by T I WADE
VIN walked back into the second dome and stayed away from the thrusters as the next scheduled flight by ‘Ryan Air’ to America One left the airport, rose gracefully up a hundred feet and slowly moved forward as the pilot ignited the rear thrusters. It reminded him of his days in the Marines watching the VTOL, V-22 Ospreys.
Once his job was done, he descended back down the shaft, closing the docking port to keep the warmer air inside. The crewmembers in the cavern were bundled up, and looked cold. He checked the outside temperature readout on his suit and saw the temperature in the caverns had dropped by thirty degrees; it would take a day to warm it back up. Since he was not allowed to get close to his wife and it was too cold to shower, he decided to stay in his suit, with the helmet off, until his turn came to clean up. The predetermined order to shower was: women first, children next, and then the remaining smelly person, himself, would be able to clean up.
Chapter 15
Aliens found!
DX2017 had become an oasis in the solar system during the long stay. The scientists were still baffled by how the shields worked, and embarrassed they had not figured it out. Even with months of research, they had not decoded the black box and its totally unfamiliar system of electronics. Igor, the best in the business, couldn’t figure how to repair the system. The broken black box had been dissected a hundred times, but still did not give up its secrets.
VIN’s room, the one he finally had the spider cut through, had given up its secrets. This room held the most interesting feature of the alien base, more so than all the other rooms put together.
VIN, then Fritz, then Igor—when he gave up on the black box—tried to get the final door to open, but to no avail. They even set the backup nuclear battery at 90 percent, nearly blowing the whole cavern up with sparks and rays of lights shooting out from the walls. Ryan ordered them to give it up.
When VIN’s attempts failed, many of the scientists began to return to America One to complete tests using the massive array of scientific equipment still in the mother ship. Only Suzi, Fritz and Boris, remained on DX2017. Suzi was already planting crops in the dome above; it took a month for the temperature to reach sixty degrees, and was now hovering in the 65 degree range, never getting warmer.
But, before the door was finally opened, much would happen in their new home.
Time flew by. VIN only returned to the mother ship once during the first six months. He, Suzi and Mars were happy in the caverns. Mr. Rose spent ten days on the planet and then ten days in the mother ship working on both of his greenhouse farms, as he called them. The biology team spent time travelling up and down as well, bringing down and taking up new plants, or cuts of vegetation to test in their labs. Jonesy and Allen Saunders flew down once every ten days.
The chickens hadn’t done well down on the surface. The gravity wasn’t strong enough for them to grow, but the rabbits thrived, and Suzi was surprised to see that female rabbits were born in America One, but on the planet’s surface at least one male rabbit was born for every dozen females. Also many of the crew had stopped eating meat, and it looked like the rabbits and the meat chickens could become extinct aboard ship.
What held true for rabbits also held true for humans aboard America One. Since leaving Earth, 19 babies had been born, and of the babies born in space all were girls. Suzi was hopeful though, as two of the crew might have become pregnant while on the surface of DX2017, Penny Pitt and Jamie Saunders. Everybody was hoping for a baby boy.
An older scientist in the chemistry team had died, the first death aboard. He died of a heart attack and left his body to science. His coffin had been sent off in the direction of the sun for cremation about a month later.
Maggie, Jonesy and Saturn came down to visit for ten day periods every now and again, letting Allen and Michael Pitt do the driving. Ryan, Kathy and Lunar and the other families of the astronauts also stayed over.
With the shield coming up to temperature, the Noble family took their daily three-hour allotted time on the surface. Ryan continued to be worried about his radiation hazards inside the shield without full spacesuits on. However, after several daily excursions with the temperature at 34 degrees, he relented when VIN’s readouts showed that the amount of radiation hitting his spacesuit day after day was about the same as being on Earth.
VIN was elated. The next day he mounted the rungs up and through the open docking port wearing only his camouflage flight suit, a coat and woolen mittens Suzi had knitted for him. It was cold, very cold, compared to underground, and he knew that if he wasn’t careful and walked through the wall of the shield, he would perish without his spacesuit.
