THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 32 – A BIG, BLUE PLANET

 

13:18 (Universal Time)

Monday, May 17, 2320

Command bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

Approaching the planet Gliese 581d

Hardly anyone was speaking on the bridge as its crew watched the big, blue planet now nearly filling their forward viewing holographic screens. Tina, like Shanandar and Gerald Holmes, could only admire the deep blue orb of Gliese 581d, with white streams denoting atmospheric cloud formations blown around by winds. There were however no apparent land masses to be seen.

‘’An ocean planet!’’ said softly to herself Tina, captivated by the image of the blue planet. ‘’It is beautiful! Please, Patricia, tell me that it has a breathable atmosphere.’’

‘’Well, I can’t certify for the exact composition, temperature and pressure of this planet’s atmosphere from this distance, but our spectrometers definitely are detecting large amounts of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide forming a thick, significant atmosphere. We can also detect a strong planetary magnetic field, something that would protect its surface from solar and space radiations and give a chance for life to develop. Preliminary calculations give us a mass of approximately 3.1 Earth Masses, orbiting the red dwarf star at an average radius of 0.218 AU in approximately 67 days. The planet is tidally-locked to its star, with one half perpetually illuminated by the star and the other half perpetually in the dark. We can see four large, round and rocky moons orbiting the planet, which would explain why the planet’s mass, as calculated from Earth, had been estimated previously to be of a minimum of 5.6 Earth Masses. The surface water on the illuminated side appears to be liquid, while much of the dark side is covered by solid water ice.’’

‘’This planet should have been of very high interest for the SHUNDAR.’’ said Shanandar, who was standing behind Patricia’s seat. ‘’At a minimum, it would have thoroughly mapped and scanned it before moving on…unless the ship was already out of control and unable to land.’’

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‘’Let’s assume that the SHUNDAR was still fully functional and that its crew at least surveyed this planet.’’ replied Tina. ‘’On my part, I certainly want to know anything that could be learned about this planet and want to be sure that the SHUNDAR is not here right now, entombed in ice or at the bottom of the ocean. Patricia, call up some extra help for our sensors stations. Me and Shanandar will also lend a hand.’’

With up to six persons manning the sensors stations of the bridge complex and with Spirit, the ship’s central computer, helping to analyze the data from the various ship sensors, the crew’s knowledge about Gliese 581d quickly grew, while that new knowledge only stimulated their interest in what was proving to be a true ocean planet. A pair of robotic probes sent down to the planet soon brought in some critical information, information which pleased greatly both Tina and Shanandar.

‘’The atmosphere is breathable, Captain.’’ announced excitedly Anwar Duharto, who was controlling the probe flying inside the planet’s atmosphere. ‘’Its pressure at sea level is 1,136 millibars, only a bit higher than on Earth, and it is composed of 69 percent of nitrogen, 23 percent of oxygen, seven percent of carbon dioxide and one percent of a mix of noble gases, most of it argon with traces of neon, xenon and krypton. Atmospheric temperature near the surface of the ocean at the equator, in the half facing the star, is turning around plus 21 degrees Celsius, higher than what the planet’s distance from its star would make us expect. I would say that the carbon dioxide in the air is causing a moderate greenhouse gas effect which raised the temperature above water freezing point. However, the surface air temperature drops significantly on the dark side, with a temperature of minus six Celsius at the equator and with the ocean mostly frozen up. However, the conditions around the Terminator zone are still quite mild, with a sea-level average temperature of plus sixteen degrees Celsius.’’

‘’We could go around without spacesuits.’’ said Shanandar while smiling to Tina. The latter however shook her head at that.

‘’In terms of livability, yes, but I won’t risk contaminating this planet with Earth germs until we know more about the possible life on the planet. Our first surface exploration teams will go around with sealed suits and while breathing recycled air. They will also go through decontamination both before and after going down to the surface, and that will include their shuttles.’’

Ingrid Holtz, one of their specialists in sensors and communications, then spoke up, cutting off that exchange.

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‘’Captain, our maritime exploration probe has splashed down near the equator, in the southern quadrant of the planet. I am now getting some firm data about the planet’s ocean. First off, the water temperature around our probe, at a depth of ten meters, is surprisingly high, being plus fourteen degrees Celsius. This is completely unexpected for a planet sitting just outside of the outer edge of the system’s habitability zone. As for the degree of salinity, it is about the same as found in the Pacific Ocean on Earth. The probe’s sonar is giving an average depth of more than 9,000 meters, much deeper than on Earth, with the bottom looking very uneven, with innumerable peaks, ravines and underwater summits. Some of those summits rise up to a depth of 1,800 meters, still quite deep by Earth’s standards.’’

‘’Wow! That is what I would call an ‘ocean’.’’ exclaimed Gerald Holmes. That made Tina look at him and Shanandar, her expression sober.

‘’I think that a proper name for such a planet would be ‘Oceana’? What do you think?’’

‘’That it would be a perfect name for such a splendid ocean planet, Tina.’’

‘’I concur!’’ added Shanandar. ‘’This ocean IS the planet. With luck, it will prove to harbor life. In fact, I would be very surprised to see that no life would have developed in such an ideal environment.’’

That prompted Tina to look down at Ingrid Holtz’ station.

‘’Do you have any indications of marine life, Ingrid?’’

‘’Uh, maybe, Captain. The probe’s sonar is actually experiencing some kind of acoustic interference. I am now switching on its passive hydrophones.’’

‘’Put them on the bridge speakers: I would like to listen to them for a moment, Ingrid.’’

