Impact Page 2

  After a further review of known possibilities, he turned to Nortok and gave him a quick and fairly light slap across the head.

  The Pilot jumped guiltily, expecting to have been caught napping by his Commander, and relaxed as soon as he realised it was only his colleague.

  “Is he coming?”

  “Probably. It’s been half a yata or so.” This was an exaggeration, but one calculated to hasten the transition of the Pilot from sleep to a state of full alertness. It seemed to work very well. “Are you still on course?”

  Nortok looked at his displays intently. The forward view was filled with stars. He checked his trajectory against the planned route. “Indeed. This view is not of the planet,” he added hastily and perhaps a little patronisingly. “Because it is not a stationary object. It will start showing on the screen as we get closer, and it slides into place.”

  “I realise that.” Fludrad responded impatiently. “It’s just that the scanners are starting to worry me.”

  Nortok refocused his display and nudged the ship slightly sideways, crabwise, so as to align it with the current position of their destination. A long, deep groan issued forth from the Warrnam’s framework as the change in momentum of their flight was absorbed and the structure settled into place again.

  Fludrad suppressed a shudder as he realised how ‘unsound’ these audible signals indicated the old ship had become. “I don’t see anything,” he stated in his best, irritable voice, so as to keep the Pilot unaware of his unusually deep understanding of the operation of the behemoth.

  “Ah! Give me a moment more!” Nortok chuckled, totally taken in by this ploy. “This ship doesn’t move that fast. We’ll be in line in a moment, and I will have to counter the rotation so we stay pointed at the planet, or our viewpoint here will drift right past it.”

  Sure enough, the target slipped gradually into view, and Nortok prepared to reverse his adjustments. He had to be reminded by the Navigator, though, to do what he had routinely intended, as the silhouette displayed was not the archetypal spherical shape he had expected, but a darkened patch shaped like the number ‘eight’!

  “Hold it right there.” Fludrad urged, and the Pilot made the course correction at last, accompanied, once more, by strenuous audible objections from the weary vessel.

  Nortok checked the temperature, and found conflicting readings across the strange shaped world, varying from mild, almost cold areas, to super-heated patches where no Narlav-like life could possibly survive. He checked the Warrnam’s velocity relative to the planet, noting that his intention would be to orbit the world initially, but found two conflicting velocities, as well, as if the world were breaking up as they drew near.

  Fludrad worked his controls, initially (and surreptitiously) checking that the automated deceleration the Pilot had programmed was appropriate – that he had made no errors in the ‘rush’ across the star system – then blocking out the overwhelming radiations of the system star (almost exactly behind the area of interest). Finally, he adjusted the light amplification to compensate for the deep shadows inevitably present on an approach from the edges of a planetary system, and the truth was revealed at last.

  “A binary planet combination!” He exclaimed as the image resolved into a dark disk nearest to them, with a significantly lighter disc partially hidden behind it. The further disk was lighter because it was illuminated by the planet-shine from its pair. “Two planets… not one! The second one must have been hidden behind the first when we dropped into the system.”

  “We’ve never come across anything like this in our search!” Nortok sounded worried. “Will it be any use?”

  “I’m checking that.” This was said quite absentmindedly, as the Navigator wanted to find the answer to this and a host of more specific questions before their Prime Leader returned.

  As the relative distance decreased, Fludrad was able to determine that the two planets were essentially twins, almost equal in size and mass, and that the rotation of the two was not in the plane of the planets, but perpendicular to it. In addition, each planet kept the same face towards the other planet at all times, much as the Earth’s Moon keeps the same face towards our home world. He quickly realised that this explained the unusual temperature variations, and meant that the only portion of each planet that was habitable was the part that faced its twin. He had theorised two, interrelated reasons for this: These hemispheres were shaded by heavy cloud cover throughout the daylight hours, and during the otherwise hottest period around noon, for ra gach yotato (almost an hour), were darkened by the daily eclipse by the other planet. The rest of the two worlds’ surfaces were exposed to the light of their sun, or star, for fully half of each rotation, as there seemed to be little or no cloud cover on these areas, and the temperatures in these hemispheres were metaphorically, hellish.

