The Inosculation Syndrome Read online

  THE

  INOSCULATION

  SYNDROME

  D. B. REYNOLDS-MORETON

  The Inosculation Syndrome

  This edition Copyright © 2011 by sci-fi-cafe.com.

  www.sci-fi-cafe.com

  Story Copyright © 1998 by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

  ISBN 978-1-908387-36-3 (ePUB)

  ISBN 978-1-908387-37-0 (MOBI)

  eBook production by Oxford eBooks

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  Planetfall

  Definitions:-

  INOSCULATION: The act of joining together two or more things so as to become as one. Bringing together several parts to become a continuous whole. To unite intimately.

  SYNDROME: A pattern of symptoms which indicate something recognizable, such as a condition or state. A number of characteristic symptoms occurring together.

  The survey ship Star Search was old, very old, and as old ships go, she just about did, if you will pardon the grammar.

  She was among the first of her line, and was fast approaching the point where replacement parts would soon outnumber the original fitments, with the exception of the main framework, hull plates and the drive units, and these were long past their ‘best before’ date.

  In theory, fitting a new part should not have been a problem, although in practice the new part was rarely of the same size, and as often as not, the functions were not identical to the original and needed ‘slight’ modifications.

  The general upshot of this over the years was that a service manual that made any sense no longer existed.

  If it had not been for the loving care which the crew bestowed on the old vessel, nursing her along, she would have been posted ‘missing - somewhere in space’ long ago.

  The five close-knit members of the team had survived eleven missions together, almost all of which were trauma free, and they had become more like brothers than highly skilled individuals from different academies.

  The mission they were presently engaged in necessitated checking all the suns in sector 18R for planets which might have rare mineral ores, making sure that there was an oxygen based atmosphere on the planet for the work teams, and noting any possible dangers which might impede subsequent mining operations, should valuable ores be found.

  The general modus operandi was to locate a sun, check to see if it had a planetary system that contained worlds in a temperature band that made it possible to visit, look for signs of intelligent life forms (which were very rare) and if none were present, scan the planet with the ships detectors for minerals which might be worthy of attention.

  If anything of value was found, then a survey team would go down to the surface for samples, as the ship’s detectors were only able to sense the presence and quantity of minerals, not the quality of the ore.

  They were just finishing their work on a planet around a star, or to be more precise sun 79, when the communication unit onboard the shuttle module, affectionately known as the ‘Shuttle Bucket’, decided to malfunction. This meant that the crew aboard the shuttle could not contact the main ship, and vice versa.

  Although this was not a total disaster, it was very inconvenient, and Kal, being one of the two electronics experts in the team, volunteered to exchange the unit for the last remaining spare when they returned to the main vessel.

  There were now only two survey shuttles left in working order, and if either of them failed, then the Ship would have to return to base with the mission incomplete. It was deemed too risky to operate with one unit, in case a rescue mission had to be sent out.

  Kal and his two team mates loaded in the last samples of ore, retracted the drilling rig and stowing it away in the hold of the shuttle, prepared to leave the planet to rendezvous with the mother ship.

  With communications in a state of flux, the automatics were no longer receiving coherent signals from the main ship, and so the shuttle had to be flown up and docked manually.

  The survey team made it back in one piece, and after a short explanation of what had happened to their communications link, copious criticism of the mining company’s tight fistedness, a meal and a short rest, they began setting the co-ordinates for the long journey to the next star field system.

  As the distance between star systems was considerable to say the least, some method of suspended animation for the crews was of paramount importance.

  The method adopted to date worked quite well, and consisted basically of lowering the pulse rate and temperature of the body to the barest minimum when placed within the confines of a ‘sleep pod’, which in turn supplied an intravenous drip of nutrients, and disposed of body wastes.

  When the Ship neared the chosen destination, the pods would raise the temperature, add a little adrenaline to the drip supply, and the crew would wake up feeling refreshed, and after a little exercise, ready for their next task.

  The crew took it in turns to enter the pods one after another so that there would always be someone to make sure that the sleep cycle began correctly for each entrant, except for the last member, who always used the pod that all agreed was the least likely to fail. Just one of those brotherly little things one did on an ageing ship; at the very least, it increased one’s chance of survival.

  As it happened, it was Kal’s turn to be ‘last man to bed’ after the vessel had been made ready for the voyage to the new system. The destination was set, the automatics keyed in, and the Star Search began accelerating on her new course to hope for riches.

  Overseeing the rest of the crew into their pods, Kal remembered the faulty unit in the survey module, and decided to change it now so that they would not have to waste time at the other end of their journey.

  He left the control room and headed for the stores, such as they were. Locating the last remaining communications unit, he unclipped it from its carrier, picked up a small tool kit and made his way to the survey shuttle bay.

