HOPE - 'Humanities Quest for a Future'

A SiFi short story by William A. DeSouza
(c) 2006

The wind blew constantly with the force of a category five hurricane, blasting the exposed surface with sand and rocks. Visibility was zero at the height of the constant sand storm, with no vegetation to hold back the onslaught. The planets surface was as desolate as its location in the galaxy and a most unlikely place to find anything.

Yet sweeping across the surface were several hundred unfamiliar geodesic spheres. Tethered together in pairs by a composite carbon fiber cable they wandered across vast sections of the planet’s land mass as the wind howled and ripped them in wild arcs, threatening to pull them apart. Dust and rocks whipped about, carving gouges in the landscape, at the same time trying to rip the spheres apart as the sharp edged debris bounced off their composite skin.

Inside each eight meter sphere, a computer program triggered the release of the tether joining the twins and immediately they were separated, blown apart like balloons in a gale. One by one, across the bleached planet, pairs of the alien spheres separated and spread apart by the hand of raw nature.

The planet’s atmosphere was a thick mix of carbon dioxide and argon with trace amounts of nitrogen and oxygen. Although the planet’s position in space, in relation to its sun, would seem ideal to support life, the run away greenhouse contributed to the current drastic and unstable climate with temperature fluctuations ranging from minus eighty to plus ninety degrees centigrade, first freezing and subsequently baking the ground. On the outside, this extreme planetary weather kept any life from developing and taking a foothold in the fragile ecosystem, but it was still considered a special planet and one worth exploring.

The sphere allowed the planet’s fury to direct its course. At a pre set time and running from another computer program written several thousand light years away, each of the bright orange coloured spheres separated into two half sections as the explosive bolts securing the spheres blasted them apart, both halves coming to rest a hundred and fifty meters apart.

As each section landed on their flattened section, eight hidden panels slid back out of view around the outer perimeter. Specially designed two meter barbed darts fired out and drove into the dry ground, securing the now half spheres where they lay. Each dart passing through rock as if a hot knife were passing through butter. The category five hurricane strength wind would no longer be able to control the destination or outcome of the sphere, which now an immoveable geodesic dome and part of the wind swept barren landscape. An orange pimple dotting a grey brown sterile land, it was hard to imagine which was more alien.

The crest of the Planetary Survey Expedition, emblazoned on the top of each half dome, was covered with sand. It was scared from contact with the brutal ground and sand storms that would cut flesh. They were barely visible. The bright orange domes, circled by a band of red colour at their base and marked with an identification number, split the wind as small vortexes formed just off either side.
Around the planet, one after the other, each sphere split and each half performed the same action to secure itself.

Their job was a simple one, to look for any form of multi-cell organism, something that could be considered life. They would also collect atmospheric and mineral data. It was a wishful dream on the part of the spheres builders. A dream they hoped would one day prove life could exist on a planet every Human thought long dead.

Far above the planet’s surface, a mammoth interstellar ship orbited, it's main drive engines purging waste gases as it cooled. A nearly invisible cloud of water vapor trailed behind as it coasted on the upper edge of the planet's atmosphere. The only sign of the trail - a shimmer, a sparkle, when light from the star reflected off ice particles. Diamond-like jewels with a finite life span, melting as they kiss the atmosphere.

The name on the ship’s bow conjured up Humanities distant past, 'Beagle VII'. A tribute to Charles Darwin and his search for bio-diversity on distant lands, in a distant time. This was the forth 'Beagle' to visit this world, it was hoped that this time the updated scientific packages would yield the same great discovery Darwin found.

The ship lay in a high polar orbit. This high orbit allowed it to easily unburden itself of the spheres - dispersing them across both poles, northern and southern hemispheres.

It was a long term endeavor that James Althone was willing to undertake in quiet solitude. He stood, hands clasped behind his back, staring out the floor to ceiling window on the observation deck of the Beagle VII. As the director of the Planetary Survey Expedition, it was his responsibility to oversee the Life Quest project. This was a gargantuan multi-decade project with a staff numbering in the thousands and spanning light years across the galaxy.

It was his dream and tireless effort of a lifetime that has lead James to this point and with all of that - with all of Humanity behind him, he still felt alone.

The Life Quest project was not one ship, but hundreds which were either on their way to some far off world or already depositing their own spheres on planets long thought dead. It was humanity’s best opportunity to rebuild and expand a population bursting at the seams. Man was outstripping the resources of planets already colonized and so the race was on.

