Maria stood at the viewport watching the shimmering blue-white tube that had seemingly surrounded the ship for the past twelve months and several days. She was the Endeavor’s sole waking occupant. She folded her hands behind her back and walked through the empty airless ship to where here crew lay sleeping in stasis pods. In a few hours the ship would exit FTL in what should be the extreme edge of Alpha Centauri’s solar system. She had been chosen to captain this voyage because she was a vampire. She had a four-year supply of synthetic blood and had no need to breath, sleep, or eat beyond that. Once she had scanned the system and made a second jump to a planet, she would park the ship in orbit and start waking the crew for what was to be between a six month to one year science expedition. Many of the bays that would hold starfighters in the ships future currently held scientific equipment, labs, shuttles, fabrication units, along with a healthy amount of research and development space. Her crew that would one day be soldiers was comprised up a minimum amount of military along with many civilian scientists. She leaned on the railing and looked down at the peacefully frozen forms.

She was interrupted when her wrist vibrated. She glanced down and it was the computer notifying her that the ship would be exiting FTL in five minutes. She smiled and walked towards the viewport. They didn’t know much but they did know the system wasn’t inhabited. Maria watched as the blue-white light faded as the bulky carrier shifted into normal space. She set eyes on Alpha Centauri A. The first earthling to be touched by its direct rays. She felt no hunger, no weakness. That only came with closer proximity to the stars. Anything past the habitable zone, which was a well-known limit to a vampire’s safe zone. Any closer and it was best they stay away from windows.

Maria walked to the bridge and began a preliminary scan of the system. Six planets. The one terrestrial exo-planet that they had detected was actually in orbit of Proxima Centauri. It had an atmosphere but was closer to Mars then Earth. No ozone layer to speak of. No organic life that could be detected at this range. She detected three other habitable zone terrestrial planets. One was a super earth, mostly a Neptune only closer to the sun. One caught her attention. Mean temperature close to earths, liquid water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen atmosphere ozone. It was orbiting Alpha Centauri A. She plotted the next FTL jump. She turned on the life support systems and oxygenated air filled the ship over the course of an hour.

The air on the ship was fully breathable by now which was good because she felt the mortality that is brought on by solar radiation interacting with her skin. She took a deep breath for the first time in over a year and slide into the seat of one of the science stations and started scanning the planet for life. It was less evolved than earth. Mostly single celled organisms some proto-multicellular animals and a lot of plants. Deeper scans would require surface landing and samples. It had two moons, neither of which was remarkable. She turned her attention to the stellar system proper. Proxima was in its non-energetic state so was very dim and likely posed little hazard to them. The life on the planet below confirmed that. The stars were the same age as Sol, so she pondered why there was a lack of more developed species.

“Computer, pull group one out of stasis.”

“Process started Admiral Aurelius.”

Maria walked off the bridge and felt the weight of her vampiric existence hit her. She sighed wistfully and made her way down to the stasis recovery area. Group one consisted of the medical personal and her command staff.

*****

“A meteor?”

“Yes Dr. Aurelius, it appears a meteor hit the planet about six million years ago. Here’s the crater.”

Maria looked up from her holo-tablet to Dr. Wellington.

“If we’re at the point we’re using titles, its Admiral these days Sonya.”

Dr. Wellington smiled at Maria, then laughed.

“Sorry, I’ve just been dealing with the world’s biggest egos for the last three months. If you forget to call them Doctor, they get their feather’s ruffled.”

“So, the one thing everyone agrees on is the lack of advanced multicellular species was the result of an extinction level event.”

“Yes Maria, that is our best theory.”

“No signs of intelligent life?”

“On the ship or the planet?”

Maria laughed.

“On the planet.”

“No, no cave paintings no ruins that we have found so far. It seems like every six to fifty million years the planet has had a catastrophic event, meteor, super volcano, solar flare. Looks like a nearby super nova irradiated it at one point killing off most complicated cellular life. The evolution we’re seeing in most of the single celled organisms seems to indicate they have an advanced resistance to cosmic radiation.”

“Cosmic radiation seems pretty…what is the word, vague.”

“There is a broad spectrum of radiation types that come from Proxima Centauri, and well, super novae.”

Maria nodded, she looked up to the fifty-six-year-old woman catching a glimpse of the wanderlust she had seen in the same eyes, some forty-five years ago. She had been her mentor then her friend. Maria had watched her grow up, then her children.

