They could now see the structures in front of them with the interlocking brick design clearly evident. Directly in front was a raised area, well above head height from the floor level and this housed the large strange square block of black wood which protruded above the raised area.
‘The black coating is carbon black bonded by a resin which I cannot yet identify and the block of wood is at least 5 metres deep and resting in a clay structure. Further analysis will follow.’
‘The internal design is very interesting in its ingenuity and comprises of four triangular pools. Water flows into the first pool from the higher rim of the wall of the octagon. It then spills over into the second slightly larger pool which is half a metre lower and then cascades into the third and largest pool. From here the water overflows to a channel running from the centre of the octagon to the base of the wall where it disappears underground. Finally a deep pool, about the same size as the first, has its own dedicated flow, from the rim directly above, which exits about half way along the channel. The water flow is approximately 2 cubic metres per minute and it is just above 0 degrees centigrade with a chlorine level of 200 parts per million – well above the level of a commercial swimming pool.
‘ And connecting all these various raised structures are smooth shallow ramps.’
The rain had eased and the light had taken on that strange fluorescence of the previous dawn when Zec-1 announced that the diamonds behind them were starting to heat up.
Olivia and Scott watched the display on the dome as it showed the same pattern of red, then orange and finally white as the two leading crystals exploded in a flash of light which reached up to the clouds behind them. The spectacle, as further diamonds lit up, made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up. The light sheath enveloped them from both sides and slowly closed around the octagon.
Then the last of the diamonds ignited and they were encompassed by the sheath of light and two extraordinary things happened. Firstly deep red shadows cast themselves from the structures and the walls,
and then.......
......... the sun shone!..... illuminating the inside of the octagon, lander and its occupants in its glorious warm rays.
What a transition!
Olivia and Scott sat dumbfounded. They looked at each other, the excitement gleaming in their eyes.
They then noticed sunlight glinting from small areas in the clay floor,
‘What are those reflections Zec-1?’ Olivia broke the silence.
‘They are similar diamonds but laid flat in various positions in the clay floor. I presume that they admit light underneath the octagon. I have counted 3 lots of 6 crystals.’
‘Gee! It’s incredible!’ Scott cried, ‘Look at the way the light sheath is shimmering particularly near the base where the steam is rising, have you ever seen anything so astonishing.’
‘Water temperature exiting the rim is now 80 degrees and starting to displace the cold water in the upper pools and most remarkably I have been able to switch off the force field and have applied only minimal darkening to the dome. It appears that the significant interference from outside the light sheath is not apparent inside. I can offer no explanation of this.’
Zec-1 continued,
‘Air temperature 25 degrees and rising, humidity nearly 100 per cent. Temperatures in upper pools steady at 45 degrees, large pool now at 40 degrees and fourth pool at 70 degrees – I can only assume there must be some mixing of hot and cold streams. Temperature below ground is 5 degrees and I am detecting some movement but imprecise as temperature differentials are small. Significant water flow underground from numerous sources.’
‘Scott!’ cried Olivia. She grasped his shoulder and pointed to the large black wooden structure.
‘It’s rising! It’s moving upwards!’
BOOK FOUR
THE BLUE PEOPLE
Chapter 21
Warming Up
‘I can imagine the astronauts’ mounting excitement. Back in 2050 I remember the euphoria when microbial fossils were found in the sub crust of Mars and since then a variety of simple life forms have been discovered. More recently, on Titan, sophisticated multi-celled forms have been identified in the underground seas. And these are living!
‘Now on a planet at another star, life is about to reveal itself.’
The black structure was rising slowly from the red clay and revealed an angled flat ledge about 1 metre wide. This ran around and upwards at an angle of approximately 30 degrees, giving the impression of a huge wooden screw whose flights were about 2 metres apart. Then the huge mass of black wood came to rest with about two and a half metres showing above the clay level.
‘It’s completely square in cross section and every angled cut is a straight line!’ Scott explained. ‘It must be some sort of ramp connecting underground with the outside.’
‘Correct, and it has been lifted into place hydraulically and now I can detect movement at the base of the wooden ramp – the forms are indistinct because they are the same temperature as underground but they are moving upwards very slowly.’
‘Scott!’ cried Olivia, shaking with anticipation, ‘This is every astronaut’s dream – to witness life on another planet.’
She gripped his arm and felt his excitement as his body shook. Both astronauts craned forward as far as their seat restraints would allow.
‘Look the ramp is moving again! Moving downwards?’ shouted Scott.
She then caught hold of his hand and they peered at the strange ramp structure just 30 metres in front of them and almost exactly at their eye level.
