by Ken O'Steen
Chapter 4: Kepler 84C
There was discomfort then clarity. My mind didn't recall the events that had happened immediately before entering stasis but I was aware that I was safe. The cap and mask were removed. The I.V from my arm was gone and a voice was speaking.
"Professor? If you can understand me nod."
I nodded.
"Good. Lay as long as you need but when you are ready I will assist you."
I nodded again. The discomfort was subsiding but I felt sick. After a few minutes I opened my eyes. The lighting was low, which I was thankful for, but everything was blurry. Slowly it all came into focus. I took a deep breath and gripped the edges of the stasis pod. The crewman rushed to my side and helped me to rise.
"Slowly. Take your time."
I took my time but still released the contents of my stomach into the container provided. I rose on shaky feet and was relieved to see Angela step forward. Taking her arm she led me from the room. By the time we reached the corridor I was able to walk on my own. The room assigned to me was small with only a narrow cot and a few cupboards. A small washroom containing a shower and chemical toilet was adjacent and the first thing I did was step into the shower and wash away the grogginess. I puked again in the shower but chose to keep it secret from Angela. The steam calmed me down and I felt better. Drying myself out with a towel I dressed in a new grey uniform provided for me.
"Are you ready for dinner?"
"I'm not hungry."
"Well you need to be there at the very least." Unpacking her suitcase she handed me something. It was a datapad.
"I downloaded some new textbooks for you. I know you enjoyed your Plasma Physics book but didn't get to finish reading it."
I smiled and took it, "Thank you." I was touched. But I was also curious, did the other aides provide the other clones with the same amount of dedication that Angela did for me? She knew me almost better than I knew myself. Again I was reminded that I was the ninety first clone and she had spent the last six years with ninety other versions of me.
Dinner was slow and quiet. I ate but only because I could see the small smile appear on Angela's lips. I liked pleasing her, I liked watching the skin around her eyes crinkle and her lips part slowly as she smiled, revealing her straight white teeth. She had an angular chin and straight nose with high cheekbones that were always slightly rosy. The rest of my time immediately before stasis had come back to me. I remembered my promise to get to know the other clones but I had no idea where to start so instead I listened in on their conversations. I learned all their names by the end of dinner and considered the night a success. There was Cal, Cutter, Meta, Corvus, Astro and Strata. All nicknames. Their actual clone names I had learned by their stasis pods. There was B57, C103, D71, E95, F89 and G121. I would have preferred to call them by their clone names, perhaps because it took away the feeling of any threat they may offer to mine and Angela's relationship, not that there was a rational threat to begin with.
With dinner over I went straight to my room and read until I fell asleep. Angela had a meeting but I heard her come in later that night. She checked on me before opening the door to her own room and disappearing.
"Good morning everyone. I'm sorry I couldn't meet with you yesterday. Before you is all the data gathered on Kepler 84C through our long range scans and from the original landing team. The atmosphere is toxic for humans so biosuits will be required at all times. The plan is to set up a base camp one mile from the entrance to the tunnel. A biodome will be set up to report back to each night. You will have armed escorts as you explore the area and your aides will accompany you as well. You will submit to physicals each night to assure no harmful viruses or bacteria are contracted and brought back to the ship or to earth. Please read through your mission briefings on the planet. If you have any questions speak with your aides. We land in four weeks. The time is more or less yours besides a few safety talks so take your time, brush up on the reports. Dismissed." Captain Anderson left the room before anyone had even risen from their seats. I turned the datapad on and opened up the long range scans folder.
The biodome was launched from the ship. Twenty minutes later it hovered above the planet floor. I stood on the deck of the ship watching the pilots control the biodome remotely using cameras, scanners and joysticks. They found a stretch of flat ground roughly a mile from the mountain and gently set it down. With the press of a button the legs came down. They bit into the ground of the planet and leveled the biodome. Another button and the dome began to unfold, spreading out into the biodome we would be living in. I watched as they methodically set up the biodome, button by button. It took fewer than thirty minutes to complete and was capable of housing thirty people.