‘’Switching our probe’s hydrophones on speakers.’’

A near constant cacophony of noises was suddenly heard around the bridge, making Tina’s skip a beat: there were many clicking noises, plus what sounded furiously like loud lamentations.

‘’Whale songs! Those noises sound exactly like whale songs I heard from an excursion boat off Vancouver Island. There is life in Gliese 581d’s oceans! Ingrid, make sure to record those sounds from now on. Spirit, could you start listening to those sounds and songs, to see if there could be some pattern to them?’’

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‘’I will devote part of my analytical capacity to that, Tina.’’ replied the soft female voice of their central computer, an artificial intelligence entity of immense capability. On his part, Gerald Holmes was now nearly gleeful.

‘’This planet looks perfect for colonists, either Humans or Koorivars, Tina. I would be very surprised if the SHUNDAR did not at least explore it.’’

‘’If it didn’t, then it would possibly indicate to us that the SHUNDAR was already in a poor state and unable to stop its course.’’ replied Shanandar, looking and sounding worried. ‘’I do agree with Gerald that this world would have warranted an extensive exploration program by the SHUNDAR’s crew. If they indeed conducted such a program, then we are liable to find some traces of it, like expendable probes, beacons and the like.’’

‘’Our probe’s sonar is now detecting something approaching it.’’ suddenly warned Ingrid Holtz, her voice tensing up. ‘’It is massive and approaching at a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour. Judging by its constantly changing path, I would say that it has to be some kind of marine life form.’’

As she said that, a loud sound wave similar to that from a sonar was heard on the speakers, followed some six seconds later by a second, louder one.

‘’Echo sounding! That marine life form is using echo sounding to locate our probe and approach it. Ingrid, does our probe have cameras?’’

‘’Of course, Tina! I am now pointing one of them at the incoming being.’’ At first, they saw only blue-green water, made murky by particles suspended in the water. However, Tina saw some of these ‘particles’ moving around by themselves.

‘’Hey, some of those particles in the water are actually alive: they are moving!’’

‘’I see that too, Tina.’’ said Gerald Holmes, captivated. ‘’There is definitely life under many forms in this ocean planet. I… WHOA!’’

Gerald nearly jumped out of his seat when a huge, dark mass suddenly appeared from the murky water and sped at the probe, what looked like a huge mouth opened wide. The image from the probe then went dark, as if it had entered a dark oven.

‘’THAT THING JUST SWALLOWED OUR PROBE WHOLE!’’ exclaimed Ingrid Holtz, her eyes bulging. That prompted Tina into giving a hurried order.

‘’QUICK, MAKE THE PROBE BOUNCE AROUND ITS MOUTH, USING ITS GRAVITY SAIL UNIT.’’

Ingrid obeyed her at once. A positive reaction followed a few seconds later, with the image from the probe’s camera lighting up and showing from very close the long, hydro

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dynamically shaped of a huge marine creature with dark gray skin as it swam past the probe.

‘’IT SPAT OUT OUR PROBE!’’ announced the blonde sensors specialist. ‘’I have regained control of the probe.’’

Before she could say more, the camera of the probe then showed at least a dozen more dark gray masses which swam by it, apparently following the first creature. Tina watched that with utter fascination.

‘’A whole pod of whales… What a fantastic sight!’’

‘’Something else is approaching our probe now.’’ signaled Patricia O’Neil. ‘’It however seems much smaller than those…whales.’’

Effectively, what next approached the probe measured about three meters in length and was shaped like a torpedo with large swimming fins. It proved very agile and speedy, turning around the probe as if to examine it. Four more similar creatures soon joined it around the probe, exchanging clicking noises between them as they twisted and turned in the water, watched by the fascinated bridge crew. Finally, probably deciding that it didn’t look edible, the five marine creatures swam away. Tina then took a few deep breaths to lower her excitement level.

‘’God! This was amazing! Our biologists will go bonkers when they will watch these images. Apparently, marine life is quite common on Gliese 581d. Too bad that there are no lands above the ocean.’’

‘’We may have been wrong about that, Captain.’’ announced Anwar Duharto, pointing at their holographic display sphere. ‘’I see a large, dark plume rising from the horizon, near the western terminator. I am redirecting our flying probe in that direction. It is still far, but I would bet that this is a plume of dust and smoke from a volcanic eruption: I saw two similar plumes in the past, when in Indonesia during the eruptions of two separate volcanoes.’’

‘’Hum, volcanic activity could certainly explain the unusual amount of carbon dioxide in the air, along with the elevated temperatures. Underwater volcanoes and deep ocean bottom thermal vents could also explain the high water temperature of the ocean and could be an abundant source of minerals and nutrients for the local marine life. Let’s hope that your volcano will be part of a substantial land mass, Mister Duharto.’’

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The bridge crew anxiously waited as the flying probe sped towards the distant plume on the horizon, while continuing to check the data and images sent by their underwater probe. Those images soon showed yet more marine life, with huge schools of fish of various sizes and shapes swimming around. One school of fish in particular was filmed as nine of the dolphin-like creatures which had turned around the probe rushed through the fish formation, gulping dozens of fish in the process. That sight made Gerald Holmes nearly glut.

‘’This ocean planet is definitely full of life and has everything to offer as a new home. If I would have been the captain of the SHUNDAR, I would have landed on the icepack of the dark hemisphere, established a base camp there and then built floating cities with hydroponic gardens for his people.’’

