Gliese 667C as viewed from one of its planets, with Gliese 667A and B further away.
CHAPTER 4 – GLIESE 667C
00:14 (Universal Time)
Tuesday, April 20, 2320
Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA
On the fringe of the Gliese 667C System
‘’Attention to all aboard, this is your Captain! We have just arrived safely in the Gliese 667C system and will now start a detailed survey of the star system. You are thus the first Humans to travel outside of the Solar System. Thank you for your attention.’’
Tina then switched off her microphone and got out of her command chair to quietly go congratulate each of the crewmembers present on the bridge, ending with an emotional accolade with Shanandar.
‘’I hope that this will mark the start of a successful rescue mission, my friend.’’
‘’And my people will be eternally grateful to you and your crew for your willingness to risk yourselves in order to help my compatriots, Tina.’’
Shanandar then took a step back to look up into her eyes.
‘’How do you intend to proceed from now, Tina?’’
‘’We will first make a passive sensors sweep of the system while approaching the inner zone, where the remaining planets and moons are. From what you told us two years ago on Eris, I understand that there are zero chances of anyone having survived on Shouria itself, but what about on other planets and moons of the system? Did your people have space installations off Shouria?’’
‘’We had a few, nearly all of them being mining centers, dispersed on a few select planets and moons. What you called Gliese 667Ce, which was originally the fifth planet of the system but is now the fourth one, thanks to the original second planet having been vaporized in a direct impact with the wandering brown dwarf, had our biggest mining center underneath its surface. Maybe the miners there somehow survived and had descendants since the disaster 361 years ago. I think that it should be one of the first places to check on as we go.’’
‘’That sounds logical. I however promise you that we won’t leave this system before visiting every surviving planet and moon in it. If there are by a miracle some survivors, then we will find them.’’
‘’Thank you again, Tina: you are a real friend indeed.’’
‘’Well, we better get to our survey now. Go sit next to Anwar Duharto and Patricia O’Neil, at the sensors and communications stations, and help them by pointing out to them where the Koorivar space facilities originally were.’’
‘’With pleasure, Tina!’’
With her bridge crew fully occupied with its survey work, Tina returned to her command chair and started reviewing carefully the readings from the ship’s sensors. After some thirty minutes, with passive sweeps not giving any clue about possible Koorivar survivors in the system, Tina ordered the active sensors to be switched on as well, in the hope of getting a more complete picture of the situation in the Gliese 667C System. That new active sensors sweep only confirmed the chaotic nature of the damaged system: the orbits of the surviving six planets were all drastically changed, with some showing serious instability as well. Shouria, originally the third planet from its star, was now the second one and was following an elliptical orbit while wobbling severely on itself, being reduced to a ball of magma from which protruded parts of its old moon. Accepting with a pang of her heart that nobody could have possibly survived on Shouria, Tina then had her bridge crew concentrate on the remaining four planets turning on orbits outside Shouria’s new orbit.
Using her new ‘booster’ anti-matter engines to move quickly and economically from one planet orbit to the next, Tina was watching Gliese 667Ce, originally the fifth planet but now the fourth one, grow on the spherical display screen, when Patricia O’Neil suddenly spoke up, excitement in her voice.
‘’Captain, I am detecting a weak, repetitive radio signal coming from 667Ce. It sounds like some kind of automated radio beacon.’’
‘’Quick, switch that signal to Shanandar’s station! Maybe he will be able to identify it.’’
‘’Right away, Captain!’’
Shanandar had to listen for only a few seconds before he looked at Tina, his face full of emotions.
‘’It is one of our standard radio distress beacon signals, Tina.’’
‘’Where is it coming from?’’
‘’From the surface of Gliese 667Ce, near the eastern terminator. That’s where our mining complex was.’’
‘’Frida, accelerate towards 667Ce and place the ship in orbit above the location of that beacon. With any luck, this will prove to be more than just an old automated beacon signal. Shanandar, how long could such distress beacon emit before emptying its batteries?’’
‘’This type of distress beacon emitter is powered by an isotopic generator with a half-life of over 6,500 years. It thus could still emit long after any survivors would have died, but we must go check by ourselves on the spot.’’
‘’Agreed! Shanandar, you and Kazmiriel will lead a reconnaissance party down to the location of that beacon and search for any traces of survivors. You will be accompanied by my husband, Michel Koniev, and four more rescuers. Go equip yourself down at the Hangar Deck and bring with you a few space medical gurneys and digging tools.’’
