‘The motion is to decide which team carries out the first landings on the planet as only one lander will be deployed at any one time,’ Zec-C confirmed.
‘First landings, plural, ladies and gentlemen,’ AJ intervened firmly, ‘the matter is concluded in favour of ROL-1.’
‘This species of tree is a softwood with similarities to the pine. Their height is limited by the ability to raise water by capillary action against the gravitational pull of Cloud Planet. Even so, they achieve up to 120 metres and with girths of 4 – 5 metres they are formidable structures. On Earth the tallest tree is the Douglas Fir which can reach 138 metres as the result of the lower gravity compared to the larger Cloud Planet.’
Chapter 18
Night Landing
‘LifeSeeker-1 was now moved to a position 500 kilometres above sea level on the night side of Cloud Planet. This is a different world – blue grey ice caps, grey seas and the black angry mass of the cloud collar rising 50 kilometres into the inky night sky. Zec- C’s analysis showed torrential rain, swirling winds and temperatures around zero degrees in the clouds. Near the edges of the plain, high cliffs tower up to the thickly-forested mountains and these cause turbulent storms for 50-100 kilometres inland.
‘For this reason, a landing target is selected half way between the cliff edge and the equator where turbulence is less severe and they are far away from the larger of the light shafts. The central area is made entirely of clay with structures which are symmetrically distributed at the locus of each light shaft. At the time, the nature of these structures was difficult to discern because of the thick cloud and the fact that they are composed of the same material as the plain.’
ROL-1 was hovering 70 kilometres above the target landing spot as Olivia and Scott looked out of the dome at the seething black clouds below them.
‘Confirm command to descend at 50 kilometres per hour.’
Zec-1 requested and all of the astronauts complied in unison.
‘Good luck to both of you,’ said AJ from the starship.
As the lander descended and entered the cloud, they lost their view of the outside and watched the dome displays as they showed position, height and speed relative to the target landing spot. Meanwhile Zec-1 called out height above ground at regular intervals. Considering that conditions outside were appalling, the lander made a very stable descent under Zec-1’s control and at 1 kilometre from the surface, descent speed was reduced to 10 kilometres per hour. Now the astronauts could feel the buffeting of the strong winds causing the lander to swing and yaw slightly.
‘Two hundred metres from touchdown and descent speed now 100 metres per minute.’
‘Two minutes to go,’ exclaimed Scott as the tension mounted. Olivia was staring hard at the dome desperate to see something but visibility remained zero.
‘Thirty metres from touchdown, descent 10 metres per minute.’
And 3 minutes later, the 4 caterpillar tracks bit into the slushy clay surface, sinking half a metre before coming to rest.
‘ROL 1 touchdown confirmed, all systems good’.
There was a moment of silence in both the lander and the starship 500 kilometres above and then there were shouts and claps from all the astronauts. Then AJ’s voice could be heard over the celebrations.
‘Congratulations Olivia and Scott, first astronauts to land on a planet of another star system. What a momentous occasion.’
Olivia turned and high-fived Scott and both gave thumbs-up gestures to the smiling faces on the dome display. Then they looked out. The rain was torrential and they could just distinguish the surface for about 15 metres in front of the lander. There were huge strange leaves strewn about and stalks sticking out of a water surface drilled with the bucketing rain. They felt like they had landed in a paddy field.
‘It’s not exactly a holiday camp out there,’ joked Olivia, as pictures of their surroundings appeared on the dome and were simultaneously shown in the starship.
‘Terrain flat and level with no major obstructions. Confirm decision to traverse to designated light shaft.’
All astronauts confirmed and the lander’s wide tracks started turning and found purchase on the surprisingly firmer clay under the muddy surface.
‘Speed 5 kilometres per hour and steady on course.’
It was now the equivalent of midnight and it would take 4 hours to reach their goal.
Conditions did not change. All they could see were leaves, some huge, maybe 2 metres across, and stalks with leaves on them presumably growing in the slushy clay. Some of these ‘plants’ were up to 2 metres high and grew in thick plantations. The lander seemed to glide through this vegetation, crushing and brushing it aside.
‘Target 100 metres ahead. There is definitely a large structure made of the same clay as the ground. I’m analysing data so I can put it on dome. Proceeding to a point 15 metres from the front edge.’
‘I can’t wait. What do you think we’ll find?’ said Olivia excitedly as she craned forward as far as her seat clamp would allow.
‘Patience Olivia, all will be revealed soon enough by Zec-1’, countered Scott in his usual controlled fashion but he was also leaning forward in fevered anticipation.
Although it was just after four in the morning, it would soon be dawn on this planet with its 20 hour rotation and already it had lightened somewhat and the rain had decreased in intensity. Visibility was now much improved and the outside ‘world’ was about to reveal itself.
