Table of Contents
FOREWORD
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
BOOK ONE
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
BOOK TWO
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
BOOK THREE
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
BOOK FOUR
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
BOOK FIVE
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
BOOK SIX
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
BOOK SEVEN
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
BOOK EIGHT
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
EPILOGUE
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
QUEST OF THE DICEPTERONS
Volume 1:
The Blue People of Cloud Planet
Brian Wolfenden
Copyright © Brian Wolfenden 2012
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
The moral right of Brian Wolfenden has been asserted.
The events and names in this story are entirely fictitious and bear no resemblance to persons either living or dead.
No part of this story may be reproduced or copied in any way and Copyright is owned by the Author....July 2009.
Dedication:
To Seren and Aiva.
I hope that in their lifetime they will learn of life at another star/planet.
Acknowledgements:
Firstly I must thank my family for turning my ‘technical study’ into a readable story and in particular my wife, Christine, for patiently pouring over the text to achieve a semblance of English grammar.
Secondly I am deeply indebted to my reviewers, John Pikoulis, Jean Harvey, Debbie Todd and Suzanne Rees for their invaluable critiques. Nearly all their suggestions and amendments were used in the book.
Thirdly I would like to thank and acknowledge NASA and STScl for use of pictures from the Hubble website.
Finally my publisher, John Anthony, who made this e-book happen.
FOREWORD
Our sun is one of over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe which was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
Life on Earth has existed for many hundreds of millions of years and in our humanoid form, for only the last 10,000.
It is the author’s belief that considering the vastness of space and the sheer numbers of stars, it is highly probable we are not alone and that parallel or very different life forms have evolved elsewhere. Within our solar system they will certainly be far more primitive than us but as we move out to the stars the chances of life comparable or more advanced increase.
Our nearest star is Proximo Centuari about 5 light years away and at 8.3 light years distant is Lalande 21185 in the constellation Ursa Major. This latter star has two confirmed planets in orbit which are gas giants like Jupiter. It is only a matter of time before we find a star in the Milky Way with an earth size planet orbiting at a distance where heat, light, water and oxygen are optimal for life to evolve, possibly similar to our own.
However, in other galaxies, where conditions could be very different from the Milky Way, who knows what kind of beings may have evolved and what level of intelligence they have achieved?
This story is about one fictitious star in our galaxy called Seren which is 10 light years from Earth. This star has an orbiting planetary system including an optimally positioned world called......
............ Cloud Planet ............
PROLOGUE
‘Let me introduce myself. My name is Zec and the incredible story I am about to unfold started well over 100 years before I was even conceived. I can assure you that I have meticulously examined Commander’s logs, collated transcripts, and studied video and audio recordings from several sources. I have used my extensive databases to cross reference and double check key happenings during the last two hundred years. These are structured carefully to produce an accurate picture of the events they portray. Further, I, and more importantly several members of my family were actually witnesses to some or all of the remarkable findings on Cloud Planet, 10 light years distant from Earth.
‘I am compiling this narrative in the year 2190 but my story spans over two centuries.’
Chapter 1
Cloud Planet, Constellation of Vercingetorix – 2135
The vastness of space is not always deserted and, where there was a constellation of stars, the ‘sky’ was illuminated by dozens of heavenly bodies in relatively close proximity. One star in this group, Seren, had its own planetary system, with huge giants similar to Jupiter and planets with ring structures like Saturn. From a distance these were lit up by their star and produced a majestic sight, with night and day clearly delineated on their surface.
A spinning satellite hurtled towards Seren on a trajectory between the star and one of its massive gas planets. Although travelling at high speed, it experienced the gravitational forces of both bodies and their combined and opposing vectors caused a significant deceleration. Now the star and the enormous planet competed to capture the tiny object but their forces were very closely balanced and its speed decreased dramatically until, imperceptibly, the gas giant won the battle and the craft started a slow descent.
