The Blue People of Cloud Planet

by Brian Wolfenden

  He sighed with relief as the initial red light changed to amber and the LCD display confirmed adequate battery power. The words ‘Start Scan?’ appeared and he tapped the screen. He saw, not surprisingly, that Olivia’s body temperature was high as was her blood pressure and pulse. Then various chemical measurements of her blood, urine and saliva passed across the screen and although he did not understand these, the fact that several measurements were reported in ‘red’ meant that something was radically wrong.

  Finally, the screen was headed by the word ‘diagnosis’ and then words appeared which brought a lump to his throat and he swallowed hard.

  ‘Condition is serious but cannot be determined accurately, results need urgent analysis by Zec-1 and Martha’

  He switched off the analyser but left it in place for further tests. He knew he would have to be patient and wait for the light sheath to switch off so Zec-1 could analyse the results.

  Olivia continued to sleep fitfully and about 2 hours later the diagnosis read,

  ‘Condition is stable but still serious, results need urgent analysis by Zec-1 and Martha’

  Scott had registered that this dwelling and its pyramids was only sparsely populated by Serenites but mainly housed blue females for the signalling. It was a relief that there was no music and dance with Olivia being so ill.

  However, he realised that they could not travel any further until her condition was known and, he prayed, cured. As if reading his thoughts, Seren appeared and her eyes met his,

  >> we will remain here until your female can travel again > but we cannot delay too long > we still have a long way to go >>

  Scott smiled at her with relief and gratitude.

  Shortly before dusk, the small band of Serenites and blue workers in their pyramid warmed up and they all moved underground to the chamber below the hot pools. Seren helped gather extra leaves to make a comfortable bed for Olivia. She was awake and had taken some fresh water from their almost depleted stock but was still in extreme discomfort. Seren again placed her hand on Olivia’s brow and magically she relaxed and went to sleep. Scott was so relieved and grateful that he wanted to kiss this extraordinary nurse and was then anxious that she might have read his thoughts.

  Seren beamed a knowing smile and she went to join her attendants to settle for the night.

  As soon as the light sheath switched off, Scott fired up his palmtop and plugged in the diagnostic tool.

  Zec-1 was almost immediately on line to inform that the black mass was already above the lander and stationary over the SOS dwelling and then reported his findings from the diagnostic report which chilled Scott to the bone,

  ‘Olivia’s condition is extremely critical. Apart from high temperature, pulse and blood pressure, she has an abnormally high salt level in her blood which could cause major organ failure if not reduced. She is also severely dehydrated. She must have a blood transfusion as soon as possible!’

  Zec-1’s prognosis was effectively a death sentence for Olivia!

  Scott buried his head in his hands in despair as he sat in the blackness just outside the underground sleeping quarters. His mind was in turmoil and he tried to suppress his tears. It could not be worse because the only matching blood type available was on the starship, 500 kilometres above him!

  As his body shook with emotion, he suddenly saw,

  >> be calm > be calm > there must be a way >>

  This message galvanised Scott and shook him out of his misery,

  ‘Zec-1, we have to get Olivia to the starship. Can we get one of the emergency shuttles down at night?’

  ‘The black mass between you and LifeSeeker-1 at night makes it impossible for me to compute a percentage success rate. We have to get the shuttle down through the mass and then, with Olivia on board, get it back through to the starship. This is an unknown danger and considering the fact that the black mass reacts to our every move, I cannot recommend this course of action. Furthermore how do we communicate with LifeSeeker-1 to send the emergency vehicle down to us?’

  Hopeless, Scott thought, the situation is impossible and again in the dark he saw,

  >> be calm > there must be a way > there must be a way >>

  These encouraging words seemed to run around his mind and helped him to think. He then remembered their first attempt to land on Cloud Planet during the day when the light shafts had caused the landing to be aborted – what had Zec-1 said during their analysis in the starship afterwards?

  ‘The light shafts were too close together to risk landing’

  ‘but if they were further apart there was a good chance of landing?’

  ‘but there was nowhere on the planet where the light cones were further apart’

  And then it hit him!

  ‘Zec-1! Zec-1! When we analysed the aborted day landing, what did you compute as a safe distance to give a reasonable chance of landing in the day?’

  ‘Fifty kilometres from the nearest light shaft gives an 85 per cent chance of success.’

  ‘So if we could switch off this SOS dwelling during the day!’ Scott said with rising hope, ‘Could we land inside? And for how long would we have to turn it off?’

  ‘Yes we could as the dwellings are 50 kilometres apart but we would need two windows each a minimum of 10 minutes, to get the emergency shuttle in and out. But you have to tell LifeSeeker-1 to pre-program the lander’s computer and give exact coordinates to land.’

  Scott’s hopes soared as he wondered if the blue females could hold the light shaft off long enough and if he was any good on the drums!