Shanandar couldn’t help sigh on hearing that and gave a dubious look to Holmes.

‘’That would have been the perfect scenario…if he would have been the captain of a ship like the KOSTROMA, with plenty of storage volume and vast industrial facilities. But he had only the SHUNDAR, designed like my VEON SHOURIA in a hurry with one single goal: to carry as many Koorivars as possible to a new world that could welcome us. It has very little storage capacity, apart from its 22,000 cryogenic sleep chambers, and carried only the minimum in terms of shelters and survival equipment. This planet, while ideal for a big Human ship like the KOSTROMA, which would also be able to quickly return to its solar system to go fetch more equipment and construction materiel in order to build floating cities, would unfortunately prove a false hope for the SHUNDAR.’’

‘’Oh! Sorry for the over enthusiasm.’’ said Gerald, prompting a gentle reply from Tina.

‘’Don’t be, Gerald! Your thinking was typical of that of most Humans. Only experienced Space-based engineers and scientists are accustomed to analyzing in depth the potentials of some Space body or system. However, I agree with Shanandar about this planet which, while ideal for us and the KOSTROMA, would be a dead end for the crew of the SHUNDAR…unless they had to land here due to a malfunction, something that is still quite possible. We will thus look carefully for any sign of the SHUNDAR while mapping and exploring in detail this planet and its ocean. Just from what we have already seen, I would say that we will be here for a good two weeks, at the least. That could turn out to be even longer, if those volcanoes prove more interesting than we already hope.’’

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Some two hours later, their flying probe arrived in direct line of sight of the volcano which had caught their eyes, while the KOSTROMA itself was arriving above it as it flew into a polar orbit around Gliese 581d. Its orbital path, which made it overfly at intervals all the points of the planet, also revealed a crucial piece of data: emerged volcanoes were actually common at the surface of the ocean planet, with no less than 178 active and 659 presently inactive volcanic summits emerging from the sea. Some of those volcanic summits, like the active one the probe was approaching, had existed long enough to form sizeable islands made of volcanic ash and rocks. The volcano the probe was now close to was in fact the center of a large island covering a good 130 square kilometers. What was at the surface of that volcanic island was however what captivated the most the bridge crew.

‘’I SEE TREES, VEGETATION!’’ announced excitedly Shanandar, making Tina look in awe at the display screens.

‘’My God, you are right! That’s it! We definitely have to send down a surface exploration team. Shanandar, would you like to direct that team?’’

‘’I would love to, Tina.’’

‘’Then, take Kazmiriel, Doctor Janus Kadar, Michel Koniev, Leo Sanchez and at least six specialists in geology, biology and botany with you and go down on that island as soon as you are ready. In the meantime, we will continue to accumulate data and images via our probes and ship’s sensors.’’

‘’Thank you, Tina! Thank you very much! I’m on my way!’’ replied the happy Koorivar while nearly running down towards the elevators’ rotunda of the bridge complex.

16:33 (Universal Time)

Light shuttle ‘GRASSHOPPER’

At the surface of the volcanic island in the western equatorial quadrant Planet Gliese 581d

‘’You can lower the aft access ramp, Yasmina.’’

‘’Ramp lowering now, Captain Shanandar.’’ replied by intercom Yasmina Jumonji, the young Europa-born pilot of the exploration team’s light shuttle. Shanandar looked around him inside the aft airlock to do a last visual check of his team companions. Like him, they all wore light sealed suits with air masks and closed cycle breathing systems of the kind bio-hazard technicians wore inside high-level containment laboratories. Those

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suits, while ensuring that no accidental biological contamination would occur either way, were much lighter and less bulky than spacesuits and allowed much greater freedom of movement, as they were not pressurized like spacesuits. He then pressed a button on the control panel of the airlock, making dozens of gas vents blow a strong decontaminant all over him and his companions. Only after that did he open the outer airlock door and stepped on the lowered access ramp. With his companions following him with their bags of equipment, he walked down the ramp and stopped once both of his booted feet rested on the black volcanic sand of the beach on which their shuttle had landed. For safety reasons, Yasmina Jumonji had landed her shuttle on the point of land farthest from the smoking summit of the island’s volcano, in case a sudden, violent eruption would occur. The beach they were on, apart from giving them direct access to the ocean, was also bordered by trees, bushes and long grass, which the team intended to study. Looking up, Shanandar watched a pair of large birds fly over them, smiling at that extra proof of life on this ocean planet. They had in fact sighted many birds of various species during their approach and had also been able to discover from the air that the island nested a number of large bird colonies, something that had added to the high interest the shuttle occupants already had for this island.

While a bit strong at 1.14 G for his Human companions, Shanandar found the local gravity to his liking, as the gravity on Shouria had been 1.3 G. As for his immediate environment, it strongly reminded him of what he had seen during a past visit he had made to Iceland. Looking towards the sea, he watched as moderate waves kept washing over the black sand of the beach. Some distance away, a bird dove steeply down towards the sea, splashing in it and then reemerging with a fish in its mouth. A few flaps of its wide wings and it was airborne again, its diner firmly held in its jaws. Shanandar had seen a similar scene countless times while walking down the beaches and shores of northern Vancouver Island, where the Koorivar colony from his ship had established itself, thanks to the generosity of President d’Arcy of the Northern Alliance. This planet decidedly pleased him more and more as time went. Hopefully, his team would not discover some biological hazard that would then close off this planet for both Humans and Koorivars. Personally, if he would have been in the place of Captain Kurkan and would have landed the SHUNDAR on this island, he would have elected to stay and settle his sleeping passengers here, even though this ocean planet could hardly provide much of the mineral resources which a highly technical colony would

