The taste of stale peanut and salt filled her mouth. It was verging on grotesque. Alexis Athena popped another handful back. Then a second, and a third. The peanut snacks were a convenient distraction from the latest scenario on Tectonia. Chewing also helped to drown out Captain Baxter’s and Jen Marshall’s latest argument.
“They have been back and forth for over half an hour now,”
she whispered to Ezra.
“I can’t keep track,” Ezra whispered back, while flipping
his greasy hair and adjusting his glasses. “Which one wants to head home now?”
The chief engineer’s voice raised above salience, surging
out from the din in the Mainframe Domain, “…and I will be damned if I
end up like Orisa and the other explorers in my lineage. Leaving to some planet
or system and never coming home. Without a word. I want to make it home to Po,
and that means not getting crushed and becoming an exotic snack for some alien
mega-birds.”
And they said us scientists were indecisive…
“I think Jen does now,” said Alexis in the ear of Ezra Alexander.
“Let’s leave them to it and head on back to the observatory. They look like
they could raise fists or make love at a moment’s notice.”
***
Back in the observatory deck, Drs Alexis Athena and Ezra Alexander
had the video of the Tectonia birds playing on repeat. First, shadows of
their large wings appeared through clouds surrounding the subduction zone.
There were two groups, one from the North and one from the East, flocks of at
least 10 massive aliens. Second, once they were close enough, it was obvious
the antennae were actively sensing; long cylindrical limbs densely distributed
along the 30 foot wingspans, pulsating like hypertensive arteries. Third, right
before the birds obstructed probe #1’s video feed, their underbelly breathing
organs were visible.
After what had to be the 100th loop of the video,
Alexis began to theorize. “I think we can safely assume they follow the blips, although
I do not know how considering it took us an entire computer lab, a complicated algorithm
and thousands of planets-worth of data.”
Ezra nodded slightly, but made no reply. He doesn’t like
to talk until the problem is solved already. Then he can’t shut up.
“That. There on the underbelly. It looks like a mouth,”
continued Alexis, pausing the video right before it went dark. “So, what if they
are like dolphins?”
“Dolphins… That doesn’t make any sense,” said Ezra, sourly. What
a mope. Well at least that got his attention.
“Ya. Ya dolphins. They live somewhere they can’t breathe and
come up for air every few minutes,” said Alexis between a few nibbles on
peanuts. Ezra looked at her expectantly, so she tossed a handful towards him.
They floated slowly in the low Gs and he swam towards the peanuts, picking them
off one by one. “We know there is high oxygen concentration in the fog blips
and the birds have those gill- mouth-like orifices. Assuming they also have an
oxygen-reliant respiratory system similar to humans, we now know how they
breathe.”
“Where does the oxygen even come from. I am not even that
far yet,” said Ezra. “When I was terraforming, oxygen supply was a big problem.
You needed trees or other producers, can’t get around it.”
“We’ll get there Ezra. But look here, watch how the antennae
pulsate. The frequency is different. Left wing antennae are fast, about three
times faster than those on the right wing.”
“What are you thinking? Sensing the environment and
communication?”
Alexis pulled up probe #1’s data stream and parsed out the electromagnetic
spectrum. Radio, light, infrared, gamma wave recordings. “Anomalies in radio waves
came in from the North and East, starting right before the birds came.”
“They are communicating with each other. And we know volcanic
activity will have telltale signs of electromagnetic waves. We tracked the
blips by patterns of plate tectonics,” said Ezra, “but the birds… they track it
by patterns of radiation.”
“And they get a nice snack of fresh air and water when they
get there,” finished Alexis. “I think we should name them Tectonius
Delphinaves.”
“You really like your dolphin metaphor, eh? We have to
follow them. I need to know where they go, what they eat and where that oxygen
comes from,” said Ezra. “I have an idea. Let’s get Jen and Baxter and prep probe
#2.”
***
Ezra’s plan involved turning one of the probes into a
stealth ship. He organized with Jen Marshall and her biochemical engineers to
coat the probe outer hull with radiation-resistant bacteria normally used
during Solarsphere travel. Ezra had them also run the bacteria through the tubing
in the carbon heat shields and cover all antennas, cameras and any external-radiation-emitting
device. They exhausted nearly three quarters of the Garibaldi’s supply,
leaving just enough to get home to Earth system and a few samples to re-culture
the population. The plan was to have the software engineers code an automatic
flight plan into probe #2, to follow the delphinaves as they presumably travel
between at least 3 fog blips, record as much data internally, then go live and
send all the data back at once.
