Chapter 20

A Promising Planet

The Galactic Explorer in the Milky Way: 2273 A.D.

It was lonely out here between the stars. Dom knew it. Seala knew it. The Collective knew it. Were they the only ones? It had been over a hundred years since they had that last, fading holo from Earth. Although they were traveling at near the speed of light, the Galaxy seemed endless--the Universe beyond comprehension.

The Senses had served them well, steering them away from black holes, super novae, and the like. They had evolved. It was not a physical evolution of species, it was an evolution of The Universal Intelligence. All these great minds had not been idle. The Collective encompassed everyone. The Collective continued to pose and solve problems that all the institutions back on Earth could never dream of or work on. The tenets of Seti’s first draft of The Universal Intelligence remained true, but they had been amended, upgraded many times.

They now knew that life could take many forms and survive in conditions unknown in the Solar System. They had seen the creatures that inhabited the iridescent green pools on the second planet of Star G2V-271. The star was a bit larger than the Sun, and a bit older. It was the sixth star with a planetary system that they had encountered. Star G2V-271 had five planets and showed some promise. It took twenty years to slow their course and match orbits with the second planet. It was on an elliptical orbit approximating the Earth’s and contained carbon, a range of other minerals, and an atmosphere primarily of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. Unfortunately the air was unbreathable. It contained carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, methane, and sulfur dioxide that would be lethal to humans. Intrigued, they had to go there and see.

From orbit, the planet appeared to be a rocky, volcanic, and inhospitable place. Glowing, heavy green clouds obscured much of the surface, blocking their view. The Senses found abundant life, but it was unknown and unseen. They orbited the planet for some time, intrigued by its green glow. Here and there, glimpses through the clouds showed them a black, craggy landscape and deep green, iridescent oceans. The planet rotated slower than the earth. Each day was 67.35 Earth hours long. The Senses showed that the many life forms became very active just after the dawn of a new day.

Both the atmosphere and the seas contained a kind of plant life that glowed a phosphorescent green. It appeared to be the only food source for life on the planet. Analysis of its density showed that the plant grew rapidly during the daylight hours and slowly disappeared at night. This suggested that the life forms ate the plant life at night when the average temperature at the surface appeared to be about 87 degrees Fahrenheit. The high activity at dawn appeared to be animal life taking advantage of cooler conditions before the average temperature soared to about 117 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the day.

Dom and Seala were very intrigued by this strange planet and its life. The Senses had not picked up any indication of intelligence. In fact, the life forms there appeared to be very primitive. Still, the spirit of adventure was in them, and they decided to launch a landing party. The Omnilander was a very versatile and tough craft, tested on many landings on solar objects large and small. Since the green planet was much like Earth, there would be no trouble for the Omnilander to land and take off. A crew of 20 was selected to go and an excursion party of five was selected to walk on the surface and get a firsthand view of the life there. They decided to land at night just before dawn, so they would have the best chance of seeing the animal life when it was most active. It was impossible to gauge the excitement The Collective felt. This was the first planet the occupants of the Galactic Explorer would visit. They could hardly wait until the Omnilander launched.

It took only at half hour for the Omnilander to enter the green planet's atmosphere and chase the dawn to the landing site. The landing site was a relatively flat beachhead next to one of the larger seas. Everything went as planned, and Commander Keyley brought her in precisely where The Senses had selected. It was 15 minutes before dawn. The Omnilander's powerful lights pierced the gloom of the yellow-green fog and picked up rocky elements of the shoreline and the glow of the deep green sea, but nothing appeared to be moving.

Dom and Seala suited with three others making up the excursion party, and entered the airlock at the base of the craft. They planned to spend a couple of hours examining life forms, gathering data, and collecting samples to take a back with them to the Galactic Explorer. Depending on what they had found, they would either stay longer or make more trips. It all depended upon what the planet had to offer.

The ramp door lowered, breaking the seal and allowing the green planet's lethal atmosphere to roll in. With Dom at the lead, they walked out into the darkness of a new planet on a distant stellar system. All was still and quiet. Their suit lights pierced the gloom and revealed their surroundings.

The viscous sea was a mixture of tar and water, turned green by glowing organisms that looked like algae. It was calm and eerie, except for places where the glowing plants seemed to be disappearing before their eyes. They were standing on a black, rocky shore, similar to a beach after a major oil spill. The empty, rugged terrain was also black and filled with twisted, tortured outcroppings like those left by volcanic eruptions. Except for the disappearing algae, nothing was moving—their sensors sensed nothing.

