by T I WADE
There were still two small people trying to climb out, too weak to get themselves out of the cabinets, and VIN and Fritz each lifted one and carried him directly to Dr. Nancy.
They returned and found a larger crewmember in one of the half opened cabinets. VIN looked into the helmet’s visor and saw a very dead and decayed face. This semi-open cabinet hadn’t worked as well as the rest, even though its handle blinked green and then blue. Then he grabbed the handle to the nearest of the three still closed cabinets with red handles and pulled. It opened easily showing a body in much the same condition as the last person. Roo came in to join them and, seeing two members of his tribe dead, began a long moaning whine.
VIN grabbed the next red handle and the suit holding a short two-foot tall body looked the same. So did the small body in the third and last red-handled cabinet.
As VIN had opened the third red-handled door, the vibrations and rumbling began under his feet again, and halted Roo’s horrible noise.
“What’s wrong?” asked Dr. Nancy coming in to see what the noise was about.
“So far four didn’t make it. Their sleep system isn’t perfect, but the others in here still have a chance, and the vibrations we are feeling have started their twelve-hour defrosting cycles,” VIN replied.
“Looks like we still have 12 people to go,” Fritz added.
Nancy returned to tend her patients. She had her helmet screwed back on to ask SB-II,I still outside, to send in more bags of supplies, and that Suzi and Nurse Rogers would be needed to help tend the possible 20 patients.
Maggie flew the second shuttle in as SB-III transported two of the weaker patients and Dr. Rogers to America One; they needed intensive care but were stable and Jonesy got them back to America One as fast as he could. The two patients were the ones VIN and Fritz carried out and they were in pretty bad condition.
As Maggie landed, the cabinets to the second group began to pop open. VIN was amazed by the technology that secured these cabinets. They popped open like corks out of a champagne bottle.
The occupants of these cabinets were primarily small, more children than adults; eight were less than three feet tall. The last one, an adult, was still. VIN and Roo looked through the visor and Roo began to howl again, an expression of mourning that sounded more like a wolf than a human. He tried to console Roo, who took the deaths of his people very hard. His mother and Commander Joot were too busy tending to the living to come into the room.
It was over. Five didn’t survive, but 19 did. VIN was skeptical about the prospects of cryonic sleep, the odds to survive it did not seem very good. According to the two old guards, this group had only been asleep for 180 years. Roo, Tow and Commander Joot were really lucky to have survived centuries of sleep.
Forty-eight hours later, all 19 of the surviving tribe members were in the hospital on America One. They had all been stabilized in the cavern, then carefully carried up through the shaft to the shield and put aboard the shuttles. With the atmosphere already in the shield, nobody needed spacesuits. Ryan finally allowed all of his crew to remove their suits after VIN checked the whole base and did not find a single weapon.
Igor and Boris went down on a shuttle to take a tour of the base power system with Commander Joot. After they were shown the system in detail, with Roo doing his best to translate the scientific data from Matt to English, the two specialists were to report back to Ryan.
Boris and Igor left the moon 36 hours later in SB-III with the forward cargo bay crew cabin occupied by Commander Joot, Tow, Roo, the two old men, VIN and Fritz; no one was left on the moon. The rear cargo hold was filled with canisters of badly needed pure water.
The two old men marveled at the size of the “Tall People’s” (as they now called the white people) space ship. Michael Pitt and his son’s darker complexions provoked hours of discussion, clicking away in rapid Matt.
By now everybody was friends; even VIN, head of security, seemed relaxed around this always happy group of people. They did suffer several hours of anguish at seeing their deceased members, until VIN and Fritz took the bodies into one of the dormitories, closed the door, and Commander Joot showed them how to turn off the heat in the room.
“Cold fusion” was the topic of discussion at the next meeting for the astronauts and security on the Bridge.
Ryan asked Igor and Boris, two of the most experienced crewmembers in the field of energy, to give the crew a short description of what the bases used as a power source.
