Starswift (chapter 5)

"Each alien specimen is roughly 1.8 million years old. A life form like this has never been observed in nature." The Starswift's Head of Exobiology Sciences motioned to the bundle of tentacles stemming from the underside of a gargantuan bell shaped creature hovering beside him.

Lieutenant Zachary Hoyt stared blankly at the hologram, mesmerised by the iridescent colours shimmering across the strange creatures skin. The light from the surrounding nebula played in ever changing opalescent waves across and through the aliens membranes. Bursts of bright blue sparkles would occasionally erupt across the creature, created by captured intense solar radiation from the very active young stars in the vacinity. The interplay of colors and patterns hypnotically lulled Zach deeper into his internal thoughts and worries.

The Starswift had been streaking at top speed for the last few weeks through an immense stellar nursary, a remenant of an ancient supernova, in parts unknown. Weeks ago, a failed testing of the experimental Mach Spacial Decoupling Drive had left the Scientific Expeditionary Carrier Starswift stranded and lost in space completely unidentifiable to all known star charts. Estimates had put the Starswifts location across the known universe. Since the fateful failed drive test the Starswift had been without communication to any human colony or Earth. Their location too far for even the entangled quantum comm systems to reach. Zach felt his spirit sink as he thought about the distances separating the crew from humanity and hope. He wondered if command back on Earth had publically disclosed the disappearance of the Starswift and the failure of her expeditionary mission to Kepler 22.

Adrift in his thoughts Zach let his eyes wander around. The Bridge Situation Room, normally spacious and accommodating with its ergonomic furniture and plush modern styling, was packed for this briefing. The Starswifts senior crew took up most of the seats at the large polished wooden conference table at its centre. Some members opting to watch the exobiologist give his presentation directly. Others prefering to casually peruse the data readouts for the briefing manually via several touch screens embedded in the surface of the conference table.

Lieutenant Hoyt and other mid grade officers like him were consigned to sit in pews lining the back of the room along with an assortment of Crew Chiefs and miscellaneous scientists in attendance.

Glancing over his shoulder he was surprised to see just how many in attendance had grown since he first entered the room and sat down. Several people were forced to stand just outside the doorway or overflow into the darkened hall beyond, peering into the Situation Room through a row of large observation windows.

A violent shimmy went through the deck, an unpleasant characteristic of superluminal travel through modified vacuum metrics, snapping Zach out of his introspection and bringing his attention back to the very long and dry briefing he was in the middle of. His eyes took a second to focus again as he blinked a few times at the whizened Professor standing at the podium before him.

"Its evolution and life cycle in deep space, to its photosynthesis mechanism are all completely foreign to us." The Doctor said directing the assembled staff's attention towards one of the ribbon like tentacles trailing behind the three dimensional image of the first alien life form the Starswift had discovered on its foray into the unknown space.

Zach watched in renewed fascination as the lecturer brought up a detailed view of one of the creatures tentacles. It looked like a fibrous string of giant translucent cells linked together for over a kilometre in length trailing underneath a mammoth five kilometre wide umbrella or mantle. It reminded him of some giant interstellar ghostly jellyfish.

"There! See! " The Exobiologist exclaimed. As a dirty chunk of celestial slush was pulled into a stomata like opening by several surrounding cilia on one of the tenticles. "That's how it eats. It harvests the substances in the debris of the supernova. Most notably phosphorus and ArH2+. It needs it to make its equivalent to ATP."

Zach looked on nodding. He was able to follow along, just barely. Interesting. Argon Hydride. It was extremely strange for the creature to be using a noble gas molecule for anything life giving. This life form was turning out to be everybit the inigma the scientist on board were heralding. He was sure scholars back on Earth would eventually be writing an entire new chapter on biological science based on its discovery alone, much like when life was first found around underwater geothermal vents deep below the oceans.

