Orakne's Discovery - Part II

Orakne’s grandfather was lying in a water-like circle bed. The bed is transparent, but it is not a liquid. Every household of Genebiev has this kind of water-like bed. It is very soothing to lie there, especially for someone who is sick. His grandfather was quite sick for a long time. Maybe the reason is age. His grandfather was already 750 years old. On Earth, he is 2250 years old since Genebiev planetary revolution is thrice as Earth. A Genebieven’s normal life span is only 700 years or over two millennia on Earth. Fortunately, his grandfather survived that long period.

Orakne arrived on his planet. As soon as his ship touched down on the ground, he saw his race waiting for him outside. He then stepped outside his ship and immediately ran towards the mosque-like house. Reaching the entrance, the door automatically slid open. He entered and passed through a ten-meter long passageway. Shortly, he was inside his grandfather’s room. His father and mother, with some relatives and members, were there.

“Father, I’m here,” he called.

“Come here, son. Your grandfather has something to give you.”

“I’m very old, Orakne. I’m dying. 750 years is enough for me. My father died when he was 710 years old. I’m fortunate I reached this age,” said the dying Genebieven patriarch.

All of them were lamenting as they heard the words of one of their leaders.

They regarded Orakne’s grandfather as the leader of the race in their region. Planet Genebiev has eight regions. Brogatto, Orakne’s grandfather, managed for a long time one of these regions. Brogatto did not know about the past of Genebiev since his ancestors never told him where they were from. He would always remember his father, Dellexos would mention planet Earth. “Brogatto, planet Earth is a place where humans live. It is a beautiful planet. My grandfather was once there.” Brogatto’s father would say. “I have a gift for you. My grandfather gave this to me. I never open it. He said I must not open it until the time will come when one of our race members has gone to Earth.” Brogatto, upon hearing it, has never opened the gift until this time when his grandson Orakne went to Earth and has come back.

“Orakne, my grandson, I have something for you,” said his dying grandfather. “You have gone to Earth. My grandfather gave this to me. He said I must give this to the one who has gone to earth.” He looked at his son, Olduruk, who was standing beside him.

Olduruk was carrying a small box. It was so ancient that it needed delicate hands to handle so that it would not break.

“Son, here is a gift from our ancestors. Please be careful about it.” Olduruk slowly handed the box to his son.

“It came from Earth, Orakne,” the dying Genebieven repeated.

Orakne was half excited and half afraid to open the ancient box. He carefully put it down on the table anchored on his right side and slowly opened it by cutting the ancient nylon tied firmly around it. The ancient box has a similarity with the boxes in Genebiev but the ancient nylon was not found in Genebiev. He tucked open the cover. Then they were all astonished. No one knew what it was except Orakne. All of them could feel it has something to do with them.

The gift was a weapon for annihilation on Earth. It was ancient, yet its appearance seemed to be still working. Orakne knew it was from Earth because he had seen it in his dream back on Earth. It was a weapon in the 23rd century. It was a laser weapon. He spotted it attached to a human’s right arm. He saw how the bearer used it. The human bearer raised his right arm and aimed at his enemy, then a sudden swift of radiation with the red-tinged color shot the enemy dead.

“This is a weapon from Earth,” Orakne declared.

“How do you know, my son?” asked Olduruk.

“I saw it back there.”

“Tell us more of what you see there,” requested his mother.

“I did not see a lot of things. The planet is lifeless,” said Orakne in a disappointed tone. He decided not to tell what he had seen because many members were listening and he wanted to share it with his family first.

“Father, how did it get here?” asked Olduruk to his dying father.

“I don’t know, son,” replied his dying father in between throb.

Olduruk moved to his son and asked him to see the past of the ancient weapon.

Orakne held the weapon and concentrated. He slowly closed his bulging eyes.

The human who has the weapon in his right arm is in a hurry, as if someone is chasing him. The passageway is so narrow that two humans could block it. The place shakes. He heads towards a door and pushes combination button beside it. The door slides open. He gets inside and hurries directly to the triangular glass pane. He peers into the pane and sees a huge violet planet more than a hundred thousand miles away from his location, an enormous spaceship that is orbiting the unknown planet. Worried, he moves swiftly into the console. He pushes buttons and slides down levers.

The ship shakes again. A robotic female voice resounds inside the entire ship. “Athenae is down…Athenae is down…Cosmic travelers must head to the Lifeships…Cosmic travelers must head to the Lifeships…”

Another human with the same suit appears behind him. “Yan, we must eject before this ship crashes. We would be dead within a few minutes,” said the man, throbbing.

Yan, anxious and worried, joins with the other as they rush into the ship’s compartment where a few cosmic travelers worry and cry. The compartment is a small spaceship they called Lifeship. The Lifeship automatically lifts away from the mother ship then darts off. Not all Lifeships can eject.

In a moment, the mother ship crashes into the unknown planet. The impact was so tremendous that the surviving Lifeships have been reached.

There are 14 cosmic travelers inside the Lifeship where Yan is. A woman is operating the console. She is wearing a suit that carried a patch on the sleeve, NASA. Yan assumes she is not just a cosmic traveler like him. She is also an astronomer of NASA. Yan moves towards her. “Where we go now?” he asks her.

“We must wait for Captain Bowen’s call,” she says.

“What if he’s dead?” Yan frowned.

“He’s not. He was in the first Lifeship to eject.”

Prior to the tragedy of Athenae, the mother ship, cosmic travelers are facing pestilence inside the ship. The pestilence stayed for years and killed many, including medical practitioners.

Yan’s company is waiting for Captain Bowen, Athenae’s Captain. They have to decide whether to stay and die in the Lifeships or find a planet where they could survive. They know that the Lifeships’ fuel is not enough for a hundred light-years’ travel. They could not go back to Earth. The inadequacy of fuel would lose them in space if they attempt to head Earth. They would run out of time, for the remaining fuel might be consumed all up. They would starve to death.

