While Making Other Plans:
Chapter 6
As programmed, after the drone rift ship found itself in the new binary star system, it created the rift around one of the stars. It selected the star around which the most earth like planet orbited, designating it Cygni 61 A. It happened to be brighter than the other but both were K type, their luminosities and temperatures somewhere between an M type red dwarf and Earth’s own yellow white G type star.
Unnamed beyond its soulless designation of Cygni 61 Aa, the planet orbited the star at a distance a little less than half that between the sun and Earth’s orbit, which like Earth varied somewhat as it went about its elliptical orbit and left its period likewise about half that of Earth.
The planet was naturally their first target. Not only was it the closest to the system’s rift gate, but it was also the most intriguing to them for a variety of reasons. It was in all respects an analogue for Earth, Haven, Kobol, and Roma with one exception: the apparent total lack of any signs of life. This absence was all the more interesting after their discovery on approach of vast oceans on the surface and a complex water cycle, one of the rarer precursors for life.
Their primary research interest was to study whether or not there was some clear factor which inhibited the development of cellular life on this body, or if cosmic chance alone had prevented it. Answering this question would be invaluable to their more accurate modelling of the frequency and likelihood of cellular life developing in the cosmos given the same starting conditions. So far, they’d only visited and studied planets like this where life had developed so their data was strongly skewed.
As they approached the planet on their four day climb out of the star’s gravity well at max safe thrust, their forward observation array was intently probed and analyzed the planet in question. With the torrent of new data to analyze, there was no trouble finding plenty of work for young Maggie to do and learn from, and even Margaret herself more fully got in on the action, crunching and analyzing more data than any other crew member if only for her absence of need for sleep. Kathryn was gratified to see that she seemed to share their genuine interest in discovery once out in the field.
Throughout this phase, when possible, the lateral instrument arrays also scanned the plethora of other bodies in the system at the same time. These surveys would be useful in preparing for subsequent expeditions. The scans allowed them to determine a hierarchy of targets, and later plot a course which could take them to the most interesting targets in the system. It would be impossible to see everything there was to see during their first visit to the new system.
On their fourth day they arrived at the planet and entered a standard low orbit. It was remarkable how much this planet seemed like the models of early Earth before life took hold. What Kathryn found most interesting, was that these stars had exceptionally long lives compared to stars like Earth’s sun. This planet probably had a billion and a half year head start on Earth to develop life yet for some reason it never happened. There was speculation that maybe it had gotten started at some point but was wiped out by some calamity, or maybe that life had gotten several times but the same mysterious doomsday kept wiping clean the planetary slate over and over.
Always present though, was the eerie and oddly difficult to believe probability that it had just never happened, that life is just not a given even under ideal conditions, that it is even more precious and tenuous than they’d imagined it to be. There were long talks into the nights among the crew about the possibility that finding their four home planets in relatively close proximity by cosmic standards had really just been a fortunate cosmic coincidence. Because each built on the next, every decrease in the projected occurrence of cellular life then logarithmically decreased the probability of plant, animal, and intelligence in turn.
They spent a couple days in orbit studying the planet up close. The magnetic field was weak compared to their home worlds and this was a clue. Without a stronger one, there was far more high energy radiation hitting the planet. Like all things it was a balance; not enough high radiation and genomics can’t adequately mutate, too much and they mutate too fast for anything to live. The atmosphere was a toxic stew of unprocessed by life primordial gasses and to a lesser degree gasses emitted from still active volcanoes. Kathryn also took note of the relatively comfortable atmospheric pressure at the surface.
“I want to go down there,” Kathryn said as much to herself as anyone else, picking her at her nails as she lost herself in the planetary readouts on her screen.
“Not really in our mission profile,” Jaren reminded her.
“No, but it’s not specifically excluded,” she countered without looking up from the data feeds. “The onboard shuttle is perfectly capable of flying in that atmosphere and we’d only need sealed environmental suits down there. I want to go down there and see it for myself.”
Jaren smiled and shook his head. “You’re the admiral, Admiral.” he shrugged. “You’ll need to pick a team. You’ll have a ship full of volunteers who’ll be disappointed to not be chosen. Shuttle only holds six comfortably though, eight uncomfortably.”
