KEID: A Lost Civilization

Chapter 5

Chapter One

Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Underway for Keid

Phoenix Starship AndromedaThorpe 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’sAndromeda was an FTL (Faster Than Light) ship powered by MERT portals—a Casimir field that contained a stable wormhole.

Andromeda “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.”

Star Trek 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.

Andromeda’sPhoenix Starship Andromeda—Keid-A System

Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Keid-A SystemPhoenix Starship AndromedaThere was no indication of anything except the holoscreen turned a uniform speckled gray. One minute and eight seconds later, Jocara blinked as a blazing orange star with an apparent width wider than Ran as seen from Arcan filled the holoscreen center. A bright white star and a less bright reddish-orange star appeared close together off to the right. Even though she knew Andromeda was an FTL ship, and the MERT portal technology had been explained to her, it was still hard to believe that they had traveled six lightyears in just over a minute! Her scales rippled from the blue of excitement to lavender, showing her pure joy at the experience.

“Time to scan for planets,” Thorpe said in his matter-of-fact manner. He turned to the control room visitors. “This doesn’t work like in the holovision plays. We’re on the outer edge of the life zone on Keid-A’s ecliptic, about one hundred sixty-five million klicks from the star. Light takes about ten minutes to reach us from Keid. We find an inner planet by observing its transit across Keid. Mother can measure the orbital perturbations of any inner planets we find to calculate the presence and location of any larger outer planets. All this takes time, lots of time. We can drive our way around Keid much faster than the orbital period of four hundred sixty-four days at our distance.” He checked a calculation on his internal Link. “If we travel at five thousand klicks per second, it’ll take us two and a half days for the survey, and Mother should be able to pick up any inner planets.”

Kenred looked at Jocara. “This must be pretty exciting for someone who studied astrophysics.”

She responded by opening her eyes and blinking, while her scales rippled blue again.

Thorpe watched carefully as the saurian astronaut guided Andromeda onto the scanning flight path. She accomplished it flawlessly. He was amused at the almost childlike joy the two Arcans took in maneuvering the massive vessel. He had to remind himself that when he found them, their technology was at about the Apollo stage in Earth’s spaceflight history. The Arcan Space Push Consortium had definitely chosen their astronauts well.

Andromeda Apollo

Daphne had grown close to the female saurian during Andromeda’s sojourn around Arcan. Despite their physical differences, they had become good friends. Daphne had learned how to interpret Jocara’s scale colors and understand her facial expressions and gestures. Each had a Human equivalent.

Andromeda’s As she watched Jocara bring Andromeda onto the survey track, she took genuine pride in her friend’s demonstrated expertise.

Andromeda“Can you imagine,” she said quietly to Thorpe, “how one of our Apollo astronauts would have reacted in a similar scenario? Do you think they would have handled it as well as the Arcans?”

She got up and walked over to Jocara, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It never gets old,” she said quietly, “never.”

A day later, Mother announced acquisition of an Earth-size planet in an orbit 0.6 AU from Keid-A, which put it near the inner edge of the life zone. By the end of the survey, Mother added two more planets to the list, both much closer to Keid and far too hot for life.

Once again, Thorpe allowed Jocara to bring Andromeda into orbit around the new planet. He put the name for this planet up for a vote by ship’s company. The Asterians knew nothing about Star Trek and so declined to vote, as did the Arcans. The Oort, who had downloaded into Human form before the voyage commenced, were well acquainted with the old television series and chose to vote.

Andromeda Star Trek By a very lopsided count, the result was Vulcan.

VulcanPhoenix Starship Andromeda—Orbiting Vulcan

Phoenix Starship Andromeda—Orbiting VulcanPhoenix Starship Andromeda“Vulcan seems to be very much like Arcan,” Jocara told Daphne.

“Or like Earth,” Daphne said back. “Except I don’t see any evidence of plant life.”

They sat on the Bridge looking at the holodisplay of Vulcan and the surrounding skies.

“It’s an Arcan-size planet—a bit smaller,” Jocara said.

“Yeah, much like Earth,” Daphne added. “Look,” she pointed, “four continents, oceans, and polar ice caps.”

“Can’t tell from here if there’s anything of interest down there or not,” Jocara said.

“We have a bunch of people examining every detail visible from orbit,” Daphne said. “Once they’re done, you and I will take my craft down to the surface and give it some personal attention.”

“You can just do that? Don’t you need permission?”

“We don’t do things that way, Jocara. First, as Chief Scientist, I set my schedule. But beyond that, I notify Thorpe when I will be away from the ship. If he needs me, he’ll let me know. We all have specific jobs to do, but only a few of us regularly leave the ship.”

“Sounds a bit like Amred, Kenred’s home country. My home, Ceffid, was more structured—still is, for that matter. Kenred and I are still getting used to your freewheeling ways.”

“We just received a preliminary atmosphere report,” Daphne said, pointing to a holoscreen, “…nitrogen, low oxygen, high CO2. Pressure is only a half bar.”

“We’re going to need pressure suits,” Jocara said. “I’ve never even been on our moon, Lodan. I’ve never set foot on any planet but Arcan. This will be exciting for me.” Her scales rippled blue.

“Drones first,” said Daphne. “I think they’re launching them now.”

The drones were invisible on the Bridge holoscreen.

“We launched about a thousand,” Daphne told Jocara. “That’s not very much for a planet, but they can hit the important points and confirm our orbital assessment of the atmosphere.”

Kenred entered the Bridge, sweeping his tail aside as he sat next to Jocara. “Are we going to the surface?” he asked Daphne.

“Do you feel up to piloting an M-Class starship yourselves?” Daphne asked, glancing at both of them.

Both their scales rippled blue.

“Without a doubt,” Jocara answered for them both.

“I want each of you to pilot a craft,” Daphne said. “eDaphne will accompany you, Jocara, in a matrix onboard your craft, and eBraxton will accompany you, Kenred. Are you both okay with this arrangement?”

“Are you kidding?” Jocara nuzzled her snout against Daphne’s cheek, her scales rippling bright lavender with joy. “This is wonderful!”

Kenred sat quietly, his eyes wide open, blinking slowly. Like Jocara, his scales rippled lavender.

“When do we leave?” he asked.

“We’ll stage tomorrow morning,” Daphne said. “I’ll meet you in the vehicle bay.”

Daphne and Thorpe sat on the Bridge, sharing coffee and watching the vast expanse of Vulcan on the holoscreen as it passed below Andromeda.

Andromeda“I’ve assigned Jocara and Kenred each to a personal M-Class,” Daphne said. “As you pointed out, they’re our only genuine astronauts.” Her eyes twinkled. “They’re both excellent pilots, and they earned their chops in the Holy War on Arcan. eDaphne will ride with Jocara and eBraxton will ride with Kenred, but I anticipate no problems. These guys are as good as they get.”

“When are you staging?” Thorpe asked.

“Tomorrow morning. We’ll get the drone results and analyze them overnight. This will give the M-Class pilots definite destinations. If they find anything interesting, we’ll open a portal and send a team through. They’ll wear pressure suits, like what you wore on Mars, with Moxie Automated Breathing Units.”

“I have to believe,” Thorpe said, “that we have significantly improved the MABUs since my Mars days.”

“Matter of fact,” Daphne said. “Given sufficient power, which we supply through a small portal, if the atmosphere contains over ten percent carbon dioxide, our MABUs can supply oxygen indefinitely.”

“I think I need to get out more,” Thorpe said with a wry grin.