Proving True

Four days have passed. Oedipus has been on station and operational turning seawater into something the reactors can use. Star Chaser has left us. Oedipus has a 100-ton load of fuel if we should need it. Gallagher can maintain geo-synchronous orbit operations for about 46 days before we need to fuel up. As long as all we need are maneuvering and/or station keeping thrusters. If things go awry, Oedipus is streamlined so it can land and process the seawater into fuel. As it is, they are exercising their own small craft pilots and water collection teams.

Shawna has sought a happy medium being a “helmsman” for Gallagher in orbit and a low-level shuttle pilot for the runs down to Dubus III. She’s definitely happier doing the latter. And it’s hard to blame her. With Gallagher in orbit, there’s not a lot for a helmsman to do other than operate the attitude thrusters to keep the ship stable with respect to the planet. And her understudy, mechanic Will Baumgartner, has been doing that just fine. Shawna is back from one of her hair-raising wave-skimming flights. Some of the imagery is posted on the monitors.

“Mixed bag, Boss,” she reports after her shuttle is secure. Several of her passengers, Leka among them, look quite shaken. “I made the mistake of taking that load of soft bellied whine tails on this flight. We did some low passes on all of the significant landmasses. Excluding the polar regions, most of the planet is forest…”

Hanson, one of the botanists, speaks up, “Deciduous to rainforest ma’am.”

Shawna glares at him, “Yeah, whatever. Anyway, there are lots of trees. But the dominant life form appears to be reptilian. Big carnivorous T. Rex looking beasties.”

Leka raises her hand. I nod to her. “That’s quite right, ma’am, theropods. And while we didn’t observe any directly for any length of time…”

“How could we at light speed?” Quips one of the other scientists. I suppress a grin. Shawna loves being above mach 7 if she’s in an atmosphere.

“…It stands to reason that there are huge carnivores in the oceans as well.”

“You don’t want to release her here.”

“Ma’am,” Leka’s eyes glisten, she’s on the verge of tears. “It would be a death sentence. It might not be immediate, but eventually, she’s going into something’s stomach. In my scientific opinion, it isn’t if it’s when.”

“Very well. We had discussed this eventuality with her. But what you’re describing is the food chain in action. While she is a predator and probably pretty close to the top, she’s still in the chain. So, it looks like she’s a guest aboard for a while. You’re telling her.” What’s the point in being Captain if you can’t throw your weight around? “But on to happier news, we’ll initiate the outpost there.” I point to an area about a half-kilometer from the ocean. I gesture to my troopers. “I want a minimum of two troopers in marauder armor at all times whenever we have people on the planet. Do we have a crew served weapon that can be mounted on the outpost? It needs to have organic defense systems. And I’ll want two crews for it on station at all times, one active and one reserve. They won’t be there to provoke a fight, but they have the mission to deter any aggression. Most particularly from the T. Rex beasties already mentioned.”

Freddie answers. “The squad has four FR14s. I don’t think we need more firepower than that.” The Fusion Rifle Mark 14, more commonly known as the FR14, makes each so armed trooper a nuclear force. The weapon launches a particle that is essentially a fusion bomb. “We also have the systems we…found…that could be mounted in the turret on this tub. One of those is a crew served mini fusion cannon to put up there. Good call on the security element, I was going to suggest that.” One trooper will have more firepower on his back than many small craft do. That ought to do what I’m asking.

I hold two fingers up at him. “Two things. One, If I’m not mistaken, you were the person who taught me that one can never have too much firepower. Two, Star Chaser is not in the area. The conclusion that leads me to is that you intend to get such a device from Oedipus.”

“To the first, I did, but I’ve also told you not to worry about such things, I’ll handle it. To the second, it would be impertinent of me to indicate there may be flaws in your logic.” His way of telling me he got it before Star Chaser left and to ask no more questions. He was probably going to mount it into one of Gallagher’s turrets, but this is as good a cause as any. I’m not chasing that rabbit.

