I own a syndicate. I am Italian.
Chapter 3
Neyora is the second planet in the Lalande 21185 star system, which is approximately 8.5 light years from Earth, and at times, about the same distance from Alpha Centauri as the Sun. Few planets in the galaxy share more characteristics with Earth than Neyora – a fact well known to the Neyorans, but entirely outside the knowledge of those on Earth, who are only vaguely aware of the possibility that planets even exist in the Lalande 21185 system.
Neyora, at 32,000 miles in diameter, is home to 13 billion human-type life forms, although the Neyorans are different from Earthlings in crucial ways.
An interminably humid atmosphere on Neyora requires a combination of human-style lungs and gill-like organs – located on either side of a Neyoran's neck – in order to accommodate breathing. Neyorans have discovered they can breathe in a less humid atmosphere, but require constant hydration to compensate if they find themselves in an atmosphere with humidity like that which would be typical on Earth.
Neyoran metabolism is also quite different – much faster than on Earth – and Neyorans need to consume the equivalent of 10,000 calories per day in order to maintain even minimal weight. The need for so much food consumption, combined with the planet's exploding population, had created social and political upheaval on Neyora.
Global and regional governmental authorities tried to combat the problem by funding the development of a pellet-like dietary substance that would provide Neyorans with the subsistence they needed, but social unrest resulted because wealthier Neyorans could afford more appealing dietary supplements, leaving the less well-off to grumble as they settled for the unappetizing pellets.
Political upheaval had reached a crescendo in recent years as a separatist group rose up, convinced that Neyora was quickly reaching its capacity to support life. The group also launched fevered criticisms of Neyoran government officials at all levels, accusing them of subsidizing heavy, polluting industries that put added strain on planetary life forms while adding to the economic disparities that they believed had led to so much social instability.
Supported and bankrolled by a wealthy industrialist who developed a fleet of his own private spacecraft, this group – enjoying the support of about 20 percent of the planet's population – was determined to find a new planet to colonize. On such a planet, they would seek to engage in the sort of agrarian lifestyle and economy they so stridently advocated for Neyora – but without success.
Their target for colonization? Alpha Prime, the first planet of the Alpha Centauri star system. While they knew Alpha Prime's atmosphere to be far less humid than that on Neyora – much like the distant planet known as Earth in the Sun solar system – its temperature and water supply were believed to be favorable enough that Neyorans would be able to adapt to life there with little problem.
But the colonization movement was strictly a private undertaking. No governmental entity officially backed it or funded it, which meant the hopes of would-be colonizers depended entirely on the good graces and resources of a man known as Brile.
Brile was one of Neyora's wealthiest citizens, and his wealth was exceeded only by his flamboyance. His investments in everything from technology to entertainment to space travel invariably rankled authorities. But he wasn't breaking any laws. He was just making a spectacle of himself, and he had the means to bankroll his own narcissism. Like Earth, Neyora had no law against that.
Within the ranks of Brile's sycophants, however, there arose two distinct camps of prospective colonizers. While neither could exactly be described as moderate, one was motivated primarily by its fear-driven conviction that Neyora offered them no future. This group, whose most influential figure was a man named Irmaslin, diligently organized people who wanted to leave the planet and tried to work with Brile to determine who would get to go, and in what phase.
Brile had developed 250 operational spacecrafts that could each carry about 100 Neyorans. Given enough pilots, it was therefore possible for 25,000 Neyorans to leave for Alpha Prime every three or four months, so those in Irmaslin's group were focused on positioning themselves for a slot and hoping their time would come soon.
A second group, however, was far more radical. Their leader was named Nickas, and they not only wanted to leave Neyora, they also wanted to inflict punishment on the planet's global and regional governments – violent if necessary – because of what they considered the unsustainable ecological policies that had brought Neyora to the brink of global overcapacity.
Brile was not particularly sympathetic with Nickas's agenda, but the group had developed important navigation technology, known as TrydLix, without which the trips to Alpha Prime would not be feasible. Brile had little choice but to tolerate Nickas and his supporters within the larger group of colonizers, and didn't object so long as they didn't jeopardize the larger effort.
More than 400 pilot trainees were in various stages of training for the Alpha Prime missions, with about 15 of them being very close to Nickas personally and philosophically. One of these, Lugrias, was also very familiar with TrydLix, the navigation technology that would help ensure safe passage of each group of colonizers.