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typically need. Minerals could always be mined on other planets and moons of this solar system, using the SHUNDAR and its shuttles. However, that process would have taken time, lots of time, as the quantity of equipment and mineral processing machines on the SHUNDAR was severely limited. An idea then came to Shanandar’s mind, giving him one option to use this world if the KOSTROMA ever found the SHUNDAR and SHANIZAR, along with their 43,000 Koorivar occupants. Now feeling much more optimistic, he turned around to watch his companions as they spread out to collect samples of air, water, soil and plants, with Michel Koniev and Leo Sanchez standing guard, pulse rifles in their hands. This island may be looking at first like a welcoming one but there was no way to know what it contained in terms of local life of the predatory kind. Looking back towards the sea, Shanandar suddenly felt his heart skip a beat: he could have sworn that he had just seen some movement at the shoreline, where waves washed over the volcanic sand. A few more seconds of observation were then enough to confirm his first impression, making him shout to the chief biologist of the KOSTROMA.

‘’DOCTOR KADAR, I SEE AN ANIMAL CRAWLING OUT OF THE WATER, OVER THERE.’’

That brought Janus Kadar to the side of Shanandar in seconds.

‘’Where is it, Captain Shanandar?’’

‘’There, forty meters away, at the water’s edge.’’

‘’I see it! Let’s get closer to it.’’

Shanandar was too happy to follow Kadar, as he was dying with curiosity right now. Walking to within ten meters of the creature now plainly visible to them and then stopping to keep a safe distance from it, the duo watched and filmed the newcomer as it slowly crawled on its belly out of the water and up the beach.

‘’It is similar to a giant sea turtle from Earth.’’ said in a low voice the biologist, not wanting to scare away the creature. ‘’It must weigh close to half a ton. This is fascinating.’’

‘’It certainly is, Doctor Kadar. Decidedly, this planet is full of life of all kinds.’’ Something strange then happened: the giant turtle stopped crawling up the beach and instead pivoted on the spot to face Kadar and Shanandar and look at them with its three eyes, its expression impassive. That made Kadar open his eyes wide.

‘’My God! It is showing curiosity towards us. Maybe it is an intelligent creature. Sea turtles on Earth are known to have long life spans, some of them living up to and even past one hundred years. Turtles have also been evolving for tens of millions of

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years. That is plenty of time to develop their brains. In fact, the head of this turtle is quite voluminous, apart from being protected by a sort of shell acting as a helmet.’’ They were then joined by Michel Koniev, who cautiously examined from a few meters away the giant turtle while keeping the muzzle of his rifle pointed down at the sand.

‘’It is not showing any signs of aggressiveness…up to now.’’

‘’Sea turtles on Earth are actually like gentle giants and were never seen attacking a person, either on the ground or in the water.’’ replied Kadar. That was when Jennifer Scott, a young Canadian marine biologist and sea explorer hired by Tina Forster a mere three weeks ago, arrived at a run to look excitedly at the giant turtle.

‘’Ooooh, it is magnificent! It actually looks a lot like a Leatherback Sea Turtle.’’

‘’Do Leatherback Sea Turtles stare at Humans the way this creature does, Miss Scott?’’ asked Shanandar, sobering up a bit the young marine biologist.

‘’Uh, no! Normally, they do as if we didn’t exist. This creature may however possess a higher degree of intelligence than Earth turtles. I will have to watch its behavior for a while before I could say more on this. With your permission, Captain Shanandar, I will finish taking seawater samples, then will change into a diving suit and go for a swim in order to examine the kind of marine life which is to be found just off the shore. I will take a waterjet unit with me, so currents shouldn’t cause me problems.’’

‘’Very well, but be cautious, still: we don’t know what kind of marine predators may lurk in these waters.’’

‘’I dove with Great White Sharks off Australia, Captain. I think that I will manage…but I promise you to be careful.’’

Jennifer, an athletic woman of 25 years with a most sexy body, then ran back towards their shuttle. Shanandar followed her with his eyes while smiling.

‘’Aaah, the exuberance of youth! I am unfortunately long past that stage.’’ The giant turtle then decided at that moment to resume its original course up the sloping beach, watched from a distance by Kadar, Koniev and Shanandar. Arriving after long minutes of slow crawling near the limits of the vegetation bordering the beach, the sea turtle then started digging a hole in the sand with its two pairs of wide fins. Kadar opened his eyes wide on seeing that, understanding in a flash what it was doing.

‘’A nest! It is digging a nest, probably to lay eggs in it. The more it goes, the more it behaves like an Earth sea turtle.’’

The giant turtle effectively pivoted its body over the hole it had just dug, then small brown eggs started dropping at the bottom of the hole.

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‘’I was right!’’ exclaimed Kadar. ‘’If I could just get my hands on one egg, to study it…’’

‘’You will refrain from doing so, Doctor Kadar.’’ countered at once Shanandar, using a most definitive tone. ‘’If we collect samples of local creatures, then it will only be from dead ones. Captain Foster and me are in agreement about interfering as little as possible with the local life and ecosystem. You may look and examine from a distance, but you may not touch or hurt in any way living creatures.’’ Kadar, quite disappointed, looked back at the turtle as it was now piling sand over its eggs in order to protect them from predators. A large bird somewhat similar to an albatross then dove on the nest, probably hoping to grab an egg or two before they could be covered with sand. To the surprise and shock of the Koorivar and the two Humans, the turtle’s head then sprang out as if mounted on a long coil spring, shooting up to two meters in the air and with the parrot-like beak of the turtle clamping shut around the legs of the bird. The latter screamed out with pain and panic as the turtle’s neck coiled back inside its carapace, the bird still held in its mouth. The next move by the turtle was to crawl over the hapless bird, immobilizing it under its enormous mass, before snapping the bird’s neck in two with its beak. It then calmly finished filling the nest with sand and, grabbing the dead bird in its beak again, started its return journey to the sea.

