When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (12 page)

“System is
stable,” announced Sara. “No indications of enemy vessels.” The trip from GD 61 through Gliese 581 and then 61 Cygni had gone quickly and quietly with no enemy activity.

“Got it, thanks,” replied
Captain Griffin. This was Sara’s first system entry on her own. The CO decided that she liked it when Sara was at the science station. The first thing she had noted was enemy activity. With Steropes or Arges, it was often, “Wow, this is neat!” While the ‘neat things’ might be interesting from a scientific viewpoint, as the ship’s commanding officer she was much more worried about things that were going to kill her and her ship. Once a system was clear of any enemy activity,
that
was the time to go look at cool stuff. Not before.

“Hey
, Skipper,” Sara said. “When you were here last time, there were only two stargates, right? The one you came through from 61 Cygni, and the one you went through to WASP-18, right?”

“I think so,” answered Captain
Griffin. “Why?”

“Because
,” Sara replied, “I have another one showing on my scope that is so big and so clear, it almost appears to be throbbing with energy.”

“
May I see?” asked Steropes, getting up from the extra seat by Captain Griffin. He had wanted to be close enough to help if needed, but didn’t want to look over her shoulder. “I guess it’s possible that we missed one when we found out the planet was inhabited,” Steropes replied as he walked toward the science station. “Things got pretty exciting.” Reaching the scope, he looked down and gave a low whistle. “There’s no way we missed that,” he remarked. “That is new.”

“How did it get there?” asked Captain
Griffin. “I thought the stargates were linked black holes. Wouldn’t the shuttle crew have noticed someone running around moving black holes up here?”

“The data would indicate that no one noticed,” answered Steropes, “but I have no idea how this one
showed up here all of a sudden. It is close enough to where we enter the system that we would have seen it last time if it had been there. I do not know where it came from or how it got here.”

“
It’s almost like it’s calling us,” said Calvin.

“Ye
s,” agreed Steropes, “and that’s what scares me. It doesn’t have a big neon sign, but other than that, it’s about as obvious as it could be.”

“So close to where a planet was destroyed by the
Drakuls,” Captain Peotr Barishov commented. “You do not intend to go there, do you?”

“Yes,” replied Captain
Griffin, “I do.”

“
What?
” barked Captain Barishov. “Why do you think this is a good idea?”

“
I have lots of reasons,” replied the commanding officer, “not the least of which is that whatever is on the other side of the stargate
manipulated the stargate
. Do you know how to do that? I certainly don’t. If they can move black holes, don’t you think that they could destroy this one little cruiser if they wanted to?”

“The commanding officer makes a very valid point,” remarked Solomon. “The power required to manipulate the black hole would not even notice
the
Vella Gulf
as it crushed us into our component atoms.”

“I take it you want to go in there, Solomon?” asked Calvin. “You normally don’t volunteer your opinion.”

“I do not have opinions,” disagreed the artificial intelligence. “I am programmed to analyze data, and this is the logical conclusion. I am acquainted with your concept of hospitality and believe that whatever entity is beckoning us might find it rude if we do not take advantage of its offer. To not do so might be far more catastrophic than if we did.”

“I agree entirely,” said Captain
Griffin. “Helmsman, set course for the new stargate.”

“Stargate entrance in
five minutes,” announced the helmsman.

“General Quarters!” ordered the commanding officer.

The duty engineer pressed the button, and the alarm began sounding. The squadron already had all of the fighters manned up. They didn’t know what they would find on the other side of the stargate, but all of the ships were fully armed with anti-ship missiles and crewed with the most experienced crews.

“Comms, please let
Domus Control know that we are about to make transit through the new stargate,” said the commanding officer. They had previously informed the Terran ambassador on the planet Domus of their intentions to investigate the new stargate. The ambassador didn’t have any way of getting the word back to Earth if they were destroyed, but at least someone would know where they went if they didn’t come back.

“Done, ma’am,” replied the communications officer. “The ambassador wished us good luck.”

“Thanks,” answered Captain Griffin distractedly as she stared at the stargate looming in front of them. Although it didn’t look any different from the other ones she had previously gone through, it somehow felt different. She tried to convince herself that she was only being foolish, and that she was letting her nerves get the better of her. The blackness of the stargate continued to loom, and she had a last minute urge to call for full reverse on the engines. Before she could, the blackness engulfed them, and the stars stretched to infinity...then went black...then everything seemed to spin sideways forever...then there was a vermillion flash...

* * * * *

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Gliese 667 C System, August 3, 2020

The ship emerged
from transit with the ship pointed at the heart of a red dwarf star.

“
Did anyone else notice that the transit felt different?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Yes ma’am,” replied
Bullseye. “I’ve never felt that sideways spin before. That was weird.”

“Duty engineer,” the commanding officer called, “
get me a damage report.” She looked at Bullseye. “Launch all fighters!” she ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” said the engineer, listening to her damage control
network. “All stations are reporting that they have no damage, but all of the stations report feeling the same rotational force. The engineer is asking for 10 minutes to run full diagnostics before applying power.”

“Granted,” agreed Captain
Griffin. “Tell him to be ready to break it off at a moment’s notice. We may need to get out of here quickly.”

“That will be difficult,” stated Steropes, who was manning the science station.
“The stargate that we came through no longer exists.”

“
Doesn’t exist?
” repeated the commanding officer. “Where did it go?”

“Unknown at this time,” replied Steropes. “It must have been there for us to transit through, but it disappeared before the instruments had a chance to settle down after the transit.”

“Hey,” called the helmsman. “Anyone notice that there wasn’t a taste when we went through? Not salty, not sweet, not even bitter. I’ve never seen that before.”