  Fortunately, Daklan did not come back into the Control Room until just after these facts had been ascertained, and on his return he was hastily assured that, although each world was only habitable over a little more than a third of its surface area, there were two worlds, not one, and the amount of land available would be more than enough, as the oceans – fairly small bodies, which appeared to be more like large lakes, or, more accurately, natural caldrons – were entirely on the outward hemispheres. He was very satisfied by this executive summary, as, being the Prime Leader of Rhaal, his Warrnam, unlike the others out on ‘search’, was fully crewed. This was because he alone was authorised to capture a suitable planet, using just his own ship, if, in his judgement, such an impressive act could be accomplished. The dream of such an accomplishment had always been just that, a dream – even finding a half-habitable world was considered a challenge – but now he could see the ultimate achievement becoming a reality, and he knew his name would be revered eternally for such a triumph.

  ***

  The search had been long and monotonous, and the crew and troops had been bored, frustrated, and at times fights had broken out amongst these waiting warriors. Daklan had lost four fighters in these unscheduled battles, so he intended to keep the initial evaluation of these worlds as simple and as short as possible. He directed Nortok to orbit each world once, performing a figure eight flight-path in unconscious homage to the confusing second impression that these twin worlds had made on his command crew, and thus allowing the cartographers to document the salient features. During this brief period, the observers were able to determine, using radar imaging, that the cloud-shaded portions of the planets were endowed with a radiating river system that began in mountainous regions directly opposite to each world, and flowed outwards towards the outer hemispheres. Looking even closer, they found the inner hemispheres to also be well-endowed with vegetation, and that much of this vegetation was laid out in orderly patches and patterns, indicating that it had been cultivated. Mirrored sunlight, reflected in from the borders of the habitable portion of one world, was providing power to some indeterminate equipment glimpsed briefly in a gap in the cloud cover. It could be seen that the creatures who had performed the cultivation had a comparatively primitive solar powered civilization and had also developed limited space travel capability – just sufficient to bridge the small distance between the two worlds, as a few very small craft could be seen, just briefly at the beginning of their orbital reconnoitring, flying in beams of sunlight focused by other mirrored structures at the edge of the inner hemispheres of each world, and landing at points far-distant from the massive Warrnam’s flight path. Further vessels, similarly small, were scattered around the perimeter of the habitable areas, gleaming in the diffused sunlight where the cloud cover was intermittent, but not a single one of the inhabitants surmised had yet been pinpointed with the radar, though the spiralling orbit meant that the scanner was now detecting features as small as half a metre across.

  Daklan had his pilot take them down into the heavily cloud-covered hemisphere of one of the worlds, choosing the one that was currently enjoying daylight and selecting a location where the sun had fa
irly recently risen. Here he planned that they would set up an advance base and subdue the population, before returning to Rhaal and bringing back his fleet and all his people. This will ensure that my name will be remembered by all the Rhaal Narlavs, for rata gachta ya[5] to come, as the one who has saved them from oblivion.

  Thick clouds obscured all views, and the massive Space Hammer slowed in its descent, using radar imaging to navigate, until a break in the cloud cover at last revealed a vision of a small portion of the planet’s surface.

  “Where exactly shall we land, Commander?” Nortok continued to skim across the landscape at a very low altitude, staying below the cloud cover where possible, studying the neat fields of vegetation that seemed everywhere present, and not detecting any higher concentrations of lifeforms, which would be indicative of cities, though the thick clouds hampered any comprehensive vision.

  “It’s hard to select a good spot with all these clouds.”

  “I’m sorry sir. A clear view of the land is difficult to obtain, as there is an almost hundred percent cloud cover during the day, and the lowest of these low clouds often hide the scenery entirely, as they fill the atmosphere from ground level upwards for several rasenvarl[6].”

