A Hadron Discovery

Chapter One: Landing

I gazed with unfettered amazement through the viewing port in the rec quarters. Emerald-green oceans spread across the vast habitable world, with endless clusters of swirling pink and ivory cloud formations. My breath was stricken from me. It was a masterpiece—a glowing abstract painting. This was Hadron-B6, the newest planet found in our cousin star system that could support life. Named after the sixth hadron collider—the particle accelerator that had opened up the wormhole to get us here. I was in awe, holding my hands to the nano-carbon reinforced glass. The video and images collected by the unmanned exploratory mission did not do this place justice. At all.

“Wow Clara, look at that…” Drew whispered.

I shot him a glance; his brown eyes were as wide as mine. We were alone in the rec room. Most of the crew were celebrating the arrival on the bridge or in the coms station. Not us, though. I was a bit of an oddball on this mission. The resident Bible thumper. In fact, I was one of the few who still believed in a higher power. But that’s not what earned me a spot on this ship—linguistics was my trade. Drew was kind enough to stay with me while we approached the landing site. He pulled a hand from the pocket of his standard maroon crew uniform and ran it over his short cropped hair, taking in this ‘new earth.’

“Still think this is just random matter that exploded from some big bang billions of years ago? Just look at that design…”

He sighed—and smiled. “Can I just enjoy the view for a moment, before we get into another one of our existential debates?”

I chuckled and looked back through the port. “I suppose.”

I set my gaze upon one of the scattered land masses. A shining blue beacon of light hailed us from below, from the landing site the exploratory robotic team had installed. Blue beaming energy reached into the emptiness of space, beckoning us to touch down on the dazzling green orb.

“I can’t believe we finally made it,” he said.

“It really is crazy, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely—how excited are you to search for lifeforms?”

“Oh my god, I can’t freaking wait!”

“Me either! I hope there’s some intelligent ones down there. Get your clicking sounds ready, translator. We’re about to put you to work, girl.”

We both laughed at that—deeply, as we moved closer to Hadron. But, just as we got within atmospheric range, I witnessed a massive explosion blow out the side of the hull, lurching the entire ship sideways. Drew and I were hurled into the wall. I hit first, just before he smashed into me and we both collapsed on the floor, grunting in pain.

He covered me with his arms as the entire room began shaking. “Shit! Are you okay?”

“No idea!” I yelled back over the sound of blaring alarms. We held onto each other for dear life. Lights cut out. The once bright white recreation hub was now flashing red. Thankfully, after a few terrifying minutes, things seemed to settle. The ship was still shaking around us, but we could move. Breathing heavy, I flipped my mess of red hair out of my face and we stood. Thank god for reduced-gravity. It had undoubtedly softened our impact.

I took in a deep breath, my hands shaking. Drew’s face was full of shock as we looked out the viewing port again. The destruction. Oh my god, no… A large portion of the hull was floating—floating into the dark reaches of the void. The ship was—decimated. Countless metal chunks and fragments were scattered around in great whirling clusters. There was a gaping hole, with purple plasma singe streaking outwards from the source of the explosion. Our ship and amethyst hued antimatter fuel blazing outwards in ever expanding circulating flourishes.

“This can’t be real, Drew…” I murmured, barely hearing my own voice over the alarm bells. I blinked, shaking my head, trying to wake up from this nightmare.

“Come on,” Drew said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me from the dreadful and mesmerizing sight. “Let’s figure out what’s going on.” He led us over to the emergency monitor at the back of the rec facility. It was completely blank.

“Are coms down?” I breathed.

Drew opened the wiring console. “This is shot, Clara. No power at all. Like an EMP burst, all the connections are fried.”

“What the fuck… Did—did that explosion look like it came from the coms station to you?”

He peered up at me. “It did…”

Just then, what I could only assume was another explosion, suddenly jarred my vision. The ship lurched again and we were jettisoned upwards as we screamed our lungs out. I managed to grab onto the second floor railing, catching myself, but dislocating my shoulder in the process. I wailed at the burning pain, dangling there. “Oh, god!”

Drew must’ve have landed safely. He was making his way up to me via a maintenance ladder. “Clara, are you okay?”

“What the hell do you think?” I struggled to hang on as he reached for me.

He took my strong hand and pulled me up, over the railing. As my feet touched down I grabbed my arm, gritting my teeth. “Fuck…” Drew helped support me as we made our way toward one of the pressurized doors leading to the bridge.

