Ten years had passed since their departure and they have been drifting through the void at speeds unheard of since then. The war at Earth had come to pass and their homeworld as they knew it was no more. NNT TeraNova. That was the ship in question, the very first FTL capable starship of humanity. By compressing space-time behind the ship, and expanding the aforementioned in front of it, it was able to ride the "wave" at faster than light speeds, effectively bypassing Einstein's theory of relativity. Nobody knew how it was possible or how it works. It just did. The year is 2110 and after the decade long voyage, NanoTec, her ship, and her crew had arrived. Finally after running out of nuclear fuel, The TeraNova dropped out of its warp bubble and out into uncharted space. A new frontier, a brave new world.
Story Arc 2: Brave New World
Elleno woke up. Cold and hungry. Those were the only two feelings he was feeling. He opened his eyes slowly and the ice crystals that had formed over his eyelids and eyelashes flaked off and dropped to his feet with a soft twinkle. Opening his eyes wider, he could see a curved glass panel enclosing him within his cryo chamber. There was a flashing red LED/button on the left corner of the chamber, lighting up the written text below it, "Emergency Eject". His limbs were stiff and almost unmovable. It was painful with every movement. The cold had frazzled his mind a little, but not much. He recollected his memories, as he muttered to himself,
"My name is Elleno, 180 cm tall, security officer of SkyLab2 sector 02, now member of... EarthGov, no NanoTec. I am on board NNT Nova? Or was it something else...never mind, I'll find out later..."
His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shaking of his cryo chamber. Through the thick glass cover of the chamber he could vaguely hear the dull rumble of the ship hull. Are we under attack? He thought to himself. The ice coating covering his body had mostly turned back into water and melted away. With all his strength, he hit the flashing red button and the glass cover of the chamber was flung outwards with tremendous force and a cloud of mist. Elleno fell out of the chamber, expecting to hit the floor but instead, was flung towards the opposite wall of cryo chambers and then he hit the floor. As he hit one of the chambers, he instinctively grabbed onto its control panel for support. An external impact. Looking around, the interior lighting was red, power saving mode and the internal temperature was searing. He tried to get to his feet but his muscles were still stiff and warming up. Suddenly, the cryo chamber he was clinging onto flung open in another cloud of mist and he was thrown off balance, landing onto the opposite wall. As soon as all that happened, the occupant of the chamber stepped out. He was younger than Elleno, or at least looked younger by at least 13 years. What was most surprising was that he was not wearing any protective cryosleep gear and was not affected by the cryo at all. It was as though he had just gotten out of bed.
"Good morning sir." That person spoke out.
Elleno was taken aback. He was in no position to be called sir. Before he had time to reply, that person spoke again.
"Sir, what is going on? Why is it so hot sir, and you know where the bridge is ? Oh wait, I was a scientist working on this ship, silly me. Pardon me sir."
With that, he stretched and began maneuvering towards the bridge. Elleno was dumbfounded, but there really was no time for that. He began following him.
"By the way sir, call me Joe." He spoke over his shoulder.
The security officer nodded. By that time, Joe had already opened the door to the bridge and sat himself in front of the piloting seat. As Elleno entered, he shielded his eyes instinctively due to the huge difference in light level. Out of the glass windows of the bridge, right before his eyes was a large, G-Type main sequence star. Joe pushed a button on his RIG and the bridge's glass windows immediately polarized. Elleno frowned. Joe wore his RIG to cryosleep? He moved over to Joe and looked over his shoulder.
"Others also call me Sir-Caller. A really silly nickname if I might say." Sir-Caller said over his shoulder again. He pointed to one of the holodecks in front of him. "You see that sir? We are in for a close one near this star. And we could slingshot around this planet." He said as he pointed to a different spot on the holodeck.
Elleno nodded again as he went over to the main command deck of the bridge. Sweat was already accumulating on his forehead just from hearing the ship was going to pass really close to a star. Once there, he pressed some buttons on the deck, hoping to get some information.
"...Ha! Got it!"
