Chapter 6

The spaceship was named "Aubie" in honor of Auburn University where this all started. Aubie was launched toward the nearest known Earth-like planet, some seven light-years away. It took 47 seconds for notice that Aubie was in geosynchronous orbit around the planet to arrive back at Earth-Alpha.

Esther Hudson, one of Susan's friends, whom she had trained as a transporter operator, showed the planet on the screen. From orbit, the planet was a bilious beige-green color with splotches of maroon scattered over the surface. She jumped the POV to the planet's surface and main coloration was shown to be from a grass-like plant that covered most of the ground. The maroon colored areas appeared to be liquid, possibly water with something suspended or in solution.

She transported the instrument package to the planet and read back that the gravity was 1.27 g and the atmosphere was 12% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 9% carbon dioxide, and the remainder being a mixture of inert gases. The current temperature in direct sunlight was 42 degrees Celsius. Humans were going to be uncomfortable on this planet, even in air conditioned space suits. With these conditions, this planet was never going to be a popular vacation spot!

Even with these conditions, Jim wanted to set foot on the planet just so he could say that he had done so. The others felt the same way, so they put on their space suits and all seven were transported to the planet. They walked around for a few minutes and decided, "To hell with this nonsense! Beam me up, Esther!"

Their return to Earth-Alpha was a great relief. Jim expressed everybody's feeling with, "Well, I can cross that place off my list! Let's try somewhere else!"

They put a portal on the planet to have a station there in case anyone every wanted to visit the place, again, but they believed that it was a waste of equipment.

The spaceship was launched to the next planet on the list and 24 seconds later reported itself again in geosynchronous orbit around a planet. Now, this was more like it! Gravity was .97 g and the temperature was 22 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere was 22% oxygen, 70% nitrogen, 8% argon, helium and other inert gases, and a trace of carbon dioxide. The surface appeared to be about 50% land, mostly covered by green plants, and the rest was either water or ice at the poles.

As a protection against microorganism cross-contamination, the seven humans continued to wear their spacesuits as they stepped onto the planet's surface. They walked around a few minutes while the instrument package did its analysis for dangerous biological factors.

They appeared to be standing on a gently rolling plain which was covered in a grass-like growth about 10 cm long. One of the scientists, Liu Ho-Kang, bent over for a closer look at the grass and his face-plate was suddenly splattered with a sticky red liquid. Jim shouted, "ESTHER, GET US ALL TO THE DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER, IMMEDIATELY!"

Back at Earth-Alpha, the decontamination chambers were completely enclosed; the only way in or out was via the transporter. In an neat trick of prestidigitation, the person inside the sealed spacesuit was transported from inside the spacesuit to a second sealed chamber where he was thoroughly checked by all manner of devices for injury or contamination. Finally, the person was transported to an examining room where he was checked over by a human doctor to make sure that nothing had been missed by the machines.

Dr. Liu was given a clean bill of health by the machines and the examining physician, so he was released to join the others for coffee and a recap of the incident. Meanwhile, some of the fluid was removed from the faceplate and subjected to a thorough analysis, both chemical and biological.

"What happened, Ho-Kang? We saw you bend over and then you were hit in the faceplate by that liquid. Did you see what attacked you?" queried Jim.

"Yes, I saw it. It appeared to be a small animal-like creature resembling a lizard about 20 cm long. The liquid came out of a series of spouts along its top. It was so nearly the same color as the flora surrounding it that I didn't see it until I had gotten closer. I assume that I triggered a defense mechanism. The next thing I knew, I was going through the decontamination sequence."

"Yeah, that's my fault," admitted Jim. "I panicked when I saw you attacked and ordered Esther to pull us out immediately. I felt that safety should be our primary concern."

"Oh, yes, I agree, whole heartedly! Thank you for your quick action. I could have been injured or killed through my own carelessness; we all must be careful."

Susan commented, "We need to quit playing games. We've had our fun, but now it's time to put this operation on a businesslike footing. We need to form a team of specialists to examine each new world for its safety and usefulness; otherwise, we're just wasting time and resources.

