Star Fields

Chapter No.3 Assessment

Chapter No.3 Assessment

Feeling alone can occur in a crowded room!

I had already finished frying two cuts of bio-generated steak when I heard the door signal chime.

My assistants Alice and Ellen invited Molly into my quarters and directed her to the kitchen/dining area.

When she saw me busy with cooking, she gave me a surprised look. "You know how to cook?"

I smiled back. "I learned to cook at the academy. It came in handy at times when my lazy roommates were hungry." I gestured to the table. "Have a seat while I finish this."

She sat down and stared at a glass filled with an unexpected beverage.

"Is this what I think it is?"

I smiled. "Yes, it's beer. The androids brew it."

She took a sip. "Wow! They do a good job."

"They certainly do."

"I'm surprised that they would have beer on a deep space mission."

"There are a lot of surprises about this mission," I said as I placed some meat and broccoli on her plate.

She gave me a confused look."

"How did they describe this mission to you?" I asked her.

"They said it was a colonization mission to establish human presence on an exo-planet."

"That's what they told me, but it was a lie. This was actually a military mission to establish a base on an exo-planet in preparation for an invasion of an alien planet."

She frowned. "That would suggest that an alien species had done something serious enough to warrant a war. I had not heard of any threat or attack of that nature."

"Neither had I, but it's obvious that this was the case. This vessel has four thousand androids on stand-by and a thousand battle droids. We have enough weaponry to take out entire planets."

Her eyes grew large. "Holy shit!"

"My sentiments exactly."

"Are we in danger of being attacked?"

"I don't know, but that's the reason that we must take on water as soon as possible. Hopefully, the planet we're headed to has water."

"It's not a planet. It's a moon."

I squinted. "A moon?"

"It's a habitable moon eight tenths the mass of Earth orbiting a Saturn sized gas giant in the habitable zone of a G-5 class white dwarf star."

"How is that possible?"

"Apparently, the Jupiter sized gas giant in this system pushed the Saturn sized gas giant into the inner part of this solar system and it literally cleaned out any rocky planets that had formed . . . except for this one rocky planet. It got lucky enough to be captured. It's obvious that this is the case because it orbits the gas giant about twenty five degrees off the ecliptic."

"I assume that this habitable moon has an atmosphere and liquid water on its surface."

"Oh yes. There's plenty of water. However, the tides are pretty bodacious, being this close to a gas giant. This system is relatively young compared to our solar system. I estimate it to be three billion years old, which was just enough time for this moon to cool down and form an atmosphere."

"Is there any life on it?"

"Yes. There is oxygen in its atmosphere but it's a bit on the low side. Plant life is abundant. I assume there is some primitive life down there."