Return of the Argo

By Bob Springett

The mission is complete, and now the Argo starts the journey back to report their activities and findings. What they are taking back is nothing like what was expected at the outset. On the way back, they leave some of their own crew on an abandoned human colony on Mars.As the Argo arrives in the Home Syst

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen Culture Solutions
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781638122654

Book preview

RETURN of the ARGO Warning—Going home can cause dismay!

Copyright © 2022 by Bob Springett.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-63812-264-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63812-265-4

All rights reserved. No part in this book may be produced and transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Published by Pen Culture Solutions 09/20/2022

Pen Culture Solutions 1-888-727-7204 (USA)

1-800-950-458 (Australia) [e-mail]

Dedications

To Olaf Stapledon, ethicist and writer who imagined

so much bigger than anyone before him.

And Gaby Michaelis,

Who told me everything that was wrong in this

book. In the nicest possible way, of course!

Acknowledgements

Many ingredients in this story have been appropriated from the work of others. All writers do this, adding their own insights. It is how a particular writing tradition or genre develops. I think of it as standing on the shoulders of giants.

The reference to welcoming the Mars Delegation using red, green and blue stripes and roundels is conscious homage to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy.

I am deeply indebted to Robert Zubrin’s seminal article ‘Technological Requirements for Terraforming Mars’ (NASA Ames Research Center, c. 1993), even though the plot of this book deviates from it in places.

But of particular influence in the philosophical underpinning of this series of novels is Ted Chiang’s novella ‘The Story of your Life’. It is a must-read.

I also freely confess that Ursula’s concept of the immutability of the future is a form of ‘Block Time’ or ‘Eternalism’. To a religious person, this sounds very much an atheist’s version of an extreme form of Predestination such as could be based on Romans 8:28, or Jesus’ own words in Matthew 10:29-31. In the same way, Horst’s ‘Ethic of the Inevitable’ (What should be done must be done because it has been done and will be done) is similar in concept to Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And both have a strong affinity with key concepts in other religious traditions.

ERDAN PLANETARY SYSTEM

Planetary orbits of larger radii are unstable under the influence of Tall Man

Contents

Prologue                  Mission Year 114      3 million years B.C

Chapter One            Mission Year 114     3 million years B.C

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four           Mission Year 146      Earth Year 4867 B.C

Chapter Five            Mission Year 148      Mars Year 32

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine          Mission Year 158       Mars Year 38

Chapter Ten            Mission Year 210       Mars Year 72

Chapter Eleven        Mission Year 212       Mars Year 771

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen     Mission Year 275      Erde Year 1270

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty One       Mission Year 278     Erde Year 1273

Chapter Thirty Two

Chapter Thirty Three     Mission Year 280     Erde Year 1275

Chapter Thirty Four       Mars Year 771         Erde Year 1206

Chapter Thirty Five        Mars Year 824         Erde Year 1292

Chapter Thirty Six          Erde Year 1292

Chapter Thirty Seven

Chapter Thirty Eigh t     Erde Year 1295

Chapter Thirty Nine

Chapter Forty                 Erde Year -6

Chapter Forty One          Erde Year -1

Chapter Forty Two

Chapter Forty Three

Chapter Forty Four

Chapter Forty Five

Chapter Forty Six

Prologue

(Last chapter of

‘Mission of the Argo’)

Earth Orbit 3 million years B.C.

Mission year 114

The return of the last of the australopithecines went smoothly. A long effort that had filled all their horizons for more than a generation was now finished. The shock of having nothing left to do hung over the ship as the crew took it in. Lisa had known this would happen and had worked up an address for Ursula to give over the ship’s communication systems. Ursula accepted this in principle but she had her own ideas about what had to be said. She took out her prepared notes as a memory-aid, even though she intended to speak in an informal manner rather than reading a speech. She heard Lisa’s voice calling for attention over the ship’s broadcast system. The Captain was about to make an announcement. Ursula took a deep breath, flicked the microphone switch and began.

