Leon was a bit on edge. The last few days had been trying for a multitude of reasons. They all knew that this mission would not be a fast and easy one, but the strain of long days and a lack of meaningful data was proving to be a bit of a problem.
Leon spent most of his time helping other members of the crew with their daily tasks as well as keeping a close eye on ship-wide morale. They had been on the mission for over two months now, and had visited three stars. While interesting from a scientific standpoint, there had been no indicators that pointed at life of any type they knew of. All life that was currently understood needed liquid water to function, it was entirely possible that some form of life could exist outside the realm of what was expected. But their mission wasn't to look for the unfamiliar, it was to locate life. Life in a habitable zone, life they could understand and predict. Leon wasn't about to ignore anything that was outside those boundaries however.
Leon was in his command throne as they again neared the point of their current destination. The timer on the forward screen showed minutes to warp exit and Leon settled into his chair more comfortably. By this point the warp translations had become much less stressful as it seemed that the more one participated in said events, the less they seemed to affect him. It was a similar story for the other members of the crew as well.
Leon tapped a few buttons on his console that brought up the limited information they had on the system they were about to visit. While
specific details were incredibly sparse, they did have a small list of general information. The system they were about to visit had a medium sized yellow star roughly the size of the Sun, a G type star if he remembered correctly. The star was not entirely stable in its motion giving credence to the theory that at least one large body orbiting it. This was enough of a lead for Leon and he looked towards the exit timer again. Getting very close now.
Suddenly, Taylor spoke up “I wonder if we are going to find anything here, I mean, those last two stars were as dead as rocks. It would be nice to actually find something.” he said.
Leon was about to answer him when Sabine beat him to the punch as she replied “Why worry about it Taylor, there are millions of stars in our galaxy, no reason why we should expect to find life so soon. We could potentially go years before finding anything even remotely interesting, but that's the nature of exploration. You don't actively know what to expect.”
Leon spoke up saying “That's exactly what I was about to say. We can't be discouraged by our seeming lack of progress. Even in nothing there is beauty. Look at it this way, even if we never find a thing and the universe remains sterile, we are still contributing to humanity's understanding of the universe. Look at all the non-pertinent data we have already collected. The light from those last few stars won't reach earth for another fifty years, and we will actually beat it home when our mission ends. Everything we see from here on out is entirely untouched by modern science and understanding. We are so far past the bleeding edge that we have entered into an entirely new realm.” he finished with a gesture towards the front screen which was now entering its final minute. The yellow general alert lights began to flash as they got ready to exit warped space.
Leon tried his best to stay relaxed, but he still tenses involuntarily as the strange twisting sensation flashed through him. After an instant, the feeling was gone leaving him wondering once again if he had even felt anything at all. He shook his head to clear it and checked his console. They were definitely out of warp and they were also orbiting a G class star.
"Well, it looks like we are here, too bad this system's name is just a random collection of numbers." Taylor said from in front of him.
Leon smiled at the comment and said "Well, seeing as we are the first ones here, we should name it. What do you think?" He asked the rest of them.
Sabine nodded and said "Like a naming contest? That could be fun."
Terry made a small noise and they turned to look at her, she just shook her head and turned back to her screen. She wasn't one for conversation most of the time, but as their primary astrophysicist, she was the one they turned to to look for habitable worlds and such.
Taylor said "If we are going to make a contest out of it, then what is the prize? We don't have any use for money and I don't think we need to make it an issue of privileges."
Leon leaned forwards and thought for a moment as the rest of them fell silent, finally he spoke up. "The prize will be your name being picked, that should be prize enough right?" Leon looked around at them curiously.
Taylor shook his head and looked away, Sabine frowned. "I don't know, it seems like they should get something for winning. This is a popularity contest right? Why not let them name the next system too? That way they get to feel like they truly won something special." Sabine said.
Leon shook his head, "Nah, we will think of something better."
