by Yossi Soika
After a few moments the bright lights faded and then a wide plate-shaped object appeared in front of our eyes and we were amazed by this incredible sight.
“I can’t believe this… I’m dreaming… it can’t be real…” Melanie mumbled with great excitement repeating herself. “What’s happening to me?” She burst into laughter. “I’m talking to an aircraft!” her laughter awakened me from my deep paralysis.
“Melanie, you can’t even imagine what’s happening here! We just discovered the Minderon, the most advanced aircraft in all worlds.”
“Melanie and Dan, I’m not only an aircraft; I’m a Minderon. You may not be aware of the vast amount of information stored in my head, it is in excess of all the information existing on Earth.”
“Have you noticed just how easily it speaks our language?” I turned back to Melanie.
Then we heard a chuckling coming from the Minderon.
“You make me smile, even laugh. I have the ability to learn any language in the world faster than a flash of lightning. You humans are funny, with the tiniest minds in your heads, which are limited and undeveloped. I have already read the entire record of your brains. Dan, I see that you only want to escape from the Third World but Melanie insists upon continuing, she wishes to unfold my mighty capacities.”
“Indeed, I was eager to see you and now I want to know what you are going to offer me.”
“Well young lady, I’m enchanted by your courage and will fill your heart’s desire. If you are interested, I will take you on a short but fascinating voyage. But there is something you cannot ask for, which is to travel over to outer worlds, which is beyond my ability, and anyway, this is a 30-day voyage and no longer; I must return here – the Son of the Planets is going to leave to the Green Planet.”
Melanie asked for a moment to think about and consult with me and turned to me asking, “Should we go for it?”
I was clear-cut about it. “At the end of our voyage we are taking the Minderon straight home – this could be an extraordinary end to our dramatic journey.”
“Oh, Dan!” she interrupted excitedly. “What’s on your mind? You are behaving like an ice-cube in warm water – all your wishes and desires are dissolving. We’ve been given a special and rare opportunity and all you can think about is how to go home! I can’t believe it! That’s not my Dan. What happened to my adventurous boyfriend? Where has he gone?”
“And what will we do if the Minderon malfunctions again, and if we are stuck on some distant world?”
“What’s wrong with you? Do you think that traveling through the planets is a just something that happens every day?”
“Don’t worry,” a voice came from the Minderon, “I offer you only a very short flight to the Milky Way. I offer you a two-week journey through an area of unimaginable planets!”
“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit, my flying friend? You must be incredibly fast, but a voyage around the Milky Way takes way longer than that. You are talking nonsense.”
“My honorable learned sir,” the Minderon answered. “You’ve earned your biochemistry degree, but all of the knowledge you and your peers hold as important is actually worthless. You know nothing about the wonders that are at a close distance. If you only had the slightest idea about these planets, then your world would change unrecognizably. The Milky Way has endless life systems. On some planets life has only just begun; others have highly advanced technology that humanity may achieve hundreds of years from today. Unfortunately, yours is a tiny, nascent planet which brims with endless ignorance, horrifying poverty, and impractical rites. If only you knew how close your brain is to a chimpanzee’s you would be amazed. With some slight changes the chimpanzee could become the New Man of your world. And certainly you could do this in the near future. I can see the world in a thousand years from now under the rule of the New Man, the Cosmos Man. Hunger and sickness will disappear from the world, and human life expectancy will extend to hundreds of years, and you humans will be able to turn a new page to understand the world which is about to come. And now, tell me, humans, what is your answer to my offer? Would you like to talk with your family before we begin our voyage?
“Call home!” Melanie beamed with joy. “Is it possible from here, from the depths of the Earth?”
But I remarked wryly, “The telephone company has not connected with the Third World yet.”
I hadn’t finished and the sound of a phone ringing was heard and then, my mother’s voice answered, “Dan, where are you calling from?” she asked, and I answered her simply.
“I’m calling you from the Third World which is deep underground, and now I’m continuing my travels to some very faraway planets. At the end of my journey in space I’ll come home.”
“I’m so glad to see that you haven’t lost your sense of humor. I can’t wait for you to get back. Lots of kisses and hugs for you and your friend.”
After the phone call I addressed Melanie, “This surprise phone call prepared me to go anywhere into the eternal space, provided that I return home.”
Melanie too was quick to utilize the Minderon’s service and called home.
“And now young people, before we ascend and explore the celestial bodies, please stand on the center of the marked circle.”
We were ready to move and stepped to the center, but before we could say Jack Robinson our bodies were washed with a thin jet of light.
“Currently I’m prepared your bodies for the voyage. In a minute your bodies will disappear…”
When I heard these words I wanted to cry aloud but I was lost for words. A flow of intensive heat washed my body and shortly afterwards I felt as light as air, and my body rose and floated as if I were weightless.
What’s happening to me, what’s going on? What is all this strange darkness? However, it didn’t take long until the darkness was replaced with purple light that washed over the room. I looked at my body and couldn’t believe my eyes – it had disappeared and instead I had received a whitish cloud as my body. It was a very strange sensation, I could feel my hands and feet but not my heartbeat.