“Freddie, it’s a commander’s job to worry. That’s what we do. In fact if you can tell me you don’t worry about the troopers under your command I’m going to start having serious doubts about you being the right guy for the job. I’m not talking about a lack of faith in their abilities. I trust you and everybody else to do their job. It’s your job to plan the next fight. It’s my job to plan the fight after that one and verify assets and resources are on hand for it. And if I do things right, you don’t have to fight.” He nods.

One of the science types, Hanson, has something on his mind. “We did collect multiple specimens…”

“After they stopped crying and wetting their APE suits,” Shawna notes unkindly.

“…Which need cataloging. Then I’ll get on their analysis.”

“Very well,” I turn to Leka, “are there local fauna in the ocean to worry about? Jellyfish, urchins, rays, sharks, things like that? I’d like to authorize some beach time if it’s safe.”

“There are almost certainly a few, I’d like a day or two to do some cataloguing myself. My concern is toxins. We’ll need treatment and medication for stings and such. We did get some indications of small sharks and what look similar to blue fin tuna. We should be able to isolate an area we can swim in with minimal danger.”

“Not a bad idea, but I’d rather not use any physical barriers if we can avoid it. If I remember geology 101 correctly, they can have negative effects down the coast. Perhaps some semi-active sonar type units. We’ll certainly post ‘swim at your own risk’ signs on the bulletin boards and on the shoreline. The ones outside will have motion sensitive firecrackers to scare off any critter that molests them. Hopefully the bang will scare them away and alert us to their presence. What else?”

Shawna has raised her hand, “Can we break out the anti-grav bikes? They’re fast and will cover a lot of territory in minutes with minimal education. I…found…some on Star Chaser before they left.”

“Will they be missed? Never mind, I don’t want to know anything about them. Once we have the outpost at least in place and powered, then we can start the semi-recreational exploring.”

My perCom beeps with a call from the bridge. “Ma’am, it’s not anything urgent, but we’re predicting a meteor shower at about midnight ship time, for any that may be interested. At this time there’s about a 30% chance of an impact in that area. It may be prudent to find an alternate site for the outpost.”

“Noted and thank you, but this is where we’re going to put it. A 30% chance of a hit is a 70% chance of a miss. I like those odds.”

“Yes, ma’am. Bridge out.”

“Now,” I say to the people around me, “if there’s nothing else, get to work. Leka, I believe you have a cetacean to disappoint.”

Work progresses, everyone gets on with his or her job. I could, and honestly probably should return to Gallagher to do some of that command stuff. There’s always something that needs to be addressed. But I don’t answer to anybody here and truthfully, I don’t want to be aboard the ship right now. I pitch in and get my hands dirty emplacing the outpost just like everyone else. We get the walls and roof of the shelter up. True to his word, Freddie arranges for a high energy degaussing cannon to be delivered. The structure doesn’t have a turret for it, per se, but it does have a flat solid roof. Running power cables to it and reinforcing the structure isn’t difficult but it isn’t trivial either.

At about dusk we have as much done on the shelter as we’re going to get done before daylight returns. And we have a functioning sonar warning system in place. I can’t wait to go swimming. But Leka spoils my fun.

“Ma’am, I cannot recommend entering the water. The light is fading. Most life forms in most oceans are feeding now. We don’t have a good idea of what might be coming close to shore.”

“It’s because I made you tell the whale we weren’t leaving her here, isn’t it?” I ask with a bit of a grin. But she is spared from having to answer me. She’s preparing to speak when the air is split with a very loud alarm. She snatches her perCom from her pocket.

“Unknown aquatic life form in the bay.” She says. “Maybe eleven meters long.”

“Your point is well made, I’ll stay out of the water until you say it’s safe.”

“I have no idea when that will be, ma’am.”

“And I can live with that.” Well, there’s still the meteor shower to watch.