The Blue People of Cloud Planet (14 page)

 A Surprising Discovery

After the trauma of the landing, Olivia and Scott could now focus on their new surroundings inside the dwelling. Although it was still raining, the light had increased and the familiar geometry was now visible.

It was a mess!

The whole area was strewn with huge leaves and stalks brought down by the higher winds near the forest.

In front of the astronauts and partly covered by leaves was a mass of twisted metal about a metre cube in size.

‘Look!’ said Olivia, ‘What do you think it is?’

‘Beats me,’ replied Scott. ‘From here it looks like an automobile that’s been through a metal crusher.’

‘Analysis confirms predominantly titanium and aluminium with some high grade steel, also evidence of high temperature resistant polymers similar to Teflon but cannot identify structure.

‘Also I can confirm the arrival about 1 hour before dawn of a large wooden object underground and to our right but nothing to our left.’

‘We’ll have to wait until we get out there,’ Olivia said. ‘Meanwhile let’s watch this place light up.’

They watched as the sun ignited the dwelling and bathed its leaf covered structures in gorgeous sunshine. On cue, the black lift rose from the clay and the astronauts were again thrilled as black-haired forms emerged and entered the first pool. But, this time, there were only six adult females and Zec-1 reported no further movements below the dwelling.

The blue females warmed up, fed and set about cleaning up the dwelling. This time, however, the large whole leaves were gathered and placed on the clay floor and smaller fragments of leaf were tossed into the fourth pool.

‘Astronauts prepare to exit lander!’

‘This is a momentous occasion in the history of space exploration when, for the first time, mankind sets foot on a planet of another star system. It is a coincidence that Cloud Planet has a slightly higher gravity and similar atmosphere to Earth. Even so, it is essential that full protective measures are taken for this first exit.’

Olivia and Scott ensured their lap restraints were fixed and lowered their helmets securing them to their spacesuits. Inside their helmets, the mimic display confirmed that they were airtight and fully pressurised from their oxygen packs.

Both astronauts put their hands to the console to confirm readiness and Zec-1 retracted the seat assembly into the air lock where the lander air was sucked out into a pressure cylinder until Zec-1 confirmed that a near perfect vacuum had been attained. Then the compartment was slowly re-pressurised with atmosphere from Cloud Planet. When the pressure inside and outside was the same, the lander’s lower lock door opened and the command seats slowly lowered 3 metres to the clay floor.

With mounting feelings of expectation, Olivia and Scott took their first steps.

‘What a privilege. I’m lost for words. First astronauts to set foot on a planet of another star,’ Scott said triumphantly.

 Then, gloved hand in hand they moved from the lander’s shadow into the dazzling light of the mid-morning sunshine. They marvelled as they looked around at the shimmering light sheath which rose majestically above them. There was not a cloud in sight and the sun poured into the dwelling raising its temperature to 30 degrees with near 100 per cent humidity from the boiling water at the diamonds and the hot pools. Moisture condensed onto the spacesuits but the dome of the helmet remained clear as liquid crystals in the outer layers raised the temperature to match the ambient conditions.

 ‘Look at this gouge in the clay,’ Scott pointed downwards, ‘this structure came down at very high speed.’

‘And look here,’ Olivia commented, ‘some pieces of metal which must have broken off on impact.’

They approached the twisted, shapeless lump of heavily corroded metal.

‘It’s box in shape and you can see these jagged struts where other parts have presumably sheared off. I can’t tell which way is up,’ Scott said.

While they were examining the wreck, the six blue females carried on oblivious to their presence – they were removing the cooked leaves from the fourth pool.

‘See this, Scott, there appears to be four sheared bolts and a cleaner rectangle of metal.’ And they bent to peer closer at this section towards the lower part of one of the sides.

‘Hold on, wait a minute! What are those marks there?’ said Olivia and she pointed her gloved hand.

‘Looks like letters and numbers,’ Scott cried, ‘but I can’t quite make them out because they’re upside down.’

Olivia crouched down further, ‘I think it’s .... ‘I’ something ‘S’..... then ‘A’.... followed by 872954824 – the numbers are accurate, I think. Zec-1, do you agree and can you run them through your database?’

They waited only a short while before Zec-1 replied,

‘Your identification of the numbers is correct but the letters are ‘NASA’ and that numeric sequence was stamped on the body of Pioneer 10, a satellite launched in 1972 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.’

‘You’re kidding me,’ shouted Scott in utter disbelief.

‘Impossible!’ Olivia joined in equally stunned.

‘I deal only in facts,’
Zec-1 continued,
‘the code I see from your helmet cameras is consistent with information in my database matching Pioneer 10 which was sent to reconnoitre Jupiter which it did in 1974. After this it left our solar system and was last heard of in 2001 heading into outer space in the general direction of the red star Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull.’

‘Bloody hell!’ Olivia argued, ‘That’s 90 degrees from our vector. How could it get here?’