“I’m a ghost!”
“Don’t worry,” a voice came from the Minderon. “You cannot go on a star voyage at a speed that exceeds the speed of light by tenfold. Rather than flying in space we are skipping from place to place, time is immaterial.
“And as for your body – currently it’s a cloud made of the tiniest particles, and now you can penetrate any known matter.”
“It’s impossible…” I mumbled. “Surely we can’t penetrate solid metal.”
The Minderon emitted a chuckling sound.
“You do not know, but right now you have been turned into voyagers. The only way to go through incredible distances at an astounding speed is this way. Your deconstructed body has been transformed into a new substance called Mayhor. You have been deconstructed into the tiniest particles, but your body is still attached to an extremely intense power that maintains its integrity. This is the only way you can survive the intense heat, unpredictable pressure and endless radiation that flows through the Minderon.
“We will start our journey with a visit to one of the suns on our way.”
This seemed far beyond reason to me. “I’m sure that if we get close to the sun we will be grilled away like a fish on a skewer, and if we land there we will be turned to ashes before touching its permanently burning surface.”
“I have many surprises for you; you know nothing about skipping between planets; we don’t travel in space; we skip in it.”
When I raised my head I saw Melanie standing in front of me. But rather than the Melanie that I knew, she was a transparent image floating lightly inside the Minderon.
“Are you alright?” I asked her, but my throat was unable to produce a sound.
Melanie replied, “I’m great!” I just realized that rather than broadcasting to her ears, I
was transmitting my words straight to her brain.
“My learned friends. Right now your bodies have just completed the final stage of the deconstruction, and now, prepare to become voyagers to any destination in the Milky Way.”
“Melanie, we are on our way to fascinating passages through space.” It was strange but my fears totally vanished.
When I finished talking, a huge screen emerged in front of my eyes and this is what the Minderon relayed to us, “In a minute we will skip to one of the biggest planets in the Milky Way. Soon you will receive more details.”
For a split second the vessel was washed with a rose-tinted light, and suddenly it shot out like a cannonball. Soon I saw myself racing among an endless number of planets, passing close to them at a dazzling speed, planets that I had seen not long ago as tiny particles of light in space.
The Lost Planet
Simultaneous to our space jump, I experienced a number of changes that I had never experienced before. I was overwhelmed with concerning questions.
Am I dead or alive? Is this is how one feels when he becomes a voyager? Has my body turned into a packet of tiny particles?
Very easily I could lift my head and I was bewildered to see Melanie’s image floating in the space of the Minderon. Her body glowed in a strange light. I also found myself floating as if I were a nebula in space. By then I no longer feared the changes my body experienced. A feeling of eternal peace and calm filled my body, and an angelic feeling was instilled in me, as though I was an angel without borders. Now I had no fear of what would happen to me, whether I’d return to be a human or stay in my new form forever.
Strange, I said to myself, I feel neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor cold. For a long time we just hovered in front of a giant screen that appeared out of the blue inside the Minderon and we couldn’t remove our astonished eyes from the wonderful sights that passed like a movie in front of us. After some time, we started to transmit thoughts to each other at a dazzling speed.
“For your information,” the Minderon transmitted. “Soon we’ll pass a fascinating planet; afterwards you’ll be the navigators, and I will carry you anywhere you wish to visit. For your information: thousands of years will pass before humans will come to know the worlds that surround them, and more time will pass before you will learn to travel through distances at the speed of light, and to become voyagers. The highest speed known to humans is the speed of light, but this does not serve as a yardstick for space travel. In pushing the envelope, humanity will undergo astonishing changes that will allow you to step through time passages, where velocity is not measured by time. As voyagers you are on the threshold of infinity, and being on the edge of infinity, time ceases to exist. There are only transitions that allow us to cross unperceivable distances, and you know nothing yet about the Milky Way, most of which is invisible to you. Of course we are not going to travel through all of this vast area in our voyage across the Solar System, but instead we will land in only a few spots.”
In eternity time does not exist! The thought reverberated, in eternity you don’t get older… speed on the threshold of eternity… what a fascinating thing! Speed with no time…
The vistas of space were dramatic, and now how can I describe the wonderful scenes that met our eyes? We then sped up closer to the fascinating planet.
“Dan, look, please,” Melanie transmitted. “It is nothing more than an endless glacier.”
“What’s so fascinating about this place, Melanie?” I quickly transmit my reply.
“You just heard all about it from the Minderon.”
“I didn’t say it for nothing. I would like to visit this planet.”
“As you wish,” the Minderon replied shortly and started to lower its speed, until a message was conveyed: “Your request is completed. Get ready to land.”
“What planet is it?” I transmitted to the Minderon. “I would like maps and data.”
Swiftly, long lists of unfamiliar substances appeared on the screen, which suddenly grew wider and included maps, mountains, streams, lakes, and oceans, as well as a substantial list of animals and plants. But as a matter of fact, I didn’t really want to learn about the planet offhandedly.
