USS Kepler Dawn

by Gerald Lane Summers

  “It would seem so.”

  “Is there a record of this plasma pistol coming on board the ship?”

  “Yes, Commander Boggs brought it on board with his personal baggage just before the ship departed and left the Sol system.”

  “Was it officially authorized?”

  “No, Commander Boggs would have been exempt from such regulation, as was Captain Hollenbeck.”

  “So, the captain also has a plasma pistol?”

  “Yes. It is located in his office safe.”

  “Are there any other such pistols on board?”

  “Wait one.”

  Several seconds went by. Finally the AI replied: Other than the standard issue weapons of the individual Marines of the ship’s security force, I have noted several pistols and plasma rifles in the possession of the colonists. Most of them are under lock and key in the office of the colonial administrator. Three are under the control of colonial security forces. They are also noted in the logs as part of the material to be taken down to Kepler 186f upon arrival. I must note however, that there are several areas of the ship that I cannot access with the visual monitoring system. It is possible that some weapons are kept there.”

  “Can you print out a diagram of those areas that I can follow?”

  “Of course. Do not fail to return the document for recycling.”

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  I hesitated, wondering what else to ask the machine. Finally, I recalled my own thoughts about the AI’s opinion.

  “Based on my questions and your answers during this session, do you have an opinion on what might be going on?”

  “About the quantum code violations?”

  “That, and who might have discharged a plasma pistol in the main corridor this morning.

  “The logical suspect is Cadet Buryl Boggs, however since the visual monitoring system does not confirm his presence in either place, his involvement cannot be confirmed without some additional direct evidence.”

  “What would constitute such evidence?”

  “The best evidence would be his DNA on the plasma pistol. However, it would also be there if he had ever handled it. It would not prove unequivocally that he had handled it the day of the shooting. Additional evidence would include his DNA in Commander Boggs’s office and on or in the safe. He might have been allowed in to visit although I cannot imagine Commander Boggs would have allowed him to enter the safe. Virtually everything in there is highly classified.”

  “Thank you. Now, can you tell me if Buryl has ever practiced with the pistol at the military shooting range?”

  “There is no record at the range of his ever having been there or having used the facility. Indications are that the pistol remained in Commander Boggs’s safe since it was first placed there before the departure of Kepler Dawn. Also, you may note that no one other than the Marine security detail has used the range. Each member is required to keep current on a monthly basis. Would you like to review their individual scores?”

  “Thank you, no. Now, please file a digital copy of this conversation with Captain Hollenbeck and CID Commander Lipscomb. Then print out a paper copy for me. Mark the digital copies as for their eyes only.”

  Chapter 15

  Itook a tube car to the astronavigation compartment, enjoyed the hair-raising whoosh of its acceleration as I gunned it the full length of the straight track system. There was always a let-down of excitement as it slowed and finally jerked to a stop at the bridge off-ramp. Too bad the thing did not run in a circle. I might have stayed in the car for hours, racing about. For a few moments, I sat in place while the automated voice kept reminding me I had arrived at my destination. I considered running the machine back to the engine room and then back again. Unfortunately, computers never forget and this one was sure to report me for a breach of energy discipline if I did it more than twice.

  Of all the interesting things that had happened to me recently, the imagined process called maturity was beginning to take its toll. A year ago I would not have hesitated to race the cars back and forth until a security guard arrived to chew me out. Now, increasing responsibility and the process of growing up was taking the pizazz out of daily life. I resolved to do something about it.

  Stepping out of the car, I sauntered the few meters to the bridge door and stepped in. The lieutenant who had first snookered me with the rail transport was standing there, expecting me to move out of his way as he was coming out.

  “Good morning, sir,” I said. “Are you headed for the lounge? I heard the captain just call a meeting for all officers of lieutenant and above to discuss plans for the next few years. If he breaks some important news, I’d appreciate it if you would let me know. Being up here on the bridge all day keeps us from knowing things that could be important to our work.”

  He looked at me with surprise on his face. “Thanks, Ensign. I will do that.” He then hurried off to the tube entry door and disappeared. Once he figured out his practical joke had been returned in spades, he would at least be in the right spot for a good mope.

  The first thing I did after walking onto the bridge was, by some form of psychological compulsion, to look out upon the galaxy and the direction of our travel. The view was something I could not ignore. It was simply staggering. Although I knew exactly where we were going, just looking into the cloud of stars that made up this arm of the galaxy did not allow me to identify Kepler 186. I would need to enter its exact coordinates into the scanner and allow it to pinpoint the red dwarf star for me.

  I stared at the vastness of it all for a moment and then stepped onto the transport rail. Even at full speed, it was a pokey thing that did not excite the soul. I felt like a child being pushed in a perambulator.

  Lieutenant Commander Herman was sitting back in her chair a few stations down, staring blankly at her scanner. I decided not to interrupt her thoughts.

  Before long, I was engrossed in my own scan of Kepler’s moon. As I stared at it, I realized it seemed closer than before. I ran a range check and noted it was true. We had moved closer than predicted to the Kepler star system. No one on board had noticed, or at least they had not reported the event. At FTL four point five, there should not have been a noticeable difference and there was not.