“Boris, your short report on the power system you two discovered inside their main power room and the energy source, please.”
“Thank you, Ryan. Mr. Jones, before you fall asleep and for the rest of you, I will keep my simple report down to one, maybe two minutes only. That should keep our chief astronaut from rolling his eyes. Cold fusion on Earth was a hypothetical type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature, compared with temperatures in the thousands of degrees for fission, or the millions of degrees that are produced through “hot” fusion. Before we left, and even before Ryan set up the airfield in Nevada in 2011, two scientists from the University of Bologna, claimed to have successfully demonstrated commercially viable cold fusion in a device called an Energy Catalyzer, or exactly what we saw powering the alien base on Enceladus. Other inventors and start-up companies made claims of inventing similar machines in 2012, however commercial devices never made it out of the labs. The Energy Catalyzer invented in Italy, also called an E-Cat, was a purported cold fusion or low energy nuclear reaction heat source, and was supposed to work by infusing heated hydrogen into nickel, both common elements, transmuting it into copper and producing heat. According to NASA, in a paper produced a year or two before we left, one percent of the world’s nickel production could meet the world’s energy needs, at a quarter of the cost of coal. NASA also mentioned in a paper released a year before we left, the lattice could be formed of carbon instead of nickel, with the nuclear reaction turning carbon into nitrogen.
“Cold fusion gained attention after reports in 1989 by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman, then two of the world's leading electrochemists, that their apparatus had produced excess heat of a magnitude that would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear reactions. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium with, on, or next to the surface of a palladium electrode. The reason I mention palladium, is that it is one of the most important metals needed on Earth, and I believe that in the storerooms of the alien base on Enceladus, we have just found 10 tons of the rare metal. I will now let my partner in crime, Igor, elaborate.”
“Spasibo, Comrade Boris,” smiled Igor bowing.
“Damn Russian,” Jonesy joked, always ready to add his two cents worth to the conversation.
“Spasibo to you too, Mr. Jones,” smiled Boris. Along with VIN and Fritz, he was one of Jonesy’s best friends. “Americans never cease to amaze me. Anyway NASA was developing cheap, clean, low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology that could eventually see cars, planes, and homes powered by small, safe nuclear reactors. When we think of nuclear power, as we have with our reactor and nuclear batteries aboard ship, there are usually just two options: fission and hot fusion. Fission is what we are using right now. Plutonium-238 creates huge amounts of heat by splitting larger atoms into smaller atoms, and is what currently powers every nuclear reactor on Earth. Hot fusion is the opposite, creating vast amounts of energy by fusing atoms of hydrogen together. When we left Earth a decade ago, NASA and most of the “cold” fusion scientists working on separate projects around the world were many years away from large-scale, commercial fusion reactors. Cold fusion is entirely different. The simpler name for cold fusion is “Low Energy Nuclear Reaction”, or LENR for short, as my colleague and fellow Russian, Professor Boris, so eloquently described. Cold fusion is absolutely nothing like either fission or hot fusion. Where fission and hot fusion are underpinned by strong nuclear force, LENR harnesses power f
rom a weak nuclear force. Before we left Earth, NASA’s best effort involved a nickel lattice and hydrogen ions. Let me explain; the hydrogen ions are sucked into the nickel lattice, and then the lattice is oscillated at a very high frequency. This rapid high speed oscillation excites the nickel’s electrons, which are forced into the hydrogen ions or protons, forming slow-moving neutrons. The nickel immediately absorbs these neutrons, making it unstable. To regain its stability, the nickel strips a neutron of its electron so that it becomes a proton — a reaction that turns the nickel into copper and creates a lot of energy in the process, as much energy as fission or hot fusion if made to the same scale.