"Good morning, everyone. And a good morning it is indeed! We have finished the critical part of our mission. We have ensured that the creators will appear on this planet, and that as a consequence we humans will also appear on Erde. And not only us, but all who will follow us in the future. We have been midwives to two intelligent species this last year. Who knows how many more will spring from our work in the millions of years to come?

"That isn’t all we have done. This mission was originally designed to take perhaps a hundred and twenty years subjective time and to deliver a treasure of technology back to Erde. We have already taken almost that long and we still have all of the return voyage ahead of us. We will not be taking back a library full of futurist technology, either. The data storage computers on Mars gave us a lot of science but not as much or as advanced as might have been hoped.

"But we will be taking back something much more valuable. We will be taking back more stories than can be recounted; stories of unspeakable brutality mixed with the most glorious heroism, stories of a race as intelligent as we are but who deliberately, knowingly and systematically destroyed themselves. We will take back stories of selfishness to the point of genocide and selflessness that would have inspired Father Jupiter himself. "That is the true treasure that we have found. Not a few toys that might give our scientists and engineers wet dreams for a moment and soon enough become a vague memory in the past. Instead we will take back a mirror, an eternal means of self-examination, by which we can judge ourselves. I recall reading about one of the creators’ wisest minds when sentenced to death for daring to follow the Truth. ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’, he declared.

"We are taking back a mirror to enable that self-examination, not just for our own times but for all posterity down through the ages. No longer can we just assume that we and our civilisation will continue to advance. Now we will always be able to ask, and we always must ask, ‘Are we committing any of the obscenities of the creators at their worst, or are we emulating them at their best?’

"At what price, you might ask. We have knowingly triggered the creation of a race that will end in destruction at its own hand, and which will inflict enormous pain and suffering upon billions of their own individual members over hundreds of thousands of generations. Is anything worth that price?

I will not presume to answer on behalf of the race I have condemned to that fate. I have no right to do that. Rather, I will let one of their own most amazing minds answer that on their behalf. His name was Stapledon. This writer foresaw that the glory of the race of creators would one day fall. He wrote a book in which at the last, as the certainty of inescapable extinction loomed over them all, his spokesman for all his lineage gave this retrospect. It’s in language and uses concepts which sound unfamiliar to our ears, but let that remind you that this is a different race speaking, and speaking for itself in its own words.

Ursula changed her tone slightly, to indicate that she was now reading the words of another.

Man has winged hopefully. He had in him to go further than this short flight, now ending. He proposed even that he should become the Flower of All Things, and that he should learn to be the All-Knowing, the All Admiring. Instead, he is to be destroyed. He is only a fledgling caught in a bushfire. He is very small, very simple, very little capable of insight. His knowledge of the great orb of things is but a fledgling’s knowledge. His admiration is a nestling’s admiration for the things kindly to his own small nature. He delights only in food and the food-announcing call. The music of the spheres passes over him, through him, and is not heard.

Yet it has used him. And now it uses his destruction. Great and terrible and very beautiful is the Whole; and for Man the best is that the Whole should use him.

But does it really use him? Is the beauty of the Whole really enhanced by our agony? And is the Whole really beautiful? And what is beauty? Throughout all his existence Man has been striving to hear the music of the spheres, and has seemed to himself once and again to catch some phrase of it, or even a hint of the whole form of it. Yet he can never be sure that he has truly heard it, nor even that there is any such perfect music at all to be heard. Inevitably so; for if it exists, it is not for him in his littleness.

But one thing is certain. Man himself, at the very least, is music; a brave theme that makes music also of its vast accompaniment, its matrix of storms and stars. Man himself in his degree is eternally a beauty in the eternal form of things. And so we may go forth together with laughter in our hearts, and peace; thankful for the past and for our own courage. For we shall make after all a fair conclusion to this brief music that is Man.

It is very good to have been Man!

Chapter One

Earth Orbit 3 million years B.C.