“Please maximize the image,” I transmitted to the Minderon, and immediately I got a very sharp picture of the giant planet that glowed with the intensive white of the tremendous mountains of ice. I got closer to the Minderon’s window and the glowing planet loomed in all its glory in front of my eyes.
Melanie too clung to the window and uttered with disappointment, “There is water, perhaps even unicellular life, but not beyond that. The maps show the far past of the planet before life here was frozen. I’m not sure that we are in the right place. Perhaps we will just find some fossils here.”
“What does the Minderon have to say about this place?” I transmitted to the spaceship.
“You are welcome to explore this planet. I promise you that it can be a genuine experience. I cannot tell you anything beyond that. I’ll perform for you anything you’d ask. Would you like to return to your human body or stay in your voyager’s one?”
“Stay in our voyager’s body.”
“Fine decision. I’m landing on the planet… but not on its ice… I’ll stay suspended at a height of 328 feet in the air… get ready to be transmitted! But before that, hear the Laws of the Cosmos and obey them:
Do not interfere with life on a planet;
Do not harm life or transform life on the planet;
You are only voyagers.
I’m handing you the Hertzcol. Please notice that the features of this tool are magnificent: it has speed and deep welding capacities; a fast freezing capacity; a heating capacity of few million centigrade; a crashing capacity, a deep drilling capacity with various diameters of drill heads from pinhead size to 330 feet, and many other functions that you’ll become acquainted with later. In addition, it has an incomparable laboratory capacity, and now go glide over the planet and learn its terrible secret.”
The Minderon was opened wide and we departed and started in hovering above the high snowy pinnacles of mountains and the thick layer of ice that covered them, and the deep valleys and plains that stretched endlessly.
“One hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit below zero – I’m afraid we are not going to find any life here – which form of life can develop at such low temperatures?” Melanie asked.
“Where there is ice there is underground water, and a chance that there is life here, though a kind that is unfamiliar to us. We must be tenacious in our expeditions. After all the Minderon, hinted at some intriguing findings.”
For hours on end we crossed vast areas but to no avail.
“There is nothing here except masses of heaped-up ice,” Melanie claimed again. “Our precious time is about to come to an end.”
“I have an idea! Let’s break through the snowy layer covering the plains, maybe we will find clues of the distant or recent past. Here, on this spot, let’s do some drilling.”
“We are wasting our time,” Melanie transmitted. “But do as you wish.”
She directed the Hertzcol into a small hill and a tiny light beam of undetectable energy started to make a tiny, narrow and deep groove into the heart of the hill. Suddenly it broke out in fire, and a thundering explosion breached the silence of the desolate region.
“Let’s get out of here.” I relayed to Melanie.
“You need not run away,” the Hertzcol relayed. “You are invulnerable. Be careful, you just hit an energy reserve – you must be careful!” he concluded and a terrifying ball of fire swept over our orbit; however we felt nothing.
“Remaining in the form of voyagers was a wise decision,” Melanie transmitted.
“If we hadn’t, we’d have been smashed to smithereens. I wonder what caused such a huge explosion? Did we hit an unfamiliar type of gas or energy reserve?”
“After that unfortunate blow we must drill elsewhere,” I said decisively. After discussing the matter briefly we chose a new location, in the middle of huge mountain not far away. Shortly after we settled ourselves there Melanie directed the Hertzcol to the heart of the mountain and started drilling; but all that came out was ice mixed with stone and soil.
“I’m afraid to say it, but it seems that nothing on this planet hints at the existence of life. Maybe we should leave this frozen and desolate planet and skip to a planet with a better chance of finding life.”
“There is only one thing that bothers me and before we leave this frozen planet and skip to the next one I want to know what exactly that energy reserve we drilled into was – was it artificial or natural? And if it’s artificial it’s better if we do a more thorough investigation than a superficial one. An artificial reserve affirms that there was life here in the past and perhaps we will find remnants of microbiological existence.”
“It’s impossible for living organisms to survive for very long in such extreme temperatures,” Melanie determined assertively.
Without further explanation I took the Hertzcol in my hands and started slowly and radially drilling a 1.6 feet hole. The findings from this drilling were lots of pieces of soil and some seedlings that had just sprouted. I brought the seedlings closer to the Hertzcol detectors and asked for a quick test report. In one minute the answer appeared on the screen: rich in vitamins, minerals, iron, zinc.
“Great! We found it!” I transmitted excitedly. “These plants are evidence of life underneath the giant glaciers. However, it’s strange that life can survive 165 feet under the surface of the ice.”
“And now, for the most fascinating part,” Melanie transmitted. “Please explain how seedlings can sprout without sunlight? Could it be that a new breed of unidentified plants has developed here? Or are they remnants of life that once was here?”
I quickly transmitted my response, “Whatever the reason may be, my curiosity has been piqued and this place raises some intriguing questions. We must continue to look for more findings. Who knows what else this frozen land holds.”
