetings fellow travelers. We have arrived at Poseidon, and a number of you are eager to colonize a new world. Poseidon lies in a survivable temperature zone, but water covers the planet. Make no mistake, colonizing this planet will be hard, dangerous work.”
She cleared her throat and adjusted her position. “The New Found Hope has one reconfigured shuttle that will take up to fifty passengers. If we don’t get enough, we’ll add people from other ships. Interested volunteers send me your names by next shift. If there are more names than slots available, I’ll arrange a public lottery. Once you arrive on planet, that’s it. The fleet plans to leave after all shuttles land. No return will be possible. Good luck.” She ended with a smile.
The camera clicked off. “How was that?”
Tango nodded. “Should do the trick.”
She turned to Jensen and Jazz. They both nodded. Jazz glanced down at her board. “Names are coming in already.”
“Anyone I know?” she asked.
“A John…” Jazz bent for closer scrutiny, giving a dramatic pause. “Luttrell…”
“What!” Elise unbuckled her straps.
“John, ah no, Little not Luttrell. I read it wrong, sorry.” Jazz smirked at her.
Elise squinted at the jokester. “You knew the right name. That was not funny. I’ve a mind to put you on shoveling-shit duty.”
Jazz straightened. “We have recyclers for that.”
“Lucky you.”
***
Over in shuttle bay, the volunteer settlers pushed and crowded to board the shuttle headed for Poseidon.
“No shoving.” Trajan grabbed a burly fellow’s arm. “Give the lady room and let her board.” The woman in question smiled and entered.
Many passengers were tired of their claustrophobic existence. They wanted to live on a new world, breath fresh air, and start a new life.
The idea tantalized Trajan. He felt an adrenaline rush just thinking about the danger and challenges found on such an exciting world, but he didn’t want to risk his new young family, so he remained behind.
He noticed with misgiving that middle-aged adults comprised most of the volunteers, which left the ship with too many kids and too few caretakers.
“Watch your step.” Trajan got the door closed. The pilot grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. Trajan patted the shuttle and raced for the bridge.
As he entered, Captain Fujeint was firing commands at Tango and Jazz, while simultaneously speaking into her headset with the commander.
Trajan nodded. The captain nodded back.
“We’re set, sir,” she said into her headset. She turned to Jazz. “The shuttle is packed and ready.”
Jazz raised her head. “Copy that. Shuttle bay confirms ready. The sooner the better, they’re saying.”
Jensen swiveled around. “There’s a short break in the cloud cover. Reardon has ordered a staggered release of five shuttle wings at a time, and The Valiant’s wing has just dropped. We’re next in line.”
“Shuttle bay, release now,” Elise ordered. She motioned Trajan over to the outside monitor where Lisi already stood, watching intently.
They observed their shuttle gracefully drop toward the aqua planet below amidst a swarm of others. “Life won’t be easy down there,” she said.
“When is it ever?” Trajan retorted.
Like seedpods scattered from metal clouds, thirty-four shuttles cascaded toward the surface, sowing the once pristine ocean world with eager settlers.
***
Elise’s gaze followed the shuttles as she watched them splash down. Helpless to assist, she could only observe the images that flickered on her bridge’s monitor.
At first, a large number of shuttles nosedived into the water, their electronics disrupted by magnetic interference from within the clouds. Hatches opened and spilled bodies that flailed about, eventually paddling toward land.
“Come on,” Elise urged them onward, but choked as a number of the frantic swimmers disappeared below the surface, never to rise again.
When a few lucky arrivals got close enough to the shoreline that they were able to stagger onto its surface, she grabbed a sip of cold coffee, letting a hurrah rise to her lips. But a frown creased her brow when some shuttles landed on the island and found it so dense with jungle they became tangled up in tall trees or crashed into foliage due to a lack of flat landing space.
She heard Jazz through her headset. “Shuttle wing one, report in. Shuttle wing one, please respond.”
At first, mostly static and radio crackle answered.
Then, she heard a desperate voice, “Valiant Two is down in the water. Oh shit, what is that?”
Returning her attention to the sea, Elise noticed movement under the roiling waves as a sleek flat form leaped above the surface, opened a wide mouth full of teeth, and ripped off a big chunk of a sinking shuttle.
The terrified screams of colonists echoed through the bridge’s speakers and filled the room as more dark predators glided in, attracted by the blood and commotion. She wailed with despair as the waters churned, turning into a red murk littered with body parts. After a chilling shriek, the transmission cut and went silent.
“Valiant Two, report!” Jazz cried. No one answered. “Shuttle wing ten, please answer.” A high pitched squeal was the only response. “New Found Hope say something. Harry, Sue, answer.” Tears filled Jazz’s eyes. She raised her face to Elise.
Pilgrim Pride’s shuttle is down and dry,” Elise said, offering hope. She gave Jazz a thumbs up of encouragement. A few souls had escaped the wet and joined those who watched a massacre of horror from a perch on the beach.
Visuals on her screen flickered, a sur
e sign the signal was breaking up. Images slanted and fizzled as one by one shuttles went under and stopped transmitting.
Elise leaned forward, her heart pounding. When the images cleared, she noticed a young man dressed in a wet red shirt attempt to dive into the water to save a pretty female trying to swim for shore, but his friends held him back. Within an eye blink, a sea monster rose up, opened his wide mouth, bit her around the waist, and pulled her under the blood-red turbulent waters.
Ignored by the attacking beasts, for whatever reason, some swimmers managed to escape and drag pieces of cargo onto the sand. A groan escaped Elise as fights immediately broke out among the survivors for possession of any salvaged goods. Dead and dying soon littered the small island.
“Shuttle New Found Hope report.” Jazz’s plea went unanswered. “Anyone? Howard? Jane? Anyone.”
The silence was deafening.
Having seen enough to make her sick, Elise turned from her monitor. In her heart, she knew that this was only the beginning of the violence and bloodshed that awaited those below.
And there was nothing she could do.
***
Three days or twenty-four shifts passed and the fleet watched until clouds closed over and obscured the scene. No further transmissions occurred. A few ships sent additional shuttles, attempting a rescue, but those failed. Finally, the Commander announced an upcoming departure.
“Any exchange or further deliveries among ships in orbit needs to happen soon since we plan to depart in two shifts,” he announced to the fleet.
Not minutes later, Jazz’s voice came on in Elise’s headset. “I have an incoming call from The Explorer.”
Her depressed spirits lifted when she heard Charles Dance’s baritone. “Elise, I just can’t watch this anymore. I feel helpless that I can’t do anything to save those poor people.”
“Charles!” Her voice quavered. “I know. It was their choice, but it’s horrible to watch.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop seeing those images.”
Come visit and console me over here before I throw myself out the airlock.” She needed a diversion.
A World Too Far (Terran Trilogy Book 1) Page 19