After two days of travel the Hermes arrived at the next system.
"Time to sublight 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"
With that Joe dropped the Hermes out of warp.
"Ship is secure from warp." Joe reported after checking her console.
"Very good. Sensors?" The captain asked.
"Short range sensor are clear, commencing long range scan." Smyke answered.
"Interesting, very interesting." Dr. Schmitz mumbled hunched over on of the consoles.
"Anything you want to share?"
"The system has four gas giants, all orbiting the star in a equidistant orbit. According to the sensors they're virtually identical. This should be very much impossible!" Dr. Schmitz exclaimed.
"Indeed, that sounds very unlikely. We should take a closer look. Any suggestions?" The Captain asked.
"Lets have a look at the closest gas giant." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Alright. Ms 9, take us in." The captain decided.
"Plotting course." Joe answered, accelerating the ship.
For two hours the ship get closer to the first gas giant. All the time the crew used all its sensors to make sense of this strange system they had arrived in.
"Dr., any update?" The captain asked.
"According to our sensors the gas giants are very much identical. The diameter, mass and composition matches to an unreal degree. Their orbits are exactly identical, they form a stable pattern around the star of two pairs, directly opposite each other.
We have detected two small moons orbiting the first gas giant. Again they are identical and orbit in the same pattern. First indication would suggest the other gas giants also have a pair of moons each. Captain, this might be a natural phenomenon, but the odds of a star system looking like this are highly unlikely." An agitated Dr. Schmitz reported.
"Yet here we are looking at it." Mused the Captain.
"What can you tell me about the moons orbiting the first gas giant?" She asked.
"We're still a bit far out so all our data is still a bit fuzzy. They have a diameter of approximately 15.000 kilometers, a bit larger than earth. The sensors register an atmosphere mainly consisting of methane and water."
"Water?" Joe asked.
"Yes, steam to be precise. The surface temperature is about 100°C on average." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"So, not exactly what we're looking for. But actually quite close. What is with the other ones?" The Captain asked.
"As far as we can tell for now all the moons are identical, we'd have to take some more detailed scans to confirm that though."
"Alright, let's scan them one by one and see what we can find. That's what we're here for after all." The Captain concluded.
"Dr. What orbit do you need?" Joe asked.
"We should do a full scan of each moon. I'd suggest at least two full orbits each. That should give us enough coverage to get all the data we need. If we put in a full orbit of each gas giant we should have all the data we need." The Dr. answered.
"Alright, Ms. 9. plot us some orbits." The Captain ordered and leaned back.
Joe acknowledged and went to work.
It took another hour for the Hermes to enter orbit around the first moon of the first gas giant.
"We're entering orbit, I've set a spiraling orbit, we should be able to scan most of the surface in detail in two goes but I can easily adjust if you need more data." Joe reported.
"Thank you, let's see what we can see." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Commencing scan." Pet'l quipped in.
"Sensor data is coming in." Smyke noted.
"That is strange, these readings are all fuzzy." Dr. Schmitz exclaimed.
"It's much worse than our first scans."
"Almost as if someone does not want us to see what is down there?" The Captain asked.
"I'd say so, yes. But who and why? And most of all - how?" Smyke answered.
"That is a very good question. Engineering!" The Captain keyed .
"This is Sunblast, go ahead."
"Please report to the bridge."
"Right away."
It took him some minutes to arrive, his general clean state indicating that he took a moment to clean up a bit.
"What do you need?" He asked.
"The sensor data is fuzzy, can you try to clean it up?" The captain asked.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Sunblast answered and walked over to an ops-console to get to work.
After almost one hour of concentrated work the silence was suddenly broken.
"Sensor image just cleared up, scanning the planet now." Smyke exclaimed.
"Good work, Mr. Sunblast." The captain acknowledged.
"Thanks, but that wasn't me. I could not find any problem. The background radiation simply dropped away drastically. Almost as if switched off." Sunblast tried to explain.
"I might have an explanation, although not a very good one." Dr. Smyke made himself heard.
"I'm all ears, Dr." The captain stood up from her chair and turned to the small crowd that had gathered around the ops station.
