AMERICA ONE - Return To Earth (Book 4)

by T I WADE

  This was to be a long voyage and no part of life aboard America One was taken for granted or escaped scrutiny for safety and possible dangers.

  Ryan attended many of the meetings, and if he couldn’t make it, either Captain Pete or Kathy went in his place. Often in the health meetings there was little to discuss, except the everyday changes made by the crew. One became pregnant, another delivered another baby girl, one crew member wasn’t happy about the noise in the area around him, and another wanted to return to Earth. All these issues were discussed in a “think tank” where remedies were floated that might resolve the situations.

  The topic of most interest was the babies. Still no baby boy had been born on America One. All of the last nine babies born in space were healthy baby girls. Three more couples had married since Earth, and six babies were on the way.

  Both doctors, Martin Rogers and Nancy Martin, suspected that the ship’s lower gravity was, at least in part, responsible for the unusual gender bias. Doctor Rogers also wondered if it was the way the baby was positioned in the mother’s womb, while Doctor Martin suspected a lack of good, old-fashioned sunshine had something to do with it. Prospective moms were offered tests to see if the doctors could change anything.

  In one apartment, newly married Joanne and her husband were trying for a baby boy. Extra gravity flooring was added in the family unit. After tests by the build crew, it was found to be 105 percent of Earth gravity and Doctor Rogers happily monitored the family’s daily life. In another apartment, one of the sun lamps was taken out of the pool room, to be used by both husband and wife for three hours per day. That couple, married for only two weeks, also wanted a baby boy. Doctor Martin was interested in following this family.

  Other essential necessities that required daily monitoring were fuel usage, fuel manufacture, air manufacture and pure oxygen manufacture. The crew had used up important supplies on Mars, and the production of new breathable air was a long and difficult process.

  Electrolysis was the normal way to separate both oxygen and hydrogen from the water collected on Earth and Mars. Oxygen gas was obtained by fractional distillation of air while hydrogen gas was obtained via the "water gas" reaction or the "steam reforming" process. The oxygen had to be added to the correct parts of nitrogen, argon, and a few other nondescript gases, then pressurized into tanks for storage. The lush gardens in the cubes performed enough photosynthesis on a daily basis, to turn exhaled carbon dioxide back into oxygen.

  With limited amounts of water, and numerous uses for the liquid, it was worth more to the ship than all the diamonds delivered to Earth.

  With the ship being driven forward by the ion drives, very little hydrogen fuel was being used, but more would be needed to slow the ship down, using the dozen side thrusters, when they needed to align the ship’s speed to the target. Once in orbit around the round planet, only small amounts of hydrogen fuel would be used to keep the ship in a perfect position. Captain Pete estimated that 26 months would be the time traveled before they would need to disengage from their orbit around Blue, if they wanted to visit Jupiter and her moons, and then get back into orbit about a year later.

  On this orbit around the solar system, Saturn would also be a close flyby if they wanted to continue, but, like Mars, they would only have four to six months in the general area of Saturn before they would lose their free ride. Their return flight might not include the free ride with Blue, as they could take a more direct route from Saturn back to Earth when the time came.

  To most aboard, the odyssey had already been a life event, and many knew that they might never see their blue home planet again. Several of the older scientists were already in their late sixties, and a decade or two made a lot of difference to them.

  The younger children and babies would never remember that they were ever on Earth, and might be shocked at meeting Earth humans. So much was going to change in the minds of the crew, and Ryan was happy to know that now, even for him, there could be an end to this journey of advancement.

  Many of the scientists could not be more grateful for being included on the odyssey. They were on the forefront of science and nothing else really mattered, as long as they might have the chance to one day share their findings. They documented their work and discoveries through journals, recordings and videos for delivery back to Earth, even if they were not alive.

  Suzi and Mr. Rose, with their crew of seven did a wonderful job of feeding the crew; they were often helped at harvest time by VIN, Maggie and many of the astronauts. The chickens and rabbits were tasty, the meat had little fat, and the greens, fruits and other produce were turned into feasts for the crew on a daily basis during the long journey.

