Proxima Logfiles 1: Marchenko's Children: Hard Science Fiction

by Morris, Brandon Q.

  They finally reached a hall around 20 meters across and 5 meters high, and in the center was a pool. Adam shone the flashlight at it. Something was moving, but he couldn’t take a closer look because Gronolf gently moved his arm toward the wall.

  “Leave them be,” said Gronolf.

  “Who?” he asked.

  “Our ancestors,” explained Gronolf. “No, that’s not the right word. They are descended from our common ancestors. We’ve evolved, but they haven’t.”

  “With humans, there’s something similar,” said Eve. “We call them apes.”

  “Do they have consciousness?” Adam asked.

  “Not individual consciousness like we do,” answered Gronolf. “They’re organized into a kind of state, but they’re driven by instinct.”

  “Where do they live?” asked Eve.

  “Here, in the volcanic lake. It’s pretty deep. And in the other volcanoes.”

  “Then your kind doesn’t come from the sea?”

  “No, Eve. Life originated here. According to our scientists, the volcano’s thermal energy, along with the many minerals and gases, is the perfect mixture.”

  “And of all the species, it was yours that developed intelligence?” asked Adam.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m sorry, Gronolf, I didn’t mean it as an insult. But isn’t it strange that there’s only one intelligent species on this planet, the same as on Earth?”

  “The biologists say that evolution’s to blame. The other species were probably too well-adapted to their niches. But there are also other opinions.”

  Gronolf shone his light on the wall in front of them, where it was possible to see colored lines that formed pictures. Somebody had painted frogs on the wall but they looked strange, as if they were wearing huge masks.

  “How old are the drawings?” asked Eve.

  “Thousands of years old. They’ve been here in the Cave of the Legends all along.”

  “But hasn’t anyone determined their age more precisely? There are physical methods,” said Adam.

  “Yes, but the pigments are very recent,” said Gronolf. “Our ancestors regularly redo the drawings. It appears to be part of their instinctual programming. The pictures always stay the same. They don’t change at all.”

  “That’s fascinating,” said Eve.

  “Yes. That’s what our scientists think, too. Especially because of the pictures’ content.”

  Adam stepped closer to the wall. In front of him, a Grosnop wearing a mask was giving an unidentifiable object to a smaller Grosnop without a mask. To the right, the same scene was repeated. Beside it were two beings with masks sitting atop a floating beam. Below, there was the suggestion of a cloud, but it could also be a tuft of grass. Adam kept walking to the right. He discovered a kind of procession. Six of the frog-like creatures were carrying another one that was larger than them and wearing a mask. In the drawing next to it, a masked creature was standing upright and holding a kind of pipe, and before it on either side there were two smaller specimens without masks. It wasn’t clear if they were alive. Lines were emanating from them, but these might have been stylized water rivulets.

  “So many legends,” said Adam. “Is there an interpretation of this?”

  “An interpretation? Hundreds! But there’s one that most of the scholars agree on. According to this interpretation, what’s depicted here are religious rituals. All those wearing masks are females. It’s thought that they are priestesses making offerings to one of the gods. It’s known that there was a matriarchal organization to our society early on.”

  “And the minority opinion?” asked Eve.

  “There are scholars who believe that the masked individuals are aliens who represent a more advanced civilization and are passing on knowledge, symbolized by the objects represented, to our ancestors.”

  “The representatives of this civilization look a lot like you,” said Eve.

  “Yes, you humans are out of the question.”

  “How likely is it that an intelligent species that happens to look like you would prevail on other planets?” asked Eve.

  “Well, it happened on this planet, so the probability must be greater than zero. Maybe the shape of our bodies or our behavior provide the best conditions for developing intelligence.”

  “I get the impression that you favor the theory of the generous neighbors,” said Adam.

  “That’s correct. I think it sounds convincing. That’s also the reason why I supported Marchenko’s plan the way I did. The visitors from back then must have come from one of the planets in our area. For a long time, we suspected it was Proxima Centauri b, but that’s been ruled out since then. If we were to visit all the planets under consideration, we’d have to come across them. This is what convinced those of the Knowledge Guardians who make decisions.”

  “Thanks for the explanation, Gronolf,” Adam said.

  He was looking for the drawing that featured one of the visitors holding a pipe. There it was. He took Gronolf’s touch-arm and used it to point at it.

  “Another interpretation is that this depicts the visitor having just killed some of his ancestors with the tubular weapon,” said Adam.

  “I know. But perhaps my ancestors are just lying on the ground in front of him to worship him.”

  “We’ll only know what really happened if we just show up at their front door, unannounced. Then we can only hope that they are well-intentioned neighbors.”

  “Oh, Adam, you wouldn’t believe how many times we’ve already discussed this. If they exist and were here at some point, they already know what point of development we’ve reached since then. The radio transmissions broadcast from our planet at the speed of light keep them up to date. So in no way would a visit from us be a surprise to them.”

  This was an important argument. But was it also a good argument? Now, if the hypothetical aliens were, in fact, hostile, perhaps they’d be flying right into a trap that had been set a long time ago. But maybe this was just typical human hubris, a civilization that had far surpassed the local one here thousands of years ago would in all likelihood have as much interest in its backward neighbors as people do for ants.