James focused on the planet below as he dared not dream of the possibility that this time he would find what he sought - his Holy Grail - life. This planet held a special place in James's mind, an obsession many would say. Although none would say it out loud. He came back to the planet each time the Beagle VII made the three year long trip.

Even traveling faster than light in the void, the three standard years it took to journey nine light years dragged on for most. James didn't care about time, he only had one single minded thought - to find life where none was supposed to have existed. He needed to return to a dead world and re-build a past by looking toward the future.

"Credit for your thoughts?" Asked Scott Kruger as he quietly entered the observation area.

James did not move or seem startled, instead he spoke with a soft, but deep and penetrating voice. "A single credit? You would have to fork over much more for my thoughts my friend."

"Alas, a credit is all I can spare. The balance of my liquid funds are being wagered on our findings." Scott paused to take up a position beside his friend, "Besides, you'll be happy to know I'm betting on you this time."

James chuckled, "I'm not sure you should have done that. I'm betting on the other side." The two friends shared a laugh.

"I thought I'd find you up here. You have to start carrying your communicator. I wanted to let you know telemetry is coming in from all but one of the spheres."

James nodded quietly, "Only one out of service? That's better than the last deployment."

Scott, standing ten centimeters shorter than his friend, colleague and boss looked up, "Wow! With that kind of enthusiasm we'll have to peel you off the bulkheads." He shook his head asking, "When did you sleep last?"

"Last month - cycle two I think."

"Funny – you’re not having second thoughts, are you?"

James looked squarely at Scott, "Always." He turned, taking his gaze away from the vista. "I'm as nervous about these missions as I am confident in succeeding."

He turned back toward space and the planet below. "This place has a hold on me and I can't explain it. It consumes my life, it occupies my mind day and night when not involved in other research."

Scott took a deep breath and spoke softly, "That, my friend, is the understatement of the millennium. It's also nothing the news wires haven't already reported on. That said, it's a dream shared by everyone. There's not one Human alive that wants to see this mission fail. Your obsession, if that's you want to call it, is the same obsession each of us mere mortals have. This planet is what it is, and finding life of any kind here will give us hope for a future."

"You are a poet - a bad one, but one nonetheless." James was quiet and somewhat introspective.

He looked back at the planet as it circled below, dust storms clearly visible even from space. The dark brown clouds moved quickly over the surface, casting shadows along their perimeter. Scattered around the seemingly empty world the robotic search for biological life continued.

Not all of the spheres separated at the same time. A few, like PSE-S44, took longer to trigger their separation program. When it did however, it was dramatic. The artificial intelligent computer program had no way of knowing about the massive fault that lay opened ahead in the ground, directly in its path. Within seconds the sphere disappeared inside the expansive cavity.

The majority of spheres did well, notwithstanding the physical and environmental dangers they faced.

One pair of robotic explorers, the last to separate and dig in, was located on what was an ancient sea bed. The ground was as parched as any place else, but sensors built into the spheres began to pick up something else. The separation program initiated, sending the twins off on their own.

The half sphere sent it’s securing rods deep into the ground. At the same time sensor probes dived down into the long dried out sea floor to collect precious samples.

Computers, no matter how sophisticated, and immaterial of their ability to mimic the human brain, could never appreciate the data from the ground probes. A soup of minerals, sulfides, acids and other elements bathed over the probe’s sensors as it pushed its way deeper into the ground. The laser tip burned through any rock that hindered the progress while the fiber and carbon composite probe snaked its way deeper. Something else, something different was also sensed, but in the background. The sensors could see that in the distance, the probe tip was nearing a material that had not been previously found.

Within the computer core, programs to analyze the sensor data were kept busy. The reams of information continually flooding in told a story about the geological and climate history of the planet. The past was slowly unraveled to reveal a present and maybe a future.

The main computers on the ship tied all the pieces together. Each active sphere used its uplink to transmit volumes of data at speeds coming close to that of the Human brain. Centuries of research and development in computing came close, but nothing had been found to rival the speed of the chemical and neuron connections in the biological mind.

As the bits of information assembled, the geologists, paleontologists, anthropologists, and heads of other planetary and life sciences departments gathered in the Beagle VII's situation room. Each one was intent on getting an early peek at the relevant data affecting their departments.

The room wasn't large to begin with so the addition of eighteen bodies only added to the confusion and noise. Terminals with their attendant technicians lined the walls with four other banks of stations taking up the free floor space. Human space was tight. The noise level increased as those present tried to speak above each other, each having something important to say.

