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15

Twenty minutes later and they were looking down on a large camp of rounded huts made of wood and dried straw. There was a path that led into the center of the camp where a bonfire burned in a pit with several people gathered around it. Men, women, and children dressed in simple clothing chattered around the fire in their language, eating, drinking, and socializing. The rounded huts went off into the distance, as did multiple pathways, and there were many other bonfires burning off in the distance.

Clement signaled his troupe to the ground with a silent hand gesture. He whispered to his team to keep their chances of being exposed to a minimum. “Observations,” he said, looking from each one of his team to other. Pomeroy spoke first, quietly.

“This is clearly a simple culture. They don’t seem to want for much in terms of food, fresh water, and the like. They obviously learned at some point how to cultivate crops, and the near-constant climate gives them no great challenges to overcome. The food is always plentiful, the water always flows . . . ” She trailed off.

“In other words, no upward pressure on their society to move forward?” observed Clement.

Pomeroy nodded. “No need for innovation, no need to evolve, no new discoveries to kick them in the butt to move their culture upwards.”

“Sounds like paradise,” said Yan.

“If you’re a type B personality,” commented Clement.

“This lack of innovation may be bred into them over many generations,” offered Pomeroy.

Clement turned to Telco, looking for a different perspective. “What do you see, Ensign?”

Telco looked around for a moment. “Looks like a stable society. No obvious predators. And the people seem happy,” he said.

“Observe. Estimate the population,” ordered Clement.

Telco took a few seconds to look around them. “I’d estimate around fifty of the huts. Seven to eight people per structure, so say population of this village would be around three hundred fifty.”

Clement shook his head. “Look again.” The closest bonfire had fifteen to twenty people around it with five huts nearby. There were several young couples going in and out of each hut, children running about from hut to hut, people moving around at a frequent pace. “I’d say more like ten to twelve people per hut, multiple families in each, or at least multiple sex partners. My best guess would be that we have a population of at least five hundred.”

Telco nodded. “I see it now, sir,” he acknowledged.

Anthropology lesson over, Clement turned to Ivan Massif. “Thoughts, Navigator?”

Massif pointed to the sky. “See that dark object?” They all looked skyward. There were affirmative grunts all around. “That’s the next planet in, Alphus. My guess is it will partially obscure the Trinity star in about twenty hours. That will create a significant twilight at that time. The two inner planets also provide a nighttime obscurity on a regular, periodic schedule. I can calculate it when we get back.”

“So it will get dark? Or darker,” stated Yan.

“As close to dark as it gets here. Remember, all these planets are tidal-locked to the star, the same face toward the sun at all times. But with the planets so close together, I’m sure there are multiple occultations happening all the time. That would be an opportune time to return and observe, and perhaps introduce ourselves.”

Clement agreed. “Let’s come back at that time and evaluate what we have here,” he said.

“But we’re here now,” said Yan.

“And we can come back,” replied Clement. “I think this trip has been, uh, eventful as it is. Let’s take what we have and get back to our ship. Agreed?”

They all nodded.

“Any chance of stopping by that pond one more time on the way back?” said Mika, impishly.

“You’re insatiable,” said Clement, shaking his head as he stood, then signaled his team to move out.


They were halfway back to the pontoon boat when Nobli called in his alert. They’d picked up a drone on the scanners, heading their way.

“Lock the ship down, we’ll be back as soon as we can get there,” ordered Clement. Nobli acknowledged and Clement ordered his team to double-time back to the boat. Once aboard they shoved off quickly and headed downriver, but Clement ordered Telco to slow to half speed. Metal objects moving at speed could easily be picked up by a sophisticated drone, and Clement had to assume the Earth Ark builders had sophisticated military equipment.

The ride was tense as Nobli called in periodic updates. The drone ended up passing about thirty klicks south of their location, but if it were using an overlapping orbit to try and detect the Beauregard, it would move farther north in latitude on the next pass, and depending on the size of the overlap, it could detect the ship on the next pass.

“We have to take precautions,” he said to Yan after he ordered Telco to push the boat to full speed.

“What about action against the drone? Can we take it out?” she asked.

“That could give away both our presence and our position.”

“Could?” Clement shrugged.

“It would be a risk,” Nobli said.

“What about using our own drone to take it out before it gets near the ship?”

Clement looked at her. “They probably have more than one, so we would just end up without a drone. It would put us at a disadvantage,” he said in a dismissive tone. Clement was a man who had been in many battles. Yan clearly was not, and as much as he liked her, the gap in their combat experience was still vast. Yan gave him a sour look.

“I’m just trying to be helpful,” she said.

“I understand,” said Clement, then turned his attention back to the progress of the boat.

They arrived back at the Beauregard a few minutes later. Clement ordered his crew to prep for discovery by the drone on its next pass, which would be in thirty-two minutes.

“What are your orders, Captain?” said Nobli, thankfully relinquishing command back to his friend.

Clement took Nobli to the side. “If we shut down the Beauregard, went completely dark, what are the odds that drone would detect the ship?”

“I’d say less than fifty-fifty, but if we went completely cold it could take us up to three hours to refire the ship,” the engineer said.

“Understood. But right now I’d take those odds over being discovered by that Earth Ark and her troops. And there’s another complication. We discovered natives. They appear human, or at least humanoid,” Clement said.

An astonished look crossed Nobli’s face. “Natives? Human natives? You mean colonists, don’t you?”

Clement shook his head. “I’m not so sure unless they were biologically modified for this planet in some way. We need to know more. I’m thinking that we should abandon the ship temporarily, and perhaps mix in with them, to study them some more. What do you think?”

“I think this mission has gone seriously off-kilter,” said Nobli.

