Crucible of a Species (27 page)

The webway carried him along the outer perimeter of the ship. His continued easy pace gradually quickened as the tributary merged its accelerated stride into the high-speed main track that turned to carry him deeper inside, up and into the research center of the vessel more than two hundred yards away. The track had very few commuters on it this evening since most of the crew’s activity now occurred outside on the plateau.

A short ways later, the doctor transferred to a tributary that slowed as it carried him into the Science Center. Dr. Michael Thompson’s office and laboratory lay just beyond the large meeting room. The office door opened as Dr. Nolen approached and Cynthia, the AI Avatar of Dr. Thompson’s aid, appeared, “Good evening, Dr. Nolen. Thank you for coming so quickly. Please, go right in. Captain Lee is also in the office.

“Can I bring you anything, perhaps a snack or something to drink?”

“Thank you, Cynthia. A glass of water would be nice but please, no ice.”

A very tired Dr. Nolen smiled a greeting as he sat on the leather sofa, “Good evening, Michael, Adrian. You wanted to discuss something?” He bent over and placed his tea next to the water already waiting on the serving table.

Dr. Thompson nodded and began speaking as a three dimensional simulation of the planet snapped into existence in the center of the office, “Yes sir, I need your approval to alter the mapping plan. If you recall, Adrian set up a survey satellite network when we first decided to make planetfall. It’s only been a few short days but we’ve already uncovered some interesting results. Let me show you.

“The analysis of the Phase I mapping just completed and we’ve been reviewing the data. The scientists …”

“Michael,” Dr. Nolen broke in. “I’m sorry to interrupt but if you are going to be reviewing this data shouldn’t you have at least called in Dr. Shieve?”

“Not yet and I’ll explain why in a minute.

“The global mapping doesn’t show anything of great surprise and that in itself is news worthy since it validates the tectonic models developed by our geophysicists over the years. There are, of course, some discrepancies. For example, the planet is a little warmer in the northern latitudes than we expected and the emergence of the modern angiosperms, or flowering plants and grasses, is much more widespread than anticipated. That’s good news for us if it comes to the point that we need to find additional local vegetables. We’d find very little that we could eat in the older gymnosperm species except for a few seeds and small berries that would not provide needed vitamins.

“The satellites have also been mapping the biosphere.”

Complex, colored patches began to cover the image across both the land and water-covered areas of the planet as it slowly rotated before them. A color key chart next to the sphere linked the spectrum to the various species of plants and animals and their local population densities as measured by the survey. Nolen immediately noticed the large number of species marked as “ID Estimated” and “Unknown”. A small numerical notation next to the “Estimated” designations marked the level of confidence in the AI’s assignment of the life form to a species.

“It appears we underestimated the biodiversity of this period. Comparison with our documented fossil record has shown that we have identified less than thirty percent of the species recorded by our satellites. The identification level is even lower for the open-sea creatures as one would expect since deep-sea fossils are rare. However, as you suggested, this is an academic problem for Dr. Shieve and is not our immediate concern.”

“Thirty percent?” Captain Lee interrupted, “Michael, this is not academic; it presents a serious problem for our security. This is not Yellowstone National Park with its wild but well understood fauna, these animals are extremely dangerous, they have no fear of humans and we have no idea how they will react to our continued presence here. We’re already discovering we grossly underestimated the speed and intelligence of the dinosaurs we thought we knew. Now you tell me that more than half of the species out there are completely unknown? We need to …”

“Oh Adrian,” Nolen interrupted. “Didn’t you tell us we’d only be here for a few weeks? The colonel has assured us that we’re quite secure within the natural fortifications of the plateau and our automated fence defense-line. I’m sure that Michael plans to review the new data with the colonel. Please continue, Michael.”

“I never considered the bio-data would have an impact on local security.” Dr. Thompson replied. “Cynthia, please send a note out to Colonel Drake and a copy to Dr. Shieve with a summary of our findings. Invite them to contact me if they have any questions or comments. Thank you.

“There, now let’s move towards a discussion of that segment of the dataset that I believe impacts the primary objective of our mission.”

Room lights dimmed as the display in its center transformed to an in-orbit image of the Milky Way. After a few moments, the brilliance of the starfield faded into the background and a dozen or so points of light flared into dominance. Unlike the steady burning intensity of the airless starfields seen from outer space, these points varied in brightness and twinkled, each one maintaining a steady blink frequency.

“In addition to the downward mapping functions of the satellites, we also included a short CMS, that is a Celestial Mapping Sequence.” Dr. Thompson continued the narrative, “I’ve highlighted the expected positions of the navigational beacons we were searching for when we first arrived in this solar system.

“Adrian and I felt the expansion of the study was more than justified by the fact that these Stellar Pulsar Markers, or SPM Navigational Standards, could not be located during our insystem approach from Jupiter.

“Even the automated analysis of the CMS data could not find the Pulsar markers so I decided to go through it on my own and I believe that I’ve located two of the missing objects. They are neutron stars that exhibit the proper frequency however the duration of the electromagnetic pulse is much longer than in our records so the automated analysis missed them.

“Remember that we need a minimum of three markers to obtain a positional fix although I would prefer to have five or more so that I can include proper temporal calculations. In summary, I believe I can find the other Pulsar markers if we expand the scope and recognition parameters of our CMS search and would like permission to reprogram the satellites immediately.”

Dr. Nolen turned towards the captain, “What are your thoughts, Adrian? I expect this means we give up some data on the biosphere mapping.”