Mission year 114

Ursula cut the transmission after a slight pause to allow that final quote to make its impression. She knew her own faults, in that analytical and dispassionate way that only she seemed to be able to manage and which she did without distress. She saw everything as though she stood outside it, analysing without emotional content. Emotions other than simple satisfaction or disappointment were largely a strange land to her. Only her prodigious intelligence had allowed her to impute and anticipate the emotions of others, like a colourblind person trying to understand from observation and theory alone how normal-sighted people interact with colours.

Lisa had explained to Ursula her condition in clinical terms, tentatively even though she knew that there would arise no resentment or offence. Ursula understood that she needed to know such things if she were to function as Captain. In short, she was in many ways an example of high- functioning autism combined with the exceptionally high base intelligence of a polymath. Werner and Theresa, the previous Captain and First Officer, had both been excellent psychologists themselves and even they disagreed on where in that range to place her.

This explained her brilliance in so wide a range of the physical sciences but it also left her unable to empathise intuitively, having to intellectually deduce the emotional state of others. She often found herself lacking in that regard. It also explained her famously dry sense of humour. Her logical mind readily lent itself to plays on words and understanding absurdities or ironies, but couldn’t grasp forms of humour based on embarrassment or emotions.

That was brilliant, Ursula, Lisa exclaimed. Where did it come from? Lisa had never expected so profound an insight to spring from her Captain.

I listen to what you tell me, Lisa, Ursula answered casually. I listen, I analyse, I apply. I hope that what I said can give the crew a context for what comes next.

Parvati herself couldn’t have said better, Lisa assured her, referring to the First Mother whose society had become a by-word for its emphasis on healthy emotional development. Can you really make inspiration nothing more than the meticulous application of reasoning?

Well, it’s done now, Ursula stepped away from the subject. Lisa knew her Captain well enough by now to recognise her impatience with anything touching on discussion of emotions unless it had an immediate purpose.

Yes, Captain. Time for a celebratory holiday? Or do you want to start sliding back home first?

Perhaps a Council Meeting first, Ursula answered, again unsure of what would best serve the emotional needs of the crew. ‘How strange,’ she thought to herself, ‘that I, the emotional cripple, invent the idea of surface holidays to refresh the crew after my psychologist predecessors had gone more than a hundred years without thinking of it. Perhaps my rationalism is more efficient than their professional training and intuition.’

I think those other breaks did the crew a power of good, Lisa offered. You could tell who had been down and who was still waiting their turn just from the skin colour. The time under natural sunlight gave the men in particular that deep olive sheen that I remember from Erde, and the women still waiting for their turn were as pale as clouds instead of a proper leafy green.

Yes, Ilsa says it’s good for general health, too. She noted better blood chemistry in the crew after the last break.

I’ll call a meeting tomorrow morning, then, Lisa acknowledged and took out her communicator to send out the appointment.

Ladies and men, I have called this meeting for one obvious reason, Ursula opened the meeting. At last the outward mission is complete. We can rule a line under it. We still have to take our data back home but that’s long-range and not urgent. What else should we do while we’re in this place and this time? She looked to Rolf, the most junior member of the Council, to express his opinion first. This was standard practice to ensure the junior members could speak their minds without feeling as though they are challenging the opinions of more senior officers who had spoken before them.

What are the options, Captain? Rolf was still timid. That’s what I’m asking you for.

I hadn’t thought of anything except going back home. Perhaps with a few spells of surface leave as we slide back to our own time. Rolf looked to Lillian, usually next to speak.

The last thirty years have been sliding, sliding, sliding, Lillian said. As Head of Crew Support her first thought was always on crew morale. Sure, the trapping and seeding of the creator species has been important and everyone feels a deep satisfaction that we completed that mission, but no-one outside Science Section has really been involved in that. Oh, and Medical, of course. For the others the only relief has been surface leave, as Rolf mentioned. So whatever we do, it has to either involve the whole crew or at least provide them with regular relief. They need something to look forward to.

The other officers fell in behind Lillian. They all thought a break right now would be important for the psychology of marking the end of the main task.

Excellent. So Rolf, let’s have another holiday now, Ursula summarised. That should give all of you time to think about a replacement for me. I’ll resign once the holiday camp is up and running. That will give the next Captain time to settle in.

