Crucible of a Species (7 page)

Lee looked up from his cup, “You can’t retune the gravitonic field?”

“You need to see the hull, sir; it’s much more than simple warpage. The distortions are too sharp and irregular for field tuning.

“I estimate three to six weeks in port. We’ll need to request Skyport to begin shipment of the major sections and materials as soon as possible so that they are waiting upon our arrival.

“Staying within safety margins, we should be in port in six weeks or more. Sorry sir, but that’s the best time we can achieve with these constraints.”

“Thank you Lieutenant.

“Any questions Colonel Drake? You appear uncharacteristically quiet.”

“No. No questions at this time Captain but I would like to speak with Lieutenant Anderson a little later, when time permits.”

“Very well, Colonel.

“Lieutenant Anderson, submit your supply requests to the XO as soon as possible. We’ll transmit them to Skyport Support Operations as soon as we reestablish contact. With any luck, you’ll have them waiting there when we dock.

“Commander Dalmas,” Lee called onto the bridge. “Take us out of orbit and back to port at best safe speed.”

“Aye, aye sir. Returning to Skyport; best speed.” The XO replied.

*~~*~~*~~*

The trip out to Jupiter
had been swift and exciting. On the thirty-two hour outbound voyage the Argos had accelerated to three percent of lightspeed before reaching the turbulence limit for travel within the Solar System.

Now Argos limped back to Earth at a fraction of that speed and, after five days of travel, they were still thirty-six hours from home. Engineering had used the time to remove most of the warped and twisted metal from the damaged areas inside the compartments. The bodies of the two crewmembers were never located. Repairs outside of the ship proceeded slowly.

The advances derived from the technology of the wave drive had resulted in a surge in traffic for inner-system travel as well as the installation of a chain of navigational buoys out along the edges of the asteroid belt. The outbound Argos had flown past the new Saturn Microbot Energy Swam Control outpost in Mars orbit and crossed the vast belt of rocks beyond to break records and reach their destination in a little over a day’s time. None of these man-made installations could be located on the ship’s slow return trip to Earth orbit.

Doctor Nolen’s science team used the time to try to compensate for the distorted sections of the damaged ship’s exterior. They achieved limited success but one scientist was making significant progress in a very different area.

I need to be rational about this
, Dr. Sandra Shieve said to herself as she reviewed the paper she would be submitting to the Physics Journal. In it, she detailed her observations and some calculations made from the data collected during the time the Argos entered Jupiter’s Red Spot.

Let’s be realistic. Chances are I won’t be part of this expedition after we get back to the Skyport. The ship will be in repairs for weeks and then we’ll go through the selection process again. The last time I made it by the skin of my teeth. This time, I’m toast.

She remembered standing in front of the review board defending her proposal. The captain raised objections to Sandra’s presence on the expedition. His classic comment still burned in her memory, “Why do we need an Earth Specialist when we’re going to a completely new star? She’s a geophysicist for God’s sake, next thing you’ll want to bring a botanist or an entomologist to study the bugs we find.”

Sandra tried to explain that as a geophysicist her expertise ran beyond the narrow boundaries of Earth, she researched the internal structure and evolution of the planet. From this work came a simulator that modeled variations in the pull of gravity across the planet and with it she calculated the movement of the liquid core at its center to map the drift of the magnetic poles. Skills, she contended, critical to understanding any new planet.

Sandra despaired at bringing the captain’s thinking around but then help came from an unexpected quarter; both Nolen and Thompson supported her proposal. Together they secured her passage although it came with the captain’s grudging agreement. He hadn’t spoken a word to her since that meeting. Sandra was convinced he had some personal dislike for her.

Well, it has been an exciting joy ride to Jupiter and back. At least I have this. Sandra read the conclusion section of her paper; ‘The Gravitonic Field Monitor was able to precisely measure the interaction between the ship’s drive field and the complex Gravitic Pulse of Jupiter. This technique promises to be an invaluable tool for the optimization of future drive designs, expanding our knowledge of complex gravitonic interactions.’

The entry chime startled her; Colonel Drake, Lieutenant Anderson and Midshipman Thornsen were outside.
At least Brittany’s smiling.
Sandra thought when she saw the dark expressions on their faces.

“Good morning Colonel, Lieutenant Anderson. Back so soon, Brittany? I thought I had driven you out in boredom yesterday.”