  Fludrad spotted an empty field, or clearing, large enough to rest the Warrnam inside, and Daklan directed Nortok to occupy the spot.

  The huge, black Warrnam dropped onto the large surface and sank several feet into the soggy ground. Multiple hatches sprang open on each side of the ship, and swarms of Narlavs marched forth, each one grasping a long black form, holding the hand-grip close in front of their face (left handed), with the body and barrel lying along the lower arm and resting in the ‘vee’ of the lower elbow, the upper elbow on the same level and to the left, forming a parallelogram. The troops spread out rapidly, securing a large area around the craft, ready to engage any ‘locals’ foolish enough to oppose their landing.

  Daklan stepped out once the area was secured and surveyed his new domain. The break in the clouds had disappeared, and warm rain was falling in sheets, squalling across the field. The air was chilly – for a Narlav – and filled with the smell of wet soil. He looked up, determining that the sky was now totally obscured again, and a dismal, deep grey. Not even one of the local ‘farmers’ had been brave enough to venture forth to greet them. The rich soil was almost entirely bare, though it clearly had been tilled somehow, and the only relief from the uniformity was provided by some shaggy vegetation that seemed to grow in clumps around the edge of the cultivated part into which the ship had settled.

  After his troops had spread further out and set up on the surrounding hilltops, still looking for the natives, Trabennak, their Chief, reported back that the area appeared to be deserted. A number of burrows had been noted in the higher ground, where the clumps of shaggy plants were bigger, and these plants seemed to keep the soil beneath them almost dry. Trabennak thought that perhaps these holes were the homes of small mammals or reptiles – the native equivalent of the Earth rabbit, or some kind of lizard.

  Daklan looked down at the soggy surface, telling himself how good the ground felt beneath his feet, if a bit wet, and tried to grip the mud with his toes. His vestigial toes – on inside centre of each foot – were lost to view beneath the almost continuous coverage of surface water.

  This world will provide for us! He exalted, as he observed lime-green shoots sprouting forth, so speedily that the growth rate was visible, from the previously bare ground. He looked again: the soil was reddish brown under the first bushy plant he walked to, and this seemed strange, as the mud caked to his feet was apparently brown, without any hint of red. The wind blew the rain into his face, making him blink to clear his vision.

  I shall recommend basing ourselves on the perimeter of the habitable hemispheres, where the rainfall is probably less. The temperature there should be higher, too! With this comment, he recalled the troops and directed Nortok to take their ship up from the mud. As he stepped back into the Warrnam, he looked down at the soil caked onto his feet with a wry tolerance.

  ***

  Fludrad was reviewing the data on the star system, and especially the very interesting relationship between the twin planets. He found himself wondering what the Commander would name the two worlds – as it was his privilege to choose their designations. Knowing Daklan as he did, he anticipated that the most likely names would be Eflinak and Jarkader, the legendary warriors who had inspired the Narlav Blood Brother Ritual. Due to his duties, the Navigator had not been able to venture outside during the preliminary landing, and he was impatient to smell the air and find out for himself what kind of home these two worlds would be. His body moved from side to side and he had to suppress his deep, hacking laugh as he thought about his leader’s almost legendary pride and more pertinently, his impatience. I heard he got his feet wet and didn’t like it! Then he had the Warrnam moved closer to the perimeter of the habitable hemisphere after only a few yato[7]. I suppose he found the constant downpour intolerable to his ‘dry world’ sensibilities!

  The second landing site was up on a small hilltop much nearer to the edge of the habitable hemisphere, one with a young crop already well established, though this was less easy to determine in the ‘twilight’ there. Of course, once the Warrnam was down, this meant that a large section of new plant-life was squashed into vegetable juice. Fludrad approved of this location (though he had not been asked to provide an input), as he could imagine flooding was going to be a constant hazard on these watery worlds, and even though there was no precipitation in the eclipsing shadow of the other planet when they relocated there (meaning it was about midday at this location), he thought it had been a prudent decision to choose the higher ground, in case the rains extended to this portion at some later time. Down at the bottom of the hill, a large but fairly shallow river flowed rapidly past, and this provided a good challenge for the troops to ford.

