New Evader Team, Cassandra Chronicles #8

Cassandra Chronicles Number 8



A New Evader Team





Prolog



The United Territories of Terra Deep Space Scan Post B or UTTDSPB had not had a budget increase in 15 years. Which suited the research team. That meant that for 15 years their projects had not been scrutinized by UTT auditors or automatic administrative watch dog computer squads.

Perhaps it was their isolated location in the mountains of northern New Mexico and south western Colorado that required 70 kilometers of gravel road or a 110 kilometer bumpy small plane ride to reach the station, or that because they doubled as the back up ground station for the satellite ring that they were not bothered. And as long as they made no request for a budget increase no one on the UTT budget over sight committees seemed interested either.

The 19 people who ran the Station enjoyed the isolation and lack of bureaucratic interest. There were 11 scientists and 8 maintenance and support staff. Everyone had several assignments and all took their turn at cooking, cleaning and monitoring the three deep space radio telescopes.

The Station had been in operation for over 800 years and all the data from those years was stored in the memory of ADDI their diamond crystal based computer.

October 15, 3387, 7:30 am began as any other quiet early autumn day, the log in of the two person monitor team, today Jeremy Sturgis and Maureen McGinnis and the sign out of night team Toby Brown and Kenji Wadi.

“Any flying brooms or UFO’s Kenji?”

Kenji just shook his head. Sturgis never did anything without a joke or pun.

“Did ADDI finish the back data correlation on the that 12 second energy anomaly we found in the historical data yesterday?” Maureen was all business, she hadn’t made a joke in the 12 years she had been at the station.

“Got it right here. Want to run a couple of sector analyses before discussing it with anyone and ADDI is doing a correlation with the other observatories to see if they have any thing in their files.” Toby added, “Maybe tonight at dinner we will have some thing.”

Toby and Kenji headed for the small common kitchen and Maureen and Jeremy seated them selves at the large screen consoles. Sturgis pulled his teddy bear out of his back pack and set it on the top of the console and rubbed its head. They meshed monitors and reviewed the progress on their research project, Worm Hole Short Cuts in Space. Maureen was logical and methodical while Jeremy was a global and intuitive and as a team for almost five years had been successful in solving convoluted problems.

“If you can create a long enough gravity well it should take the shape of a tunnel that could connect between solar systems maybe even galaxies.”

“How would you test such a tunnel? Throw your teddy bear through It?”

He grabbed his bear and hugged it, “Never would I sacrifice Teddy, not even for science.”

Maureen laughed, “That’s about the only thing you wouldn’t sacrifice.”

“Amen sister, you read me too well. I Think if I knew there was at least a 50/50 chance of surviving I’de go my self.

ADDI opened a window on their screens, it read;



HAVE COMPLETED CORRELATION SEARCH ON THE ENERGY ANOMALY. DO YOU WISH ME TO DISPLAY MY ANALYSIS?



“I’m ready for a break, how about you?” She nodded yes and Jeremy hit the proceed button.



ENERGY ANOMALY IS ASSOCIATED WITH PLANET

TS-177-O2-CS-UKN or CASSANDRA FOUND IN THE BETELGEUSE STAR CLUSTER. IT OCCURS EVERY 52.5 TERRA YEARS WITH A DOUBLE OCCURRENCE IN ONE YEAR EVERY 163 YEARS. IS ASSOCIATED WITH ALIGNMENT OF ALL THREE MOONS WITH PLANET. DOUBLE OCCURRENCE IN YEAR WHEN SUN IS ALSO IN ALIGNMENT.



HAVE CALCULATED ENERGY FIELD TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO CONNECT TO TERRA FOR 10 SECONDS DURING THE 52.5 YEAR CYCLE AND FOR 41 SECONDS DURING THE SECOND OF THE DOUBLE YEAR OCCURRENECE.



THE NEXT OCCURENCE WILL BE IN 1.5 YEARS BUT IT WILL BE ONLY 4.4 YEARS AFTER THAT WHEN THE 163 YEAR DOUBLE CYCLE WILL OCCUR.



NOTE: A COLONY SHIP LEFT FOR TS-177-02 1878 YEARS AGO. NO MESSAGE HAS EVER BEEN RECEIVED AS TO SUCCESS THUS THE ADDED COLONY STATUS UNKNOWN DESIGNATION.

