The captain sat back for a moment before replying, “This will take some time from the biosphere mapping. More importantly, we intended to run a multi-spectral mineral deposit analysis to search for some of the raw materials needed to complete the repairs. I suppose this is a stronger priority since we need the markers to obtain a proper calculation of a deep-space course to Tau Ceti. I don’t see any real harm but the delay will restrict some of our other programs for the satellites and may result in more time spent in repairs.”

Nolen sat straight up in his seat, “Tau Ceti? I thought that discussion was dead. Why would we want to continue on to that star? How can you consider continuing the expedition after all we went through just getting here? It doesn’t make sense. My God, we know we are going to be short on supplies by the time we leave. In spite of that, you want to continue on to an unknown destination more than twelve light years away in a damaged ship when we could be home in a matter of a few days?”

“Our mission still stands, Dr. Nolen.” The captain replied, “As for the Argos, I don’t see any major impact resulting from a delay in the completion of our repairs. It may even work to our benefit. We can use the extra time to find supplies locally and that would be well worth taking a few extra weeks if we can fill our storage.”

“What’s the point in going to Tau Ceti?” Nolen countered, “We don’t know what we’ll find there. Remember, our mission came into being only at the demand of the Asteri. Today, we’re ninety-nine million years in the past for God’s sake! There is no one at Tau Ceti who is expecting us.

“Have we been able to contact the Asteri? Have we been able to contact anyone at all using sublight or even the supralight communications? No, we haven’t. We’re alone in this universe and there is no one and nothing but disaster waiting for us at Tau Ceti. We need to …”

“Gentlemen, I can hear you all the way out in the corridor.” The low, gruff voice of Colonel Drake filled the room as the door opened. “Please, let’s not make a display for the crew. Rumors are always hard to control and they start by not having a unified command structure.

“I apologize for coming in a bit late but I have good news. It looks like our injured ensign is going to make it. Now, what seems to be the problem?”

“Dan, glad to see you could make it. I’ve just updated Phillip and Adrian on the results of …” Michael started.

“Yes, yes. Cynthia was nice enough to send Mr. Denon over and bring me up to speed so you can skip the details. Young lad seems to be quite a marathon runner.”

“It’s nothing more than a question of logic, Colonel.” Nolen’s face was now glowing red from agitation and the interruptions, “Michael and Adrian have suggested that we divert resources to gathering data with the objective of continuing our mission to Tau Ceti. There is no logic in this blind pursuit of orders. Our mission was to finally meet up with the Asteri …”

“No, that’s not our mission nor is it what the Asteri said.” Michael Thompson broke in. “The Asteri’s demanded we travel to Tau Ceti as our first step into the universe. There was no mention of meeting them or any other species. We have no idea why they made this demand.

“Consider that at this point in our mission, we can follow any one of three alternatives. First, we could try to return home as Phillip advocates. The return trip through Jupiter’s Red Spot is a known risky passage that, this time, we may not be lucky enough to survive. Assuming we do survive, then where or when will we emerge? We’ve never before encountered such a phenomenon and our understanding of the physics that brought us here, the physics that drives Jupiter’s Red Spot, is little more than untested theory. We may travel forward in time to emerge in some even more distant future or we may actually travel further back in time. There may be no way to go forward in time at all. Even if we do return to our Earth we will have returned a failure.

“A second alternative would be to stay right here. We have food and water but fruits and vegetables haven’t developed to their full potential yet. Actually, most of the vegetable foods we consume are too primitive in this timeframe for humans to metabolize. Certainly, meat will most likely not be a problem if we can consume the local fauna.”

Thompson continued, “We could start a new civilization right here. Before you say anything Colonel, the great extinction that will kill off the dinosaurs is thirty four million years in the future. Homo Sapiens have been around for less than one million years so our descendants would have ample time, assuming they can survive the environment and the dinosaurs.

“However, we could also choose to continue the mission we have been given. Finding an earth-like planet, one on which we would not have to terraform or cope with environmental extremes, has been an unrewarding job. Tau Ceti is a star that is spectrally similar to the Sun. At a distance of just under twelve light-years from the Solar System, it is a relatively nearby star, and is the closest solitary G-class star to our home.

“Unlike our Sun, the star appears stable, with little internal variation and that suggests its planets may be free of the threat of major storms such as hurricanes. What’s more, it has several potential earth-like planets in the life-zone that don’t have a satellite that is one quarter the size of the planet and that’s important since our oversize moon is a major cause of earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its strong pull on plate tectonics.

“As a group, we need to maximize our chance for success. Continue on to Tau Ceti and find out what awaits us there. This still leaves us with the possibility of returning at some time in the future to settle here or attempt to go back to our own timeframe. Even if we should decide to attempt a return to our Earth later, we can at least say we accomplished our initial mission. Best of all, it won’t matter how much time we spend reaching Tau Ceti since we can come back here and return to our Earth at any time we choose. After all, the Red Spot that brought us here is a time machine, we only need to understand it a little better.

“I suspect that the Asteri’s suggestion to move toward Tau Ceti may simply be an exercise in reaching the nearest human-compatible world. Once again, the Asteri have given us another hint that will save us years of exploration.”

“No, no. This will not do.” Nolen stood and began pacing the office. “We need to repair and restart the mission. We need to return to our home where we have the resources needed to support an expedition of this magnitude. Then we can move on and meet the Asteri. This is our opportunity to join with them. If they were able to help us from such a remote distance, imagine the technology we can gather by actually meeting them.

“I don’t believe a return to our Earth will be that hard. I’ve been going over the data we gathered as we passed through the Tippler Cylinder formed by the cosmic string vortex on Jupiter. We can return and, no matter how long it takes us to repair the ship, we can emerge at home within a reasonable timeframe of our entry. Hell, if we calculate our course properly the Earth may not even realize we’ve been gone.”