The mature Koorivar eagerly got up from his seat and bowed briefly his head to Tina.
‘’Thank you for giving me this chance to save some of my compatriots, Tina.’’
Shanandar then nearly ran down towards the elevator shafts as Tina called up the ship’s security section, where Michel worked.
‘’Security section, this is the Captain! Is Michel Koniev present with you?’’
‘’Yes, Captain! One moment, please.’’
A few seconds later, Michel’s face appeared on Tina’s intercom display screen.
‘’Yes, Tina?’’
‘’Michel, we just detected a Koorivar automated distress beacon signal coming from an old Koorivar mining complex on the fourth planet. I have put Captain Shanandar in charge of a rescue team, along with Doctor Kazmiriel and you. Select quickly four more rescue team members and collect a few space medical gurneys and digging tools, then join Shanandar and Kazmiriel on the Hangar Deck. Your goal will be to find and save any possible Koorivar survivor in that mining complex. Do not bring any weapons except for a few stun pistols and follow the orders and directives from Shanandar.’’
‘’Understood! Our team will be ready in a few minutes. I will call you when ready to leave by shuttle.’’
‘’Thanks, Michel, and good luck!’’
Her heart now beating faster, Tina then cut the video link and concentrated back on her ship’s course and the fourth planet.
Some 52 minutes later, a personnel shuttle flew out of one of the four small craft airlocks of the KOSTROMA’s Hangar Deck, with two Koorivars, five Humans and four mining robots as passengers. With the KOSTROMA now in orbit above Gliese 667Ce, the shuttle immediately started its descent towards the Koorivar mining complex from which the beacon signal was emitted. Shanandar, who was like Michel examining the surface of the planet on the shuttle’s sensors displays, spoke up as they were down to an altitude of about six kilometers.
‘’Originally, this planet sat outside what we would consider to be the so-called ‘habitable zone’ of my home star. However, the passage of the brown dwarf has completely destabilized the planet’s orbit and sent it down to near the old orbit level of Shouria, which itself went down nearer our sun. 667Ce has thus spent over three of your centuries in an orbit much nearer to its star than usual. This is bound to have seriously affected the conditions on the surface of the planet. Temperatures will be up from the usual freezing climate and water ice may have liquefied in places. Right now, our instruments read a breathable atmosphere with a pressure of 1.2 times that of your own Earth and an ambient temperature of minus seven degrees Celsius.’’
Michel smiled on hearing that.
‘’Hey, it sounds like a balmy day in Siberia! I certainly can live with that. What kind of gravity is there on the planet?’’
It was then the turn of Shanandar to smile.
‘’A comfortable 1.1 G. Me and Kazmiriel will be just fine. By the way, nice thinking about the four mining robots you brought with us.’’
‘’Hey, these big brutes were built to dig: if we encounter some collapsed tunnel on our way, they will be perfect to open the way for us.’’
The members of the rescue team, wearing space suits with their visors opened, then fell mostly silent as the shuttle approached the surface of the planet. Michel however had one more question for Shanandar as their shuttle was about to land next to a rocky cliff, in which the main entrance of the Koorivar mining complex was visible.
‘’What kind of mining operation was this, Shanandar?’’
‘’This complex extracted and smelted a few various types of ore containing heavy metals like iridium, platinum, tungsten and vanadium. It was one of our most productive and valuable mining centers and employed up to 460 Koorivars, plus thousands of robots.’’
‘’The surface of this planet shows little damage from the catastrophe which destroyed Shouria. With luck, most of those Koorivars survived and then lived to have descendants.’’
‘’I fervently hope so, Michel. As the captain of a cargo ship which frequently came to pick up finished metal ingots from this complex, I know that it had its own hydroponic gardens and a water source. Hopefully, the shockwaves caused by the planet changing orbit will not have collapsed the complex on itself.’’
Michel did not reply to that, as he fully realized how likely such a collapse would have been in this case.
The shuttle finally landed a mere forty meters from the entrance of the mining complex, which was marked by two concrete towers flanking the mouth of a large tunnel. A number of abandoned and rusty heavy vehicles lying around the entrance however reminded the team that all was not well with the complex when they got out of their shuttle with their four mining robots and an anti-gravity sled carrying various excavating tools and five space medical gurneys. Those gurneys could seal and transport patients within a safe, breathable atmosphere and floated around thanks to their anti-gravity generators, thus could prove useful during this mission. Using a portable radio direction finder, Michel scanned his surroundings and soon pointed at the top of one of the two concrete towers, where a number of antennas and radomes were visible.
