‘It’s more complicated than that!’ said Tosh after the headaches of the loss of mass were explained. ‘We have to do the second jump without Rimor, tank or probe, then we have to reproduce the original Haven to Quietus jump allowing for the probe still being on board. It’s a nightmare.’
‘Let’s not get this out of proportion,’ I said. ‘There may be a way to compensate for the loss of the masses. We know there are moons and asteroids in this system. We might be able to fashion something of the right mass.’
‘But the very journey to get that mass adds further complications,’ said Tosh, becoming irascible.
‘Not necessarily, Tosh,’ said Anna, quietly. ‘We can travel to the moons and asteroids using our main engines. It’ll just take more time.’
‘What, and then we strap to Spirit an asteroid of exactly the right size as the probe, the tank and the Rimor, not to mention Chi? Don’t make me laugh!’ said Tosh loudly.
‘We can!’ said Mary, defusing Tosh’s anger. ‘There is no reason we can’t cut chunks off a small asteroid until it is close to the correct mass.’
‘Ha! And how do you measure its mass?’ asked Tosh.
‘Simple,’ said Mary, sharply. ‘It’s equivalent to its gravitational attraction and we can certainly measure that!’
‘Calm down, Tosh,’ I said. ‘Let’s not cut off ideas before they are fully developed. We are pretty clever people and we also have some even cleverer entities helping us. Let’s think our way through the problem.’
Now Tosh was upset. He twisted in mid-air and pulled himself towards his cabin, jarring his shoulder and releasing a few curses as he hit the bulkhead faster than he’d intended. I ignored him. I couldn’t give him any solace and knew he was deep in grief for Chi. This continual monitoring of the grave was not helping him.
‘How are your calculations coming along, Anna?’ I asked.
‘We have to wait here for seven hours then jump to planet G. That distance will be identical to the distance from Quietus to D which we’re trying to match. It’s fortunate, indeed, that Trappist-1 is such a compact system or we’d have stood no chance,’ said Anna.
‘And we’re lucky,’ said Mary, ‘that G has several moons and space debris which could be suitable for our needs.’
‘What will we need for the jump after that?’ asked Bill.
‘For that one,’ said Mary, ‘we’ll be trying to reproduce the jump we made from Haven to Quietus. We’ll need to add the mass of the probe for that jump. The final jump will be from that last location back to Earth. The missing mass will be the probe, tank, fuel and Rimor. We might have to find those masses among G’s asteroids and give them push in the right direction for us to rendezvous with when we’re ready for the final jump.’
‘What about joining them to the Spirit?’ asked Bill.
‘Not considered that yet,’ said Mary. ‘We’ll find a way.’
‘You don’t think shape will have any impact on the journey?’
‘No, Bill. It is mass which matters as far as we know,’ said Mary, ‘and, frankly, we can’t be certain about that, but it would seem pointless to not match mass as closely as we can. The time needed to do so is hardly critical to us right now.’
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘We’ve seven hours so let’s get some sleep before that jump to planet G. In your couches for a twenty-minute countdown.’
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
The calculations had been checked and verified by our entities. The five of us strapped into our couches as Anna prepared to jump us to planet G, slightly larger than Haven or Quietus and much colder.
‘Jump distance approaching. Ready, everyone?’ asked Anna.
She received four affirmatives.
‘Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, ready, go!’ she said and we were suddenly in the frozen stasis of hyperspace.
It lasted only a few seconds and we all looked at the planet which floated before us.
‘The other Rimor’s clock is still as it was,’ said Mary. ‘Orbital location spot on, Quietus command module beacon also matches. Looks good.’
‘Warmer in the equatorial regions than we expected. Average about minus thirty Celsius. Below minus eighty nearer the poles,’ said Tosh.
G was primarily white and grey in colour, the contrast with the white surface was mainly hills and mountains which must occasionally lose their covering of snow and be exposed as rock.
