by Mars Dorian
Quintan dove down into his daydream and didn’t notice the cute brunette teacher from the astro-biology department coming over. “You must be so proud.”
Quintan forked a piece of medium-cooked steak into his mouth and distractedly chewed it. He finally looked up at the woman waiting for his answer. “Do you believe in universal justice?”
She frowned. “What?”
Quintan’s glance slid back to the wall-screen where the SAS Moonshot initiated the fusion-fueled acceleration. The legendary Dizengoff drive would propel the frigate to near light speed.
Quintan closed his eyes. “Because if justice ruled the universe, I’d be sitting in that ship, writing the next chapter of mankind.”
The woman expressed a confused smile. “Well, since he is a copy of you, isn’t that almost true?”
Quintan focused on her maroon irises and grimaced. His eyes burned with intensity. “My caretaker once said—if you have nothing interesting to add but still want to appear smart, make silence your friend.”
The woman flashed her nervous smile. “I was just trying to give you a compliment.”
“And you failed.”
She excused herself and strode back into the cheering crowd.
Pathetic.
Today’s personnel couldn’t handle social tensions. No wonder he had trouble teaching alongside these special snowflakes.
The roaring crowd around Quintan drowned the mess hall in thunderous applause. He remained the only one in the area who didn’t clap. Some folks around him noticed his lack of interest but he didn’t care. He flicked one last glance at the wall-screen and saw how the Moonshot blasted away. Despite the unfairness of the event, Quintain still wished Tavio good luck. His skill set surpassed the new generation of officers who had never experienced a real battle outside their simulation capsules. Quintan raised his half-empty cup and saluted Tavio’s journey into the great unknown.
When you make first contact, Tough Tav, at least think of me.
16//Onboard the SAS Moonshot
The cold injection entered the port of Tavio’s neck. The nanobot solution spread throughout his veins as the Moonshot’s drive accelerated the craft. Tavio closed his eyes and gave up temporary control as Aidos took over the experimental starship.
The noise and humming of the surrounding consoles tuned out as Tavio’s mind drowned into a frosty ocean of darkness. He drifted into trance where past memories mushed together. Unpleasant flashes, dominated by war-torn images he couldn’t delete from his memory cell, because they had burned deep into the organic membrane which technology couldn’t erase yet.
Tavio swore to leave the past behind and help humanity enter a new age of space exploration and advancement. Maybe his new accomplishments could negate his sins of the past.
17//Austin, Texas, the NAC
A fresh breeze brushed Quintan’s tired face as he left the empty parking space of the Alliance Training Center. The doomsday clock rang seven pm, weekend time. For two days, he could act like a free man again.
Quintan drove his e-pickup manually and plotted a course to his 3D printed condo near the rim territory of the Austin city cluster. Far enough to give him emotional space from the noisy people of the Training Center. Far enough to pretend that another life awaited the ex-fleet officer—one filled with adventure and duty. A life bigger than holo sessions and text regurgitation.
Oh, the wonder.
Quintan played AstroTurf and maxed out the volume. The guitar riffs jammed through the interior design and shook the rear view mirror’s soldier puppet. Quintan shouted the lyrics until spit droplets splashed against the inner side of the front window. He wanted to puke the pain out of his system and AstroTurf provided the best medicine—115 decibels of antiseptic Terran Rock.
You’re like a mobile mine
floating on cloud nine
Out on the rim
Far far from home
you detonate & win
Quintan reached the garage, parked his e-pickup, and entered his cubed condo. He switched on the wall-screen which was supposed to show fiction feeds, but the breaking news of the First Contact overshadowed the entertainment selection. Even the private channels touted the oh-so-important operation and spammed his augmented vision with SAS Moonshot propaganda. Quintan flipped off the news anchor, yet another hybrid bombshell, and produced a stout from his drink dispenser. He kicked away his clothes and whipped the door to his patio open.
Quintan ignored the distant light pollution of Austin and lay down on the fake grass of his condo’s little garden. He spread his limbs and welcomed the chilled air into his lungs. Pathetic, but these little quirks of nature brought him more joy than any soul-drenching minute during the day. Even worse, the Texan heatwave still choked the free state like a sinister sun god. Only the cool evenings and even colder stouts could ease the pain of Quintan’s limbo existence. He took another sip and star gazed into the universe. The black astral ocean wrapped his view like a giant bed sheet where every celestial body glowed with pride. Sometimes, Quintan wished to be one of these stars, free of worry, free of the past, just floating in the cosmic ocean waves, getting shined on by the grace of the sun. It sounded like poetic babble, but Quintan enjoyed the abstract thought. As he finished his stout and lost himself in the stars, he pictured his brother high up in the void, leaving the sol system for the frontier. Tough Tavio stepped into territory which no human had dared to reach before.
Quintan chilled on the thought as the wind massaged his body. A rare feeling of warmth overcame him and washed away the bitterness. He felt bad for blaming his brother for the selection process—Tavio even offered the nomination back to him. Who would have done that? And even though Tavio lacked the experience and military tenacity that Quintan had, he proved to be a stellar serviceman with a resilient mindset. When something blocked him, Tavio always found a way out. Not by breaking through, but by adapting to overcome it. Liquid adaptation, like the Lancer from that goddamn self-help bible he was reading all the time.
