Alpha Centauri: Sawyer's World (T-Space: Alpha Centauri Book 2)

by Alastair Mayer

  “I am hoping is random. Nothing should be wearing off this soon. I need to go through everyone’s medical records, but we are well past our mission return time, maybe some people’s shots or implants are wearing off.” He paused a moment, then added. “Although it is odd that Tyrell’s and Klaar’s would both wear off at the same time. Possibly there is something in the environment that has countered the contraceptive. I hope not here, but both of them were also on Kakuloa.”

  “As were Jennifer Singh and I, and Finley.” More complications. Klaar and Tyrell had traversed parts of Kakuloa that nobody else had, but that was over four months ago. She’d become pregnant here, on this planet. Sawyer hoped it was just the shots wearing off. “Yes, check the medical records, please. I have nothing against children but I’m not sure we’re ready for them—and the last thing we need is for all the women to be pregnant or tending babies at the same time.” She shuddered inwardly.

  The doctor looked like he was about to say something, but seemed hesitant. Sawyer had a good idea what it is he wanted to say. “Out with it, Doctor, what’s on your mind?”

  “There are other options. The procedure is straightforward.” Just as she’d thought.

  “There are, and we’ll consider them if it looks like it’s going to be a survival issue. Up until then it’s the mother’s choice. I’m not going to make a decision like that for someone else unless I absolutely have to.” Sawyer shook her head. That was a sure way to lose the cohesiveness they’d need to survive here. Sooner or later the decision would have to be made. If Klaar decided to abort that would save them some trouble in the short run. If she wanted to keep it . . . raising even a single child would put extra stress on the mission. She’d better make sure they were ready for it. If they were here long enough—and it was increasingly looking like they’d be here for a long time yet—then there’d be more pregnancies, and more kids. This damn exploration mission was turning into a colonization effort. Not that humanity couldn’t use a few off-Earth colonies, but they were so ill-equipped!

  “Have you confirmed it to Klaar yet?” Ulrika surely knew, she’d asked Krysansky in the first place, and she was a zoologist.

  “No, I wanted to tell you first, but I will tell her next. Should I not?”

  “No, you should, absolutely. I’m wondering what Tyrell’s reaction will be. I am sure he’s the father. But leave it to Ulrika to tell him.”

  “Of course. I am not stupid.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest you were. I should have a talk with her myself. Uh, when you do tell her, let her know that I know. If she doesn’t like that, tell her it’s my standing orders, the captain needs to be made aware of any medical condition that may affect the mission.”

  “That makes sense, but I was not aware of such an order.”

  “I just issued it. You are now.” She rubbed her brow again and sat back. “All right, thank you Doctor. Carry on.”

  As Krysansky left the cabin, Sawyer slowly drew in deep breath and blew it back out. And I thought this landing was a good idea . . . why?

  Chapter 24: On the Dome

  On the dome

  Maclaren landed the aircraft atop the dome, near to where Sawyer had earlier, and within a short walk of where the radio mast with its weather station stood.

  “Stay clear of that area,” Finley said, pointing to a clear area several meters away where patches of rock had been disturbed. “That’s where we buried the seismometers.”

  “They’re not so sensitive our footsteps are going to bother them, are they?”

  “Bother, no, but they’ll pick them up. Mainly I just don’t want you to trip over the cables.”

  Maclaren saw what he meant. A thin cable ran from each buried seismometer along the ground to the base of the radio mast. At irregular intervals small boulders or heaps of gravel were piled on top of the cables, no doubt to keep them being blown around in a strong wind. “Not very elegant,” she said. “Aren’t you worried about rabbits or something nibbling on them?”

  “Not really. The cable has a tough liner, and the insulation has something in it that tastes terrible. At least, it does to Earth animals. But we didn’t see any sign of animals up here. It’s pretty barren.”