‘’Holy shit!’’ exclaimed unceremoniously Michel Koniev. ‘’Talk about an

unexpected move!’’

With now increased respect for the turtle’s abilities, the trio stayed a good five meters away from it while slowly following it towards the water’s edge. However, the turtle stopped for a moment just before getting into the water and turned its head towards Janus Kadar, the dead bird still in its mouth. The turtle then slowly extended its neck and put down the dead bird in front of the biologist. Next, it looked up at him and blinked its three eyes simultaneously before retracting its neck and crawling into the water, disappearing from sight after a minute or so. Kadar, utterly baffled, sat down heavily on the sand of the beach while staring at the dead bird some two meters in front of him.

‘’I…I can’t believe this! It is as if that turtle understood what we said between ourselves, then acted upon it, giving me this dead bird as a specimen to be examined.’’

‘’I think that this is exactly what happened, Doctor Kadar.’’ said Shanandar, equally shaken. ‘’It is now obvious that this race of sea turtles is a lot more intelligent than we thought them to be. They may even possess some kind of telepathic power,

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which would explain how it could understand at once a totally alien language like English. This is a huge discovery indeed.’’

‘’I concur!’’ added Michel. ‘’This now makes four different races of sentient beings that we know of to date in this corner of the galaxy: us Humans, the Koorivars, the Gordos and, now, those turtles. This after visiting only two star systems after Gliese 667C. It would tend to show us that life, including intelligent life, exist basically everywhere.’’

‘’I believe that to be correct. Well, let’s join back with the rest of the team. Don’t forget your bird specimen, Doctor Kadar!’’

The poor biologist rolled his eyes at that sarcastic remark from Shanandar but still took out a large plastic bag and put the dead bird in it before sealing it carefully.

When Jennifer Scott emerged from the shuttle, wearing a wet suit and a compressed air bottle on her back, she was immediately accosted by an excited Janus Kadar, who showed her the dead bird and told her about what the giant turtle had done. She in turn nodded her head slowly, impressed.

‘’This is indeed huge, Doctor Kadar. Their intelligence level must approach or even surpass our own.’’

‘’Surpass our intelligence level? Aren’t you pushing it a bit, Jennifer? How could you develop a high level of intelligence on an ocean planet where tool-making is next to impossible and where you can’t light a fire?’’

Jennifer, who had been captivated since her youth by marine life and had frequented dolphins, whales and other intelligent sea mammals, gave him a cautioning look.

‘’Doctor, they could use their intelligence in three domains: their survival techniques; their general knowledge about this ocean world and for their social skills.’’

‘’Social skills?’’

‘’Yes, social skills. Imagine that the whales and other large marine life forms our underwater probe saw were all intelligent and able to communicate with those turtles. Imagine the amount of social gossip that could be exchanged when a turtle like the one we just encounter a pod of whales or other sea turtles. Hey, maybe it is presently busy passing the word around about a bunch of strange land-bound yahoos having arrived on this island.’’

‘’Uh, I think that your imagination is working in overdrive, Jennifer.’’

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‘’And why shouldn’t it be in overdrive, Doctor? For a marine biologist like me, this planet is simply fabulous! In fact, I could easily and happily consecrate my whole life in studying the marine life on this planet.’’

‘’Well, whatever floats your boat, Jennifer. Good luck on your dive, but be careful.’’

‘’I will, Doctor Kadar.’’

On that promise, Jennifer walked to the edge of the water, where she put on her fins, adjusted her mask and bit on her air regulator’s mouthpiece. She then walked into the water while firmly holding on to her waterjet propulsion unit, which was also secured to her by an elastic strap. Soon, she was in deep enough water to fully dive in it. However, she only used her fins to swim around at first, wanting to save the batteries of her waterjet unit for later. It became evident at once that life was abundant in this ocean: the black sand of the bottom, intermixed with volcanic rocks, was covered with a variety of sea shells, anemone-like creatures and ribbons of undulating sea weeds. Jennifer could also see a number of crab-like creatures crawling around on their eight legs and munching on the sea weeds. Fascinated, she filmed all that with her compact marine digital camera, spending a good twenty minutes near the beach before finally moving to deeper waters. The local waters being pretty clear, she still had good visibility around her when she got to a depth of twelve meters while swimming just above the sandy bottom. That allowed her to see and watch dozens of fish of various species swimming around her. She also saw and filmed a pack of what looked like small translucent orange medusas, but cautiously stayed out of touch of them, remembering how many medusa species on Earth were able to inflict painful, poisonous pricks with their thin tentacles. Feeling like in heaven, surrounded like this by alien marine life, Jennifer nearly lost track of the time. Her air pressure gauge unit, which incorporated a micro-computer meant to calculate decompression stops, however warned her with an insistent beep when her air pressure fell in the low zone. Jennifer had just reached the point where the gentle slope of the bottom abruptly changed to a steep rock face going down towards the dark depths when she heard the beeps start. Pushing a button to stop the beeping, she scanned her surroundings with her camera for one last time, filming the rocky surface of the underwater cliff and the dark depths beyond it before starting to swim back towards the beach. She did however collect a few varied sea shells from the bottom as specimens on her way back, so that she could have something concrete to

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study other than images. She was positively ecstatic when she emerged out of the water and, taking first her fins off, walked up the beach, to be met by Michel Koniev.