Lisa was stunned. You’re resigning? Why?

I’m one hundred and fifty two years old right now. I won’t last much longer. And to be blunt, the scientific part of the mission is ended. I’m a scientist pure and simple, so I’m not the best choice of Captain for the next phase. Ursula looked around the table. And I thank you all for your service under me, she added, knowing that such an inane statement was required in these circumstances.

The other seven in the meeting looked to each other. The next few months promised to be interesting.

Back to business, Ursula took up the running. Rolf, if you and Antonio would be good enough to get the camp-building crew together again, please? Same place as last time, I expect. I’ve heard no complaints.

Yes, ma’am.

Are there any other matters to consider? Ursula asked. Immediate plans were the only thing I had in mind when I called this meeting, but if any of you have something on your minds? She looked around and saw no response.

Then I thank you, and let’s get to work.

‘The same place as last time’ for immediate shore leave was not an entirely accurate description. That last holiday had been a hundred thousand years into the future. Not only was there no camp there, there was not even the island there yet. There was just a roiling, steaming patch of sea where the core cone was about to rise above sea level. There was another island to the north-west suitable for the purpose, but comparison with the photographs taken during the time of the creators suggested that there would be no re-surfacing before the creators arose. Any holiday camp here might leave traces that could conceivably endure until the creators found them. This was expressly forbidden by Ursula’s orders. Rolf’s timidity left him with only one course of action.

Ursula felt the vibration of the communicator in her thigh pocket. She took it out and glanced at the screen. Yes Rolf?

"Captain, may drop in to discuss the shore leave proposal with you?

When might be convenient?"

Would it be more convenient if I drop in on you now, Rolf? You probably have maps and other information with you. Ursula was aware of Rolf’s need for encouragement. Lisa in her technical jargon called it ‘second quadrant’ management style, to support a subordinate in terms of self-confidence while encouraging initiative and independence in the technical aspects of the job.

Thank you, Captain. When can I expect you?

I’m on my way now, Ursula replied. Order a tash for each of us. Friendliness, informality, a relaxed setting is what Lisa had recommended whenever possible when dealing with Rolf.

Rolf’s office was the same place as had been called ‘Ursula’s Den’ back when she had been Head of Science, before her elevation to the command. Rolf had completely refashioned the layout. Ursula had set herself up behind a single long desk which had wrapped around two complete sides of the room. Her desk had been partitioned to provide a separate desk space for each Division under her control. That had allowed little more than three visitors chairs that could be moved to whatever part of the long desk was in use, and bare standing space within the remaining space just inside the door.

Rolf had replaced that with his modest desk in one corner, as though cowering from intruders, with an informal tash setting in the other back corner. There was a stack of chairs in the other corner. Rolf liked his subordinates to meet often and in mass, each knowing as much as possible about what everyone else was doing and bouncing ideas around the whole group.

Thank you for coming, Captain, Rolf rose from his chair and came around to the tash table, indicating a chair for Ursula. He picked up a folder from his desktop as he did so. This had a small magnet on the back face, to hold it in place against the tabletop in zero-g environments.

Once they were both seated he took out four photographs. There was a knock at the open door and a kitchen hand delivered the two tash, placing the zero-g mugs on the table and retiring. Rolf smiled and nodded his thanks.

About this next holiday, Captain, Rolf introduced his subject. "The island where we had our last break is still below sea level. There’s another island nearby that would be good enough. The problem is that the best place for a camp won’t be buried under another eruption before the creators get there. Three million years is a long time, though, and I can’t imagine any of our traces lasting that long.

"But if not leaving any traces is an absolute requirement, one option is to slide forward and use the same site as our last holiday. The closer we can get to the same time the more of the old site is likely to be salvageable, but we would need to be precise about that. At worst, we just replace whatever has to be replaced. In either case, we would need to go out to the Cloud again and do a full round of twelve slides. That would take at least two years to get there and back.

The next option is to forget about trying to use the same camp. Once out in the Cloud, we can just slide for as long as you want, and then have a break whenever you say. Rolf took a sip of tash.

