The Return by Derek P. Blake - HTML preview

Chapter 10

Planet-fall

 

Josh watched as the chamber dissolved around him to be replaced by that of a pristine beach. He looked around him, to the left and right the land disappeared into the haze of distance, and behind him sea-cliffs rose up to a hundred feet in places. To his immediate right a small stream bisected the beach between low bluffs from behind when it emerged from a narrow cleft between the cliffs. Along the back of the beach vegetation grew, strange prehistoric looking plants, like mares-tail and small ridged-pine. Further up the cliff more bushes and shrubs clung to the face, bushes with thick glossy leaves and bright blossoms in yellows, blues, purples and reds. There was not a cloud in that blue sky and it reflected from the ocean's surface with an added tinge of turquoise, there were no waves to speak of, to disturb the surface merely large ripples that tried to invade the beach, and failed. This was a place dedicated to peace and tranquillity, Josh's external suit microphone was on, and yet was picking up no sound at all, not even the rustle of a breeze. So far from those vacation days at Coney Island or Florida's theme parks that it might be on a different planet, then he realised that he was.

 

That thought brought Josh back to reality and the job he was supposed to be doing. His eyes focused down to the complex panel inside the front of the helmet, his hand searched for the tiny button on the suit's breastplate that activated the atmosphere sampling device. Finding the button, he pressed it and looked to the helmet panel, the tiny progress indicator climbed from rest to finish and a green LED flicked on. The readout said seventy-four percent nitrogen, twenty-four point two percent oxygen, one percent water vapour and point eight percent unknown, but safe to breathe. “How are you doing down there Josh, you're very quiet,” came Laura's voice, seemingly from nowhere.

“Roger that,” responded Josh, “this place is stunning.”

“What's the atmosphere score Captain,” came Charlie's voice. Josh gave the readout from the panel, “Oxygen quite a bit higher than Earth's and a lower nitrogen level as well as elevated water vapour,” reviewed Charlie, “rather like the early Earth atmosphere was thought to be.”

“I have a green light here,” said Josh, “so I am about to lift my visor, stand by.” His hand stretched to the helmet and twisted the release on each side, there was a slight hiss as the positive pressure was released and the visor lifted smoothly. Josh took a deep breath, the first non-recycled air in over seven years, it tasted good.

 

Surprisingly he could taste no brine in that air, so close to the sea, one would have thought that was a given. At a hunch, he made his way to the shore-line, removed one glove and scooped up some seawater. When he tasted the water, there was no taste of salt, “No salt,” he said out loud.

“What was that Josh,” asked Jo's voice.

“There's no salt in the ocean,” repeated Josh, “it's entirely fresh water.”

“Well we will never go thirsty Josh,” laughed Jo, “but tell us what it's like down there.”

“The first thing I noticed was the peace, something about this place, not just the quiet, it's the general ambience of the place,” he went on to describe his surroundings as he had observed them a few minutes ago, “. . . and the air, it's . . .sweet, you can actually taste the air, just as you can taste the water, it's so pure, better even than the spring water we used to buy back on Earth.”

“I can't wait to get down there,” said Laura's voice.

“As far as I can tell, there's nothing stopping you, seems as if its as safe as houses, so ask Blake.”

 

Jo opened the door of the chamber and called Blake over, he stepped inside, “Can we all go down dear, Josh says it's perfectly safe and no reason not to: please!”

“Josh, are you sure there are no risks down there,” Blake asked.

“Sure enough, Blake, looking at this, I doubt there is anything risky on the whole planet.”

“OK, shall we all go look see?” he called outside to the others, “we're going down for a look, want to join us,” he asked them. One by one they went through the process, and one by one, they appeared on the beach with Josh. Each was individually stunned by the beauty and peace, and they all felt relaxed. Jo and Laura sat on the white sand and lay back staring at the clear blue sky, Josh stripped off his EVA suit and flight suit, and then, went plunging into the ocean. Blake and his two sons looked at each other and that was all it took for the three to join Josh splashing around in the shallows. Doug, Charlie and Ed, acted in a more conservative manner and went off to explore the local flora, rocks and whatever else they could find. Blake commented that he had missed Cornwall, for Sun, Sea and sand. They remained there for some time, just relaxing before they returned to the ship.

