A Planet Called Eden
Chapter 4: Planet Impossible

Angela watched the monitor in the messroom. The bizarre, patchwork surface of the massive planet stretched out belowthe orbit of the wounded Collins. Shecrushed her tube of coffee to activate the heating elements and took a longsip. It was hot, bitter, and strong. Delicious. With effort, she turned herattention back to her crew. They were all strapped in to seats at the messtable. It was time to talk about options. Angela refused to even consider thefact that they might not have any.

“Maazin?” she said.

Maazin sighed. His eyes were tired. “Minusthe time to get back through the wormhole and make it at least as far asJupiter station, we have three, maybe four days of life support.”

Angela nodded. That was better than she’dfeared. “How long to fix the engines?”

“Maybe five days,” said Maazin. “Bestcase.”

That wasn’t better than she’d feared.

“That math doesn’t work, mate,” Dominicpointed out.

Maazin shrugged. “I’m trying to repairthe most advanced piece of technology ever created with duct tape and chewinggum. Five days is a miracle.”

Kim frowned. “We don’t have chewing gum.”

Maazin shrugged. “You see my problem.”

“Angela,” Kim said, “we have to understandwhat we saw down there. We—”

“We haveto replace a way to stay alive,” said Angela. “And make it back home.”

“But … there were pyramids down there!” said Kim.

Angela permitted herself the lapse indiscipline of scowling at Kim. Of course there were goddamn pyramids downthere. There was also a goddamn hole in the side of her ship, and a crew that,by and large, liked to breathe air.

Dominic rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybeit was … you know. A trick of the shadows. Like the way people used to thinkthere was a face on Mars.”

“Oh come on—” Jack began.

“What’s your idea?” Dominic shot back.

Jack’s brow crinkled as he thought. “Maybe… maybe whoever built those things here also built the pyramids on earth.”

Dominic rolled his eyes. “Ancientastronauts? Seriously? Those are pseudoscience theories put forth by crazypeople.”

“I just put it forth!” said Jack.

“I rest my case,” said Dominic.

“Stop it!” Angela snapped. “Both of you.That’s an order.” She turned to Maazin. “Now how do we get more life support?”

“We wouldn’t need more life support onthe planet,” Kim interjected quickly. “Commander, Dominic and I aren’t any helpup here.”

“And if some of us take a lander….”Dominic added. His eyes were bright.

“That gives us another day or two of lifesupport,” Maazin said. “At least. It might be enough to keep us alive until wecan repair this wreck.”

“We can still fulfill our mission,” saidKim. “We can solve the mystery. The artifacts, the gate … where they comefrom…!”

“And learn about that … impossibleplanet,” said Dominic. He smiled. “Maybe we can replace all the missing mass aswell.”

“Please, Angela,” said Kim. “I need … we need answers.”

“The main antenna array is damaged,” saidMaazin. He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “It’ll be difficult to communicate.”

“What’s the best case scenario?” Angelaasked.

“Difficult is the best case,” said Maazin.

“The antenna on the lander should beenough to compensate,” said Kim. She looked at Maazin. “Uh, right?”

“As long as you stay with the lander,”said Maazin. “I doubt we’ll be able to pinpoint your personal comms. Not unlesswe’re almost right overhead.

“So we stay close to the lander,” saidDominic.

Angela felt herself frowning.

“We’ve come so far,” said Kim. Angela wassurprised. Her eyes were wide; Kim was almost pleading. That wasn’t like her. “Weescaped certain death by luck, by … by a miracle. It has to mean something.”

Angela shook her head. “Nothing has tomean anything.”

“Then let’s make it mean something. After all this….” Kim took a deep breath. “Weall need to matter. Don’t you think?”

“If we all stay here, our mission fails,”said Jack. Angela found herself nodding. She’d been thinking the same thing.

“If we all stay here,” said Maazin, “weall die. We fail twice.”

That, Angela thought, pretty much decides the question. She hesitated a second, doing thecalculations in her head. The safety of her crew, after all, was paramount. Werethere any other options? It didn’t seem like there were. She sure as hellcouldn’t see another, anyway.

“Okay,” Angela said at last. “Nick andKim, we’re taking the Armstrong downto the surface.”

“Angela,” said Jack, “I don’t know thisship a tenth as well as you do. Heck, you practically designed the thing.”

“O’Brien—” Angela began.

“And with all due respect,” said Jack, “you’venot a tenth the pilot I am.”