There are six other Lifeships in space with unidentified numbers of cosmic travelers. Two of them are moving in the direction of Yan’s Lifeship.

“There they are,” says one cosmic traveler who is sitting beside the NASA astronomer.

The NASA astronomer phones in Captain Bowen. “Captain, this is Ramirez. Where are we heading now? Roger that…”

In a moment, a hologram appears before the console. It’s Captain Bowen. “This is Captain Bowen. You must follow our Lifeship. We’ve spotted a planet near a small star that could be habitable by humans. It’s about five million miles away from us. In an hour, we would be there. It’s our last chance to live. Don’t lose hope.” The hologram disappears.

The Lifeships journey into the empty space. The cosmic travelers watch visible cosmic bodies from hundreds or thousands of light-years away. After an hour, the Lifeships are a thousand-mile near an asteroid belt, the boundary of a star system. As they are entering the planet’s system, they discover that other five planets revolve elliptically around a yellow dwarf star, smaller than the solar system’s sun.

In a few minutes, Yan could see the outside features of the planet on which they would land. The planet is light-green, a quarter smaller than Earth.

“Activate the ships’ element detector device,” Bowen commands via hologram communication.

A long cylindrical tube emerges from the captain’s Lifeship. Over the console, pops out different names of elements that are found in the planet’s atmosphere.

“Oxygen and Hydrogen are present, Captain,” says someone in the comm.

“Check for possible menacing inhabitants of the planet before we prepare to engage in landing,” says the captain.

The Lifeships land on the surface of the planet. Sixty-three cosmic travelers are all in the count. They wear spacesuits and masks. They climb down and examine the surface of the planet. It has similarities with Earth. It has rocks and soils. Its environment is akin to that of the planet Genebiev. The planet’s air is 67 degrees Celsius temperature. Though its solar power comes from a small yellow-dwarf, it is still hotter than that of Earth in the 21st century.

The cosmic travelers, who are also considered survivors, have no other way to live but to sojourn on the planet and find things there that could sustain their lives. Fortunately, it is a planet that might save them from dying because they find some flora-like species during their wanderings. The living thing has a likeness with that of a cactus, yet it does not have thorns. They think it is edible. They remove their masks. The surrounding air seems like the air on Earth. They can breathe, indeed. They eat the flora-like species. In a few hours, many of them suffocate, probably because they could not stand the air or the plant they’ve eaten.

Many days have passed and half of the cosmic travelers have weakened and starved to death. The flora-like species in that region could not suffice for all of them, so they look for other regions where they could find food. They could not go to the other side of the planet since they no longer have a means of transportation. The Lifeships fuel tanks have been emptied because they’ve used the fuel for their fire at night.

Months have passed and there are only 14 of the cosmic travelers who have survived, eight are women, and six are men. They could not believe why their bodies have adapted to the new environment and they’ve become more active than ever. They’ve become stronger and more alert. They look for other things for survival. One strange thing that has occurred to them, their memories of their past have diminished.

On their way, they see a small lake. Yan thinks of it as a gift from God. He believes in God. His companions too. They construct huts near the lake using the remnants of the flora-like species. They’ve created a small village… a small civilization on an unknown planet. They name the place Paradise.

As time passes by, as a natural phenomenon of human beings, they’ve reproduced. Five of the women have been impregnated. That is also the time when Yan discovers that all of them who have survived have a syringe scar in the right thigh. They do not know what was injected into them during their birth.

After an Earth-year, Yan notices that his body is changing. He reckons maybe it is just natural because of environmental adaptation. His eyes have bulged, lips gradually become a part of the skin, nose, and ears have sunk in his head and his arms and legs have thinned. His torso has also changed. Its muscles have disappeared, perhaps because of the low gravitational pull of the planet. The same has happened to others.

Jane and Yan have become lovers. After a quarter of a year on that planet, she gives birth to a baby boy. Yan is there to help the labor and delivery to succeed. The infant is apparently human but some features are very different. They are the same as what is the appearance now of Yan.

Yan and his companions have never worried about their physical transformation. They’ve believed that it is a chemical reaction within their bodies in response to the planet’s environment. They’ve assumed that it is a constant change since their babies have now possessed little of the human physical attributes.

As the children have grown old, their parents notice they are mentally and physically active. Their performance amazes them in discovering ideas and things on the planet that are beneficial for their survival.

Yan and two other cosmic travelers are able to live for almost an Earth-millennium. They are also able to reproduce children. When the last of the cosmic travelers die, it was Yan; the population of the planet is around two hundred. The women cosmic travelers have just borne two children in a lifetime. And their sons and daughters have reproduced by this time only two children.

Before Yan’s death, he remembered a little of what he did back on Earth. He mentioned them to his grandson. He had kept his laser weapon in a small box tied with a nylon thread. And when the time came that he has to leave the planet that has salvaged him, he gave the small box to his grandson.

“Dellexos, I give you my treasure. Never open this until someone visits Earth. He can use it against evil people on Earth.”

Orakne suddenly came to his senses, and he accidentally unclasped the laser weapon. It fell to the ground. Everybody was astounded. No one spoke up. Then Olduruk broke the stillness of the room. “Orakne, what did you see?”

“Humans…” he said, immovable in his position. He could not believe what he saw. He could barely speak a sentence.

“Orakne, what happens? Speak now!” said Olduruk anxiously.

Orakne pulled out something from his suit pocket. It was the golden wristwatch from Earth. He raised it above his head so that everyone could look at it. “This thing is from Earth…” his utterance trembled. “…our planet.”

Everyone hung open their lipless mouths.

“Our planet?” asked his amazed father.