Maclaren had looked up at the mention of flying, now she straightened from her half-slouch and leaned forward. “Could be, fill me in. Magneto-what now?”
“Magnetotelluric. It’s a survey and imaging technique to see structures deep underground, down a couple of kilometers at lower frequencies.”
“Cool. How does that work?”
“It measures currents in the ground. The deepest are generated by interaction between the magnetosphere and the stellar wind, auroras and such. If you want the theory I can point you at a couple of references in the library. Basically, you need to set up the sensing gear in a remote spot, calibrate it, and let it take recordings for a while.”
Maclaren grinned. “Doesn’t sound too hard. I think I can manage it.”
“You’ll need a geologist along, and I don’t want anyone going out solo anyway. I know you can handle the gear, but you’ll need someone to tell you the best locations for it. I’ll come along if you want, but if you’re okay with it, you could take Finley or Tyrell.”
“Hah. An overnight trip? Ulrika would never forgive me if I took Fred.” She looked thoughtful.
Sawyer had no particular concerns. They’d all been living in fairly close quarters for months, between the trip out, and the time on or orbiting Kakuloa and here. And Naomi Maclaren was certainly capable of taking care of herself.
“All right,” Maclaren continued, “No offense if I choose Peter over you, assuming he wants to go? Nothing personal.”
“No offense taken. Besides, I have plenty to do here. Just make sure he lets you do most of the flying. Why don’t you go find him and tell him I want you and him on that trip, and start organizing the gear you’ll need. Figure on leaving day after tomorrow, if the weather looks like it will hold. That should give you enough time to prep.”
“Right, I’ll do that. Cheers.”
Sawyer watched her go. There was a noticeable spring to her step. Another crisis averted. I hope they’re all that easy.
∞ ∞ ∞
Naomi Maclaren didn’t know any of the away team, as she would put it, very well before the landing. Sure, they had all trained together, but she had been aboard the Anderson for the voyage out, Sawyer had been on the Heinlein and Finley and Tyrell on the Chandrasekhar. Finley and Sawyer had gone down to planet Baker—now Kakuloa—with the Chandra and Tyrell with the Krechet. She and Fred had remained in orbit aboard “Centauri Station” the docked-together remaining spacecraft, until he had landed with the Krechet. Dejois and Krysansky had also been in orbit the whole time, but they’d had their own interests. She’d interacted more with Vukovich, the astrophysicist, but he had returned to Earth on the Heinlein.
Since the landing everyone had gotten to know each other a little better, of course. Those who had already been planetside on Kakuloa were in better physical shape than she and the others who had remained in orbit. Even though the latter had maintained regular exercise schedules, that wasn’t the same as being under full gravity—slightly more than full in Kakuloa’s case—twenty-four, or twenty-six, or whatever it had been on Kakuloa a day. With the brighter sunlight and hard work they were all doing here, everyone was getting more muscled and tan. Well, the latter was harder to tell in Jennifer Singh’s case but she’d been on Kakuloa too.
Some of that had crossed her mind when Sawyer asked her to take a geologist along for the magneto survey. She had no desire to stir up any ill feelings with Ulrika by asking Fred, and as for Elizabeth, well, Sawyer was the Captain. Besides, there was something about Peter Finley. Tyrell and the Captain were, well, Yanks. She was American herself, by choice, but she felt they had an indefinable blind-spot. She’d grown up in Australia, Finley was Canadian, and although the two countries were quite different, there was some kind of resonance there. Memories of the Empire, or something, although she didn’t think either country’s currency had featured the queen or king on it in many decades. Come to that, she couldn’t really remember the last time she’d seen actual currency.
Whatever. Tomorrow should be interesting.
∞ ∞ ∞
Next day, Anderson briefing area
The three geologists, Sawyer, Tyrell and Finley were gathered around one of the large screens in the Anderson looking at low-orbit photos of planet Able when Maclaren found them.
“G’day mates, so where are we going then?”
“We were just discussing that,” said Sawyer. “We definitely want readings from the dome where Pete and I set up a seismic station. We’ve been getting scattered mild readings and I’d like to see if that’s geothermal or there’s movement in the old magma chamber. Other than that....”
“I was thinking beyond that,” Tyrell said. “Those formations”—he gestured at an area on one of the satellite maps—“could have some interesting ore deposits. They may be too deep for anything we’re capable of digging now, but future expeditions might be interested.”
“What, for mining?” Maclaren asked. “Why not just mine asteroids, isn’t that easier?”
“Well, for certain metals, yes. But there are some ores that are concentrated by geologic and hydrothermal processes that we’re less likely to find in asteroids. Also, this system seems to have a paucity of asteroids, the gravitational effects of the two suns tends to scatter them.”
“Ah, right.”
“The problem is,” said Finley, “that’s a long trip. That’s a full day of flying to get there.”
“So you’d have to wait another day to recharge the batteries,” Maclaren said, nodding. The ultralight had wings made of a film that converted sunlight into electricity, but not enough to keep the plane flying constantly, even under this planet’s brighter sun. They had to be supplemented by battery power, and the batteries could only recharge if the plane wasn’t flying.
