Chang
We’d finally moved onto the Magellan, late on oneday, after I’d taken shuttle two out on a quick fam, then eased her into the bay on the Magellan. Had to help block and secure the shuttle. Lerrys got stuck doing that on shuttle one. Second shuttle was more of a workhorse. No real passenger spaces, just cargo, and bigger and few holds. Made me wonder what they expected us to cart back. Still wondered from where.
Twoday and threeday, we did drills and fams on the equipment in the ops spaces on the Magellan.
Fourteen hundred on fourday, the captain announced that the Magellan was separating from Deep Find Station. Separating, not delocking. Probably because the Magellan was close to quarter the size of the station asteroid. Not mass, just size. Ship stood off the station running tests and diagnostics, but I knew we weren’t going back.
Sixteen hundred, Morgan gathered all the pilots and what looked to be most of the ship’s officers for a briefing in the ready room aft of ops on the Magellan. Forty-eighth deck, just below the bays that held the shuttles and the needleboats. Had both ramps and ladders up to the bays. Lifts didn’t go to the two outer decks. Ladders wouldn’t be used much unless we had to operate in null gee. With all the officers it was crowded.
Lerrys, Braun, and me—we were the shuttle pilots in the briefing room. All of us civilians wearing senior lieutenant’s bars. The other officers I knew by sight were the snip’s pilots—Commander Morgan; another commander whose name patch read LILEKALANI—the exec; Major Tepper; Major Singh; and Lieutenants Beurck, Lindskold, Rynd, and Rigney. There were three other pilots I didn’t know. Among all the pilots, Morgan, Lerrys, and Rigney were the only men.
After everyone was there, Captain Spier entered. With her was a civilian in an old-style blue shipsuit—not skintights. Iron gray hair, and he looked like he wanted to be anyplace else.
The captain stepped out in front. She took a long look around the ready room, then spoke. “All of you know that Project Deep Find is highly secret and of vital import to the D.S.S. and to the entire Comity. It is so vital that overall control has been delegated directly from the Comity Minister of External Affairs to Special Deputy Minister Allerde.” She gave a quick nod to the gray-haired man in the shipsuit. “Minister Allerde.”
Allerde cleared his throat. “Project Deep Find is the most ambitious undertaking attempted by any system in centuries…”
Wished that he’d get on with the superlatives and tell us what the frigging project was.
“… so ambitious that not even the Comity Assembly knows the nature of the project. Every person involved in the project has been specially selected, and, with the exception of Captain Spier and Commander Morgan, none of you have been told even the most general details of this endeavor…”
Kept wishing he’d get to the point.
“… Now that we are clear of Deep Find Station and will be departing shortly, I’ve been cleared to enlighten you on the overall nature of the project. Then Commander Morgan will follow with some of the specifics.” Allerde cleared his throat. “Project Deep Find is a technological, historical, and archeological investigation of an abandoned city of an alien civilization. The ruins are incredibly ancient, but are remarkably well preserved. They indicate that the aliens most probably possessed at least some facets of a technology well in advance of our present accomplishments. I trust that you can all understand why such secrecy has been necessary and why this mission is considered so vital to the Comity—and indeed to all human civilizations.” Allerde smiled professionally. “I wanted you all to know how important the Minister of External Affairs and the D.S.S. feel this is. Commander Morgan will fill in all the details that I’ve omitted.”
Allerde and the captain stepped back.
Morgan moved forward. “All of you have experienced the mission training.” He smiled, laughed softly. “Most of you thought it was a torture test to weed out all but the best. That’s true. But the conditions in the simulators were as close to what you’ll face as we could design.”
Low whistle came from Lerrys. Felt that way myself, but couldn’t whistle. Never could. Not so as I’d want to around anyone else.
“As Special Minister Allerde has indicated, our objective is what appears to be an outpost world of an ancient alien civilization. We will be traveling well beyond the galactic halo and deep into the void between galaxies. Our target is a renegade world that is crossing the void by itself. It has no sun, no satellites. It still rotates on its axis, if far more slowly than it once did. It’s barely within reach using a three-Gate translation. We’re calling it Danann. That may be wistful thinking, but it seems appropriate. The local gravity is approximately one-point-two Telluran standard. There’s no atmosphere because it all either vanished billions of years ago or froze solid. We have incontrovertible indications that it once hosted a very high-technology alien civilization. I must stress, again, that level of technology certainly appears to surpass anything we have accomplished to date.” Morgan paused.
Another confirmation that we were on a bastard mission—high risk, high payoff.
“Sir? Could I ask how we know that?” That was Major Tepper, the assistant ops boss.
“The D.S.S. has sent a number of ships out to investigate. Several did not return. Some of the local… conditions… were unexpected.” He coughed to clear his throat. “How many of you know about Chronos?”
Braun nodded. So did Commander Lilekalani. I’d never heard of it.
“Chronos was—or is—a galactic anomaly. It is a perfect sphere roughly one-point-two T-standard, but with something like two hundred eighty times T-standard mass. Danann has almost exactly the same diameter, although it’s not a perfect sphere, since it was once inhabited, and it’s linked to Chronos. In fact, that linkage was how it was discovered. AG drives leave ‘traces,’ certain minute disruptions in the membrane of the universe. That’s how graviton trackers operate. Because all concentrations of mass operate under gravitational conditions, they also leave such traces. One of the Comity scientists postulated that Chronos must have left an unusual AG track. His measurements and monitors discovered that the track of Chronos was twice as long as it should have been. That led to additional observations and a single unmanned Gate-probe. That probe discovered another anomaly and the discovery that the trace of Chronos was not just a trace of Chronos, but two traces, and that there was a good possibility that something lay at the far end of that distant track.”
I’m no astrophysicist. Had to take Morgan’s word for what he was telling us. Wondered how all the science led to the alien technology.
“That led to a gamble on the part of the Comity. They sent out Gates and ships. They found Danann. Estimates are that the world was abandoned more than six billion years ago. Rough topographical scans and one landing have revealed that one section of the planet was heavily urbanized—and abandoned in good order. We don’t know how to preserve something for that long, but the Danannians did. That alone is a good indication of then-technology.
“Danann is aimed at another galaxy. We don’t know whether that is by chance or design. Long before it will reach that galaxy, it will encounter a region of silent singularities. The rough ETA is three years. Danann may well survive that transit, but we do not have the technology to explore that area and survive. That transit will take thousands of years at best. We don’t know with enough certitude how much longer Danann will remain in an area of stable space…”