Dawn of Hope- Exodus

by Dobrin Kostadinov

  First they had a military preparation class or more precisely a firearm class and introduction to the main types of weapons. Everyone anticipated the beginning. They were placed in tactical formation in a small hall and the two military tactics coaches stood before them. One of them started talking while the other one was standing at a distance behind him and just watched, as though he was assessing the situation.

  ‘Merry meet, everyone! You all have some military knowledge, some know more, others less. It came to my attention that some of you are civilians. That is not a problem at all, we will teach you how to shoot and fight, that is why we are here; those who do not know will learn and those who do will go over what they know. Lady and you, gentlemen, let us get to the point. No one knows where and what you will encounter, so take the matters with the necessary responsibility. I will require from you full concentration in our fire practice which will take place here. Choose the weapon that you think suits you best.’

  The assistants brought in a large 236-inches long table, covered with tarpaulin, and the coach pulled the coverage away – a wide range of firearms and cold steel of all sorts showed up arranged underneath. The choice of the team was the following: the cousins chose each a pistol and a small rifle with possibility for attaching a grenade launcher and a rear sight. Liu took a knife with an eight-inch blade of reinforced steel and a new model of a Colt machine gun with armor-piercing bullets.

  ‘Careful not to blow away your balls!’ Hiroshi teased. ‘Look at what I chose, you’re too old-fashioned,’ the Japanese continued, smiling, as he made to grab a set of hurling knives, each having a two-and-a-half-inch long blade. His second choice was a large sniper rifle that he took in his hands.

  It was the lady’s turn. She chose two small handguns with wrist braces that could be slipped up the forearm, thus remaining hidden. She also took a portative long-range electroshock shotgun, a modern weapon that fired off powerful electrified spherical projectiles with a range of 650 to 1,000 feet. Last came Thomas. He calmly waited for everyone else to make their choice. He moved closer to the table and began equipping himself: grenades around the waist, two pistols in holsters under the arms, an enormous knife with a twelve-inch long blade that he strapped around his leg. Everyone looked at him amazed while he continued furnishing himself with more weapons. He took a small sniper rifle and reached for something that no one had noticed until then.

  ‘The old Russian school has no match,’ he reached for the table and took something very old whose name most of the people present had never even heard. It was an AK-47. That was an old model of a Russian automatic assault rifle, and that one was of the last assemblages, in perfect condition. ‘A weapon that can start and end an entire war without a hitch,’ he said quietly as he stepped back so that he did not stand in anyone’s way. And he actually had a point. In the past that piece of metal had been announced the best assault automatic weapon of the 20th and 21st centuries. The rest of the team did not understand his choice, but he knew best what he needed.

  ‘That’s it. Whatever you picked out will remain with you, you will train with it, you will sleep with it, you will become one with it and you will even take it on the planet with you. A soldier’s weapon is something special,’ in the end joined in the man who was observing them from the back as he asked them to head for a huge barn created for indoor training. There were targets standing in the middle of it, some of them were even moving. The goal of the task was simple: to learn to shoot accurately.

  ‘Load your guns and we will start when you are ready,’ the second man said. The trainees were ready in a minute, only Mila had a problem loading the magazine of her electroshock weapon.

  ‘Do you need help?’ her compatriot asked her.

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ answered Lieutenant Nikolaevna and smiled, feeling ashamed and even blushing as never before had such a thing happened to her despite her knowledge and skills in that particular field.

  It took Tom precisely ten seconds to locate the problem. He went over to the ammunition table and took a battery meant for that gun.

  ‘Would you mind giving me your gun?’ he asked politely so he could change the part that was right under the sight, lengthways. His movements were quick, he loaded and tested the new battery and when he made sure it worked he threw away the old one for recycling.

  ‘Now, the problem. When this type of gun is not used for a long time the charge carriers get exhausted and the rifle becomes unusable. You can’t put the magazine because the safety is on, if the battery is out of order, but you need both to be working flawlessly so that you can shoot. That’s why I hate new guns. They’re total crap,’ he laughed and winked at Mila with his left eye.’

