Odyssey Rising (5 page)

It was a sleepless night for many aboard Odyssey.

The crew knew that Odyssey had over-stayed its welcome above the brown planet of GidX7. The shuttle had a rendezvous with the Ark, about three weeks from their current location. The point of no return was only four hours away.

If they didn’t start their journey back home to the Ark, the countdown to death would begin. Such a countdown always existed when they left the Ark, since there was only so much water and food and argon that could be stored aboard the shuttle.

Where Odyssey and the Starling brothers went next was totally out of their control. Just like a toy marionette, Theo and Ravi would be forced to dance when their strings were pulled. Currently, it was the Yin-Yang Twins and Captain Barton who held the strings that could make the entire crew of Odyssey dance, flop or even twirl about.

Resting on his bed, Theo sipped some of his daily ration of water with his Communication Device next to him.

In the early hours of day sixty-nine, Odyssey reached the point of no return and Captain Barton announced to all the residents that the shuttle had begun all necessary protocols to return to the Ark. His decision was based largely upon protocol and the fact that the primary function of this mission had been achieved. That primary function was to mine and secure enough argon, zinc and ore from the asteroid belt and then get back to the Ark as originally scheduled.

It was an extremely difficult decision, complicated only by the need to survive and the precautionary measures in place to not infect the entire Furman Corporation on three Arks, four smaller landing shuttles and the colonies on Mars and the Moon.

The alien microbe’s motive and intent wasn’t entirely known nor understood and Captain Barton knew his greatest priority was keep the ship and the majority of the crew safe and healthy.

Over the shuttles loud speakers, Theo and the entire crew heard Captain Barton.

“There are many arguments that could be made that would encourage me to send this shuttle down to the planet. But if we stay right where we are, we all die. So, I’d like to put the kibosh on the rumors I’ve heard. Odyssey is going home, as scheduled.”

Even with such positive and hopeful news, Theo was stuck in his sleeping quarters. He was sick of exercising and so he sat and watched the lab experiments on Channel 4, a video-feed from the lab that he learned about from Sam who was also watching. Technically, they weren’t authorized to be watching – it was for the captain’s and Command Council’s eyes only.

Even though the video feed on Channel 4 was taboo, Theo usually found it fairly boring. It was usually reserved for communication between the Command Control back at the Ark and the Flight Navigation crew here on Odyssey. Watching even now, the experiments were just a series of slow and methodical pokes and prods on a microscopic level with an occasional introduction of water or saline or acid. He wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

Theo had his Communication Device set to voice to voice and he was speaking occasionally to Sam.

“Thrilling stuff,” Sam said.

“Seriously?” Theo asked.

“No, man, I’d rather watch the rings of Saturn spin and spin,” Sam answered.

“Yeah, but it’s kind of like watching paint dry,” Theo said.

Ellie’s voice chimed in, “Your father is totally in his element.”

“Hey, how’d you get on this channel?” Sam asked.

“Oh, I didn’t know this was a private club,” Ellie said.

“I gave her the code,” Ravi chimed in.

“You’re on too? This is a real convention of freaks and geeks,” Sam said.

“I’m repelling your negativity,” Ravi said.

“You’re loony tunes,” Sam said.

“Theo, you’re going to be totally famous now,” Ellie said.

“I don’t care about fame,” Theo said.

“He cares about the bootylicious babes,” Sam said.

“I care about getting back home,” Theo said in defense.

On the computer screen, in several small microscopic events, the hundreds of pulsing alien microbes exploded into something new.

The Yin-Yang dots were no longer amorphous blobs. They were still tiny, but now had taken a different shape. They were tiny cellular creatures, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of them, maybe even more. Further examination would put them at nearly one-millionth the size of a typical human body.

The explosions Theo saw looked much like a tiny atomic bomb. He remembered from history class back on the Ark the mushroom plumes of destruction that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the mushroom clouds of microscopic dots settled, Theo saw a multi-celled, seven-legged crab like creature that was shaped much like an ocean horseshoe crab.

On screen from the Ark Doctor Starling said, “We really are watching something amazing.”

“What’s happening?” Ed Lorre asked.

“A change,” Doctor Starling said.

“What kind?”

“Have patience Ed,” Doctor Starling said.