“We’ll take eight,” Kathryn said. “This is admittedly not a science mission. We’re going down to plant the flag and name her. Pure ego,” she affirmed, “just for the thrill of being first. Nothing else.” She finally ripped her eyes from the screen to look up at him. “We’ve never had the chance to do that before.”
“Un hunh,” Jaren answered dismissively. Kathryn knew him well enough to know he was only teasing. Mostly. “And exactly what flag do you intend to plant?” he asked.
“Hunh.,” she considered, folding her arms and tapping an index finger against her chin. “You’re right, I hadn’t thought of that… I supposed I figured the Haven flag but we couldn’t have that, now could we?”
“Nor would it be permissible according to the Star Fleet charter,” Jaren pointed out.
“Well there you go,” she said, lowering her arm in concession. “We’ll use the Star Fleet flag we have hanging in engineering. It’s kind of big to be used that way, but… enh, we’ll figure something out.”
Jaren nodded that this was a perfectly appropriate idea. “Brings to mind that we really need to formalize our alliance in that way, you know? We have a combined fleet, but no common identity, no flag for all of our worlds as a collective entity.”
“Put it on the list,” Kathryn nodded. Given how instrumental the two had been in events that led to them having a combined fleet, it wasn’t out of the realm to put such a thing on their personal to do list. “I wonder if we’re ready for that though,” she mused. “We’re cooperating rather well in joint operations, but we’re still very different people, a lot of tensions still exist between us. Almost like we’re still separate people’s until we find something external to clarify our common interests.”
“Perhaps a flag of peace then,” Jaren suggested, “something representing our good intentions towards each other if nothing else, something representing the dream of some sort of eventual confederation.”
Kathryn nodded and looked back at her screen, becoming lost in it again. “We’ll have to balance the first team,” she remarked.
“First?” she heard Jaren’s eyebrow raise.
“Yes. I want two people from each world on the first mission to balance out the achievement. Then I want to make as many return trips as it takes for any of the crew who want to go down as well to be able to. We’ll stick to one shuttle and keep the other in reserve in case of emergency. Let’s make the first team be just the most senior personnel from each world, alright? That seems fair.”
“It also puts both of us and the entire command staff at risk on the first sortie.”
“Oh, does it?” Kathryn asked with some irritation at the suggestion she didn’t know exactly what she was doing.
A few hours later, six crew members shoehorned into the cramped shuttle, made all the more uncomfortable by the environmental suits they were wearing. The suits were essentially form fitting but were loose enough to allow easy movement and getting in each other’s ways. The Koboli designed shuttle was saucer shaped with a row of restraint equipped seats around the interior perimeter for them to sit on and strap in. Towards the middle of the craft there were two control stations with similar seats but consoles in front of them, one for piloting and the other for operations. At full capacity they were knee to knee with not only each other, but other crew sitting around the perimeter as well. Like the bridge, all of the surfaces were display screens which displayed the exterior, giving an at times too convincing illusion of floating unprotected in space.
There were harnessed seats for eight total, but as Jaren suggested it was not for comfort. Standard was for only six, and though it was rated for eight it left little room for gear or comfort. Seating for eight was typically reserved for an emergency, but sometimes convenience made it worth the tight fit.
Onboard the shuttle Kathryn and Felix representing Haven while Jaren and the Koboli Chief Engineer represented Kobol. The Roman representatives were a comms officer named Clementine who everyone called Clem, and the ship’s senior science officer Benedict who likewise was more commonly referred to as Ben. Representing Earth were Margaret and Patricia, the only Terrans aboard aside from Maggie who could almost be considered Terran, having been born and lived most of her life in orbit around Earth. Kathryn stole a moment to be thankful for how unflattering the suits were even on Patricia. All eight of them squeezed into the shuttle for the twenty minutes of their descent.
Under Jaren’s direction, the shuttle disengaged from the rear section of the ship and with a slight burn to slow their orbital velocity, it then tightly closed its engine exhaust port to present a shallow ablative umbrella surface to the atmosphere. The shuttle looked remarkably like the descent capsules from the earliest days of Terran spaceflight, but far more sophisticated.
