Captain Danae Andreadis glanced idly at the image of the Venture Free on one of the screens at her desk. Had she been looking out a window, it would have been a point of light not much brighter than the untwinkling stars. The Argos did not have any windows, since they would represent an unnecessary structural weakness and a breach in the ship’s radiation shielding.
Venture Free was exactly like her own ship, the Argos, except for the company logo it bore. Manufactured by the same company according to the same plans. Three habitation rings two hundred meters in diameter rotating around a spindly-looking truss that mounted tanks of reaction mass, the ship’s reactor, large heat radiators reminiscent of the giant fins on spaceships from the rocketpunk era of science fiction, and a VASIMR drive. A crew compliment of three thousand people plus equipment.
A chime sounded. “Acknowledge,” Danae said. The image of the rival vessel was replaced by the face of Dr. Chandragupta, the biologist who headed the ship’s life support team. He looked worried. Danae immediately gave him her full attention.
“Is there a problem, Doctor?”
“I’m afraid so, Captain. It’s our soil nematodes. They’re dying. If they die out, our life support ecosystem will collapse. We’ll be out of oxygen before we reach Helium Diamond.”
“Do you have any ideas on what’s causing it?”
“I’ve chemically and genetically analyzed dead nematodes. The problem is an artificial polymer that’s toxic to them. I’ve traced it to outgassing from the ecosystem’s air cycling hoses.”
“Why hasn’t this happened before on any of the Mars missions or on Armstrong or Olympus Base?”
“The hose material is unique to the Deepspace Class ships. We and the Venture Free are the first of the class to go on long-term missions. It’s a subtle problem, and it took longer than the Earth-to-Luna shakedown cruise to manifest.”
“Is there something we can do about it?”
“I don’t know yet, Captain. I have all my people working on it, and I suggest we contact the Venture and get their people working on it too. I’m close to certain they’ll have the problem too.”
“Is this a direct threat to the crew?”
“I have Medical checking, but the hoses in question are only in the greenhouses, and the polymer’s lethality comes from the way it reacts to nematode biochemistry specifically. Can we still divert to Mars if necessary?”
Danae entered the parameters into the ship’s navicomp. “Yes, but we’ll have to make the go/no-go decision in five days. After that we won’t have enough remass for orbital insertion. Do everything you can to find us a solution in that time. You have priority for supercomputer and comms time. If they have to divert too, we can still beat them to Helium Diamond if we get in line first at Phobos Station and get those hoses, and the nematodes replaced.”
...
“I’m very sorry to hear that, Captain,” Ray “Buck” Williams said. The hint of a sardonic smile and the way he casually leaned back into his command chair said otherwise. “Our little worms are doing just fine. You can still divert to Mars, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Danae said stiffly. “If your nematodes are immune, perhaps we could arrange to purchase a population of them?”
“I’m afraid not, Captain. It simply isn’t in our interest. However much you might offer, it could hardly compensate us if you were to reach Helium Diamond ahead of us. And if you were to offer to split the claim with us, why should we accept, when we have a hundred percent chance of reaching it first after you divert to Mars?” ...
“I hate to break it to you Cap’n, but we’ve got it here too.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Captain Williams said. “Argos is going to have all the best minds on Earth trying to help them figure out how to save their worms. We can pick up all the transmissions coming back from Earth, so if Andreadis gets a solution, so do we. If she doesn’t, we wait ‘till she commits to Mars, then we raise Earth and keep ’em working on it.
“Helium Diamond is the richest, most concentrated source of He3 in the Solar System as far as anyone knows. It’ll be worth trillions once we get it back to cislunar space. Every man jack on this ship will be a billionaire after we get our commission. Who wants to let a few dead microscopic worms get in the way of that? Not me, and not HQ. Sometimes you gotta go with your gut, and mine says we’re all gonna live like kings.”
...
“I’ve read the reports, Captain, and as far as I, or any of our science people can tell, the problem is intractable. But you and your crew are the ones on the scene, and we’re not going to armchair-quarterback from Earth,” the CEO of Argos Explorations said. “It’s your call.”
“Thank you, sir.” Danae said. “Argos out.” She looked to the grim faces of her officers, and sought their council one by one. Their prognoses were as grim as their expressions. Danae sighed. “What’s true is already so. Owning up to it doesn’t make it worse. Make ready to de-spin the ship for maneuvers. We’re going to Mars.”
...
Captain Danae Andreadis glanced idly at the image of the slowly tumbling icy comet nucleus on one of the screens at her desk. Had she been looking out a window, it would have been a point of light not much brighter than the untwinkling stars. As happy as she was for herself and her crew to be the first to reach Helium Diamond, she couldn’t help but think of the comms that had come from the Venture Free as Captain Williams and his crew slowly suffocated. No human being would ever forget the mounting horror and pathos of those transmissions.
“Andreadis to Helm. Make ready to de-spin the ship for insertion maneuvers.”
It’s a well written story, but I don’t think the error is a good one. What is the lesson? Don’t be casual about your life? I don’t think many people have that bias in situations roughly analogous to the one in your story.
I was trying to convey the Litany of Gendlin as the principle the story was based on. The lesson would be “Don’t deny or ignore facts, even if there’s lots of money in it for you, because the facts are still facts whether you like it or not.” I think situations like climate change, peak oil, over-exploitation of aquifers and letting the FIRE sector run rampant over the real economy count as real-world examples.