  ‘Thank you, I owe you one,’ she said, then a smile followed, she felt happy when she realized there were still gentlemen ready to help a lady in need.

  ‘Are you ready?’ asked one of the coaches.

  ‘Yes!’ the six members cried in unison.

  ‘Go!’ a ring was heard and the chronometer started keeping time.

  The six took up their positions, started moving one after the other, causing damage to the targets. Commotion and discharge settled. After everyone had taken their turn, the results were quite good, but the coaches’ opinions were that more exercises were needed for things to be perfect, at least for some of the members, as the Russian couple for example was irreproachable. The shooting class was over and they had four more to take. The second one was strength training. The team was taken to a gym with a ring at the center where they were to have their physical preparation. A workout plan for strength and endurance had been put together for them to follow. After the hours for sport were over they went to small hall furnished and reconstructed especially for them. That was where their classes on organic chemistry and theoretical extraterrestrial biology were going to be held. That was their third subject. They had to wait a little while, but soon after a middle-aged woman appeared – she was the one that was to prepare them for the supposed extraterrestrial life in the New Land and the exact things they would come upon. Their forth class was on aeronautics and introduction to the mechanisms of the shuttle. The contemporary spaceships had built-in gravity compensators that gave additional comfort as it made possible the “grounding of the feet” of the astronauts, but despite that they had to get acquainted with the difficulties of moving in outer space. The team were wearing space suits and were sent to the bottom of a large pool that simulated weightlessness both for them and their equipment. Once a week they had to be placed in the “centrifuge”, as they called it, so as to learn to keep their bodies in good shape under great strain. These were some of the most unpleasant moments, for at times they fainted or whitened due to the rotational power that exceeded ten times that of the Earth’s acceleration gravity. It was all extremely onerous, but they had no other choice… They also had to learn about the possible thermodynamic processes and laws of the new planet. And the diffusion of gases and their motion in gravitational environment different than Earth’s. The topics were presented by different established specialists in the respective branches of physics and fluid mechanics.

  The last class on the schedule was psychology. It was tutored by Richard Ginly, a psychologist from the University of Cambridge. His part was extremely important to their preparation, if not the most important.

  ‘Good afternoon, everyone, my name is Richard Ginly, I’ll be your psychology tutor,’ he walked in and closed the door behind him. He sat down on a chair that he dragged and placed before the small audience and started talking without wasting a second. ‘I’ll start off with the fact that . . .,’ he looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, as though he was trying to collect his thoughts in one place, ‘. . . the things we’re going to discuss here are grave and you need to understand them because they might as well save someone’s life.’ That was how the lecture started and it proceeded onto pinpointing the important matters they were to examine then and henceforth. ‘You know that human brain is so
mething special, it’s a matter that just like muscles needs training to do a good job. But sometimes moments of confusion arise. Our consciousness, trained as it is, begins to come up with wrong ideas about the surrounding world. Processes of distorted perception start taking place and that is how personality issues come to be, or as some specialists call them mental health problems. In the remaining classes and in this one, too, my objective will be to teach you how to avoid that. I want you to be familiar with the problems and perils that could occur throughout a cosmic passage irrespective of how long it could be and the state in which it could lead your mind while at the hands of a new and, possibly, hazardous environment.’ With that final point Richard concluded his introduction and set the beginning of his lectures which were, together with the theoretical biology classes, probably going to prove the most interesting things to master during their stay there. Or so they thought . . .

  The five different subjects, two of which had to be understood, not learnt, were also the only ones that they had not been fully examined on so far. Even when the people who taught them were not hundred percent sure that they would be of use to the team, but at least they believed in it.

  Our heroes felt like students. People in the prime of their lives, educated and who had established themselves as experts in society had to face the white board once again. They were again at school where they had to study and grow. It was odd for them to have to go back to those old and forgotten habits, but they were quick to adjust, so everything went by well. The two civilians in the team did not really have a hard time as they had recently graduated and from one school they just moved on to another. As for the other four, difficult or not, it was their only choice . . .

