Age of Cosmic Exploration, 1

by Zhttty

  The Hope was actually the Noah Two. It was what the people started referring to the spaceship as after Yao Yuan’s uplifting speech. After a while, the moniker even spread across the authority. It wasn’t before long that it officially replaced the name Noah Two.

  The desert planet was the only interstellar entity within the Hope’s reach. According to multiple reports, the planet appeared to have an ozone layer and a physical surface fully covered by amber sand. Its mass was 0.007 percent greater than Earth’s. Its size wasn’t great, and it seemed to have a gravitational pull similar to that of Earth’s.

  However, the planet had a fast rotation with regards to both itself and its sun. A day on this planet was sixteen hours long and a year was equal to two hundred and seventy days on Earth.

  Further reports also revealed that the surface temperature during the planet’s day would be around fifty degrees Celsius while dropping to under ten degree Celsius when night fell. The night-and-day temperature difference was extreme, but it was still within mankind’s acceptable range.

  The Hope’s team of astronomers and astrophysicists had spent much effort and time calculating and recalculating the planet’s data because this might be the location where the Hope will spend its next few years. Other than information that needed actual contact to be calibrated, like ozone and surface components as well as its flora and fauna, everything else about the planet was tallied and measured.

  The results of all these analyses, with the exception of reports on the planet’s weather patterns, pointed towards a safe landing. Its balmy weather was a dangerous anomaly because it didn't explain the extremely desertified planet surface. A month of observation showed no traces of natural disasters. Of course, due to the sandy nature of the planet’s surface, they would still need to care for the possibility of quicksand and sand traps. These dangers depended on the level of solidity of the surface, so it was a risk that couldn't be calculated unless they were on the planet itself.

  "Because we are unable to ascertain the planet’s atmospheric and geological structures, it will be too much of a risk to attempt a direct landing of the Hope. Therefore, we need to first deploy an expeditionary unit for initial inspection. This scouting party will be taking a mini-shuttle to the planet," said Yao Yuan, addressing the four men before him. They were Ying, Ebon, and Liu Bai, who were senior members of the Black Star Unit, as well as its newest recruit, Zhang Heng. The four were going to be leading the ship’s first planetary landing party which was made up of twenty elite agents and eight scientists.

  "There are only three of these shuttles within the Hope. These spacecrafts are unique because they can channel sufficient velocity to pierce through a planet’s atmosphere within a short timeframe both when entering it and leaving it. Equipped with an anti-gravitational system, they can support eighteen hours of continuous flight. With our current technology and materials… we are still unable to manufacture these kinds of shuttles, so each one of them is incredibly valuable. As the first landing party, you guys will be taking one," explained Yao Yuan. Next he turned to address his own men one by one. "Now I want to explain why I’ve selected the four of you to lead this crucial party. Ying, you’re the most clear-headed of all the Black Stars, myself included. So, in cases of emergency and/or if communications are cut off, I want you to take charge and use your experience and analytical mind to lead everyone back to safety. Ebon, your role is to support Ying when necessary and to be the commander to the twenty elite soldiers. Xiao Bai, you’re naturally the team’s medic, but you’ll also be acting as the lieutenant that supports Ebon. Lastly, Zhang Heng, you must be curious as to why I’ve scripted you into this party. The reason’s simple: because your computer skill is the best among everyone aboard this ship." Yao Yuan couldn’t help but feel gladdened at his serendipitous encounter with Zhang Heng. The young hacker had helped them acquire the spaceship and now was yet another valuable asset to the Black Star Unit.

  "Zhang Heng, I’ll be honest with you. Within this past month, we have collated a proficiency chart by reviewing everyone onboard. We could refer to this chart to easily identify the best and brightest among the different communities so that when issues arise, we could locate the necessary individuals in no time. For example, for questions about aerospace engineering, we have quite a few rocket scientists to refer to and we have engineers and technicians for welding and molding of ship parts, but guess who’s at the top of the list for computer proficiency. It’s none other than yourself, and that’s why you are instrumental to the success of this expedition. In fact, your role might be the most important.

