Colonel Pierce pointed. “Get down close to that stuff, whatever it is."
Lieutenant Allan Greco cursed under his breath. The wind coming off the water was buffeting the airship badly above the beach and the communications delay was causing him to over and under compensate. Suddenly, the wind stopped momentarily, and the airship dropped down to about three meters above the water’s edge and the camera zoomed in on the water’s edge.
Everyone leaned forward as if to get a better look. “Looks like purple seaweed to me,” said one of the female specialists.
The video feed went out and Lieutenant Greco cursed. “That’s it. I have lost control and contact with the airship. On the control panel, the airship’s battery indicator was reading zero.”
Chapter 53
February 13th 2013
Houston, Texas
Mike Banscott and Peter Rockwell waited in the conference room for the other participants of the secure video conference to arrive. Peter was looking at some of the latest atmospheric data from the lander that the David Honstein had put down successfully on the planet Elpis’s surface. The landing pod and the airship had already given them more data on the newcomer planet than had been previously collected from all their other sources.
The monitor showing General Seale up on Space Station Alpha went active as the General signed on. Mike nodded to the General. “We are just waiting on the President, General.”
About that time the other monitor went live and it showed the President’s Chief of Staff. “Gentlemen, General, I have the President on live with you now.”
The President’s face centered on his Vidcom screen as the conference software locked in on him. “Doctors, General, it seems like you have momentous news to share.”
“Yes sir,” said Mike. “If it is ok with you, I will let Doctor Rockwell brief you on our findings to date.”
“Go ahead Doctor Rockwell. I am all ears. I hope this is good news for a change. Things are getting grim here in New Washington as we get closer to the encounter.”
“None of it is bad news Mr. President. Actually, it is quite interesting and exciting news. First, I would like to share what we know of the planet so far. I will also show some images that go with the data.”
“The planet is settling into orbit as predicted by computer models. It is going to have a very temperate atmosphere when all the ice finishes melting. At the lander site, which is about twenty degrees in north latitude, the daytime temperature is about fifty four degrees Fahrenheit. It drops to about forty degrees at night but the heavy cloud layer is really holding in the sun’s heat. As the reflective ice continues to melt in the higher latitudes and exposes more of the dark ground underneath the planet will continue to warm at a faster rate. The sea temperature is still probably right above freezing from our estimates due to the amount of ice floes still present. There are numerous icebergs breaking off from the glaciers present in the upper latitudes and higher elevations. On that point, the highest elevation that the Elpis probe or the David Honstein has detected on the planet is only about seventy five hundred feet or so above the sea level.”
“The atmospheric composition is as we had previously estimated and is at about fourteen percent oxygen, One point six percent carbon dioxide, and sixty percent nitrogen. The rest is inert gases. We still can’t explain the high concentration of inert gases, but we do estimate that much of that will be lost or broken down by cosmic radiation in the next three to four thousand years. The atmospheric pressure is twelve point one psi at sea level. To sum up the findings on the atmosphere, unless there is some poisonous gas that we have not measured for, a human in good physical and cardiovascular shape could breathe the air and survive. Long exposure would probably cause some fatigue and headaches due to the carbon dioxide content until they had become acclimated to the conditions.”
“The gravity is at about seventy eight percent of Earth’s gravity. The planet does have a magnetic field and we are convinced that the planet has a molten iron interior somewhat like our own planet. There has probably been tectonic activity in the past, but with all the tidal stresses from the Dwarf Star and the thick layer of ice that was previously present, most of the rocks and higher elevations have been ground down to what we see is the common soil. The ground is mostly pulverized volcanic basalt. Consistency is from fine to a large percentage of rocks around one millimeter to two millimeters across, at least at the landing site. There is no evidence of any organic life forms in the soil at the landing site. The Honstein has deployed the ground robot and it has taken several samples up to a hundred meters away from the landing pod and they are all about the same. The soil is probably pretty close to what was left here on Earth in the northern latitudes when the glaciers retreated after our last ice age. A day on the planet Elpis is about twenty nine hours and thirteen minutes long.”
“Unfortunately, one of the most interesting aspects of the planet itself was seen briefly by the airship as its batteries were dying and the daylight was fading. As you can see in this image, this purple tubular substance at the edge of the water breaking on the rocks is very interesting. Most of our exobiologists believe this is probably some form of aquatic plant that must have been surviving in liquid water deep under the ice. As surface ice started melting, some of it has broken loose and washed up. While the land appears sterile, it appears that some simple life forms did exist in the deep sea that was not frozen solid. You can also see that there are no shells, barnacles, crabs, or any other type of life forms on the rocks. Amazing as it seems, life has managed to evolve there in the deep water, probably near some volcanic vents.”
