Emerald

Malfunction

Mil has problems concentrating on her project. Dray and Koshi left with the shuttle early in the morning, Andrej gives Carlos a hand with the engine. She hasn't heard of them for hours. They left it to her to solve the riddle of the forest's edge. But she had no success formulating useful theories nor delivering real results yet. A knot is forming in her neck. She tries to massage it away and leans back to watch the progress of the shuttle. At first, Dray flew a few rounds above the landing site and its immediate vicinity. Mil compared the pictures with those from their initial approach. Nothing really changed with the exception of the forest recuperating part of the burnt surface.

Now, the shuttle pushes over endless wilderness towards the pole region. Koshi wants to check for better settlement areas in more moderate latitudes. The question of intelligent life occupying the forest is still unanswered and certainly nagging at all their minds. In addition, Mil mulls over Koshi's suggestion the forest might be a deliberate plantation. Her current hypothesis doesn't contradict this interpretation. It doesn't prove it either. She rubs her temples against a developing headache and turns back to her work. If there is intelligent life on Emerald, there must be a hint towards it.

With tired steps Andrej and Carlos enter the lab together. Their faces show clearly their desperation. Mil gets up to fetch some coffee for the three of them. In the meantime, Andrej bows over her current calculation, interest lighting up his grey eyes. She cobbled together a climate model for he last 15'000 Emerald years. Carlos keeps staring silently at his hands, a scowl on his face. Mil hands him a steaming cup.

"How major is our problem, Carlos?"

"Major major, I guess. The Harris-values were right, they told us we had a problem right from the beginning. Why didn't I see this immediately?"

Clueless, Mil shifts her gaze from the technician to Andrej. He shrugs in resignation.

"What Carlos tries telling you, is that we might have realised already when leaving transfer there was a real problem. But this wouldn't have changed anything at our current situation. Before pushing out of the gravity well and reentering transfer we would have had to shut down the plasma chamber anyway. Thus, we would have been at the same point we are now."

"Would one of you guys please try to explain the situation in very simple words for a clueless biologist? As far as I know, the Harris-values and the Mellow-accumulator have absolutely nothing to to with each other."

Carlos empties his cup in one long draft and sets it down on the examination table.

"The Harris-values are supposed to enable easy control of the correct interaction of all components between the plasma chamber and the engine itself. When we searched for the malfunction in orbit, we checked each and every component of the chamber and the engines several times. Everything looked fine and still does. But, as a clever addition, the Harris-values show as well how much energy the Mashito-converter regains to ensure the cooling of the chamber. The rate of recovery was even a bit above average. And this detail should have alarmed me. Obviously the alternator of the Gemini-components didn't work, a part that is supposed to be indestructible. It's pure 20th century mechanic and feeds energy into the Mellow-accumulator, think of it as the bumper for the starter motor. When we used the main engine to clear the landing site, the initial thrust and additional energy consumption emptied the storage completely and destroyed the matrix. Which means we ended up with a perfectly functional engine but without any possibility to restart it."

Tiredly, Carlos closes his eyes. Mil looks hopefully at Andrej, but the astrophysicist's face remains stern, the usual spark in his eyes is gone.

"As I said, it was bound to happen sooner or later. There was no possibility to let the engine run under atmospheric conditions during the whole mission. Carlos is able to replace or repair the alternator. But if we want to travel home in this ship, we will have to find a possibility to bypass the accumulator."

"That sounds like something Koshi ought to hear, don't you think?"

"He'll hear about it early enough. At the moment, we can't do anything - except finding a way to initiate the starting sequence without the bumper energy of the Mellow. Ideas are welcome."

Deep in thoughts, Mil watches the untouched green expanses of the forest. The shuttle still cruises at high speed above this treacherously beautiful landscape. Koshi's voice from the speaker jolts the three of them out of different morose thoughts.

"Mil, check out the light green patch down here. Doesn't this look like a nursery?"