In the middle of the afternoon, ship’s time, the funeral rites for Captain Benaip were somewhat hastily performed, as Chief Investigator Thabit observed.
After the official part, the scientists gathered in their wardroom, where they vividly discussed among themselves what had happened. But both Jum and his crew knew that there was more to come and were eagerly awaiting a new announcement.
And so, it was. Soon a new voice came over the speakers. He announced that in accordance with the ship’s Code and a secret order from the Imperial Chancellery, the second mate, Superintendent of the Imperial Security Service, Obahh, was taking over the duties of the ship’s captain.
– Wow, that’s something! Let’s go to my quarters. There’s something I can tell you. – whispered Jum.
– I know our new captain, – grinned Jum, as they reached his cabin, closed the door behind them, and settled down on the bunk and chairs. – No, not personally, of course. It was purely out of curiosity. I decided once between classes on linguistics of alien civilizations to prepare an essay on the genealogy of the kings of one run-down star system that had recently joined our beautiful Empire. And I was terribly surprised by the similarity of the surnames of their leadership and some of our military leaders. I had to dig through a bunch of old files in the Imperial Library. And you know what I found? First of all, the first settlers in this system were distant relatives of our Emperor’s great-great-grandfather. For some reason, they did not get a place at the throne of the Empire. Why did they, these uncles or nephews, jumped from the surface of the metropolis, I never understood, but my heart feels that if they had not taken their legs away, they would have had them, in the best traditions of those times, pulled out. Yes, what am I talking about… The last name of those immigrants was Obahh! You know what I’m saying?
The Admiral of the Northern Sector is the second man in the space Fleet. Well, the one who saw us off… is his last name not Obahh? – Tana said in surprise.
– Good girl! And now we have another Obahh as our captain. Apparently, ours is a relative of the Admiral, – confirmed Jum.
– And it follows that …, – Dak began.
New Planet
– Attention! Attention! – suddenly said the speaker built into the cabin wall, in the voice of Captain Obahh. – An important message for the entire crew. After many days of travel, the ship’s searcher has discovered a planet worthy of study by our fine scientists! I request the leader of the Tabit Study Group to report to the control room to develop a plan to study the planet. All scientists to assemble in the wardroom to form research teams.
– What’s the hurry? – Abis wondered. – We’re not going to land immediately, are we?
– But I know. Or at least I can guess what’s going on here! – Dak said quietly. – Guys, we have to go now, or there may be questions. But promise me we’ll get together again tonight. Can’t you see they’re trying to get rid of us? “Us” – I mean the entire disloyal crew.
– I see, – Jum waved his hand firmly, – Now everyone goes to get their assignments from their superiors, and then we’ll gather at Dak’s. It’s time to change the meeting place, or the Obahh supporters might wonder why a few scientists aren’t discussing their problems in the wardroom like the rest of us, but whispering in corners.
And they left the cabin and moved towards the wardroom.
All the scientists were already gathered there. The leaders were talking excitedly about something, and the junior staff listened to them very attentively. They all wanted a real job so badly, that they were clearly ready to land on the surface of the planet they had discovered.
Abis went to look for the biologists’ section, Dak, having just entered the hall, immediately saw the head of climatologists and resolutely moved in his direction. Young men – seismologists, having seen Tana at the entrance, waved her hands, inviting her to the table, at the head of which sat the chief seismologist of the expedition.
Jum’s supervisor was the head of the entire scientific section, and Jum was surprised to see him already entering the wardroom.
Suspiciously quickly, Obahh developed a plan and coordinated it with Tabit.
The focused Thabit smiled when he saw Jum, – Well, are you ready for great things?
Thabit generally singled out Jum among the others. Why? Jum was never able to answer that question. Maybe a lively mind and a whole bunch of non-standard solutions that the young linguist gave to the tasks set by his supervisor and teacher? Sometimes, however, the solutions were so out-of-the-box that the whole group laughed, and Tabit had a funny smile on his face.
The main screen in the wardroom displayed an image of the discovered planet. Everyone looked with great interest at the place where they were going to spend the near future.
The planet was beautiful. Most of it was a deep blue color. Apparently, it was the color of a liquid compound of hydrogen and oxygen. A great rarity! And here in the midst of this huge amount of water, like a ship, floated the colossal size of the continent, which resembled in shape either an embryo in the early stages of development, or the head of a predatory flying korra, the inhabitant of one of the distant planets of the Empire. The downward curving, closed beak almost completely encompassed a large inland sea along with several islands. The supercontinent stretched from pole to pole and was almost equally divided by the equator, along which, judging by the yellow-brown color, were deserts. Farther north and south the color of the continent’s surface changed to green.
Tabit waited a few moments and said loudly: “Distinguished colleagues, please take your seats and move from talk to business. I am expecting reports and forecasts from the team leaders within one standard period. All the data we have at our disposal necessary for this purpose will be available to interested parties through the ship’s information network within ten minutes. Please proceed.”
The noise instantly subsided to a slight hum.
Thabit, with a satisfied hum, took a decisive step toward the table where the linguists, the “contactors”, were waiting for him.
By the end of the ship’s time cycle it was more or less clear what the planet they had discovered was. The blue part of the surface was indeed nothing but liquid water. The temperature of the water near the equator was considerably higher than at the poles, but still within comfortable limits for possible living organisms. The same could be said about the atmosphere, which, in addition to nitrogen and carbon dioxide, contained a decent amount of oxygen.
The future members of the expedition could, without resorting to air masks, breathe this gas cocktail, very similar in composition to their atmosphere. The green parts of the continent were undoubtedly vegetation. It remained to be seen if there was higher life among the vegetation. The images from the reconnaissance satellites sent out immediately after the discovery of the planet showed that there were no objects of artificial origin on its surface. Unless, of course, they were hidden beneath the surface. The conclusions drawn in the initial report, compiled by Tabit for the ship’s commander and transmitted to the file data bank, were as follows. First, the planet, after minor atmospheric correction, would be able to be ideally suited for settlement by the Zwigg peoples. Secondly, the primary analysis showed the absence of highly developed civilizations on the surface. This should have made colonization much easier.
The report, in accordance with the Imperial Expeditionary Corps Rules, was solemnly handed over by Tabit to the new ship commander. In turn, Obahh announced that the ship would enter a circular orbit around the planet listed in the Imperial Property Register under the inventory number Z4274—0012 after a ship cycle. The research part of the expedition was