Lugrias had argued to Brile that at least one spacecraft should make the journey as soon as possible – loaded with supporters of Nickas, of course – to scope out the planet. Brile resisted, insisting that the mission should proceed deliberately and that nothing was to be gained by sending any party ahead before the entire fleet was ready to go.
This frustrated Nickas, Lugrias and others in their circle to no end. If Alpha Prime was as hospitable as reports had indicated, they feared that colonizers from another world may have their sights on it as well. TrydLix not only created navigation models, but was also able to detect present or approaching signs of life – as well as any radio waves or other communication signals that might indicate another life form was investigating travel to Alpha Prime.
And that was the function that prompted Lugrias to request an urgent audience with Nickas.
(Note: Neyora has its own language, which is nothing like English or any other Earth language, but for the purposes of this story the Neyorans' conversations with each other will be translated into English.)
"Nickas," Lugrias said, "the TrydLix readings indicate something troubling."
Lugrias put the reading on his display.
"It's a navigation signal from Ferhinth to the Alpha Centauri system," Nickas said, basically affirming that he understood what Lugrias already knew. "Ferhinth? Since when are there life forms on Ferhinth capable of emitting such signals?"
"We doubt there are any such native life forms," Lugrias said. "But we sent a Tryd signal to do an assessment of the planet, and look at this."
He brought up a second image on the display. A blue area on the globe displayed the presence of advanced life forms. Lugrias then closed in for a more detailed view of the objects on the ground.
Nickas was stunned.
"What is that?" he said, staring at the large, disc-shaped object with an open hatch and windows.
"It's a spacecraft," Lugrias said. "And look at these."
He brought up a series of photos showing life forms milling about outside the spacecraft.
"They're not from Ferhinth," Nickas hypothesized.
"No, they're not," Lugrias agreed. "They appear to be from Earth."
"Earth?" Nickas repeated incredulously. "How could they have gotten all the way to Ferhinth?"
Lugrias raised his left elbow, the Neyoran equivalent of shaking your head.
"We don't know," he said. "They could be lost. They could be refugees. They could be in exile. All we know is that we've detected five of them, three male and two female, along with what appears to be a functional mechanical entity of some sort. And they're sending navigation signals back and forth between their location and the Alpha Centauri system. Frequent signals. They're getting more frequent by the day. And the activity depicted in the photos suggests they're preparing for takeoff."
Nickas studied the photos.
"This represents a serious threat," he said. "If the Earth people reach Alpha Prime before we do, there is no telling how they will impact the planet's environment. Earth is hyper-industrialized. It's far worse than Neyora. Our dream of an ecologically sustainable climate and lifestyle on Alpha Prime can't possibly square with the presence of Earth people."
Lugrias thought for a second. He decided to play devil's advocate.
"We don't actually know they're headed for Alpha Prime," he said. "Their navigation signals only go to the Alpha Centauri star itself. It's a leap of logic to assume Alpha Prime would be their destination."
"It's a reasonable one," Nickas interjected. "Alpha Prime is the only planet in that system that could support Earth life. There is no other place in the Centauri system that would serve as a desirable destination for them. They have to be going to Alpha Prime. And we have to stop them."
Lugrias looked stoic.
"How?" he asked, knowing he was about to get an order.
"Destroy them all," Nickas demanded. "Before they have a chance to leave Ferhinth."
Lugrias affirmed his orders.
"It will be done," he said, and left the room.
Penny Robinson went through one of her final checks of the Jupiter 2's in-flight electrical system. During their three-year voyage, it had sustained a fair amount of damage as a sequence of incidents had left their mark on the ship.
Just a young adolescent when the Jupiter 2 left Earth, and even now only 16, Penny had trained herself to understand the ship's technical workings and to be able to perform crude repairs where necessary. Alpha Control had certainly not anticipated the detours the group would face, but it had followed procedure by equipping the ship for worst-case scenarios – so when Penny found a system in need of repair, she could find the spare parts she needed in the cargo hold below the lower living quarters.
While Penny worked the electrical panel, Maureen was getting the lower cabins ready for what could be a long period of seclusion inside the ship. No one was sure that they would find a planet in the Alpha Centauri system that could sustain human life. That had been the supposition of Alpha Control in commissioning the Jupiter 2 mission in the first place, but everyone always understood that it was a risk.