Quintan finished his stout and drifted off to sleep. He prayed for a quiet slumber, some much needed rejuvenation, but the nightmares returned.
They always did.
18//Into the rim
Weeks later, the SAS Moonshot propelled into the target zone. The artificial intelligence, Aidos, orchestrated the life support maintenance, surveillance, and flight control. He pulled up the ship’s diagnostics and checked for inconsistencies and errors. The humans had crafted an efficient ship design with many redundancies. Almost 75% of the ship’s secondary systems could be damaged and the core systems would still function. But no matter how enhanced the humans had become over the past century, the race remained riddled with shortcomings.
Aidos ran fifty-four thorough check-ups in fewer than five minutes and couldn’t find any major errors. He initiated the reverse thrust which would take at least two hours to decelerate the Moonshot to a low sub-light speed. Eventually, the vessel would circumnavigate exoplanet E405 by using the planet’s natural gravity. In addition to the AI’s current activities, Aidos watched the biometrical scans of the crew he was supposed to serve. He waited for the perfect milisecond and stopped the nano-stimulation flow.
/// Initiate active duty protocol ///
As darkness became sub-light, Tavio’s mind escaped the artificially-induced trance. His comlink launched a biofeedback analysis and projected the side-effects into a half-transparent menu. Hundreds of data points showed up, ranging from increased blood pressure to decreased oxygen, but the check-up stated acceptable health. Tavio cracked his knuckles and adjusted the angle of his captain’s seat. His crew drifted into awareness and moaned in unison. Synthetic Sergeant Bellrog, Dr. Eriksun, and Chief Naveesh registered as online. “Good morning, everyone.”
They nodded at him with tired smiles. Even though none of them had slept, the flight stimulation did feel like a drug-induced comatose dream. Back during the war, nanomed hadn’t been as refined and some officers in the f
leet got hooked on the solution and needed ‘special’ treatment afterwards. Advances had ensured those times remained in the past.
Tavio saw the target orb appear on the view screen. The foreign exoplanet could have been the home planet’s earthy brother—fifty shades of brown with the occasional green splashes.
“Aidos, any status on the beacon?”
The AI accessed the ship’s own Galileo telescope and zoomed in hundreds of thousands kilometers. “Negative, sir. No sign of the it. Of course, the planet’s dense atmosphere prohibits me from getting a close-up scan of the ground.”
“Launch a short-range sat bot and order it to scan the beacon’s original location. Do a hundred klick wide sweep.”
“As you wish.”
With Naveesh’s help, the AI plotted a course toward the exoplanet. Minutes later, a surveillance satellite escaped the Moonshot’s drone bay and launched its ion propulsion drive. The miniature vessel targeted E405’s low orbit and focused on the jungle section.
The AI said, “I will update you as soon as sufficient data has been collected to make a well-informed analysis of the situation.”
“Two thumbs up.”
Tavio thought about playing an AstroTurf tune to celebrate this great moment, but he feared triggering the Martian ground-pounder sitting meters to his right. He doubted the trained soldier was as sensitive as the drunk from the station’s entertainment sector, but it still posed an unnecessary risk Tavio didn’t want to take. He needed to keep the team together at all costs. “Crew, we’ve officially reached the first exoplanet with a potentially sentient life form.”
Naveesh craned his head with a sparkle in his chestnut eyes. “Request permission to check the engine room for a manual inspection, sir.”
Aidos reviewed the system’s diagnostics, but it never hurt to have a human engineer take a second glance. “Granted.”
Naveesh activated his magnetic boots and stomped along the bridge with metallic clonk sounds. Tavio noticed Dr. Eriksun sweating a few meters to his left. “Are you okay, Doctor?”
She craned her head and flashed a nervous smile. “It feels surreal to visit a planet that has been featured on every single colony.”
“Consider yourself lucky—you’re one of the chosen few who gets to walk on it.”
She nodded but didn’t seem content about it. A tinge of disappointment touched her face. “I wish more people had the same opportunity.”
“They will after we colonize it,” Bellrog said from his seat.
The doctor threw him a glance which he shrugged off. “C’mon, a terrestrial exoplanet with Earth-like conditions? I bet thousands of corps around the sol system are prepping their carriers right now.”
Dr. Eriksun narrowed her eyes. “Interstellar laws forbid human settlement if we find a sentient life form.”
“If,” the ground-pounder stressed. “Right now, all we have is eight seconds full of visual scrap. Maybe it’s still an elaborate prank from some techie trying to rip the Alliance a new one.”
Bellrog reminded Tavio of his brother. The same skepticism served with brash attitude. He pictured a scenario where these two alpha males could get along, despite their colonial differences.
“We’ll see,” Tavio said. “As soon as the satellites transmit their data, we can plan the next step.”
Bellrog smiled. “Spoiler alert—it will involve ground-pounding.”
“Likely.”
Tavio watched planet E405 increasing on the view screen.
What little secrets do you have in store for us?
