Casindra Lost

by Marti Ward

  The experiments with their refocused sensors started on schedule, under Al’s rigid control. The eclipse also started and finished on schedule, testament to the inviolable rules of nature and the precision of Al’s calculations.

  But as he finalized the write up of the experiments, Al noticed the Captain staring at the port viewscreens as if something wasn’t quite right. He immediately diverted additional sensors and processors.

  There seemed to be another Lissajous asteroid field.

  A quick analysis suggested that it was a Hildian grouping with a horseshoe orbit around Paradisi-Tenebra Lagrange Points 3, 4 and 5. Objects in such an orbit would tend to be unstable, losing members to accelerate towards Paradisi or to be flung out of the system. L3s weren’t attractors, but a system of objects in Lissajous or horseshoe orbits around an L3 could stay in the vicinity for a long time, the group wearing down over millennia. There seemed to be only a few that approached or exceeded a kilometer in diameter, compared to the millions of that 1km size that frequented the neighborhoods of the Sun-Jupiter L3, L4 and L5 points, not to mention the dozens of the order of 100km diameter that meandered in the vicinity of Jupiter’s Lagrangians.

  Al could certainly understand this small group of small Hildian asteroids being missed by the unmanned probes despite them explicitly looking for any equivalents of Jupiter’s Hildas, Greeks and Trojans before committing to PTL4 as the Gate location.

  Sideris

  7 May 2077 11:50

  Sideris reached for his console to highlight the vague and mysterious shapes he’d sensed in his peripheral vision, noticing that the cats were awake and had focused their attention that way too, but he couldn’t spot anything unusual. He gave the now familiar order, “Al, color code visible in-system bodies for distance and scale for log diameter! Ring any significant asteroids or asteroid clusters and mark up with relative motion vectors any that have not previously been catalogued.”

  The blood red to pale blue near-far color scale appeared immediately as the starfield resolved to show in greens and yellows the expected Goldilocks planets as well as the inner cluster of asteroids that had been reported by the unmanned probes. To confirm his orientation, he looked across to Tenebra, which was clearly visible directly opposite the shapes he’d noticed. It had been eclipsed by Paradisi as they arrived, and now its leading Lagrangian, PTL4, was currently in occlusion – the shapes had been identified as asteroids seemed to be near PTL3, but there were some clusters near both PTL4 and PTL5.

  New Eden herself resembled a large bright half-moon in the lower starboard viewscreen – the ocean blue underlay highlighting the land masses that were visible apart from streaks of cloud across the northern hemisphere. It was beautiful, but it was a distraction right now. “Al, reduce New Eden contrast and brightness to 25%, and lose the ring!”

  It was impressive to see how accurately Al understood even his casual use of language and his implicit references – figuring out that it was the New Eden ring he wanted gone.

  Sideris focused on the anomalies nearest PTL3, the Lagrange point on the opposite site of Tenebra’s orbit around Paradisi.

  “Al, increase PTL3 neighborhood asteroid size and contrast, taking brightness to 200%, and remove their rings! Label the Paradisi-Tenebra Lagrange Points and show the orbits swept out by the inner planets in cyan, with those swept out by the PTL3-focussed asteroids in magenta.” The Tenebra orbit seemed to thicken, with a red-orange triangle marking the centroid of the rogue asteroid cluster and the red outline of its orbit seeming to inscribe the Tenebra orbit.

  As he started to take it in, Al commentated. “The estimated orbit for the uncharted asteroids is highly approximate as we have no tracking data. but, ignoring internal system dynamics and external influences by planets and moons, they would appear to be in a Hildian triangle with attractors at PTL3, PTL4 and PTL5 – but extensive observations will be needed to provide a precise model.”

