The Blue People of Cloud Planet (15 page)

 A Novel Transport System

Olivia and Scott moved to one side as the blue group approached the right hand side of the tunnel and descended the ramp towards the boat.

‘How can they be so near to us and yet so oblivious to our presence?’ Scott whispered and Olivia shook her head and raised her eyebrows in puzzlement.

Up close the females were magnificent specimens with powerful arms that easily hefted the bundles of large leaves into the boat. They turned and came back up the clay ramp, their bright green eyes with vertical yellow elongated pupils penetrated right into the astronauts’ helmets.

Olivia and Scott stepped backwards, involuntarily, but the blue females passed by without a flicker of recognition. Two of them walked to the front of the platform and descended into the inner depths of the chamber. The remaining pair went back up the ramp and disappeared from view.

‘Where are they going?’ Olivia questioned. They both moved forward to see the first two females arrive at the bottom of the ramp some 5 metres below the platform.

‘Look,’ Scott pointed, ‘there’s water gushing out at the bottom of this pit into a shallower one – is that the water from the tunnel behind us?’

‘But what is that horizontal black shaft?’ Olivia wondered, ‘it seems to be coming out of the gushing water with its other end resting on the shallow wall of that lower pit.’

Meanwhile the two blue females positioned themselves at the end of the shaft and between them pushed it forward about half a metre where it dropped and caught on the wall. The water stopped gushing out leaving only a trickle around the edges where the tapered front end of the black shaft fitted neatly into a square hole. They then ascended the clay ramp back towards the astronauts.

Shortly a distinct grinding noise caused the astronauts to turn and walk back towards the pit containing the boat.

‘It’s moving.’ breathed Olivia, and then louder, ‘the boat’s travelling upwards!’

Scott excitedly worked his way downwards to the side of the boat which had risen about 0.5 metre and he peered below.

‘It is completely flat bottomed, and it’s sitting on, hang on, two huge black wooden structures, each about 2 metres square and the same width as the boat.  They must be floating in this huge pit, rising with the water level and lifting the boat up. Incredible.’

When the craft had risen about a metre the other two females returned. The four then disappeared into the gloom by the chamber wall. They re-emerged, each pair carrying a long black wooden wedge over 2 metres long and about one third of a metre square at its broad end.

‘What are they going to use those for?’ enquired Olivia and they watched as the boat came to rest just over 2 metres above its original position. At the same time they heard water gushing from the front of the pit. The vessel was now clear of the central partition wall by about one third of a metre.

One of the blue females walked precariously along the partition wall to the entrance of the tunnel. Meanwhile two females carried one of the wedges to a position where they could pass the tapered end to the female in the centre. They positioned the wedges so that they were precisely under each end of the craft.

‘What’s going to happen?’ Olivia wondered and looked at Scott.  Two of the females descended into the depths of the chamber once more. When they reached the black shaft they strenuously pulled up the end which shot backwards with the force of the water which gushed from the lower opening.

‘I don’t believe it! Scott cried, as the boat slowly descended and initially grounded on the higher end of the wedges. It then angled downwards until it rested on the tapered end and remained stationary at an angle of about 15 degrees towards the upper pit.

‘Watch Olivia, watch!’

The four blue females positioned themselves along the higher side of the boat and pushed in unison. The effect was like a slipway and the craft slid effortlessly into the upper pit of water. It moved forward with the flow and rested with its front against a black wooden partition which prevented it from disappearing down the tunnel.

‘A lift - an ingenious boat lift – just like locking up on a river – who designed all these intricate hydraulics?’

Underground transport, locks and black boat

They were so absorbed that they hadn’t noticed that the blue females had left.

Zec-1 interrupted their concentration.

‘Reminder, time to return to ROL-1!’

After they had returned to the lander, they watched through the dome as the six blue females heated up and returned underground.

‘Large object, now identified as a boat, has just left travelling at approximately 5 kilometres per hour. This speed would be consistent with an early morning arrival time at the next dwelling.’

 The Menace of the Black

AJ and the astronauts in LifeSeeker-1 were astounded at the discovery of the wreck of Pioneer 10 and fascinated by the ingenious boat lift system. They discussed at length how the satellite, which was destined for the constellation of Taurus, ended up so far off course. They concluded, with Zec-C’s calculations, that there was not enough time to get here at normal speed for the craft. Something very strange must have occurred.

The video conference was brought back to order by AJ,

‘We have to consider getting out of the dwelling tonight and Zec-C has calculated that there should be sufficient force field during ascent to punch our way past these flying reptiles. The current situation is that there are huge numbers of them in the treetops but no sign of the black mass. However there is an unknown risk concerning the regular shape that herded the creatures when you were landing.’

The astronauts agreed unanimously to attempt to take off from the dwelling to avoid the threatened danger.

One hour later, in the dark driving rain in the dwelling, Zec-1 applied power to the four main vertical engines of ROL-1, balancing this thrust with applied force field to the outside of the lander.

Olivia and Scott watched as the mimic display showed their relative position and Zec-1 intoned the altitude and speed of the lander.

‘Altitude 50 metres, speed 25 kilometres per hour.’

‘Confirm your status, no sign of activity in treetops,’ AJ said from 500 kilometres above.

‘Altitude 200 metres, speed 50 kilometres per hour. Force field maximum commensurate with applied thrust. ‘

‘Warning! ROL-1, black mass has arrived at the treetops,’ said AJ.

