Inadvertent Adventures (21 page)

Amanda triggered the steam-purge in the airlock twice before cracking the inner hatch. "Did you tell me to run because it was chasing me, or did it chase me because I was running?" she asked as she came to Sterling's side.

"It came out of the bushes and headed straight toward you. When you ran, it turned to follow you."

"What happened to it?"

"I tripped it with the ROV."

Amanda looked, using the observation camera to get a closer look. "The ROV is trashed. That thing must weigh a few thousand kilos. It's leaving."

Sterling and Amanda watched the behemoth glide away on its short legs, and didn't stop the recordings until it vanished into the underbrush.

Sterling went to the pilot seat and sat down. "Strap in, Mandy. Let's get airborne before something happens to keep us here." Amanda took the seat next to him and the shuttle blasted its way into the morning sky. Amanda was looking down and pointed.

"There are a lot of those creatures, or something similar, in the next clearing over. They seem to be a herd animal."

Sterling just grunted as he guided the shuttle toward space and the
Admiral Ann's Revenge.
The acceleration was just barely three G’s and he was enjoying the feel of the craft in flight. They reached orbit and opened the cargo deck and crew compartment to vacuum as they made their way back to the ship.

After docking, the sample containers were carried to the isolation lab for further analysis. The first thing Sterling and Amanda noticed was Katrina's bright red face.

"How you feeling, Kat?" Amanda asked as soon as she saw her.

"Stupid. How do I look?" Katrina asked back, with just a trace of a smile.

"Actually, you look like you fell asleep in the sun," Amanda said as she checked Katrina's face from several angles.

"I feel worse than that. The cream doesn't completely numb the burn, but it makes the pain manageable. What did you find on the planet?"

Amanda and Sterling explained what they had found as they deposited the containers in isolation. "Now we get to use your education a little, Kat," Ann said as she walked into the room. "I want you to join Sterling and Mandy in analyzing these samples. Be very careful and thorough. We may be staying on this planet, and we can't afford any mistakes."

"Yes, Ma'am," all three of them answered.

"Any luck on finding where we are?" Sterling asked.

"We have identified a second pulsar," Ann said as she turned away. "I'll brief you and the rest of the crew at supper. Denise is cooking for a while. I'd prefer that Katrina use her other talents to help determine if we can live on this planet."

Supper was three hours later, and Ann waited until they were finished eating before she gave them an update. "First, let me say how pleased I am with the performance of everyone in this crisis. We have finally located our third pulsar, and have triangulated our position." She triggered a remote and a map of their portion of the galaxy appeared over the table. "The pulsars are here, here, and here," she continued as she made halos appear around the indicated points. "We are here," she said as a bright blue point of light appeared. "The problem is that the nearest Confederate planet is here." Another point of light appeared half way across the map. "We somehow got tossed one hundred and thirty-seven light years off course."

"Oh crap," Thom muttered as everyone reacted to the announcement.

Ann nodded her agreement. "Crap indeed. If we can repair the hyper drive, we might make it home in three or four months ship time. If we can't repair the ship, we are going to have to stay here."

"Is there any other option for us, Ma'am?" Balder asked.

"No, Chief, I'm afraid not. We will, as a last resort, use the ship's com system and send the strongest signal we can generate toward Confederate space, but there is no chance of it being heard in our lifetimes. Now, I'd like Sterling to brief everyone on what he found down on the planet."

Sterling stood and touched Ann's hand before turning to face the rest of the crew. "So far, this planet is giving us every indication that it is habitable by humans. We have detected no organisms that can affect us, and the local plants have some nutritional value that our bodies can use. It's a chilly place, and orbital data indicates that this is the middle of its summer. That means we should be able to survive, but we'll need something better than rudimentary shelters."

"What about animal life?" Carrie-Marie asked. "I heard about the thing that chased Mandy."

Sterling nodded as he looked at Amanda. "That was the only large animal we encountered. It moved toward Amanda, but why and what it would have done if it caught her is open to conjecture."