  It was that. There was scattered moss or lichen, and some scrubby brush, but not much for anything big enough to worry the cables to eat. Finley and Sawyer were the experts on setting these stations up, she’d take his word for it. She started lifting gear out from behind the seats, and Finley joined her.

  “We’ll want to set this away from the seismometers. We can filter out their electromagnetic interference but the further away the better.” He handed her a sensing coil, a cylinder about a meter long and five centimeters diameter, wound tightly with wire. “Nothing special needed for these. We’ll set them up parallel to the ground at right angles.”

  “What wavelength are they detecting?”

  “Anything from direct current to about five hertz. They’ll pick up beyond that, but the longer waves give us a deeper reading.”

  “Five hertz? Is that all? I guess they don’t need to be set up very carefully then.”

  “Not really. It doesn’t even matter if they move a bit, we’ll correlate with the other locations.”

  “Right, should be easy then.”

  It took only a half-hour to carry the gear to where Finley decided he wanted it and set it up. Despite what he’d said about it not mattering if they moved, they still used a couple of large stones to keep them in place. That done, Finley took the cables and ran them over to plug in to the radio at the base of the antenna mast.

  “That’s odd,” he said as he bent down to move the rocks he’d placed on top of the radio gear.

  “What’s odd?” Maclaren asked, walking up behind him.

  “When I covered this up with Sawyer, I had four rocks on top placed in a certain way.”

  “Why? And so what?”

  “It was just the shape of them, they made kind of a geometric pattern. Just something to do. But they’re not the way I left them.”

  “You’re sure? Maybe the wind or an animal moved them?”

  Finley picked one off the top of the pile and held it up, it was smaller than his head, but bigger than the two hands he held it with. “That’s a couple of kilograms. It wasn’t the wind. Something like a big dog digging might move it, but then it would roll down the pile. He wouldn’t put it back.”

  “You’re sure it you remembered the rocks right?”

  “I’m a geologist. If somebody moved a couple of circuit boards around in your gear, you’d notice, wouldn’t you?”

  “Well, yeah, but that’s functional too.” She frowned. “But yes, I’d probably notice right off. So somebody moved it, maybe they need to fix something with the radio gear.”

  “Nobody’s been up here since Sawyer and I installed this.”

  “So, Sawyer must have adjusted something after you set it up and before you both left. Don’t worry about it, mate, let’s just plug in the cables and do a check.”

  Finley frowned and looked around, as though looking for something else that might be out of place. He finally gave up and shrugged. “I guess you’re right. I don’t remember that but I can’t swear it didn’t happen.” He looked up at the mast, focusing on the cameras he and Sawyer had attached earlier.

  “Naomi, are you recording everything we get from the cameras?”

  “Pretty much, yeah. The system does motion sensing so it only actually keeps stuff where there’s movement in the scene, past twenty-six hours. And there’s no cameras in crew private areas, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “What? Oh, no. I’m just thinking I might want to review footage when we get back.”

  “The way those cameras are positioned, you know they can’t see the bottom of the mast where the radio is, rig
ht?”

  He looked at them. “No, I guess they can’t. Well, if a large animal did get up here, we’ll see that.”

  “If that’s how you want to spend your time, knock yourself out.”

  “Maybe I’ll get Ulrika to do it,” he said, smiling. “Tell her we saw animal signs.” He turned back to the pile of stones and continued uncovering the radio.

  “I’ll tell Tyrell on you.”

  “Maybe they can watch it together.”

  “Aren’t you Mister Romantic?”

  “Or we could watch it together.”

  “Hah. Right mate. Nothing against watching a movie with you but it’s got to be something with a bit of plot.”

  “Popcorn would be nice too,” Finley said.

  “Jennifer Singh’s working on that.”

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but she reckons it’ll take ten or twenty generations. Apparently it’s going to take a bit of breeding.”

  He looked at her and shook his head. “Tease.”

  She laughed good-naturedly. “Payback for the mice.”

