A Dreamer's Worlds

Smoke, No Mirrors (Part 2 of Reconnaissance in Space!)

Dayton leaned back and watched the planet get closer. They'd been heading towards the exoplanet for a few hours now, but Dayton hadn't moved from his seat the entire time. Kurtis had wandered in and out, mostly just stopping to call Dayton a huge dork, especially for naming the exoplanet Asimov instead of something cool.

Dayton thought it was cool. Maybe Kurtis didn't, and Captain Turner was definitely only allowing it because Dayton was the only one who knew how to pilot the ship. You let the pilot do what he wants, even if you think it's dumb.

At least, Dayton hoped that was Captain Turner's reason. It seemed like a good reason, given that there could be many reasons.

But that one had nothing to do with faith, which Captain Turner had apparently been questioning. Dayton didn't have first hand knowledge, but Dr. Rodier had wandered in, ranted about how Captain Turner had locked himself in the med bay closet, and then wandered out.

The bridge seemed like it attracted people with absolutely nothing better to do.

Right now, that was Greg Nightingale, the biochemist. He walked in and flopped into the captain's chair, paying Dayton no mind.

That was okay. Dayton could just watch them get closer to Asimov instead of trying to be an active listener.

"This ship is insane."

Or not. Dayton spun his chair around and waited for Greg to continue.

"I mean, first day. We get an alien in the engine, no one can fucking capture it, and then the Captain does. And then he goes and has a bit of a breakdown. Can't believe it, eh?"

Dayton shrugged. Greg sat up to look at him.

"What do you think of it?"

"I think it's cool." Dayton spun his chair around. "I mean, aliens exist. Goopy ones at least. What if there's intelligent life? What if we're the first to make contact with extraplanetary intelligent life?" Dayton's voice was a little high pitched towards the end, but that didn't matter. The spinning might be blamed for that. Maybe.

Greg ran a hand through his hair.

"Like a broken record, Dayton. I meant about the captain."

Dayton sobered up.

"We don't need a captain right now. The situation is under control."

"So what? Business as usual?"

"We still have a commanding officer. Let the captain do whatever he's doing. If he's not done when we need him, we'll get Zoya to tell us what to do."

"Zoya doesn't have military experience."

"Dr. Rodier then. Wasn't he a war medic?"

Greg shrugged. Dayton didn't want to admit that he wasn't sure if Dr. Rodier actually served in a war, but he vaguely remembered something about that.

"I can't see it. We were in training with the man. Hard to believe he was in the military."

Dayton couldn't argue. Neither of them said anything, not even when Greg stood up and left. He wandered through the ship, not sure where he wanted to go.

Not the med bay. That was where Captain Turner was trying to figure out how aliens fit into his Christianity. Not rec room either. Funding was low and all they had were board games. Well, game, and monopoly was a hazard no one wanted to deal with.

That left the bridge, where he'd just been, his quarters, the kitchen, or the greenhouse.

He picked the kitchen. Training told him not to have snacks, giving their food supply, so he sat at a table and fiddled with his com unit.

He hadn't had much time to play with it. He knew what it could do, but he didn't have much experience with it yet.

So he spent some time playing with it, finding the locator functions, among others.

He's just found the scanner when Dayton's voice came over the intercom.

"We're entering orbit of the exoplanet Asimov. Entering the atmosphere shortly after."

The ship rocked as the engines switched from extrasolar to orbiting. Greg stood up and opened the cover on the kitchen's windows. He watched the stars be dimmed by the atmosphere, the deep, dark blue replacing the inky black of space's void.

The Reconnaissance skimmed just within the atmosphere.

It gave Dayton a thrill he'd only known when flying his planes. The ship cruised along the line between the atmosphere and space. Dayton brought the ship down, letting the turbulence change its course through the atmosphere.

He deployed the collectors, picking up material for the scientists to analyze. He didn't need much, and brought the collectors back quickly after he'd brought them out.

And that was it for the atmosphere exploration. Until the scientists were done examining the gases, he could do whatever he wanted as long as he didn't get too far away from the planet.

So he got closer. The ship was made to land on the surface, so he wasn't too worried about damaging the trees.

The nose of the ship angled towards the icy ground. Dayton laughed, letting the ship zip over the exoplanet's surface.

He was so focused on playing with the ship that he didn't notice Dmitri's presence until the Russian grabbed onto his chair.

Under the scrutinizing gaze of the engineer, Dayton brought the ship back to orbit.

"The engines... They're not meant for this. Not yet." Dmitri patted Dayton's shoulder. "When they've had more use, maybe then."

Dayton slumped into the chair, looking up at Dmitri with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Dmitri quirked an eyebrow and left.

Dayton put the ship on autopilot. It could handle orbiting by itself, and besides, he had more important places to be.