Elleno muttered to himself in triumph. His hacking skills finally paid off. He was greeted by a wall of text and partially encrypted code. Scanning through, he began reading to himself.
"...Automatic system update, date: 2110 Jan 1st, Shangri-La fusion reactors out of fuel...Switching to emergency Trans-Lightforce "Fubuki" Fission... Ship dropped out of warp, approaching a solar system in the... Small Magellanic Cloud?!"
As Elleno read this, the ship suddenly listed towards the left and he was neatly thrown off onto his side. Apparently Sir-Caller had been fiddling with the controls. He suddenly spoke up
"Sir, If I may interrupt, we are approaching the perigee of this orbit trajectory, hold your horses sir."
It was at this moment, the ship began creaking. It was either the temperature of the stress taken by the hull. Sir-Caller pressed another button on his RIG and the ship jerked towards the right, flinging Elleno onto the wall. Joe apologised.
"Sorry sir, some minor course corrections, at this rate..."
He could not finish his sentence before the ship alarm began blaring. *Warning! Incoming solar flare detected. Warning! Incoming...* The alert repeated. Elleno looked up and confirmed it. In front of the ship's flight path was a fiery trail of hot plasma leaping up from the star's photosphere into the vacuum around. Elleno immediately sprung into action.
"Joe! You take the wheel, trim vector, 300 m/s of delta v onto the orbit axis, the ship hull will do the rest. I will manage the power, keep things from overheating. Got it? Quickly!"
Sir-Caller nodded and replied.
"You are not as dumb as you look sir. Understood."
Elleno ignored the last remark and scrambled to the engineering console. He sat himself down and hacked the terminal open. A whole string of binary code materialized in his face. Scanning the text and typing into his RIG, it was certainly not easy. Not to mention reading binary to begin with. The TeraNova's engines began firing, barely maintaining the exhaust plasma. With that, the ship began listing towards starboard side. The solar flare was huge, both of the men could hear the creaking from the port side of the ship as hull plating was torn off from it.
"Sir, port armor overheating." Sir-Caller commented.
Elleno gritted his teeth. Typing more strings of code, the liquid coolant began flowing into the port hull buffer zones. Another solar flare sprung out just behind the ship. There was no time to alter course. Mercilessly, it struck the ship hard on its engine sector and part of the already damaged starboard cryo sector. Cabling broke and sparks flew from the broken ends. The internal red lighting flickered and Elleno was sure he could hear major ship sections venting air into space.
"Well... there goes our warp engine." Elleno muttered. "Hey Joe! Get us out of the star's danger zone. Quickly! Burn prograde!"
"Yes sir. I am trying my best." He replied.
The TeraNova listed towards port side this time. Barely missing another flare that poped up from port side. The ship accelerated, nearly throwing Elleno off his feet... again. Sir-Caller flicked the buttons again and the ship suddenly changed direction again. The solar flare frequency began to die down. The ship had left the flare zone near the star. Elleno sank down into the chair and wiped sweat off his forehead. Sighing once, he got up and looked back at the raging star. Almost completing its slingshot around the it, the ship's relative distance from it began increasing. A good sign. Sir-Caller glided over to the exhausted Elleno.
"Good job there sir. I expected less honestly but I am impressed."
Elleno gave a thumbs up sign and smiled rather weakly as he collapsed to the ground.
"By the way sir... If I may inquire, where did you learn hacking and orbital mechanics?"
Elleno replied slowly, "From... the Internet."
Sir-Caller nodded as he moved towards the captain's console. He opened up the holodeck and began pointing and speaking.
"Ok sir, the dangerous part is over. Now due to the rapid adjustments of our flight path, we are now headed straight for the fourth planet in this system. As it stands, we are going to dip into its atmosphere and most likely lose all our orbital speed and crash. That is, if we don't burn up in the atmosphere sir."
Elleno inquired, "Before that, could you carry out a long range scan on the planet?"
"I have already done that dumbass sir. If not, then how would I already know there's an atmosphere?"
"Ok, ok. Fine. Do you suggest we land there?"