‘I cannot speculate how but can only deduce that the remnants of Pioneer 10 are sitting in this dwelling on Cloud Planet of the star Seren.’

‘Olivia, I can remember my Grandfather telling me that his great Grandfather, Jack, had watched the launch of Pioneer 10 when he was only six years old – how quirky is that!?’

Scott paused, a faraway look on his face. ‘And I watched my Dad take off when I was six and he’s been lost in space for over 50 years,’ he thought to himself. Then he quickly refocused on the job ahead.

There was little more they could learn from the wreck – the fact that it was a satellite from Earth launched about 180 years ago was mind boggling enough.

But now, as the six blue females enjoyed the early afternoon sun in their own male free group, it was time to explore what lay beneath the dwelling.

 Beneath the Dwelling

The two astronauts ascended the ramp at the head of the channel and turned right following another clay path up to the side of the first pool. For the first time they were within metres of the amazing light sheaf but the only noise was that of water and steam hissing in the channel. Zec’s voice warned them not to approach any nearer so they turned right, past the discarded leaves and approached the black lift.

Close up, it towered over them.

‘Incredible! This must have been cut from a tree trunk over 3 metres diameter, but look every cut is straight.’ Scott said as he stepped onto the angled flight which was about a metre wide. The structure moved slightly downwards.

Then as Olivia joined him so it moved again. ‘It must be floating,’ she observed.

They walked down and around the square screw lift and Scott ducked to avoid bumping his helmet as the upper flight closed over them. Having descended the equivalent of one and a half revolutions of the stationary screw they exited onto an upper platform of clay. The noise of flowing water boomed in their helmets and they filtered this down so they could speak with ease. The light had dropped dramatically and the shafts of luminosity from the diamonds embedded in the roof, created a weird atmosphere.

Directly under the first and second pools was a large chamber about 2 metres in height but it was too gloomy to judge its length. The floor was covered in large leaves.

‘Must be where they bed down for the night,’ thought Olivia as Scott was examining the huge lift structure.

‘The screw lift is floating in a huge square pit with water flowing in from above and overflowing the pit into a channel about two thirds from the bottom. Water is also seeping out from a square hole, near the bottom, which has a wooden shaft protruding from it. To lower the lift, the shaft is pulled forward to allow water to empty from the pit.’

Olivia was looking in the opposite direction to the chamber where a ramp seemed to disappear into the gloom and she shuddered. She wasn’t cold – her spacesuit was maintaining a steady 22 degrees whilst her mimic display showed that the outside temperature was a chilly 10 degrees. She shivered as there were dark places everywhere she looked.

Scott’s voice shook her from her momentary apprehension.

‘Have you noticed that everything we have seen up top and now down here is straight – I cannot see a curve or circle anywhere in these constructions. Look at this clay ramp in front of us, it goes forward and I bet it turns in a straight line beyond that corner.’

They followed the ramp for about 20 metres to the dark corner and their only option was to turn right. Another ramp extended in front of them for a further 20 metres finishing at a lower platform which was illuminated by six light shafts. As they walked the noise of water increased.

‘Where are we heading?’ Olivia enquired as she had lost her bearings.

‘We’re on the right side of the dwelling; in fact the lander must be above us. We are near the position of the underground lateral canal.’

They moved onto a wide platform which had paths leading down into the dank, darkness below. They turned and stared at the huge mouth of a black tunnel 5 metres wide and at least 2 metres high.

Olivia really shook this time, but Scott moved forward excitedly, activating spotlights in his spacesuit to illuminate the tunnel.

‘Look, Olivia, there is a mid-partition about 2 metres high and water is flowing away from the dwelling in the left channel.’

Olivia’s unease was replaced by technical curiosity, ‘Why is the water white? And how peculiar, the right side of the partition is a further 2 metres down and water is flowing into the dwelling. We seem to have an upper rectangular clay pit of water on this left side of the tunnel about 2 metres wide and 5 metres long.’

She moved closer switching on her lights.

‘There is a similar pit but lower down on the right and, I don’t believe it!’

‘What!’ said Scott.

‘Come around here.’

They both moved to the platform in front of the tunnel, and stared at the object below.

‘It’s a boat!’ They said in unison.

 ‘But it is not like any boat they or I have ever witnessed. Completely black, it is 2 metres wide and 4 metres long with tapered flat sides outside and inside. The sides of the boat are about one third of a metre wide. It is hewn from wood, waterproofed with resin and has a shallow draft.  Every face is straight and the floor of the vessel’s large interior is lined with leaves.’

‘I think it’s completely flat bottomed,’ Scott said as he moved down to the boat, ‘with a shallow draft but I don’t think it’s actually floating – it’s sitting on something and the water flow from the tunnel seems to be passing under it.’

‘Scott!’ Olivia shouted, ‘there’s someone coming!’

As she spoke four blue females moved quietly down the clay ramp towards the platform, each carrying armfuls of large leaves.