Cassandra 8 A New Evader Team



Chapter 1



The three suited figures waited by their all terrain vehicle with its small loaded trailer and watched the count down clock. It showed 31 minutes to injection time. At 10 minutes they sealed their helmets and climbed into the ATV. At 2 minutes they started the solar powered electric engine. At 0 minutes the 3 meter injection circle in front of them began to glow and they drove through the circle.

They were surrounded by a glowing capsule of energy and through their bodies flowed impossible feelings of weightlessness and falling rapidly mixed with spinning. Battered senses overloaded sending them close to unconsciousness. Then it was over and Kenji fought to control the vehicle as they plowed down a steep hill.

He stopped on a ledge half way down and shut off the engine. They were trembling and mumbling and Kenji told them to shut up and calm down. No one spoke for several minutes.

“How do you blow your nose in this blinking suit?” Maureen knew they would be OK if Jeremy still had his sense of humor.”

“Jeremy, did you launch the capsule as soon as we touched ground?”

“Yup and saw it go through the glowing circle just before it winked out.” He held up the modified flare gun showing the empty chamber.



They slid off the ATV and looked over the landscape in front of them. “Looks like a middle school science experiment.”

Kenji and Maureen both laughed because that was what it just what it looked like. The trees and bushes were not the right shape or color and the air had a reddish tinge. And there looking at them was an animal that looked like a cross between a camel and zebra, a stripped humped camel with big twitching ears that were pointed at them. It looked at the three gray creatures with curved glassy faces, snorted and walked away swishing off its back large red headed flies with its stripped ropy tail.

“Well our first native contact seems to be a standoff.” Jeremy looked at his hand comp and said, “My geo analyzer says there are some caves 3 to 4 klicks to the west. Could be a good site for a base camp. Any one for a hot shower and a massage? This 1.6 gravity has already tired me out.”

“Jeremy you be our navigator and Maureen you scout. I’ll try not to land our ATV and trailer at the bottom some hidden gulch.”

They climbed back on and slowly made their way west. Their cooling units kicked on and the gray suits turned silver to reflect the rising sun’s rays. Their environmental read out held steady at 18 percent oxygen, 5.7 percent CO2, 70 percent nitrogen, 2.0 percent SO2 and small amounts of radon, argon and methane.

“We will need to wear air scrubbers to protect our lungs and protective lenses for the high UVB.”

“Yes mam, and will you teach us to weave big floppy hats?”

“Jeremy, knock it off.”

“Kenji don’t put the idea down. All the data suggests large hats, scrubbers, long sleeves and pants, and probably gloves will be standard when outside.”

“Jeremy have you run any soil analysis yet?”

“Not yet but I’ve been sampling,” He held up 4 small plastic bags filled with dirt. “Over that next ridge swing up hill. My topo shows a ridge running west for about a klick and 3 caves opening on the ridge.”

Kenji found the ridge and carefully negotiated through a rock fall but was stopped by a wall of thorn brush about 4 meters wide. Maureen and Jeremy slide off the ATV and unsnapped two large brush knives and began hacking an opening through the brush. Ten minutes of chopping cleared a path and Kenji carefully drove the ATV through.

They were in excellent shape but working in sealed suits at higher gravity left the two sweaty and exhausted.

“I’ll take that shower you suggested.”

“When I construct it you may go first, madam medic. I promise.” They climbed back on the ATV.

The second cave was large enough to drive the ATV and trailer into for about 30 meters before it narrowed to an opening just larger than a man. Maureen slide off and flipped on her helmet light and headed for the opening. Jeremy voice whispered urgently in her ear.

“I wouldn’t go in there without your stunner out and on high. Look at the pile of chewed bones to the left of the opening.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.” She pulled out her stunner and adjusted it.

They heard, “What a monster!” And the whine of a stunner on high.

“Jeremy, I owe you two. Come see this. It looks like a bear from the Philtown museum display of Terra’s last ice age.”

He hurried through the narrow opening and saw Maureen bending over a huge harry shape. She was using a stick to push the stunned bear’s huge head from side to side. It’s claws were longer than his gloved fingers. He thought back to UTTD’s Post Manager’s last briefing before they had suited up.



Your survival depends on attention to a myriad of small tthings like listening to each other’s warnings and advice. Remember you were chosen for this exploration because of your diverse talents and training. Thinking and acting as a team you three can solve just about any problem. Working solo and each of you has glaring weaknesses but together you have unusual strength. Remember we are counting on you return with information that can lead to renewed space exploration and perhaps knowledge of what happened to the lost colony of Cassandra.



