Project U.L.F.

by Stuart Clark

  The crew all seemed to realize that they were guilty of some unwritten conduct violation and turned away muttering, their heads lowered. All except Kit, whose eyes lingered on the cover glass hungrily.

  “You deaf or something?” Wyatt demanded of Kit, “Get out of here!” Kit frowned at Wyatt with hatred in his eyes before turning away.

  Wyatt motioned Bobby over to the chamber and then reached into the hatch above it to retrieve a towel. He handed it to her. “She’s your charge for now,” he said, “Look after her, get her showered and find out everything you can about her. Who she is, what she does, and, more importantly, what she’s doing on this mission. I’ll be on the bridge when you come looking for me.”

  Bobby said nothing, just nodded. Wyatt walked to the door, placed his palm on the ID plate and stated, “Wyatt Dorren, U.L.F. expedition team leader.” The door opened and he took a last look back at his newfound crew before disappearing through it.

  * * * * *

  Wyatt stepped through the door and surveyed the bridge. Considering this was the nerve center of the Santa Maria it was incredibly small. Through the two rectangular windows on the far side of the room he could see the tops of the nearby trees. Within them a winged creature was flapping frantically to regain its balance on its perch. No doubt they would be bagging some of those to take back to the IZP.

  “Computer!” Wyatt yelled, “Time to wake up, we’re here now,” and then he added, “Wherever ‘here’ is.”

  Another voice filled the bridge area, “Voice identification commencing. Please wait.”

  Wyatt smiled. It was Lyndsey. The computer was Lyndsey. Her voice was legendary.

  Lyndsey Simons was the personal secretary to the first moon-base director. Although she had been dead for well over two hundred years, her voice had been immortalized as the voice of computers in all ships up to and including the Galleon Class. Of course no one had ever met Lyndsey Simons, at least no one still alive, but they all knew her voice.

  The voice came again, “Identification complete. Voice pattern matches with that of Dorren, Wyatt. Project U.L.F. director and expedition team leader.”

  “Computer, what’s going on in that world out there today? Where are we and what’s the atmospheric data?”

  “We have landed on a planet in the Centari sector. We are 2.7 light years beyond Centari Red 603, the furthest charted star in this sector. Atmosphere comprises 22% breathable oxygen so breathing apparatus will not be required outside of the ship. Also, nitrogen, hydrogen and trace amounts of ammonium, argon and helium.”

  “That’s a pretty potent mixture, are you sure we won’t need the tanks?”

  “The human body will be capable of utilizing this atmosphere for life support, although some of the trace gases may cause irritation. Pure oxygen will alleviate any symptoms.”

  “Okay, thanks. Anything else we need to know about this place?”

  “The planet is served by two suns with lunar cycles of 21.7 and 15.65 earth hours. This means that day and night length varies greatly. Calculations estimate maximum and minimum temperatures of 112 degrees and -7 degrees Fahrenheit during day and night respectively.”

  “Whoa!”

  “Sensors have detected life forms in the near vicinity in the 18.27 hours that have elapsed since touchdown.”

  Wyatt looked out of the window and back toward the trees. “I don’t doubt that at all.”

  He heard the door to the bridge open behind him and he spun on the swivel chair to see Bobby entering. “Well?” he asked.

  “Her name’s Kate. Kate Frere. She’s just graduated from Princeton. Won a placement on an expedition and was assigned to this ship. That’s it. If she knows anything else then she’s not telling, but I believe her. She was pretty shaken by cryosleep. It’s pretty obvious she hasn’t experienced that before.”

  “Oh that’s great, just great!” Wyatt threw his arms up in the air. “So I’ve got three kids to look after now!”

  “I’d just like to know who picked this crew,” Bobby said, “I mean, what were they thinking?”

  What were they thinking? Words came back to haunt Wyatt, words Mannheim had said to him when they had met in his office—Think of it. Wyatt began to chuckle, and then the chuckle became a laugh.

  “What?” Bobby asked. “What? What is it? Come on Wyatt, this isn’t funny.”