Angela closed her eyes and rubbed hertemples. Insubordinate son of a bitch.In that moment, Angela found herself hating Jack for arguing. The fact that hewas right only made it worse. The simple fact was, together, she and Maazin hadthe best chance of repairing the Collins.The others couldn’t do what they could; they would just be in the damn way. EvenJack. It was killing her, but she knew the right answer.

“Okay,” Angela said at last. “You three.Maazin and I make repairs.” She looked up and forced a smile. “So. Where first?Nexus or pyramids?”

Jack, Kim, and Dominic answered together,in unison. “Pyramids!”

# # #

Jack’s fingers brushed the controls, andthe Armstrong leveled off at fourteenkilometers. Dominic and Kim were strapped in to seats at the two instrumentclusters behind him. Below, a golden desert stretched out as far as they couldsee, at least at that altitude, even with instruments. Wind stirred the sandsof a gently sloping sea of dunes.

“I’m reading a few signs that might belife,” said Dominic. “Maybe 400 kilometers aft.”

“Should I swing back and take a look?”said Jack.

“Not worth it,” said Dominic. “An oasis, mostlikely. I’m replaceing a few of them. Let’s check the next climate zone. That’swhere we’ll replace the pyramids.”

“It’s just past those mountains ahead,”said Kim. “They’re like a … a border. Dominic, can you read the energy flow?”

“Yes,” he said. “It follows themountains. But my readings are strange … distorted, I suppose.”

“Mine, too,” said Kim. “Can youcompensate somehow?”

“Trying,” said Dominic. “Of course, itwould help if I had any idea what I was compensating for, mind.”

The mountain range stretched across thehorizon, as far as Jack could see, even from their cruising altitude. Thisclimate zone must be practically the size of an entire continent back on Earth.If those mountains stretched from one end to the other…. He whistled. “Thatmust be one long mountain range.”

He pushed down on the throttle, sendingmore thrust through the mains, and the Armstrongleapt forward.

Moments later, they were crossing the great,snowcapped rock of the mountains. And then, suddenly, lush jungle stretched outbefore them. The thick canopy, a thousand shades of green and brown, was brokenonly occasionally by shimmering lakes and the winding, silver strips of rivers.

Jack could hear Kim adjusting herinstruments. “This zone is just as large as the other,” she said. “All jungle,surrounded by mountains. It’s about 18 million square kilometers total — aboutthe size of South America.”

“Damn,” said Jack.

A monitor on Jack’s dash showed the aft view.Desert, a sudden and severe cut of seemingly impassable mountains, and thenjungle. Jack whistled again and shook his head. “Okay,” he said, “now that’sjust weird.”

Angela’s voice crackled over the comm. “There’sa clearing less than a klick away from the structures. You’re heading almost rightfor it. Maybe that’s a landing site?”

“I’ve got it,” said Jack. “Yeah, thatcould work.”

Angela hesitated. “I don’t know, Jack. It’spretty damn small for a landing. It’s barely even a target.”

Jack checked his instruments. It was small, but…. Okay, yeah. That wouldbe tight all right. That made it a challenge. He grinned. “I can hit it.”

Jack could hear Dominic turning his seat.“Are you sure? That’s—”

“I can hit it.” Jack looked over hisshoulder and grinned. “See? That’s why you need a real pilot.”

“He has a point.” Jack heard the smile inKim’s voice. He looked back at her and winked.

“Perhaps,” said Dominic. Jack heard a veryBritish scowl in his voice. “Of course, we don’t really need him coming back, though, do we? That one redcontrol there? That’s the auto return. If the pilot’s incapacitated, and I’mnot suggesting anything’s going to happen, mind, but if it does, we justactivate that and cheers! Straight back to the Collins, and Bob’s your uncle.”

“It’s idiot proof.” Jack acknowledged. “Youshould be fine. I’m taking us down.”

Jack turned the lander slightly and startedthe descent.

And then, suddenly, the ship buckled and reeled.

“What the sodding—!” The Armstronglurched again, and Dominic didn’t finish.

Jack scanned his screens frantically. “Wehit something!”

The safety straps strained to hold themas the Armstrong tumbled. Jack heardthe sickening crunch of bending metal and then the booms of twin explosions. Hecaught an acrid scent in the air; something was burning. Where the hell werethe fire retardants? Jack fought the controls, struggling to regain control.

Alarm clarions screamed. The landertumbled wildly.

Jack tasted something warm and coppery inhis mouth. He must have bitten his own tongue or the inside of his cheek. Whateverit was hurt like three kinds of hell. He focused on his training, makinghimself ignore the pain. He wrestled with the controls. “Shut that damn noiseoff!”

