J McKenna: Slave Planet

“OK, crew. Let’s get back to our posts, Jenir is next,” she said softly.

It took a fourteen hours at impulse speed to reach Jenir, which had a very thin atmosphere. It was essentially a hunk of rock hurling through space.

“Looks a little like Mars,” Greta said.

“Yeah, it does,” agreed Kate. “Ready the probes. Maybe there will be some interesting minerals that NASA will find useful.”

“Yeah, maybe it’s made of gold,” Beth smiled. “We could start a new gold rush out here.”

Ally launched the probe and within a half-hour, the telemetry started flowing into the Letanya’s databanks. The rock was composed mostly of iron ore, quartz and nickel.

Kate looked at the time. “All right, it’s going to be another nine hours before we approach Castella. We’ve had a long day. Commander, set up a crew rotation. I know everyone’s probably sick of sleeping, but we need to be alert when we check out these next two planets.”

Tomorrow could be the day they make history, the crew thought as one.

Castella, the fourth planet, was festooned with ice. Great floes bobbed in the oceans, sheets of ice covered the continents.

“Temperature is 9 degrees currently. And it’s this planet’s equivalent of high noon,” Greta said, clearly disappointed.

“Well, that’s a darn sight better than the minus 80 degrees we recorded last night,” Kate said, looking at the monitor at the orb filling the screen.

The planet was beautiful—blue white and mysterious, its charms hidden beneath the ice. The Letanya sent down an explosive probe in an effort to reach the surface, but only succeeded in burrowing twenty feet into the glacier that covered the largest continent.

“Let’s move on,” Kate said suddenly. “Maybe we’ll have more luck with Devon.”

There was general agreement. Their mission was a huge success to date, yet the crew was vaguely disappointed. Four planets and none could support life. They were hoping for algae, plankton, ameoba—anything! Some new plant forms would be a welcome discovery.

“It’s going to take us another three days to reach Devon at impulse speed,” Kate said impulsively. “How about if we kick this thing in the ass and do a jump warp?”

Eyebrows were raised all around. A “jump warp” is definitely not recommended by NASA. It involves a short hop at warp speed to close distances quickly. It’s equivalent to popping an aerocar into overdrive during a trip to the store.

Allyson was surprised by Kate’s boldness. While Ally loved flying hot and fast when training on hyperjets back home, Kate was more conservative, an attribute that helped win her the captaincy. NASA doesn’t let hot-shots fly their multi-billion-dollar spaceships.

“I’m impressed, captain,” she said.

Kate reddened. “How much time could we save, commander?”

Ally did a quick calculation. “To bring us into position ten thousand kilometers from Devon, we’d need a, hmm, twelve-second warp.”

Kate turned to the others. “What do you say—three days or twelve seconds?”

There was instant agreement. They’d all been too long in space to crawl along at impulse speed.

“OK, set it up. Let’s strap in.” Kate took her position, then looked around to make sure everyone else was secure. “No. 1, are you ready?”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

“All right. Engage.”

The stars blurred, an optical illusion created by warp drive. The ship shuddered for a moment, then the ride smoothed out as the ship hurled forward. Everyone hung on as if they were on a ride at Disney World, forgetting the fact that they had just spent seven months in warp. Being sound asleep helped.

Mentally, Kate counted off the seconds, then double-checked her guess when she reached ten. She looked down as the panel display ticked to ten—pretty close, she thought. The next two seconds seemed agonizingly slow.

The end of warp came with another shudder, the stars winked, then came into focus. The crew found themselves looking at Devon straight ahead as if it had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was a beautiful, blue-green and tan planet, full of promise.

“Check status!” Kate barked, worried that somehow, her impetuousness had endangered the mission.

“Green board,” Ally responded immediately. “On course, ten thousand kilometers out, sir.”

Kate breathed a sigh of relief and let her eyelids close briefly. “OK, let’s man our stations. Looks like we have an excellent candidate here.”

The Letanya sailed through the airless depths, closing fast on the mysterious sphere. The crew could see clouds over the mixture of sea and land. They all knew that clouds meant both rain and atmosphere, two vital components to life.

In a few minutes, they reached high orbit. “Launch probe,” Kate said and Greta bent over the panel. A tiny vibration told them it was on its way.

Everyone held her breath as the probe rocketed down to the planet. It was designed to act like a missile until it reached the atmosphere, then fire retro-rockets to slow its descent. A parachute deploys at sixty thousand feet, allowing it to drift down, collecting data and radioing the information back to the ship.

“Chute deployed!” Greta sang out. “Telemetry coming in!”

Seconds dragged by. Kate wanted to shout at Greta to hurry up, but knew it always took the computer a little time to digest the information.

“Atmosphere—twenty-two percent oxygen, seventy-seven percent nitrogen!” Greta couldn’t help but speak in exclamation points. The planet had breathable atmosphere—a stunning discovery. “Temperature, twenty-two degrees and rising!”

That was expected—the probe was still high up. “Humidity, seventeen percent.” Greta was calmer now. She had the floor and enjoyed the feeling that everyone was listening with rapt attention.

“Thirty-one degrees. Probe is at forty thousand feet. Looks like it’s going to be a warm day, sir.”

That was true—if it’s thirty degrees eight miles up, it could be rather hot at sea level. Perhaps even too hot for the away team. Still, Kate was encouraged by the data.

“Thirty thousand feet, thirty-nine degrees.”

Everyone was on the edge of her seat now. The probes were designed to scan for lifeforms, but had a limited range. It had to drop below twenty-five thousand feet for large beings, and much lower for smaller ones. The silence stretched on.

“Twenty-five thousand, fifty degrees,” Greta said, her eyes locked on the readout. Suddenly, she turned and looked around, eyes wide. “Lifeforms,” she breathed. “Apparently mammalian. Large numbers. Many types.”

There was a cheer, a sudden outburst of emotions that had been pent-up for months. Kate high-fived Ally, Beth hugged Jorja. The atmosphere was electric. Mammalian creatures breathed in oxygen and regulated their own temperature, just like the mammals of Earth. It was a huge discovery—far greater than any previous mission had discovered. Kate couldn’t wait to send NASA the report on this finding.

Jorja broke in to the revelry. “Are we going to detonate?”

It was a sobering question. If any of these lifeforms were intelligent—a big if—the Prime Directive required that the crew detonate the probe before it could be spotted by any beings on the ground. Earthlings must not interfere with the development of another species and the idea of a strange, otherworldly object drifting down from the heavens could have unforeseen consequences. At a minimum, it would scare the crap out of them.

On the other hand, detonation robbed them of vital data closer to the ground. They hadn’t established if the mammals were intelligent. It wouldn’t matter to a bunch of cows, for example, if an object from space dropped into their midst. The problem is, they didn't know yet.