Dawn of Hope- Exodus

by Dobrin Kostadinov

  At last Harry and Alice could take a real break–the mission was accomplished and they could sit and rest in the spacious cockpit. The dozens of specially trained pilots who now resided in it controlled the course of the ship outside the earth's atmosphere and navigated it around the moon’s orbit, waiting for the others . . .

  Fortunately, everything was calm in Austria. In the cool early morning the sun was trying to hang its disk over the mountain tops and to generously offer its sunbeams to the green meadows beneath–they were some of the few places on Earth still left unpopulated and still preserving their splendor and beauty. But another type of light showed up from behind the snowy mounts . . . Titanic machines landed, plunging the ground into powerful tremors. They flew in for us, ordinary people. We had been picked from all over the world and formed a most diverse minority. Poor and not so poor, mainly young men, women and children, we had been waiting sheltered in tents for days. People from all nationalities and ethnic groups have already spent a few nights sleeping under the stars, praying for the veracity of the message we had received. Many did not come, did not dare to risk, but those of us who did, were now rewarded. The doors slid open and reached the ground, soon after we were beckoned to step on board as fast as we could. In less than an hour the hills that had been blackened by people waiting for their turn to pile in were now regaining their original color. When we got into the vast corridors, we were pointed the way by crew members specifically assigned for the task. We were lodged in narrow rooms, a few people in each, which were not designed to hold more than two souls, but that did not really matter. A sudden rumbling made the walls vibrate and we were off the ground. It was a massive and majestic air show performed by four interstellar travelers.

  While we were detaching ourselves from the ground everything around was shaking–a mind-blowing clamor echoing off the Alpine peaks. At this moment, we were gazing out the portholes on our way up and we could not take our eyes off the mesmerizing view that opened before us. A few minutes later we saw the blue beauty, or that is at least how we called it. Just what tranquility and humility did that sphere made of water, land and atmosphere exuded as seen from above! We expected to start experiencing weightlessness any second now as we began to feel a bit lighter. But somewhat imperceptibly the gravitational compensators which created an artificial gravity of a sort, made us feel as though we were on Earth despite the charming and even romantic view that we had of the space around. Suddenly in one of the dark corners of the Earth’s horizon something flashed in an odd way. Then a few dozen blinding lights flashed in different places. Some were weaker, others were stronger and as far away as they were from us, they seemed more and more like nuclear explosions. We were swept by waves of deep unease and terror, we worried about the future of our home which looked so small and delicate as we watched it from the cosmos. The closer we got to our meeting point in the Moon’s orbit, the smaller our plane became. Our saviors were planning to go back and ship more earthlings onto Menoetius, but no one suspected we were never going to see it again . . . our cradle, our motherland, our paradise. Caught in our frenzy to save ourselves, we did not take with us members of the other Earthly species. We harbored fervent hope that this was not the end and even if the self-destruction of the human race had been set in motion, we prayed that life would be preserved–the life of both humans and animals. We prayed, yet did not know whose God to turn to. Was there any point in sending our prayers to anyone and would anyone hear us? Probably not, but hope prompted us to do it . . . And as we were observing our seemingly calm and silent planet, the loudspeakers were switched on and we heard a voice.

  ‘We’re asking all passengers to sit down and prepare for an interstellar jump!’ Those words sent chills down my spine, then the ship shook, but minutes later everything was quiet. We could not feel if we were moving or halting. Outside the window, though, we could see something which was every bit as beautiful as it was terrifying. Like a curved wall of stellar matter, purple-blue in color, we saw a small part of the spatial balloon we were enclosed by. We did not know why it looked that way and it was not our business, anyway.

  All we knew was that the Earth was in ruins. The place I was born and bred in. But it was not just my place. It was the planet where every man, woman and child, every painter, writer or politician had come into existence, the planet where every religion, idea, conviction or love had planted their roots. Every familiar scent or taste, every favorite landscape or site were there. Every hope and reason to live. Everything we had ever seen, heard, felt and touched. We left behind life itself which was in itself a miracle happening in the midst of the vast spaces of the Universe, we left it behind without having any idea how to bid our only patron and creator farewell . . . Our future was grim, but the few fearless characters in charge of the mission gave us the chance to see the next day. Because people such as General Saadi made possible the continuation of our species, even though that existence was far away from the blue globe, our only home until a few minutes ago . . .

  Chapter six

  Life as One Whole

  While we were travelling to that remote and mythic-like place something familiar suddenly popped up out of the blue. Strong light ripped apart the cosmic darkness. It was Iris 1 –the first human-invented machine that had reached such a distant point in the infinite interstellar space. A few decades ago just the mere idea of that ever happening would have seemed like a joke in the eyes of our greatest scientific brains, but it was now a reality. When the ship arrived, it kept some distance from the planet, then its secondary engines directed the course smoothly towards the target. At first, the cosmic body looked like a blue spot, much like the Earth, but the closer the seven brave hearts got to it, the more they realized that it was gigantic new world that they were yet to explore.