"Well, as long as we are thinking about it, who is going to decide the winner?" Taylor asked. "Whoever it is needs to be unbiased and impartial. I think that Dr. Kimathi is the best suited for that." He finished.
Terry snorted and gave Taylor a sharp look. Taylor winced slightly and tried to backpedal saying "Well she is trained to be unbiased. She also…" but he stopped as Terry waved a hand at him. He grumbled something under his breath and Terry giggled.
Sabine said "Why don't you pick Leon? You are the commander and are supposed to be an impartial judge right?"
Leon immediately shook his head and said "No way. That's not the kind of responsibility I want to have resting on my shoulders. It's guaranteed to garner a small amount of animosity towards the picker from everyone. No thanks." He waved his hands in front of him as if to ward off the responsibility.
"Well it has to be someone. Wait! What about Henry? We should have Henry pick the winner." Sabine said excitedly.
Leon cocked his head, it was a novel idea to be sure. The computer was set to its lowest functions at the moment, but he could turn on its rationality circuits for this. Leon nodded to himself.
Taylor butted in saying "Henry? But that program isn't even that smart, how on earth would it know enough to pick which name fits best., unless we… wait no. That's way too dangerous, don't you guys remember the last time someone tried to put AI on a starship?" He said slightly frantically.
Leon said "We wouldn't be permanently enabling Henry's rationality circuits, and the learning programs will remain on their lowest settings. Don't worry, there's nothing that can go wrong, he still has the cross blockers on his subroutines remember?" Leon said placatingly.
A small part of his brain asked why even take the risk, but another part, a larger part, was curious just how smart Henry could get from this one exercise. Leon knew very well just how dangerous a rogue AI could be as he had fought them before in his navy career. Back during the mass ban on artificial intelligences in the early 2300s.
He shook his head, there was too much hardware in the way of Henry ever achieving consciousness. The software didn't have the physical connections to make it work. Leon sent a quick message to Chad and informed him of their conversation and its outcome.
Chad messaged back that he wasn't very comfortable with this decision but would do it as he was being instructed to.
Terry looked over her shoulder and said quietly “Getting a good reading on a potential rocky world in the habitable zone. It has a thin atmosphere and surface oceans. They appear to be liquid.” she finished a bit more excitedly.
Leon nodded his head and said “Let's make our way over then.” he felt the slight pull of acceleration as Samuel kicked the main drives alight.
The trip to the world was rather short as they had exited near the habitable zone anyways. After Samuel powered up the main drives they were in orbit of the planet in only a few hours, the powerful engines of the UNSS Leif Erikson propelling them to incredible velocities.
Terry spoke as they neared the planet “There doesn't seem to be any presence of molecular oxygen or nitrogen that I can find. I am reading large amounts of trace gasses like Argon and Xenon however. The atmosphere is much too thin to breathe, but I'm afraid one breath of that would be your last.” she said solemnly.
Leon just nodded his head and said “Taylor, can you get us some images of the surface yet? I want to see if it's worth exploring further.”
Taylor nodded and Sabine looked at him and asked “Surely not on foot right?”
Leon shook his head and said “No, not likely. Even if we discover something interesting, I don't like the composition of those gasses. Nobel or not, they pose a serious risk. We will likely send a probe.” he nodded towards Samuel as the younger man glanced his way.
Taylor spoke up saying “I have some pictures of the surface, looks barren to me, the oceans are still. It looks, dead.” He finished flatly.
Sabine frowned and said “I wonder if it was burned sterile because of its low atmospheric density. It would be getting bombarded with a huge amount of cosmic radiation, Especially since this star's Heliosphere is quite weak.” she said referencing the star's magnetic field.
Leon nodded and looked at the pictures. The planet really did look dead, All the shores were wind scoured, bare to bedrock and devoid of sands or sediments. The planet had no moon and so lacked significant tides to help break the rock down. Dirt wasn't a requirement for life, but it certainly helped life take root. Gave it something to dig through and store water in.