‘’How did it go during your dive, Jennifer? Did you encounter any fish or creature that could have been dangerous?’’

‘’None, Michel, but I still expect to meet a few during my future dives. Any ecosystem needs a few predators to keep it balanced. If not, the non-predatory creatures would go through an endless cycle of boom and bust caused by overpopulation and famine. I am certain that we will eventually find the local equivalent of sharks in this ocean planet. However, for the moment, I have plenty of images and a few sea shells to study. If you will excuse me, I will go change out of my wet suit.’’

‘’Go right ahead, Jennifer.’’ replied Michel. Despite being a happily married man, Michel still discretely watched Jennifer walk away towards their shuttle: she did have a very cute and sexy bum. He suspected that their young shuttle copilot, 22-year-old Roger Cummings, would also show interest in Jennifer’s most appetizing body. He briefly snickered at the picture which then formed in his mind: a hot romance on an alien beach some 21 light years from Earth.

 

11:05 (Universal Time)

Wednesday, May 19, 2320

Captain’s penthouse suite, Level 24

A.M.S. KOSTROMA, in low orbit around Gliese 581d

With Michel down on the planet and unable to fill his parenting obligations, Tina had chosen to consecrate most of her time to her baby son Misha, now five months old, by staying with him in her penthouse suite, situated on the same level than the bridge complex. She could have used the services of the ship’s crew daycare center, like what many of the working mothers in the crew did, but had decided otherwise: she wanted to raise, nurture and educate her son herself, rather than caring for him only for a small part of the day. What had helped her decision was the fact that her penthouse was very close to the bridge complex, only a minute away in terms of walking. If there was a true emergency, she could be on the bridge in a flash. As for routine matters, she had full confidence in Dana Durning and in her other senior ship officers to deal efficiently with them. Besides, with electronic communications means being what they were, she could

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instantly get reports and queries in her suite as well as send directives and orders around.

Tina was in fact nursing her baby son and sitting in a rocking chair when she got a report on her laptop computer, set in blog mode and sitting on a desk next to her chair. Looking at the title of the report, Tina felt satisfaction on seeing that it was the preliminary report on the mapping of Gliese 581d and of its four moons. Extending one arm, she clicked on one button and opened the report, then switched the position of her baby, who had finished sucking milk from her left breast, putting his head up over her left shoulder and gently patting his back until he burped loudly. Tina then cradled him in her arms and rocked her chair to put Misha to sleep, all the while starting to read the mapping report, which also included a report from the landed exploration team on Gliese 581d.

‘’Damn, no traces of the SHUNDAR or of its passage was found.’’ she said softly to herself. In a way, this did not surprise her: as attractive as Gliese 581d could be as a habitable world, it would have been of little value to the SHUNDAR because of the very limited total surface of emerged lands and of the lack aboard the SHUNDAR of industrial facilities and of the equipment necessary to settle an ocean planet. It probably had simply mapped the planet from orbit, then had moved on after realizing that it was unsuitable for settlement with what was available aboard. However, for a ship as big and well-equipped as her KOSTROMA, which could go back to the Solar System and return here in mere minutes with literally millions of tons of supplies, equipment and specialized modules in one trip, Gliese 581d was a dream planet, according to the conclusions of the mapping and exploration reports. Its atmosphere was breathable, the average temperatures on the surface were mild and life existed all around it. The only drawback was the fact that there were only a few hundred small volcanic islands dotting the ocean surface of the planet. However, building floating cities and facilities would be an easy solution to that drawback. She would only need to return to the Solar System, order there the construction of floating, modular sections, load them on her ship and return here to drop those sections and assemble them on the surface of the ocean. The four big moons of Gliese 581d, while not having breathable atmospheres, still could be used as sources of minerals for any colony on the planet and could house a few mining centers, solving the problem of finding sources of metals on an ocean planet. However, what worried her a lot more was the biological aspect of the problem. Even though

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colonizing a brand-new world for either Humans or Koorivars would represent a huge prize, she was not ready to do that if it would mean infecting and harming the local life forms with Human or Koorivar bacteria, or in turn infecting Humans and Koorivars with local germs. She thus paid a special attention to the report from the landed exploration team. She blew air out in relief some ten minutes later, after a careful reading of that report: the analysis of the local air, water and of some biological samples were showing that the local organisms were not harmful to either Humans or Koorivars, being biologically incompatible with them, while the same could be said of foreign organisms towards the local Oceania fauna and flora. Tina already knew about the high intelligence of the local sea turtles, having seen an earlier report about the ‘incident’ involving Doctor Kadar and one sea turtle. Now, young Jennifer Scott was saying that other forms of local marine life could as well be intelligent ones, in particular the whales and dolphin-like creatures seen by the underwater probe of the KOSTROMA. Tina was more than ready to believe her on that. However, proving it would take a lot more time and many more on-the-spot observations. Unfortunately, colonizing and exploring in depth Gliese 581d was not her top priority right now: finding both the SHUNDAR and the SHANIZAR was. Besides, she still had to map and explore the third planet of this system, Gliese 581c, which could have possibly appeared as a better potential new home world to the crew of the SHUNDAR.

