‘Well Scott!’ AJ said, raising an eyebrow, ‘looks like you’ve drawn the short straw!’
‘The analysis of the DNA of the Serenites and their blue workers shows remarkable similarities to species on Earth. The DNA of the workers is very similar to cold-blooded reptiles on our planet whereas that of the Serenites shares over 99 per cent with human DNA. This explains the successful mating between life-forms from different stars in our galaxy.’
Chapter 71
Another Disturbing Discovery
Scott, Seren and Hotenka then left the meeting and headed for the refreshing waters of the cool pool. The remaining astronauts had still not fully absorbed this latest turn of events and were about to express their views when AJ held up a hand to silence them.
‘Let’s move on, something about this planet still puzzles me,’ he said quickly, realising that their hosts could read their minds and would be offended if they made undiplomatic remarks. ‘I accept, Steve, that Cloud Planet is global cooling and, I presume, has been for some considerable time. Can you give an estimate?’
‘It’s very difficult’, Steve replied, ‘I’ve tried some modelling with Zec-C but there are so many unknowns. The best we can come up with is somewhere in excess of 100 years. What’s on your mind, AJ?’
‘In that case I’m surprised that the icecaps are relatively small considering the coldness of the sea. I think Zec-C estimated that they are only 1000 kilometres in diameter. If we’ve been global cooling for over a century, I would have thought that they would be much larger.’
‘Don’t forget the very high salt levels in the oceans,’ contributed Alison, ‘that would prevent the sea from freezing.’
‘Or perhaps there were no icecaps at all before the cloud collar!’ Pete suggested and Martha nodded her approval at this piece of lateral thinking.
Suddenly Olivia looked up. ‘Something has been gnawing away at the back of my mind since I first saw those stunning scenes in the dark pyramid,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘You know – all those people on that huge red beach – but surely it’s not that big now? Zec-1, have you got comparative figures?’
‘I have indeed,’ replied Zec-1, ‘the strip of red clay at the edge of the sea is currently about 100 metres wide. In the hologram and before the cloud collar it was 500 metres wide with a small slope from the land to the sea.’
‘Olivia, you’re right,’ cried Martha, ‘but what does it mean?’
‘It means that sea levels have risen!’ answered Olivia gravely, ‘Zec-1, can you give us a figure?’
‘I estimate from the slope of the beach that the difference in levels now and before the cloud collar formed is between 4 and 6 metres.’
‘But that’s a staggering rise!’ AJ said with alarm, ‘Those oceans are massive!’
‘So where has all that extra water come from?’ Pete queried.
‘What about the extra rainfall from the cloud?’ Martha offered tentatively.
‘No, that would be recycled from the sea.’ Steve explained.
‘There’s only one process that could account for that rise in sea level – melting ice!’ Olivia added and she watched the faces of the astronauts as their expressions changed from puzzled to disturbed understanding. ‘What do you think, Zec-1?’
‘My only conclusion, based on the measurements available, is that, before the cloud collar occurred, both icecaps were approximately four times their current size.’
For a moment all that could be heard was the splashing of bodies in the pools and the patter of feet on the clay surrounds. Shafts of light washed across the huge triangular plinth illuminating the stunned astronauts as if they were caught frozen in spotlights.
‘My God!’ breathed AJ, ‘This planet is cooling and still the icecaps have melted to one quarter of their original size! How can that happen?’
‘There is only one answer,’ replied Olivia grimly, ‘those mother-discs and cylinders are capable of melting planetary icecaps and they may have done it deliberately! Bloody hell! What if they’ve gone on to Earth!’
‘The estimate of the size of the icecaps before the cloud collar is quite accurate. I have examined the digital data from the early probe sent to the star Seren and I can confirm that 35 years before the landing on Cloud Planet, the icecaps measure approximately 1800 kilometres diameter. Extrapolation back in time by a further 165 years using simple differentiation, and assuming a constant rate of melting, gives a figure of about 4000 kilometres. For information the icecaps would have completely melted by 2225.’
Two days later, Olivia took ROL-1 to the next but one dwelling from the capitol city. She landed just before sunrise and, from her position outside the pyramids, watched the light sheaths as they raced into the clouds. Then the dwelling came alive with blue workers and Serenites as they went about their business.
Although she was collecting clay bricks for Pete, she knew that Scott was here. She was determined to face him again to confront him with the gravity of his actions and how deeply he had hurt her. As she entered the pyramid, Olivia saw Scott sitting by one of the upper pools. She steeled herself to act with composure and logic and walked up the ramp towards him. As she approached, he turned, surprised and his arms moved to cover his bare chest.
‘Olivia! I didn’t know you were coming.’
‘I’m collecting bricks for Pete, remember but I wanted a word. Why are you?’
She moved forward and pulled his hands away. Her stomach sickened.