Ursula sat still for as moment. She knew Rolf would be disconcerted by that so she answered after only a short pause. I suppose you got those photos out of records because you thought they might be helpful, she offered. That was good thinking.

Yes, ma’am, Rolf laid them out on the table facing Ursula. She lifted her tash to help clear a space and then took a sip as an afterthought. These two are probably the most helpful, Rolf continued. You can see that the landform around the bay is much the same, both now and in the creators’ time. The only significant difference is that the sea level is about twenty paces lower now than it will be then, so the shore will be flooded. But if anyone leaves anything behind during a walk in the hills, that could be the problem.

Ursula stared at the photos and nodded. You did well to think beyond the immediate risk of leaving the structures behind, she said. Second quadrant, she said to herself in keeping with Lisa’s advice. Have you looked elsewhere? Even in the other oceans, for a similar volcanic island that we could use but will be re-surfaced in years to come?

Not yet, ma’am. I have some people scanning our data now. Please keep looking and let me know what you find. Meanwhile I’ll talk to Lisa. Ursula stood. Good work, Rolf.

Thank you, ma’am. Rolf stood respectfully in farewell.

We really should give the crew a break right now, Lisa urged Ursula. Otherwise we might as well admit that there will be no celebration. Even a small slide will psychologically put us on the return journey.

Then we’ll see what Rolf finds and take it. Even if we risk leaving something behind. Ursula shrugged. Three million years is a long time. Nothing would survive that long anyway.

Ursula’s communicator vibrated. She glanced at the screen. Rolf. She pressed the ‘accept’ button Yes, Rolf?

My people have found another island. Volcanic, like the last one, and due to be resurfaced before the creators arrive. Rolf couldn’t keep a hint of triumph from his voice.

Excellent, Ursula enthused. Would you please take leadership on organising this? You have the experience.

Yes, ma’am. I’ll send through details for your approval before I go any further.

If you like it, then I approve, Rolf. Send the details around Heads of Sections as required for a smooth process.

Yes, ma’am. Rolf cut the call.

Solves that problem, Lisa commented.

Yep. Perhaps we should have another Council Meeting tomorrow, just to make sure everyone is up to date and any wrinkles are ironed out. I’ll organise that now, Lisa answered, taking out her communicator.

Chapter Two

Antonio’s crew were becoming practised in the art of setting up these primitive but comfortable holiday barracks by now. He had even made a point of having the setup crew from the last camp write up a step-by- step programme, complete with plans for the huts, rules of thumb for the landing pads and pile driving techniques for the foundations and the short jetty. There was even a list of the quantities of various materials required. One month into the camp Ursula called a Council Meeting on the planet so the senior officers could see the site for themselves. While there they could enjoy a meal of fish and fowl trapped on and around the island and hear Ursula’s formal resignation.

It’s been a while since we had to replace a Captain, she opened. I hope by now that you have all thought carefully about who should take over, so anything I say will not have undue influence. She smiled thinly. "But some small influence, I hope.

When I step down, Lisa will become Acting Captain. She will then determine exactly what happens and when. I hope that she acts promptly to call for a vote. To remind you all, Standing Orders require that the election of the new Captain must have the broad consensus of the Council. Any two of you may veto the new appointment. This rule was put in place to ensure that a new Captain can count on support from the Council, and until that support crystallises around one specific person the First Officer shall continue to act. If the problem becomes intractable, which I sincerely hope will not be the case, then the First Officer has the power to replace Heads of Sections one by one, provided she has a simple majority of the Council supporting each replacement. Ursula looked up and down the table. Are there any questions about the procedure? There was silence.

"Then I have only one last comment to make. Ladies and men, I want to thank you all for your support, your diligence and your competence during my custodianship. It’s no exaggeration to say that without your work everyone we have known and will know would never have existed. As far as we know, no civilised society would have arisen in the entire universe. Your work has had truly cosmic significance. It has been an incomprehensible honour to have been part of this effort with you.