 

The following morning the same group, minus Paul, assembled in Blake's office again, the reason was to flesh out the long bullet-list from the morning before. Of course, by far the most popular item was the second bullet point of exploring the planet, but there were a number of opinions on how this should be accomplished. Doug wanted to know if the continent should be 'zoned' as it was on the ship, and if so shouldn't each language group be allowed to explore its own zone. It seemed that no one else felt that this was an option, but thought that there should be a number of teams appointed to specific regions to explore and report back. Charlie was keen to visit the enormous building in the central region of the continent, and asked a favour that he be allowed to lead that team.

“I think we are all intrigued by that structure Charlie,” said Blake, “so why don't we all transport down there tomorrow morning and check it out.”

“In that case we'd best spend the remainder of today organising the first exploration teams for tomorrow as well,” suggested Josh, “I guess that must be our priority.”

“If this is to be our home,” said Jo, “we need to know the planet and start setting it up as such, and as quickly as we can, after yesterday, I am getting the yearning for open the air.”

 

The following morning at eight o'clock, ship's time, ten teams gathered at the bank of transporters, each was designated a colour code for communication purposes. Red team consisted of the core group who was destined to investigate the gigantic structure that they had seen from orbit. Telemetry had measured the structure and found it it to be some fifteen-hundred and twenty-five miles long and the same along each side, with three-hundred and forty-three floors, towering above a fertile plain. There was also a central tower that stretched into the atmosphere some fourteen hundred and ninety miles, with the top ten percent seemingly made of the same material that the spires on the ship were constructed. They had been supplied with a scanned map of where the entrances were located, and as per his request, Charlie had been elected team leader. Brown team consisting of the senior farmers were assigned to what looked like a fertile agricultural area in the north of the continental landmass. Blue team were being sent to one of the coastal areas to assess the possibility for fishing and stocking the streams and seas with the amazing fish from the ship's lakes. Black and grey teams were being sent to check for archaeology on the planet, and green team to the forests to survey the plant life, and other teams were sent to interesting features that had been identified from orbit.

 

Ten minutes later the first teams were being transported down to the surface, as leader of red team Charlie arrived first and within ten minutes the full team was assembled outside one of the entrances to the building. The structure fell away to the horizon in both east and west directions, the walls were white and as smooth as glass, with windows that had the look of pure crystal. Looking up the tower disappeared into the haze of atmosphere and as the strained their necks to look up, they all felt dizziness at the height, what could this edifice be for? Looking around them the soft Sol-like sun bathed the plain in yellow light, stone paths meandered around the short grass lawns and crossed fresh water streams via small bridges. In several paces the streams fell over low waterfalls or disappeared into dark grottoes, only to emerge again down another waterfall and flow gently on, despite seemingly being on the same level. In the distance could be seen low hills covered with orchards or groves growing some sort of fruit. Blake however was keen to investigate the building and urged everyone on toward the entrance. There were no doors on this entrance, an air curtain prevented heat or dust ingress. Inside they found themselves in a huge hall, at the far end a coloured glass window bathed the hall in multicoloured light, and the air was cool and sweet, without even a hint of the musty smell one usually finds in such places. The hall was some thirty meters wide and they estimated some eighty meters in length, along each wall were doors evenly spaced, and at every seventh door was a double door made from the same crystal as the windows. The floor was polished yet was not slippery and seemed to be of pink marble.

 

“It's a meeting hall I guess, like the ones on the ship maybe,” suggested Blake, “whoever these aliens are they seem to like meeting places.”

“Lets start looking into those doors,” said Charlie.” he strode toward the nearest single door and pushed it open. The wooden door swung silently open to reveal a store-room of some kind filled with grey containers about fifteen inches square and three foot long, when he tried to open one it just increased in length and filled the width of the room. Charlie dragged one out into the hall and it extended to about half the width of the hall, “I think these may be the seats for the meetings,” he said. The next few rooms contained virtually the same contents, but some contained items that they could not guess at. They came to the crystal double doors and opened them entering into a lobby from which three corridors radiated, each lined with doors.