Sir-Caller pulled a thumb drive out of his pocket and tossed it to Elleno. He had apparently done all the scanning quite a while ago.
"Here sir. Take a look at the data. I will tell you my opinions once you are done. We have 86 hours."
Elleno plugged the thumb drive into his RIG and opened the data file. The fourth planet in the star system. Earth-like, within the star's habitable zone and could possibly support life. 1.2 G on the surface and average temperature is around 2-10 degrees Celsius. There was also a dense asteroid belt orbiting around the planet in a geostationary orbit but that was a problem for another time. To him, it was a great place to land but it was unconfirmed if there was even oxygen on it's surface. Thinking about it for a while. Elleno finally relayed his opinions to Sir-Caller.
"Joe. We land there."
"Good. Glad we share the same opinion. Now if you would excuse me..."
With that, Sir-Caller pushed off the glass paneling and proceeded out of the bridge. His maneuvering air jets echoed off the hull of the silent spacecraft as he eased back into the cryo sector. It was almost as though everybody did not just nearly die from the nearby star a few moments ago. Sir-Caller swiftly climbed back into his cryo pod and closed the hatch. Elleno tried to stop him but the hissing of nitrogen could already be heard. The cryo process restarted. He was dumbfounded. Why would anyone cryo freeze themselves, merely over the course of 86 hours. Especially considering the after effects of the sleep. Now there was nobody he could talk to and keep himself occupied with.
"Well...this is going to be a very long four days..." he thought to himself.
On a spaceship hurtling towards a planet at sub-luminal speeds, there really is nothing much to be done. He could not go back to cryo sleep as it hurt very much after defrosting and therefore, his time was mainly spent repairing internal damage, staring into space, literally, and nearly starving to death. He had apparently forgotten that there were combat rations in the cargo bay. Indeed, he was a security officer and therefore knew how not to starve to death, but the boredom was of a whole different level.
Almost four days soon passed and that fourth planet of the star system came into view. From a distance, it looked like a bright blue ball, capped with white at the poles. This meant that there was a large amount of light being reflected back into space from the surface and thus the planet was almost certainly full of water or had many thick blue clouds. It was however, still nearly 5 hours remained between that present time, to the perigee of the TeraNova's hyperbolic orbit which so happened to lie within the planet's atmosphere. The vague hissing sound of nitrogen could then be heard by Elleno from the bridge. Not long after, Sir-Caller casually floated in.
"Hello again sir. That was quick. It felt as though we have only just conversed a mere 5 minutes ago...Say sir, you don't look too good now do you?"
Elleno remained silent. His eyelids were drooping and he was sure he felt much lighter at the feet. Completely ignoring Sir-Caller, he moved over to the captain's seat, sat down and slowly, raised his right middle finger at him. Sir-Caller shrugged his shoulders and continued.
"Well sir, jokes aside, we are almost at the planet as you can see. We should dip into the atmosphere in about, lets see... four hours and forty-five minutes. I think I will go back to sleep."
Elleno raised his left middle finger. Sir-Caller shrugged again.
"Ok fine. I shall wait out here. Sir."
With every passing moment, the bright blue ball grew larger and ever so closer, and Elleno ever so nervous and hungry. Not long after, details of the planet surface could be seen more clearly. The entire planet looked nearly five times as large as that of Earth and its surface was about 90% water and the only land was a continent the size of both Americas and Europe combined. There were not many geological formations on the land, except for a few hills and rivers. What was most strange for a planet of that size was the fact that its gravitational field strength was only 1.2 times that of Earth and the dull greyish brown asteroid belt circulating around it. Indeed a strange world.
"Sir, we are about to enter the planet's atmosphere soon. Get to the engineering station again sir."
Elleno nodded weakly and slid over to the seat. He opened up his RIG and prepared for the inevitable. Sir-Caller veered the ship about 2 degrees starboard and upwards, (with respect to the ship) to avoid the ring of rocks before plunging into the planet's atmosphere.
"Re-entry in 3, 2, 1... and..."