“We’re going to be alright, Clara.”

“Oh, blow it out your ass…” I whimpered. “I’m—I’m sorry. It hurts.”

His brows pulled together with concern as he smiled at me. “I know. It’s okay. Want me to reset it? I have some medic training.”

“No! No, please don’t touch it.”

“Okay, I’m sorry—sorry.” We reached the door and he initiated the sequence, opening it. “At least the doors are still working.”

We moved as quickly as we could toward the bridge, avoiding steaming vents and rubble that had collapsed into the hallway. I turned the corner just as the flashing lights induced vertigo. And the alarms were like banging drums in my ears. Between that and the pain, I was starting to get severely lightheaded. Come on, Clara. Just a little further. Almost there.

Finally, we made it to one of the doors adjoining the hallway to the bridge. Drew opened it and all hell broke loose. Screams. People were screaming and crying. I first noticed Jessica from medical, dead, on the ground with black singe marks covering her entire body. My heart sank and I covered my mouth. She was one of the few people on the ship who had been truly kind to me.

A man ran in front of me holding his own arm, snapping me back to the rest of the gut wrenching sight. It was chaos. People were running from the bridge. Bodies were everywhere. The sickening aroma of burnt flesh and hair hit me as I noticed the walls. They were half caved in on themselves, as if they had almost been sucked through the blast door leading to the bridge. The door was shaking, ready to implode at any second. And the blood…I couldn’t move.

“What happened?” Drew yelled to Vincent, the security chief trying to usher people out.

“The bridge is gone! It’s all gone! We have to go! Escape pods, now people, let’s go!”

I must have gone into shock, unable to take my eyes off the blood coating the floor. I was pulled along, absent minded, a haze clouding my vision. It all moved in a blur. Must have lasted for minutes—or hours. Drew was saying something to me, but I couldn’t make out the words. Sweet Drew. My friend. He was yelling at me. What was he saying? My name?

“Clara!” He roared. “Wake up! I need your help!”

“What…what happened?” I stuttered.

“Loop your arms inside the harness, Clara. Look at me.” I looked up. “Stay with me, Clara. I need you to loop your arms inside this harness. You’re coiled up so tight, I can’t secure you properly. I’ve got you, babe. Open your arms for me, okay?”

I realized I was sitting in an escape pod seat. I sucked in a breath and gave him my arms. He brought down the harness over my head and covered my chest, strapping me in. Tight. I looked around. A couple people from maintenance were strapped in beside me. They were shaken, crying, but appeared unharmed. My attention was drawn to screams outside the closed pressure door. People trying to get to their own pods? And I noticed a countdown on the console beside me. Eighteen—seventeen—sixteen. A launch sequence.

“That should do it,” Drew said.

I looked to him, then around the pod. Horror struck. I gasped as I saw that there were no seats left. “Drew! Get out! Find another pod!”

He sat down on the floor beside me, grabbing onto the support bars by the pressure door. “This is the last pod…It’s okay, Clara. We’re gonna be okay.”

My mouth fell open as the countdown continued. Five—four. “But…no. No, you can’t!”

The sequence initiated. The pod launched into space with such force…the only thing keeping my neck from getting wrenched to the side was the heavily padded safety seat encasing me. My stomach rose in my throat as I was hit with a nauseating spinning sensation. I tried to keep my eyes on Drew, but the G-force was too strong. I could barely even see straight, and I began to drift away again. There was hints of debris crashing around in the pod with me. The other crew members were screaming. And then nothing. Darkness.

Chapter Two: Surviving

I woke up to the smell of saltwater again. I peered out the makeshift entrance at a stark white sun cresting over an emerald horizon. The ocean was like glass—no tides at all. Everything was differing shades of green: the sky, trees, even the sand tucked in the recesses of my skin. Except for the clouds. I craned my neck, spotting a few hot-pink plumes scattered about. Our reining theory was that the precipitation on this planet somehow pulled up excess amounts of lithium right out of the saltwater, which was causing the clouds to emit a bright pinkish hue. Clouds that could potentially produce lithium had been the single most prominent reason for us coming to Hadron. Unlimited lithium power.

