Thomas Aquinas, Explorer of the galaxy (Thomas Aquinas series)

by Rico, J. Luis

  Azire wears a pair of goggles over his narrow, slitted, and small eyes. These goggles enhance the available light and skew the spectrum of light to the right end of the spectrum to better excite the vision organs inside his head, behind his slatted eye lenses. Lecatians evolved on a system with a sun sixteen times brighter than Sol, and are well adapted for the extreme brightness. The goggles also reduce the humidity in the air that makes contact with his eyes. The Lecatian planets humidity is effectively zero. The relatively high humidity favored by humans makes Azire’s eyes water constantly interfering with his already diminished vision. Compared to Tommaso, Azire is both near and far-sighted and no vision correction has been possible as his internal eye organs behind his lenses are constantly changing before and after a molting process. Each time, a new and different shape emerges just as soon as lenses are ground to match him.

  It is sometimes comical to watch Azire read from a terminal or monitor. He carries a large magnifying glass which he holds at arm’s length when he reads data. Tommaso used to jest him terribly about the magnifying glass until recently, now he has been wearing bifocals and using even stronger reading glasses himself to see the data on a monitor.

  Azire and Tommaso have been in the Shafter system in a geosynchronous orbit over planet Lightfoot for over a year. Collecting data and learning about the alien culture in preparation for making contact.

  The Lightfoot species resemble large centipedes more than anything. They have eight appendages on each side of their body. They are symmetrical. Their sensory organs are concentrated on the pads of their feet. They have organs that provide the same functions as human noses, mouth, and eyes on the pads of these appendages. They appear comfortable going either direction on these feet. There is no visible way to discern where their central intelligence organs are under their hardened skin.

  The Lightfoot species live underground in huge caverns that roughly are the same as mid-sized human cities. By estimation and extrapolation, these cities have anywhere from 100,000 to ten million Lightfoot persons in them, and there are over one million such underground caverns/cities on the planet.

  The planet approximates earth’s size. It is seven percent larger and has a more pronounced bulge on the equator due to a much faster spin on its orbit. A Lightfoot day is 12.5 hours. All of the planet's water is trapped underneath the ground in huge lake liquid reserves or as water ice at the planet's poles.

  The Lightfoot culture maps closely to say, the honeybees behavior. All of the people observed so far are apparently sterile or lack sexual organs that map to a traditional interpretation. They communicate by exchange of vibrations from their foot pads. The vibrations on the soft earth can be felt dozens of meters away. They are using sound waves, or rather acoustic waves, and the ground as a mechanism to transmit their voices. To speak and to hear others.

  The Lightfoot people have a rich culture and tell stories and share information with everyone they come within contact of. They use a vocabulary twice the size of the typical human. Lightfoot peoples 66,000-word vocabulary makes humans 30,000-word vocabulary look somewhat primitive. They record stories and information in mechanical devices that record and play back vibration on demand. Often tens or even hundreds of Lightfoot people gather and “Sing”, each pounding their own unique vibration into the earth with their pads of their “feet”, some of the vibrations combine and increase the amplitude, especially at the lower frequencies. It is the same as low-frequency bass in human music, transmitted through the ground. Recorders capture the music and large devices dug deep into the ground play it back for the enjoyment of people up to several kilometers away.

  At first contact with the Lightfoot people, the research team has decided to place an acoustic transmitter on the edge of a smallish-sized cavern in what is considered the backwoods of the planet. This particular cavern is near an active volcano, and the people there are deemed by the AI’s to be more receptive to the idea of change that contact with an alien species entails.

  The acoustic transmitter and on-board AI are carefully placed by air, dropped and parachuted in semi-autonomous landers. Two such devices are placed within a hundred meters of each other. The devices cover their own trail and roll in their landing and drag parachutes.

  Within a few hours, the early risers from the city cavern discover the devices. They crawl over them and turn them over and roll them around investigating them. The people are very excited by the discovery, but none is making the leap of consciousness that they are alien devices.

  Once a small crowd of aliens (people) are present and the acoustic devices have made firm contact with the ground after being rolled around, the human scientists begin their pre-programmed welcome routine and the acoustic devices “speak”.

  “People of Lightfoot. Welcome and hello from the peoples of the Catholic Church. Pope James the Seventeenth welcomes you into the realm of the known galaxy. Emissaries of our faith are above your planet in orbit thousands of furlongs above your pads. We wish to speak with your leader and make contact to exchange goods, services, and knowledge.”

  The message repeats, this time at a slightly higher amplitude or volume. The Lightfoot react immediately. The vibrations of their chatter and yelling back and forth is intense. Overwhelming numbers want to roll the devices into the volcano. Some want to bury the devices in a deep hole. In the end, the crowd rolls the devices into the volcano where they are slowly consumed by fire.

  The next night the scientists place two more devices in the same locations. The devices are quickly discovered, and the same routine follows through. The crowd is much larger this time. Word has been spread throughout the city/cavern apparently. Again, after the message is played twice to the crowd there is much yelling and arguing. In the end, a small but vocal group of Lightfoot win over the much larger crowd, and the devices are carried into the city/cavern.

