The Blue People of Cloud Planet (8 page)

‘Apart from looking after his charges, Zec-C is programmed by me to speed up the starship by applying full power to the ion engine. As the ship accelerates so the force field generated around it increases creating a slipstream that would deflect radiation and any small particles around the ship thus causing no harm. However, objects above the size of a tennis ball are another matter and need to be detected by the starship’s ultra violet telescope located in the centre front of the dome. Very early identification is needed because at half the speed of light an object 14 million kilometres away would be reached in 100 seconds and quicker still if it is travelling at speed towards the starship. Thus the probe on the front of LifeSeeker-1 is monitoring space for hundreds of millions of kilometres in front of it and analysing if anything posed a threat.  If so, Zec-C orders an almost infinitesimal increase in thrust to one or more of the eight lateral thrusters to change course and avoid the danger.

‘LifeSeeker-1, carrying its precious cargo of astronauts at 5 degrees Celsius, achieved half the speed of light 1 year after leaving Mars Base.’

Wakey, Wakey

‘
Whilst Zec-C carefully looks after his charges, I am extremely busy during the next 20 years. I complete LifeSeeker-2 on time and she departs for Seren in 2156 with Commander Brian Harrington at the helm. LifeSeeker-3 is built, an identical copy of 2, and she leaves Mars in 2162. Her destination is to be decided when news comes back from Cloud Planet, but that is not for another 10 years.

‘Now I am embarking on my most ambitious project to date. This is a very complex enterprise which establishes a base on Titan, one of Jupiter’s moons.’

White........ pure brilliant white........ that seemed to go on and on. No boundaries and no definition; this whiteness appeared to have been there for ages. Then, very slowly, slightly darker edges formed and they sharpened and became shapes around the white.

Olivia then realised that she was looking upwards at what she thought was a tiled ceiling. She could not place it in her mind as she was disorientated and continued to stare upwards for an unknown period of time.

Sounds..... bizarre sounds.......that grew in her awareness. They took on form – whirrs, beeps and hisses – and Olivia realised that she had heard these noises before, had seen this ceiling before – but where?

Now a voice, soft and soothing but strange,

‘Olivia relax, relax, you are waking up, Olivia, relax,’

Zec-C quietly intoned from a speaker near her ear.

 Her life signs were perfect with blood temperature normal at 36 degrees Celsius as she lay horizontally in the now open cryo-unit; the first person to have consciousness. In fact, all the units were open and during the next hour or two all of the astronauts would start to ‘wake up’ guided by Zec-C’s quiet assurance.

‘Olivia, you are now awake....’

Zec-C softly continued,

‘....welcome, welcome to the year 2171.’

Suddenly, everything flashed clearly in her mind – the white ceiling, the noises, the voice in her ear, the training, the journey, this room! She had arrived! Had they all survived? And although she could not yet speak her mind shouted out...

‘Oh, my God!  ....... I’m 55 years old!’

Although all the astronauts had awoken during a 3 hour period, they did not leave their units for four long days. During this period Zec-C coached their minds and bodies. Limbs were exercised and flexed to gradually increasing degrees by their mechanical masseur. After 3 days the cryo-beds slowly moved to the reclining position and Zec-C instructed them to remove their goggles and masks, but to take their time. Each astronaut now looked at their diagnostic screens, amazed to see normal heart beats and blood temperature. They were relieved to see that all monitoring lights were reassuringly green.

They turned their heads and looked at each other and smiled, or tried to smile and raised weak hands limply. They made sounds like whispers though not very coherent at this early stage.

‘Olivia, are you awake? Are you OK?’ croaked a groggy Scott; their pods were next to each other. She stiffly turned her head and tried to smile.

‘I’m OK I think. How do I look?’

‘Wonderful, not a day older!’ Scott weakly replied. Their voices were barely above a whisper and they could hear muted greetings as the other astronauts communicated for the first time in over 20 years.

 Then Martha raised her right hand and made a thumbs up and each fellow traveller did likewise and, as if on autopilot, placed their left hands palm down on the small console in their units.

‘Confirm! Confirm all astronauts safely awakened and recovered from cryo–hibernation!’
 Zec-C triumphantly announced.

