Ground Lock Two was a converted Momsen lock. Momsens were escape hatches, designed for the crew to exit the submarine in the event of an underwater emergency. Called “Mom” hatches by the crew, none had ever been used successfully. But when families were given tours of the boat the crew could point to the hatch and say: “See, Mom, if anything goes wrong we can get out that way.”
The lock, which was already oriented downwards, had been converted into an elevator capable of holding three Wyverns or five unsuited individuals. In this case it held Jaenisch, Bergstresser and Hattelstad. While Dr. Dean had argued strenuously that he should be the first person to set foot on “his” world, the SOP for planetary survey was fixed: Security went out first.
On boarding, the first step had been decontamination. Just as nobody wanted to bring some alien bug on the boat, the egghead and diplomat consensus was that the reverse was also the case. The elevator was first flushed with air, then pumped full of water with a caustic agent in it. Then the suits were dried. It took about five boring minutes to start descending.
There wasn’t much conversation as the circular aliglass elevator exited the boat and lowered to the ground. The team had trained for this moment and each man knew his job. So they were just really hoping they didn’t grapp up.
As soon as the elevator grounded, Jaenisch slid back the door and stepped out, striding ten meters forward in his Wyvern and taking a knee, the mounted 7.62mm Gatling gun tracking back and forth in search of threats.
Hattelstad followed, moving to his right and turning right rear, with Bergstresser looking left rear.
“Full scan,” Jaenisch ordered, changing the input parameters of the primary camera. First he scanned through the full electromagnetic spectrum, starting in deep infrared and scaling up all the way to X-rays. Then he switched to secondary particles and waves. Nothing. “Watch this light gravity. You can jump the Wyverns in this and lose control.
“Anybody got anything on passive?” Jaenisch asked.
“Nada,” Hattelstad said.
“Got a bunch of stuff coming out of the boat,” Bergstresser said. “Grapping quarkium drive’s got me whited out that way. Other than that, nada.”
“Go active,” Jaenisch said, switching on his radar and multifrequency lidar. A full sweep by the trio showed nothing but volcanic rock and some sort of red vegetation down by the seashore. If there was anything there, it was invisible to Earth and Adar tech sensors.
“Blade, this is Alpha Team,” Jaenisch said. “We have zero signs of threat.”
“Send out one more team of security,” the CO said. “Then the survey teams. Tell the eggheads they’re just going to have to wait. No offense, Commander Weaver.”
“None taken, sir,” Bill replied.
“And, yes, you can go out, too,” the CO added. “Take that SEAL with you.”
“Yes, sir,” Bill replied. “Thank you, sir.”
“I’m not going to sit here with you bouncing around the compartment,” the CO said with a grin. “Which you would be if I didn’t let you out of the boat.”
“We need to lay in a full seismic survey,” Dr. Dean said as Runner slid open the doors of the elevator. “And a random survey of the rock surface. When are we getting the drill?”
“It’s being assembled right now, Doctor,” Runner said, holding out one arm of the Wyvern. “Sir, you need to follow us.”
“Very well,” Dean said impatiently. “Play your silly games. But head inland as we exit. I want to get up to where the rocks haven’t been disturbed by the Marines.”
“Security, Geo Two,” Runner said. “We’re headed up to the hills inland. Dr. Dean requests that the Marines not ‘disturb’ the rocks before we get there.”
The voice-activated system automatically transferred the call to the ground force commander.
“Understood, Geo,” Captain MacDonald replied dryly. “I’ll try to keep my boys from messing anything up.”
“This is one mothergrapping cold ball of ice,” Miller said. He swiveled the head of the Wyvern to look around, then started dancing sideways.
The Mark V Wyvern was a significant upgrade over the Mark IIIs that were the last Miller had used. But they still had some issues. He swore the Adar had made them more likely to disco. At least for him.
“Oh, it’s not all that bad,” Weaver argued. “I mean, it doesn’t look like much right now…”
Miller got the feedback loop under control and overrode the “head” controls to pan around in a 360.
The volcanic island wasn’t a complete loss. Throw in about thirty C of temperature, some palm trees and… well just about everything and it would make a hell of a resort.
The shore was almost pure lava rock. Indeed, most of the vista was lava rock. That which wasn’t a crashing sea. With no continental landforms, the waves had thousands of miles to build up steam and some of them were nearly two hundred meters high. And the winds that drove them were high. The two humans probably couldn’t have stood against the gale if it wasn’t for the Wyverns.
More Wyverns were spread out across the rocky terrain, though. The planetology and biology teams were out collecting samples. On the outer perimeter the Wyverns of the Marine security were hunkered down and looking for threats. Threats were pretty unlikely in Miller’s opinion, but the Dreen had turned up in some damned unlikely places. All they needed was a little biosphere and they were in like flint.
There was some vegetation. Red tendrils straggled up from the edge of the incredible surf. Some of them had flowerlike heads that waved in the howling wind.
“Don’t look like much is putting it mildly,” Miller said. “Although I could probably do a nice arrangement with some of those flowers…”
“You SEALs never look up,” Weaver said.
Miller toggled the override and looked up.
“Okay,” he said about a minute later. “You’ve got a point.”
E Eridani Beta was a striped gas giant with the striations of massive winds and storms rippling its gaseous surface in a dozen colors. Hovering overhead, it was the dominating feature of the sky.
But while it dominated, it wasn’t the only thing in the clear sky. At least a half a dozen lesser moons were in view, moving fast enough to track. They reflected the light of the planet, and with their own varied surfaces they were a rainbow of color in the sky.
Last but not least, there was a thin, very dark, ring around the planet, close in.
All in all, it was a spectacular sight.
“I mean, there could be intelligent life,” Weaver argued.
“Yep, there it is, right there,” Miller said, pointing.
“Where?” Weaver asked, excitedly.
“Them flowers,” Miller said. “Smartest things on this planet. They finally crawled out of the water, looked around, went ’Maulk, this is one mothergrapping cold ball of ice of a planet’ and devolved back to flowers. I know that if I developed consciousness on this planet, I’d lose it as fast as possible. Through repeated blows to the head if necessary.”
“Alpha Team,” Lieutenant Berisford said. “Geo is heading up to the hills. They have requested that you not ‘mess anything up’ but I want you to move up there and cover them. Ensure the security of Dr. Dean especially. In the event of emergency, screen their retreat. Charlie, I want you moving to a secondary position. Bravo, you’re with me in reserve.”
“Let’s move,” Jaenisch said, bounding into a run.