00:01 14 July 2173 AD

‘PMC-04 is still in its ice-age,’ said Frank as he stared out of the view-port at the planet’s surface, almost shivering as he thought of the brutal temperatures that would exist there.

Ian, Loretta and James stood before him. They were all aware of the gravity of the moment.

‘But,’ he added, ‘it’s in a transition period, one that will probably take thousands of years. This planet is steadily moving to a new era in its historical development, just as mankind is. And that is why I think we should give this planet a proper name now. Not just a cold, unemotional code from an age-old cataloguing system. I’ve been searching the ships database for an appropriate title, and I think we should name this planet Mycenae, after the name of the civilization that signified the transition in ancient Greece from the Dark Ages to the Iron Age. It was a new step for the Greek society all those many years ago. And now, as mankind sits on the edge of a new frontier in space exploration, it is only fitting that we - on a ship named Daedalus - should give PMC-04 a Greek name.’

Ian nodded, ‘Then Mycenae is an appropriate name, and I second your decision.’

Frank turned to Loretta. She was silent, but approving. She looked withdrawn, as though she was still not fully over the terrible situation with her pregnancy.

James was equally silent, but Frank saw there were tears in his eyes.

‘Welcome then, my fellow human representatives, and friends. Welcome to Mycenae.’

Using the power reserves from the photovoltaic scoop, the Daedalus had performed a final burn to decelerate steadily into a retrograde orbit around the planet Mycenae.

The huge planet was about three-quarters of the size of Saturn. Remote sensing equipment on the Daedalus revealed that the majority of the surface did seem to be made up of ice fields, which were over two hundred miles deep. Other readings showed there to be a vast reserve of metallic compounds in the rocky outcroppings, as though some unknown chemical reaction had taken place at some time in planet’s history. It could only be left to speculation as to what lay beneath the ice and rock, but it was probably molten lava. Over the visible surface of the planet was a turbulent display of ferocious electrical storms that raged around the equatorial perimeter.

Even from this high altitude, it was possible to see the immense ice covered mountain range that lay at the north polar region. Ribbons of glacial valleys complete with truncated spurs of sheared rock where the force of the ice had crumbled everything in its path. At the base of the glacial valleys were huge melt-water rivers, thousands of kilometres long and hundreds of kilometres wide. A glacial process very similar to that of Earth’s, but on a much grander scale.

Later on, when the others had left, Loretta and Frank were alone in the Command Module, overseeing the final burns.

‘We’ll be shutting off the power in fifteen minutes. This is the last TCM brake prior to orbital insertion around the planet.’

‘Still no sign of the moon.’

‘Not yet sir. According to the Spread Spectrum analysis, the moon is on the other side of the planet, on the night-side. We should have a visual in about two hours.’ Loretta said, ‘But I’m getting anomalous results when I try to ascertain its shape and density.’

‘What kind of anomalies?’ Frank asked.

Loretta turned in her chair to face Frank. ‘Sir, the moon is not spherical as we first assumed.’

‘Not spherical? What would that mean?’

‘It would indicate sir, that it’s more likely to be an asteroid that was trapped in Mycenae’s gravitational pull and became a satellite of it, rather than a piece of rock that was spun off the planet during its creation, like our moon’

‘When do you think you can get some definitive results?’

‘Sir, I won’t know any more until we get a visual.’ Loretta replied.

There was a moment of silence. Frank put his hand on her shoulder.

‘Are you alright? You are handling this so well.’ he asked sincerely.

She looked back at him with eyes that betrayed a little desperation. But finally she said, ‘Yes, Frank, I’ll be okay. Thank you.’

‘How do you feel about the whole situation?’

She sighed, ‘It was so hard to take at the time. You see, Frank, I wanted a child so much, and I know Ian did too. But it was easy for me to let my heart rule my mind. Deep down I know that James was right. There could have been any number of complications.’

‘Loretta I think you’ve been so brave. So brave. I admire you for the way you have dealt with it.’ Frank whispered.

She stared at him, tears welling in her eyes, ‘I can get through this by knowing that my chance will come again.’

‘Yes, it will.’

‘When I get home. When we all get back to Earth-‘

‘Life will be so different, Loretta. I am sure the world we go back to will be a better place. A better place for you to parent a child.

Your time will come, I’m sure of that.‘

14:30 14 July 2173 AD

The final two hours leading up to the visual on Mycenae’s moon were among the longest and most frustrating Frank had ever experienced.

Everything, the whole of the last one hundred and thirty years of project planning and mission time culminated in this moment. This mission, which had become his life. His, and everyone else on the Daedalus. This was their moment. The moment they found, and saw the thing that they had been sent here to investigate. The implication for mankind was astounding, and Frank could hardly contain his excitement. During the last thirty minutes he paced (as best he could in half-gee) around his cabin, waiting impatiently for the call from Loretta that indicated it was time to go up to the command module.

He went up to his view-port and stared out at the star field as it shifted past. What would the next hour, two hours, day, week even, hold for them?

Then his buzzer sounded, and Loretta’s voice came over the speaker system.

‘Sir, we have five minutes until visual.’

Frank took one last look at himself in the cabin mirror. It was time for the moment of his career. The moment of his life. This was the moment that Larry, Samuel, Frederick, Harold, Jake and Janice all died for.

‘Visual on Mycenae’s moon in T minus two minutes and counting.’

‘Loretta. Lock the short-range antennae on the horizon’s moonrise location. If that signal is still beaming we need to pick it up.’

Loretta keyed a couple of commands into her unit.

‘Checking co-ordinates. Antennae locked, sir.’

‘Good. Now, Ian, can you get a camera pointed at the moonrise location?’

‘I’ve already done it sir.’ Ian replied.

‘Okay, set the zoom level to five times.’

Ian started typing commands into his unit. All flight operations required good keyboard skills as well as a technical head for the task at hand.

‘Zoom set, sir.’

‘T minus one minute.’ said Loretta.

Then James spoke, ‘Ian, can you patch the image from the camera to the other monitors?’

‘Yes,’ he replied, and tapped out another command. The image from the camera appeared on six monitors around the room.

The crew waited in silence. The large planet occupied the whole port side of the Daedalus. The tumultuous storms raged on the surface and in contrast, all was silent on the ship.

Then Loretta spoke.

‘Okay, we have moonrise in T minus ten, nine…’

Frank could hear his heart beating heavily in his chest.

‘…eight, seven, six…’

He stared intently at the screen.

‘…five, four, three, two, one…’

‘There it is.’ Ian pointed at the tiny edge of a white object as it began to emerge slowly from behind the huge planet, slightly

distorted by atmospheric occultation.

Frank moved closer to the monitor, ‘An ice asteroid?’ he asked.

‘Sulphur deposits?’ added James.

‘It’s too hard to tell. We need a better look. Increase zoom to times twenty.’ Frank said.

Ian tapped another command into the keyboard and the zoom increased, the moon was not centred, and it edged off the bottom of the screen as the zoom intensified.

‘Okay, move down.’

Ian moved the image down the vertical edge of the planet to where the moon was rising, or shifting from left to right, out from behind the horizon.

And the whole crew saw it at the same time. They all saw what Mycenae’s moon really was. What they had come here for.

It wasn’t an asteroid covered in ice, or sulphur deposits. In fact, Mycenae’s moon wasn’t even a moon.