The Blue People of Cloud Planet (42 page)

Olivia watched the dome screen as the lander descended through the dark cloud collar and Zec-2 called out the altitudes and speeds. She remembered being awed by the 300 metre dwelling with its four pyramid dwellings. Now below her, and clearly visible on the mimic display, was a 500 metre dwelling containing seven pyramids and one enormous pyramid. Their landing coordinates were shown as a cross in the middle of the massive open space in front of this singularly large structure.

Zec-2 counted down the final few metres. Then the lander’s caterpillar treads crunched onto the hard clay floor and flexed with the weight of the craft.  ROL-2 was down - its first visit to Cloud Planet of the star Seren.

Olivia was exhausted and tried to rest for the 2 hours or so before the dwelling would light up. But sleep wouldn’t come because she was too excited. She was thrilled at being back on this unique planet with its astonishing people. Dying to see Scott again after all they had been through.

It grew lighter and the rain eased enabling Olivia to make out the outline of the towering pyramid which dwarfed the lander.

‘First crystals glowing and about to ignite.’

She watched the dome screen and saw the crystals turn from red to yellow and then....

.... white light shot upwards and backwards towards the rising sun. She shuddered with excitement as it was such a thrill to witness a dwelling light up. But this monster was phenomenal.

‘Why! The walls must be 200 metres long,’ she gasped out loud. ‘How many diamond crystals are there to light this lot?’

‘Just over 3200.’

The walls lit up around Olivia and the mist and rain lightened. Then the light sheath was completed and the sun shone and cast its deep red shadows across the dwelling. Olivia was stunned by the scale of the massive structure and amazed by the array of pyramids in front of the lander. However, the pyramid in front of her was spectacular in size and colour, and reflected light from the myriad of crystals in its two facing walls.

She just stared.

To her left and on top of the structure carrying the external pools, a black dome started to rise from the red clay floor.

Olivia waited with bated breath.

It was as if she were seeing it for the first time – the thrill of the Blue People emerging from their underground chambers. Watching them warm, drink and go about their business in the dwelling.

Then the black door in the huge pyramid in front of the lander started to fall and a figure emerged into the sunlight. Olivia’s heart thumped and she felt a lump in her throat.

Scott raised his arms towards the lander 50 metres in front of him and saw Olivia in the command dome raising hers. Both wore huge smiles and neither could hold back tears of emotion.

It seemed to take an age for the lander to cycle the command seats through the airlock, but finally they were lowered onto the red clay.

Olivia leapt out of her seat, ripped the mask from her mouth and jumped into Scott’s open arms. They clung to each other speechless with emotion. They kissed tenderly and walked hand in hand across the red clay towards the open doorway.

‘I hope you haven’t forgotten your water!’ Scott joked and Olivia playfully punched him in the back.

‘Before you meet the Serenite leader, let me first show you Paradise!’

Olivia looked puzzled.

Shared Experiences

Scott led Olivia around the huge pyramid and past the smaller ones, he turned to her,

‘Olivia, you were so brave taking the lander out to attack the Black on your own. That vortex must have been terrifying for you.’

‘Yes, it was bloody frightening and I thought we were going into it. We were on full thrust and still it was sucking the lander in!’

‘Jeez! Thank God the chlorine worked.’

‘It was touch and go. We had to design a completely mechanical attack missile and timer,’ continued Olivia, ‘and then all our calculations were thrown out of the window by the vacuum created by that black hole.’

‘I saw the analysis of the beads. They’re mind-blowing!’ Scott added, ‘What created them?’ And what’s inside that mother-ship?’

‘We’ll probably never know. Now, where are we going?’

‘Here, this dark pyramid with no crystals, prepare to be gobsmacked.’

He had previously arranged for its door to be opened and then it closed behind them. They reached the centre where sunlight focussed on the raised dais.

‘Wait here a sec.’

She shuddered in the dank and gloomy atmosphere, ‘What is this place?’

‘They call it the dark pyramid but you watch; it’s something much more than that.’