‘Altitude 500 metres, speed 100 kilometres per hour.’

‘Further warning! Mass has herded a huge flock of flying reptiles out of treetops and above your position at 2 kilometres altitude.’

‘Altitude 750 metres, speed 150 kilometres per hour.’

‘Emergency! ROL-1,’ AJ cried, ‘black mass is forcing flock downwards directly onto your path at high speed, their altitude is now 1000 metres, abort!... abo......’

In the lander, communications with the starship were suddenly cut off and Olivia and Scott felt the huge g-force as Zec-1 reversed the thrust on the engines as the lander came to a hover before starting its emergency descent. Simultaneously it was bombarded by the driven flock of frenzied flying reptiles. By now, their ability to fly was severely restricted by the crushing weight of the Black. The force field prevented actual collisions but the sheer numbers of reptiles rushing down onto the lander contributed to its descent speed.

The two astronauts studied the mimic display in horror as the flock appeared as yellow and red images which pressed down on the lander.

 
‘Altitude 500 metres, speed 30 kilometres per hour – bleeding off force field for more reverse thrust on main engines.’

‘This is touch and go,’ cried Scott, ‘we’re already descending too fast for this altitude!’

‘Altitude 200  metres, speed 20 kilometres per hour – descent now critical - bleeding off more  force field.’

Now the flock of reptiles was buffeting the lander and the descent path was only just being maintained by Zec-1. Scott looked aghast as the outline of the dwelling below loomed larger and larger on the mimic display. Olivia echoed his thoughts,

‘God! Scott, are we going to make it!’

‘Altitude 50 metres, speed 10 kilometres per hour – emergency! – All power needed for reverse thrust – no force field! – but reptiles thinning out!’

The lander was now at the mercy of multiple collisions by the flying reptiles which caused ROL-1 to suddenly veer off course. Olivia and Scott were thrown about in their seats by the impacts.

‘Brace for crash landing! Altitude ten metres, speed still 10 kilometres per hour – emergency! – more reptiles on collision course!’

Then two flying reptiles crashed at speed into the rear of the lander turning it through almost 90 degrees just a couple of metres from the red clay of the dwelling. The astronauts were shaken to the core by the sudden change of direction and momentarily disoriented.

At above safe design speed, the lander’s caterpillar tracks slammed into the hard clay surface biting deeply. Simultaneously Zec-1 applied maximum torque to the cantilevered legs so they would brace the impact. Unfortunately the two rear tracks came down on the edge of the lateral water channel which crumbled away under the impact. The rear legs immediately extended to try to keep the lander horizontal but the channel was too deep. As the rear tracks ground to a standstill in an explosion of crumbling clay and water, so the huge external cowls of the two rear engines buckled into the ground and the lander stopped with its underbelly less than one third of the metre above ground.

 ‘Lander down – checking vital components for damage!’

The impact shook Olivia and Scott to the bone and they paled as the lander tilted upwards nearly 30 degrees before coming to a sickening stop.

They watched the mimic display anxiously as hundreds of mechanical integrity, circuit and other checks flashed up – thankfully mostly glowed green for OK.

‘Basic lander integrity not breached but significant damage to external cowls of both rear main engines. Also rear caterpillar tracks are jammed in the bottom of the lateral channel which at 2 metres wide is the same as the length of the tracks.’

‘What is your best scenario for our position?’ Scott asked dejectedly.

‘I have 90 per cent confidence that ROL-1 can be extracted from the channel but less than 5 per cent confidence that we can take off! Also we have no communications with LifeSeeker-1 because the black mass is directly above us.’

Meanwhile in LifeSeeker-1, the astronauts had watched with horror as the black mass firstly herded the flock of reptiles out of the treetops and then completely encircled them directly over the rising lander. Then the Black closed over the reptiles and drove them down with frightening speed. At this point AJ lost communications with the lander and could only pray that they had got to the ground safely.

‘Black mass is now a steady circle 500 metres in diameter at 1 kilometre altitude. Communications with ROL-1 are completely blocked and I cannot analyse the nature of the mass.’

 ‘Command - move starship 1 kilometre due east!’ AJ judged that this should give a line of sight with the dwelling. However, with each manoeuvre of LifeSeeker-1, the black mass adjusted its position and the communications blackout persisted.

AJ put into words the stark realisation of the other astronauts,

‘Not only did that black mass organise those reptiles into the path of the lander, but it is also aware of our presence! – what on Earth is it, Zec-C?’

‘I cannot get any investigative print of the black mass; it is resisting infrared, X-ray and low frequency radiation. I can only see it, and it arrived at the treetops from the sea coast in less than half a minute!’

‘Gosh, the sea’s over 500 kilometres away,’ gasped Steve who paused as he worked out the maths, ‘that’s over 50,000 kilometres per hour! - how can it travel that fast!’

‘Also why was this attack so much more menacing and forceful than the previous one?’ Alison queried.

AJ’s conclusion caused all the astronauts on LifeSeeker-1 deep concern, ‘The lander was trying to escape this time!’

Then, as dawn approached and the cloud lightened, the black mass disappeared from below them as quickly as it had arrived. Communications were restored for just 1 hour before sunrise and the astronauts were relieved to hear that their colleagues were safe and well, but dismayed at the damage to ROL-1. Before contact was lost for the day, the lander astronauts said they would do a thorough examination of the damage to the rear engines and report back after sunset.