Why the Isis Watcher would beam a signal to this dead place I dunno maybe a mistake, huh Nigel?
Wait until the returns are in
Got an image here yeah give a look that first terrestrial’s got no atmosphere, high albedo, must be bare rock
You got those IRs on the second yet I know there’s a malf in that sensor but we been waitin’ damn long time
Comin’ in now looks like mebbe 178 degrees kelvin, pretty cold, but we expected that with a pip-squeak sun to warm it, I sure don’t pick up much else
Some carbon dioxide, little ammonia—maybe a lot of ice an’ snow
Bring the right scope down some, that reflectivity it’s jumpin’ all over when I put it on tight beam, must mean there’s plenty of reflectin’ surfaces, ice fields I bet
No sign of bioactivity in that atmosphere dull as dishwater
The grav-lens told us it looked jolly crappy, no surprise there
Goddamn all this way an’ nothin’ but junk
We knew all along with an M star like this it was rather like expecting roses in a jam jar to look for a biosphere
Cold as a hoor’s tit an’ we’re years from any-thin’ interestin’ even if we had the juice to get there
Ted we haven’t lost all our thrust we could boost back up, just swing through the Ross system and head on out
I like ’at we could pick up couple months on gettin’ back up to near-light speed ’stead of wallowin’ round in this icebox
Better hurry up on it if we’re gonna do it got a critical transition comin’ up in the reaction engines Ted
Bloody hell we’re not done with recon yet
Betcher butt there won’t be nothin’ to see
Nothing alive that’s for sure
Scrub it I say
We need a vote ’a the whole ship to do ’at
Na, rule is section leaders can decide in a pinch an’ this sure as hell is one
Janet send in a formal request from ExoBio if it’s your judgment that there’re no life sites here
Alex you’re in the net still—aren’t you?—Alex?—he isn’t repped in
So skip him there’s no time
No I can’t make a decision—with Section leaders’ consent of course—until I’ve heard from Alex
The big radio dishes aren’t fully deployed yet I don’t see
Ted this is Alex—sorry we had a resolution problem on aft antenna but I’ve got the outer part of the Ross system mapped now, the big gas giants and there’s something there with a lot of metal in it
Step up the gain I need more detail
Ted this is Nigel it’s just not on to cancel this early
Christ don’t listen to him this is ExoBio Ted look he’s just tryin’ to stretch out the encounter time to prove out this theory of his that nobody believes anyway an this’s the last hurrah anyway for him I say we boost soon’s Alex
Yeah we can pick up rest of the data on the flyout
We got a good fraction of the minimum already
I don’t give a sweet shit about minimum performance we’re facing years of voyage Christ what’s a few more months
Spend the time in Slots Nigel do you good
Give it a rest, eh? Ted, I appeal to you, don’t
Gentlemen we got maybe ten minutes to decide, tops, or I got to shut the drive down
Christ Alex can you see anymore?
I’m getting some kind of metal on one of the gas giant moons that’s all I can say right now looks like very bright in the radio reflectivity but that’s all I can say
Section leaders this is Ted I’m reviewing ExoBio’s request you people got any further input shoot it in now
Y’know it’s a good idea to keep the reaction goin’ just in case I mean the biggest malf probability is in the start-up phase