There were now three red triangles on his chest!
Olivia’s face reddened and all the planned control flew ‘out of the window’.’
‘You bastard!’ she shrieked and flew at him with her fists. ‘You couldn’t wait to get me out of the way so you could screw that bitch and how many more of these creatures have you fucked whilst I nearly died up there!’
‘Olivia! I couldn’t control myself, couldn’t resist their telepathy.’ Scott shouted as he tried desperately to ward off her furious assault. Finally, he managed to catch hold of her wrists and they glared at each other, their faces centimetres apart.
‘I bet you didn’t try too hard. You’ve hardly kept your eyes off their tits since we landed! And another thing – you’ve broken the main interplanetary code – you’re a disgrace!’
This final damning sentence was like a hammer blow and Scott’s face crumpled as he sat heavily on the edge of the pool behind him. He buried his head in his arms.
Olivia calmed herself, her fury spent, and then she felt sorry for him. After all he had saved her life twice and found out how to defeat the Black. But, even so, she could not forgive what he had done to her.
‘I never want to see you again,’ she said with quiet finality. Then Olivia turned and walked out of the pyramid.
Scott watched in turmoil as she disappeared through the door. Suddenly all thoughts of her were vanquished from his mind and all the guilt was gone. He turned his head and saw Seren standing waist deep in the cool pool and her eyes sparkled.
>> come > come to me > you are one of us now >>
Chapter 72
Five Years Later
Olivia was paddling in the cool shallows of the sea at the edge of the red beach. Although the water was cold, it was refreshing in the heat of the blazing midday sun. Everything was tranquil and the menacing cloud that once covered the coastline was gone. She had not seen Scott once since that final confrontation five years ago.
She bent down and scooped up a handful of black beads, which slithered and slipped through her fingers. Even after all this time there were still patches of black at the edge of the sea. How innocent they looked, she thought, but each was a masterpiece of advanced technological design and probably still capable of responding to signals if the host computer or whatever it was returned.
She could quite imagine someone thinking that these beads would make an attractive necklace and shuddered at the thought. It was unlikely to happen again on this planet!
Olivia was desperate to help
the Blue People but determined to keep her distance from them. ROL-1 was her base with frequent visits to the orbiting space station for meetings with AJ and updates on her fellow astronauts work. In particular, Olivia avoided the post lunch rituals. Although she admired the Serenite males for their beauty and muscular stature, there was no way that she was going to be telepathically seduced!
As she let the black beads fall between her fingers into the sea, Olivia reflected on the last five years, how quickly they seemed to have passed.
By the end of the first year, there was no significant change in the birth to death rate and male to female ratio. However the use of the hot-water bottle had spread successfully over hundreds and hundreds of dwellings, mainly at or near the equator. Also dozens of large dwellings had had their sleeping chambers fully converted to the water-heated design and this idea was spreading successfully as the Serenites re-learned the skills of construction.
Alison and Steve had deforested one valley on both sides from the estuary to the red plain. This was a mammoth achievement which had resulted in a significant local thinning of the cloud. It had left the lower slopes exposed, showing the blackened stumps of the huge trees which were covered with the white ash from the burning leaves. At the estuary cloud had receded sufficiently up the river to reveal the six devastated dwellings. Damage above ground was extensive but the basic wall and triangular structures were still substantially in place and underground the sleeping chambers and water pits were still intact. Of course the pyramids had completely vanished and the canal feeding the dwellings was badly damaged. However these structures could be repaired and there was no shortage of the basic raw materials.
So Olivia had ferried thousands of clay bricks, replacement screw lift shafts and diamond crystals to the estuary. The plan for year two was to get one dwelling up and running. Then Olivia’s thoughts turned to Scott. It still hurt and she felt very bitter about the situation. She coped by throwing herself into the rebuilding programme.
After the first year, Scott and Seren had travelled about a quarter of the circumference of Cloud Planet and by then he had dozens of red triangles on his chest. All male infants, thought Olivia with disgust, and three already with Seren. Gestation time for the Serenites was about 40 of their planet days and young were born very small and immediately looked after by the blue females.
Although they had made several high-altitude passes over the strickened icecap where the alien force had hidden, radiation levels during that first year were still too high to allow a closer inspection using one of the landers. These surveys had shown the permanent crater at the centre and the vast patches of black at the edge of the icecap. They also showed that one cylinder, though considerably damaged, had stayed on the surface of the ice.
Towards the end of year two, radiation levels had fallen sufficiently to allow an expedition to the icecap and AJ accompanied Olivia in ROL-1 to carry out this venture. They were now 1 kilometre above the icecap and they approached the damaged cylinder. Zec-1 had applied sufficient force field to protect them from the radiation whilst maintaining more than enough power for low altitude manoeuvrability.
‘Phew! It’s not until you get up close that you realise just how big those things are!’ AJ pointed ahead where four or five jagged chunks towered above the icecap.