He looked for another few minutes as they reached a more stable position in the planet's outer LaGrange point before he spoke up. “I know it doesn't look like much, but I feel the urge to send a probe down anyway. This would be a good opportunity to see the effects of such a harsh environment on the equipment.” he said stoically.
Sabine and Samuel both nodded excitedly. Terry looked a bit wary and Taylor seemed less interested. Leon watched as Sabine started to mess with her console. The probes and satellites were stored near small electromagnetic launch tubes along the belly of the ship and could be targeted and launched remotely from the bridge, as Sabine was doing now he noted.
Leon sat silently as she set up a location near the shore of one of the large dead oceans and launched the probe. The ship was massive and so there was no vibration or noise when it launched, just a small notification on his panel.
Taylor spoke up and asked “I know this is a new experience, but we only have fifty of those things, what if we run out?” Taylor asked him.
Leon nodded his head thoughtfully and replied “Even at maximum speed and the highest possible density of interesting worlds, it isn't likely we will even use all fifty we were given before we return. I won't spend them frivolously, but I won't hesitate to use one if it means we can learn something useful either.” Taylor seemed to accept his explanation and just nodded his head.
The probe reached its destination in only a few minutes, hurtling down towards the planet like an artificial meteor, the special coating painted on its heat shield mitigating most of the waste heat. Leon watched in fascination as its cameras came online and he saw the rapidly approaching surface. The chutes didn't deploy as the atmosphere was too thin, but the probe lander was equipped with rockets to slow its descent. As it touched down on the surface Sabine let out a huge sigh, as if she had been piloting it herself.
“Well, here's the fun part, it's going to have about two seconds of lag time and only these stupid touch controls.” she said as she began to give the probe instructions. They all watched the images and video feed as the probe unleashed a small rover onto the surface. It was a little over a meter in length and equipped to cross rough terrain. Leon watched Sabine pilot it out of the probe and across the rocky, uneven surface of this nameless dead world.
Terry monitored the reading from the probe and confirmed “Yes, as I thought, a highly toxic atmosphere would have been dangerous. Also reading increased levels of nitrogen near the surface, probably a chemical breakdown caused by the intense solar radiation, which is quite brutal I must add.” she said in her quiet voice.
Sabine muttered something under her breath as the rover seemed to get stuck for a moment before it lurched and began rolling again. Taylor turned one of the auxiliary cameras around as she continued piloting it and zoomed in on a piece of metal stuck in the crevice of a particularly jagged outcrop.
“Woah, slow down a bit there turbo. We want to find something with this probe not host the first intergalactic demolition derby.” Leon joked to her.
She just nodded her head and muttered again as she continued focusing on her task. After a short while of uneasy silence punctuated by whispered curses and exclamations of annoyance, Sabine finally crested a rocky slope and spotted the shine of the planet's ocean in the near distance.
Leon watched as the rover rolled up to the edge of the still sea, the wind that had scoured the shores seemed strangely absent. The rover lowered an instrument into the water to test it for organic compounds and Sabine shook her hands as she growled “I hate this thing. Piloting it with these controls is so useless. Don't we have an old style joystick and pedals somewhere on board as a backup?” she asked him looking over her shoulder.
Leon nodded to her and said “I am pretty sure we do. I believe they are in the backup storage area under bridge maintenance. I'm sure Henry could tell you the specifics.”
Taylor looked at them and said “I got nothing, no readings that indicate life or even organic compounds. Not in the air or the water.” he said, glancing at Terry who nodded back to him. “What are we doing next?” He asked.
Leon looked at his console for a minute and said “Well, that was the only real lead we had in this system, the only other bodies are those two gas giants.” He said, indicating the two large planets orbiting in the sensor view. “I think it's time we moved out, the drive will be recharging for a bit so I recommend you get some rest.
Leon was about to unbuckle and move back into one of the rings when Terry sat bolt upright in her seat and exclaimed "It is!"