‘’The beacon signal comes from that tower to the left of the entrance. I also can see that it is safe for us to open our suits’ visors: the oxygen content and air pressure are well within safe limits. We might as well save our reserves of air in case we hit sealed or inundated tunnel sections.’’
‘’I agree!’’ said Shanandar, who then opened the visor of his own spacesuit. The other members of the team imitated him before following him towards the entrance to the complex. Going to the large, armored double sliding doors of the entrance, the team was not surprised to find them without power and thus inoperative. However, Shanandar then led the team to a much smaller airlock door on one side that could be opened manually. The door emitted some rusty noises but otherwise proved usable when he opened it. Passing through an airlock large enough for the whole team and its sled, the rescuers soon ended in a long and large gallery which was barely lit by a few Koorivar red overhead lamps. Only one in four of the lamps functioned, forcing the team members to light their helmet lamps to see around them.
‘’This place is really looking run down.’’ Said Leo Sanchez, one of the members of the team, as he looked up at the dead overhead lamps. Michel Koniev was about to agree with him when a detail struck him.
‘’Wait! Only one in four of the lamps are functioning, but those lamps are all equally spaced between dead lamps. This is statistically implausible, as lamp failures should be random. Somebody had to replace or move lamps during all those centuries.’’
‘’By the stars! You are right!’’ exclaimed Shanandar as he looked up. ‘’We thus could rightly hope to find some survivors after all those years. Let’s go down the main gallery: there is an administrative complex and a bank of elevators at the end, some 250 meters away.’’
Feeling growing hope inside them, the members of the rescue team followed Shanandar at a steady pace down the gallery, which gently curved towards the left as they went. On their way, they encountered more immobilized heavy mining vehicles, all abandoned and empty. As the team was finally in sight of the administrative complex, which consisted of a four-storey building standing along one side of a large rotunda in which multiple heavy cargo lifts ended, Michel suddenly froze and pointed at an office on the third floor of the building, while speaking in a near whisper.
‘’That office on the third floor: I swear that I saw a red light move inside it.’’
Shanandar felt blood rush to his brain as he looked up at the said office.
‘’I see it! Please don’t speak or move until I say otherwise: Human speech could spook any survivors. I am going to call out in Koorivarese.’’
Opening fully his visor, Shanandar then shouted at the top of his lungs.
‘’HEY, UP THERE! WE CAME TO SAVE THE PEOPLE OF THIS COMPLEX. WE HAVE A SHIP WAITING IN ORBIT.’’
At first, he got no response or reaction, so he shouted again, repeating his message. After a few more seconds, a Koorivar head finally appeared at the window and waved before disappearing. That sight truly electrified Shanandar, who resumed his walk towards the building and signaling his companions to follow him.
‘’I think that this survivor is on his way down. Let’s meet him at the entrance of the building.’’
What he didn’t say was how happy he truly was now: to find any survivor here after all those years had to be nothing short of a miracle.
The two Koorivars and five Humans stopped short of entering the building and waited a few paces outside the main double doors. One of those doors was soon pushed open from the inside and one Koorivar stepped out, only to freeze with an alarmed expression at the sight of the five Humans and robots standing behind Shanandar and Kazmiriel. On their part, Shanandar and the other team members were shocked to see that the Koorivar survivor was a mere child of about ten years of age, skinny, dirty and naked. His sight saddened Michel, who spoke softly to himself.
‘’My god! He looks like Hell!’’
Kazmiriel’s instincts as a Koorivar healer specialist then made him slowly advance towards the child while speaking softly in Koorivarese.
‘’Do not be afraid, my child: those beings came with us to help and are friendly ones. They saved my own ship, the VEON SHOURIA, after it landed on the wrong planet and was entombed in ice for years before they found it and freed us from the ice. Are there many more survivors like you in this complex?’’
‘’A few hundreds.’’ answered the young Koorivar in a weak, timid voice, his eyes still fixed on the Humans. ‘’I don’t know exactly how many: it has been so long now. Do you have food with you?’’
Kazmiriel nodded his head and took out one of the cereals and honey energy bars he carried on him, giving it to the child. The way that the latter devoured the bar broke his heart.
‘’The survivors here must have survived with only minimal food for many years now. Let me ask the child about the others.’’
Kazmiriel waited until the child had finished eating the bar and crouched in front of him.
‘’Are the others far from here? On which level could we find them?’’
