The Wolf 1061 System.
CHAPTER 12 – RESUMING THE QUEST
16:38 (Universal Time)
Thursday, June 24, 2320
Bridge complex conference room of the KOSTROMA
In orbit around Hyenasu, in the Gliese 581 System
‘’Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now free to resume our quest for the SHUNDAR and the SHANIZAR. The battle station MJOLNIR and six armed robotic stations are now posted around the third planet. The oceanographic research vessel JACQUES-YVES COUSTEAU is now plying the seas of Oceana and mapping them and, finally, the first elements of the first floating city meant to welcome Koorivar refugees are now floating on Oceana and are being linked together, with a construction ship in orbit to assist the work. Unfortunately for us, the SHUNDAR must be presently in deep space and some two light years from Wolf 1061, its next planned destination, where it is due to arrive in about 39 years. This means an intercept in mid-flight, while the SHUNDAR is already decelerating under anti-matter rocket power, in order to slow down before arriving in the Wolf 1061 system. That will be complicated and difficult by itself, but we will also have to first find the SHUNDAR in the void of deep space, not exactly an easy task. Suggestions?’’
Dana Durning immediately grabbed Tina’s invitation to speak up.
‘’I believe that we in fact have no other option than to intercept the SHUNDAR in deep space while it is in its deceleration phase, unless we are ready to wait until it arrives inside the Wolf 1061 system, some 39 years from now. Thanks to Captain Shanandar and to the detailed flight plan for the SHUNDAR that was inside Shanya’s databanks, we can easily enough calculate the best location, speed and heading to take in order to wait for the passage of the SHUNDAR and intercept it.’’
Shanandar, who was participating in the meeting along with seven other senior ship officers, followed nearly at once.
‘’You may be right about how to intercept the SHUNDAR, Dana, but if I would be part of the SHUNDAR’s crew, I would want to know what it would find in Wolf 1061 once there. Remember that the SHUNDAR is still searching for a place to resettle its 21,000 refugees presently in cryogenic sleep and that Wolf 1061 is now its last possible option left to it. After the trip from Gliese 581 to Wolf 1061, the SHUNDAR will be technically past its safe usage life and will also be low on fuel for its anti-matter rocket propulsion. The successive space flights it already has accomplished between three different star systems are an exploit by themselves. Besides, what happened to my own VEON SHOURIA demonstrated that Koorivar technology has a shorter reliable shelf life than what us Koorivars believed when we launched our three evacuation ships nearly four centuries ago. The SHUNDAR may very well be already partly incapacitated by age as it is hurtling towards Wolf 1061. What I propose is that we visit first the Wolf 1061 system before we go intercept the SHUNDAR in deep space, so that we could tell to the crew of the SHUNDAR what’s there and whether its refugees could resettle there or not.’’
‘’I second Captain Shanandar’s proposal, Tina.’’ Said next Doctor Koomak, who then got the verbal support of Piotr Romanski, the commercial agent and finance officer of the KOSTROMA. While not a scientist or a technician by trade, Piotr’s opinions were always listened to carefully, as he was a man with a bright and calculating mind who always kept an eye on the bigger picture. Tina nodded her head slowly as she weighed in her head the arguments she had just heard.
‘’Shanandar, I must say that your argument makes a hell of a lot of sense. Spirit, what do you think?’’
‘’I think that Captain Shanandar has a most valid point, Tina.’’ replied the ship’s central super-computer. ‘’Also, from the point of view of space exploration, not visiting the Wolf 1061 at this point would be quite derelict on our part.’’
‘’Then, it is decided! Dana, calculate a direct route to Wolf 1061. We will depart as soon as you will have our trip locked into our navigation computer.’’
The group then broke up, with Doctor Koomak, Piotr Romanski and Rose Tillman taking a ride down by elevator to their respective work decks, while the rest walked into the bridge sphere and went to their respective stations. Tina sat in her command chair and buckled her safety harness before giving a few orders around.
‘’Alright, people: let’s use the same arrival protocol as for Gliese 581 for our jump to Wolf 1061. I want all active sensors and radio sources to be silent when we will arrive in the Wolf 1061 System, except for our short range collision avoidance lidar sensors. We will use only our gravity sail propulsion until further notice, so that we don’t produce a tell-tale thermonuclear rocket flare. Hien, advise now by radio the MJOLNIR and the M.S.S. KARPATHIA that we are about to jump to the Wolf 1061 System and will be gone for an indeterminate period of time that could be weeks and months.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’
Three minutes later, Dana Durning spoke up from her navigator’s station.
‘’Route calculated and locked in, Tina.’’
