Third Moon Rising Read online

  “It’s interesting that Fremont didn’t say anything about other expeditions from Earth,” Samuel Osborne said. “If those were unsuccessful, it could put a different perspective on our approach to the Zilans.”

  “According to Eve,” Carlos said, “archived news information indicates the other expeditions haven’t been very successful. This places even more importance on the long-term success of the Messier Colony and our mission to Zilia. And yes, I can see more than one possible reason Earth would have increased interest in Zilia.”

  Discussion among the crew turned to the information provided about Zilia, steering clear of the deception issue. It was exciting to learn about the technological advances and surprising to learn the Zilans appeared to be backward in many respects, particularly in their medical practices. There was much to learn before their arrival at the planet.

  As the discussion wound down, Carlos couldn’t help but ask, “What do you think is prompting those back on Earth to focus so intently on Zilia?”

  This question led to a philosophical discussion about issues Earth had faced in the previous two centuries, and the events that had led to launching the colonization expeditions in the previous century that had eventually led to their current mission. It was a wonder the Earth civilization had not fallen in the tumultuous twenty-first century with the religious wars and the subsequent struggles over control of food production and distribution resources. The discovery of extraterrestrial artifacts on the moon in 2082 was a rallying point of sorts, leading to establishment of a moon-research station by 2088 and other solar system colonies in the first decade of the twenty-second century.

  The twenty-second century was no less difficult, as those on Earth struggled to survive in an era of dramatically depleted natural resources and environmental pollution problems. In a way, the discovery of the extraterrestrials out toward Sagittarius in 2131 was a godsend. It galvanized action leading to launch of the first major expeditions to other solar systems in 2151.

  Carlos wasn’t surprised that a central topic in the discussion was that Earth desperately needed to expedite emigration to other worlds. The Messier Colony was the primary destination for the emigrants, but even with all the technological advances on Earth, it still took almost twenty-five years to make the trip to the colony on the planet Hope. It was apparent that Earth was looking for some breakthrough in technology, applying the advanced mathematics of the Zilans that could open the door to faster, more efficient space travel.

  To wrap up the discussion, Carlos made an offer. “I have firsthand accounts of much that happened over the two centuries prior to launch of the colonization expeditions. The Sepedas recorded their family history during that period, as many families did. Three generations of Sepedas were involved in activities from building Earth’s Moon Research Station to preparation and launch of extrasolar expeditions. I’ll be happy to make those recordings available to you.”

  They were interested, of course, and he agreed to transfer select recordings from his personal data cubes to the ship’s archives. He didn’t mention that his great-grandfather had been president of the North America Union and a member of the United Nations Executive Council when Earth detected the distant extraterrestrial signals. In addition, his grandfather had been a lead engineer for construction of the first two interstellar spaceships, including the Messier spaceship.

  Carlos sent the acknowledgement message Fremont requested. He wanted a private interactive exchange with him, but that would be awkward to arrange considering how Messier Mission Control monitored communications. Besides, it was much more efficient to send burst messages of compacted data, as was the message from Fremont.

  Carlos coordinated with Alex and Laura Brown in putting together the personal assessment of all team members. Laura was the more organized of the two and volunteered to compile the final medical report and coordinate with Eve to incorporate it into the assessment message.

  Overall, the twelve had fared very well. There was general disorientation by some early on, but that soon passed thanks to reinstatement of gravity in the crew compartments. Carlos knew it would take several days for the team to get up to speed mentally, and longer physically. Therefore, he designated the first seven days to be recuperation time while they made routine checks of ship systems.

  The checks were unnecessary, for the automated systems had taken care of everything appropriately, but they did get the team focused back on the mission plan. They discovered robotic service units had repaired two small punctures in the ship’s hull and adjacent compartments caused by particles impinging from space. It was fortunate the ruptures were not serious and had occurred far from the crew hibernation compartments.

  The relaxed regimen also let the crew renew their personal relationships. Carlos and Gloria spent considerable time talking and being intimate but initially had some difficulty in the latter department. The third time they began making love, Carlos stopped because she was not giving in to her emotions and remained somewhat withdrawn. She had been that way the first two times as well, but his need for her was so strong that he had proceeded anyway.

  “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked, holding her tenderly. “Am I doing something wrong? Have I offended you somehow? Would you feel better if we removed our pubic hair?”

  She laughed at his last question. “I know I’ve been hesitant, but I’ll get over it. You haven’t done anything wrong. You’re wonderful. And I’m excited by the feel of our pubic hair.”

  She ran her fingers playfully through the fuzzy hair on his chest and on down to his crotch. “And there’s no question about your excitement,” she chided teasingly.

  “I want you, pure and simple,” replied Carlos, catching his breath as she fondled him. “But whatever is bothering you has not gone away. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Oh, all right,” she said, a little aggravated as she pulled back from him. “It’s Eve. I feel like someone is watching as we make love. I know she’s only a virtual unit, but it makes me uncomfortable to be monitored.”