Maureen took blood, saliva and hair samples from the bear and put them in her cryo pouch for later analysis while Jeremy explored bear’s den. Kenji watched them on his hand comp while he set up an alarm and micro camera system in the outer cave to watch their ATV and gear trailer as they explored.

Jeremy carefully examined one of the two openings that lead further into the rocky hill side from the den. He punched in a magnification code for his face plate and studied the wall of the opening. “You two link with my camera and tell me what you think.”

Kenji responded first, “That wall looks too smooth to be natural.”

“My thought too. I’ll explore and let out a micro cable behind me. You guys get ready to haul me in if there’s any trouble.” He turned on his head lamp and unbuckled his stunner.

Kenji and Maureen watched the split screen showing the video from Jeremy's helmet cam and hand comp cam. The opening lead to a tunnel two people wide and and an arm above the head tall. The walls and ceiling were a smooth gray surface. Underfoot sand and small debris crunched as he walked. The micro cable reeled out and Kenji kept his hand on the controls for the winch on the ATV. Jeremy began humming an old UTTD military marching tune. Maureen had to suppress the urge to giggle.

The tunnel came to a “T”. They watched Jeremy pantomime flipping coin and then turning right. After several minutes of walking the tunnel’s color changed to an orange then ended in an orange door with a big circle with an “X” in the middle.

Kenji and Maureen both blurted out, “Don’t touch the door!”

Jeremy held up his hands in surrender and then proceeded to inspect the door. There was black lettering at the top of the circle but too much had peeled off to understand the message. He took several close up views for future analysis and slowly walked backwards shooting the tunnel and its walls.

Jeremy turned around and walked back to the “T” and took the left tunnel. After 10 minutes of walking the tunnel’s color became green. It ended in a green door but the handle was missing. A close up of the handle’s probable location showed a melted area. Jeremy pantomimed kicking in the door or blowing it up but Kenji told him to come back and tomorrow they would decide what to do.

“We need to set up a camp and review all our data. We have had enough surprises for the first day.” The other two agreed. Everyone was tired and wanted out of the suits.

They decided to set up camp in the bear’s den. Kenji unhooked the trailer and Jeremy attached the micro cable to the bear and drug it out to the ledge outside the cave. It was a load for the ATV but in the lowest gear he pulled it a half a klick down the ledge from the cave. He would have liked to skinned it for the hide and roast some of the meat but not in an environmental suit. So he cut off three claws for souvenirs.

When he had returned the others had set up the tent with the air lock and were moving supplies inside. He helped them finish and then took the fabric bucket and went out side the cave and filled with water from a small stream. He looked in the direction of the bear carcass and turned on the telo lens. Large birds and dog like creatures were tearing the bear apart. This ecosystem on Cassandra appeared to be at least superficially like a semidesert on Terra. He set up an environmental sensor just above the cave entrance and checked with his comp when back in the bears den. The read outs were clear so he set the record function. The more data they had the more realistic would be their decisions. When he returned he took off his helmet and took deep breath.

“Smells just like the mineral lab back at the Post, makes me feel at home.”

Maureen took the water and ran it through the analyzer purifier unit and poured them each a glass. It was cold with a slight metallic taste.

“Won’t need a mineral supplement but I bet our teeth go brown after a month.”

“Jeremy be serious, here’s your ration pill and your supplement tab. Be sure to drink two glasses of water with them.”

He made a show of cutting his pills up with his belt knife and gagging them down then wiping his lips with his jump suit sleeve.

“Madam medic when are we going to know if I can eat a bear steak with what passes for a potato on this world? Hope its not before I forget how to chew my food.”

Kenji broke in and asked them to come and see the porta john and wipe down enclosure he had rigged in a corner of the tent.

“Put your used body wipes in the eco john. It will help nourish the digestive microbes. Now let’s inflate our sleep sack mattresses. I’ll set them on vibrate and heat to help ease the effect of the heavier gravity.”

“I feel like I’ve suddenly put on 30 kilos, hope it will help ease the feeling.”

The two men agreed with Maureen. After using the john and wiping down and putting on clean under clothes they crawled into their sleep sacks and relaxed to the gentle vibration and heat.

As the pain began to ease Kenji began the discussion about the tunnel and doors. “Well we know that someone, hopefully human, has lived on this planet. They have good technology to build tunnels in stone and close fitting metal doors. Maybe we have found some part of the lost colony.”