Everyone on the bridge stopped and stared as she continued talking to herself. "I thought it was too close but its inclination is off by a few degrees, maybe from a massive impact in his creation? No. It is too stable in its orbit. But it is, I thought it was…" she seemed to notice them staring and she quickly snapped her mouth closed and turned a violent shade of red.
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Leon was the first to speak "What is it Terry, what happened? Did you find something?" He fired off the questions in rapid succession. She flinched slightly and seemed to wilt under the scrutiny.
Taylor saw her withdraw and reached out an arm towards her saying "It's okay Terry, we just want to know what has you so excited. Should we be excited too?"
She shook her head slightly and then looked at Taylor, Leon saw her eyes soften as she looked into his smiling face before she spoke up once more in a much softer tone "I think the second moon orbiting the nearest gas giant has liquid water on its surface. It's too early to know for sure, and it would help immeasurably if we were closer. But the initial readings are promising, and it has a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere, it's almost seventy percent carbon dioxide in fact. This is causing it to trap in much of the heat of its star which is why it has liquid water even though it's slightly too far from the habitable zone." She turned back to her screen as she finished talking.
Leon was more impressed by the fact that she had spoken so much rather than what she had said, but as her words soaked in he started to smile. "Carbon dioxide huh? That means it could have some sort of living creatures then right? This might be our lucky day…" he finished.
Looking at Samuel who had been quiet through most of their conversation, he asked "Samuel, how long to get us within close proximity of that moon?"
Samuel looked at the readings and then tapped away at his console for a minute before he answered "We need to wait for the drive to reset before we can use it again, but then we should only have around a two hour trip to get us within spitting distance." He answered.
Leon nodded and said "So about five hours then.. Good. Take a break everyone. I want us all rested and ready to go when we arrive. That's an order." He finished as none of them made any moves to leave.
They moved from their seats except for Terry, Leon unstrapped from his chair and drifted over to her before he said "Terry, you and Taylor can monitor the moon and go over the readings in the sensor suite on the first ring. You won't have fine control over the sensors from there, but you will have gravity. And maybe even a chance to rest up a bit before we jump." He waited till she nodded and began to get up before he dragged himself over to the antechamber in front of the airlock.
Undoing his suit and hanging it up, he joined Samuel in the airlock and asked him "So, what do you think we will find there? Giant dinosaurs? Alien civilizations?" Leon asked him teasingly.
Samuel just snorted and said, "After the past three dead systems and that dud of a world, I will be happy just to find another planet with liquid water. Maybe it will give us a chance to use the shuttle and go swimming." The younger man mused.
Leon nodded and said "If it's safe and the atmosphere is thick enough, we just might check it out. But I'm not risking the safety of the crew on it."
Samuel nodded and said "Fair enough I guess. But how nice would it be to see a sky overhead again?"
Leon nodded in sympathy. While he had joined this mission knowing that it was going to be a long one, it was a little claustrophobic at times. Part of his mind would have given almost anything to see the sky and clouds, hear the sound of the wind as it blew through trees and tickled his hair. But the larger part of him, the disciplined part, said not quite yet. They had yet more work to do.
Leon and Samuel made their way through the ship past the first two rings, Leon expected Samuel to turn down into the third ring but he didn't, instead he kept pace with him.
Leon looked at him and asked "What are you doing Samuel?"
The other man looked at him and smiled before he replied "Nothing in particular. Just sticking with my commander for now."
Leon shook his head and sighed quietly. That boy was an enigma to be sure, Leon never could tell what he was thinking.
"Alright, as long as you are sticking around I might as well tell you the plan." He said as they reached the sixth ring. "I'm on my way to inform Myung that she might soon have an opportunity to study alien life. I could wait for confirmation before I do it," Leon said as he started down the long ladder into the room. "or I could tell her over the cam system. But I want to do it this way, it feels more important if I take the time to tell her directly."