  Jonesy, naturally helped Mr. Rose at bottling time, in the alcohol department, and often thought of himself as the official taster for the whole crew. Jonesy and VIN had also been banned by Mr. Rose on a couple of occasions.

  As time passed, the asteroid, 200,000 miles ahead of them, came alive on the radar screens. That was the maximum limit a planet of its size could be monitored by the systems. The farthest the radars had plotted a planet, was the departure from Earth, at 490,000 miles.

  Ten hours after the first dot appeared on the edge of the radar screens, the planet was verified by the computers from the lone spider’s emergency communications signal.

  Captain Pete was on duty on the Bridge when Ryan arrived twelve hours after the asteroid appeared on the screens. The computers were only three miles off course in their forward direction.

  “So we have six days of slowing before we can get a visual?” Ryan asked, grabbing his first cup of coffee.

  “Six days, eleven hours,” replied Captain Pete. “I believe we will have visual, at least through binoculars, at 500 miles.”

  There was no need to send out a shuttle or mining craft this time. It would be a waste of fuel, as they were intending to orbit this planet for two years before departing in the direction of one of Jupiter’s moons. They would have a lot of time to inspect the underground chambers VIN found, and Ryan wondered if they would reveal any new secrets or surprises. The whole crew was in for several surprises.

  A week later, on cue, America One went into a permanent, slow orbit around the 60-mile wide planet.

  The ship would orbit the small planet once every two hours; with the ship’s own revolutions, it made one’s stomach a bit queasy to look outside. The side thrusters were powered down to orbital mode and as little fuel as possible was used to keep the ship in orbit. In the Bridge, the movement was not as noticeable as it did not directly face the continuous revolutions of the asteroid, and it didn’t revolve like the rest of the ship.

  The gravity aboard the ship, sometimes noticed in the upper level, changed somewhat. Some of the crew could feel the gravitational pull of the planet ever so slightly. Dr. Rogers thought this new pull of gravity could benefit the family he was studying.

  VIN was eager to get back onto the planet’s surface. He had named the Planet DX2017, after the planet DX2014 he had found the diamonds on, and the current Earth year they were in, and the nickname Blue became less popular. DX2017, a real scientific name, was naturally accepted by the scientists.

  Blue looked cold and hostile to anybody looking at it out of a window. To some it resembled a cannon ball heading through space to its target.

  Once the Bridge had agreed to VIN’s new name suggestion, it was time to revisit DX2017. Jonesy would fly down with Ryan, Boris and VIN in Astermine One. Doctor Martha Von Zimmer naturally wanted a ride, and so did Igor and several other scientists, but the first flight down would be a reconnaissance flight with a duration of only three hours. A supply cylinder, now nearly empty of Earth provisions, was to be fitted out as a temporary housing unit on DX2017, just as they had done on Mars. They left the two cylinders on Mars well supplied for future visits.

  On DX2017 there would be no friendly Rover Opportunity to visit, and VIN hoped they might find something new.

  The shield was still up, wor
king perfectly, and Jonesy eased the mining craft through the wall and into open space. As they increased their distance from the ship, the beauty of the shield became apparent. America One, revolving slowly, looked safe and secure in the shield’s blue bubble. They had become a little spoiled by the light and sense of security and the departing crew wanted to take the bubble with them.

  Jonesy, used to landing on this desolate round rock as he called it, brought them down. The gravitational pull could be felt as soon as they were within a mile of the surface. The directional computer followed the radio emissions from the spider, still transmitting from the surface.

  Astermine One came in, flared out and, like a helicopter, touched down on the planet they had left three months earlier. It was only in that brief time period they learned that they weren’t alone out there. Somebody, maybe from Earth, had beaten them into outer space.