  Al added some differential shading and paused momentarily before continuing. “I’ve just added shading to show the 1 and 2 standard deviation occupancy intervals based on the Hildian 3:2 resonance hypothesis. The Lissajous orbits of the smaller asteroids will migrate outside the secondary band less than 5% of the time, but the group is likely to lose outlying members periodically due to the influences of the planets in adjacent orbits. A full analysis will require detailed monitoring and months of highly intensive computation to model, and the current trace is based on a fairly crude estimate of the apparent barycenter and course of the group. Seeing them near PTL3 it is natural to liken them to Jupiter’s Hildas, but Tenebra is a Goldilocks planet and the perihelion will be half way to New Eden’s orbit. The group is much less numerous than Jupiter’s Hildas and the asteroids are generally much smaller, the largest ones being of the order of one to two kilometers rather than the one to two hundred kilometers diameter of Jupiter’s largest Hildas.”

  “Al, you said this was based on a 3:2 resonance hypothesis. What other reasonable hypotheses are there?”

  “It is possible a better model for the larger asteroids or clusters would be 3753 Cruithne or 54509 YORP, which are in 1:1 resonance with Earth, in an apparent horseshoe orbit around Earth. 3753 Cruithne, at 5km diameter, is larger than any of these asteroids, but comparable in mass to the entire group. It’s elliptical orbit sweeps from inside the Mercury orbit to outside the Mars orbit. The size and spread of the group we’ve discovered suggests that the Hildian 3:2 resonance hypothesis is more likely as it would make for a very unstable cluster that would interact regularly with Ardesco and New Eden. In the absence of evidence of such interaction, it would have to be a very new cluster, which seems very unlikely notwithstanding it being newly discovered by us.

  “Thank you, Al. That does sound implausible, but Solar Command may want to consider all hypotheses. Log full animation sequence and encode for inclusion with the EmProbe and message drones.”

  “I am sorry Captain, but the EmProbe designated EMP-NE was dispatched as scheduled on encoding of the sensor data from the eclipse, due to the closing alignment window with PTL4. The information highlighted was part of the sensor log dispatched. The false color encoding of asteroids and orbits, and any associated theories or conclusions will be sent wirelessly to both EMP-NE and MD14.”

  “AI! I am in command here, and I will authorize all probe operations. In future, notify me when a probe is ready for dispatch and await my confirmation.”

  “Acknowledged!”

  Sideris sat there fuming for a moment, but noticed that the cats were still in alert postures. Then the AI communicated again, sounding surprisingly hesitant, “Sorry Captain! I didn’t mean to upset you… Is it going to be a problem that I didn’t send the animation?”

  “No!” he muttered, almost under his breath. “The radio contact will do fine for logs and annotations and MD14 should get messages home far faster than EMP-NE.” He also remembered that he hadn’t made a log entry yet about the strange behavior of the animals. Of course, if he’d have mentioned his observations of the animals, as he’d zoomed in on the alert faces, he’d have got the same response from the damned AI: ‘The information highlighted was part of the sensor log dispatched.’

  “When will we be able to contact the EmProbes?”

  “EMP-NE is currently occluded by New Eden due to our present orbital position, but we will have radio contact in 50 minutes. EMP-G is also currently eclipsed by Paradisi for both New Eden and EMP-NE. Casindra will be in radio contact with the Gate probe in six or seven days depending on sunspot activity; laser alignment will be attempted in five days. The New Eden probe is decelerating into a more distal elliptic and will make contact with the Gate probe in thirteen days.”

  “Can we relay via EMP-A or EMP-T?” Sideris interjected.

  “EMP-A is currently emerging from Paradisi eclipse! Laser alignment should be established within two days given both vessels are in their programmed positions. Normal microwave communications will be available in four days We wi
ll be able to communicate with EMP-T within two hours, but it preceded us into occlusion relative to EMP-G and it with its lesser communications capabilities is unlikely to be able to establish communications with EMP-G before we can. We can redundantly send information to all EMPs, but there is little advantage over just sending to EMP-NE and EMP-G.”