  Three weeks of intense studying of the five subjects of utmost importance to their mission had elapsed. But let us focus again on the two most intriguing subjects – biology and psychology, though not the ordinary types, yet the ones that were modified for their special purposes. During the biology class the tutor presented them with one of her theories of life on the alien planet. Anna Berger, or Annie, as they also called her, was a planetologist, a specialist in the field and she was probably going to give her best, but they did not have much time, so she taught them only the basics. She managed to get her audience acquainted with immensely interesting development theories, managing to hold their attention throughout all of her classes.

  ‘P999713, or Menoetius, as everyone call it, is an Earth-like type of planet and is approximately four times the size of the Earth. An approximate estimate shows it has relatively low average density as compared to our planet. It has almost a forty thousand mile of an equatorial diameter! It turns out that the size matters,’ the biologist joked. ‘In my considerations, due to its size and, of course, it’s atmospheric composition it follows that it should have a larger diversity of species than that of the Earth, but that is not certain,‘ she began sharing some of her presumptions about the New World. ‘Our data shows that its gravity will be about one and a half times stronger than that of the Earth, but for the time being we cannot estimate that with certainty. Such a factor, though, creates prerequisites for the development of a life different than the one known to us. My expectations are that the organisms inhabiting the local environment will be strongly developed physically. They should be short and thick with stubby and forceful limbs. All of that will come as a consequence of the stronger gravity. For now we haven’t detected anything disquieting, but don’t forget about the possibility of encountering a domineering species, that’s very important, if not the most important of all the things I’ve mentioned so far. Nothing worrisome has cropped up so far, but be careful. There’re two options. The first one is that there could be a race or existing biologically-induced creatures that have developed more than the rest. Just like what our status here on Earth is, but no one can tell for sure how developed they will be. The second option, which I personally deem the worse of the two, is that there could be an existing domineering non-biological organism that for some reason we are yet unable to detect. For now I’m ruling that hypothesis out, but again, no one knows what you’ll find there. The second species will be an embodiment of the evolution on a higher level that’s never been seen before, but I strongly hope you don’t stumble upon anything like that. The pace of change and development could be much faster than the natural biological evolution. It can develop independently as it self-reproduces exponentially. So, do pray you don’t chance upon something like that and most importantly, get acquainted with the environment before taking any actions,’ Mrs. Berger kept on giving admonitions. ‘Do you have any questions?’ The tutor waited, feeling somewhat excited, for everyone in her place would be glad to hear a few reasonable questions regarding the subject matter in question.

  ‘I have a question,’ Tom raised his arm.

  ‘I’m listening,’ she turned to him in anticipation.

  ‘I’m in the clear as to what we have to do if we meet something or someone there. Whether it will be of the first or the second type of domineering beings, there’s no way for us to avoid it. But as a specialist in the field, tell us, if you were caught by one of those creatures, what would you do? If “it” or “they” decide not to kill you but to study you, give us some guidelines what to do,’ he said, baffling and stunning the ones around him.

  ‘It will be difficult, extremely tough and most probably, being a woman and a person who has never held a gun in her hands, I would most likely break both mentally and physically. But you won’t do that Both all earthly residents and I put our faith in you. So you should seek ways to deal with the situation, don’t give up. We’ve all gathered here because of a common idea–tutors, military officers, medical teams and all the other specialists, thousands of people who are united around the six of you. I’m positive that you’ll find a way out even in the darkest of situations,’ Annie explained and her audience seemed to be begging for more, so she decided to go on. ‘Still, if you get captured by some advanced race and you’re the alien prey of which is known neither where it comes from, nor what it actually is, for Christ’s sake, don’t say anything. Don’t utter a word and if you have to, put an end to your life, so they never get to know what you’ve gone there for. Face your destiny with dignity and, if it so happens, even death itself. Don’t let them get to us whatever creatures they turn out to be!’ With words laden with fear she shared her opinion which sounded indicative enough of what our galactic brethren could be like and how powerful they could be. Her listeners were slightly shaken, but deep down inside of them they knew that if what she said were to happen, that was the right way out. Resistance until the end, even if that end was lethal, but also strength to the outer limit, so they can accept the sad demise.

