Trappist

Dark...wet. Silent.
A drop. Another...from the tip of a glistening stalactite made of minerals unknown
to man….the stone walls loom inward. All is quiet. A small, green light glints dangerously,
heralding a flickering ember of life. Inside the small capsule, frozen in slumber, a lone pilot waits
patiently; unaware as his short breath grows ragged.
Nearby, a damaged antenna relays a single message…
Far away, in the emptiness of space, a lone object drifts at a desparate speed. All is still
inside. Slowly, a transceiver comes to life, straining to hear. Following suit, the rest of the vessel
wakes from its rest. The lights turn on one by one, and inside the twelve capsules the crew stirs.
The foremost capsule, marked by an engraven title, opens. The title is “Captain Stone”, and he
is the first to rise. Next, the Crew Chief, Darmon, rises as well; followed by the remaining ten
crew members of the Interstellar Search and Rescue team, or ISR. They move with urgency.
The onboard computer of the ​Valiant​ displays the Date: Feb 3, 0600 hours, 3027. The crew
members try not to look at it as they ready themselves. It has been 14 years. Even traveling
faster than light, they might be too late.
Deep in thought, Capt. Stone paced the dimly lit deck, struggling with a weighty decision.
About 30 years ago, an astronaut had left the Earth in the spacecraft ​Vision -​a craft
designed to identify earth-like planets- to investigate a potential candidate in the Trappist
system. 14 years and one month ago, Earth had received an emergency distress signal from
that very planet. The signal was too weak and faint to discern any details. Only one thing was
clear: an urgent request for help. Now that the ​Valiant​ had arrived with the ISR, the signal had
all but disappeared; it was now a whisper in the oblivion of space.
Inside the ​Valiant ​was warmth, but just past the thick glass windows and alloy walls was
an vicious, frigid, icy nothingness. Just empty space that extended perilously far. In the
darkness, the radiant light of the Trappist sun glowed softly, silhouetting the objects of Captain
Stone’s distress; not one shadow, as had been expected, but three.
Grimly, he informed Darmon on the situation. “It seems that Col. Irrus’ emergency
comms. system has finally failed.”
Murmurs of despair rippled through the crew, who had gathered for instruction.
 He continued, “This would be easy enough if there had only been one viable planet here,
as expected. But as it is plain to see, there are three planets in this system’s Goldilocks zone.
Three viable planets on which life could exist. Three raw frontiers which our companion could
have decided to explore.” Attention turned to the Crew Chief as he added, “The latest
transmission we received was even weaker than before, and appeared to be the last. It was too
faint to ascertain any details but one; that Col. Irrus is nearly gone. We simply do not have
enough fuel or time to search each one before we'll be too late.”
After letting the importance of their mission sink in, Capt. Stone gave the order.
“We have traveled here in a race against time...and we're losing. Darmon, ready the ship.”
He continued to pace as the others worked, searching for some hint, anything, that
would direct them towards their lost friend. Perhaps some foothold with which to mount this
obstacle. After finding nothing, he left logic behind. There was no logical answer, there couldn’t
be. This was up to chance now. A hologram of a small triangular prism was produced with a
thought. He spun it. Retreating a few steps, he produced another, a small dart. Taking a deep
breath and closing his eyes, he flung the dart. Afraid of the outcome, Capt. Stone opened his
eyes to find that it had solidly struck the third side of the prism.
Peering out the thick deck windows, one could see the three planets. They were much
closer now, and more visible. Each one drifting, potential carriers of life. The third planet from
the local sun was mostly blue, with scattered rocks and dust forming a vague ring around its
equator.
No, he thought, it just didn't...feel right. Instead, he set a course for the first planet,
trusting his gut. There was something about the cloud-covered sphere that seemed familiar...
The approach proceeded smoothly, and hours later, they were speeding through a thick
Earth-like atmosphere. As they sped through the clouds in a vague light, droplets quickly formed
on the ventral windshields, streaking away only to be replaced by more. The first of the planets
in the Trappist system was, surprisingly, covered by thick, moist clouds of water vapor. The
presence of water was comforting. The instruments aboard the ​Valiant​ were not meant to detect
such characteristics, but surely, a ship equipped with many more tools for assessing a planet's
makeup would have observed the familiar element. The ​Vision​ was one such ship, and knowing
that the planet would have been one of Col. Irrus’ first choices was reassuring beyond measure
to the crew.
Moving briskly, the Captain piloted the ship down, down through the thick clouds and
towards an unknown frontier. The light that filtered through this far was only an eerie glow,
preventing them from seeing very far. Strange, he thought, that the detection systems hadn’t
warned them of the approaching surface yet. With an uneasy feeling, he slowed their descent
out of caution; he didn’t intend to crash and strand them here. Several seconds later, a pillar
loomed from the gloomy clouds, clipping the tip of a tailwing; jarring them violently.
“Sir”, Darmon warned, “our instruments aren’t seeing anything, yet we must be close…it
seems as though there is something other than just water around us. Something in these clouds
is jamming our detection systems”.
After two more narrow escapes, the ship was slowed to a crawl to avoid the columns of
stone which grew thicker with each encounter. They were everywhere now, seemingly jutting up
from nowhere. They passed too quickly to get a good look at them; except for the larger ones,
whose diameter in some cases took many seconds to fly across. Interestingly, there were small
plants growing around these monoliths. Deep, dark green pods thrived around the wet cracks in
the stone, covered by vibrant green needles. They traced the cracks in the stone, diverging over
the massive stone wall of the nearest column. Interspersed here and there, tiny points of blue
light glowed between the pods; blinking as drops of water condensed on them. As Darmon
observed, an idea came to him. “Do you suppose these strange clouds are the reason the
signal is so faint? The level of activity in the atmosphere has increased since we entered the
system. That would explain why we haven't heard anything; it may just be muffled!”
But why, then, had they not detected it once more now that they were nearly through the
clouds? A rumble sounded in the distance, an unsteady sound that reverberated deeply...then
soon went quiet. Too quiet. “That fits right,” Capt. Stone replied in a low whisper, “but we should
have-” his eyes widened with realization as a falling shadow dominated their ​V​ision​. Proximity
alerts blared as the forbidding rock formation nearly crushed them under its weight, and above
them, a towering column groaned. Now tiny in comparison, the craft quaked with the vibrations
of splitting stone. Deftly handling the controls, he carefully avoided the larger debri, but even the
famed pilot’s experience could not have saved the ​Valiant.​ A falling pillar hurtled into the port
engine, and all hope of control was lost.
Orientation was suddenly foreign in the facade of senses that followed. The lights in the
control deck went dark, and only the dim glow from outside was visible. The large bay windows
afforded brief glimpses of the monoliths around them as they rotated; flashes of the damaged
tailwing spinning away, plants and massive boulders falling along with them; water cascading
from the lower pillars; then a bone-shattering jolt as the craft glanced off a high and heavy ridge.
Razed of all thought, the pilot and crew saw no more.
...To be Continued