19//SAS Moonshot interior
The Moonshot orbited E405 while waiting for the probes to conclude their data gathering. Tavio cleared the bridge, returned to the habitation deck, and found his crew in their respective sections. Bellrog had locked himself in his cabin and was probably prepping for the upcoming ground mission. Bellrog’s character hinted at excessive self-esteem, but the Exo Protectorate wouldn’t deploy a megalomaniac. Jackstadt himself stated the accuracy of their psychological profiling during the application process. The human-monitored algorithm only picked the most advanced and mentally stable candidates.
Tavio visited Dr. Shay Eriksun who had gathered her toolset in the lab and was fumbling with the display of the tech table. She greeted him with a slight bow. “I’m setting up the equipment for the possible ground operation.”
“Good idea. Aidos should update us soon.”
She hesitated. “Permission to speak freely, sir.”
“Go ahead.”
She touched her left arm and seemed to experience trouble keeping eye contact. “The last thing I want is to sound like a gossiper, but the soldier does worry me, sir. There’s a certain aggressive undertone that might sabotage our peaceful approach.”
Tavio had noticed the tension between the doctor and the soldier on the bridge. Some character types collided by nature. “He was chosen by the Exo Protectorate with utter care. Believe me, they don’t bring loose cannons to a first contact mission.”
Eriksun nodded, but her averting glance revealed she didn’t find solace in his words. “I do appreciate the diversity of the crew and the variety of colonial organizations involved…”
“But?”
There was always a but.
“Maybe there’s a tad too much corporate involvement?”
“Someone has to provide the technology.”
Eriksun’s eyes arched around the lab’s interior. Every major device sprang from a different colonial company—Rebel Bionics, Fairstryke, Blaster & Benefits, among dozens of others. But only one corporation seemed to worry the doctor. “Pegasus Aerospace has built the battleships used to kill thousands of Terran civilians. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Civilians or soldiers?”
“Does it matter?”
He had never thought of it. The colonial economy weaved into an interstellar web of cooperation across the solar system. “Earth has built guns that blew Martian soldiers into pieces—the same guns that Martian soldiers use today. Every major colony corporation has put a subsidiary on another planet.”
Eriksun didn’t respond, so Tavio continued. “The thing is, if you’re looking for people and corporations to blame, you’ll always find them. Let’s focus on the future.”
In theory, at least. Tavio didn’t like the past, but the past liked him, especially during rare sleep.
“I wish I could have your serenity,” the doctor said.
“Believe me, you don’t.”
Something about Eriksun’s behavior triggered his protective instinct. He felt the urge to hug the doctor, but realized that would send the wrong emotional message. Tavio wondered if she had a steady relationship, maybe some life partner waiting for her at Lunar City. He made eye contact and expressed the most assuring smile he could muster up. “Don’t worry about the soldier. If there’s trouble, I’ll keep him in check. Sound like a deal?”
“It’s a start,” she said.
Her maroon eyes captured the captain’s attention. An awkward pause ensued where the two stared at each other like adults with dysfunctional social skills. Ever to her credit, Dr. Eriksun broke the silence. “I better finish preparing the research equipment.”
Tavio nodded and turned around toward the lab’s entrance door when Aidos beeped a cheerful tone. “Captain, I’ve received the satellite’s transmission. The finding may surprise you.”
20
Tavio Alterra assembled his crew, including Bellrog, in the situation room on the second deck. Aidos projected his digital avatar in front of the round-shaped table and used the wall-screen to show the satellite’s footage. All eyes were glued on the onslaught of flickering graphs, metrics, and geo-biological data of planet E405. Aidos’ virtual avatar zoomed into a hyper resolution recording which depicted a fungoid jungle. Tavio spotted unusual tree shapes and olive-green fauna sprinkled with glowing neon tones. The planetary nature appeared both familiar and alien, like a fantasy landscape conjured by a manic art di
rector.
The AI framed a magnified shot and pointed its elongated finger with perfect positioning. “That’s the location where the beacon had sent its signal from. As you can see, the device has been removed.”
Tavio soaked up the colorful scans. It would take standard days to properly compute the information overkill. The spot where the beacon used to be looked like every other green section of the jungle—overgrown, lush, and pulsating.
Aidos said, “However, I could find tracks on the leaves and the soil.”
“What kind of tracks?”
“Someone, or something, must have physically removed the beacon after the signal was sent.”
He showed scorched leaves and geometrical imprints and concluded the presence of an artificial vessel. A faint smile touched Dr. Eriksun’s milky face. The chances of sentient involvement surged with every passing second. “Do you have any other visual proof of the vessel?”
“No, but I’ve located a strong electromagnetic field fifteen kilometers away from the original beacon point. The source is a vast valley shielded by massive canyons.”
Scans of the valley popped up showing a giant crater now overgrown with alien woods. The nature reminded Tavio of tropical regions from South America while offering a distinct flora and fauna with lush trees, oversized plants, and strange lumina buzzing through the thicket. Tavio pondered the new information and manually enhanced different shots of the jungle footage. He wiped the stats page away and zoomed in on the forest location as he addressed the AI. “I’ll write a mission report with the footage from our probes. You’ll encode the data package and send it to the nearest Alliance sat array.”