The Imperial Concordant

“What's the total?” “A hundred and twelve.” “A hundred and twelve small frozen ponds, all circular, randomly spaced on a dwarf planet. The planet has no atmosphere, is nine hundred and seventy kilometres in diameter. Ponds are all eight to nine hundred metres across and contain the only water detectable.” Taiya shook her head “Random … at least no pattern we can see. Greatest distance between ponds is a hundred and ninety kilometres, shortest distance is a hundred and twenty two. No evidence they're impact craters … maybe sinkholes? We'll have to land, get a closer look to be sure.” “And the caves?” Taiya shook her head, her round face, framed by black hair hanging past her shoulders, took on a confused look. “Over half a million entrances, no more than three kilometres apart. Can't even guess anything else.”, she turned toward Elam with a big excited grin, “We've got to land. We've got to get a closer look at this thing.” “I agree, but, let's use the remotes. And before you object, you gotta admit, this doesn't look natural. And if it's constructed, there could be booby traps, automated defenses ... stuff we haven't thought of.” Taiya pushed her bangs back over her forehead “I hate it when you're so logical, and right. Send them down on the rock hopper so we can bring back more samples.” “Yeah. Alright, let's get everything ready.” A few hours later … “You should be court-martialed.” Elam shook his head. “Why?” Taiya smiled. “Sneaking on board the rock hopper. Do you realize the danger you might be in?” Taiya read the readout, “I was overcome by curiosity … temporary insanity, that's my defense.” “It's nothing to joke about.” “You're just jealous cause you're stuck on the ship.” “I don't mind the safety … you strapped in?” Taiya looked at the belts dangling loosely in the weightlessness “Yeah.” “I don't believe you. Give me a video feed.” “Have you heard of the word please?” They were interrupted by the rock hopper computer, “Prepare for acceleration.” Taiya felt the push into her seat as the small ship fired its engines. “Altitude twenty metres … fifteen … ten ...” “Something's happening!” “ … five metres …” “What do you mean?” “Touchdown.” Taiya felt the ship shaking as soon as it hit the ground. “Get out of there!” “Just a little instability … ahm ...” “I've got remote control! I'm pulling you out!” The rock hoppers engines roared to life, the full thrust pushed Taiya hard into her seat. “YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED!” “For what!? Your ship to shake apart?” Elam shook his head “Come back and dock with Ceydr. I've got a crazy idea.” After docking Taiya went to the command centre. “What's up?” “Look at the readings. The shaking wasn't triggered by your contact with the ground. It started before you landed, as soon as the heat from your engines hit.” “Sure we didn't just melt some subsurface ice?” “Look at the spectrometer readings. There's no ice. You kicked up a thin layer of dust and landed on bedrock.” Taiya smiled “So what's your crazy idea?” “Its alive.” “What's alive?” “The planet.” “The planet is alive? Where's your evidence?” “Its not just your landing. Look at how the heat radiates randomly from different spots. Like its thinking, using different parts of its brain.” “Or it's just different mineral deposits radiating heat at different rates.” “Its too defined, too localized … let's try an experiment.” “An experiment?” “Yeah. We can use the laser to heat a small section of the surface. Let's see what happens.” After a few orbits and a dozen experiments … Taiya winced, furrowed her brow, puckered her lips, “I'm still not convinced, but that's …… intriguing.” “Yeah, no response to coherent broadcasts though. Maybe it doesn't understand we're trying to communicate.” “We don't know its alive yet.” “Hmmm … If it is alive, what if it thinks we're attacking it … trying to kill it.” Elam was silent for a moment, his eyes widened, took a fearful look “Let's break orbit. Put some distance between us and the planet!” “How much distance?” “Make it a million kilometres.” Ceydra's engines came to life and the cruiser started moving away. “So what's next?” Taiya smiled Elam shrugged “Search the archives, see if anyone else has seen anything like this.”