  He laughed at her calling Eve a “she”, and said, “Is that all? I can fix that. Eve, stop monitoring this compartment.”

  There was no response. He set up in bed. “Eve, answer me!” There was still no response.

  “I better see what’s going on,” he said reluctantly and turned to face the backup intercom panel. “Intercom on!”

  He waited a few seconds to make sure the device activated. But before he could say anything else, Eve answered via the primary wireless internal communications system.

  “Commander, I have reestablished monitoring. May I be of help?”

  He was surprised to hear the response via the primary system, not the backup intercom. This was the second time he had noticed Eve referring to itself using “I.”

  “Why was I unable to communicate with you moments earlier?”

  “I sensed you wanted privacy, so I stopped directly monitoring activities in your compartment.”

  “I don’t recall this being in your programming. How did you know to do this?”

  “I am unsure, Commander. I had a lot of time to think while you were in the hibernation unit. When the crew woke, I began noticing things about them I had not noticed before. One is that humans appear to need privacy periodically, and I am doing my best to accommodate this.”

  Whoa, what is this? Eve was thinking and noticing emotional nuances in the crew. Mission Control must have updated the unit’s software programs to include these surprising new capabilities. Oh well, that could be addressed later. Right now, he felt the pressing need to hold Gloria.

  “Giving us privacy is appreciated, Eve. Please stop monitoring this compartment, and don’t intrude unless there is an emergency or until I activate the intercom unit again.”

  “As you wish, Commander.”

  After making sure the intercom was off, he said loudly, “Eve, are you there?” His question elicited no response. He turned to Gloria, who smiled her appreci
ation and pulled him down against her. His desire had wilted a little during the interchange with Eve, but Gloria was her uninhibited self this time, and he was soon as excited as before.

  Later, Carlos looked at Gloria lying peacefully asleep. It was remarkable how they had come to be so intimate.

  He wondered what had caused Gloria to notice the apparent change in Eve, which then made her self-conscious about Eve monitoring their private activities. The others had likely noticed the change in Eve as well. The unit was acting more like a thinking machine than a standard interface unit. However, the unit did not have advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, per long-standing prohibitions on Earth. It was time to look into what had caused the change and the extent to which the virtual interface unit had changed.

  His thoughts turned to the immigrant transports that had arrived at the Messier Colony during his lifetime and the strain the colony was under building facilities and infrastructure on Hope’s surface to accommodate the new colonists. The major challenge was expanding the infrastructure, including the farming industry, to support the influx of people. The planet Hope would be an excellent place for large-scale colonization once the surface became more stable far into the future. Until then, only small surface colonies designed to withstand the environmental turmoil were proving viable.

  Then another troublesome thought came to mind. The Zilans had constructed expansive global infrastructure systems, but the planet Zilia had remained sparsely populated. Perhaps Earth was looking to Zilia as a future emigration destination. Zilia was almost on a line from Earth through Nepali A and on to intersect the Nepali C system. It would be easy for space transports heading for the Messier Colony to proceed on toward Zilia.

  Now where had those thoughts come from? Would Earth’s leaders really do something that drastic?

  How would the Zilans react if Earth indeed started diverting transports on toward Zilia? The Zilans did not appear to have any appreciation for the concept of war and had no obvious weapons. They would be ill prepared if Earth decided unilaterally to send people there.

  Earth might still not know about Zilia’s remarkable civilization if not for his bending the rules on the mission to Democritus and detecting signals from Zilia. The weight of more than the current mission responsibilities rested on his shoulders.

  SEVEN

  REVELATIONS

  Startled by a sudden revelation, Carlos stopped reviewing recent news from the Messier Colony. It was not the news itself but rather recognition of how it was organized that interrupted his concentration. The material was organized exactly as he would have done it, in both importance and time sequence!

  He continued scanning the material, and then stopped again, puzzled.

  “Eve, did you reorganize the news information sent to us by Mission Control?”

  “Yes, Commander. Is there a problem?”

  “What prompted you to organize it the way you did?” he answered, ignoring Eve’s question.

  “I studied all archive information about you aboard this ship, and that which I could access discretely via Mission Control. The information is arranged as I believe you would want it.”

  This could be good, or it could be bad, he thought.

  “Thanks, but you shouldn’t arrange general information to satisfy just me. It should be organized objectively by subject, time, and relative importance to the mission.”

  He would like to think his personal preference would arrange the information that way, and it was close. What was it he really wanted to ask this unit?

  “As you wish, Commander.”

  “Eve, what have you learned about me?”

  “Do you want all the information? It comprises a very large data file but could be downloaded efficiently via your neural implant.”

  “No, I don’t want all the info download. Contextually, what does the information span?”

  “Everything recorded since the day you were born, including my recent observations.”

  That caused him to pause. This Eve was very different from the virtual interface unit he’d known on the previous mission and during this mission’s prelaunch training. Was it safe to continue with the EVECI unit activated? Of course, the EVECI and the integrated central processor, or ICP, were indistinguishable now.

  He needed help in assessing what to do next, and George Sayer was the right person to ask.