“It's like a hotel,” said Jo and going to the nearest door and opening it. As she entered she gasped, Blake was by her side within a second, thinking something was wrong. The room was filled with machinery, machines that Blake instantly recognised, there were lathes, band-saws, milling machines and drills, but that was not what made the hackles of his neck stand on end. The machines were all from well known Earth manufactures.

 

Charlie and Ed were next into the room, Charlie crossed to a metal turning lathe and placed his hand on the drive end, “How did these get here, I remember having one of these in the lab workshop, and it looks brand new,” he said as he scratched his head in wonder.

“Look here, this milling machine is German manufacture, isn't it,” exclaimed Ed, “and this is new as well, I don't understand this.”

The team hurried out from the machine room and burst into the room across the hall the room was full of tools, everything that any tradesman or DIY enthusiast could ever need and again all of Earth manufacture. Room after room revealed machines and tools, materials and supplies, for just about every trade imaginable.

Eventually Blake stopped and called out, “has anyone seen any stairs or an elevator anywhere?”

The whole team stopped, “Now you mention it,” said Laura, Charlie's wife, “no I haven't. How do we get to the upper stories?”

“I rather hope there aren't any stairs,” said Charlie, “I don't fancy climbing up three-hundred odd flights of stairs.”

“Well that's why we're here to investigate the place,” said Blake, “let’s start looking.”

 

They Moved more swiftly down the hallway and came to the end where they found a small door that led outside, but little else. The group returned to the meeting-hall without seeing any trace of a means of getting to the upper stories. It was Jo who found a small wall mounted booth about half way along the wall of the hall; under a small cover she found a key-pad with the same numerals they had gotten used to on the ship. “Blake, Charlie, this may be something,” she called, “it's like a phone booth with a key-pad and no telephone.”

Charlie and Ed examined the booth and agreed that it seemed like a version of the ship's transporters as it had a similar coil arrangement under the booth's hood. “There is only one way to find out,” said Charlie, who entered the waist-high booth so that he was under the hood and pressed the zero and one buttons, then held his breath. Nothing happened, Charlie stood there for some seconds braced for transport, “Don't work,” he said.

“Maybe its faulty,” offered Ed.

“Well it would be the first thing that didn't work since we got in board the 'Return',” replied Charlie.

He tried again, “maybe this is zero-one, I’ll try zero two.” Charlie punched the two keys, but again nothing happened, then punched the two, one, seven keys but still nothing happened, “and not even a telephone ringing anywhere,” he said in frustration, “I only want to go up one floor . . .” As the end of his last word formed he dissolved into thin air.

“Charlie! Can you hear me,” shouted Laura, half in panic.

“Maybe it is voice command activated,” suggested Ed, and as he said it Charlie resolved back again in the booth.

“I know how it's operated Ed, and it's not voice command,” said Charlie, “It's thought activated, I just tried both, voice has no effect but you think the floor number and bingo there you are,” he said, “and this is zero-one by the way,” indicating the floor.

 

The next floor up was almost the same as the ground floor so they decided to go straight to the three-hundred and forty-third floor. The top floor was obviously an observation level with the clear crystal glass forming every wall of this enormous single hall. From here the sky looked distinctly a darker blue, but the air was still good and breathable even though they were at least three and a half thousand meters up, many times higher that Earth's tallest building by almost three times. Laid out beneath then were rivers and grassy plains, copse of trees scattered around with extensive forests fading into the distance. There were no other buildings, as far as they could see but there were a multitude of places that just begged for an idyllic cottage on the banks of one of the rivers.

 

After a time Charlie broke into everyone's thoughts, “OK team; let’s go see what's on the other three-hundred forty-one floors.” The team returned to the booths and Charlie choose floor three-hundred for their next stop. One at a time they materialised onto another hallway, the walls of which were a restful pale green colour. From the hallway four corridors radiated at right-angles to each other, each one held a vast number of doors and faded into the distance. Other crossing corridors could be see at intervals along each spur, and they were illuminated by the whole ceiling panels glowing brightly, Charlie was already making for the nearest door, and the others immediately followed him. Behind the door was a living quarters, fully outfitted with furniture, chairs, tables, beds and everything needed for daily life, except any trace of cooking equipment of any kind. One wall was a screen that gave the impression that the room was on the face of the building, though they were many apartments away from an outside wall. Further exploration discovered a whole range of accommodation, single, doubles and various sizes of family apartments.

