Trapped on Venus

by Carl Conrad

  Venus Twelve was gradually lowering its orbit around Venus as it ascended to a repeat landing on the planet. Only, this time, they would land several hundred meters from where they were before to avoid the possibility of the ground being unstable. But they still had to be close enough to the equipment they had left on the planet before so they could reset it to detect a changed agenda of data. NASA had chosen a very low-level plateau, wedged intricately in a crater with several high-rising embankments on several sides. It was thought that this might give the astronauts some protection from an unstable crust while still allowing them access to the places they needed to reach. However, this location would also require some pinpoint navigation.

  As their orbit lowered, the landing module began to enter the gaseous, cloudy, thick sulphuric acid cloud layer that hid the surface of the planet from direct observation. The two porthole-sized windows in the craft streaked with moisture as Scott and Marty continued their seemingly slow journey closer and closer to the surface of the plant. They knew the streaking came from dangerously corrosive sulphuric acid vapors that would have sizzled through the shell of their module if it weren’t for the acid-resistant molecular structure of the poly-carbon fibers that bonded the craft together.

  The temperatures the craft was exposed to immediately jumped several hundred degrees as they entered the Venusian atmosphere – to over 930° Fahrenheit! – from the so-called “greenhouse effect” caused by the Sun’s rays penetrating the cloud layer then the heat being trapped beneath the clouds so that the atmosphere continued to heat up. Visibility was still very limited, but Marty began to alert Scott to their position from the dials and gauges on his console.

  “Twenty-three hundred meters from the surface, Scott,” Marty reported. “Heading two niner seven to landing site.”

  “Grayson? Have you got a fix on us?” Scott asked as he toggled some switches and turned some dials.

  “Roger,” Grayson reported immediately. “Have you pinpointed, and tracking you to landing site.”

  “Marty, what’s our speed?” Scott asked.

  “Four hundred thirteen mph,” Marty responded.

  “Slow us to two ninety,” Scott instructed.

  “Roger,” Marty acknowledged as he hit the reverse thruster and they felt the craft begin to brake. Eight point two seconds later, the thrusters stopped. “Two ninety, Scott,” Marty reported.

  Stimson added some information from Earth Control One. “You’re closing on the Angstrom Meridian, Scott,” he said, referring to a gorge which seemed to bisect the planet’s surface. “You’ve got about thirty seven kilometers after that,” Stimson reported.

  “Drop it down to eighty-seven mph, Marty,” Scott commanded. Immediately Marty punched in the new speed, and the thrusters pushed back against their forward speed. Thirteen seconds later, Marty advised Scott: “We’re at eighty-seven mph, Scott.”

  The much slower speed would give them more time to find the landing site the advisors at Earth Control One had chosen, but it would also make it more difficult to navigate the awkward craft without the higher forward speed. Scott tried to look out the window of the pod for the crater he knew that would shortly appear at the same time that he checked his instruments.

  “I think I’ve got it, Scott,” Marty said excitedly. “It’s at seven four two eight on the leeward side. See it? It’s that dark spot on the radar.”

  “Yes, I’ve got it, too, Marty,” and Scott began to key in the coordinates for a computer assisted landing.

  “Craft slowing to thirty-seven mph,” Marty advised him. “Twenty nine... thirteen...”

  Scott could see the crater rim up ahead. It was not a deep crater, maybe only six or eight meters deep, but it would put them in a good location if they could land on that slight plateau near the center. Scott was aiming for it as they slowed even more.

  Although, just then, something relatively large appeared on the radar and swept past the window on Scott’s side of the module. “What the...!” Scott exclaimed. He even turned his head to the side like one would if a bird had flown at the windshield of his car.

  “What was that!?!” Marty asked in complete astonishment. “Did you get a look at it, Scott?” he continued. But Scott tried not to be distracted. He quickly looked back at the console and watched as the computer slowed their speed to a near standstill, then lowered them to the landing site.