“That,” Sawyer added, “and the fact that it’s just too far. I want the flying limited to distances where people could reasonably walk back if they had to.” She didn’t look at Tyrell, but his face reddened. “We don’t have a second plane.”
“Would you like one?” Maclaren asked.
“What do you mean?”
“We have two drones. We have plenty of solar film. I think with a bit of creative re-engineering I could put together a twin-engine ultralight using the motors and props from the drones. It wouldn’t have quite the capacity or speed of EP03, but it could carry two. Of course, then we wouldn’t have the drones.”
The others looked at each other. Tyrell shrugged. “We don’t use the drones much anymore,” Finley said.
“Well, either way, we’re don’t have a second plane for this expedition,” Sawyer said. “But it’s an interesting thought. Let’s discuss it with the rest of the team when you get back.”
“Fair enough. So where are we going?”
Finley pointed at the map. “I was thinking, after we set up at the dome, we swing around to the north and east in an arc centered here at the landing site. We stop somewhere around here” he pointed at a flattish area that appeared unforested “to let the batteries recharge and spend the night, then next day keep going to here,” indicating another rise in the terrain almost directly north. “We do another survey there, then fly a little further east and follow the coast back until we cut inland back to here.” He looked at Maclaren. “Naomi, what do you think?”
She looked at the satellite photos for a few moments, zooming in here and there, then stepped back. “Works for me.” She turned to Sawyer. “Boss?”
“Tentatively okay. You might want to take a closer look at the photos to make sure there’s nothing you can’t hike through or around if you have to. And make sure you load those images into your omnis.” She looked at Tyrell. “Anything to add?”
He started to shake his head, but then said “Yeah. Stay away from bird flocks.”
“No worries, mate,” said Maclare
n.
Finley asked her “Do we know the weather?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I just downloaded imagery from the IPM, no weather fronts within five hundred kilometers, from the looks of things, and those are slow-moving. We should have clear weather for several days. Readings from the weather station on the dome agree.”
“All right. Well, if it’s okay with Sawyer, let’s load up and go flying.”
“Okay with me. Just make sure you report in regularly, and stay safe.”
“Yes’m,” Finley and Maclaren both said together, then looked at each other and grinned. They turned to leave.
“You kids have fun!” Sawyer called after them.
Maclaren rolled her eyes. “Yes Mum. Don’t wait up!” she called back over her shoulder. Beside her, Finley just shook his head.
Chapter 22: To The Dome
Departing Camp Anderson
With the magnetotelluric sensing equipment and their camping gear loaded up on the plane, Finley and Maclaren climbed aboard. “You want to take left seat?” Finley asked.
“Sure.” Maclaren buckled in and ran a quick systems diagnostic check. Everything looked good. They’d already dragged the aircraft to the downwind end of their airstrip. There was no sense it wasting battery power for something like that. She switched the main batteries to the flight motor, checked the instruments as she powered it up, then looked to Finley. “Ready to roll?”
He gave her a quick thumbs-up. “Yep!”
“Right, we’re off.” Maclaren released the toe-brakes and the little plane rolled forward, bumping over the ground until the speed picked up enough that the wings were lifting. She held it a little longer then pulled back on the stick, and they lifted into the air. She trimmed their attitude for best rate of climb, then gently banked to the west, putting the rising Alpha Centauri A behind them.
As they reached cruising altitude, she backed off the throttle, lowering their airspeed to what put the optimum low drain on the battery. The motor whine dropped in volume and pitch. “That’s better, now we can hear ourselves think.”
“So Peter,” Maclaren said, “you’ve been this route before. Want to play tour guide? Where are your girannos?”
“All right. Bear north just a bit. See that ridge?”
“Yeah.”
“Mostly we’ve seen them on the other side of that, on the grassland but grazing on the trees. Hang on, let me grab the binoculars.” He half turned and rummaged behind the seats, then came back with a pair of image-stabilizing binoculars. “Take us up another hundred meters, I’ll see if I can see any.”
“Right.” Maclaren nudged the power up a bit and began a gentle climb. Beside her, Finley peered through the binoculars, scanned the area ahead of them.
“There! Come left about five degrees. As we clear the dike you should be able to see them. A group of four or five near a stand of trees.”
Maclaren headed as instructed. She could see scattered patches of trees amidst the grasslands beyond the ridge, but it was still too far to make out the large animals without binoculars.
There was a bit of wind today, enough to cause some turbulence as they flew over the ridge. “Whoops, sorry about that,” Maclaren said.
“Not to worry. You’re actually a pretty smooth flier.”
“Thanks.” By now they were close enough that she could see the large animals browsing on several of the trees. They did look something like large, gray giraffes. It wasn’t easy to judge scale, but yes, they were huge. She put the plane in a gentle descent to get a closer look.
“Not too close, Naomi, we don’t want to startle them.”
“No worries. Although I have a hard time imagining something would startle those creatures easily.”
“Who knows,” he said. “But elephants and mice and all that.”
