by Tom Johnson
PANGAEA: EDEN’S PLANET
By Tom Johnson
Published by FADING SHADOWS
204 W. Custer St.
Seymour, TX 76380
Kindle Edition June 2017
Cover Design & Titles by Tom TV Powers.
Readers, please leave a Review on Amazon.
Dedicated to my Wife, Ginger Johnson
Prologue
Inside the NASA Control Room, several men sat behind monitors observing different scenes. One scene was on the tarmac where a large shuttle aircraft was parked. The man watching the screen suddenly motioned his fellow scientists to come over to his desk.
“There she is,” he pointed out. “Colonel Evelyn Peterson, our ship commander for this mission.”
“I’ve met her,” one of the men standing admitted. “She’s well qualified to head this assignment.”
“Actually, I was referring to her beauty,” the first man said. “She’s black, intelligent, and beautiful. A nice combination for a woman with stars in her eyes.”
“She’ll wear a star when she returns to Earth,” a third man said. “A shame, though, with all that beauty, she’s more interested in career than a man, marriage, and children.”
“And we need to replenish our population,” a fourth man noted. “A woman like that will not be the one to bring forth a new generation, I’m afraid.
“Where’s the rest of the crew,” another asked.
“They haven’t arrived yet,” the man said. “Colonel Peterson appears anxious to get started. She’s a very dedicated woman.”
“The shuttle bus just left with the rest of the crew, one of the men monitoring a second screen spoke up. “I guess the colonel walked on ahead of them.”
"Does it not say that I was 'In The Beginning'?"
Chapter One
Summer 2023
Colonel Evelyn Peterson was the first to arrive at the NASA Launching Pad that brisk summer morning. She was in a humorous mood, her brown eyes giving the sleek shuttlecraft an attentive once over. This was the day she had been waiting for all her life, everything she had trained for since college and the Air Force Academy. From the first time she had stared into the starry heavens as a curious child, her father laughingly pointing out the different constellations, she had dreamt of someday visiting them in person.
Running long slender fingers through her short dark hair, the beautiful woman stretched her shapely legs while she waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. Dressed in pressed Air Force Blues, her tall ebony form contrasted visibly with the compact, silver craft standing silently beside her. Black, ankle-high dress boots matched the soft, black beret set in regulation angle over her dark head of hair.
"You can board the ship, if you like, Colonel," a voice called down from the open portal of the space vehicle.
Glancing up, she saw the shuttlecraft's copilot standing at the top of the steep flight of steps, holding the metal door open for her.
"No thanks," she called back, "I'll wait out here for the others. They should be here in a minute."
At only thirty years of age, Colonel Peterson had distinguished herself during the recent war as a fighter pilot, achieving the high rank she now held just before NASA approved her application into the space program. If this mission was successful, she hoped to return to Earth with the first star on her shoulders.
"Here they come now," the copilot called down to her again.
Indeed, she had already seen the small minibus coming across the tarmac from the command building. She had been too anxious to wait for the vehicle that morning, preferring to walk the short distance to the launch pad instead.
Pulling to a stop only a few yards from where she was standing, the door slid open with a bang, and passengers began piling out in a disorderly manner.
She smiled at the elderly, gray-haired black man that stepped off the bus first. Spry for his age, he had wanderlust in his intelligent dark eyes, and he seemed overly anxious as he mounted the flight of steps to the open portal above.
"Go on aboard, Carl," she told him. “We’ll follow you.”
"Figured I'd better stick close to him," the woman coming up next said with a laugh, "in case he can't get up the stairs."
"He'll be just fine, Sheri," Colonel Peterson grinned.
Behind the laughing girl came a hard, stern-faced woman, her demeanor more serious than that of the first girl. There was a permanent frown on her thin lips.
"If that girl cracks a joke about my age," she warned, "I'll feed her a jar of viruses for breakfast."
"Now don't be too hard on her, Barbara," the colonel grinned. "Sheri means well."
Captain Tony Mercer saluted smartly as he hustled up the steps next, and behind him ran nerdy Roger Manning, the youngest of the group. The captain was dressed in light blue overalls, but his rank was properly displayed on his shoulder’s epaulettes. Roger Manning, a civilian, wore dark slacks and a white short-sleeved shirt, buttoned tightly to the neck.
Stepping off the bus last was a tall, broad-shouldered man of thirty, wearing Air Force Dress Blues, his blue eyes and blond hair giving him the looks that had fueled the reputation that had followed him throughout his Air Force career.
Tilting his black beret a little off center, he smiled as he said, "The way you took off this morning, Colonel, I would have thought you'd be half way to Mars by now?"
"Let's not be too familiar, Major Cooper," she suggested. "Don't forget, you are addressing a superior officer!"
Stepping back with a wide grin, Adam Cooper came to stiff attention and saluted. "Requesting permission to come aboard, sir!" he stated.
Snapping a return salute, Colonel Peterson said,"Permission granted, Major."
Following her second in command, she climbed the steps slowly, as if there was no hurry. Reaching the top of the steps, she turned once more and looked at the ground, as if for the last time, then turned with a soft sigh and entered the shuttle and the copilot sealed the door shut.