  The embedded entangled cameras in the acoustic devices show much of the detail inside the cavern in the infrared spectrum. Visible light shows little detail, the caverns are almost completely dark to human visible light. Azire laughs out loud at a private joke.

  “What is it, my friend?” Tommaso asks with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

  “My friend, when you and I enter this cavern you will see no better than me, that will be a first!” They both laugh at the jest.

  The devices twist and turn through cavern and tunnels, deeper and deeper. After nearly seventy minutes of continuous motion, the devices stop and are placed on the ground. The cavern is small, rather the opening in the cavern the devices is currently placed in is small. The Lightfoot people speak among themselves.

  “She is awake and welcomes the diversion.” That was clear and loud. The amplitude of the vibration was unlike anything previously seen by the Lightfoot people recorded on their sensors. “Bring the strange devices into my grathle!” The loud acoustic vibration again.

  The acoustic devices are again lifted up and are carried into the grathle. The grathle is a huge chamber with a ceiling (quickly measured by laser instrument) at 206 meters high. The far side is quickly measured by echo location of the alien’s vibration speech is over 1250 meters. In the middle of the chamber is a creature far larger than anything living in the known galaxy. The leader/queen/father is over seventy meters height and certainly, masses in the tens of thousands of kilograms. Perhaps more.

  “Speak to me, strange device.” The acoustic wave rolls through the soft earth at high amplitudes. The lower portion of the creature/person vibrates to make contact with the ground to make the acoustic noise… to speak.

  The devices begin their recorded program. The Lightfoot people sit quiet and still until the recording has played through completely, twice.

  “I am known as Leere. I am the mother of the people. I would meet you and not your device.” The lower portion of the huge alien jiggles as the acoustic energy reaches the device and is instantaneously transmitted to the control and command ship in orbit.

  Tommaso and
Azire

  The meeting of the two species, the first face to pad meeting is quickly arranged using the acoustic devices. Azire and Tommaso are prepared and begin quickly to grab their gear and head to the launch bay.

  The two are dropped in long, hardened, egg-shaped entry vehicles from the lander. The entry vehicle absorbs the heat of the atmosphere’s friction, then at a pre-programmed ten thousand meters they break open and allow the two explorers to free fall in their exoskeleton suits. The suits are capable of air cushioned or air drag landing. For this landing profile, air assisted is used. In the thick alien atmosphere, the terminal velocity of the explorers in free fall is slightly less than it would be on earth. The duo has a few minutes to enjoy the sights as they fall, their suits stabilized by a very small drag chute.

  At eleven hundred meters, the drag chute is allowed to pull a large entry and landing chute from the exoskeleton back pack. The large chute pops and slows the rate of descent tremendously. Azire, and a moment behind him Tommaso, steer their parachutes to a landing, softly and within a few meters of the location where the acoustic devices were left earlier for discovery.

  The alien emissaries await them. They jump noticeably when the duo land on the ground from the sky. The first indication they have that the duo is on their way is the vibration of the ground from their landing impact. Tommaso and Azire take one knee and raise a cross above their heads. The aliens all lay down on the ground with all sixteen of their pads making firm contact with the soft earth. They begin as one to pound acoustic energy into the ground. It takes a moment for Azire and Tommaso to realize what they are doing.

  “They are singing for us brother!” Azire yells over the acoustic noise of the vibrations to his partner.

  “No brother! They are praying!” Tommaso yells back.

  A trillion Catholics galaxy wide shout at the news as it is carried live over the entangled communicators to a galaxy eager to see first contact as it happens live.

  The duo lowers their heads to pray. Their voices are translated from English into the acoustic noise of the Lightfoot people. The acoustic language of the Lightfoot people is translated into English and Lecatian as well by the AI communicator.

  Tommaso/Azire “In the name of the Father, and”

  Lightfoot people “From the depths of the beloved cavern.”

  Tommaso/Azire “of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

  Lightfoot people “Welcome to our earth and soil.”

  Tommaso/Azire “Amen.”

  Lightfoot people “Gracious mother.”

  In tens of millions of churches and billions of individual homes. Catholics galaxy wide shout their joy. Another intelligent species has been contacted and knows religion. These people, as strange as their appearance and as dissimilar as their culture is, know the same God as man. They have immortal souls. They have immortal souls!

  Pope James declares a miracle. He names twenty Saints.

  2609 Mormon Delphi System, Planetoids, and Asteroids

  The Mormons on extremely distant Delphi system are United Order Effort branch Mormons. A splinter group of the more populous Bickertonite branch which is itself a splinter group of the main Latter Day Saints religion.

  United Order Effort Mormons (UOE) place great importance on the rule of man as the head of the family and believe in the literal interpretation of scripture to take your wives and be fruitful. A typical UOE family is headed by a man and has at least six wives, and dozens of wives are not unheard of.

