by Keith Martin
As the scanners moved inland they never stopped recording the hundreds of thousands of animals moving in their quest for life.
Infrared scanners picked up the first signs of volcanic activity. In one rift valley there were three great plumes of liquid rock spewing forth from the crust of the planet filling the valley floor with a river of magma. This river measured a mile wide, and flowed all the way to the sea where the cooling waters hardened it; new land was being formed by the acre every few minutes.
The Seekers memory was filling, heating up fast again. It scanned less then twenty percent of the planet; seventy percent of what it scanned was a frozen mass devoid of life. In the living band of this scanning, half the planet had rolled past underneath The Seeker, and its memory was filling with information. LIFE.
No one, in their wildest dreams had thought this kind of living planet was waiting to be discovered in space. Sure there were hopes of finding some form of life, but to find a planet that could sustain billions on its bounty of biodiversity, and ready to go for colonization, was more than anyone had hoped for.
* * *
The scanners again recorded vast schools of fish swimming through the sea as soon as they crossed the waves crashing ashore. Plumes of krill that covered tens of square miles of the water’s surface turned the sea red with their biomass. Millions of large fish where feasting on this living bounty from all directions. Some of these fish had to weigh in at over a thousand pounds. The Seeker recorded massive fish leaping thirty feet into the air with a mouth full of krill still trying to swim in the air beating their tails; they looked like jumbo size trophy tuna.
The baitfish turned the sea into a multi-colored patchwork of billions swimming as one, flashing in sunlight as they turned and rolled in a synchronized dance.
Things scanned and stored in the Seekers memory so far were nothing compared to what was picked up next.
Once this information was received on the Moon, all life that had been known through the ages would change.
* * *
A twin mast ship was in full sail pulling a net through the teaming seas ten miles from shore. There was a crew of ninety onboard and they were hard at work processing what had come up in the last net harvested from the sea. The deck of the ship was awash with still flopping fish that were being gutted, gilled, then thrown into the ships hold for storage.
These humanoids were larger then earthlings, but not so much larger that they looked like giants. The scanner reported most of these humanoids at just under or just over seven feet tall. Their shape told that these were women who harvested the bounty, all of full breast, and in great shape. The labor of their hard work was keeping them toned and healthy.
One of them stood at the helm in command of her ship. She was looking up to study the winds that fed the sail’s; The Seeker took many photos of her upturned face. It proved that these where a stunning people. Her smile showed that these people where enjoying life as they worked.
Next the scanners moved ashore and found a protected cove with its own natural bay at the tip of the next continent. Like a massive peninsula jutting out into the sea with this protected bay at its tip. The improved jetty was the first sign of sentient life that flourished there. A massive wall of stones had been erected to hold back the storms of the sea, protecting the bay, and leaving a long neck for the incoming waves to break up. The bay was truly sheltered and calmed. The bay was some seven thousand acres in size, had a massive dock with two more fishing ships moored to it. Crews were readying for departure with males and females working together on the docks, but no males were seen on the ships, only females were onboard, females stood at the gang planks seeming to guard against males boarding. The men toiled on the docks unloading supplies from carts, and pulling carts on and off the dock from a massive warehouse.
The front of the warehouse was seated at the edge of a large open market surrounded by shops, and all manner of living supplies were being exchanged, by hundreds of these humanoids. The village in this protected cove was quite large spreading out down a single main road leading from the docks, all the way through the village out into the farming land.
Some seven hundred dwellings were spread out in a concentrated area, with streets paved in stone, and a population going about their daily lives in the warm sun of Hope. There were children running here and there playing and growing, just like here on Earth, the elder children watched after the younger ones.
Livestock was kept penned just outside the village, but there seemed to be little of it for a village this size. There was a large area being farmed to provide this community the food needed to sustain its people, and also fodder for the livestock.
On the inland side of the cove, the solid rock wall that protected it was hundreds of feet tall, straight up and down. It looked as if nothing could scale the wall they were just too smooth and steep to be negotiated.
* * *
As The Seekers scanners topped the walls and continued out over the next continent the mainframe began to fail from the flood of input. Memory banks full and running hot it shut down.
The last thing it recorded was a single shot of a massive beast feeding on treetops, one hundred and eighty feet long and weighing in at one hundred and sixty-six tons. The beast looked like a brontosaur of some type.
* * *
Like a flower at sunset, The Seekers nose cone slowly closed up, its guidance computer took over control of the ship from the scanning program. The scanning memory had all the information it could hold, and had over-heated trying to record all it was seeing on the planet. It was now on an emergency return program, and was pulling heat from the memory as it extended the backup-cooling coil into the shaded side of the ship. The ship rolled, to bring the coil to the center of the dark side. Within seconds the coils did their job, and the memory was saved from meltdown. As soon as the Earth’s sun showed over the rim of Hope, The Seekers thrusters ignited, and the ship blasted through space once again. Shianne programmed the main thrusters to burn until the spare Blue Thunder fuel tanks went dry. Allowing The Seeker to gain every mile per-second she could, if the emergency program took command of the ship. The tanks were holding sixty-two percent of their load; the crossing from the Moon to Hope only consuming thirty-eight percent of the fuel Shianne designed the tanks to hold. It was returning weeks earlier than programmed… and coming in hard and fast.
The mission calculated to take three months at least each way was on the return trip at speeds that would have it back in just two and a half months time. The speeds it reached on the outbound trip were nothing compared to the speed it gained by draining the tanks in one long emergency burn home.
* * *
The Seeker now held the truth of the diversity of the heavens.
The question of Earth being the only living planet had been answered.
Life existed on other worlds.
Humanoid life existed on other worlds.
THE END
About the Author
Keith Martin was born into a loving catholic family in 1961 in the Bay Area of California. This gave him the foundation of a true believer, he looks to the heavens and knows there’s more to this story we call life then meets the eye. He now enjoys life near a small town on the coast of Oregon, seeking adventure in the forests with nature, and breathing with the rhythm of the sea.
“I believe that raw storytellers, are those who find their way through the trials of life. They are seeking, and open to new experiences; and enjoy rich lives filled with stories. Their failures, travels, and dreams, have more adventure than most will ever live. I live my life to be one of those storytellers.”
I’m the father of three great kids, and you just read about them throughout this saga.
When not at my tablet with pen in hand, I go fishing; raise livestock and garden, living life in the country far from city lights.
At night I look with wonder toward the heavens… “Look at all the stars.” My mind races. “How can we possibly be
alone in all of that?”
Author’s Note
For any wishing to know where this story will go next…. You have not long to wait.
I wrote 10 novels to find the ending of this saga. It required 3.5 years, 10 hours a day just to create the rough drafts on paper.
You have my word; I will not be long in bringing the next novel to print to continue the journey.
Coming soon . . . Volume 2 of the RED VIRUS 101 saga . . .
ONE HOPE