His first job on the surface was to hammer six-foot high nails into the ground to use as uprights, and stretch three sets of cords around them to create a protective fence three feet in from the sloping wall. The fence was not high enough to get in the way of the shuttles’ tails coming and going, but it prevented any of the crew from getting too close to the dome wall. That area was no man’s land.
On his second day, the temperature was a degree warmer, and Suzi and Mars joined him, also wearing winter coats and gloves to walk around on the surface of a foreign planet without spacesuits for the first time. VIN’s breath condensed like it would on Earth, and he really felt like he was in a snow globe. His breath came out in clouds, and a lot of the white covering on the surface was still there.
Suzi and Mars screamed in delight and tried to make snowballs to throw at each other. Mars was standing now and walking, so Suzi used the same cord she had used inside the cubes to tether her son to make sure he didn’t climb into no man’s land.
It was beautiful. VIN could not communicate with anyone when he was on the surface, and he made a mental note to bring up a backpack radio and a few chairs to enjoy the scene on his next visit. Also, he could stay on the surface all day; the three-hour time limit was suspended.
The first family visit was peaceful, totally silent except for his wife and son shouting and laughing. VIN showed Suzi around the circular area, where the first load of top soil from the mother ship would be arriving in a week.
If she stayed out of the areas needed for incoming shuttles, Suzi could cultivate half a dozen decent-sized vegetable beds on the surface, plus a few areas for flowers and even a small shrub or two. The area wasn’t big, but an herb garden, a vegetable patch and a flower garden with a few chairs could make this dome into a fantastic place to work and relax. It would be like a roof garden in Manhattan.
Every day for the first couple of days, VIN and his family, and any other visiting crewmembers spent time on the surface looking through the dome wall into the black vacuum of space only a few feet away. In a reverse of what they knew as normal on Earth, these humans were like guppies, but in an air-filled aquarium, gazing at what existed on the other side of their bowl.
Although the temperature was warming up at about a degree a day, it was still too cold for plant growth when SB-II arrived packed with twelve canisters, or about 1,200 pounds, of top soil, two canisters of water, two canisters of plants and shrubs for planting, six tanks of freshly made air, warm clothing, and the Jones family for a 10-day vacation.
The crew container wasn’t needed as the shuttle carried only four adults and a baby; this fact greatly simplified the transfer of cargo, which was packed in the front hold. The crew could unpack the cargo from the forward cargo roof door inside the dome instead of carting the equipment from freezing space conditions through the dome wall.
At the other end, the new cargo loading station aboard America One, a secure loading cylinder, had a soft silicone opening that sealed itself with pressure to the shuttle’s sidewalls around the forward cargo roof door. The air was forced into the section which enabled atmospheric loading to any of the three shuttles or mining craft. Afterwards, the air was sucked out by machines into tanks and could be reused time and again.
The side hatch of the shuttle’s cockpit was opened to allow the unsuited vacationers out one by one. The t
emperature was eight degrees above freezing, the white covering was gone, and the warmly dressed Jones family joined their friends who were sitting in just delivered deck chairs on the surface of DX2017 without spacesuits. Saturn Jones was ecstatic not to be suited up for this visit.
VIN, Boris and Fritz got to work unloading the cargo; within two hours of landing the soil was ready on the surface. The plant canisters were lowered into the cavern by rope, which was still closed off from the outside dome for protection. Every time the docking port was opened, warm air gushed out helping to increase the dome’s temperature, but also cooling the interior of the caverns. Until the temperatures were equalized, and/or the dome’s walls produced its own heat, the docking port was kept closed.
Raising the temperature, even in the caverns, was a very slow process; it took a day to make up one degree. Boris and Igor learned that after the door was closed for the day they could raise the temperature in the cavern by increasing power slightly. However, caution was the rule; they wanted to conserve as much power as necessary in the event, like the last inhabitants, they remained there longer than intended.
