Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (29 page)

“The hydrosplitters release the split oxygen which provides the planet’s livable atmosphere. From those countless fissures throughout the
ocean floor, massive amounts of oxygen bubble up to the surface of the
ocean, and into the atmosphere.”
The audience was starting to show more interest. They all knew what
this meant. If humans transplanted these organisms on Earth, perhaps in
isolated lakes, it could help solve the problem of decreasing amounts of
oxygen in the air there due to deforestation. There were no plans to grow
the hydrosplitters in the oceans, due to threat of ecosystem imbalances.
Most of the audience was unaware that hydrosplitters required a much
higher level of salinity in the water than that of the Earth’s oceans.
Indeed, measures were already in place to quarantine the first emigrations
of this unique microorganism to Earth. The Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake
City, Utah, United Continents of America — was the obvious first choice,
and planning was currently taking place for the first new “guests,” which
would be arriving in about seven years.
“The amount of life that inhabits these oxygen-rich plumes is vast.
They not only feed on the hydrosplitters and their fat globules, but also on
the minerals of the ocean and its floor as well. Moreover, they feed on
each other. Cannibalism is common, with many species eating their own
young. All things combined, this releases nitrogen into the ocean, and
from there, into the atmosphere, giving us an atmospherically near-perfect
balance. It is a fragile atmosphere. With no plant life filtering it, the air
can quickly become poisoned.
“This ocean has most of the same minerals we have on our own
planet, in sometimes highly different ratios. Every colonist will receive
my D’ot8 survival manual. This will outline in detail what I am about to
tell you briefly here.”
Marshal North looked slowly and with great authority into his audience, forcing many of them to look him in the eyes. This was abnormal
behavior in this society, if only because life had become so — well,
pleasant. The expression of human intensity was unusual. The people
listening were just agreeable, sane, intelligent, hard-working humans.
Wars and strife were merely distant history for them. They knew that
challenges were always ahead, but they were prepared for that. The
network of the Guild was always there to catch them. His audience,
having nothing to relate to his intense demeanor, simply looked at him,
waiting for him to continue.
Jason Ata was also noticing North’s expression. For an instant, Jason
imagined that North might have some knowledge of what was potentially
going to happen.
Look at Marshal North,
Jason told himself as he put his hand on his
unshaved chin, chubby fingers rubbing his lips.
He may actually have
some knowledge of what we really face there. Oh, here it comes.
Jason
felt a surge of a bittersweet emotion as he surveyed the group of team
leaders gathered there.
You lovely people don’t have a clue. If you did,
many of you may not have come along. God bless you.
He thought a
moment.
Maybe I should give it to them straight
—
not sugar coat it.
That may not be the wisest choice,
the inner voice said.
Jason wasn’t listening — the Marshal distracted him.
Survival Marshal North was talking about the animals. “The life
forms on this planet have been surviving and evolving for millions of
years. Because there is no plant life, they all appear to be predators. It is
interesting that we have found no flying animals, just a few small flying
insects.
“We have vast experience clearing out such animals on other planets,
and these should be no significant problem here. However, because of the
unknown, you must all know that it may be some time before we can
breed them for domestication. We bring a good, healthy mix of livestock
to the planet for the interim period. In the meantime, I would like to cover
a few of the creatures we expect to run into. If you please, look at the
screen again.”
North proceeded to discuss some of the strange and interesting creatures found on D’ot8. The newly discovered underground library had
everything the robot probes needed to learn a language called “Aletian”.
Sound recording archives allowed them to learn the pronunciations of the
words. As he showed pictures of each of the creatures he wanted to
illustrate, he talked in detail about them.
He started with the primary creatures of his concern, the “trachnas”.
