by Eric Wilkins
As the population began leaving their under pyramid protection shelters, humans could now breathe the air that had been totally changed for human consumption.
On a regular basis, hot boulders still fell from a sky that was now blue. The danger of being struck by a meteor near civilization was no where as bad as it once was in the earlier years.
Chapter 28
Celesta and Thomas Explore the New Venus
It is recorded that I Celesta Marcia was born on Venus on New April 25th in the year 3892 and had been raise by my parents Cody and Jeanine Marcia.
In 3912, I had graduated from the only college of Venus entitled New World Academy.
In 3913, I was now employed as an explorer by the Academic Venus Exploration Corporation. In these new days even females could engage in exploration.
I and my partner Thomas Perskipsi, after a year of survival training set out early one Venus morning of November 10th of 3914 to explore the base of the never explored valley of Aphrodite Terra in an exploration rover that was well equipped to handle any Venus situation that we should encounter.
For many long Venus hours, Thomas and I had piloted the rover we called Dependence around steaming hot craters that had been created by falling boulders from the Venus sky.
Just like Noah’s Ark, Earth ships had transported many animal species and plant life to the new world in hopes that that they would survive and prosper here as humans were attempting to do.
Far ahead in the distance we spotted a huge herd of Buffalo-like creatures that had gathered near a running water stream at the base of Aphrodite Mountain.
These animals were similar to buffalo but had unique features of there on with purplish mange hair that shimmered in the Venus sunlight and they had pointed single nostril snouts.
As we grew nearer to the herd it was evident that our presence was not welcome by the Venus Buffalo.
There was also a herd of cattle-like critters further on far past the buffalo creatures that we had decided to investigate for the purpose of our scientific journal.
Our Dependence Rover was also a tree seed planter and as the tracks of the rover moved along at 10 mph, it shot a piston into the surface and planted tree seeds as it moved ahead.
Venus’ atmosphere was 10 percent thicker than the former Earth’s and sound traveled somewhat slower than it once did on Earth.
The piston impacted the surface with a low toned thud as Thomas and I proceeded further ahead in our exploration journey.
Thomas piloted the rover as I dutifully scanned the forward radar to monitor the situation ahead.
Hey, Check this out I insisted to Thomas as he stopped the Rover abruptly and stood to view the long range radar visual.
Wow he exclaimed. What the heck could that possibly be? Both Thomas and I were astounded at what the monitor screen was projecting to us.
It appears to me to be some sort of hump back yellow jelly-like mammals that appear to be mating.
Thomas engaged the rover again and creped along towards the weird animals a mile or so ahead.
In 10 minutes time that were within fifty yards of the yellow hump back jelly creatures that had one eye and three short fat structured legs.
The two creatures wiggled as they appeared to be mating and paid no attention what so ever of our presence.
The frightful sound of thunder was suddenly followed by sharp purple lightning as a storm approached quickly without warning. The creatures immediately scurried away towards an opening in the base on the far side of Aphrodite Terra.
Chapter 29
Our First Venus Surface Storm
Black clouds on Venus suddenly let loose with warm liquid rain water quickly filling the shallow crater that the rover had just exited.
Patiently, Thomas and I sat out the steamy down pour that completely obstructed any view that we had before the storm started. Venus winds howled and sharp blue electric lightning struck the ground all around Dependence Rover.
I then reached towards the control panel and quickly engaged a force field around Dependence that quieted the noise of the loud dangerous storm and protected the rover from extreme lightning.
For ten Venus hours we were trapped and unable to travel ahead further until the storm finally subsided just about the time that the Sun was setting in the western Venus sky. We had no choice in the matter. It wasn’t safe to proceed.
The rover protected us well but as dusk came on Venus and stars began shinning, it was decided that we should bed down for the night and wait for the dawn to light the way for further exploration.
The Venus night time temperature outside had plummeted to below freezing and the rosy colored Triton Moon lit the surface with pale soft shadows.
Planet Mars was brightly visible to the right of the Triton Moon and many brilliant stars filled the Venus night sky.
There was indeed a very spooky effect that echoed as various Venus animal species bellowed their weird sounds through the long Venus night.
Thomas and I retreated to our separate compartments to get some much needed rest.
Venus time, November 11th, 3915 at 520 AM, Thomas and I were awakened by a sudden loud noise outside our Dependence Rover.
Suddenly the Rover shook violently and almost tilted up on the side and landed with a thud.
Thomas and I were thrown and tumbled to the floor as the rover landed back on it’s traction treads. Once again the rover was tossed sideways as we attempted to stand up.
A moment of calm allowed us to scurry to the front to engage the outside monitor. As the front shudders open to reveal the Venus early dawn, off to the right stood a furious looking creature of a fairly large size.
I Celesta quickly engaged the force field to surround the rover as it came charging towards the rover again. The creature was twice the size of an earth elephant and as it charged forward furiously snorting Venus dust below its nostrils and it bellowed a high pitch howl from its one center head huge spiked horn.