‘’Very well! Frida, you may jump when ready.’’
‘’Jumping in three, two, one, now!’’
There was the now familiar brief orange flash around them, then Tina found herself looking at a holographic screen image totally different from that she was looking at mere seconds ago.
‘’Confirm that we are indeed inside the Wolf 1061 System.’’
‘’Confirmed, Tina.’’ replied Dana after a few seconds. ‘’The spectroscopic signature matches to the fourth digit with Wolf 1061.’’
‘’Just remind us of what we knew up to now about Wolf 1061, Dana.’’
‘’Wolf 1061 is a ‘M’ class red dwarf star situated some 13.8 light years from the Solar System in the constellation Ophiuchus. It was known to possess three planets, the second of which orbited within the inner edge of the star’s habitable zone. The third planet is situated just beyond the habitable zone, while the first planet is expected to be too hot to be habitable, due to its proximity with its star. That’s about it in a nutshell, Tina.’’
‘’Well, we will see about that with our own eyes. Let us scan the system with our passive sensors, to confirm the number of celestial bodies in it and to establish if there are any artificial radio or electronic emissions in the system.’’
A partial verdict came some forty minutes later from the sensors stations of the bridge.
‘’We are not detecting up to now any artificial electronic signal, Captain. Our optical telescopes don’t see any artificial lights on the dark side of the three planets.’’
‘’Our telescopes and thermal sensors confirm the presence of three planets and one asteroid belt. The third, outermost planet is a big one, with an approximate radius of about 15,000 kilometers, a surface crust of water ice and apparent surface temperatures between minus 56 and minus eight degrees Celsius. The second planet, the one situated within the habitable zone, is also fairly big, with a radius of 8,070 kilometers compared to the 6,371 kilometer radius of the Earth. It clearly shows a thick atmosphere, continents and oceans of liquid water. Three moons orbit the second planet, with the biggest moon being nearly the size of the Earth, with a radius of 5,830 kilometers. That moon also shows evidence of an atmosphere and of liquid water. The first planet is confirmed to be very hot, with surface temperatures of 370 degrees Celsius or more and an opaque atmosphere. It also has one small moon, which appears to be equally hot.’’
‘’Damn! That second planet sure sounds juicy to me. I can’t wait to map and explore it. Very well, guys: activate your active sensors and let’s get a more detailed picture of this system. Frida, fly towards the outermost planet: we will map it first.’’
‘’Understood, Tina. Permission to use our anti-matter cruise engines.’’
‘’Permission granted! We still don’t know how long our search for the SHUNDAR and SHANIZAR is going to take and we might as well save our reserves of cryogenic fuel, as our anti-matter engines are a lot more economical in fuel and use lead pellets, a much more compact and low cost fuel than deuterium-tritium. If there was any technologically advanced specie in this system, we would have detected signs of it already. Once at the third planet, go into a polar orbit.’’
‘’Got it! Lighting up our cruise engines now.’’
Despite their small size compared to the KOSTROMA’s main thermonuclear fusion drive, the powering up of the anti-matter cruise engines was felt throughout the ship. Contrary to thermonuclear fusion, in which only a few percents of the mass of the fuel was converted into energy, the reaction between matter and anti-matter converted one hundred percent of the mass of the fuel into energy. Allied with the high density of the small lead pellets used as fuel, that made the cruise engines capable of producing huge amounts of thrust for long periods of time, at little cost in fuel. The process had proved so efficient and also so compact and simple that Tina had decided to supplement the fusion drives powering the various shuttles and secondary craft of her ship with anti-matter drives, and this while her KOSTROMA was bringing the CENTURION to the Avalon Space Yards for extensive repairs. The same had been done with the squadrons of space fighters she had received from Earth two weeks ago, fighters that had also been fitted with Koomak Interstellar Drives. The way that her jump-capable shuttles had recently proved their usefulness had also pushed her into equipping all of her other shuttles and embarked craft with Koomak Drive units built in the advanced workshops of the KOSTROMA. With her ship and craft so equipped, Tina felt ready to face about anything.
A bit less than four hours later, the KOSTROMA inserted itself into a low polar orbit around Wolf 1061d, the third planet of the system. The first revolution around the big, icy ball was enough to bring in some more detailed data about it.
‘’The planet’s radius is confirmed to be 14,840 kilometers, Tina. Its estimated mass is 6.3 Earth masses and its entire surface is made of thick water ice, with no rocky parts showing. It has a very thin atmosphere made mostly of carbon dioxide, with some nitrogen and argon gas.’’