Peter sat back with his briefing done and Mike took over. “Mr. President. To sum up our scientific findings, this planet, with just a little bit of terra forming is habitable for humans. Our ecologists and climatologist estimate that pending more intensive studies of the soil, we can easily colonize and perform terraforming of Elpis. Sir, we have a whole new world just sitting there waiting for us. We just have to reach out and take it. I wholeheartedly recommend that we commence immediate planning and design of a human lander where we can get down there and really do some science to see what we have been given.”
The President leaned forward and spoke. “Doctors, I understand and appreciate the excitement you and your scientific brethren feel. I know you are itching to get down there and wade in the water and dig through the soil. However, while you feel that this new planet is ours for the taking, my immediate concern is that it seems someone or something felt the same way and has already built an outpost there. What can you tell me about the alien artifacts on the surface?”
Mike looked at the screen showing General Seale. “Mr. President, I will defer to the General about what his military recon specialists are speculating on the artifacts found. NASA and JPL engineers are cooperating with their military counterparts as they try to determine the meaning of what we have found.”
“Mister President, if I may take over the briefing at this point I will share what information we have assembled to this point.”
“Go ahead Rob, tell me like it is,” said the President.
“I will start with the two smaller side buildings if I may. These are still shots from the video that the airship made. We have magnified them and tried to sharpen the images. Here, you can see the coating that is on the structures. It is our guess that this is some sort of solar cell. This may be the source of the power for the beacon that started when the Honstein started scanning the planet with its radar. We had scanned the planet before with the radar from the Farside Lunar Base with no reaction from the alien site. That was before the planet had started thawing however, and it is probable that the buildings were covered with ice and the site had no power at the time. As the ice melted and the sun started causing some power to be generated, the site woke up so to speak.
When it detected the Holsteins radar, it initiated the beacon that we have detected. This is still speculation of course. We could be totally wrong,
and the base could have some sort of geothermal power source or even some exotic source of power that we know nothing about. We are almost positive that the iris like devices on the flat side of the buildings you can see in these images is a door. These doors are about five meters high. Too small for the alien tractor to enter and we have found nothing else that would go into them. We have no idea what is inside them.”
“Here you see the tractor or bulldozer as most of my guys are calling it,” the General continued. “It is obviously designed for scraping ice and soil. Beside it, you can see a large scraping blade that has been removed. In its place are what appear to be manipulator arms, probably for moving large containers or crates. It ran on these attached tracks on the sides the same as a bulldozer here on Earth would. This bubble on the front is obviously where the driver controlled the vehicle. It is large enough for two humans to fit inside it, but as you can see from the dirt and mud on the bubble, we cannot make out any indication of a seat or controls that would show what type or shape of being would control it. In the back we have another of the iris doors. This door is about two and a half meters tall, so our guess is that whatever these beings look like they are not much taller than us.”
“The main dome here is the central aspect of the site. We have no idea what the metal alloy it is constructed of is, at this point. This rectangular box here is the airlock, again with an iris door just slightly larger than the one on the tractor. From the images taken from the air, we cannot make out any type of mechanism or control for any of these doors. This short superstructure on top of the large dome is where the beacon is being transmitted from. There are multiple protrusions on the superstructure which we believe is a pretty wide variety of instruments of unknown purpose. We can guess that they had radar, radio, etc. We would do the same if we had built something like this on say…Jupiter’s moon Europa.”
“Finally, we have the space ship or lander. The ship itself is nearly as big as the David Honstein. We have no doubt that it landed vertically. From what we can see of the landing gear that has not sank into the soft ground, we do not think there are wheels on the gear but probably landing pads like we have on our own landers. The design of the ship is totally unlike our landers though. Our landers for the moon are utilitarian in design and not made to operate in an atmosphere. This ship has a lifting type body design. We believe that it was launched from a planet with an atmosphere and has the ability to fly and land in an atmosphere as well as on an airless world such as Elpis was when it arrived there.
The ship could not have contained all the material needed to build what we can see of the site. It would have required multiple trips or another ship that was a cargo carrier to carry the bulk of the materials. As you can see here on the front and top of the ship, we have a similar but larger control bubble as compared to the tracked vehicle.
We can only guess at the ship's engine design. These features here look like some more of the iris door features that have closed and could cover a rocket exhaust nozzle such as we use. We believe the ship probably uses an expansion type rocket engine similar to what our own heavy lift rockets and orbital tugs use. This does not look like our VASIMR ion engines. We can see no hatches or doors so we must assume they are on the underside of the ship.” The general sat back indicating he was done.
The President looked at them thoughtfully. Finally he spoke “Ok, I need an answer from you three. Is there anyone or anything alive there at the alien site, and does what we have seen constitute any danger to us here on Earth?”
Mike shook his head. “The site is dead and deserted from what we have seen. The beacon is obviously an automated response to our own radar signals. It is our impression that the builders wanted the site found by someone with the capability to look for it. We believe that the planet may have been a distant orbiting planet of a sun much like our own. It was way out there in a far orbit where it was eternally frozen. An intelligent race, probably from a warmer planet in that system, had the technology to build an outpost on it. The planet was ripped away by the Dwarf when it passed that star system and now our own sun has claimed it from the Dwarf.”