‘Very few clouds,’ said Tosh. ‘That must explain why the rocky outcrops don’t receive much in the way of snow. There are seas and oceans, but they’re all frozen. I’m getting water depths and temperatures coming shortly. Atmosphere about two hundred miles thick. Nitrogen heavy, carbon dioxide, only traces of oxygen and slight traces of other gases. Not breathable, but not poisonous either.’
‘Might I suggest Gelid as a name?’ I asked.
‘Not heard the word. What’s it mean?’ asked Bill.
‘Icy or very cold,’ I said.
‘Sounds fine to me,’ said Mary.
‘Any objections?’ I asked.
‘Liquid water below five metres near the equator. Ice up to two hundred and fifty metres thick in the southern ocean which lies under the pole,’ said Tosh. ‘Think the name couldn’t be more appropriate, but there is some heat coming up from the planet’s core, which is keeping the water from freezing solid.’
‘Put us into a two-fifty mile orbit, Anna,’ I said.
We felt orbital adjustments and some thrust which took us planetward.
As we got closer, it became clear that it rarely snowed, which kept steeper slopes of the hills and mountains snow free. Their stark wind-blown rocky slopes added character to the surface.
‘Hey!’ shouted Tosh, suddenly. ‘Wow! Double wow! You won’t believe this.’
‘What? What’s up?’ asked Bill.
‘Radio. Damn it all! I’m picking up radio! Sounds like voices. Here, listen!’ He switched his monitor into the bridge sound system.
There were clearly voices speaking. One, much deeper than the other. The language was totally unintelligible, but language it certainly was.
‘Where’s it coming from?’ I asked.
‘I suddenly received it, so it would be likely that wherever it is being broadcast from came over the horizon about three or four minutes ago,’ said Tosh.
We all peered at the limb of the planet approaching us as we orbited.
‘Can you see anything?’ asked Anna.
‘No,’ said Bill. ‘I’ll get the Celestron.’ He unbuckled and flew through to the communal area.
‘How exciting,’ said Mary.
‘Indeed,’ said Tosh. ‘I wonder if it is the Quietusians – an outpost to which they escaped or which was established before the disaster with the plant.’
‘Are you receiving anything from Quietus itself, Tosh?’ I asked, as Bill returned to the bridge and fixed the Celestron on its mount.
‘Of course,’ Tosh said, looking at me wide-eyed, wondering why he hadn’t thought of it. ‘Maybe we’re in an alternative universe where they weren’t wiped out by the plant.’ His fingers flew over his console, checking for anything being received from the neighbouring world.
‘Can’t see any habitation,’ said Bill, peering through the Celestron.
‘Attach the Celestron to the monitor, Bill,’ I said.
‘Nothing from Quietus,’ said Tosh with a heavy heart.
The monitor sprang into life and we all concentrated on the screen, hoping above hope to see buildings somewhere. I switched back to binoculars to give me a greater field of view.
‘Could they be underground?’ asked Anna.
‘Possibly,’ said Tosh. ‘Do you want me to broadcast something to them?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Let’s work out what we want to send and broadcast it on the next orbit. We don’t want to cause confusion down there.’
‘I could send a simple sequence of numbers now,’ said Tosh. ‘That shouldn’t confuse. NASA did give us some protocols, but it seemed so unlikely to ever be needed, that I haven’t looked at them since before the Mars expedition.’
‘Yes, good idea. I’d forgotten about them too. There should be a string of numbers, then a Fibonacci sequence and primes,’ I said. ‘See if you can find that. Same frequency. Then just keep repeating until next orbit.’
‘On it,’ said Tosh.
Within a few minutes, he’d found the pre-recorded sequences of beeps.
What would happen next?
It was possible that we’d found a new civilisation, but exactly where were they? I couldn’t take my binoculars off the terrain and swept them from side to side, trying to find some evidence of a town, village or even a scientific outpost.
‘Okay, I’ve copied one of the NASA suggested first contact protocols,’ said Tosh. ‘Transmitting now.’