‘’Good! Mister Jamilian, start mapping and filming the planet with our cameras, radars, spectrometers and magnetometers. Patricia, launch a robotic lander that will collect data about the atmosphere at ground level and, most importantly, will scan the inside of the planet with seismic radars and sonars.’’
‘’Preparing a robotic lander now. It will launch in about twelve minutes, Tina.’’
‘’Excellent! Dana, tell our astronomical observatory to keep the second planet in the sight of their main optical telescope and of their spectrometers while we are around the third planet. Have them learn as much as they can about the second planet in advance of going there.’’
‘’On it, Tina!’’
One hour later, the first data collected by the robotic lander came in, causing some surprise on the bridge as Patricia O’Neil read the data out loud.
‘’Tina, our lander has just finished its preliminary radar and sonar soundings. It has found the surface crust of water ice to be only forty kilometers thick, with a liquid ocean underneath with a depth of 4,800 kilometers. The planet thus seems to have a large, solid core at its center. Furthermore, the planet has a weak magnetic field, indicating the presence of iron in the planet’s core. Thermal readings also indicate that the internal temperatures of the planet are higher than expected.’’
‘’Hell, this sounds like what we found on Eris! Maybe this planet also contains a high level of radioactive elements in its core, elements which could produce all that unexpected heat.’’
‘’Don’t know yet, Tina, but I bet that our astronomers and planetologists are going to look at this very carefully. About them, I just got a report about the second planet: it appears to be habitable for Humans and Koorivars. The atmosphere is thick, with 66% of nitrogen, 32% of oxygen and 2% of rare gases, making it easily breathable by us. The surface temperature is turning around twenty degrees Celsius on the dark side and three continents are visible on that side, surrounded by oceans occupying over half of the planet’s surface. Three large, rocky moons orbit the second planet, with the largest of them also having a bit thin but still breathable atmosphere, as well as surface liquid water and emerged lands.’’
‘’My god! Wolf 1061c sounds like a planet waiting to be used. On the other hand, I would be very surprised if no life would have formed in such an ideal environment. Dana, I believe that we should go start examine the second planet from up close at once. In compensation, we will launch a robotic orbital reconnaissance probe to continue our mapping and examination of the third planet.’’
‘’Understood, Tina! Hien, prepare and launch an orbital reconnaissance probe while I calculate a trajectory towards the second planet.’’
Gerald Holmes, sitting in his V.I.P. seat near Tina’s command chair, then commented out loud while looking at the image of the second planet appearing on one of his seat’s viewing screens.
‘’This second planet looks like a potential paradise for eventual colonists, Tina. That it has as well one moon with a breathable atmosphere is the icing on the cake. I wonder if we will find some form of sentient life on it. As for any other life form, I would be very surprised to find none on such a nice planet.’’
‘’I concur with you, Gerald. Wolf 1061c could very well be the new home that the Koorivars of the SHUNDAR were looking for.’’
‘’You do realize that the news of such a planet now being within reach of us could trigger a lot of greed around the Solar System, Tina. This planet is going to look like the Eldorado for many overpopulated states on Earth and we could end up with numerous cases of claim jumping and unauthorized occupation by unscrupulous states and commercial entities.’’
Tina couldn’t help show some discouragement at those words.
‘’Oh, I fully realize the kind of reactions that news about this world could trigger, Gerald. However, that’s where the Spacers League, as the main authority off Earth in the Solar System, will have to do its job and control any colonization projects. Let’s not forget as well that the Koorivars should have first pick on Wolf 1061c. After all, they invented the Koomak Drive that is now making it possible for us to fly around the stars. Also, that big second planet must have a local gravity significantly superior to that on Earth. As the gravity on Shouria was 1.3 G, the Koorivars would feel a lot more at home on Wolf 1061c than Humans would.’’
‘’That is correct, Tina.’’ said Shanandar, sitting next to Gerald. ‘’However, as an old Human saying goes, let’s not sell the bear’s fur before we can kill it. There still could very well be a sentient race living on the second planet, in which case we are morally obliged to first ask permission to accept us on their planet and then make a mutually fair deal in exchange for our coming.’’
‘’Yeah!’’ replied Tina, making a bitter smirk. ‘’Someone should have reminded the likes of Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro and the European settlers who grabbed the Americas for themselves about such niceties. One big fear I now have is that the Southern Federation, with its overpopulated, polluted and drought-stricken states, would demand that it be allowed to emigrate parts of its population to here. Such a demand, if refused, could well reignite war on Earth. However, once they are allowed out of the Solar System, I doubt very much that the leaders of the Southern Federation will play nice and follow our rules. They all but destroyed their own nations through their corruption, greed, incompetence and thirst for power and I have no wish to see them around here, or anywhere off Earth. Individual citizens and their families are okay with me, but not organized entities of the Southern Federation.’’
