Planet Gliese 581c and its moon, Hyanesu, with red dwarf star Gliese 581 and planet Gliese 581b visible in the background.
CHAPTER 6 – GLIESE 581
10:02 (Universal Time)
Saturday, May 15, 2320
Command bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
Inside the Gliese 581 star system
‘’Now, this looks like a promising star system.’’ said Dana Durning after a quick visual check of the ship’s sensors. ‘’One, two, three, four, five planets! I can also see a few moons, plus one asteroid belt.’’
Shanandar, again present on the bridge for this jump, also looked at the display screens with visible interest.
‘’This is indeed a very interesting system. With any luck, the SHUNDAR would have found a new home here.’’
‘’Well, the Gliese 581 System was always considered on Earth to be a good candidate system for habitable worlds. We will soon see if the speculations about it on Earth were correct…or overly optimistic.’’ said Tina, sitting in her command chair. ‘’Let’s start with a half hour of passive electronic listening and observing. Hopefully, we will hear the automated beacon signal from the SHUNDAR…if it is in this system.’’
Unfortunately, no artificial electronic signal of any kind was detected during the next thirty minutes, prompting Tina to look at Shanandar, sitting near her in his V.I.P. chair, next to Gerald Holmes.
‘’Shanandar, what did you find about the systems degradation in your VEON SHOURIA, once you were safely brought to Earth?’’
Shanandar, also frustrated a bit by the lack of indications about the presence of the SHUNDAR inside the Gliese 581 system, frowned as he remembered what he had found then in his own ship.
‘’Well, Spirit did a complete and thorough analysis of the VEON SHOURIA’s systems and unfortunately found a rather long list of systems failures and degradations. Evidently, our technology was not as durable as we hoped it to be. Spirit found that some systems started to degrade as early as 200 years after departing from Shouria, while we had expected them to work reliably for over 400 of your years. The first systems to degrade were the computer programs of the ship’s autopilot, followed by the programs concerned with post-landing procedures, including the switching on of automated radio beacons. On Eris, you should have detected the VEON SHOURIA’s radio beacon, but that beacon had failed, like our autopilot program. Not hearing the SHUNDAR’s radio beacon is no definite indication that it is not inside this system. We will thus have to conduct a thorough survey of this whole system before we could be sure that the SHUNDAR is or is not here.’’
‘’I concur! Since the next stop of the SHUNDAR would be some 117 years away in terms of travel time, we can take the time needed to do a thorough job here. Beside, not mapping or exploring properly this system would be stupid, as we are after all the first ever ship from the Solar System to travel to other stars. Our astronomers would rightly kill me if I didn’t collect at least some initial data about the systems we are visiting during this mission. Mister Duharto, go to active sensors mode and fire a pulse from our long range radars. Let’s see what this system really contains.’’
‘’Firing a VLF radar pulse now, Captain!’’ replied the sensors specialist, who had been born on Europa but was of Indonesian descent. Anwar Duharto opened a protective cover on his console and pressed a large blue button once. Using part of the energy accumulated inside the eight huge flywheel accumulators of the KOSTROMA, each of which had rotating masses of 6,000 metric tons, the network of very low frequency phased array radar antennas fired off a single, hugely powerful electronic pulse which then started traveling outbound at the speed of light. Any ship that would have been near the KOSTROMA at that time would have probably seen most of its electronic sensors being overloaded and burning out. In this case, the VLF pulse took 16.6 minutes, or 996 seconds, to cover the distance of two Astronomical Units separating the KOSTROMA from the red dwarf star at the center of the Gliese 581 system. Each of the celestial bodies which the pulse hit on its way out in turn sent back a radar echo signaling its direction and distance from the KOSTROMA. After a bit over one hour, all the echoes that could possibly be reflected from celestial objects inside the system had come back to the KOSTROMA, giving Anwar Duharto a good overall picture of the Gliese 581 system. A second, third and fourth VLF pulses, fired at different frequencies from each other, followed the first one at one minute intervals, allowing that overall picture to be refined so that it also showed the orbits and trajectories followed by the objects inside the system. That long range radar mapping work demanded patience but, when done right, saved a lot of unneeded running around later on. While the VLF radar pulses went their merry way, the spectrometers, telescopes and cameras of the KOSTROMA, eagerly manned by the astronomical team of the ship, studied the visible planets and moons of the system, trying to find out as much data about them as possible from such distance.
After some two hours of patient waiting, Tina got a detailed report from Dana Durning, who was comparing what they were detecting to what Earth telescopes had said about the Gliese 581 system.