‘Those pieces must be, what, half a kilometre high, and look; the centre is filled with black. And see how the beads have spewed from the cracks onto the ice!’ Olivia added, ‘It looks like a huge black starfish.’
AJ commanded Zec-1 to descend to 600 metres above the centre of the decimated cylinder. The black mass was 200 metres below them and it had flowed out of the structure for hundreds of metres through each breach.
‘How many black beads could you get in one of these cylinders?’ Olivia queried.
‘Packed tightly, one could hold in excess of 5 billion beads but less if they are to be mobile in their own pressurised fluid. Furthermore, the outer shell of the cylinder is actually two thin shells made from an alloy of metals similar to titanium, vanadium and iridium. But with the radiation levels, I cannot be precise on the analysis. Apart from the double shell and the beads, I cannot detect any other internal structures. Additionally, each of the shells has regular-shaped large openings but there is no obvious way of closing them – my only interpretation is that the inner shell rotates within the outer to create and close access points. These ‘doors’ are regular hexagons about 100 metres across.’
‘That’s incredible! But how could you rotate the inner disc?’ AJ asked.
‘My only conclusion is that the pressurised black mass forces the inner cylinder around until two openings coincide, and then the mass jets out as we saw at the icecap when the discs rose from the ice.’
‘And presumably, all were controlled from that mammoth mother-disc.’ Olivia said incredulously. ‘What on ‘Earth’ does that contain?!’
‘We’ll probably never know!’ AJ replied.
At the end of year two the death rate among the blue workers had definitely started to decrease. The short-term measures were obviously working so they were rolled out across the whole planet. Alison and Steve had deforested the adjacent valley but of greater significance was the rebuilding of one dwelling by the estuary of the first valley cleared. A very difficult task initially because blue workers and Serenites had to be ferried back and forth each day. They could only work for a couple of hours during the middle of the day when the weak sunlight gave some warmth to the ‘building site’. The breakthrough came when sufficient crystal lasers could be ignited to produce hot water for the upper pools and the underground heated chamber. Then the Serenites and blue workers could stay on site and work most of the day on the restoration project. Further blue workers could then be released to start replanting the lower slopes. There was no difficulty getting the seeds to grow in the ash-rich soil.
By now the cloud collar had noticeably retreated from the coastline and was thinning sufficiently at the edge of the plain for work to start on recovering the dwellings alongside the large lake at the top of the valley. Of course, these dwellings were only partially decommissioned when the Blue People fled to the tunnels under the red plain. They only required the replacement of the screw lift and diamond crystals in the double channels on top of the walls to get them functioning again.
As for Scott, now on the other side of Cloud Planet, well, apparently, there was no room left on his chest for more red triangles.
Years three and four resulted in dramatic changes for the fortunes of the Blue People. The death-rate among the blue workers had reduced dramatically and was nearly back to normal and the ratio of male to female births had increased significantly.
Deforestation was slow but Alison and Steve had completed the work on a further four valleys, making six in all, as they refined their techniques. The first two valleys were now completely free of cloud from the estuary to the lake at the start of the red plain. This enabled the Blue People to travel above ground in their boats on the rivers of these two estuaries for the first time since the devastating tsunamis had raced up the rivers.
But the cloud still clung to the upper slopes and across the red plain.
By the end of year four, Scott had circumnavigated Cloud Planet with Seren. They were accompanied by Zac, who was now nearly four and his first- born with Seren. Scott was now second in command to Hotenka and sat alongside him in the centre of the triangular plinth of the huge pyramid of the ‘capital city’.
Olivia continued to amble along the edge of the sea, but she was not alone.
Beautiful blond Serenities, male and female, wandered about the red beach, their young ones tended by the blue female workers. Not as many as she had seen in the holographic amphitheatre, Olivia mused, but moving in the right direction.
Then she turned and with pride looked up the estuary.
The six repaired dwellings stood splendidly by the side of the river, their light shafts shooting upwards into the cloudless blu
e sky. A pyramid stood in one of these with crystals glinting from the side walls. It had taken the whole of the last year to build this dwelling and its internal structures.
What an achievement!
What a landmark for the Blue People!
On both sides of the estuary were the familiar dark triangular plantations with black boats which moved back and forth across the river, paddled by the blue female workers. Olivia looked further up the valley. Cloud had retreated to the upper slopes of the mountains where its whiteness contrasted with the green of the valley. It was a beautiful sight.
‘We’ve almost got their paradise back,’ Olivia said aloud, and then the sobering thought occurred that this was only one of 2,000 damaged estuaries on Cloud Planet.
‘Hmmm, there’s a long way to go!’ And a group of blond Serenites nearby turned and smiled and she could feel their deep gratitude.
The Blue People of Cloud Planet Page 36