“Curious,” mused Steropes. “I have never had that happen in all of the transits that I’v
e made. Not once in 5,000 years.”

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,”
said Sara in a stage whisper, looking over Steropes’ shoulder.

“All fighters launched,” announced
Bullseye. “They are proceeding in sections of two in all directions.” With six pairs of fighters, they could send one straight ahead in the
Vella Gulf’s
direction of travel, one straight behind them, one up, one down, one left and one to the right. They would go out to a distance of a million miles, extending the reach of the ship’s sensor network in a giant bubble.

“Talk to me Steropes,” said Captain
Griffin. “What have we got? Any enemy in sight?” This was one of those times that she wanted reassurance that there weren’t any enemy vessels around. Like,
NOW
, and wasn’t getting it.

“Oh! Yes!” replied Steropes. “Sorry, I was looking for the stargate. What did you want?”

“I’d like it a lot,” answered the CO dryly, “if you could tell me if there are any
enemies
in the vicinity.”

“Oh, yes, right away,” said Steropes.
He paused, looking at his scope. “No, there are no signs of either friendly or enemy activity in this system. By triangulation, and the fact that there are three stars in this system, I believe that we are in the Gliese 667 C system. There are two K-type main-sequence stars located about 230 astronomical units from the star that we are approaching. Gliese 667 C is the smallest star in this system. It is a red dwarf star with only about 31% of the mass of your Sun and 42% of the Sun’s radius. It is radiating only 1.4% of the Sun's luminosity.”

“
And there is no stargate to be seen?” asked Captain Griffin.

“No,” replied Steropes, “there is no stargate to be seen.”

“All right,” said Captain Griffin, not wanting to incite a panic about the stargate home disappearing, “let’s start the survey and find out where it went.”

CO’s Conference Room, TSS
Vella Gulf
, Gliese 667 C System, August 7, 2020

“The
Gliese 667 C system is part of the Gliese 667 triple star system,” explained Steropes to the assembled command staff of the
Vella Gulf
that had gathered in the CO’s conference room. “This system is located 22 light-years away from the Solar System in the constellation Scorpius. It has seven planets, all of which are super-Earths. They are like the Earth in form and composition although they are larger. Some are much larger. Of these seven planets, three are inside the habitable zone of Gliese 667 C, which runs from about 10 million miles to 23 million miles. In this region, liquid water is possible. Planets ‘c,’ ‘d,’ and ‘e’ are in this zone. Planets ‘a’ and ‘b’ are too hot, and planet ‘f’ is too cold.

“The orbit of
Planet ‘g’ is very interesting,” he continued, “as it is extremely eccentric in nature. Its orbit goes from inside of Planet ‘d’ to outside of Planet ‘f.’ In terms of the Solar System, its orbit goes from inside of Venus to out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is currently nearing its closest point of approach.”

“
Planet ‘c’ orbits Gliese 667 C at a distance of almost 12 million miles,” noted Sara, “which gives it an orbital period of 28 days. Based on the luminosity of Gliese 667 C at this distance, it would get about 90% of the light Earth does. As most of this would be in the infrared portion of the spectrum, Gliese 667 Cc should absorb more overall electromagnetic radiation, making it just a little warmer than Earth.”

“Is there a reason that you’re
focusing on Planet ‘c’?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Yes,
there is,” replied Sara. “We have found the remnants of a civilization on Planet ‘c.’”

“Then that is where
we should start our search for answers,” decided Captain Griffin.

“Indeed,” said Steropes, “
as we
must
find out what turns on and off the stargate.”

“Why is that?” asked Captain Griffin. “
Can’t we still get back to Earth on just the normal drive?”

“
Maybe,” replied Steropes. “We would, however, have to harvest more fuel before we left. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that it would take a long time, objectively, to the people on Earth.”

“What do you mean?”
asked Captain Griffin. “How
long?”

“
With 375 G of acceleration available, we can accelerate very nearly to the speed of light; unfortunately, as we get closer to the speed of light, time will slow down for us. At 0.99 of the speed of light, it would only seem like it took us about 17 days to get home, but during that time a little more than 22 years would have gone by for people on Earth. We’re 22 light years away; at the speed of light, it will take 22 years from the perspective of the people on Earth for us to get home.”

“That’s not good,” said Sara.

“No,” agreed Calvin, “it’s not. They’re going to think that we’ve been destroyed in a few months, much less 22 years. And if the Drakuls show up in that time...” He let the thought trail off.

“We need to find where the stargate went,” said Captain Griffin. “Let’s head for the
third planet and ‘c’ if we can find some answers.” She smiled at her weak attempt at humor. Lost in their own thoughts, no one else did.

“
One other thing that is interesting to note,” announced Solomon, “is that the planets are coming into alignment, which is a statistical anomaly. Not only is planet ‘g’ going to be at its closest point of approach, but all five of the outermost planets will be in alignment on one side of the star with the two innermost planets in alignment on the other side of the star. This alignment will occur tomorrow. The gravitational forces pulling the ‘c’ planet away from its star will be at their greatest at that time.”

“Why is that interesting?” asked Captain
Griffin. “Didn’t planets in the Solar System just line up recently?”

“
No,” replied Solomon. “The Solar System’s planets can’t ever line up perfectly because some of their orbits are tilted. The closest that they can come is to get within one degree of alignment in right ascension, which happens about once every 780 billion years. The fact that we are here at that one precise moment that the planets are in this alignment is extremely coincidental, and you asked me to point out things that are out of the ordinary.”

“How coincidental
is it that we are here now?” asked Captain Griffin.

Solomon paused to calculate and then said, “Like winning the lottery three times in a row.”

* * * * *