Vorpal Blade votsb-2

by John Ringo

  That was why the current survey had intended to concentrate on stars much like Sol. G class stars lasted a long time but had relatively broad life zones.

  The kicker to all that theory was the experience humans had developed through surveying the planets on the other side of the Looking Glass portals and planets in the Sol system. The first thing that was noted was that greenhouse gases played an important part in whether or not a planet was habitable. Venus, in the Sol system, was right on the inner edge of the life zone. But Venus’ atmosphere was so choked with greenhouse gases that the surface temperature was nearly 400 degrees C. Mars, too, was right at the edge of the life zone, on the chillier side. But Mars had virtually no greenhouse gases in its limited atmosphere. If humans could somehow switch their atmospheres, the two planets would be marginally habitable.

  Planets on the other side of the Looking Glass had a tendency to be pretty poor. The portals had connected mostly to planets of some long gone race that had once used a similar system and had left behind inactive bosons. Most of the planets were in fading life zones, either those where the sun was starting to flare up in death or too cooled off to support life. Some of the planets appeared to have been terraformed, that is they had had extensive work done to them to make them habitable. That long gone race, perhaps the same race that made the warp engine for the Blade, had done the equivalent of switching Mars’ and Venus’ atmospheres.

  But they showed that, depending on a huge number of factors, the life zone of a planet could be about twice as large as first thought.

  Furthermore, it was apparent that while life could crop up under the oddest conditions, only a certain number of types turned up. So far in all the planets surveyed only four different biologies had been found. Two of those, human and Adar, were “green” biologies. That is, both used something that looked more or less like chlorophyll as a basic energy gathering system. One was “blue” and the last was “red.”

  Given that over forty planets had been found with some sort of life, there should, by straight evolutionary principles, have been forty different biologies. Instead there were four. Chloro A, Chloro B, Blue and Red.

  Biologists and paleontologists were engaged in a hot debate about just why this was the case. The arguments fell into two broad categories: statistical genesis and panspermia.

  Statistical genesis argued that when life was developing there were a limited number of functional ways it could occur. An infinite number of monkeys might try to start life, but only four were likely to take. Panspermists called this the “by guess and by gosh” theory.

  Panspermists believed that either by the actions of some long gone race or due to microscopic survivors hitching a ride on rocks scattered into space, all life had originated in only four different conditions and then spread through the galaxy.

  What statistical genesists said about panspermists wasn’t fit to print. “Creationism by another name…” and it went downhill from there.

  Runner had kept up with all the theoretical discussions even before he was volunteered to this mission. He just liked the debates and theories. So when he was hunting around he had a specific mission. The inner planet of E Eridani was well outside the theoretical life zone. But he kept in mind that word: “Theoretical.” There were so many theories being crushed by this mission, he wasn’t willing to settle for “theory.”

  The planet itself was unlikely to have life. It was a gas giant, a super-massive planet of nothing but gas and metallic gas, gas crushed under so much pressure it turned solid. In fact, it was possible that the “planet,” which was bigger than Jupiter, had been a brief-lived sun. But gas giants usually had rocky moons. And if the moon had enough CO2…

  He finally found what he was looking for and let out an exclamation.

  “Have we found a planet?” Dr. Dean said, looking up from the Saturn data.

  “I believe Doctors Campbell, Walter and Yang actually found the planet,” Runner said. “But we just found a very high albedo moon.”

  “What?” Dean said, standing up and walking over, bottle of soda in hand. “Is that the thirty-centimeter aperture telescope or the one meter?”

  “Thirty,” Runner said. “The one-meter scope is doing the survey.”

  “Stop it and zoom in…” Dr. Dean said excitedly. “Do we have a spectroscopic analysis yet… ?”

  “Doc,” Runner said, shaking his head. “Why don’t we just have the captain drive us over there?”

  “Oh, yes,” Dr. Dean said, blinking. “Perhaps that would be best.”

  He opened up the bottle of soda and took a swig, for once forgetting his ritual. Of course, when he tasted the slight carbonation, he blew half of it all over the console.

