Kate dialed up the radio-telescope transmitter, making sure the dish was pointed precisely at Earth. One tenth of a degree of error and the message could miss the planet entirely. She swung the overhead camera until it could see the viewport over her shoulder and took a deep breath.
“Letanya calling Houston, Letanya calling Houston,” she began. The intro was a mere formality—a holdover from the days when you could expect immediate response. “This is Captain Kathryn Dyson of the Starship Letanya. We have dropped out of warp, on time and on location in the Denoba system. All boards are green. I repeat, all boards are green. You should be receiving our initial telemetry …now.” She pressed a few buttons on her console. Position, ship status and other key data are routinely sent on a sub-carrier wave along with the audio/video.
“In a few minutes, we will begin our explorations. Right now, we are looking at the two outermost planets, Altair and Baran, of the seven-planet solar system. We will be sending you data as we go, of course. We expect to explore this system and two more, as planned.
“On a personal note, I’d like to tell my family that I’m doing fine after our long sleep and miss them a great deal. Brian and Donnie, I know you’ve been waiting a long time to hear from me,” she glanced at the chronometers along the top of the panel, “approximately one year and two months. To us, of course, it’s been seven months, although it feels like merely a long winter’s nap.” The crew laughed nervously behind around her. It was strange, realizing that everyone on Earth was aging so rapidly compared to them. “I can’t wait to hear from you and I look forward to coming home safely to you in about a year or so.
“Now, I’d like to turn the camera on Commander Allyson Egerton, so she may say a few words to her family.” Kate switched the camera to the one over Ally’s chair. Her No. 1 began talking to her family. She listened, quietly as each of her crew in turn told their loved ones how much they missed them.
It was such a tremendous sacrifice to come out here as explorers. Until warp speed could be increased dramatically, these long trips were an unfortunate necessity. Kate imagined it was probably the same for explorers of the New World in the 1700s, sailing off into the vast ocean in search of riches, not to return for years.
By the time the crew each had a chance before the camera, more than thirty minutes had passed. Kate told NASA they would be looking forward to hearing from them in another two hours or so and signed off.
“OK, ladies. Let’s pull up our panty hose and get to work.”
The Letanya moved past Altair at a safe distance, to make sure the heavy gravitational field didn’t grab the small scout ship. The ship would be doing simple “fly-bys” of these first two planets, letting the probes do the work. Firing two probes, they recorded temperature readings, gas emissions, gravity strength, mineral deposits and bacterial activity. The readings were saved for the next broadcast home.
Three hours later, another two probes were launched at the ringed planet. The rings, like those around Saturn, were made up of ice and dirt. Two probes, fired a few minutes apart, were used because the chance of failure was certain. It was just a question of when the atmosphere would crush them. With two probes, there was a good chance that some meaningful data would be recorded in the final few seconds of their short lives.
While both these first two planets were stunning and rich in new discoveries, the crew couldn’t help but let their minds wander ahead to the inner ring of planets. The Jackson Symthe Space Telescope, named after the inventor of the warp drive, had indicated that the third and fourth planets had potential to be Class M, meaning there might be a breathable atmosphere. Temperature and gravity were unknowns. Everyone was on edge, hoping they would be the first to discover a new civilization.
As they cleared the planet and headed toward Jenir, the fifth planet, the communications chime rang loudly in the cockpit. NASA was calling.
“Letanya, this is Houston. Letanya, this is Houston,” the message began. Everyone dropped what she was doing as Kate put the video on the main viewer. The worn face of James Hunter filled the screen. That the man himself would show up for their first broadcast showed the crew the weight NASA was putting on their mission.
“Good day, captain and crew. We were very happy to hear the ship performed as designed and that you are safely in the Denoba system. Your initial readings are amazing even the most jaded scientists here. We can’t express how proud we are of your accomplishments to date.
“I realize you have a lot of work to do, so I won’t hold you up. I want to turn you over to Mission Control Commander John Phillips to give you the latest news and mission parameters. After that, we have some personal messages for all of you,” Hunter said.
The crew was happy to hear they had gotten their families together so quickly. Kate knew NASA had collected videotaped greetings over the last few months in preparation of this day. There was nothing like a message from loved ones to boost morale.
The round face of Phillips appeared. He was wearing the traditional vest of the mission commander, emblazoned with their logo. The women could still see where they had each signed it so many months ago, just before they were buttoned up for the long ride.
“Hello, ladies!” His voice cheered them immediately. Phillips was the perfect choice for this mission—brilliant, funny, and inventive. If anything went wrong, they all believed Phillips would be able to get them back home—and make them laugh about it along the way. Phillips held up a piece of paper. “Now, boomers, before we get started, it appears none of you filed your income tax returns this past April. The IRS has informed me that, upon return, you collectively owe,” he pretended to read from the sheet, “two hundred fifty-seven thousand, four hundred twenty-nine dollars and 89 cents. Unless you can pay upon landing, your ship will be confiscated for back taxes.”
Kate and the others laughed at the lame joke. It was typical of Phillips to try to relax the tension. “OK,” he tossed the paper over his shoulder. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?” He went on with the changes in the mission, none major, and updated the crew on some world events.
Finally, he got to the part the crew was waiting for. Kate switched the sound off for a moment. “Would anyone like to hear their message privately? The crew women looked around. By now, there were no secrets between them. Heads shook all around. “OK,” she switched the sound on.
Kate’s family was first. Her husband, Brian and son Donnie looked just the same until Brian told her about Donnie’s 17th birthday party that was held just a month ago. When Kate had climbed into the ship, Donnie had not yet turned 16. Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized he would be 18 by the time she returned. She would never get those years back.
One by one, the crew heard from their loved ones. In minutes, there was the sound of snuffling and quiet sobbing as the women cried unabashedly over their long separations.
The cabin was quiet after the last transmission faded. Kate divided up the messages into individual segments and sent them to each crew woman’s mailbox so they could view them again later.
“OK, crew. Let’s get back to our posts, Jenir is next,” she said softly.
It took a fourteen hours at impulse speed to reach Jenir, which had a very thin atmosphere. It was essentially a hunk of rock hurling through space.
“Looks a little like Mars,” Greta said.
“Yeah, it does,” agreed Kate. “Ready the probes. Maybe there will be some interesting minerals that NASA will find useful.”
“Yeah, maybe it’s made of gold,” Beth smiled. “We could start a new gold rush out here.”
Ally launched the probe and within a half-hour, the telemetry started flowing into the Letanya’s databanks. The rock was composed mostly of iron ore, quartz and nickel.