A yellow glow appeared on the horizon. It was the dawn coming. The party watched in awe as ever so slowly, the dawn broke for them over the ocean on this alien shore. A sigh rose among The Collective. It was spell binding—beautiful. It was also a trigger.

Suddenly, the ocean was filled with creatures, large and small, in many varieties with glowing eyes and many forms of camouflage. They were all in the process of eating each other. Something like the algae was also floating in the heavy, warm air, creating the glowing green clouds. Flying creatures like lizards with wings darted in and out of the clouds, feeding on them. It was surreal.

Creatures also slithered out of cracks in the rock and were soon crawling over every inch of the craggy landscape. The brief walk for five out in the Earth-like gravity almost turned fatal.

“Look at that! Have you ever seen anything like it?” Seala’s memory was absorbing the seething scene in the green gook before them. The sight mesmerized her. A six-inch long cockroach-like thing jumped onto her leg from behind. She didn’t see it, but she did feel its searing pain.

Dom was looking the other way. “We’d better get out of here! They’re coming over that outcropping behind us in hoards!”

The party turned as one and ran for the ramp they had just descended. Thousands of slithering, creeping, crawling, hopping, jumping, and running creatures were closing on them fast. There were too many and they were too fast to shoot.

In a mass, five terrified bodies slammed into the back wall of the small airlock chamber and fell in a heap as the ramp rose behind them. They were not alone.

“Get them off, get them off me!” Seala screamed as Dom tore at a half dozen little monsters that had locked their teeth and talons into the fabric of her suit. He could feel some gripping his body in several places like a vice.

The battle lasted several bloody minutes. By using fists, slamming their bodies against the walls, and shooting them with their guns at close range, they subdued all thirty-three creatures that had followed them in. The crew had restored air immediately; it helped, proving fatal to the beasts. It was a good thing, because, had their suits been compromised out there in that atmosphere, they would have died.

Still bleeding and exhausted, they had to isolate the dead creatures in canisters and disinfect everything else before they could enter the interior. It took several minutes.

The crew was having its own problems. Seeing the battle ensuing in the airlock, they thought of introducing a lethal gas. They decided on air when they saw the suit damage taking place. They were terrified for their comrades but powerless to help, afraid to open the hatch. While they were concentrating on saving their comrades, the hoards quickly engulfed the ship.

Once the foul air had been completely exchanged and the dead creatures safely encased in the canisters, Dom searched the airlock for anything that they may have missed. They were all wounded in some way or another, so the place was a bloody mess. They use their sensitive sensing devices to scour the interior, looking for microbes or small creatures that might have escaped their eyes. Fortunately, they found none. They were hurting, so Commander Keyley decided to open that hatch and let them in

By this time there was a new crisis. Alarms were going off all over as Keyley and the crew saw that the cameras were becoming obscured with thousands of creepy, crawly creatures. The ship’s mass and weight had increased immensely as millions of the animals crawled all over its exterior. Keyley wanted to stay on the planet until they were sure that the excursion crew was okay and that it was safe to leave, but he had no choice. They blasted off.

The Senses had to compensate for all the extra weight, but they did, and the Omnilander moved quickly up through the green fog toward orbit. The creatures could be seen scabbing off the lens of the cameras and the windows as they accelerated and gained altitude. Some hung on until they had reached the near vacuum of space; then, they too, succumbed and fell off.

The excursion crew made their way to the medical room. Once there, being treated by the medical officer, they started to talk about their experience. "Oh, that hurt! I couldn't believe it! Those bastards sure were fast! And tenacious too! They grabbed on like they'd never let go!" Seala was probably the most injured. She was also the most vocal, screaming, "Those bastards! Those bastards! I thought we weren't gonna make it!"

"If I'd known it was going to be like that, I never would have allowed us to go out on the surface. I've learned my lesson. As far as life goes, we need to observe it for a while before we get involved with it. I'm shocked that even with our vast sensing ability, we didn't foresee that this would happen." Dom was already solving the problem as a medic worked on a five-inch slash in his arm that appeared to be an inch deep.

"You immortals are a marvel. This cut is already starting to heal." Suzanne, the medical officer, was amazed. "If you had died out there, and we had retrieved you with the remote arm, you 'd probably be coming back the life right here in front of me!"

"I'm glad we aren't finding out." Dom's mind was already on something else--the creatures in the canisters.