 This message was simultaneously transmitted by LifeSeeker-1 into the vastness of space but it would be 10 years before it was heard at mission control on Mars.

On the 4th day and after two more hours of exercise, Zec-C instructed Martha to start the process of evacuation from the cryo-units. She then pointed to the coloured tubes and nodded. In a rehearsed sequence she removed hers one by one, waiting as each astronaut uncoupled the identically coloured line in turn.

Now the astronauts were no longer ‘tied’ to their units – all they had to do was get up and walk!

Zec-C encouraged them to move their body weight forward and to push with their arms on the sides of the units. After many failed attempts they finally struggled onto wobbly legs and held on to steady themselves. In front of them was a horizontal maglev escalator and they took their first shaky steps towards it for 20 years. Then, clutching the support rail with their left hand and carrying their ‘entrails’ in the other, Zec-C told them to hold tight.

Seven ghost-like figures clad head to toe in gossamer thin white breathable tunics were transported slowly out of the cryo-room, through the airlock and into the preparation room. Here they would remain for a further two days to complete their recuperation, taking in sustenance and sleeping on a normal bed.

Six days after awakening from cryo, Martha was satisfied with the health and fitness of the astronauts. Zec-C had also monitored their physical wellbeing and had set them all mental tests during their recuperation. Now they came to a most crucial stage in their rehabilitation. At a nod from Martha, AJ led them to the airlock. In turn they all pressed their left hands to a panel near the airlock door and waited anxiously. Each watched the red light, nervously, and then with relief as it turned green.

‘Confirm all astronauts ready to return to duty!’

They smiled at one another with joy and high-fived and slapped backs as the airlock hissed open.

‘My astronauts know in the back of their minds that only those ‘deemed sound in body and mind by Zec-C’ will be allowed back into the starship after the rigours of cryo-hibernation.’

Message from Mars

‘During the starship’s half-light speed journey, the dome is maintained in full red emergency mode and remains so during controlled deceleration by Zec-C. The nuclear power source is shut down and tiny amounts of reverse thrust are applied over a 3 month period to reduce the speed of LifeSeeker-1 to its new velocity of 150,000 kilometres per hour – a mere sloth when compared to its 20 year journey at 150,000 kilometres per second!’

The astronauts sat in their command seats in front of the blackened dome. Their excitement could not be contained as they continued to stare at one another in amazement.

‘We haven’t aged a bit, I can’t believe it!’ Olivia said, ‘Martha, if you could bottle this as an anti-ageing treatment it would be worth billions!’

‘Trouble is it cost trillions to produce!’ Martha replied with a grin.

‘Attention astronauts!  I have three things to show you.’

A large section of the black dome coloured in front of the expectant crew and the shape of the fully completed LifeSeeker-2 dominated their view.

‘Five years ago, I received confirmation that LifeSeeker-2 had departed on its journey to Seren.’

 The astronauts cheered and clapped at this news.

 ‘And I can confirm that all 21 astronauts are safely in cryo–hibernation and travelling at half the speed of light.’

Their eyes moved to a smaller screen and the General’s face appeared.

‘If Zec-C is showing you this, then I thank God that you have arrived at your star and safely emerged from cryo–hibernation. It will be another 15 years before I know this, provided I live that long! You are nearly there and Zec-C has shown you LifeSeeker-2 which is on its way to join you.

‘Now you are on your own and you can hardly ring mission control for help or advice! Who knows what you will find at Cloud Planet. You will, undoubtedly, have to take some key decisions; some may be difficult, unpleasant or even frightening. I agreed with Commander AJ before you left that major strategic or life threatening decisions would be by secret ballot, majority applies. In the event of a tie, AJ will make the casting vote – there can be no abstentions. In AJ’s absence - and I don’t think he’s going anywhere – Martha will assume the role of mission commander and the same rules will apply.

‘Now I must remind you of the key instructions you must follow when investigating the SOS message which is still signalling to us here on Mars.

‘You must observe thoroughly and gather sufficient information to make controlled decisions.

‘You must obey the quarantine procedures to the letter.

‘You must be very careful not to interact with whatever is on that planet - this is a key interplanetary code.