  “Okay, this just isn’t happening,” Weaver said, looking at the forward viewscreen. “Tell me we didn’t find the Forest Moon of Endor.”

  “The what?” the XO asked.

  “Star Wars,” the CO replied. “That place the Ewoks lived.”

  “Oh,” the XO replied. “Not much forest. Looks like mostly ice.”

  The planet was mostly ice. A very solid glacial zone extended almost to the equator. And what there was of the rest looked like mostly ocean. A few small dots of islands had been detected, but that was about the only land. Unless you counted the glaciers.

  “Hoth, then,” Weaver replied.

  “Actually,” the CO said, looking at an internal e-mail, “Dr. Dean has stated that it should be named Dean’s World.”

  “Figures,” Weaver said, grinning. “He can have it. It’s way outside the standard habitable zone. The only reason it’s not frozen solid is that it has a higher CO2 level than Adar. So the air isn’t breathable to humans. And it’s gonna be cold. Wyverns all the way.”

  “Is that a recommendation that we do a ground survey, Astro?” the captain asked.

  “It’s there, sir,” Bill said, shrugging. “This is what we came for. To do a local survey, find habitable planets, look for signs of life. Figure out what the planets outside the portal planets are like. Yes, sir. I think we should do a ground survey. Just because it looks like a cold ball of ice…”

  “Agreed,” the CO said. “But we’re not just looking for habitable planets. I want a full system sweep before we commit to a landing. It would be nice to know if there are any Dreen in the system before we’re sitting ducks on the ground.”

  12

  There’s One In Every Unit

  “I was told to report to Ops?” Berg said, looking through the open hatch of the operations office.

  “You Berg?” the staff sergeant behind the desk said with a frown. There was a nameplate on the desk with a faux brass plate that read “Staff Sergeant Mark Driscoll, Operations.” “Enter.”

  “Yes, Staff Sergeant,” Berg said, stepping into the office and coming to parade rest.

  “You’re up on the simulator,” the staff sergeant said. “Which is totally grapping up my training schedule. So get it right the first time. You’ve been in the sim before?”

  “Yes, Staff Sergeant.”

  “Then you know the deal,” presumably Staff Sergeant Driscoll said. “Come on.”

  Driscoll led Berg back to his Wyvern and hit the hatch button. When the hatch didn’t open he hit the armor with his fist.

  “It’s already keyed, Staff Sergeant,” Berg said delicately.

  “Then open it,” the staff sergeant snarled.

  “Bergstresser, Eric, PFC,” Berg said, laying his hand on the palm-pad. The armor still refused to open so he closed his eyes and grimaced. “Two-Gun.”

  Then the armor opened. He wasn’t sure if the voice analysis was just off for his name or if Lyle had grapped with him, but it opened and that was the important part.

  “Get in,” Driscoll snapped. When Berg was snapped into his position, the operations sergeant leaned in and replaced a module on the inside of the pilot’s compartment. “Training module. See you in six hours. Have fun.”

  “Maulk,” Berg muttered as the hatc
h closed. Nobody spent six hours in sim training. The staff sergeant was clearly just glad to have him out of his hair.

  But it was too late to protest. The VR mod was already starting and Eric saw his orders scrolling up in front of his eyes. Move to the corner of the street and recon for enemy positions.

  “Shiny,” he said. “Let’s dance.”

  “Six hours?” Jaenisch snarled. “Is Driscoll grapping insane?”

  “I should have brought a puke bag,” Berg admitted, grinding his teeth to keep down the nausea.

  Virtual Reality was a very effective training method but not perfect. The problem was that the Wyverns could not actually move. The module that was replaced prevented that, so that the entire training program could be run with the Wyvern still latched into the side of the ship.

  So various motions occurred that disturbed the inner ear. VR could also cause epileptic fits in people who were susceptible. While Berg could have “stepped out” at any time, rapid VR reversion was often worse than space sickness.

  So Bergstresser had ended up frequently “virtually” down on his hands and knees, puking his still chemically roiled guts out. In reality it had been down the front of his cat-suit and all over the inside of the Wyvern. Then he spent two hours cleaning it out.

  “Top is going to ream him a new asshole,” Jaenisch said.