“Good morning, Dr. Shieve.” The Colonel’s rough voice sounded anything but good this morning. “We’d like to talk about your meeting with Midshipman Thornsen, please show us what you discussed with her.”

“Sure, Colonel. Let me grab my workstation and I’ll fire up the simulation. It might be better if we all went to the lounge.”

Colonel Drake pushed into her room while replying in his usual deep drawl, “I’d rather we had the privacy of your room, Dr. Shieve.”

Sandra stepped to the side as they entered and then stretched over to remove a thin plastic envelope from her briefcase. She reached inside and pulled out her paper-thin portable workstation and set it on the desktop. Sandra slid her finger across a small blue dot above the corner logo. The security sensor confirmed her DNA markers and the sheet reconfigured itself into a virtual keyboard with three thin photon wavefront transducers that projected an image of the Argos above her desk.

A framework of multicolored, translucent lines molded around the Argos as they watched and Sandra used the time to explain, “Last year I did some work for Boeing and developed a tool that allowed us to plot gravity anomalies across the globe. It occurred to me that the tool would be the best way to show Midshipman Thornsen how we could use the field strength data to optimize our drive’s tuning. Brittany suggested we examine the data taken during our crossover of the Red Spot’s event horizon. Here is what we found.

“The translucent lines you see surrounding Argos are the external field strength gradients, color-coded to intensity. This plot illustrates the ship under normal drive conditions as we began to accelerate to near light speed.”

Colonel Drake interrupted. “Show us the other sequence you discussed. I’d like to see what happened just as the Argos passed through the event horizon.”

Lieutenant Anderson leaned forward and held out a small black data stick, “Perhaps you could add this to your simulation? This dataset is from sensors in the damaged compartments in the Argos.”

“I don’t see why. The internal field is always in synchronism with those outside the ship,” Sandra said as she ported the data into her simulator and restarted the sequence. “Looks like it accepted your dataset. Let me increase the transparency of the ship’s hull so we can watch what is happening inside.”

As expected, the initial force lines inside the Argos were uniform and synchronized with the external waves of gravity. Just before crossing the event horizon, the field lines inside the compartment collapsed to a point and then shot out in a rotating beam that focused to rip through the tough external shell of the ship. Out in space, the force lines transformed into an expanding bulb of pure energy that crashed against the oncoming force-wall of the Red Spot’s event horizon and the massive strength of the gravitic storm pushed the ship’s field back into the compartment. Torrents of destruction smashed bulkheads, lashing across several other compartments in an instant only to disappear. The drive fields steadied and were back in control.

Those in the room sat in astonished silence until Lieutenant Anderson spoke, “I believe that is where, by lucky chance, the break in the hull resealed and, in doing so, shut down the reaction.”

The Colonel stood and Sandra was astounded at the depth of his quick understanding, “Dr. Shieve, I must ask that you do not discuss this with anyone else and that includes Doctors Nolen and Thompson. This is a matter of ship’s security.

“Our two specialists were in there when someone set off a second gravitic field inside the adjacent storage area. The ship’s drive reacted violently with the new field until we hit the Red Spot’s Event Horizon. A different kind of hell must have existed briefly in those compartments as the two fields collided.

“Our timing and survival through this whole episode is simply a matter of luck. The event horizon, outside the ship at the exact moment of the reaction, adsorbed and shut down the expanding gravitic field preventing it from consuming the Argos. It then drove the interaction back inside the hull to briefly rage in the compartments before somehow resealing the breach. If Argos had not been transiting the event horizon at that exact instant, the reaction would have consumed the ship and we would be nothing more than a hot cloud of antimatter particles.”

Cold blue eyes locked with Dr. Shieve’s, “Someone meant to destroy the ship. If we’re lucky, he was killed by the reaction.”

Sandra stammered, “Colonel Drake, what a horrible thing to say.”

“Is it Dr. Shieve? If he survived then somewhere on this ship we have a very angry saboteur anxious to try again.”

*~~*~~*~~*

“We are at the five minute mark, Captain.”
Ensign Waverly announced, “Tycho Base should then be visible above the lunar horizon.”

“Thank you Ensign. I’m on my way.” Captain Lee stretched, grabbing a mug of tea from the serving table as he passed.

“Captain on the bridge.”

