by S A Pavli
The time passed and Alfred’s warm tones interrupted my musings.
“Hello Epsilon please respond.”
“Hello yourself Alfred.” Formality seemed superfluous given that only the two of us were here “All systems green.”
The ship was still flying backwards and we needed another burn to slow us down to mach 10 before entering the atmosphere. The shuttle was still five thousand miles from the landing site. The second burn proceeded smoothly and I rotated the shuttle so that we were now facing forwards.
“I calculate one minute to atmosphere,” Alfred reported but I could already hear the first sighing of air. I gently made some experimental movements as the sighing of air increased and she began to respond. The shuttle had proper windows and the planet started to become a landscape. Soon we were flying and I started to make out details, mountains and rivers scrolled beneath. Lower we went , down below ten thousand feet and our landing site now just fifty miles away. Speed had dropped drastically to below mach 1 and I dropped her nose and throttled back even more. Alfred called the numbers and I gradually re-directed forward power to vertical thrust, We were now flying below the shuttle’s stall speed, she was now transforming herself from an airplane to a helicopter. Below I could see the sea on my left and the coastline on the right. Around that bend in the coast was the inlet where the alien buildings were, And there they were, beneath me and to the right. I was now on ninety five percent hover and five percent forward thrust and gently I manoeuvred her over the landing spot, the flat cleared land between the buildings and the sea. Forward thrust to zero, vertical thrust down a notch and she began to fall gently. There was a thump as we touched and I throttled down the engines quickly almost to a stop. We had decided that I would keep them turning over for a few minutes so that, if I was suddenly set upon by bloodthirsty aliens I would be ready for an instant take off .
“Epsilon has landed,” I declared triumphantly. Shame there was only me and Alfred to hear!
“Most competent piloting Paul,” came Alfred’s response.
“Thanks old bean, couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I know,” he replied. From a human that would have been smug, from Alfred, it was just a statement of fact.
The shuttle was facing parallel with the coastline and the buildings were to my right. I looked eagerly out of the window. They were fifty to eighty meters from me and clearly visible. I could see the back of one of the main buildings on one side and then a gap and another of the buildings sideways on. They looked deserted and ramshackle and I confess that my guts rumbled queasily and a cold shiver ran down my spine.
“No action down here Alfred, quiet as the ...um well quiet,” I added nervously.
“I see no sign of movement either,” came the response. It was comforting to think of Alfred hovering above and keeping a keen eye out for trouble.
“Shut down engines then?”
“Affirmative.”
The final shut down of the engines brought a blissful silence. It was a bright sunny day but a couple of little clouds were visibly moving across the sky, so it was windy. The sea was choppy, the waves quite high as they broke against the shore, Not quite surfing size though, I will have to try elsewhere for that. To the front right I could see the march of the coastline as it curved back out to form the bay. Further to the right, the low mountains were covered with trees and vegetation. It was all so Earth like I thought for a moment I had gone in a circle and come home without realizing it, Were those buildings human after all? Alfred’s matter of fact tones dispersed my fantasy.
“Prepare to deploy Survey Mechanoids,” he intoned. These were of course good old Butch and Sundance and I unwound myself from the Pilot’s seat and set about preparing them. Their job was to trundle up to the buildings and have a good old nose around, before I even set foot on the planet.
Butch and Sundance were very advanced robots, their computers were almost at AI level. Because of this, they could perform their own checkout, in conjunction with Alfred. I just activated them and stepped back, well back. I confess that they both made me more than a little nervous. They did not have Alfred’s affable character, being more direct and purposeful. There was no room in their programming for adding any sophisticated human interface, since their job was to collect and analyse samples and report to Alfred. They were anyway always under Alfred’s command and control, their own volition coming into play only when they were disconnected from Alfred’s control. Butch ran on tracks and Sundance had four skinny insect legs and two long insect like arms with multiple wicked looking claws and fingers. Sundance did all of the above ground collecting, feeding samples into Butch’s various analysers. Butch was equipped with various drills to take below ground samples. Both were equipped with multiple eyes, cameras , infrared and ultrasound detectors and other gadgets whose names I could barely pronounce and whose function was comprehensible only to bearded monk-like individuals in University labs.
Butch and Sundance pronounced themselves fully functional and I was not going to disagree! I obligingly led them to the airlock and opened the inner door. It would not be necessary to pump out the air. The airlock was also designed to be completely impermeable and on returning both Robots would be sluiced with boiling hot acid water, dried with superheated air and bombarded with ultraviolet radiation. This would hopefully prevent any viruses, bacteria or other nasties entering the ship. Once we had established that the planet was safe, it would not be necessary to go through this procedure. This was why I could not set foot on the planet until Butch and Sundance proved it safe; the cleansing process would kill me just as surely as it would kill any alien life forms.