"Now comes a completely different phase for this mission, with completely different requirements. I don’t have the skill set to lead that phase. Therefore it’s only proper that I step aside in favour of whomever your collective wisdom would endorse for the task.

To my mind, the next phase of this mission will be the painfully obvious task of getting this ship home so we can report back on what we have discovered and done. The key skills required will be in the physical sciences, certainly, but Applied Science in particular. To my mind, that term is a good working definition of Engineering. So as far as my opinion might carry some small weight with you, I leave that comment on the table. Then she turned to address Lisa directly.

Lisa Sophie, I resign my commission as an officer on this ship. I surrender command to you.

Ma’am, I accept your resignation and assume command, Lisa replied, and I thank you for your service, she added. The two women formally touched right cheeks in the traditional Parvatian way. Then Ursula left the room, closing the door behind her.

Lisa turned back to the table. Ladies and men, it is my intention to replace the Captain as quickly as possible. If we can decide that matter today, then let us do so. If any two of you prefer more time to debate and weigh the issues, then simply vote against all nominations to effectively veto the process. Lisa’s eyes fell on Rolf to speak first.

I have absolute confidence in every one of you, Rolf declared. So please, don’t any of you resent that I will vote against every nomination until you all agree. My purpose is to ensure that whoever is chosen is chosen unanimously. Until then, let Lisa continue in command.

Lisa scanned the table. Lillian, please share your thoughts.

Lillian had known that she would be next to speak, being the next most junior officer at the Council.

When the Captain spo- sorry, she corrected herself. "When Ursula spoke about the mission being basically an engineering task from this point onwards, she was not entirely correct. Getting home is only a part of the broader mission of keeping the ship and the crew together so that objective can be achieved.

"The crew know they have done something of profound importance. They also know that anything they do after this will be trivial in comparison. Even this shore leave, important as it is to reinforce their sense of self-satisfaction for a job well done, is also a reminder that anything else they do in their future will be of comparative insignificance.

Therefore morale is as important as it ever was. My preference would be for Lisa to formally step up to the Worry Seat, perhaps with Antonio or Rolf as First Officer to provide a physical science perspective.

Attention shifted to Carla. "I take Ursula’s point. Speaking from an Applied Science background myself, I would expect that the Engineering decisions will be either totally routine, or if not then whoever is Captain will follow Antonio’s advice anyway. With both Lillian and Lisa, I think we have a wealth of Crew Support advice at our disposal as well. Again, it would be a foolish Captain who would ignore that and certainly I don’t see any of us as fools.

In my opinion, the most important single skill required is to ensure that the whole of the crew see themselves as a team. A team in which morale is high, certainly, but one important feature of high morale is an assurance of competence at the top and a sense that we are making progress. Therefore my priority is to elect a person who can integrate all of us effectively and convey this sense of integration to the crew as a whole. In this regard, I take great comfort in what Rolf just said. His insistence upon unanimity is crucial. This shows his intuitive awareness of the psychological aspects of the task. As well as that, he is Head of Science, so he is able to understand Engineering and Recycling as well. And his notorious inclusiveness within his own Section shows he knows how to build a cohesive team, so I’m confident that he will listen carefully to advice from others.

So as startling as this might sound at first hearing, I think Rolf has the attributes we most need. His very humility is what fits him for this role.

Everyone around the table looked to Rolf. He sat still, the expression on his face one of embarrassment.

Ilsa? Lisa asked.

Ilsa gaped for a moment. I came here today expecting Ursula to step down and we would then debate between Lisa or Antonio. These are the two most senior officers and from key Sections. But I think Carla might have a point. I’d like more time to chew things over. She looked to Santino, the next to speak in the normal routine.

Santino pressed his lips together before speaking. I get on well with Antonio. Quite apart from the personal relationship, everyone knows that he’s meticulous and cautious. There’s never any doubt that he does everything imaginable to ensure the machinery works perfectly every time. So far on this mission he has managed almost four thousand slides, using equipment that was originally designed for a single use. I have no doubt at all that he’s Captain material. He paused.