In one corner of the control room, farthest from the entrance hatch, a mission specialist watched his monitor intently, waiting for something but not expecting to find anything. Of all the stations, his was the most unlikely to have any luck in taking part in a discovery.

Jason Melborne graduated at the top of his class in Hydrogeology and Environmental Sciences at the university and he could've had his pick of plum research positions and locations around the Sphere of Human Settled Worlds. But his contract was picked up by Doctor Althone with what could only be described as an intriguing offer - "Help me find the water of life".

It was an offer which was simple in statement but infinite in scope. Right now however all Jason saw on his terminals were the sensor readings of a desert the size of a planet. Hardly the discovery he wanted to put his name to - Then…

James and Scott had already made their way to the galley and had pored themselves a cup of synthetic coffee, the real thing too dear and costly to include in a long duration space flight.

James sat listening to Scott defend his favorite sports club losses just prior to shipping out when over the ship wide intercom, "Attention - Director Althone to Command and Operations - urgent." The announcement was repeated three times.

James and Scott were both taken aback by the unexpected page. Scott asked rhetorically, "I wonder what's wrong now?"

James didn't answer as a slight chill came over him. He looked down at the steaming jet black beverage in his cup, visions swirling with the steam. He blinked and tried to control his imagination and emotions. The spheres had been on planet for several days now and it was unusual for him to attend the command and operations centre during that initial deployment time. The mission was to last several months after all, and things ran quite well without his interference. For him to be summoned, something must have gone wrong.

Both men stood quickly and made their way to the lift that would take them deeper into the bowels of the giant ship. If placed in a liquid sea, the Beagle VII would displace close to eighteen thousand metric tons. Compared to the original HMS Beagle's two hundred and thirteen metric tons, this was a big ship. Its beam was nearly three hundred and fifty meters in length. To increase the speed of internal ship transportation, the lifts were designed to travel in both horizontal and vertical directions.

Scott reached the lift controls first and entered his priority access code. This would override anyone else waiting for or using the shafts and bring a car to their position right away. In seconds, one arrived and the two men boarded, immediately entering their destination onto the keypad.

When they reached the C & O, both men stopped short, a bewildered, perplexed look on their faces. The entryway was jammed with officers and crew of the Beagle along with on and off duty personnel belonging to the research team. The hatch, which would have been shut and locked, was now open, its ten-centimeter thick door mechanism obviously overridden to remain open, accommodating the throng of spectators now gathered.

James, without turning to face Scott, leaned his head over and whispered, "This can't be a good sign."

"OK people, let's make some room please!" Scott didn't have to shout, but his voice did have to carry to be heard over the din.

Startled, the crowd began to part, making way for the confused but now equally curious project director. As James entered the darkened control room, he could see a path going straight to the Hydrogeology station and Jason Melborne. Jason had not yet looked up but was so focused on his job that James wondered again what he was being called down for.
Someone nudged Jason and pointed toward Director Althone who now said, "Would someone mind telling me why I was paged and what the hell are all these people doing in my control room?" He wasn't really angry but frustrated that others seemed to know what was happening before he did.

Jason spoke up first, his voice raspy and hesitant, almost stuttering, "Sir, I think you'd better take a look at this. I can't explain it – not now anyway, and it's not supposed to be here at this depth."

James was taken aback somewhat by the hesitation and nerves in the young research technician's tone and demeanor. He walked toward the terminal and look intently at the screen. At first he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, then a faint echo. A hint of something but then nothing, making him consider that Jason, and now himself, were seeing things. James looked out the corner of his eye at the young tech and back to the screen. He reached down and typed in a command to isolate a data set and run it back from the point he thought he had noticed something. The results hit him in the face, vibrating his spine from top to bottom. James stopped the data run and started it over again to make sure. The same thing showed itself. He straightened, apprehension spinning though his mind. Jason stood and offered the Director the chair.

As James sat down, never taking his eyes off the screen and the data it displayed, he asked, "How long ago did the sphere begin to transmit telemetry?"

"Coming up on one hour ship time."

"And these readings – when!?"
"Exactly twenty minutes ago. At first I thought that the instruments were faulty, then I double checked the probe telemetry and uplink – everything showed green. There could only be one explanation. The problem is, I’d never seen this result at this soil depth before." His voice trailed off at the thought.

"OK people, let's get back to work. I know that these readings seem to give us the result we want, but we need to get confirmation. Lock down the C & O and launch the Genesis probe. Jason, you did well, but now its time to get down to the real work. If this is authentic, I'll name it after you." James put his left hand on the shoulder of the young man as he stood and shook his hand.