  ‘Slow down,‘ Hiroshi said. They reduced the speed so they could take a look at the cosmic body and run their first analyses.

  ‘Estimate the solar radiation levels and be on the watch for cosmic rain,’ Roman instructed. They did not detect any dangerous levels. But something else caught the attention of everyone on board–the exquisite beauty that Menoetius and its two massive moons greeted them with. One of them resembled the rocky color of the Earth’s moon and the other one, sprinkled with active volcanoes, was being torn apart by the activity in its womb. All of this was illuminated by a gigantic red sun that looked way too big and threatening even at that distance. The other interesting phenomenon was the second, more distant pale light that came from the white dwarf and flickered in the dark, overshadowing the light of the moon. The distance between Menoetius and the dwarf was approximately equal to that between the Earth and Jupiter. It was not too far way, yet it made its existence conspicuous. Even though they could see it from far away, it gave them the odd impression of being a third moon that shone with “cold” light. That was what made the night so much lighter than the one we had on our home planet.

  Leaving aside all those picture-framing elements, the true superstar was still Menoetius itself. Even the background that unfurled behind the titanic planet and the beautiful objects that revolved around the main sun, it could not make the crew take their eyes off of its surface. Experiencing that profoundly enrapturing moment was what the Russian discoverer had waited for all his life. A moment of well-deserved pride and thrill. Right now he was standing before the recently discovered infinite world which was sinister in a way. What were they going to find there, what natural laws were our dear explorers going to come upon? The answer was going to rise before their eyes.

  ‘Liu, keep us in orbit around the planet. Mila, turn on the receiving equipment and start scanning the surface.’ Ivanov’s voice cut short the instant of enchantment that the beauty of the cosmic body brought. He felt the same emotions and observed the same horizon as his colleagues, but he was slightly more cautious than them.

  ‘Listen and watch carefully, this may be our only chance to uncover some phenomenon before it’s too late. Monitor eve
rything for radio signals, electromagnetic waves and whatever else you can think of,’ Thomas continued, putting on a set of headphones so he could better catch any auditory signals emitted by the impressive celestial body.

  Of course, these were the first precaution measures they took–out of fear . . . What if there was someone down there, someone more developed, ill-intentioned and hidden? Fortunately, they did not make contact with anything or anyone. The only weird thing that the Russian Colonel managed to catch was and odd electromagnetic wavelenghts. He transformed them with a specific software into sound. When he heard them with his headphones they sounded like weird vibrations.They pretty much resembled the buzzing of a swarm of bees. But they did not take it into count in the beginning as it could have been caused by many things. And yet the planet was too, really too quiet . . . Enormous oceans stretched for miles and devoured and split the land. The ratio of water to earth was almost identical to that on our home planet, there was a difference of just two or three per cent in favor of water, but everything here operated on a much larger scale.

  ‘Choose appropriate landing coordinates. Not too close to the ocean, nor too far from it. Moreover, given the nature of our study, we need a location with river flowing nearby so we can make different analyses,’ Zanev advised. It took them some time to inspect the entire planet, they scanned it down to the last detail which helped them make their final choice for a runway.

  ‘Start descending towards the target,’ the Colonel piped up and the ship started lowering through the thick layer of atmosphere which lit the shuttle as a matchstick. And even though it was burning brightly it did not yield to the high temperature caused by the friction with the air.

  When they reduced the speed, the image that loomed before their eyes came into focus and they saw scenery never before seen by human eyes. Thick forests that made up a colorful blanket of every hue possible. Red, yellow, pale violet and green were the dominant shades, oddly-shaped mountain tops jutted out here and there over the canopies–tops whose foundations started at the forest vegetation and ended up in the higher in the atmosphere which seemed to nurture the life of every last one of the planet’s species. Those black rocks were incredibly steep and impossible to climb, barren of greenery, but shrouded in rain and mist that formed out of the water oddly springing from the tops. They looked as though they were titanic columns that propped the vault of the sky. In the lower parts of the atmosphere the raindrops came together into a river whose bed cut through the surrounding flora, heading toward the vast ocean. But the relief of that region was not confined solely to these shapes. Humbler mountain formations were scattered around the area–probably the result of recent tectonic activity, or they could have just frozen in the beginning of their development. They were lined by vast fields of low vegetation that looked like enormous landing pads. The newly-arrived alien tourists set out to one of those fields. It was a beautiful, almost cloudless day–a cordial welcome for the intergalactic visitors.

  ‘Take it easy, Alan, I don’t want trouble right from the start,’ Mila warned one of the cousins who controlled the maneuver engines situated in the belly of Iris 1. Seconds later the landing gear extended and then the craft touched down slowly and smoothly.