As Sir-Caller reached "1", the NNT TeraNova began shaking. First a slight tremor, to a full on earthquake like effect. A thick layer of plasma enveloped the ship as it plunged further into the atmosphere. Elleno was working as fast as he could, trying his best to prevent the whole ship from overheating. Sir-Caller was just doing what he did best. Terrifying rattling sounds could be heard from within the ship and the ferocious creaking of the hull threatened to tear the whole construct apart.
"Altitude 50 kilometers sir... Our speed is dropping nice and slow." Sir-Caller spoke above the noises.
Elleno nodded his head again. He was really focused on the job at that point, where a single mistake could mean death. The creaking became even louder and the bridge glass windows began cracking under the stress. Fragments from the inner glass panes began spilling onto the deck.
"30 kilometers, ambient heat dropping sir. Looking good."
Elleno barely heard Sir-Caller say that. He was staring at the starboard section shown on the holodeck. That section was overheating rapidly, internally as well as externally. There was only one explanation. The hull has been breached and the hot air was entering.
"Joe! There's a breach in the starboard cryo sector! We need to..."
Before Elleno was able to finish his sentence, a loud screech was heard as that cryo sector was wrenched from the ship in a shower of molten steel and glass, leaving a gaping hole in the starboard midsection. Plasma began spilling in, heating the superstructure even further.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Ah, shit, there goes twenty thousand of us... Joe switch to rocket-jet hybrid vertical engines! Slow our decent, I cannot keep the ship cool, our coolant is leaking!"
"Yes sir. Prepare for the acceleration G-force."
Sir-Caller punched a few buttons onto his RIG and the TeraNova's emergency combustion engines flickered to life. The deceleration effect was crushing, threatening to drain Elleno's blood to his feet.
"Sir, our speed is dropping rapidly, this is looking good... Current altitude, 10 kilometers and speed 60 meters per second and dropping. If all goes well... wait, whats this? Windows crashed, press any key to reboot... awww goddammit."
It was at this moment the chemical engines cut off completely and the whole ship powered down. This was when the NNT TeraNova began spiraling to the ground in a horizontal, uncontrollable flatspin.
"Joe! I thought you were supposed to upgrade the Operating System?"
"I did sir! I upgraded it from Windows 8 to 10."
"No wonder the bloody thing crashed!"
Elleno and Sir-Caller began yelling at each other for the final 10000 meters to the ground, all while clinging for their lives. The free fall felt like it lasted for an eternity. Or at least, nobody could remember exactly how long it was. Elleno merely found himself falling within the ship one moment, blacking out another and finally finding himself waking up with a throbbing head among broken electronics.
"Ah, crap..." Elleno muttered to himself.
He had no idea for how long he was out. What he did know was that he was lucky to still be in one piece. The crash seemed to have broken the ship's spine from what he could see and from where he was (the bridge), the whole deck had listed about 20 degrees to starboard. The glass paneling had completely shattered and streams of sunlight entered through those holes. It gave the feeling of being within something ancient. The hallways leading to the main cryo sectors from the bridge had collapsed and thus Elleno climbed out of the bridge, through the broken windows to go around. The sunlight was really bright and it made him feel a little dizzy. After all, he had not been exposed to it while on a planet's surface for nearly 10 years. Scanning his surroundings, Elleno found that the ship had landed in the water, about a kilometer or two away from the continent. The ship had dug a small trench about 5 meters deep and nearly 500 meters long during the crash and seeing that the water surrounding the ship was bubbling and emitting steam, he had not been out for long.
"Now, where is that Joe? I am pretty sure he was in the bridge just now..." he thought to himself as he maneuvered his way to the main port side entrance airlock.
Elleno tore open the external covers of the control panels and opened both of the airlocks. The blast doors were half jammed and could not open fully. Elleno crawled under them, carefully making sure he did not knock his head on the broken metal, all while hoping they do not seal shut on top of him. After making his way through the dark and dusty hallways, he was able to get through the wreckage to the main cryo sector without too much trouble. Standing in the very center was a dark shadow like creature. Elleno recoiled backwards, half shocked and surprised at what he saw. The lighting was minimal, and thus was very difficult to make out what its features were. That figure turned towards Elleno's direction and began walking towards him slowly. Each step echoing within the ship. It stopped a mere 2 meters away from him and it began to open its mouth.