  “Twelve meters... eight... four...” Marty paused a moment as the rear thrusters blew the loose sand below them out to the side. “Touchdown,” he indicated as they bumped to a stop, but without the thrill they might have otherwise felt if they were not still wondering what that object was that had swept past them.

  Chapter 12 – Such A Mysterious Planet

  “Venus Twelve,” John Stimson immediately called out to them. “What happened up there? What was that thing you saw? Are you ok?”

  The astronauts took a few seconds to compose themselves. They were still not exactly sure of what had happened themselves. Then they felt their landing module start to tip.

  Hey!” yelled out Marty. “Scott! What’s that? We’re starting to... tip!”

  And it was true! One of the landing pod feet was sinking into the sand of Venus! The craft was tipping!

  “Get ready to launch, Marty!” Scott said, reacting quickly. The leg of the landing pod was sinking slowly at the back of the craft. Already they were tipped at about a 5 or 10 degree angle from perpendicular, and they were still tilting!

  Marty was trying to analyze the situation as quickly as he could. “Wait, Scott. It may stop.” And it did seem to be slowing. The astronauts tried to be acutely aware of any movement of the craft, but it seemed to have stopped. They were tilted backward at about a 10 or 15 degree angle so that they were left feeling like cartoon characters who were in a car that was balancing halfway over the edge of a cliff. They remained motionless, trying to determine if they could move without aggravating the situation.

  “What’s going on?... Scott? Marty?” Stimson asked tentatively. “Have you stopped tilting? Is it settling?”

  Still emotionally jolted by these successively unforeseen events, Scott could barely bring himself to talk. What more might happen? he wondered. “John, I think we’ve stabilized. At least, we don’t seem to be tipping any more.” Looking at Marty, he continued: “I don’t know what more to expect. What do you think, Marty?”

  Trying to appraise the situation without allowing fear and hundreds of negative concerns to stab their way into his judgment, Marty answered: “I don’t know yet. I’m still waiting for something more to happen.”

  But, nothing did. For five, six... eight minutes the astronauts just tried to assess the situation. At one point, Marty even told Scott he was going to try to rock forward and back in his seat to see if the ship became unstable . “If we slip any more, Scott, launch us,” Marty said. Then he began to slowly change his position and even to rock back and forth, but nothing moved. “I think it’s ok to move around,” Marty concluded.

  “Stimson,” Scott said, trying to advise the Mission Director of their status. “I think it’s holding. Marty has been moving around, but it doesn’t seem to affect us. I think we’re stable for now.”

  “Well, we’ve got to get you moving if we’re going to stay there,” Stimson said. “Our time is limited as it is. One of you is going to have to go outside and assess the situation. You’ve both got your suits on. Marty? Why don’t you go out and see what it looks like to you from the outside. Scott? You stay at the console, ready to launch if there’s a sign of any danger.”

  What a bold plan, Marty thought to himself. But, he’s right. We’ve got to get moving if we’re going to go through with this. He wished there was more time to assess what kind of trouble they might be getting into, but it was just about now or never. “Roger, Earth Control,” Marty answered. Then he moved to the hatch opening as he prepared to exit.

  Marty turned the large wheel that sealed them from the outside several times arou
nd while Scott lowered the metal ladder that would allow him to reach the surface. The hatch door cracked open a bit as Marty completed unlocking it, and a searing seam of heat pushed its way inside the craft.

  With all the sunscreen filters on the windows of the craft and the visors on their helmets, it was easy to forget how wickedly harsh, bright, and forbidding the surface of Venus was. Over 900° Fahrenheit, with an atmospheric pressure that was ninety times that on Earth, were only part of the brutal landscape. The breakthrough technology in nano-tydes and pressure balancing made it possible for the astronauts to walk on the surface without being instantly crushed, baked, and corroded! But, even the crust of the planet, with its small but numerous volcanoes, its occasionally shifting and undulating platelets of topsoil, the incessant winds, and its unbearably slow rotation – taking 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis – made the surface of Venus one of the most alien in the Solar System. Hot, pressurized, and lethal – what an inhospitable environment!

