Blighted Star (2 page)

She
heard a cough, and glanced up to see Jim Chan, Now
here
was a man she
liked, it was characteristic of him to alert her to his presence with a cough
rather than just startling her out of her reverie the way Jackson might have
done. Jim Chan was the flight engineer of the project while they had been in
space and was now the head of the mining effort. Traditionally until the second
ship landed on Saunder’s World, and interstellar travel links could be said to
be in existence, he would continue to draw two paycheques, and so would be the
richest man in the colony. It was due to his winning charm that no one even
remotely resented this.

“How
are things looking, Jim?”

“A
1, thanks Athena. We’re just waiting for the shuttle to come back from Heart
Lake and then it’s our turn to deploy.” Jim’s grin held just a hint of
nervousness. Someone else would have missed it but Athena Johnson and he had
spent a great deal of time together during the course of the last two years.

“Jim,
I know you’ll be fine. I’ll get out to see you as soon as the settlers are all
in place.” she patted his arm “You’ll be fine.”

“Piece
of cake.” They both laughed; they shared a taste for early earth films,
particularly ones relating to man’s first steps among the stars.

“Piece
of cake.”

<><><> 

Amazingly
quickly the settlers established a routine and within the week they had started
to think of the beautiful new planet as home. Each day the sun shone down, with
only the briefest of showers to keep the grass green and to take the heat out
of the afternoon. Every night the crowds would gather on the green beside the
ship and gaze up at the alien stars. One feature in particular could not fail
to fasten their interest; high above them the stars swirled in a fantastic
pattern of colours round a blackhole, A cosmic display that had been named
after the terrible vortex of Scandinavian fame, the ‘Skagorack’. Near the end
of time, long after mankind had evolved into something profoundly different, or
had simply ceased to be, the planet on which they stood would spiral into the
centre of the Skagorack and be lost. But for now the sight was a nightly
spectacle of celestial pyrotechnics.

<><><> 

The
alarm on the vat alerted  Johann to the completion of another cycle and he
strode across to it. The shrill buzzing had also alerted the small crowd of
children nearby and they came running across to see what new addition to what
they saw as a little zoo would appear next. He raised the top hatch and reached
inside. He had to reach quite far in and he turned his face to one side as he
did so. He met the gaze of the Engineer’s little girl, a sweet little child
with a slightly Chinese air about her. She looked at him intently. His hand
found something, got hold, and with a flourish like a magician producing a
rabbit from a hat he lifted the first of the lambs into view. The child gasped,
impressed. With quick motions he cleaned the gel from the small body with his
free hand, slopping it back into the tank. He reached into his pocket for the
jolter, the small device that would imbue the lamb with life, pushed it through
the thin soft fur and onto the lamb’s skin at the base of its neck, and pulled
the trigger. The tiny body kicked and bucked, and the lamb began to bleat.
Smiling, he held it out in both hands and the children came flocking round to
see.

<><><> 

The
gently undulating landscape unfolded before Lana as she skimmed along at three hundred
metres. It was, she had to admit to herself, perhaps just a little boring. It
might be ideal for farming but she couldn’t see it being the cradle of great
art. Perhaps the painters to come would concentrate on the sky if they wanted
the picturesque, for the big open spaces certainly made for beautiful sunsets.
Not that sunsets could be anything else when you were in love, she thought. Her
relationship with Grad had definitely blossomed into that. Two years living in
each other’s pockets had given them plenty of chances to get on each other’s
nerves, but instead they had reached a point where time spent apart seemed
wrong, dead time. She grimaced; she was not a huge fan of gooeyness in others,
and now she was finding irrefutable signs of gooiness in herself. Oh well… On
the horizon a flash in the warm sunlight marked where the big silver ship was
waiting. Only two more runs to Crescent Waters and she would be done for the
day. She wondered if Grad would be in the mood for a walk in the grass away from
the base camp tonight…

<><><> 

The
farm animals were all assembled and the finishing touches were being put to the
great cart which was to carry the two families on the long journey to their new
home. It had been a sore temptation to accept the perfectly well meant offer of
free transport in the shuttle, but enough compromises had already been made and
the line had to be drawn somewhere. Besides, Johann secretly relished the idea
of the long trek they would be making across this new world. It had a fine
symbolic feel to it; a trek towards purity like the ones their forefathers had
made so often.

It
would have been nice to have been able to make the cart out of the traditional
wood rather than out of scavenged carbolite panels from their quarters on the ship;
but they had been refused permission in the strongest terms when they had tried
to book passage for lumber. The next cart would have to be made from metal for
which they would have to trade. In another thirty or forty years the seeds
Johann had brought would mature into trees and they would have wood again. God
willing.

Katinka
came and stood at his elbow, when he turned with a question in his eyes, she
nodded. After twenty years of marriage they had little need for talk. All was
packed. He whistled, and the dogs, the last to come out of the vats, ambled
over to him, tripping over their outsize paws, but eager to please. Good,
already they were learning. On the way he would train them in the rudiments of
shepherding.

