K.E.V. Empress DeeqKllauw Mapping & Exploration Vessel
Varl 386.9827 System
Pearly anti-light glowed from the curved edges of the control console in front of Clerk Ryn as the Empress Deeq slipped back into realspace. “All systems coming back online, purging all chaotic integers,” Ryn chirped pleasantly, moving through the task of spatial reintegration with the air of someone who could do it fast asleep and one-handed.
Librarian Qroo gave a mild crest flexion, indicating quiet pleasure at her crew’s efficiency. “As soon as you can, begin scans. We have much to learn about this system.”
Ryn replied a moment later, “Mathematical stability is achieved. 2+2=4, ma’am.”
“Initiating scans now,” piped up Auditor Yrpp, its crest at full height.
Qroo chuckled a little. She hadn’t been that excited about a system scan for some time. The greatest minds all agreed, on Kllauw and amongst its allies, that there were no more sapient races waiting to be found. The 7 great species and their vassals had searched all of the most likely stars. All that remained were the borderline systems, theoretically capable of supporting life but practically so hostile that life rarely progressed beyond single-celled organisms.
The Varl 386.9827 System was one such outlier. It’s star was a little too young, and a little too energetic. Odds were any life that tried to start here would get blasted away by a coronal mass ejection before it could amount to anything. But, she had a job to do.
Clerk Ryn and Auditor Yrpp huddled together over the monitor, their crests almost touching. ‘Not that they would know what to do with them if they did,’ mused Qroo. ‘Ah, to be young, genderless and carefree.’
“Preliminary scans coming in, Librarian,” Ryn said. “Four gas planets, some look like they might have moons, there’s a lot of small ice formations at the system halo. Might have been another gas planet out there at some time.” Its voice became very small. “Oh, no. There’s an asteroid belt right in the system’s habitable zone.”
“Stay the course, crew,” said Qroo. “We have to be certain.”
“Yes, Librarian,” it replied. “ Detecting two or three small planets beyond the asteroid belt. Hard to make out any specifics till we get closer.”
“Take us in, Clerk,” said the Librarian, settling back in her chair. “Let’s see what the inner system holds.”
Qroo was in her stateroom, eating her second shift ration when the call came in. “Librarian to the bridge. Impossible signal detected.”
Qroo’s crest dipped in annoyance. ‘Overexcited cadets with their flaps still wet. Now what?’
She pulled her uniform jacket back on and slowly made her way to the bridge.
Before she even reached the bridge, she could hear it. A strange, rhythmic sound full of distortion and noise, but underlying it, a clear pattern, a musical beat.
The doors to the bridge slid open and she could suddenly hear much clearer. The beat moved swiftly, and it was accompanied by a variety of noises higher and lower in pitch. It had strange tonal structure and she couldn’t begin to understand the lyrics, but one thing was certain.
This was music!
Coming to her wits before her crew could see her standing in the doorway, crest flaccid with shock, Qroo strode in and took her seat. “Auditor, where is that coming from?” she barked out.
“It’s a planet well past the inner edge of the habitable zone, looks like the second world in this system, unless there’s another one closer to the star we haven’t seen yet. Calculations are uncertain on that as yet,” Auditor Yrpp spoke quickly but precisely, subsuming his excitement in his professionalism.
“Somebody thinks it habitable, Auditor. Get me more information.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
No one had stopped the music playing from the bridge speakers, and truth be told, no one wanted to. It was wholly alien, exotic yet tauntingly familiar. The chord structure and melodic arrangement spoke to their computational instincts, daring them to find the patterns and decipher the structure of the alien sounds.
“The planet appears to have a molten core. I’m detecting thermal venting from the core in several spots around the globe,” said Yrpp.
Ryn piped up, “They have a moon with over 1% of the planet’s mass. This planet must experience enormous tidal forces.”
Yrpp came back with the next insane fact, “The proximity to the star is causing severe atmospheric disturbances. I am observing twelve storms of category 14 or higher. Two of them are category 18.”
Librarian Qroo leaned back in her chair, frantically processing all this information. Kllauw’s volcanoes were a billion years dead, and its moons together were only .004% of its mass! The worst storm recorded in the planet’s history was a category 7!
“How is anything still alive down there?”
Qroo and her crew kept working, cataloging the impossibility of this little world.
“I’m reading trillions of carbon-based life forms. There are vast amounts of liquid water, which may account for the strange atmospheric readings. This planet has a tremendous magnetic field, it appears to be acting as a natural radiation shield in concert with the ionically charged upper atmosphere,” Yrpp elaborated. “This is just conjecture at this point, but I suspect that anything short of a direct impact from a solar flare would not be a threat to life forms on this planet.”
"Take us closer."
... To be continued.
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