Arrival (13 page)

Again, Will didn’t have a response. He wanted to crawl into a hole and wait for the others to come and get him, or for the Daedalus to arrive and rescue them. He couldn’t imagine hiking cross-country. But if Jack was right, they might not have a choice.

* * *

Lynn sat in the command seat on the left side of the flight deck, sipping a cup of tea as she gazed out of the forward windows. The Cetian sun was peeking over the mountains as it climbed up into the morning sky, spilling brilliant white light into the valley. It bathed the horizon in brilliant amber, decorated with the glowing, purple clouds left over from last night’s storm.

Lynn scanned the edge of the forest thirty meters beyond them. Tall trees, strong and majestic, reached toward the sky with outstretched, tan branches. Their blue-green canopies created a roof over the ground below that was so thick she imagined she could walk across it without falling through.

Lynn had seen trees before. They had many of them in the agricultural bays on board the Daedalus. But those trees were only a few meters tall, neatly pruned, and arranged in perfectly spaced rows. These trees were scattered randomly and their leaves and branches were unkempt, free to spread out as they made their way upward and outward.

With many of the branches twisting and turning around their neighbors, the forest, while graceful, had an almost mystical appearance. Gazing upon it from the safety of the flight deck, Lynn was reminded of a tale she read as a child, about a band of rebellious men hiding in the forest, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Frank entered the compartment, a mug of tea in hand. “Good morning,” he greeted, maneuvering himself into the right-hand seat across from her. “Wow, look at that,” he exclaimed as he gazed out the window.

“It’s really beautiful, isn’t it?” Lynn took another sip of her tea. “Remember that story we all read in school? Robin Hood?”

“Sheriff of Nottingham, Friar Tuck, Little John?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. What was the name of that forest they hid in?”

“Oh, jeez,” Frank thought. “Sherwood, Sherwood Forest, I believe.”

“That’s it.” Lynn looked out the window again. “That’s Sherwood Forest.”

“Huh?”

“Just look at it. It’s mysterious, foreboding, just like in Robin Hood.”

“Okay.” Frank sipped his tea, enjoying the sunrise. “Look, Lynn, about last night. I just want to apologize for my attitude.”

“What attitude, Frank? You were just concerned about Jack and Will.” There was another moment of silence. “I want them to be alive too,” Lynn tried to assure him. “I hope you understand.”

“Of course, Lynn. I know you were right,” he said with resignation. “First things first.” Frank rose from his seat to depart. “Well, I’m going to go check out the galley systems,” he announced on his way out. “There’s going to be some hungry people wanting breakfast pretty soon. Don’t want a mutiny on our hands our first day out.”

Lynn said nothing, looking back to the sunrise. It would be over soon, and she didn’t want to miss a single moment.

* * *

An hour later, the crew was gathered around the wardroom table enjoying breakfast. Scrambled powdered eggs, fried protein strips that were supposed to taste like bacon—which Mac referred to as
faken
—and toast. It was the first normal breakfast they had enjoyed in four months. They laughed about the difficulties of becoming accustomed to normal gravity again, and teased each other about their faces and reactions during the previous day’s descent.

After effectively taking command during last night’s crisis, Lynn had expected the leadership role to be easier today, but she found the opposite was true. Their banter only masked their concerns about what lay ahead. Survival. Command had been thrust upon her, despite the fact that she was the youngest of them. It would be her job to see that they not only survived, but that the mission, or at least the Tau Ceti Five portion of it, was completed.

“Excuse me,” Lynn said meekly. The others continued to talk, ignoring her as they were deep in their jubilant discussions. She tried again, “Excuse me, people!”

Frank noticed her difficulty in getting things rolling, and decided to give her a hand. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a loud, shrill whistle. “Hey! Pipe down and listen up!” Frank gestured for Lynn to take the floor.

“Okay,” Lynn began uncomfortably. “Let’s start our morning briefing.” Mac and Tony were giggling about something. “Boys,” Lynn scolded, “if you don’t mind?”

Mac, the instigator as usual, quieted down. “Sorry, Skipper,” he apologized, motioning for her to continue.

“Thank you.” Lynn took a breath and cleared her throat. “I think our priority should be a full inspection of the ship, all systems, sub-systems, the works. Let’s make sure we won’t have any problems in the immediate future that might jeopardize our safety. Frank and I will start with the engineering systems. Laura and Maria, you start with the habitat’s internal systems.”

“What about me and Tony?” Mac queried, wondering why he, the mission’s lead mechanic, hadn’t been assigned an inspection task.