Scott had selected the appropriate crystal, which he placed under the black wooden cover and, rather like a magician, he drew it back.

Olivia jumped as thin streaks of red light shot to the upper dark areas of the pyramid. She gasped as the whole internal structure lit up and shapes moved around her.

‘Ooh, ooh, this is beautiful, this is magical! Look at all these people! On a  huge beach? Where are we?’

‘Look behind you, Olivia.’

She turned and gazed wide-eyed as she saw an estuary with black boats and triangular green plantations on the foothills.

‘I don’t understand!’ Olivia turned back to the beach. ‘These are blond Serenites, hundreds of them, and, ooh! - look at all those fabulous males.’

Now, they watched a young Serenite male kneeling on the beach with his arms raised. This was the same beautiful specimen with the blazing eyes and proud set of the jaw that he and Seren had watched previously. Scott again thought there was a familiarity about the face but could not place it.

‘Come up here with me,’ and he took Olivia up the ramp and around the ledge so they were looking up the valley. Olivia looked stunned.

‘What are those dwellings and pyramids on the bank of the river? They’re different! But it’s their light shafts that are different?’ Then she gazed up to the wooded hills and mountains and finally saw the topping of brilliant white cloud.

‘Is this, this planet? Surely not? Cloud Planet? How can it be?’

‘Yes, Olivia, this is what it was like in their distant past. But I don’t know how long ago. However, within this holographic amphitheatre is the whole history of the Blue People!’

‘Show me more!’ Olivia urged.

‘I can’t wait.’  Scott was only too delighted to share his discoveries.

‘You must see the mines where these recording crystals came from, but later, first, look at this with me.’

He had selected another crystal, ignited it and led Olivia up the ramp to the viewing point on the ledge.

‘It’s the same scene but later in time. Look out to the horizon, Olivia; I am going to try to capture it on the camera in my palmtop.’

She looked across the crowded red beach to the deep blue sea where it met the lighter blue of the sky. She was transfixed by the amazing three-dimensional tableau.

‘Watch the horizon – now look there!’

And, in the distance, she saw a black line right across her field of view from left to right. The line seemed to have suddenly appeared and then it descended, merged with the sea and disappeared.

‘What was that? It was right across the sky!’ Olivia pointed.

He responded. ‘I thought it might have been a meteor shower, but it looked too uniform, and, shortly after, this coast was hit by the most enormous tsunami. It wiped out everything for hundreds of kilometres inland.’

‘And the Blue People?’

Scott’s look and shake of his head was enough to answer that question.

‘Zec-2! Have you been able to process that video clip?’

‘I have zoomed in as much as possible and the resolution is not good but the line you saw is a staggered row of cylindrical shaped objects each approximately 1 kilometre in diameter. There are approximately 500 across the viewable horizon and they entered the sea at approximately 100 kilometres per hour.’

Olivia and Scott looked at the image on the small LCD screen.

‘The cylinders!’ Olivia shouted, ‘They must be the same ones that ended up under the icecap – Scott! – there were 50,000 of them!’

‘I heard that! And they were under both icecaps! Zec-C! Can you throw some light on this?’

‘The diameter of Cloud Planet at the point of entry is approximately 48,000 kilometres, consistent with a staggered line of 50,000 cylinders right around this circumference. Also from their size and speed of entry, two enormous tsunami waves would have travelled in opposite directions, and in both hemispheres of Cloud Planet. Furthermore, if the 140 kilometre mother-discs entered the sea at the same velocity, they would have produced tsunami waves of unimaginable proportions.’

‘So both coast lines were hit all the way around the planet! My God! The devastation was more horrific than I ever imagined!’ Scott said.

‘Olivia, let me show you two more crystals from after the tsunami, but they’re not pretty.’

From the ledge, Scott indicated that the black area was along the coast in both directions but not at the estuary. Olivia, however, found it hard not to look at the hundreds of broken bodies scattered on the red beach. She shuddered uncontrollably and continued to look across the huge expanse of red clay. Something about its size tugged at her memory but then it was gone. Then Scott changed the crystal to show the same view but forward in time.