"Sir." It spoke. "Jet fuel really can melt steel beams!"
About 5 minutes later, Elleno had begun the thawing process for the rest of the crew. That way, their bodies would not hurt so badly once they come out if done properly. He re-routed what remained of the electrical power to lighting and heating before sitting down next to Sir-Caller who was by the entrance.
"You know sir, you really did not have to slap me so hard."
"Well, you could have called out to me earlier."
Elleno remained silent to hide his embarrassment from being scared so easily. The collective hissing and evaporation of nitrogen filled the room as the rest of the crew came back to life. The first one soon pushed open the glass lid of his cryo chamber and collapsed to the ground. He was alive definitely but his body did not take the effects of cryo sleep too well. Coughing a few times, he slowly put his foot onto the ground and then his hands on his knees. The cracking of the ice flaking off his body was somewhat audible.
"Sir?" Elleno and Sir-Caller spoke simultaneously.
Sir-Caller pushed Elleno away and spoke again,
"Sir, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," He took a sidelong glance at Elleno before continuing,
"The ship has landed on an unknown planet and we require you to make a surface analysis. We need to know exactly what we are standing on...Did you hear me? Mr Saegen sir?"
Saegen, the director and chief scientist of Project Daledalus and NNT TeraNova. Nearly 46 years old and still kicking. He coughed a few more times and tried to get up. Stumbling once, and after being supported by Elleno, he got onto his two feet although he had to support himself with both hands on his knees. He nodded at Sir-Caller's first request and before he could begin walking, Sir-Caller began talking again.
"By the way sir, where is my brother?"
Saegen looked dumbfounded. Probably after effects of cryosleep.
"I meant, whats his name again...yeah Kuro. Kuro of the Black Skies. Where is he?"
By that time Saegen's cryo fatigue was dissipating and he could almost stand properly already. He pointed towards the group of men and women by the corner who were puking their guts out.
"One more thing sir..."
Saegen faced Sir-Caller looking slightly irritated.
"Where is...Clanedd sir? The engineer I worked with on the planet?"
Saegen remained quiet and began looking slightly downcast, "Well, she was one of our most skilled and Elite personnel you could ever find on Earth. Intelligent, innovative and courageous. It is...a disappointment that we lost her. She...did not make it."
Sir-Caller nodded. And folded his arms. "Then sir, the artifact? What do you call it..."
Saegen leaned in and whispered to Sir-Caller, "You mean MAXIS? Yeah, its still here, that is if it survived the crash."
"One last thing sir, how about TKE? Our head engineer? Is he around? Dead sir?"
"Well..." Saegen's eye pupils moved to the left and right in quick darts. He breathed in deeply once and answered softly, yet quickly, "He also did not make it...He perished with Clanedd...Yeah he did."
Sir-Caller raised his eyebrows in suspicion, "Are you sure sir? I am pretty sure I saw him board the ship. Even through cryo, my eyes, mind you sir, do not deceive me."
"Yes-s I am sure, now if you would excuse me, I have a atmosphere analysis to do."
"You mean surface analysis sir?"
"Y-Yeah! That's right. A surface analysis. Thanks. I'll see you later."
Elleno watched from the sidelines and picked up every single line of speech exchange between Sir-Caller and Saegen. "Joe, what the hell was that all about? Artifacts, head engineer? What's going on?"
"Sir, I will explain later. There are more pressing matters at the current moment."
"Seriously? I have a right to know. As Chief/Security Officer of SkyLab2 Sector 2, I must be informed of all happenings! And please stop calling me 'sir'!"
"Yes ma'am." Came the reply.
Sir-Caller ushered Elleno, who was chewing on some combat rations, to follow him as he made his way to the stern of the crashed ship.
"You know sir, you really did not have to slap me again." Sir-Caller mentioned casually, although sounding a little irritated.
"Well you could start by calling me by my proper name first." Elleno snapped back.