I closed my eyes, drawing in a long breath of salty air, thoughts of Drew and the crash ever-present. It had been two weeks since we had landed on Hadron-B6 and I was still surprised I could sleep at all. Every time I blinked, images of him stuck in my mind. I felt a tear roll down my cheek. The three of us that had survived the crash had woken up screaming. What I thought had been debris was actually Drew himself smashing about the cabin.

I sat up in the shelter, prying my eyes open, trying to rid myself of the horrible images—the pieces of him scattered about the pod. I never got to say goodbye. My last words, No, you can’t. I never got to tell him how much I cared—how much I appreciated him helping me on the six month journey to Hadron. That I was so thankful for how he stood by me as I was belittled because of my faith.

I prayed then—that Drew had somehow found peace. I prayed for god to keep me safe—to keep all of us safe—whoever else had survived, for help to see the path forward as I explored his vast creations. And strength—I prayed for the strength to somehow overcome this terrible dread that was crippling me. I wiped the tears from my face and stood as I noticed Alexander stir in his sleep, his shaggy brown hair covering his thin face. My fellow survivors were as clueless as I was about what had happened on the ship. In fact, more so—they had both been servicing the carbon dioxide converters when the explosions happened.

I stretched my shoulder, still sore after Alex had set it back in place. Despite my looming despair and healing injury, I got up feeling pretty good, finally seeming to have kicked the caffeine addiction. I was glad, because I had the early shift today to clean the saltwater filter. I was determined to pull my weight. I knew Drew would want me to keep going—surviving—discovering.

I exited the primitive shelter we had set up using branches and leaves from the immense jungle farther inland. Leaves was an understatement—they were as tall as I was. I felt the velvety sand tickling my toes as I traversed the jade colored beach. It wasn’t course like sand on earth. It was silk against my skin, like the softest fur slippers imaginable with every step I took.

I headed over to the filter station we had salvaged from the wreckage. The water filtration unit from the escape pod was still completely intact, and Patrick, our third survivor and the head maintenance tech was able to retrofit the hydro-electric system to siphon saltwater, powering itself and filtering the water at the same time. The only catch was someone needed to keep removing the various screens as the excessive salt mucked them up every ten minutes or so. It was monotonous, but essential to our survival.

Patrick was fishing close by the water filter as I approached. Thank god for Patrick. He was a survivalist. Alexander and I wouldn’t have made it more than a day without him.

“Good morning,” I said as I reached for the latch containing the screens for the filter.

“Morning, Clara.” He gave me a soft smile as he dangled a branch laden with wiry orange worms in the shallow water. He had red hair like me and masculine features. I’d never spoken to him before all the horribleness had occurred. He was actually very kind. It made me wish I had spent more time with people from maintenance during the trip here. “Calm, warm, white-green sunrise—almost makes things seem normal, doesn’t it?”

I began pulling the screens and scrubbing them off in the water. “It does…except for the fact that we three may be the only survivors left out of two thousand people.”

“Yep—except for that…I caught a few more of the striped yellow ones this morning,” he said, tipping his nose toward the basket we had fashioned out of branches.

“Perfect. That’s amazing, Pat.”

“Yeah, they’re going crazy for the worms you guys found under those rocks yesterday. Oh also, our friend that pulled us from the pod has been bobbing his head up every once in a while.”

“What?” I gasped. “Pat, why didn’t you lead with that?” I dropped the screens and ran over to him.

He chuckled. “Small talk, man. Alex is shit at it and we still have like five months before the next ship makes it out of the wormhole passage.”

“Where? Where at?” I said eagerly as I grabbed his shoulder.

He pointed out out to sea. “About fifty yards off, right over there. He just keeps staring. It’s a little nerve-racking.”

I strained my eyes, searching the area he pointed out. There was nothing but perfectly still green water, reflecting warm beaming rays from the white sunrise. We kept an eye out for hours. But much to my dismay, our friend never showed back up.

Chapter three: Greeting

The sun had just set and we were all sitting around a small campfire on the beach. Pat had fashioned a spit to roast the yellow fish type creatures. They looked like salmon almost, with one key difference. They had arms. I opened The chest cavity of the one Pat had prepared for me. These things had all the telltale signs of a fish: scales, a tail, a fin and gills. But, just beneath those gills, on the underside of it’s belly, two little arms protruded from it. And they had these tiny webbed fingers—three of them per arm. The little elbow joint adjusted as I dug inside the ribs for meat, triggering my involuntary gag reflex.

“Oh no, I think we have a puker,” Alex drawled.