  Finely moved the last rock out of the way. “I guess I deserved that, then.” He stood up and handed her the cables. “I need to stretch. Do the honors?”

  While Finley stood and shook the kinks out of his shoulders, Maclaren uncovered the cable ports and inserted and fastened down the plugs. She pressed the TEST button on the signal concentrator and confirmed that the connection lights lit. Satisfied, she sealed up the radio gear and started replacing the rocks on it. “All done, looks good.”

  Finley knelt down beside her and grabbed a rock. “Here, I’ll get those.”

  “Right, let me check that Sawyer’s getting the signal,” Maclaren said and keyed her omni.

  “You won’t get a signal with that, you’ll have to use the plane’s—” Finley started, then stopped at Maclaren’s frown and raised hand as she started talking into her phone.

  “Yeah, Sawyer. Can you check that the data is coming in?... Right, panel two.... It will be channel six, the receiver is already tuned.... Yep.... It is?... Great, thanks. Maclaren out.” She looked at Finley again. “You were saying?”

  “But . . . How did you do that? I though omnis didn’t have the range?”

  “I set it to relay through the plane’s radio, of course. Why walk all the way back there?”

  “You can do that?”

  “You didn’t know that? No wonder Sawyer sounded weird when she called me when you guys set up the station the first time. Doesn’t anyone around here read the effing manual?” She shook her head, but it was more in amusement than anything else.

  Finley looked sheepish. “Well,” he said, “I guess I learned something today. Show me how to do that, eh?”

  “Sure, no worries. Sawyer says the data is coming in fine, so let’s get the rest of this gear packed. What’s next?”

  “We only have two sets of sensors. I figured we’d leave this one set up, go deploy the other, then come back in twenty-four, uh, twenty-six hours and pack this up. That will give us a good set of readings here, then we pick up the next set and redeploy at a third and fourth site.”

  “Just how long did you think we were going to stay out here?”

  “We can head back to camp after redeploying the gear tomorrow. Somebody can come back in a couple of days to pick it up or move it somewhere else. By then we’ll have enough data figure out if and where to do that.”

  “Right then.” They’d reached the plane and secured the spare cables and other gear in the back. “Want to swap seats for a bit? Look out the other side of the plane for a while?” The aircraft could of course be flown from either seat, but the left seat was traditionally the pilot-in-command’s position.

  “Sure. Let’s head north, I’ll show you the pyramid.”

  “There’s nowhere to land there, is there?” Maclaren had seen the photos they’d brought back, and was curious, but there didn’t seem to be any practical way to get to it overland.

  “We didn’t see anywhere to land last time, but we were pressed for time. Maybe we’ll spot something. The satellite photos showed a scattering of clear areas a few kilometers north-west of it. Since we have more time, we could hike in from the edge of the forest.”

  She didn’t mind the hike, and was curious about the . . . whatever it was, but had some reservations. “I don’t fancy leaving the plane alone while we’re away from it. What if animals got to it? And can you find the thing if we’re walking around in the forest? Visibility would be limited.”

  “Well, true, there’s no GPS, but you’ve got a compass built in to your omni, right? I do. We navigate the old-fashioned way.”

  “Ah, I suppose that would work. Still don’t know about the plane, though.”

  “We can make that decision when we get there. Sure, I wouldn’t want to park it in a field full of girannos, or any kind of large animal. Besides, there may not be anywhere to land within a few hours walk anyway. Let’s see what there is. We won’t leave the plane unless we find a good spot.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s go.”

  The little plane rolled thirty meters than gradually lifted, a slight headwind out of the west shortening their takeoff run. Finley banked right and headed north toward where he and Sawyer had seen the pyramid, or pyramid-shaped hill, or whatever it was, on their earlier trip.

  “Do you know where you’re going?”

  “We headed north last time. The only bearing we got was from the ship.”

  “Yeah, right. Three-one-two, right?”

