To The Stars

by Thomas Stone

  Kathleen glanced at Bart. Bart didn't respond.

  "Well, I'm sure he has his reasons."

  "I suppose so."

  Doris' voice cracked from the speaker. "All personnel are requested to gather in the galley for a mission briefing in ten minutes. I repeat, the galley in ten minutes everybody. Thank you."

  "Ah," said Kathleen, "I'll bet they've made the decision for the EVA."

  Bart unplugged himself and stood up; suddenly it was crowded in the small compartment. "Shall we go?" Bart suggested as he pushed past Harry.

  "What's the matter with him?" Harry whispered to Kathleen.

  Kathleen answered, "Nothing. Well, maybe he's just a tiny bit jealous."

  The three made their way to the galley and joined the others. Fagen was the last to show.

  "Shortly we will enter into orbit around the planet. At that time, we will begin a telemetric survey to discern just what lies below us. At the same time, I want surveys of both moons to determine exact size, composition, et cetera. I want to remind you that this is standard information required by the corporation. As far as taking the shuttle down to the planet's surface, that has yet to be decided. For the corporation's purposes, we can consider the mission to be a success. If we find that the planet is suitable for colonization, you are all assured of substantial bonuses. I might add that it looks good. You've all done an excellent job already and you are to be commended. Just remember that the job's not done yet."

  Kathleen waved her hand in the air like an eager student.

  "Yes, Kathleen?"

  "What about a trip to the surface?"

  Fagen cleared his throat. "EVA's are inherently dangerous. If we can gather all our information from orbit, we're better off."

  Parker frowned. "What will it take to entice us to land?"

  "The corporation is specific about this. Landings on planet surfaces are decided by a number of factors. Specifically, the planet must be habitable, that is, it must contain an atmosphere that is agreeable to humans..."

  Kathleen giggled "Well, that lets Bart out."

  "Second," Fagen continued, "there must flora and fauna of a type compatible to humans. Third, it needs to be geologically stable. We don't want to land on a crust that will give way under the weight of the shuttle. I'm sure you've all heard about the crew on Ceti-4. Their shuttle was too heavy for the ice and it fell through to the acid seas below. The shuttle and four people were lost."

  "The atmosphere looks good, Edward." Bonner suggested.

  "Yes, it does. The preliminary geological surveys look good too. But don't get your hopes up until after the survey work is completed. That's all I have for now. Doris?" Fagen turned to his XO. "Do you have anything to add?"

  "Just a couple of things."

  Bart audibly sighed and Nadine let out a groan. Doris ignored them.

  "Bill, my computer analysis of the shuttle shows a slow servo response. Could you check that out, please?"

  "Be happy to."

  "Harry, would you go along to lend a hand?"

  "No problem."

  "Oh, and one other thing, Harry. While you're there, check all the battery levels for the EVA gear."

  "Sure," Harry said. Now I'll have to drag all that stuff out of the lockers again, he thought.

  She nodded at Fagen. "That's all I have."

  "All right everybody. You've done a marvelous job so far, let's keep it up. For those of you with time on your hands, I suggest you get some rest. We'll be busy once we enter orbit."

  The meeting was over. Bonner turned to Harry as the others filed out.

  "What do you say? Ready to get your hands dirty?"

  Harry grinned. "Lead the way."

  In ten minutes, Bonner was on his back under the mid-section of the shuttle clucking his tongue, looking and sounding like an auto mechanic sizing up a problem. Harry peeped under the vehicle as Doris watched. "Bill?"

  Bonner looked up quickly and bumped his head. "Ouch."

  "Sorry about that," Harry said. "Found the problem?"

  The engineer scooted out from under the shuttle, wiping his hands on a rag. "Yeah," he said, "the servos aren't responding. Maybe the fluid just got old."

  "It's never been used," Doris said.

  "Doesn't have to be to get old. Heck, looks like it's been sitting in there for years. I'll change it and see what happens. Everything else looks like it's supposed to."

  "All right, let me know if you need any help." Doris turned and walked away.

  "So you can get your yah-yahs by telling somebody else to get busy," Bonner muttered to himself.