Ignoring his station, Lee stood in front of the walldisplay of the moon resting on a magnificent star-filled background.

“Okay, let’s get a visual on the work area.”

The image magnified. Tycho lay in the harsh white light of the sun, a sharp and circular crater surrounded by a bright blanket of rays extending far across the surrounding lunar surface.

“Construction on the new base should be visible. Are you sure we’re looking at the proper sector, Ensign?”

“Aye, sir. It’s hard to not see Tycho, the crater stands out like a sore thumb. However, there’s more missing than just a construction site. At least five of the surrounding smaller craters are not visible. The rest of the terrain agrees with our charts.

“All the points of human presence on the moon including the First Landing site are gone. It’s like we were never here.”

“Doctor Nolen …. thoughts?” The captain asked as he turned from the screen.

“I have no idea. Perhaps we should contact Skyport.”

“Waverly, switch the visuals towards Earth.”

A hush took the control room as the image appeared. The major continents were gone, fragmented into dozens of unrecognizable landmasses separated by shallow seas.

Captain Lee swore under his breath. “What the hell has happened?”

Captain Adrian Lee
rose from his station turning to the scientists engrossed in a heated discussion at the back of the bridge.

“Doctors, please. This is not the proper place for an animated discussion. Let’s go back into my conference room.” Adrian turned to his XO, “Mr. Dalmas, you have the bridge. Please ask Dr. Shieve and Lieutenant Anderson to join us.”

Safely inside the secure walls of the conference room adjoining the bridge, the Captain turned to Nolen, “You and Dr. Thompson must respect the command environment on my bridge. You cannot let your discussions rise to the level of being disruptive and distracting. Okay, enough said. Let’s discuss our observations and decide where we go from here.” Lee took a seat at the table. “First of all, where the hell, are we and how did we get here?”

Nolen glanced at Thompson before answering, “I believe you need to consider ‘when’?”

“When?”

“Dr. Nolen is trying to tell you that there should be a time component in your question.” Drake offered. “Even an old marine can see that things have changed. Everyone seems to be gone, we haven’t had any outside communications nor have we been able to monitor others. Question is, when, where and why did they all leave?”

“The stars also differ.” Dr. Thompson commented as he poured himself a glass of water. “Our Pulsar navigational markers aren’t where they should be. I’d go so far as to say that I believe we’re more than a hundred million years in the past.”

“The past? Dr. Nolen almost sputtered. “Why, we could just as believably be in the future. How can you be so precise in your estimate?”

“The Moon’s Tycho crater; parts of it aren’t there. They have yet to be created. Dating of lunar samples from the area tell us an asteroid strike formed the crater about a hundred million years ago. So, that places us at least that far in the past.

“As to where … in the last few days, I managed to locate some of the missing Pulsar markers. Based on their repositioning, I believe we are all very far from where we were a few short days ago. The whole solar system has moved relative to the other stars of the galaxy. Here, let me bring up a graphic of our galaxy.”

Dr. Thompson linked into the ship’s library and an image filled the center of the conference table. “Everyone here is familiar with the pinwheel shape of our galaxy. Each arm of the pinwheel has a name. This is the Orion arm and throughout our history, our Sun has been located about half the distance out from the center, right about here.

“Our solar system and the arms of the galaxy travel at different rates. My calculations put our current location about here, between the Cygnus and Sagittarius arms and heading for the latter. When you look outside, that bright wall of stars ahead of us is the Sagittarius arm. We are on the opposite side of the galaxy relative to where we were just a few days ago.

“Our system’s rotation about the galactic center takes approximately two hundred and twenty million years. This implies our passage through the Red Spot carried the Argos one-hundred million years into the past.”

*~~*~~*~~*

Dr. Sandra Shieve hesitated
a moment before entering the conference room. The last two days had been a blur as she delved into the data gathered from the sabotage attempt. There was so much more to learn from the analysis and here they were, docking with the Skyport much too soon. Surely, they’d give her a few more days to work on the analysis.

Maybe the meeting concerned the sabotage attempt. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to contact the Colonel to find out just how much of the incident she could discuss with the Captain. With any luck, Colonel Drake would also be here.

Sandra entered and her heart nearly stopped. Dr. Thompson and Captain Lee appeared to be in a heated discussion while Nolen sat in a neglected pose off to the side.

