My Life On Planet Exo 133

My Life On Planet Exo 133

Aka

Nev

Chapter One

1

From Launch To Disaster

It was probably the least complicated plan of man ever devised and they picked me to carry it out. They picked me because among the millions of expendables on planet earth I was a no brainer choice. Why I was the best choice really has no bearing on the events of this story. I must admit though I feel rather honored with the fact that I was dubbed the most expendable human in all the solar system.

Like myself, the ship I was to travel half way across the local region of the galaxy was expendable, that meaning, if it and I crashed and burned or simply vanished it would be a small loss.

All that said, if the mission came off without a hitch, we, me, and the ship, would go down in history like any hero of first-time out explorers.

The ship had two functions. The first was to get me to Proxima B which included a soft landing. The second function was that it would open up like one of those fold out houses on earth and serve as a habitat for the passenger, ‘Me’.

Now for the classic oops.

Everything went perfect at first, which is typically the most dangerous thing that can happen because of the Murphy’s Law effect, which I am a well-known recipient, and which is one of the reasons I was expendable.

The ship soared uneventfully across the entire solar system and navigated the heliosphere in about the same manner as those two old voyager missions a hundred years ago, which are still out there somewhere cruising the cosmos, but probably inactive.

That part of the voyage took nearly a year at sub-light speeds despite the Em engine with hyper overdrive that could launch the ship into lightspeed. The brilliant scientist were afraid that if lightspeed was achieved within the heliosphere it could create a damaging paradox in the fabric of time and dimension. If that was going to happen it would be better if it happen where the heliosphere would probably protect the solar system. I guess the good thing is it took the two Voyager ships years to make the same trip.

I might mention now that due to certain circumstances that occurred across the inhabited solar system all experimental space explorations were abandoned. Project Proxima was the new world agency, and I was its first guinea pig.

 The ship was a classical shaped thing, a saucer, which was developed, I was told by using a system of reversed engineering from UFO recoveries back in the dark ages of Ufoism. It even had an observation bubble on top where I spent long periods of time observing the solar system trundle by so slow it was hard to believe I was actually moving.

I haven’t mention yet two things. The ship’s designation is simply Project Proxima B. The other thing is, my name, which is, Alistair Wellington Pratt, aka, The Expendable Idiot. And, for the record, my expendability stems from being a mad man with a record of homicidal fantasies. I never actually killed anyone, I just fantasized about it but I was incarcerated in a mental institution because my psychiatrist suggested I could be a danger to society. Imagine an intelligent race of beings sending out someone like me to parent a colony on a new world. ROLMAO. But here I am.

As soon as I was through the heliosphere, with a few million miles to spare it was my job to launch the ship into lightspeed mode. Since it had never been tested there was a 50/50 chance that I, and the ship, would end up a brief, probably undetectable spark in the cosmos.

On the other hand, if it worked, we would be on our way to Proxima B with an eta of about 4 years, give or take a few months or weeks.

I said it was my job to initiate the Emdrive, which would by default initiate the hyper-overdrive launching us into lightspeed. The truth is, I was the monkey in the middle, trained to do one thing. Hit the Big Red Button.

Which I did with the flip of the wrist and a dramatic plunging of my forefinger aka the index digit, as it was explained to me into the centre of the button.

Another part of the mission went off without a hitch and to make things even better the autopilot activated exactly on cue and was functioning within normal parameters.

Well, just about the time you think you got everything under control who shows up. None other than Murphy. What could go wrong, ten hours after the Emdrive was activated, did go wrong and I was in the observation bubble to watch the whole thing, unable to do a damn thing about it because I knew diddlysquat about piloting or controlling the ships functions. Meaning. I couldn’t put the breaks on because I didn’t know how to deactivate the Emdrive.

You will have noticed I haven’t offered any anecdotes describing my life aboard the ship, so far. The truth is I didn’t want to use up what little there is to tell in the first entry of my story. But I promise I will describe some of my day to day activities soon.

Travelling at lightspeed has no effect on anything. In fact, it is difficult to know if you are even moving. There are no stars streaking by and with no celestial bodies near by you can only imagine cruising by them. So, it wasn’t until I realized we were heading into an anomaly that was not exactly something I could see. It was just a slight distortion in space, but I knew enough about blackholes to know that what I was detecting was probably just that. And like I said, I had no control over the ship.

Sorry to burst your bubble folks but there is nothing to describe about going through a black hole, only the after effects. One minute you are looking at one set of stars and the next you are looking at another , no longer recognizable set of stars.