"The high UV radiation from the binary star system this species inhabits splits copious quantities of argon hydride (ArH+) found locally into stable argon and H2." The doctor continued looking around the room placidly smiling at the officers and chiefs. Dr. Sharzahd was a gentle old soul. Age had taken most of his hair leaving him with wisps of white tufts on his bare head and deep wrinkles on his face. He had a feabelness to him that endeared most strangers to intercede whenever he'd attempt to lift anything even remotely heavy looking.

"The details of this process still escape our understanding. However, we do know the neutral argon goes on to insulate the cellular membranes from the temperatures of deep space. Like I said, we've never seen anything like this before." The Exobiologist explained. The officers and chiefs stared on silent, trying to digest the details of the briefing.

The exobiologists paused his speech, his eyes lighting up as he gazed over everyone's heads towards the windows in the back of the situation room. "Ah good! Here's Captain Thomas now. Perfect timing. "

"Wonderful here comes my colleagic nemisis" Zack murmured to himself as he, along with everyone else, twisted around and craned their necks to see the commotion visible through the rooms back windows. There in the crowded hallway that connected the Situation Room to the Foyer off the Quarterdeck was the crew of the Maxwell looking as smug and elitist as usual. The Maxwell's Captain waved dismissively for the Jr crewmen in the hall to get out of his way. Behind him, Bosuns were pushing a cart with a strange looking vat on it and accompanying equipment.

"Luckily due to the efforts of the captain and crew of the Maxwell we've been able to capture a sample juvenile specimen of this species for study." The doctor said merrily.

Captain Thomas stepped into the briefing beaming with pride as the cart was rolled in behind him. On it, in the vat floated a two foot long baby of the newly discovered species. Hoses attached to the container pumped in a gaseous mixture of what was presumably its food.

His height and thin gaunt features made him look almost aristocratic as he looked down on the officers sitting in attendance. "Yes, since the much hyped Machs Pride has yet to leave hangar on this mission, we've been tasked with the research on this astounding new species of life." The captain of the Maxwell said haughtily making sure to give a snarky glare at Lieutenant Hoyt and the rest of the Machs Pride crew sitting next to him.

Zach pursed his lips and held in his anger, feeling his face flush as he overheard one of the Maxwell's crew make a comment under her breath to another about how the Mach was a "Hangar Queen"

"Idiots!!! The Mach's getting last minute upgrades not repairs!" The wirery man fidgeting in his seat next to him blurted in indignation. Perhaps a little too loudly as the XO glanced in his direction disapprovingly .

"Calm down Victor. " Zach growled. "Everybody knows on this ship that the Maxwell crew are a bunch of arrogant pricks." Zach said to his Lead Engineer for the Machs Pride. He was always trying to get him to simmer down. Especially lately. Victor just shook his head disagreabily muttering to himself.

Victor Delgado was an easily heated man who had to fight an uphill battle his entire career in the fleet. Even back in his small home town in Hidalgo, Mexico he had to fight the stigma of being from a poor family and low social class in chasing his dream of achieving a proper education. Despite the obstacles, Victor had gone on to become a recognised and brilliant electrical engineer, assigned to many of the finest ships in the fleet. Nobody could argue the man was talented, however Zach suspected Victors abrasive inability to express his feelings beyond calling everybody an 'idiot' was the real impediment. Although if you were to ask him, he'd simply shrug and claim the real problem was that everybody looked at him as nothing more than a glorified wrench turner.

"They're idiots!" He repeated slightly quieter this time still smouldering over the not so veiled insult directed at the Mach. It was well known on board the Starswift that the Maxwells crew held a grudge against the Machs Pride. Being the most veteran crew they believed they should be at the helm of the state of the art ship and not the aging Maxwell. Both were excellent science vessels however the Machs Pride was an entire generation more advanced. She could perform feats the aging Maxwell could never think of attempting. To the Maxwell crew handing a ship like that over to someone as young and inexperienced as Zach's was patently offensive.