  I stood up, stretched, and then stepped over to Commander Herman’s station. She looked up.

  “Have you noticed we have increased our speed?”

  She leaned back and placed her hands behind her head, fingers intertwined. “Yes. I was about to ask you the same question.”

  “Wouldn’t the captain have advised us of this increase?”

  “You’d think. However, it may just be that he wanted to make sure everything was fine with the engines before reporting it to the crew. I’m not sure he would feel compelled to report to the colonists, although surely they would find out sooner rather than later.”

  “I agree. We’re due to report to the captain later today, so that would be an appropriate time to ask him about it.”

  I nodded and then poured myself a cup of coffee from the service cart located behind our working positions. I asked if she would like one and she accepted. We both then sat down at our stations. After taking a sip of the hot brew, I placed it in the holder located under the desk. I need not have done that because there was no risk of an accident. All of the circuitry was embedded within the structure of the alloys that made up the various machines and was completely waterproof.

  Since we were now closer to Kepler 186, it seemed reasonable to go over all of our previous scans to see if anything had significantly changed. I started twiddling the spectroscopic telescope knobs, focused it to maximum magnification and noted a change immediately. The ocean on Kepler 186f was now clearly recognizable. There was a very real difference from my previous scan, and it was obvious. I could see continents and the frequency signature of what could only be water vapor clouds and fresh water on the surface of the various land forms.

  My heart started racing. This was incredible. While I ha
d the telescope set up, I swung it over to scan the satellite for the same things. I almost fell over.

  “Commander, take a look at your spectroscopic telescope. I’m seeing an ocean and continents on both the moon and the planet, along with what can only be fresh water.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  She immediately switched over from whatever other device she had been using. After a moment of staring, she looked up with a broad smile on her face. “Damn, Andy … you have the luck of the Irish. First you find a moon, then an ocean, and now continents and fresh water on both of them. It’s amazing. We need to report this to the captain immediately.”

  “Agreed. You do it and I will confirm.”

  “No, that’s not right. You found it, you get the credit.”

  “I don’t want credit. You’ve been here the longest and have put in the most work. I’ve just been lucky. So, it’s your turn. In the meantime, I need to check the mass of the two bodies. Something doesn’t seem right.”

  She shrugged and shook her head. “I guess that’s fair. From now on though, we give credit where it is rightly due. And it is important. The crew decides who is good and who is less so. They don’t mind knowing someone is good unless they start bragging about it.”

  “Okay by me.”

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  “Captain, Lieutenant Commander Herman here. Ensign Kelso and I have made another interesting discovery.”

  She looked back over her shoulder and smiled at me. “Do you want to hear about it on this system or see it for yourself?”

  “I’d rather see it for myself,” the captain said. “I’ll be right up.”

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Captain Hollenbeck arrived ten minutes later in full dress uniform, striding purposefully toward us. I was just completing my measurements of the total mass of the satellite.

  “So, you’ve done it again, have you?”

  Lieutenant Commander Herman stood and responded. “Yes, sir. The moment we realized you had increased the ship’s speed, we decided to re-do all of our prior scans. We simultaneously recognized that both the planet and the satellite were reflecting similar spectrographic properties. Both would seem to be habitable with oceans, continents and bodies of fresh water.”

  I then spoke up. “While we were awaiting your arrival, I checked the mass of the satellite. I was unable to do that before, except by mathematical guesswork. While it is larger than Earth’s moon, it is still looks to be on the borderline as to its ability to hold an atmosphere, let alone free flowing water. Nevertheless, it is doing just that. And this could only mean it has a huge core with a substantial magnetic field. In fact, it may even be larger than the core of the planet itself. It would also mean that its origin may have been similar to that of the Earth, with two bodies colliding and resulting in one planet and a smaller moon. The gravity of the satellite may make it even more suitable for our own use than that of the planet, because it seems to have ended up with the lion’s share of the overall density-mass.”

  “By the way, Captain,” Herman asked. “What is our current speed?”

  He sat down at my station to look at the spectroscope. As he did so, he answered her question. “We are now at five point five plus or minus two tenths and everything is working smoothly. Two tenths is not insignificant, so it will have to be fine-tuned to a precise number.

  The chief engineer told me the warp increase would be an easy transition. Still, I worry about such things. We are going to be watching the engines carefully for the next few weeks. At any rate, without any glitches, we should reach the Kepler system within three years rather than ten. And Commander Herman, I’m going to need your mathematical expertise working on the approach trajectories. We don’t want to overshoot or create a problem for the system as a whole with our warp bubble. We will need to know how far in-system we can go without disrupting the outer comet clouds and creating a swarm capable of bombarding the inner planets. We will also need to know how to navigate any asteroid belts, if one exists.