And so, earth witnessed, maybe and experienced a disaster. Its expendables were expended, gone, poofed into nowhere. For me on the other hand life was about to get exiting.

2

The Next Few Months

Like I said, the stars changed. That is the only way I knew anything had happened. It was only a matter of minutes or maybe it was an eternity, which felt like minutes. I am not a scientist, so it is difficult for me to explain. My point is, I was still sitting in the observation bubble looking at a whole new space filled with stars none of which made up the constellations I knew. Hell, I may have gone off to a completely different galaxy or universe or, well who knows where.

After I got over being somewhere else, which took about an hour every day time I went below and took a few minutes to assess my situation. The fore most thought popped up in my mind like a burst of light.

I was completely on my own with probably no chance of going back to earth or having colonists join me on Proxima B or anything else the creator of the project had in mind. I also knew I would have to learn at least some rudimentary knowledge about the running of the ship just in case the automated operations quit. Fortunately, I did know how to access the library and there I found a manual briefing the ships functions which I could use to teach myself how to control the piloting station, disengage the Emdrive and most importantly activate the ships voice activated and responsive, Cortina program

What I have told you in a few sentences actually took weeks to accomplish, but things went along quicker once I had Cortina to talk to. On the other hand, hearing Cortina’s voice made me realized for the first time that I was absolutely alone in the universe, streaking along at lightspeed with no known destination.

Another thing I discovered about myself was that I had a very good memory, not photogenic or anything so fancy like it but good enough that I could retain a huge amount of information that would direct me to more in-depth information.

I learned about the difference between being alone and loneliness. Its intriguing. Being alone is simple. Being lonely can be complicated until you understand it. When you do get to that point you discover yourself and in my case I found that I like who and what I am, even if I do have bouts of homicidal fantasies, which BTW, diminished in frequency and intensity as the weeks alone went on. I was too busy running the ship since I often dropped into sub-light speeds and took over manual piloting control. The automated long-range scanners quite often picked up anomalies and sometimes those turned out to be exoplanets when I was near a star.

My day to day life was about like it has always been which is about the same as most of humanity’s day to day life. The biggest difference is I didn’t have earths sunrises and sets to glory over, however there were some amazing close ups of meteors and clusters of debris that could be classified as asteroids. I even came across a planet with its own private asteroid belt, where I remained for several days observing the rocks and even managed to capture a few which I examined in the lab. They were of course very small, usually about the size of a chicken eggs, but one was as big as a football.

With Cortina’s help I analyzed the specimens and discovered a world of minerals I knew little about but learned about quickly. There were some minerals and anomalies even Cortina could not identify and one of those was organic, which I will get back to later and becomes quite a huge part of my story.

I took on the roll of maintenance man along with a lot of other duties. No matter where we go, humans have a habit of creating garbage and after a while mine was building up. Fortunately, Cortina instructed me on the operation of the recycling unit. Literally it would recycle anything only it would break it down to its molecular structure. That asset could then be tapped into through the 3d printer and magically produce what ever I required. I had to make sure when I activated the printer that it knew exactly what I wanted, and her again Cortina was most helpful, essentially so. Primarily it needed to know the difference between food and clothing and other non-edibles. Like I said I am not a scientist so I cannot use the technical terminology off the top of my head. Maybe that will change in a few years. If it really matters since I am alone out here.

I have learned to play chess and spend long, long hours reading, which I never did on earth and probably never would have if I had remained there. I would have died in the asylum…probably.

I also had a library of motion pictures, thousands, of which I engaged in once an earth week, on Saturday evenings, more or less. Saturday Night at The Movies, I called it.

I kept my physical self in moderate shape by walking miles on a treadmill and playing tennis wall ball, a game where the wall could actually offer tough competition. I never bothered to learn how that worked but I did learn how to fix it when it crashed, which it did often once I got to the point that I could beat it. Fixing it was mostly about making it better than me.

Things were going along smoothly and I was getting more and more use to my own company…when one day I went into the lab on a routine inspection of the ship and to my surprise that organic matter from the football sized asteroid I mentioned went from nearly microscopic to about the size of cricket, but that was just a very small thing compared to what that cricket sized entity looked like and…well…I will go into depths in the next chapter.

3

The Gadda

I have to admit that what happened was a thing of pure guess work and luck. All I was doing was trying to preserve the little bit of organic matter I found in the asteroid sample.

