KEID: A Lost Civilization

Phoenix Starship Andromeda-Underway for Keid

Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Underway for Keid

Thorpe sat at the Bridge control console deep inside Andromeda’s central disk. A large holoscreen surrounding the Bridge presented him outside views from the massive vessel and presented data to individual operators around the Bridge. To his left sat Kenred Zlaxiz and Jocara Porovik, the saurian astronauts from the planet Arcan around the star Ran—their immediate departure point. Daphne O’Bryan, Andromeda’s Chief Scientist, sat to his right as his First Officer. The spacious Bridge had sufficient room for a group of senior crew members who had nothing better to do.

Andromeda was an FTL (Faster Than Light) ship powered by MERT portals—a Casimir field that contained a stable wormhole.

“Listen up, everybody,” Thorpe said as the background chatter died away. “Our destination is the triple-star system Keid, also known as Forty Eridani, just six lightyears distant. Those of you who are classic American film buffs will recognize this star as the sun of the planet Vulcan in the classic Star Trek television series. That’s right, Spock’s home planet. Back in the early twenty-first century on Earth, astronomers actually thought they had discovered an Earth-like planet around Keid-A. After the excitement died down, it turned out they were wrong. We’re gonna find out what’s really there.”

Thorpe turned to Kenred with a grin. “This is a bit different from your circum-Lodan capsule.”

“That’s an understatement. The difference between our two-person capsule and this huge starship is almost beyond description.” Kenred turned to Jocara, his female fellow astronaut on the first trip around their moon, Lodan. “Could you have imagined this two years ago?”

Blinking eyes wide open, the Arcan equivalent of a Human grin, she shook her head in amazement, and then turned to Thorpe. “Are you really going to let us do the honors?” Jocara asked, her scales rippling dark blue with excitement.

“You two are the only true astronauts in our entire ten thousand crew,” Thorpe answered. “Oh, we’ve got fighter pilots, marines, scientists, bureaucrats, tabby cats, and even guys like me, but we have only two astronauts.”

Kenred looked at Jocara, eyes wide open and blinking. “You do it, Girl! Be the first Arcan to pilot a starship between stars!”

“Mother,” she said, addressing the ship’s resident AI, “transit to the star Keid-A, jump interval six picoseconds, specific destination, the outer edge of Keid’s life zone.” Jocara gave the order in the Amred language in which Mother, Andromeda’s central processor, was fluent. Her scales slowly returned to their normal light green.