Then, on the horizon, a smaller planet of dazzling blue with white caps at the poles and an unusual ring of thick cloud around the equator also contributed its pull on the object and yet another tug of war occurred. However, the satellite was quickly gathered by the gravitational field of this planet and it started a very slow descent into the thin atmosphere, surviving the heating process surprisingly intact.
Still some distance from the surface and in complete darkness, the craft entered the
deep cloud ring and a world of constant wind and rain, which did little to slow its downward momentum. Then it flew over the mountain tops and penetrated through layer after layer of thick, fleshy leaves and branches, quickly losing parts of its structure until only the body remained. This careered out of the dense forest and crashed to the ground in the centre of a peculiar crater.
The badly-deformed shell of the satellite gave one final lurch and settled. In its last gasp a small gold plaque detached itself and fell to the red surface, its pictorial side uppermost.
‘My research of the World Wide Web, as it was called in the 20th and 21st century, produced vast information on the Pioneer missions. In particular, the NASA website details numerous launches in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s but Pioneers’ 10 and 11 were of interest for two reasons. Firstly, both satellites were scheduled to leave our solar system after completing their primary objectives. Secondly, both spacecrafts had a gold plaque bolted to the main frame showing a picture of a man and woman and the relative position of our planet in the Milky Way galaxy.’
A short time later and equivalent to the period for this planet to rotate through one third of its equatorial circumference, the wreck was bathed in hot sunlight. Hundreds of pairs of piercing green and yellow eyes failed to take any notice of the twisted lump in their midst. Even more surprisingly, and for the next twenty revolutions of the planet, these beings with strangely-coloured eyes continued to ignore the intruder.
Meanwhile, their bizarre world cycled from intense sunshine to one of cold darkness. As the sun set, they disappeared underground only to rise again each day to the renewed warmth of their star.
These unusual forms changed in temperature and colour as they moved between regular-shaped pools of hot liquids. They drank, fed and cleared away fleshy leaves from the floor of their domain.
They mated.
Sadly, deaths outnumbered births.
These peculiar creatures utilised the largest leaves to wrap the cold life-less bodies which had not survived the hostile night. They were placed in an open drainage channel where the hot liquid shrank the fleshy covering. The mummified forms travelled down into a dark subterranean world where hungry predators eagerly awaited them.
Then, one Cloud Planet day later, amongst the hoard of unseeing green and yellow eyes, a pair of the most striking and brilliantly blue eyes swivelled to observe the weird mass at the centre of the structure. They blinked repeatedly as rays of golden sunshine reflected from the ground beside the strange object.
Chapter 2
Events in Space-Time
‘The launch of Pioneer 10 in 1972 from Cape Canaveral, Florida was watched by thousands of onlookers including a father and his six year old son, Jack. This was a pivotal moment in time for the Parker family which resulted in generations of space travellers.’
Cambridge University, England, 2003
Jack Parker’s head was literally buried in his books. It had to be as he was majoring in honours in both physics and mathematics and exams were a matter of weeks away. Even so, his ears pricked up as the BBC newsreader mentioned a report from NASA and he listened with fascination.
‘Pioneer 10 spacecraft sends last signal – after more than 30 years, it appears that the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer’s last, very weak signal was received on 23rd January 2003. NASA engineers report that Pioneer 10’s radioisotope power source has decayed and it may not have enough power to send further transmissions to Earth.’
The NASA spokesman continued with the history of Pioneer 10 but Jack’s mind drifted back to that day when he saw the launch with his father.
‘Was that really thirty years ago?’ he mused. He could recall the event as if it were yesterday. He remembered the excitement among the crowd, the flash of light and the noise which bombarded his ears as the rocket crawled into the early morning sky. From that moment he had wanted to travel into space, and he still did.
‘And now,’ continued the NASA spokesman, ‘Pioneer 10 is the most distant manmade object at over 16 billion kilometres from Earth. Pioneer 10 will now continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space into interstellar space heading generally for the red star Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull – a mere 68 light years away.’