  Polygamy as a lifestyle choice on a large and populous body like a planet is a stable and acceptable lifestyle. It is accepted on virtually every modern planetoid and system. Under the stress and confines of space habitats or early generation colony efforts, however, it is a powder keg that can destroy a society. After twenty years of production and growth, the Delphi system descends into chaos and power is seized by hundreds of men who have been unable to secure wives and families of their own due to the mathematics and hard realities of the small population size in the second-generation colony. There are not enough wives.

  The new leaders of the colony force hundreds and thousands of hard line UOE men out of the airlocks of their habitats and seize control of the command and control systems of the largest habitats and ships. They destroy the entangled communicators to hide their deed from the rest of the galaxy. Rebellion has occurred.

  2611 Sunni Glorious Allah (PBUH) system, planet Mecca III

  Well placed low yield thermonuclear devices destroy the command and control element of the main continents capital city New Mecca. Shia militants who converted after arrival in the system organize attacks on the police and military offices of the ruling Sunni class. All of the systems entangled communicators are destroyed by well-timed terrorist attacks.

  Within days the population of the largest and the smallest continent are locked in a vicious civil war for control. The smaller Shia Sect Muslims even the odds by initiating the battle, but the Sunni Muslims out number them greatly. Millions of human lives are claimed within days of hostilities. Rebellion has occurred again.

  Within ten years, there are seven more known rebellion systems in the Muslim colonies. Millenniums old Sunni Shia schisms are reborn among the stars.

  Five years later, an eighth system rebels. A Catholic system.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rebellion, False Pope

  The Year 2623, Sol system, Mars

  Pope James the Seventeenth dies a natural death at the age of one hundred and eighteen. As he lies in magnificent state in the Cathedral at Ismenius Lacus, the Cardinals gather at the Vatican on Earth and begin to scheme and plan who will become the next Pope.

  It takes several months to gather the necessary quorum of Cardinals for the College selection. As has been done for thousands of years the College Votes using paper and pencil until there is a consensus candidate to be elected to the divine post. This election as is the case with most others is very political and deep and irretrievable wounds are inflicted upon brother Cardinals to gain favor and advantage. In the end, Cardinal Bartholomew is elected from Earth’s ancient Greece, and he selects the name Anacletus. Anacletus the Second. Named after the first Pope selected from Greece in 0076 over 2,500 years before.

  The second-place vote getter is Cardinal Linus, named after the Pope that preceded the first Greek Pope. It all makes for a great story in the press.

  However, Cardinal Linus is not one to take the defeat easily.

  Damian System

  Cardinal Linus organizes a large group of loyalists and seizes control of the command and control systems of the Damian system. They seize all of the entangled communicators and declare a split along the lines of the great East-West Schism of 1054 which formed the Eastern Orthodox churches and their line of Popes on ancient earth – a line that exists to this day.

  Cardinal Linus declares himself the Pope of a new branch of the Holy Catholic Church. He selects as his name Pope Constantinople. The first in the line of New Space Eastern branch Christianity Catholics. He urges other Cardinals and systems to join him. He is wildly successful. Dozens of systems and Cardinals flock to his vibrant and larger than life personality. Pope Constantinople uses the power of the entangled communicators to spread his version of New Space Eastern branch Catholicism to the rest of the galaxy.

  The revolt and the rapid rise of the Schism Church are the greatest news in a thousand years. News programs and churches galaxy wide argue the merits and list the demerits of the accepting or joining the new Church.

  Pope Anacletus announces his intention to travel to Damian system to confront the false Pope face to face.

  An armada of space ships is arranged. The Pope will travel with a massive fleet of nearly 500 ships to accompany him. The ships consist of fast scouts, capable of extremely high G maneuvers in a gravity well, Colony class ships, engineering ships capable of wreaking havoc on a solar system and massive battle ships, armed with rail guns, lasers, missiles, and captured black holes.

&n
bsp; The Armada arrives within weeks of the Schism being declared. Pope Anacletus and the self-declared Pope Constantinople meet in the Capital of the planetoid Xeres in orbit around the smallest Gas Giant in the system. The entangled communicators carry the face to face meeting live and transmit it to the galaxy. It is the largest audience ever for the massive galaxy-wide news programs.

  The two Popes argue and pray and argue more. They take their rest and begin again the next day. The two men and their most powerful Cardinals allies argue and berate each other. In two instances, a fist fight erupts between Cardinals, and they have to be separated. Pope Anacletus shakes his hands uncontrollably and cries and laments the Schism. He cries and urges Linus back into the fold of the Mother Church. Linus screams at Pope Anacletus “My name is Pope Constantinople!” He nearly hits Pope Anacletus live for the news programs.

  In the end, Pope Anacletus declares two days of fasting and prayer for him and his Cardinals. For two days, they remain incommunicado while the false Pope and his Allies bombard the entangled TV channels with interview after interview and spread their version of the gospel virtually unchallenged. The false Pope smears Pope Anacletus and demeans his character on television programs.