The Traveler's Return (Traveler Series 3)

by Dr L. Jan Eira

  As the transformation progressed, a high-pitch screeching sound resonated throughout the cave. Koo eeky…koo eeky. This sound consisted of a low-amplitude high-frequency signal, just barely within Brent’s ability to detect. To him the sound was a hum barely there at all, but the computer analysis had indicated the inhabitants of Terrae Virentia would appreciate the whirr very well, even from far distances. Hopefully, the depth of the cave would diminish the vibration, and the sound would be imperceptible to those outside it.

  Instinctively, Brent, now as Alexandra, looked all around and took a deep breath. She admired the feeling of air entering her lungs and the visual input of her surroundings as they crisscrossed through millions of synapses into her cerebral cortex. She caused her right hand to move up in front of her face and wiggled her fingers. What a strange sensation this created. A brand new way of existing. A brand new way of seeing the world and accomplishing things.

  As she exited the cave, Alexandra wished she could talk to Ellie and the others about the planet she was in and all the marvels it possessed, but strict protocol dictated that no communications were to be had with the space station while on or near Terrae Virentia.

  Scanners confirmed that the four youths were two kilometers to the east of her location, with no other inhabitants within eight and a half kilometers. However, there were multiple smaller organisms, the closest at ninety meters. That’s about three hundred feet, he thought. Brent speculated that these were smaller animals; the heaviest of all these estimated at nineteen kilograms.

  Forty-two pounds, Alexandra mused. The size of my labradoodle, Catalina. I should be able to handle you, unless you have sharp fangs. She gave her NeuroComp a thought command, and soon a virtual screen in front of her displayed the necessary data points. She reviewed the information regarding the type of wild animals on Terrae Virentia of around that size and found a few possibilities that might present a problem. Better keep an eye on you.

  Alexandra set her proximity alert app so as to have prewarning if any wild creature, bigger than ten pounds, would come within ten meters, or about thirty feet.

  Alexandra’s thought command caused the NeuroComp to present a molecular and cellular analysis of the campsite where the kids were sleeping. They’re asleep but still stirring. She sat down at the base of a large tree-type structure, which had many purple, red, and white leaves attached to its orange trunk. And now, I wait. Soon they’ll be in deep slumber.

  Within a few moments, Alexandra felt a strange sensation on her upper thigh. A sharp sting created an excruciating pain in the area. Startled, she got on her feet and scrutinized the area of her intense discomfort. It was difficult to see through the fading light of the late evening, but she finally found the small creature. She yanked it out, its sharp beak still dripping her blood. The little animal measured approximately ten inches, most of which was a sharp, needle-like bill. It had a ridged, hard surface. She placed the organism in a small container and scrutinized her attacker.

  For a three pounder, you sure have a big bite? she thought. ‘Do you have any little friends with you or are you alone? A thorough search of the vicinity revealed no other creatures.

  If the little monster hadn’t just stung her leg, she would have described the tiny beast as being cute. It was green and pink in coloration and had three small eyes on its presumed forehead. It had six legs, three on each side of its little body. Once the little monster was contained, Alexandra examined her skin. The small puncture appeared to have been inconsequential to her safety. Besides the sting, which was now almost imperceptible, she felt well. She repaired the hole on the avatar dermis with PermaBond glue, as she had rehearsed so many times before under multiple types of conditions while deep asleep in the stasis pod. After all this was accomplished, she stared at her monitor again. No movement at the campsite. She was ready to carry out her mission.

  The operation was a complete success, General Narrows! I landed the capsule by a body of flowing water near to the location where the youths were camping. I found a deep cave suitable to hide the planetary-vehicular module from sight. The morphing sequence worked exactly as designed. Having my life essence inside the avatar was scary at first, but I got used to it.

  I first released and detonated the propafol blast into their cave. When they were all under deep anesthesia, I placed the cerebrumular particle concentrate drop into the right-ear canal of the oldest male being, whom we now refer to as Brent. As expected, the droplet seeped through the eardrum and into the brain. Once in the brain, the particle traveled through his neurosynapses and sought his brain centers that govern dreams.

  We’ve been able to receive some rudimentary communication signals from Brent’s dreams. We discovered Brent initially perceive a profound sense of déjà vu as this communication was established. There was also slight bleeding from his ear canal. Beyond that, Brent and the others remained unsuspicious about our mission. Everything worked out perfectly according to plan.

  I’ll be going back to Terrae Virentia in a few days to inoculate Ellie, the youngest female. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll establish brain-wave communications with William and Valerie the trip after that.

  Now, we’re working on interpreting the signals emanating from Brent’s dream sequences. We’ve designed a computer model and are hopeful that we can translate these signals into meaningful imagery. These signals are extremely high-frequency wavelets, higher than we’ve ever encountered before, and way out of our ability to see, hear, or reproduce, so there’s no way we’ll be able to comprehend them without computer-driven translation.

  General, the bad news is that I was stung by a small wild creature. It penetrated my skin after the transformation. The wound on the avatar is all healed up, so all’s well that ends well. I brought the little beasty for analysis. We’ll tell you more as we learn more.