  "Roger that," Harry laughed.

  Together, they changed the hydraulic fluid and afterwards, they went up to the bridge. Blane sat in his usual place, communicating with his computers. "How're things shaping up?"

  "Very good," Blane answered. "Lots of water, lots of carbon dioxide, there's chlorophyll in the atmosphere... Kathleen will be happy to hear that."

  Parker fidgeted at his console and read the atmospheric data. "Looks like the right amount of organic chemicals."

  Blane, almost as an afterthought, began scanning the radio spectrum.

  Harry stretched and said, "Think I'll get a little shut-eye." Doris nodded approvingly and he made for the hatch. Before he got there, Blane shouted out.

  "I got a radio signal here!" As if their heads were on strings, everybody looked up. Parker turned white. Blane said nothing else. He bent over, listening to the radio feed supplied by the computers. "Wait," he said, "I lost it." He concentrated and turned on his radio filters.

  Minutes slipped by; nobody said anything. Finally, Nadine broke the silence.

  "That's great, Blane," she said, "maybe you picked up a morning talk show."

  Doris looked at Nadine with an expression of warning. Nadine shrugged.

  "There! I've got it!" Blane switched on a speaker. A wavering tone filled the small control room.

  Parker cocked his head to one side. "What is that?"

  "It's not a tone pack, it's more like a, uh...," Doris said and paused.

  "A beacon," said Bonner. "A low tone homing beacon."

  "Where's it coming from?" Harry asked. Blane looked at his display, pressed buttons on his keyboard, and looked back. "It's from the surface. Someone, or something, is transmitting a homing signal from the planet's surface."

  Chapter 11

  Fagen accepted the news with his usual stoicism.

  "Shall I have Bonner prepare the shuttle?"

  "Not just yet," Fagen responded, "you know the procedures. We'll monitor radio activity from orbit as we complete our preliminary survey. Then we'll make a decision."

  Doris, always a stickler for rules, immediately agreed.

  Entry into orbit went without a hitch.

  As before, both Harry and Kathleen had time on their hands. Parker sat with them in the galley and discussed the chances of finding intelligent life.

  "Now that's what we'd really like to find, isn't it?"

  "As long as they're friendly," Kathleen agreed.

  "That would give Harry here something to do."

  Kathleen looked toward the kitchen. "Want a sandwich?"

  Both men shook their heads. She got up and began searching through the cabinets.

  Parker asked Harry where he had studied. "Regional College," Harry replied.

  "Did you do any field work?"

  "A trip to South Africa and a few weeks in South America."

  "I wonder if we have any sprouts?" Kathleen asked as she continued her search.

  "I wonder if talking to the Bushmen would be anything like an encounter with an alien?"

  Harry shrugged. "Who's to say?"

  "Where are they?" Kathleen called from behind a counter.

  "There's no telling. They might live under rocks or at the bottom of the sea. And they might look just like us, or at least, reasonably close."

  "No, not aliens! Sprouts! Have either of you seen any sprouts around here?"

/>   Harry shook his head and stifled a laugh. "I have no idea." He turned back to the doctor.

  "And that's if we find any. How do you recognize an intelligent alien if it looks and acts like a rock or a tree? Intelligence could be all around us and we simply haven't learned to recognize it because we're unable to disconnect ourselves from our humanity. Everything we know, we know through our own prejudiced view of things. Remember the eels discovered on Vega-9 by the Jameson team? As far as we could tell, those eels were the highest life form in that system, but they showed no sign of intelligence by human standards, although their behavior was so complicated it still baffles the experts to this day. The eels had no artifacts, and they couldn't, or didn't want to communicate with us. It was a great discovery, but a long shot from conversing with a creature evolved in a different star system. I really don't know what to expect, Doc."

  It was the longest speech Harry had made in some time.

  "I suppose I feel somewhat the same as you," the doctor said. "But I see the prospect of discovering a new species as an opportunity to prove that intelligence has a limited number of ways to evolve. To me, something shows its intelligence when it tries to communicate. If a creature constructs artifacts, that's a definite sign. If not, well, they're just taking up space in the food chain."

