The Blue People of Cloud Planet

by Brian Wolfenden

  “Well that’s another puzzle solved,” he concluded.

  Most of the Serenites stayed within their pyramids but occasionally they were seen amongst the blue workers. The heat and humidity forced Scott indoors but he was confused and tried three pyramids before he found the one where Seren was bathing in the cool pool. He swam alongside her and then drank from one of her attendants and ate some food.

  Then he sat and watched. The light shafts were pouring in from the front and rear walls. The water steamed and glistened and the reds and blacks of the art and sculptures changed their hues. It was magical scene and a privilege witnessing young and old at work and play.

  After the Serenites had fed and then washed in the channel, Scott watched as they formed groups with identical tattoos. Again those males with multiple red triangles attracted the most females. The biggest group was 11.

  Suddenly he was aware that Seren was approaching and his heart pounded at the sight of her and then Scott immediately felt guilty – but he could not tear his eyes away from her. Her eyes dazzled brilliantly as she put out a graceful hand and he saw,

  >> come with me > come with me >>

  She squeezed his hand and put her arm around his waist and looked up into his face. He was fixated by her magnetism and powerless to repel her telepathy. Again he could not resist as she reached up and kissed him and all his guilty thoughts were brushed aside. Then she led him to the side of the third hot pool where six beautiful Serenite females awaited him.

  >> come to us > come to us > this is what we do >>

  The combined telepathic power of this message coming from that group was overwhelming. Slender arms reached out and guided him into their midst and coaxed him to the floor. He looked at all these beautiful females around him with the light shafts illuminating their incredibly smooth skin. Their triangular necklaces pointed, invitingly, to their breasts and their black waist flaps hung tantalisingly between their thighs. Then the first vision kissed him and he was transported into paradise. Eventually and some considerable time later he drifted into a peaceful and satisfied sleep.

  When he woke, he felt wonderful. He was surrounded by the females and Seren who were all seated and gazing at him. He was astonished to see that they all now had a multicoloured tattoo identical to his and Seren’s. With dread he realised the enormous implication – he had become part of a mating group in Serenite society. He had interrelated with an alien species from another planet!

  Suddenly he was racked with guilt. Not only had he broken one of the astronauts’ codes of conduct, but he had let Olivia down when she was at her most vulnerable and possibly not even alive.

  Although he realised that he was being controlled by Seren, he was helpless to prevent her designs on him.

  The long nights in the blackness of the tunnel were difficult as sleep did not come quickly. He felt alone and desperately missed Olivia – had she survived? When, if ever, would he find out? He looked at her image on the tiny screen and guilt hit him like a hammer so he switched to a picture of himself and his grandfather at the launch. In that cloying darkness he could remember the conversation as if it were yesterday.

  ‘Where’s Dad going, Gramps?’

  ‘To the edge of space, almost to the stars.’

  ‘Are they a long way off?’

  ‘A long, long way, Scott.’

  ‘Will I ever go to the stars, Gramps?’

  ‘You know, I think maybe you will!’

  And here he was, how proud Dad and Gramps would have been, he thought and finally sleep came.

  Scott and Seren travelled along the equator through the next nine, 300 metre dwellings. All were fully populated and he admired the ever changing art and sculpture and found the music and dance ‘shows’ vibrant and different. He also reluctantly joined new groups of Serenite females in most of these dwellings and left them tattooed identically to himself and Seren. Each mating ritual took him to a high followed by the depths of despair as guilt struck afterwards. He also found that Seren was being increasingly more affectionate towards him and that he was now the focus of attention of Seren, her attendants and all the new groups he joined. On the one hand he was flattered by their adoration but on the other he was ashamed and guilty.

  Chapter 46

  Take Me to Your Leader

  Since reaching the equator, they had now travelled through 15 dwellings, 750 kilometres and Zec-1 reminded Scott that the next structure was similar to a ‘super-city’. Scott could sense Seren’s higher level of elation as they rose up into one of its pyramids.

  After warming and feeding, she approached him with her eyes dazzling brighter than ever. She was obviously more excited than usual and he saw,

  >> we are at our principle dwelling > shortly you will meet our leader >>

  She clutched him by the hand, her touch electric, and led him out of the dwelling and into the brilliant sunshine. Again he marvelled at the vast light sheath and then looked about him, stunned. Around most of the perimeter were seven normal pyramid dwellings but, directly in front of him, stood a most imposing dwelling.