That simple gesture and its accompanied acknowledgment gave Jason a renewed sense of purpose in the mission. It hit him that this mission, this project, was a worth while effort after all – But the Director was right, this is where the mission got interesting, thought Jason with glee.

The belly of the Beagle VII was a hodgepodge of sensors and sensor arrays, shuttle bays and an assortment of hatchways, as well as defensive weapons pods. The larger of the shuttle bay hatches began to slide open, revealing at first a diamond sliver of light from the bay. The bright light penetrated the darkness surrounding the mammoth ship. To an outside viewer floating in space two kilometres from the ship, the site would have been awe inspiring.

Even before the hatch opened fully into its recess, the viewer would have noticed a puff of gas from the manoeuvring thrusters of a long slender object as it left the ship. The gaseous vapour condensed into tiny crystals of ice in the vacuum of space, the light of the shuttle bay reflecting off each particle creating a dance of radiant beauty.

The Genesis probe, named after the biblical Book of Genesis, was designed to confirm that life existed where none should. It would establish the genesis, the beginning of the rebirth of Humanity on a long dead planet in another unique way – it would kick start the process of rebirth if necessary.

Life developed around the universe in many forms on many planets and the basic building blocks include silicon, crystalline, and others. On this planet however, carbon was the main element and due to this fact, water became the solvent in which a biochemical reaction took place to sustain life. The Genesis probe carried the milieu to jump start the re-emergence of any life that was found by the spheres.

The probe measured five meters in height and two and a half meters in diameter. It coasted out of its cradle in the Beagle, drifting after its initial thrust and moving on momentum only. At thirty meters from the ship, its main engines ignited and sent the craft on a very fast ten minute journey to the ground.

Spheres PSE-S72-A and PSE-S72-B had landed and dug in almost a kilometre apart upon separation and the Genesis probe was targeted in the exact middle of the now two halve spherical probes. In the same way that a human parent is advanced over their children, the Genesis probe was that much more advanced over the spheres. It was the parent that would nurture the organic compounds found by the spheres and if necessary augment the soup. The atmosphere already contained parts of the soup. Methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide were plentiful in the current environment. Oxygen, water, phosphates and several other amino acids were now needed to seed the planet and Genesis would provide what was missing.

In the Beagle's C & O, James Althone and Scott Kruger sat at the back. They waited for the answer to questions Humanity only started to ask once it was too late, 'can we save ourselves?'

Scott turned to watch the concentration on the face of his old friend. "You'd rather be down there, wouldn't you?"

“Where?”

“On the planet, doing the science up close and personal and getting your hands dirty.” Scott smiled.

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I'd rather be there. I feel so helpless right now." James whispered, pausing before continuing and a certain amount of frustration in his voice. "Other than that, I never really thought about how I'd feel or what I would think about at this stage in the project. I always hoped, no, expected to get to this stage, but never got past that idea. Why, am I not living up to your expectation?"

"You reacted well enough. You put things in place and rehearsed the scenario with the team so that each person knows what to do if and when it happened."

“You’re getting a kick out of seeing me sweat, aren’t you – you can stop now.” James grinned at being make fun at. He was the type to laugh at himself first so it was only fair that he gave his friend the opportunity to do the same.

They were interrupted by a disembodied voice on the speaker, “Five minutes to Genesis contact, glide path is nominal – stand by.”

The disembodied voice was not local to the ship, but the Genesis probe itself, the artificial intelligence designed and programmed for only one mission. It wasn't self aware, but it was dispassionate and focused in its cause and the mission goals. During the development of the programming and the probe, James felt a certain amount of guilt about using an AI program. He knew it was silly, some would say even juvenile in his humanizing of the AI and he knew it was even irrational.

All that said, there was still something in the voice of the machine he first heard at the computer lab when the Genesis programming was first activated. "Good Morning Director Althone." It wasn't human but it wasn't machine either, instead it was almost childlike in its quality. As the programming developed, its language and purpose improved and it became less of a thing or tool and more akin to a colleague – at least to James.

As he ordered the launch of Genesis, he cringed inside knowing that it was on a one way mission. It was as if the probe was willingly and enthusiastically giving up its life that wasn't real for a cause it would never benefit in. James's thoughts betrayed his internal conflict, thanking it for its sacrifice and wishing it well on its short journey. It was a private conflict that not even his best friend and family knew about.
James gripped the arms of his chair now and leaned forward, his muscles tensing as if he was on the probe about to strike the planet surface and he was preparing for the impact. He realized what he was doing and slowly released his grasp, hoping no one noticed.