“So, the super nova… would that not have hit earth?”

“Looks like we weren’t in the effective kill radius.”

Maria nodded.

“Does the planet merit further investigation? Is it your recommendation we land a bio-dome and leave some scientists and Marines here to gather more samples?”

“Yes.”

“What is your assessment of risks to anyone left behind?”

“Bacterial or viral infection if the Bio-dome or suit are compromised. Compromise of the ecosystem of the xeno-planet.”

“Do you as the civilian leader of this expedition consider the risk acceptable?”

“I do.”

“Deployment approved. Are you staying?”

“No, I’ll be putting Dr. Alverez in charge for this mission.”

Maria nodded.

“Pick the team. I will have a roster for Marines set up. I want boots on the ground and bio-dome placement completed within one week. We will reassess continued planetary presence in three months.”

“I’ll get things started on my end. Thanks Maria.”

“You are the one in charge of the science expedition, I am just your driver.”

“You’re also the overall commander of this mission.”

“We agreed that my job is to rubberstamp any request for resources unless I saw any inherent danger in the request. Get to it.”

*****

Maria had her arms crossed as she watched the last of the crew get sealed into their stasis pods. She wandered to the observation window on the port side of the ship leaning on the railing again. Three inhabitable planets in the system, though two were technically moons of a gaseous supergiant. Six times the mass of Jupiter, but it was an odd purple color. None of them had intelligent life, though the moons had more complicated multicellular life then the actual planet due to the shielding effect of the supergiant’s magnetic field. She looked at the massive purple planet that defied all logic. The outer atmosphere was mostly water vapor. The deep purple color, magenta and pinks apparently came from a never-ending electrical storm lighting up the inner layer of atmosphere which was comprised of argon. She looked to the child ghost to her left who was clutching her ball and looking out at the massive planet.

“Nature never ceases to amaze me.”

“I do not understand the query Admiral.”

“Computer disregard.”

“Should I remove one of the psychologists from stasis for a session Admiral?”

“Why?”

“Talking to imaginary individuals could indicate hallucinations.”

“Computer I am fine. I will address you directly if I have a request.”

Ethel giggled and went back to bouncing her ball.

“Stupid computer.”

“One of the few things we agree on Ethel. Time to head home I guess.”

“Are you going to miss it?”

“Here?”

“Yes. The scientists think you should have stayed longer. I heard them calling you names. Should I go mess with their pods?”

“No Ethel.”

“Aww, they were really bad names.”

“I am sure I have been called worse and if not, I will be in the future.”

“If I were you, I’d drain em’ dry!”

“You are not me, and I am not you. We would be very boring friends if that were so.”

“I guess. So, am I the first ghost to walk on an alien world?”

“Well, you and our other friend.”

“Why didn’t you stay longer? I like it here its pretty, it has three suns.”

“Because our mission was scheduled for between two and three years. I waited as long as I could. If we did not leave now, we would be over schedule and people would worry.”

“You could have just radioed home!”

“It is not that simple. If I sent them a message from here right now, they would not receive it until four and half years after we got back.”

“You’re lying, you can’t move faster than radio!”

“Actually Ethel, we can. My friend Amee and I developed a starship drive that can exceed the speed of light. I cannot believe we have not had this conversation before.”

“Then why can’t you just radio home?”

“Because we have not developed faster then light communications. I have some ideas though. Maybe we can build a prototype on the trip home?”

Ethel nodded excitedly.

“Computer, initiate FTL jump to Pluto space.”

“Routing power to Jace-Aurelius drive Admiral. FTL jump will commence in sixty seconds.”

Maria looked out the window taking in the Centauri stellar system one last time before the blue-white vortex formed and the ship lurched into FTL. Maria motioned Ethel to follow her.

“Come on, I will explain how we will make communications instantaneous across all of space.”

“How can you do that?”

Maria took her fingers and put them about three feet apart then and brought them together.

“By dragging two points in space-time together with a microscopic wormhole.”

“What do worms have to do with anything?”

Maria laughed and ruffled Ethel’s hair. The ghost glowered at her.

“I’m too old to have you do that!”

“No, you are not.”

Ethel threw her ball at Maria who caught it and handed it back.

“Nice try.”

The pair walked to Maria’s private lab. One of the perks of being the person who helped design the ship. She poked Ethel’s shoulder. The girl looked up at her with a smile.