  As he sat in the blackness, Seren transmitted,

  >> they can do it > and so can you >>

  ‘Zec-1! Give me the Morse code for the following message!’

  ‘In the design of LifeSeeker-1 there are seven emergency shuttles, each capable of holding one astronaut. They are for critical evacuation of the starship or the rescue of individual crew members from life threatening situations. Each is highly manoeuvrable and capable of manual operation by the individual or fully automatic control by Zec-C.

  ‘Further, examination of the medical records for two of the criminal volunteers showed that they are now ‘salt intolerant’ after cryo-hibernation. These findings almost certainly help explain Olivia’s condition.’

  Chapter 43

  The Rhythm of the Drums

  Olivia slept most of the night but now the cold was taking its toll and as soon as possible Scott rushed a semi – comatose Olivia to the first pool to warm up. He gave her the last but one container of fresh water to hydrate her body. When the analyser was switched on, he watched the dreaded result that her condition had deteriorated overnight and the words,

  ‘immediate blood transfusion’, flashed in red.

  ‘Hold on, hold on.’ He urged. He clasped her hand and made her as comfortable as possible. The shafts of light streamed into the pyramid from the morning sun whilst he warmed himself thoroughly and took a sustaining drink from one of the nearby blue females. He had not drunk fresh water for many days but had no ill effects from the frequent intake of milk supplemented by his dried food store.

  Then, on a piece of card from a box in the medical bag, he copied Zec-1’s message using an indelible pen and put his prompts above the dots and dashes.

  Meanwhile, Seren had warmed up and fed and she came over and put her hand on Olivia’s forehead. Her shaking body relaxed and she slept. Scott noticed a new necklace had appeared around Seren’s neck, its triangle tantalisingly pointing to her cleavage. He had to force his eyes back to meet hers and he held her gaze as she transmitted,

  >> come with me >>

  Momentarily, he feared she might be trying to entice him. However she pointed to the card and walked up the ramp and stood by the largest drum overlooking the unusual ‘theatre’ below.

  Scott followed, understanding, he could practise the message here in the pyramid.

  Seren held the square ‘drumsticks’ and demonstrated the technique, alternately slapping th
em down on the taut red leaf. The booming filled the pyramid. She handed the drumsticks to Scott and put her hands on his to help him learn the method.

  As she brushed against him her touch was electric, and he was affected by the close physical contact. He forced himself to focus on attaining a steady beat. She moved away and disappeared into one of the pools leaving Scott to concentrate all his attention on his ‘music score’. He practised but found it difficult to coordinate the drum beat to achieve consistent dots and dashes. He tried to recall what the blue females had done – three paces in, light off for about 3 seconds, three paces back – then the dots were about 3 seconds and the dashes about six – so he counted in his mind,

  ‘1000, 2000, 3000’ and found that by writing the numbers, three or six, above the dots, dashes and spaces, he could get a regular beat. However, after half an hour his arms were aching and he stopped to rest and take a well-earned drink and he saw,

  >> that sounds good > but needs to be louder >>

  He practised for another half hour and rested until Seren beckoned and then they walked out of the pyramid into the brilliant sunshine with the shimmering light cone streaking skywards. The time approached one hour before noon.

  The three drummers were already in place as they approached the drum platform and with an incline of her head, the third Serenite handed her drumsticks to Scott.

  The first drum started and 400 blue females walked to their stations on the wide ledge in front of the laser emitting diamonds.

  The second joined in and shafts were hefted to the horizontal position.

  Scott’s heart started racing. This was it and he looked at Seren who was holding his ‘score’ and she encouraged,

  >> you can do it > begin >>

  In that 300 metre dwelling on the wide plain of Cloud Planet and surrounded by the Blue People, Scott steeled himself to play the drums as if his very life depended on it – but it was Olivia’s life at stake. Then he crashed down on the big drum and the light went out!

  500 kilometres above and just outside Cloud band, the astronauts of LifeSeeker-1 sat in the command dome. AJ, Alison, Steve, Martha and Pete looked dejectedly at one another. There had been no contact with Olivia and Scott for 12 days and all attempts to outflank the black mass had failed. They had even sent one of the emergency shuttles out as a decoy whilst ROL-2 piloted by Alison and Steve went the opposite direction. But the mass just split into three and blocked communications with the astronauts on the ground, from the starship, ROL-2 and the decoy lander.

  ‘The only comforting fact is that we can assume that Olivia and Scott are travelling from dwelling to dwelling under the moving black mass,’ AJ tried to reassure his crew.

  Last night the black mass had remained stationary and they could not be sure why the astronauts on the planet had not moved on – unless, of course, the answers and explanations were to be found in the SOS dwelling.

  The gloom in the command dome was shattered when Zec-C suddenly announced,

  ‘Attention! Attention! The SOS message has changed! Repeat, the SOS message has changed!’

