by Ken Lozito
The ship-wide broadcast ended, and Dr. Volker looked at Sean.
“Well said, Dr. Volker,” Sean said.
“Colonel, may I ask a question?” Specialist Sansky asked.
“Go ahead, Specialist.”
“The time constraints for the mission. Why was that so important?” Sansky asked.
Sean knew the answer, but he could tell that Dr. Volker was eager to respond, so he nodded for him to do so.
“We’re using a gravity assist from Gigantor’s orbital velocity to help launch the star probes. The Jovian planet’s current position gives us the best speed as a launching platform to reach Earth as quickly as possible. Could we have done it in six months? Yes, but it would have added years onto an already long voyage,” Dr. Volker said.
“Why didn’t we just build a ship to return to Earth?” Specialist Sansky asked.
“We have, but it’s not like this ship. Are you familiar with the concept of a self-replicating probe?” Sean asked.
“Yes, Colonel. They’re intelligent space probes that have the ability to construct new versions of themselves using materials gathered in space.”
“The concept has been around for a long time, and we just added more capabilities to these probes that will enable them to be more independent than anything we’ve ever done. They’re not truly sentient. Their autonomy is equal to that used for the Ark, but at a fraction of the mass and complexity. The Hermes probe that’s traveling to Earth has additional security protocols that will evaluate the system for Vemus. Many dependencies will affect what actions the probe will take, but first and foremost it will look for the presence of the Vemus, and it will determine whether there are any of us still alive on the planet or elsewhere in the system,” Sean said.
“Using the velocity from the ship, combined with the orbital velocity of Gigantor, the probes will have a boost to help them leave the system. Then, the Hermes AI will realign the probes to form the actual ships they were meant to be. They can operate on a microscopic level, or if they gather enough material, they could make something as big as this ship,” Dr. Volker said.
Specialist Sansky thanked them. Sean could tell there were others with similar questions that were now answered.
“Helm, give us our current status and trajectory,” Sean said.
Lieutenant Aaron Edwards replied. “All magneto pods are active, and we are at eighty percent current thrust capacity. Increase to maximum thrust capacity on your order, Colonel.”
“Tactical, are the payloads ready?” Sean asked.
“Yes, Colonel. Forward tubes one through three have the launch vehicles for the Hermes probes loaded and are standing by,” Lieutenant Russo answered.
“Excellent,” Sean said. “Ops, alert Engineering that we’ll be putting the engines at maximum capacity.”
Lieutenant Burroughs confirmed the order and alerted Engineering. The Vigilant had been steadily gaining velocity as it chased down Gigantor. Typically, going to maximum engine capacity required rerouting the mains and was only done in an emergency.
“Engines are approaching maximum capacity and are performing within acceptable limits, Colonel,” Gabriel said, his eerily natural baritone voice coming through the nearby speakers.
Sean had the ship’s AI monitoring multiple systems, and Gabriel could communicate their status quicker than the bridge crew monitoring from their stations. “Tactical, put the countdown timer on the main holodisplay for probe launch.”
A countdown timer appeared on the main holodisplay. Each of the Hermes star probes had their own designation, even though the probes themselves would alternate forms from an actual swarm to that of a unified construct.
Sean glanced at the Hermes countdown timer and wondered where he would be in a hundred and fifty years when they finally received confirmation of the success or failure of the mission. There would be two check-in intervals for the Hermes probes, but due to the vast distances, it would eventually take twenty-five years to get back to the colony. When the Hermes probes reached the Earth star system, they would use gravity assists to slow their velocity to maximize their efficiency, safeguarding energy reserves for construction activities. The probes would enter the system as quietly as possible to avoid potentially hostile detection. However, if they were greeted with a challenge protocol, they had protocol packages, both from the NA Alliance military and from the Ark program that had been adapted for colonial use.
Dr. Volker glanced at Sean. “It’s kinda hard to think about the possibility of colonizing other star systems.”
“It seems far in the future now, but this is the legwork that needs to be done before we can even consider it,” Sean replied.
“A young man like you will likely live to see the launch of another Ark to those star systems. I’m curious, Colonel. Would you volunteer to take a one-way trip to another colony world?” Dr. Volker asked.
Sean considered it for a moment. “I like New Earth, and I can’t imagine leaving anytime soon, but check back with me in a hundred years and I might have a different answer for you.”
Dr. Volker laughed. “Indeed, our current home is quite a special place.”
Sean couldn’t imagine many people volunteering to colonize another world since they’d worked so hard to make New Earth their home. But perhaps future generations would feel differently.
The countdown timer reached the end.
“Hermes Launch Vehicle One is away,” Lieutenant Russo confirmed. “Hermes Two and Hermes Three are away. Their engines have engaged.”
The launch vehicles sped ahead of the Vigilant. Humans were the limiting factor in space travel, and once they were removed from the picture, the vehicles could travel closer to light speed. Although their current speed was nowhere near that of light speed, the probes would eventually get to speeds greater than half the speed of light. Their planet of origin was sixty light-years from them, so when the Hermes reached Earth, it would still take whatever data it sent back to New Earth over sixty years to get there. Along the way, the probes would gather materials and drop a much more intelligent version of the interstellar comms buoy to reestablish contact.
