Outward Borne

by R. J. Weinkam

  MaxNi set about redoubling the number of wind direction and velocity, water height, temperature and flow, air pressure and other measurements all across the lake and surrounding areas. Sure enough, the water level seemed to change by itself, slowly, throughout the day it would rise and then subside. There was some pattern to it, but he could only collect this nice clean data for a few days at a time, and these patches were sometimes separated by days or weeks, but it was enough. RaLak found that the data behaved as a repetitive event; a simple model for cyclical processes easily fit the water level changes. The model even tied together separate sets of measurements. It is always more believable if it is simple, although he was not to think so for long.

  He used vectors that were like three hands on a clock. If they all pointed straight up there was a maximum effect, if they were in different directions then nothing. Interestingly, the three hands all moved at different speeds. That is all well and good for a bunch of mathematical calculations. They described how causes behaved, but not what they were. So, what were these vectors really? It was then that RaLak noticed one of these vectors was exactly in sync with the light-of-day. If the thing that made the light also caused the effect on the water levels, it must be very massive indeed. What if all three vectors pointed to other world objects?

  Physicists on ObLa understood gravity and had worked out that it must be dependent on distance, the farther away the less the effect and all that. RaLak worked out that if the source of the light-of-day was massive enough and if it circled ObLa once each day, it could be the cause of one of the cycles of high water levels. Perplexingly, it was the smallest force and the other two did not have any detectable light associated with them. So RaLak forced himself to postulate that three ridiculously large bodies were circling ObLa, the least of which happens to provide the light-of-day, and these produced the modest, but real recurring changes in water levels on the surface on Head and Foot lakes that, from time to time, changed the direction of water flow through the Filim channel.

  It was an elegant piece of work, detailed, clearly described, and almost completely ignored within the scientific community and unknown outside of that body of disinterested individuals. ObLaDas had many fables about the light-of-day, but none as outlandish as RaLak's fantasy of some massive perpetually aflame object flying around the planet at some tremendous speed. That, by the way, was a whole lot likelier than possibility number two: that has the planet was itself spinning madly around while circling at super fantastic speeds some permanently burning globe that sent light and heat over immense distances, which was why he didn't mention it.

  Somehow, the idea that all this weighty speculation was based on some ripples in the water that could not be seen if the wind was blowing did not compute. It was not to be thought of. Surely old RaLak was making a bit too much of his data that he spent too much time collecting anyway, and was it not about time he retired because who is paying his salary, come to think of it. Thus, the discovery that ObLa was not alone in the Universe was ignored. Kind of a let down, but then –

  Chapter 4 Breaking Through

  Some years after RaLak retired and, sadly, a year after his death, MaxNi MaxRo came to head a small team that set out to study the high velocity winds in the upper atmosphere. It was a small project, one of his first, but one he relished. The COW had conducted several previous studies in which they launched instrument-laden balloons into the high altitude wind streams. The light, bulky probes were carried away in the turbulent currents and were never as successful as hoped. There were two streams raging around ObLa that they knew of, one at a higher elevation than the other. The air between the streams was exceptionally unstable as the two currents twisted and turned in their own way, sometimes mixing to form great high-energy cyclones. It was well known that these winds were highly variable and had never been mapped with any certainty.

  MaxNi learned from his time with RaLak to look for that extra level of detail. He knew that none of the previous studies of upper atmospheric winds had attained very high altitudes. They had tried, but had failed, though one cause or another, much below their balloon’s limit. That was his goal, to gain that full elevation. Balloons that entered the high-speed wind streams, if not immediately torn apart, were blown horizontally until they lost buoyancy and fell back to ObLa. Previous studies had been launched from the easily accessible central latitudes, but there was a theory that there may be irregularities in the northern wind streams that might be exploited. So that was where he would go, or as far north as he dared to go. This was considered both risky, some said stupid, and dangerous; for balloons could be launched only when surface winds were dead calm and calm days were rare in the northern reaches, while sudden damaging storms were an ever-present possibility.

  The famous expedition began with MaxNi and two big young techs, JaDom RaDac and HuMat JonSi, packed into an all terrain van that was pulling a trailer filled with the balloons, liquid helium cylinders, and all their rapid-launch equipment. They set out from their temporary monitoring station for a two-day drive northeast into a remote region at twenty-five degrees of latitude. They had two well-equipped balloons; each of a new two-stage design that MaxNi hoped would have sufficient lift to break through the wind currents to the heights beyond. The prediction was for still air during the next six days, which they would need to fill the wispy things, but on the second night of their trip, clouds lowered, the fog thickened and the winds picked up, a dense mist was blown out of the bogs and covered the land, slowing their speed considerably.

