Quirks and Charms

by Tom Schimmel

  When the family was settled and her husband was asleep, Pleida spent a few hours in her laboratory chatting online with other scientists around the planet. She was shocked to discover that the same problems were being observed around parts of Ishtar Terra as well. The magnetic poles appeared to be undergoing a shift. It was happening very fast and had not been noticed until recently by the scientific community at large. The result would melt the polar ice caps on both Ishtar and Aphrodite. The ocean would rise and warm. Observational data was now streaming in at record pace. Now, when his parents spoke, Epelimus could hear the concern in his parents’ voices. His sisters withdrew while his brother turned feisty and outspoken. They would allow him to remain at the table and he would listen without comment. They debated whether the ice under the ocean could turn to gas so quickly. The boy mostly detected frustration and worry in their voices. Venusians were peaceful and responsible people. Their civilization knew nothing of cynicism and sarcasm and other grueling devices the mind uses to deal with bad luck. Their general disposition would appear on Earth to be somewhat serious and potentially boring. The peoples of Venus lived as one with their planet. Never had they chosen to monitor the system of their world. The weather was calm and the sun was warm. What else did they need to know?

  Venus had produced magnificent technologies. Magnetic transportation was personal, noiseless, and without pollution. The environment was pristine. Though their co-habitation with nature, they had lived peacefully for centuries. Remarkably, this very time of plenty would prove fatal to most everyone on the planet. Simple lack of change or incident in so long had led them into a blissful ignorance. Prosperity was now due to turn around and head the other way.

  Humans on modern Earth are better adapted to the flux and flow. While many would be more than happy to have a go at life on ancient Venus, it should be remembered that the planets themselves are part of a larger flux and flow. The cycle which itself is in some way the universe itself; and in some way – by that same definition – could be called God. Either way, the axis shift was quick – not more than a few months passed when the new alignment had been achieved and the planet began to boil. Fortunately for Epelimus and his family, Pleida had enough influence in the scientific community to gain them passage on one of the few spacecraft available on Ishtar Terra. The evacuation plan was sparse, simple, and uncontested. Few Venusians were able to comprehend the implications of global warming. They were so synchronized with the turtle’s pace of nature that they could not really grasp this radical change. The histories of families for generations – passed along through their oral tradition - simply did not contain any information on global cataclysmic events. And the people had little information available about what lay under the ocean depths, except about what was good to eat and useful for health and shelter.

  In the end, Pleida and her colleagues had no clear idea what was the true physical situation on Venus. The family’s decision to evacuate Ishtar Terra aboard a spacecraft was based on the warnings from dolphins in the oceans. Some friends of Pleida had received reports from whales and dolphins that there was a grave instability in the deep ocean that threatened everyone and everything alive. Venusians had communicated with sea mammals for centuries. Pleida herself had helped communicate genetic science to the ocean dwellers in return for information on where sustainable fisheries might be established. This entire concept would seem somewhat ridiculous to the modern Earth dweller. It was perfectly normal on ancient Venus however, to talk about talking with the creatures of the sea. According to the dolphins, a large amount of undersea ice was beginning to shake and crack from the rapidly rising water temperatures. The ice was known by the whales and dolphins to be of a different composition than the water which surrounded it. Areas far below the surface were already turning volatile even for their best swimmers.

  Epelimus was in tears as his family boarded the spacecraft. He caught a glimpse of his father’s glassy eyes and watched the man choke back a sob. His sisters remained mostly silent. Only his brother protested. He did not want to believe the dolphins’ story. He begged to remain on Venus, finally throwing such a tantrum that Epelimus’ father was forced to carry the kicking and screaming adolescent up the gangway. Epelimus had thought it was perhaps best to leave his brother; but Pleida scolded him severely when he whispered these thoughts in her ear. As it would turn out, their family and a few hundred others would be the only ones to survive.

  Modern Venus is observable from Earth. Almost fifty years have passed since the first Soviet exploratory spacecraft touched down and recorded surface temperature readings in excess of six hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Two later Soviet probes were literally crushed by the atmospheric pressure. If the solar system is God’s kitchen, Venus is certainly the pressure cooker. Hundred of millions of years prior to American and Soviet space programs - as Epelimus and his family took to the heavens in search of a new home - the ocean temperatures passed their critical level. The vast undersea mountains of methane hydrate which had maintained the stability of the Venusians atmosphere for eons was no longer able to remain solid and inert. Frozen methane hydrate does not melt. When rising temperature threatens the existence of its solid form, methane hydrate prefers to skip the messy liquid stage. The gaseous state of the stuff has 1000 times the volume of the undersea ice. Like Pop Rocks, only bigger.