Jack sat back and wondered what was in store for the little satellite but dismissed the thought as it was going to be a long, long time before anything significant happened.
Little did he know that it had just changed course and velocity. How could he have possibly imagined the consequences for future generations of the Parker family?
‘I have meticulously examined records to try to explain how Pioneer 10 headed in the direction of Cloud Planet. Interestingly, in 2000, NASA reported that the largest asteroid detected to date was on a near collision course with Earth and it was classed as high risk. Then, in 2003, a minute change in its trajectory away from Earth was observed which downgraded the risk to negligible. No reason was recorded for this occurrence.
‘I used advanced algorithms, not available to mathematicians at the start of the 21st century, and conclude with 99% certainty that Pioneer 10 and this huge asteroid were on a head-on collision course. My complex modelling shows that the satellite would have experienced a phenomenal gravitational sling-shot changing its trajectory by 90 degrees. The model predicts a huge increase in velocity and a destination in the constellation of Vercingetorix 132 years later.’
Solar Flare - 2125
In this year, the sun spewed out one of the most powerful solar flares in its history. Billions of tonnes of incandescent hydrogen were blasted millions of kilometres from its surface and intense radiation spread at the speed of light through outer space.
Communication systems around planet Earth were badly disrupted but quickly restored after computers reset themselves and continued transmitting as before. Anxious technicians sat at their consoles awaiting messages from distant probes and various spacecraft on journeys to far corners of our solar system.
One by one, each returned a transmission showing that all was functioning satisfactorily.
Only one mission failed to return a signal.
Communications with StarGazer-1 were terminated!
The lone astronaut aboard that spacecraft was sleeping.
In fact, he had been in a deep sleep for nearly five years and would have continued in that state for a further four months had it not been for the severe bombardment of radiation that streamed over his craft.
He knew nothing of this, however, because his whole body was at five degrees Celsius and encased in a strange cocoon within StarGazer-1.
The force field around his spacecraft had deflected nearly all the electromagnetic waves. However, one array of solar cells was burned out by the sheer intensity of the blast and curled over the end of the communications antennae. The damage to this solar panel caused a momentary breach in the spacecraft’s defences. Radiation swept through some of the onboard computers and through a microchip controlling a most vital function.
The radio waves passed over a group of transistors etched in the silicon surface and altered their settings. Some that were ‘off’ were turned ‘on’ and others that were ‘on’ were switched ‘off’. Thus ‘zeros’ changed to ‘ones’ and ‘ones’ became ‘zero’. In the binary system, the numeric value represented by one particular group of transistors was changed from five to fifty. Critically, other algorithms relied on this specific value.
Even more critically, this number was the time in years that the lone astronaut would remain at five degrees Celsius.
Now it had a ‘nought’ after it and the clock was reset to zero!
Chuck Parker would not wake up until 2175, provided power and vital resources lasted that long and he did not die beforehand.
BOOK ONE
PROJECT OMEGA
‘We move forward to the middle of the 22nd century and make a visit to Earth where many of my family members reside. We are not going to meet
any of them yet, and certainly not where we are heading. However, we are about to become acquainted with two key characters in my story.’
Chapter 3
Tropical Rainforest, Borneo – 2150
It was midday and the fierce sun was directly over the thick forest canopy, bathing the upper leaves and branches in hot sunshine and drying the remnants of the early morning tropical downpour. Further down, raindrops cascaded from leaf to leaf and branch to branch, so that at ground level it was still raining heavily. The atmosphere was hot and humid and surprisingly gloomy with much of the sunlight filtered out by the mass of vegetation that soared 40 metres above. The whole area was filled with a babble of diverse sound as various species called, warned, mated or merely chattered. Suddenly, the noise stopped as two bodies crashed through the undergrowth and slithered down a wet, rocky incline.
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