Chapter 4

The planet was seriously strange.

For one thing it was big, too big for the gravity described. It had a one G perfect gravity, but its size was totally out of bounds. Then there were the continents themselves? Tectonic plates moving could not be the sole reason for their arrangement. Whoever had heard of a hemisphere arranged as a constant? It was Jeff's suit that first saw that, and if now a suit could become too full of itself, then surely his suit had become the very epitome of that.

"Yes, of course Royals are useful, at some things. Menial mostly though Jeff, and theory of course. But after all, old knowledge dies hard." Suit ever so smugly commented in sub mode.

"So, you think someone made it?" Jeff wondered.

The suit became silent as it cogitated. Jeff could swear he heard its cogs turning while he waited.

"Not enough data." it finally answered, sounding slightly subdued.

"Yes, it could." came another voice. It had to be the Royal. "My esteemed colleague may be right in that 'old knowledge never dies'. But there is actually new, too. Terraforming has taken giant steps since the portals closed. Not that we are anywhere near this size of accomplishment, but yes, it could very well be manmade."

"There are too many discrepancies to explain it otherwise." Royal continued "Still, we haven't decided which set of constants that may exist here, it may also be that we are inside a portal." Jeff knew of constants and portals, of course. Somewhat like a set of magical numbers they were constants, defining borders of the universe. Like 'c' was, the speed of light in a vacuum.

And so he also, at least vaguely, could understand that if those were even slightly different there should be repercussions, changing the face of that universe. Portals he had never seen, though, only heard about from the ship's library.

"So Royal, could you confirm the speed of light?" he asked, feeling quite accomplished. That might teach this son of a gun that a human could know something too...

"Yes, we found no discrepancies with the known values. The two way experiment, as well as the one way, came out as expected. Then again, how I wish we had an Emperor suit here." If a suit could sigh, Royal surely did. "The very best database there is, the knowledge of a solar system in its innards." sounding envious.

"Bah, old knowledge still helps." muttered Jeff's suit. "Emperors here and Emperors there, is that all you can process. A Royal?"

Now the suits became silent and Jeff could feel a furious debate starting, deciding to end the uncomfortable silence, he asked. "Would it be possible to talk with her Highness?"

"Yes." came a curt reply from the Royal. "But please, do not bother us further, we are in the middle of a scientific inquiry, our processing power at full capacity for several milliseconds."

Apparently they did not define time the same as Jeff, but he let it pass. 'They're becoming awfully stuffy, though' he thought, as he cleared his voice. "Your Highness? My lady, I hope you had a pleasant sleep?"

"Ooh, Jeff?"

"Yea, you okay? Your highness, I mean."

He heard her sigh and then her voice.

"Not really, Jeff, I try, but? Royal has done his best to cheer me up."

She had lost everything she had, her mother and father most probably dead. And then she had slept through most of what happened after it. To her it had to be as if they died just a moment ago, he realized, as he heard her voice, empty of all emotion.

"I'm sorry, My Lady, and I sympathize. Maybe it will be better if you rest a while more?"

"No, Jeff, it's nice hearing a human voice. But I miss them so badly."

Desperately wanting to change the subject Jeff went on to discuss the planet, and as Janelle seemed to have a extensive knowledge of local fauna, no doubt inherited from her mother, they both agreed on trying to persuade the suits to land as soon as possible. Jeff having a distinct feeling that she needed more than his voice to help her trough her sorrow.

"Suit Royal." she imperially decreed.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I want us to land at your earliest convenience"

"Can't promise that Ma'am. Unfulfilled data acquisition, Ma'am."

"Yes, I understand that, Royal, but answer me this. Can we live on that surface?"

The suit was quiet for almost a minute, which to it had to be an immense time, before finally answering.

"Yes, Ma'am. Indeed it seems so studying the telemetry we collected so far. But I would still like to invoke Survival mode for the time being. Your safety first, Ma'am, and there are still unknown variables."

"Royal, as I said, you will take us down as soon as possible without survival mode, at your convenience." And if Jeff ever had heard an Imperial decree, then that had to be it.

There was a momentary silence. "Ma'am, under the circumstances I must beg you to stay inside. We will descend, but we still have to take atmospheric as well as soil samples. And may I point out that we do not know the local microbiology. Let us take samples and test the water. It will only take a day or two."

Janelle knew when she had forced her suit to its limit, she had grown up with it, and her father had been very insistent on her spending time with it.

"Every suit has its own quirks, Janelle." she could remember him saying. "The more advanced, the more quirks. Yours is as advanced as we could make it. It contains the keys to your heritage, as well as command codes controlling your inheritance. Treat it well, and listen to it."

