CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One: The Last Living Ship ∞ 1: A New Mission

13 ∞ Knocks and Bangs

Day 00002 Mission Nilex

Gareth stepped out onto the hangar bay floor. All was quiet, and his soft shoes made no noise.

«No announcement, Canaisis,» he thought.

«As you wish, Captain,» she responded.

Not her usual 'Aye, Captain', he thought to himself, making a mental note. He walked in the direction of where he thought Ayla was working, and surveyed the cargo as he passed them. Hundreds of containers. Everything a colony needs to be self-sufficient.

With almost a hundred shuttles in Hangar Bay 3 next door, Nilex was a mining Corporation. They would be mining the asteroid belt of Rishon, the unique star system New Jordan was located in. New Jordan orbited a gas Giant that also had a ring of asteroids.

The gas Giant was out beyond the Goldilocks Zone, but it was just shy of being a star itself, if it had only gathered a little more matter. Because of this, it released more energy than it took in from Rishon, in the forms of magnetic, electrical, and infrared. This resulted in a Goldilocks Zone around itself that New Jordan had taken advantage of. Its high ferrous metal content meant that New Jordan created a fairly strong magnetic shield itself, offering protection from the Giant's radiation and creating fantastic aurora borealis effects. It was prone to cometary bombardment from the asteroid ring orbiting closely to the gas Giant, but one couldn't have everything. Fortunately, the Giant's gravitational forces, magnetic fields, and electrical discharges meant the asteroids had been sheered into fairly small masses, so although New Jordan did get strikes fairly frequently, they usually resulted in just an entertaining light show.

From the facing side of New Jordan, the gas Giant dominated almost the entire sky. A beautiful orb similar to Jupiter, full of bands and swirls, oranges, yellows, and browns. The asteroid belt was full of rare earth elements that Earth needed, and when the technology level permitted, mining the gas Giant's atmosphere meant New Jordan would be fortunate indeed. There were only two more planets in the Rishon system, one of them in the Goldilocks Zone. The prospect of terraforming that planet also looked promising.

The Nilex Corporation was off to a good start if they could get established and start flourishing, Gareth concluded. He found himself interested in checking up on them in a few hundred years. He had a load of trade materials in Hangar Bay 4—maybe after he went to a few of the other colonies, he'd come back and check on New Jordan. He could bring back materials they might need at that time.

He came to the area of the fishery container and started looking for it. Canaisis gave him a few hints, and he found himself in front of a metal box the size of a small building. There was one doorway, so he approached it and knocked loudly on the door jamb. Something clanked on the floor before the shuffle of feet approached. Ayla came into view, looking slightly alarmed.

"Is everything alright, Captain?" she asked as she bowed to him.

"I was just checking if you were here to see if you needed anything," Gareth said as she straightened up.

She pushed out her head to look left and right along the passage between the containers before meeting his gaze again. "What was that banging, Captain?"

He raised a brow. "Banging?"

"Yes, Captain, three loud bangs. Did you not hear it?"

Realizing what she meant, he found himself puzzled and amused at the same time. "Do you mean my knocking? That's how we used to announce our presence to occupants inside. At least, that was the custom from my time. Have things changed?" He met her gaze with openness.