All I did was put it in a petri dish with some water and put a lid on it so the water wouldn’t evaporate. After that I’d look in it when ever I was on and inspection tour of the ship to make sure it was all in functioning order and to do the cleaning. It amazed me that even in space dust builds up.

Then, as I alluded to, the microscopic specimen grew to the size of a cricket, rather suddenly. One day it was unchanged. Two days later it had sprouted, and the water was gone.

I added more water and let it be. The next day it had doubled in size and Cortina identified it as an embryonic entity.

My mind reeled. Something alive was growing in the petri dish and would keep growing until it out grew the dish.

“Cortina. Do you think the 3d printer can build an incubator?” I asked in desperation.

“I will program the computer to feed the printer with the information and material required.” Answered Cortina.

It took days, but it happened. In the mean time I just kept transferring the embryo into a larger container. When the incubator was completed, I put the embryo, now aa big as a mouse inside the machine.

At first it looked like any other embryo, or picture of any embryo I had seen.

I had no idea what to do so I just kept giving it water and for a while that seemed to be enough, but after a month, now twice the size it stopped feeding on the water. It had also begun taking shape, almost humanoid.

I fed it salt then sugar mixed in with the water. Still it would feed, but it continued to grow only not entirely like a humanoid. It was beginning to grow an extra set of limbs from its abdomen and its head was like a spider. I was beginning to think my little friend was going to grow into something very hungry and maybe very nasty. I hoped not and wished I hadn’t watched all those horror stories about giant insects feeding on humanity.

It grew quickly, I thought, into adulthood. It was a miraculous day when my little friend stood up on its hind appendages and began walking around the incubator.

I moved it after a few more days into a large aquarium and created what I thought was a comfortable environment, a place to eat and sleep and defecate, etc.

Mostly it coward in the corner and still wouldn’t eat even though I was giving it a variety of food.

It walked…rather, paced on its hind appendages and used its upper most to hold things and move them in an intelligent manner. That meaning it took the materials at hand and built itself a bed that resembled a bird’s nest.

I was pleased when it began drinking water by picking up the container and using it like a cup.

By now it had grown to stand four inches tall and looked like a cross between a grasshopper, preying mantis and something vaguely humanoid. And it began to make sounds with its mouth.

I have to admit at that point I started talking to it, like it was an intelligent being and not some sort of strange insect.

One morning I went to the lab and the creature was gone. Needless to say, I was startled and a little frightened, for several reasons, like, it would hide until it grew up then…

I went looking all over the ship but couldn’t find it anywhere. It was out of pure desperation that I went back to the lab and there it was, curled up in the bed it had made and stacked in its food dish leaves from a plant I kept in my living quarters. The leaf was partially eaten.

Immediately I went to examine the plant. There were three leaves missing.

It was good news. My little friend was not a carnivore and so was not going to grow up and hunt me. In fact, I noticed after a few more weeks it was no longer growing. It seemed to have stopped at about five inches in height.

Now. I want you to gather yourself up for the next most fantastic evolution.

I let the little creature come and go as it pleased and it spent its time mostly gathering food from various plants I had growing around the ship. Anything green it seemed.

One day at lunch I was in the cafeteria waiting for the 3d printer to produce a cheese sandwich when my little friend hopped onto the table and squatted a few inches from my hand.

For a long time, it looked at me, then somewhere else then back at me until finally it said in a voice much richer and deeper than I would have imagined, if I could have imagined it talking at all, “I am Gadda.”

The coffee that was in my mouth went spewing across the room in one direction and my chair went in the opposite direction when I jumped to my feet. When I had an empty mouth a lot of unmentionable words spewed out behind the coffee. Those words left out I had said, “When did you learn that?” When did you learn how to talk? And is that your name?”

“I have just spoken my first words out loud though I have been practicing for some weeks in whispers when ever I was alone.” It replied. “Gadda is my species. I do not know how I know this; I simply do. I am also aware that very soon I am going to change, evolve. I am going to undergo a metamorphosis, but what I will become I do not know.”

As it spoke, I realized that the creature sounded a lot like me. In a way it was mimicking my voice.

I replied after a minute, “Maybe you will grow bigger.”

It shrugged its shoulder if you can imagine a grasshopper shrugging its shoulders.

Two days later I found the Gadda wrapped up in a chrysalis.

I looked up how long it took a moth to emerge from its cocoon which was 5 to 21 days. I waited out the 21 days with minimal patience, but the Gadda did not emerge. In fact, though it moved on occasion it was nearly a year before the adult Gadda broke out of its cocoon. In the mean time I explored the galaxy…or universe I had been catapulted into, never once coming on a planet where I could land the ship and create a colony. I also began to wonder if that is what I wanted to do. Once I landed the Proxima B I could never lift of again. There was not device to launch it with.

