| The First Domino After passing through the many security checkpoints employed by this particular station, Donovan Tate was finally pacing down the long, silver hallway that his people referred to as the Argent Tunnel. His footsteps echoed throughout the otherwise soundless corridor and the sound reverberated in his ears. The staccato rhythm did to Tate what countless hours of preparation and risky procedures had failed to do: it made him nervous. The Argent Tunnel ended with a small set of wide stairs that led to a thick steel door. Tate produced a small rectangular keycard and moved it towards the corresponding slit in the control box mounted to the left of the metal barrier. Only those with this card could pass to the control room within, the room where the future of international exploration programs could well be decided within the next few hours. The keycard, however, refused to enter the slit. It slapped against the control box above and below the opening, but always it steered clear of the desired target; the hand controlling its movements would not keep still. Stop it. Tate lowered his arm and inhaled slowly and deeply. You’ve come this far already. Today, you finally get to do what you’ve been waiting to do for ten years. His nerves calmed and his hand stopped shaking. He exhaled the breath he’d been holding, and out with it went the fear and the worry that had suddenly usurped control over his mind and body. If it didn’t work, then it didn’t work. But it will work, and you will get to see it. Now… He nodded to himself, and raised his hand again, and this time with confidence. The card entered the slit and after a few customary whirs and blips as the security program read the keycard, the steel door split down the middle and the two halves receded into the sides of the wall with a loud whoosh. The control room always served to take Tate’s breath away. It was a giant circular enclosure lined around the walls with supercomputers that controlled everything that took place in the station and in the structure floating nearby. On the north wall there was a giant viewing portal that allowed anyone in the control room an excellent view of the launch site that was silhouetted against eternal blackness that was occasionally dotted with a tiny white star, somewhere far in the distance. For indeed, this was the control room of a space station, and the nearby structure was a launching bay that would be key to the day’s events. All throughout the room, technicians bustled about while calling out inquiries and confirmations. They were preparing for the project that Donovan Tate had pushed the Council of Nations to approve and support, and today everyone’s work would pay off. At the center of the control room there was a smaller circle of seats and command posts where one could send orders throughout the entire station. Standing at the center of the circle was a tall man dressed in the garb of an admiral serving in the Galactic Navy. His face was wizened with many a wrinkle, but he appeared to be fairly fit for his age. His bright, eager eyes looked up and caught Tate’s, and he swore inwardly. Professor Weiss had told Tate to expect someone, but he really wished that his boss had been more specific. Tate was unshaven and rather messy after at least two full days of work and last minute preparations, and he knew that his appearance could hardly impress the well-groomed admiral. And why does it have to be this admiral that I humiliate myself in front of? “Donovan!” the man boomed in a loud voice, striding over to meet the technician and outstretching his hand immediately. “Good to see you again!” Tate took the man’s hand and shook it firmly, allowing a smile to appear on his stubbly face. “Welcome back aboard the Eye, Admiral Leto. I’m glad that you could make it.” “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, son!” responded Admiral Leto enthusiastically, glancing around the room towards each and every technician, as though waiting for one of them to give the order at any minute. He had been Tate’s closest ally in dealing with the Council. “ZAITAN all ready to go?” “Yes,” Tate nodded as confidently as he could. “It’s as ready as we can make it. All of the robots on board are bug-free, and the ship’s guidance computer is fully operational.” Actually, there had been a problem with the guidance program, but Tate himself had located and eradicated the bug. He was unable to keep a bigger smile from breaking loose, and he momentarily reprimanded himself for his pride, but on further recollection decided that he didn’t care. This was his moment. “Yes, Admiral, ZAITAN will work just fine.” “How about the dendrydium?” Leto was still not satisfied. Though he probably knew deep down that everything had been taken into consideration, he still couldn’t help but worry. His career was riding on this, after all. “Were there any further problems with procurement?” Tate winced at the memory. “No, sir. We have all of the dendrydium that we need, and the Council of Nations wasn’t that nasty about giving it to us.” Actually, it had been an exercise in pure torture to convince the Council to surrender more of the precious element to the ZAITAN program, but Tate had a certain skill in dealing with politicians that got him his way in the end. Admiral Leto nodded and executed an about-face. He now gazed out of the wide viewing portal on the north wall, in the direction of the launching structure that neighbored Eye, the most capable space station ever completed by the Council of Nations. “Not much longer now, eh?” “No,” Tate confirmed, smiling again. “In a few hours, ZAITAN will be off. We’ll be exploring frontiers that our predecessors would never have imagined in their time.” He allowed himself another surge of pride. “It’s the most incredible space