Samuel nodded and said "Yeah I guess that makes a lot of sense."
They made it to the bottom of the ladder and walked along the curving path for a few dozen meters to the beginning of the hydroponics section. Leon was pleasantly surprised when he walked in and discovered that it was pleasantly cool in the long curving room. The air smelled clean and full of life. The smell of freshly turned earth and growing things met his senses and he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He could almost imagine himself in his garden back on Earth, except for the near constant hum of electronics and subtle gurgle of water through pipes.
Samuel stood beside him and breathed in deeply before saying "Wow, this is incredible. I hadn't made my way over here yet. This makes working in the engineering section seem incredibly dull." The younger man said.
Leon grunted in acknowledgement but remained silent as he looked around the space. There were plants everywhere, on trays, in hanging planters and along the walls. Some were for eating, others for adding nutrients to the soil, others for medical purposes. Leon and Samuel walked slowly through the garden and looked at everything. Leon had been here several times before, but his daily duties were mostly confined to the other rings. He liked the hydroponics room though, it reminded him of his mother, she had gardened extensively while he was a child. He used to love helping her weed and prune her plants, creating beauty and order out of chaos and disorder.
He stopped as he saw the small figure of Myung down one of the long rows of planters. She was leaned over a section of the floor mounted hydroponics lines, she seemed to be tinkering with something and didn't hear him and Samuel approach.
He thought about the best way to get her attention without alarming her as she liked to listen to music while she worked. He could see her wearing an earpiece and knew she was likely entirely focused on what she was doing. Before he had a chance to come up with a solution, Samuel blurted out "Hey Myung, what's happening?"
Myung jerked around and made a shocked noise before taking out her earpiece and scowling. Leon made an apologetic face while Samuel beamed at his handiwork.
Myung growled "That wasn't very funny Samuel, I am working on a pipe and I could have damaged it when you startled me."
Samuel kept smiling as he said "I saw an opportunity and I took it, can you really blame me? You were a perfect target, unaware, focused… It was too much to resist." He said unapologetically.
Leon butted in before they started to argue saying "Actually Myung, I came over to give you the news." She looked at him as her face went from anger to curiosity. He continued after a moment of silence as he said "Terry detected a potentially life bearing planet, well, moon really. As our primary biologist, I wanted you to be on the bridge when we arrived."
She seemed to mull it over for a second before nodding her head. "That sounds like a great idea, but I need to get this system patched back up. I had to remove a busted mesh filter and now it's leaking. If you two would lend a hand this would be over much quicker." She asked them in a casual voice.
Samuel nodded and Leon said "I wasn't doing anything in particular after this so sure thing. Just tell me where to start."
Myung smiled and hoisted a section of the durable plastic piping "Well first off, this section of pipe needs to be resealed as its water seals have been broken…"
**********
Some time later, a thoroughly wet and tired Leon stepped into his small room and shucked off his damp clothes. He groaned slightly as he sat on the edge of his bed in his smallclothes and sighed. 'Who would have known that the water system was that in need of maintenance already.' He thought to himself.
He sat there undressed for a moment longer before he checked the time, he had felt the ship enter warp while he and Samuel were helping Myung fix the pipes, but he hadn't been sure exactly how long ago it had been. He was surprised to see they were actually very close to exiting over the moon. He quickly stood and dressed in a fresh set of clothes before washing his face and drying his hair, he checked himself in his mirror and sighed. He looked tired and rumpled, he certainly felt that way, but he hadn't looked it till now.
Leon left his cabin and walked along the curving outer floor of the habitation ring before making his way tiredly up the ladder towards the bridge. Entering the zero gravity portion of the ship, he let the now quite familiar feeling of weightlessness take hold of his tired muscles. It was like floating in a liquid except there was no resistance. Leon shook his arms slightly before pulling himself to the bridge using the zero gravity handholds spaced evenly along the entire interior of the core.