Alfred and I would be able to view whatever Butch and Sundance were viewing from their multiple sense organs. The airlock external door had opened and the ramp lowered. Butch trundled out first, followed by Sundance. The two trundled up the slight incline towards the buildings. I returned to the flight deck where I was able to view the outputs from the Robots cameras. I put Butch on one screen and Sundance on the other. The Robots veered to the right as they approached the buildings to move through the gap between the two buildings. As they came close the ground levelled off and became smoother, the surface was coated instead of just levelled.
“Alfred, instruct the robots to examine the material from which the road and buildings are constructed.”
“Affirmative Paul.”.
Butch had paused and started examining the ground closely. A drill was lowered beneath his body and a sample taken from the road surface. At the same time Sundance was examining and taking a sample of the building wall. The robots proceeded around the large building and into the central section between the external quadrangle and the central square building. We could see the quadrangle clearly; the large building was on our left and a smaller one to the right. Both looked in bad shape, riddled with holes and with huge chunks missing.
“A preliminary analysis of the building material indicates a silicate base with some resinous binding agent.” he replied.
“In other words” I mused “made from local rock with a binding agent?”
“Yes,” replied Alfred.
“How durable is this material?” I asked
“Extremely hard and durable,” replied Alfred “This sort of material should last hundreds of years in this sort of climate.”
“Is it possible that this site is thousands of years old?” I asked.
“It is possible, but we need to find other artefacts to confirm this.”
“Press on then, where to next?”
“A look inside one of the buildings may be instructive.”
Butch and Sundance moved towards the larger of the two buildings. I looked out of the shuttle window and I could no longer see the robots. They had turned the corner and were hidden behind the larger building. The wind moaned louder and the shuttle shook slightly. The wind was picking up and there were some dark clouds moving in our direction. Butch and Sundance would not be bother
ed by a bit of rain. Meanwhile Butch was focusing on the front door of the larger building, which was hanging on its hinges. Clearly the building had never been intended to be airtight, this was just a normal door. While Butch covered him, Sundance moved forward and forced the door open, clearing away some rubble to allow Butch access. Butch then eased himself forward, turning on an incredibly bright searchlight he lit up the doorway and then moved through it, guns at the ready. Inside the building was a mess, rubble everywhere. It was completely open, with a broad table fully thirty feet long down the middle. There was also a bench running down one wall and what appeared to be desks and chairs arranged in clusters along the other wall. Under the rubble could clearly be seen piles of electronics equipment, display screens and gadgets. There was also what clearly looked like a microscope.
“Its a bloody laboratory,” I gasped. Then I thought, why should I be surprised? If aliens had come to explore the planet, then of course they would need a lab. Then I realised what was bothering me. I had immediately recognised it as a laboratory, a place of work. The benches and equipment, the tables and chairs looked the same as their human counterparts. Whoever the aliens were , they were not very different from us, in shape and size.
Chapter 4
It took the Robots three hours to fully explore the buildings and surrounding area. They took copious samples of the flora and fauna, photographing a number of animals of different sizes, from a sturdy puma like creature to a large number of small creeping crawling jumping flying and swimming creatures of all shapes and sizes. Nothing too large or nasty looking though.
The alien buildings were our first priority of course and the robots spent the first couple of hours exploring all seven buildings in detail. They were exactly what we would have expected an Earth exploratory base to be. There was the large Laboratory, that was the first building we saw,. The larger building opposite was the dormitory and living accommodation. There were three storerooms for mechanical, electrical and building machinery and components. The fourth store contained sealed plastic packages containing food. This was very exciting because analysis would provide us an insight into the aliens physiology. It also indicated that the base had been fairly recently occupied, which was a serious shock. The final building housed a small nuclear generator to supply electricity to the camp. All were damaged, pockmarked with what looked like bullet holes, and with large holes blown out of the walls and roofs. Behind each large hole in the walls, the interior damage was consistent with a projectile. The conclusion was unavoidable; the base had been attacked, probably from the air, with bullets and light shells. There were no bodies.
It was whilst exploring the accommodation block that we found the photographs. They were the sorts of prints that people would take with them on a long trip. Pictures of the wife or husband and the kids! Up to that point, despite the subtle differences in the design and construction of all the fixtures and fittings and machinery, I was becoming convinced that the camp was human, so uncannily normal everything was. The entrance to the accommodation block led into a hallway which opened up into what was clearly a common room, with comfortable chairs arranged in facing groups, small tables scattered about and what seemed to be a bar or food preparation area in one corner. A corridor led into the private rooms.
The first one the robots looked into had a bed, a cupboard with clothes still in it and a small desk with a computer on it. On the wall hung a large print of what I guessed was home, a rustic country scene which could have been Earth, with small circular and oval buildings arranged in clusters around small courtyards, planted with flowers and bushes. It was charming and pretty, and I thought to myself that we could have a great deal in common with such people.