  Sideris decided he should nonetheless give orders to ensure failsafe delivery of the asteroid discovery. “Please schedule sending details of the new asteroids as soon as contact is re-established with each EMP, with autoforwarding to EMP-G for logging on MD14. Order EMP-G to ensure that MD14 and any other drone we receive is prepared for a return message with all data and hypotheses available at that point and request specific acknowledgement of the PTL3 asteroid data – schedule for automatic send 48 hours after receipt unless overridden, and advise me of receipt.”

  It wasn’t clear that there were any significant risks from the asteroids – although it could mean a rethinking of the siting of the Gate at PTL4 and the proposed relay at PTL5, since it seemed the asteroids would sweep rather near to both of those Lagrangians. Just like the Hildas swept quite close to SJL4 – and would have been the easiest place to capture an asteroid to form the basis of the gate station back in Sol.

  It might even be worth a new mission, at least an EmProbe, to check these asteroids out more thoroughly than he could with his existing overtaxed resources. The asteroids may be worth mining, and smaller asteroids could potentially be captured entire.

  Right now, he had one EmProbe that could be deployed reasonably flexibly where needed. He had deliberately left EMP-T on an elliptical where it could provide useful message relay services while they were based at New Eden, but could also be readily redirected to any of the Goldilocks planets, or their Lagrangians. However, with its Volcan survey drones it was better suited to a planetary mission than a deep space mission.

  Simba

  7 May 2077 13:00

  Simba turned back from the door for a moment, looking at the empty nest she was leaving behind. She’d given birth to her kits there, she’d nursed them, she’d watched them play, she’d weaned them, she’d pushed them away… The kittens were out in the passage way, leaping and bounding around Samba – who knew to keep them away from the captain during the day.

  At siesta time, gray’n’gold had had a surprise for her. He entered the slider opposite their space and stepped back, beckoning her to enter. It was another home – a mirror image of hers. She looked back at the captain as he slapped his leg and caught the kittens’ eyes. They bounded up to him and he drew them in with him.

  He crouched down and they clambered over him. He indicated, told them, showed them – this was their new home.

  But there was another surprise! As Samba and the kits explored their new space, the captain led Simba through the bird bay and into the big white bird he used to glide down to the blue moon that spun slowly below. This time as he punched the panel and the door opened, he stepped back, inviting her inside. Rather than putting on his white’n’gold coat, he showed her what looked like a small white-coated animal. It wasn’t alive but it wasn’t cold either, and it had a comforting scent. He touched it and it expanded into blanket!

  He knows I love blankets.

  She was disconcerted by its unfolding, but had seen something similar with the captain’s white’n’gold coat. She shrunk back a moment waiting to see if it did anything else. It was unfolded now just the way she liked her blankets.

  She crept forward and sniffed it – it smelled something like the captain and something like his white coat. She reached out a paw to touch it, and it felt like a serviceable blanket. She took another couple of tentative steps before stepping onto it fully, and twirling and curling her way into it. It seemed to allow her to sink deeply into it wrapping her far more completely than she’d expected.

  Is he going to let me sleep here, on the bird?

  The captain watched for a while, and she watched him back for a while, before closing her eyes and settling herself further into the blanket. She heard him turn around and leave, leaving her there, in the white blanket, in the white bird.

  Sideris

  8 May 2077 15:50

  Sideris and Al had been talking about how best to get Simba to wear her environmental suit rather than just use it as a blanket. Al had programmed it to surround her just a little more each time she snuggled into it. She seemed to like it, and overnight she had burrowed under it and accepted a complete nanosilc cocoon.

  Al had tried to form it around her legs in the morning as she started to emerge from it in the morning, but she had pawed at it and he had allowed her to shrug out of it.

  Despite this potential set back, Simba had taken her siesta atop her blanket and accepted the cocooning again. As Sideris walked onto the Valiant, she pushed her nose and eyes out of the blanket to take a look, watching him as he took off his standard uniform. Instead of picking up his environmental suit and stepping into it as he was wont, he crawled under it and pulled it over himself, trying to emulate what Simba had done last night. He could hardly feel anything as Al slowly had the suit mold to his body and limbs, as he rose slowly to a crouch.