shuttle in history, Admiral. It will succeed.” Leto grinned and chuckled in a low tone, not because anything funny was happening, but simply because he didn’t know what else to do to vent his excitement. “Just think, Donovan! Another planet! I mean, I know you scientists must get tired of hearing this jabber from us old men, but…” “I never get tired of it,” Tate protested. “It’s one of the reasons I do this.” He tossed Leto a sloppy salute. “Glad to see that at least one old man appreciates it.” Leto didn’t offer a riposte, but instead continued on in his energized “jabber”. “We thought we knew it all, didn’t we? Only so many planets out there, and all of them orbiting our sun…what were we thinking? Of course there had to be something else out there! And the readings on this one…” “Yeah,” Tate nodded, sharing the enthusiasm. “That’s the best part. There’s probably life on that planet.” “Yes! I thought it was just a thing for superstition, but now that the possibility is really out there…” Leto shook his head. “I just wish that it wouldn’t take so long for ZAITAN to come home.” Conversation dimmed somewhat as both men began to see to their respective tasks. Donovan Tate oversaw the technicians on their final programming session until finally, finally, it was time to send ZAITAN on its mission. Located in the Optima launching structure, the ZAITAN shuttle was by far the most advanced spacecraft of its time. It vaguely resembled a fish in appearance. The front of the ship was a giant, domed structure that was more an oval than a circle, and the rear was a big rocket bay that fanned outward, much like a fish’s tail. The entire ship was as silver as the Argent Tunnel, and various satellites and radars flecked its surface like a fish’s scales. ZAITAN, named after “zaitan”, the International word for “scout”, would proceed at light speed to the newly discovered planet and unleash its army of robots that would in turn gather information about the planet and its surrounding astral bodies, as well as look for information that might indicate intelligent life. Then, ZAITAN would return with what was perhaps the most valuable scientific data ever to be collected. The order was given aboard the Eye, and its launching structure Optima carried out the order in its typical, automated way. Launch programs flew through the artificial brain of ZAITAN, and its rocket thrusters flared to life. The highly reactive dendrydium, a recently discovered element that existed only in small quantities in certain areas, was set off by a bombardment of zeta particles from a cannon of sorts beneath the ship. The energy produced by dendrydium was nuclear, so there was always a chance that something could go wrong. An explosion of that caliber could totally obliterate a fragile space station and everyone aboard it, and so all the orders were given from the computers aboard Eye, while all the functions on Optima were computer operated. But nothing did go wrong, and in no time at all ZAITAN roared off into space, a silver comet with a trail of green fire in its wake. “There it goes,” said Admiral Leto after what seemed like hours of reverent silence. “It worked. Donovan, it worked!” “I know,” Donovan Tate replied somewhat shakily, an almost intoxicated grin invading his features, “I know.” There was a collective cheer from everyone in the room. This was the first major part of the project. The second part would be done by their descendents, since while ZAITAN moved at the speed of light, and would see years go by as days, the technicians who created ZAITAN would be bound by the same laws of time that they had been before the launch of their baby, and would probably never live to see the shuttle arrive at its destination or return home. But they had knocked over the first domino, and for the moment that was good enough for them. Still, it didn’t stop them from dreaming about what ZAITAN might encounter. “The gammascope already put together a rough image of the planet,” Leto pointed out, referring to the high-powered telescope that had been implanted in the satellite responsible for the new planet’s detection. “I wonder how differently ZAITAN will see things?” “With more detail, that’s for sure.” Tate shrugged and yawned. The previous sleepless nights were creeping up with him, though he was certainly in no mood for repose at the moment. “We know there’s at least seven large bodies of land, and roughly seven major seas.” He rattled off the details one by one. “Seven continents, seven seas…we detected one dot that may or may not be a moon. So figure one moon…and it seems to be the third planet away from the sun of its solar system.” “And, with all that water, there’s bound to be complex life there,” Leto said thoughtfully, if not presumptuously. “Well now,” Tate said cautiously, “let’s not get ahead of yourself, Admiral.” “Well, if there are people on that planet, then it may become a matter for the Galactic Navy to take into consideration. I have a right to be interested.” “What are you gonna do, invade them?” Admiral Leto laughed. “No, no, no…I just want an excuse to speculate, son.” He gazed off into space, his eyes fixing on the spot where ZAITAN’s dendrydium fire had finally vanished from sight. “I always thought our planet of Verange was the only one of its kind. It’ll take some getting used to, this thought of another blue planet. I do so wish I could be around when that ship comes home.” He shook his head in defeated acceptance of his fate. “Such a pity that we’ll never know what ZAITAN finds.” “I know,” Donovan Tate agreed. “Such a pity.” |
| Another entry into the Ball State Writing Contest, this time in the scifi category, the same situation where Brightest Star In A Black Sky was written. Again, this story continues my new habit of leaving surprises at the end. |