Day 4 of the Journey
“ECHO what makes Kepler-186 different from the other planets?” Nia asks in her light Swahili accent as she sipped a cup of coffee in the ship’s lounge. Her dark skin still glistening from after taking her shower and her hair was still wrapped in a green towel around her head.
“Come on Nia, shouldn’t you already know this?” Dong Woo says as he poured himself a cup of coffee from the kettle. “It’s all because of water.”
Dong Woo proceeded to call for ECHO to show a holographic projection of the Kepler system. A holographic map of the system begins to rise from the floor of the ship and flickers a little before stopping at mid-level of the room. The planets and moons of the Kepler system begin to rotate around the Keppler system’s sun.
“For a planet to be habitable it needs to meet a few requirements. First it must have enough heat. Too cold and nothing can survive, and water will remain frozen. Next is above surface water we can access. We can’t go more than 3 days without water, or we dehydrate and well… die. To meet that requirement, the planet must be within the habitable zone” Dong Woo paused the rotation and used 2 fingers to highlight a ring around the sun. Most of the planets fell outside the ring except one.
“That’s kepler-186f!” Nia exclaims looking at it curiously. Some of the other crew members, Isaac, Diaz, and Samantha, had joined in the lecture midway as well as they watched Dong Woo explain from a distance.
Dong Woo continued his lecture after quickly hiding a small smirk from the compliment, “This zone where there is enough heat from the system’s sun to melt water and keep us warm.”
He then used his hands to pull out near the holographic image of Kepler-186f. The holographic image of the planet begins to expand further to show a closer look at the planet. He pointed his finger to an ocean and said, “However, we need water to be pooled above ground for us to access it. Kepler-186f meets both of those requirements and is the nearest to our solar system.”
“Wow you sure know your stuff huh, Dong Woo.”, Nia noded while taking in the information.
“However, most of our images of the Kepler system maybe outdated. Despite light’s speed, the time the image of Kepler-186f is observed thousands if not millions of years have passed by. In it is not impossible that by the time we reach that planet, there may already be a civilization of organisms.” ECHO chimed in.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The room was silent, none of the crew wanted to hear those words despite the truth behind it. That meant a more advanced civilization would be waiting for them, which could spell being taken captive and experimented on. Or a younger civilization might come across them and it could turn very bloody if they are not culturally progressive.
Damien, who was listening in on the conversation from the cockpit, walked in saying, “Don’t think too hard about it, we still have at least 1 year before we even reach Kepler-186f even at lightspeed. It will be easier to observe the planet better once we are in the solar system. Thoughtless speculations will only increase our anxieties.”
A nod from Nia as she said, “Y… Yeah! More empirical data would guide our decision better. Thanks captain, you really know what to say!” she smiles as she returns back to her coffee. Her eyes avoiding contact with Damien. The others seemed to murmur in agreement and the tense atmosphere was broken.
“Well, I wouldn’t need to constantly save the conversation if our eavesdropping A.I. could read the room.” Damien joked, making Nia chuckle and spill some of her coffee. She got up immediately and walked to the kitchen to find some towels without saying a word. She turned her face away quickly from Damien as it reddened.
“I apologise Captain Damien; Creator Raj did not put a function to read the room. Would you like me to send a diagnostic report to Creator Raj for improvements?” ECHO replied, in its robotic feminine voice.
“ECHO, that almost feels like sarcasm. When did you begin to become so snarky!” Damien chided.
“I apologise Captain Damien. It was not intended to be sarcastic. I am a learning A.I., please continue to point out flaws in my programming so improvements can be made, since you are so perfect…. Ha. Ha. Did you see what I did there. I was sarcastic” ECHO replied.
Dong Woo laughed way too loud at the terribly executed jab at Damien and found Damien’s face twitched a little at his response.
The rest of the day went by, as the crew proceeded to do their duties.
Day 9 of the Journey
The crew were in the briefing room. Dong Woo was explaining to the rest of the crew on how to properly cultivate the crops on the ship if they want to survive the next 1 year with food. Which was then followed by Nia, who briefed on how to use the repair bots, in the event of external damage to the ship’s hull during flight.
Nia had gotten a lot closer to Damien during the past few days and the other crew members were slowly getting more comfortable with each other in the confined spaces of the ship. Anya, still preferred to stay in the cockpit as she watched the starry surroundings and the Sun grow as the ship slowly encroached it. Relationships within the crew were highly encourage especially when their mission was to recolonise and rebuild their entire species.