"Thank you, Royal, you've always been a true friend to me." she sent it in safe mode, faintly smiling for the first time in a long while.

"Jeff, we will descend soon, and please, stop calling me Highness. Janelle will do fine here."

"Thank you, your Highness, Janelle, I meant." He found himself definitely uncomfortable calling her Janelle, which was a little surprising to him as he already called her that in his thoughts? To have done it on the ship would had broken the code of conduct, and probably earned him a really good, well deserved, dressing down from the brig. And then, there was this feeling of unconditional awe he had for her?

He wasn't sure if it was his Argel or naturally conditioned but he found himself increasingly impressed by her unselfishness and common sense. It all interwoven with an immense hurt he guessed. And it was all too easy for him to identify with that, after all, he too had lost his parents.

"Where will we land." he asked at last.

"We are searching." came the curt reply from Suit

"We need to find a temperate place, free from big animals, near water, and preferably on high ground." Royal condescendingly explained. "It will take us several revolutions to decide the optimal landing zone."

"How long will that be?" asked Janelle sharply, who silently had listened in. Jeff didn't know, but Janelle had full access to his module, including tri-D and telemetry, but as her father had explained. "Some things are for you to know, Janelle, no matter how much you trust someone." And this was one of them.

"Four hours, My Lady."

"Good, let it be so."

'Another imperial decree' Jeff thought smugly, 'serves him right, the pompous bastard.'

"Thank you, Royal., and you too, suit" he said.

"You're welcome." his suit answered.

The hours went by, with Janelle getting updated by Jeff on what had happened while she slept. Checking his story with Royal and her command table, she saw that he downplayed his own efforts, maybe because he felt awkward about it? It was a refreshing change to the court she knew, where everyone tried to play up their own prowess, to the extent of almost becoming supermen, while at the same time sucking up to her in the most unashamed fashion. She knew that she had liked him from the first moment, and was pleased to see that his succeeding behavior confirmed her feelings. That was another thing her Father had told her.

"Look for the men that don't try to impress themselves on you, Janelle, but still stay by your side. They will be the ones worth cultivating, worthy of your attention."

In Jeff she thought she had found one such.

At last the suits were satisfied.

"We have defined suitable coordinates and will start our descent, approximate time estimate to landing, 10 minutes 39 seconds."

Jeff felt a great relief hearing it. Up to the last moment he had worried that the suits would find some reason to wait, and maybe even proclaim this survival mode. But now he knew they would at least get down on a planet.

"Did you hear, Your Highness?"

"Jeff, I told you to stop, I'm no Highness. A countess maybe, or at least I will be one in time, but a princess I'm not."

Jeff felt himself redden as he sat there staring at the Tri-D.

"And what happened with calling me Janelle?" she continued.

Damn, he still had trouble saying that.

"I'm sorry My, Janelle, I'm not good with rank, keep mixing it up."

"Don't worry, nobody but us here."

As they descended, the continent the suits had chosen slowly came into focus, growing larger and larger. The suits seemed to be aiming for a mountainous region, very green in places but mostly of a grey, yellow or brown color, interspersed with spots of intense blue, unlike anything Jeff ever had seen.

"Oh, it looks so much like Earth, only bigger." he heard Janelle say in a surprised voice.

So this is what Earth would look like, then. He looked at it with newfound interest, watching the patches of green growing into forest's and fields, with sprinkles and patches of blue everywhere. Could it be water, he wondered, as he leaned forward to see better, not that he really had a window to look through. The suit had just placed a holo of the planet linked to his eyes. So he could, in principle, look anywhere he liked, the Tri-D always being in front of him. But he kept forgetting it as he tried to catch a better view.

Finally they landed on a height, with a green field sloping away from them down into a valley deep below them. And all over this green he could see strange colorful dots, he wondered about them when he once more heard Janelle.

"Flowers, Jeff, and so many. There must be wild life here. A whole ecosystem to explore. I wish mother was here to see it." Then she stopped, struck again by her memories of her and her mother exploring the botanic delights of a new planet together with their retinue. Jeff who could feel something amiss, cleared his throat, saying.

"Yes, there must be, Janelle, ah, when do you think we can get out of the suits?"

He thought he heard something suspiciously alike a snivel, but then her voice came back as cool as ever.

"I don't know, Jeff, it's up to our suits."

"I know, but I really need to get out and breathe some air that hasn't been recycled."

In fact he needed it badly. He was feeling like a sardine in a tin can, and it had become much worse since they had landed. Not that he minded traveling, without that he would still have been a fugitive, constantly running from authority and the mines. But being enclosed in a suit made him claustrophobic and he wanted out.