17:10 (Universal Time)

Thursday, May 20, 2320

Camp of the landed exploration team on Gliese 581d

Jennifer Scott had a heavy heart as she was helping to pack the tents and equipment of the exploration team. The order to return to the KOSTROMA had come some forty minutes ago and had attracted a concert of protestations from the four biologists of the team, including Jennifer, who had argued that there was still an enormous amount of work to be done on and around the island. Tina had understood their arguments but had ruled that the search for the Koorivar ships took precedence, something that Jennifer had to reluctantly agree with.

‘’Jennifer, could you retrieve our sea thermometer, please?’’

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‘’Yes, Doctor Kadar!’’ replied Jennifer before walking towards the water’s edge. Since the environment of Gliese 581d had been declared non-hazardous, the members of the team had shed their constraining bio-hazard suits and masks and Jennifer was now dressed simply in shorts and T-shirt. Walking barefoot on the black volcanic sand of the beach, she soon was wading in the water to retrieve their thermometer unit, a small sensor they had planted in the sandy bottom at a depth of some sixty centimeters of water. Since it was now low tide, Jennifer was not at risk of wetting her clothes while retrieving the instrument. She had just pulled the stick supporting the instrument from the bottom when a mental message struck her mind.

‘Are you leaving now?’

Stunned by hearing that silent message in her head, Jennifer quickly looked around her and at the waters surrounding her. She felt her heart jump when she saw a large sea turtle lying on the sandy bottom some four meters away, to her right. It was presently immobile and its head was facing her directly. Hoping that this was going to work, Jennifer concentrated into formulating a response in her head.

‘Yes, we are! We have to resume our search for a lost ship traveling among the stars.’

‘You can travel among the stars, graceful one?’

‘Yes! We were hoping to find on this planet the lost ship we were looking for. By the way, my name is Jennifer Scott. I specialize in studying various life forms and I find you fascinating.’

‘And I am Tumon. Your species is an interesting one indeed. Can you breathe in water?’

‘No! We are land animals and our home planet, while covered by oceans on two-thirds of its surface, also has large continents emerging above the waters. We can swim in water, but can only hold our breath for short period of times, unless we use artificial means to bring air with us into the depths.’

The giant turtle was ‘silent’ for a moment before sending a new mental message.

‘You and your friends saw me drop eggs in a nest on the beach, near the trees. Unfortunately for me and my race, many predators like to get at our eggs to eat them or catch the little ones when they emerge from the nest and try to get to the water. I was hoping that your presence would help protect them from the predators. I saw how you were not ready to take some of my eggs to ‘study’ them.’

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‘My life has been devoted to the study of life, not to its destruction, Tumon. That is especially true when it comes to intelligent life, like your race. How long will it take for your eggs to hatch?’

‘It will take about sixty cycles before the little ones will start coming out of their egg shell.’’

‘Cycles? I am sorry but I don’t know that type of time measurement.’

‘We saw each other for the first time six cycles ago. One cycle represents one passage of the main moon of our home world.’

‘Oh, I see! Then two of your cycles roughly equal one of our ‘days’. Thus, your eggs will hatch in about thirty of our days. Unfortunately, we have to leave today. I would have preferred to stay longer here, but our ship’s captain has to resume our search for the lost ships.’

Tumon was then silent again for a moment. Seeing Jennifer standing in the water and not moving, Michel Koniev grew nervous and called her out.

‘’JENNIFER, ARE YOU OKAY? WE NEED TO HUSTLE HERE!’’ In response, Jennifer raised high one hand and made an authoritative gesture while still looking at Tumon.

‘’WAIT! I AM SPEAKING WITH A TURTLE. PLEASE DON’T APPROACH US FOR THE MOMENT.’’

While quite flabbergasted by that, Michel understood at once that this was a critical event, thus refrained from running to join Jennifer, who communicated again with the giant sea turtle.

‘Maybe your request to me will decide my companions to leave me here temporarily, so that I could protect your eggs and your hatchlings. Let me speak with them.’

‘’Go ahead, friend. I will wait.’

Staying where she was in the water but turning around towards the shuttle and her companions, Jennifer started shouting towards Michel and Shanandar.

‘’TUMON, THE TURTLE WE SAW LAY EGGS IN THE SAND THREE DAYS AGO, HAS ASKED ME IF I COULD STAY FOR AT LEAST A MONTH, SO THAT I COULD PROTECT HER EGGS AND COVER HER HATCHLINGS WHEN THEY WILL EMERGE FROM THE SAND AND WILL DO THEIR RUN TO THE WATER. I WANT TO STAY, EVEN IF THAT MEANS THAT I WOULD BE LEFT ALONE HERE ON THIS BEACH.’’

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‘’BUT, WE MAY NOT RETURN HERE FOR MONTHS, JENNIFER. ALSO, IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO OUR SHIP DURING OUR MISSION, YOU MAY THEN BE MAROONED HERE FOR THE YEARS TO COME.’’ replied Shanandar.

‘’I UNDERSTAND THAT, CAPTAIN SHANANDAR, AND AM READY TO RUN THOSE RISKS. I WILL ONLY NEED THAT YOU LEAVE ME A TENT, SOME INSTRUMENTS TO CONTINUE MY RESEARCH HERE AND A RESERVE OF WATER AND RATIONS. PLEASE! THIS WOULD MEAN A LOT TO ME…AND TO TUMON.’’ To Shanandar’s surprise and Jennifer’s contentment, another biologist of the team, a middle-aged woman from Indonesia, then stepped forward and spoke up in a forceful tone.