“To power a small-scale base like we saw on Enceladus, cold fusion is perfect for long-term guaranteed power that can be turned on or off at will. Before we left Earth, scientists were actually working on small cold fusion plants in independent laboratories. The reason for a higher content of helium gas on the base down there is that helium is one of the major by-products when deuterium is used. Deuterium is found in two of the three energy reactions Boris and I have just mentioned, hot and cold fusion, and the reason I already knew that a working cold fusion plant could be the source of their power. Now that we have a cold fusion system made by Roo and his tribe, we can begin to rid ourselves of the more dangerous fission systems we use, i.e., plutonium-238 in a nuclear reactor, and replace it with a much safer cold fusion system by the time we find a new home to use it.”
“Thank you, gentlemen,” continued Ryan. “Now, Frau Von Zimmer, Frau Bloem, and their team have a report on the stores available on the base down there. Commander Joot has asked me to take all of their people, as well as the spaceship they might have, and help them start over inside their base on Mars. I believe that it is a fantastic opportunity for our two tribes to begin to work and live together, and therefore we can empty their storage rooms of everything to take back with us. Commander Joot told me, through Roo of course, that we can have all of their supplies. I believe that their supplies will give us prime bargaining power down on Earth when we return. Mr. Warner said it is going to take us about 28 flights over several months to move all their stores to American One. When the transfer is completed we will be as full as when we left Earth five years ago. Ladies, your report please.”
“We do not have exact figures yet, but I was told by their crew through Tow that they have been collecting supplies for over 2,000 years, about the time they arrived here from Titan. Dr. Nancy will report on how they survived for so long, after I give you their stores report. That in itself is worth listening to. My report: osmium, 9 tons; samarium, just short of 2 tons; lithium, 12 tons; palladium, 10 tons; iridium, 6 tons; ruthenium, 15 tons; rhodium, 15 tons; platinum, 18 tons; silicon, 10 tons; pure aluminum, 3 tons; titanium, 19 tons; cobalt, 8 tons; copper, 13 tons; nickel, 12 tons; and gold, 12 tons. There are also numerous diamonds, dozens of urns of liquid ammonia, 3,500 gallons of pure water, several tons of frozen vegetables and 30 tons of top soil that is suspect. I don’t yet know if we will need to take the topsoil if we are returning to Earth. To return to Mars, we need minimum 25,000 gallons of water, and to Earth 5,000 gallons more. Finally, the water spewing out from the moon’s South Pole area, is good water, and is as salty as our oceans on Earth. They collected 4,000 gallons of this excellent water over 1,900 years ago, before their spacecraft malfunctioned. We can remove the salt of course. End of my report.”
“Dr. Nancy, if you please,” invited Ryan, nodding thanks to Martha.
“Dr. Rogers, Nurse Rogers and I still have enough supplies to return us all, including the extra Matts to Earth and beyond. I just love them. The medical staff and I just wish we were fluent and able to communicate on a higher level with these people.”
“I think you will be able to,” interrupted Captain Pete. “Including a schedule of six months to collect the stores, and the four years it will take to return to Mars, you will have more than enough time to learn their language.”
“Captain Pete, I’m sure we are also going to need a few months on DX2017 when she flies by a couple of million miles farther out from Saturn in seven months or so,” stated Ryan. “It appears that our odyssey is only now half complete.”
“It seems so,” added the pretty doctor happily. “I‘m having far too much fun for it to end. As you know these Homo floresiensis stayed alive through the use of cryonic chambers. What I have learned is what they have now learned through death; the body can only survive the cryonic system once. Three of the dead people tried to sleep twice, and died; one of the cabinets malfunctioned. In addition, somebody had to stay alive to make sure that the system was activated before they went to sleep. Roo and Tow told me that their species can live as long as 220 to 240 years, so about every 400 years, a new group of younger Homo floresiensis entered the 24 chambers, under the guard of two of the youngest males. For another 200 years, they lay frozen; the others died. Only during the last couple of rotations, did the system start to malfunction.
