The Blue People of Cloud Planet (30 page)

The gigantic wave roared towards the six dwellings which blazed in the sunshine with their light shafts streaking upwards. Their occupants scurried frantically to escape – they had received the terrible warning from their fellow people – and heard the explosive sound of the oncoming threat.

The wave struck the first dwelling and for a moment the top of the pyramid   stuck out of the raging surf. Following this, the dwelling exploded and a mass of red bricks, glinting crystals together with dismembered torsos, crashed into the second dwelling. The streaks of light went out one by one as, like a pack of cards, all the dwellings collapsed under the relentless force of the water.

Scott and Seren gasped in horror as the huge wave, with its seething mass of bricks, crystals and lifeless bodies spinning in its turbulence, appeared to rush straight at them. They instinctively backed away as the recorded scene in the dark pyramid shook, tilted upwards and returned to its previous view.

This recording crystal must have survived the wave, remained in place, and continued to capture subsequent images of the catastrophe. They looked down. The wave had continued up the estuary but here the water level was still high. Lower slopes on both sides were stripped bare of plantations and all that remained was a swathe of broken stumps in front of the tree line. Then the water level fell and rushed back towards them carrying with it debris, trees and bodies.

The bank where the dwellings had stood was almost unrecognisable. Parts of the bases of the structures had survived but none was intact. The canal feeding them was completely gone. Gaping holes appeared inside the dwellings where the floor had collapsed into the underground chambers. These were filled with water and bodies.

Everywhere there was devastation and carnage.  There seemed to be little possibility that anyone had survived – or had they?

Surprisingly some bodies stirred, but they could hardly rise from the ground such were the extent of their injuries. About half a dozen Serenite males had struggled to their feet and looked around in bewilderment. Seren stiffened beside Scott,

>> where will they go > their dwellings are destroyed >>

Scott’s mind was racing ahead – what goes up must come down! The wall of water that had raced past them would be slowed by the rising slopes and narrowing of the valley. How far would its destructive force travel? He walked around the ledge to the other side and looked up the valley. The sides were stripped clean of vegetation and trees as far as he could see!

He could not see the next set of light shafts!

After a while and in the distance he could see a boiling white mass and knew that the wave was returning. It grew in volume as it surged back towards them carrying uprooted trees, leaves and bodies before it. Suddenly the river doubled in size as the returning swell raced past them. They watched, with hearts torn, as the few survivors turned to face their last moments on Cloud Planet. Then the wave crashed over them and they were pulverised between the crushing weight of tree trunks and debris.  Finally, they were swept out to sea.

Seren had her head inclined for some while before Scott asked what her leader had said,

>> this must be the first disaster > when we lost a lot of our blond people > our blue workers > and our lands and dwellings by the sea >>

and Scott remembered those poignant words spoken by Hotenka.

The next crystal took them 50 kilometres inland and above the row of dwelling structures. There must have been some telepathic warning as Serenites and blue workers were fleeing from the dwellings and up the slopes of plantations. Some were paddling furiously in their boats.

The river here was about 50 metres wide – but that was to change.

In the distance Scott could already see the oncoming wave. Now it looked really ugly and menacing. It was 150 metres wide, 20 metres high and still moving with incredible speed. Its front was a seething mass of torn tree trunks, branches and leaves. It was red in colour from the churned up clay bed. It rose up the slopes for 50 metres on either side destroying plantations and trees.

Then it hit the three farming dwellings. The wall of water crashed over them, swallowing them up and, one by one, their light shafts extinguished. The broiling tumult hurled itself at the fleeing Blue People on the slopes. Some of the stronger Serenities had made sufficient ground but the blue workers seemed to flounder and then they disappeared into the tangled mass of wood and clay bricks from their dwellings. The wave quickly reached the boats and they rose and capsized as they were consumed by the seething wall of water.

 Scott chose the crystal above and the scene was the usual idyllic, sunlit vista with no sign of the wave, although the river level rose a couple of metres and then fell again. So the destructive force had spent itself between 50 and 100 kilometres inland Scott thought to himself.

‘And I wonder how many estuaries had been similarly affected by the tsunami wave,’ Scott thought aloud, ‘and how many Blue People had perished!’

 ‘My detailed research of Cloud Planet revealed the extent of the devastation and Scott would have been horrified at the final death toll.  In fact, it surprised me and, as you may imagine, I am not normally surprised by events in the history of our galaxy. However, at that undefined moment in the annals of this planet four giant tsunamis raced across the oceans, two in each hemisphere. One wave in each of the seas charged thousands of kilometres in the direction of the icecap before its force was spent. But the other travelled directly at the coastline, which was only 150 kilometres away, at well over 100 kilometres per hour.

‘However, the most frightening aspect of these tsunamis was that, at the point of origin, they encircled the complete equatorial circumference of the planet! Each was nearly 50,000 kilometres long and raced towards the shore.

‘Further both coastlines of Cloud Planet had 1000 estuaries which are 50 kilometres apart - 2000 beaches which were thronging with Blue People by day. 12,000 dwellings with pyramid dwellings at the estuary and 6000 further inland.

‘Furthermore each and every location was filled with blond Serenites and their blue workers. The tsunamis struck both shorelines along their entire length at approximately the same time.