“I need you and Tony to plant sensor stakes around the perimeter at about a one-kilometer radius from the ship. We need to establish a monitored zone as soon as possible to ensure our safety.”

“Yeah, in case Tony’s boogeyman returns,” Mac teased.

“Hey, who knows?” Lynn admitted, rolling with the punches as best she could. “Sara and Adia will go with you to help.”

“Excuse me,” Maria interrupted. “But I need to get the med-lab operational, and I’ll need to get post-arrival physicals and body chemistry work-ups on everyone, ASAP.”

“Can’t it wait?” Lynn asked.

“Sorry, no. I need a baseline to compare all future exams against so that I can monitor our health and detect any changes during our stay here. Protocol says I was supposed to get them before anyone set foot outside the ship.”

“I didn’t realize,” Lynn admitted, embarrassed by her unintentional breech of protocol.

“It’s alright. Given the situation, what choice did you have?”

Lynn tried not to appear relieved at Maria’s dismissal of her error. “How long does it take to do a physical?”

“Well, the physical isn’t as important as the blood work. So if it’s not too much trouble, if I could at least get a blood and urine sample from each of you before you get started this morning, I can probably work the physicals in around the work schedules.”

“Thank you, Maria.” Lynn turned her attention back to the group. “Okay, everyone see Maria before you get started this morning. We’ll have another briefing at lunch.”

“Everyone remember to stay on comm-sets,” Frank added. “And take plenty of water and snacks.”

“And take lots of breaks, especially those of you working outside,” Maria advised them. “Not only have we not worked outside before, but we’ve all been in zero gravity for four months. Even though most of you have been working out regularly, you’re still going to be a little weak, so you’ll tire more easily than you might think.”

“Don’t worry about me, Doc,” Mac boasted proudly, as he flexed his muscles.

“I’m not worried about you, ya big ox,” Maria teased. “And anti-radiation cream. Use it, or you’ll be sorry. None of us has ever been exposed to sunlight before.”

“I thought the ozone layer on this planet was supposed to protect us?” Tony asked.

“To an extent, yes,” Maria agreed. “But better not to take the risk, for now. And one more thing, it’s a very big world out there, and it’s bound to be overwhelming at first. Under normal conditions, we would’ve taken the outside in small doses until we got used to it. Unfortunately we don’t have that luxury, so if you start to feel panicked or anxious, find some place to hide. Under a tree, in a corner, or better yet, inside the ship. Eventually, you
will
get used to it.”

“Any questions?” Lynn asked, more to end the meeting than anything else.

“Yeah, what time is lunch?” Mac joked.

“Jeez,” Sara commented under her breath.

“Actually, that brings up a good point,” Frank said. “The ship’s timekeeping system is designed to reset to zero six hundred each sunrise. Then it pushes the recalibrated time to all your watches, so that we’re all on the same time. That should take care of us until an official planetary timekeeping system can be established, assuming the council decides to colonize TC Five, and not one of the other two worlds.”

“The day is longer here, though, isn’t it?” Tony asked. “Won’t we get tired before the end of the day, especially after four months in zero gravity?”

“It’s only three and a half hours longer,” Maria said. “We’ll get used to it.”

“More time to workout,” Mac decided.

“Any more questions?” Lynn wondered. She looked around the table, but everyone appeared satisfied with the day’s plan. “Great, let’s get to work,” she ordered.

Adia rose, standing at the table as she waited for the others to disperse. Finally, she turned to Lynn. “Excuse me, ma’am,” she asked quietly, as Lynn was about to depart.

“Ma’am?” Lynn was surprised at the title. “Adia, we went through school together. In fact, you’re a year older than I am.”

Adia paused for a moment, waiting for the others to leave the table before speaking. “I’m sorry, I just thought that because of your position…”

“Please, it’s still Lynn. What can I do for you?”

“I’m embarrassed to ask, but I really don’t think…” Adia stopped mid-sentence, too ashamed to continue.

“It’s okay, Adia,” Lynn assured her, recognizing her fear. “What is it?”

Adia summoned up her courage. “It’s just… I don’t think that I can, I mean… I don’t think that I’m ready to go outside I mean. Not yet… Not so soon.” Adia looked down at the floor, expecting disappointment from Lynn.

“Is that all?” Lynn asked, surprised it wasn’t something much worse. “That’s okay, Adia. You don’t have to go outside until you’re ready.”

“This is terribly embarrassing for me.”