  The shuttles were dotted around the rear end of the mother ship like a series of warts, and were held in place by a group of clamps that would only release them when a certain set of conditions were met.

  Closing the airlock behind him, Kal thumbed the enter button of the shuttle’s hatch, waited for it to hiss open, and boarded the module. It was mandatory to close the hatch if working within the unit, and he did so, which, as it turned out was just as well.

  He had removed the retaining screws and the old communications unit, and offering up the replacement. It soon became apparent that it wasn’t going to fit. It needed a mere millimetre or so to be filed off one of the mounting lugs, and he didn’t have a file with him.

  It was at this moment in time, that the Gods looked down upon the Star Search, smiled, and threw a proverbial spanner into the metaphorical works.

  During the last somewhat sparse refit of the vessel, the docking sensor on the shuttle had to be replaced, along with several other items.

  It was held in place by twelve machine screws and nuts, and a tired service engineer having misplaced one of the locking washers, and not having a spare with him, gave the nut an extra hard twist with his trusty spanner, packed up his kit and went back to base for a long overdue rest.

  The docking sensor was located close to the outside of the hull, and was exposed to extreme changes of temperature, depending on whether it was facing a sun
or the extreme cold depths of space. It was also subject to a fair amount of vibration. In time, the nut without the locking washer worked itself loose, and fell off, landing on a ledge below the sensor unit where it lay quite happily for a time.

  This would not have been a problem normally, as the other screws were quite capable of holding the unit in place, but the vagrant nut gradually worked itself along to the end of the ledge and fell onto the power relay that controlled the locking clamps of the shuttle.

  Unfortunately the relay cover had not been replaced and the nut fell onto the contacts, completing the signal circuit.

  The relay slammed shut, and a surge of power was sent to the docking clamps which obligingly opened, gently releasing the shuttle into space.

  It was only when Kal tried to open the hatch and was greeted by a blast from the warning siren and a red light, that he realized things were not as they should have been.

  This could only mean one of three things. One, the interlock system had thrown a wobbly - not very likely, as it was a simple device, and only recently replaced. Two, the main chamber in the shuttle bay had decompressed - also not likely, as no warning had been sounded. Three, the shuttle had disengaged, and was ready to go down to the planet surface, except that no planet had been selected and no one had set the release sequence.

  He hurried across to the nearest viewing port, which in free fall had its own problems, and instead of the comforting view of the old ship’s under belly, he was greeted by the unimpeded sight of the star field. The other ports also gave a wonderful view of the stars, but of the main vessel there was not a vestige.

  At long last the impossible had happened. He was adrift from the main vessel; the communications unit was not working and even if it had been it would have made little difference, as the crew were in deep sleep and well on their way to their next destination.

  As the main ship was under acceleration, it was already well beyond the reach of the shuttle which didn’t have the accelerating power of the Star Search to catch up.

  Kal was in deep trouble, and he knew it. There was nothing he could do to regain contact with the ship in any way; he was alone, and that was it.

  By the time the Star Search had reached her new destination, he would have run out of food, water or oxygen; it didn’t matter which, the result would be the same. When the crew awoke, they would have no idea of when or where Kal had gone missing, and a search would have been pointless.

  Fear he was used to, but the flood of terror which coursed through him had a different flavour. He knew his situation was hopeless, as rescue was nigh on impossible. His only chance of survival was to find a nearby planet which would support life, and that was a slim chance indeed.

  The shuttle had provisions for a crew of three on an extended visit planet side, and the power unit had a reserve left for at least six more flights. What he needed to do was find a sun with a suitable planet in attendance, and make landfall if the fuel held out long enough.

  A chance in a million, so he set about it with as much enthusiasm as he could muster under the circumstances.

  Kal knew that they were on the rim of the star field they had been exploring when they set the new course, and there were a few minor stars they had not bothered to check as their planets didn’t usually have a great deal to offer in the way of rare minerals. There was just a slim chance that one of these suns might have a suitable planet on which he could survive, at least for a while.

  The first thing to do was to locate a suitable sun, and that wasn’t going to be easy without the main ship’s sensors.

  The shuttle had acquired a considerable turn of speed due to being part of the main ship when it had began accelerating towards the new star field, so he wouldn’t have to waste fuel as far as travelling in a straight line was concerned. The main use of the thrusters would be to steer the module towards any sun system that looked promising.

  Kal realized that he would have to lose a great deal of energy from the shuttle’s trajectory when he found a suitable sun, and there may well be little to spare for using reverse thrust to slow down his forward speed.

  Anyway, he would need all the fuel he could get when it came to manoeuvring the craft into position for a landing, especially as some would be used in homing in on the likely solar system using the side thrusters. But first he had to find a suitable solar system.

