“Do you have any idea what this could be about?” he asked when she reached him and they set off along the short walkway to the nearest vehicles.
“Not a clue,” Rachel said. “But judging by the tone of that message, I feel like we should probably try to enjoy not knowing for as long as we can…”
twenty-two
No number of insistent requests for further information proved enough as Chase and Rachel began their fast-paced but painfully long-range journey to the Shipyard. Chase pushed the TE-900 to its limits and stopped fruitlessly communicating with Robert after a few minutes, instead using the time to speculate with Rachel as to what the hell was going on.
One question on his mind was why he had been called in last — long after Peter and Viola, with whom he was supposed to be on equal footing in decision-making matters. Rachel implored him not to read too much into this, stating that Chase was a very visible part of the welcoming ceremony and likely the last person Robert wanted to pull away.
As soon as they touched down, Rachel led Chase into the communications office of the main administration building. They immediately saw Peter and Viola sitting down while Robert stood in front of a large blackboard-like screen positively covered in digital readings.
“Well?” Chase said.
“The probe has stopped communicating and responding,” Robert said, relaying what he’d recently been told by the Shipyard’s operational staff who were apparently not privy to this higher-level discussion and had been dismissed to another area. “But before it died, we did get some data. And there’s something in the final communication… something you should really see.”
Rachel, already poring over the data, suddenly stood slack-jawed. “Holy shit…” she muttered.
Chase, a pilot and leader of men rather than an academically gifted scientist like Robert and Rachel, knew only that the symbols he was looking at were something to do with chemistry.
“Fill me in,” he said. “What is this?”
“It’s not so much what this is,” Robert supplied, “it’s what it firmly suggests about the asteroid.”
“Well,” Rachel interjected, still poring over the data, “not so much the comet itself. It’s more what it suggests about what’s present on the asteroid.”
Chase threw up his hands, quickly and uncharacteristically losing patience. “So what are you guys telling me here? What does the data suggest is present on the asteroid?”
Robert and Rachel looked at each other, as though waiting for the other to say it.
Viola, sitting with a troubled-looking Peter on the other side of the room, rose to her feet and put Chase out of his misery with a single but unbelievably powerful word:
“Life.”
twenty-three
“The probe has inconclusively detected life signatures on the asteroid,” Robert said, his tone more than a little dismissive. “And that is not the same as saying the probe has detected life. Accuracy matters.”
“Who all knows about this and what’s our next move?” Chase asked.
“Us,” Robert said. “No one on Earth and no one on the station.”
Chase’s eyebrows rose of their own volition. “How many on Terradox?”
“None.”
“You haven’t told Holly?” Chase asked, incredulous at this as much as anything. “Robert, if you’re going to start trying to cut Holly out, we’re going to have a serious problem.” He glanced around the room to gauge the general mood, but Peter and Viola weren’t giving much away.
“We’re getting further away from Terradox by the minute,” Robert sighed. “Any dependence on orders from there, Earth or the station is going to leave us in trouble when we need to make decisions urgently. The comms delay is already far too long for a meaningful two-way conversation with Holly and that’s only going to get worse. There’s a reason the probe only communicates with Arkadia — this is our mission and our responsibility. We need to stand on our own two feet, just like Holly wants us to. And Chase, it’s early,” he stressed, in a tone clearly intended to diffuse the anger in his eyes. “This data just came in.”
The others sat quietly, Peter and Viola paying keen attention to the heated discussion while Rachel continued studying the data. A potentially incredible scientific breakthrough was simmering in the background while Chase and Robert argued about whether and when to tell Holly, but Chase was far from finished.
“Early?” he echoed with barely concealed contempt. “Early? Robert, this could hardly be any more time sensitive than it is. It would be way too dangerous to try to do this without at least running it by Holly and her teams first. A recovery mission like this would—”
“Woah woah woah woah woah woah,” Robert cut in. “What? Recovery mission? You’re not seriously—”
“You’re not seriously saying no?” Chase interrupted in return. “You’re not seriously telling me that our probe just died after detecting signs of life, but we’re not going to try to find out exactly what it found and exactly what happened? Do you really think there’s any way this plays out without me going to get it?”
Peter rose to his feet. “Chase, don’t even get that idea in your head.”
Chase opted to ignore Peter and continue on Robert. “Listen to me: with the speed this asteroid is moving and the path it’s on, we’re realistically only going to have one launch window — we can’t send another unmanned probe that might fail again, because that’s the last chance we’ll ever have!”
“We couldn’t possibly even think about risking a crew on an elective mission as dangerous as this. I knew you were reckless… but for God’s sake, Chase, there is a line.”
“I’m not asking you to risk a crew; I’ll go on my own if I have to. All I’m asking you to do is get out of my way and let me loop Holly in on this.”
Robert shook his head.
“Then we’ll vote,” Chase said.
