Petroleum Effect
Chapter One - The Rainbow World
The Rainbow System, Local cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 1
In empty space in a distant solar system, a distortion formed. For a few moments, the starfield in the centre of the lensing effect bulged and was replaced with an alien sky, just long enough for a black ship to slip quietly through.
On the bridge of the Terran Dominion Starship Righteous Enterprise, the small crew looked on with satisfaction as their vessel passed through the portal. The TDS Righteous Enterprise was a highly experimental craft, combining a number of disparate concepts for different functions, all of which would be tested on their mission to survey and explore the newly discovered, as yet unnamed, world that was their destination.
The Righteous Enterprise was a 150-metre long, roughly cylindrical vessel, 75 meters wide and tall, with a black, robust, composite hull. The front was mostly composed of a jawed opening backed by composite grinders and a nanobot filter which could be used to harvest, sort and purify resources. The lower half of the remaining hull was mostly empty storage space, with the upper half given to the bridge, crew quarters, survey equipment and other facilities. Retractable caterpillar tracks were built into the bottom of the vessel, and the entire hull was covered with experimental weapons and sensors. At the rear of the vessel was a powerful element zero core, with the main thrusters at the rear and powerful maneuvring thrusters spaced along the rest of the exterior. Larger and faster than earlier generations of ships, the Enterprise was an awkward hybrid of technologies. It was not so much a prototype as much as a grab-bag of technologies which could be used on future, more specialised, ship designs.
The star system the Enterprise had arrived in was once designated as HD 207129, a G2V type star, approximately 51 light-years from Sol. The system had been renamed as the Rainbow system after it was probed earlier in the year, as a result of the detection of multiple colourful planets. The destination of the Enterprise was the second planet in the inner system, Rainbow-2. Earlier in 2131, an automated interstellar probe hurled into the system had detected an Earth-sized world which appeared to have a biosphere. This was the first contact with any form of alien life since the discovery of the alien ruins on Mars.
In comfortable chairs on the ship's bridge sat Captain Gerald Farmer, Professor Melissa Coldhardt and one of the two Flight Officers, Ford Reeves. Farmer opened the internal comm and began to check in with the other members of his ship's crew of 12.
"1st Flight Officer?"
Ford Reeves, a younger man with black hair, but otherwise physically similar to the Captain, nodded and responded, "Status green sir".
"Dominion Government Liaison?"
Coldhardt was a beautiful but severe blonde. Somewhere between 5'9" and 5'10", Coldhardt had short, platinum blonde hair, noticable curves and pale blue eyes. With the implants available at her level, her age was impossible to tell by appearance alone, but superficially she looked to be in her late twenties.
"Green, Captain Farmer", said Coldhardt, coldly.
The 2nd flight officer, medic, both ship's engineers, diplomat, xenobiologist, planetologist, and both combat specialists reported status green.
Gerald turned to look at the Professor. Farmer was a muscular, toned, 5'8" man in his forties with light brown, slightly greying hair and hazel eyes. Whilst he was the Captain of the ship, master under god as the ancient saying went, Coldhardt was the liaison to the Dominion government - a Director in the New Technologies division of the Office of the Archlord himself.
"Shall we proceed, Professor?"
"Begin the passive scan, Captain. Let's see if we are alone out here first. Proceed if clear."
The human vessel ran silently, not firing its engines, but listening for transmissions across the electromagnetic spectrum. After about a minute, the advanced sensor array and virtual intelligence had found no signs of technological transmission.
"Clear to proceed. Engaging short range active sensors, going to in-system FTL."
The Enterprise activate short range scanners and slowly accelerated to 5c as it approached the inner system. Nothing untoward appeared on the sensors. Projected flight-time in-system was about 90 minutes, during which the bridge crew did little chatting, instead taking in the view of the system on sensors. The Rainbow system had seven, as yet unnamed, planets, including four inner rocky planets and five gas giants as well as an asteroid field between the inner worlds and the gas giants.
At the half way point, the vessel began decelerating, and in a further 45 minutes it slipped neatly into orbit around Rainbow-2. Rainbow 2 was a roughly Earth-size planet, with about 95% of the mass. Thus far it had only been viewed remotely from the probe.
"Well, I'm not disappointed!" remarked the Professor.
The planet was beautiful. White, cotton candy clouds rolled around the sphere, large purplish oceans surrounded blue-green continents.
"Wow!" The ship's xenobiologist, Dr Julianne Stevens, spoke on the internal comm, "Initial observations consistent with life. A whole lot of life! Doing in-depth scan with orbital sensors and cameras now."
"Concur", echoed Dr Boris Jones, the taciturn planetologist.
"No technological emissions detected", added Reeves.
Captain Farmer relaxed, markedly, "Okay people, orbit achieved, sky is clear, sensors are clear. Disengaging drives. Looks like we have time for a brief celebration, so if you would all like to join me in the galley for champagne, I think we can spare a few minutes".