  Without saying anything, he stood, and Al started to mold Simba’s suit to her limbs, loosely at first, just making a suggestion of sleeves for her limbs. Simba rose up and stretched, pushing her hind legs back as far as they could go, and pushing one forepaw then the other forward. Al closed up the suit tight around her hind quarters and her tail. Simba looked around bemused, trying moving her tail through its full range of motions, shifting her balance, curling it forward and back expressively.

  Simba looked Sideris in the eye, then looked across at Al’s camera lens. She sat down, experimentally lifting first one forepaw and the other, observing as Al tightened it around them. She tried an experimental lick of her right paw, pulling it up to rub over her face – the only part of her that wasn’t covered by the suit.

  Simba returned her gaze to Sideris, and elegantly pirouetted to stalk over to him, doing two loops around him as she alternately sniffed at his suit and her own. Then she made eye-contact again, raising a paw in a gesture that seemed to say, Lead on McDuff!

  Sideris

  8 May 2077 23:50

  Captain Sideris resealed his nanosilc environmental protection suit after his ablutions – Al had started exposing him to air and microbes collected from his original landing site for the last few hours. Simba was with him wearing her modified childsize protection suit – with a different kind of cat flap to allow her toiletries. The suits were in monitoring mode without full seal at the moment – and Al had managed to program Simba’s nanosilc suit to unseal appropriately when she started her toilet routine. Although monitoring was desirable at all times for research purposes, Al had emphasized that it was particularly important when sleeping, for safety reasons. Sideris thought it was overkill – but getting Al to this point had been hard enough.

  Samba and the four kittens had been placed into a different air environment with their own combination of airborne microbes, and were being closely monitored – although not as closely as was possible in nanosilc suit or a biobed. Al had explained that they didn’t need such tight monitoring (Was that a pun?) because they weren’t proposing to go down to the planet – a full day’s cycle of normal readings was desirable as a reference in relation to possible infection on the planet.

  The bulk of the mission was complete and between them, he and Al had done all they’d being asked to do at New Eden, and it wasn’t yet time to head to Ardesco – and EMP-T wasn’t due for a couple of months yet. Now it was time to do what he wanted to do, and to get the close and personal data that did require a greater element of risk.

  But rather than anticipating the trip to the planet with Simba, his mind kept turning to the asteroids they’d discovered, churning as it reminded him of Petra and the von Neumann mining machines they’d seeded there. He’d done an active sensor sweep at Petra of course, and more recentl
y had scanned the moon Acerba. As he predicted, he’d found that the spectral signatures of both were similar to some of the heavier asteroids they’d discovered near PTL3. The recent eclipse scans had allowed them to get improved spectra for the inner ring of asteroids too.

  This inner cluster of asteroids, jokingly dubbed the Ring of Fates, was hypothesized to be an exploded innermost planet, although several different reasons why it might have exploded had been proposed since the earliest discovery and mapping of Paradisi. Most involved a rogue asteroid or comet. All asteroids or comets found within the inner system obviously have the potential to cause problems and need to be tracked. Could the PTL3 asteroids have anything to do with this?

  Sideris and Al had explored a number of theories to explain the PTL3 asteroids, with the most likely hypothesis they could find suggesting an impact of a hard moon-sized core fragment from the Fates on a somewhat softer moon of Tenebra’s. This might have led to the dense core fragment stopping virtually dead in space like Newton’s balls: a larger fragment of similar mass to the incoming chunk shooting off like a twinned particle. The rest of the crumbling moon, like the middle balls in Newton’s cradle, wouldn’t move that much, but would tend to spray at modest speed in all directions, some deorbiting onto Tenebra, some heading into the sun or being captured by other planets, and some staying close to Tenebra’s orbit but cycling around its Paradisi-Tenebra Lagrangians – not just L3, but wandering between L4, L3 and L5 along a horseshoe orbit.