"Alright fine sir... what's your name again?"
"Oh forget it."
Sir-Caller soon passed the non-functional reactor sector and finally reached the back of the stern. Elleno stopped short behind him and immediately saw a high density, composite blast door. The kind designed to survive a direct nuclear hit. On it was painted, though slightly scratched, in bright white paint, the numbers "05". Sir-Caller stepped forward, opened his RIG and punched a few buttons, entered a string of codes and the blast door's motor began to hum. Pieces of concrete flaked from it as it was accompanied with a high pitched screeching sound from the concrete rubbing against polysilicate backings. Red-orange sparks flew from the edges of the door. However due to the damage sustained, the blast door could only open just large enough for the two men to walk through.
Inside was the only chamber in the ship that did not have hull breaches and plasma scorches along the walls, completely opposite on what the rest of the ship looked like. Within it was an air-tight glass chamber placed in an anti-shock setup, with many high-tension springs to keep it from swaying or shattering, even in an event of a crash. However the latter was only just proven. The glass chamber itself was about 3/3/2 meters in length, breadth and height respectively. The walls were built out of a thick plexiglass/plastoid hybrid and the only entrance into the chamber was a mechanically locked security door. And, within the chamber was a glowing, cyan blue orb that had multiple graphiene-like rods orbiting around it on many planes. The orb pulsated in such a way it was mesmerizing and somewhat seducing to the mind. It's pulsing was of irregular intervals and of varying brightness, such that it seemed very much sentient in its own sense. Sir-Caller pointed to the orb and announced, rather proudly to Elleno.
"The MAXIS core."
Elleno watched it in awe. The pulsing was even in sync with Sir-Caller's voice and even to his own heartbeat. Elleno unconsciously mumbled to himself,
"Wow...Its beautiful."
"Yes sir, I know. Rumor has it that it can suck your life out if you stare at it for too long. Come lets go. I have confirmed its survival, and I don't want a dead body on my hands sir."
Elleno did not react. He did not even hear Sir-Caller at all. A little voice of unknown origin spoke in his head. The voice was masculine and yet feminine in speech. It spoke in a monotone but sounded lively. Elleno was not able to make the words out clearly and before he could question what he was listening to, Sir-Caller had already grabbed the back of his shirt collar and dragged him out of the room.
"Ok sir, I think that is quite enough. Stoning and phasing out like that. Not very good for a 'security officer' you know."
Before he knew it, Elleno was sitting upright against the closed blast door which contained the MAXIS chamber. Sir-Caller spoke first, interrupting Elleno's questions.
"Ok sir, that's the artifact we were talking about. Satisfied? Good. Now you were also asking about the head engineer. Regarding that, I would also like to remind you that you were fighting alongside him when the intruders came on board in 2095. Don't tell me you have already forgotten."
"Hmm... I really don't recall. Unless you were talking about security officer of sector 4, then maybe he did."
"Alright sir, it doesn't matter really. Cryosleep does tend to cause minor amnesia from time to time anyways."
With that, Sir-Caller gestured for Elleno to follow and began climbing through one of the larger breaches. Elleno followed him through the hole. The breach was a tear-open, therefore having many sharp or uneven protrusions of metal and cabling, making it difficult and even dangerous to climb through.
"Sir, I would advice you to be a little careful, there is a little gap over there so if you don't mind..."
Before Sir-Caller was able to finish his sentence, Elleno plunged head first into the steaming, boiling water.
"...! Ah crap! W... Help! F*data_repunged*!"
Sir-Caller brought his left palm to his face and sighed.
"You know sir, you could use more caution. I was about to warn you about the gap before you decided to go swimming."
Elleno quickly swam about 30 meters away from the crash site. Before yelling back to Sir-Caller.
"Holy crap! The water is freaking boiling!"
Sir-Caller shouted back. "I know that sir. By the way, shouldn't we get a boat or something before going out?"
"No point! The water here is shallow, about 1.5 meters. I really mean it! Jump in!"
"No sir. The water is still boiling."
"Alright fine! Don't come whining to me that I was the first man to step onto alien soil!"