  Wyatt composed himself a little. “It’s Mannheim, isn’t it? Who else would come up with something this crazy. I mean, he thought up Project U.L.F. didn’t he?”

  “What are you saying? Mannheim picked the crew?”

  Wyatt stifled his laughter, “It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. I mean, it’s a high profile mission, right, and look at who we have…”

  “Yeah, just look! You, me, Par, Kit, Byron, two kids I’ve never clapped eyes on and now this girl, Kate! I don’t see what you’re getting at. What are you getting at?”

  “Yeah, but think about it. Me, the expedition leader, head of Project U.L.F., that’s self-explanatory. You, the token woman so we are seen to be politically correct and do our bit for equal rights.”

  “But I’m not the token woman, what about Kate?” Bobby interrupted.

  “Hang on, hang on. I’m coming to that. Then there’s Par, the token foreigner. Kit, on the criminal rehab program. Byron, an old-timer, close to retirement. Alex, the new recruit, and then Kate, a student. The fact that she’s female is neither here nor there. If she won the placement then the winner of that placement could equally as well have been a man, and then you would be the token woman. By chance it’s turned out that we have two women instead of one.”

  Bobby frowned.

  “One of each kind,” Wyatt explained, “A real hodgepodge of a team, I’ll grant you, but it’s just the kind of hare-brained scheme he’d come up with. It’s just the sort of crazy thing he loves. Not only are they going to show off the animals when we get back, Mannheim will show off the team as well.”

  “So where does Chris fit into all of this?”

  “Yeah, still haven’t figured that one out myself. Maybe we just got two new recruits, but then, that shoots my theory down in flames, doesn’t it? I’m working on it.”

  “So what now?” Bobby asked.

  Wyatt shrugged. “Well, we have a job to do. I suggest we go on and do it. First priority is to get the portable living quarters erected outside. It gets pretty cold out there at night and we don’t want to be caught out in it. Get the others assembled at the exit hatch, and I’ll drop the ship on its haunches and meet you there with some body armor. Life forms have been detected just outside and I don’t want to take any risks.”

  Bobby nodded and turned to leave.

  “Oh, and Bobby. I appreciate what you did back there…in the cryosleep room. I’m not happy with the set-up, either, but we’ll have to make the best of it.”

  She smiled and then turned away again, the door closing behind her.

  Wyatt turned back to the console and familiarized himself with the old craft’s displays and tabletop layouts. He reached over and pressed a large green button which went out at his touch. He felt the ship rock a little and then slowly tip backward.

  Outside, the ship’s rear telescopic legs were retracting so that the craft’s back end was lowered to the ground. When the operation was complete the Santa Maria sat like a gigantic metallic gray frog in the middle of the forest.

  * * * * *

  Wyatt arrived at the exit hatch clutching the seven chest protectors that his team would require. They all had their quad-sys guns strapped to their legs. All of them except Kate, of course, who was dressed only in her fatigues. Good, he thought, at least they were all prepared. They’d all passed the first test.

  He handed out the body armor and each member of the crew took it dutifully, placing it over their head and fastening the quick-release clips on either side. Bobby already had hers; it had been placed in the hatch in her cryosleep chamber. Chest protectors for women were few and far between, so the
y tended to be loaded on board with the woman crewmember.

  Wyatt looked around. Everyone was ready. Everyone, that is, except Kate, who was struggling with her chest protector. Wyatt wandered over to give her a hand. He took hold of one of the clips on the chest protector and Kate jumped at the intrusion.

  “Oh, thanks,” she said, calming, “I’m having a bit of trouble with this.”

  “I noticed,” he replied. Wyatt fastened the bottom clips on each side of the armored vest and then began to work his way up each side, snapping each clip into place.

  “That’s getting really tight,” Kate groaned. “Don’t you have anything with curves?”

  “I’m sorry, but they didn’t have women in mind when they designed these things. Unfortunately, you have to wear one—for your own safety.”