  "What if we find a species that builds something we can't figure out? What if they're so alien there's no basis for communication?"

  Dr. Parker waved his hand. "Then, as far as humanity is concerned, they're not worth communicating with. We have to draw a line somewhere."

  Kathleen found her sprouts and rejoined the men at the table. "Sounds a bit ethnocentric to me."

  Parker shrugged. "It's practical. If a species doesn't have something to offer, why bother with it?"

  "That's pretty mercenary. What about scientific considerations?"

  "Scientific considerations have to pay for themselves."

  Harry hated to admit it, but he agreed with Parker. The corporation would only finance that which had the potential to make money. As a result, the corporation would often overlook what was interesting in favor of that which was profitable. It was a subject that wasn't often broached by corporation personnel.

  Harry looked up and saw Doris as she floated into the galley.

  "I have some news. Edward has decided to send the shuttle to the surface, but first he wants to send a drone to the area where the radio signal originated. If all goes well, you three will take the shuttle with Edward."

  "All right!" said Kathleen, unable to contain her enthusiasm.

  "In the meantime, check the corporation inventory and get your gear together. Questions?"

  "How long will it take for the drone to make its trip?"

  "Bonner is preparing the package for the shot. We should be able to shoot in an hour, half hour or more for entry and landing. Then we'll see what we've got. I'm going back upstairs." Doris pulled herself through the hatch and disappeared up the corridor.

  Kathleen turned to her companions. "This is where it gets good."

  *

  Forty-fives minutes later, the drone was on its way to the surface of the planet. Survey mapping had already revealed great oceans bordering three large continents. Two of the continents appeared to be entirely made of sand and rock. There was a considerable amount of volcanic activity. The other continent was similarly built, although even from orbit Fagen could see a large area covered with vegetation. It was from that area that they determined the radio signal originated.

  The signal itself was not especially interesting, other than the fact that it was there. It emitted an unbroken pulse in the high frequency range, unmistakably a beacon of some sort. Oddly, it was the only organized radio source that could be found. Some discussion was held about that. Fagen listened to his crew as they voiced their opinions.

  "Maybe it's natural," Nadine suggested. "Maybe..."

  "Nah," argued Bonner, "it's too steady, too strong."

  "We won't have to wait long to find out. The shot is dead on course and performing flawlessly."

  As the drone dropped through the atmosphere, they got their first close look at Mia Culpa. As the robotic craft broke through a cloud, video cameras scanned the terrain and sent the pictures back to the Magellan. What they revealed were lush forests bordering a sandy coast. A mountain range limited the forest and a desert stretched toward the horizon in the other direction.

  Nadine gasped. "Look at the size of those trees."

  "They look like California redwoods, only bigger."

  Doris checked her readouts and announced that the drone was in the final stages of braking.

  "Where's it going to land?" Nadine leaned closer to the monitor. "I can't see anything but the tops of trees."

  Bonner sat beside Nadine but only shrugged in response. No one else bothered to answer either. But it was a good question. As small as the drone was, it still needed a little room to land through the trees. The crew watched as the machine descended. In the monitor, the trees grew larger. They were huge, their branches stretched out until they intermingled with that of their neighbors, totally concealing whatever lay beneath.

  The drone brushed through the first layers easily enough, but seconds later it hit something, leaned to one side and dropped, out of control, to the ground below. The concussion knocked out the video feed.

  "Damn!" Bonner swore. "We lost the video. Let me try to re-calibrate the video controller." The engineer punched the keys at his terminal. The video display showed static and rolling lines, then suddenly began sending pictures again.

  The pictures were cockeyed. Apparently, the drone had toppled to its side. Occasionally the picture was disrupted, but they managed to see what looked like a forest floor that could have been on earth. Nothing moved.

  As they watched, a shadow passed as if a cloud moved overhead. Then something appeared from the side, something that flashed metallic, and then nothing. The video signal went dead and the monitors filled with static.

  Bonner leaned back in his chair. "Well, that's all she wrote," he said, "we won't be getting any more pictures. It's dead."