‘’Here is our picture of the Gliese 581 system, Tina. There are five planets of various sizes in the system, three of which have moons, for a total of six moons. There is also a large asteroid belt turning around the star at an average distance of 3.4 AU. The third planet, Gliese 581c, is within the inner edge of the habitable zone and thus could harbor water in liquid form, while the fourth planet, Gliese 581d, is on the outer edge of the habitable zone. The two first planets from the star, Gliese 581e and Gliese 581b, are too hot to be habitable, while the fifth planet, Gliese 581f, is a frozen ball of rock and ice similar to a small Pluto. If the SHUNDAR stopped and landed inside this system, then I would expect it to do so on the third planet, followed in order of preference by the fourth planet.’’
‘’I concur with Dana on this.’’ said Shanandar, making Tina nod her head.
‘’I do too. However, let’s not rush at once to the third and fourth planets. We will explore and map this system methodically and thoroughly. The fifth planet is presently the nearest to us: let’s go sniff it from up close. Frida, fly us to Gliese 581f. Use our anti-matter cruise engines.’’
‘’Course entered for Gliese 581f. Powering up our anti-matter engines at 2.5 Gs of acceleration.’’ replied the redhead second pilot. ‘’Travel time to enter orbit around the fifth planet: eight hours and six minutes.’’
‘’Very well! Dana, call the third bridge watch team to come up and replace us: I want our primary watch team to be rested and fresh by the time we arrive in orbit of the fifth planet. Renée d’Argenteuil will take the command chair from me.’’
‘’Understood, Tina!’’
Coming out of her command chair when d’Argenteuil arrived on the bridge, Tina then smiled to both Shanandar and Gerald Holmes.
‘’Would you like to have lunch with me, my friends?’’
‘’I would be happy to, Tina.’’ replied Holmes, with Shanandar then echoing him.
‘’Any preference in type of food? I feel like trying something more exotic than the menu at the crew cafeteria, even though that menu is excellent and varied. I’m paying!’’
Both Holmes and Shanandar thought for a short moment before Shanandar spoke first.
‘’How about the ‘Maharaja Restaurant’? It has some excellent vegetarian dishes.’’
‘’That sounds good: I love Indian cuisine.’’ replied Gerald Holmes, with Tina nodding her head in approval.
‘’The ‘Maharaja’ it is, then!’’
Going to the small elevators rotunda of the bridge complex, the trio called a cabin and rode it down to Level Nine, the Main Promenade Deck, where they exited the elevator cabin and took one of the four wide radial passageways connecting the core rotunda with the Main Promenade ring. About halfway down that passageway, Tina veered left and entered the Maharaja Restaurant’s dining room, which covered 240 square meters of surface. There were already a good sixty dinners present, many of them Koorivar, including some of the recently rescued Koorivars from the Gliese 667C system. A waiter dressed in traditional Indian garb welcomed the trio near the entrance.
‘’Welcome to the Maharaja, Captain. I will get you a table right away.’’
‘’Thank you, Sanjay. It seems that the recently arrived Koorivars do like this restaurant.’’
The waiter smiled and nodded his head while still leading them towards an empty table.
‘’They do indeed, Captain. They seem to love our traditional vegetarian dishes.’’
‘’And I agree with them on that.’’ added Shanandar, eyeing in passing the plates of Aloo Ghobi and Pualo Rice being devoured by a group of four Koorivars. ‘’Your restaurant serves by far the best vegetarian dishes found on this ship. Your Curry dishes in particular are a pure delight.’’
‘’Aaaah, then you can thank Madam Ramya Mistri for that, Captain Shanandar: she prepares the best Curry powders that I ever tasted, including in India.’’
‘’Ah yes, Madam Mistri!’’ said Tina, smiling. ‘’I was truly lucky to hire her, along with her eldest daughter and her husband. All of them proved to be hard-working, dedicated crewmembers, but Madam Mistri is truly in a class of her own when it comes to cooking and spices preparation.’’
‘’Well, you will be able to enjoy again her Curry dishes today, Captain. Here is your table.’’
‘’Thank you!’’
The waiter then distributed menus to the trio after they sat and pointed at an item on the list of specials of the day.
‘’For you and Mister Holmes, Captain Forster, I would highly recommend our Lamb Biryani, while Captain Shanandar could try our Vegetables Biryani.’’
‘’That sounds like an excellent choice, Sanjay.’’ said Tina after getting nods from both Holmes and Shanandar. ‘’I will also have a lentil Dahl Soup as appetizer.’’