  ‘I am equally impressed. This octagonal pyramid is 200 metres wide and 150 metres tall. The front and rear walls contain a total of 500 diamond crystals. Near the top are four ventilation structures. Inside, the layout is similar to the 300 metre pyramid dwellings, but the internal structures are proportionately bigger. The triangular ‘theatre’ is 150 metres long and 100 metres at its widest point. It is multi–tiered from the top down to the huge floor area. A second triangular plinth, 10 metres high and 25 metres long, is located in the centre of the floor and provides seating for about 15 occupants. In the middle of this is a raised dais about a metre square and with a strange black ‘box’ located on top.’

  Serenite capital city

  They walked around to the huge entrance where light glistened from the vast arrays of diamonds in the front and rear walls.

  Scott entered a space so vast it took his breath away. Hundreds of light shafts streaked from the front wall across the interior and crashed onto the three gargantuan sculptures that seemed to rise and disappear into the roof.

  Serenites and blue workers had gathered in their thousands around the internal walls and pools.

  Scott and Seren walked up the ramp to the top of the huge triangular structure. The lower seats were occupied by the Serenite males and the upper tiers were filled with females.

  They descended and moved along a tier to a central position level with the centre plinth where seating seemed to have been ‘reserved’ for them.

  Scott’s attention was now riveted on the six Serenites sitting in the central plinth around the raised dais. There were four females and two males and they appeared to be elders, judging by the silver colour of their hair.

  One of the silver-haired males rose to his feet. He had strong facial features, and a muscular body which was tattooed with a multitude of red and black triangles.

  The atmosphere filled with the telepathic admiration of hordes of Blue People for this charismatic person. The intense vibes pressed around Scott’s head as this person’s eyes dazzled directly at him and he saw,

  >> welcome to our world > welcome to our people and our cherished workers > we have waited a long time for this day >>

  He raised his arms upwards and outwards and every one of the Blue People responded in a similar manner.

  Scott’s head hurt with the overwhelming welcome, but the pain quickly subsided and he raised his arms in greeting. Seren turned to him and said,

  >> this is our leader > we call him hotenka > he will speak to you >>

  He had guessed that this was the chief of the Serenites of the Blue People of Cloud Planet. When Hotenka ‘spoke’ every one of the people present slightly cocked their head,

  >> this is what i know handed down from past generations > we were once a proud and beautiful people and we lived in paradise > a disaster occurred and we lost a lot of our people > our workers and our lands by the seas > we did
not know why > then our world changed > our workers started dying > again we knew no reason for this > then a further major disaster befell us >>

  He paused and the atmosphere chilled Scott to the bone.

  >> we lost nearly all our magnificent males > we do not know what happened > or have lost our understanding over time >>

  Hotenka looked directly at Scott, his eyes blazing.

  >> now our workers are dying faster than they are birthing > our blond race cannot birth enough males > again we do not know why > my people are doomed to extinction > our world is dying >>

  Scott choked. He could feel Seren’s intense sadness as she clung harder to him, and he sensed the despair of all the Blue People in that enormous dwelling.

  >> then came a sign from the clouds >>

  Scott could feel a surge of optimism in that huge pyramid and the leader moved to the raised dais and slid aside the black box to reveal its contents......

  ........ it was nearly noon and the light shafts were angling down from front and rear of the pyramid and they bathed the dais in light.....

  ...... and golden rays shot upwards from the centre of the dais, they seemed to go in every direction illuminating the light shafts with yellow and gold. Everyone stared in anticipation including Scott. He felt their elation, he felt their hope and then Hotenka beckoned to him.

  Seren led him by the hand to the leader who was now pointing at a golden object which had been exposed when the black box was slid aside.

  >> we saw that your form was like ours >>

  And he gestured at the right hand side of the shining plate.

  Scott moved forwards for a closer look and could see it was rectangular in shape and engraved.

  The hairs rose on the back of his neck. He could see the outline of a satellite, a spacial arrangement of planets and a man and woman!

  ‘My God! My God!’ he cried unbelieving, ‘the golden plaque! The golden plaque from Pioneer 10, it’s astonishing!’ He recalled the empty rectangular space and the four sheared bolts on the wreck in the dwelling at the edge of the plain.

  Hotenka repeated,

  >> we saw that your form was like ours > and we saw your name below >>

  He pointed and Scott followed his finger to the symbols below the man and woman.....

  ‘three short lines, three longer lines, three short lines’

  ‘The Morse Code for SOS!’ Scott shouted to everyone in the pyramid.

  >> and we called your name > every sun we called your name >>

  ‘They thought it was our name, how astonishing! But, of course, straight lines, they would recognise these because their whole existence is based on them. They signalled our sequence of straight lines without realising that it was our international distress call – how ironic a coincidence is that!’

  >> we started to fear that nobody would come >then eventually you came through the clouds > you must help us > you must save my people > you must save our world >>

  The gravity of this last statement weighed so heavily with Scott that he could find no words or action. How could he help, stranded down here on Cloud Planet, no communications with the starship and threatened by an unknown black menace?

