Chapter Twenty-Five
The leap went well, and they found themselves in
a system containing five major planets. The crew scanned each, trying
to determine which one the pod would have made for. They finally decided on the third one out. It had an atmosphere and
obviously a weather system. The northern and southern hemispheres were
covered by great ice sheets, and the oceans were shallow.
2 "If they landed there," remarked the Firing Control Officer, "it'll
be a wonder if they survived. The temperatures are barely in acceptable
ranges. It's little more than a perpetual ice ball!"
3 "Still," said Morn, "the furthest planet in is a little more than a
moon, and the others have corrosive atmospheres. The ones further out
are gaseous giants. The pod's automatic systems would have chosen that
planet as its best possibility. Let's go in."
4 "From our present position," announced Navigation, "it's going to
take us two-and-a-half days to make orbit."
5 "Any sign of a distress signal?" asked Morn.
6 "Nothing, sir. If it is down there, it's silent."
7 "Keep all sensors on the planet! " Morn ordered. "Look for anything
that might give us a clue. I'm going to get some rest. I advise
everyone else to. Medical is going to have their hands full with the
worst cases. Each of us will be assigned less critical ones to care
for. Medical
is preparing computer chips to be distributed among the crew. I know
you don't know much about these things, gentlemen, but everybody is
going to have to do what they can."
8 "Yes, sir!" the other Officers acknowledged.
9 As Morn was heading back to his quarters, his Chief Engineer met him.
"Sir," he said "we've just discovered a problem! A little before the
Hashon War all