Ishtar Rising Book 1 - Michael A. Martin [12]
Saadya felt his smile broaden. “Thank you, David. You may well be the salvation of Team Ishtar’s efforts.”
Perhaps I won’t need that second Bynar pair after all. Maybe one individual will make all the difference.
If not, he knew he had run out of other options.
Chapter
3
Gold was pleased to see that the da Vinci’s senior staff was already assembled when he and Gomez arrived together in the starship’s main briefing room at 0758. Present around the irregularly shaped table were Tev, Soloman, tactical systems specialist Fabian Stevens, and structural systems specialist P8 Blue. The former three individuals already were seated, while Blue sat in her specially modified chair at the end of the table. Also present were Corsi, cultural specialist Carol Abramowitz, cryptography expert Bart Faulwell, and Dr. Elizabeth Lense, the da Vinci’s chief medical officer.
A few hours earlier, Dr. Saadya had supplied Gold and Gomez with copious amounts of data regarding Project Ishtar, intended to bring the da Vinci’s staff up to speed as quickly as possible. From the intent manner with which most everyone was studying their padds, Gold intuited that his people were still doing as much last-minute homework as they could cram.
“Good morning, everybody,” he began as he sat at his usual spot at the head of the table. “As I’m sure you’ve all already noticed by now, the project we’re going to assist Dr. Saadya and his team with is pretty heady stuff.”
Corsi’s earlier expression of awe had been replaced by a furrowed brow, a change no doubt caused by prolonged exposure to cold, hard data. As usual, the security chief didn’t mince words. “It looks pretty damned dangerous, sir,” she said, setting her padd down on the table. “If everything doesn’t go perfectly to plan, it’s going to be a real challenge just keeping everybody on the team alive.”
Gold tried to muster a smile, but failed as recollections of Galvan VI sprang to mind unbidden. “That’s why I invited you to the party.” He took a seat, then faced Dr. Lense. “And you, too, Doctor. As Corsi has pointed out, this project is liable to suffer a catastrophe during its next phase—unless everybody involved is very careful. Lots of people could be injured.”
Lense did not look enthusiastic. “Anybody exposed to that witch’s cauldron of an atmosphere for more than a couple of seconds will be way past my ability to help.”
To break the pensive silence he sensed was about to engulf the room at that statement, Gold nodded to Gomez, signaling her to begin the technical briefing.
“The real dangers are hard to evaluate objectively,” Gomez said, still standing as she looked over the figures on her own padd. As she continued, Gold noticed that she, too, now seemed haunted by memories of the hellworld where her lover, second officer Kieran Duffy, had died. “Venus isn’t the most human-friendly environment in the solar system, so any approach to terraforming it is certain to involve some unavoidable hazards.”
Gold admired his first officer’s talent for under-statement. With a temperature of around four hundred and eighty degrees Celsius, Venus’s surface was the hottest in the solar system, except for the sun’s photosphere. Flesh would vaporize in moments, and its surface pressure of ninety bars would just as swiftly crush humanoid bones—or a Nasat exoskeleton—flat. “Venus” and “friendly” shouldn’t even be used in the same sentence.
Corsi seemed to be having similar thoughts. “Doing the work from orbit seems to me a surefire way of avoiding the worst of those hazards,” she said dryly.
Gold silently conceded that the security chief’s point was an excellent one. Why subject anyone to unnecessary risks on that pressure cooker of a planet?
“Unfortunately, the whole project depends on a large number of networked ground stations,” Gomez said. “The equipment and software are pretty complex, and only some of these facilities can be automated by slaving them to other