  Within the shuttle, there’s a multi-frequency communicator. It’s a future-tech product that was probably created alongside the space warp system. Even through all sorts of environmental disturbances, be it electromagnetic or locational suppression, it will recalibrate itself to locate the frequencies needed to maintain a stable communications channel with the Hope. There is, however, a catch; the device is encrypted. The encryption is written into the communicator’s programming, so it can’t be removed. Even though its defense was heavily weakened when the government bombarded the ship with viruses to achieve entry, gaining full access over it is still troublesome because it will reconstruct a different encrypted firewall every ten minutes. That’s the device’s fatal flaw." Yao Yuan allowed himself a long sigh before continuing, "Fact is, the space-warping system also comes with such an encrypted protection, but thanks to the ship’s own advanced AI and the professor’s decryption key, this is a non-issue. It doesn’t work that way with the communicator though; it needs manual intervention, and that’s where you come in, Zhang Heng. The communicator is linked to the spaceship and thus presumably has a similar encryption pattern. You’re already familiar with the decryption key, so I’m sure you can handle it… I know this is a big responsibility, but you’re the best hacker we have. In any case, I have full faith in you because despite being a fresh one, you’re still a Black Star!"

  There’s a chinese idiom that goes, "He who knows the time and circumstance is a wise man," and people who are born with a silver spoon, like Zhang Heng, are usually such wise men. When he heard Yao Yuan’s explanation, the first thought that popped into his mind was to find excuses to weasel his way out, but he was quick to realize that there wasn’t any escape path. There was no one for him to turn to; he had to fend for himself now. And so, instead of going through an extended back-and-forth, which would still end up with him on the shuttle, Zhang Heng gravely nodded, signifying an understanding of his placement.

  Yao Yuan acknowledged him with a nod in return. He then resumed, "Then you should go get ready. The shuttle will be leaving in half an hour. Also, when the shuttle pushes through the ozone layer, its carapace will beam the ozone layer’s pH reading to its computer. If the readings show that it’s overly acidic or alkaline, abort the mission and return to ship… If everything works fine though, after landing, you will need to immediately gather necessary information. This includes details like the planet’s atmospheric components, bacterial make-up, geological structure, and the desert surface’s density to help us decide whether landing the Hope is permissible.

  And then there’re also these things to be careful about…"

  Yao Yuan droned on for another ten minutes before the four could leave to take the electromobile to the shuttle’s hangar. On the journey there, Zhang Heng let loose his thoughts. "I’m surprised; he isn’t usually so wordy. Major Yao Yuan, I mean."

  Ying appeared to not have heard Zhang Heng’s comment. He sat silently, checking his rifle’s barrel before proceeding to fixing his magazine of electromagnetic bullets. Ebon, who sat beside him, answered, "Ol’ Cap’n is such a man. Normally, he’s extremely reticent; he could even give this guy here a run for his money." He nudged Ying with the butt of his assault rifle which he was deconstructing to check for kinks. "But during every operation briefing, he will go on and on… Alright, you can stop staring at me now, Ying. I know that’s j
ust Ol’ Cap’n being cautious, and many times his prudence has saved our lives, I’m fully aware of that; I just wish he wasn’t such a long-winded mother hen every time." He trailed off in his signature booming laugh.

  Liu Bai added, with a smile, "Zhang Heng, you’re new to the Black Star Unit, so you’re still unfamiliar with Ol’ Cap’n’s ways, but he’s only so cautious because he doesn’t want anyone to lose their lives over his carelessness. You’ll get used to it and see that behind his every action, he has our best interest at heart."

  The amiable exchange continued until they reached a platform where twenty soldiers and eight scientists stood waiting. Behind them loomed the shuttle. It looked just like a jet fighter but larger and longer.