Oh shoot. This doesn’t look like a happy place. I hope they aren’t arguing about me. Sandra took a deep breath, “You wanted to see me, Captain?”

The Captain abruptly stopped his discussion and turned toward her. “Dr. Shieve, excellent timing. We need another opinion and this should be right up your alley. Does this look familiar?”

Sandra suddenly noticed what he was looking at; there was a planet below them. Her eyes shot over to the walldisplay settings and confirmed it was a live outside image. She would have expected to see the Earth but that wasn’t the planet she knew.
It’s strange, all wrong
, Sandra thought
, it can’t possibly be and yet, something about it is familiar.

She noticed the seven continents were gone. This world had many smaller landforms, strangely clumped together toward the northern pole.
Pole? There are no ice caps and yet it supports oceans of blue, sparkling waters. Even the skies are wrong, they’re too clear. Except for those high wisps of white, it’s almost cloudless. What a strange place and yet …

Fascinated, Sandra moved closer to the front of the room. She couldn’t rip her eyes from the hauntingly familiar image.

“Doctor Shieve,” the Captain stood beside her, “right now we should be in Earth orbit, ready to dock at the Skyport. As you can see, the Skyport is gone and that planet in front of us looks nothing like the Earth.

“Hell, we don’t even see ground lights on the dark side.” The Captain slowly turned toward the tall blond doctor, now conveniently beside him, “We were beginning to doubt our own senses when Navigation ran a spectral analysis of the atmosphere. Oh, it’s Earthlike enough all right, except for the fact that it is 35% richer in oxygen.”

The Captain stared into her eyes and with lowered voice addressed her, “As our resident geophysicist, Doctor, what has happened to the Earth?”

Captain Lee stared his challenge at the young geophysicist with a look that past years had left many an ensign quaking in their boots. To his surprise, Shieve did not return his gaze. The Captain was astounded to see her looking beyond him, standing there with jaws slightly open, simply staring at the planet. He fought down a growing wave of frustration fueled by the rising smirk on the corners of Thompson’s mouth. “Dr. Shieve!”

Doctor Shieve jumped and tried to regain her composure. “I don’t … Wait, yes that was it, Johenson’s thesis. It’s almost a perfect match!” Suddenly energized, Sandra reached for her satchel, “I really don’t know how to put this, Captain. In fact, I’m not sure I really believe it myself. Tell me, have you performed an analysis of the biosphere below us?”

Astonished by her question, the Captain’s frustration abated, “Of course not. We have not examined the local life forms if that’s what you mean. Why should we?”

“I suggest you run a biosphere analysis as soon as possible, however …” A flush ran across Dr. Shieve’s face. She gave the Captain a weak smile, “Here, let me show you.”

She nervously began to search through her tablet.
Where is that paper?

Sandra brushed back a wisp of blond hair while opening the file, “What you see is the Earth. There is no question about it since the layouts of the land-masses are unique for this period in the planet’s history.”

“Dr. Shieve, now you are beginning to sound like Dr. Thompson. Next thing you’ll be trying to tell me …”

Sandy linked her Tablet to the projector. Distracted by the sudden appearance of the image, the Captain glanced back, “Good Lord, I don’t believe it.”

An illustration, very similar to the planet below them, appeared as an inset on the walldisplay with a notation below it stating ’99 - 100 Mya’.

“Yes sir, we are looking at a map from a doctoral thesis published by a geophysicist showing the calculated map of the Earth of ninety-nine million years ago.

“I don’t know how, but I believe we see the Earth as it appeared during the Mesozoic epoch. Plate tectonics have altered the positions of the continents compared to our familiar world. You might not have even noticed the continental shift if it wasn’t for the fact that the waters here are much deeper than on the planet of our origin. In fact, fossil planktonic foraminifera studies suggest the seas were more than three hundred fifty feet deeper than our oceans.

“It’s considerably warmer down there. I expect we will see relatively little variation in temperature across the globe right up to the Polar Regions. Didn’t you notice there were no icecaps? You may also have noticed the skies are almost devoid of any cloud cover in spite of the large ocean area. That’s because the flux of cosmic rays are much lower during this period.”

Commander Dalmas called from the bridge to break into the conversation, “Captain, the drone we sent out is returning its first sensor scans. Control is yours if you wish to take it.”