“When the two guards feared that they were reaching the end of their lives the crew were awakened, gained strength, and went about farming and growing produce as well as collecting metals. Of course they never gave up hope that somebody would find Commander Joot, who would lead them to their new home. When their spaceship broke down, they stopped gathering metals. In some areas outside the shield the ice is pure and unsalted, which they are happy to show us. They had developed space suits like ours which were stored in the third cavern, but one of their new commanders died during one of the sleep periods before he passed along that information. For the last three or four sleep periods, they did not venture outside the shield. In the period before they had proper spacesuits to venture outside, using their machines, like our spiders, to do the outside work.
“They lived and bred for two generations before the youngest and most knowledgeable of the crew, about half of the tribe, went back to sleep with two new young men to guard over them. They have been doing this for nearly 3,000 years, until we woke them from their fifth hibernation. Thank you.”
Even Jonesy was wide awake for the doctor’s short report. The Bridge was absolutely filled with the astronauts, electrical scientists, the two doctors and the ship’s officers. Everybody was astonished at what these little brown guys had done to survive, and the second to last piece of the Homo floresiensis puzzle was in place. The last piece was still to be found back on Earth.
In-depth discussions took place after the reports, and everyone began to comprehend the reasons they had disappeared. The puzzle began with DX2017 and the crew. Roo and Tow didn’t understand why they went into hibernation, probably without guards. They could only conjecture that an emergency had occurred and Commander Put determined the best course of action was for everyone to go into hibernation, expecting that the crew on a moon or a planet would save them.
Commander Joot explained that the planets normally waited for the spaceship from DX2017 to supply them, not the other way around, as they never knew what orbit the small blue planet was taking. With the crew asleep on DX2017, nobody on Mars was supplied, so they went to sleep. The same with the other moons. Only Commander Joot on Titan survived the extended sleep and was awakened when Ryan and his crew found him. Now the crew on Enceladus was safe, and Commander Joot, the leader, wanted to return to Mars, a planet considerably closer to Earth and the sun.
The only remaining question was why no other ships were launched from Earth to DX2017, where they would have found their supply system and bases in disarray.
For the next several months, a system to transport water and then fuel to the mother ship was organized. As soon as the newbies were fit and cleared by the doctors, they all participated in loading the stores in the caverns into canisters and unloading the canisters in the mother ship. The chemists worked 24/7 in their cylinders producing hydrogen fuel to get the three mining craft continuously fueled up. Each flight took 72 hours to descend, load up and then return.
In total there were ten active older me
mbers of the Matts, the new name given to them by Jonesy. Ryan explained to his people that they would be called Tall People, a term often used by the two elders, and also Roo and Tow, when describing the crew aboard America One. The Matts tried to identify the Tall People by their color, but there was too much variation. Some, like Michael Pitt and his son, were darker than even they were, so they dismissed that idea.
Finally, Commander Joot allowed VIN and several others to visit the secret cavern and view their spaceship. Seeing a new type of space craft was sure to be a grand moment. Without suits, Ryan, Igor, Boris, Maggie, Suzi, Commander Joot, Roo, Tow, VIN, Mars and Saturn Fritz climbed into the crew compartment of SB-III for the descent. The new Matts did not know anything about the second base, half a mile from where they had lived for thousands of years. The corridor had been shut and forgotten centuries earlier.
Commander Joot opened the door to the five-foot high horizontal shaft, which would take them over half a mile to the forgotten area. The Tall People struggled, bent over, to travel the long distance down the tunnel; Jonesy complained that on Mars, a height of seven feet should be mandatory for future buildings. He was getting too old to skulk around like a damn mole.
With the area lit from the plant previously inspected, they finally reached a large cavern well over 30 feet high; a small, sleek, silver space craft about the size of a small commuter jet was still on its legs in the middle of the cavern. The Tall People regarded the beautiful sharp nosed rocket with awe.
“Prettier than the Gulfstream,” commented Maggie.
“Looks like VTOL,” added VIN.
“Vertical takeoff and landing,” added Jonesy for Mars and Saturn.
“About two tons of cargo, maximum,” stated Ryan.
“Roo, ask your commander how many gallons it needs to takeoff,” asked Jonesy.