  Fagen considered what he'd seen. Finally he spoke to Doris. "Are the others ready?"

  "They've been ready for hours."

  "Have you located a suitable landing area?"

  "I think so. I mean, it looks good from what I can tell."

  Fagen nodded and thought for a moment. "All right then. Let's run the shuttle checks and prepare for departure."

  *

  Even with Fagen's help, it took another hour for Bonner and Doris to pre-flight the shuttle. Harry waited with Kathleen and Parker to be told to take his place. When Doris finally told them everything was ready, Kathleen suddenly went pale.

  "Do you think this is safe?"

  Harry looked deadpan at her. "Of course not."

  Doris started clapping her hands and waving at them. "Let's go." Harry led the way with Kathleen close behind.

  Fagen was already sitting at the pilot's controls when they entered. "Strap yourselves in," he instructed. "Doris?"

  "Right here." The XO's voice came over a speaker.

  "Sealing it up now." Fagen flipped a switch and the shuttle's exterior hatch closed. "Batteries on. De-pressurize the bay, please."

  Harry heard the sound of escaping air.

  Moments later, the shuttle bay doors opened exposing the darkness of space. The restraints were released and slowly, the craft began to move along its guide rails. Harry watched as the shuttle passed the open bay doors, and then they were floating, separate from the safe confines of the Magellan.

  Harry and Kathleen sat together in the dark, behind and below Fagen and Parker. It was a smooth ride and the sky was filled with stars. Harry stared out the window until Kathleen took his hand in hers. He looked at her and she coyly winked.

  "Harry, I don't think my headset is working right. Would you take a look at it?" She leaned forward. In so doing, her breast pressed into his shoul
der. He blinked. A dark, star-filled night, a beautiful woman...

  He leaned forward and flipped his mouthpiece out of the way. Doing the same with Kathleen's, he said, "Let's take a look."

  Their lips pressed together. Harry could have lost himself in her; it was like a dream, it was like...

  Suddenly, the sound of an electronic alarm filled the cabin, pushing the two young lovers apart. In the cockpit, Fagen studied the control console for a moment, then leaned forward and flipped a switch. The alarm stopped.

  Kathleen was the first to ask the question. "What is it?"

  Fagen looked at his keyboard and hit a series of keys. "Ah," he said, "looks like we've developed a problem in one of the turbolifters."

  "Is it serious?"

  "Not yet. I'll have to keep an eye on the fluid levels. I can maintain attitude by increasing the jet thrust. We're all right."

  "Shouldn't we go back?"

  "We've got no choice -- we're locked into our vector. Hold on, we're hitting atmosphere."

  Parker leaned back in his seat; sweat popped out all along his brow.

  "Starting descent," announced Fagen. Amid a growing rattle and shaking, the shuttle began to burn its way into the atmosphere. For a few, terrifying moments, flames crept up the outside windows. Kathleen held Harry's one hand in both of hers, squeezing it so hard, Harry winced. Just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, they broke through and the rough ride smoothed out. They cruised through white, billowy clouds in a clear blue sky, losing altitude fast.

  "Uh-oh," muttered Fagen.

  Startled, Parker jumped. "What is it?"

  "Hydraulic pressure to the turbolifter is dropping. We need to get down." Fagen steered the shuttle down until they were a hundred feet above the trees. The turbofans screamed under the mounting stress and the air streamed from underneath with an arrhythmic hiss.

  Fagen turned the craft slightly to the left and slowed it to a gentle descent. Harry watched as Fagen somehow managed to avoid the giant branches and guided the shuttle into a tiny clearing between the trees. Just before it touched the ground, a loud pop issued forth.

  Harry thought Parker was going to jump out of his seat. "Wonder what that was?"

  Fagen switched the engines off, leaned back in his seat and took a deep breath. "I don't know. I'll check it out," he said. He took a look out his port.

  Harry looked out as well. The forest looked like the forests he knew along the northern California coast. Big pines with redwood bark that spiraled up the trees and over the branches. Except that these were bigger than the biggest redwoods he'd ever seen.