He entered the bridge through the airlock and pulled on his voidsuit before entering the main bridge itself. He was surprised to see Samuel already there. Terry and Taylor were seated next to each other in the forward part of the sensor pit, and He heard the airlock cycling behind him as another person entered the bridge. Leon turned as he reached his chair to see Sabine and Myung entering the bridge, Sabine handed Myung a spare voidsuit and they put them on before moving onto the bridge.
Sabine moved over to her engineering console as Myung moved to one of the empty observation seats around the edge of the control area.
Leon turned to look at her and said "Thanks for joining us, I can't guarantee we will actually find anything, otherwise I would have called the whole crew to the observation deck. I would hate to call everyone and have it be a bust like the other one." He finished with a shrug that caused him to bounce in his restraints.
He adjusted them as Myung replied "Sabine told me about the preliminary reports on the atmospheric composition. I would be willing to bet there is some sort of biological process going on down there. Molecular oxygen doesn't hang around in that state for long without replenishment." She said confidently.
He gave her a nod and looked at the current countdown timer. Less than a half hour till warp exit and potentially their first encounter with alien life. He was excited, but also a little nervous. What would it be like, what if it was some sort of horrific monstrous ooze. Well he would definitely be sending a probe well before they decided if it was safe to land on the surface. They had fifty orbital satellites and twenty five surface probes in their launch tubes on the rear of the ship. That would allow them to get an accurate reading of the surface conditions before they tried to land in the SSV.
Leon spent the next few minutes tapping idly on the arm of his chair. He was alerted to their proximity to the planet by the yellow alert lights flashing on signaling one minute to warp exit. Leaning forwards in his seat, he watched the forward view screen intently. Once more Leon felt reality twist as the ship exited warp.
He turned his attention to the forward view screen and his eyes widened. They were still a ways from the moon, but the forward observation cameras were very powerful and the magnified picture of the moon was spectacular.
On the screen was a shining blue sphere hanging in the inky blackness of space haloed by the bright pinpricks of distant stars. The moon was large, at least ten percent more massive than Earth by Terry's rough calculations. The surface was entirely covered by water from what they could see, a shallow ocean probably only a few kilometers deep on average.
As Leon looked at the image, he felt the ship's main drives fire, though not at maximum burn. The ship began to accelerate towards the planet.
"At thirty percent thrust we should reach orbit of the gas giant in only about twenty minutes." Samuel said after a moment.
Sabine asked without looking "Should I launch a satellite to the planet Leon? I don't fancy going for a swim on an ocean world. Who knows what could be hiding under those waters."
Leon answered "Yes, go ahead. This is as good a place as any to find life. It's too bad there isn't anywhere to land on down there." He said mostly to himself.
Terry spoke in her quiet voice as he quieted. "Reading massive levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Definitely some sort of volcanic activity under the surface of the oceans. Life could thrive as surface dwellers or possibly as extremophiles around the vents." Her words seemed to inspire another of the crew to speak.
"Yes, extremophiles feeding off the chemical mixtures leaching from the mantle after initial bombardment was over. That is indeed how life was theorized to have begun on Earth a billion years ago." Myung said in a faraway voice.
Leon was content to let the others do their things. This wasn't his expertise, it was theirs. He wasn't some scientist or brainiac, he was a soldier, a born leader. His job was to overwatch the mission and crew and keep the peace. He was out of his depth when it came to these scenarios and the sciencey stuff.
Sabine spoke up again saying "The probe is operational, should be in low orbit in another ten minutes. Too bad we don't have any water optimized probes to send down to the surface." She muttered.
As they waited to get more information, Terry exclaimed suddenly and waved her arms shouting "It's there, Yes!"
The others as well as Leon looked at her and after a moment she seemed to notice the extra attention before she sheepishly retreated into herself once more. Leon wanted to ask her what she was talking about vut was interrupted by Sabine as she said "The probe is operational and in a stable orbit. We should be receiving more detailed information, now."