  ‘Make a quick analysis of the air composition. Launch the satellite into orbit, launch the probes as well, we need to collect data from the environment. Prepare the two unmanned ATVs for release on ground, we have to have as many images and frames as we can before we go out there. Set them up to scour a two-mile radius,’ Zanev reminded enthusiastically. The analyses reports came back soon after.

  ‘We’re ready. The air is safe to breathe! It contains 22-23% oxygen. The rest is nitrogen up to 99%. There’s about 0,5% water vapors, the remainder are inert and poisonous gases. The temperature is 27° C. The gravitation is 1,3 times stronger than that of the Earth, almost perfect,’ Alan summarized.

  ‘Perfect for breathing,’ Zanev muttered to himself. ‘You may feel a bit strange due to the slightly higher percentage of oxygen than the one you’re used to, but we should quickly get accustomed to it,’ he said to the rest of the crew.

  ‘Put on the fighting suits, we’re going out in a brief while,’ Ivanov instructed.

  ‘Are you sure everything is safe out there?’ Mila asked alarmed at the command. ‘I suggest we obtain more information about the environment before we take such a step.’

  ‘I’m going to get my information in the open, don’t be scared, we’re safe inside Fighting suit 1.’ Thomas walked ahead and his subordinates had no other option but to follow their leader.

  One by one the astronauts headed down the only corridor their ship had–at its end rested the menacingly-looking exoskeletons set behind a convex glass cover. The Colonel opened the glass case and the six crew members started taking off the outfits in which they had come on board the shuttle. For about ten minutes they managed to slip through the openings of the exo-suits which were hanging down like hanged men. Once they were ready, they felt the same boundless power shooting right through them as it did the first time. The armored suits enveloped them with a rich plethora of sensations, it was as though the contraptions gave the humans the right to resurrect and get reborn. That horrible, painful piercing did not occur this time–the nanotechnology was already living inside of them.

  ‘Mount these on your shoulders,’ the Professor said and handed them a few cameras that they were to equip themselves with.

  ‘Aren’t you coming with us?’ Thomas asked shortly after he managed to install his camera.

  ´I want to get out there for just a little while, to take a deep breath and set foot on the ground. That’s all I need for now. I’m afraid it might be dangerous for me to stay out, still, I don’t have equipment such as yours. Besides, I’m thinking of running more tests in the mini lab on board. I’ll be of more use to you in here. We’ll be in touch, I’ll be seeing everything through your cameras, anyway,’ the Russian scientist answered decidedly. His compatriot saw his plan to stay as prudent since it was imperative that there was someone aboard the ship.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Mila asked the men in front of her. She did not get a clear answer, but only received nods from the people around. The researchers adjusted their helmets–the pieces fit their heads automatically–and took the weapons they had been carrying with themselves ever since they chose them while still in training.

  The only woman on board was in no way any less brave than the rest of the crew. She hit with her fist a big red button which opened the cargo compartment. Suddenly intense light hit the seven members of the team and blinded them for a while. Their hearts started beating faster in fear and anticipation. What could possibly happen beyond that light, beyond that herald of the new beginning?

  After the cargo hatch slid completely open, the view that was revealed was spectacular. A thin, knee-high grass rose in such lush green that Earth had no analogue of. Between them, low on the horizon, the distant sun that had gone silent billions of years ago was glowing under its white halo. There were no moons shining, it was too early for them to show at the location where the earthlings had landed. The star that had brought to life everything they saw was on the opposite side of the horizon. A large red fiery sphere, hanging over the vast fields, was casting its angry beams down for as far as one could see. Pleasantly surprised by the wonderful landscape, Thomas was leading the group.

  ‘Come, Professor. The honor belongs to you. The first step is the most important,’ he prompted, stepping aside to make way for Zanev.

  Thrilled, Roman stood up right on top of the threshold that was just a few feet away from the trampled grass. He stretched a leg and took a step forward. Then he took another four or five paces on the soft soil and drew a deep breath, eyes closed. It was a breath so pure and untainted by harmful gases or human activity that it was incomparable in its freshness. As the head scientist was standing there with his eyes shut, he sensed not only the air but also the variety of noises that came from the s
urrounding trees. Sounds that could have been the cries of birds in a rain forest, and a faint buzzing that sounded like a swarm of bees. A genuine wonder of the force of life that no other human had come into contact outside the confines of our home planet.

  ‘How beautiful all of this is! I can’t believe my senses, it’s all so magical!’ he said with a wide grin on his face, spreading his hands in the air. The six came out of the space shuttle and saw the same magnificent view. But there was no time for joy, they went on to inspect the region. The crew had to explore the area independently of the probes and the ATVs and the abundance of data that they were about to gather. Zanev returned to his laboratory and commenced a detailed analysis of the data he received from the machine-covered terrain. Apart from the graphs and statistics, the screens also broadcasted picture and sound from the march of the brave hearts who made timid steps toward the nearby forest . . .