  The oceans boiled and the methane gas moved past the water’s surface and into the atmosphere. The expansion was of such magnitude that all of Venus was green housed beyond repair within three days. Immediately the steamy atmosphere was warmed by the sun, with no hope of shedding the heat. Everything that did not escape in a spaceship was pressure cooked into oblivion. Modern Venus as the Soviet and American missions have observed is hot, heavy, and inhospitable to probably anything except anaerobic bacteria. The key word is probably. Somewhere, perhaps in a cave deep below the surface, a clump of phosphorescent blue moss still chooses to blink.

  .

  CHAPTER THREE

  A Long Time Ago in another nearby Place

  Venusians interplanetary travel had occurred only twice before in the known history of the planet. Both journeys had successfully returned both the ships and the explorers they contained. The tales were true, they had confirmed. The green planet was profuse with tall narrow evergreens and cold, pure water. Mountains rose and fell into smooth flats where the sea came to greet the land. They had seen little mammalian life, and no large beast or reptile of any kind had been observed. Mars had plenty of oxygen in the land and water. There were places of dense plants and moss. The level of gravity was also lighter. Epelimus and his siblings were immediately fascinated by being how far they could now leap and jump. The landing sites on the green planet had been marked by the first Venusians to visit Mars. There were no difficulties in the approach. The spacecraft were propelled and protected by numerous quantum magnetic fields which deflected particles and allowed for a soft landing even in this thin, cool air. The rich iron content of the water rapidly enriched their corpuscle supply. Within a week of their arrival, no one shivered anymore. Everywhere the water was fresh and clean and it bore them no ill effects. Epelimus and his brother spent much of their time with their father, exploring the land and learning what was good to eat.

  Adafon had been gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell. His nose was the nose of their new colony. He sniffed and sniffed until every distinction was made between plants of benefit, and those of harm. Moss was generally left to be where it was found; and a certain tree provided leaves for tea which all of the adult colonists agreed was a lot of fun.

  The climate was cold. The frozen water hung on the mountains. Pine cones littered the forest floor. Mars was as hospitable to life as there home planet had been. A community now of only a few hundred men, women, and children; they were indeed lucky.

  Mostly, this population consisted of friends and families. There were a few of the other men who maintained a similar temperament to Adafon. They quarreled now and the
n over this and that; but they resolved their differences quickly. It was easy to do in such a new place. The necessity of reestablishing their home was merciful labor. It provided them all with countless tasks to occupy their minds. Only during the Martian nights, after the sun had set, would they gather around a fire and sing of their lost home.

  What had been a ritual for their ancestors in prosperous times now had evolved into respectful wonderment. They had been spared a great catastrophe; and for the first time in any of their lives, began to contemplate the circumstances and events which had delivered them, not to death, but to a new life in a new place.

  As the colony’s basic needs were met, the times around the fire began to linger. It may have been here on Mars, among the few who were chosen, when the concept of religion was born. Adults and children alike, it was the first time any of them had pondered their fate to exist. While their voices joined in the clear Martian air, Venus glowed faintly white in the distance. Thick cloud had replaced the rich blue which Epelimus had seen from the spacecraft.

  Even at his young age, the boy observed a somber quality in the tone of his mother’s and father’s voices when they sang. Then he began to hear it in his own voice as well. The group as a single voice was weighted by entire lifetimes gone in the blink of an eye and an eruption of the ocean. Mars was their new home. They would never return to Venus. They had been spared from death. Although there was a set of circumstances to explain their survival, there was also deep and somber wonderment. It was a simple thought, which they all experienced from time to time. Why me?

  Relative to the eons, any time is small. Human context is but a twang of light in an impossibly quiet fabric. The time of humans on the green planet of Mars is known only to have been a lot shorter than the civilization of Venus. Time is suspect over large areas of space. Modern Earth has no true knowledge of how fast time was going then. Guesswork is performed in methodical fashion by very intelligent, hardworking people; but there are only clues about the past. Theories may abound that Epelimus lived five hundred years on Mars while building a great kingdom. The water perhaps, gave them extended life. But there is no way to really know either the relativity or the concise period of human life on Mars. It was enough time for Epelimus to grow up, learn the works of both parents, and other scientists in the colony; and even find a wife and sire a child, named Priapus. During this time, however long or short it was, there were many triumphs and hardships. Hardships were laughed at while triumphs were celebrated. These were bold changes in the Venusian temperament. And while their animated selves emerged, so grew their collective desire for excellence. Pleida and Adafon delighted in working with their children to grow an immense variety of new vegetation. Venusians genetics was quite happy in the mix with Martian species.