The force field energized just as the creature reached its boundary and repulsed and shocked the creature backwards in the air slamming it to the surface upon its back with a ground shaking thud.
The Venus creature slowly regained its stance and quickly exited the scene towards the base of the mountain.
That was close Thomas stated. If you hadn’t energized the forcefield in time, the rover might have been crushed by those huge feet that the creature had. Yea I stated with eyes wide open, all six of them. We both expressed a nervous laugh and retreated towards the small galley for an early breakfast snack before duty status.
630 AM November 11th, 3915
This time I Celesta slid into the pilot seat and engaged the rovers slow forward traction tracks to begin our new journey around a crater lake body that led us away from the Mountain base in a westerly direction towards unexplored territory.
Far ahead in the distance their appeared to be a drop off of the terrain that the depth couldn’t be determined by radar.
Steady thumps were heard from the piston tree planter as Dependence traversed the 50 kilometer distance in a little over 3 hours time.
I suddenly locked the rover down near the edge of the drop off and engaged the camera boom over the edge to see what was in the deep canyon below.
As the video came into focus there was displayed an unusual scene far below at the bottom of the deep canyon.
Almost 10 kilometers below existed a steamy swirling mass of hot volcanic ash that was swirling down inside Venus in a counter clockwise spin. The canyon itself was half as large as the recorded size of Earth’s former grand canyon and it’s walled sides were slowly being eroded away from the down swirl of hot air downdraft.
Temperatures down there seem to exceed a thousand degrees Fahrenheit Thomas said. That must be what is left of the ancient Venus’ existence. Yea I replied. There’s nothing we
need to be exploring in that hellish pit. I think we should move on and leave that part of Venus to its own devise.
There appears to be a greenish area ahead to the right at the point of this hot crater. What say we head along this humongous hole and see what’s over there. I agree Thomas stated. It’s probably going to take us quite a while to get there maybe by sunset we can make it if we try.
Ok I said, we’re off to see the wizard or whatever that entails I quipped in jest. There’s no need to engage the tree planter because nothing will take root along the edge of the obnoxious gas fumes coming from that hot pit.
Chapter 30
The North Point of The Venus Canyon
Long hours had passed as the rover and crew drove a swerving path all along the craters edge. One Venus null after another the rover continued up and down around the crater slowly nearing the green area that had been spotted from their journey to the edge.
The rover exited the rim and drove a kilometer west as the land had settled down to a flat area between hilly plains.
Another mile to the north displayed a group of plants like none ever seen before. There was no wind at the moment but the green weird plants seemed to dance back and forth as if they were reaching skyward through cloud shielding sunlight.
The weird plants swayed left and right as the sun shined and then clouds passes between and gave shade. There were no flowers of such but between swirled branch nodes their grew buds of sticky gristle that smelled of sweet honey.
Our exploration took us nearer to the mystical plants and we exited to the surface in protective sun shield suits. The closer we walked nearer the mystical plants it was easy to see now that many small hummingbird like creatures swarmed around the plants sucking the nectar of the nodes below circled branches.
Wow Thomas exclaimed. I’ve never seen any plants that look like these. Their stems grow in spirals while the under nodes produce this sticky resin that these flying small bumblebee-like creatures seem to flourish off of the dripping nectar.
Thomas bagged a sample of the nectar nodes for later study. It smells similar to marijuana but I’ve never seen any marijuana with such a powerful smell like these plants have. Thankfully I’m protected from any poisonous effects by my suits cloaking ability. Thomas implied.
It can’t be too dangerous I said. It doesn’t seem to be harmful to the Venus-like hummingbirds. I’ve captured three of the bee creatures in a Venus airtight container. We’ll stow those samples in the cargo bay to analyze with the computers later.
Let’s head back to the Rover and be on our way. Okay Thomas said. It want be too long before the sun sets anyway. We’ve traveled a pretty good distance today. My stomach’s growling a bit for some food myself. I could eat a Venus Buffalo just about now.
I grinned as we unsealed the rovers hatch and returned to the safety of Dependence inside. As we traverse on westward towards the setting sun it was decided to travel on as far as possible before the dusk of Venus was upon us. It was such an amazing site to view the rosy Triton Moon hanging just above the setting sun in the forward view screen.
Another hours travel and we parked among the desert shrubby and shut the Dependence Rover down for the night that was approaching by the minute.
Thomas and I had no idea what tomorrows discovery might bring. We decided to engage the rovers high powered telescope shortly after the sun set below the Venus western horizon.
Yesterday Triton was rising an hour or so after sunset. Tonight Triton was lighting Venus with eerie shadows because it was rising 20 minutes after sunset and red rays through the clouds in the Venus dusk were displaying a beautiful cloud spectral sunset.
As stars appeared past sunset I focused the telescope towards the ecliptic and zeroed in on Planet Saturn the most beautiful ringed planet known.
Made mostly of hydrogen helium and methane, Saturn rotates extremely fast on its axis and turns once every 10 hours and 34 minutes. Saturn rotates so fast that it bulges at the equator by more than ten percent more than it does at the poles.
