The spaceship passed through the portal into the K^Calbin region without incident. So far, everything has been going smoothly. The receding light from the entry portal had faded to nothing days ago. Blackness engulfed the ship.
Drachcirn sat in the Crew Galley, reviewing the day's accelerometer readings. His DAP accessed the flight computer, which automatically flagged any non-zero value. His whispered commands started the scan through the 20,000 numbers recorded each hour. He would see an “OK” message projected by his eyepiece if none were flagged.
Officers must issue a command to enter anything into the ship's Log. Everything in the Log was timestamped and annotated with the officer's identity code. This procedure ensured that a ship's officer had seen everything entered.
The ship's passengers were unaware they had crossed into the hidden dimensions of space. Most were in their sleep mode routine. The crew knew and understood this transit was dangerous.
Retepin, one of the pilots, drifted into the crew galley and pulled up next to Drachcirn. “You busy?”
“No, just finishing a log entry. Bored out of my mind.”
“Same here, Drachcirn. These long flights are terrible. Nothing but waiting for something to happen. How long until we exit this place?”
“According to the calculations, we should see the exit portal on day 189 and clear it by Day 191. The portal we used has a slightly longer transit.”
“And after we exit, how long until we reach our destination ‘s-planetary system?” Retepin asked.
“That will take another 180 days,” Drachcirn replied. He had memorized the key flight milestone intervals. That's to the system boundary as determined by astronomers – where the system's star exerts negligible gravity.
“I hope this planet is as good as promised,” the pilot grinned.” I’ve been looking forward to landing on something scenic for a change.”
Drachcirn smiled, sounded vocables, and said, “Enjoy your fantasy, Retepin,”
In the quiet of his cabin, the Commander reviewed the daily records of the passenger's workouts and the newest notes recorded by the medical specialists. He opened one file after another on his monitor. The computer retrieved the data sorted by each passenger's class and physical condition score. He was most interested in those who could be active on the days immediately after landing.
Periodically, he would speak a phrase into a tiny mic to record something he wanted to follow up on later. He had added a code to each name: Leader, Trouble, Special Skills, and Other. The “Other” group included anyone he couldn’t put in one of the first three categories. He had also added a flag to mark those he wanted to be on one of the Landing Advance Teams.
Among the Amilikut, there were more strong wilderness men than he had expected. He was getting to know their strengths and weaknesses. Physical conditioning wouldn’t be a problem. They missed being outside, where their activity challenged their endurance. On the flight, the exercise routines were their only way to satisfy that need. Their PPS scores were the highest of anyone on the ship.
These men – and some women – understood what it took to survive. And they were not hung up on class privilege and ambition. Nireem wished all the passengers were like them.
He slowly learned what to expect from each of the 37 selected for the Advance Teams. Slowly, a command structure was emerging. He had a vague sense of who would be on each descent vehicle. From the comments in each file, he became aware of the issues he would face after landing.
Nireem found it interesting that the “wilderness” men all brought tools of their trade – guns, ammunition, knives of several types, fishing tackle and spools of line, spotting scopes, water bottles, and an assortment of small tools. All of the weapons were old-fashioned and considered obsolete, but they didn’t depend on high-tech systems. Instead, they used cartridges that they could reload. And they brought extra gunpowder and percussion caps. Nireem admired their simple practicality.
The crew hadn’t started going through the bags the Planners – that's what the Commander called the Space Operations Directorate -- had loaded on the descent vehicles. That would begin after they left the K^Calbin Region. Then, they would find out how well the Planners had prepared this expedition. He hoped they had packed weapons and tools like the Amilikut hunters used.
Commander Nireem wondered why the Planners hadn’t made better use of the people with years of experience surviving in the remote regions on Tridon. He supposed it was the fact that they looked down on the Amilikut. It wouldn’t look good if members of the Mamlaka were getting advice from their underlings.
Nireem was absorbed in what they would do once down on the surface. He wanted a plan for the first 48 hours. Part of that was dealing with different landing scenarios. From years of experience, he knew confidence depended on his decisiveness. Now was the time to plan and think about the alternative situations he might confront.
Meeting with the Advance Teams would have to wait. Only a few were up from sleep mode on any given day. Nireem planned to end sleep mode once they were about 30 days from orbiting planet 26q395-3. That reminded him to ask the passengers to pick a name for their new home once they got closer. Better yet, he thought, do that once the ship is in orbit when everyone can have a close-up view of their new home.
The alert on his eyepiece sounded. It was time to meet with Retepin in the Crew Galley. Nireem wanted an experienced pilot's views on the risks they faced landing the descent vehicles.
Gliding into the galley, Nireem smiled, seeing the pilot absorbed in something he was viewing through his eyepiece. All the astronauts brought a library of books and movies, games, and puzzles on their DAP.
