by Kathryn Hoff
“Yes!” Mya clapped her hands.
“No,” Rachel said. “We will not land. That would far exceed our mission and would contravene protocol for planetary exploration. This mission is for a preliminary survey only, to be conducted from orbit. I’ll deploy the first three drones this morning.” She laid her hand over Mya’s. “I’m sorry, Mya. There will be other expeditions to explore more extensively.”
“But we must,” Mya whispered. “Suriel wants us to go there.”
Rachel had me install some sort of sterilization unit into the drone launch airlock. One by one, we deployed three survey drones into low orbits after they’d been treated with a lightning-bright blue light to kill any microbes on their surface. Soon, Rachel was directing me where to send the drones. Data and images began to pour in.
Mya, Danto, and Jamila gathered around Rachel’s screens and monitors, fascinated by the new world. When Grim and even Archer complained that they wanted to see, too, I routed the images to all the ship’s viewscreens and opened the com nodes so everyone could join the fun.
Rachel kept up a running commentary. “The air temperatures are within habitable ranges, particularly in the equatorial regions…The seas show significant temperature gradations, indicating strong circulating currents…Look, there, a mountain range. Lovely. There’s ice or snow on the tops. Indecent amounts of vegetation. It’s fueling the atmosphere with oxygen, and helping to sequester the carbon.”
“Paradise,” Mya said.
Jamila pointed. “There, you can see lines on the land on the lidar images. They could be roads, hidden under the vegetation cover.”
“Perhaps,” Rachel said, “perhaps. Hmm. Significant carbon dioxide. It could be volcanic activity, but it could indicate living beings that breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide like we do.”
“Or industrial activity?” Jamila asked.
“No sign of that. On Earth, insect life and herbivores are responsible for vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
“It is all as Suriel revealed,” Mya affirmed. “A lovely, fertile land, filled with life!”
And in fact, Rachel soon pointed out a forest of moving specks. “Animal life,” she said. “Big, like elephants. They’re moving across the plains. Some sort of migration.”
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “Look at the animals, and all that water. It could be a new ag planet—you could feed billions of people from here.”
We spent all day at it. As I brought a tray of samosas into the cargo hold, Jamila turned, eyes shining, and exclaimed, “A city! We found a city!”
The lidar imager showed sprawling heaps of boulders covered by shrubs. “It doesn’t look much like a city,” I said.
Jamila tapped the screen. “See these straight lines radiating out?” There were six of them, glowing faintly, stretching toward the sea, the mountains, and the plains. “Those are roads, converging on the ruins of a population center. I can’t wait to write this up.” She glowed with anticipation of professional accolades. “We’ve done it! We’ve discovered Nakana.”
I leaned against the bulkhead and closed my eyes while Jamila and Rachel parsed through the images, speculated about mining processes, water production, and atmospheric modification. A wave of longing swept over me.
Home. Take me home.
“We must go home,” Mya said.
Jamila laughed. “Home? We just got here.”
“Nakana,” Mya replied. “Nakana is our home, our true home. We must go to the surface.”
Rachel said lightly, “Sorry. Not this trip.”
Danto stepped close enough to loom over Rachel. “Dr. Fiori, your caution is unwarranted. Everything the relic has revealed to Balan and Mya has proved true. As a scientist, that should be enough to convince you the voice of the relic can be trusted. We are called to Nakana—we must go.”
Rachel smiled sadly. “I will certainly include my observations about the trustworthiness of the relic in my report. However, like you, Danto, I have my orders. We will not land.”
Danto stiffened, his face rigid.
Rachel raised her voice to address the group. “Patch and I need to get ready for the next step, a probe to gather samples from the surface. That requires isolation procedures, so all of you will have to leave. Danto, will you remain a minute, and ask Kojo to join us? I want to discuss the drone recovery process.”
As Danto went to the com node, Rachel whispered to me, “Be ready.”
I drifted a few steps back so I was behind Danto.
Kojo walked in with a cheery, “Hello, Rachel. What’s up?”
