CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One: The Last Living Ship ∞ 1: A New Mission

6 ∞ Pod Checks

Day 0001 Mission Nilex

«My cabin, please.»

Gareth immediately rose upwards.

«I thought you wanted me to point him out, Captain,» Canaisis' voice came into his head.

«I assumed you would, had he been present, so I dealt with it in a different manner.»

«Surely spacing him would be a drastic response.»

«No, Canaisis. These people need to understand where they are. And I have a feeling they're much more desperate to leave Sol than they let on. Something's going on and I don't know what. The unknown can be dangerous.»

«Agreed, Captain. I rely on your judgement in these matters. But still, to space someone is a bit drastic. Although the look on Leader Ahmid's face was priceless.» She laughed gently in his mind.

He chuckled ruefully. «Yes, I supposed it was. But I meant every word.»

«I know, Captain. It was quite a surprise... and very gallant of you. Thank you,» she added softly.

"We don't have to deal with disrespectful behavior, Canaisis. We can always leave and return in a few centuries."

He slowed before the opening to the Bridge level, and floated forward, his foot ready to step onto the corridor floor. «Canaisis,» he thought as he walked to his cabin, «pull up the specs on these seed pods. What's their status?»

«A second has arrived, and it also has too much fuel in its tanks.»

«Study them all you can, Canaisis. Look for discrepancies from their specs.»

Sitting down at his wooden desk, he stared at the two files waiting for him on the monitor. He swept them aside and brought up the seed pods' specifications.

"Canaisis," he spoke aloud, "also bring up the design parameters, theory of operations, and list of active biological agents, please." Instantly, several more files popped onto the monitor. "Look into the biological materials, see if we can determine if that's what is actually in those things."

"Aye, Captain." Her soft voice came from the monitor.

Reaching into his drawer, he pulled out a bottle and a shot glass. He poured himself half a shot and put the bottle back in the drawer. Then he settled into his chair and began scanning through the 'Theory_of_Operations' file.

Seed pods: a complex delivery system for terraforming planets.

Seed pods are sent ahead and deployed in the vicinity of a planet. During atmospheric entry, they release an array of algae, bacteria, and fungi into the environment to induce a reducing atmosphere, i.e., an atmosphere rich in hydrogen, methane, sulfur, but almost no oxygen. Upon touchdown, seed pods release machines to begin processing the soil. When conditions and temperature parameters are achieved, single-cell bacteria, microbes, molds, and fungi are released upon the surface, along with elements lacking in the environment, to begin altering the atmosphere towards Human standards. Zinc oxide and other elements are thrown into surrounding areas to begin production of amino acids, the building blocks of life...

In the process, they explore, survey, and sow soil and oceans with a variety of organisms, catalog deposits, repair the soil processing machines, etc., as well as monitor conditions and make adjustments to achieve the goal of Human-habitable planets...

Seed pods were an interesting culmination of terraforming technology. They were originally intended to terraform super-Earths that could have developed life, but where something had gone wrong, ending up with atmospheres too thick with carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, or other gasses. The project was a long-term ambition that took centuries. But even at FTL speeds, time dilation meant that centuries would pass before Humans could arrive.