‘HD 215152 is visible,’ said Anna. ‘It has four planets and, with any luck, we should be able to target one of those. It’ll be tight though, could be sixty light years from here. Worth a try because, from there, we might be able to target Herade.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Any objections?’
The crew were silent, particularly Mary, whose decision to target 91 Aquarii had caused the deaths of the entities.
‘What do we have to do to make ourselves stationary for targeting?’ asked Bill.
‘It is only when I hear a question like that that I realise how much I miss my ent,’ said Chan. ‘I just see thinking about such a calculation as a fog of required information that I cannot interpret.’
‘Same here,’ said Mary.
‘God, and you’re the astrophysicist!’ said Bill.
‘Don’t worry. Leave it to me,’ said Anna as she began to program course corrections into her console.
‘How much time do you think it’ll give you?’ I asked.
‘Over two hours free of radiation,’ she replied. ‘Now, keep out of my hair. I have to concentrate. I’ll call you to strap in when I’m ready to leave the six-hour planetary orbit.’
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Programming the Pathfinder’s variation on the orbit took longer than any of us expected – more than half a day, but eventually, Anna’s call of, ‘Ready, come and strap in!’ sounded through the ship.
Once we’d fixed our harnesses, Anna took my hand and said, ‘A present for you!’
My ent emerged from her hand and vanished into mine.
‘He duplicated, so I have my own,’ she said.
Can you imagine the reunion with a long lost close relative or a lover who had abandoned you? That was what it was like. Suddenly, I was whole again as he settled into my mind, sifting through the thoughts I’d been having without him and reassuring me that Anna had it all under control.
‘In a moment, you will feel some acceleration as I break out of this orbit,’ she said. ‘The moment those thrusts end, we’ll be in a stationary position for two hours and eight minutes. I shall use that time to try to get a fix on HD 215152g. It is believed to be in the Goldilocks zone, but towards the hot end, though that isn’t the important factor. What is important is that we can get into a sensible orbit around it and plot our path back to Trappist-1.’
‘And if you can’t get a fix?’ asked Bill.
‘Then we’ll return to the six-hour orbit to protect ourselves behind this moon while we find an alternative,’ said Anna. ‘Be ready and I want no interruptions while I’m working. Firing motors now!’
Pathfinder lurched.
We sat in silence while Anna worked her console and the spolding device. Twice I saw a planet enter the crosshairs and twice she decided against the target and continued with the search.
An hour passed before Anna broke the silence. ‘Okay. I’ve got HD215152g in the crosshairs. This will be a slightly longer journey than Earth to Trappist-1, so get comfortable and have your drinking straws ready. Five, four, three, two, one, fire!’
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Pathfinder juddered to a halt after one hundred and eighteen minutes. As usual, we were all thrown forward.
‘Where’s the planet?’ I asked.
Pathfinder twisted to the right and we all gasped as HD215152g dominated the sky. It was beautiful.
A little larger than Earth, the orb in front of us was almost entirely in daylight, meaning the star was behind us. It was a relief to hear no radiation warnings. Much of the planet was engulfed in cloud, swirling whites of very terrestrial weather patterns crossing the surface. But through clear areas, were stunning blue seas and both green and brown areas of extensive landmasses. It appeared to be exactly what spolding had been invented for – the discovery of Earth-like planets suitable for human habitation.
‘It’s stunning,’ said an awestruck Bill, encouraging several words of agreement from the rest of us.
In Tosh’s absence from our crew, it was I who had the environmental console before me. I studied the sensors.
‘Primarily oxygen/nitrogen – we can breathe the air down there,’ I said. ‘Detecting minor gases, but nothing to cause us any problem. Carbon dioxide a little high. Surface temperature four Celsius at the poles and approaching sixty on the equator so much warmer than Earth. A tropical world.’
‘It’ll be interesting to see the polar temperatures on the night side,’ said Bill. ‘What’s the rotation?’
‘Nineteen hours. Mass one point two. Axis tilt five degrees. We’d be heavy down there. Although there are calm areas, the atmosphere is slightly more turbulent than Earth. We’d need to take care landing the tanks,’ I said.
‘You’re thinking of visiting?’ asked Mary.
‘Look at it,’ I said. ‘We can’t not visit it, surely?’
‘No. We have to have a look,’ said Chan.
‘No radio signals,’ I said. ‘It’ll be interesting to see the night side for any civilisation.’
‘How thick is the atmosphere?’ asked Anna.
‘About two hundred and fifty miles,’ I read off the console.
‘I’ll drop us into a three-hundred-mile orbit,’ Anna said.
‘Can you check Herade first, Anna?’ I asked. ‘Let’s ensure we have our next journey planned.’
‘Sure thing.’
While I continued to collate data from HD215152g, Anna studied the star fields and the spolding device.
‘I’ve a target on Herade, Mark. It’s right at the limit of visibility, but it shows as firm,’ said Anna.
‘Okay, take us into a lower orbit. Anyone have a better name for this than HD215152g?’ I asked.
‘It’s beautiful,’ said Bill. ‘Why not Bella, if there is no indigenous population who’ve already named it.’
‘Yes, we made a bit of a mess of naming the Trappist-1 worlds,’ said Mary. ‘What do you think, Stroya?’
‘Your ship. Your discovery. Bella seems suitable,’ the Heradian said.
‘No lights,’ said Chan, who’d been studying the gradually appearing dark side of the world.
‘What’s that glow? Just north of the equator,’ I asked.
‘Volcanic, I think,’ said Chan. ‘None of the web of lights we’d expect if this were Earth.’
‘I suppose that would have been too much to hope for,’ said Mary.
‘Are we going down?’ asked Bill.
‘Let’s give it a few orbits before making that decision,’ I replied.