Sir-Caller nodded and with that, climbed back into the ship. Strange... If Joe did not want to go anywhere, why did he even climb out to begin with. Elleno thought to himself as he swam towards the continent. The sun was still out and there was probably still some time left to look around.
Saegen sat on one of the broken engine pods with a laptop on his lap. He had all his instrument deployed and his readings were almost finalized. A man in a white, dusty lab coat, wearing a brown shirt and standing a full 190 cm approached Saegen from behind.
"Need help with that?"
Saegen turned around and examined that man. After which he smiled and stood up.
"Hey! Claev! Good to see you are ok. Sleep well?"
Claev, or formally known as Doctor Claev. He was just about as old as Saegen and were good friends. Coincidentally, they were even classmates back on Earth and unsurprisingly, he worked as Saegen's most trusted assistant and peer.
"Yeah" replied Claev. "Feeling better than ever now."
"Glad to hear it. You could help me with this though..." Saegen said as he passed an atmospheric sample kit to Claev.
"Our warp navigation failed. We are not at Vega, but some random system in the Small Magellanic Cloud. At the same time, we lost 20 000 people. You know that right."Saegen commented
Claev nodded. "They were some of our best too... Well, there is no point worrying about them. We just need a brief moment of silence for the fallen." he said as he opened the casing while seated cross-legged behind Saegen.
Saegen acknowledged Claev as he pulled the pH probe out of the water. It was going to be a long day.
Kuro stumbled out of the cryo sector and out into the open airlock. He was clutching his stomach, grabbing the handrails to his left and trying his very best not to throw up. He was known to be able to endure 100s of gees, fly 3 meters off the ground at mach 4, take out multiple Spore destroyers without weapons and beat the third level of Battletoads. Indeed, he was the greatest pilot in the galaxy but he simply could not cryosleep. Sir-Caller approached him from behind.
"So sir, are you feeling better now?"
Kuro shook his head, gagged and put his left hand over his mouth.
"Sir it has been 6 hours... 6 hours. Take a look, I have personally set-up all the inflatable habitation, power module, hydroponics and reverse osmosis system already."
Sir-Caller pointed outside towards the water. The sun was setting and a warm orange, light reflecting off the water surface beautifully. About 10 meters away from the crashed NNT TeraNova and stretching into the horizon were many white, dome like modules. Some of them had a transparent plastic roof, some cylindrical and made partially out of heavy metal elements and the rest were still in the process of inflating and deploying. He was not exaggerating.
Kuro suddenly turned away, brought his head over the deck and spewed stomach acid into the water. He coughed a few times before attempting to speak.
"Ughh... I really need an antacid...Oh god..Umgh!"
Kuro vomited over the side of the deck again. Sir-Caller sighed. As he thought of what he could do for the poor fellow, Saegen approached Sir-Caller.
"Ok Joe, I have done the atmosphere analysis..."
"You mean surface analysis sir?" Sir-Caller interrupted him.
"Yes, yes. That too. Now..."
As Saegen said this, he opened a holo window on his RIG and sent it to Sir-Caller. He began pointing to the different graphs and pie charts as he explained them each in detail.
"Ok, let us begin with my surface analysis."
Sir-Caller remained silent and ushered for Saegen to continue.
"The planet, using the footage from the cameras on the NNT TeraNova in space, during re-entry and from current observation, I can confirm previous assumptions that the planet is indeed five to six times as large as Earth diameter wise. One abnormality is that despite its size, the planet's gravitational field strength is only about 1.2 times that of Earth. After doing spectrometer analysis on the surface and sub-surface elements, I can conclude that the surface is 14% Silicon and nearly 77% Carbon in mass. The other 9% are elements are things like Oxygen, Hydrogen and metals such as Iron, Nickle and Copper. There are also trace amounts of Iridium and Aluminium."
"Well, that explains the low gravity sir... Ok carry on." Sir-Caller commented casually.
