The Blue People of Cloud Planet (43 page)

..... and found herself staring at an identically coloured octagonal tattoo – the same as Seren’s!

‘How could you!! How could you!’ Olivia shrieked and her eyes blazed with fury!

The stinging slap, full of Olivia’s anger and fiery Italian temperament, sent Scott reeling backwards,

‘How could you! How could you have fucked that lizard!?’

The silence in the huge pyramid deepened as everybody suddenly stopped and watched as Olivia stomped out of the structure. She shouted into her palmtop.

‘Command Zec! Open the fucking lander!

Scott hadn’t stood a chance and Seren turned away, smiling to herself. Telepathy was very useful when it came to getting what you wanted for yourself and your people – and holding on to it!

AJ Chairs the Meeting

AJ had insisted that all the astronauts, including him, should spend most of their time, initially, on Cloud Planet with the Blue People. It was vital that they understood this race and the interaction of the Serenites with their blue workers.

Most important of all, he had stressed, was to comprehend their problems, to understand how the discs and the black menace had devastated their planet and threatened their survival as a species. To do this, AJ had insisted, they must all spend enough time in the dark pyramid to study the planet’s history. They must witness the terrible demise of the blue workers and the Serenites by the tsunamis and the black masses. AJ had concluded this conference call between the starship, Olivia’s lander and Scott’s palmtop by saying that they would all meet together in thirty days’ time with proposals to solve the Blue Peoples’ and Cloud Planets’ problems.

Meanwhile, Olivia had returned to the starship, surprisingly quickly thought AJ and some of the astronauts. She immediately busied herself with Alison and Steve planning the recovery of the stranded ROL-1. They loaded the replacement thruster cowls, ancillary equipment and lifting gear into the cargo bay of ROL-2. With Alison and Steve piloting their lander, Olivia sat back in the accommodation quarters and contemplated the highs and lows of the last couple of days.

After she had stormed out of the huge pyramid and got back into the lander, Scott had contacted her and tried to apologise. He had tried to explain that Seren had brainwashed him and he was not always in control of his actions. However, Olivia was having none of it and she’d told him in no uncertain manner to ‘go and lie with his lizards!’  She’d rather liked that final line as she cut the call between their palmtops with a forceful jab of her finger!

The really tricky part about recovering ROL-1 was actually manoeuvring ROL-2 down beside it at night in turbulent conditions. Zec-2 had to land very close to the dwelling wall and then move ROL-2 towards the stricken lander.

This was Alison and Steve’s first actual landing on Cloud Planet and Olivia could sense their mounting excitement. She crouched behind the command seats and watched with them as the dwelling lit up around them. She shared their excitement as the sun shone casting deep red shadows. Then the dome opened and blue females emerged. Even though Alison and Steve had seen this on the mimic display in the starship, the reality of being in a dwelling structure on Cloud Planet surrounded by Blue People was mind-blowing for them.

Then it was on with the face masks, roll up the sleeves and time to change the cowls on the damaged lander.

That night Olivia took the repaired lander back to the starship whilst Alison and Steve took ROL-2 and landed at the ‘capital city’ to begin their familiarisation of the planet and its people.

Olivia then provided a ‘taxi’ service between the starship and the ‘capital city’ for AJ, Martha and Pete. They had noticed her detached manner but assumed it was the after effects of her horrendous ordeal at the icecap.

The crew made a further incredible discovery during the next couple of days, one which caused AJ increasing concern. Scott had shown the astronauts the underground mines teeming with diamond crystals buried in the red clay. Olivia had kept her distance from him and would not even meet his eye and the other astronauts could sense a hostile atmosphere between them. Scott took them into a mineshaft that he had not entered before and shone the crystal light into the dark interior.

‘Wow! Woweeh!’ he gasped, ‘look at this!’

They moved into the mineshaft. There was a one metre wide passage at the centre. To either side and packed from floor to ceiling......

...... were diamond crystals separated by layers of thick leaves. The light glistened and danced from the faceted surfaces. The astronauts ran their hands over the smooth, flawless stones and could not contain their excitement.

‘How far! How far in does this lot go?!’ breathed an astonished Steve. They moved in single file for over 100 metres and still there was no end in sight. Eventually they were driven back to the entrance by the staleness of the atmosphere.

They moved to the next mineshaft and this too was stacked floor to ceiling with diamond crystals.

They all stared wide-eyed and dumbfounded at the enormous treasure trove. However, one pair of eyes glinted again with greed and the individual was already composing the next message that would secretly leave the starship for Earth!

AJ was troubled by what he saw. It would be impossible to keep this planet’s riches a secret. He greatly feared the knowledge getting into the wrong hands.

AJ could never have imagined such a strange venue for his meeting with the astronauts. At the invitation of Hotenka, they were sitting around the dais at the very centre of the triangular plinth in the huge pyramid. It was midday and vertical light shafts cast their patterns over the internal structures and the three massive sculptures.

He opened proceedings. ‘We’ve all spent the last 30 days finding out about these astonishing Blue People and the intriguing Cloud Planet, and now we have the responsibility of helping them to solve their desperate situation. But first, let me summarise what we know.