  A warning was received from the COW weather station - conditions were worsening. The expedition should seek a safe location and wait out the storm. The land over which they were moving was a series of low mounds that had been swept clear of any vegetation and bogs of wet mud and scummy floating plants that were piled in rotting mats along the shore. There was no place to hide. As the winds increased, the big van began to buck and swerve with the gusts. Tensions rose apace, for everyone knew that if the winds got much stronger, neither the van nor themselves would survive for long. They could not drive into a bog and hope that their profile would be low enough to wait out the storm for bogs rarely had a hard bottom and the heavy van might sink out of sight. As one blast of the heavy wind almost rolled the truck, JaDom spotted a stream off to the left and he turned to follow it.

  The stream was little more than a wet swath meandering between the nearly flat mounds. It did not look promising, but it traced the lowest land and low was good. The stream suddenly turned right, where it cut across the side of a hillock forming a low face in the soft mud. JaDom turned hard against the rise, rubbing the side of the van as close to the dirt wall as possible. Sand and gravel hissed against the window and larger chunks of something heavy rolled across the roof. The wind picked up. It began to rain. A streambed was not the place to be during a rainstorm. Flash floods were common on these rolling planes, but there was no better choice. The wind would surely take them if they tried for another, safer spot. The van was still bucking and jerking with each gust when a loud screeching sound tore through the air followed by a sudden stillness. Water began to enter the van and cover the floor, slowly rising as the long night stretched on. Tensions were high with every swath of blown rain scrutinized for some sign that the worst had past. Hours went by; gradually the storm decreased and the noise lessened.

  JaDom woke to a dim light coming through the dirt-covered windows. None of the doors could be opened; the left side of the van was covered almost to the roof. Blown sand had filled in the space between the ledge and the van, while the stream cut a new channel and the van became part of the new cliff side. MaxNi crawled out of the least obstructed window, pushed the wet dirt and sand aside, and fell into the rushing water. It was not strong enough to carry him downstream, and he was able to crawl up onto the far side and out of the current. Only the side and rear windows of the van were visible. The trailer was mostly gone, although the twisted hitch and wheels were still attached.


  They found the trailer body, half buried in a sand bar, but intact. Everything inside was wet and muddy. It might still work, but they would have to launch from where they were. HuMat pulled the equipment out of the muck and cleaned it up, while JaDom dug the van out from the hillside. They did have some luck in the end, the winds died down and finally stopped, as sometimes happens after a storm. They rushed to stretch out the wet but intact balloons and began to fill them as quickly as they could. MaxNi would launch them both rather than wait to see if the first was successful. They were able to successfully complete the launch procedure for the first balloon just as the breeze started to stir again and they rushed to get the last one into the air. The filmy white bags quickly rose into the mist and disappeared from view. Their progress could only be followed electronically by mapping signals from the multiple tracking sites and MaxNi went to the van to learn their fate. The upper level currents carried off the first attempt. It failed soon after launch, but the second succeeded in reaching a higher elevation before being carried away to the east. MaxNi had obtained a specially built camera having an extremely wide dynamic light range and a precise positioning carriage that allowed pictures to be taken at any angle, except that blocked by the balloon itself. He hoped to get images of the highest cloud formations. Fortunately for history, the camera was carried on the second flight.

  Once the balloons were away there was nothing more they could do. The three Das left most of their equipment behind in the wrecked trailer and monitored the flight information during their return. It was a long worrisome trip. The balloon held together, but it was being pushed further eastward without any increase in altitude. It survived, hour after hour, then suddenly spun out of the main air stream and seemed to gain sufficient height to clear the winds altogether. It seemed to go straight up, but it was too late. It was night by the time the device reached an altitude sufficient to enter the light-of-day and any record any clouds that might be visible. It would be hours before it would be bright again. An opportunity lost, or so it seemed.

  ObLa’s daily cycle of light and dark had never been explained, although there were any number of myths and stories to describe its presence. It was generally believed that some substance high above the surface the planet emitted light much like some plants and small animals did on the surface (photoluminescence, for those who care), and that this patch oscillates in a daily cycle (thirty-hours our time) that continuously made its way around the planet.

  MaxNi fell asleep in the jostling van fearing that the balloon would burst apart without recording anything but black clouds, still it had reached a record altitude, he was sure of that. He was still asleep in the van's hammock when the light meter recorded a significant rise. Nothing near the intensity expected, but then it was the middle of the night. Why was there any light at all? Excitement shook the van. What this might mean was still a guess when they received a second report. Another substantial light meter reading was obtained, but it had come from a different direction. It was still a long trip back to the Center, but spirits were high. It looked like this mission was going to be a success. No one then knew that it would be the stuff of legend.

  Three days later, MaxNi, JaDom and HuMat arrived at the Center. Their colleagues greeted them with a rush of excitement. The balloon had held together for hours and hours, well into the new day, and all of the instruments had worked perfectly. More importantly, the instruments successfully separated from the balloon when it finally ruptured and had parachuted to the ground. All of the instrument measurements and over ninety percent of the photographic data were transmitted before the package crashed to the land and broke apart. There was a mountain of new data to climb.