As
the two families drove out into the warm morning air, Johann was surprised by
how many of the English turned out to see them off. A crowd of about five
hundred parted to let through the cart drawn by its team of artificially
matured oxen. The menagerie of horses, sheep, goats and cows followed behind it
on long lines. Katinka was at the reins, and beside her sat Hannah, a distant
cousin of hers. The children were peeping shyly out from under the cover of the
cart and Johann caught Petre’s eye. He winked and his son smiled back. As Daniel,
Hannah’s husband and he set forth in the cart’s wake through the grass they
were pressed on every side by people who wanted to shake their hands. Really,
he thought, you could never tell with the English…

<><><> 

The
departure of the Amish ushered in a new mood for the people still in the camp
and for the rest of the day the area round the ship hummed with the bustle of
final preparations being made. It was as if the remaining folks felt that if
the Amish could do it…

In
fact they had not fallen behind in their schedule at all since their arrival.
As Chan had remarked to Athena, everything was “Five by Five.” But now
everything was done with a new crispness; baggage was waiting neatly stacked
against the time one of the shuttles would be ready to take it. Long before the
tired pilot was ready to take off again, the belongings would be aboard the
craft and the settlers would be stood round waiting impatiently to depart,
final goodbyes all said.

<><><> 

By
nightfall almost all the outlivers had left for their final destinations, and
as the last shuttle whispered down, and kissing the ground cancelled its
antigrav. A strange feeling of jollity started to prevail among the people who
would make their homes around Cassini for the time being. Someone lit a bonfire
of discarded packaging. Someone else produced a fiddle which was quickly joined
by a guitar and a piccolo. And the four hundred left danced and partied into
the night.

Jim
was standing at the lab bench scrutinising a sample through a portable
nanoscope when Athena finally found him. The workers at the quarry had directed
her first to where the sheets and tubes of finished steel were waiting stacked
for dispatch, then to the other end of the facility where the mining head drove
its beam shaft clear down to the mantle. In the end she had noticed a light on
in one of the cabins and had recognised Jim’s outline through the frosted
glass. As she opened the door, he looked up abstracted for a moment, then a
broad grin split his chubby features.

“Athena!
Good to see you!” he took her hand briefly.

“Hello
Jim. How are things? You looked a little worried when I first came in.”

“Not
worried as such, more puzzled.” At her quizzically raised eyebrow he went on.
“You see the assumption always was that Goldilocks, sorry, Saunder’s World was
at a very early stage of evolution. That, in fact, only plants and a few very
simple multicelled creatures had evolved. Few worms, jellyfish, that sort of
thing. A bit like early Earth. And now, well, just look at all the fossils
we’ve been finding.” Jim indicated the rows of rock samples on the workbench.
Athena picked up one on which was the unmistakable imprint of a fin.

“Wow.”

“Wow
is right. The water teemed with life, and the land was populated with amphibians
that only had to return to the shore to spawn. There were hard shell insect –
analogues, some larger animals, even some adapted to make short flights. A
whole eco system.” he held up a sample with a swirling form on it which
Athena’s untrained eyes could not make out.

“What
does it all mean? Where have they all gone?”

“Well
that’s where the mystery gets even deeper. Everything went extinct about twenty
thousand years ago. Everything except the plants. They did just fine. In fact
they did slightly better if anything. Not surprising with nothing eating them.”

“But
it does mean no catastrophe.” Athena smiled, Jim looked slightly miffed as if
he had been getting ready to reveal this last fact with a flourish, and she had
stolen his punch-line.

“Well,
yes. No volcanism. No sudden rise in sea level. No Ice Age. No planet killing
asteroid. Nothing we’ve ever seen. All the animals just died.”

“Oh.”

“The
only thing I can think of …“ Jim went over and shut the door “and if it
is
what happened then we’re going to be very famous because until now it’s only
been postulated as a theory, is a Gamma pulse.” Jim looked extremely pleased,
in fact his eyes sparkled.

“A
Gamma pulse?”

“Every
so often, somewhere in the universe, a star collapses or something happens of sufficient
magnitude to create a beam of gamma radiation. This pulses across the cosmos
like a torch beam, but a torch beam of pure death. If a planet were to get in
the way of this beam, then everything on the surface of that planet facing the
beam would die. If the planet were exposed for a whole rotation, everything
throughout the globe would die. The planet would be effectively sterilised.”

“But
what about the plants? They didn’t go extinct.”

Jim’s
face clouded. “No, I know. Perhaps the seeds were resistant. Perhaps a few
small patches survived and quickly re-colonised the whole surface. Right now
it’s just a theory. But if it turns out to be true then this place will draw
scientists from all over to study it.”

“How
likely is it Jim? Scale of one to ten?”

“I
would say at this stage a good seven. Something killed all these creatures
Athena. And I’ve covered all the conventional explanations.” He leaned a little
closer, conspiratorially. “You won’t mention this to anyone will you?  I
mean, if it is a Gamma Pulse then I’d like to get the whole thing straight
before going public. If it turns out to be something mundane then I’d rather
not look a fool. Except to you of course.”

Athena
laughed “Jim, you could never look a fool to me. But yes, of course I’ll keep your
secret. On condition that you keep me posted.”

<><><> 

Lana
lifted the front of her smock, her belly feeling cold and vulnerable. Dr Clark
put a warm hand there for a moment. Made a “Hmm” noise then bustled off into
the corner to search inside a cupboard.

“Wasn’t
expecting to need this for a little longer…” he held a small flat device cupped
in his palm which he held gently against her lower abdomen. It hummed for a
moment then gave a soft beep. He glanced at the readout “Yes, I thought as
much. You’re six weeks pregnant.”

Lana’s
world seemed to halt. She had had some idea, that was after all why she was
here, but now it was something which wasn’t just in her mind, it was a real,
true fact. She was going to have a baby!

“Of
course there are many options open to you at this point. Should you decide to
proceed you might consider delaying the birth or accelerating it. Another
option might be to gestate the foetus in an incubator…”