  The four descended the automobile without any more words, each packing their necessary luggage; Ying and Ebon with their weapons, Liu Bai with his medical case, Zhang Heng with his laptop and electronic paraphernalia. After some last-minute inventory, the four Black Stars led the twenty agents and eight excited scientists on board the shuttle and stood ready for departure.

  "Closing the first inner hangar door. All personnel, please vacate the area. Opening the shuttle exit in thirty seconds, neutralizing gravity forces…"

  "Moving the first shuttle to hangar rail, scanning rail perimeters… Confirmed clearance of obstructions, charging propulsion energy. Preparing for blast off in thirty seconds…"

  "Counting down to blast off in thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…"

  All across the Hope, the eyes of its 120000 occupants were collectively glued to a video feed of the shuttle. This was because history was being made! This was going to be mankind’s first landing party on an alien planet, a planet with an ozone layer, light years away from earth!

  Many were quietly praying to their own gods and deities, but their collective hope was for the landing party to have a successful mission. They had hope for a future on this new planet...

  Although hope was a weightless thing, the thirty plus people onboard the shuttle could feel the weight of the collective hope from 120000 people on their shoulders.

  Finally, the thirty second countdown came to a close. Discharging pulsing electronic energy from its rear, the shuttle glided swiftly through the rails before dislodging itself out of the Hope. After floating for a bit in space and shifting for the optimum angle, the shuttle shot towards the planet. As it flew through the ozone layer, the extreme friction between the shuttle and the planet’s atmosphere had the shuttle lit up like a fiery bullet.

  This had everyone’s hearts up their throats. Thankfully, the shuttle got through the ozone layer without incident. After it pushed itself through the ozone layer, the anti-gravity device kicked in and the shuttle crested through the air before stabilizing. It then slowly descended towards the planet’s surface. Ying’s voice crackled through the receiver, reporting that everything had stabilized.

  Through the live feed, the citizens of the Hope closely followed the shuttle’s progress. When they saw it slow to a standstill, they knew the dangers were over. It was now on anti-gravity support, so crashing was no longer an imminent possibility. The whole of the Hope breathed a collective sigh of relief before erupting in celebration. There were joyful laughs and teary embraces.

  Back in the shuttle, two scientists were hurriedly collecting air samples through robotic arms that extended out of the shuttle. Using a makeshift lab that was constructed within the shuttle, the pair was busy conducting analysis on the sealed bags of air. Too many things hinged upon their result and so all the people onboard had their eyes glued to the pair of frantic and excited scientists, including Zhang Heng, who was standing ready with the communicator.

  "… The result is out! But… but, this is impossible! In the atmosphere, there are two types of ox…"

  In the conference room, Yao Yuan, the rest of the Black Stars, and almost all of the scientists were at the other end of the communication. The transmission was also connected to the rest of the Hope. However, no one could make sense of what they had heard…

  Ox… oxygen..?

  Just as they were waiting for more clarification, about ten people on the Hope had a sudden aspiration of premonition. This group of people, Yao Yuan included, all sprang up and yelled,

  "Stop! Stop the descent!"

  On the live feed, it appeared like gravity had decided to catch up with the shuttle, because the shuttle, which was sitting at a flat angle seconds ago, suddenly tipped downwards and started to freefall.

  The ground a few thousand feet below was waiting to greet it. Even with the possibility of crash-landing into a carpet of soft sand, the long falling distance combined with acceleration could only lead to one conclusion…

  Total annihilation!

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  Chapter24 BEYOND THE SHUTTLE!

  The first individual to sense that something was wrong was Ying, who was operating the shuttle. He was besieged by a flash of premonition moments before the anti-gravitational device shut down.

  Ying brushed the feeling away, marking it down as tricks of his overly anxious mind. After all, it was man’s first expedition onto a celestial body other than the moon, so a certain degree of danger was to be expected.