  I will leave it up to you to decide whether we should bull our way through the plane of the system or come in from above it all. The forward bubble should protect us from impacts with most of the small bodies we might encounter and we should be able to avoid the largest of them by maneuvering around them. I’d rather do that even if it causes us a longer journey. Kepler Dawn is an enormous ship and with its accompanying anti-gravity bubble, it is capable of disrupting the gravity wells of any number of the smaller bodies. If that were to happen, you both know what it could do to the system as a whole. A new impact phase could be started with all planets being subjected to repeated existential collisions.

  You can choose your own team from any of the mathematicians on board and will have complete freedom to use the main computer with override command if necessary. I will want Ensign Kelso to remain here for the time being, both because of his intuition and his already demonstrated skill. It will also be a more secure location until we clear up the plasma pistol problem. Stick has pretty much solved that crime, although the general consensus is that we will need more hard evidence.”

  Herman nodded. “Thank you, Captain. I will enjoy the challenge.”

  “Yes, now … CID will be detaining Buryl Boggs shortly for interrogation. As soon as the evidence is firmed up, I will notify his father. The DNA scan has picked up Buryl’s signature on the weapon as well as the safe in Commander Boggs’s office. So far, everything points to him, although his motive is not clear. This is something we will want to discuss at our meeting later today.”

  “Captain,” I said. “I think it might be wise to commit him for fMRI and psychological examination before any official action is taken. The way he spoke to me before suggests his judgment may have been seriously skewed by the conflict between us. The boxing match and the concussion he suffered may also have had a role in his behavior. He is angry beyond all reason, even after I offered to make peace with him. It could be his brain has been affected by some chemical overload or neuronal damage. He seems willing to destroy his career just to get back at me and that makes no rational sense. I’ve known him for a long time and while I must admit he is narcissistic and prone to outbursts of anger, I would never have suspected he might behave this violently.”

  The Captain nodded. “That’s a good idea, Stick. And to keep it all legal, I think our other evidence now satisfies the requirements of probable cause. We need to make sure we know the why of this as well as the how. The last thing I want to do is drop this thing on Commander Boggs without having crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I.”

  You might note, he has another child, a ten year old daughter he does not see much. It is not the same with Buryl. They have been very close and all of this is going to fall on him exceptionally hard.”

  We all stood silent for a moment, contemplating what it would be like for Commander Boggs. Finally, the captain said: “Okay, show me what you have on the other scanners.”

  Special Report of the Captain

  Earth Ship “USS Kepler Dawn,” Year 2451

  Captain Johan C. Hollenbeck

  TO: SPA/COM; Non classified update.

  FROM: Captain Johan C. Hollenbeck

  I am pleased to report we have successfully increased our velocity to FTL 5.5 and are now within three years of our destination. Several important discoveries have been made. The planet Kepler 186f has a rotational tilt of twenty point one zero degrees and an ocean spanning two thirds of the planet’s area. There are two large continents and permanent ice caps at both poles. In addition, there are numerous fresh water lakes on each of the continents. The most important discovery has been that of a satellite fully one half the size of Kepler 186f that orbits the planet at a distance of approximately nine hundred thousand miles, roughly four and a half times the distance of Earth’s moon. It, too, has oceans and continents. Oddly, this satellite has a greater density than the planet, which suggests that it has a large metallic core and a powerful magneti
c field. All told, this new data doubles our chances of finding habitable areas to settle.

  I will continue to file additional reports as new and important information is discovered. As an aside, I think it important to note that Ensign Andy Kelso, soon to be promoted to lieutenant junior grade, and Lieutenant Commander Anne Herman together are responsible for these discoveries. Working as a team, they appear to have an intuitive rapport for long range observation.

  Johan C. Hollenbeck — Captain, USS Kepler Dawn.

  Chapter 16

  We’d gathered in the captain’s cabin to discuss the situation about Buryl. CID Colonel Lipscomb, Lt. Commander Herman, and Captain Hollenbeck were either standing around the desk or sitting in whatever chair was available. The captain was not one for fancy accoutrements or cluttering his office with diplomas or awards. The cleaning robots kept it in tip top condition.

  The captain had just opened the conversation when a call came in from CID headquarters. The captain turned the speaker volume on so we could all hear.

  “Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Smith here. A woman has been found stabbed and possibly killed in her quarters. Her name is not known for certain.”

  The captain stiffened and sat up straight in his chair. “She was found in a cabin assigned to Miki and Mary Sakura. Witnesses saw a cadet leaving her room a few moments before the body was found. Paramedics are working on her now to see if she can be revived.”

  I felt a shudder of fear and adrenaline squeeze through my chest. Buryl had been furious when Miki chose me over him. Could he have been so angry he would have killed her?

  The captain reacted instantly. “Smith, locate Cadet Buryl Boggs immediately and detain him. Use whatever force is necessary and note that he is also the suspect in another deadly attack. Be careful.”

  “Captain,” Colonel Lipscomb said. “They don’t know which of the two Sakura girls it was and he may be going for both of them. You need to order another ship-wide lockdown. It looks like Buryl Boggs has become completely unhinged. He may have killed others we don’t know about.”