Ann stood and Sterling nodded as he returned the floor to her. "We are going to continue our efforts to repair the ship, but since we're here, we're also going to continue surveying this planet and system. Given its location, I feel confident that no one else has claimed it, so I am claiming the system and all of its planets on behalf of the crew of the
Admiral Ann's Revenge."
She paused as everyone reacted to that announcement. "We'll each submit a name for the star and planet, and then either vote or draw lots if we can't reach a consensus."

Olaf and his engineers, along with Bart and Sterling, headed aft while Mandy, CM, and Kat headed for the isolation lab. Ann looked at Denise and shrugged. "Shall we?" she asked, motioning toward Control, and Denise laughed as she led the way.

Ann took the helm and altered their orbit from equatorial to trans-polar, and began a ball-of-twine survey of the surface. She increased their velocity to reach a higher orbit as well, so they had a slower apparent ground speed.

The planet was typical of life-supporting planets. It was slightly smaller than Earth, with a surface gravity of point eight-nine G. The atmosphere was active with storms, and Ann spent a moment admiring a typhoon swirling toward the east-coast of the continent Sterling had landed on.

Radar-mapping showed that the surface was fifty-one percent oceans, but much of it was locked under what appeared to be permanent ice caps over both poles. Either this planet was in an ice age, or it was a cold place. Ann did some calculations and threw in a few outright guesses and came up with a sixty-seven percent water cover for the planet if the ice melted.

The land varied greatly in altitude and appearance, indicating that the planet had experienced active tectonic periods. Mountain ranges reared their mighty heads high into the atmosphere, but were often locked beneath ice sheets and glaciers that hid their majesty. One anomaly was an active volcano that had burned its way up through the ice and created a lake around itself by coating the ice with dark, heat-trapping ash. Three other active volcanoes were found, but they were all in the ice-free regions of the planet.

In the isolation lab, the science team made several discoveries. The plants that had been collected all carried between seven and nine percent alcohol in their tissues. It seemed to be a common adaptation in all the flora, and indicated that the planet may have been much colder in the past.

None of the sample media had shown any sign of growing exotic bacteria, or anything else. All of the samples of common bacteria and other biologicals had been wiped out by the alcohol vapors in the planet's air. Unfortunately, since they lacked test animals, that was as far as they could go toward determining if the planet was inhabitable.

It took six days of intensive effort, but Olaf finally called Ann on the intercom. "Captain," he announced in an exhausted voice, "I believe that the hyper drive is fixed."

"That is excellent news, Olaf. Well done to you and all of your people. We'll give you twelve hours to rest and get your strength back, then we'll set course for Beloofte, in the Nuwe Vaderland System. That's the closest Confederate System to this place."

"Understood," was all Olaf could say as he and his men went to rest.

T
HE
ADMIRAL ANN'S REVENGE
SET COURSE
for Beloofte and everyone held their breath as the order to enter hyperspace was given. Ann had ordered everyone into their suits and on independent supplies for the jump, but nothing unfortunate happened. Once they were cruising toward home, Ann called an all-crew meeting.

"People, we've managed what few non-survey ships have ever done: We've located a planet that seems to be habitable, and it looks like we'll make it home to tell about it. Now, through the process of elimination, and not a few outright bribes," she paused to glare at a widely-grinning Thom Oslund, "we have narrowed the choice of names down to either Frisland or Hy-Brazil for the planet, and Farflung or Fortune's Cross for the star. I now call for a show of hands for Frisland." She paused and counted, then shook her head. "I'm not going to bother with Hy-Brazil. Seven votes for Frisland. Now, votes for Fortune's Cross?" she again counted. "You people worry me. Planet Frisland, fourth planet of the Farflung star system it is."

* * *

The voyage through hyperspace was long and boring, but not arduous. Days crept past, one after another, until after one-hundred and twenty-six days in hyper, the alarm sounded. "All hands don environment suits for transition," Ann ordered, and the crew quickly obeyed. When everyone reported that they were suited and secure, Ann gave Sterling the order. "Take us into normal space, Mister Stevenson."