  “You have a better memory for numbers than I do. Sounds right.”

  “All right, pardon my reach.” So saying, Maclaren stretched across him to tap out several commands on the plane’s small dashboard computer.

  “Uh, what are you doing?”

  “Wait one.” She tapped another sequence, and a small window opened in one corner of the dash screen, displaying a three-digit number, two-eight-five. “There.”

  “I thought you said three-one-two? What’s that?”

  “That’s our bearing now. Keep flying north until it’s at three-one-two, then turn and follow the radial. If we’re too far, turn the other way and follow it backwards.” As she spoke, the number changed to two-eight-six.

  “Oh!” Finley said, surprised.

  “Just like an old time VOR. Well, a bit fancier. Let me guess, you didn’t know it could do that either.”

  “I just assumed we’d only be flying visual flight rules.”

  “Well, yeah, don’t go flying through any clouds. But nothing wrong with using a nav assist if you’ve got one.”

  “I won’t argue with that. Got any other tricks up your sleeve?”

  “Perhaps. But if I told you ahead of time, it’d spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?”

  “I can hardly wait.” He sounded amused. Maclaren just grinned and sat back to watch the scenery go by.

  Chapter 25: Walk in the Park

  Camp Anderson

  Sawyer was at work in a field with Jennifer Singh when Tyrell showed up. The work amounted to pulling random weeds from between the rows of plants that Singh was cultivating. Apparently, they were a distant relative of Brassicaceae, which included turnips and cabbages, among others. Singh was going for bigger roots, as they would store better, but florets like broccoli or cauliflower could also be useful, if they proved edible. Another field held Dr. Singh’s experiments with various grass-related plants they’d found. Sawyer didn’t mind the work, it gave her some exercise and didn’t take any concentration, a nice change from worrying about the overall mission and the survival of her team.

  “We’re going for a hike,” Tyrell announced.

  Sawyer looked up at him. He had one of the netguns that Maclaren had modified to include a taser. The shooter could use the net to snare small animals, or th
e taser to discourage large ones. It wouldn’t be lethal against anything human sized or larger, unless a lucky shot stopped its heart, but it was better than a pointed stick.

  “What do mean ‘we’?” she asked. “You and Dejois aren’t planning to take revenge on that terror bird with that toy gun, are you? You’ll just annoy it.”

  “Ha, no. About two kilometers upriver there’s a stream that flows into it. Ulrika and I were going to follow it upstream into the woods. She wants to see what kind of creatures live near it, or in it. The netgun is for defense, or catch and release unless there are specimens small enough to carry back.”

  “You’re going with Ulrika? Is Dejois going?”

  “No, he’s doing some sort of ecosystem modeling on the computer.” Tyrell grinned. “Not that we were planning to invite him anyway.”

  “Ah.” Sawyer guessed that Klaar hadn’t told him yet. Not that her likely pregnancy should make any difference, especially this early, but Tyrell was protective enough that Sawyer didn’t think he’d be as nonchalant about this little expedition if he knew. And perhaps this hike was so she could tell him. No business of hers, Sawyer decided, and she certainly wasn’t going to bring it up before Klaar told him.

  “All right,” she said. “Be back before dark. Finley and Maclaren will be away overnight, and I’d rather not have anyone else away at the same time. And mark your trail.” If, for some reason, they didn’t make it back by nightfall, then a trail to follow would make it easier to find them. The crew didn’t have the luxury here of a team in orbit they could contact by omniphone.

  “We’ll be following the stream, and I doubt we’ll be out of signal range, but sure.”

  That was one thing about this team, Sawyer thought. They had all had extensive field experience away from civilization. Well, all the scientists, anyway. Maclaren and Krysansky had some of that too, but not, as far as Sawyer knew, in their professional capacities until they’d begun training for the mission. Not that she wouldn’t still worry, but they could take care of themselves, and were experienced enough to not take stupid chances.