Now it was our turn. I met Angela at the hangar bay and put on the biosuit. A helmet with a wide visor was handed to me and I put it on and clicked it into place. Air hissed into the suit. Raising my wrist I glanced at the screen showing my vitals. Five hours of air, more than enough for descent. A pilot led us into the landing craft and made sure we were all strapped in correctly. There were no windows and no screens to watch the descent so I sat there quietly, my jaw clenched throughout the entire landing procedure. The landing was less than gentle but it was over.
"This is landing craft Alpha six. We have successful landing."
"Copy that Alpha six," The radio cackled back, "awaiting further communication from the biodome."
Double checking our suits we waited as the ramp was lowered. An expanse of rock spread out before me, a wasteland of brown shale and sheer mountains. Smoke rose from what I guessed to be natural vents and drifted lazily up into the atmosphere. The sky above was a grey blue of haze and rumbling clouds and I couldn't tell if it was day or night here. A touch to my wrist and the lights on my helmet lit up the fog before me. The wind was howling across the bleak landscape, strong enough to cause us to stumble as our pilot led us the fifty feet to the entrance of the biodome.
Through the first set of doors was a small chamber. The doors shut behind us and our suits were sprayed with disinfectant. I spread my arms out like the others as the sprayers worked their way up and down, from above and below. A few minutes later and the spray shut off. Our suits were scanned and we were cleared to enter the biodome. The doors opened and we entered into a locker room. Angela helped me remove my helmet and I hers. We had assigned lockers for our suits and I hung mine up and shut the locker door. The lock clicked shut electronically.
More crew members came in behind us on a second ship but we were already heading through into the main chambers.
The main room of the biodome had a glass ceiling with metal framework. The space was empty but crew members went to work right away opening the crates and setting up equipment. By what I guessed to be nightfall the biodome was fully up and running and communication had been established with the ship floating in orbit.
"This is your station. A91 is the login. Ab76du8 is the password. All lower case. Can you remember that?"
"Yes."
"Good. You can change it after the initial login. Any files you are permitted to access will be under that name and password." Angela was acting different. I had to assume it was for the same reason as me, stress. She walked off to establish her own workstation across from mine and began filling out a report. She seemed focused and oblivious to me. I sat down at my own station and logged into the computer. The desktop was filled with files underneath different headings.
Atmosphere, Maps, System. It was all the same information I had been given with my datapad but I re-read it anyways. The gravity of Kepler 84C was the same as earth. The atmosphere was toxic to humans. High traces of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. It circles the star Abraxus in 451.2 rotations also called one cycle. Only slightly smaller than earth with a radius of 3871.7 miles. Photos of the planet showed no traces of liquid water but a small ocean of ice more than one hundred miles from the biodome's position. Otherwise the rest of the planet was the same brown
wasteland of rock.
Hungry I rose and found the cafeteria down a short hallway. Angela joined me ten minutes later. I had decided it was pointless to be self-conscious of eating in front of others and had regained my appetite back. Cutter was sitting across from me; she had already finished her meal and was focused on her datapad. A breakdown of some micro-organism was rotating slowly around the screen. I sat in silence, attempting to think of a conversation starter but my mind was blank.
"How are you today Cutter?" Angela spoke for me. Something so simple and yet I had never had to start a conversation before.
"I am well. Thank you. This planet seems... interesting. I am eager to begin exploring the tunnels tomorrow and adding my own understanding to these discoveries. I find based on my training I am far more interested in learning of new potential medical applications. The human body is quite fascinating."
I found Cutter only mildly interesting and zoned out as Angela made polite conversation. Medical applications did not interest me at all.
"And what about you Professor? What most interests you about tomorrow?"
It was Angela. I shared my eye contact between Angela and Cutter as I spoke, only because I knew it would please her. My whole life seemed to revolve around making Angela happy, but it didn't bug me at all.
"I am interested to find out if any theories may be proved through this technology but to be honest I do not know what to expect. We have not been given much information but based the photos I have seen there will be a lot to document that may provide insight into further advancing our own technology." It was a generic answer but true all the same. The information provided had been scarce and so there was very little for me to be excited for.
"And you Angela? What most interests you about our explorations tomorrow?"
"I suppose just the potential that all this means. My greatest hope is the possibility of sentient beings somewhere out in the galaxy. Though the original crew found no life forms the fact that these chambers remain means that perhaps elsewhere on the planet they still live."