"Fortunately, the designers of our spacesuits put digital cameras in all the helmets, so we have a permanent record of whatever we saw while we were on the planet. There is also an audio record, so we may be able to glean some useful data from today's short visit.

"Jim, you put together an exploration team and I'll arrange for more spacesuits."

Meanwhile, the analysis of the red liquid had been underway, and some preliminary data were available. Nothing in the liquid was harmful to humans, but it had a powerful odor, very reminiscent of skunk. Detailed analysis showed the active ingredient to be 2-methylpentyl mercaptan. This would leave a long-lasting stink that would put a skunk to shame!

Testing for microorganisms had proved equally harmless, a few benign bodies had been found, but nothing that would grow in the human body. The planet was pronounced safe for human occupation, so they needed a name. Susan suggested that they hold a contest among TWT employees to select a name and see what they could come up with. The others agreed, so she asked the personnel department to put out the word. Suggestions started coming back within an hour! They finally selected "Holiday."

Trans Worlds Trading Company was well on its way to becoming the largest employer on Earth-Alpha. TWT had been in business for a little over two years and already had millions of employees. George, Susan, and Jim had already given up direct management control of the corporation, but retained veto power over any and all of its operations. George had taken over the job of main conscience of the corporation; he was constantly moving from department to department, making sure that no one got trampled in the rush to expand TWT's interests and activities. He was in "hog heaven!" George dug into everybody's business and slapped a few wrists on occasion, but the spirit of ethical operation had permeated the corporation from top to bottom. Anyone who didn't operate within TWT's high ethical standards was quickly without a job, and possibly in jail! No "robber barons" allowed! Whistle blowers were encouraged, but didn't have much to do. The cynics were sure that this attitude couldn't last, but George and his department were out to make sure that it did!

Asor Raddik was a happily married man and enjoying managing the Earth-Beta branch of TWT. This was a smaller operation than on Earth-Alpha, simply because it did not have the enormous investment in research and development that Jim had instituted. Nevertheless, Asor was fully extended in keeping his end of the original bargain with TWT. Ethics came before profit, but there was plenty of profit for everybody! The standard of living on Earth-Beta rose rapidly as trade increased with Earth-Alpha and there was talk of acquiring a transporter of their own so that they could look for more trading partners on other Earths. Asor had not asked for one; he was waiting to be sure that his people were emotionally ready for that kind of expansion. It did look like the time would come very soon.

Jim's exploration team was ready, so they went back to Holiday to study it thoroughly. They found that Holiday had no more hazards than did Earth, so they were ready to open it up for occupation. The climate was so salubrious that many hotel and resort chains wanted to establish themselves there. After a lot of soul-searching, TWT decided to support this as the major industry on Holiday.

Meanwhile, TWT needed more exploration teams, since they were visiting more potentially useful planets. They found several in the very useful range, though none as nearly optimum as Holiday. These were named Bliss, Home, and other such names, but, somehow, Middle Earth managed to sneak in.

In fact, it was on Middle Earth that ETs were found! These were a race of barely sentient kangaroo-like creatures who were in an early stone age. An embargo was slapped on Middle Earth as soon as the "Hobbits" were found. All evidence of human contact was erased and the Hobbits were left to develop on their own.

The Hobbits were still classed as a great find, since they proved that humans were not the only sentient creatures in the universe. Most people were overjoyed at the news, except for the religious bigots who were sure that it was all a trick by the devil.

The Hobbits caused a set of contact protocols to be established to protect both human and ET cultures against harm when the next people were met. It was now obvious that it was just a question of when, not if, that ET contact would be made.

Jim had three more spaceships built to his specifications by Boeing and launched them toward the center of the galaxy. He assumed that more stars meant a better chance of finding Earth-like planets and ETs. These spaceships jumped from star to star so fast that he just let them go almost at random to see what could be found. Each was directed to a star where it looked for planets. If a planets were found, and they usually were, the spaceship moved into geosynchronous orbit and surveyed what was there. Even planets with obviously unsuitable conditions for humans were surveyed in hopes of finding ETs, but no luck so far.