Even before they caught up with the Galactic Explorer and entered her docking bay, Dom was using instruments to reveal the contents of the canisters. Of the thirty-three creatures they caught, there appeared to be seventeen varieties. Most of them had exoskeletons and jointed legs made for running. They all had two eyes, ear openings, mouths with teeth, and talons or claws for gripping. They had stomachs and digestive tracts. Some had tails for balance and break away escape. Some had skeletal features that resembled armor. In all appearances, they appeared very Earth-like. Later, when they were taken out and dissected, they were found to contain DNA similar to prehistoric creatures on earth.

The glowing substance that gave the water and the air its distinctive green color appeared to be a phosphorescent amoeba similar to plankton. It appeared to be the primary food source for herbivores that were not among the sample in the canisters. The amoeba apparently grew rapidly during the long hot day with energy from the sun and the rich soup of hydrocarbons beneath. During the long night, the water and atmosphere cooled, allowing the herbivores to feed on the amoeba. At dawn, carnivores suddenly became active, and embarked on a feeding frenzy of herbivores and other carnivores. Observations from orbit showed that the feeding frenzy lasted only about a half hour. After that, the carnivores appeared to retreat to the cracks and crevices in the rock and deep into the sea to rest, digest, and escape the heat of day.

As the Galactic Explorer slowly accelerated to its maximum velocity toward the next star system selected for observation, the occupants had something new to discuss and ponder. They had found life, albeit primitive, on a distant planet on a distant star. It gave them hope. Hope that life would be abundant, and hope that life would not be too dissimilar to theirs to be understood. They began to believe that before they found life more advanced than they, they would find intelligent life more primitive. They looked forward to that prospect with the most hope. It would prove that they were not alone. Encountering more advanced life was equally possible, but more daunting. They wouldn't know until it actually happened and were already communicating. The Universal Intelligence Tenth Tenet proved that advanced intelligent life would reveal itself before being sensed.

As the years passed and they encountered more stellar systems, they found more green planets, more red planets, and more yellow planets. It was too time-consuming to slow the Galactic Explorer to visit each one. Instead, their experience with that first green planet helped them develop sensors and automated ships that were sent to investigate remotely and report back. Using this approach, they gathered immense knowledge about planets, how they developed, and how life developed upon them. Just as had been theorized, life was abundant. Intelligent life was another matter. Although some planets had evolved considerably complex life systems, most could not compare with the Earth, and intelligent animals were not found to be common.

The ship, too, was not static. It was evolving. Not only was The Collective’s scientific basis for intelligence being updated and altered by the new knowledge coming from each passing steller system, they were busy creating new technology and understanding just as they had always done on Earth. This Galactic Explorer, while it contained the essence of the one that left Earth, was becoming an entirely new entity. So were its passengers.

Dom, Ping, and Albert were among the creators of new technology. Some of the new technology enabled Earth-like environments to be created for the enjoyment and entertainment of the occupants. There was endless variety. People could age if they wanted. They could even die. They could be reborn. They could be cloned. They could grow old, and then be rejuvenated. All enjoyed a happy, healthy sex life. There was no shame. There was no jealousy. There was no possessiveness.

While Albert found his heart beating wildly for this nymph of a flower child that he called "My Anne, sweetest of Honies," He enjoyed Ping as much for her exotic looks and lovemaking skills. Seala reminded him most of Esther, although Esther was now but a figment another memory, another time.

Seala, too, had changed. Her encounter with the seething creatures that had sought to eat her gave her a new zest for life. Sometimes, she couldn't distinguish between Albert and Dominic when making love. This was both interesting and intriguing. After all, they were from the same genetic line. To Albert’s delight, sometimes she’d wear matching bra and panties, contrasting blouse and mini skirt, and a blazer. Then, they’d drive her Monte Carlo through the moist warmth of the West Virginia Hills—windows down and 8-track up. They’d make love in the car by some bubbling stream in the moonlight. Oh, how she enjoyed having him take those clothes off!

Seala sampled often from the wide variety of humankind riding their world. There was no fear of disease, childbirth, or repercussions from some misguided moral tenet. The Universal Intelligence merely stated that sex was good.

The ancient rhythms of Earth that gave birth to the concept of time, in time dimmed in importance. While Earth cycles were maintained, life on the Galactic Explorer was endless, almost timeless. Still, the primary mission was not diminished: to find intelligent life and relieve it. Here, half way across the Milky Way, they had found stars, stellar systems, and planets that seemed promising. They had even found life in great variety and abundance. They had found intelligent life. But they had not found intelligence that would require relief.