Dr. Shazahd waddled over to the cart and used his bony finger to tap on its sides. The specimen inside wiggled a little in response. "As you can see, at only 24 inches long these colossal creatures start off quite small. This one is estimated to be maybe 500 years old. Half plant, half animal, the species closest analogue back on earth would be a sea slug of sorts. It drifts in the solar wind currents generated by the smaller B(e) type star and utilises the intense UV light from the O type giant it shares its binary system with." The hologram transformed into a three dimesional image of the two bright blue stars a cloud of the creatures stretched out like a gossamer in between the two. "A marvelous creature I look forward to studying further. " Shazahd said resting his arm on top of the vat.

Looking dismayed the Exobiologist noticed the Execitive Officer tap on his watch letting him know he was out of time. "Ahem...yes....This concludes my briefing on this intriguing and curious species. For those interested in a more thorough report, I'll be hosting a complete review of our findings at sixteen hundred today down in the Starswift Biological Sciences Lab on deck four." The frail man said collecting his notes.

Stepping through a verdant green holographic projection of a graceful palm plant placed decoratively off to the side of the room, Captain Lewyll of the Starswift shook the exo biologists hand and thanked him. "Excellent work. The crew of the Maxwell and your team have accomplished a great deal in studying this strange and exotic species." Dr. Shazahd nodded absently and hobbled off a distant almost senile smile on his face.

Zach could see Captain Thomas smile smugly as one of his sycophantic officers patted him on the back in adulation. Victor shook his head. "Idiots!" Hoyt gave his engineer a quick elbow in the ribs to settle him down again.

The lights in the room dimmed further and the Commanding Officer waited until Dr. sharzahd ambled away from the podium before commencing. " As you know, due to unfortunate circumstances relating to our testing of the Mach Spacial Decoupling Drive, we are now isolated in unknown regions of space some forty seven billion light years from our home cluster of star systems. At the Starswifts current top speed it will take us over nine hundred and forty million years to return home." The room grew quiet and sombre. Despite the professionalism in the crew Zach could sense the pervasive despair and fear tacitly felt by each and every one of them.

"Some of you may have noticed that our Head Engineer, Chief O'Keiran is absent from this briefing. That's because he and our Head Mathmatician, Professor Kensington, are hard working in Stellar Cartography as we speak attempting to solve our wayward dilemma. They expect it to be another two months of running simulations before they are done recalibrating the Jump Drive for our safe return back to known space." The Captain said as he looked around the room at his silent crew.

"We should be at Kepler22-b exploring its vast oceans right now. Surveying and confirming locations along her equitorial islands for pending industrial facilities and spaceports. And as the Captain of this Vessel, I promise you we will be. We will complete this mission and return safely to our families soon enough. " Lewyll reassured his crew.

Interesting Zach thought to himself. No mention of the Starswifts clandestine side mission to Luyten-b or the discovery of intelligent life there. Surely at this stage in deployment they could reveal to at least the officers why the secrecy was in place and as to why they had brought the Lucien and her weapons of mass destruction onboard.

The Starswift Commander looked pointedly at each senior officer sitting around the table. "If any of you are experiencing issues with moral or concerns pertaining to crew under your charge, you come talk to me. We cant afford to lose our heads here folks."

Bam!

The bottom of the chair slammed violently into Zachs backside as the overhead lights winked off momentarily before coming back on. Somewhere outside, down the corridor, a claxon sounded as emergency lights flickered on over each door in the room and the artificial gravity dropped then rebounded again.

A crewman next to zach groaned. The Starswift had just dropped subluminal as its Drive field collapsed in an emergency shutdown. Third time this week. The captain had been pushing the Starswift critically close to its safty threshold as he pushed the vessel at 40 times the speed of light. The starship had just slammed into a dense region of unhomogeneous space again and the computers couldnt calculate a solution to keep the quantum squeezed state of the drive field stable. Incidents like this could vaporise the ship into a shower of light as bright as an exploding star in a blink. Zach could smell the faint odor of burnt plastic filtering through the air vent.

Several officers and crew around him stood up making their way towards the exit. Their departments and stations now a priority as they went to inspect any damage or hazards onboard from the jolt.