  I’m sorry about your encounter with the creature, Commander Smithson. Your efforts on the Terrae Virentia project have been, if you’ll excuse the pun, stellar!

  Our scientists on the Neptorus Observational Space Station have noticed an unusual amount of agitation by the Terrae Virentians. The scientists feel the hullabaloo might be a new discovery on their part that’s got them all excited. We can’t tell what yet. We still believe your visit remained undetected by them. We’ll keep looking for something, and we’re sure you will as well.

  General Narrows, the Terrae Virentians began dying off at a very rapid pace, faster than before my first trip to the planet. The generation of carbonyl trioxide began dropping very rapidly a few weeks ago. In a way, this is good news for now, since the levels were getting too high and threatened planetary devastation in a few more Earth years, but at this rate of decline, carbonyl trioxide levels will be at destructively low levels to the planet in less than five Earth months. Earth will be affected in thirty-six years. Somehow, what we are trying to prevent from happening just became fast-tracked. We must find out what caused this acceleration and fast. What does Neptorus Observational Station see? We’ll keep looking from here.

  The problem is behaving like a very aggressive infectious pathogen. Neptorus scientists are not aware of any such organism on Terrae Virentia, or any other planet in the Triloptia Stellar System. Any chance the pathogen was transferred there from you, Commander? Perhaps when you were stung by the creature on the planet?

  Yes, there is a strong possibility I transferred the infectious organism to Terrae Virentia. The avatar bled on their soil. I cleaned up as best as I could, and I thought I had it all, but it was dark and difficult to see what I was doing. The handheld indicated no human DNA after my cleanup, but I suppose that is not foolproof for infectious agent transfer. It is conceivable I had transferred some bug on to the avatar and that this organism may have stayed on Terrae Virentia.

  In the last six weeks since our last communiqué, we have learned that there is a new virus-like agent on the planet that is causing sudden premature deaths in thousands of adult inhabitants per hour. We n
eed to study this pathogen further. Commander William Baten will be traveling to the planet and get us adult Terrae Virentian corpses to study. Fortunately, these are easy to find since so many of them are dying everywhere.

  Commander Baten, good luck on your mission to Terrae Virentia to collect tissue for study. We must help the Terrae Virentians out of this mess we most likely unintentionally created.

  “You won’t believe this,” said Ellie, looking through the microtelescope. “The pathogen, which has an aggressive and deadly viral-like behavior on Terrae Virentians, is plain whole Staphylococcus epidermidis.”

  “Normal human-skin bacteria?” asked William. “I didn’t see that coming.”

  “I’m sure it came off my skin epithelial cells and transferred on to Alexandra,” said Brent. “Somehow the bacteria infected a person or animal. Then the damn thing went viral to the rest of the population.”

  “One more thing,” added Ellie. “The Staph organisms render all living cells it infects completely sterile. Almost every living thing on the planet is now unable to reproduce. That means no cell repair by producing more new cells, no ability to grow new tissue as a response to injury and, most important to the population, certainly no reproduction! At this rate, all life on Terrae Virentia will be gone in a few months’ time. A year at most.”

  “It gets worse,” said Valerie. “For humans, infection with Staph is easily treated with methicillin. Unfortunately, methicillin is very toxic to the flesh of the Terrae Virentians. Take a look.”

  She stepped aside, and Brent peeped through the microtelescope. “Yikes,” he said.

  William took a turn. “Now what?”

  “Valerie and I will work on a medical solution,” said Ellie. “William, you listen in on what they’re dreaming down there and see how they’re handling it from their perspective.”

  “We don’t know anything about their physiology,” said Brent.

  “That is the other bad news,” said Ellie. “If I’m going to understand their physiology, I will now need a living body. I’ve done all I could with the dead ones. We need to bring a couple of young uninfected creatures to the Traveler Space Station for me to study further.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” said William. “Our main subjects, Brent, William, Ellie, and Valerie, are already infected. I’ll find two uninfected Terrae Virentians and bring them up here. I’ll find two of them if I have to search every inch of the planet.”

  “Let’s get the planetary-vehicular module ready to travel,” said Brent. “I’ll give you a hand. We need to prepare for an immediate departure.”

  “We’ll also need to figure out the best way to bring the Terrae Virentians back here,” said Brent. “Unfortunately, the planetary-vehicular module can only carry one person at a time.”

  “Ah, there I can help out!” said Valerie. “I’ve found a way for us to transfer directly to the avatar from here. The trip to the planet will take only a few seconds instead of a couple of days.”

  “How does it work?” asked William.

  “I’ve boosted the transfer tool’s telecommunication capability. Instead of having to get into the planetary-vehicular module to take your body there, I can transfer your essence into the avatar from here. Are you game, William?”

  “Sure,” William said. “But how do I bring the live Terrae Virentians back?”

  “We’ll autopilot the module from here and have it there for you when you’re ready to transport them,” said Brent. William nodded. “If they’re on the small side, we can transport two of them in one trip.”