Sean hoped the people who were alive three hundred years from now didn’t have to contend with another Vemus fleet because of this mission. He’d be an old man by then, but they had to know if Earth had survived. At least this way, perhaps one day the colony would have an answer. Whether they got any comfort from that answer would be another matter entirely. In theory, Earth was another colonial world candidate, although he didn’t see anyone signing up for that. Perhaps next time it wouldn’t take two hundred years of stasis to get there.
17
Following the launch of the Hermes star probes, the Vigilant used a gravitational assist around Gigantor to propel them toward Sagan without losing any velocity. Once they were aligned with their orbital insertion trajectory, Sean ordered the gradual reduction of their speed, which would put less stress on the ship when they inserted into Sagan’s orbit.
He walked the corridor, heading toward his scheduled meeting. Now that the Apollo Mission was concluded, he could focus on his next mission objective.
“Colonel Quinn,” a voice called from behind him.
Sean glanced over his shoulder and saw Oriana striding purposefully toward him. He didn’t have time for her and said so, then turned and kept going. But he heard the rapid cadence of Oriana catching up to him, and he sighed.
“What can I do for you, Dr. Evans?”
“I wanted to speak to you about my findings regarding the gravitational waves.”
Sean kept walking, lengthening his stride. “I read your report. It was quite… insightful,” he said dryly.
“It was a preliminary report,” Oriana said, matching his pace. “Damn it, would you slow down?”
“I’m late for my own meeting.”
“I know. Why did you take me off the team?”
Sean slowed down and looked at her. “You’re not off the team; you’re jus
t not invited to this meeting.”
Oriana smiled at the incredulousness of that statement, and Sean cringed inwardly. “Oh, I see,” she said. “This is the equivalent of a tantrum then.”
Sean narrowed his gaze. “I didn’t see the need for another lackluster analysis that didn’t have anything new or insightful to offer. Nothing personal.”
Oriana’s mouth hung open for a moment. “How dare you! I’ll have you know—”
But Sean had started walking again. Oriana scowled and grabbed his arm. “Don’t you dare walk away from me! Is this what you call being professional?”
Sean looked at her hand on his arm and then leveled his gaze at her, taking a step toward her. “You want to know why I didn’t include you? Do you really want to know?” he asked, closing the distance between them.
Oriana was a tall woman and wasn’t intimidated by him in the least. “Yes, please. Let’s see a tantrum worthy of your rank, Colonel Quinn.”
Sean stepped back and straightened himself, then spoke evenly. “You played it safe. You took the easy way out. Equipment failure? Come on, give me a break. What kind of equipment failure could possibly generate the readings we detected?”
“First of all,” Oriana said, jabbing her finger into the air in front of her, “I said, ‘probable equipment failure.’ We can’t fully rule it out, and I have to acknowledge that.”
“Our diagnostics say otherwise. The Engineering report for the scanner array indicated everything was working fine. So I either have a broken ship that nobody can find anything wrong with, or you played it safe and your report was useless. I expected more.”
“You and your precious ship,” Oriana sneered. “You can’t stand the thought that maybe something is broken and you can’t figure out what it is. I’m not here to massage your ego. You asked for my help, and I gave it to you.”
“When you submitted your report, did you stop and think about the long-term effect of your findings or what ramifications they would have?”
Oriana thrust her chin up and glared at him. “Of course I did, but that’s not what this is about. To me, it sounds like you’re just embarrassed.”
Sean’s mouth opened in astonishment and he rolled his eyes. Embarrassed? He wanted to lash right back out at her, but he didn’t. “When you miss the mark, you really miss the mark. I’m not embarrassed. If the equipment were faulty, then we would’ve figured that out. Something caused those gravitational waves. I don’t care that they weren’t detected by any other sensor in the entire star system. This is the frontier, and sometimes when you’re on the fringes of a star system, you see strange things. And sometimes it’s those strange things that can threaten everybody back home. So when I see a rubber-stamped report that really doesn’t offer anything in the way of an explanation, then yeah, that’s a person I don’t want or need on my team. What I don’t understand is why you did it.”
“You act as if I am working against you personally. I’m not.”
It felt personal, but Sean wouldn’t say that. “On the bridge, you said you’d investigate whether any theoretical physics models could offer an explanation for what we detected. None of that was in the report.”
Oriana’s brows furrowed, and she looked strangely fragile. “I had other theories, but if I’d included them in an official CDF report, it wouldn’t have reflected very well on me. The CDF might have ignored the report and some of those findings, but the Colonial Science Institute would have taken those findings and weighed them against future research opportunities.”
Sean blew out a breath. She was worried about her career.
“That’s why I’ve been trying to contact you, so I could give you the unofficial version.”
