Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (47 page)

Mike looked around. “Does anyone have any reason not to do that?”  No one spoke up, so he tapped his PA.  “Robby, relay a message to the Honstein via Alpha control for them to send the airship toward the coast of the bay that is about fifty kilometers away.  Tell them to get it moving right away while they still have some power left.”

The assembled group watched the monitor showing the view from the circling airship on Elpis.  In about ten minutes, the view changed as the airship gained altitude and changed its course away from the artifact site and turned southwards toward the bay that had been spotted about six hours away.

Peter leaned over to speak to Mike. “They only have about six hours of good daylight left at that location.  It is going to be close, and there is no way the airship has enough power to last through the night.”

Mike thought for a moment.  “Can they not land it and wait for daylight?”

“No, the propeller booms are not retractable and it would probably damage the propellers as it scraped along the ground.  Remember, we threw this whole package together from prototype parts.  We just need to be happy we have gotten as good of results as we have so far.”

"Well,” said Mike, “Let’s go get some lunch.  Nothing but brown hills for the next few hours it seems.”

…

Lieutenant Allan Greco had been at the controls of the remote airship for hours now without a break.  His hands were starting to tremble from the stimulants he had taken as his mind and body grew weary from the concentration.  Colonel Pierce had the crew bring him food, drinks, and even a bottle to take a leak in to keep him going as long as possible.  Down below on the planet, the video feed showed a faint orb of brightness behind the clouds where the sun was nearing the horizon.  He only had eighteen percent capacity left in the airships batteries and he roughly calculated he had about four kilometers left to go.   He keyed his system microphone.  “Colonel, it is getting crunch time here.  Daylight is going and I have four klicks to go and only eighteen percent battery left.  If I don’t push it we will not make it by dark.”

Colonel Pierce arrived in operation in about fifteen seconds.  “Do what you can do Lieutenant.  We will not get another chance.”

Lieutenant Greco nodded and increased the throttle control of the airship to seventy five percent power. He noted immediately that his computer relay from the airship battery indicator dropped to seventeen percent power.  It was going to be real close indeed, he thought.  If not for the tailwind the airship had picked up they would not make it.

After forty more minutes the daylight was starting to diminish.  The airship’s instruments indicated it had four percent battery power left.  All of a sudden the hills sloped away and grey blue water stretched
away into the distance.  Everyone on board the Honstein came crowding back into the operations deck to stare at the monitors.   There were small two to three foot waves breaking on the rocks at the water’s edge.  The planet had never had the time early in its geological history to make sand from any wave action, so there was just rocks and water.  Along the rocks edge, where the waves were splashing up onto them was a boundary of floating reddish purple color. 

Colonel Pierce pointed. “Get down close to that stuff, whatever it is."

Lieutenant Allan Greco cursed under his breath.  The wind coming off the water was buffeting the airship badly above the beach and the communications delay was causing him to over and under compensate. Suddenly, the wind stopped momentarily, and the airship dropped down to about three meters above the water’s edge and the camera zoomed in on the water’s edge.

Everyone leaned forward as if to get a better look.  “Looks like purple seaweed to me,” said one of the female specialists.

The video feed went out and Lieutenant Greco cursed.  “That’s it.  I have lost control and contact with the airship. On the control panel, the airship’s battery indicator was reading zero.”

Chapter 53

February 13
th
2013

Houston, Texas

Mike Banscott and Peter Rockwell waited in the conference room for the other participants of the secure video conference to
arrive.  Peter was looking at some of the latest atmospheric data from the lander that the David Honstein had put down successfully on the planet Elpis’s surface.  The landing pod and the airship had already given them more data on the newcomer planet than had been previously collected from all their other sources.

The monitor showing General Seale up on Space Station Alpha went active as the General signed on.  Mike nodded to the General.  “We are just waiting on the President, General.”

About that time the other monitor went live and it showed the President’s Chief of Staff.  “Gentlemen, General, I have the President on live with you now.”

The President’s face centered on his Vidcom screen as the conference software locked in on him.  “Doctors, General, it seems like you have momentous news to share.”

“Yes sir,” said Mike.  “If it is ok with you, I will let Doctor Rockwell brief you on our findings to date.”

“Go ahead Doctor Rockwell.  I am all ears.  I hope this is good news for a change.  Things are getting grim here in New Washington as we get closer to the encounter.”

“None of it is bad news Mr. President.  Actually, it is quite interesting and exciting news.  First, I would like to share what we know of the planet so far.  I will also show some images that go with the data.”

“The planet is settling into orbit as predicted by computer models.  It is going to have a very temperate atmosphere when all the ice finishes melting.  At the lander site, which is about twenty degrees in north latitude, the daytime temperature is about fifty four degrees Fahrenheit. It drops to about forty degrees at night but the heavy cloud layer is really holding in the sun’s heat.  As the reflective ice continues to melt in the higher latitudes and exposes more of the dark ground underneath the planet will continue to warm at a faster rate.  The sea temperature is still probably right above freezing from our estimates due to the amount of ice floes still present.  There are numerous icebergs breaking off from the glaciers present in the upper latitudes
and higher elevations.  On that point, the highest elevation that the Elpis probe or the David Honstein has detected on the planet is only about seventy five hundred feet or so above the sea level.”