“Can’t disagree with you there. Give me a number. How long to go cold?”

“If I shut down everything, maybe two hours before the ship’s radiation signatures would dissipate to background levels.”

“That’s close enough for me.”

At that Clement brought the entire crew together in the clearing outside the ship. “The Earth Ark drone will pass over us in”—he looked down at his watch—“twenty-eight minutes. I’m ordering Engineer Nobli to shut down the Beauregard completely, to go cold, essentially. That will aid us in avoiding detection, but it’s no guarantee. It will take approximately two hours for the ship to go completely cold, and we will require up to three hours to refire her and get her back into action once we return. So, there is a risk if we are attacked. My plan is for us to spread out into small groups of three to four individuals, and, using the natural wood and brush from the planet, light small fires to make it appear as though we are a small settlement of natives. Don’t use any devices that would burn hotter than a natural fire. This should distract from any residual heat signatures the ship will be emitting and hopefully the drone will just pass us by. Once the drone has passed we’ll begin the journey to the native encampment and try to contact the natives there. If they are friendly, we should be able to mix in with them and keep ourselves safe for a while.”

“To what end?” questioned Yan. “I mean, what’s our ultimate goal here?”

Clement looked to his first officer. “To keep the Earth Ark from detecting us and to determine what their mission in the Trinity system really is, then to try and counter it,” he said.

“What about getting home?” asked Ensign Adebayor from the crowd.

“Getting home is our ultimate consideration,” said Clement. “Survival is our immediate one. Since we are no longer under the protection of the flag of the 5 Suns Alliance Navy, we have to assume they will consider us as hostile as well. It seems likely that the navy, or rather, Fleet Admiral DeVore, never intended us to survive our first contact with the Earth Ark, which they surely knew we would encounter. So the question now is, what exactly is ‘home’ for us at this moment?”

“That’s a question for another day,” cut in Yan. Clement was thankful for her assistance in swaying the crew.

“Any further questions?” Clement stared down the crew, looking at each member, trying to detect dissent. He found none. “Then let’s get started.” He checked his watch again. “We now have twenty-five minutes. Form small groups, spread out and light fires, but be sure not to use anything that would give off an artificial heat signature. We want that drone to think of us just like the natives, not a sophisticated navy crew. Go!” he commanded, then raised his voice. “And be sure and take firearms, personal rations for three days, and any equipment that might come in handy in assessing the natives, as long as it carries a low energy signature.” he said. And with that they all scattered.

With seven minutes to go Nobli sealed up the Beauregard and then was off with his group. Clement, Yan, Pomeroy, and Telco made a foursome and started away from the ship on the near bank of the river. Telco had covered the pontoon boat under shrubs and grasses. Clement observed small fires burning bright against the dimming sky as one of the two inner planets of the Trinity system was partially obscuring the star, making for a brief twilight effect. He sat down around the campfire next to Yan.

Telco for his part was following Pomeroy around like a puppy dog, no doubt enamored by her after their brief solo affair at the pond. Pomeroy seemed indifferent to his presence as she was no doubt returning to her previous preferences for female companionship, now free of the aphrodisiac effects of the pond bioluminescence. But she kept the young ensign busy with small tasks like collecting wood for the fire while she set up some of her biological-testing equipment.

Yan sat silently next to Clement as he tried to track the Earth Ark drone with conventional field glasses. He had a pair with him that had been a memento of his father’s time in the 5 Suns Alliance service and he’d grabbed them on his way out of the ship. Any powered glasses could have no doubt been detected by the passing drone.

“She should have passed over by now,” he said, “but I didn’t see her.”

“Perhaps you’re not as good with those as you thought,” Yan said.

Clement dropped the glasses and looked at her. “I used to track communications satellites with these, home back on Ceta, when I was a kid. They’re good enough. And any drone moving on a straight-line course should be detectable with the naked eye, let alone an assisted one,” he said, then returned to his tracking. The “night” sky of Bellus was clear enough and dark enough that detection should have been possible, unless the drone was specifically designed for stealth, which a military one might be.

“There she is!” said Clement, pointing at the sky, picking up the drone and tracking her across the starfield. “She’s moving fast and she’s low, maybe fifteen hundred meters or less. She may not detect us at all,” he said. Presently he handed Yan the glasses and directed her where to look.

“I see her,” said Yan. “Can she even detect us at that speed?”

“She can probably detect the fires, but I doubt she’d be able to take a count of our personnel. We’ll probably just show up as a series of heat-signature blobs unless they really enhance the images. That could take hours of work, assuming they have similar technology to ours, and I doubt they’d bother if there’s nothing anomalous on the scans. Her vector should take her well north of us on the next pass. We should be safe, for now.”

Yan handed him back the glasses as he tracked the drone until she disappeared over the horizon. Clement got on the com system and declared the all-clear and for his team of twenty-two souls to re-form.

“Telco, Pomeroy, Yan and I will head up the river to the settlement in the pontoon boat and make first contact with the natives. Ivan and Mika can direct the rest of you to the camp. That will give us about five hours to smooth things over with the natives before you arrive. Be aware of your surroundings at all times and don’t take any chances. This planet seems like a paradise, with no large predators of any kind, but be on alert. Again, small groups would be best; spread out and then gather at the observation point above the settlement and wait for instructions from one of us. Good luck, and we’ll see you at the camp,” he said.

With that the four of them loaded the pontoon boat with the equipment Pomeroy had brought from the ship, started the motor and shoved off for the settlement. A few minutes in and the twilight sky was glowing amber.

“This is almost romantic,” Yan said, leaning into him with her body. Clement nodded, but he didn’t encourage her to come closer.

“Almost,” he said, looking to the sky.

“Almost.”


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