Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (45 page)

“Well, you can call off your high paid brains,” the General laughed.  “One of my enlisted specialists has already decrypted the message.  We also already know that it is originating from the largest building at the target site.”

Peter looked at the General on his desk monitor in Houston. “Excuse me General, did you say you have someone that has already decrypted the message?”

“That is correct.  One of the engineering specialists on the Honstein figured it out in about five minutes.  The signal seems to be a beacon that is transmitting the periodic table over and over.  The crew of the Honstein believes that this is a beacon that is calling out to the universe letting people know it is there.  That is assuming of course that the listeners’ are someone intelligent enough to have figured out the periodic table.  Quite clever we all think, whoever they are.  We agree with Colonel Pierce and his crew.  We do not see this as a threat and agree this is more of an invitation by someone or something to come and find us.”

Mike was scribbling on his e-pad and looked up.  “I have to commend your crewman who figured this out.  I do believe that he is right.  The numbers of pulses do match the stable elements of the periodic table.  I would not think that beaming out the periodic table should be considered a hostile act,” said Mike.

Peter spoke up.  “I agree.  I guess the question now is how to proceed.”

“Correct,” said the General.  “We want to know why the beacon started when the Honstein started surveying the planet and not before, as when the probe arrived.  Is it automated, or did someone turn it on?”

Peter spoke up, “General, we know that the planet has been frozen solid for at least nine or ten thousand years. The geological data we have collected from the probe makes us think that it has always been frozen.  I believe that the beacon started when something detected the radar pulse from the David Honstein.  If you both remember, the left instrument boom on the probe was damaged in route to the planet.  That boom had the terrain mapping radar.  It is very likely that whatever activated the beacon did so as it passively detected the Honstein’s radar.  This is most likely an automated beacon.  I would say it is impossible that the site we have discovered could have supported any type of life for the amount of time that it has been frozen in deep space.  This is quite remarkable, and says a lot for the builder’s technology, that the equipment controlling the beacon still functions after all this time.  Everyone here at JPL still thinks the site is abandoned.  I think we should proceed as planned.”

“I agree with Peter,” Mike said, “but ultimately it is your ship and crew up there, General.  It will be your decision.  I do want to remind you that it will be years before we can get another manned mission there, though.  The alignment of Earth and Elpis is not going to be conductive for another mission for at least four years.”

General Seale sat in silent thought for a minute.  “Gentlemen, I am going to let Colonel Pierce, the ships commander make the call.  He is there, and it is his command.  My personal opinion is that we should proceed.  That is the reason that we sent the Honstein out there for.  If the Colonel feels it is a risk to his ship and crew, I will not order him to proceed.  I have my concerns about whether the lander can even make it down anyway.  Colonel Pierce reports the whole planet is socked in with clouds.  We have no idea what the visibility level is lower in the atmosphere.  It could be the fog and clouds are so thick that we could see nothing even if it was right in front of the lander’s nose.  I will keep you both informed of our plans."

“Doctor Banscott, I would ask that you please brief the President.  Although the Russians and Chinese have no real presence in space at the moment, I have no doubt that the satellites they still do have up are monitoring us constantly.  They will pick up the beacon signal and we may get some competition in the near future. Now, if you will excuse me I have some orders to send to Colonel Pierce.  The General signed off the conference and motioned to the technician who was standing by outside the cubicle.  “Can you please set me up a conference with Colonel Pierce on the Honstein?  I understand about the message delay due to the distance, but I want to see his face when I talk to him.”

Chapter 52

February 12
th
, 2043

Elpis Geosynchronous Orbit

Colonel Pierce looked over his crew that had assembled on the ship's mess deck.  He would never get used to talking to a group of people when some of them were floating upside down or seemed to be standing on a bulkhead.  The lack of gravity usually meant everyone just grabbed something convenient when in zero G.  The habitation ring of this class of ship was never spun up for centrifugal gravity when maneuvering, accelerating, or conducting any type of operations where the crew was entering or exiting the ship.  Three of his crew members had just returned from an EVA where they had done the final checks on the lander pod and released it from its storage clamps.

“Ok, everybody listen up.  As you know, we have been given the go ahead to attempt the landing with the robot lander.  Lieutenant Allan Greco will be piloting it remotely and hopefully if all goes well he can put the lander down at the landing site we have identified about a kilometer from the artifact site.  If it makes it down, he will deploy the airship first to perform close reconnaissance of the area and locate the areas of major interest.  After that has been accomplished, he will deploy the robot rover and traverse to the areas that have been identified.

Everyone agrees that the beacon we have detected is automated and does not indicate any threat.  There is some small risk however that if the beacon is working then other automated equipment may still be functional.  Some of that could be defensive, so I want everyone on their toes.  We will be monitoring the planet as well as the space above it for any risks. As I am sure all of you are aware, the Honstein is not a true military ship.  While this crew is military, this ship has no weapons and no defenses other than our EM radiation shield.  If there are any perceived threats detected, then we will abort the mission and head back to Earth.  Does anyone have any questions?”  Everyone remained silent.  “Alright then, let’s do some exploration.  That is what we came here for.  Everybody to stations.”

Colonel Pierce motioned for Lieutenant Allan Greco to remain behind a moment.  “Lieutenant, I am not going to stand over you while you fly that thing down.  I will be monitoring from the control deck.  Good luck son, this is your shot so make the best of it.”

“Thank you Colonel, I will do my best to get it down in one piece.”

As the Lieutenant started to leave the Colonel stopped him.  “Lieutenant, I have wanted to ask you something since I first got your file from the academy.

