Chapter 604: Stress and Excitement
Two days later.
[Analysis complete, Admiral. No signs of advanced alien life detected in space,] the Proxima's AI reported. It had spent a few hours repeatedly examining every pixel of the completed map and come to the conclusion that, if alien lifeforms existed in the Proxima Centauri system, they were either incapable of spaceflight or used a means too advanced for it to detect.
"Signal the fleet: the fleet will prepare to launch after crossing Proxima Centauri's heliopause. Once launched, the escorts will take up formation around the TSF Proxima. Exploration Fleet is to remain docked but move to Condition Yellow. They will launch once we're ten AU inside the system," Admiral of the Red Bianchi ordered.
[Signal sent and acknowledged, Admiral,] the AI replied, then engaged the Proxima's gravity drives. They were close enough to the star to get at least minimal acceleration out of them.
"Proxima, all hands announcement."
[Recording, Admiral.]
"All hands hear this. We have completed the initial system scan and detected no signs of advanced alien life thus far. We are currently moving into the system on gravity drive. Your captains have their orders and you are released from Stationkeeping status. Bianchi clear."
The announcement played from every speaker and within every one of the stasis and VR pods, then repeated itself twice as crews began stirring, the lids of their pods sliding open and letting the people contained within climb out and get dressed.
......
Proxima Centauri was a red dwarf star about 250 million years older than Sol. It orbited the Alpha Centauri binary star system from about .21 light years away; far enough to not join Alpha Centauri A or Alpha Centauri B to form a trinary system, nor to be influenced by their gravity, but close enough to be captured in their orbit regardless. It was a point of contention among astronomers, professional and amateur alike, whether or not Proxima Centauri was part of Alpha Centauri. The orbits and distances involved contradicted each other, so the argument had never been settled.
The red dwarf only had a single planet orbiting it: Proxima Centauri b. But that single planet was well within what humanity called the Goldilocks Zone, or the band of space around a star where the conditions were ripe for liquid water to be present on the surface. It was an indicator that a planet could possibly be inhabitable, or even inhabited. As any desert dweller could tell you, where there is water, there is usually life.
A few hours later, the TSF Proxima crossed into the heliosphere of Proxima Centauri and began picking up speed as her gravity drive finally found its footing. The crossing had been rather smooth—much more than the outbound crossing of the Sol system's heliopause. THAT had required the crew to scramble into their acceleration couches and strap themselves in to their crash harnesses, the vigor of the collision between the younger star's solar wind and the interstellar medium far more intense than that of the older, more calm red dwarf.
In part, one of the indicators of the size of a star system's heliosphere was the number of exoplanets orbiting the star at its center, and the distance they orbited at. Compared to the Sol system, where the nearest exoplanet—Mercury—orbited the yellow star at .39 AU, the Proxima Centauri system was much smaller. Proxima Centauri b orbited its much smaller star at a mere .05 AU. In the Sol system, it would be little more than a permanently molten globule of magma and metal at that distance, even if it wasn't captured and drawn into the star itself.
And Proxima Centauri was an incredibly small system, if indeed it was an independent system at all and not lumped in with Alpha Centauri's binary stars. The star itself was much smaller than Sol—in specific, it only had 14% of the diameter and 12% of the mass, and only 0.17% of Sol's luminosity. The temperature of its surface was also 2500 degrees Kelvin cooler than Sol, meaning its solar wind was much slower and lacked the power of the star that humanity was born under.
With all of that taken into account, the entire heliosphere around it was not only much more calm than in the Sol system, but also much smaller; it was only 30 AU on average between the red dwarf and its heliopause, compared to Sol's 100 AU average.
......
"Proxima Centauri b is our eventual goal, and our responsibility," Commander Takahashi said. She was briefing the exploration team that would be joining her in first-footing the planet; the lucky person who had been randomly selected to be the actual first human to set foot on the planet had been detached from the crew of the TFS Avenger and seconded to the TES Farsight's crew, much to their envy.
There wasn't a single person in the entire Proxima task force that didn't want to be in the young man's place, and anyone who said otherwise would be lying. But at least there would be something to be said about being the first exploration team to land on the planet... right?
"Yes, ma'am!" the people being briefed chorused, a bit louder than was perhaps absolutely necessary, but given their general excitement, it could be excused as an overabundance of enthusiasm.
"Then..." the commander looked around the large VR briefing room everyone was in, "you." She pointed to the lucky first-
footer, Ordinary Crewman Lance Parker. "Stand up and give us a briefing on Proxima Centauri b."
She was perhaps being unfair to the man, but she was only human and felt a little bitter about not being the first-footer by right of her rank and position.
"Yes, Ma'am," OC Parker said as he stood, then began regurgitating the information contained in the data file on the Proxima Centauri system. "To understand Proxima Centauri b, we first have to begin with the system it inhabits and the star it orbits. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star...."
Ayaka interrupted him when his explanation began to falter as he struggled to recall more information about the solar system and its sole inhabitant. "Excellent, OC Parker. You've memorized our briefing material to an outstanding degree."
She changed tack and continued, "I'm sure everyone's also familiar with the precautions we'll be taking as we approach the planet, so there's no need to repeat them. You've all—
we've all—been drilled on it enough in VR, both in training for the mission and during the trip out here. There will be one more drill this evening, ship time...."
The briefing continued for a few minutes before Ayaka clapped her hands and dismissed everyone. They all disappeared from the virtual briefing room in dribs and drabs until she was the only one left, then she tottered over to one of the seats in the room on wobbling knees and fell into it.
The stress of her position was getting to her, but the time to explore had almost arrived and it had brought excitement with it.