“So, I hope you didn’t drink all the booze,” Jonesy remarked when the work was done and everybody was still inside in the shield wondering at the alien technology.
“We left a little for you, partner,” VIN replied. “I wonder how these people created and designed such elaborate technology.”
“I would like to make a comment about that,” Fritz answered, and all of his snuggly dressed companions turned to him.
“Martha and Petra proved that these people came from the Sahara; it was green and tropical then, like the Amazon is today. These folks had two and a half thousand years to progress from what the Bushmen’s civilization is today in Africa to a civilization replete with modern technological in which wonders like this were designed.”
“So have we,” VIN commented.
“We’re still about 500 years short; our civilization goes back to the birth of Christ, which we believe was 2019 years ago. But Martha believes that these people became space bound within 1,500 years, much faster than our progression. Also, information gleaned from carbon-dating objects found on Mars indicates these people left Earth to begin their odyssey around 7,900 B.C. However, tests on items collected here on DX2017—soil, fine dust picked up on shelves, and even the foul tasting water—indicate these items are even more recent, 7,000 B.C., or 900 years later.”
“So, the team thinks that these guys have been flying around space for nearly 1,000 years?” Suzi asked incredulously.
“Actually, I helped Martha on the carbon-dating,” added Maggie. “More like 750 years, but we haven’t yet found any people, except for in the Mars base. This asteroid could have passed Earth hundreds of times, empty of people and carrying supplies nobody off-loaded. DX2017 doesn’t need pilots and crew to fly, so I believe the ancient people flew supplies up from Earth when it got close. They knew when it would pass close to Earth, so they sent a ship up to unload the supplies and resupply themselves as it flew past. Remember, this little planet only flies by Jupiter every second orbit, Saturn every third or fourth, or all the planets every half century or so. The orbit we happened to find ourselves on is the every stop ride. That’s what Captain Pete told Jonesy and me.”
“I understand this was a supply ship, and a passenger vessel when needed, but where did these guys get their technology?” VIN asked again.
“I was going to answer that,” continued Boris. “Igor and I have done hours and hours of research on these electronics. They are mostly made of Rare Earth metals, most of which were unknown to us until a few hundred years ago, and some only in the last century. Also, the metals are used in huge quantities. For example, there is no plastic, steel, or iron in any of their products. Even the casing on their boxes is made out of rhodium, the same metal we found on DX2014. I wondered if they might have found an asteroid similar to DX2014 in their space travels.”
“Another very interesting fact is that their world is far more civilized than our world,” added Fritz.
“How do you mean?” asked VIN.
“We need some deck chairs, or sun loungers up here,” interrupted Jonesy.
“Your job is to haul deck chairs down here. They have a few in the shuttle. Start tomorrow,” replied VIN, smiling. “Fritz?”
“Thank you, Herr Jones. You always remind me of Sean Connery in that Indiana Jones Movie. Never listening to what anybody is saying. Anyway, Igor, Ryan, Boris, Martha and I have spent hours discussing this fact. Our final answer is, simply, they were civilized.”
Seeming not to have answered the question, everyone waited for Fritz to continue.
“Look at our civilization on Earth. What is the only thing they want from us?”
“Our firepower?” answered Jonesy.
“Correct. And what is going on down there right at this minute? And, I don’t have to be there to know it’s true.”
“They are beating the hell out of each other?” VIN volunteered.
“Wars everywhere,” Suzi suggested.
“People killing people,” Maggie added.
“All correct,” replied Fritz smiling. “All we have ever done since we became civilized some 2,000 years ago is to act like crabs in a bucket.”
Everybody looked at him curiously but kept silent.
“The old story told by fishermen: If you leave several crabs in a bucket, one will try to get out, and just before he does, the others will grab onto him and pull him back in.”
