Secret Journey to Planet Serpo (13 page)

MUST BE OVER 140 DEGREES

Ebe2 [Ebe1] tells us to walk on ground. Not sure what he means by that but 420 says that might we [be] to just walk around. OK, that we will do. I organize the teams 102 will remain with 225. I want 633 and 661 to look at the television glass map and see if they can tell which star system is CORTA. I ask 518 [the biologist] to take temperature readings and general weather observations. I know it is hot. Very hot. Most [Must] be over 140 degrees. 754 warns us to keep covered from sun radiation. 754 says radiation levels are high. Doesn't sound very good to me. This reminds me of Nevada. 1956, during one of the atomic bomb testing. We had
hot weather and we had to worry about the radiation from the atomic blasts. Now we are on a strange planet 40 light years from Earth and we have radiation and heat. But we have to explore—that is why we were sent. We starting walking around 475 will take photographs with our military cameras. I hope the film is [not] affected by the radiation. How do we develop it? Maybe we didn't think of everything. I team up with 225. We walk to a large open door building. We walk in and it looks like a classroom but no Ebens are here. There is a large television tube. It takes up the entire wall. There are some lights flashing on this television tube. We examine the tube. It is very thin. I wonder how it works. Where are the tubes or the electronics. But maybe they are more advanced in this area than us. They must be. We don't find [or] touch [anything] else in this building. We move on. wow, it is so very hot, I hope I get use[d] to it.

The commander's comparison of conditions on Serpo with the 1956 atomic bomb testing conditions in Nevada, especially with regard to radiation exposure, tells us that he must have been involved in those tests. This is the second piece of information revealed about the Commander's past. We previously learned that he was from Colorado. The huge, thin television “tube” without electronics showing sounds suspiciously like our modern flat-screen televisions. Once again, was this technology given to us by the Ebens? It's interesting that the Commander is surprised that “They are more advanced in this area than us.” Why would he be surprised that they are ahead of us in television technology when he knows that they have mastered time travel?

The Commander continues:

We find a large tower. Looks like a antenna tower but it has a large mirror. We saw this when we first arrived yesterday. We find an Eben standing near the door but he moves to one side. We ask him if he understands English. He just stares at us, but seems friendly. I guess he doesn't speak English. We move on into the building. Can't find any stairs. But we see some type of round
glass room. Maybe it is an elevator. Then we hear English. We turn around and find Ebe2 standing there. Where did she come from? I [ask] her if we may explore this building. She said yes, of course, She points to the glass room and says go up. Ok, we enter the glass room. The glass door closes and go[es] up real fast. I[n] no time we are at the top.

THE SUNDIAL TOWER

But what is this. We ask Ebe2, what is this. She points to the sun and then points to the top of the room, where the mirror is located. She then points to the ground. Ok, we see it. The tower is in the middle of a circle. The circle is situated on the ground. In each quadrant of the circle is a symbol. I see that the sun is directed through the mirror maybe this isn't a mirror as we know it since the sunlight travels through it, but once the sunlight travels through it, the light is directed on a symbol within the circle. Ebe2 says that when light contacts symbol, then Ebens make change. Not sure what that means. Maybe she means it tells the Ebens what to do. 225 seems to think it is a sundial. When the sun strikes a symbol, the Ebens change what they are doing and do something else. Maybe the Eben day is structured. Or maybe this is their clock. Strange. But we are on an alien planet. I'm glad I still have my sense of humor.

WE HAVE TO START USING EBEN TIME

This is only our first day, first day of school. We have a lot to learn. We have to keep an open mind. We can't keep comparing things to Earth. We have to open our minds to new ideas and new science. All these things are foreign to us but we must learn. I pointed to my wristwatch and then pointed to the ground and in a gesture to show Ebe2 that the two items are timepieces. Not sure if she understood. But I said time and she then understood. Yes, she said, Eben time, pointing to the ground. I pointed again
to the wristwatch and said, earth time. Ebe2 then almost smiled and said, no, no earth time on SERPO. Ok, that makes sense. 225 said, she just told us that earth time doesn't work on SERPO. Yes, I guess she did. What good is our watches or time device[s] here? They don't work. We have to start using Eben time. But we must also maintain our time because we must know when to leave. Ten years seem like a million. Maybe based on Eben time that it might just be a million years. Lets hope not. No time to think about home. We have a mission and duties to perform. We are a military team and we must maintain that idea. 225 and myself go back into the glass bowl and go down to the ground.

The sketch shown here was made by the Team Commander to attempt to capture his view of the base of the mirrored tower. He considered this important enough to draw because the sun's focus on these objects dictated the day's activities for everyone in the community, and each community had such a tower. See page 142 for what Anonymous says about the Commander's sketch. It should be noted that Anonymous claims the sketch was made in 1967. Since the team arrived on Serpo in mid-1966, obviously this sketch was not made on the first day on the planet, but a few months later. The words in brackets were added by e-mail recipient and editor Victor Martinez. Anonymous mentions drafting templates to explain that these templates were used to make the sketch. It is not a freehand drawing. Website moderator Bill Ryan adds the following information about how it was drawn: “It has since been shown conclusively that this drawing was made with a Berol RapiDesign R-22 architect's drawing stencil. However, it is also known that this very common template was on the market a number of years before the Serpo mission departed in 1965, and may well have been included among the equipment taken by the Serpo team.”