4

Exo 133

One morning, morning being relative, I woke to find the Gadda breaking out of its cocoon. I considered helping it then thought better of the idea. Maybe, like so many other creatures, the struggle for life is a big part of being born or born for a second time. I’ll never know for sure but in the end it mattered not. The Gadda emerged and what it turned into was beyond beauty.

Its body, though much the same as before hade changed from brown to the most vivid and elegant emerald-green imaginable. Then if I had not been dazzled enough it spread out four amber, gossamer wings.

Then, suddenly it flew up into the air and circled the room a dozen times until at last it came to light on the table which its aquarium stood.

“Hello Alistair.” The voice was soft rich and almost silky.

“Hello, ah. Jeez I haven’t thought of giving you a name.” I replied then said, Well, I think you look like a Davis so that is what I will call you. Davis.”

“Then I shall answer to that name.” Davis replied and bowed slightly.

To be honest I almost chose Jiminy.

Davis still walked upright and to my astonishment he began to grow, rather quickly and within a month he went from five inches to a foot in height and was now growing his own food in the lab.

As things do happen, we got use to each other and amazingly we worked well together keeping the ship up and watching for planets that might serve as home. It was nice to have someone to talk to that wasn’t a machine and could think on his own, not to mention, after only a lesson or to was capable of a challenging game of chess.

I explained to Davis how he came to the ship, but he had no memory of being a microscopic organism in a piece of rock. What he did have was a vague sense of his kind, a memory of sorts and that it was possible the asteroid cluster was what was left of the world from which he came. He worked at times to draw up the memories but was unable to bring them out. But all was not lost because in the process of digging into his mind he discovered he could transfer thoughts into my mind and draw on mine. I discovered I had a small ability to transmit my thoughts but not to the capacity of my companion. It did however afford us two means of communications which later on proved very useful and at times convenient.

And we soared across space in some sort of quiet contentment, simply exploring, not particularly concerned about finding habitable worlds. After all we had our own little world nicely wrapped up in a sort of cocoon and well protected from the elements of space. Especially an autoactivated shielding that commenced when the scanners sensed anomalies that could harm the vessel. The vessel had resources to sustain our lives practically forever. I am not at all privy as to the hows of this magic.

It was six months on down the line when Cortina announce that the scanners had detected an exo-planet that appeared in the files of the ship. Exo-133, slightly less than 13000 light years from earth, which in a way was good news for me. At least I knew now that I was still in the same galaxy and within semi-known space. Not that going back or being rediscovered would ever be an option.

I dropped the ship out of lightspeed and took control of the pilot station. “Cortina. Feed me the ordinance of the planet.” I commanded and immediate the view screen lit up. I manually adjusted the course then reset the auto pilot. Then Davis and I went up to the observation bubble.

Far across space, orbiting a red sun was a tiny, glimmering orange and pink marble that resemble Saturn complete with rings. I could not help wondering if it was human friendly, human and Gadda friendly. Davis breathed air just like me but through vents in his sides.

We were travelling at one hundred and fifty thousand miles per hour, using the Emdrive engine, though not the hyperdrive. As the hours passed the little marble grew and the rings became clearer. We could count four defined rings with no debris between them. The inner ring was at a distance of one hundred thousand miles from the planet and the outer and thickest ring was three hundred thousand miles out. The other rings were light and ranged from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty-five thousand miles from the surface of the planet. All four were about two thousand miles thick.

I suppose it might be considered just a little convenient, but truth is truth, and it was a good truth at that. When we finally settled into orbit, a mere three hundred miles above the planet we activated the enviro-scanners.

Like I have said before, I am not a scientist but what I do know is, Cortina reported the findings of the scanners when they came available announcing that the planet could sustain human life. It was not earth in that it had slightly less gravitation and the atmosphere was a little thinner but nothing the body could not adapt to.

I had found a world to settle on. The only question remaining was, “Is that what I want?”

Three weeks later we were on the surface and I had activated the ships transformation app. I watched it grow, magically, from a saucer shaped ship into a modular colony capable of accommodating twelve families. But as amazing as it was to watch I was sad as well because I knew there would be no other colonizers, no pioneers coming to exc-133 in my life time or a hundred life times after.

But for Gadda and me it was the beginning. Two species to start a whole new world, but…how, with only one of each?