Ryan Taylor awakens from hibernation to a mystery that he, along with his crew, must solve in order to continue their mission. How they solve it and what they find is astounding.
When we came out of hyperspace, we were only two days away from Proxima-b, the supposed habitable Earth-like exo-planet in the Centauri system.
"This planet doesn't seem to be all that habitable," Sharon said after spending time at the astronomy station. "For one thing, it's tidally locked to its M-class red dwarf star, which means that one side is always pointing at the star and the other side is perpetually in the dark. The only habitable area is a narrow twilight swath around the planet, and that would be plagued by high winds between the hot side and the cold side."
"Why would they have sent us to a planet they knew wasn't very habitable?" I asked.
"I have no idea. Maybe they were desperate, and it is the closest exo-planet to Earth."
"I suppose we had better check it out anyway."
Two days later, we arrived at Proxima-b and entered an orbit that circled around the narrow twilight zone.
"I don't see anything that suggests someone living on this planet," Sharon said. "The atmosphere doesn't have any where near enough oxygen to support life, and the surface appears to be racked with storms."
"I guess we wasted our time coming here," I said.
"Maybe we should check out the other two stars in Centauri system," Janet said. "They could have habitable planets."
"If there are any, they would be rare indeed," Sharon said. "The problem with Alpha Centauri is that it's a binary system and the two stars orbital configuration would cause them to constantly vary in distance and position, causing any planet that orbits them to be under stress."
"Which star would be the best possibility of hosting a habitable planet?"
"I think that Alpha Centauri B would be the best because it's a K-class star with a luminosity lower than our Sun. A hypothetical planet could be orbiting within the inner edge of its habitable zone, perhaps about 0.8 AU."
"Plot a course to that hypothetical planet," I told Janet.
She immediately began the task and soon had an answer. "We have to do a ten-minute trip in hyperspace to get within a few billion kilometers."
"Let's get buckled up and go for it," I said.
We didn't get out of our G-suits after entering hyperspace. It avoided having the deck wheels started and stopped again. All COMA had to do was turn the ship around for the burn to leave hyperspace, and after several minutes of starting up the wheels again, we were able to unbuckle and go to the command station.
After several minutes at the astronomy station, Sharon smiled. "The theory was right, there is a planet in the habitable zone, and it does appear to be habitable."
Janet and I did a high five.
"Could this be where the aliens that abducted humans live?" Natale asked.
I forgot about that. "We might be safer to insert into a high orbit."
"We'll need two minor burns to do that," Janet said.
"I'll see if I can determine if anyone's home on that planet," Sharon said.
"Good," I replied. "We don't need to fall into a viper brood if we can avoid it."
"Hang on," Janet said. "The first burn is starting shortly."
The burn only lasted ten minutes, and it put us on a course to arrive at the planet in two days.
Sharon wasn't able to see much on the planet until the morning of the second day.
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"The planet is 1.2 times the size of Earth and it has an atmosphere with approximately twenty percent oxygen. I'm seeing chlorophyll peaks in the spectral scans of the land area. I think we can assume that this planet is habitable."
"The bolometric temperature readings are in the 160 to 210 K range, which is a good sign that this planet is not suffering from being in the inner part of this star's habitable zone," Janet said.
"Are you seeing any evidence of space vessels?" I asked.
"Not yet," she replied. "I'm not detecting any radio signals across the spectral range."
"Interesting. I can't believe that this planet isn't inhabited by aliens."
"It should be," Sharon said. "This star system was formed at the same time as ours was, approximately 4.5 billion years ago. It certainly had enough time to evolve intelligent life."
"That's assuming that this planet formed early and avoided any bombardment or chaos from being in a binary system," Janet said.
"Yes," Sharon said. "We don't know how planets form in a binary system. Earth was fortunate to be birthed in a system with only one star and with gas giants that were able to bring stability to the young solar system."
"Well," I said. "It is what it is. Maybe it's the planet that could."
"Hopefully, it's a planet that doesn't have the brood of vipers you mentioned," Natale said.
That's all we could hope for.
We arrived in a high orbit the next day. The planet had two moons, but they were relatively small. It was difficult to imagine what it would be like to be born and live on a planet with two suns.
"There is evidence of civilization down on the main continent," Sharon said. "But it's confusing."
"In what way?" I asked.
"I'm seeing what looks like large advanced cities but there is no evidence of activity in them. There is evidence of activity in a small village outside the main city."
"Do you see anything that represents a threat?"
"No, not yet. The village looks primitive, while the city looks abandoned."
I rubbed my jaw. "That's interesting. Something must have happened to cause this unusual change."
"I'm going to try obtaining some high magnification images of the village," Janet said. "Maybe we can tell what sort of creatures live there."
"Good," I said. "We have to know what we're dealing with here before we attempt to go down to the surface."
Everyone was in agreement, but what Janet found was astounding.