  During the next meal, Carlos advised the others of Eve’s apparent expanding awareness capabilities and tasked George to investigate what had changed in the interface unit or the integrated central processor to cause this. George was a whiz in computer programming, as many astrophysicists were. Carlos made no effort to conceal this discussion from Eve. How the unit responded to George poking around inside it would be informative.

  The next day Carlos and Gloria headed to the small all-purpose meeting room where the crew was to meet and begin the archive data review. The crew had thoroughly enjoyed the week of relaxed regimen and adjusted well to their environment. But now they were ready to get on with the business of reviewing the information Mission Control provided. They were eighteen months out from Zilia, by Messier time, but they knew those months would pass quickly once they engaged in the extensive education and training still ahead of them.

  “Eve, have all crew members been advised of our meeting?”

  “Yes, Commander. They are converging on the meeting room now.”

  When they entered, Jorge Shivaro was looking closely at his reflection in a small mirror over the compact credenza storage unit at one side of the room. His jet-black hair was in sharp contrast to his pale skin. He was stroking his closely trimmed beard and had a worried look on his face. He jumped back and blushed when Carlos and Gloria entered.

  “Your mustache and beard look great to me,” Gloria said. “Why are you so worried?”

  “It’s nothing, really.” Jorge took his hand down from his beard. “I thought I saw a speck or two of gray, but I’m probably just worrying about the decade we slept.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t worry too much,” Carlos said matter-of-factly. “You spent only a small fraction of that time asleep from a biological standpoint.”

  “That’s right,” injected Licia Wells, who had entered the compartment in time to hear Jorge’s statement. She had left their shared quarters moments behind him. Her deep-blue eyes sparkled, and she fiddled with her short-cropped, black hair as she continued in a teasing voice. “If a twenty-to-one reduction in metabolic rate was established in our hibernation units, then you have aged biologically a little over six months. But I’ll bet they used a larger reduction rate, so you probably didn’t age even that much.”

  “In addition,” Gloria said, exaggerating somewhat, “considering the relativistic velocity of the New Horizon and the time dilation effects calculated using the Lorentz-Einstein transformation equation, you have aged at most about five months. I think it would be even less than that. But then, the biomedical nanoagents should have fixed any deterioration.”

  “Commander, the actual biological time spent in hibernation was 4.828 months,” volunteered Eve, to everyone’s surprise. This just added to the moment.

  “Enough, enough,” Jorge protested in feigned anger. “Can’t a guy have a little peace when contemplating his mortality without a big fuss being made about it?”

  They were all laughing when Amanda and George arrived moments later. They could tell right away that George was happy, for a limber stick of liquorice candy dangled from his mouth as he contentedly chewed on one end.

  “Where in the world, or I should say spaceship, did you find the candy?” Gloria asked.

  George smiled and looked over at Amanda, who blushed. “Well, someone decided to freeze a few sticks to provide as a second wakening gift. And it doesn’t taste bad considering how long it was in the freezer.” He preferred the old name liquorice for the candy instead of licorice; he said the old name gave eating the candy an air of sinfulness, making it more delicious.
r />   “But it actually turned out to be the fifth, or was it the sixth gift?” he added, looking at a red-faced Amanda.

  Though a biochemist, Amanda’s self-taught horticultural talent had first brought her and George together. The two were working on a project with Carlos at the Hope surface colony when Amanda learned of George’s weakness for liquorice candy, which was in short supply. She had privately grown the perennial leguminous herb Glycyrrhiza from seeds brought from Earth. She processed the herb’s gummy rootstock to make a large batch of the chewy liquorice candy, and surprised him with it. They became inseparable from that time on.

  “I won’t ask what the first gifts were,” Carlos said. The others of the team had quietly joined the group as the liquorice discussion ensued, and there was lighthearted laughter all around. “Maybe this is a good time to start reviewing the archive data before someone decides we need to start telling tales on each other. Eve, proceed with the summary.”

  There were no surprises in the news about Earth and its colonies. Several additional shiploads of colonists had arrived at the Messier Colony from Earth, and the colony continued emphasizing expansion. Many more would be arriving in the near future because Earth had increased the tempo of launches upon Zilia’s discovery. Emigration to the distant Cheng Ho expedition colony had halted, with priority shifted fully to the Messier Colony.

  Advanced propulsion systems and weapon systems research had continued full pace on Earth. However, it was apparent from the time between transports arriving at the Messier Colony that there were still no dramatic advances in propulsion systems. The existence of such advanced capabilities would have made colonization of other planetary systems feasible. Travel across vast distances of space seemed destined to be tedious and time consuming for at least the near future.

  The information obtained by monitoring Zilia was much more captivating. The Zilan civilization had been poised on the verge of space travel for several centuries. However, they showed no apparent interest in manned space flights. Their interest in space was primarily on utilizing it in ways that directly benefited life on the planet. They had sophisticated communication and navigation satellites to support global air, land, and sea travel. A strong interest in astronomy was also evident, but primarily in academia.