  Marty didn’t slow his movements out the hatch, though, as he stepped boldly into what was essentially a great unknown. They had been on the surface once before, but this was a different place and a different time. Each time was always unique. He clung to the railing of the ladder and meticulously placed each foot on the rungs to make certain that he kept his balance.

  “Going down, Scott,” he advised his partner who sat on heightened alert at his console in case anything happened. The others at Earth Control One also leaned forward and listened to every word and sound coming over the intercom.

  Marty paused after he had taken a step or two down the ladder. He turned his head from side to side, as best he could in the restrictive spacesuit, to assess the terrain where they had landed and the situation that confronted them. Things looked calm but murky. Yellowish-green heat waves colored the atmosphere everywhere he looked, making him feel more like a deep sea diver going down a ladder into the ocean than an astronaut about to set foot on the planet Venus for the second time.

  “I’m going to step on the surface, Scott,” he advised him as he stepped onto the planet. As his weight transferred from the ladder to the surface, it seemed solid and held. “So far, so good,” he said with a little levity.

  Marty stood with both feet on the planet, looked around slowly, then shuffled slightly to his left where the landing pod leg had sunk into the crust of the planet. He could see that the lander leg was submerged in the topsoil about ten or twelve inches, but the craft didn’t seem to be tipping severely. “It doesn’t look that bad, Scott,” he informed him as he approached the pod leg. “The surface seems solid,” he observed. “No cracking or sinking.”

  “Does it look like you can takeoff from that angle, Marty?” asked Stimson from Earth Control One.

  “Affirmative,” he replied. “It might even have felt like more of an incline inside the ship than it is. Yes, I think we can take off, maybe without even as much spinning as we did last time.”

  “That sounds good to me, too,” Grayson said in relief from the craft circling the planet overhead. “That last hookup was more like a circus catch than a space dock.” The men knew the gravity of the situation and were merely trying to reassure each other that they were ready for whatever happened.

  “Should I come out, Marty?” Scott asked. “It’s going to take both of us to get everything done. If it looks good to you, let’s have a go at it. Stimson? What do you think?”

  “Yes, do it. It looks like things are about as good as we can make them,” said the Mission Director with a breath of resignation in his voice.

  Scott wasted little time getting out of his command chair. He pushed back the seat, removed the safety harness that held him in place, then took a couple of well-placed steps to the hatch of the ship. He swung the door open and took a moment to adjust to the heat and light and the vaporous gases around them. Then, he turned himself so that he could descend the ladder.

  As he stepped onto the first rung of the ladder, something small and translucent smacked into the side of the landing pod. There was no sound because the atmosphere and the helmets of the astronauts prevented them from hearing it. But, both Scott and Marty saw what had happened. Something – some kind of creature... something like a jellyfish with tentacles and a clear, light, almost see-through body – had flown into the side of their craft. It had fallen to the ground from the impact, and lay there huddled in a ball.

  “Marty!” Scott exclaimed in astonishment. “Marty! What was that?”

  “I... I... don’t know, Scott,” he stammered.

  “What are you talking about, Scott and Marty? What is it?” Stimson asked. He had no idea what had just happened, but he could tell from the pause and the consternation that something significant had happened.

  “It’s... another creature of some kind, John,” Scott told Stimson.

  “What?!?! You’ve got to be kidding me!” he nearly yelled into his headset. “What is it? What happened? What can you tell us?”

  “I can’t really tell what it is, Stimson. Can you, Marty? Did you see where it came from?” Scott asked. He started to descend the ladder, carefully choosing each step to make sure he didn’t stumble, but he also felt a sense of urgency.

  “No... I don’t know what it is,” Marty said with uncertainty in his voice. “It must have been flying,” he surmised, “but there isn’t much visibility to see something like that until the very last second.”

  “Can you see it now?” Stimson asked. “Is it dead?”

