“Anybody who can build a radio tower hundreds of miles tall on the outskirts of a star system is worth knowing. We’ll stay long enough to get a closer look and then resume our mission.”
“Are we going to get any closer to it?” Lamont asked.
“A little bit,” answered Sandra from the pilot’s seat. Her black eyes were narrowed in concentration as she studied the instruments on her panel. “We’re still braking, actually. But…”
Captain Carter turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. “But?”
“We have to keep making adjustments,” Lazarus answered from where he stood, hovering behind Sandra. “The gravity pull we’re experiencing doesn’t quite match the projections.”
“Not entirely unexpected,” Phobos assured him calmly. “There are many things we don’t know, such as the density of these bodies and the exact quality of their orbits.”
“What about the Martian surveys?” Lamont asked. He was referring to the charts that Phobos’ ancestors had made during the Martian age of exploration, eons ago. These records served as Westward’s primary method of charting its course.
Phobos responded with a slight shake of his oversized head. “No great attention was paid to this planet by the probe that passed through here. The moon does not appear in the records at all.”
“Because the probe didn’t notice it, or because the moon didn’t exist at that time?” Lamont pressed.
“Who’s to say?” Chief Santana responded from her seat on the bench. “A lot can happen in 50 million years.”
Lamont took a last long pull from his cigarette and scrubbed it out in the ashtray at the end of the bench. “You lot,” He said pointedly, “should have that slogan embroidered on your bloody patches.”
“Monty’s got the willies again,” Rosemary teased. She was standing next to the captain.
“We’re not out here to see the known and expected,” Francis said, glancing down at the medic with a slight smile.
“No, we’re out here to plant a colony, and to identify resources of value to humanity.” Chief Santana’s tone was humorless. “Anybody who can build a radio tower hundreds of miles tall on the outskirts of a star system is worth knowing. We’ll stay long enough to get a closer look and then resume our mission.”
Lamont folded his arms. He had a strong urge to make his way to the refreshment dispenser for a cup of coffee, but he resisted it. The command deck crew probably had bets laid down on how long it would take him to succumb to that familiar temptation, and he was in no mood to entertain them. He did have the willies, he grudgingly admitted to himself. But why? Would he spend the remainder of mankind’s first expedition into interstellar space fighting down panic every time they encountered something that struck him as alien?
“I imagine we’ve tried sending a radio signal to the tower ourselves?” He asked, fiddling with the recorder that hung from his neck.
“Of course,” Answered Raj from the navigation console. “We’ve been transmitting signals since yesterday. It’s the obvious thing to do.”
“Not to Arthur,” Ed pointed out dryly. “He suggested that we keep our heads low. Employ the element of surprise.”