‘Sometime in the past this planet was indeed a paradise for the Blue People. The inventive Serenites lived in perfect harmony with their ‘revered’ workers. They occupied the coast, valleys and the red plain under cloudless skies. The Serenites built these amazing dwellings and pyramids and a system of canals and irrigation of mind-blowing scale. They took the basic raw materials of this planet, - wood, clay and water - and, using their ingenuity, shaped them using the amazing crystal diamonds they dug out of the red clay. The Serenites developed their own culture with remarkable art, sculpture, music and dance. And they’ve done this without all the things that we take for granted! They created a harmonious society with no crime, greed, hate or envy.......

....... and then they were invaded by an unknown force!’

AJ paused and then continued,

‘Invaded by an alien species which judging by the evidence came from outside the Milky Way Galaxy. We now know that 50,000 huge cylinders and, we assume one enormous mother-disc, entered each ocean close to the coast line and caused the most devastating tsunamis that we have ever known. The gigantic waves destroyed all the coastal settlements and well over a million Blue People perished at each coast. Then the Black formed around the oceans.’

AJ scooped up some black beads from in front of him,

‘They look harmless enough but they created the collar of cloud around this planet forcing the Blue People out of the valleys. However, the enterprising Serenites knew what was going to happen and they took their whole society underground! They turned their light shafts into full light sheaths to harness the sun by day and, most ingeniously, fashioned their mineshafts into a most purposeful underground water transport system.

‘However, their problems were only just beginning. Because of the cloud, day and night time temperatures fell sharply and this affected underground temperatures, albeit slowly. And so the blue workers, who were the providers of food and drink to the Serenites, started dying at an increasing rate. But worse, for both Serenities and blue workers, was the change in male / female birth ratio. As temperatures fell so female births were favoured – not unusual amongst cold-blooded reptiles.

‘Then the Black attacked their farmers outside the dwellings and threatened the whole food supply chain. So the Serenite males retaliated by going out and confronting the Black.’

All the astronauts remembered those horrifying scenes in the dark pyramid.

‘And it looked as if they inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. But at a terrible price - nearly all the Serenite males perished!

‘Now, time was the Blue People’s foe as their underground chambers got even cooler, death rates exceeded birth rates and male offspring became a rarity. As their leader, Hotenka said, ”their planet is dying, their people are dying”.

‘During this time, we presume, the Black regenerated, and our presence probably caused its renewed aggression. Fortunately, we found their Achilles’ heel and we have to thank Scott for that and Olivia for risking her life in that terrifying vortex!’

AJ looked around at the astronauts,

‘So, what do we propose to do to stop the Blue People dying from the cold and to give them back their paradise?’

‘Pete, apparently you and Martha have some interesting short term answers!’

‘Yes, but Martha has come up with a most novel solution, so it’s over to her.’

Martha then explained that when she had watched the felling of the trees using the laser crystals, she was fascinated by the way the blue females formed a triangle to pass the cooling water from the river to the cutting point. The Serenites had made containers from the leaves but she could not tell how the leaves had been sealed together. Then Scott had shown her the leaves stretched across the huge drums. They had been treated and glued using the white ‘latex’ and shrunk with hot water to give the tension. So, with help from Seren, she had taken two large matching leaves, treated them with latex and then glued them round the edges leaving the shaped top open.

‘Well, I had a few disasters to begin with, the seal kept failing,’ Martha continued, ‘but when I dipped the sealed edges in hot water, they shrank and the latex cured giving an excellent bond. Then I filled the double-leaf container with hot water, folded over the top and clamped it!’

With difficulty and with Pete’s help, Martha pulled up the heavy container and clutched it to her body.

‘I think I’ve reinvented the hot water bottle!’

‘That’s brilliant!’ congratulated AJ. ‘Can the Serenites make them?’

‘Oh, yes, once you show them they learn immediately. Pete fashioned the wooden clamp – it’s like those large plastic clamps for sealing bags – but, in fact, Seren has shown the blue females how to roll down the open flap and hold it closed – they have incredibly strong hands and they can easily pick up a full bag.’

‘And the leaf is such a good insulator, the ‘bottle’ stays hot for hours,’ Pete added.

‘So,’ Martha continued, ‘we’ve tested dozens of these hot water bottles over the last couple of nights and the blue females have been shown how to ‘spoon’ together so each is sandwiched between two hot water containers!’

‘Also, they can be used when the Blue People travel overnight in their black boats.’ Pete added again. ‘Our plan is to get all the Blue People in this dwelling to use the bottles, which means we have to make over two thousand.’

Pete now took centre stage and asked the other astronauts to boot up their palmtops. Although the LCD screens were small, they had incredible resolution and the astronauts found themselves looking at a three-dimensional view of a typical underground sleeping chamber.

‘The chambers are positioned underneath the first hot triangular pool which means that the roof of the compartment gets warm but it doesn’t really heat the room below. So I am going to add secondary walls and a false floor and cause a hot water flow by gravity through the cavities.’

The LCD screens changed showing the new structures and then blue flowed from an upper pool through a channel and then through the cavities.

‘But what happens at night?’ Queried Steve. ‘You don’t want cold water flowing through!’