As Danto turned to Kojo, it took only a moment for Rachel to pull out a stun pistol.
“Sergeant Danto,” she said formally, “you are relieved of command.”
“You? You have no right!” By that time, Kojo and I had our stunners trained on him. “Do you dare to commit mutiny?”
Rachel replied, “Commander, remember? As medical officer on this ship and under the regulations of the Settlement Authority, I am instructing Captain Babatunji to relieve you on the grounds that you are medically unfit for command. I am now taking control of the mission.”
Kojo bared his wolf grin and took away Danto’s stunner. “Good. This simplifies things.”
“I’m sorry, Sergeant,” Rachel said. “I take this action only out of an abundance of caution. It’s clear from the neural sensor that you’ve been hearing the voice of the relic. Proximity to the planet seems to be causing a spike in telepathic activity.”
Danto glowered. “You will regret this.”
Rachel—half Danto’s size and twice his age—didn’t back down. With some kindness, she said, “I have no choice. It’s clear the relic has affected some of your actions. I promise you, you’ll be commended for your leadership in bringing this mission to a successful conclusion. I have no doubt your actions—all your actions—have been, to your best judgment, necessary for the success of the mission, and I will include that statement in my report. However, the danger of your judgment being impaired by the relic is too great. You are relieved.”
Rachel put away her stunner. “Kojo, I am formally instructing you to continue with the mission to complete the preliminary survey, which will take only another day. After that, we’ll return to the nearest convenient port.”
“No!” Danto cried. “We must go to the surface! The mission requires it! The Sages require it!”
“Your word of honor, Sergeant,” Rachel reminded him. “You gave your word of honor to leave when I said you must.”
“My duty to the Sages supersedes my personal honor!”
“I know,” Rachel said gently. “That’s why I must relieve you of command.”
CHAPTER 27
Nakana
Sparrowhawk was ours again. I felt like a long illness had passed.
Kojo gave Mya the option of moving her things into another cabin or being locked up in the stateroom with Danto. She chose Danto, as long as Rachel agreed to route the planet images to her console.
Once the lovers were locked into Mya’s stateroom, Kojo turned to me with a sigh. “Finally, our luck has changed. Let’s finish the survey and get the Zub out of here.” He went to tell Hiram the good news.
Jamila grinned when I told her of the change of command. “Excellent! The sooner we finish the survey, the sooner I’ll be able to launch an excavation.”
“Good for Rachel,” Grim said. “She’s got more balls than Kojo. I’m glad somebody finally had the nerve to do something sensible.”
I gave him a stun pistol so he could keep an eye on Danto and Mya when they needed to use the sanitary facilities.
“Don’t worry,” Grim said with a nasty smile. “I’ll be sure that bastard stays in his place.”
“None of that. They’re not prisoners. Rachel just wants to keep them out of the way until we leave the system.”
That night, I hoped for a glimpse of Papa, maybe even some advice from the spirit realm. Instead, my drea
ms took me back to the warm grassland and the shaggy beasts. The longing to be there with them was desperately acute. I felt sorry for Mya—if she felt Suriel’s desire so much more intensely than I did, she must be in misery.
Early the next morning, I joined Rachel as she monitored the three survey drones as they sent streams of data about the planet to her computers.
Blankets and a pillow were stacked neatly next to the bulkhead.
“Did you spend the night here?” I asked, uneasy. She would have been within arm’s length of the synthreactor.
“I expect to spend every night here until the survey is complete and we’re in Kriti,” she said, with less than her usual good cheer. “The relic’s effect on the company is…unhealthy. The sooner we finish the mission, the better.”
Ancestors! With Rachel camping in the cargo hold, how would we ever unload the synthreactor?
At her direction, I moved the sampling probe into the airlock. She let the sterilizing blue light bathe it with all three sample pods open, and then sterilized it again with the pods closed. As big as a cargo drone, the probe had similar rockets for hovering and fine positioning even in strong gravity.