Retepin glanced up and saw the Commander drifting his way. “Commander, “ he said, standing. They had been on several missions, and he felt comfortable working under him. Nireem was always even-tempered and never ruffled in an emergency.
“Sit down. Shall we talk about landing at our destination?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve given it some thought. First, this will be our first experience flying the new descent vehicles. And the conditions on 26q395-3 are quite different. The Planners are used to our landings on Tridon. But there, we use an automated system. The computer locks onto a signal, bringing us down to the selected spaceport. We will be making this descent manually.”
“Understand. But aside from the new vehicles, what makes landing at our destination different? You and Ecurben have done manual landings.”
“Yes, sir. But those were nearly all on smaller planets with much less atmosphere. We will make a much longer descent through a dense atmosphere. Weather conditions will play a bigger role. The aerodynamics and handling characteristics of these larger, heavier landing vehicles are supposed to be similar to our standard craft, but….”
“Got it. You don’t know for sure. We have to hope the engineers got it right.”
“Yes, sir. That's not the only risk. On Tridon, we always land at a spaceport with an ideal landing pad. On this descent, we will have to pick our landing point. The actual terrain may not allow a vertical touchdown. A belly slider is much riskier for large vehicles.”
Nireem nodded understandingly. “We’ve landed on rocky planets where nothing was flat, but the descent vehicles were much smaller. So before landing, we will spend extra time in orbit making observations to select the best location. Hopefully, the cloud cover will give us a good view. And our radar can help us understand the terrain.”
“Yes, Commander. We should study the terrain closely. Then, we use modeling to determine the proper point to leave orbit. A precise measure of gravitational acceleration will allow us to calculate the atmospheric density accurately. But weather conditions can cause unexpected variations. So, unfortunately, there will be a lot of on-the-fly decisions.”
“Will the atmospheric density affect your descent flight path? We don’t want to burn up before we land.”
“It just means we have to manage our airspeed versus altitude. We can’t come down too fast. We will run models before leaving orbit to devise the descent parameters.”
“OK, to summarize, Retepin. We have three risks: (1) descent vehicle handling, (2) weather conditions, and (3) terrain touchdown conditions. Handling could prevent reaching the desired location. The second looks like the worst—affecting pilot visibility and control. The third is anything local that causes a crash landing.”
“Right, sir. Dense vegetation, steep slopes, bodies of water, and severe rock formations at the landing site are the big risks.”
“OK. We can cope with missing the desired landing point. With a little luck, we can pick an area from orbit with a sequence of landing sites. What happens if you can’t do a vertical touchdown?”
“I have done a belly landing, but I hope it's unnecessary. Those are dangerous and make unloading difficult. Also, with a full load of passengers, there is the risk of injury.”
“Understand. Most of our passengers will need some time to adjust to gravity. A fire or anything that forces an immediate exit would be a disaster.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks, Retepin. We’ll review the landing plan when we are in orbit and have more information.”
The Commander glided back to his cabin. He was preoccupied with thoughts about how to mitigate the landing risks. The decisions made while in orbit would be significant. He still hadn’t decided whether to be on the first descent vehicle.
In a Passenger Lounge
Adnilla was finishing her day reviewing a traveler's exercise data. It had been a strange day.
One conversation, in particular, held her attention. It was with an older Mamlaka named Esojon. He never complained and understood the need for physical fitness. She recognized his military bearing and eyes that looked straight at you when he talked.
Esojon was not tall but muscular and had a good exercise score. And, when he spoke, it was in a quiet, confident way. But what grabbed Adnilla's attention was his question about the Commander. He had asked: What did the crew think about Commander Nireem?
She responded instinctively, “We all have the highest regard for the Commander. Most of us have been on other missions with him. He is fair and decisive and has led us through dicey situations. I would follow him anywhere!”
Esojon just nodded knowingly.
Another one of her passengers, a young man, was very different. He had worked on a road crew back on Tridon. His one qualification for the New Dawn Mission was his ability to do hard physical labor. He liked to exercise and was very strong.
Adnilla had first thought he might be a candidate for one of the Advance Teams. But his work had always been in an urban setting. He was shy, but when he got comfortable with a person, he became talkative and said whatever came to mind. He had told her she was his best friend on the ship several times and had a need to confide in her.
Her conversation with him earlier in the day opened a new wrinkle. He had ambition and was one of Salguodir's recruits.
“Salgauodir promised me a key position in the colony,” he blurted out.
“And,” she encouraged.
“Once we land, we can take over. We don’t need the Commander after we land.”
What she heard scared her. It was hard to know how much was an exaggeration and how much was real. But phrases like “don’t need the Commander” had to be reported.
Adnilla had listened but showed no reaction. She just nodded to keep him talking and praised him for being a good passenger. While she felt the young fellow was flirting with her, he at least was interesting.