The General interrupted Mike. “My biggest question is why? If they deserted the outpost because the Dwarf was coming, why would they would leave that ship? It would have taken considerable resources to build. I would not think that it was expendable or a throw away model.”
“Maybe it was broke, or damaged, or out of fuel,” volunteered Peter.
“I just don’t think anyone that could build all of that would leave it there when they left,” said the General. “They would have had plenty of time to fix or refuel it before the Dwarf arrived. Hell, we have had years of warning before our own encounter with the Dwarf.”
The President sat in thought for a few minutes. Finally he spoke “You have deployed the ground robot from the lander, right?”
Peter nodded “Yes sir.”
“Then send it into the site to explore.” He raised his finger in warning. “If there is any type of hostile reaction from the alien site then pull the robot back. General Seale, upon the appearance of any aggressive response from the site, I want you to carry out the precautions that we have previously discussed and use the robot to deliver the package close to the site. If the robot is disabled by any alien action then you will detonate the package where it is and hopefully it will be close enough to destroy the site.”
Both Mike and Peter looked at the general with the question on both their lips. “What package?” demanded Mike.
The President answered him. “Doctor Banscott and Doctor Rockwell, as a precaution and at my direction, the landing pod also contains a compact fusion warhead. It is similar to the ones developed for the Space Force units to use to deflect incoming asteroids if needed. The robot is capable of carrying that warhead to the site and Colonel Pierce has the ability to detonate it from orbit. If the robot is destroyed, he will detonate it where it is and the alien site is at the very edge of the warhead's kill zone. We can only hope it will be enough to damage or destroy the site before it can become a danger to us or the ship we have in orbit. If all goes well, this will not be necessary. I am going to instruct General Seale to give orders to the Colonel Pierce on the Honstein to put the fusion device at the site when the David Honstein leaves orbit there to come back to Earth.”
Both Peter and Mike both jumped up in protest. “Mr. President, you cannot destroy this site. There is no telling what we can learn from examining these artifacts,” Peter exclaimed.
“Gentlemen, what you do not know is that both the Russian President and the Chinese Premier have been demanding that I share what we have discovered on the planet with them. They have detected the signal from the beacon also. Although they are in no position to launch an expedition to the planet yet, you can be assured they are racing to do so. I cannot, and will not, allow those artifacts to fall into their hands."
"They have actually had the audacity to hint that withholding that information could be an excuse for war against the United States. Although they cannot easily attack our territory with conventional weapons or troops, they do both still have considerable nuclear arsenals. As a last resort, I will destroy the site to prevent a nuclear war here on Earth.
"Now, to ease your anger I will tell you this. I agree that we need to get down there on the planet’s surface and examine that site with boots on the ground. I am going to get my purse pinching Congress to authorize the building of a new ship that will have the means to put a manned lander on the ground. I want NASA to start getting some preliminary plans together for construction of this ship. After the encounter with the Dwarf Star, I would like to have construction started at the new Lagrange Point Station.
There is the very real possibility I may not be re-elected in the fall, so if the construction has already started it will be harder for a future President or Congress to stop it. I expect to be kept briefed on the findings of the ground robot. If there is any sign of activity at the site, infor
m me immediately. Good day gentlemen, General.” The President’s image faded from the screen.
Peter shook his head. “It just can’t be more exciting than this, can it? I can’t believe they sent a nuke down to the planet.”
Chapter 54
February 14th, 2043
Elpis Geostationary Orbit.
“Excuse me, Colonel; we just received a message from Mission Control. They want us to deploy the ground robot to the artifact site. There is also a security locked addendum to the message marked for your eyes only. The message is in your message queue.”
“Thank you Johnston. Please wake up Lieutenant Allan Greco and tell him we have orders to move the robot to the artifact site.”
“Yes sir,” the communication specialist said as she backed out of the Colonel’s sleep cabin. Colonel Pierce sat up slowly. His head was pounding again and he had to fight to control a wave of nausea. He debated going to see the medical technician again, but instead he got up and took two more of the pain killers he had gotten the day before. He then took another of the anti-space sickness pills that were frequently given to newcomers in space. He had never had problems with vertigo and space sickness before this mission. Maybe I am getting too old for this, he thought. I really should talk to the flight surgeon when we get back to Earth. Holding on to the handrail in the small passageway, he made his way to a ladder and climbed to the center handrail and then pulled himself up to the operations deck.
Colonel Pierce paused in the operations deck when he saw that Lieutenant Allan Greco was already settling in at the control station for the remote ground robot. “Lieutenant, make the best safe speed you can to the artifact site. Pause on the hill overlooking the site and notify me. I will be on the flight control deck.” Colonel Pierce pulled himself up the handrail to the pilot station and then over to his flight seat.
Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) Page 36