  The astronauts all focused on the LCD portion of the dome where the signal was always displayed and gone were the familiar short and long lights of the distress call and in their place a different series were flashing.

  ‘Zec-C! Can you interpret?’ AJ commanded impatiently.

  ‘There are errors in the message, and the signature is different, I am waiting for repeats to confirm.’

  ‘What can it mean? Who’s sending the message?’, Steve queried.

  The astronauts looked at one another and then Zec-C announced that the message was .....

  - O – L – I – V – I – A - - V – E – R – Y - - I – L – L --

  they groaned with dismay at these first three words.....

  - E – X – T – R – A – C – T --

  this was the agreed word for urgent immediate removal from danger....

  - N – O – O – N - - N – E – X – T - - S – O – S - - O – F – F --

  ‘What’s that mean ‘SOS OFF’?’, said Alison.

  - W - - = - - 1 0 – M - - P - - = - - 2 0 – M - - W - -= - - 1 0 – M --

  ‘Is this code?’, Pete wondered.

  - L – A – N – D - - O – N - - O – L – I – V – I – A - - P – A – L – M --

  ‘On Olivia’s palm?! What does that mean?’ Martha puzzled.

  It was AJ, who shouted triumphantly,

  ‘A day landing! A daytime landing! Scott’s going to turn off the light shaft at exactly noon tomorrow. We have a 10 minute window to get the emergency shuttle in. Then ‘P’, yes, 20 minute pause to get Olivia on board and then the light shaft will be turned off again for 10 minutes to allow take off. Brilliant, Scott!’

  ‘On Olivia’s palm?!’ Alison queried and then she got it, ‘he’s going to put Olivia’s palm top down as a beacon to land on. We can program that in.’

  ‘Zec-C give me your analysis of a day landing with one dwelling switched off – surely you computed this before as feasible?!’ AJ commanded.

  ‘Correct and a 50 kilometre space between light shafts gives an 85 per cent success. Also 10 minutes is minimum window to position shuttle adjacent to light shaft for descent when switched off. I conclude Zec-1 has computed this for Scott. Also Olivia’s palm top as a beacon gives a radius error of 10 metres for the landing. Emergency shuttle will have to be completely programmed for whole operation with critical timing. Taking into consideration these extra factors the success rate drops to 75 per cent – so significant risk and Scott’s timing down on the planet is critical.’

  AJ looked at the other astronauts gravely.

  ‘You have Zec-C’s analysis and we have a crucial decision to make.’

  There was no hesitation and the mission to rescue Olivia was unanimously confirmed.

  ‘Zec-C!’ AJ continued, ‘Programme emergency shuttle 1 and prepare descent plan. We need automatic opening of the shuttle hatch at 1 minute after landing and closure 2 minutes before takeoff. That gives a window of 17 minutes to get Olivia strapped in and for Scott to get away from the lander.’

  ‘Astronauts - extra food and water to go down plus replacement palm top for Scott – I’m certain he’ll send his up with Olivia.’

  ‘Martha - prepare sick bay for every eventuality – we should get the diagnosis from Scott’s palm top as soon as Olivia is on board the starship.’

  Everyone moved with renewed hope.

  Scott was exhausted, cold, soaking wet and his arms were so painful that after about 1 hour he collapsed to the ground – surely he had got the message through. Seren had stood still holding the card and willing him to succeed and somehow her encouragement gave him extra strength to keep the drumming going. The third Serenite drummer picked up the drumsticks and, with a cock of the head, resumed the usual SOS signal as if nothing had happened.

  Seren’s attendants helped him back into the pyramid where Olivia was still asleep and he collapsed into the hot pool which quickly revived his aching body. He then checked Olivia’s condition – it had stabilised but she was plainly very ill.

  ‘Hold on, hold on another day and we’ll have you back with Martha.’ And he cradled her head and knew that the hardest part was yet to come!

  Chapter 44

  Emergency Evacuation

  During the afternoon and following morning he gave Olivia the last of the fresh water. The cold night had worsened her condition but all he could do was keep her as warm and comfortable as possible. She was now comatose but breathing and alive.

  He checked his watch. They had previously synchronised all their watches with Zec-C to the 20 hour day of Cloud Planet. It was now 1 hour before noon and the drumming started outside and soon the pyramid was flashing to the familiar SOS message. He left Olivia with Seren’s attendants; they would bring her out to the open space in front of the pyramids at Seren’s signal.

  Scott walked out into the dwelling with Seren. He was wear
ing a wet suit – 10 minutes in this freezing cold rain was going to test him as well as the blue females. He placed Olivia’s palm top in the centre of the open space, it was at least 50 metres square, surely enough margin for error. Then they walked to the platform where the three drummers beat their incessant rhythm.