It was a tricky plan for a few reasons, most notably being
that as soon as the probe started transmitting it would be detected and destroyed
by the birds. Because of this, Jen was also overseeing simulations of delphinaves
attacking a probe, and seeing how long it could evade capture. Simulations
predicted a probe could survive an attack by 20 delphinaves for upwards of 45
seconds, within a fog blip zone, which should be enough for all the crucial data to transmit.
The rest of the data would be sacrificed, as nothing would transmit through the
fog cover if the probe ventured farther in its’ evasions.
In the meantime, Alexis convened with her team of astronomers,
chemists and exobiologists to improve the probe’s detection of microbial life,
including the fine-tuning of gas composition analysis to detect concentration
of methane and phosphine.
“Unfortunately, the sample of water collected by probe #1
was lost when it was obliterated by the dephinaves,” said Alexis, addressing
her scientists. “I need you guys to re-work our PCR and mass spec detection
into an automated sample collection and detection pipeline on the probe. Then
we can have any collected samples analyzed for microbial life instantly by the
probe, and transmitted back up to the Garibaldi with the rest of the
data stream.”
A flutter of excitement filled Alexis’ chest. The advent
of coming data and discovery, I am in my element.
Following a mixture of nods and grunts of approval, Alexis’
team was off to work. The fatigue settled in and she drifted off, strapped into
her chair in the observatory.
***
Four and a half days later, probe #2 was prepped and
launched. As planned, it went dark when it reached the nearest subduction zone
blip. The waiting game was rough. Ezra and Jen looked about as thinned along
the edges and tired as Alexis. Her auburn hair unwashed, skin paler than usual.
Power naps in the observatory and computer labs don’t really count as sleep
I suppose. Captain Baxter was nowhere to be seen, presumably hiding away in
his cabin tired of all the science talk. His absence gave the science teams a
bit more freedom.
Hopefully Ezra doesn’t do anything stupid.
A few hours following launch the probe came live and data
streamed into the Garibaldi’s labs and the Mainframe Domain where
Alexis, Ezra and Jen were waiting. For 41 seconds the data piled in, and then
the probe died. Turns out it was long enough. Dr. Ezra Alexander was right
again I guess, thought Alexis. They received data in many forms: video,
gas composition, electromagnetic radiation waves across the spectrum, as well
as RNA and protein analyses from water and Tectonius Delphinaves itself.
Once the numbers were crunched, conclusions formed through the facade.
Ezra was the only one disappointed. Delphinaves went nowhere
in particular when they left the fog blips. No secret sanctuary. No developed
city or signs of intelligence. And most importantly to him. No
signs of vast oxygen supply or plant life. The birds just flew from blip to
blip.
More interesting data came on the smaller scale. High levels
of methane and phosphine gas in the blips and near delphinaves indicated
microbial life existed on Tectonia. Microbes were dense both in the
water and on the wings of the birds. These bacteria-like organisms contained
cellular structures and proteins indicative of a form of photosynthesis, with
energy being formed from infrared and light waves. The exobiologists theorized
a symbiotic relationship exists between delphinaves and these microbes, with
the birds feeding on the bacteria, and the bacteria hitching a ride to energy-rich
zones. The water in the subduction zones were also rich with bacteria,
suggesting a microbial turnover in the fog blips.
How is that sustainable? Can life exist in the rapidly
changing seas of water and lava?
Many questions remained, especially for Ezra who became obsessed
with the oxygen supply problem. He stormed out of the Mainframe Domain.
Or stormed as well as you could in zero gravity.
To much dismay among the scientists, Jen Marshall called and
convinced Captain Baxter that their mission was done. The mysterious radio
signals which prompted Terra Duomo to send them to Tectonia were
just an anomaly of Tectonius Delphinaves, another in a long-line of
strange alien species on strange alien worlds. No threat or intelligent life. Time to go home. Dr. Alexis
Athena was disappointed that not all their questions would be answered, but
that was part of the gig when working with soldiers and gunslingers. No surprise
there.
The cacophony of ringing alarm klaxons that came next was a
surprise. Airlock blown out in the cargo bay. Doors sealed shut to hold air in
the rest of the Garibaldi. A panic rose throughout the ship… and a small
probe appeared on the scopes. Probe #3, hurtling towards Tectonia, with
Dr. Ezra Alexander’s voice signalling back.
“No more of this waiting and probing game. I am going down
to see for myself. Give me a few days and if I am not back you can hop on out
of this system along the Solarsphere and never return. Just give me a few days.
In the name of science!”
Well, I guess we are not done with Tectonia after all.
Image adapted from: https://images.nasa.gov/details-PIA12011
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