Too late however, Scott leaned in closer, "You have to learn to relax in moments like this." It was a friendly jibe as he tried to lessen the tension he knew James was under. "You're going to break the arm on that chair and it'll come out of your credits."

The Genesis probe rotated as winglets attached to the body deployed and corrected for an increase in wind. Inside the probe, the advanced sensors began to scan the landing site as the AI communicated with the spheres, trying to gather as much information on the proposed organic find. Was it or wasn't it? That was the question being asked by the probe's computer, with four petabytes of memory it was working overtime trying to decipher all the data being transmitted.

The thick atmosphere parted only so much as Genesis plunged through toward the ground. On board the Beagle James watched his monitor and the telemetry being sent to it from all the other stations. After so many years of doing this he found it easy to compartmentalize the data so only the vital bits and pieces got through to his conscious brain.

At a thousand meters off the ground Genesis fired its retarding chemical rockets to slow its decent. At five hundred meters Genesis began its landing sequence allowing it to touch down at a speed of five meters per second. The nose of the probe never touched the ground itself however because the rock cutter imbedded in the nose sliced through the rock and dried ocean floor, melting and parting the way for Genesis to submerge itself to a level where the suspected organic material was found by the spheres.

As soon as all forward momentum stopped, Genesis began to send out its feelers, tentacles of a sort, no more than three millimeters in diameters made of a flexible composite material. They snaked their way through the rock and dried ground, pushing their way in every direction in an effort to confirm the find and begin the process of re-birth.

James half stood as the Command and Operations room fell silent, each person straining to see the results poring in from the probe. He turned back to see Scott smile and give a nod of approval. It was a ‘well done and good luck’ kind of look. The same expression that was on the face of every other person in the C & O.

Jason Melborne did not turn to see James standing behind him, he concentrated on the information on his monitor – so he didn't see the shock and glee and excitement on James's face when the final signal came through.

"Life! We have a future after all." Whispered James, tears welling up in his eyes after a life time of searching and hoping for this moment, it was now upon him and the Human race. The seeds of life did exist on this place he thought quietly to himself.

The whole room erupted in jubilation all at once. It was too much for three of the researchers as they passed out in the arms of others nearby. Most wept openly, too overcome to hold it back. James and Scott hugged and shook hands as Scott said, "This is a momentous occasion my friend and I wouldn't have missed it for all the credits in the universe. Thanks for taking me along."

Around the ship there was an equal amount of celebration from every department as the news spread.

James was inundated with requests to shake his hand, hugs and a few kisses. He knew that there was still a lot of work to be done and Genesis would need to get authorization to go to the next step. He held up his hands and said loudly, "OK, OK, let's settle down every one."

The room went quiet, waiting for James to speak again. His status as a visionary now elevated even higher.

The tendrils sent out by Genesis had found their target and halted as it waited for a signal from Beagle. In time the signal was received and a chemical soup began pumping from Genesis and down each tendril, seeping into the ground. A primordial soup that nurtured what was a deeply rooted and hibernating terrestrial organism.

The essential elements of life flowed from a human made probe on a planet that was once the birth place of humanity. Earth was gone but not forgotten and Humanities finest may have brought back a slim chance for its revival. It would take another thousand years for any indication that the efforts of Doctor James Althone would succeed but that didn't matter to him and the thousands of people that joined in the hope.

The geochemical soup nurtured and infused the ground around the probe and for the next several hours extended its reach in a one kilometre radius. The ooze was a mix of coenzyme, pantoyl lactone, beta-alanine, various amino acids and other chemicals known to kick start the process of organic growth. Over the next thousand years the RNA and DNA structures of the organism would grow and develop.
James knew now that there was hope and there would be other equally vital finds within his lifetime. And while he wouldn’t be alive when Humanity returned here, he was happy to be there at the beginning of the voyage. There was hope for humanity in the re-birth of its home and that hope was something that would live on even after he was dust.

Organic complex carbon based molecules are the requisite building blocks of life on Earth – and James was beyond words as he came to the conclusion that he help put those molecules back. Playing a God was not what he wanted, but acting as the assistant to the numerous Gods in Human history was just fine with him as he surveyed his handiwork.

“Earth will live once more.” James turned to his friend, tears in his eyes.

I have a Memory....

I have a memory of a time past;
where child like innocence is heard as laughter in the breeze.
A time where children play in open air fields of green;
and sky's are dotted with wispy clouds that spark young imaginations.
I have this memory - of time past.