Chapter 19
Intelligent Design
Olivia and Scott strained forward as far as their command seats would let them and pointed as, out of the gloom, a red wall materialised in front of them. From their vantage point about 3.5 metres above ground, they could see that the wall was about 3 metres high, 25 metres wide and a couple of metres deep. Then at each extremity it turned and disappeared into the gloom.
‘What have we got here, Zec-1?’ Scott queried and in answer Zec-1 started drawing the structure in plain view on the dome.
‘What you are seeing is the front wall of a regular octagon, 100 metres in ‘diameter’, 3 metres high and 2 thick. It is constructed entirely of the same clay as the ground. Inside, to our left, are four large triangular shapes each filled with water. The structure is sitting at the edge of one of the lateral canals which is situated on the far side from our lander position.’
The mimic display showed the plan view, and then rotated to 3 dimensional mode to give the same aspect that they were looking at. Visibility had increased further and they could see half the octagon and two of the triangular structures – these seemed to be at different heights but below the level of the outer wall.
‘This must have been made by an intelligent species,’ Olivia cried, ‘look, look – it’s a perfect eight sided figure.’ Dimensions had appeared on the display showing that each side was, indeed, the same length within a few centimetres.
‘There are multiple water flows within the structure which are emanating from the canal. The water travels around the walls, cascades into the triangular structures and then overflows to a central narrow canal leaving the octagon underground almost below our position.’
Lander outside first small octagon
In both starship and lander, the astronauts watched spellbound as the details unfolded before them but that was nothing compared to what they were about to hear.
Olivia and Scott could now see the whole structure and the canal behind it. The inside was strewn with leaves of all sizes – the raised profile obviously collected the windblown vegetation. They could see water flowing right in front of them in two channels in the top of the wall separated by – it looked similar to a seemingly castellated partition. It was Olivia who first saw glints of reflection.
‘What are those ‘glass like bricks’ in the centre and do they, yes, they do, seem to run around the whole periphery of the octagon. They appear to separate the two flows. No, that’s not right. The water flow is passing through the gaps in the bricks.’
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Everyone strained forward to see and sure enough at regular intervals were hundreds of these ‘glass bricks’ sticking out of the water flow. It was Zec-1 who, as ever, applied the startling technical analysis.
‘Each brick is 30 centimetres long by 20 wide and 15 high – nearly as big as a breezeblock – and they are spaced 20 centimetres apart. I estimate that there are two every metre, 60 on each limb of the octagon and 480 in total around the central partition.’
‘What are they made of?’ this from Olivia.
‘Pure carbon, absolutely pure carbon.’
Zec-1 said and waited.
‘You mean DIAMOND!’ Scott shouted astounded.
‘Christ!’ Olivia gasped.
‘Each is a multifaceted crystal of the whitest purest diamond and I estimate that each weighs about 30 kilograms which is approximately 150,000 carats.’
The atmosphere in the lander and the starship was electric and filled with unanswered questions when AJ brought everyone back to reality.
‘You are almost passing into daytime, ROL-1, and we have some of our answers, but we will lose communications shortly.
‘Command Zec-1! Back away from structure to safer observation position.’
All astronauts complied and the lander started moving.
‘My research shows that the Cullinan diamond was the largest crystal found on Earth in 1905. In its rough uncut state it weighed 621.35 grams, just over 3100 carats. The largest cut gem from this is the Great Star of Africa at 530 grams and about 106 carats. The 150,000 carat diamonds which are found on Cloud Planet are not only enormous but have perfect crystalline morphology.’
Olivia and Scott were so absorbed that they hadn’t noticed that the light had increased dramatically. It was still raining but now there was an eerie glow as the sun was trying to break through the clouds.
‘Temperature increasing in the diamonds nearest the rising sun.’
Zec-1 informed them. They had backed to 100 metres from the octagon.
‘Temperature now 400 - 500 hundred degrees.’
They stared and could not believe their eyes as the nearest diamonds began to glow red, then orange.
‘Temperature approaching 1000 degrees.’
They glowed white and were enveloped with steam from the water running through them and then........
It didn’t make a noise, but Olivia and Scott snapped back in their seats as a streak of white light shot from the diamonds back over their heads and disappeared into the clouds.
‘Emergency! Emergency!’
Zec-1’s voice boomed,
‘Confirm back away, applying low force field plus dome darkening.’
The astronauts complied and watched in awe as more diamonds grew hot and exploded in light. They stared as, slowly and symmetrically, new crystals on each side of the centre line flashed into life circling the octagon in a sheath of light that would have hurt their eyes were it not for the protection of the darkened dome.