The celebration in the cramped galley-cum-dining room of the small ship had been brief and was followed by days of work (measured in Earth time) for the scientists and near idleness for everyone else. The captain and flight officers took shifts on the bridge whilst Stevens and Jones reviewed sensor arrays and satellite photographs.
After the first day, there was still no sign of intelligent life and the crew took the Enterprise into low orbit. The ship's cameras were far superior to 20th century spy satellites and provided high-resolution photographs and video of the surface, which were eagerly pored over by the two scientists. Aside from the one maneouvre the rest of the crew spent the time sleeping, running diagnostics, or recreation. The ship had a small gymnasium and extensive e-library of games, videos, music and books.
At the end of their second-day shift, the scientists launched an automated lander - a robust device smaller than a car, which gently dropped to the surface of one of the continents wrapped in a mass effect field. They spent the next day reviewing the sensor readings from the probe. They spent the fourth day remotely driving the small rover that had been included in the lander around the surface near the landing site.
On the morning of the fifth day, ship-time, most of the crew met in the galley, except for the second flight officer, Patrick Davies, who was on sleep shift. The scientists conducted a briefing, in front of the video screen which was currently showing slides of the planet.
"Okay," began Dr Jones, a short, overweight, white-haired man in his fifties with faded blue eyes, "we have an Earth-type planet, about 95% of 1G at the surface. Slightly greater oxygen content, otherwise Earth-like atmosphere. Orbital period is about 400 Earth days. Local day on Rainbow-2 is about 23 Earth hours. Extensive life and biosphere colouring the continents - source of purple colour in the oceans unknown - could be chemical, biological or both. The oceans are liquid water though."
Jones nodded at Dr Stevens, who continued, "Photographs and videos from orbit indicate plant analogues and animal analogues. Trees, bushes, flowers, shrubs, grass. Small and large animals, mostly herbivores. Insects. Sensors and spectral analysis indicate carbon based life. No obvious toxins from orbital sensors. No obvious toxins from samples taken by the lander. Presence of micro-organisms, cellular structure, cell analogues I might add - not necessarily the same as Earth cells. Plants have cellular structure. Biochemistry similar to Earth, organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and so forth."
Professor Coldhardt interrupted, "Just out of interest, Dr Stevens, can I ask, did you run the hydrocarbon reducer test?"
The two women were very different. Coldhardt was tall, beautiful, commanding. Dr Stevens was a dowdy, short, 5'6" brunette with brown eyes, a plain face and thick glasses, albeit designer ones.
Dr Stevens looked a bit discomfited, "Well yes. I am not sure why that device was in the lander, but we were able to grind up some of the plant-analogues and break it down into hydrocarbons. Why would you want to do that?"
Coldhardt completely ignored the question, simply responding, "Very good."
After an awkward pause, Dr Stevens continued, "So. We were going to recommend that we take more samples, send down the other lander getting some ocean samples and some from one of the other continents and the ice caps, then bring them back to the quarantine bay."
"But ..."
"We found an anomaly."
The slides on the screen showed orbital photographs. In a clearing were a number of rounded objects, greenish brown.
"From orbit," began Dr Jones, "we thought they were perhaps rocks, or lifeforms of some sort. They are not."
"At the end of shift yesterday, after taking various samples using the rover, we piloted it to near some of these objects. The pictures speak for themselves."
The pictures on the screen changed. They were taken from a distance, but what was shown was unmistakably a set of primitive hut-like structures, surrounded by forest. Around the structures were colourful shapes of ... animals? Colourful, bear-like creatures, the size of a human child.
"These creatures look like they have low technology, but they may be sapient."
The gathered crew were silent for a moment, then Melissa Coldhart spoke, quietly and glacially, "Do we have any other information about these creatures?"
Both the scientists shook their heads, "No - we only took these photographs at the end of yesterday. We were wanting to ask for guidance as to how to proceed."
"Very wise. I think what would be sensible is if you complete your planned sampling, avoiding these ... things ... for now, then bring the landers back to the ship. Once we have those samples onboard, we can seek further orders."
The Rainbow System, Local cluster, 2131
Righteous Enterprise, Mission Day 7
The Righteous Enterprise dropped smoothly through the skies of Rainbow-2, heading for its target landing site - a flat, grassy plain near the edge of a thick forest, not far from one of the settlements identified from orbit. As the vessel approached landing its mass dropped sharply as power flowed through the element zero core, thrusters fired and the Enterprise decelerated as caterpillar tracks descended from its underside. The ship touched down with a slight bump then settled as the element zero core dropped into standby mode and its weight returned.
The past two days had been busy for the scientists. The first lander had been filled with samples then recovered, then they had sent the second lander. The scientists now had samples from two continents and several beaches. There were few surprises although it turned out that, near the surface at least, the oceans were actually freshwater. The purplish colour was released from micro-organisms that filtered salts from the liquid and bound them into particles that sank to the bottom. The air was safe to breathe in itself but contained small amounts of micro-organisms, not unlike Earth - pollens, bacteria and the like. As the interactions of alien life with Earth biochemistry was untested, the scientists recommended suits outside and full decontamination procedures.