‘’We all live in and around the old hydroponic gardens complex, two levels down. Some of the adults still know how to maintain and operate the gardens, but their output has been steadily decreasing with the years. I was searching the old mine’s offices in the hope of finding some canned food.’’
Kazmiriel and Shanandar exchanged knowing looks before Shanandar looked in turn at Michel Koniev.
‘’We need to turn this into a mass evacuation operation. Could you send someone to alert the KOSTROMA about what we found?’’
Michel nodded and turned his head towards Leo Sanchez.
‘’Leo, go back outside and alert the KOSTROMA by radio that we have found one survivor and expect to find hundreds more soon. I am sure that my wife will react with all due diligence to these news.’’
Sanchez nodded, then turned around and ran away towards the complex’s entrance. With him gone, the rest of the team left their mining robots behind and followed the Koorivar child down a set of stairs inside the administrative building.
‘’The elevators have stopped functioning for a long time now.’’ explained the child while going down the steps at a tired pace that denoted his level of malnutrition. ‘’We all moved permanently to the gardens level to be within easy access of the surface and to protect and maintain our food supplies.’’
‘’Protect your food supplies? From whom or what?’’ asked Shanandar, frowning. The child then gave him a sheepish look.
‘’From those of us who wanted all the food for themselves and refused to share it with others. There were fights at times, in which a few of us were hurt or even killed. However, all the ones who tried to keep the food for themselves were chased away and have not been seen for years now. My parents think that they died of famine somewhere inside the mine complex.’’
Shanandar and Michel glanced at each other, understanding too well what had happened here: hunger and the wish to survive at all cost could stimulate the worst in most individuals and push them into doing things they normally would not do. Still, that meant as well that there could possibly be some dangerous individuals running around, ready to commit violence.
‘’If their situation was this desperate, then we should expect the survivors to react with frenzy and start a stampede once they see that someone has come to save them. I will let you address them, but me and my men will be ready to use our stun pistols if you deem it necessary.’’
‘’Hopefully, we won’t get to that point, Michel, but you are right to want to be cautious: this is no ordinary situation for us Koorivars.’’
Two levels down, the group stepped out of the stairwell and found itself at one end of a vast room with a succession of concrete pillars supporting its rock ceiling. Most of the cavern was filled with rows and rows of stacked hydroponic growth basins. However, only about one quarter of the basins seemed to be still in operation, with overhead lamps lit and with fertilizing liquid circulation pumps humming. The rest of the basins were dark and only contained the decomposed plant remains. What however struck the rescuers was the sight of hundreds of Koorivars, old and young ones, sitting or lying around on mattresses and blankets laid along the walls of the cavern. The smell of unwashed bodies also struck their nostrils. Michel Koniev had seen before crowds of refugees fleeing war or some natural disaster on Earth, but the scene before him still moved him deeply.
‘’My God! Those poor people must have been enduring hell during all these years.’’
Shanandar tried to reply to that but couldn’t: a big lump was blocking his throat. He finally was able to speak, but chose to address the crowd of Koorivars instead of Michel.
‘’LISTEN TO ME, ALL OF YOU! I AM CAPTAIN SHANANDAR, MASTER OF THE EVACUATION SHIP VEON SHOURIA. MY SHIP FOUND SOME GOOD PEOPLE WHICH HELPED MY CREW AND PASSENGERS ONCE IN THE SOL SYSTEM. THOSE SAME GOOD PEOPLE HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY OFFERED THEIR HELP TO FIND THE OTHER SURVIVORS OF OUR RACE. ONE OF THEIR SHIPS IS IN ORBIT AROUND THIS PLANET AND IS GOING TO RESCUE YOU. BE PREPARED TO LEAVE BUT DO NOT PUSH OTHERS AROUND AND BE CALM AND PATIENT. DO YOU HAVE ONE OR SOME RECOGNIZED LEADERS IN YOUR GROUP?’’
After a short moment, a mature Koorivar made his way to the front ranks and stopped in front of Shanandar, saluting him in the traditional Koorivar way.
‘’My name is Shalmanazar and those people recognize my authority. Can you really save all of us? We are a bit over 1,350 persons here.’’
‘’Do not worry, Shalmanazar: the ship we came in, the KOSTROMA, can easily accommodate many times that amount of people. It also carries large supplies of food, on top of producing its own food. We will start the evacuation soon, once your people are ready. Are there more people in other parts of this mine complex?’’