“The atmospheric composition is as we had previously estimated and is at about fourteen percent oxygen, One point six percent carbon dioxide, and sixty percent nitrogen.  The rest is inert gases.  We still can’t explain the high concentration of inert gases, but we do estimate that much of that will be lost or broken down by cosmic radiation in the next three to four thousand years.  The atmospheric pressure is twelve point one psi at sea level.  To sum up the findings on the atmosphere, unless there is some poisonous gas that we have not measured for, a human in good physical and cardiovascular shape could breathe the air and survive.  Long exposure would probably cause some fatigue and headaches due to the carbon dioxide content until they had become acclimated to the conditions.”
              “The gravity is at about seventy eight percent of Earth’s gravity.   The planet does have a magnetic field and we are convinced that the planet has a molten iron interior somewhat like our own planet.  There has probably been tectonic activity in the past, but with all the tidal stresses from the Dwarf Star and the thick layer of ice that was previously present, most of the rocks and higher elevations have been ground down to what we see is the common soil.  The ground is mostly pulverized volcanic basalt.  Consistency is from fine to a large percentage of rocks around one millimeter to two millimeters across, at least at the landing site.  There is no evidence of any organic life forms in the soil at the landing site.  The Honstein has deployed the ground robot and it has taken several samples up to a hundred meters away from the landing pod and they are all about the same.  The soil is probably pretty close to what was left here on Earth in the northern latitudes when the glaciers retreated after our last ice age.  A day on the planet Elpis is about twenty nine hours and thirteen minutes long.”

“Unfortunately, one of the most interesting aspects of the planet itself was seen briefly by the airship as its batteries were dying and the daylight was fading.  As you can see in this image, this purple tubular substance at the edge of the water breaking on the rocks is very interesting.  Most of our exobiologists believe this is probably some form of aquatic plant that must have been surviving in liquid water deep under the ice.  As surface ice started melting, some of it has broken loose and washed up.  While the land appears sterile, it appears that some simple life forms did exist in the deep sea that was not frozen
solid.  You can also see that there are no shells, barnacles, crabs, or any other type of life forms on the rocks.  Amazing as it seems, life has managed to evolve there in the deep water, probably near some volcanic vents.”

Peter sat back with his briefing done and Mike took over. “Mr. President.  To sum up our scientific findings, this planet, with just a little bit of terra forming is habitable for humans.  Our ecologists and climatologist estimate that pending more intensive studies of the soil, we can easily colonize and perform terraforming of Elpis.  Sir, we have a whole new world just sitting there waiting for us.  We just have to reach out and take it.  I wholeheartedly recommend that we commence immediate planning and design of a human lander where we can get down there and really do some science to see what we have been given.”

The President leaned forward and spoke. “Doctors, I understand and appreciate the excitement you and your scientific brethren feel.  I know you are itching to get down there and wade in the water and dig through the soil.  However, while you feel that this new planet is ours for the taking, my immediate concern is that it seems someone or something felt the same way and has already built an outpost there.  What can you tell me about the alien artifacts on the surface?”

  Mike looked at the screen showing General Seale.  “Mr. President, I will defer to the General about what his military recon specialists are speculating on the artifacts found.  NASA and JPL engineers are cooperating with their military counterparts as they try to determine the meaning of what we have found.”

              “Mister President, if I may take over the briefing at this point I will share what information we have assembled to this point.”

“Go ahead Rob, tell me like it is,” said the President. 

“I will start with the two smaller side buildings if I may.  These are still shots from the video that the airship made. We have magnified them and tried to sharpen the images.  Here, you can see the coating that is on the structures.  It is our guess that this is some sort of solar cell.  This may be the source of the power for the beacon that started when the Honstein started scanning the planet with its radar.  We had scanned the planet before with the radar from the Farside Lunar Base with no reaction from the alien site.  That was before the planet had started thawing however, and it is probable that the buildings were covered with ice and the site had no power at the time.  As the ice melted and the sun started causing some power to be generated, the site woke up so to speak.

When it detected the Holsteins radar, it initiated the beacon that we have detected.  This is still speculation of course.  We could be totally wrong, and the base could have some sort of geothermal power source or even some exotic source of power that we know nothing about.  We are almost positive that the iris like devices on the flat side of the buildings you can see in these images is a door.  These doors are about five meters high.  Too small for the alien tractor to enter and we have found nothing else that would go into them.  We have no idea what is inside them.”

“Here you see the tractor or bulldozer as most of my guys are calling it,” the General continued.  “It is obviously designed for scraping ice and soil.  Beside it, you can see a large scraping blade that has been removed.  In its place are what appear to be manipulator arms, probably for moving large containers or crates.  It ran on these attached tracks on the sides the same as a bulldozer here on Earth would.  This bubble on the front is obviously where the driver controlled the vehicle.  It is large enough for two humans to fit inside it, but as you can see from the dirt and mud on the bubble, we cannot make out any indication of a seat or controls that would show what type or shape of being would control it.  In the back we have another of the iris doors.  This door is about two and a half meters tall, so our guess is that whatever these beings look like they are not much taller than us.”

“The main dome here is the central aspect of the site.  We have no idea what the metal alloy it is constructed of is, at this point.  This rectangular box here is the airlock, again with an iris door just slightly larger than the one on the tractor.  From the images taken from the air, we cannot make out any type of mechanism or control for any of these doors.  This short superstructure on top of the large dome is where the beacon is being transmitted from.  There are multiple protrusions on the superstructure which we believe is a pretty wide variety of instruments of unknown purpose.  We can guess that they had radar, radio, etc. We would do the same if we had built something like this on say…Jupiter’s moon Europa.”