These were similar to spiders on Earth, except that they were about
twelve inches around. Their legs had exoskeletons, like crabs on Earth, so
that the muscle was inside the shell-like leg sections. The shell itself was
a chrome alloy that the trachnas could utilize and grow from chrome
deposits where they would nest. They used their legs to tear and rip into
their prey until it was dead. There they would remain, staying for as long
as the carcass lasted, sharpening their claws against one another for the
next attack. They traveled in packs. They were one of the few creatures
that could kill an “ela”.
North went on to the elas saying, “The ela is a snake-like creature that
holds poison in its tail. It can grow over one hundred feet in length, but
most are less than fifty. It attaches to its prey using its large jaws, and
then it raises its tail, curling back on itself, kind of like a scorpion I would
say.” North looked around, and then went on, “The poison tip of its tail
curls from above, pointed down at its prey, and immediately penetrates
the prey, injecting it with the poison. The prey dies instantly.”
North stopped and looked around the room. “I hope we are not getting
bored yet,” he said with a smile. Someone gave a snoring sound from the
middle of the room, and the folks laughed a bit. North said, “I did also
want to go over some of the domesticated beasts they used as pets, and for
transportation and hauling.” He changed pictures on the monitor screen.
“These animals are also still surviving there. They called this one, an
‘emui’. It reminds me of our cats. It has a bigger cousin, the ‘crantic’,
which had not been domesticated, and can be compared to our tigers.
These creatures are among the few that have fur.
“Another was one they called a ‘gendra’, and it is a huge, stegosaurus-like creature. It, however, is four times bigger than our stegosaurus
ever was. They walk into the water to spear, screen and feed on fish with
their long claws. They had been able to domesticate gendras in the past,
and they apparently were not dangerous as long as they were well fed,
typically with fish. They were able to haul heavy equipment. They have
very pointy scales, and weigh over twenty thousand pounds. They can
grow up to twenty feet high, thirty feet wide, and seventy-five feet long.”
North went on, “Although there are many animals to review, I am
only going to mention one more. These quite interesting animals exist on
the planet now, just like the others I have shown you. They called them,
“contisses”. The D’otians used contisses as we used horses in our ancient
history. They have leathery scales similar to an armadillo — however
they have elastic properties, and can stretch. A contiss has loose skin
between its front and hind legs, like our flying squirrel. This enables it to
leap great distances. When alone, it can land by rolling into a ball. They
were fed live ‘tacks’ and ‘blogs’, along with hydrosplitters. Tacks are like
our rats, except that they are reptilian. The blogs were primates of the
D’otians. Blogs have both mammal and reptile characteristics, as the
D’otians themselves had.”
North was busy trying to get the monitor to show the pictures of each
animal as he mentioned them. He went back to the contisses. “Here we
are with the contiss again. We have learned that these animals were
considered to be very intelligent and great protectors of their owners.
They could even defend against the spider-like trachnas. They did this by
rolling on them, biting them, and by stomping them. There was also a
separate breed, which they called ‘guard contisses’. D’otians could not
ride them, but they were fiercely territorial, and provided protection.
“We have located areas amenable to farming, and have brought twice
as much soil starter as we need. This will rapidly break down the specific
minerals and other nutrients from the planet’s soil and make them
available for our vegetables. The hydrosplitters and animal life will
provide food for us as well. Our robots have found that the hydrosplitters
were the major source of carbohydrates, essential amino acids and
vitamins for the inhabitants of D’ot8. D’ot was the name that the
inhabitants called their planet. We add the ‘8’ because this is our eighth
colonization mission, in accordance with the Guild’s Planetary Naming
Conventions.
“We have successfully farmed on each of our planets, and since the
rate of farmland production will be faster than the growth of the colony,
there will be an ample amount of vegetables for us. As farmers, we know
we are hostage to the weather. The closest sun lies between D’ot8 and
Black Hole 17C. This black hole is a relatively close one. It appears to
have significant effects on the planet’s sun, which causes quite large solar
flares that have significant effects on the weather of D’ot8. There is
nothing good about a black hole. They cause problems with communication, as well as throwing off our navigation.