“I’m trying!” said Kim.

The ship rose slightly. Jack let out abreath. The starboard thruster array was working, anyway. Maybe. He forcedhimself to relax, to concentrate. “What the hell did we hit?”

“There’s nothing there!” said Dominic.

Angela’s voice came over the comm. “What’shappening? Armstrong, come in!”

Jack rebooted the control panel,sacrificing a precious second. No good. He cycled through the redundancies. Dammit, something’s gotta work here….

The lander was sinking again, cockpitfirst. He had to level off, and fast. The mains weren’t responding.

Roll was offline; he wasn’t sure aboutpitch or yaw. The scopes were useless and he didn’t have time for diagnostics. Hehad no idea what was working, what was online, what was damaged, and what hadbeen torn away utterly.

That didn’t leave much to work with.

He had to fly by feel. His fingers racedacross the controls.

Gradually, the lander stopped spinning.The prow began to rise.

And then, he heard another crash, thesound of metal tearing, and the deafening boomof another explosion.

The Armstrongseemed to bounce, tumbling violently.

“Okay,” said Jack, “we definitely hitsomething.”

“Some kind of energy—!” said Kim.

“I can’t read anything!” said Dominic.

Angela’s voice was frantic. “Armstrong! What’s happening?”

Jack slammed his fists on the controlpanel. Nothing was responding. He looked up and saw flashes of green fillingthe forward window, spinning, growing closer. “We’re going down.”

But then, the landers hit the … something and bounced again, sendingwaves of energy, like violent ripples in the very air itself, in alldirections. The ship hurled skyward.

“Or not,” said Jack.

Something hit him in the back of thehead, something small but heavy. The world turned black, and Jack had to fightto stay conscious. If he let himself pass out, they were all dead. He foughtdown a wave of nausea.

The lander was tumbling down again.Thrusters weren’t going to be enough. Jack needed the mains. If he could justreroute and bring them online, they might have a chance….

One status light blinked briefly from redto yellow. Jack nodded once. Okay, that’d have to do.

The ship spun again, and for a splitsecond, Jack saw blue sky. When the ship tumbled around again, he was ready. Heopened the throttle all the way.

With a great roar, the mains fired. Itwasn’t enough. The Armstrong slowed, butit was still dropping.

Jack’s eyes flashed across his screens,looking for any way he might be able to jury-rig some kind of bypass to rout morepower.

His heart pounded. His palms were wet buthe didn’t dare take his hands off he controls, even for the split second he’dneed to wipe them on his flight suit.

“Look!” The voice was Kim’s. Jack tiltedhis head and felt his eyes widen.

Through the cockpit window, Jack saw thewaves of energy again, this time from the other side. The mains must have beenpowerful enough to burn through that … whatever that was, that bubble of energy.Now, the ripples were flowing, resealing the puncture. And then, the motion inthe sky was still again. If there had been anything there, it was invisibleagain.

The mains were still firing. The Armstrong slowed its descent at last,and then started slowly back skyward. In less than a second, before Jack couldreact, they collided with the energy field again, this time from below. Thealarm clarions shrieked again — more damage.

Maybe he could turn the mains, and burnback through?

No, no way. If he did that, he’d launchthem straight into the ground like a bullet.

Jack’s fingers flew, reducing power tothe mains. The Armstrong was fallingagain. He turned his attention to his instruments. Every light flashed red. He stillhad no idea what, if anything, was working. When knowledge and training failed,raw instinct honed over years of hard-won experience would have to do. He madea best guess, touched his controls, and felt the lander right itself. More orless.

He raised his eyes back to thewindshield. He needed a landmark, anything. There.Ahead, he spotted the clearing. Angela was right; it was damn small. It would have been a difficult target under thebest of circumstances. These were hardly the best of circumstances, but Jackcouldn’t spot any likelier options. He pressed more tightly on the pad thatcontrolled the port thrusters. The Armstrongkeeled, a clockwise spin. He heard metal strain and tear. He eased off andtapped the starboard thrusters to compensate.

They were still going down, and fast. Butthere were heading in the right direction. More or less. That was good, becauseJack was going to need everything else the thrusters could give him to softenthe landing.

The Armstrongscraped the canopy of trees.

They were still coming down way too fast.