‘’Not that I know of. We all concentrated here decades ago, both to be near our sole sources of food and to create warmth by being near to each other. As you can see, most of us wear only old, dirty rags, while others have nothing left to wear. The survivors of the Great Disaster had some reserves of clothing and spacesuits at first, but those eventually wore out or broke down. Even the hydroponic gardens have been degrading steadily as decades went by and the output of the emergency isotopic generators diminished.’’
‘’What about those who were creating troubles and tried to keep all the food to themselves?’’
‘’Those have not been seen for over half a generation now. They probably died of starvation years ago, down in lower levels of the mines. Will you also take away our accumulated stocks of metals before leaving?’’
That last question from Shalmanazar both confused and surprised Shanandar, making him reply with a typically human expression.
‘’Why the fuck would we care about your stocks of metals? We came to save lives, not to loot the system!’’
Kazmiriel then gently touched Shanandar’ arm with one hand.
‘’Shanandar, his question makes sense, I believe. First, this mine was the main source of heavy metals for Shouria. Second, their ancestors probably continued to mine those metals for a while after the collision with the brown dwarf, in order to give themselves a purpose other than simply surviving, and those metals represent the fruits of decades of labor. Third, those stocks of heavy metals could help pay for the resettlement and rehabilitation of these people on Earth, the way our own reserves of gold from the VEON SHOURIA helped us build our new colony on Vancouver Island.’’
‘’Hum, you are right. How much metals of what types do you have here in this complex, Shalmanazar?’’
‘’We have a few tens of thousands of cubits of Iridium, platinum, vanadium, tungsten and gold.’’
‘’Uh, how much is one cubit in kilos, Shanandar?’’ Asked Michel Koniev, out of curiosity.
‘’One Koorivar cubit is equal to about 600 of your kilos.’’
Michel nearly strangled on that answer but managed not to make remarks then, not wanting to derail the conversation between Shanandar and Shalmanazar. A radio message relayed from the outside by Leo Sanchez then reached him.
‘’Michel, this is Tina. Be advised that I am going to land the KOSTROMA next to the mining complex, in order to facilitate the evacuation of the surviving Koorivars. Will you need some special equipment or vehicles for that operation?’’
‘’Yes! Most of the approximately 1,350 survivors inside the mine have little or no clothes left and will freeze once out of the complex. They are also weak from malnutrition. We will need all the ground transport vehicles we can muster, along with blankets and some clothes for the Koorivars. I suggest that we use our stocks of T-shirts as an expedient.’’
‘’A good idea! I will have someone prepare all that. Anything else?’’
‘’Yes! They wish as well to have the stocks of mined and smelted metals brought aboard as well. Kazmiriel says that those stocks could help pay for their resettlement and rehabilitation on Earth.’’
‘’Very well. How much metal are we talking about?’’
‘’Supposedly, a few tens of thousands of tons of iridium, platinum, vanadium, tungsten and gold.’’
Michel could nearly hear Tina swallow on hearing that.
‘’HOLY…! Alright, we will load those metals aboard, but only after all the survivors will be on the KOSTROMA and are being cared for. I will send you a convoy of vehicles loaded with supplies and clothing as soon as we will have landed.’’
‘’Add some energy bars as well: these poor people are truly bordering on starvation.’’
‘’Will do! Tina out!’’
Next, Michel approached Shanandar and spoke to him.
‘’The KOSTROMA will send a convoy of ground vehicles loaded with clothing, food and emergency supplies as soon as it will have landed.’’
‘’Excellent! Now, let’s organize those poor people and bring them up to the level of the administration building, so that our vehicles could more easily collect them. This promises to be both long and complicated.’’
Shanandar’s prediction turned out to be true, with the moving out and transportation of the Koorivar survivors taking a good three hours once the KOSTROMA landed some twenty minutes later. The 47 Koorivars who were part of the ship’s crew or were passengers for the mission all participated in that operation, facilitating the communications with the survivors and greatly calming the fears of the latter as they interacted for the first time with Humans. Tina made a point to come down to the ground operation and quarantine center of the KOSTROMA, situated in one of the six huge bullet-shaped, pod-like structures which acted as the ship’s landing legs, accompanied by a sober-looking Gerald Holmes. The sight of so many skinny Koorivars, wearing little or no clothes, drew tears out of her eyes as she watched her crewmembers work feverishly to process the refugees, giving them quick showers before they received some clothes and a couple of energy bars each. Doctor Kazmiriel, along with the nine