‘’I will take your Pakora Vegetables as appetizer, Sanjay.’’ said Shanandar, licking his lips in advance. As for Gerald Holmes, he ordered as an extra a Mulligatawni Soup, asking it to be extra spicy. As the waiter walked away towards the kitchens with their orders, Gerald couldn’t help ask a question to Tina.
‘’Is everything we just ordered really grown on this ship, Tina?’’
‘’Absolutely, and it is a great source of pride for me to be able to say so, Gerald. We are fully self-sufficient in terms of food production, even when carrying thousands of passengers, and often end up with sizeable surpluses which we are then able to sell with good profits at our various stops around the Solar System. We even produce our own beer and wine. Okay, we don’t produce all the types of vegetables, spices, fish or meats one can find on Earth, but we still produce a most decent variety of foodstuff.’’
Gerald took a moment to digest that information, then changed the subject, his expression becoming most serious.
‘’Tina, you do realize the impact that your interstellar trip will make on Humanity? After you will return to the Solar System, things will never be the same and we will probably witness a mad rush towards the stars.’’
‘’I frankly hope that it won’t be so, Gerald.’’ replied Tina, equally serious. ‘’I have no wish to see Humanity do a repeat of the California Gold Rush or of the conquest and occupation of the Americas by the Europeans. Especially, I do not wish to see any alien race or species being pushed out or marginalized on their own planets by Human colonization or mining ships. Yes, I have left a copy of the schematics of the Koomak Drive in the hands of your wife, but I did so knowing that I can count on her to use that data in a responsible and respectful way. However, some of the other governments and private commercial entities in the Solar System have proved a number of times that they cannot be trusted with such data. Those governments and entities will probably consider the surrounding stellar systems as up for grab, whether those systems harbor indigenous life or not. What I hope from your wife is that she will create a set of legal protocols concerning how Human ships are to behave outside of the Solar System and that she will also create a police force able to enforce those protocols. Personally, if I and my ship ever witness a Human ship or ships abusing or hurting some alien race or ecosystem that did not prove hostile and violent, then I will not hesitate to tell those ships to fuck off, on pain of being militarily booted out of the said system. Whenever we will return to the Solar System at the end of this search and rescue mission, I would greatly appreciate if you could impress on your wife my opinion on this subject, Gerald.’’
Gerald only had to think for a short moment before nodding his head.
‘’You can count of me for that, Tina.’’
19:41 (Universal Time)
Command bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
In low polar orbit of the planet Gliese 581f
‘’Hum, it reminds me very much of Pluto, but bigger.’’ said Tina while eyeing the images of the fifth planet of the system. Patricia O’Neil, manning one of the sensors stations on the bridge, nodded her head at that.
‘’Indeed, Captain! From our preliminary observations and spectrometer readings, it seems to be a frozen ball of rock and methane and water ice, surrounding by a thin nitrogen-methane atmosphere with a pressure of approximately two millibars. The planet’s mass is about 0.05 Earth Masses, some four times that of the Earth’s Moon. It has two rocky, irregularly-shaped small moons which appear to be asteroids that have been captured by the planet’s gravity. What is interesting in it is that the proportion of methane on its surface and atmosphere seems quite high, while its overall density is also high. In fact, I can detect a weak magnetic field around the planet, denoting the presence of an iron metallic core. Overall, a fairly interesting planet.’’
‘’But one that would not have interested the crew of the SHUNDAR in terms of habitability.’’ replied Tina. ‘’We will thus conduct a full mapping and scanning survey of it, but won’t waste too much time on it.’’
‘’Understood, Captain!’’
Tina then turned her head to look at Shanandar, who was again occupying a V.I.P. seat.
‘’What do you think, Shanandar?’’
‘’I concur with you, Tina: the SHUNDAR would not have wasted time on this planet: finding a habitable planet for their sleeping refugees was their sole interest. However, since we have plenty of time for us, I also agree that this planet is worthy of a full survey.’’
‘’How long could that survey take, Tina?’’ asked Gerald Holmes.
‘’Well, unless we find something really unusual that would warrant further attention, a full mapping and survey of this planet should take less than a day. Then, we will go check the fourth planet of the system, Gliese 581d.’’
Some twenty hours later, having completed its survey of Gliese 581f without finding any worthy surprise, Tina had her KOSTROMA leave its orbit and, under the power of its anti-matter cruise engines, fly down towards the fourth planet. Even from a distance, Gliese 581d was already proving to be a most interesting planet for Tina and her crew, as it was a blue planet.