‘However, at one location on each coast the force of the tsunami was such that several valleys were completely obliterated for their whole 500 kilometre length and the reservoir dams were smashed and scattered across the red clay. The nearest dwellings on the plain were completely destroyed and buried. I have used my extensive database to model this calamity and conclude that the tsunami wave at these locations was in excess of 500 metres high and travelled at over 300 kilometres per hour! It is impossible to imagine the  destructive force of such a gargantuan wall of water and no diamond ‘cameras’ are, as yet, discovered to show this particular catastrophe.

‘Well over 2 million Blue People perished on each coast and in nearby valleys.

‘Mercifully, half of them were deeply asleep when the disaster strikes.

‘But this is just the start of their troubles.’

The Creeping Mist

Scott went back to the first crystal where he had observed the start of the tsunami because something was tugging at his mind. Something had occurred an hour or so before the calamity but he could not remember what it was.

He stood on the ledge, with Seren by his side, looking out to sea and pointed,

‘Look, look at the far horizon.’

Now he knew he had not imagined it!

A thin line crossed the whole of the horizon as far as the eye could see. It seemed to have suddenly appeared, moved down in the sky and merged with the sea before disappearing. It was difficult to judge distance but he guessed his horizon was about 150 to 200 kilometres in this clear light.

What could have entered the sea? - A shower of meteorites? - Asteroids perhaps? But it had looked too uniform and had stretched across his vision in that hologram in the dark pyramid - how odd!  What was it?

Then an hour later the sea had disappeared and then the awesome tsunami wave had wreaked its havoc among the Blue People of Cloud Planet.

They stopped to warm up, drink and eat before returning to the dark pyramid. Scott selected crystals from the bottom row which would show images captured after the disaster struck.

It was a scene of utter devastation and destruction with torn trees, leaves, red bricks and other debris strewn across the beach and water line. Their hearts sank at the desperately sad sight of hundreds of bodies of Serenities and blue workers scattered in all directions across the beach and estuary.

They were all so deep blue, even the blond Serenites, that it exaggerated their cold lifelessness. Seren could barely look and Scott felt her intense sorrow, but, surprisingly there was no anger. She desperately wanted to know what had happened to her people and so did he.

He moved around the wall and picked another crystal from the bottom row. This took him further forward in time as evidenced by the decomposition and state of the bodies. Obviously the strong sun was doing its task and unknown scavengers were at work by night.

He moved quickly on through these upsetting scenes and was surprised when the next crystal ignited in the dark pyramid.

 There was a bank of mist at the edge of the sea.

They moved up the ramp to the ledge and looked out. On both sides of the estuary, the coast line was covered in what looked like a sea fog? The bank of mist was about 10 metres high and 50 metres deep and seemed to be along the whole length of the shore on both sides. However it was not at the estuary where the river flowed into the ocean. How uniform and strange it looked!

He selected a crystal further around the wall. They stood on the ledge.

Neither the sea nor the red beach was visible!

The huge bank of mist stretched away to either side and it seemed to form an arch over the estuary with the river disappearing into it. They could not see over the bank which was over 50 metres high.

Seren was puzzled and troubled,

>> what is going on > what is happening to our sea >>

 ‘It’s a sea mist or fog and it appears to be building up. But I don’t know why.’

Scott went back around the wall to find an earlier crystal which might explain how the mist started. 

This time there was no mist but the edge of the sea was black as far as he could view in both directions - but not at the estuary.

He wondered if it could be decomposing debris and other detritus but its uniformity suggested otherwise. He selected a later crystal and now the black layer was steaming, was puffing out wisps of mist all over its surface. There was no rational explanation and he could not understand what was causing this phenomenon. Seren turned towards him,

>> what is the black > is it causing the mist >>

How perceptive, Scott thought, now something else niggled in his brain but he could not bring it forth.

He tried one more crystal further around the wall. It ignited and they were standing in the mist, even up on the ledge, and visibility was at best 50 metres – he could just make out the edge of the estuary but no more. Now he moved up one row and they were standing above the line of six dwellings but only three shattered structures were visible. Everything around them was shrouded in a massive bank of mist. He could not see the sky or sea only the river disappearing into the bank.

He realised that this bank of mist was growing from the sea edge so he moved further forward in time and up the rows so that he was 50 kilometres inland.

The scene was frightening. Before him lay the three shattered dwellings and 500 metres or so downstream the world disappeared into a thick bank of mist and cloud which stretched up the slopes each side enveloping the forested hills as far as he could see.

Now he moved another 50 kilometres inland and forward in time. The hologram showed three dwellings which were fully operational and blue workers in the plantations to either side of the river. Upstream the valley narrowed and forested mountains rose up into white clouds either side of the blue sky. But downstream.....

...... the valley widened slowly as the river flowed peacefully until one kilometre away everything disappeared into a wall of mist which towered above the dwellings. Angry grey clouds spanned the lower slopes either side of the river as far as the eye could see. They rose over one kilometre into the sky. It was an awesome and threatening sight.

‘The creeping mist,’ he thought aloud and shuddered, and Seren shook beside him.

‘Am I really watching the start of the formation of the collar around the land mass of Cloud Planet?’