‘There’s something on the ramp! Scott choked, ‘That’s why it moved down again – it must be floating.’
On the lower part of the ramp, a dark shape started to appear, moving upwards towards the rear of the ramp.
‘What is it, oh my God! The back of a head, with thick, curly, black hair.’ Olivia shouted, ‘And the body is dark green, how strange – it’s one of those huge leaves – it covers it completely.’
The shape disappeared behind the back of the ramp as another head appeared below it.
‘The form is just less than 2 metres in height, essentially humanoid in stance and at 5 degrees Celsius, the same temperature as the underground area from which it has emerged,’ Zec-1 informed them.
‘It’s coming around the left hand side of the ramp!’ Shouted Scott and they leaned together in exhilaration pointing at the shape as it shuffled to the edge of the ramp and facing them was .....
....... a blue, hard face with a prominent hook shaped nose and vivid green and yellow eyes. The striking form then turned and shuffled slowly in the direction of the first upper pool.
More similar forms rose up and travelled around the ramp in a procession which left the astronauts utterly stunned with disbelief.
The first body to emerge from underground reached the edge of the steamy pool and slowly unwrapped the large leaf and cast it to the ground.
‘It’s completely blue all over!’ shrieked Olivia.
‘And humanoid in shape.’ Scott added with amazement.
‘Look, it has large mammary glands, it’s female.’ Olivia pointed.
Then the creature stepped shakily into the hot pool and disappeared under the surface of the water.
Zec-1, as ever, brought them down to earth,
‘The form has many reptilian features, namely, cold-blooded, green eyes with yellow vertically slit shaped pupils and webbing between fingers and toes. The skin is scaly and of a coarse texture. The stance and limb proportions are humanoid and so far all the emerged forms are female. The internal organs are similar to those of mankind and the brain cavity is smaller.’
After about 10 minutes the leading blue female stepped out of the pool and advanced, more steadily, towards the second pool. She was now facing them as Scott, puzzled, exclaimed,
‘She has square black nipples, I can’t understand it, and there seems to be further markings on and between the mammary glands.’
‘Also, she’s wearing black triangular flaps from the waist, front and back,’ Olivia observed.
Before they could glean any further understanding, the blue female slipped into the water of the second pool.
‘Body temperature of leading form now 15 degrees and a total of 20 similar forms, all female, have so far emerged. There is significant further movement underground.’
‘They’re very muscular and well built,’ commented Scott. ‘How old do you think they are?’
‘Can’t tell, and how do we judge age on this planet?’ Olivia replied as several more forms transferred to the second pool. ‘Also they are all very similar and their stern features remind me a little of the female Amazonian warriors from history.’
‘Olivia, look, smaller forms are emerging!’ They watched as they trudged to the first pool and discarded their leaves, ‘They seem to be younger females and pubescent females from their development.’
‘Aren’t there any males?’ Olivia queried.
About 30 forms had surfaced when the first blue female left the second pool and entered the third, large pool.
‘Body temperature of leading form now 25 degrees and blueness has decreased by 20 per cent.’
Several ‘adult’ forms appeared each carrying a small bundle which they proceeded to unwrap.
‘They’re infants.’ cried Olivia and the small fuzzy-topped blue shapes were helped into the first pool.
The procession continued. An amazing tableau of life on another planet was unfolding before the unbelieving gaze of the astronauts.
‘Look now,’ Olivia pointed, ‘Those blue females at the end of this group must have had tiny parcels under their leaves and between their mammary glands – they’re unwrapping them – they’re babies, oooh! Look how tiny they are.’
The blue ‘mothers’ cradled the little forms and entered the first pool.
Nearly 100 inhabitants had emerged so far and these were dispersed through the three pools and were at various stages of warming up. The leading blue females started to climb out of the large pool and sat on ledges to dry off in the beautiful mid-morning sunshine.
‘Body temperature of leading forms now 37 degrees and blueness has decreased to around 40 per cent of emerging colour.’
‘Scott! Don’t you find it strange – they haven’t cast a glance in our direction – why don’t they notice this huge lander in front of them?
‘Maybe they’re blind or we just don’t register in their consciousness,’ mused Scott, ‘but it is strange.’
‘Their eyes are moving and their pupils have been dilating. I would assume that they can see but I cannot predict what they see.’
All around them the sun was shining brilliantly, casting shadows and the huge cone of shimmering light stretched into the clouds punching its continuous hole and bathing the blue forms in its life giving warmth.
And now the first 20 to emerge from underground were seated to the left of the lander, 5-10 metres away at most.