Jack slammed down on the retros anddescent thrusters, all of them. Something, apparently, had worked, at leastpartly, because their descent slowed, if only marginally. The ship lurched,dropped, and was down. It wasn’t exactly what you’d call a landing, but itwasn’t quite a crash, either. And they were alive, all of them. Jack closed hiseyes and slumped his head on the control panel.

“Can I open my eyes?” said Kim. “Are wedead?”

“I don’t think so,” Dominic muttered. “Thiscan’t be Heaven. See? Jack’s here.”

Jack took a deep breath and forcedhimself to let it out slowly, without a sigh. He didn’t open his eyes. Thesingle most heroic moment of a lifetime, and there was Dominic, ready with a suckerpunch to the gut. Damned if he’d let the limey son of a bitch know it had hithome.

“And by the way, I hurt my … everything,”Dominic added. “Severely, thank you very much.” Jack shrugged. Well, that wassomething, anyway.

Through the comm, Angela was practicallyshouting. “Armstrong! Come in! ForGod’s sake, what’s happening?”

Jack hit the comm control. “Collins, we’re alive,” Jack said. “We’reaccessing the damage.” He released the comm mic and turned back to Dominic andKim. “See? The clearing. Told you I could hit it. Let’s see your fancy autoreturn do that.”

# # #

The metal thing that had fallen from thesky belched black smoke.

A creature watched from the shadows ofthe jungle canopy with cold, reptilian eyes. He was Sharrganaugh of theSkareiki and he crept closer, ignoring the instinct that commanded him to flee.He sniffed. The stench was sharp and unpleasant — and utterly new. Where couldso much metal — such a fortune — have comefrom?

Sharrganaugh fought down his fear andwatched for another moment. He thought about drawing closer. Perhaps he couldlearn some thing. Perhaps he could seize a hunk of that metal for his own.

No, no. Sharrganaugh knew his duty. Heblinked again, and then turned and ran back to the deep jungle, his long tailraised for balance, moving with inhuman speed. He needed to report.

The metal thing wasn’t moving. It wouldstill be there when he returned with reinforcements.

General Skarnarak himself would want toknow about this. Perhaps he would remember and reward Sharrganaugh, the humble warriorwho brought the news.

# # #

Dominic checked his instruments again,just to be sure. “The atmosphere is breathable. We just need to … go slowly.It’s a lot richer than we’re accustomed to. Move carefully, and take shallowbreaths.”

Angela’s voice came over the comm. “Checkthe damage.”

“Like we hadn’t thought of that,” Jackmuttered.

“What’s that?” said Angela. “I didn’tcopy.”

“We’re on it,” Kim said quickly.

Jack hit the control that lowered theramp. Kim and Dominic started down. Kim was the first to step off and onto thesoil of the alien world. She turned back, and Dominic saw her grinning. “That’sone small step for a woman….”

“…one giant leap onto Planet bloodyImpossible,” Dominic finished.

“Not really one for the history books isit?” said Jack.

Dominic gave Kim a pat on the shoulder. “Wecan tell them you said something better later. Human spirit, quest forknowledge, all that rubbish. We’ll make all poetical.”

He took a deep breath. The air was richand heavy, like breathing through a wet flannel blanket, but it made him feel simultaneouslylight-headed and almost superhuman. The scents were strange and intense, amedley of rich loam, growth, and decay. It was hot, and the sky was shockingly,almost achingly blue.

Dominic took another step. The groundsquished; the black mud was wet under his boot. Thick jungle surrounded them onall sides. Behind them, Dominic could make out, barely, the distant, gray peaksof the great mountains that separated them from the dry vastness of the great desertbeyond. Ahead, the gently sloping hills were covered with the deep greenpatchwork of more jungle. In the distance, he heard sounds that might have beenthe noise of animals bolting, or might have been an especially aggressive windin the trees. Dominic shook his head. He didn’t have enough experience with theoutdoors to know the difference.

Kim raised her wristband, activated theholographic display, and started scanning. While she waited for results,Dominic turned his attention back to the lander. The Armstrong wasn’t a pretty sight. The landing gear had been shornaway, along with a great deal of the hull.

“What’s the situation?” Angela asked. Hervoice from the wristband speakers was faint. The signal wasn’t the best.

“This vegetation,” Kim began, “it’sconsistent with Earth—!”

“I’m talking about the Armstrong, Specialist Chang,” saidAngela.

“It’s bad,” said Dominic. “I’m seeingmultiple hull breaches. Too many for us to patch. The port side maneuveringthrusters are gone completely.”

“Jack, do you have mains?” Angela’s voicecrackled with digital noise. The signal wasn’t close to optimal.

