SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system
May 19, 2050, 08:11 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The ESRS Carl Sagan exited from sub light speeds and entered orbit around the frozen planet of SB-417. The planet’s orbital path not only placed it as the furthest away from Sirius B, but also away from Sirius A in the distance, thus making it the most remote planet between Sirius A and B.
Foster glared at the dark ice-covered planet from the windshield and wondered if this is what Earth would look like in several million years, after the sun goes through its red giant stage then shrinks into a white dwarf. Though in Earth’s case, its oceans would have long boiled away, this planet however still had its oceans, they just froze over.
“Deploy another probe, let’s get some detailed scans on that ice,” Foster said.
“We might want to do more than that,” Pierce said.
“Oh?”
“Now that we’re closer we got a better idea on what’s on the surface.” Foster stood behind him and looked at his computer screen. He directed her attention to the appearance of several objects on the surface, partially encased in snow and ice. “Those don’t look natural to me.”
“Those look like structures.”
Several areas of the surface, that was once solid land before the big freeze, had cylinder-shaped structures that surrounded several pyramid-shaped ones. The pattern of shapes was constant throughout the planet, there was no way it was a natural formation of rocks or ice.
“Intelligent life was here,” Pierce said.
“Most of these structures are at least two kilometers away from the ice too, guess you were right about the frozen ocean,” said Foster.
“Makes sense, Sirius B was a red giant and therefore this planet during that time received enough heat to have an ocean. What doesn’t make sense however is that’s not enough time passed for life to evolve, an intelligent species to advance, and build these before dying off.”
Pierce was right, given what was known about the Sirius system. White main sequence stars burn their fuel quickly which results in them swelling to a red giant, then collapsing into a white dwarf faster than a star such as Sol. With an age of two to three hundred million years, Sirius B only spent a fraction of those years as a red giant, so there was no way for anything major such as the evolution of multicellular life to arise on SB-417. The planet would have at best had flowing water on the surface, but nothing more unless a species that had access to interstellar travel arrived during that time.
Either that, or what they knew of evolution was completely wrong. The latter seemed least likely as the Radiance database proved that life had evolved throughout the galaxy in a similar manner and timespan as that on Earth. Not precisely, but pretty damn close.
“Nobody is dead.” Tolukei’ s deep voice rang out.
Both Foster and Pierce faced him and said in unison, “What?”
“I sense psionic activity on the surface,” Tolukei said. “It’s very weak.”
“You’re saying someone, something is alive down there? In this cold and darkness? And it’s a psionic?” Foster said.
“I am saying there is a weak psionic force on the surface,” Tolukei said.
“Captain, permission to lead a survey team?” Pierce asked Foster.
“Granted, though I’ll be leadin’ it.”
Foster strode toward the exit of the bridge as Pierce followed excitedly behind.
“Isn’t the captain’s place on the bridge?” Williams said before she exited.
“Not this captain,” Foster said to Williams. “I didn’t travel over fifty trillion miles from Earth to sit on the bridge all day barking orders. Dom, you have the bridge.”
Williams nodded. “Understood.”
“I saw you eyeing that chair, so don’t be bashful, keep it warm for me.”
7 CHEVALLIER
ESRS Carl Sagan, Docking bay
SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system
May 19, 2050, 08:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Master Chief Petty Officer Mathilda Chevallier grinned as one of the crew had referred to her as ‘MC,’ a nickname that had quickly grown on her since coming aboard. She double-checked to ensure her equipment was good to go alongside her CO, Commander McDowell, and Petty Officer Third Class Kingston.
McDowell asked her and Kingston to join him, as the captain and some science officer insisted on traveling to the surface. Chevallier, and the rest of the party wore standard issue UNE Hammerhead combat armor complete with personal shields and helmet. The armor also doubled as an EVA suit allowing them to perform a space walk and traverse the surface of a hostile environment, like the one below. It even worked well in deep-sea operations, truly living up to the name Hammerhead.
Chevallier looked at the docking bay as she hovered in the weightless environment. On UNE battleships, this section of the ship was reserved for the storage and launching of transports or Solaris fighters. Here on the Carl Sagan, there were transport ships . . . and more transports, a few dormant probes, exploration rovers, and a bunch of other weird gizmos. She had no idea what they were called or what they did. She wasn’t impressed.
“So, I hear the bridge crew gets nice soft chairs to sit in,” Kingston said to her.
“Does that surprise you?” Chevallier said. “They’re not military; they can’t handle standing up too long.”
“It’s a Radiance design,” McDowell said. “They have seats for every station on their bridges.”
“I’m still sticking to my story,” Chevallier said.
Kingston laughed as he performed a somersault by some strange means to impress her, she rolled her eyes at him. “Can’t believe we got stuck on this boat that’s run by non-military.”
“Eggheads aren’t fighters, they run the ship and from time to time get out and look around,” McDowell said.
Chevallier watched Kingston perform another zero-g somersault, he was clearly bored and growing impatient. “Then why is the Captain coming along?”
“The fuck if I know, guess she think she’s hot shit,” Chevallier said. “I hear she hasn’t been in proper uniform since coming out of cryo. Way to lead by example.”
McDowell snorted. “You’re one to talk MC?”
Chevallier looked at McDowell’s tall body and bald head, shot him a smug grin and said, “No, sir.”
He didn’t smile back, and she knew why. Chevallier’s long reputation of butting heads with officers was well-known throughout the navy, including the personnel assigned to the ship. There was not a single doubt in her mind that McDowell was asked to join the team at the last second as a means of undermining what was supposed to be her command and leader of all UNE navy personnel and Hammerheads. They glared at each other, Chevallier may have had a smaller and slimmer body compared to him, but she was still a fiery redhead who had broken the bones of men twice her size in the past.
She moved away from McDowell and hovered next to a weapons locker, then keyed in the pass code on the terminal’s touch screen. As its doors slid open she listened as Kingston and a crewman spoke. They were rambling about her. She held onto her eRifle and acted as if she was performing systems tests on it.
“What’s her story?” The crewman asked.
“HLF attacked a temple set up for Radiance in New Miami,” Kingston said. “She disobeyed orders, got everyone killed including her team. Got grilled by her CO, then broke his nose. But she’s the daughter of Captain Chevallier of the Wilfrid Laurier, so she got off with a slap on the wrist and was shipped out here, so they wouldn’t have to deal with her or the bad publicity.”