From a distance of 500 metres they watched as a complete sheath of light circled the structure and stretched up through the clouds above them. They had their answer to the origin of the beams of light but what ‘on this planet’ was the reason for the design and its internal triangular structures?
‘Why the sheath of light? And who or what caused it?’ Olivia thought aloud.
‘Well that’s what I call a light display,’ exclaimed Scott, ‘I guess that’s the most efficient laser system I have ever witnessed.’ However only Olivia and Zec-1 heard this comment as communications with LifeSeeker-1 had been lost some minutes before.
‘It is the unique internal structure of these diamonds, which I have analysed in detail, which explains how sunlight is collimated into a wide razor thin shaft and is then reflected back towards Seren. This produces a high intensity natural laser and the close proximity of the crystals produces the continuous sheath of light around the octagon.’
Chapter 20
Into the Light
‘And now, all our astronauts can do is wait so they take the opportunity to catch up on much needed sleep. Zec-1 wakes them shortly before the shaft of light switches off allowing communications to resume with LifeSeeker-1 to plan the next stage.’
When Olivia and Scott returned, refreshed, to the command dome the first thing they noticed was that the sheath of light was now angled away from them in the direction of the setting sun. Then, the diamonds at the front edge of the octagon, that had lit up first, suddenly ‘switched’ off and slowly a window appeared in front of them. Both astronauts wished that they could run up and look in but knew they had to temper their curiosity.
Slowly all the crystals switched off in a symmetrical fashion until finally the light sheath was completely gone. Zec-1 moved the lander so that it was 10 metres from the front of the octagon and they peered eagerly through the rain and deepening cloud.
It was like looking into a sauna with steam rising from the surface of the triangular pools and from the water that was circulating around the diamonds.
‘Water temperature in the pools is 40-45 degrees; atmosphere has a high chlorine level.’
What surprised them most was that the whole area was pristine. No sign of all the messy vegetation from earlier in the day.
‘What’s that black square to the right of the top pool?’ asked Olivia. It hadn’t been noticed earlier and was the only other colour amongst a sea of reds.
‘It is a 3 metre square wooden structure rising about half a metre above the tiered level to the right of the upper pool and it appears to go underground but I cannot get detail from here. But what I can tell you is that there are underground water flows parallel to the upper canal and directly below the centre of the octagon at its left and right flanks. These flows are very linear and defined and I predict that they are underground canals leaving on both sides of the octagon directly in line with the light shafts, or can I now predict more octagons, to either side.’
A short while later, Olivia and Scott were sitting in their command seats in ROL-1 looking at AJ and the rest of the astronauts on the dome in front of them. Simultaneously and 500 kilometres above them, AJ and the team were watching Olivia and Scott on their dome. This was one of many video conference meetings where they discussed the incredible findings and planned their next moves.
AJ was speaking and pointing using an arrow on the display,
‘This is a clear area to the right, inside the octagon, where ROL-1 can land and observe whatever is going on inside the light shaft.’
‘But the lander will be at most 30-40 metres from the light source. Is that a safe margin?’ queried Steve.
‘From information gathered outside the light shaft, Zec-C is 95 per cent confident that only low power shield will be required but some detection instruments will probably not function.’
AJ finalised with the comment,
‘I recommend that we go in shortly before dawn this very night.’
The decision was unanimously approved.
ROL-1 had been moved to a point 100 metres in front of the octagon. It was raining hard but was not too gusty and visibility was 30 metres. It was 1 hour before the sun would rise above the horizon behind them.
‘Confirm command to enter octagon!’
Scott was watching the mimic display of their position relative to the structure as ROL-1 powered into the air amidst a huge explosion of water, clay and leaves and ascended to 100 metres. After hovering for 30 seconds, the lander moved forward and was in position above its designated spot 1 minute later.
‘Descending at 10 metres per minute.’
Zec-1 kept a constant flow of verbal information with the key data duplicated on the dome.
Ten minutes later the caterpillar tracks of the lander crunched onto the clay ground inside the octagon and, even though flooded with rain, hardly sank at all on the firm surface.
‘ROL-1 safely down. Surface inside octagon is very hard and perfectly level. Also initial analysis shows that the whole st
ructure is fabricated from clay bricks each 66 centimetres long by 33 wide by 33 high. All the outer surfaces are hard and impermeable to water as if they have been treated in some way.’
‘How?’ queried Scott looking at Olivia.
‘They must have been fired or baked?’ offered Olivia as way of explanation and Zec-1 concurred that heat was the most likely possibility.
Visibility was now improving as the rain eased and they had a view of the whole of the octagon in front of the slightly off centre landing spot. It was strewn with leaves of various sizes and those just outside the dome were clearly seen. They were dark green, thick and fleshy and some were much bigger than the average human being.
The Blue People of Cloud Planet Page 8