  The main difficulty was going to be losing that forward speed when it was necessary to do so, and as that would take a lot of fuel, Kal toyed with the idea of using the other planets in the sun’s system, if there were any, like a sling shot in reverse, and lose speed that way.

  According to the onboard clock, it was fifteen days later when Kal noticed a medium size sun getting larger in one corner of the forward viewing window.

  He did his best to work out a trajectory which would bring the shuttle into line with the sun, all the time looking out for any signs of planetary bodies orbiting around it.

  Not the easiest of tasks without the main ship’s detectors and computers, which did all the hard work. He was relying on light from the sun to reflect from the planets in order for them to become visible.

  As he neared the sun, several bright pinpoints of light did seem to be moving a little quicker than the surrounding stars, and that could only mean one thing, he had found a system with orbiting planets.

  Speeding through the outer edges of the system he realized that he was going to have to take one more chance which he had not intended to do, but as fuel was at a premium the choice was more or less made for him. He would need to go in as close to the sun as possible, and ‘sling shot’ around it in order to go out to the planets again.

  As far as he could tell, from this distance out, the second world in from the sun seemed to be about the right distance from it to be warmed by its solar fires.

  Kal began the ‘sling shot’ manoeuvre, by using the side thrusters to curve the shuttle’s flight path in towards the sun.

  Passing by some of the planetary objects in the system, he made notes of any data he could acquire from them, so building up a picture of this system’s worlds.

  So far, it still looked as though his first choice for a landing was the best bet, but he couldn’t be sure until he had more information on the other planets within his reach.

  As the shuttle approached the sun, it began to pick up speed. This was to be expected, and the extra speed attained would be lost again when the curve around the sun was completed, and he headed out towards the planets.

  Kal reasoned that by moving the shuttle in or out of its curved flight path at the right moment, he would lose some momentum, and hence the forward speed would decrease. If this was done as he swept around the other planets in the solar system, he should be able to decrease speed enough to make a landing on one of them. He had to; there was no other choice with a restricted fuel supply.

  Using the side thrusters was the most economical way of utilizing the remaining fuel stock, and so far it had seemed to work. Kal completed the curve around the sun, and was now heading back into the space between the planets.

  The shuttle passed much closer to his chosen world this time, and using the magnifying optics onboard the shuttle he knew his choice was the right one. There seemed to be areas of water, mountains or very high ridges, various areas of what he assumed to be coloured vegetation, and what looked like some large patches of desert as well.

  It would take many ‘days’ of onboard time to complete his manoeuvring and swing back to his chosen world, but he had all the time he needed with plenty of food, water and oxygen. The only constraining factor was the fuel for the thrusters, and that was going down faster than he had anticipated.

  While on the outward swing from the sun, he passed what he took to be a ‘gas giant’ planet, the gravity of which was a good deal less than he had calculated, and so the thrusters had to be brought into play a lot more than he had allowed for. More fuel gone without a loss of velocity.

  Things wer
e getting more difficult by the minute, and he had a lot more weaving among the planets to do yet before he got the shuttle’s speed down to manageable proportions.

  Eleven ‘days’ into his dance among the heavenly bodies, the shuttle’s speed was reduced to what Kal thought would be acceptable for a landing.

  He would not be able to descend in the usual manner, which was to chose a site, hover over it to check it out for suitability, and then go down vertically. There was not enough fuel left for the luxury of this kind of approach, so it meant a long glide in from very high up.

  The main problem with a long glide in was that the shuttle was not a glider, and had no wings to give it ‘lift’, which would be necessary for this kind of landing.

  The only way to get down in one piece was to come in at a low angle to the planet’s upper atmosphere, and bounce the craft in and out of the upper air layers, so losing velocity.

  This would reduce the overall speed without causing too much overheating due to friction from the thin air, and if he chose the right moment by keeping the shuttle at the correct angle, he would achieve a sort of glide, albeit a steep and speedy one.

  ‘It’s going to be like trying to fly a flat rock,’ he mused.

  Using the side thrusters, Kal brought the shuttle in a long low curve towards the planet beneath. The first contact with the upper atmosphere rattled his teeth a little, but he was safely strapped into his seat, and withstood the buffeting.

  He had not realized that he had been holding his breath, and let it out with a whoosh as the craft bounced up into space again. The next entry was much the same and Kal noticed that with each approach, the velocity indicator was reading a little lower. Not much, but it would make all the difference to the final glide in when the time came.

  The profuse sweating he experienced was not all due to fear, as the craft was heating up through atmospheric friction much more than he had anticipated. Whether he would make landfall before he was stewed in his own juices was an academic point, but still worrying none the less.