  Adafon was quickly established as the leader of the exploring groups. He regularly returned from a trek to delight his wife with a bottle of anhydrobiotic crustaceans. Pleida would shriek with happiness, plant a kiss on his face, and scurry off to the lab to reanimate, study, and rearrange. Epelimus had spent his adolescence exploring with his father until Pleida’s genetic wonders stirred his excitement the possibilities of new life. Unlike their hastily gathered records on their doomed home planet, Pleida had begun recording ocean temperatures, solar radiation, and soil magnitude. Others in the colony observed winds, precipitation, and the temperatures between day and night. Season changes came and went and were observed with more than a poem. They had been naïve once, but no more. Epelimus grew to excel at genetic engineering. He was revered even as a young man for his ability to imagine possibilities for splicing this gene onto that one. Instinctual and masterful, Epelimus created this new plant and that new animal. Many of the new woodland dwelling mammals were recognizable to the colonists. Epelimus had brought some of Venus onto Mars. Having some old friends around was a good thing in this big, lonely place. Over time there were birds, and with their avian skills helped Adafon procure the evidence he had long postulated about. Returning from the ocean with shells of mollusks and dried pieces of trilobite, Adadfon finally had proof that the salted waters of Mars were not empty. It was not long until the prodigious Epelimus was able to adapt the genetic structure of the beloved Venus dolphin to freshwater survival. The dolphins explored the river ways, charting landmarks, and feasting on many varieties of small jellyfish, crustaceans, and the occasional amphibious tadpole. The exploration led to a bountiful food source known as Wagga to the colonists. It had the sweet pink skin of a snapper with the voracious reproductive ability of the tilapia. The fish could be gutted, rinsed, and roasted whole over a steady fire. Under the charred skin, the white flesh was moist and mild. The dolphins were delighted to help keep the populations in check. The new fish had been named by a toddler, brought to visit Epelimus in his lab. She had pointed immediately at the tank and bluntly stated her opinion.

  “Wagga.” the little girl had said. “Fishies name is Wagga.”

  The name stuck like hot glue and the adults had laughed till they cried. The creation and proliferation of Wagga and the dolphins had brought them all hope and comfort. Life was less lonely with a few birds in the air and a few dolphins in the stream. And while the addition of fresh fish to their diet was a supreme improvement on nutrition capsules, there were still a large number of unforeseen problems. This is of course, the downside to exploration and early colonization. Things happen.

  Predators were discovered at a minimum. Some wildcats lurked in the mountains and equine hoof prints tended to congregate in those areas. But Mars was very large, and the colonists would have to depend on their offspring to find out, over time, more of what lay hidden. Some of what lay hidden was giant sandworms. The peoples from Venus were forced to adapt their peaceful technologies into defensive weaponry to scan and stun these thick skinned eyeless terrors. The first attack had claimed the lives of an entire family. The colony had gathered and laid out their countermeasures. Magnetic technology which powered the transports was adapted to scan the surface below and around their outpost. Should a voracious sand worm breach the safe area, it would be met with an electromagnetic pulse which would promptly end its sandworm life. Pulsators were marked with signposts around the camp. The assaults soon ceased.

  When the colony left Venus forever, they were essentially fleeing in blindness. There had been very little time to plan for the necessities of survival; and no time at all to consider long-term needs. And they had done very well in adapting to Mars and providing solutions for needs as they arose. All things considered, life on green Mars was better than any of them could have hoped. Loss of life from accidents and early sandworm attacks had been well compensated with broods of beautiful children, who grew very tall in the light gravity. Adults found that old age would still lead to death, but that it took awhile longer now thanks to the rich mineral content of the water. Their naiveté had dissipated almost entirely. Each of them knew birth, death, sex, and how something can be right one moment, and then not the next.

  Still, you can’t plan for everything. They had quickly covered their settlement with monitors to insure that Mars was a healthy planet which would not surprise them suddenly with things like death. Even the large volcano which was always in the horizon had been assessed for tectonic activity. Olympus Mons had blown its stack long before they got there. It would not create their demise. While all of these things were going on inside the Martian atmosphere, things were going on outside of it as well. The colony had not learned yet that the heavens themselves can be a danger. Far into the future, on planet Earth, some humans would speculate that Mars had been a thriving civilization whose nuclear capability in time of war had blasted every living thing clean off the planet. The red soil, constant large boulders, and frozen sky would truly support this hypothesis. Water had been there once; but now it was either deep below the surface or frozen to mountainsides. Presumably, most of the water had been sucked into outer space with the rest of the atmosphere. Still, modern Earth was just now beginning
to remotely land automated spaceships. It would be awhile before they had enough fossils and relics to fill in more details. Mars was a very long way to travel without the aid of landing markers and quantum magnetic hyper drives.

  Interesting mythology on Earth claims that Mars was decimated by accident. Zeus and his father Cronus had been playing their version of catch. Father and son were fond of heaving rocks back and forth between Jupiter and Saturn. When Zeus overthrew the very large target of Jupiter with one of his very large boulders, the result was red Mars. Farewell to thee oh atmosphere of Mars. It is unwritten but highly likely that Cronus then threw back his head and laughed, bellowing something like “That’s my boy!”