“You lost me at the crabs,” Jonesy said.
“Every time we humans try to advance ourselves by climbing out of the bucket, somebody else will pull us back to stop the advancement. It is because of jealousy, money, power, politics, call it what you want, but human advancement is stifled by self-interest. We pull ourselves back by decreasing budgets earmarked for space travel, education, and financial help to scientific institutions to increase defense spending and finance wars. What’s worse, politics has recently changed around the world; instead of leaders who protect the common interests of their constituents, many are just helping themselves. If that General Mortimer wasn’t dead, Jonesy, who would he be looking out for?” Jonesy nodded, and Fritz continued.
“And let’s not omit religion. A difference in religion is probably the single most common factor underlying most conflict. This one tribe does not appear to have been torn by different religious beliefs. Up there in America One, we came to the conclusion that these people are far more advanced than we are, simply because they got on with the goal of advancing themselves through education, sharing knowledge, and working together towards common goals. They didn’t act like human crabs in a bucket. If one crab was climbing out, it might have been helped, and then it would have turned around and helped the others out.”
“Crabs don’t have the brains to do that,” Jonesy said.
“Nor do we Homo sapiens, Herr Jones,” replied Fritz bluntly. “I think the genes of this Homo whatever race are different than ours; maybe they didn’t have the ‘I want to beat the crap out of everybody else’ gene, or the ‘I want to rule the world’ gene. We have yet to find one weapon of theirs.”
The group was quiet for a minute and then VIN asked, “The president said that Mortimer had a boss?”
“That’s right, some guy in Iran; so did the president who committed suicide,” added Fritz. “Which begs the question, does our friendly president have a boss? Is somebody controlling him?”
“Could be,” Jonesy answered. “It seems that everybody down there has a boss.”
“Maybe Ryan is now the only boss, who doesn’t report to somebody or some group, or have a boss himself,” Suzi remarked.
“I believe that could be an astute observation,” Boris added. “I’ve known Ryan since he was a teenager. He is three years younger than me, and if Ryan was being influenced by anybody, Igor and I would have sensed something. Igor is a few years older than me, and we were in our twenties when Ry
an hired us. We are two of the first three people Ryan ever hired. He brought us over from Russia. He was 17 or 18 at the time, if I remember correctly, and we have been with him ever since.”
“Igor would have noticed anything out of the ordinary,” Fritz stated.
“Igor has eyes like an eagle, especially when it comes to the vodka bottle,” Jonesy added. “That time VIN and I sampled two tiny tots out of the five-gallon jug, Igor asked why the level had decreased. VIN and I couldn’t see that the level had even moved.”
“Igor never missed anything, except our Plasma Tasers,” replied Fritz. “At that time Ryan was putting the pressure on him to get us up here, and he was blinded by long hours of work for weeks on end, until he found out of course.”
“So who does rule the world?” Maggie asked.
“Not who we think,” replied Boris. “The big banks, the credit card company presidents, pharmaceutical companies, agriculture, who knows?” answered Fritz.
Maybe even the U.S. supply companies supplying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?” suggested VIN. “They made all the money from the wars, all the profit, while the country went deeper in debt.”
“Just big business?” added Maggie.
For another hour they discussed the plight of Earth over drinks down in the mostly empty cavern. The conversation didn’t get around to who was going to stay on Earth, when they finally returned, or who would stay on board.
Ryan, Kathy and Lunar came down with the next schedule flight in Asterspace Three. More air was brought down, fresh from the manufacturing room. The Richmond family also brought a few delicacies with them: Dutch cookies, fresh coffee, ingredients Suzi requested to make chocolate cakes and cocoa that Mr. Rose was bringing to make hot chocolate for the kids.
Mars, Saturn and Lunar were all walking and were beginning to interact with each other; more toys and other playthings had arrived with Lunar. Over the next several weeks, while the children played underground in the warmth, all of the adults except Maggie, who had opted to look after them, began work in the shield.