“Shut up,” I chuckled; as did Pat.

“I’m telling you, we need to go further inland.” Alex continued. “There’s bound to be some better food there—fruits, plants. Don’t get me wrong these fish things are great, but let’s have some variety.”

“Variety can kill you,” Pat countered. “Any one of those precious fruits or plants could poison us. Meat is easier to gauge. And, I’m telling you, we don’t want to go into that jungle. Not without proper weapons and equipment. The tracks I found by some of the outer trees were massive. Like, three feet long and clawed—some kind of freaking dinosaur or something.”

“I agree with Pat.”

“Well of course you do,” he sneered. “You just don’t want to miss the chance to meet your precious fish boy out there in your great and honorable quest to prove your god made all this.” He waved his hands around to the beach.

“He was humanoid!” I shot back, holding my arms up. “Do you have any idea the chances of another human like entity developing out in the universe, Alex?”

“Here we go…”

“From an evolutionary standpoint, the odds are billions to one. As far as I’m concerned, the thing that rescued us proves there is intelligent design at work here.”

Alex turned to Pat. “Help me out here, man.”

“Oh no, I’m staying out of it this time.”

Alex turned back to me. “Okay, so let’s say some god created this thing—why didn’t he give it a face? It looked more like a mermaid from hell to me.”

Pat cackled and spoke up then. “I have to agree on that one, Clara. That thing was—terrifying.”

Even I giggled at that. He had in fact been a little unnerving. As we all chuckled around the campfire, hints of flickering light started to dance on the ocean of glass, drawing my attention. Something was creeping toward us on the beach.

They saw it too. “Oh, shit, what is that?” Alex yelled.

All three of us jumped off our logs in a blink and stood behind the fire. Is that… I sucked in a breath as I realized it was him. A translucent skinned humanoid body was making its way up to us. Walking.

“Oh my god…” My mouth fell fully open.

“It didn’t have legs before, right?” Pat whispered.

“No, it fucking didn’t,” Alex replied.

This being came fully into view as we all three stood there, frozen—shock written all over us. Jet black eyes tracked us intently as he—it—whatever it was, slowly approached the fire. He was completely hairless, with three sapphire colored fins running atop his scalp, but he had no mouth, nose or ears. Just earily clear flesh. I could see his muscles and tendons—even the deep bluish-green veins running all throughout his very humanoid body. He had no reproductive organs to speak of, but the intricacies of his muscles and bone structure was so—human—incredible.

He sat down cross legged by the fire. I immediately sat down as well, wide eyed, staring proof of my creator right in the face. Drew wouldn’t believe this. He looked to me, and tilted his head down. A nod of approval? He then turned to Pat and Alex and watched them—expectantly.

“Are we really doing this, man?” Alex whispered.

“Guys—sit down…” Pat joined me after a bit, but Alex looked as though he was about to turn on his heel and run. “Alex, this makes the worms found on Mars look like kid stuff. Do you want to be part of this discovery or not?”

“I just work in maintenance…”

“Alex, sit down,” Pat asserted. “He might take offense.”

That seemed to work. Breathing heavily, Alex finally knelt down around the fire. The humanoid nodded to them also, before he started scooping sand in front of himself. He was digging a hole. I had absolutely no idea what to think. Was this some kind of formal greeting or something? Should I start digging, too? This being then held both his hands over the hole and right from his nailess fingers, water started dripping. Quickly, too. The water from his own body filled up the basin, and somehow didn’t sink—didn’t absorb into the sand.

“What’s going on, man?” Alex whined.

“Shh.” I kept watching, completely enamored by this wildly intelligent life form.

He looked up at me, and held out his hand. I was more hesitant this time, but I eventually scooted over towards him and offered him my own. His hand was cool and smooth—oily to the touch. My heart was beating in my ears and I gulped. He then reached his other hand toward my face. Instinctively, I recoiled. He stopped, then cocked his head as if to say, may I? I collected myself for a moment and gave him a nod similar to the one we had received. He touched my cheek. Releasing my fingers, he then placed both of his hands fully on my face. My nerves were tingling as his cool touch brushed away the anxious sweat from my brow, his unnerving visage boring a hole into me. But, I tossed aside my fears. This—this was the sole reason for my coming here.