Looking down at his tablet Zach saw a message light up from his first officer standing watch on board the Machs Pride down in Hanger Bay 2.
'That was one serious jolt Lieutenant. No damage down here with the Mach. We're doing a second walkthrough inspection of the engineering room and powerplant to make sure everythings ok.'

Chief Engineer Delgado was busy scrolling through his own tablet reading the same report. A visible sigh of relief coming over him as he sank back into his seat once more.

After a minute or so the room began to settle. Captain Lewyll looked over at the XO, who gave a thumbs up telling the captain it was safe to continue on with the briefing. Lewyll's body language softened and he cleared his throat audibly to bring the crew back to focus. "Ok. Now that were all settled, for those that are remaining, I'll be handing the remainder of this briefing over to Dr. Chun. My attention is needed elsewhere and the Doctor has some exciting news to share. "

Captain Lewyll stepped away from the podium casting his arm out and beckoning Dr. Chun the Chief Science Officer and Astrophysicist toward the presentation area.

Eyes twinkling and alive, the elegant silver haired physicist casually took to the podium and thanked everyone there in the cool confident voice the man was acclaimed for. Taking his time he tapped some commands onto the podium console. The room darkened further and the walls came alive with the holographic projection of the supernova remnant Nebula the Starswift was currently speeding through at more than forty times the speed of light. The colours of deep red, bright green and cobalt blue surrounded everyone in the room.

Overhead the trio of glowing sapphire suns took the centre of the ceiling. The spectacle was bold and almost overwhelming. The world famous Hakyeung Chun, celebrity astrophysicist did indeed know how to put on an impressive presentation.

The crew became silent, enraptured in the moment by the dramatic change in the room. Assured he had the effect he was looking for Dr. Chun finally spoke. "Greetings. Filling up this room is the wondrous place this intrepid vessel currently finds its self. In a foreign unknown galaxy. Hurtling beyond the farthest observations of humanity. The first time our species has ever ventured into a nebula. Let alone one as grand and magnificent as this one. A truly momentous occasion for man.

What you are looking at is the remnants of a super massive star that went supernova over 4 billion years ago. In its centre the cycle of death and rebirth continues. A stellar nursery of young stars is forming. The largest one, running hot and bold like its ancestor, also a super massive O Type star. Its short life will expend in only ten thousand years. When it does, it will take all of the fledgling stars in this nebula with it as it dies in the sudden rapture of stellar nova."

The professor paused for dramatic effect. "This rare cluster of star systems will exist for only a short brief flash in the history of the universe. Its unique ecosystems such as the one the doctor's space organisims live in, only here for a moment before being lost forever.

Dr. Chun scanned the room and found the XO standing in the back corner. Raising his eyebrows, he nodded in a manner imperceptible to the audience. In turn, the Executive Officer looked at the Maxwell crew huddling by their new space pet and then at Zachs Mach Pride crew sitting patiently in a tight knot on the other side of the room. With a subtle motion he cocked his head over toward Zach. In recognition the Chief Science Officer at the podium gave the slightest grin. Their covert conversation unnoticed by everyone in the room including the young Lieutenant and his crew.

Dr. Chun shuffled his papers and tapped the podiums console again. The trio of stars disappeared as the projection zoomed into the smallest and farthest star of the nursery. Overhead a softly glowing orb hung suspended gently rotating, its pale yellow hue cast onto the faces and surrounding walls. Swirling across the room, small rocky planets circled about halfway out from the star. It was a busy and intricate solar system Zach noticed as a comet soared over his head heading towards one of the outer systems gas giants. Near the middle just beyond the final of the small rocky planets a belt of bluish white ice shards and slush serenely orbited glittering. Definitely a young star system Zach thought to himself.

"You are looking at the star system UG1-SB001c and we are going there. " The astrophysicist excitedly cast his arms wide at the star and its planets. " I've named SB001c the Syoss system after my favourite novel as a boy. Its a little easier to remember and say. Anyway, Syoss will be the focus of this expeditionary vessel for as long as the captain will accommodate our exploration and curiosity over the next few weeks ."