"The radiation that was interfering with our scans was solar radiation. My scans of the local star show that radiation intensity varies quite a bit on the surface of the star. It looks like we have just entered a zone with relatively low radiation." Smyke explained.
"That makes sense, but was is causing this variations? Is this star unstable? Should we leave the system to be sure?" The captain sounded worried now.
"That is the really strange part. The radiation output by the star is much higher than expected. But it does have several zones with a drastically reduced radiation signature. These zones appear to be very stable. The reduction in radiation is exactly the same for all of them. And they seem to form a regular pattern." The doctor sounded very excited.
"What does this mean? You think they are not naturally?" Smyke asked.
"I'd say they're about as natural as the rest of this systems appears to be." the doctor concluded.
"Alright. First things first. Any new information about the planet below?" The captain asked taking her seat.
"Atmosphere is consisting mainly of methane and water, temperature varies from about 120 degrees Celsius on the equator to about 20 degrees Celsius on the polar region. I'm also reading fair amounts of oxygen and nitrogen. Atmospheric pressure is quite high, about 150 Pa." Smyke read from his display.
"So much for being habitable." mumbled the captain.
"Not exactly, no." The doctor concluded.
"Alright. Are you done here?"
The doctor mumbled a confirmation.
"Ms. 9, take us to the next moon on the list and see if we have better luck there." The captain ordered.
"Breaking orbit. ETA 20 minutes." Joe answered while working her console.
"Would it be possible to put us on the star-side during transit? I'd like some more scans of this star." The doctor interjected.
With the approval of the captain Joe started the ship on a trajectory around the first gas giant on the side that was facing the star with all scanners running at maximum. Dr. Schmitz and Smyke where very busy during transit, all data was additionally sent to the science module where most of the scientists were pondering the data.
20 minutes later the ship arrived in orbit as planned with the scientists starting to scan the moon below. Excited chatter quickly died down to confused mumbles and finally gave way to stunned silence.
"Dr.? What is it?" The captain asked.
"This is odd. This planet has exactly the same readings as the first one we scanned."
"But we expected that, didn't we?"
"Not to this degree, no. Both planets are virtually identical. With our sensors we can't tell the difference between them. They have the exact same atmospheric composition. I'm not talking very similar, I'm talking exactly the same. As far as we can tell both have the same mass and diameter."
"Are you sure about that?"
"We have confirmed these readings several times. This is an incredible find! If the others are also like this… We're talking about a level of engineering that puts all known efforts of terraforming to shame, by quite a margin."
"Incredible. It's just a shame these planets are not capable of supporting human life, or are they?"
"Only marginally and only in the colder regions. People would still need pressure suits and oxygen supplies. But in principle these planets could be colonized and maybe terraformed."
"Alright. What can you tell us about the star?" The Captain changed the discussion.
"The variations in solar radiation seem to be related to fairly large solar spots. Strangely they seem to block radiation unlike the solar spots we know. We have spotted quite a number of them, they seem to form a regular pattern. But at this distance there is only so much we can tell. As they are very close to the star there is a huge amount of radiation that is interfering with our sensors."
"Alright. Should we have a look at the other planets as well?" The Captain asked.
"Yes, I think so. I'd also like to study these solar spots more, but with this amount of radiation this might not be possible."
"Ms. 9, could you move the ship closer to the star in one of the regions with lower radiation?" The Captain asked.
"Sure, but we still could not get very close. At some point the radiation would become dangerous to the ship.
"What about a probe?" Smyke asked.
"They have the necessary sensors and are shielded. Also, unlike the Hermes, a probe doesn't carry a crew that is rather sensitive to radiation."
"The probe should be able to handle the radiation, yes. But I don't think it would do any good." Sunblast intervened.
After receiving several confused looks he continued. "We're at quite a distance and the radiation heavily interfered with our sensors. The probe would get much closer and receive a lot more radiation. Also the question is if we'd be able to recover the probe afterwards as we only have two of them. It would be quite radioactive."
"Agreed, what a shame." Dr. Schmitz conceded.
"We have six other planets to scan for now, so you do have quite some time left to come up with a way to scan these spots that doesn't get us or irreplaceable equipment radiated without a reasonable chance of success." The Captain concluded the discussion. "Ms. 9 plot a course to the other planets so we can scan them."