 

“I think,” said Charlie, “that we need to form a lot of teams and do a full survey of this building, section by section, floor by floor, so we have a full record of what facilities and accommodation we have available.”

“I agree,” answered Blake, “at the very least we need to know how many apartments we have and the size of each.”

“What if we check every tenth floor,” suggested Laura, “just to see if there are any differences.”

“If there are no cooking facilities, there must be somewhere to eat in this place, and I've seen nothing on the plan,” added Jo.

“Speaking of food,” interjected Blake, “I suggest we get on the grass and have our packed lunches, then make a start on the ten-percent survey.”

“Good idea,” agreed Ed. They transported back to the ground floor and made their way out into the sunlight, Jo spotted a group of benches about a hundred meters away, set around a small lake into which one of the smaller rivers flowed. They settled down and opened the food that had been prepared for them, processed protein chicken steaks in buns, and fruit. Whilst they ate they discussed the issues of getting people settled in the apartments and the allocations.

“It will take some time to allocate who has what apartment, matching them will a headache in itself” said Jo.

“I believe we should do it one stage at a time, lets get the survey done first then match the apartments with the families, and lastly start moving people in,” said Blake

“The best laid plans of mice and men,” stated Ed.

“What do you mean Ed,” asked Blake.

“Well we had our own wonderful plan to select who gained a place on the ship, didn't we,” replied Ed, “maybe there is already a plan in place and the ship already knows where people are going and transports them directly to the right apartment.”

“Now that’s a thought,” commented Charlie, Laura and Jo just looked at each other.

“Spooky,” said Laura.

 

The team finished their food and after lazing in the sun for a while, made their way back into the building that they had names Central Living, or simply 'Central'. “Let’s do the first ten floors and then every tenth after that,” suggested Charlie.

“Sounds good,” said Blake and they all agreed. Floors one to six were all pretty much identical, then when they materialised on the seventh they found it was very different. Here there were long counters in what looked like stainless steel, but felt warm to the touch, unlike metal. The room was 'L-shaped' and obviously a dining hall with rows of hundreds of tables and forms, all set out in alcoves, where one could eat in private and with plenty of room for families with children. Along the counters were arrayed small cabinets that seemed to be the terminations of trunking that curved and disappeared into the ceiling above. Charlie was the first to examine one of the cabinets, lifting the door, which swung upward; he was greeted by a buzzing sound. He quickly dropped the door, and then noticed a scanning pad, rather like the ones they had found on the ship. Charlie called the others over and then he placed his hand on the plate, the cabinet hummed and opened by itself; inside the flat space was a dish of apple pie and cream. “Wow!” exclaimed Charlie, “you know I was just thinking of cold apple pie.”

“Which may mean it works like the transporters outside,” concluded Ed.

 

Jo looked at her husband and noted the grin on his face, “We know where Blake will be spending most of his time then,” she laughed. The whole team took a turn with the food dispensers before they returned to their exploring and kept going from floor to floor. At Blake's insistence they also called at floors fourteen, twenty-one and twenty-eight in addition to every tenth.

“Whoever these aliens are, it would seem that there counting system has a base of seven,” stated Blake.

“I agree,” said Ed, “I have noticed that seven comes up very often.”

“Seven or multiples of seven,” said Blake, “this building for instance, it has three-hundred and forty-three floors, that's seven cubed.”

“So it is,” added Charlie, “I hadn't noticed.”

The remainder of the floors followed a similar pattern, some food halls, most of the others accommodation but some seemed to have other unspecified purposes. One was almost certainly a theatre and another may have been a music venue, as it was equipped with what could have been speakers. Some, no one could hazard a guess at it purpose. After the set ten hours their bracelets signalled that it was time to return to the ship, and together this time, they all pressed the return buttons and the huge building dissolved, to be replaced by the transporter cubical on the ship.