Zach chuckled. He remembered reading Tales of Fan'driel as a kid growing up. He didn't take the astrophysicist as a fantasy fan. The man was full of surprises.

"Its an F(8) type star. Relatively young, and measuring 1.2 times the size of our sun. It burns slightly hotter producing 2.5 as much ultra violet radiation than we are accustomed to back on Earth. Any of you who have spent time stationed at the sunward facilities of Proxima will know from the solar flare activity just what working around high UV is like and the challenges associated." Dr. Chun looked over at Zach briefly before continuing.

"However, its most interesting factor is this here" The solar system vanished and was replaced with a verdant green and creamy white swirled planet. It filled up the back half of the Situation room, looming imposingly. Bright orange and red cracks from volcanism blazed in the shadows of its night side, contrasting the thick pearl bands of weather that wrapped into the daylight. Rainbow coloured wisps of gasses escaping the atmosphere like a steamy fog trailed in the path of the planet glowing faintly in the solar radiation. A pair of icy shards churned through the mist like rocks in a rushing stream. A chief warrant officer somewhere behind Zach whistled in appreciation.

The Chief Science Officer strolled around the projection of the planet, his arm waving in a flourish. "This is the reason I've convinced Captain Lewyll to divert us at 45C for the past three weeks. Planet SB001-C6. Keeping with the fantasy theme I've gone ahead and named her Lyria. And, in a moment im hoping you'll agree with me as to why thats a fitting theme. Its the sixth planet out in this system and quite a distance from its sun at 3.8 AU. She's a small planet at three fifths the size of earth, making her a low gravity environment. She has two moon and a few smaller captured satellites from the systems ice ring too. Copious amounts of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. So much so that due to the lowered gravity, the gasses escape the upper atmosphere like a comets tail only to be replenished by the continuously captured shards of the systems ice ring when they burn up during their decent through the cloud layers"

The audience began to sit up straight in their seats. There was quiet murmuring as several small hushed conversations broke out in a ripple around the room.

Dr. Chun smiled. It would seem from the conversations springing up, the crew were catching on to where he was going with this briefing. "On a hunch I launched a pair of Mark-87 sensor probes." The planet shrunk down once again showing the rest of the system as two dotted lines in yellow highlighted the vector of the probes as they raced towards the Syoss System.

"One of the probes gammad out just before entering the system when it hit a unexpectedly high density region of Heisenburg fluctuations."

Zach watched as one of the probes winked out in a blinding flash of light.

Dr. Chuns hand followed the second probe as it entered "The second one however, has completed its superluminal transit and is currently orbiting Lyria."

The image changed into a live shot of the cylindrical probe as its bottom opened up releasing a manta ray shaped flying wing, which descended toward the milky swirls below. "A HALO platform has been deployed from its bay and is already sending back terabytes of data from Lyrias upper atmosphere."

Dr. Chin tapped on the console and the room filled with clouds. Obviously a view from the high altitude low observable (HALO) drone's cameras being beamed back towards the Starswift as it raced towards the system.

Peeking out intermittently from the many layers of cloud, like an archipelago of islands, were a canopy of tree tops. The rangy limbs spreading wide, terminating with large tufts of foliage contrasting the smooth grey of the slender twisting trunks. Large pastel clusters of wide petaled flowers the size of cars dominated the center of many of the tufts. Each island a seperate ecosystem. Dangling below the bundles of foliage, clinging to the stems and branches, long strings of beard like neon green moss hung.

"The low gravity, coupled with the high UV from its host star has lead to speculation regarding the apparent gigantism on this planet." Dr. Chun offered to explain the sureal vision in front of the audience.

