Galactic Federation Petrified Giants , The Ocean’s Secret

When Tuli entered the research ship’s observation section, an image of the first planet filled the wall. Hatu, sitting at the table, pushed the empty chair toward her without looking up. Tuli sat down and leaned toward the screen in front of her. The last data from the scans conducted through the ship’s night were coming in. She had not yet taken over her shift, but the maps Hatu had left open told her the survey was not going well.

“Did you get the last pass too?” Tuli asked.

“I did,” Hatu said. “I waited for you to see it.”

Tuli opened her workspace. Five successive orbits appeared on the screen. She checked the distances between them first, then their recorded movements. The system was orderly. If the initial survey revealed a problem, they would have to look for it in the planets’ own conditions. She pulled the first set of measurements Hatu showed her into view. When she raised her hand, the surface image on the wall stopped.

When Federation research units first scanned the five-planet star system in detail, the four worlds in the inner orbits drew their attention first. The system was orderly, and the planets’ orbits appeared to have been stable for a long time, but the results were not promising for life.

“Are there any gaps in the measurements here?” Tuli asked.

“Not on this part of the surface,” Hatu said. “I put the results from the dark side on the right too.”

Tuli opened the two hemispheres side by side. Bare terrain exposed to starlight lay on one side, the dark surface on the other. The boundary between the colors representing temperatures on the map was sharply defined. Hatu leaned back in his chair. He knew Tuli would not move on to the next planet before finishing her check.

“We can complete the first file,” Tuli said.

The first planet had lost most of its atmosphere. Its surface was directly exposed to radiation from the star, and temperature differences reached levels at which life could not survive. On the second planet, the dense atmosphere had overheated the surface.

When Hatu closed the record, the second planet’s dense atmosphere filled the display. This time Tuli had to open the scan layers to see the surface. As Hatu showed the altitudes at which the measurements had been taken, Tuli moved down through the lower layers. These two worlds orbiting the same star would require different work.

Tuli was still examining the second planet’s temperatures when Piya, who was conducting the technical assessment, came in. Piya set his screen on the table and leaned against its empty edge.

“Is there any suitable region left on the surface?” Piya asked.

“We haven’t seen one yet,” Tuli said. “You can open the results here.”

The other two worlds were no better off. On one, the atmosphere had grown very thin, and the surface had long been frozen. Although the other planet showed traces suggesting liquid water might once have existed there, the conditions needed to sustain a balanced ecosystem no longer remained.

Piya did not speak for a while. When the second planet’s examination ended, the frozen surface of the third appeared. Tuli rose from the table while Hatu transferred the data. Moving her shoulders, stiff from sitting so long, she stepped in front of the wall. Getting closer to the terrain in the image added nothing to the measurements; she still wanted to see the whole surface.

They spent longer on the traces of ancient water on the fourth planet. Tuli enlarged a marked region. After writing a note in the description field, Hatu turned it toward her.

“There may have been water in the past,” Hatu said. “I’m leaving it at that.”

“Keep present conditions separate,” Tuli said. “Let’s not add a possibility from the past to the settlement assessment.”

The Federation assessed whether these four planets could be made habitable again. However, creating atmospheres, changing temperature balances, and establishing new ecological systems would require very lengthy work. For that reason, the system was not included among priority regions in the initial surveys.

Piya was listing the necessary procedures in his file. Tuli returned to the table and examined the list. Long programs of work had been opened for all four worlds, starting with their atmospheres and extending to soil and ecological systems. When Piya brought them together, no easily chosen candidate remained on the table.

“I’m not preparing a proposal for priority work,” Piya said.

Tuli looked at the four files once more before approving. Then she requested the fifth planet’s image. When the blue sphere appeared, Hatu silently expanded the surface map. Tuli watched the gaps between the clouds. She was looking for a coast, a large island, or a permanent piece of land.

“Open the atmospheric results,” Tuli said.

The fifth planet was entirely different from the others. From a distance, almost its entire surface appeared covered by an uninterrupted ocean. No large continents, broad islands, or continuous land surfaces could be detected.

When Hatu brought up the measurements, Tuli moved her chair closer to the table. After the first four worlds, these results needed another look. Piya closed his technical list and joined her. The temperature data appeared suitable, but there was no point on the surface map where they could mark a settlement area.

“Keep the biological survey record open,” Tuli said. “Let’s not lose what we’ve measured because we couldn’t find land.”

As the work drew to an end, Piya waited by the table for a while. Tuli looked at the technical list he had not closed. The planetary measurements were complete, but assembling the files was also part of the survey. Hatu linked each result to the observation it came from, one by one. They reopened two records with missing links. They did not need new measurements; data from the same pass had been stored separately. When Tuli finished the final check, Hatu moved a copy of the file into the shared area. The table cleared after Piya picked up his screen. Only Tuli remained in front of the wall.

Hatu linked the last image to the archive. Piya completed the assessment while Tuli looked at the blue world whose file had not yet been closed. Another task opened in the research ship’s observation section. The image of the five-planet system disappeared from the wall.

At first glance, the planet’s atmosphere and temperature were remarkably balanced, but the absence of land where human communities could settle was considered a significant problem. The Federation’s first reports recorded it as an ocean planet that was biologically interesting but of no use for human settlement.

The star system therefore remained in the background for a long time. Four planets were dead, and the fifth appeared to lack habitable land.