A lot of thought had been given to how they would communicate if they found intelligent beings on some distant planet. These beings would most certainly have the ability to telecommunicate. But would sending them a holo be enough to convince them that we came in peace and with an extraordinary mission in mind? No--a better way had to be found. If these beings were like humans--and all the evidence suggested they would be--then they would react in panic if something like the Galactic Explorer appeared suddenly in their sky or in their medium of communication. The best minds on the ship were put to the task of how to do it. Studies of life on the known planets showed that hunters always became the most intelligent. Hunters used their eyes to gather information for the hunt, and then processed that information in a way that made them successful. Eyes were directly connected to the visual cortex of brains, large and small. It was through the eyes that everyone agreed contact should be made. But, what would the mechanism be?

It was agreed that all beings on a planet should receive the essential relief information at the same time. It was also agreed that the information should be used to enlighten rather than frighten. How could they do this? In order to cover an entire planet at the same time, it would take three transmitters. Since half of the planet would be in darkness of night, how would they get the inhabitants to look at the transmitters? The answer was to provide something that was familiar for them to look at, but unfamiliar enough for them to want to stare at it. The moon came to mind. If they placed an object like the moon in the day or night sky, and made it highly visible, then people would stare at it.

Once people were staring at the object, it would be relatively easy to target each one and project The Universal Intelligence directly into their eyes. Assuming that the inhabitants had and used telecommunications, all these means would be used to get them outside to look to the object in their view. Based on the human model, it would take about 15 minutes to transmit the necessary information to the people. Those that could not, for any reason, observe the object in the sky would be brought out by those that had already been enlightened. Once the entire population had been enlightened and relieved, it will be possible to physically land and speak to them.

And so it was decided. They set about designing a beam projector that would transmit light and information on the light. The projector would have to target millions of eyes simultaneously. The projector also would have to target both eyes on each individual, doubling its rate of projection. They also set about building the craft to carry the projector. With no other models to work from, they chose the Earth's moon. Using scale models, the designs were tested and perfected. Everything appeared to work well. All they needed was a promising planet.

It would be easy to say that they were discouraged. But they were not. Finding life everywhere was encouraging, even though it was not what they had expected to find. They could have targeted many plants but they waited, watched, and listened. They watched for a laser beam or some other signal pointed toward them. They listen for the slightest sound, " ... the tap, tap, … tapping of a simple telegraph or other electrical device indicating a technological intelligence existed.

So they continued to pass many planets by until they had reached nearly the center of the Galaxy. On the other side, were a number of stars as vast as those they had already passed. It was from this vantage point, that they made the discovery. Albert, trained as an astronomer, was ever watchful of the vast data The Senses were pulling in. Lost in the millions of stars in the mid outer bands of the Galaxy, a star matching Earth's Sun emerged. Star G2V-2058712 was only an outline at first, but as the data came in, the mass, composition, density, color and light spectrum matched perfectly. Many stars were similar, but Albert had never seen a perfect match like this before.

The Collective was excited and intrigued. Projects were begun to see if they could improve the ship’s perception so they could view the star more closely and determine if it had planets. After many years of intense work, they succeeded. Although they didn't have all the pieces, they determined that the star was identical to the Sun, and that it had seven planets with orbits that matched those of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, and Venus. Each piece of the puzzle had them more intrigued, more excited. Were they looking at a solar system like their own? Or were they looking in the mirror? They knew the Earth lay behind them. The powerful sensors they had developed could still see it. That's why what lay ahead so intrigued them. It would take time to know.

Dom and Seala turned off gravity and floated to the stellar system model taking shape in the large chamber. It was a comforting sight, this stellar system. Except for a few missing smaller planets and moons, it appeared to be exactly like the earth's solar system. Even more intriguing was the second planet. With its blue oceans, brown land masses, and white cloud cover, it appeared to be exactly like the Earth. It was too soon to tell, but the evidence suggested that it was the same size, mass, inclination, and on the same orbit as Mother Earth. The resemblance was unnerving and uncanny. How could there be another planet that matched her so precisely? They did not know. There were too many questions.

Until more promising planet was found, or until they heard that faint tapping sound, they would head for this one. Dom put his arm around Seala as they drifted away together. Dom couldn’t help thinking, “Is this it? Are we really alone?” He shuddered at the thought. Seala felt his fear. The Collective felt his fear. Seala held him tighter in reassurance.

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