COMMENTS BY ANONYMOUS ABOUT THE SKETCH

A great deal of planning went into the 10-year mission to Serpo. Several teams of officials planned what equipment to take. These officials tried to imagine every conceivable situation where certain types of tools and other equipment might be needed. One area was capturing the view and makeup of objects, artifacts and landscapes on Planet SERPO. The mission team took cameras—sixteen different types of cameras and drawing/drafting equipment. Although no Team Member was trained in drafting, three Team Members had drawing experience from their college days. Several different types of drafting templates were taken on the trip. The planning officials tried to envision every type of situation where a template might be needed.

The drawing, made by the Team Commander, depicts the base of the sundial. Each object meant a certain time of day to the Ebens. When the sun was directed—through the sundial—onto the object at the base of the sundial, that meant a specific task [or change of ] to the Ebens. For example, it might signal a change in work schedules, a time to rest, a time to eat, a time to celebrate, etc. After a few years, the team learned each symbol and learned the meaning of each symbol.

This drawing is a copy of the actual drawing made by the Team Commander in 1967. The Team also took many photographs of the sundial symbols . . .

The regimentation of Eben society is surprising. Our team was able to determine that the average IQ of the Ebens was 165 on our scale. It wouldn't be expected that aliens with such high intelligence would subject themselves to such rigid control over their daily activity. On Earth, we associate creativity with complete freedom of expression, and we understand that creative people must be permitted to live perhaps eccentric lives. We actually expect writers and artists to not conform to conventional patterns of life. Perhaps this is the key. The Ebens did not display the sort of individuality that we have, and consequently there was little or no creativity in the Eben race. They are not very innovative. They simply accept the precedents and follow the rules handed down to them from earlier generations. Intelligence alone does not guarantee creativity. From this, we can begin to appreciate the unique qualities of the human soul and the importance of diversity.

EBEN FOOD

We walk into another building, large again. Inside we find rolls and rolls [
sic
] of plants. This must be some sort of greenhouse. They are growing food. Many Ebens are inside. They look at us with some glares. But we just walk in and around. One Eben comes up to us and speaks but in Eben. He seems to be telling us something. He points to the ceiling and then to our heads. Maybe he is telling us to cover our heads. We must find Ebe2. We go back outside and then finds [
sic
] Ebe2. She always seems to be near. Now we understand why: she is monitoring us by the devices we are wearing on our belts. I ask Ebe2 what is that building. She says foodmaking place. Ok, maybe we contaminated the place. We told her that another Eben spoke to us and then pointed to our heads. Ebe2 seemed confused and walked back into the building with us. The same Eben exchanged words with Ebe2. Ebe2 then told us that we must wear a cover on our heads in order to enter. Why? But we don't argue. This other Eben produces some sort of cloth had [hat] and we wear it. We walk about, the Eben seemed happy. We look at their plants. They are growing food in soil. They
have a watering system. They also have some sort of transparent cloth over each plant. I point to the watering system and ask Ebe2 if that is water, drinking water. Ebe2 said yes. Then she senses we are thirsty. Ebe2 leads us to a place near another entrance and offers us water, at least we think it is water. Tastes like chemicals but it is water. Actually tastes good.

This is another example of Eben technology that seemed novel to our people at that time in the mid-1960s, but hydroponics is now commonly used here to grow vegetables. It permits complete inexpensive control over plant growth, and requires no soil. It is beginning to appear that we learned a great deal from our Serpo experience. In his sixth information release, Anonymous gives the following details about the Eben food, taken from the three-thousand-page debriefing document that he had in his possession.

Food . . . was a problem for our team members. Our team consumed mostly military-style C-rations, but eventually had to switch to Eben food. The Ebens had a variety of food items. They grew vegatables [
sic
]. Our Team found items similar to potatoes, but they tasted different. They had some type of lettuce, turnips, and tomatoes. They were the only items similar to ours. The Ebens had other vegatables [
sic
] grown. These were strange looking round items with long vines. The Ebens cooked the vines and ate the large portion of the plant raw. The Ebens had some type of white liquid, which we first thought was a form of milk. But after tasting it, our Team realized it was different, both in taste and content. The liquid came from a small tree located in the northern portion of the planet. The Ebens literally milked the tree for the liquid. It appeared to be some sort of pleasure to drink the stuff. Our team members never got a real “taste” for the liquid.

The Ebens cooked food. They make pots of stew, which was extremely tasteless to our team. We used a lot of salt and pepper. They also baked a form of bread. It was nonyeast bread and tasted fairly good, but caused extreme constipation to our Team Members. We had to drink large quantities of water in order to digest the bread. The one common food that Ebens and our team members liked was the fruit. The Ebens ate a great quantity of fruit. The fruit, although different from anything we saw, was sweet. Some of the fruit tasted something like mellons [melons], while others tasted like apples. Another problem was water. The water on Serpo contained a number of unknown chemicals found by our team. Our Team eventually had to boil the water before drinking it. Seeing this, the Ebens built a large plant that processed water for our Team.

U.S.
hydroponics farm