ESRS Carl Sagan
Edge of the Sirius system
May 18, 2050, 13:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)
EVE was programmed to awaken the crew of the Carl Sagan once they neared the Sirius system. Bright blue-white light from the pair of stars reflected across the hull of the sleeping Earth ship while the ceiling lights inside slowly began to activate, section by section, starting with the cryo chambers, where most of the crew had slept for the past seventeen years. The automatic revival process triggered for Foster’s pod as it pumped her body with the chemicals needed to wake her, while the lid slowly swung up.
Her eyes opened though her vision was slightly blurry. She was only able to make out blotches of light and slight movement floating away from the walls, most likely the rest of the crew that awoke alongside her. The blurry visuals gradually transformed into familiar sights; the cryo chamber, and dazed, uniformed IESA and UNE navy personnel pushing away from their pods and into the weightless chamber.
Out from the embraces of Foster’s arms was a hidden guest that was in stasis with her, her cat Starlet. Being the captain had its privileges. The tabby cat flailed its legs about as it struggled to understand the disappearance of gravity and the disorientating feeling of being locked away in cryo for nearly two decades. Her hands wrapped tightly around her feline companion, kicked off the walls, soared across the chamber to its exit, and made the lengthy slog onto the habitat ring.
Foster went into her quarters and released her pet as its panic subsided when it felt the force of gravity once again. Foster was pleased to see that her quarters was still in decent condition, despite it being untouched for so long. As tempting as it was to finish unpacking and get set up, she had a job to do on the bridge, and a page in human history to start writing. She pulled out a can of cat food she had slipped into her pocket prior to entering cryo and popped it open.
Starlet leaped off the bed and ran toward her while she slapped some of it into its feeding bowl.
Leave it to a cat to want to be fed the moment you wake up, even if it was a multiyear sleep, she thought.
After a quick shower, Foster headed to the bridge not in full uniform. She wore a white shirt with a black vest over top of it along with black cargo pants. They were far from Earth, the UNE, and IESA and she was the captain of the damn ship. She was still a millennial at heart and wasn’t going to let something like being in full uniform all the time bog her down. Besides most of the crew was still in the process of getting back together. It was like a Saturday morning as far as she was concerned, nobody dressed formally on days like that.
She stopped to admire the bright blue-white glow of light in front of them. The twin stars of Sirius were the dominant figures on the bridge’s forward windshield, the material within the windshield dimmed to allow safe viewing.
“Stunning, absolutely stunning,” Williams said.
Foster sat down on her captain’s chair and paid no mind to everyone as they noticed she wasn’t in uniform. “Ladies and gents,” she said looking at the pair of stars. “Like it or not this is our new home.”
EVE’s hologram appeared and gave Foster an update, the Carl Sagan was still en route to the system at sub light speed while essential crew was still being revived section by section, while the colonists stayed in stasis until the order was given to release them.
“Mister Tolukei,” Foster called out to him. “Have you contacted a psionic back at Earth yet?”
“Mister? I do not have a surname,” Tolukei said.
“Remember when I said its human navy tradition and all?”
“I am not human,” Tolukei said with a shrug. “Nor am I a member of the UNE navy, and neither are you.”
“Oh, for god’s sakes . . . I know just—never mind, did you reach anyone at Earth yet?”
“I have not, but will continue to try.”
Foster spun her chair around to face him with concern in her eyes and a troubling wince on her face. “What’s wrong?”
Tolukei faced her as the darkness from his hood enveloped his face. “I cannot reach anyone’s mind, it is possible that the staff were switched during our journey. Even then, I should be able to find a psionic mind that I can connect with.”
“And you can’t?”
“There is nothing.”
“How about folks in Radiance?”
Tolukei folded his hands together, his head tilted upward as he entered his trance. Foster figured he was trying to establish a telepathic communication with someone from the Radiance Union. “Nothing, it is as if all psionics have ceased to exist.”
Foster and Williams exchanged worried glances as did the rest of the bridge crew. “Well, that’s not good,” she said.
“Is it possible the cryo trip weakened your mind?” Williams asked Tolukei.
Tolukei shook his head. “No, as I can sense what lies before us with my ESP.”
Foster shifted her chair back toward the front as she said, “Well let’s send a message to Earth regardless, informing them that we’ve arrived safely.”
“That will take eight or nine years to get there,” Williams said.
“I know . . .” Foster sighed.
“Here’s hoping a psionic back at Earth will reach out to us. They should know that we’d be coming out of cryo right about now anyway. In the meantime, let’s see what’s out there.”
“Right this way, Captain,” Pierce said from a station at the aft end of the bridge.
Foster and Williams walked over to the newly added section of the bridge where Pierce stood. It had massive 3D holograms that depicted the layout of the Sirius system and all its planets and moons, collected and cataloged by EVE and the Carl Sagan’s long-range scans during their trip.
“Well this is neat,” Foster said.
“Rivera’s team got it up and running during the first year of our journey,” Pierce said. “We can view a layout of the system here and plan where to go.”
Foster reached out and tapped the hologram which interacted with her touch and zoomed in or out depending on her hand movements. Labels appeared over planets that listed their size, orbital period, gravity, average surface temperatures, and atmospheric composition amongst other interesting facts.
“I see we already got a lay of the land,” Foster said.
“We’ve been scanning constantly as we slept and built this map,” Pierce said. “And now that we’re closer we can update it with new information from ship scans and probes, as well as anything Tolukei discovers with his ESP.”
The three began to examine the data closely as it progressively updated with new information as they approached the system. A lot of the data cataloged was heavily focused on the planets as Sirius itself, while interesting, they knew about from telescopes looking at it over the years. Sirius A was a massive white main-sequence star nearly double the size of the star Earth orbited, and produced light that could easily render someone blind in a matter of seconds as it was nearly 25 times brighter. Lucky for the crew all windows automatically dimmed to control the amount of light that came through.
Sirius A had a companion dubbed Sirius B a smaller white dwarf that orbited with Sirius and therefore was cooler compared to Sirius A. And upon closer inspection the trio discovered what appeared to be a third companion, one that wasn’t supposed to be there based on past knowledge of the system. After double-checking the data with the sensor logs along with EVE’s analysis and Tolukei’s ESP, they confirmed that it wasn’t a system glitch.
“A brown dwarf star,” Pierce said with interest. Foster made the projection zoom in toward the third star. “It has a planetary system.”
Foster smiled and said to Pierce. “Holy shit, you know what this means, right? Sirius C is real.”