Follett, James - Earthsearch 02 - Earthsearch (v1.0) Jacked. THE EARTHSEARCH SAGA [096-4.9]. by: James Follett. Synopsis: This book is based on a very popular British radio serial broadcast in the late 1970's. Challenger is one of three starships designed to search for a suitable planet for Earth's excess population. It is controled by humans with the help of two computers, Angel One and Angel Two. By the time of the second-generation crew, the computers believe the earthsearch mission will never succeed and that they are far better equipped mentally to handle the Challenger. But they need humans to drive the starship. The "Guardian Angels" reason that this can be done by destroying all the adults and by conditioning the children to obey them without question. Now read on!! *** THE EARTHSEARCH SAGA. BOOK ONE: CONTENTS. Prologue: In the Beginning... Part One: Planetfall. Part Two: First Footprint City. Part Three: The Sands of Kyros. Part Four: The Solaric Empire. Part Five: The Pools of Time. Part Six: Across the Abyss. Part Seven: New Blood. Part Eight: Marooned. Part Nine: Star Cluster -- Tersus Nine. Part Ten: Earthfall. *** Book One. EARTHSEARCH. Prologue. In the beginning. . . Eighteen thousand million years had passed since the spawning of the giant meteoroid during the cataclysmic event that had marked the foundation of the Universe and the beginning of Time. It had been an uneventful period for the meteoroid; eighteen thousand million years spent moving in a straight line which, were it not for the ten-mile length of the starship Challenger lying in its path, would be a mere prelude to the total of its eventual lifetime. The Challenger was the result of seven years' feverish activity in Earth orbit to construct the first of three ships to journey to the stars to search for an Earth-type planet which would one day become the new home of mankind. It had been conceived and built during a period of unprecedented, world-wide stability and peace when, for the first time in its history, men and women had the confidence to embark on such long-term projects which would not come to fruition within one lifetime. The accumulated knowledge of three-hundred years' high technology had gone into the Challenger's design and construction. She had been fitted with the most advanced planetary surveillance equipment and instrument probes, and had the resources in her vast terra-forming centre to re-engineer potential Earth-type planets by means of robot machines and androids which the Challenger would leave behind. Maintenance of such a vast ship would be beyond the resources of the starship's crew, so a workforce army of specialist androids had been designed and built in record time. These machines carried out the countless routine tasks necessary for the smooth running of the ship. They were under the command of the Challenger's two control computers who were responsible to the commander and crew for the ship's environment. These computers were known as Angel One and Angel Two and it was inevitable that by the time a second-generation crew had been born on the Challenger during its mission these two entities had become known as guardian angels. What the designers of the guardian angels had not foreseen was that their creations would, as the years passed by on the Challenger, come to see themselves as more than mere computers. Were they not more intelligent than the men and women that occupied the mighty starship? Did they not have more power and ambition than the puny, two-legged creatures that tried to dominate them? And was not the non-discovery of intelligent life in fifty years a clear indication that they could be the supreme beings of the galaxy? Or even the Universe? The problem was that the guardian angels needed humans to man the main control room. For reasons best known to themselves, the Challenger's designers had decreed that only people could manoeuvre the starship, despite the fact that machines were infinitely more reliable. To the guardian angels, it was yet another folly in a dismal catalogue of incompetence. Humans fought among themselves and allowed their efficiency, such as it was, to be further reduced by their obsession with sex. To make matters worse, the second-generation crew were becoming disillusioned with the mission whereas the guardian angels wished for it to continue. The guardian angels decided to rid the Challenger of its adult humans. The problem was how. Using the androids against the crew was sure to fail because most of them were only good at doing those tasks which they had been designed for. To be certain of success, all the adults would have to be destroyed simultaneously. When the guardian angels detected the presence of the distant giant meteoroid and discovered that it was on a three hundred miles per hour converging course with the Challenger, they decided that fate was on their side. They calculated comparative velocities and angles, and concluded that a collision was inevitable provided the crew were not alerted. When the meteoroid was one month away they were able to refine their calculations; they made the interesting discovery that the meteoroid would strike the Challenger a glancing blow in the region of the main assembly hall. When it was three weeks away, they were able to compute the nature and extent of the damage that the collision would cause; the ship would be severely damaged but not crippled. What damage there was would be within the abilities of the service androids to repair. The meteoroid drew nearer but the guardian angels remained silent. One week before the inevitable collision, they informed the crew that service androids would have to carry out urgently needed maintenance work on the outer hull. The meteoroid alarms were closed down and a hundred service androids swarmed out of the maintenance air-locks and spread themselves along the Challenger's ten-mile length. They X-rayed seams that did not require inspection; they filled minute, almost invisible particle scars that were too insignificant to warrant attention and they carried out thousands of needless tests on systems that were in perfect working order. One hour before the impending impact, a team of the more sophisticated androids dismantled the four outer turrets that housed the Challenger's meteoroid annihilation shields. The guardian angels switched off the ship's optical telescopes thirty minutes before impact. Fifteen minutes before impact and the ship was blind and helpless -- defenceless against the million-ton mass of star matter hurtling towards it. The Challenger's crew were unaware of the fate awaiting them as they filed into the auditorium to hear their commander's announcement. * * * * Commander Jonas Sinclair was a second-generation crewman. In common with the majority of the three hundred and twenty men and women sitting expectantly before him, he had been born on the Challenger. At least fifty of the older faces before him belonged to members of the first-generation crew -- those who had watched the Challenger taking shape in Earth orbit over fifty years before. Sinclair was nervous and ill at ease; he would have preferred to make his statement over the crew address system from his day cabin but the two guardian angels had suggested calling everyone together. Despite the protestations of the first-generation crew that the guardian angels were only computers, he had come to value their advice and guidance and even allowed them to decide when the meeting should be called. Sinclair arranged his notes on the lectern and waited for his audience to settle down. He tapped his liquid-flo pencil gently on the polished surface. The pin microphone in his lapel picked up the soft clicks and amplified them in the air above everyone's heads. The buzz of conversation subsided. "Fellow crew men and women," Sinclair began. "I have called you all together because we have reached an important stage in our mission. For fifty years we have toured the galaxy in search of other earths for colonization. When our parents set out on this survey voyage, it was hoped that one Earth-type planet would be discovered for every ten years shipboard time of the mission." Sinclair glanced down at his notes and caught the eye of the four men and four women who were sitting in the front row watching him intently. He knew why they had sought out the front row and he gave them a fleeting smile of encouragement before raising his eyes to the rest of the audience. "As we know, that has not happened, therefore we have continued the work of our parents." He sensed the fidgeting rather than saw it and immediately shortened his preamble by several paragraphs. "And now, during the past six months four babies of the third-generation crew have been born to us." The four couples in the front row seemed to lean forward in their seats, never taking their eyes off Sinclair. "The parents of Telson, Sharna, Astra and Darv have petitioned me, saying that they do not wish their children to grow up as they have: not knowing about our home planet Earth. Never to breathe its air; never to fell its grass beneath their feet; never to walk under its blue skies and feel its warm summer breezes on their faces . . . Ladies and gentlemen -- I agree with them!" There was a stunned silence. No one coughed or fidgeted: 320 pairs of eyes regarded him in amazement. Sinclair pressed on: "Our parents denied us our home but does that give us the right to pass on that denial to a...
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