  Then Scott turned and looked at Seren and her eyes blazed,

  >> there must be a way > there must be a way > there must be a way >>

  Meanwhile, in the starship above the clouds, Olivia was in intensive care fighting for her life. Martha had reported to AJ and the rest of the astronauts that her blood salt levels had been dramatically reduced but now the desorption of the chemical from her major organs was the next critical stage.

  ‘Martha,’ queried AJ, ‘can you explain why Olivia has become so salt intolerant?’

  ‘No, all her medicals including the last one at Mars base before we left were fine. But that was over 20 years ago! So something has changed since then or during cryo-hibernation but I’m not aware of any of our volunteers being similarly affected.’

  ‘Perhaps it’s the extended time in cryo,’ Alison suggested, ‘after all we were twice the time of your longest criminal.’

  ‘But what about our medicals when we came out of cryo?’ Steve persisted, ‘We were all given a clean bill of health, weren’t we?’

  ‘Yes we were. So I’ve got Zec-C retesting our samples – but we may be talking about a genetic change here so it’ll take time to find out.’ Martha concluded.

  They had watched the video, from the palm top, of Olivia and Scott’s journey with Seren as they travelled through the various dwellings towards the SOS city. They marvelled at the footage from the first farming dwelling, then the amazing pyramid dwellings and their first encounter with Seren’s people. They gazed in awe as the octagon of blue females formed to the beat of the drums and left the structure to farm the hostile atmosphere outside. The astronauts were fascinated by the art and sculpture of the Serenites and then enchanted by the music and dance. At subsequent dwellings they saw the glistening light shafts caused by the diamonds in the pyramid walls and wondered how many of these huge crystals there were on Cloud Planet and where they came from.

  However, one pair of eyes, amongst the astronauts in the command dome of LifeSeeker-1, saw the multitude of diamonds on this planet and they glistened with selfishness and greed.

  Two days after Olivia’s rescue, Martha reported positive progress. Her condition was critical but stable with no major organ failure.

  They followed Scott’s journey after he left the SOS city and Zec-C informed them that he had passed through a dwelling nearly twice the size as the one’s containing four pyramids. He was now travelling towards a second huge structure on the equator.

  Although there was excitement, there was also concern that the black mass always appeared just after each dwelling shut off and kept pace with Scott, denying vital communications.

  Then, three days later and to everyone’s relief and delight, Olivia regained consciousness. Martha explained that it was now a matter of rest and nourishment and that she could receive visitors.

  Twelve days after her dramatic emergency rescue from the SOS city, Olivia was well enough to join her colleagues in the command dome, initially for short periods as ordered by Martha.

  Then a deeply concerning event occurred as Zec-C reported that a new black mass had formed at the edge of the plain and was expanding in the direction of the equator. Over the last four nights this had grown in size and suddenly split into three. They were positioned adjacent to the outer three dwellings. Zec-C estimated that each of these new black masses was 1 kilometre square but could not determine if they were present during the day.

  The major concern to AJ and the astronauts was that this line of dwellings led towards the huge dwelling at the equator where, they assumed, that Scott was now located. It had its own smaller black mass blocking communications.

  During the next two nights a fourth and fifth large black mass appeared. The latter had settled next to the first farming dwelling.

  Chapter 47

  Underground Treasure

  ‘There is, undoubtedly, an order in Serenite society determined by the number of red triangles which are tattooed on the individuals’ chest. In the massive central ‘theatre’ of the leaders’ pyramid all the Serenite males and females have at least one red triangle. As one moves down towards the floor so the number of red triangles per capita increases. The front row has males and females each with 10–20 of the male birth marks. The older Serenities on the raised area in the centre have even more and Hotenka has by far the largest number of red ones.

  ‘Further, there are some differences in the leaders’ pyramid. There are ramps leading up to ledges where many hundreds of the Blue People can stand and watch proceedings. In the walls behind the pools are two 40 metre inclined ramps which form an inverted ‘v’ some 30 metres above the pool area and 75 metres wide. Thirty six black ‘drum’ structures are located in front of this triangular ramp. Each is topped in red with accompanying reed structures to the side. T
heir heights follow the triangular ramp and they stand proud by a further metre. The two centre ones are over 30 metres high and 2 metres square and produce a deafening cacophony of sound.’

  Seren had informed Scott that they were now guests of the leader and should remain in this large pyramid. There was no further discussion about the plight of the Blue People and it was business as usual as they drank, fed and formed their mating groups in pursuit of creating the elusive males.

  Hotenka had returned alone to the central plinth and stood by the now covered golden plaque. Seren approached and Scott saw,