‘’I AM READY TO STAY HERE WITH JENNIFER. I THUS REQUEST THAT CAPTAIN FORSTER REVIEWS HER DECISION.’’

‘’I WILL STAY TOO!’’ said in turn Doctor Kadar. Faced with such a quasi-rebellion, Shanandar hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head.

‘’VERY WELL: I WILL NOW CONTACT CAPTAIN FORSTER AND PASS ON YOUR REQUEST TO STAY.’’

‘’THANK YOU, SHANANDAR! KNOW THAT TUMON WILL STAY WITH ME AND WAIT FOR THE CAPTAIN’S RESPONSE.’’

Shanandar shook his head at that, a bit overwhelmed by this development, before opening a radio link to the KOSTROMA via their shuttle.

On the KOSTROMA, Jennifer’s request created a difficult dilemma for Tina when she got the message from Shanandar. Their search for the SHUNDAR and the SHANIZAR promised to be a long, hazardous one, with many things that could go wrong for her ship on the way, from a major engineering breakdown to collisions with asteroids within uncharted solar systems and even to an encounter with a hostile, advanced civilization. Acceding to Jennifer’s demand would mean losing the services of one precious shuttle during a phase in their mission where all of her shuttles could be needed. On the other hand, leaving a team and a shuttle behind would be made in order to help one representative of a newly discovered sentient race, something that could translate later into friendly relations and much educative discussions. Weighing carefully all the factors in her mind for long minutes, she finally contacted by radio Shanandar, who was waiting for her decision on this.

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‘’Shanandar, this is Tina. How many volunteers in your team are willing to stay behind to watch those eggs and continue study the local biology?’’

‘’Three: Doctor Kadar, Jennifer Scott and Shinta Betang.’’

‘’Then, tell them that I will send down one of our two jump-capable shuttles, loaded up with supplies and extra biological instruments and exploration equipment, including sturdier field shelter units. That way, even if something happens to the KOSTROMA during the months to come, our team on the island will have the option to return by themselves to the Solar System. I will now have that shuttle prepared to fly down. In the meantime, leave behind the tents, supplies and equipment already on the beach. You will leave with the GRASSHOPPER once the other shuttle arrives.’’

‘’Understood, Tina!’’

Tina then closed that channel and used the ship’s intercom system to contact Henrik Farben, the ship’s head mechanical engineer and chief of the industrial production division.

‘’Henrik, this is Tina. I would need your welders and metal workers to build quickly something…’’

On the planet, Jennifer jumped up in joy on learning of Tina Forster’s decision and promptly informed Tumon about it.

‘Good news, Tumon! My ship’s captain has decided to accede to your request and will leave me here with five more of my people, including a shuttle crew and a craft capable of traveling between the stars. We will then stay and watch over your eggs while also continuing our studies of life on your planet, and this while our ship continues on its main mission.’

‘Those are excellent news indeed, friend. I will now resume my life at sea and will return in about eighty cycles. I will also spread the news around that new friends have arrived from the stars, friends with good intentions and respect towards our lives and our planet.’

‘And I strongly hope that I will still be here to greet you, Tumon. I do have one important question for you and your race, though.’

‘Go on, Jennifer.’

‘As I said before, our ship’s main mission is one of search and rescue, to find two ships full of refugees from a planet destroyed in the past by a collision with a huge wandering celestial body. Those two ships departed their home world just before the

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collision, with the hope of finding suitable new home worlds for their refugees. A third, similar ship, also left before the collision and ended up inside my own solar system after a long trip. Our ship was the one which found that third ship and rescued it from its ice tomb, then helped its occupants resettle on our home planet. Those refugees are herbivorous and are pacifists who do not hunt nor fish but only eat plants they grow themselves. The question to your race is this: if my ship eventually finds and rescues those two refugee ships, would you accept to see them relocated here, on floating cities? I assure you that the Koorivars are kind and respectful beings who will be careful not to pollute in any way your world and will not bring harm to you and to the other marine life forms on this planet.’

‘That is indeed an important question, Jennifer. I will discuss it with others during my wanderings at sea and will bring you their reactions to it when I will return here in eighty cycles.’

‘Thank you very much, Tumon. Please be safe during your wandering around.’

‘Be safe as well, friend. Hopefully, we will see each other soon enough. Goodbye, Jennifer!’

‘’Goodbye, Tumon!’ replied Jennifer, close to tears. She then watched as Tumon turned around and swam away, disappearing amid the ocean. Her heart heavy but also with hope inside her, she then turned and walked out of the water to go tell Shanandar about what Tumon had told her.

08:27 (Universal Time)

Friday, May 21, 2320

Command bridge of the KOSTROMA

In low orbit around Gliese 581d

Tina, back in her command chair, reviewed quickly by intercom the status of her ship with her senior officers, then looked at Dana Durning, sitting at the navigator’s station.

‘’Is the route to Gliese 581c entered and locked, Dana?’’

‘’Affirmative, Captain!’’

‘’Then, let’s be on our way! Frida, engage our anti-matter cruise engines. Take us out of orbit!’’

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‘’Engaging cruise engines now!’’ replied the redhead while pushing a large orange button and then taking hold of a control yoke with her right hand. The muffled rumble of the anti-matter engines was heard throughout the KOSTROMA as they started to push the giant cargo ship out of its orbit. Within a minute, the ship was firmly engaged on its downward spiral trajectory towards the third planet of the system.