I had not thought of that and found myself also curious and hopeful that perhaps humans were not alone in the universe.
The morning came surprisingly quickly and I was up and eating before the night shift guards had retired and I watched the sunrise through the large shielded windows. The smoky blue sky slowly began to lighten as Abraxus broke above the brown mountains off in the distance, skewing the shades of blue to a light purple and back again. I was just finishing my readymade breakfast when everyone else began to trickle in. As they all sat down and began to scoop mush from their bowls Captain Anderson came and stood before the windows, the brown wasteland spreading out behind him.
"If I can have everyone's attention. In thirty minutes we will meet in the locker room to suit up. The All-Terrain Vehicles have been set up to take us to the entry of the chambers. Once we arrive we will stay together for the initial exploration of the main chambers. Today is only about the main chamber which houses the bulk of the technology. The following days after that will allow you to split into teams and further explore the mountain. The helmet cams will record everything you see and say throughout the exploration for use later on. This exploration will require extensive documentation so every night you will fill out a report upon your return. While you are beneath the mountain Staff Sergeant Nichols will be in command of all units. You will listen to him if not in direct communication with me. Any questions?"
The room remained quiet and the Captain left and I scooped up my bowl and chucked it into the bin before heading to the locker room with Angela. I began to suit up as Staff Sergeant Nichols went over the day’s schedule.
"Our biosuits contain five hours of oxygen. This gives us time to explore the main chamber for three hours. The ATVs hold six each. Lane, Professor, Mishin and Cal. You're with me in ATV Red. Petrie, Cutter, Sodder and Meta, you're in blue with Officer Morgan. Longdale, Corvus, Brian and Astro are in yellow with Officer Hall. Mill and Strata head for green with Officer Scott. These will be your assigned ATVs and leaders for the entirety of the expedition. Double check your suits, time to head out."
Outside the biodome the wind was whipping across the plain, stirring up the dust and making it hard to see. The planet was dark and foggy and though it was muffled by my helmet I could hear the wind howling through the rocky outcrops. I found the red one, a massive machine with tank like tracks, thick metal plating painted over with red scales and wide windows with the blue shimmering of a plasma shield around them. Staff Sergeant Nichols opened the door and we climbed up. Angela and I found the two seats in the middle while Cal and his aide Derek Mishin climbed into the back. Angela pulled the seat belts off the back of the chair and down across my chest, then the two straps on either side of my seat for my waist. She showed me how to slip them all into the circular clip and lock them in. Nichols shut the door and climbed into the driver’s seat followed by an armed soldier whose name I did not know. The ATV started up and a few minutes later we were rumbling across the landscape.
The dashboard of the vehicle was covered in electronic dials and meters. There was elevation, outside atmospheric content, engine temperature, cabin temperature, exterior temperature, direction based on the biodome, distance from the biodome and more. It looked almost as complicated as the bridge of The Onyx.
The mountain grew steadily before us as we approached. The ground began to rise before us but the craft had no trouble climbing as it became steeper. The minutes ticked by as we climbed, the mountain shot upwards and we were forced to cut sideways across it and switchback upwards. Finally we rumbled to a stop before large metal doors the same dull brown as the rest of the mountain. Nichols stopped the vehicle, “Seal up your suits.” I turned my air back on and sealed the neck piece. The armed soldier I did not know climbed out. Sliding up the door on a keypad he pulled out a device and inserted a cable into an auxiliary input. Using the device he overrode the alien technology, a green light flashed and the large doors hissed open. The lights of the ATV illuminated an endless passage. We jerked into gear and we were rolling forward again as the soldier remained behind.
We traveled over two miles into the mountain before we came to a large chamber. The ATVs rumbled around in a circle and lined up facing the exit before coming to a halt. Nichols turned the machine off and opened the doors for us to climb out. We stood before the door to the main chamber as Nichols pulled out his own keypad and plugged it into the auxiliary port of the alien technology. A series of tones sounded in the quiet morning air as the device hacked the lock, then a beep as all four lights on the panel went green one after the other. Tumblers clicked and the doors hissed open into a room larger than any skyscraper I had seen on earth.