  Wyatt fastened two more clips, one on each side, but then as he tried to fasten the next one, Kate exclaimed, “Oh God, if you do that up any tighter something’s going to pop out or explode!”

  He was a little taken aback by the frankness of her outburst. Chris and Alex giggled like schoolboys.

  Kate looked across at Bobby. “How come she manages?”

  “Well she has one specially fitted for women.”

  “Well don’t you have any more? I can’t get by in this one. It’s literally squeezing the air out of me!”

  Wyatt stood there for a moment, hesitant. He sighed. “I doubt it, but I’ll take a look for you.” He unfastened the clips and slid the vest over her head, then turned and headed back up the walkway.

  As he traipsed through the gloom of the lower decks he found himself wondering what he was doing. The last time he’d actually done anything for a woman out of the goodness of his heart was when he was with Tanya. The thought stung him.

  No, I have to be seen as approachable, he thought. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter who she was, or what the factors were that had brought her here with them—she would have to become a member of this team, and she had to learn to be able to count on Wyatt whatever the situation. This tiny gesture he was performing was the first step in that bond of trust.

  He reached one of the equipment store hatches, turned the lock and slid the panel away to reveal the weaponry and traps that had become the tools of his trade. He looked up, and there, hanging on the rail were more chest protectors. He checked the first—standard, and pushed it further down the rail away from him. The same was true for the second, third and fourth chest protectors that he checked. The fifth, however, was indeed a woman’s chest protector. Odd, he thought, raising his eyebrows.

  He lifted it off the rail and was just about to secure the hatch when his eye caught something else. It was not a weapon or a trap, or if it was, he had never seen anything like it. In the dim light he could not make out what it was. He put the chest protector down and reached into the hatch to pick up the object. It was a little black box with a carrying handle. When he brought it out into the more adequate lighting of the corridor, he could see that it was a craft finder. Things were going from screwball to odd to just downright weird.

  Portable craft finders such as this one, which could be pulled out of their console on the bridge and could then be carried, were normally stored on the bridge when they were not fitted into a console. Perhaps it was faulty? It may have been dumped here by an engineer who would rather order another one than go through the rigmarole of finding and filing the fault and then rectifying the problem. Many crews had reported finding faulty equipment in some of the strangest places. He flicked the switch on its top and the beacon receiver recorded a faint signal. Yeah, Wyatt thought, definitely faulty. He and his team should be the only people here. He switched the gadget off and put it back where he had found it, then secured the hatch.

  * * * * *

  “That’s better,” Kate said as she fastened the last clip. “Thanks.” She turned, beaming at him.

  Wyatt gave her a faint smile, a poor reflection of hers. He turned to the others, “Are we all happy now?” Sarcasm lined the words. No one replied. “Right, then, let’s see what this place has in store for us.”

  He walked over to the nearby wall and lifted a panel to reveal a large red button which he pressed. There was a clang and then the floor began to drop.

  The heat of the warm air that rushed in through the opening hit them like a wall and the brightness of the outside world seemed to grow in intensity, causing the crew to squint and raise hands to their eyes until they became accustomed to the light. With a second clang, the floor came to rest on the reddish-brown soil outside the ship.

  Wyatt looked out the door and spoke, as if to nobody, “Okay, you know the drill. Make sure the area is secure and exercise extreme caution.” He turned to Bobby and pointed at Kate, “Keep her with you at all times. I don’t want her out of your sight.”

  Bobby nodded. Kate snorted her disgust. After all, she’d earned the right to be here. The noise only earned her a long, hard stare from Wyatt.

  Kit led the crew out of the ship, removing his gun from its holster as he walked, an action the others copied. When they reached the bottom and stepped off onto the dusty earth, the team fanned out, spreading out from the Santa Maria in a semi-circle. At a distance of about fifty yards from the ship, they stopped and surveyed the forest in front of them. Kate, who was standing next to Bobby, whispered, “This is all a bit serious, isn’t it?”

  “It’s procedure.” Bobby stated.