I deployed the probe straight into the lower atmosphere.
“The winds will be strong,” Rachel warned.
“I pilot a space hauler. I know how to deliver a drone full of cargo.” I sent the probe toward a sea near the planet’s equator, where the winds would be calmer. It was quiet enough there on the open water to take a seawater sample before sending the probe over the nearby land mass.
“I want to see that wildlife,” she said.
The rocky coast of the continent opened out to one of the grassy plains that seemed to cover Nakana. And there they were, massive beasts feeding on the grasses.
There were many, many of the beasts, in different sizes and shapes. The biggest had the long, shaggy hair I’d seen in my dream. “Magnificent,” Rachel murmured. “Bigger than elephants.”
The tall grass obscured their legs, but the animals moved with an undulating motion that suggested more than four feet. Their heads were low, constantly eating. I could see their heavy necks straining as the animals pulled at the grass to break it off. They were always moving, not just walking, but wagging several appendages, arms or tails maybe. Their perpetual motion reminded me of Archer.
Standing apart were thinner, taller animals that followed the larger ones, eating what was left behind. I wanted to see them closer, but every time I flew the probe near, the animals moved away.
Rachel said, “The probe frightens them. See that patch of dust? It looks like a wallow. Try to take a dirt sample from there.” I obliged. “Lovely. Now let the probe rest there quietly. Maybe one of the animals will approach.”
Sure enough, in only a few minutes, a beast came near. Its broad flank was covered with long reddish fur, just as in my dreams. I could almost feel the heat radiating from its body, and almost feel its pulse through the probe controls. One of its tails waved like a happy puppy’s.
“Excellent,” Rachel said softly. “Now open the third sample pod and leave it open. We might actually capture a stray hair or two. See the temperature change? The animal is warm-blooded. Good, you can close it now. Move the probe away slowly.”
I raised the probe until we could get a better view of the beast, resting in the dust wallow.
“Six legs,” Rachel observed. “Long hairy covering. Wide mouth, small appendages near the mouth, possibly to assist feeding. At least six sensory organs on its head. Multiple auxiliary extremities.”
I raised the probe higher and we saw several similar animals nearby. As we watched, an animal approached the one resting in the wallow and nudged it. The wallower obligingly stood up and walked away. The newcomer took its place, wriggling in the dirt.
Jamila called from the salon. “Did you see that? Indicative of social dominance.”
A short way off, several stockier animals browsed. Their bodies had a delta shape, with a head at the center of a blunt side, four long legs along the other two sides, and two shorter arm-like extensions extending from the rear, grooming their short fur. I could see little of their heads, because they kept them down, grazing the cropped grass.
“They don’t look up,” I said.
Rachel said, “Hmm?”
“They don’t look up to check for predators. They just keep eating.”
“Perhaps sight is not an important sense for them, or there are few predators.” As we watched, they moved on. “They’re thin,” mused Rachel, “although the grass is plentiful. Perhaps it has low nutrition value. Try to get closer to the grass.”
We watched the fascinating scene for quite a while.
The probe’s power monitor beeped. “Rachel, the power’s getting low.”
“All right. We’ve got our samples. Bring the probe back into orbit for retrieval.”
I fired the probe’s thrusters, scattering the animals. When the probe was far above the beasts, I ignited the main rocket to accelerate it into orbit. The winds were fierce—I had to fight to get it beyond the atmosphere, into an elliptical orbit. Once it reached apogee, I would boost it higher to bring it aboard.
I called Kojo on the com. “Good news. We’ve finished sampling and are beginning retrieval. How are Mya and Danto?”
“Danto’s brooding,” Kojo replied. “Mya’s fretting. If she gets worse, I’ll have to tranq her again. I won’t be happy till we get out of here.”
As the heavy sampling probe spiraled higher, I began to maneuver the three smaller survey drones into position for the touchy process of retrieval while both the drone and the ship were in orbit.