  * * *

  Mother Sun was just above the horizon. Adam shielded his eyes with his hand until he was re-accustomed to how bright it was outside. He stepped onto the path leading upward, but Gronolf held him back.

  “Wait a minute.”

  “Shouldn’t we make the most of the light to get back home?”

  “The light from Father Sun is bright enough. Don’t worry.”

  Adam looked at the volcanic crater’s ring-shaped crest. There were pieces of rock crumbling everywhere. The processes of erosion were well underway, but it must have been a long time since the last eruption. What was strange was that the crest of the caldera prevented him from seeing any of the surroundings. The world had disappeared. It was as if he were in the eye of a giant, with the black crater lake being the pupil that was embedded in a reddish-brown ring of iron-rich volcanic rock. The sky above them was as round as the crater and was just turning blue.

  Gronolf nudged him and handed him a cylinder. At first he couldn’t tell what purpose it served, but then he noticed the glass on both ends. A telescope! He held it up to his eye.

  “There, below,” said Gronolf.

  Adam lowered his gaze toward the lake. There they were! Hundreds of beings with two legs and four arms were bounding across the lake’s narrow shore. Were they playing?

  “What are they doing?” asked Adam.

  “They’re breeding. There are a few females, usually no more than five, who lay the eggs. The others are the males. They’re the ones who fertilize the eggs.”

  “Interesting,” he said.

  There had to have been more than 100 males. There was one rubbing his lower abdomen on an egg. Adam couldn’t exactly tell what was happening. Then the male leapt to the next one. Apparently every male wanted to fertilize as many eggs as possible. In te
rms of genetic diversity, this made sense.

  “Let me have a turn,” Eve said, and he handed her the telescope.

  “Why haven’t these lakes become overpopulated?” Adam asked.

  “The limited food supply here means that very few female offspring develop.”

  “If you’d feed them—”

  “—they would eventually turn on each other.”

  Ripples appeared in the water, which had been calm until now. A few stones rolled down the path. The mountain was shaking its slopes like a person shaking old rugs.

  It was time to start the gradual walk back to the hover boat.

  Brightnight 6, 3882

  “So _*_#_ dagro_ mun**__,” came the announcement over the loudspeaker in the cockpit.

  “So,” confirmed Gronolf. “Gro__*_mun!”

  It was impossible to listen to Grosnops when they talked to each other. During what sounded like brief pauses, the vocalizer muscle on their upper body was still moving and producing sounds Adam and Eve couldn’t hear because they were in the ultrasonic range. Adam was sitting behind Gronolf and could tell that he was getting upset, or at least that he was yelling.

  “Shut down the engines in three—two—one—now.”

  Gronolf, sitting on the shuttle’s control bar, made this announcement, especially for his two human guests’ benefit. Immediately afterward, Adam felt amazingly light.

  “Can I?”

  He pointed to the seat belt.

  “Sure,” said Gronolf.

  The buckle released and Adam floated out of his seat. Eve was just a little faster, but she moved aside for him, and together they looked out the round window.

  “It’ll show up in a second,” announces Gronolf.

  An enormous, rotating cube came into view. It seemed to be studded with precious stones and had sides with edge lengths of about 500 meters. The bright dots were the individual cells that made up the ship. They sparkled because two suns and the planet were shining light on the metallic surfaces from different directions. The ship deserved the ‘Majestic’ title. It drew its energy from a spherical drive core in its center, and the cube-shaped shell revolved around it. In the axis of rotation there was a gap approximately 20 meters thick that divided the cube in half and allowed for a direct view of the drive.

  The core itself was inaccessible. It was controlled by an artificial intelligence (AI), ‘the Omniscience,’ which in turn was controlled by Marchenko. Yet the Majestic Draght had made its maiden voyage without Marchenko. At that time—more than four years ago now and before the rescue of Marchenko and the two humans—the Omniscience had rebelled against the crew and taken complete control of the ship. After the rescue, Marchenko had persuaded the AI that it was logical for him to control the core.

  “Crazy,” said Adam. “You built a terrific ship there.”

  “Thanks,” Gronolf said.

  “And you can fly it!” said Eve.

  “Not alone, of course,” said Gronolf. “I need a crew of at least thirty to command all systems. And that number doesn’t include service staff like mechanics or cooks.”

  “I can imagine,” said Eve.

  “Can you tell us how the drive works?” Adam asked.

  “I don’t know. Dark matter... Does that mean anything to you?”

  “Sixty-three percent of the universe’s matter,” said Eve.

  “Yes, and what’s special about it is that it only interacts through gravitation with other matter and with itself,” said Gronolf.

  “But how do you power a ship with it? Gravitation always attracts!” said Eve.

  “The ship stays in place and pulls the destination toward itself?” suggested Adam.

  “That would be somewhat risky,” Gronolf said. “Just imagine if the Majestic Draght were to attract all the asteroids surrounding it.”

  “Then how does it work?” asked Eve.