A large winged snake clearly several dozen metres in length shot out from behind one of the bouquets and lazily glided a few kilometres to the next. Its lithe body undulating as it flew. The room collectively gasped. The animal resembled an ancient Chinese dragon in Zach's opinion. He felt instantly excited. This was far more interesting than the giant space jellyfish. Mankind had been to over a dozen star systems in its local cluster only to find lichen on some rocks. This was astounding.

"Behold! There be dragons!" Dr. Chun exclaimed.

The image changed to a closeup of the beast. Large bead like scales of blue covering the animal glistened in the sun. A violet like sheen moved in waves over the magnificent animal, reflecting the bright sunlight as it flew.

A flock of bat like creatures took to the air, disturbed by the beast as it perched on a limb and coiled its tail around the branch. Half hidden behind it further under the canopy of foliage two other similar creatures were occasionally visible as they flitted in and out of the mass of leaves and flowers.

"In three days the Starswift will enter Lyria's orbit. You better believe we are sending a full scientific expedition team down there".

The crew now visibly excited started to buzz talking to each other in small groups. Captain Thomas perked up awaiting his orders for him and the Maxwell to take command of the expedition. He had the finest crew after all. Any other ship would be unthinkable for a task this monumental.

The Dr. simply stood there waiting for the officers and chiefs to settle. "I am assigning the task of spearheading and commanding this scientific expeditionary force to Lieutenant Zachary Hoyt of the Machs Pride. Your ship is uniquely suited for this mission and your Chief Biologist Lorri Nightstarr is the ideal compliment to the Prides capabilities. I am temporarily attaching Doctor Shazahd to your crew to assist with Mrs. Nightstarr's endeavors. "

Lorri clapped her hands together and squealed joyfully. Her eyes glittering with glee at the unexpected news. Dr. Shazahd looked over and half waved his wizened old hand at her, his head nodding. A smile reflected his happiness to be reunited with his old student. He had always appreciated her bubbly personality, cherubic smile and her deep connection to nature that was no doubt attributed to her native american heritage.

"We're all very happy for you Lorri. " The Chief Science Officer said. His hands out as if to calm her down. "The DeSitter and Einstein will assist as well as the Hyugens. Good luck to the crews of those vessels.".

Victor looked over at Zach in a deadpan. He shrugged and gestured impatiently at the front of the room. Zach, dumbfounded, took a moment to process what Victor was getting at.

" What?!..Oh. Yeah!" Zach stammered.

"Idiot!". Victor sighed.

" Thank You Sir! The Machs Pride is honoured at this opportunity and will set an example of teamwork and leadership on this mission. " The Lieutenant replied in his best impersonation of a seasoned and proper expedition commander and hoped he didn't sound or look as green as he felt.

"Glad to hear it Lieutenant Hoyt, the XO and I will be conducting an inspection and tour of the Machs Pride at o'nine thirty tomorrow morning. You'll be prepared I presume?" Captain Lewylls voice boomed over the sound of the Maxwells Crew beginning to protest amongst themselves as he re entered the situation Room.

Zach looked over at the sneering face of Captain Thomas and cocked his head to the side grinning . "Why of course Captain. We are ready to depart at your command. I would love to demonstrate the unique talents and capabilities of the Mach and her crew"

"Excellent! You'll get your opportunity" The captain of the Starswift beamed. "This briefing has concluded. All in attendance dismissed!"

The young Liutenant, commander of the Machs Pride, stood up and felt his body go numb and breathless as he realised the measure of responsibility beyond anything he'd ever tackled in his life that had just been thrust upon him.

"Ho-ly Shit!" Victor exhaled as he accompanied the Liutenant out the door.

---

Thank you for taking the time to read the latest installment of the Starswift series. If you'd like to read the prior chapters you can find them at the below links.

Starswift Series
Chapter 1
https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift

Chapter 2
https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift-chapter-2

Chapter 3
https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift-chapter-3

Chapter 4
https://steemit.com/fiction/@steemydave/starswift-chapter-4

Please feel free to comment. I respond to each and every comment you guys leave and appreciate them.

Thanks again.

Steemydave

*All images provided by Pixabay