The Sea Goddess

Posted on Fri 17th May, 2019 @ 8:55pm by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller

1,348 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Astrometrics Lab, Deck 82
Timeline: MD 5, 0800

As he waited for his boss, McCabe stared at the giant planet, Nāmaka, that was displayed on the Astrometrics main screen. He could understand why the first-in team had named it after the Hawaiian goddess of the sea. Like the waves of the sea, bands of varying blues swirled over the surface. At the moment, there was an angry looking lavender-grey storm in one area, and the familiar violet storm still circled itself off to the lower left, not far from the polar south. It had been fighting itself in that area for untold numbers of years. The whole planet was endlessly fascinating to him, mesmerizing those of several centuries back might have said.

Could there be anything living below those clouds and bands? Or in them, even? Stranger things have been discovered, he thought. There was a deep yearning in him to go find out.

Jasmine hurried in pulling her hair back into a tail as she did so. "Sorry, I'm late. The baby...." Jasmine saw the blue and green gas giant on the screen in front of her. "Wow, it sure is beautiful. Isn't it? Look at that storm."

Anthony turned toward her, smiling at the memory of his own few months of being late because of his daughter. He waved aside her apology and said, "I was just contemplating whether anything could live in that. It is beautiful, but is it life-giving?" He shook his head and turned back to the view. "I hope so. I hope we find something beautiful living in that."

Hitting a button on the display, he shrank the visual of the planet to the upper right corner and brought up the analysis of the atmosphere of the planet. "The atmosphere is mostly what one would expect from a gas giant. Mostly molecular hydrogen and helium, with traces of methane, ammonia and sulfur. There is more water than measured in Jupiter's atmosphere, but way more nitrogen. Maybe that accounts for the purples and blues we see instead of reds and oranges of Jupiter. Plus the sun's light is a little different than Sol.

"At any rate, life wouldn't be oxygen breathing, and might not be carbon based, either. And look at this," Anthony continued, bring up some holographic photos. "The drones we sent in have measured much lower winds than I'd expected, and with the higher water content, I'd imagined storms that were more vicious, but that isn't the case. Apparently, there's something that stabilizes the water convection, since the holos sent back don't show much of lightning. A very interesting place."

"How many incorporeal lifeforms have we encountered in history?" Jasmine asked. "I can think of two off the top of my head but I'm sure there have been others. Let's check the database and see if any of them could exist in these conditions." She smiled. "It could give us the ammunition we need to do a deeper, closer study."

"There are at least a couple we ran into in the early days of the Federation, but would it have to be non-corporeal?" McCabe asked. "I mean, what if there's some kind of corpus, but not what we are or what we are used to? A ... a ... a gasbag or something that swims in atmosphere that would kill us, but it thrives on it? For example, a sporocystian life form that originated outside the bounds of normal space. Could they survive on Nāmaka? Or something like them?" He wasn't really questioning Collins-Keller, but thinking about the search parameters.

"There have been lots of speculative fiction pieces written about things like that, too - pure energy beings, shape-shifters, bubble people, and those rock people Kirk met way back when we were new out here. I've always thought if we can imagine something, it could have a basis in reality somewhere in the right place and time. So ... what could survive in that gaseous soup down there, even if we haven't found such a sentient entity before? That's the question I'm posing to the computer. What adaptations would be necessary to a known life form? Secondarily, what would the ideal life form be for survival on Nāmaka? Think that will do it?" He turned to look at her, fleetingly appreciating her clean beauty before his brain submerged itself in the current problem again.

"It would have to be something that could survive in the gravitational force of the planet so I doubt it would be something solid." Jasmine watched. "I'm amazed at the level of information you've gathered already Lieutenant. I'm sure if there's anything there to discover, you're going to be the one to find it.

He laughed. "Maybe so. If determination is all that's needed." Then he jumped back into the problem. "Yes, gravity. That's the kicker. I can't help remembering the Nacene again ... from Janeway's ship, the first in the Delta Quad?" he suggested. His furrowed brow indicated his effort to remember details.

"That's the particular sporocystian life form I know of. They were ... psychokinetic and manipulated matter, and some kinds of energy. Something like that could either shape themselves to the environment they found ... or shape the environment to suit them, even in a place like this."

McCabe brought the planet's picture back up. "Supposedly, the Nacene all left the galaxy after they ruined the Ocampa planet, but who really knows? And if there's one species like that, there could be another. Oh, here we go," he said, excitement coloring the words as the computer's report began to show over the planet's color. "The computer has a prelim report for us already." He swiped other things, including the beautiful purples and blues, aside.

"Let's see ... Yeah, look here," he pointed. "Right away, top of the list is some kind of gas or bladder life form. I can't remember where I read about them, but there was a Jovian planet with a space faring race that were sort of fish-shaped gaseous beings. I always wanted to know how they manipulated things, but it wasn't specific. Not too much is known about them, I suppose. And here," he pointed again. "Energy beings of some types could survive there." As he read down the short list, he thought about the next steps.

"I think I could design a program for a drone to search, but it isn't going to be a long-lived drone, maybe two hours before the atmosphere does it in. What's the chance the Commodore would sanction that?" Anthony asked, turning away from the screen and toward the Chief Science Officer.

"All we can do is try." Jasmine smiled. "If you want, we can present the idea together. But, I must say, you're making me so proud to have you on my team." She put her hand on his shoulder. "I haven't been this enthusiastic about a project in a while." With the exception of my work with the nanites last year.

McCabe replied earnestly, "I can't tell you how good it is to work with someone who likes what I do. That's a rare thing in my past. I owe you a lot, Commander." It needed to be said, because it was the truth, but he could feel the tops of his ears turning red, so he glanced away to the screen again and said, "I don't mind writing up a proposal, but I definitely don't want to present it to the Commodore on my own. Every time I see her, I get the feeling she eats lieutenants for a snack."

Jasmine laughed. "You should have known me eighteen months ago." She looked at him. "I couldn't walk across the promenade without having a panic attack. I stuttered if I tried to speak in a group and one on one wasn't much better." She touched his shoulder. "But don't worry. We'll do this together."

Anthony was surprised to hear that the woman he thought of as strong, and well-nigh invincible had so recently been someone else entirely. He nodded, "All right, together it is."

 

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