‘Above all, your safety is paramount – if in doubt pull out and wait for LifeSeeker-2.

‘And so fellow astronauts, I wish you a successful mission and I will be watching your progress for as long as God permits me. Good luck and good–bye!’

With that his face disappeared and the whole dome started changing from black, through grey and then translucent. Suddenly outer space filled the horizon and what a spectacular sight awaited the astronauts.

 CLOUD PLANET

Survey

The astronauts sat spellbound. To the upper left of the dome a bright golden orb dominated the vista, illuminating its space with brilliant rays.

‘The star Seren is about 20 per cent bigger than our sun but of similar intensity, and is approximately 150 million kilometres away. Seren has seven orbiting planets, four of which are gas giants like Jupiter and two are ringed planets similar to Saturn.’

An arrow took their eye to the lower right of the dome, where there was a ball of multi-coloured swirling gases.

‘Four times the size of Jupiter and about 50 million kilometres from LifeSeeker 1 – I can already sense its huge gravitational field – this is as close  as we get.’

The backdrop of space was an intense blue, deepening to purples and blacks and studded with specs of light.

‘The other stars of the constellation of Vircingetorix and, in the centre......’

 Zec-C paused and the astronauts leaned forward in anticipation as an
arrow highlighted a larger spec of light,

‘......our first view of Cloud Planet. She is about 30 million kilometres from us and 140 million from her star.’

‘Comparable to the distance between the Sun and Earth.’ Mused Scott to no one in particular and, then, he peered closer. ‘Is it my imagination or can I see faint streaks of light from the planet towards the star?’

By way of answer, Zec-C magnified the image incrementally until it occupied a large slice of the dome. The planet was truly remarkable with brilliant white caps at its poles and huge swathes of deep blue on either side of its equator. But most astounding was the huge collar of white and grey that completely encircled the strange world at its equator.

‘The planet is 50,000 kilometres in circumference at the equator, a little larger than earth, and the white collar is 2000 kilometres wide and approximately 50 kilometres above ‘sea’ level. It is rotating on an axis with its poles absolutely perpendicular to its star – that means the white collar points directly at Seren during each revolution which takes 20 of our hours.’

It was difficult to digest all these statistics because the astronauts were transfixed by the light shafts that emanated from within the collar. As they shot outwards in the direction of Seren, they seemed to merge into one shaft of light. However, as the eye moved towards the demarcation of day and night, so the light shafts stopped and the cloud collar became darker.

‘Is there a land mass beneath those clouds?’ this from Steve.

‘Yes, and it is approximately 2000 kilometres wide but we need to get nearer before I can penetrate that thick cloud with our instruments for a detailed topography. I can only analyse the day / night delineation as our instruments are interfered with by the light shafts.’

 ‘And the signal? Is that still flashing? Alison asked.

‘Yes, but you won’t be able to see it until we are much closer and I will be able to analyse all the shafts of light in more detail – there are thousands of them. For information, our estimated time of arrival at high orbit above Cloud Planet is 10 days.’

‘I can’t wait,’ cried an excited Olivia, ‘can’t we go faster?’

But AJ just smiled; he was well aware of Olivia’s impatience. ‘We’ve taken over 20 years to get this far – a few more days seems nothing and we’ve got work to do.’

‘There is a lot of retraining planned for our astronauts during the coming days. They take the two ROL’s into space to practice manoeuvres and re-docking with LifeSeeker-1 – after all none of them has flown for over 20 years. Finally, all the astronauts practise using the emergency shuttles.’

Every day Cloud Planet grew in their visual field of view and with 2 days to go to orbit, the astronauts were in the command dome and Zec-C was giving a more detailed analysis of the planet.

‘The atmosphere is a very healthy 30 per cent oxygen with nitrogen being the volume gas and small levels of carbon dioxide. The ice caps at the poles are approximately 1000 kilometres in diameter and are surprisingly symmetrical. The oceans are massive and extremely deep at over 200 kilometres for most of their area. The seas have high salt levels and are cold, cycling from minus 1-2 Celsius from night to day. The cloud collar is 30 degrees at the top but falls in temperature quickly. I estimate nearer 5 degrees during the day dropping to near zero at night. I predict that it is continuously raining during the day and pouring down at night with high winds.