It didn’t take long for a violent inferno to kick up beneath their feet as the atmospheric friction slowed them to mere terminal velocity in the planet’s thick healthy atmosphere. Although the screen projected the blaze at their feet and the plasma flames licking up the walls around them, with all of the instruments secured against the it was just a simulation with all of the instruments secured against the scorching blaze. Once adequately slowed, the central engine port opened again and pushed the shuttle up in to a stable hover over the landscape.
The planet’s surface was covered a little less than half with ocean and they had selected a site near the equator not too far from the ocean. They hoped to find something like the tidal pools on Earth which when interacting with high energy radiation were thought to have given rise to basic organic chemistry which eventually stumbled across a way to replicate itself. After this initial hurdle to the development of life, it was believed that mutation and natural selection had given rise to ever more complex forms of life.
Jaren flew the shuttle over to the discussed area, then when they were satisfied of the safety of their chosen landing site, slowly brought the shuttle down for a descent. The crew was silent as they studied the images projected on the walls about them on which the technical readouts were superimposed. Actually being here though, Kathryn’s excitement abated and gave way to a humility over the utter otherworldliness of the place. Alien as it was, there was something nevertheless intangibly familiar about it, like looking into one’s own deep ancestral past long before any ancestors of anything existed. It was total and utter primordium, and it chilled something very deep within her to witness it.
As the shuttle neared the ground and further decelerated, three long narrow ports slid open on the underside of the ship and long spindly landing struts unfurled out of the, unfolding to double their lengths before finally resting softly against the ground, its joints bending gracefully as it assumed the craft’s weight.
“Touchdown,” Jaren offered somberly. There was an odd hint of surprise in his voice, as though he hadn’t expected the reality to be any different from the idea.
“Everyone ready?” Kathryn asked. “Double check your suit integrity.”
The rest of the crew carefully checked the panels on the inside of their wrists and reported that they were indeed ready.
“Okay Jaren,” she sucked in her breath a little in appreciation of the moment, “lower the door.”
They could hear a soft hiss as the very different atmospheres in and out of the shuttle eagerly intermingled. One part of the wall revealed a seam and then broke away, the top swinging down and away from them. After it descended some forty-five degrees, an internal extension slipped out from within, lengthening the ramp and extending it all the way down to the ground.
Everyone in the shuttle looked over at Kathryn, who took a deep breath and stood up. “Ok,” she said more to herself than anyone else as she approached the threshold to the ramp. Her suit was a light grey head to toe, accentuated only by the multi-function touch computer and monitoring devices on her wrists. Her face was mostly covered by broad goggles which protected her eyes from the toxic atmosphere and could facilitate an internal head up display over her actual vision, and a mask apparatus over her mouth and nose to facilitate her breathing, tight enough to keep the poisonous air out. The mask was tightly sealed to the material of her suit, and she could feel the moderate weight of the air tanks carried like a backpack, but cleverly built into the suit.
She slowly walked down the ramp but hesitated at the bottom of it. She called back to the shuttle. “Jaren! Clem! Patricia! Come down here.” Somewhat confused the three obeyed and carefully approached her down the crowded ramp. “This just doesn’t feel right,” she explained. “We’re only here at all because we came together, four worlds working as one people.” Kathryn’s innate sense of fairness was as acute as the diplomatic instincts she’d developed over the years since first contact with Kobol. “It just doesn’t feel right for me as a representative of just one of our worlds to set foot here first. Let’s all do it together.”
Delighted, the three carefully perched themselves together on the edge of the ramp with just their left foots forward together as they interlocked arms.
“Ready?” she asked. “This’ll be easy to screw up,” she warned and the other three nodded. “Okay. On the count of three we step out. One, two, three.”
As they said the words three the four humans extended their right foots onto the surface of their first new world in over six hundred years. Kathryn smirked a little, sensing that despite her best efforts she had inadvertently touched her foot down to the surface first, if only just a hair’s breadth before the others. She hadn’t done so intentionally of course; it was just impossible for them all to make contact at exactly the same time. What she failed to notice though, was the same slight smirk on the faces of the others, who would likewise spend the rest of their lives keeping secret the fact that they also believed themselves to have been first.