He glanced at Rachel, who had finally turned away from the data. Her expression of doubt suggested that she didn’t think this was a vote Chase could win, despite her hopes that he would. Her primary fear was of an Earth/Terradox schism; for while she and Chase had both been with Holly until very recently, Robert and the Ospanovs had been on Earth for years. Although the end goal was for the Arkadian population to stand on their own two feet just as Robert had suggested, large parts of both Chase and Rachel were still heavily tied to Terradox and keen to work with the colony’s many great minds when it made sense to do so.
The speed at which things had moved from a discussion of the probe to a debate over Chase’s outwardly insane plan to recover it took everyone by surprise, but no one more than Rachel.
“All in favour, raise your hand,” he went on, ignoring Robert’s disapproving expression.
Rachel rose her hand immediately.
“You’re out of your minds,” Peter said, laying his cards on the table.
“Come on, sheriff,” Chase pleaded, “think about it! This is a one-time chance — literally, one time only.”
Peter, unbudging, shook his head slowly and decisively. “We don’t have a lot of checks and balances in this executive committee for these first few years, and I know that’s by design. But they gave me a vote because I’m in charge of keeping Arkadia and its people safe. It would be a dereliction of duty for me to say yes to an elective risk like this.”
“Correct,” Robert said, breathing a sigh of relief, “and you all know where I stand.”
With the four declarations split two-two, everyone turned to Viola.
“You know this is right,” Chase told her. “All the risks you and Holly and everyone else ever took will be for nothing if you say no to this. And as risks go, this is small. No one else will be at risk at all. Please, Viola… don’t stand in my way.”
Looking torn, Viola didn’t say anything right away.
“Listen, Chase,” Peter interjected forcefully, “you can make your case, but I draw the line at you trying to guilt Viola into agreeing with it. Is t
hat clear?”
“Quite right,” Robert chimed in before Chase could reply either way.
“I can speak for myself,” Viola said.
“Well feel free to join in at any time!” Robert bemoaned, delivering something of a fatherly scolding over her continued indecision.
Understanding that emotions were high, Viola didn’t take anyone’s comments personally. She took a deep breath, her eyes and mind flitting between the two sides of the argument which were divided physically as well as by viewpoint. She looked at her father and husband on one side, two of the four people she loved more than anyone else, and then at the two fearless explorers on the other.
“I can’t pretend I don’t want answers, but I really don’t like the idea of you taking a risk like this,” she said.
Chase’s shoulders fell.
“And Rachel,” Viola went on, “with the greatest respect, your vote doesn’t technically count.”
Rachel didn’t react, bitterly disappointed but with no real comeback to the perfectly true fact that she didn’t have a say in executive matters and wouldn’t for the remainder of Arkadia’s three-year settling in period; the founding constitution, agreed upon by all successful applicants, explicitly granted Viola, Peter and Chase one vote each and Robert two.
All eyes remained on Viola, who didn’t look like she’d finished.
“But Dad, with the greatest of respect to you, biological discoveries made within the confines of our solar system are explicitly outside the scope of Arkadian governance. This is a matter for the board,” she said, walking with purpose towards the room’s radio console.
Chase’s expression softened, hope returning.
“This is a matter for the board,” Viola repeated, navigating the console’s menus to begin an outgoing communication. “And Holly’s word goes.”
twenty-four
Holly’s afternoon aboard a Ferrier bound for Terradox was going just like every other before it, until all of a sudden it wasn’t.
The message arrived directly on Holly’s wristband and was clearly marked as being for her eyes only. Grav, at her side in the midst of their daily big-picture discussion, knew immediately that it was something big.
“You have to see this,” Holly said, long before she’d finished reading. Her eyes and Grav’s were one and the same when it came to executive matters, and she knew that he wasn’t who Viola had in mind when warning to keep it under-wraps.
“Break it down for me,” Grav replied.
Holly kept reading. It wasn’t taking her long, but she had no idea just how long it had taken the group on Arkadia to agree on the wording of their jointly-signed message before sending it.
“The probe died this morning,” she said, “and they don’t know why. All they know is that before it died, it detected what they’re telling me are firm indications of life.”
“On the asteroid?”
“On the asteroid,” Holly nodded. She looked excited by the news until she reached the next part, at which point a slow sigh escaped her lips. “And guess who wants to go exploring…”
“Ha ha ha ha,” Grav laughed, extremely slowly. “Not Robert, I’m guessing? Surely Chase.”
“Who else?” she said, reading on before relaying that Robert and Peter were both firmly opposed to the idea while Viola was non-committal. Rachel’s position was also mentioned, which didn’t surprise Holly at all; although Rachel wasn’t yet a formal member of Arkadia’s Executive Council, she was greatly respected by those who were.
Grav rubbed his chin and mouth with his left palm, almost aggressively. “Life…” he mused. “Our probe found life, Hollywood!”
“Not quite,” she said, reining in his excitement. “What we have for sure is firm evidence that life has been there in the past. That could mean more than one thing, and they’re not all as Earth-shattering as the ideas you’re probably thinking of.”