  By the time the warriors had occupied the surrounding hills, the eclipse was over, and the warmth of the day, temporarily delayed by the shadow of the twin planet, was starting to build again. Some time passed, and Daklan was becoming increasingly irritated by the inability of his troops to locate the local inhabitants. They had found none in the cool, rain-soaked area of the first landing, and he had ordered the further deployment of the troops as before, in another attempt to locate the elusive members of this rather backwards civilization. Predictably, the rain started to fall again soon after he had toured the field and pulled out a few of the lime-green crops, and it became heavy quite rapidly, showing that his theory on finding a drier site for his operations was flawed.

  After a few hours, Trabennak returned, caked with mud, with a similar story of non-discovery. Again, none of the inhabitants had been found, though the perimeters of the hill and the others around it were peppered with small burrows, protected by the clumpy bushes, as previously found in the ‘wetter zone’. The location where earlier their radar had recorded one of the native spacecraft resting was now also deserted, strengthening the air of (very soggy, humid) mystery.

  “Suggest we dig up some of these local animals, Daklan,” Trabennak stood squarely in front of the Commander, right hand in front and left hand behind his bulky torso, as appropriate for a lesser officer reporting to his commander. “The natives seem to be a timid bunch, and have not obliged us by surrendering, or, even better, by attacking! The troops need some action to make up for this disappointment – perhaps the little beasts will provide some sport before they become the first meal we eat on this new world!”

  Daklan’s body moved from side to side, indicating his amusement at the idea. “You’d better kill gich gichrata[8] or more, or there’ll not be enough for all to have a taste! But have your warriors hold off on eating any of the creatures until we get the meat analysed – there might be some toxins that need neutralising – we don’t need a lot of stomach aches on the first night here!”

  “I’ll get my most frustrated warriors to work on the excavations
immediately!” The Chief’s mouth was even wider than usual, as he leaned back respectfully and then departed to organise the first exploratory dig.

  Daklan walked around his massive ship one more time, enjoying the heat – but not the rain – and noting that the crop was now almost knee-high. He then went inside, out of the precipitation.

  Nortok and Gradhan had been waiting until the area had been declared safe (Command crew were often required to remain within the ship during the preliminary landings on an enemy-controlled world, as their loss during an invasion would have serious repercussions on the continued battle-readiness of the Warrnam). So, once ‘the word’ was given that the natives were ‘a timid bunch’, they came out, in the last of the evening twilight. Gradhan brought the four humans of his Shaatak Drive team; he referred to them as Goph, Gach, Gich and Ra[9], partly because he found human names difficult to pronounce and remember, but mainly because he had no interest in their existence other than getting them to serve the ship.

  He set out to start checking the Drive spheres, or as many of them as his team could get to before the night fell. The pitiful humans limped out into the contrastingly non-sterile environment, barely noticing the vegetation all around, but getting rapidly soaked by the incessant rain. They were led by the nominal chief technician, Goph, an ancient-looking pile of bones, barely five foot four inches tall, completely bald, stooping and covered in scars. He directed his team to check the various component parts of the closest Drive, and saved for himself the task of confirming the efficiency rating of the elimination process, and the gravity field generation response.

  His ‘second’, obligingly but dehumanisingly called just that, was both taller and younger, and still had a fair amount of blond hair, raggedly parted from his gaunt face. The other two were respectively a tiny human of only four and two thirds feet, equipped with longish and ragged brown hair and a distinct air of sickness and failing strength, and another, grey-haired survivor almost as old as the leader, and not much over five foot in height. Once the humans had entered the Drive sphere nearest to their exit point from the ship, Gradhan spent only a moment overseeing them before he stepped back out to explore the new planet, savouring the wind and the rain almost literally washing over him.