"Alright. Any preferences?" Joe asked.
"I'd like to thoroughly scan the gas giants and also get as much data on the star, especially the spots."
"One orbit around each gas giant is enough?" Joe asked.
Dr. Schmitz nodded a confirmation.
"Alright, I'll start plotting a course. Should we start with a full orbit of this gas giant?"
"Please do, yes."
"I have an idea on how to get some scans, might take a while." Sunblast said and left for engineering.
After some minutes the Hermes accelerated and entered into orbit around the gas giant. Upon completion it started the short voyage to the next gas giant.
After about one hour a call from engineering disrupted the peace and quite on the bridge.
"Sunblast to bridge."
"Go ahead." The Captain answered.
"I have an idea for scanning the star, could you and Dr. Schmitz meet me in the conference room?"
A quick look to the scientist confirmed his willingness.
"We'll be right there." the Captain closed the connection.
"Ms. 9, the bridge is yours."
"Copy that." Joe answered.
A couple of minutes later Sunblast met them in the conference room with a small cube sitting on the table.
"Mr. Sunblast, what do you have for us?" The Captain asked while taking a seat with Dr. Schmitz.
"This is a cubesat, a small and cheap satellite. We carry several hundreds of them to be used to thoroughly scan a planet that we deem a candidate for colonizing." Sunblast started
"But they have next to no shielding and a very limited lifespan, they'll never survive the vicinity of the star." Dr. Schmitz interrupted.
"That is true, but we can add some radiation shielding to it. If we mostly add it to the side that will receive most of the radiation and some extra shielding to the data-core it should survive long enough to get us some data. We're limited by the dimensions of the launcher, it can launch larger satellites than this but not very much." Sunblast explained.
"How will we retrieve the data afterwards?" The Captain asked.
"We have two options. First option would be to launch it on a trajectory that does not let it get too close to the star. The shielded emitter would survive that and should be able to transmit the data afterwards."
"That would limit our scans though, what's the alternative?" Dr. Schmitz asked.
" The second option would be to retrieve it afterwards and extract the data-core manually. We could use a much closer trajectory with this." Sunblast explained.
"But afterwards we'd have to catch a highly radioactive satellite the size of a basketball that is moving very fast." The Captain interjected.
"At least it will be easy to spot, thanks to the radiation." Sunblast smiled.
"What about sensors? With all this radiation won't they mostly be useless?" Dr. Schmitz asked.
"We'd have to limit the sensor package to mostly passive sensors, basically optical and gravimetric. But we should get a lot more data than we do now." Sunblast answered.
"Yes, if this is all I can get, I'll take it. What about coverage?" an enthusiastic Sr. Schmitz answered.
"We'll need to launch several of them to cover more of the stars surface. The closer the trajectory the more we have to launch to get some decent coverage. Also if we have to catch them, it'll be quite a job catching several of them. Additionally we have to modify them before launch. It should take about six hours for the first one, from then on I'd say three hours for each satellite." Sunblast finished.
"Right. According to Ms. 9 we'll need at least two days to thoroughly scan all the planetary bodies in the system, so that gives us plenty of time. How about this: Mr. Sunblast, start modifying the first satellite. Dr. Schmitz, please get us a decision on how we want to proceed. I'll talk to Ms. 9 about her opinion on catching these satellites if we launch them too close to the star for the transmitter to survive. Let's meet again once the first satellite is finished." The Captain stated.
Nods all around concluded the meeting.
"Catching one of these should not be a problem. In theory catching several of them also is not. But it would be quite time consuming. Especially as the data-core would have to be extracted as the satellite can't be brought back on the ship due to the radiation. No way to do that with one of the pods. We'd have to use one of the Mules with remote gear installed in the hold." Joe explained after the Captain presented her the plan for scanning the star.
"I see, that complicates things. Especially when we want to launch several of them. Thank you." The captain answered.
Hermes was traveling the distance to the next gas giant when a small opening appeared in the science module. Behind the opening the satellite launcher was installed. Basically a low powered railgun it was able to launch small cubesats on a trajectory that would allow them to scan a planet in detail. This was originally planned to be done once they had found a planet that showed promise for colonization.