“You should have seen me last night, I was scared to death,” she told her, relieved to be able to admit it to someone. “I’m still a little nervous about going outside today, in fact. It’s even scarier in the daylight when you can see so much further.” Lynn laughed. “Don’t worry about it.”

Adia breathed a sigh of relief.

“When you’re ready, you’ll go outside. You just let me know, alright?” Lynn tried to be as comforting as possible. Adia was so tiny, so fragile. She still could not believe Adia had been assigned to this mission. And she was not surprised that she was so afraid of going outside. “I’ll talk to Laura, maybe you two can trade places for now.”

“Thank you very much.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Lynn assured her, happy to be of help. Somehow, it made her feel even more in command, having one of the crew confide in her. “Just one thing, though,” Lynn continued, “you
will
have to go outside eventually,” she warned. Lynn wasn’t trying to scare her, she just wanted her to be realistic about the future. “I mean, you are the biologist here. Your work will eventually be out there.”

“Yes, of course,” Adia replied, nodding before turning to leave.

* * *

Lynn dropped through the hatch to the ground, and slid down the embankment.

“Skipper,” Mac said, offering his hand to help her up.

Lynn took his hand and rose to her feet. “First thing after lunch,” she instructed, as she brushed the mud off her bottom, “I want you and Tony to dig out something resembling a normal entrance.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Lynn finished brushing herself off, then looked up. The morning sun was brighter than she expected. She donned her sunglasses, like the others, and then marched out a few meters from the LRV. She stopped and looked around at the valley behind the ship. It stretched out for at least a hundred kilometers. It was bordered on all sides by mountains, the steepest of which lay behind them to the west. On the northern and southern sides of the valley, the mountains rose more gradually, but to nearly the same elevation. The central valley floor was predominantly level, with a few shallow hills rolling across the floor. It was covered with a brownish-green grass, tall and tough, that crackled when you stepped on it, and then snapped back to its original shape with ease.

There was a low-hanging fog bank hovering over the valley, covering almost all of its three edges. It seemed to have rolled in from the west end of the valley, past the grove of trees they were all now referring to as Sherwood Forest, where the canyon opened out onto the shore of a small bay. It was light and patchy, and allowed most of the sunlight to shine through.

“Okay, Mac and Sara,” Lynn began, “you two head west, Tony and Laura will head east. Go out one kilometer, then circle clockwise, planting and activating a sensor stake every ten degrees. When you reach the other team’s first stake, come back in for lunch.”

Sara detested the idea of having to spend the next few hours with Mac, but before she could protest, the teams began to depart. She turned to pick up the bag of sensor stakes, only to find that Mac had already picked it up and was slinging it over his shoulder. “You want me to carry that?”

“Get real,” Mac scoffed as he adjusted the considerable weight of the sensor stakes on his shoulder. “Besides,” Mac added, “I figured you would want to lead this expedition,” he added as he tossed her the data pad.

“Very well,” Sara agreed as she caught it. She switched the unit on and got a quick directional fix. “Due west is that way,” she announced, pointing toward the tall mountains directly astern of the ship.

Mac rolled his eyes as Sara went marching off ahead of him, triumphant in the fact that he had willingly handed command of their little expedition off to her. Mac fell in line about two meters behind, smiling as he watched her awkwardly navigate the uneven terrain.

* * *

Tony and Laura were headed due east, with Tony carrying the stakes and Laura watching the data pad. After a few minutes, Tony noticed that Laura’s eyes never left the data pad’s display screen. She even came close to tripping over uneven ground a few times due to her intense concentration.

“Uh, Laura, it’s okay to take your eyes off the screen once in awhile,” he reminded her politely. “I don’t think we’ll stray off course too much.”

Laura’s hands trembled, and her breathing was rapid. “I can’t,” she whimpered.

“What?”

“I can’t!”

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t take my eyes off the screen!” she insisted.

“Why not?”

“I’m too scared!” Laura stopped in her tracks, her eyes still fixed on the data pad’s display screen.

“Scared of what?” Tony asked as he stepped up next to her.

“Everything!” Laura exclaimed.

“What?” Tony asked again, looking around for something he obviously must have missed. “What do you mean, everything?”

Laura closed her eyes. “It’s all so big!” she cried. “So open!”

“I don’t understand,” Tony admitted, still confused.

“I need some damned walls around me!”

“Oh!” Tony finally understood. “I get it!” He moved around in front of her, taking hold of her hands. “Look,” he stalled, trying to think of something. “Um, tell me why you’re scared.”