Unbounded

Chapter Three: Significant Sea

Mission Time: +254.28 Earth-years

Metallic rings slid up around Tekoha, retracting into the ceiling.

"You can step down now," Tai said as he tapped a wall console. "You're all clear."

"Thanks Doctor," Tekoha said, lowering himself from the glowing circular platform. "I was wondering if you have a moment before your next patient comes in."

"You're my last one for the day. Everyone came out of stasis with no problems, as usual. Don't know how long that will last."

"Then let me distract you from your worries for a moment." He walked over to the wall console and pulled up a blank terminal. "You must have heard what I found on Cold Trove."

"Yes ...."

"As someone interested in biological matters, I thought you could appreciate this." Tekoha's fingers danced out a pattern on the screen, and images of the alien fossils appeared. "These are scans I took at the last moment before I was ordered back."

Tai's nose drew closer to the images. "Absolutely incredible. The diversity of symmetries. The soft tissue detail. This fauna is half a gigayear old?"

"Yes. Without the ice catastrophe, that planet may have ended up very similar to modern Earth."

He smiled, eyes darting briefly to Tekoha. "I suppose no matter how this mission ends, we were lucky to be here, to experience this."

Tekoha nodded sharply. "I agree, whole-heartedly. It seems most of the crew is so focused on the mission, they don't take a moment to acknowledge what we've accomplished so far."

Tai shrugged. "They're worried about their survival. Unfortunately, in times of great need, science becomes a luxury."

"Somehow I doubt what you're doing in there is a luxury," Tekoha gestured to the open door of an adjoining room, in which microscopes and tissue culture stations were visible.

"I'm growing a tissue bank and developing various bionic implants with some minerals picked up from Cold Trove. It may be a stop-gap for when people's organs start failing. Ultimately, though, the replacement parts are just as radioactive as human bodies. The more material we can gather on our stops, the better."

Tekoha nodded. "Well, I'll leave you to it." He headed for the exit.

"Tekoha," Tai said. He was staring at the fossil images on the wall. "Perhaps you could put in a request to Mbali for me. She may not like it, but I would like to join a landing party for the next planetfall we make."

"Sure, I'll see what I can do." Tekoha exited into the circumferential corridor.

Tai shut down the machines in the medical bay and went into the adjoining laboratory. The spotlights in the ceiling brightened, following him around the lab tables. Other lights dimmed and went off in the areas he vacated. For nearly an hour he went from monitor to monitor, looking at displays from microscopes, adjusting environmental parameters of tissue cultures, and controlling gene-sequencing. Then the lights in the medical bay turned on, and Tekoha appeared in the lab doorway.

"You're on," Tekoha said. "We're going down now."

"Thank you Tekoha. How long will you spend on the surface?"

"Don't know. But Doctor ..." Tekoha smiled. "We found liquid water."

"That's fantastic news. But I can't go with you now; I still have work to do here. I'll join you in a Tawaki-class skiff when I'm done."

"Very well. Don't be too long. The weather's balmy!" He left, and Tai turned back to his instruments. Robotic arms extended down from the ceiling and performed delicate grafts.