The Lieutenant sighed and looked down.  “I know what you are going to ask, sir. My brother and I cannot answer for what my father did, sir.  I do know that he did what he felt was the right thing to do for our country as well as humanity.  He is still paying for those decisions by living in exile in Bolivia.”

Colonel Pierce shook his head.  “Son, I am not judging your father.  I even agree with some of the things he has done.  Sometimes the way he goes about them appears very arrogant and self-serving and that is what people remember.  When I first heard who you and your brother were, I did not want you on this crew.  I admit now that I was wrong.  Both of you have been very competent and I have noted that in the ship’s log.  I do have one question I would like to ask you though.”

“Yes sir,” asked the Lieutenant looking up.

“You and your brother are going to inherit billions of dollars from your father someday.  Why did you join the academy?  Why come up here and risk your life in space?”

“We just want to make a difference, sir.  And besides, it is a hell of a lot of fun,” he grinned.

…

Colonel Pierce sat in his control deck seat monitoring the lander’s progress.  Lieutenant Allan Greco was giving a running commentary for the digital ship’s log as the mission progressed.  “Firing thrusters to move away from the Honstein now.”  The delta shaped lander slowly dropped away from the ship.  The lander moved into view of the ships external viewers as it dropped away.  “Flipping lander in preparation of retro firing.”  The lander did a one hundred and eighty degree flip until its tail end was leading.  “Firing retro thrusters now.”  Blue flame shot from the back of the lander for about for forty five seconds as it dropped toward the cloud shrouded planet below.  The lander then flipped back
over until its nose was leading again.  It was quickly out of visual range of the Honstein, although it was visible on the Honstein’s radar and its transponder was giving out a steady signal.  “Estimate atmospheric interface in seventy three minutes.  Everybody needing a restroom break or a concession stand visit now is the time,” joked the Lieutenant.  “Nothing to do or see until the lander comes back around the other side of the planet.”

Colonel Pierce fidgeted in his seat and looked over the lander’s flight pattern as they waited for it to drop toward its encounter with the planet’s atmosphere below.  As it dropped lower, the lander would encounter the thick atmosphere of the planet just as it was coming back into the Honstein’s line of sight around the far side of the planet.  It would enter the atmosphere and aero-brake as a normal shuttle would.  The Lieutenant would then pilot the lander to about a thousand feet above the landing area.  At that point the pod containing the robot crawler and the air ship would jettison from the lander body and once clear of the lander, the pod would descend by conventional rocket engines to the surface.  This unconventional design had never been tried in actual practice before.  This was the prototype and there had not been time to try it out on Earth as the lander wing body would crash after the pod separation.  There was only one shot at getting this right.

A little over an hour later Colonel Pierce heard, “Lander is clearing the horizon now, expecting atmospheric interface at any time."  The lander was transmitting video feed from its nose camera.  The video feed would soon disappear as a plasma field formed around the lander from the intense heat of re-entry and blocked any radio signals.  The lander started to buffet and the video feed was unsteady as a reddish purple glow started to build, then the feed was gone. “Lander is in the atmosphere.  We now have about twelve minutes of no contact until it slows to about Mach four.”  This was the hand wringing time the Colonel thought.  The lander was on autopilot until it was able to pick up and transmit signals again.

“Picking up telemetry signal again now, all systems nominal.  I am showing one hotspot on port wing around the instrument nacelle but it is within design specifications.  Speed is dropping, now at Mach three and decreasing.  Attempting to re-establish manual control.”  Down in the planet’s atmosphere the lander slowly eased into a slight turn to the right and then to the left.  “I have manual control again, changing course toward the target zone.”

Lower down on the planet, the lander was streaking through the cloud filled atmosphere leaving multiple sonic booms in its wake.  It was slowly weaving left and right to shed speed as the human pilot who was controlling it from up in space brought its course around over the landing target zone.  Arriving over the target area that had been chosen, it started circling lower and lower. The young pilot started his commentary again. “I am using the artifact beacon as a reference and location point.  Hopefully, no one has moved it and it is still at the artifact site.  Altitude is four thousand meters; speed is below Mach one, deploying late stage video camera.”  On the lander, a small streamlined camera slid out of an instrument nacelle.  Back on the operations deck of the Honstein the monitor screens came to life showing nothing but white clouds.

“Altitude dropping, lander is in thick clouds.  I may have to do this by instruments and radar only,” Lieutenant Greco said.   Down on the planet at an altitude of about eleven hundred meters the lander suddenly dropped free of the thick clouds.  Below it was gently rolling hills of a brownish grey color.  Up on the Honstein, the video feed suddenly showed the open vista of gently rolling hills and the watching crew cheered.

“The lander is below the cloud level, we are right above the landing zone. Swinging around, landing pod separation in three, two, one, separation!”  The video feed jumped and switched to the lander pod camera that showed a rapidly approaching ground. “Firing landing thrusters, altitude is six hundred meters, five hundred meters, four hundred meters, coming down too fast, two hundred meters, one hundred meters, applying full thrust, fifty meters, thirty meters, ten meters, contact, and thrusters off.”

The landing pod camera attached to the pod leg showed grayish brown soil with small pebbles below it.  “Alpha control, the lander is down,” exclaimed Lieutenant Allan Greco.

A cheer went up through the ship.  Lieutenant Jason Greco slapped Colonel Pierce on the shoulder. “He did it sir, oh sorry sir,” he exclaimed as he realized he had just hit his commanding officer.