“But still…” Grav said, lowering his hand and looking excitedly into Holly’s eyes. “Even if this is not something crawling around on the asteroid… it is more exciting than any discovery or breakthrough I have heard of! Okay, we saw Nancy, but whatever is on that asteroid is there independent of human influence.”
“Is or was,” Holly said, still playing it down. “We don’t know which.”
“And finding out will tell us more than a million Nancys ever could!” Grav replied. “Especially when Chase is offering to go alone, this is on the right side of the risk-reward calculation in my book. Sure, in terms of morale he is the one person we would least want Arkadia to lose, or at most he would be second to Viola, but one person is less of a risk than a whole crew.”
Holly sat thoughtfully. “He couldn’t possibly go alone. We’ve already seen the surface from the first images that came in, and only the new rovers could handle that. Bo couldn’t pilot it remotely from Arkadia in real-time — not at that kind of distance — and Chase couldn’t learn everything about the controls in time. The window is so short… if there was any chance this was going to happen, Bo would have to be there to drive the rover.”
Grav couldn’t quite read between Holly’s lines, trying to figure out her qualifications and changing tenses. “Do you mean if it does happen, you would want Bo to go? Because I can tell you now, Hollywood, he is not going to say no to something like this.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” she said. “There would need to be a second Karrier, too, in case something went wrong with their landing or escape. Rachel could shadow the asteroid while they’re down there.”
A broad smile filled Grav’s face; he liked the sudden change in Holly’s direction of thought.
“They’re asking for a deciding vote,” Holly said. “Time is almost too tight for this to work even if everything goes well, so we would need teams on it right away — there and here, to formulate a plan and double-check every aspect.”
“You know what you want to say, Hollywood,” Grav said, still surprising her with his level of excitement. “Do not doubt your gut, we all know how well it has served us over the years.”
Without any further hesitation, Holly tapped her wristband’s screen three times, once for each letter:
Y, E, and S.
twenty-five
Robert Harrington’s eyes fell to the floor when Holly’s decision arrived, but he was both powerless and unwilling to do anything to block her wishes from being carried out.
Viola had been correct to point out that the extraordinary potential discovery of life on asteroid NGB-2 was of the kind that transcended the remit of Arkadia’s Executive Council, and the fact that she was instantly able to recall the relevant constitutional clause in detail hadn’t gone unnoticed by the impressed others.
What Viola hadn’t expected was for the answer she’d sought from Holly to come alongside a suggestion that her own brother should be part of Chase’s landing team. Regret filled her heart as she took it upon herself to read the entirety of Holly’s message to an elated Chase, a hopeful Rachel, and a shell-shocked Peter.
Like Robert, Peter said nothing against Holly’s decision; but just like Robert, he quite clearly disagreed with it.
There was little for any of them to say and the timescale demanded by the incredible revelation meant that everyone whose input was required had to be looped in as quickly as possible. One of the few points which was discussed immediately in the tense communications office regarded the group’s options for telling — or not telling — the Arkadian population at large about the all-or-nothing mission Chase was set to undertake.
It was quickly agreed that they couldn’t hide Chase’s absence for more than a few days without anyone noticing and wondering where he was, so a public announcement of the probe’s apparent discovery and the recovery plan would be made in due course.
Due course could amount to no more than forty-eight hours, Chase reaffirmed, given the asteroid’s relative position to Arkadia and its speed and path of travel. The speed at which the group’s path of convers
ational travel had moved in the past hour was disorienting for everyone present, including Chase. Their surprise, however, was nothing compared to what greeted them when they broke the news to their nearest and dearest.
In a whirlwind few hours, Viola broke the news to Bo and Chase broke it to Nisha. Needless to say, Viola had the easier task of the two. Although she still regretted broaching a subject which was about to land her highly willing brother on an unprecedented and inherently risky mission, the strength of his excited and positive reaction did go some small way towards abating her sorrow.
Sensing Viola’s concerns, Bo made similar points to those Grav had made to Holly in defence of the mission, albeit in clearer and more strongly worded terms. He told Viola that the possibility of finding proof of life on an asteroid could lead to the greatest discovery in human history. When he giddily told Viola “this could be it!”, she held her tongue.
‘If anything goes wrong, this could be it for you and Chase!’ was the reply rattling around in her mind, but sharing it when Bo’s mind was irreversibly made up would have helped no one.
Chase tried to frame things in the most palatable terms he could when it came to telling Nisha, but she didn’t hear anything after the initial revelation of the almost unbelievable risk he had volunteered to take. The risk was only almost unbelievable because she knew Chase so well; but even for him, this took the biscuit.
She didn’t mince her words in telling him that his plan was insane and that Bo, Rachel and Holly were just as insane for going along with it. She also didn’t avoid issuing the ultimatum Chase had feared: “It’s me or the mission.”
Chase didn’t say anything, and his silence was the only answer Nisha needed.
“I didn’t come here to sit around and watch opportunities fly by,” he called as she stormed out.
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