But then, I see before me a table full of Captain material. I remember the first ever Council meeting I attended under Werner, who said that every one of us was there because we were even better than the best that Erde could offer. He was right. Now, so many years later, we are even better than we were then. So I agree with Rolf. The only danger that we risk is disunity. I agree with Ilsa, too. I was thinking only of two candidates, but I realise now I need to look at everyone here as a serious candidate. I want more time to do that.

All eyes drifted to Antonio, the Engineer and the most senior Section Head. What can I say? he asked with a shrug. I’m brilliant at what I do, he asserted, self-mockingly. Then he became more serious. But that doesn’t mean I’m brilliant at everything. Perhaps the ship would be better served if you left this square peg in the square hole that it fits so perfectly. The impish smile was unmistakeable.

Lisa waited a moment, in part to ensure Antonio had finished and in part to recover from this unexpected turn of events. "Thank you all for speaking so candidly. This has been a most productive discussion. Unless there’s a feeling otherwise, I propose that we take this away for another three days for thought before we discuss it again. For the sake of completeness, I feel obliged to show my hand as clearly as you all have shown yours.

"Ursula is an exceptional woman. She is what is known as a polymath, verging on Savant Syndrome in several areas simultaneously but with very few of the associated disabilities. As you would have recognised by now, one of her weaknesses was in personal relationships. So it’s not unexpected that her parting words concentrated on the technical and analytical aspects of the mission before us. Her advice is definitely worth noting and keeping in mind, but must also be balanced against other perspectives. I agree with her that Engineering will be critical to our success. As someone with a background in Crew Support, I also see the importance of the psychological factors.

I came here expecting to be selected as Captain, in which case I would have taken Antonio as my First Officer. Or if Antonio had been elected I expected that he would retain me as his First Officer. I now see that the issue is much more complex than my facile assumptions.

Lisa waited to see if anyone wanted to speak further. There was no movement. Then I thank you for your attention and we’ll discuss this again in three days. The meeting dispersed, each Head going back to his or her fiefdom.

Rolf heard the characteristic gentle chime of his communicator. The screen showed it was Ursula calling him.

Yes, Captain?

I’m not Captain any longer, Rolf, she corrected him gently. Right now I’m just an old woman with nothing to do. Can I be of some use to you in Science Section? Perhaps I could grind through the accumulated data on oceanic chemistry or something? I know you’re short on inorganic chemists and that was my speciality when I was younger.

I have another idea, ma’am, Rolf replied, using the normal courteous salutation for a respected female. Perhaps I could give you a roving commission to follow whatever trail you want. You have such a range of knowledge that you could synthesise data from different fields and come up with something that others would miss.

Thank you, Rolf. I’d like that. Just me pottering around and no leadership responsibilities would be excellent.

Then the run of Science Section is yours, ma’am. Thank you for the care you have taken to encourage and support me.

Thank you. Typical of Ursula, she simply cut the connection when there was nothing more to say.

While Rolf still had the communicator out he remembered that he wanted to talk to Carla of Recycling. He called up the menu and touched her name on the list.

Hello Rolf. What can I do for you?

Could you spare me a few minutes sometime? I’d like to talk about a few options we have while we’re still here in the past.

Sure. Now? I’m in my office. I’m on my way.

Carla’s Cave was only two decks down. Nobody was quite sure how Recycling got that nickname. Probably just alliteration, Rolf suspected. He was there within a minute.

Hi Carla, Rolf said as he sat. I’ve been thinking about the creators driving those animals on their migrations. Also the flying animals on the islands while we were on shore leave. Is it feasible to take back a few breeding pairs? We already have some crops from Mars colony.

Good idea, Rolf, Carla agreed. I hadn’t thought of that myself. I was thinking no further than what we could use on the ship. You should talk to your biologists for starters, rather than me. Check them out for contagion and the logistics of feeding them for sixty years on the long leg back. Perhaps Ilsa in Medical too, just to make sure we know what sort of care they might need.

Thanks, Rolf replied. I haven’t mentioned this in Biology, just in case I raised expectations and then discovered a problem with the other Heads.

So let’s talk to Ilsa first, Carla suggested.