  Tom’s question might have aimed at suggesting to the others a possible failure in case things went awry. He did not intend to frighten them, but rather to prepare them, for anything was possible, but with him realism always came first. He also helped them grasp better the tutor’s words of just how significant their mission was to humankind . . .

  Discussions of these topics as well as theories about the composition of the atmosphere–that was a broad outline of what constituted her lectures. She repeated some of the things various times so as to instill in them the sensation that they would not be at home. They were about to find themselves in a place where the laws of physics would look different, the nature would be different, even the gods would be different.

  The other subject important to them was psychology. Mr. Ginly followed the planetologist’s suit in having a few intriguing theories to share. Here is how one of his most interesting classes went on.

  ‘Throughout our meetings so far we have spoken about the human psyche. About how it works and how it changes under stress. How could our mind be damaged unbeknownst to us and so on and so forth,’ he began in his typical inspiring fashion. ‘Today I have decided to give you a piece of advice and to ask you a question. That is what our class will be about today. L
et us begin with the advice. If I could help someone with the words I am going to utter, I will be infinitely satisfied. Here it is: when things do not go the way you wished they did, do not panic. There are a few ways to handle such situations. Always tell yourselves that you control the situation and if your spirits go down, your bodies will go down, too. Have faith in yourselves and everything will be all right. Despair is you worst enemy. It can defeat you before you have even fallen. It is important for your brain to stay clear and healthy, the body is a mere receptacle.’

  ‘What do you mean by that? The body is a mere receptacle as if we can live without it,’ Mila asked him.

  ‘Maybe it will be possible in time, but for now it hasn’t been achieved. I only wanted to make you picture it. To understand that the brain is the single most important organ along with the functions it performs and the phenomena that take place inside of it. Everything else comes second and can even be replaced,’ Richard explained.

  ‘What shall we understand by phenomena in the human brain?’ Liu asked, curious.

  ‘I’m using the term to indicate the fact that I divide the brain’s performance in two subdivisions. The first is its function in relation to the body. That is its control over the organs, the physiological processes, the processing of the informational input coming from the environment and so on, or, in other others, everything that happens automatically, without our realizing it. The second activity is completely different and, in my opinion, the main ingredient that distinguishes us from the other organisms on this planet. Precisely these so called phenomena are the fountain of the human psyche, imagination and consciousness. Here are also included the physiological processes which arouse specific parts of the brain lobes. It is at those particular moments that determination, valor, creativity, art, self-awareness and countless other qualities and flaws of a person’s individuality are revealed. All things still left unfathomed by the science today. How and where are they conceived and more importantly why? Questions that direct my consciousness to yours and the digestion of the answers subsequently received. How can a musician write music without having heard it anywhere? How did the immortal Beethoven create his masterpieces leaning solely on the written notes, without being able to hear them in sequential order, yet something magnificent came out in the end . . . How does a writer manage to put down on paper something they have never seen but they can imagine, describe and convey to everyone else? No one knows how and where ideas emerge. In my opinion, they stem from information we receive from the surrounding world which we reevaluate later on, but its further assimilation and reshaping into an idea are a real enigma to life. The nature of human genius is unbreakable and the ocean of emotions the ordinary mortals experience is endless, hence that complex neural network will continue to be studied for a very long time. These phenomena are the “storm” in the human consciousness and the more you manage to beat it the more you will sail with the wind of change that will take you further on with immeasurable power. Mastering the psyche of other people is a force, but mastering yourself is might unseen, more potent than anything else. Rid yourselves of the chaos inside, put your thoughts in order and then accept the beauty of the orderly spiritual cosmos. I hope that my words did not come across as unsubstantiated and that you understood me.’ Thorough as usual, Ginly laid out his views, hoping that he would teach them something while the newly-formed team was stunned by his words. ‘Now let us proceed to the question I wanted to ask you, my dearest. Do you harbor any fears regarding what’s to come? Whatever they are it doesn’t matter, simply share them,’ he asked and awaited our answers.