The mission had always had landing as an option, to enable testing of the biomass harvesting and processing equipment built into the ship. However, the crew now had new orders. They were to investigate the apparently intelligent inhabitants, determine technology and threat level, if appropriate to initiate first contact. If possible, samples were to be obtained.
The ship did not have facilities for captured alien lifeforms, so the ships engineers, Travis Barker and Harvey Porter, had been hard at work fabricating four child-sized freezer units to store alien corpses, if some samples could be acquired without arousing suspicion. To that end, the combat specialists Dominic Hurst and Robert Livingstone had been preparing the tools of their own trade.
The Righteous Enterprise was a small experimental vessel. It was not intended for serious combat but it had two combat specialists to act as advisors as well as support in case of some threat on a scale the crew could deal with. The soldiers were grim-faced men who identified themselves as special forces from Dominion Security and kept themselves apart from the rest of the crew. Earth had not seen major conflict for nearly a hundred years since the Cleansing in 2045. However, the solar system was a big place, occasional dissidents and criminals gave the military at least some exercise. Shortly after landing the Righteous Enterprise launched two reconaissance drones. After a day's observation, their simple plan was relayed to the crew by Melissa Coldhardt.
"There is a nearby settlement," confirmed the Professor, "huts look to be mostly wood and mud, with some stone. The creatures look like teddy bears - ursine - but subsist mostly by foraging from the nearby forest. No farming, no evidence of hunting. Possibly some fishing. The point is they go off in small groups or singly. So we will wait for a small group of five then take them out, or the same number from smaller groups if need be."
"Once we've got the samples, four can be frozen and one can be vivisected here. We can then decide if to initiate first contact, in which case we'll move to a settlement further away to avoid suspicion in the disappearances, or to leave and pass it to a better equipped team."
The crew did not demur. The creatures may look harmless, but the Greys had been only a little larger and their diminutive size brought the alien bears no sympathy in the eyes of humans scarred by the alien invasion and the Day of Blood.
"I'll be on standby in case something goes wrong," contributed the ship's doctor, Sarah Green. Green was a serious, brunette woman in her 40s with green eyes. Everyone knew she was referring to treatment for the crew - the alien corpses would not need medical attention and the prisoner would not be getting medical attention other than vivisection by Dr Stevens. If a sample was too damaged during collection, it would just be replaced.
"Sounds good to me," rumbled Gervais Taylor. The ship's diplomat was an afterthought - a grey-haired older man who, like Professor Coldhardt, came from the Office of the Archlord. However, Taylor's department was largely theoretical as humanity had no alien contacts to speak to. He spent most of his time in his cabin and his limited interactions with the crew mostly involved trying to suck up to the Professor, who was senior to him.
All were agreed, and the collection mission was scheduled to begin at midday Rainbow-2 time.
The collection mission had gone wrong. It was pretty obvious. The two soldiers had left the ship in their sealed, lightly armoured combat suits, supported by drones. Keeping in contact, the men had identified and approached a group of five of the diminutive ursinoids, watched remotely from the bridge by Captain Farmer, Professor Coldhardt and Flight Officer Davies.
"Coming up on targets - getting a clear shot ...", Dominic Hurst spoke quietly, his strong English accent carrying crystal clear through his suit comms, "... colourful little beggars aren't they?"
Hurst was carrying a high-energy laser sniper rifle, amongst other things, a weapon deadly at distances of up to two kilometres. Of course, in the thick forests he had to be much closer but his prey had little chance. Except ... suddenly they were off camera. The bears had marched along, skipping and gamboling, but then they had walked behind a cluster of bushes and had not come out.
A motion at the edge of the view - a tuft of reddish hair quickly slipping behind a tree.
"We've been made?", a question and an exclamation from Robert Livingstone.
"Fuck me! They're scattering!" from Hurst.
The camera panned and then caught something strange, a scattering of lights. For a moment, all the cameras cut out. Then, one cleared only to show what looked like a blue and green bear firing sparkling lights from their tummies, before returning to static.
"Hurst?! Livingstone?!" called the Professor, urgently but there was no reply.
"Engineering, we've lost drone feeds, gun feeds and comms with the combat specialists - get them back!" ordered the Captain.
Agonising minutes passed, first one, then two and then five. With a chime, data flow resumed and all the cameras cleared except for one drone that was now showing as offline. The gun camera feeds resumed, but stationary and clearly filming from the grounds.
"What ... the ...?" exclaimed Melissa Coldhardt.
Most of the cameras showed empty forest. One clearly showed Hurst and Livingstone, their helmets off, talking to the creatures - then walking out of shot with them in the direction of the native settlement. On the bridge displays of the Righteous Enterprise, comms to the combat team showed as offline.
The men were gone.