Below the clouds is a 2000 kilometre continuous land mass which encircles the planet and is equally distributed either side of the equator.’

As Zec-C continued, the facts were illustrated in the dome with computer simulated drawings and diagrams and now the topography of the land mass appeared.

‘There is a 1000 kilometre wide central plain, mainly clay based, around the equator and about 22 kilometres above sea level. This is flanked on both sides by mountain ranges rising up to 20 kilometres above sea level and punctuated by valleys with large water flows running to the seas – these are irregular in shape and can be assumed as ‘rivers’ – there are many hundreds of them on both sides of the central plain.’

The computer graphics continued to paint the picture of a very uniform planet with its narrow equatorial land mass directly pointed at its star at all times.

‘Initial data shows that the mountains and valleys are completely covered in organic vegetation but I will detail this when we get nearer.’

Zec-C paused,
‘and now the symmetry gets intriguing.’

And parallel lines appeared across the plain and perpendicular to the equator.

 ‘These lines represent water and each runs the full width of the plain – 1,000 kilometres in a dead straight line. Each water course is 50 kilometres apart and there are exactly one thousand straddling the equator – I can only presume they have not been produced by natural forces and that they are ‘canals’!’

The mimic display then drew two thicker lines around the equator.

‘These equatorial lines are wider watercourses and like the others they are perfectly straight and are 25,000 kilometres long – the equatorial circumference of Cloud Planet!’

There was a buzz of excitement among the astronauts but the best was yet to come.

‘The shafts of light appear to originate from points directly along each lateral canal and are 50 kilometres apart. There are 20 along each canal symmetrically distributed about the equator making a total of 20,000 emanating from the planet and just under half are illuminated at any one time.’

Spellbound, the astronauts peered intensely at the display and the shafts of light which appeared to rotate like the spokes of a wheel.

‘These shafts of light are ‘switching’ on and off in rows every 1.2 minutes as the planet rotates on its axis. Finally those near the equator are more intense than their peripheral neighbours and there are regularly spaced very intense light shafts distributed around the equator itself.’

The astronauts continued to be amazed at the complex symmetry unfolding – surely this was the work of an intelligent life form – but guessing was all they could do at this point.

 ‘The light shaft which has been flashing SOS for 25 years is situated on the equator and is of medium intensity.’

On the mimic display, one of the light shafts now started flashing in the now familiar – dot dot dot – dash dash dash – dot dot dot - signal that had brought them ‘rushing’ to investigate.

‘And now,’
continued Zec-C,
‘look at the real planet at optimum magnification!’

The mimic display disappeared and nearly the whole dome filled with a view of Cloud Planet – it was breath taking. They could see details in the ice caps, seas of blues disappearing under the white cloud collar. They watched these mesmerising shafts of golden light streaking out into space and the whole planet seemed to jerk around as one row of lights extinguished and another illuminated at the extremes of the planet day.

And there, in the very centre, one shaft of light pulsed –

 dot dot dot – dash dash dash – dot dot dot

dot dot dot – dash dash dash – dot dot dot

dot dot dot – dash dash dash – dot dot dot

 ‘This is the most unbelievable sight I have ever seen!’ cried Scott, ‘What on ‘Earth’ is happening below those clouds? What is causing those circular shafts of light? What or who is generating the message?’

Surprisingly Zec-C answered,

 ‘I cannot answer your direct questions but can only deduce from measurements and facts; but here is an interesting observation. If I, a mere computer, were responsible for this signal then it would start and finish precisely, to 2 decimal points of a second, at the same time each day. Also each repeat would be to the same accuracy. Therefore I deduce that this signal which varies its start, finish and repeat times is not generated by a precision source. However, it does operate for approximately 2 hours every day either side of noon at this same position on the planet.’

‘I recall from my studies that Morse code operators were recognisable by their style of tapping the message,’ advised Olivia, ‘ I believe it was called ‘their signature’ – are we seeing a signature here? – is this distress call being sent by a life form!’

The astronauts could only look at one another in astonishment – what would they find on Cloud Planet?