“The unofficial version,” Sean repeated and then pressed his lips together. “I don’t know anything about how things are done at the Colonial Science Institute, but in the CDF, we’ve worked from wild ideas before. You could say that the CDF was founded on one of those crazy theories that just turned out to be right. I don’t mean this to be personal, but I can’t use somebody who’s more concerned with their career than trying to figure out a problem. When I need answers, I want what’s on your mind, even if it’s a crazy idea.”
Oriana looked away from him.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go,” Sean said.
He took a few steps away, and Oriana called out to him.
“I’ll file an addendum to my official report.”
Sean turned around and returned her determined gaze. “I look forward to reviewing it.”
This time, Oriana rolled her eyes. “I could tell you about it on the way to the meeting, or are you going to physically block me from going into the room?”
Sean snorted and then nodded for her to walk with him. “The meeting room is here, so you’ll have to tell me later.”
“After the meeting then,” Oriana said.
Sean’s stomach growled. He’d been planning to get something to eat after the meeting.
“Do you mind if we grab some food while I go over the rest of that report with you? I’m hungry, and I’ll be looking for something when we’re through here,” Oriana said.
Sean’s eyes widened in mock surprise. They were just outside the meeting-room doors. “Are you asking me out to dinner?”
Oriana was startled but quickly recovered. “You’re something else.”
“If you are asking me out, I’m extremely flattered, but I’m not sure it would be appropriate, Dr. Evans.” Sean grinned and walked into the meeting room, hearing Oriana mutter something about his “inappropriateness” behind him. He probably shouldn’t have said what he said, but sometimes he just couldn’t resist taking a shot when that golden opportunity presented itself. He was sure there was no shortage of people trying to get Oriana’s attention, but the look on her face had been priceless.
Major Brody greeted him. Drs. Volker and Wray sat at the conference table, speaking to each other. Sean recognized Eugene Eichmann sitting nearby, listening. Oriana went and sat next to him. On the other side were Major Brody and Captain Glenn Webb.
Sean sat down and glanced at the others around the conference table. “I know it’s one of those end-of-day meetings. Right about now is probably the least productive we’ll be, so let’s keep this meeting brief. I wanted us to get together to talk about Captain Webb’s report regarding the events that occurred on planet Sagan over six months ago. Captain, can you give us a high-level brief for those who may not be familiar with your report?”
Captain Webb cleared his throat. “A salvage team found evidence of NEIIS ruins on Sagan. My team was dispatched to investigate, and we brought along an archaeological consultant named Dash DeWitt. He’s a foremost NEIIS expert recommended to us by Dr. Lenora Bishop. While surveying the site, we experienced severe seismic activity in the area. I’m afraid the site may have been completely destroyed.”
“May have been destroyed? You mean we don’t know?” Dr. Volker asked.
“There’s been significant volcanic activity in that area. We lost the equipment we were using to conduct the survey, but we do have several recordings that show the NEIIS settlement itself,” Captain Webb said.
The holoscreen in the center of the conference table became active, showing a series of snapshots from a video taken with an environmental suit camera.
“The still shots were captured from Dash’s recorder. We’re lucky to have them,” Captain Webb said and gave them a moment to view the pictures.
Sagan’s barren landscape was interrupted by a NEIIS settlement. There were multiple buildings, all matching the known NEIIS architecture the colonists had either seen personally or through published journals available in education centers throughout the colony. “You can see at the northern border of the settlement that it looks like the buildings have been cut in half, but we’re not sure if this was the result of volcanic activity.”
“Did the salvage team that discovered the site detect any kind of seismic activity?” Oriana asked.
“No,” Sean said. “The salvage team was recovering materials from Vemus ships that had been pulled into Sagan’s orbit, and some of the crash sites were located near where they found this site. The protocols the salvage team followed were more a safeguard against the Vemus threat than whether or not the site was stable long-term. Deep salvage always carries with it a high degree of risk.”
“Captain Webb, what was your impression of the NEIIS site?” Dr. Volker asked.
“Honestly, it was kind of spooky, like finding an entire town in the middle of nowhere. Parts of the settlement were buried, but we expected that, considering how long it’s been there,” Captain Webb answered.
“They think the NEIIS settlement was there for over two hundred years,” Sean said.
“How did they arrive at that date?” Dr. Volker asked.
“None of us here are qualified to answer that question, but Captain Webb’s report did say the date was based on Dash DeWitt’s analysis. However, all evidence supporting that analysis, including the equipment and readings, was lost during the volcanic eruption in the area,” Sean said.
“If the area has been destroyed, why are we going back there?” Dr. Volker asked.
“There’s a salvage team, including a small CDF research team, that’s been at the area for a few weeks. We’re going there to help them complete the mission, as well as to do our own investigation,” Sean said.
“But if the site was destroyed by volcanic activity, what would be left for us to find?” Dr. Volker asked.
“That’s what we’re going to find out. Perhaps we can discover evidence of how the NEIIS got a settlement on another planet in the first place,” Sean said.
“All findings regarding the NEIIS indicate that they weren’t spacefaring, but they had some advances in technology that are peculiar,” Dr. Volker said.