“I’ll project what I found in the master computer archive about the Cassandra colony.” Maureen set her hand comp to project and they put in an ear bud so they could hear any audio and make comments at the same time.

They watched a series of stills showing the documents and people involved in the Cassandra Project. It began with a copy of the ad placed by the predecessor to UTTD, the United Nations, on the nightly news cast.



Groups wishing to colonize the four planets TS-177 #1-4 are advised to contact the UN Bureau of Extra Terrestrial Affairs in New York City by 1 September 2315



This add ran at the bottom of the 6:00 and 10:00 pm nightly news during the last two weeks of July 2315. They received over 5,000 inquiries and 1,200 groups completed applications. Only one group completed an application for planet #2, probably because it required over 200 years in cryo sleep to make it into to orbit and then the planet would require lengthy bio seeding to support terra like ecosystems. The long time in cryo was required because there were no known worm hole or space bend short cuts. The maximum time to reach the other three planets was 7.2 years.

The TS-177 #2 colony expedition required a much larger ship because of the large H and He space scoops for fuel and the redundancy needed in every system. The cryo units also required more space and energy than a non sleeper ship. The colonists them selves had to have uniquely driven and resourceful personalities to accept the long years of cryo sleep and planet transformation. They would be taking a real chance as the longest successful cryo sleep journey had been 55 years before this attempt.

“They had to be determined psychos like us, right?” Kenji and Maureen nodded in agreement.

They studied visuals of the colony leaders and the refitting of the asteroid ore hauler. Then came the colonist list with a short bio of each one. They were a mixture of scientists, technicians and a few administrators. Most were families. What stood out was the eclectic mix of cultures and races.

They watched the video of the colonists being ferried to their waiting ship, the hugs and tears as they were sealed into the standing multi person cryo lockers. They watched the ship’s scoops activate and heard the screaming pulse waves as H-He fusion/fission ring engines warmed up around the perimeter of the ship and then it disappeared from its orbit around Jupiter’s moon.

There were three videos from the ship sent back to Terra by comm missiles at various points in the journey. The final one showed orbital views of Cassandra and the awakening of the Council of Seven who with Captain Johnston would govern the new colony.

No more comm missiles were every received by Terra. The three new Terran arrivals wondered if what was behind the doors they had discovered would add to the story.

Jeremy finally came fully awake. It had been a rotten night because of sinus pain and a dripping nose which was forgotten when his fingers and toes began to tingle and ache. He had used his hand comp to adjust his air cushion finally finding an angle to allow some sleep and yet drain his sinus. It hadn’t helped that through the transparent side of the tent he could see out through the cave and watch three different moons move across the sky. Full darkness must be rare on this planet. Then there was that stupid zebra camel creature that seemed to come by ever so often and stick its head in the cave and stare at their tent. He sighed and sat up finger massaging his face over the sinus area.

His mood soured when he remembered there would be no hot shower to soak in, only a rub down with an astringent smelling wipe. No hot tea either. He could tell it was going to be a rotten morning and he better keep a close watch on his temper.

Getting up was worse as the higher gravity made every thing inside his 31 year old body try and reach his feet. He stumbled to the john and dry puked. Concentrated food pills didn’t leave much in the gut. He grabbed his blue water bottle and began to sip. Slowly his stomach began to calm. He began his deep breathing exercises and Yoga stretches. After about 15 minutes of misery his body began to feel better. Wonderful endorphins! They even work here.

He heard some one behind him and turned and saw Maureen marching to the john. He heard her dry heaving and went to get her red water bottle and filled it from the purified reservoir. When she came out he handed it to her. She nodded thanks and began sipping. He started his exercises again and soon she joined him.

“I feel like I had been partying for three straight days and now had to face a review board.” He smiled at her with one side of his face.

“If Kenji starts the day in his usual hearty manner I will hit him with a sedative dart in the butt.”

Jeremy almost broke out laughing but he could tell she was serious. Just then Kenji crawled out his sleep bag and began taking deep breaths and started doing jumping jacks.

“I slept like a log. How about you two?”

“Yea we did. Like logs in a rough river. But we have reached shore now and feel like resting.” Jeremy stopped exercising and used his hand comp to signal the air bed to configure into comfortable chair.

“Jer, please beam me your program, that looks very comfortable.” Jeremy sent it to her hand comp and soon she was relaxing in an air recliner. Kenji pulled over his version of straight back chair and joined them.

“OK let’s review our operating protocols.”