  Both questions stumped Marty. “I can see it,” he said with a slight hesitation, “but I can’t tell what it is, or even what it looks like. It’s all kind of rolled into a lump of some kind,” he explained. “And, whether it’s alive or not... well... I can’t tell. It’s not moving.”

  Scott had reached the last rung of the ladder, then stepped onto the surface of the planet. He moved closer to the creature where Marty was standing.

  “Be careful,” Marty warned. “I still don’t know how stable this surface is. And I don’t know what to make of this... this ‘thing’”, he called it.

  “You’ve got to find out more about it,” Stimson insisted. “Do you have any photo equipment?”

  “Negative, John,” Scott replied. “We lost all of it when we encountered those things on our first landing – the camera, the photo cards, the lenses, everything.”

  “Do you have something you can poke it with?” Grayson asked. Of course it was a very primitive idea, but what else could they do?

  “Should I nudge it with my foot?” Marty asked.

  “Negative!” Stimson answered quickly. “We have no idea at all what this might be. It might even be some kind of predator, or it might contaminate you, or even put a hole in your suit. No, don’t make contact with it until we can determine what it is.”

  “Describe it as best you can,” Jacob Levin, a chemist on the team asked. John Stimson was surprised to hear his voice intrude on the conversation, but it was as good a question as he could think of at the time.

  “Well, it was probably about... what would you say, Scott?... about three, three and a half feet in diameter when it was flying, or whatever it was doing?” Marty started.

  “I didn’t get a look at it at all, Marty,” Scott answered. “I was turned around when it must have hit the ship. I didn’t see it and I didn’t hear anything. But, looking at it here, on the ground, I’d say that three feet or so would be a good estimate.”

  “You say it was ‘flying’,” the professor asked.

  Marty spoke up. “Flying... gliding... I don’t really know. It was in the air. But, it appeared so suddenly, I couldn’t really tell.”

  “Is it the same thing you saw as you were landing the ship?” John Stimson asked.

  “I don’t know,” Marty answered. “I barely got a look at whatever it was that went past the ship. It could be the same, it could be something different.”

  Professor Levin asked a more obvious question. “Do you see any more in t
he air or hovering around your location?”

  Marty and Scott looked up to see if there were any more visible. “It’s hard to tell, things are so cloudy,” Scott answered first. “I don’t see anything, either,” Marty answered. Then both of them reacted in surprise.

  “There it goes, Scott!” Marty said as he watched the creature suddenly unroll from its curled up position and fly away. “I don’t believe it!” Scott said aloud. “It’s gone!”

  Chapter 13 – A Walk On The Surface

  “What do you mean ‘it’s gone’?” Stimson reacted.

  “It’s gone, John,” Scott replied. “It just flew off.”

  “You mean, it wasn’t hurt?” Stimson tried to clarify.

  “I don’t know,” Scott concluded as he watched the creature fly up into the clouds where he could no longer see it. “Maybe it was just stunned from the impact.”

  “How did it fly?” Professor Levin asked. “Did it have wings? Did it float or glide? What kind of...”

  “Wait... Wait a minute. Let me describe it as best I can,” Scott said, trying to answer their questions while still trying to figure out how to describe what he thought he saw. “I’d say it was... well... sort of like a stingray in the ocean. You know, it was kind of round, translucent, it flapped the edges of its body...”

  “Yes, I could almost see through it,” Marty agreed. “And it moved kind of like it was swimming through the water.”

  “Did it have a tail or any external appendages?” Professor Levin asked.

  The astronauts thought for a moment, trying to remember what they had seen in just the few seconds it had been visible while it flew. “Not that I could see,” Scott told them. “I don’t remember any tail or wings or anything.” Marty agreed: “No, I couldn’t see anything like that, either. It wasn’t flying very fast. But it got up into the clouds right away, probably to make it harder to see.”

  “Well, there must be others like it around you somewhere,” Stimson warned. “I can’t imagine just one advanced life form like that without there being a whole colony of them somewhere. Make sure you keep alert. It may be back. It may even bring others with it.”