It was now put to use for the first time. The satellite it was launching had started out as an ordinary cubesat. It had now a thick layer of radiation shielding that would allow it to survive close to a star long enough to take scans and transmit them back to Hermes before being burned out. Additionally it was now equipped with small attitude thrusters.
As the railgun was a massive piece of equipment it was necessary for the whole ship to change trajectory to aim it. Joe did so by adjusting the course.
"Launcher aligned, looking good." Sunblast said to the scientist manning the controls of the launcher that was emitting a low whining sound of charged power.
"Ready to launch." the scientist answered.
"Alright, launch the satellite." the captain ordered over the com.
With a small sound the satellite was launched on its trajectory.
"Satellite away." the scientist answered. "Ready the next one."
Two ratings loaded the next satellite into the the loading mechanism. Normally this would be a fully automated process which could launch a large number of cubesats in a short amount of time, but as the satellites where heavily modified they had to be loaded manually.
Joe changed the ships trajectory three more times as all four modified cubesats where launched on different trajectorys sending them into orbit around the star. After the last one was launched Joe returned the ship back to its heading to the next gas giant.
While Hermes was orbiting the next gas giant with all scanners running on full the satellites where steadily approaching their target area. Their tiny brains where very simple. They where able to check the trajectory and initiate corrections when needed. They also managed to open the small hatch that was shielding the sensors from the stars radiation so that it could scan the objects near the surface of it and send the raw data back. Processing and interpreting this data was beyond their abilities.
"Sensor data is coming in steadily. It seems the modified cubesats are doing their job." Smyke said.
"Anything interesting yet?" The captain asked.
"Too early to tell. We have to process the data before we can interpret it." Dr. Schmitz answered after a moment.
"Coming up on the next moon, initiating orbit." Joe announced.
"Starting scan." Smyke answered.
The next few minutes where spent in silent anticipation while the ship orbited the moon, all it's sensors locked on it.
"Fascinating. It is exactly the same. All sensor data matches the two we scanned before." A stunned Dr. Schmitz announced.
"Are you sure of that?" the captain asked.
"Yes. We've run all diagnostics on the sensors that we could. Let's have a look at the next moon. Although I assume that it will be identical."
"Ok. Ms. 9, get us to the next moon please." The captain ordered.
"Alright, breaking orbit." Joe acknowledged.
While the Hermes was making it's way to the next moon the first results from the star came in.
"Fascinating!" Dr. Schmitz mumbled.
After a while he continued. "The spots of lover radiation appear to be evenly spaced. They have a size of approximately 20.000 km each. From what we see so far they are all the same size and shape."
"How is that even possible?"
"It looks like they are artificial." Dr. Schmitz stated.
"Makes sense." Joe answered.
"Why does that makes sense?" Dr. Schmitz asked. "The technology to actually build and maintain something like that alone is incredible."
"About as incredible as shaping a whole star system with four gas giants each with two virtually identical moons?" Joe retorted.
Dr. Schmitz sat silent for a while contemplating.
"This would raise some troubling questions if it turned out to be true." Dr. Schmitz finally answered.
"Is there a way we can be certain?" the captain asked.
"We could scan the rest of the gas giants and moons to verify they're all identical. But that could still just be a coincidence. A very unlikely one, granted."
"So we scan all planetary bodies in this system. Can we scan these spots on the star in more detail?" The captain answered.
"The four satellites we placed will need about one day to complete their orbits. After this they will have all the data they can get from orbit." Smyke answered.
"It will take us that long to complete scanning all the moons and gas giants anyway." Joe answered.
"The let us see what the next day brings and take it from there."
After completing its last orbit one of the cubesats received new instructions. It's tiny brain analysed the instructions and acted on them drastically alternating the course of the satellite, bringing it into a tighter orbit, shooting the tiny cube around the star. As it came out of its closest point of its orbit it fired its thrusters on full, bringing the satellite on a direct course for one of the spots dead-on. As instructed it opened its tiny hatch, revealing the sensors. While it was hurtling to its doom it dutifully transmitted all the data the sensors where able to record. It was far to simple to understand or even care that it was racing to a fiery death.