Saegen nodded. "Yes... Moving on, 90% of the planet surface is water. The 10% of land we are standing on is in fact, a giant floating island the size of North and South America combined, on a single tectonic plate. The sea level is constant at about 1.5 meters deep for about 5 kilometers from the land. Beyond that, the water depth dips rapidly to up to about 300 meters deep 100 meters away from that 5 kilometer line. It is like a cliff edge flooded with water. The oceans however, seem to be rich in deuterium and there are many hydrogen gas pockets around. See, there is one right there as well."
Saegen said as he pointed to a cyan blue patch amidst the deep navy blue ocean.
"Now, that finishes up the surface analysis results. Time for the atmospheric analysis."
Sir-Caller began grinning and began speaking sarcastically, "Heh! I did not know you were this hard working sir, or your lazy attitude did not surface this time! Get it?... No?... I'll show myself out."
Saegen sighed and shook his head. "You did want the readings and results didn't you? I highly doubt your friend here will remember."
Kuro tried to say something but threw up again. Sir-Caller nodded.
"All right sir. As you wish."
Saegen cleared his throat once, coughed and continued.
"Right, so the atmosphere of this planet is very similar to that of Earth. About 75% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen, 1% Carbon Dioxide and the rest are noble gases. The strange thing is the high concentration of noble gases. I would have thought that such a thing would be extremely uncommon, but if my readings are not wrong, then there would be many lightning storms and auroras on this planet."
Sir-Caller nodded. "What about the weather? Surely an atmosphere scan would come out with some clues on it sir."
"Ah yes, the weather. Here on the planet, the weather includes but is not limited to, bright sunny days, cool cloudy evenings (like now), tornadoes, typhoons/hurricanes, monsoon storm seasons and not to mention, the ever so often solar flare... Aww crap. Another just hit. My RIG is down... Gimmie a moment Joe, I'll be right back."
Sir-Caller, as Saegen said that, tried to open up his RIG holo windows. As expected, all he got was static and an unresponsive interface. Sir-Caller began to inquire.
"Sir, you say that 'another' just hit. How many hit before?"
"Two. One during the surface analysis and another during the atmosphere analysis. Both times my equipment were completely fried. I bet there is a hole in the ozone layer somewhere around..."
Saegen's voice trailed off. Sir-Caller nodded again and spoke.
"Well, if that's it, then I shall be going now sir. And Kuro-sir, please take care of yourself."
With that, Sir-Caller turned and walked away. Slowly, from there he made his way to the TeraNova's cargo bay. He opened up a maintenance panel and after some fiddling, he managed to get one of the un-opened cargo bays and out came 400 352 rubber duckies. The ones that are put into children's baths. Among them was a fully functional silver red jet ski. Sir-Caller smiled at himself. One can never be too prepared, he thought to himself as he mounted the jet ski and turned the ignition key. The fuel cell battery whined and hummed to life as he stepped on the accelerator and sailed off to the mainland.
Elleno was lying sideways on the alien grass patch a few 100 meters from the shore. His breathing was heavy and rapid, and there was saliva dripping from the sides of his mouth which was locked in a half-scream. His left hand grasped his bloody right hand and wrist. They were red and swollen and had many scratches on them. It was at this point Sir-Caller pulled up at the shore with his jet ski.
"Sir, what happened to you?"
Sir-Caller asked. Elleno did not reply. He looked around and noticed that in front of Elleno, there was a patch of grass that had been pulled out and the blades were all over the place. Sir-Caller immediately got his answer and sighed.
"You have been trying to get plant samples haven't you sir? Next time bring gloves like I have."
Sir-Caller pulled out a pair of thick leather gloves and picked up the blades of grass Elleno had tried to collect.
"Since you left, until now... I guess I could say it has been at least 5 hours?"
As expected, Elleno remained silent. Sir-Caller shrugged his shoulders as he began dragging Elleno back towards the shore and towards the jet ski.
"Sir, please mind the grass next time. I told you so anyways. Come lets go. Saegen sir has a lot to tell us, and there are many things to do. It is a new planet sir! A new world! God knows what might happen to you next time. If this carries on sir...If I may say so myself, this is gonna be a really long year."
To be continued.