Chapter 6 Shore Leave
The crew of C-57-D was going to get an introduction to Barnard's Star colonial history whether they wanted it or not. The visitors arrival center with its historic displays was also the quarantine area for new arrivals. The crew would be there about four hours for pre-scan processing and full medical scanning before they were released. What would they learn about this port of call?
The Barnard's colony was actually on a moon circling the second planet, one of the gas giants of the Barnard's Star system. The moon was in the “habitable” zone, had a 50% surface cover of water, an atmosphere primarily of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, mineral rich rocks and a comfortable gravity at 0.94 of Earth's. It was not the best candidate for Eco-forming but what was discovered was enough to tip the decision to colonize. There was gold, and plenty of it. The colony center was established over the second richest known gold fields in the galaxy. The richest gold fields were about 30 kilometers north but in an area temporarily closed to development.
There was an abundance of other valuable minerals as well, but gold was still the prime ingredient of high energy, high efficiency, high reliability circuit and power components.
Sixty years earlier, the first Eco-forming team arrived to begin that miraculous process by which lifeless, barren planets were made to resemble Earth. First came the wave of viruses, bacteria and single celled organisms to begin the transformation. That was followed with plankton, lichens, mosses, molds, fungi and other low order plants before the grasses, kelp and other aquatic plants were introduced. Simple animal life followed as the variety of microbes, plants and animals was systematically increased. The atmosphere is transformed to one more friendly to animals and humans alike as carbon dioxide is consumed and converted to plant material and oxygen. It took 40 years before the first settlers could claim Barnard's as their home without the requirement of artificially maintained atmospheres. Until that time, mining was simply not practical.
In historical context, Barnard's was the second colony to use Eco-forming in place of Terra-forming. The large, expensive and unreliable Terra-forming machines had never graced the landscape of this moon.
With Eco-forming completed, the moon featured tropical rain forests, temperate woodlands, rich farmland, tundra, alpine forests, deserts and a wide variety of plant and animal environments. The moon had become something of a vacation spot for Earth's inhabitants seeking distance and seclusion from the busy home planet.
Most of the inhabitants of Barnard's worked the mines and ore refineries. About one-third had families with wives and children. Most of the other people on Barnard's worked to entertain the miners, refiners and tourists. You would find some other trades and occupations, but they were a very distinct minority. The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker were here, but you had to literally dig them out. Anyone who could hold a shovel was at least a part time miner.
Make no mistake that Barnard's is a rough place but the crew has been to rough places before and they would certainly survive Barnard's. About a third of the crew would go in for drinking, gambling and whoring while the remainder would be more discreet and selective in their choice of entertainment. Of course, they all went out drinking that first day, after finding a suitable hotel or making arrangements for clear passage back to the ship.
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Alta had to wait her turn in quarantine just like everyone else. Pre-processing included the injection of dye and marker materials to improve the contrast and resolution of the scan. Alta expected some adverse result, but she had no idea of what it might be. The technician had set the scan controls which automatically repositioned and started the scanning head mechanism. A problem showed up almost immediately as the scanner arm reached about eye level.
The technician saw something unusual about her pituitary gland and surrounding brain tissue and spoke freely about it with Alta. The conversation was being recorded as part of a medical log. When asked about childhood diseases, she only knew about them from her biology lessons as a child and she simply replied she had none. The technician noted that was unusual to which Alta replied she had grown up alone on Altair 4. The technician seemed satisfied that she had never been exposed, but he was focused on the brain abnormality the scanner revealed.
When questioned, Alta replied she had never experienced any difficulty, seldom had headaches or similar problems. The technician allowed the scan to proceed and made a record that there was no apparent infection or foreign body. The unusual shape, or structure was a simple anatomical anomaly and posed no threat to other people. Alta was greatly relieved but still not satisfied. She wanted to know why she was different. What was it?
When the scan was completed, Alta went to the customs and immigration area where she cleared without any delays. Alta's plan was to book passage to Earth as Adams had requested, then take in some sightseeing<