  Another three weeks had passed before MaxNi finished with the pressure, temperature, wind speed, humidity, and the other common data that the COW was accustomed to seeing, and he finally had a chance to look through the imaging data. The camera had started operating at an elevation well below the topmost clouds. It was night at the time. It was hard to tell from the black-on-black featureless images that the camera was working at all. After an hour of looking at sequential images of blackness, MaxNi's famous discipline deserted him, and he jumped forward to something better.

  The first image he chose showed a few dim, blurred white dots against a black background. The next two images had the same white spots, very clearly all across the frame. That was disappointing. MaxNi did not know what they were, but he suspected that the camera's photon detector was deteriorating at the high altitude. Perhaps the failed matrix elements were giving a burst of signal. That would explain why the same pattern of dots showed up in different images, but no. The pattern was constant, but it shifted across the frame as the camera slowly rotated around its long tether. It had to be a real image of something.

  The light meter had recorded high signals on three occasions. The image corresponding to the first instance had the now familiar small white dots on a black background, but it appeared to have a light haze on the lower left corner. MaxNi’s disappointment was wiped away with the next picture. It clearly showed what appeared to be a crescent shape, probably a sphere that was lit from the side by some bright source. If that was so, only about a quarter of its dark surface was visible. There was no doubt that this was a real object and one that was either much closer or much larger than the dots in the background. He could even make out some details on the lighted surface, although they were only hazy patches. He quickly found a second sphere farther to the west. This one was slightly larger and almost thirty percent of the surface was lighted. MaxNi was stunned. Nothing existed outside of ObLa. Everyone knew that. There was never any indication the there was anything at all in the sky, but now MaxNi was staring at two, and perhaps hundreds of objects.

  Excited and almost fearful, MaxNi started to look through the pictures taken shortly before the balloon fell. One image had a deep purple band spread along the eastern edge of ObLa. That band transformed into a deep red streak, and then a much brighter orange patch grew in picture after picture. The camera was not far above the clouds at that time. Light could be seen shining through pristine white layers that were separated by deep glowing crevasses whose bottoms were lost in shadow. The eastern horizon continued to brighten as he went on and then an intensely lighted sphere suddenly appeared. It was too bright to record even with the highly attenuated camera. The emergence of the star, for that is what it was, corresponded to increases in temperature on the balloon. MaxNi had found the source of the light of day. Not a lighted patch of mist, as most thought, but a bright hot sphere that moved across the sky, day after day.

  For the million years that they had existed, all on ObLa knew that it was the one and only world in existence. There was no sign of, and no belief in, any place that they could not lean forward and sink their mitts into. The familiar fog and clouds circumscribed all that was known and all that was knowable. Now he, MaxNi MaxRo, alone among all who lived and all who had ever lived, knew of a universe of other worlds. Numb with wonder he turned off his screen and left his office to walk beneath the unseen stars.

  A week later, MaxNi rose to present the mission’s findings. The government officials that were responsible for the Center for ObLa Weather had been invited. Most of them knew that MaxNi MaxRo had been conducting high altitude balloon flights, and they held some hope that his talk would be more interesting than the usual COW drivel.

  MaxNi was ushered into the main conference room where a large chart of the light meter data had been printed up and stuck to the wall. He started with an explanation of the mission and its goal to study weather patterns and the composition of high altitude gases. This only succeeded in igniting the audience’s apprehension. They feared another wasted evening, but their interest was retrieved when MaxNi showed them the puzzling data obtained at the highest altitudes. Very high light levels had shown up in the middle of the night, and as the light-of-day was predicted to begin, a patch of light appeared that was so intense that it burned out the se
nsitive instruments. There was a buzz that might have been taken for excitement, except for the fact that these were Senior Government Officials, who would never admit to that emotion, but when MaxNi told them that the flight had been equipped with a directionally controlled camera, they actually leaned forward in anticipation. Everyone likes a good puzzle. Maybe the balloon had reached the wall of light itself.

  MaxNi knew his audience and his data. He would show the pictures of space, rather than drone on about the technical information that had been gathered from the flight. That could wait. He put up three pictures of the white spots and explained how they determined that these were images of some light emitting objects rather than artifacts. He then stepped back from the stage and let the remaining pictures appear one after another. A murmur spread through in the room as people speculated over the meaning of these specks of light, but the buzz stopped suddenly when the first image of a large, partially lit sphere appeared. MaxNi showed the second sphere then pointed out how, in different images, they appeared to have moved across the background of spots.

  Some people became upset and shouted at MaxNi to stop. They claimed that what were seeing was not true, that it was dangerous, but perhaps they feared that it was real and dangerous for being so. MaxNi did not respond, but again stepped back to show the first sunrise ever seen on ObLa. The camera had moved around while taking these pictures and when viewed that way spectacular, but quite confusing. He showed these images again, but this time the source of light remained in the center of the screen. The rise of the sun over the slightly curved horizon unfolded like a magnificent, luminous flower. There was no more talk. The sense of wonder and transformation captured everyone.