‘’I can only agree with you on that, Tina.’’ replied Gerald. ‘’The few months that Europeans were under the boot of the Zembelo thugs brought too many revolting stories to be forgotten. Today, the African Union in particular is about as corrupt and poorly managed as it has ever been and its leaders simply can’t be trusted. Most ordinary folks in Africa would agree with me on that, but are too afraid to speak out loud about it.’’
‘’Well, I believe that some compromising will be in order, from both sides.’’ said Tina. ‘’I myself encouraged the hiring of new crewmembers from various parts of the Southern Federation and all of them have proven to date to be hard-working, decent people. If filtered and vetted in advance in order to cull out possible Southern Federation spies and saboteurs, I wouldn’t mind seeing significant numbers of SF citizens emigrate out of the Solar System, as long as they obey the rules of the Spacers League and cut their political ties to their old leaders. But, again, let’s see first what we will find on Wolf 1061c before skinning this bear.’’
08:46 (Universal Time)
Friday, July 23, 2320
Personnel shuttle ISAAC NEWTON
Overflying a large archipelago forty degrees north of the equator line
Planet Wolf 1061c
The thirteen passengers occupying the cabin of the personnel shuttle overflying a large group of islands on the second planet were truly captivated by what they could see via their windows and their individual video displays.
‘’Look at those birds! They remind me of pelicans.’’ exclaimed Wei Ling, a biologist and agronomist in her thirties. ‘’And I also see a couple of large sea creatures just below the surface.’’
‘’Look ahead, off the nearest island: I believe that I can see a sort of coral reef around that island.’’ Added Anastasia Semirova, a young biology laboratory technician.
‘’You’re right, Anastasia! And that island itself is covered with thick vegetation.’’ replied Kamesh, a Koorivar agronomist who had been a crewmember of the KOSTROMA for the last two years, like the five other Koorivars who were part of the fifteen-strong mixed Human/Koorivar exploration team. One of those Koorivars, Captain Shanandar, was even the pilot of their shuttle, on top of being their team leader. Koorivars had been favored by Tina Forster for this mission because of the heavy gravity of 1.3 G on Wolf 1061c, as the Koorivars were originally from a world with a similarly heavy gravity. As for the nine Humans of the team, they were going to use special body harnesses equipped with small anti-gravity generators, on top of wearing the bio-hazard suits and masks which had been declared mandatory for this mission. As beautiful and rich as this planet may be in terms of life environment, it still could harbor some deadly micro-organisms. It also could prove in turn to be vulnerable to either Human or Koorivar micro-organisms. In any case, Tina Forster had decided to play the card of maximum caution. With the SHUNDAR still years away from Wolf 1061, they had ample time to explore in a safe manner this system before going off to intercept the Koorivar refugee ship.
Glimpsing at their surface navigation radar, Shanandar pointed at the horizon dead ahead.
‘’Let’s go land on that big island next to the coast of the nearest continent. We should find a varied life environment there, while its isolation from the continent may contain any possible microbial infection we could cause despite of our bio-hazard suits.’’
‘’I concur!’’ said his copilot, Jan de Ruyter. ‘’It measures some sixty kilometers by forty kilometers and has a mountain range near its center. It should be a perfect piece of ground for the work of our biologists and agronomists.’’
‘’Starting to descend now!’’ announced Shanandar, pushing on his flight control stick. Their shuttle started descending rapidly from its altitude of 23,000 meters, until Shanandar transited to level flight at 1,200 meters, which gave them a good view of the islands they were now overflying. What they could now see was very encouraging indeed, with de Ruyter commenting on the view below their shuttle.
‘’This could nearly pass as a group of islands in the South Pacific, save for the pinkish color of the sky. The flora is both dense and quite diversified and I see beaches, jungles, forested plateaus and streams coming down from the hills and mountains. Life should be abundant in such a fertile environment. I am…’’
‘’You are what, Jan?’’
‘’We have a flying contact on lidar, Shanandar.’’ said de Ruyter, his tone now most serious. ‘’If it’s a bird, it is a hell of a big one. It is at our two o’clock, at a distance of eleven kilometers and at an altitude of approximately 300 meters. Whatever it is, it is flying at low speeds and doing a series of circles.’’
‘’Let’s go see what that could be.’’ said Shanandar, turning the shuttle to the right. ‘’Warn the KOSTROMA at once that we have an unidentified air contact. Let’s be cautious with this.’’