On the table were two framed pictures and as the only human present I was the only one to gasp with wonder and amazement. It was no wonder that everything around us was so familiar, the creatures looking out at us from the framed prints were humanoid to an uncanny degree. Two arms and legs and one head , which was a good beginning! The faces contained two large eyes, a prominent nose and a wide lipped mouth. No eyebrows, but two curved bony ridges where the eyebrows should be. The ears were small and triangular, set at eye level and well back on the scalp. There was thick wavy hair coating the scalp and around the ears and down the neck. The eyes were large and wide set . Altogether not what I expected aliens to look like.
Other pictures displayed the aliens standing up and in various poses. They were remarkably human looking, the shoulders more narrow but deeper set, the chest deep, the waist narrow but the thighs and legs long thick and powerful looking. There was an air of elegance and supple power about their bodies.
I expressed my amazement to Alfred. ‘How is it possible for them to be so human in appearance Alfred? Surely the chances of that are incredible?”
“Science would say that form follows function in biology as well as in design. It may be that intelligence develops best in a humanoid form, that is, an upright body with the brain and senses close together at the apex. Two arms and legs contribute balance and agility. Of course I should add,” he went on in his best school masterly tone “The fact that the only two known intelligent species are humanoid, does not prove that all possible intelligent forms are humanoid.”
“Sometimes Alfred. you sound like the small print on the bottom of an insurance form.”
“I am simply presenting the facts,” he said and actually managed to sound miffed.
“I take your point,” I agreed, “Two out of two does not make a law. But still, they are amazingly human. Not just that, they are cute. They have no right to be so cute. They should be green and repulsive with half a dozen tentacles!”
After three hours, I was itching to get out of the cramped shuttle. The weather outside was great, sunny and hot, and I could not wait to get out and breathe fresh air. Eventually, after interminable tests of the air, water, plants and animal life, Alfred declared it safe. He would have preferred further tests and a longer incubation period for his experiments, but I argued forcibly that I had very little choice anyway; It was either live on the planet or die when my food ran out.
The outer air lock door opened and the sounds and smells of a real world drifted in. As I stepped off the ladder to the ground I paused for a moment, but no momentous thoughts popped up in my head. The wind ruffled my hair in a friendly fashion and I nodded a greeting.
“Hello to you Planet. Greetings from the people of Earth.” “I walked up the slight incline towards the alien base then turned around to examine the shuttle. She looked sleek, sturdy and familiar, and in gleaming condition. I was wearing communications equipment and Butch and Sundance were in attendance, twenty yards away up the incline
The walk up the incline to the buildings was a short one, the gravel crunched beneath my feet and the wind whistled off the sea as I marched up, Butch and Sundance keeping twenty yards ahead and on either side. As I turned the corner, the other buildings came into view. The big central one was the accommodation building, and to my left was the laboratory building. I was fascinated by the accommodation block and headed towards it. Butch went before me and Sundance behind and we stepped from the hot sunshine into the cool shade of the building, through the entrance hall into the common room. I gazed with fascination around me, imagining the aliens relaxing here, seated on the chairs and sofas, chatting eating and drinking, relaxing after a days work. I moved through and explored the individual rooms, marvelling at the pictures and wall prints. I came upon a collapsed portion of the wall and stopped to examine the destruction carefully. That part of the outside wall had disappeared for an area of five feet, and the internal walls and room behind it were rubble. An examination of the rubble revealed traces of blackened deposits. “Alfred, have we taken samples of these deposits?” I asked.
“No Paul, the mechanoids will take some samples now and carry out chemical and biological tests.”
I was able to climb over the rubble and continue exploration of the building. It wa
s a part of the building that the robots had not yet examined. Butch was unable to climb over the rubble and I was accompanied by Sundance only. There were more rooms, and at the end of the block, what appeared to be the toilets and bathrooms, so similar to Earth equivalents they were easily recognisable. At the end of the block there was another massive hole in the wall and we were able to climb out of the building into the courtyard. We sent a message to Butch to join us and headed for the Laboratory block. I wanted to examine the machinery there in more detail.
Seeing the inside of the Laboratory in live detail was much more revealing than by remote camera. With the robot’s assistance we cleaned up and examined a number of the pieces of lab equipment which were provisionally identified as possibly being an Electron Microscope, a Gas Chromatograph and a soil chemical analyser. The workmanship was of a very high standard, constructed in light composite materials and beautifully finished. There was an artistry about them, with fine engravings and polished edges and surfaces which spoke of more than functionality but of pride in beauty for its own sake. This reinforced the overall impression I had gained from the accommodation block, where the furniture and fixtures and fittings, and decorations spoke of functionality graced by art. These people were highly sophisticated and enjoyed fine things around them. I wondered whether an equivalent Earth environment would have had such fine touches. I rather thought it would have been utilitarian and functional.
