Proxima Adventure

Chapter 2. The Reality

Chapter 2. The Reality.

Once the ship was in orbit around Proxima B, the job of obtaining water from the planet from Hell began. Charles and Carl maneuvered shuttles with cylindrical tanks for rudders out of the main hanger and then sent them down to the planet to suck up water. The intricate process required patience and careful attention to avoid any possible failures. Once the water was on board, robots pumped it through several bio filters into tanks in the engineering deck. This process was continued until the ship's water tanks were full and the spaces between the ship's inner and outer hull were filled. Water in there blocks a lot of radiation from space.

Once Charles and Carl got back down to the engineering deck, they began the process of producing oxygen and hydrogen from the water using electrolysis.

"I'm surprised that we sucked up the water without a hitch," Carl said as he watched the electrolysis process parameters on the computer screen.

"Yeah," Charles said without looking away from the process display. "We got lucky."

"Will this produce enough oxygen to keep us alive for the return trip?"

Charles sighed. "I hope so. The calculations indicate that we have a ten percent safety factor." He smiled. "To tell the truth, I'm more concerned about how we can keep the gals in line for that long. There isn't much for them to do for that long of time."

Carl chuckled. "Maybe we can get them to entertain us."

Charles's expression stiffened. "Ah, I don't think that's a good idea. The last thing we want is to get one of them pregnant."

"I'm sure that the idiots that supplied this ship included some prophylactics."

"I wouldn't assume that, but I'll check my quarters to see if they did. You should check yours too."

Charles wasn't happy that this subject came up. As much as he liked the idea of having some fun with them, he didn't think it was a good idea. He needed the women to stay focused on the main goal of the journey to Proxima B. Treating them as if they were sex toys wasn't consistent with that plan.

On the command deck, the women were busy obtaining data on Proxima B by sending down probes.

"There's no way that this planet could be considered habitable," Alice said, her eyes darting back and forth from the data display to Hilary's face. "The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, hydrogen and a small amount of oxygen, which is something I wouldn't expect. It would suggest that there may be life in the twilight zone."

"Well," Hilary said. "The planet does have a pretty strong magnetic field, which would help protect it from the brutal radiation from its sun."

"No way humans could live on it," Judy said, blinking several times. "It has minimal amounts of oxygen."

"Maybe it had a good atmosphere at one time, but lost it," Alice said. "Only to have it returned by volcanic action."

"What difference does it make?" Vickey said. "We aren't going to live on this stupid planet. We're going to be bored to death on a five-year trip back to Earth."

"Actually, the trip back could be fun with these two guys," Judy said, adding a snicker for emphasis.

"We'd have to be really careful," Alice said with a serious expression. "Getting pregnant could be dangerous under the return conditions."

"I'm sure that the ass hole commanders included prophylactics," Hilary said with an ornery grin.

"Maybe," Alice replied. "But I'm not going to ask the guys to check that out."

"I'd be willing to bet that they already have," Hilary retorted, her smile more like an ornery grimace.

They giggled like a bunch of teens even though they were adult women with doctoral degrees.

Charles and Carl were in Charles' quarters searching for prophylactics.

"I can't believe that they didn't include them," Carl complained. "Especially if they brought the women along for amusement."

"I agree, but it appears that they were not concerned about the consequences of their amusement." Charles smiled. "Maybe they preferred the more experienced women in the crew."

Carl shook his head. "Yeah, that's a possibility. I suppose we'll have to behave ourselves."

Charles smiled. "That's a bummer!"

They laughed.

Later that day, the crew got together in a large kitchen-dining area to enjoy a supper of pizza, vegetables and fruit prepared by the humanoids. The pizza was topped with lettuce and avocadoes.

"We've completed the survey of the planet," Alice said. "There's no evidence of life. The atmosphere has small amounts of oxygen, but it's mostly carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The water is confined to a girdle region that exists in the area between ice and desert."

Charles sighed. "I'm not surprised. It's probably common for planets tidally locked to their stars."

Judy continued the report. "There are several situations for tidal locking, especially planets orbiting M-class red dwarf stars, depending upon their ages. Stars like Proxima Centauri blast out flares that are thousands of times more powerful and damaging than those of our sun. The only reason that Proxima B has survived is because it has a strong magnetic field."

"Lucky for us it had surface water," Charles said. "I'm not sure that we could find water anywhere else in this system."

"We would have had to collect it as ice from planets further away from the star," Carl added.

"That would have taken a much longer time, and it would have been more difficult," Charles added.

Judy smiled. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now."

Charles restrained his reaction to her statement. He was impressed with the knowledge and expertise that these young women displayed. Why they were included is a mystery. Then again, maybe Space Command assumed that they needed younger crew members because they knew that there were possible chances of death from long hibernation.

The real problems wouldn't come until the return trip to Earth. No one had ever ridden while awake in a spaceship when it accelerated to light speed. The Graviton system was designed to keep the crew at standard gravity, but not while accelerating or decelerating at G forces way beyond what a human body could experience.

The two young engineers were not going to allow that to force them into the hibernation modules, which muted G-forces by immersion in a viscous liquid. They went to work programming the system to alleviate the G-forces while they were lying in their beds.

"I don't see why this shouldn't work," Carl said while studying the display of the Graviton system. "All we have to do is have the gravity force continuously adjust for the G-forces of the acceleration."

"I agree," Charles said. "It should work but there's no way we can test it."

"We'll just have to take the chance," Carl replied. "I'd rather die now than wait five years while confined to my coffin."

Charles nodded, agreeing with Carl's risk statement.