As his copilot contacted the KOSTROMA by radio, Shanandar glanced at their lidar display screen. Whatever was ahead didn’t act like a piloted craft would and its flight path was quite erratic, turning and twisting nearly constantly while staying at a low altitude. It actually reminded him of the flight path of a few birds of prey he had watched while on Vancouver Island. However, the lidar echo denoted something much bigger than any bird he had seen yet. An idea then came to his mind and he switched his microphone to internal intercom mode.
‘’Miss Cartier is urgently requested in the cockpit with her camera and zoom lens.’’
He then slowed down significantly his shuttle, so that they could stay at some distance from the unknown contact. About a minute later, Michelle Cartier, the photographer and video technician of the team, nearly ran inside the cockpit, her digital camera equipped with a big zoom lens in her hands.
‘’What’s up, Shanandar?’’
The Koorivar captain smiled to her as she crouched next to his pilot’s seat: even though she was from an alien race to him as a Koorivar, Michelle Cartier was a young and very appealing woman, with sexy curves, an athletic body and soft facial features framed by long, lustrous brown hair. He then pointed the sky below and to their two o’clock.
‘’Our lidar has detected something large flying in erratic fashion at low altitude. It is now seven kilometers away. See if you can spot and identify it with the help of your zoom lens.’’
‘’With pleasure!’’
Pointing her camera and looking through the thick windshield of the shuttle, Michelle methodically scanned the sky for a few seconds before stopping her motion and fixing a particular point in the distance.
‘’I have it! Whatever it is, it is quite colorful, with a mix of red, orange and green. It is still quite distant but it is definitely not some kind of artificial craft. I would classify it instead as being a very big flying animal.’’
‘’But, it would need to be about as big as our shuttle to be visible at such a distance.’’ objected Jan de Ruyter.
‘’Well, there is only one way to know for sure: to get nearer.’’
‘’I am okay with that, Michelle. Make sure that you take some good pictures and videos of it when it will be clearly visible.’’
‘’You can count on that, Shanandar.’’ replied the young photographer, who bent forward over the copilot’s seat for a better look. The latter licked his lips as he found his head next to Michelle’s left breast, well molded in a tight T-shirt that revealed the absence of a bra. After a half minute, Michelle spoke up again, excitement in her voice.
‘’It is a giant bird, Shanandar! It is actually huge, with a long neck, a long tail ending with a sort of feathered fan and four legs. The rear legs appear much bigger than the front pair, with that front pair having what looks like long-fingered hands. The head has a long beak but the cranium is much more voluminous in proportion to the rest of the body than the craniums of typical Earth birds. The whole beast is covered with colored feathers and the wings must have a span of at least ten meters. Right now, it is flying around over the sea the way a bird of prey would do while searching for its next meal… It is now diving towards the surface of the water… IT JUST GRABBED SOME SORT OF A FISH WITH ITS HIND LEGS’ CLAWS!’’
‘’Do you have pictures of it, Michelle?’’
‘’You’re kidding? Seeing such a thing and not filming it? It is now gaining back altitude and turning around… It has stopped doing circles and is now flying straight towards the big island ahead of us, with its catch still in its claws. I must say that it is a truly magnificent-looking beast, Shanandar. In a way, it reminds me of the legendary dragons of Chinese folklore.’’
‘’I must say that I am not familiar with that term, Michelle. You will have to tell me later about those ‘dragons’.’’
‘’I am sure that Wei Ling would be most happy to tell you more about them, Shanandar. Can we follow it? I believe that it may be heading towards its nest, possibly to bring food to its family. If that’s the case, this could be a golden opportunity to document our first life form from this planet.’’
‘’I am doing just that, Michelle. I will now gain back some altitude and adopt a position high and behind that ‘dragon’. That should make us much more difficult to spot. Keep watching it through your zoom lens in the meantime. I will also call Miss Wei to the cockpit.’’
It didn’t take long for the ethnic Chinese biologist and agronomist to appear in the cockpit, a pair of binoculars in her hands. With Michelle Cartier pointing the giant bird to her, Wei Ling was soon swooning at the sight she had in her binoculars.
‘’By the ancestors! This really looks like a mythical dragon, except for the fact that it is covered with feathers rather than with scales. LOOK! It has just transferred its catch from its hind claws to its front claws while approaching that mountain… It is now flying down towards a large cave entrance visible on the slopes of the mountain. Can we launch a miniature robotic reconnaissance drone, Captain? I would love for us to go look inside that cave.’’
‘’We certainly can, Miss Wei. Jan, launch a reconnaissance drone and pilot it to that cave,