It takes 29.4 years to revolve around the Sun once and is the farthest planet that can be seen by the naked eye.
In my view finder I easily spotted the Moons Prometheus and Pandora that keeps the F ring together and intact. Saturn has a total of 120 Moons and moonlets in orbit. I could also see Titan, Rhea and Enchiladas as they continued their journey around the beautiful ringed Saturn.
Astronomy had always been my first love from a early age and every time I viewed worlds through a telescope I was always amazed by the wonder of it all. For hours I just sat there viewing the heavens with new wonder. Tomorrows journey awaits as I disengaged the telescope and retired to my quarters to gain the rest that I would surely need for tomorrows further Venus exploration.
Chapter 31
First Solar Eclipse on Venus
Today was a special day on Planet Venus. This was the day at 1016 AM on November 12th, that Triton was to perform it’s first total solar eclipse of the Sun.
We both awoke at sunrise to hurry along to a specific co-ordinance that the total eclipse could be viewed from that was twenty five kilometers to the west. That would put us in the direct path of Tritons total eclipse of the sun.
We arrived at the specific location at 9 AM Venus time and I became extremely excited of being one of the first to record the first ever total eclipse of the Sun from Venus. Former Earth generations that survived had forgotten the experience and thrill of a solar eclipse.
Earth was no more and the generations that had survived didn’t know what to expect when the Moon passed between the Sun and Venus.
The rover with Thomas and I were soon joined by a few more curious first time observers of the not to far away in time phenomenon.
Even though Triton was smaller than the former Earth Moon, it was placed closer to Venus than Earth’s Moon and due to its smaller size, it would almost completely cover the Sun at totality.
At 10:16 AM, wonder and awe filled the eyes of the observers as Triton appeared to touch the edge the Sun corona.
As the minutes passed all were excited as the Suns brightness began to dim as Triton now half covered the bright star.
Several more minutes passed and darkness fell upon Venus as totality occurred. There was an eerie darkness that fell upon the land. Rosy shimmering shadows projected through Tritons atmosphere displaying mysterious darkness all around the area.
Spectators were in awe as baily’s beads occurred on the edge of the solar disk. It only lasted 30 seconds and after another minute passed the Sun began revealing its glory behind the Triton Moon.
It was indeed a fantastic site from Venus that the new inhabitants of this world had never experienced before.
Eerie calmness prevailed and not a sound was heard from the small crowd until Triton had again revealed the total sunshine by the solar systems faithful star the Sun.
By 10:31 AM, the fantastic stellar show was over and Venusians began returning to their chariot vehicles to begin departing the area.
After all is said and done, we didn’t call ourselves Earthlings anymore.
Yes, we were still human beings but we were now considered to be Venusians.
By 11:00 AM, Thomas and I had stowed away our telescopic recorder and had also departed the area headed towards one more exploration goal approximately 70 kilometers to the north of our present eclipse viewing location.
At 10 mph, the 44 miles took about four and a half hours to arrive at our finale destination before after one more night on Venus we would have to return to Pandora city tomorrow.
The rovers resources and power supply had dwindled to 40 % by the time we reached our new destination around 5;30 PM Venus time. All along the journey the thump of the tree planter was heard as we progressed onward towards another destination.
We drove three kilometers further along a streams winding boundary unti
l we approached a level clearing lake surrounded by many colored flowered vegetations. Such a lovely site I reported to Thomas. This looks like a good place to spend the night before we have return to Pandora tomorrow.
This time we were following a flowing river stream that ran east and west among a narrow band of low mountain hilly terrene and this stream fed the lake that we were approaching and going to camp next to for the night.
Nearly 6 PM Venus time, Thomas and I decided to sample the lake and see what sort of fish had been transported to Venus from the former planet Earth.
The temperature outside just before dusk had cooled to 80 degrees Fahrenheit as we both cast our lines into the beautiful Venus lake.
A hour passed and I had caught three two pound fish and Thomas had reeled in two also.
I commented to Thomas, You know a fish that weighed a pound on the former earth would only weigh a little over eighty percent of a pound on Venus. Thomas laughed and said that may be true but these two pound fish that we caught on Venus would weigh over two and a half pounds had we caught them on Earth.
It seemed such a perfect end to the Venus exploration journey when suddenly the Rover’s alarm sounded and Thomas and I rushed to the rover to comprehend the situation.
Chapter 32
Buried Under Venus Mud
Suddenly the atmosphere produced a deep rumble and a 10 meter fireball glowed hotter as it approached the lake. It’s over 30 feet in diameter Thomas said excitedly. We’d better engage the force field. Just as I flipped the switch the meteor crashed into the center of the lake with a loud whoosh and for a fraction of a second, silence filled the cabin as all the water in the lake propelled upward and came crashing back down on the entire surrounding area.
The force field did its job in protecting the rover but now it was trapped in a huge mudslide that was rushing back towards the rover and crew.