"Buckle up," the pilot called from the cabin. "Next stop, outer space!"
"Been there!" Colonel Peterson said.
"Done that!" added Major Cooper.
"I want my mommy," laughed Sheri Thompson.
"Oh shut up!" Dr. Barbara Terrill growled.
Firing the atomic engines of the shuttle craft, the captain waited until his copilot was safely strapped in, and then the space vehicle rocketed down the runway, attaining incredible speed before he raised the front wheels, and let the streamlined space shuttle lift into the air with gentle ease.
"A piece of cake," he smiled back at his passengers.
NASA and the rocket scientists had been busy during the long war, which began in 2022, and only ended after most of Europe and the Middle East had been decimated eight years later by nuclear weapons. America had been able to keep the fighting away from its shores for the most part, though there had been some minor destruction within her own borders.
While the people concentrated on the world war, propulsion scientists were secretly experimenting with better rocket systems, and once the pilots came back from the war zone, NASA grabbed the most experienced and brightest officers and began training them for space flight. With atomic power employed in the rocket systems, the stars were no longer unattainable in space flight, and it was decided to begin a terra-farming project starting with Mars.
Now, in the year 2033, the first spaceship was fitted and shot into orbit by NASA while the crew for the first manned flight to the red planet was being trained for the first phase of the mission. Colonel Evelyn Peterson had been chosen to command the initial phase, with Major Cooper assisting, should the commander become incapacitated for any reason. A team of scientists had also been picked for the pr
oject, strictly on a voluntary basis. The same applied to the navigator and engineer, Captain Anthony Mercer and Roger Manning.
Enough food and medical supplies were stored in the cargo hold of the spaceship for seven people for a five-year mission. It was hoped that the team could reach Mars, set up the equipment, and begin the process of discovering a water source and planting seeds once the bio-dome is assembled, and then return to Earth within that five-year period. And while the first mission was being carried out on the red planet, the second phase was to begin on Earth with another team in training for their mission a few years down the road.
"I can't believe it's finally happening," Colonel Peterson said as they watched the Earth disappearing slowly behind them in the view screen. “I’ve waited so long for this mission to be a reality.”
"Me, either, the major agreed, "although there are a few things I will miss during the next five years."
Smiling, the colonel told him, "Don't worry, Major, I understand they put salt peter in the MREs now."
"Does that stuff really work?" Sheri Thompson asked.
"I don't know, fella," Major Cooper grinned.
"Say, Colonel, you’re going to Mars, right?" the shuttle pilot asked suddenly. "Why are you and the major wearing side arms? Are you expecting the Martians to be hostile, or something?"
"I know why she is wearing a gun," Major Cooper laughed. "But I'm not expecting to be attacked up there."
"Strictly regulation," Colonel Peterson said. "All military personnel on a mission like this must be armed for unseen emergencies."
"By the way, Doc," Captain Mercer asked, "did you bring lots of penicillin in case the Martian women happen to be a little friendly?"
The stern-faced Doctor Terrill merely glanced out of the shuttle windows as the Earth slowly became smaller. The pilot was gently raising the vehicle through the upper layer of the atmosphere, gradually leaving the planet’s atmosphere for the vacuum of space. With the new protective layer of the shuttle's body, the passengers could not feel the atmospheric burn. Soon, the ship broke away and the Earth dropped below them, and out of the view screen, and they suddenly found themselves in the lonely blackness of space.
Turning the nose of the shuttlecraft sharply, the captain pointed out a spot of brilliance to the passengers in the distance: Even that far away, they could see the outline of the gigantic space ship ahead of them.
"There she is, folks, the virgin princess, just waiting for her lover!" he said.
"She does look sort of lonely, doesn't she, Colonel?" Major Cooper grinned at his commanding officer.
"I'll check the ingredients of those MREs personally, Major," Colonel Peterson warned.
When they came in to dock with the giant spaceship, there was a sudden gasp from all of the crew as they saw the markings printed in large, dark letters on its metallic side: Galileo Two.
"Who named the ship?" Carl Plymouth asked.
"The Mission Team at NASA," Colonel Peterson remarked. "I'm not sure who eventually decided on it, though."
"Galileo Two!" Carl Plymouth said softly. "That's very fitting. Galileo was an early astronomer that reached for the stars with a telescope. Now, we are traveling to the stars in a ship named for him. Reaching—as it were — for the same stars!"
"Maybe he's with us in spirit," Sheri Thompson said.
"Why Galileo Two?" Roger Manning asked.
"The first Galileo we sent into space was a probe," Colonel Peterson told him. "It's still out there somewhere, maybe at the edge of the universe by now."
"All ashore who's going ashore!" the copilot ordered, as the final docking sequence was completed.
Once the crew was onboard Galileo Two, the shuttlecraft broke away from the spaceship, and its pilot and copilot steered it back towards the blue planet far below.
"Listen up!” Colonel Peterson said. “While the major and I inspect the cargo hold, the rest of you check your personal items, and get settled in. We'll be shoving off as soon as we have made a few checks of the ship."
"Follow me, Major," she concluded.
