Chapter 5 Alert
The routine approach to Barnard's quickly turned into an exercise in panic control. For some unknown reason, Robby went into a convulsive fit of sounds. The crew was stunned and bewildered by the combinations of grunts, utterances and musical tones emanating from the robot over a very wide frequency and energy range. Randall, sitting next to the robot, yelled “Robby! Robby, what is it? In English, please!”
“It is an alert signal sir.” the robot replied in a normal tone. Commander Adams was coming up behind the robot when he heard that. “Alert? What kind of alert was that?” the commander asked.
“It is a Krell distress signal sir.” the robot replied again with a normal tone.
“What? How? Where? I thought the Krell were extinct. Where is this signal coming from?” Adams waited and could hear Robby's circuits clicking.
“On this moon sir. I have the source location coordinates identified.”
“Robby, get us into standard orbit, then we will talk. Continue to monitor that distress signal. Mr. Wallace, bring the crew to general quarters.” Adams looked at the radio operator, signaling a question with his hands. The radio operator shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, only the robot was aware of the signal.
From orbit, Adams would contact Barnard Port Authority to request permission to land and provide special quarantine protocols. The Flight Control Officer on Barnard introduced himself as Ensign Otomi. When Adams requested the officer in charge, Otomi simply answered “Speaking. How can I be of assistance?”
“Good. I am Commander J. J. Adams of the United Planets Cruiser C-57-D.” replied Adams before he continued. “I am requesting permission to land with quarantine protocols in effect. Our medical scans show clear but I have some doubt about the accuracy.”
This was not an unusual request for a ship coming to Barnard's after visiting an alien world. Even ships with medical officers and full scan medical bays often took this extra precaution. Otomi was rather routine in his response that permission was granted for landing pad 8 and that the ship should maintain isolation while the quarantine rampway was being placed. Otomi did request a crew, passenger and cargo manifest before landing however. It was part of the quarantine protocol.
Adams stammered before answering with a question “Passenger manifest?”
“Yes,” Otomi replied, “that's standard procedure sir.”
“Certainly.” said Adams, as he motioned for Wallace to come closer. “I'll get those to you Mr. Otomi as soon as they are prepared.”
Wallace overheard and understood the problem immediately. There was no passenger manifest and Alta wasn't listed on the crew roster. Wallace had not been advised why the medical scans had been performed on the crew. Alta had been omitted from the scan examination because she was not on the crew roster, a simple and innocent oversight. If Wallace had known of the discussion leading to the decision to make the scans, he may have included Alta on the roster. “Skipper, we have no passenger manifest and Miss Morbius was not scanned. Your orders sir?”
Adams bowed his head into his hands, giving a few seconds of thought to the exec's words before he straightened up and gave the orders. “Arrange for Lee to scan Alta right now. Then create a passenger manifest with Alta on it. Make sure Robby is on the cargo manifest as machinery.”
“Aye aye skipper.” responded Wallace as he left to find Lee, and then Alta.
Failing to scan Alta was an innocent oversight but could have dire consequences if anything were found. If there was to be any blame, it would fall on Adams. He knew and accepted that, after all, he was the commander of the ship and ultimately responsible for everything that happened on the ship.
Even if Alta were complicit in the oversight it was understandable. The thought her father might subconsciously do anything to harm her never arose. Certainly, he would not put any harmful organisms in his daughter, hence there was no need for her to be scanned. “Certainly” wasn't good enough however and the scan would be the final word.
…
Wallace excused himself from the lab, thanking Alta for her cooperation on his way out. Lee asked her to step up on the examination platform as he turned on the scanner. A slow and steady movement was required to allow the portable scanner to focus but even then, it took less than two minutes to complete the procedure.
Alta stepped off the platform and joined Lee at the panel viewer to see the results. No alarms had sounded so nothing was expected, which is why they both gasped when they saw the report. Something had been detected, but it was not identified as foreign or human. In fact, the report called it an undefined anomaly. Lee was unaware that such a result was even possible. “Undefined anomaly?” he grunted, clearly displaying his surprise.
Alta was visibly upset and protested “I feel fine, just fine. Maybe its a machine malfunction or a computer error.” There was no hostility in her voice, but a hint of indignation was there.
Lee encouraged her to remain calm, that he would test the scanner and run diagnostics on the computer. That took less than a minute but verified that both the scanner and computer were operating properly. Lee spoke to assure her. “Look, there must be some logical explanation because you look fine. All your body functions are well within normal ranges. And if it were alien, it would have definitely have said so on the results.”
Lee said all the right things but the best Alta could manage was “I hope you're right.” with a slight tremble in her voice.
Lee told her that since there was