  “I’m fine,” Berg replied. “I just needed a shower.”

  “The God damned training schedule said fifty-minute periods with a ten-minute break,” Hattelstad said.

  “Did big old Two-Gun have a bad time in VR?” Lujan asked, mock sadly. “Awww, cry, Two-Gun. Go waaah.”

  “Shut the grapp up, Drago,” Jaenisch snarled.

  “Grapp you, Jaen,” Sergeant Lovelace said, rolling out of his rack. “You don’t grapp with my team!”

  “Then tell him to keep his God damned mouth shut,” Jaenisch said. “Or go try six hours of VR after he’s just gone through grapping pre-mission phys.”

  “Awww, is big bad Two-Gun all queasy?” Crowley snorted.

  “Shut the grapp up, Crow,” Lovelace said. “And you, too, Drago. Lock this maulk down. Now. Jaen, if you’ve got issues with my troops, you bring them to me, got that?”

  “Sure, Lacey,” Jaen said, his teeth grinding. “No problem. I’ve got a date with the first sergeant, anyway. Berg, you’re off-duty for the rest of the watch.”

  “Not going to bitch,” Berg admitted, closing his door.

  “Enter.”

  Jaen stuck his head in Admin and looked around.

  “Gunnery Sergeant Hocieniec, a moment of your time if you please?”

  “That sounds formal as hell,” Hocieniec said, standing up. “What you got, Jaen?”

  “In private, if you please,” Jaen said.

  “Privacy is a rare commodity on a ship,” Hocieniec said, looking over at Gunnery Sergeant Frandsen.

  “I’m up to my ears in paperwork,” Big-Foot growled. “So you can take it somewhere else. Or I can pretend I didn’t hear it.”

  “Come on in, Jaen,” Hocieniec said.

  “Berg just got done with his first Wyvern training,” Jaen said, closing the hatch and hitting the lock. “All six hours.”

  “Shiny. How’d he do?” Hocieniec asked.

  “Pretty good for the first two straight hours,” Jaenisch replied. “After that it sort of went downhill.”

  “Too bad…” Hocieniec said, frowning. “He seemed… Wait, you mean two hours straight? No breaks.”

  “No, Gunnery Sergeant, I mean six hours, straight, no breaks,” Jaen said, trying to remain blank-faced. “He still scored an 88 percent, but most of it was in the first two hours.”

  “Who in the grapp did that?” Big-Foot said, looking up from his paperwork. “Sorry, ears off now.”

  “Who’s in charge of simulator training?” Jaen replied.

  “I am going to grapping kick Driscoll’s fat lazy ass,” Gunny Hocieniec said, standing up.

  “While that would be fun and I’d love to hold his arms,” Jaen said, “I’d rather you weren’t in Portsmouth.”

  “I outrank him!”

  “Yeah, but the court-martial wouldn’t care, Gunny,” Jaen said. “I managed to cool off on the walk over here. If I might recommend, could you bring it to the first sergeant’s attention?”

  “Damned straight we will,” the gunny snapped. “Follow me.”

  “What we are dealing with here, is hearsay evidence,” the first sergeant said. “I will look into this. Return to your duties and I will have a word with Staff Sergeant Driscoll.”

  “Top…” Gunny Hocieniec said.

  “Return. To. Your. Duties,” the first sergeant stated bluntly. “And I will have a word with Staff Sergeant Driscoll and look into this event. Is that clear, Gunnery Sergeant?”

  “Yes, First Sergeant,” Hocieniec said, coming to attention.

  “You and Jaen hang out,” Powell replied. “I’m probably going to need you two, and Berg, at some point. Where’s Two-Gun?”

  “In his rack, First Sergeant,” Jaen said, also at attention. “I told him to chill. I also got an authorization for a second shower. He needed it.”

  “He should have stepped out the minute he got nauseated,” the first sergeant said with a sigh.

  “Two-Gun wouldn’t quit if his leg was being slowly gnawed off, First Sergeant,” Jaen replied. “He might be on the wrong side of gung-ho, if you know what I mean.”