Amazing. For once, everything was going right. Against all odds, we’d found Nakana and finished the survey. We had twenty-two days left to deliver the synthreactor—enough time to get out of the Gloom and head for Kriti. Along the way, we’d find some way to distract Rachel long enough to dig out the synthreactor pieces and drop them into orbit around some lonely moon. Soon we’d be free of Ordalo’s threat, and free of Danto, Mya, Rachel, and this crazy mission.
Jamila called on the com. “I’ve found another city! It’s farther from the equator, in a temperate region. Can you send the drone closer so we can get a better view?” She gave us the coordinates.
“Fine,” Rachel said with a sigh. “Patch, direct one of the survey drones over that site—just one pass. Go ahead and start recovering the others.”
Jamila delivered some rations, for which I was grateful. “Can’t we just leave the observation drones in place?” she asked, peering into the cargo hold. “I can use them when I come back for the excavation.”
“Protocol requires that we leave nothing behind,” Rachel said.
“But an orbiting drone couldn’t possibly cause any harm.”
“Until it’s hit by a meteor and forms a debris field around the planet?” Rachel shook her head. “No. Nothing left behind.” She shut the door decisively.
“Look sharp, missy,” Hiram called from the wheelhouse. “I’ve matched our orbit to the first survey drone’s. It’s all lined up for you.”
“Thanks, Hiram.” I maneuvered the drone into retrieval position and let it float into the airlock. “Locking down.” Intense blue light blazed from the airlock’s shielded window. “Sterilization complete.”
While the second survey drone approached the retrieval point, I crated the first. The sampling probe was climbing nicely, and the third survey drone was beginning to arc toward the pole.
“Heads up, missy,” Hiram called. “Second drone should be in range.”
The second survey drone zipped into the airlock and went through the sterilization cycle.
The sample probe was still in low orbit, climbing slowly as it circled the planet. The rockets were using a lot of power to shift the heavy probe and its load of samples.
“Hiram,” I called, “the sampling probe is low on power. Can we get closer?”
“Moving in,” Hiram called. “Ea
sy, missy. Preparing to cut acceleration. Three, two, one, cut.”
I halted the probe’s rockets just as Sparrow stopped accelerating, so the probe seemed to be drifting nearby, with only a slight swerve to starboard. A few quick bursts from the probe’s maneuvering rockets brought it toward the airlock.
Closer, closer. There was a clang as the probe touched the mooring pad. Boom! The interlocks clamped shut. The blue sterilizing lights blazed behind the shielded airlock window.
“There.” I breathed in relief. “Got it, Hiram! Thanks!”
“My pleasure, missy.” With a short rocket thrust, Sparrowhawk accelerated upward to a safer orbit.
Rachel smiled. “Nicely done, Patch. Just the last drone to bring in.”
“Won’t the sterilizer kill the samples?”
“They’re shielded inside the sample pods. The pods will stay sealed until we get to a proper lab.”
The remaining survey drone was high over the surface, moving from the polar ice to mountainous woodland. Cloud wisps obscured the visible-light image, but the lidar images were still clear. As the drone’s orbit carried it farther from the pole, the surface became hilly, green with shrubs or trees rather than grasses.
“There’s the city,” Jamila called.
It looked like a long, low mound of rocky blocks covered with scrub, but as the drone passed over the mound, a hint of straight lines appeared within the jumble of blocks. Streets in a ruined city? Jamila and her fellow archeologists would have their jobs guaranteed for years investigating it.
“Well spotted, Jamila,” Rachel said.
Chirp.
I paused in crating the heavy sampling probe. The sound had erupted from one of Rachel’s consoles.
Rachel checked her monitors with furrowed brow. Chirp. A second chirp sounded, then a third. The view of the city faded into the distance as the drone moved away. After a pause, there was another chirp, then silence.
I checked the scanner. I checked again, scarcely able to breathe.
A beacon.
Hiram called the from wheelhouse. “Kojo, missy, did you see that? A beacon pulse. Out here in the Gloom, a goddamned burzing beacon.”