Watson, Ian - Novel 06 by God's World (v1.1)

returning.”
                 “If
we re-activate the drive, it might take us right back home. We can’t be
certain.”
                 Salman
has been busy scanning for other planets in the plane of the ecliptic. “We have
two more gas giants, out at 5 AUs and 12.5 AUs. This nearby one is at 0.77 AU.
So there can’t be any independent Earth-type worlds at all because of the
inhibition effect. Not unless they’re far out and frozen.” He purses his lips.
“We shall have to revise our planetology, I fear. The sun’s radiation pressure
should sweep the primeval gases further out, leaving heavy atoms to condense
close in. Yet here we have only gas giants all the way . . . Well, this is the
first alien solar system we’ve set eyes on.
                 “As
for the local gas giant, it’s in the Saturn league. A bit smaller: 120,000
kilometres diameter at the equator. A hydrogen- helium mixture, very rich in
ammonia, methane and carbohydrates—traces of metals too. It’s dense and
warm—more massive than Saturn, maybe. And of course it gets a lot of sun heat,
which should make the weather pretty wild. I’d expect more radio noise from it
than Neil says.”
                 “Why?”
asks Kendrick sharply.
                 “Oh,
stormy weather on a grand scale. It has eight moons so far. Actually, we’re
within the orbit of the outermost small moon. The biggest is about Luna-size,
with massive cratering and no sign of any atmosphere. Judging from the hull
dosimeters the magnetosphere isn’t as intense as you’d expect this close in to
the sun—not nearly. Radiation hazards in local space are acceptably low.”
                 “Could
the gas giant itself be inhabited?” wonders Ren6. “If it’s so warm. That would
imply a technology quite different from ours . . . Merely because we saw
humanoid angels . . . Well, our own minds played a role in shaping them.”
                 Gus
Trimble wears a long face, making him seem more be- jowled than usual, as
though gravity has already returned and his tissues have slumped as a
consequence. “Our current course is taking us sunward, inside the gas giant’s
orbit. If we leave things alone we’ll go into an elliptical sun orbit, bringing
us to that hypothetic High Space injection point in another week or so as we
leave the giant behind. We’ve got a problem, though. If we jockey into orbit
round the giant, well, unless we can carry out space repairs I don’t know that
we can get out to that injection point—always supposing there is a ticket home!
Not on two engines, with the fuel that’s left. Did we waste it in High Space!
Yet if we don’t go into orbit our shuttles haven’t the fuel to get in and back again
fast enough, unless they just slingshot round the giant. We’ll have to do
something about cancelling velocity in the next five or six hours, or else
we’re just committed to a fly-by.” He wipes his brow. “Where to, though? That’s
unless we find a recharge station parked somewhere round the giant.” Kendrick
shrugs. “If there is one it isn’t advertising.”
                 Heinz
is at the small refractor. “I’m getting another moon—a big one. It’s coming out
of occultation.”
                 With
the naked eye we can actually see the tiny half-disc as it emerges. Ritchie
locks in the main scopescreen and magnifies. The gas giant swells rushingly
towards us, a vivid yellow fog, striated red and orange and brown. Beyond it,
half in day and half in the faintest yellow-ghost night, hangs: a blue and
brown world, the blue area mottled with white streaks and whorls.
                 “That’s big. That’s got an atmosphere. That’s
our baby,” whoops Ritchie.
                 Salman
measures and calculates; before long he has the figures. “My estimated diameter
is just over 12,000 kilometres. That’s about 0.85 of Earth’s. It’s