“I’m trying but this is...well...it’s not exactly covered in the textbooks.”

“It’s mitosis,” Doctor Starling said. “At least, that’s what we’d call it on earth.”

“Kind of sick looking things, aren’t they?” Ed Lorre said.

“And beautiful,” Doctor Starling said.

The explosions continued for nearly thirty seconds. Ravi was no longer the youngest aboard Odyssey. The little Yin-Yang dots, whatever they were, took that prize.

Sam got excited, grabbed his ancient camera. “Now this is some crazy microscopic stuff.”

“They’re like seven-legged crab sponge things,” Theo said.

“Maybe, but they’re pretty cool,” Sam added.

“For something microscopic,” Theo said.

“Hey, is there any difference between a lobster and a crab?” Sam asked.

Ravi chimed in, “Yes, both are invertebrate crustaceans found in oceans around our Earth with eight legs for walking and two more that are pinching claws, making ten appendages, they may appear to be closely related, in fact they’re very, very different little creatures. Crabs pretty much eat algae, so they’re an omnivore at least that’s what wikipedia says.”

Sam had heard enough. “Thanks, kid. I wasn’t expecting a real answer.”

“Oh, I thought you were. There’s really a lot more differences. And I actually think these microbes look nothing like crabs or lobsters. In fact, they have a certain salamander-esque like quality if you ask me.”

“Maybe it’s just one of those tiny horseshoe crabs,” Sam said.

“Which, to be factual, are not even in the crab family,” Ravi said.

Sam just rolled his eyes as Ravi started to talk.

“See, they’re ancient arthropods, like a spider or scorpion. Horseshoe crabs actually predate dinosaurs by more than 250 million years.”

“Whatever twerp. We’re a little off topic. What are we looking at now?”

“We’ll have to wait until Dad identifies them,” Theo said.

Over the Channel 4 feed, they could hear Ed Lorre breathing quickly and nervously. “Okay. Remain calm. Breathe. Breathe. Come on, breathe. What are we looking at, Doctor? They’re not in our database. Of course they’re not,” Ed Lorre said with some urgency and excitement. Because they’re not from Earth. Right. Right. Of course. Sorry. Right. Right. I’m just – this is – wow! Wow! I’m speechless,” Ed Lorre exclaimed.

The next several hours were a roller coaster of observation and inquiry and by day’s end, Doctor Starling sent a short Communication entry about the Yin-Yang Twins to the entire crew of Odyssey and the Command Council of the Ark.

Theo, Ravi, Ellie and Sam kept channel four on all night and it was mostly quiet for several hours until a cranky, tired voice spoke. The Yin-Yang Twins, still under microscopic observation, had changed yet again. They were inert, motionless, perhaps even dead.

There still was a mandatory lockdown but since most of the standard operations that kept Odyssey functioning were computer automated, the lockdown -- in effect -- did little to slow down the normal duties of the crew.

In the far corner of the lab there was a simple though important experiment underway. There were two rabbits. The gray one had a live “dose” of the Yin-Yang Twins. The other, a cute brown one, was uninfected. They had been carefully segregated in separate cages that received no oxygen from the outside lab. The rabbit’s source of oxygen was a shared oxygen bottle received through a clear, plastic tubing that connected the two enclosed cages.

Preliminary observation of the rabbits revealed that they were two cute, fuzzy, healthy and normal little fur balls. Nothing had changed in their blood or with their vital signs. This was great news.

The scientific and medical community back at the Ark felt that they had these Yin-Yang Twins under control. Whether that assessment was prudently accurate or foolishly ignorant remained to be seen.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

As most of you have probably heard or read by now Odyssey has discovered a multi-celled organisms living on one of the bones found on the GidX7 surface. They are made mostly of salt and ammonia and acid. We are not sure of every chemical yet. They do not have a recognizable sequence of DNA, at least not in a form we have been able to read or understand yet.

The most interesting new fact about them: they’re growing. How much and into what remains to be seen. At this point, we conclude it is a multi-cellular based life. There is no cause for alarm. Our brave new world just got a lot more interesting.

Every six hours these things have doubled in size and then split in half during a binary fissure process. We have named them the Yin-Yang Twins.