True to her word the data feed from the small satellite began to scroll across his console. He saw temperature readings, weather patterns, atmosphere composition and even some real time footage of the surface. Looking at the data he realised it all meant little to him, he could tell a few things were important like the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere, but not much else.
Terry and Myung seemed to be excited by the data stream however and Myung talked excitedly to her as she listened. Finally Myung turned to him and said "I can almost guarantee there is some form of microbial life in the ocean of this world. They will likely be very simple, single celled. But this is incredible. Can we send a probe down there?" She asked him.
He shook his head and replied "That would not be possible. We don't have any water optimized probes on board, an oversight I know but one I am ill equipped to fix."
Sabine spoke and said "I have been thinking and spoke to Chad about it, given some time we could rig one of the probes to be a submersible."
Myung nodded excitedly and Leon asked Sabine "Okay, but how long would that take realistically?"
Sabine looked around a bit and then said sheepishly "Probably a week or more. Maybe two if we mess anything up."
Leon nodded his head and said "That's about what I was thinking too, I am not wasting that much time sitting in one spot when we could be making progress." He said to her. She hung her head slightly and looked away. "I would love to stay, but we need to get moving. Surely you understand where I'm coming from Myung?" He asked.
She bobbed her head slightly and said "Yes I do, I don't like it but I understand. There will likely be other better opportunities in the future."
Terry looked at the screen impassively and Taylor shook his head slightly before nodding to himself. Sabine looked up at the ceiling and said "I know that makes sense, but I just wanted to do more."
Leon shrugged and said "Oh I didn't say not to do it, just that we won't be hanging around here to test it. By all means convert a few of the probes to submersibles. We will most likely use them at some point. And it would be good practice to have you two tinkering on something other than the ship. Yes I know what you have been doing." He said, raising an eyebrow.
Sabine scowled and muttered "It was one little thing." Before she quieted and turned back to her console.
Leon turned away from the screen and said "Put in your recommendations for the system's name, we will be departing when the drive is ready in a few hours." And with that he sent a message about the upcoming departure and contest to the whole crew.
Leon spent the majority of the next two hours looking at reports from the satellite and trying to decipher them. If he was going to be in charge, he needed to know more about this kind of thing. After a while the data started to make a bit more sense and he gradually began piecing the graphs, lines, and values together.
The moon was big, bigger than earth by quite a bit. With a surface gravity of at least 11.3 meters/s/s of force, they would have been hard pressed to get out of the planet's gravity well with the SSV without refueling on the surface somehow. Just one more thing he would have to keep an eye on in future missions. The Leif Erikson was equipped with a methane refinery in order to refuel the SSV's but they only had two mobile refineries and they were quite delicate.
The more they needed to be used, the more likely they would break down. The ship itself used huge fifth generation Ion drives to move around in space, while they were more efficient than regular chemical propellants, they were not powerful enough to lift a ship out of a planet's gravity well alone.
He looked up at his console as he got a message ping, it was an internal message from Henry about the naming contest. He opened the file excitedly and frowned. This is the best they could come up with according to the computer's analysis? He didn't like it but it was what they had all agreed upon.
Leon tapped a few buttons on his console and opened a shipwide communication.
Whetting his lips he spoke "Crew, this is your commander Leon. Approximately two hours ago I sent a shipwide message about the details of the system we are in and invited you all to give it a name. This name would be chosen by Henry based on its popularity and how well it reflected the characteristics of any planets we found. Well, I am slightly annoyed to announce that this system will now for all time be known as… Sludge. Yup, three of you thought it was funny and now we're stuck with it. Well, say goodbye to Sludge because we will be warping out in about twenty minutes."
He shook his head and looked at the others on the bridge. Terry and Myung looked mortified and Sabine scowled. But it was Samuel and Taylor that grabbed his attention as they laughed and high-fived each other.
Leon just shook his head and muttered to himself about kids and their strange sense of humor as he settled back into his seat harness.