  It was tight in the cockpit and VIN was glad to exit through the docking port to ready the cord over the roof of the craft so that the others could climb down. The gravity—lower than the upper level on America One, but more powerful than on Mars—greeted him as he jumped off the last rung and onto the ground.

  The spider was in the same position as they had left it. Boris began to awaken the dormant machine while VIN inspected the docking port they built on their last visit. It was powered up and ready, its solar panels working well.

  He activated the outer hatch and headed into the port. There was still no atmosphere inside the tunnel and caverns; its new atmosphere was still being produced in the mother ship. His early warning signal—the hairs on the back of his neck—remained composed. He knew that the cavern was identical to the one they had excavated on the Mars surface and he knew what to expect.

  He allowed the inner hatch to open, let the cord ladder descend into the darkness, latched the extra lamp onto his other glove and descended to the cavern floor where it was pitch dark. He left the lamp on and climbed back up to get more lights. He knew that Boris would have the lights trained on the surface above, and probably had the spider doing jigs around the hole.

  Twenty minutes later he was back inside the cavern with Boris and two more lamps and their helmet lights illuminating the cavern. Nothing had changed. None of the rubble the spider had made to open the horizontal tunnel had been moved, and VIN felt confident to proceed. He knew that if he came across any aliens, they would have two legs, two arms, one head, and probably stand between four and five feet tall.

  He needed the canisters to gain access into the horizontal tunnel, a height equal to his head, and waited for them to be lowered though the docking port and down the shaft.

  All VIN had time to do on this first, abbreviated mission, was to confirm that the first cavern was intact, and that there was no sign of any other being, walking or maybe scurrying, around. There was nothing out of place, and he happily left the alien cavern and corridor. The next meeting, the very interesting one with Petra Bloem, was to begin when they returned to America One. That meeting had to do with what had been found in the personal gold-plated cases they found on Mars, and he wasn’t going to miss that one for all the gold on DX2017!

  Chapter 9

  Combs, mirrors, scrolls, jewelry and blank photos.

  The cafeteria was filled with every crewmember not on duty. Even the children were present. Suzi had spiked the meeting with her famous chocolate cake, fresh coffee for the adults and hot chocolate—a real treat—for the children. Ryan was ready to begin the meeting as soon as the noise dissipated. He could see that everybody was excited. Petra, who had inspected the treasures for a whole month, ordered the scientists under her to release little or no information.

  “Thank you all, quiet down please. Suzi, Mr. Rose the cake is wünderbar, and I was told that this is the last pot of coffee from the supply the Jones family purchased in Amsterdam.

  “We are left with a mix of coffee that is space grown and from Salt Lake City. The Utah coffee will last one more year so be prepared crew. I really enjoy the pure space blend. Light, robust and tangy, like most of our crew here today.” There was mixed amounts of laughter.

  “Petra is ready and, I assume, is going to blow your minds with the findings from the caverns on Mars. Dr. Bloem.”

  Ryan sat down next to Kathy and sat his growing little girl on his lap. Like the rest of the earliest babies, Lunar was sitting up straight, crawling, and learning to walk and talk.

  “Danke schoen, Herr Richmond,” began Petra, not the most willing of large group speakers. “Please, my English is not as good as my friend, Dr. Martha, so bear with me. My team of four and I have thoroughly gone through these exciting chests of personal belongings. Each chest is the exact same size, is gold-plated, and the lids seal perfectly. They are extremely well made and each has one exact kilo of pure gold plated onto an alloy of nickel and palladium, an interesting mix. The metal is every similar to rings, wedding rings mixed with gold, made around our world at the present time. Actually, the alloy inside the gold-plating is the exact alloy we have often seen in ancient Greek jewelry. Very exciting.” She took a breath and a sip of water.

  “There are no locks on the chests; the owners did not think their contents would be stolen. There are also no names, or signs, or letters on the outside of the cases, but the gold layer has a variety of lines or patterns, which indicate differences. The lids of the chests open with excellently made hinges, constructed of the same material. These chests were machine made, not handmade. They are too exact to be made by master craftsmen, or women.