Since the dawn of the space age the search for the existence of extra-terrestrial life has been, arguably, the most important goal sought by space exploration. Too often, before the Copernicus telescope, we became blinded by our familiarity and predisposition to find a place with carbon and Earth like conditions. But what if life on other planets doesn’t require carbon or even oxygen?

As part of this search, finding a habitable planet has always been about a few important details: size of the planet, its distance from its star and the presence of vital gaseous elements like oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Even with the high probability of life on a planet like red Mars, life of any kind has been silently absent up here in the stars. Now that we’ve made the discovery on GidX7, we have achieved what others have only dreamed about. Since the first rocket explorations in the mid-twentieth century, the human race has been looking for any sign of life somewhere other than Earth. Life has often been seen as some cosmic irony, just a fluke of randomness that defies understanding. But to the optimists and those familiar with Drake’s Equation, others have fervently believed that there was no statistical way that we are alone in the universe. For several modern centuries popular mythology has ingrained in the public’s collective fears and desires that alien life would come in the form of little green men of superior intellect and technological innovations. While microscopic cellular parasitic life doesn’t really have the sizzle or the razzle-dazzle of bug-eyed hominids that look vaguely like us, finding an alien microbe is still the discovery of a lifetime.

Let us not forget that we have also discovered a very intriguing skeletal remains of an unidentified alien origin. This discovery leads us to ask some very interesting questions. What else is down there? Is it friend or foe? Is it like us or not? Is it even still breathing? Still moving around? Still alive? Was it ever alive? Does it breathe the way we do? Does it even need to breathe? All are worthy questions that we hope to answer in the coming days and weeks and even years.

For three centuries, we have labored in the stars, around them, near them, hoping to prove that the human race is not alone. We have much work and experimentation ahead of us but I know we are ready for any challenge that presents itself. We would not be here now without the fortitude and vision of heroic explorers and scientists who came before us. Truly, this is the work of a lifetime where we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Let us continue to build upon their insights and explorations, their fears, their passions and their unanswered questions.

Or, perhaps, there is more to their tiny survival? More study will be needed. In an innocent way, we believe, Sam’s sweat falling on the bone was Genesis writ small, microscopic small. For in the beginning the Earth and all of life was without form and the spirit of creation, what believers called God, moved upon the face of the waters and there was lightness and darkness, day and night and there was life, abundant life that was both big and microscopic. Brief, though conclusive experiments have proven that our sweat and saliva contribute to the growth of the Yin-Yang Twins. In water alone, there is no growth. In salt alone, also no growth. Even in a salt-water mixture there’s no growth.

Given the conditions of our most recent rabbit experiment we are now confident that the Yin-Yang Twins
do not
transmit via the air. Rather, transmission occurs through touch or sweat or saliva. In a sense this is very good news, though it is tempered by other more alarming news.

We have determined that the blood tests of each rabbit confirm that the little Yin-Yang Twins in the rabbits aren’t dying. In fact, the little Yin-Yang Twins are speeding up and multiplying in both rabbits. Thus, we would classify this as a potentially malignant organism, an infection that will grow and spread in the rabbits. Into what magnitude of virulence remains to be seen.

Given the unknown nature of this organism, this is troubling news. Both rabbits are now overheating with infection and are in a feverish and delirious state. This is very troubling for an animal that cannot produce sweat nor regulate body temperature above eighty degrees. For a lack of a better definition, we have to call these Yin-Yang Twins parasitic infections without a known eradicating agent. We have given the rabbits a strong dose of antibiotics, though the Yin-Yang Twins are still growing more unexpected, unusual and wild with every passing hour. We still don’t know the severity of what we’re dealing with here. Until further results, we should remain cautious, vigilant, though hopeful that this is all just harmless dust blowing in the GidX7 wind.

We are waiting and looking for the rabbit’s defenses to kick in, for their bodies to produce a natural antibody to the corrosive effect of the Yin-Yang Twins. As of now, this natural defense has not activated. This is of some concern. It is quite possible the rabbits have no natural defense to something so alien, yet so vaguely familiar. The rabbits and Yin-Yang Twins are in a stage of adaptation, a battle of existence between antagonism or cooperation. Time and more blood work will confirm the outcome.

God speed to us all.

Dr. Leo Starling

Chief Science Officer

The Furman Corporation

ENTRY COMPLETE.