  The range of possible catastrophes included sudden windstorms, illnesses caused by the wide variance in day and night temperatures, alien pathogens oft-featured in science fiction, or even life-threatening encounters with extra-terrestrial lifeforms… Their mission had their lives on the line, and Ying was justified in dismissing the ominous feeling as unnecessary worry so as to not have it fogging his mind.

  The shuttle’s anti-gravitational system fitted its interior with a simulated gravity field, so its passengers could move around as if they were on Earth’s solid ground. Even after they entered the planet’s atmosphere, the anti-gravitational system recalibrated itself, adjusting the indoor gravitational force to offset that of the planet’s in an effort to maintain a stable gravitational environment within. The descent was smooth, and because of that, only the small handful of its seated passengers who were particularly cautious wore seatbelts. They were all in space suits, but none of them had their helmets on.

  The moment the anti-gravitational system broke down, those that weren’t strapped into a seatbelt, meaning most of them, were thrown violently around the room before getting shoved up against the walls or onto the floor.

  At the height of five thousand meters off the ground, Ying’s feeling of dread resurged in full vengeance. At one moment, the shuttle was floating down safely, but in the next, he could literally see the room tilting downwards. Everyone had their bodies pressed against the walls or the ground, immobilized as the shuttle began its plummet towards the planet’s surface.

  Ying was one of the few who wore a seatbelt. His extra cautiousness that was often chided by his teammates was quite possibly the saving grace that had preserved everyone’s lives. He knew he had to reach the buttons on the panel before him, but because he was crammed forcefully into his seat, it had taken him a few tries before eventually hitting the necessary buttons.

  The buttons fired up the boosters that were attached to the shuttle’s rear, buffering the speed of their drop. However, this was about twenty seconds after the shuttle started plummeting. By then, they were already falling at a tremendous speed and were dangerously close to the ground. Even with buffeting from the boosters’ fiery propulsion, it couldn’t overcome the shuttle’s overall downwards momentum.

  Working to regain control of the shuttle, a sweat-soaked Ying yelled across the room, “Mayday! Mayday! We’re hitting the ground soon and hard! Brace yourselves for a harsh landing!”

  That was, however, easier said than done. People were still getting flung across surfaces, and the boosters’ propulsion merely added to the force that was juggling people about. Only the few who were physically trained were able to crawl to their seats and struggle to
fasten their seatbelts. The shuttle hit the ground with an intense impact, its vibration surging through the room. The shuttle then proceeded to slide several meters across the sandy surface before stopping and lodging itself several meters into the ground.

  After the rocky landing, the interior was in a completely ramshackle state. Thankfully, everyone had space suits on, so their bodies were padded and protected. However, because they decided not to wear their helmets, an unlucky few had suffered head injuries, but the fall was basically just a rough tumble. For quite some time, other than cries and groans of pain, no sound was heard.

  Coming out of his daze, a scientist suddenly issued in alarm, “No! The air’s leaking!”

  That whipped everyone into attention. Frantically putting on their protective helmets, they rushed to check the shuttle walls for cracks. It took them quite some time to realize that the scientist who had issued the alarm wasn’t up on his feet inspecting the walls as they were. Instead, he was shaking on the floor and staring intently at a shredded translucent bag before him. It took everyone some time to place this seemingly unfamiliar object, but once they realized that it was one of the bags that held the planet’s air sample, their faces blanched. It was too late; they were already breathing in the planet’s air!

  The significance that they had alien air in their lungs shouldn’t be downplayed. They were in an alien atmosphere, so no one knew what was in it. Even if it had just one strain of a mild alien flu virus, they would be expecting a tragic death because none of them had immunity against it.

  Understanding that panic could only be harmful to their situation, a scientist standing by quickly added, “Everyone, please don’t worry just yet. We’re still unclear on whether this planet supports any life. Plus, it’s a desert planet; the air is extremely dry, so, technically speaking, it would be extremely unfavorable for the germination of microbes and viruses. So don’t fret; first check whether you’re feeling a burning sensation around your mouth and nose. This is to confirm whether the air is corrosive.”