  “We have a lot to do, but time is running short,” said Valerie. “We need to find a way to slow things down. We need to buy us some time. Learning to communicate with them much more efficiently will take a lot more time than we have.”

  “And then there’s the widespread infection we caused them,” said Ellie. “And how to cure it.”

  Valerie took a deep breath. “Wish we could stop time.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The caveman felt an inherent craving to explore his world. He had ventured out of his cave and the surrounding nearby forest. He knew the way between his home cave and the flowing waters. There were many types of fruit-bearing trees that provided sustenance. He recently discovered that there was food buried in the ground; tasty treats that were fulfilling and delicious. But he sensed there was more, much more to discover. He looked around his realm. There were birds, some perched on beautiful tree limbs, others raced in flight; butterflies fluttered about, alighting here and there, each landing resulting in kissing ever more attractive flowers. The ground, on which stood mighty trees, was covered with grasses and mosses. The world was covered by a light-blue dome, which he named sky. In it floated patches of fluffy white blotches of different sizes and shapes. Beyond the frothy blotches hung a bright light with rays of yellow that warmed his skin and provided illumination at certain times.

  Once again, he began to feel rumblings in his insides; the grumbling pains that would only vanish with food and liquid. During the requisite traipsing to the fruit trees and the flowing waters, he would take the opportunity to explore the as-yet-unvisited parts of the realm.

  And so it was. He ventured out farther than he had ever before. He encountered the typical creatures he had already faced and many new ones. He came upon beasts that didn’t seem interested in close alliances with him, who seemed fearful of him and galloped away when he approached. All animals in sight seemed content to consume the same types of foods he ate. He learned to dare to sample different types of food after the other creatures had done so. If it proved safe for them, surely it would be safe for him.

  He walked for a very long period of time, and the bottoms of his feet had become swollen with ache. The skylight was melting already. It was time to return home. He desperately needed to settle for respite.

  By the time he found his home cave, the multiple sparkly slits in the sky dome imparted the only sight and merely the creatures of the lightless world spoke. He looked inside his cave and sniffed. He sensed nothing but empty blackness. He pulled one of the large rocks back from the entrance to allow his ingress and returned the obstacle to its original position. This created a clatter as the heavy stone crunched the ground underneath it. This gateway functioned as a block to all things outside—all but the little visitor who appeared to him time to time when he was in quiet. Not only could she gain entry past the gateway but also did so without the warning thud of movement.

  He learned that her name, Alexandra, means The Defender of Man. Her skin of white was curious to him as was her body, surrounded by red material, and the black walling of her feet. These he began calling wears and shoes, and he began contemplating ways to pamper himself with covers for protection from the elements, mimicking Alexandra.

  “Eat, drink, discover, and learn,” Alexandra declared again.

  He had discovered impressions on a flat rock—two circles, one larger than the other, with an arrow between them. The circles had strange symbols underneath, EARTH and MOON. Under those, he saw other marks, none of which he could comprehend: 947/3.8 = 368 yrs.

  He couldn’t help to think that there had been a time when he knew what these characters meant. But why he supposed he could somehow have interpreted the pictograms at one time was a mystery.

  When Alexandra appeared to him, he took her to the flat rocks deep inside the cavern. Even though when he closed his eyes earlier in respite, there was only dark; her presence now commanded light. With Alexandra’s help, he discovered that the symbols of lasting impressions on the flat rocks were messages, though he could not comprehend their true meaning. She taught him how to write symbols just like the ones on the large flat rocks and many others and pair each mark with sounds. He began to categorize the names he had given to things and creatures.

  “All of this is yours,” she told him again, while on a long walk together through the realm. “All except the fruit of this tree. It is called apple. It is sweet and delicious
, but I do not allow you to eat it. It contains a high concentration of a poison called amygdalin. This type of tree encircles your safe territory. The poison of its fruit serves to keep predators away from your garden and keep you safe here inside the circle of amygdalin.”

  “Am-g-elin…” He grunted the words. “Am-g-eden…” He tried again. “G-am-eden…” He considered the sounds and the meaning of the words, and finally he said, “Garden of Eden?”

  She turned and began to walk away.

  “You need companionship,” she said. “I will provide you with companionship when I return.”

  And she was gone, and his world turned pitch dark again.

  He woke up and felt hunger aches again. Slivers of skylight squeezed through the gateway and touched his face. He pushed the rock and stepped out into the clearing right outside his cave. He ate from the fruit trees around him with haste. When satisfied, he began running as fast as his limbs would carry him. He would dart in a straight line without stopping until his body was too tired to continue.

  His chest heaved in and out ferociously. He placed his right hand over his eyes to shield them from the intense skylight. And there it was. In the far-off distance, he beheld the apple tree line. He would not partake of the forbidden fruit, as it would anger Alexandra. Though the forbidden fruit appeared delicious and tasty from afar, he would not dare touch it. He would not disobey Alexandra.

  Through the apple trees, he witnessed multiple big furry animals with long sharp teeth. I will call you wolf, he thought. Alexandra had called this type of creature a predator.