‘Look how the edge of the sea has misted over the black area and how it builds in height as it creeps up the estuary.’

‘We saw the Black do just that at the icecap,’ Olivia explained. ‘It built a cloud barrier to protect the cylinders as they rose from under the ice.  My God! The Black built the cloud collar around this planet!’

‘Yes!’ replied Scott, ‘It couldn’t travel through the estuaries because of the chlorine - so it built a transport system of clouds!’

‘Thank goodness you found the Black’s Achilles heel!’

‘Yes, but it was Seren who gave me the vital clue.’

‘And she gave me the necklace. How crucial that was.’ Olivia replied but she somehow felt uneasy at the mention of Seren’s name. Also, there was something about Scott’s demeanour which troubled her but before she could dwell on it, he said quickly.

‘You must see the rest of their history, Olivia, it’s astounding. Oh, and another thing I noticed from their past. All the Serenites and blue workers in each dwelling had an identical octagonal tattoo which differed from dwelling to dwelling.’

‘So back then they identified themselves based on where they lived,’ Olivia replied thoughtfully. ‘How fascinating! But all that changed after their race was decimated. No wonder! They needed to identify the alpha-males!’

They walked out of the dark pyramid into the brilliant sunshine and reds of the huge dwelling. It was midday and the light sheath shot vertically into the clouds causing no shadows just stark colours and glistening lights from the crystals in the pyramid walls. The three drums were sounding their unusual rhythm and the huge black door gaped open before them as they turned at the top of the open space. ROL-2 looked surprisingly out of place sitting there in the centre.

They entered the huge pyramid and Olivia gasped as her eyes took in the complexity of the internal structure. Shafts of light streamed down almost vertically from both front and rear walls and reflected from the multi-faceted giant sculptures at each point of the huge central triangular plinth. Olivia saw blond Serenites and blue workers, hundreds of them, drinking, feeding and generally frolicking in the triangular pools.

They walked to the top of the triangular structure and Scott gazed across at the central plinth where the silver-haired leader and his elders sat. With a blaze of his eyes, the leader beckoned them to join him. Scott introduced Olivia.

>> welcome > welcome to our world and our people > thank you for facing the black > confronting our enemy > and helping to kill them >>

Olivia didn’t know what to say, so Scott led her to the red dais with the black box on top of it. He looked at Hotenka, who nodded his approval and then Scott drew back the cover.

Golden shafts of light suddenly mixed with the white beams and Olivia stared in astonishment.

‘Look, Olivia! The golden plaque from Pioneer 10! Isn’t it remarkable! They brought it here from the wreck in the outer dwelling.’

Scott pointed, Olivia stared and the silver-haired leader moved up to them and indicated the two figures on the plaque and his eyes blazed,

>> we saw your form was like ours > then we called your name >>

Hotenka touched the short and long lines below the figures. Olivia looked at Scott, her eyes gleaming,

‘They thought it was our name! The SOS message! Of course, how incredible!’

‘And Olivia, he’s stood here for 2 hours every day for over 35 years sending that message by telepathy to the drummer in the SOS dwelling!’

‘And it worked!’ Olivia breathed, shaking her head in disbelief.

They retired to the edge of the cool pool to drink and eat. Olivia drank bottled water and watched Scott take his drink from a nearby blue female. She still felt uneasy about this. Then she noticed Seren approaching and realised that there were differences about her that she could not quite put her finger on. She noticed that the black triangular necklace was missing and there was something else? Then she saw,

>> i am pleased you are fully recovered > i also thank you for fighting the black > for saving our people >>

Then, as Scott returned, Olivia noticed that Seren had an octagonal tattoo between her breasts. Suddenly Seren’s eyes blazed and a message appeared in Olivia’s mind telling her to .......

...... and she stepped towards Scott, and before he could react, pulled open his tunic to bare his chest.....