"Aye, aye, sir," Major Cooper said with a mock salute, falling in behind his commanding officer.
“How much do you know about our crew, Major?”
"You've got quite a crew on this mission, Colonel," Major Cooper broke the silence as they proceeded towards the ship's massive holds.
"Professor Carl Plymouth holds degrees in astronomy and meteorology, as well as mathematics and a few other sciences most of us never heard of. He has assisted NASA for the last ten years in their study of the Martian atmosphere, and studied every storm that's been spotted on the red planet."
"Are you aware that he also lost a son in the war?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"I had heard the rumor," Major Cooper admitted, "but not the details."
"He doesn't talk about it," the commander said, "but Doctor Terrill was teaching medicine at the university where Professor Plymouth was at the time, and she told me recently that the news of his son's death almost killed the professor. That's when he became active in NASA, to take his mind off his loss."
"Ah, Doctor Barbara Terrill," he smiled. "The woman is a mystery, is she not? Beneath that stern expression is one of the keenest minds in the medical field. She could head any major hospital of her choosing, or have a successful practice in a major city, and keep a bank account that would choke a horse. Yet she devotes her time to teaching medicine at the university, and volunteers to be our personal doctor on a suicide mission to a dead planet."
"Barbara is also a microbiologist," the commander said, "and has been doing private research for years. As close as we have become, she has never opened up to me, either."
"Sheri Thompson is the only one I think I really understand," Major Cooper said. "Although she has a brilliant mind—her specialty is zoology—she seeks the unknown, the adventure in life. Maybe even the excitement—and danger. Hell, she has studied every living organism on Earth, I guess she's anxious to look under a few red rocks on Mars now."
"She also likes to dance and throw a few parties," Colonel Peterson added. "And I'm afraid that doesn't fit into your short assessment of the woman, Major."
"Perhaps, Colonel," he laughed. "But I think that Sheri will bring some bright spots to our lonely assignment. Maybe that's her main purpose for being here—besides looking under those rocks I mentioned."
"What do you know about our navigator and engineer?" she asked her second-in-command.
"There isn't much to know about either of them," he smiled. "Tony Mercer has a death wish for some reason. And Roger Manning is looking for God."
"Looking for God?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Oh, he's a fine engineer. He can fix any machine, given time, or figure out what's wrong with it. But being a Christian, the war almost destroyed his faith. With half the world wiped out, and billions of people killed, he couldn't understand why God hadn't intervened. I think this mission is his way of going in search for God—at least in understanding the reasoning behind all the death and pain."
"And Mercer's death wish?" she asked.
"Who knows?" he shook his head. "NASA needed a navigator, and Tony is one of the best. As far as NASA was concerned, they didn't want to pry into any secrets. I heard that he had been wounded in the war, but nothing else, and he has never mentioned it."
"What about you, Major, why are you on this mission?" Colonel Peterson asked.
"Me?" he laughed. "There is nothing mysterious about me, Colonel. I'm a lot like Sheri, I guess. I'm seeking adventure, excitement, maybe a little bit of danger. Hell, I like to throw a few parties myself, and I've been known to swing the girls around a dance floor a time or two!"
"What was your major, I mean — before becoming a pilot?" she asked.
Chuckling lightly, he stopped suddenly, and she turned to look at him. With a sparkle in his blue eyes, he put his hands on her shoulders and looking deep into her own eyes, and said:
“Pal
eontology!”
For the first time that day, Colonel Peterson broke out laughing.
"What about you, Colonel?" he asked. "Surely you had other qualifications for this mission besides flight training?"
"Believe it or not, Major, we are two peas in a pod," she laughed. "Before I found my true calling as a pilot, I majored in geology!"
"Well, your knowledge in geology will work to NASA's advantage," Major Cooper said. "You will be the first geologist to study Martian rocks first hand. But why in hell did they pick me, with a background in paleontology?"
"They had their reasons, Major," the commander told him. "Who knows what you'll find in the rocks on Mars? If life ever existed on the planet in the past, it's possible you'll find traces of it in the rocks we dig up."
"Ah, now it makes sense for them to send Sheri Thompson along. She's not just a zoologist. She's a Paleo-zoologist! Why didn't I see the connection before? Not only do we set up the bio- dome on Mars, we look for signs of ancient life while we're at it."
"Why not?" Colonel Peterson asked. "The data that we find on this initial mission will help NASA plan more fully for the second phase of the mission."
"Here we are," the major said, as they arrived at the door leading into the hold.
Opening the door, they gasped as they looked at the volume of boxes and crates secured with web netting in the massive compartment. Bolted to the ship's metal skin were two all terrain vehicles, equipped with solar batteries and thick rubber tires. Cabinets of refrigerated units were solidly attached within the massive hold also, built to withstand a crash, should that occur.
"This is the first of two cargo bays," the commander said. "The second one contains the bio- dome and its machinery. The ship's walls for both holds actually open on hydraulics. The bio-dome, and its equipment, are attached to the arm of a crane, which will swing outward once we have set down on the surface, and lower the dome to the ground gently. The hard part, of course, will be the necessity of assembling the equipment in the bio-dome wearing our spacesuits."