Not Always to the Swift
Captain Danae Andreadis glanced idly at the image of the Venture Free on one of the screens at her desk. Had she been looking out a window, it would have been a point of light not much brighter than the untwinkling stars. The Argos did not have any windows, since they would represent an unnecessary structural weakness and a breach in the ship’s radiation shielding.
Venture Free was exactly like her own ship, the Argos, except for the company logo it bore. Manufactured by the same company according to the same plans. Three habitation rings two hundred meters in diameter rotating around a spindly-looking truss that mounted tanks of reaction mass, the ship’s reactor, large heat radiators reminiscent of the giant fins on spaceships from the rocketpunk era of science fiction, and a VASIMR drive. A crew compliment of three thousand people plus equipment.
A chime sounded. “Acknowledge,” Danae said. The image of the rival vessel was replaced by the face of Dr. Chandragupta, the biologist who headed the ship’s life support team. He looked worried. Danae immediately gave him her full attention.
“Is there a problem, Doctor?”
“I’m afraid so, Captain. It’s our soil nematodes. They’re dying. If they die out, our life support ecosystem will collapse. We’ll be out of oxygen before we reach Helium Diamond.”
“Do you have any ideas on what’s causing it?”
“I’ve chemically and genetically analyzed dead nematodes. The problem is an artificial polymer that’s toxic to them. I’ve traced it to outgassing from the ecosystem’s air cycling hoses.”
“Why hasn’t this happened before on any of the Mars missions or on Armstrong or Olympus Base?”
“The hose material is unique to the Deepspace Class ships. We and the Venture Free are the first of the class to go on long-term missions. It’s a subtle problem, and it took longer than the Earth-to-Luna shakedown cruise to manifest.”
“Is there something we can do about it?”
“I don’t know yet, Captain. I have all my people working on it, and I suggest we contact the Venture and get their people working on it too. I’m close to certain they’ll have the problem too.”
“Is this a direct threat to the crew?”
“I have Medical checking, but the hoses in question are only in the greenhouses, and the polymer’s lethality comes from the way it reacts to nematode biochemistry specifically. Can we still divert to Mars if necessary?”
Danae entered the parameters into the ship’s navicomp. “Yes, but we’ll have to make the go/no-go decision in five days. After that we won’t have enough remass for orbital insertion. Do everything you can to find us a solution in that time. You have priority for supercomputer and comms time. If they have to divert too, we can still beat them to Helium Diamond if we get in line first at Phobos Station and get those hoses, and the nematodes replaced.”
...
“I’m very sorry to hear that, Captain,” Ray “Buck” Williams said. The hint of a sardonic smile and the way he casually leaned back into his command chair said otherwise. “Our little worms are doing just fine. You can still divert to Mars, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Danae said stiffly. “If your nematodes are immune, perhaps we could arrange to purchase a population of them?”
“I’m afraid not, Captain. It simply isn’t in our interest. However much you might offer, it could hardly compensate us if you were to reach Helium Diamond ahead of us. And if you were to offer to split the claim with us, why should we accept, when we have a hundred percent chance of reaching it first after you divert to Mars?”
...
“I hate to break it to you Cap’n, but we’ve got it here too.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Captain Williams said. “Argos is going to have all the best minds on Earth trying to help them figure out how to save their worms. We can pick up all the transmissions coming back from Earth, so if Andreadis gets a solution, so do we. If she doesn’t, we wait ‘till she commits to Mars, then we raise Earth and keep ’em working on it.
“Helium Diamond is the richest, most concentrated source of He3 in the Solar System as far as anyone knows. It’ll be worth trillions once we get it back to cislunar space. Every man jack on this ship will be a billionaire after we get our commission. Who wants to let a few dead microscopic worms get in the way of that? Not me, and not HQ. Sometimes you gotta go with your gut, and mine says we’re all gonna live like kings.”
...
“I’ve read the reports, Captain, and as far as I, or any of our science people can tell, the problem is intractable. But you and your crew are the ones on the scene, and we’re not going to armchair-quarterback from Earth,” the CEO of Argos Explorations said. “It’s your call.”
“Thank you, sir.” Danae said. “Argos out.” She looked to the grim faces of her officers, and sought their council one by one. Their prognoses were as grim as their expressions. Danae sighed. “What’s true is already so. Owning up to it doesn’t make it worse. Make ready to de-spin the ship for maneuvers. We’re going to Mars.”
...
Captain Danae Andreadis glanced idly at the image of the slowly tumbling icy comet nucleus on one of the screens at her desk. Had she been looking out a window, it would have been a point of light not much brighter than the untwinkling stars. As happy as she was for herself and her crew to be the first to reach Helium Diamond, she couldn’t help but think of the comms that had come from the Venture Free as Captain Williams and his crew slowly suffocated. No human being would ever forget the mounting horror and pathos of those transmissions.
“Andreadis to Helm. Make ready to de-spin the ship for insertion maneuvers.”
It’s a well written story, but I don’t think the error is a good one. What is the lesson? Don’t be casual about your life? I don’t think many people have that bias in situations roughly analogous to the one in your story.
I was trying to convey the Litany of Gendlin as the principle the story was based on. The lesson would be “Don’t deny or ignore facts, even if there’s lots of money in it for you, because the facts are still facts whether you like it or not.” I think situations like climate change, peak oil, over-exploitation of aquifers and letting the FIRE sector run rampant over the real economy count as real-world examples.