“Hang on one,” said Jack. Dominic saw himworking his controls and then peering through the cockpit window. “You guysclear?”

Dominic hit his comm stud. “All clear.”

# # #

Sharrganaugh, the creature that had beenwatching, returned, bringing his commanding officer and three more warriors. Theymoved silently, without speaking, and they stayed hidden, crouching in theshadows under the trees. The creature and his commanding officer both raised thethin tubes of brass telescopes and studied the scene before them.

Two pale figures had emerged from thesmoking metal. They appeared to be human, although of course no humans had beenseen this far from the gate in the Fallen City, not in many years, anyway. Athird human could be seen inside the metal hulk. It was doing something withits hands.

And then, the creatures leapt in suddenfright as, with a great and fearsome BOOM,the metal thing belched fire from the great cones at its back. The trees behindthe thing exploded into flames.

The creatures darted quickly and silentlyback, deeper into the shadows of the dense jungle.

# # #

“We have mains,” Kim said wryly. Shedidn’t need the comm to hear Jack swearing as he worked the controlsfrantically. After a long moment, the engines stopped. In the distance, a fewof the trees still burned.

“You can throttle those back a little,Ace,” said Dominic. “For God’s sake, man, we just needed a little test, notescape velocity.”

“The regulators are offline,” said Jack.

Angela’s voice crackled over the comm. “Thenbe careful! You’ll cause an overload and blow the thing up!”

“And then we’d be out a perfectly goodwreck,” said Jack.

Kim met Dominic’s gaze. He shrugged andmanaged a smile. Kim didn’t replace it especially reassuring. “It’s not goingmatter, is it?” said Dominic. “Not even Maazin could fix this mess.”

Maazin’s voice came over the comm. “Asmuch as I hate to admit that, it appears he’s right.”

“We’ll have to pick you up in theAldrin,” said Angela.

“Forget it,” said Jack. “You won’t beable to get down. The Buzz’ll just hit that same … energy thing.”

“Kim,” said Angela, “can you turn it off?Like the energy bubble over the wormhole gate. If you broadcast a signal—”

Kim chewed her lower lip for a second asshe thought. Then she shook her head. “There’s nothing to broadcast to. Even if the same code worked again.There’s no sign of technology.”

Jack came down the ramp and joined them.“Then we need to replace some technology.”

“The nexus?” asked Angela.

Dominic looked at Kim. She shrugged.Dominic raised his wristband. “The energy flows that border the climate zonescould be generating the … whatever it is we hit. Those readings were weird,too. If so, it’s logical to assume that the nexus point is probably where it’sgenerated. That means technology.”

“You call that logic?” asked Jack.

“It’s not that great a stretch, is it?”said Dominic. “But if you disagree, what do you have?”

“You’re the scientist,” said Jack.

“Right, and you’re the bloody pilot thatjust crashed us!”

“Which means,” Kim said quickly, “ifthere’s a way to turn the energy bubble off, it’s at that nexus. I mean, that’sas good a guess as any, right?”

Dominic turned slowly back to her. “Betterthan no guess at all,” he said.

Jack turned to the horizon. Kim followedhis gaze. The jungle was thick. They couldn’t see far. Jack nodded. “Okay. So. Wehave to get to the nexus.”

# # #

In the Collins, Maazin looked at Angela and shrugged. “That’s probably theonly way we can get you home,” said Angela. “It’s a long shot—”

Jack’s voice came over the comm. “I’lltake that over ‘no shot’ any day.”

“It should only take a couple of days toget there,” said Dominic. “We’re not that far away. Not with the rover.”

Angela didn’t answer. She frowned as sheturned her eyes to the gauge that showed the Collins’s dwindling life support. The needle was dropping slowly tored. The precious seconds were already ticking away.

Maazin leaned closer to the mike. “Oneproblem.”

“One?” came Jack’s reply. Angela smiledin spite of herself. She must be getting punchy.

“Another problem,” Maazin correctedhimself. “We’ll only be able to communicate with you when we’re right overhead.”

“Don’t worry,” said Dominic. “We’ll belistening every orbit.”

“Hurry,” said Angela. “You’ve only gotfive days.” She set a timer on her wristband. The countdown had begun.

“We’re on our way.” Kim’s voice soundedsurprisingly confident.

“Good luck,” said Angela. “Collins out.”

Maazin put a hand on her shoulder.“C’mon.” He smiled. “Mission Commander. Let’s start with the power relays tolife support. We’ve still got a space ship to fix.”