 

The following day more teams were dispatched, most of them to 'Central' with instructions to map every room and once reviewed, to be given a numeric designation. The core team started reviewing the reports brought back the previous day by the teams who had visited other parts of the continent. On subsequent days the pattern was repeated, with more and more reports being returned. After something like a month the population was told to prepare for removal to their new living quarters, to start packing all their possessions that they wished to take with them. The admin teams had assigned all of the accommodation on the ground floor and all was ready to start the relocation of the first wave. Three days later the transfer was to start at 09:00 ships time, bracelets programmed with the coordinates of each apartment had been issued to each family in the first wave. Blake and his family were included in the first wave and he, Jo and the boys were due to transport at ten minutes after twelve. The contents of the admin office had been transported down the day before, into a room in the middle of Central. Families with children had been assigned the ground floor apartments for safety reasons, although it seemed that the building had been accident proofed from falls.

Promptly at nine o'clock the first family disappeared from the booths and the occupation of their home began. Within an hour Blake started to receive calls from the surface complaining that people had been transported to the wrong apartment. Within an hour those calls became a flood, not one family had ended up in the designated accommodation. Blake called a meeting of the central group to discuss the issue and what had gone wrong. It was Ed Scully who put his finger on the problem. It seems that our benevolent aliens have already made the decisions for us, again, just as they did in choosing who was included on this ship.”

“That did cross my mind just now,” said Blake, “as you mentioned on our first survey trip, if that's true, I'm not sure I like the prospect.”

“Why's that,” asked Jo.

“I have a fear that our aliens are not as benevolent as they may seem,” shared Blake, “what if they have brought us here as slave labour?”

“Hey Blake, you have not a shred of evidence for that,” suggested Josh, “I don't think everything we have been given, everything we have, just to be slaves Buddy.”

“So why have these people, if that's what they are, made their own choices of who they want and then, where they want them,” retorted Blake.

“Well there is little we can do about it now, we are here, where they want us,” said Charlie, “and no doubt if we change accommodation, the ship will simply transport them back to where they want us.”

“Isn't that just it, whoever they are, they have us just where they want us,” stated Blake, “and we have no say in it.”

 

After the impromptu meeting, Blake made a ship-wide announcement over the address system, which automatically translated his words into all the different languages on the ship's company.

“Attention please; we have found that after the first families have transported down to our new home, we have found that, just as the ship choose all of you to be saved on this ship, it has now overridden our assignments for accommodation. There is therefore a good chance that you will not arrive in the apartment you thought you were assigned. Although this is out of our control, we apologise for this and hope you will nevertheless be comfortable in your new home, temporary or permanent. Thank you all for your understanding and God's blessings be upon you all.”

“OK lets get back on track and start transporting people down,” Blake told the team who operated the transporters, “where ever they end up.”

“Sir,” said one of the technicians, “so far three couples have ended up in the middle of nowhere; two on the seashore of the east coast and one in the middle of pasture land.”

“Have you tried to transport them back,” asked Blake.

“Yes Sir, but the transporter refuses to operate when we target them.”

“Send me down to the couple in the pasture land,” Blake demanded.

 

Three minutes later Blake was standing beside a shelter that was obviously a temporary one, a few yards away stood a pile of machined lumber and other materials. About twenty meters away stood the bewildered couple, who having seen him appear started toward Blake. “Where have you put us,” the man asked.

“You obviously came down before my announcement, it seems that the ship is deciding where we go, not us my friends.” Blake looked around him at the lumber and materials, “Where did all this come from, we've only sent stuff down to 'Central' so far.”

“I don't know,” said the man, “it just appeared, along with the shelter, just after we arrived.”

“Just a guess,” said Blake, “are you farmers?”

“Yes,” the woman replied, we had a wheat farm in Canada.” The man nodded his agreement with his wife.

“Don't ask me how the ship knows all these things, but I guess the ship or whoever controls the thing wants you to start over,” suggested Blake, “they have given you a shelter and the materials to build a house, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't give you the tools and machinery to start your farm.”

“We would love to do that, like the old homesteaders back home, it will be a challenge, and look at this place, h