“I thought that was a myth.”
“Maybe it is. I’ve heard people say it isn’t, but I’m not going to try the experiment myself.”
“Why not, no elephants?” she said, and grinned.
“No, I’m afraid of mice.”
“What? You—” then she turned and caught the smile on his face. “Cheeky bastard, you almost had me there.”
He muttered something that she didn’t quite catch.
“What was that you said?”
“What?” He pointed off to the left. “Look, is that a giranno calf?”
She turned to look at where Finley pointed, but considered what she thought she’d heard him mutter: “I’d have you anywhere.” Fortunately she was turned away from him so he couldn’t see her face. “You might be right,” she said, then added: “I think it is a calf.”
Chapter 23: Surprise!
USS Anderson, at the landing site
Elizabeth Sawyer sat reviewing the ship’s systems and supplies at a computer console aboard the Anderson. The recycling systems had been shut down and flushed. If they did end up needing to fly the Anderson to orbit, assuming someone arrived with a refueling pod, she wanted to keep as many of the systems they’d need in good repair, and the easiest way to do that was to not use them, except for occasional maintenance. For all that, she had her doubts as to how space worthy the Anderson would be after all this time on the ground. The Chandrasekhar had held up well, but it had the refueling pod’s reactor to supply almost unlimited power. Here they had to make do with solar—okay, Alpha Centauri—panels, and most of that power went to the various scientific instruments and electronics. I wonder when those will start to wear out?
The supplies were another question. They still had several months’ worth of concentrated rations, and they’d been slowly transition the food processing systems to deal with local vegetation. Even cooked local eggs were becoming a thing, now that they’d found reasonably-sized birds with eggs that didn’t taste strange. That specifically excluded terror bird eggs, which apparently had a strange gamey flavor. Sawyer took Dejois and Tyrell’s word on this, she hadn’t tried them herself. She suspected that the only reason they had eaten one was out of a personal grudge against the beasts.
There was a rapping on the hull near the open hatchway. It was Krysansky, the medical doctor.
“Yes, Doctor? What can I do for you?”
He dropped the statement on her like a bomb. “Ulrika Klaar is pregnant.”
“What?”
“As in ‘with child’. She is about two months into it.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Please, Captain. I am medical doctor. But no, there is a small chance it is something else. Somebody neglected to include pregnancy test kits on the manifest—”
“And that such an important survival item for interstellar travel. I’m shocked.” She was, but not at this omission. Everyone had received contraceptive shots or implants before leaving Earth, a pregnancy shouldn’t have happened. Although given the amount of time Klaar and Tyrell had been spending together, if it was going to happen to anyone it would have been her.
“As am I. And I don’t think anyone has the appropriate sensors on their omnis.”
“Have you asked?”
“Not yet. Just asking lets the—what is phrase?—cat out of the bag, and I wanted to give you option of how to handle it.”
Sawyer grunted acknowledgment. Yet another burden of command. “Thanks for that. I think we should inventory the capabilities of everyone’s omnis. That will answer your question and is good information to have. I shouldn’t have overlooked that.”
“You can’t think of everything.”
“No, but what I don’t think of, or nobody else thinks of, could be what kills us. But back to Klaar. Why do you think she’s pregnant?”
“She asked me to check. Missed periods. No pronounced morning sickness but some queasiness. I ran tests and found elevated hCG levels.”
“HCG?”
“H
uman chorionic gonadotropin. It is hormone produced in pregnancy, post-implantation. It has been used in pregnancy test kits for over a century, although most these days check for EPF. It turns out I could use the biologist’s assay equipment to measure it.”
“Right, I knew that. Okay. Could anything else cause an hCG rise?”
“On this planet, who knows?. There is chance that there is a local contaminant mimics hCG in the assay test, but I don’t think so. Boze moi, if it is something in food and I have to test everybody....”
“Look into that. And also put Klaar on straight rations,” so much for switching everyone to native food, “until we re-screen all the local food for hormone-like substances. Could anything else cause it?”
“Certain diseases—choriocarcinoma and some other cancers, some immunoglobulin deficiencies, a few other things—but nothing likely in her case. She’s enough along we could try an ultrasound, with the right equipment. We will have to improvise here, but perhaps the biology team may have something. Someone may even have an app for it on their omni. We have x-ray of course, but I don’t want to use that if she is pregnant if we can avoid.”
Sawyer wondered if there were anything like an ultrasound app in the ship’s database. It certainly had a store of all kinds of other apps, one never knew what might come in handy. The question was whether an omni’s sensors were up to it.
“All right, thank you.” Sawyer leaned forward in her chair, elbows on desk, and rubbed her forehead. She looked up sharply at Krysanksy again. “What do you think, random birth control failure or is this something to worry about with the other women in the crew?” She’d been celibate herself, but . . . “I’ve been trying not to worry about who is screwing around with whom—I assume it’s going on, we’re all adults here—and I damn sure don’t want to try imposing celibacy rules.”
Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World (T-Space: Alpha Centauri Book 2) Page 10