  All of the chests contained many the same items. Hans, can you bring the sample chest forward?” Hans the German came up from the back of the cafeteria holding it for everyone to see. There were several oohs and aahs, as many hadn’t yet seen the alien chests. Placed on a table, the chest appeared to be pure gold. Petra pointed out the very slight lines in the gold of the chest walls and lid.

  “No two of these designs are alike,” she continued. “They looked like the result of liquid gold being poured and then smoothed out onto the shell of the chest. How they did that is foreign to us from Earth, but if I hadn’t looked at the chests carefully with a magnifying glass, I wouldn’t have seen the slight differences in designs.” She opened the chest and pointed to the inside roof of the chest lid. “Once again there are no marks, or names, or letters inside the chest, but somehow the owner knew it was his or hers. Tests done on the remains of dust in each bed, show 32 men, 32 women, and eight children under the age of, in our own years, twenty. Tests of one female, we think indicated possible pregnancy.”

  VIN shook his head at these results. He couldn’t understand how piles of dust had given away so much information, until Petra told him how they knew.

  “We took apart the dust speck by speck and guess what we found in the most bottom layers?” she asked the group.

  “Teeth?” suggested Jonesy, quickly. VIN was surprised that his partner was so attentive. Maybe Petra Bloem had more pulling power when she spoke than Martha Von Zimmer? He smiled at his partner as his wife Suzi shouted out, “Bone matter?”

  “Ja, bits of both, but the teeth, being ivory, are much stronger than bone, and are the best history we could hope to find inside these old tombs. I have never had the opportunity to dissect such old mummies, as I would call them. I have seen older skeletons on earth preserved in different ways, but remember, these bodies were subject to atmospheric conditions for hundreds of years before the pressure, or the air itself either weakened down to nothing, or escaped and the vacuum of space entered. Before we head into the chest, let me say that these remains are human, around 9,700 years old, and I believe came from Earth.” There were suddenly shouts and questions from the audience.

  “How can that be?” shouted one.

  “Impossible!” shouted another.

  It took Ryan a minute or so to quiet down the crew. “Okay, okay, everybody, some of us have considered this possibility for some time, but we didn’t want it known until the experts verifie
d the remains. Dr. Bloem, are these bodies from North Africa, the Sahara desert?”

  “Yes, we believe so, and I have discussed the fact with Dr. Von Zimmer and Herr Fritz Warner, who was my best aid in determining these final results.” All eyes turned to the back of the room where VIN’s friend sat, staring at everybody looking at him, totally unconcerned. It was his usual look, and for once he smiled.

  “Let me tell you a story,” Dr. Bloem continued and explained the era when the Sahara desert was lush and green, around 10,000 B.C. “Igor, Boris, Martha, Herr Warner, and I knew about this age, that wasn’t well recorded in our history books. After discussing everything we came to believe that these people lived for about 2,500 years in the lush greenery of North Africa before realizing that their area was drying up. Some earlier tribes that resemble our findings, noticeably the Bushmen and one other tribe migrated south over a thousand years earlier than the carbon-dating on these remains. Maybe they had a fight, or the tribes in this area split up, but something happened and these people were left alone for the final ten centuries; all alone. They became extremely knowledgeable in chemistry, physics, biology and other sciences. We modern humans are only halfway to their knowledge. My thoughts, personally, are that they had no wars to fight, like we are constantly involved in; they had no political differences that consume most of our time, and they had a simple form of community or organization which allowed them to make rapid advancements that we have achieved only now, in our era.”

  “You mean these aliens are Homo sapiens, humans like us?” asked one person. Dr. Bloem thought for a moment before replying. Humans yes, Homo sapiens no. I believe these remains are of Homo floresiensis, a very close relative of Homo sapiens. The most recent Homo floresiensis remains, found on an island in Indonesia, indicate they stood only about three and half feet tall. The Homo floresiensis lived at approximately the same time as our remains, hence my results.”