If the Robot left the ship to assess a planet's environment, and returned to report it was uninhabitable, the Jupiter crew would face a difficult decision. They would be safe inside the ship, but eventually they would have to take off and find another destination. The original journey had provided them with enough fuel cells to return to Earth in that event. But after everything that had happened, they considered themselves fortunate to have found enough fuel on their current planet to make the trip to Alpha Centauri. They wouldn't have nearly enough – if the planet they chose didn't suit their needs – to get back to Earth. And finding more would be tough if they ended up on a planet where they couldn't even breathe the atmosphere.
The decision to shoot across the galaxy, flying in the face of all sorts of objects in space, was the biggest risk they had taken since the day they left Earth, October 16, 1997. But having taken that first risk, and seeing a chance to finally reach their destination, every member of the party agreed – perhaps only grudgingly in the case of Dr. Smith – that this new risk to their own lives was worth it.
Maureen ascended to the upper level to check on her two youngest children. She marveled as Penny toiled away at the Jupiter 2's communication system, which would have to be restored to its original operational condition if the Robinsons hoped to contact Alpha Control upon their arrival to the Alpha Centauri system. She gazed at Will, who was fixated on his computer navigation models.
It was almost absurd to realize that how young they still were – Will 14, Penny 16 – and yet trusted with such important responsibilities. But to see the maturity of these two during this difficult three-year voyage was a joyful experience for which Maureen had no words. Taken away from their world and launched on a journey the likes of which no one could have predicted, both had risen to the occasion, grown up ahead of their time and become the kind of young people who would make any parent swell with pride.
Of course, they were still brother and sister.
"You gonna fix that radio so we can tune in a rap station, dork?" Will intoned.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Penny came right back. "I know you were hoping for some Michael Bolton or maybe a little Engelbert Humperdink. Sorry we don't play requests from the dweeb brigade."
"Dweeb would be a promotion for you."
"Geek."
"Spaz."
"Wank."
"Ahem!" Maureen interrupted.
"Hi Mom," Penny said with a sly smile in Will's direction.
"How goes the radio repair," Maureen asked.
"So far so good, as far as I can tell," Penny said. "Of course, it's hard to test it when we're not within range of any meaningful signals. I mean, I think it's working. But it's just like with the thrusters. We could get out in space and they could do nothing at all. When we get to Alpha Centauri, we could try to contact Earth and get nothing. I don't think that's what's going to happen, but until we're there and we try it, there are no guarantees."
"Well," Maureen replied philosophically, "I don't think any of us expect much in the way of guarantees – certainly not after everything we've already been through. We have to look at this as an opportunity, and do everything we can to give it a chance to success, without fixating on the chance that it might not."
"Mom," Will said in a considerably more reflexive tone, "I've been thinking about something, and I guess it's one of those things we couldn't do anything about even if we knew – but how can we be sure that Alpha Control is still on board with our mission?"
Penny looked at him, not sure what to say. Will continued.
"I mean, who knows what's happening on Earth?" he said. "They send us hurtling through the galaxy three years ago. Obviously they've noticed that they've lost contact with the Jupiter. I mean, they probably think we're all dead by now."
"Don't you think that if they hear from us, they'd make the mission a priority again, even if they have moved on to other things?" Penny asked.
"I don't know," Will said. "They were so convinced that humanity needed to find a new planet to colonize because of overpopulation, and they spent all this money on this mission. You know how politics works. If they've thought for the past three years that the mission failed, there would be all kinds of hell to pay. How do we even know Alpha Control still exists? How do we know they didn't take away its funding and dismantle the whole thing?"
Maureen just paused for a second. She'd had the same thoughts. In the back of her mind, she recalled that a presidential election in the United States was about a week away. It was quite possible that the failure of the Jupiter 2 mission – or so they would think back on Earth – could be one of the leading issues. Probably one side was denouncing it as a huge mistake and a waste of money, and it was equally possible that Will's scenario was correct. Maybe the whole thing had already been shut down. Maybe when they reached Alpha Centauri and got on the transmitter to contact Earth, there would be no one to receive the call.
"Will, Penny," Maureen said. "It's true, we've been away from Earth for a long time, and a lot can happen in three years. But I have to believe that if they hear from us, that, too, will change things, and as Penny says, it will become a priority to make the most of what we've accomplished. We just have to believe that."
Will nodded. Penny went back to tinkering with the radio. Liftoff was a day away.