  What Kate couldn’t know was that to the rest of the crew, this was the real thing—a U.L.F. expedition to a remote, uncharted planet.

  “Anything?” Wyatt shouted.

  “No.”

  “Nope!”

  “Nothing here.”

  The replies all came back in the negative.

  “Okay. Par, Kit, Alex and Chris, I want you guys to check out the sides and the front of the ship. Two down each side, meet at the front end. Byron and I will get the portable living quarters from the ship. Meet back here when you’re happy everything is A-OK.” The others nodded and set off on their way.

  “You stay here,” Wyatt said to Bobby and Kate. “Keep your eyes peeled, both of you, four eyes are better than two. If you see anything you’re not happy with then raise the alarm.”

  Wyatt and Byron disappeared back into the gloom of the ship.

  “So, you’re a biologist, huh?” Bobby said, trying to make polite conversation in the absence of the others.

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah, me too,” she confessed.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” Bobby said, smiling, “Don’t sound so surprised.”

  “But why here? Doing this? I mean—you’re a trapper, or whatever you call it, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. I started out just in the animal acquirement department. Monitoring animals when they were brought in, before they went on exhibition. Then I got a break and was assigned to a ship, as a crewmember, essentially doing the same job, but monitoring the animals as they were caught and on the journey home. It was fun and challenging, but it’s a lonely job. No cryosleep for me then, I had to check on the animals daily. All I had was them and a computer for company, and that gets pretty tiresome. You can’t talk to a computer about what’s on your mind. Problems. You know what I mean? They make a poor substitute for people.”

  “Mmmm,” Kate nodded vigorously to emphasize that Bobby had her full attention. She relished this chance at conversation but she found it hard to believe that Bobby, who demanded and got respect from the rest of the crew, could have problems. She seemed such a solid person, so sorted out up top. “So why did you become a trapper?” Kate asked.

  “Natural progression, I guess. You can only do that stuff for so long. Like I said, it gets pretty tiresome having no one around, and once you’ve sorted out an animal’s needs and wants, that soon becomes a run-of-the-mill job. I wanted some action and I wanted some human contact. It seemed the logical step to make. As a biologist, it’s a great thrill to step out of the brush and com
e face-to-face with something…something that lives and breathes…and know that you’re the first person ever to lay eyes on it. That’s a real buzz.”

  “It must be really exciting,” Kate mused.

  There was a noise from the nearby trees and both women started. Looking toward the source of the sound, they could see nothing.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Bobby said, “Most of the things we encounter are more afraid of us then we are of them. The real danger comes when they’re cornered. Then they become unpredictable and you get to see what they’re really capable of.” She smiled, and the confidence in her face calmed Kate’s nerves.

  “What about the rest of the team?” Kate asked, “What are they like?”

  “Oh they’re all okay. All except Kit—watch that one. He may try and boss you around, pretend like he’s in charge, but he’s not. The only thing you need to know is that Wyatt is in charge here. He’s the only one who has any right to tell you what to do, and when he tells you to do something, you do it. No questions asked. But Kit—just stay away from him. He’s a law unto himself. Byron’s an old boy, but with a wealth of experience. You could learn a lot from him. Par’s a nice guy too, he looks out for everyone and he’s a good solid member to have along on your crew.”

  “And Alex and Chris?”

  Bobby hesitated. What could she say about them? She didn’t even know them, but she couldn’t let Kate know that. “Yeah, they’re fine,” she lied, “They’ll learn a lot from these other guys on this expedition, too.” That was no lie.

  Wyatt and Byron came back out of the ship, each of them pulling a massive container behind them that floated, seemingly of its own accord, three feet above the ground.

  Bobby was grateful that the two men had returned. Kate’s questions were getting awkward.

  “Anything?” Wyatt asked.

  “No. Nothing worth reporting anyway.”

  The others returned from their circuit of the ship. “It’s clear,” Par said. “There’s some movement in the trees but I don’t think anything we saw poses any kind of threat. Put it this way, there’s nothing big out there.”