“Kenji, before you begin the mind drills let me remind you that we are not on Terra any more and don’t have to punch in daily progress reports for some UTTD time accountant. And today I feel really wasted and think we should just do as little as possible and give our bodies time to adjust to the new gravity and environment. I’m concerned that in my present state i might make some really stupid decisions that might so us harm.”

“I agree with him and as our medic I want to observe and measure our physiological responses and parameters before we begin full research routines. And don’t we all have samples to analyze?”

Kenji smiled. “I don’t feel as good as I would like too either. Should we break out the solar cooker and make some tea.?”

Jeremy waved him to supply rack and got up and put on his suit and picked up the water bucket. Kenji had been assigned as the leader of the expedition and fortunately knew how to listen to his troops.

Once outside Jeremy turned on his helmet cam and slowly turned in a circle at both close up and distance settings. He looked toward the area he had pulled the bear carcass and turned on the telo view. There were only bones left and over the bones crawled huge gray bugs who seemed to be scraping off the surfaces of the bones. And yes there was that stripped camel watching him from about 20 meters away. On impulse he waved at it and as if it understood it stuck its ropy tail in the air and waved its tip. He threw it a kiss and went to get the water.

His day got much better after the tea. Now if only there was some fresh bread and jam. His fondest memory of his childhood was eating it with his mom and younger sister in their apartment before they took the lift to the 41st floor for school. Where his mom got the fruit to make the jam had always been a mystery. When she died when he was 10 he went to live in a UTTD Science Prep school dormitory. His 6 year old sister had gone to live with a great aunt. He had visited his mother’s parents twice on their farm before UTTD Agro had taken it over and they moved to a high rise in Philtown.

After tea they got out their samples and began analyzing them. They worked at lab benches that unfolded from their ATV and were careful not to take anything into the tent. There was so much they didn’t know about Cassandra that taking chances would be foolish.

They forgot about their aches and pains as they became engrossed in analyzing the samples. Kenji suggested a rest in the afternoon which turned into almost two hours of deep sleep. That evening after tea and a meal pill they got comfortable and shared their findings.

Kenji had analyzed the air and electromagnetic spectrum of the atmosphere, Jeremy the soil and surrounding geology and Maureen the biology. They shared their results by projections them on the clear side of the tent.

“Maureen was correct. The UVA and UVB ratios are very different from Terra. Notice the ratio comparison in the table. UVB is at least 30% greater. It varies with the cloud cover. Now look at variance in the long and short radio waves. Will be difficult to have any dependable long range communication. The chemical composition of the air as we noted when we were traveling to the cave has not changed except at night the CO2 increases slightly as does the CO, carbon monoxide.

Maureen butted in, “Which means the air is slow death, we would have emphysema in 6 months with out our filters.”

Jeremy’s face broke into a twisted smile. “The soil is loaded with selenium, cadmium and sulfur. Plus a dozen heavy trace metals. Makes the painted desert near the Grand Canyon on Terra look like a rich prairie soil. That’s a tough bunch of plants we saw out there. The water is loaded with metals and minerals. The bright side is that there should be some rich veins of gold and silver on Cassandra.”

“The grasses and trees I’ve sampled all have extra organs for extracting the heavy metals and store them in walled off vessels in their stems and roots. Remember I’ve only studied a mouse like, grasshopper like and the bear, but I’ll wager two months credits that all the animal life is similar. They have extra tissues in their kidneys or waste removal tubules that seem to concentrate and excrete heavy metals. And their guts had all kinds of blind tubes connected to them that were loaded with microorganisms like nothing I’ve ever seen. Even their brains had enlargements that are new to me.”

Jeremy couldn’t resist, “So we have only 1672 days in our suits before we can go back to Terra and breathe real air again. Kenji how long would you say our suit filters will work before breaking down?”

Kenji shook his head. “The original environmental survey of this planet said it had an earth like atmosphere + or -- 2%. Our data shows it’s closer to + or -- 35%. Our suits were designed to last 150 days in an atmosphere varying by 5%. That was supposed to be a hefty safety margin.”

“Maureen what about our water filter and purification system?”

“It should last at least 200 days. About as long as our supply of food concentrate pills.”

Jeremy looked at the solemn faces of his companions. “Hey guys we got 100 days to solve the problems. Remember we volunteered and were chosen because we have solved tough problems in the past. And we have a new planet to explore. And I’m glad to be here and glad to be with you.” The group hug lasted a long time.