The transition was a little shaky, but there were no red lights on the board as they oriented the ship toward the star Nuwe Vaderland. "Sterling, send out our identification message and request that a tug be dispatched to catch us. I seriously doubt we have enough fuel left to stop our momentum."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sterling answered as he triggered their standard identification broadcast. "What about our claim on Farflung and Frisland?"

"One thing at a time, Sterling. One thing at a time. It's too bad that DA-CC isn't active in the Nuwe Vaderland System. We'll have to use the ship's account to get a full repair and refuel, and then continue on to Trondheim. We'll send the initial claim information to the Confederate Council while we're in port."

It took nine days before an in-system tug joined with them and used its tractors to slow the
Admiral Ann's Revenge
enough to not overshoot the planet. By that time they were down to just two percent in their fuel tanks, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it.

Ann was on the secure radio with the port authorities, and received orders to anchor out rather than dock until Station Health made their determination of what, if any, contamination the
Admiral Ann's Revenge
had brought back from their adventure. It took twelve hours before the verdict was announced.

The orbital traffic controller contacted the
Admiral Ann's Revenge
on an open channel. "
Admiral Ann's Revenge,
please dock at Jan Smuts Station, Port Retief. You will be met there by the repair specialists you requested."

"
Admiral Ann's Revenge
acknowledges instructions to Jan Smuts Station, Port Retief," Denise answered, then toggled the intercom to Ann and Sterling's stateroom. "Ma'am, we have docking instructions."

Ann's sleep-muffled voice answered, "We'll be right up," and then the intercom clicked off. Five minutes later Ann and Sterling reached Control. "Have you plotted the course, Bart?" Ann asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," Bart answered.

"Denise, please take us to port."

"Yes, Ma'am. The repair crew is supposed to be meeting us there."

Because of the earlier inspection by Station Health, they were able to open their hatches immediately upon arrival, and six men were waiting for them. "I'm George Van der Goff, Piet Retief and Sons Shipfitters," the leader said as he stepped forward. "Who is the Chief Engineer?"

"I am," Olaf said. "Olaf Larsson, and these two are my team, Thom Oslund and Balder Pastulka." He paused as the introductions were acknowledged. "Come with me and I'll show you what we found."

The nine men quickly vanished, leaving Ann and Sterling to greet the next visitor. This time it was a very tall, dark-skinned woman in an expensive suit. "I am Arian Steinman, System Commissioner of Extra-territorial affairs. I would like to speak with Captain Stevenson about the stellar and planetary claim she opened."

Ann stepped forward and shook her hand. "I'm Captain Stevenson, and this is my husband and First Mate, Sterling Stevenson."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," she said with a fleeting smile that never touched her eyes. "Now, as to this planet and star that you are claiming. You claim to have discovered it by happenstance, resulting from a hyper drive malfunction. The location is well outside of the acknowledged boundaries of the Confederacy. How did you get so far out?"

Ann shrugged. "We don't know. The drive malfunction was something that wasn't listed in the literature, and we have no idea what caused it or how it affected our course. All we know for certain is that it took us nearly four months in hyper to get back."

"Well, it would seem fortunate that you had plenty of supplies on board," Mizz Steinman said in a slightly insulting tone.

"We didn't," Ann stated flatly. "We had a few fresh vegetables from our hydroponics section and our cargo of nova wheat. We'll have to pay a penalty for breaking into the grain, but it beat starving."

"Oh, I wasn't aware that you were carrying grain. You have filed a course plan to the planet Trondheim. What is your purpose there?" the Commissioner asked as she checked her MemoPad.

"To deliver the grain. If we're not too late. Our understanding was that it was for a farming experiment."

The Commissioner nodded. "Very well. It is somewhat surprising that you are not going to the inner systems to pursue your claim on-what did you call it? Farflung and Frisland? No matter. I'm sure you know what you are doing."

The tone of her voice said exactly the opposite, and Ann bristled slightly. "Our contract requires us to at least
try
to deliver our cargo. After that we will be able to 'pursue' our claim."