  “Ain’t no wrong side of gung-ho, son,” Top said. “One potential failure here was to ensure he knew it was authorized to stop if he became physically ill. Now, you two go back to your duties, but don’t get into anything I can’t snatch you out of. I’ll look into this.”

  “Just answer Top’s questions and otherwise keep your mouth shut,” Jaen said as he knocked on the first sergeant’s hatch.

  “Enter.”

  Staff Sergeant Driscoll, wearing a furious frown, was standing on the left side of Top’s small office. Gunnery Sergeant Hocieniec was on the right, one jaw muscle twitching furiously but otherwise blank-faced.

  Sergeant Jaenisch entered at a march and came to attention parallel to Hocieniec.

  “Sergeant Jaenisch reporting with a party of one,” he stated.

  “Move over, Jaen,” Top said. “Okay, PFC Bergstresser, a couple of questions. Staff Sergeant Driscoll handled your prep for simulation, yes or no?”

  “Yes, First Sergeant,” Berg said, sweating.

  “What was the continuous duration of such training?”

  “Six hours, First Sergeant.”

  “And did you remain in your armor and in VR for that entire time?”

  “Yes, First Sergeant.”

  “Was that your understanding of Staff Sergeant Driscoll’s orders?”

  “Yes, First Sergeant.”

  “And did he or did he not instruct you to take a break every fifty minutes?” the First Sergeant asked.

  “He did not, First Sergeant.”

  “I thought he’d be smart enough—” Driscoll snapped.

  “Silence,” the First Sergeant said, quite mildly. “PFC Bergstresser, did you become physically ill during simulations training on the last watch?”

  “Yes, First Sergeant.”

  “PFC Bergstresser, were you informed by Staff Sergeant Driscoll that if you became physically nauseous you were to discontinue simulations?”

  “No, First Sergeant,” Berg said.

  “Were you, at any time in training, instructed that that was to be your action during simulations?” the First Sergeant asked.

  “No, First Sergeant,” Berg said after a moment’s thought.

  “You may expand upon that if you wish,” the First Sergeant said.

  Berg thought long and hard on that one.

  “During Basic we had monitors during training, First Sergeant,” Berg said. “Also during Force Recon Operator’s Training. I had never previously been in training without a monitor. We were specifically ordered during training to
remain in armor unless told to discontinue simulation by the spotter. As far as I was aware, Staff Sergeant Driscoll was acting as spotter, First Sergeant.”

  “Like I have time to—”

  “I said silence,” the first sergeant said, much less mildly. “Sergeant Jaenisch, PFC Bergstresser, you are dismissed. Gunnery Sergeant Hocieniec and Staff Sergeant Driscoll will remain.”

  » » »

  “I think I just made a serious enemy in Staff Sergeant Driscoll,” Berg said.

  “Everybody hates Driscoll,” Jaenisch said. “And he hates everybody else. Most miserable son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”

  “Yeah, but the Ops sergeant has so many little ways to grapp with us,” Berg pointed out. “It probably would have been a better thing to keep our mouths shut.”

  “Let Top worry about that,” Jaen said. “Driscoll’s going to be pretty careful about how he grapps with us for a while. Just get the damned WCT test right. That’s going to be his first real chance to grapp you over.”

  “I will,” Berg said. “Unless he tries to grapp with the numbers. He’s got full control over the information.”

  “Point,” Jaen admitted, frowning. “Let me look into that.”

  “Jeff,” Miller said as the Marine first sergeant entered their shared compartment. “You look like you had a bad day.”

  The chief warrant officer had a small collection of dried flowers laid out on the table. It was the same ones he’d left Earth with but every few days he rearranged them in the vase.

  “That I did, Todd, that I did,” Powell said, sitting down at the small fold-up table in the room and pulling out a bottle marked “Poisonous! For topical use only!” He poured some of the clear liquid into a cup and raised it. “Hair of the dog?”

  “Got my own,” the SEAL said.

  “So, you used to be a team chief, right?”

  “Many a year, Jeff,” Miller said, pulling out an Aunt Jemima syrup bottle and squirting some syrup in a cup. He took a sip and picked up a ribbon, tying it onto a mum.