Life was about to get very interesting for our astronauts.
Chapter 22
Life and Death for the Blue People
‘These life forms are cold-blooded reptiles which have evolved into an upright humanoid stance. This is somewhat similar to the evolution of monkeys on Earth. The square shape of the nipples is, in fact, created by a black tattoo. Further, the adults have triangular tattoos, mostly black but occasionally red, arranged around the black square. Also, between the mammary glands, are octagon shapes comprised of different sequences of black and red lines.’
Olivia was watching a further group surface, very slowly and stiffly, and though she could not be sure, she sensed that these were older blue figures. Then she noticed that the very first females to emerge were gathering together and, to begin with, she couldn’t understand what they were doing.
‘They’re feeding from one another,’ said a surprised Scott, ‘look, there’s white liquid coming from the mammary glands.’
‘My analysis of the white liquid shows it to be very similar to milk,’ Zec-1 informed them, ‘and it is very high in protein and fat.’
When each of the blue females had fed they returned to their original seated positions. Now, the younger ones who had vacated the large pool started to take nourishment from the adults. The process was like a conveyor belt with each taking their turn. Interestingly, some of the more mature young ones also took part as providers after they had fed.
‘Well, I suppose that’s breakfast underway,’ Olivia joked, ‘I wonder what’s in store next?’
They both looked back to the ramp at the figures that came from underground carrying leaf-clad bodies towards the first pool. Five new forms had emerged and they were of a different stature, shorter, stockier and with very severe facial features. They placed the wrapped forms on the red clay floor in front of the hot pool. They discarded their leaves to reveal powerful scaly bodies with muscular arms and legs and at their waists were red triangular flaps.
The males had arrived and they were similarly tattooed. The astronauts’ concentration was then broken by Zec-1’s disturbing observation.
‘Forms placed on the floor are below 5 degrees with no discernible life signs.’
Following this, several of the adult females moved back up to the ramp floor and between them they half carried and dragged the dark green bundles down the slope which led to the octagon floor.
Olivia and Scott looked on in sadness as, quite carefully, the limp forms were lowered into the channel and, slowly assuming the speed of the water, they disappeared from view below the red brick wall.
Chapter 23
Eat, Drink....
Whilst all this was taking place, the younger blue females were busying themselves scurrying around the structure picking up leaves and stalks. The stalks were broken off and placed on a large leaf and they also put what appeared to be large spherical pods on another. The remnants were thrown into the fourth pool along with armfuls of large leaves.
The youngest females had no markings or tattoos whilst those more obviously developed had the distinctive black square around each nipple. One or two even had a triangle or octagon tattooed on them.
How strange!
It was intriguing watching the youngsters as they negotiated their way around the caterpillar tracks of the lander. They picked up the loose leaves and even went under the lander to clear the floor and all the time with total indifference to the huge craft. Those leaves trapped under the tracks were left after a couple of experimental tugs.
Zec-1 interrupted the astronauts’ scrutiny announcing,
‘Temperature in the fourth pool is a steady 85 degrees as it is filled directly from the crystal channels with no dilution. Further, there is a white, thick liquid seeping from the stalks. My analysis shows it is polymeric latex not dissimilar to the natural latex found in our own rubber tree. It is also the binder in the black coating on the hydraulic ramp and is present in the tattoos on the blue creatures.’
Olivia suddenly grabbed Scott’s arm,
‘Look at that female that’s just entered the top of the channel. What’s she doing?’
This adult female was at the very top of the channel bending forwards, right below them, with her arms down in front of her in the hot water. Suddenly there was a commotion as she straightened up and in her hands........
‘Aaah,’ Olivia breathed, ‘it’s a new born infant. Look Scott, how tiny it is, how privileged we are to witness a new life born - and on another planet!’
‘The infant is approximately 1 kilo in weight and is still attached to the ‘mother’ by a cord similar to the human umbilical cord.’
Zec-1, as ever, provided the technical details.
They watched as the tiny baby’s cord was nipped twice by the mother using her finger nails and it quickly floated down the channel and out of the structure. The mother then leaned back and placed the tiny curly haired infant against her breasts. With only a little encouragement, the small cr
eature took its first feed. Then, one of the older adult females approached the channel and gathered up the little form in a piece of leaf and took it up to the upper pools where the rest of the young were being looked after.
‘It’s like a crèche up there,’ said Olivia, ‘we’ve seen birth, death, feeding – this is an extraordinary tableau of life inside this unique solar structure – does this go on at all the light shafts? – there are thousands of them.’
The Blue People of Cloud Planet Page 9