  “Our researchers worked on this for a long time. The breakthrough came when they discovered an important property of dark matter. It is possible to shield it effectively, and with surprisingly little effort.”

  “So… you can hide dark matter,” said Adam. “But I still don’t see how it could power a ship.”

  “It’s not that complicated. Do you remember the stones that rolled toward us on the slope above the Cave of the Legends? What propelled them?”

  “Their mass.”

  “Exactly. But this is of no help on a flat plane. There’s a second condition.”

  “A potential.”

  “Right, Adam. Are you familiar with the Nurmonan idea of ​​relativity?”

  “It doesn’t ring a bell.”

  “It’s the principle that mass distorts space.”

  “Ah, yes, that’s Einstein’s general theory of relativity. We had a physicist named Einstein who discovered it.”

  “For us, it was an interpreter of knowledge named Nurmona. A large mass bends space-time in such a way that a potential well is created. This mass, the dark matter, is in the belly of the ship. In this way the ship creates its own slope, which it rolls down faster and faster. We don’t have to provide any energy for this. It’s as if you were digging a hole beneath you. The shoveling is certainly exhausting, but the falling ultimately happens all by itself.”

  “So wouldn’t the ship have to keep falling into its own hole?” Eve asked.

  “That’s an excellent question. That’s exactly why we need the shielding. It is stretched around the core, invisible. A fusion reactor generates the necessary energy. If we need the ship to move, all we have to do is slowly drop the shield. The faster we want to fly, the less energy we need.”

  “So as the Majestic Draght patrols here, weightless in orbit, this is when it requires the most energy.”

  “That’s smart reasoning, Adam. This is why we want to get back on the road as quickly as possible.”

  “And where to?” asked Eve.

  “Marchenko will discuss that with you. Shall I bring you aboard now?”

  * * *

  “Where’s my aquarium?” asked Eve.

  Marchenko had brought her to her cabin first. They’d just parted ways with Gronolf, who’d gone heading off in the direction of the control room.

  “Here—the button is next to the light switch,” explained Marchenko.

  The button to which he pointed looked a little less streamlined than the light switch. It was clearly retrofitted. Marchenko pressed on it and a metal plate immediately dropped behind Eve’s bed. Behind it appeared a container that had little in common with an aquarium.

  “What’s that?” asked Adam.

  “I recognize it,” said Eve. “It’s one of the containers that can be used to freeze the Grosnops during long journeys.”

  “Right,” said Marchenko. “This is the closest we have to an aquarium. We were unable to get glass plates at the required dimensions that quickly. But the containers are completely sealed. And at first glance, you can’t see what’s inside. So they serve their purpose.”

  “Which is to keep fish under different gravitational conditions for biological research,” said Eve.

  This was the official reason.

  “Exactly. Your interest in biology came as a surprise to Gronolf, but he agreed to it. You can also officially obtain fish food from the storeroom.”

  “I hope he likes fish food,” said Eve, pointing to Marchenko’s stomach. “He’s really not a fish.”

  “If he doesn’t like fish food, he’ll probably like what Grosnops eat,” said Marchenko.

  “Blue sorrel and stomachwort, how delicious,” Adam jibed.

  “Shall we put him in?” Eve inquired.

  “Are you able to remove the cover?”

  “Yes, Marchenko. When you weren’t there on Proxima b, I opened several of these containers on my own.”

  “Good.”

  Eve opened a few latches, then pushed the curved cover aside. It squeaked.

  “There should be enough room,” she said.

  Marchen
ko pushed Eve’s bed to the side, stood beside the container, and reached into his stomach. He pulled out a wriggling creature that was dripping wet and rapidly slipped it into the container.

  “Watch out. You’re leaking,” Adam warned.

  Marchenko quickly closed up the flap on his stomach. Then the door flew open and a Grosnop they’d never seen before looked inside.

  “Help... Scream... Listen...?” he stammered.

  Gronolf had made courses in the human language mandatory for his leadership team. Given how little time they’d had so far, this attempt at communication was an amazing accomplishment.

  “All is well,” said Marchenko, and the Grosnop disappeared.

  “He must have heard the hatchling,” said Adam. “They’re able to communicate with ultrasound, after all. You need a translator for this. In critical situations, he’s got to be silent!”

  Eve nodded. She had a baby Grosnop in her room, and it had to survive there for a whole year without anybody noticing. Surely it would want to get out of its container at some point. So what? It was going to be lots of fun to have Groni around.

  “I’ll get you a translator,” said Marchenko. “The best thing is to get yourselves settled in first. I’d like to meet with you in the control room in three hours. We have to talk over our next steps.”

  * * *

  The directions Marchenko had sent to them on the small screen in the cabin were mapped out perfectly for getting to the control room. It was also helpful that all the corridors were clearly labeled with easily recognizable symbols.

  “There, up ahead, to the left,” said Eve.

  Of course she was correct. Adam was no longer consulting the map. They turned and walked straight for about 50 meters. It was strange to think that they were currently on the inside of a rotating cube. Their cabins were on the outermost part, where the artificial gravity was most potent and healthiest for them. The control room was located near the core. It was necessary to use ladders to get from one floor to the next.