“The reason we are starting this mission now is because D’ot8 may
only have one thousand years or so before the planet becomes uninhabitable. This will be because of these tremendous solar flares, which also
have ‘tides’. These tides can become amplified because of the harmonic
convergence with the pulsations coming from the black hole. One
thousand years is shorter than you may think. The Guild needs the
resources on that planet, and the souls bound to it need recycling.
Although one thousand years is not enough for that, it is better to be late
than never,” he said with a sour grin.
North motioned to the monitor screen again, and displayed new photographs of the interiors of homes and buildings.
The audience started up with excited chatter. This was the first time
they had seen pictures like this.
The rooms in the photographs appeared quite large, and they were
beautifully ordained with various metallic designs, which were quite
elaborate in some rooms. D’otians had a simple design for underground
building. The entrances that descended into the occupied areas had a
“trap” connected to them that kept water from being able to gather in the
living quarters. They apparently had sewage systems that drained into
common containing areas, then into the ocean or rivers or lakes. There
were obvious lighting fixtures — however there was no active electricity.
The robots taking the photographs supplied their own lighting. The
corners and edges of the rooms were rounded, and thresholds were
curved, and smoothed-out. Kitchens were the central rooms of most
homes. D’otians had stoves, ovens, and refrigerators. The living quarters
often had a radio in them. The robots had found some recording devices
in the homes as well, and it appears they played music with them.
Marshal North went on, “Although we have brought building supplies, D’otians built most of their living and working structures
underground, in well-designed architecture which you can see here. We
believe these structures to be very usable even now, although we won’t
know for sure until we actually arrive.
“Regarding our exports to Earth, there is a natural compound on the
planet called ‘agrist’ which is in plentiful supply, and it is very expensive
to produce on Earth. When added to metal in the AOD, it increases the
volume of that metal by over eight hundred times. In other words, it will
make virtually any metal seventy-eight percent lighter, while retaining
ninety percent of that metal’s hardness and strength. It can make a ‘metal
foam’ by combining it with almost any metal. When added to the alloy
films we already use, this provides a low mass, tough outer shield. This
helps to make space ships almost impervious to space dust erosion.
Erosion is the main reason our ships end up decommissioned. The
company that we lease these ships from gave us a very good deal on this
mission, just to be the first to be able to buy this compound from us.
“We have two nuclear power sources; one will be activated upon our
arrival at D’ot8, and one will stay in hibernation for any unforeseen need
in the future. Since so many things are dependent on plentiful electricity,
we want multiple redundancies here. Both the hydrosplitters and the agrist
will be important exports for this planet to develop. Mining and harvesting equipment is on board to develop these resources.”
Marshal North continued, “The microorganisms on any prospective
planet are typically a concern to incoming colonists. Unknown viruses,
pepotads, fungi, and viro-bacillus can be unpredictable, no matter how
much probe research we have done. As you know, we always seem to
lose a few colonists to a new disease, until we come up with a solution.
We have always come up with an answer, although, you all know about
Omegon, and what happened there — the first colonists were completely
wiped out. Other than Omegon, we have only lost three percent at most,
to disease. This is why we all wear masks until we know for sure. This is
a three-month requirement, and it is for your own safety.
“Please read your manuals before you go to sleep. Keep this important mission in your uppermost thoughts. Thank you for your time.”
Here we go.
Jason suddenly longed for the day he could purely work
and not be required to speak in front of people.
There was brief applause, and Survival Marshal North took his seat.
Social Director Hay took the podium once again, and said, “Thank
you, Marshal North, for your exciting picture of our future home!” She
paused while those in attendance gave another round of applause. Then
she asked Dr. Jason Ata, Director of Soul-Typing and Guidance, to take
the podium. “Now everybody, please give a warm welcome to our SoulTyping and Guidance Director, Dr. Jason Ata!” There was polite applause
as he rose from his chair.