“Thank you, Commander.” Turning back toward Sandra he continued, “Fortunately, it will be quite easy to confirm or disprove your claim. You see, while we didn’t order a complete biosphere study, we did send down a low altitude drone.”

The image faded and a window opened presenting a three dimensional panorama. Wave tops on an iridescent blue sea passed beneath as they flew towards a distant shoreline. Clear water with patches of seaweed and sand passed below the surface. Lee’s tattoo grabbed control of the drone and he directed the craft to turn in towards the beach. They passed shallow coral reefs, resplendent in color as they rose to touch the surface. Birdlike creatures filled the air and occasional circular areas of rippled water spoke of unseen but vast schools of life.

Lee instructed the drone to work its way up the shoreline following the edge of low waves lapping a sandy beach. On shore, dark green tropical palms and brush formed a solid wall of jungle growth bordering a brilliant white-sand beach. Their flight path tracked the shoreline until a clearing opened into lush, tidal swamps formed by a river’s mouth. Sandra nearly cried out in amazement as strange, colorful flying creatures rose into the air. It was difficult to follow their antics but very few looked like birds. Dr. Shieve was shocked. She had not anticipated the myriad of colors or the abundance of life.

Then a hushed silence descended upon them. In the distance, they could see herds of animals grazing peacefully on a brush-covered plain extending along the sides of the river.

“Dinosaurs …”, someone in the room said in an awed, almost reverent tone.

As their flight approached the herd, several of the larger animals stood out clearly. They were big with snouts shaped like duckbills. Their movements were graceful and fluid whether feeding on all four legs or standing upright on their two hind legs to watch as they chewed their food. The adults had soft-looking, cream colored bellies and the tops of their heads were elongated and curved. Some of the larger animals held aloft magnificently colored heads, covered with fuzzy down-like layers of blue and red that gradually changed into an iridescent gold extending down their backs.

The shapes of the animal’s heads were a dead giveaway in spite of the unexpected downy covering of bright feathers. These were creatures extinct for more than sixty five million years, now peacefully grazing on the plain of the river’s edge.

Dr. Shieve softly commented, “Dinosaurs, Captain. It is a herd of Hadrosaurids. They are sometimes referred to as duck-billed dinosaurs and lived across most of the Cretaceous period of our Earth’s history.

Dr. Thompson, still up in the front of the room, broke the trance, “I’m not exactly sure how we did it but, I suspect that getting home may be a bit more difficult than anticipated.”

*~~*~~*~~*

Those on the bridge
had seen the drone’s flight and Commander Dalmas knew rumors would already be flying through the ship. One of the first things a good XO learned to do was to anticipate the needs of the Captain and, in this case, that meant he needed to give his buddy, Lieutenant Braxton Johnson, a call.

“Hey Braxton, I thought you’d like a heads up on this one …”

“… and let me guess, Tom. You want me to pull out one of the Hunter’s and prep it for a flight down to the surface. So what should we bring back? A bronto-burger or a T-Rex steak?”

“You’re kidding. You mean the rumor mill has already gotten all the way down to you guys?”

“These aren’t exactly run-of-the-mill rumors and your reply just confirmed them, thank you. Don’t worry; we’ll be ready when he asks. Any idea on how many passengers I’ll have to take along and do I need to prepare for a boots-on-the-ground recon?”

“Not sure but I’d prepare for two or three people on an extended survey with multiple stops. They’ll want to evaluate the local availability of raw materials for the siliceram structures as well as a safe base camp location where we can work on the ship.”

“You mean the Captain plans to take the whole ship down there?”

“I haven’t been told yet,” Commander Dalmas replied, “but I don’t see what choice he has at this point. Remember, that isn’t home down there. It may look familiar at times but don’t let your guard down for a moment.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll have her ready to go when you want and, between you and me, I’m looking forward to the break in routine.”

“Lieutenant Johnson, this will not be a joy ride. We have no idea what you are going to encounter down there.”

*~~*~~*~~*

A nanotech hunter spider
raced across the floor of the conference room in its search for shipboard pests. The hunter caught the eye of Captain Adrian Lee as the device leaped to snatch a passing fly. The Captain thought it a bit ironic that the pest had survived this long only to finally die so very far from home. With a touch of self-annoyance for the distraction, he turned back toward the conference
.