He traced over my features, mainly focusing on my ears and my mouth. What are you up to? After a few minutes, he finished, and then grabbed some ash from the bonfire. He sprinkled it into the basin of liquid and then put his hands in it, closing his eyes. I was bewildered, as he looked to be washing his hands. But, the water then somehow reabsorbed back into his body. This being then opened his eyes, nodded to all of us again, got up and walked away, back toward the ocean.

I did my best to calm my uneven breathing. We all sat there for a few moments as he disappeared into the emerald water. Pat and I locked eyes.

“Are you—are you okay?” Pat whispered.

“I—yeah, I’m fine. Just a little freaked out…”

“Well yeah! I’d be fucking concerned if you weren’t!” Alex roared.

It wasn’t difficult to wash the oiliness off my skin before I got ready for bed. We all tried our best to sleep that night, but we were so wired it didn’t go very well. We talked and talked for hours into the night. What this thing was, what he wanted. What the hell he had done to my face. But finally, we all managed to get a little bit of rest.

Waking up exhausted the following morning, we spotted our new friend standing by the water filteration unit. After we spent a few minutes getting ready, the three of us gathered our courage and approached him.

As we drew in closer, I gasped and put a hand to my mouth.

“No freaking way…” Pat said

Our new friend now had a mouth, nose and ears. “Hello,” he said in a raspy monotone.

I was shocked. Couldn’t speak. None of us could. We just stood there staring.

“I understand this is strange for you. It’s strange for me also.”

“How…” I finally said. I cleared my throat. “How’s it possible?”

He sat down cross legged in the sand again. We all joined him in a hurry this time. “I believe your word is transformation. My people have the capability of mimicking cell growth.”

We just sat there, utterly speechless. He waited patiently. After a moment I worked up the nerve and spoke up again. “How are you talking in our language?”

“That is more complicated. All cells hold information. Everything you’ve ever experienced is imprinted onto them, not just in your brain. But, as far as I can tell, your species does not possess the necessary function required for accessing that information. I, however, was able to glean many things from you once I interacted with your cellular structure. Your people are quite intriguing.”

My mind raced, and I was unsure how to process this incredible information. I didn’t know if I should be proud and feel honored—or feel violated.

“How did you—communicate before—this?” Pat said, pointing to his mouth.

“Through touch. Empathic resonance would be a good name for it.”

“What—what should we call you?” I said. “Do you have a name?”

“I do not. As I have never used words before this, there has never been any need. I will answer any further questions you have, but first I must tell you something of grave importance. There is a dire reason for my having approached you. You and your people are very much in danger.”

We all looked at each other, before Alex actually chimed in this time. “That’s a little on the nose for someone that can see every experience we’ve ever had. We’ve been in danger since the moment our ship blew up in your atmosphere.”

“This is not my atmosphere. I was marooned here just like you. I am the last of my people that made the journey here, what you would consider ten years ago.”

“Wait,” Pat said. “You came here from space?”

“I did. And was attacked, as you were.”

“Attacked?” I breathed.

“That is correct. If any of you considered those explosions on your ship to be accidental, you are entirely mistaken. There is a security system built into the atmosphere on this planet. Similar to what your people would consider smart dust. The super-intelligent nano particles are riddled all throughout this place.” He looked into the sky, pausing. “This is the first world in our solar system that we discovered could support life. And as soon as we arrived, the particles infiltrated our system, destroying communications and disabling our ability to fly the ship, just as it did to you.”

We all stared once again, our mouths gaping. What the fuck…

“The beings who installed the security system are surely on their way here to collect those of you who survived, just as they did my people.”

We all gasped. “Why didn’t you approach us sooner?” I cut in, more sternly than I had intended.

“I did not know what kind of creatures you were. You are only the second truly intelligent lifeforms I have come to know, and the first murdered and enslaved my people. I gleaned what I could from your fallen companion in your escape pod, but intuiting biological data from dead cells is—difficult—imperfect. Ultimately, I had to decide if I could trust you based on observing you from a distance.”

“How did you escape?” Pat asked. “When they came for your people.”

“I managed to kill one—barely, but became gravely wounded myself. I then mimicked the features of a creature native to this planet and fled into the sea.”

My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour. “This can’t be happening…” I choked out, as the hair stood up on the back of my neck.

“It very much is happening and we need to prepare. As sure as I sit before you now, they are coming to collect you. To collect all of us.”

Alex, Pat and I looked at each other, sheer terror coating our features. And once again—I prayed…